Mission Statement
There is an abundance of misinformation about Israel and her roots in our educational system, synagogues, news outlets and media. There are influential representatives in government spewing lies about the Jewish homeland. This causes a gross distortion and perception of the truth with regard to Israel, the Jewish people, and her history.
Taking Back the Narrative (TBTN) is a Zionist education initiative which aims to get the facts about Israel, its right as the Jewish homeland, and the efficacious voice it represents in the world, out into the public sphere. TBTN does not have a specific political agenda, other than supporting truth, which should not have a side in the political theater.
The indisputable facts speak for themselves. TBTN aims to educate and inform advocates, Jewish educators, and government officials. TBTN’s sole mission is to correct mistruths and fill the gap about the Middle East as it relates to Israel and the Jewish people, in a positive, fact-based light. Israel is a living, breathing part of the Jewish ecosystem; there is no Israel without Jews, no Jews without Israel.
Notes:
Israel has been portrayed as a white colonialist super power which has taken land from the indigenous “people of Palestine” in an effort to relocate displaced Jews after the Holocaust. Not only do non-Jews believe this, but many Jews as well. Sadly, we have done a poor job in educating generations about the majesty from where they come, the unbreakable ties which bind them to our beautiful homeland, and the pride they should feel at being a Jew. Years, centuries, of persecution and mental enslavement have left us a disengaged and disassociated people, because we are not aligned with who we truly are. The first step in any discovery starts with a dig. An archaeological dig. In order for the Jewish people to understand who they are and to reclaim their sovereignty (truly, not just as the State of Israel, but to embody it wholly, as Clal Yisrael) they need to know their history.
“Until today (1888), no people has succeeded in establishing national dominion in the Land of Israel. No national unity, in the spirit of nationalism, has acquired any hold there. The mixed multitude of itinerant tribes that managed to settle there did so on lease, as temporary residents. It seems that they await the return of the permanent residents of the land.”
– Professor Sir John William Dosson
Modern Science in Bible Lands, London: Harper and Brothers, 1889, pp. 449-450.
To be clear – there was NEVER a country called Palestine, with its own governing body and currency. There was a region called Palestine, named by the Romans after the Philistines, the enemy of the Jewish people, to rid any memory of the Jew from the land. This land, which was more than the Modern State of Israel we have today, but Jordan, Syria, and Iraq, exchanged ownership over the centuries, yet Jews always remained a constant presence in what is now Israel, or the Jewish area of Palestine. All one has to do is look at the historical evidence. For example, what the East Village was to the Beatniks of NYC in the 50’s and 60’s Tzfat was to the Kabbalists on the 1500’s. It is where Lurianic Kabbalah emerged, which is what, for the most part, is studied today.
The time has come for the Jew to reclaim his legacy. The time in now.
This is just one example of many. Jews must know their connection to each other and to our homeland as one unit – that is where our strength will come. To that end, Taking Back The Narrative was created. It is our sole mission to educate Israel advocates, educators and Jews and non-Jews alike. To reclaim in a holistic way what is the legacy of the Jew.
