Times Square hosts IDF tribute amid rising antisemitism - opinion

On Wednesday night, in the heart of Times Square, the new Roman Forum at the heart of the American global empire, we will be staging a massive outdoor celebration for the IDF beginning at 6 p.m.

It will feature the Israeli army’s most famous and accomplished global spokesman, Lt.-Col. (ret.) Jonathan Conricus, whom we all watch in astonishment nearly every night on CNN, FOX, and MSNBC as he defends Israel’s warriors with eloquence, facts, and courage.

Jonathan is a Jewish hero, the very best spokesman the IDF has, and when I secured his participation, on my recent trip to Israel to visit our two soldier sons, Mendy and Yosef, who are at war (may God protect them and all the IDF), I decided that this could be no normal speech.

We first quickly booked the parents of Gaza IDF hostage Omer Neutra (22), who last week met with President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and international Jewish singing sensation Gad Elbaz. We also secured, to introduce Conricus, Dana White, former chief spokesperson of the Pentagon, to introduce him.

But the venue was critical. It had to be at the very epicenter of antisemitism in America, Times Square.

Yes, that Times Square. The one that gets a million people every New Year’s Eve to watch a ball drop. The Times Square that is the singular crossroads of world popular culture. A place that has been taken over by anti-Israel activists almost immediately after October 7, even as it’s the most famous square in a city with more Jews in it than any city on earth, including Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

How did this happen? How did Times Square become Gaza City and Rafah? And how did the Jews allow it?

The normal argument about why Jews are so hated is that we’re too small to combat 1.4 billion Muslims who sympathize with “Palestine” and Hamas. But what is our excuse in New York City, where we outnumber our Muslim brothers and sisters perhaps 100 to one?

This past Saturday night I went through what has become the unacceptable routine of going to Times Square and being surrounded by an intimidating and dangerous pro-Hamas mob.

People were screaming right in my face “Free Palestine,” both because I was wearing a yarmulke and because I was recognized from my pro-Israel activism, TV debates, and social media. Watch the video on Instagram, and you’ll see how I was lulled into a supposedly civil conversation, while I was slowly surrounded by an intimidating mob.

I will not here reveal whether I travel with security, but I will say that had the NYPD not been in the Square, it’s doubtful I would have survived to be writing right now.

Times Square is not only ground zero of America’s most colorful video screens. It’s the most famous square on earth. Given its centrality, our Arab brothers and sisters, always cognizant of what constitutes the most powerful of all PR coups (and boy are they experts at it!), have made Times Square their home. Go on any given night, but especially on weekends, and you will see scores of young Arab and Muslim men and women right smack in the middle.

Now, Muslims are my brothers, so what would I care? Well, because if you’re wearing a yarmulke, or a Star of David, you are a magnet and an immediate target. Stand for a few minutes and, like bees to the honey, it will begin. “Free Palestine.” “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” And, more occasionally but all too common, “Death to Israel.”

A few months ago I was verbally assaulted and then actually attacked – get this, by a little girl! – who spat on me and kicked me while her Muslim parents laughed and egged her on, all videotaped and uploaded to social media. Then, their older daughter, who said she was 14 and therefore she could not be prosecuted (which just shows the corruption of youth and how they are coached to express their hatred of Jews), told me “Kill yourself” over and over again.

The next day tennis legend Martina Navratilova, having seem the video on my Instagram, sent the video globally viral when she tweeted her absolute disgust at this virulent display of Jew-hatred – “Pathetic” she railed – at the cultural crossroads of the world.

Swarms of protesters at Times Square

Since then I’ve had endless confrontations in Times Square. It’s worse than anything in Europe. Worse than Piccadilly Circus in London. Worse than outside the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And worse than the Trevi Fountain in Rome. Right in the heart of “Jew York City.”

So we decided it was time for the civilized world to rescue Times Square from these displays of barbarity. On Israel’s 76th Independence Day this past May, our organization along with the ZOA brought more than 1,000 people to honor Israel in one of the most celebratory and memorable nights of my life.

BUT THIS time we decided that whereas there have been vigils across the world to free the hostages from the hell of Hamas captivity, to honor the victims of the Supernova music festival massacre (we wrote a Torah for its most famous victim, Shani Louk, in New York, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. completing the last letters, with Shani’s parents, Nissim and Ricarda, holding the scribe’s quill with him, at New York’s glass house), and for support for Israel in general, nothing had been done to honor the actual heroes who are fighting to prevent another October 7 and, indeed, another Holocaust, the IDF.

We understood just how controversial this would be. We invited many public figures. All found “scheduling conflicts” to refuse our invitation.

Then along came a Palestinian-American whom I met at an incredible play about the Eichmann trial at the Center for Jewish History who diffused a protest against Israel that would have ruined the play. He told me that although he is a proud Palestinian who disagrees with many Israeli policies, he believes that Israel belongs to the Jews. It’s a tiny country, and he has no idea why his Palestinian brethren would deny the Jews a match-stamp size of a country. “You’re speaking at our rally!” I told him. He immediately agreed.

And then more and more speakers who love the IDF and have waited a year to honor them began to sign up, including incredibly musical acts headlined by Elbaz, the world’s greatest Jewish singer.

Most importantly, Amichai Rossler, whose 21-year-old IDF soldier son was murdered on October 7 when he used his body to shield two of his comrades in arms, agreed to speak about the sacrifice so many parents have made in losing sons and daughters in the war.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams is a phenomenal friend of the Jewish community and Israel, like no other. And he got his office directly involved in making sure the event goes ahead in Times Square. At our security walk-through this past Friday, I was gobsmacked at the number of counterterrorism officers, police, Federal law enforcement officers, Times Square Alliance executives, and members of the mayor’s staff who turned up to make sure the event – which will take place in Times Square between 45th and 46th streets – will be secure and a success.

Now, all we need is you to join us. It’s time that the Jewish people honored its heroes. Only two groups consisting of three letters each ensures that “Never Again” is translated from slogan to sacred promise. They are God and IDF.

The writer is the international best-selling author of the newly published guide to fighting back for Israel: The Israel Warrior, as well as Holocaust Holiday and Kosher Hate. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley. To book tickets to the Celebration of the IDF in Times Square on July 31, go to: https://www.eventbrite.com.