After October 7, Israel cannot afford this hypocrisy anymore. We have buried too many sons. We have watched too many families get destroyed. We have seen too much blood, too much grief, and too much political arrogance.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s enemies are not only watching our borders. They are watching our divisions. They are watching whether the Jewish people still know how to live together as one people.<\/p>\n
![\"Ethiopian](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/690702.jpeg\"\/)
Ethiopian Jews take part in a prayer of the Sigd holiday on the Armon Hanatziv Promenade overlooking Jerusalem on November 28, 2024. (credit: YONATAN SINDEL\/FLASH90)<\/p>\n
And inside that question is another one Israel has avoided for too long: Who is allowed to represent Israel?<\/p>\n
Honest question: When was the last time you saw an Ethiopian Israeli representing Israel on CNN, Fox News, or even in our own national English-language media? Maybe almost never. And if the answer is \u201calmost never,\u201d then we have failed. We have failed to represent the true Israel. We have failed to represent the true Jewish people to the world.<\/p>\n
Because Ethiopian Jews are not a footnote in Israel\u2019s story. We are part of the evidence that Israel\u2019s story is real, ancient, diverse, and global. For decades, the face of Israeli authority has too often been narrow: Ashkenazi, European, elite, familiar to Western audiences, comfortable to American donors, and acceptable to international television studios.<\/p>\n
That old image of authority is broken. It does not represent the full truth of Israel.<\/p>\n
The Jewish people are not only European. The Jewish people are brown. The Jewish people are Black. The Jewish people are African, Middle Eastern, North African, Persian, Indian, Russian, American, Israeli, religious, secular, traditional, and everything in between.<\/p>\n
That is not a weakness. That is our true miracle.<\/p>\n
Ethiopian Jews can lead. Moroccan Jews can lead. Mizrahi Jews can lead. Brown Jews can lead. African Jews<\/a> can lead. Non-European Jews can lead. We can serve, we can sacrifice, we can fight, we can die for Israel, and we can also govern Israel.\u00a0<\/p>\n We are not decorations in someone else\u2019s Zionist or Jewish story. We are not symbols to be used in speeches about diversity while real decisions are made without us.<\/p>\n We are the Jewish people. This is why the rise of Gadi Eisenkot and the Yashar! Party matters. Yashar! appears to offer an important ideology: responsibility, unity, national service, accountability, security, serious government, and healing after the disaster of Oct. 7. These are not small ideas. Israel desperately needs them.<\/p>\n But Eisenkot himself also represents something powerful. He is the son of Moroccan Jewish immigrants. He comes from a North African Jewish story that helped build Israel, served Israel, and suffered discrimination inside Israel. His leadership should be accepted and welcomed by the people of Israel and by the international community.<\/p>\n A Moroccan Jewish leader does not need permission from old elites to be legitimate. He does not need to apologize for not fitting the old European picture of Israeli authority. He has served. He has sacrificed. His family has paid the price of war. He deserves to be judged as a serious national leader.<\/p>\n And if Israel can accept that, then Israel must go further. It must also make room for Ethiopian Jewish leadership at the highest levels of government, diplomacy, media, and national strategy.<\/p>\n We came home to build. We came home to lead.<\/p>\n The real face of the Jewish people<\/p>\n American Jewish institutions speak beautifully about inclusion, racism, and democracy. But when Israel is discussed in serious rooms, who is invited? When Zionism is defended, whose face is shown to the world? Too often, Black Ethiopian Jewish voices are invited only when the subject is inclusion.<\/p>\n