The resurrection of the Hebrew language is often considered as the most amazing miracle of the Zionism. It is the pride of many Israelis. The newspapers are flooded with letters protesting against places and products that use English names. But what is the contribution of the Hebrew language to the Zionism and the creation of the modern Israel? Does it help or harm the country? I frankly believe it will lead us to doom.

First, we need to explore the first phases of the Hebrew renaissance. Eliezer Ben Yehuda, who is considered the resuscitator of the Hebrew language, immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1881, in the beginning of the First Immigration. Those were critical years in shaping the future of the Zionism and the state of Israel. While there was a need to invest all the resources of the Zionist movements in buying lands and basing the Jewish settlement, these people spent their time, efforts and material resources at resurrecting a dead and a useless language.

The march of folly carried on in the Second Immigration. The opening of the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology whose construction started in 1912 was postponed because of the demand to teach there in Hebrew instead of German. The “Hebrewists” eventually won, and the tuition language was Hebrew when the institute was opened, in 1924. The Third Immigration (1919-1923) is considered “the great miss of the Zionism”. The Zionist organizations did not attempt to raise funds for massive immigration After World War I, when the gates of Palestine were open and nothing restricted the immigration. And what were the Jews in the Yishuv (the Jewish settlement in Palestine) busy about? Enforcing the use of a lousy language. They built a language, and lost the opportunity to make the most important Zionist dream come true: a Jewish independent state.

At first, the impact of the Hebrew Renaissance was not so harmful. The only harm it could have done in Palestine is limiting the Jewish knowledge of Arabic, causing many misunderstandings with the Arabs. Before World War II and the Holocaust, only a small friction of the Jews in the world lived in the Land of Israel. This was a convenient situation for enlightened Jews to know only useful languages (i.e. not Hebrew) and successfully wage the war of words. Thanks to them, the moral foundation was given to the Zionism in the pre statehood time. The Jewish voice was well heard in Europe, thanks to the large Jewish communities there.

Now, when almost half of the Jews in the world live in Israel, the Jews have a much smaller knowledge of languages. In contrast, the massive immigration from the Arab and Islamic world to the West created a demographical and electoral Anti - Israeli presence. Nowadays, Israel losses the media war which it has won in the past. The link between the Jewish use of foreign languages and winning the media war is clearly visible. When the Israelis speak in a language that no one understands, it’s predictable that their voice is not heard.

The Israeli lack of fluency of foreign languages is the greatest obstacle in the war of words. The thing our Hasbarah lacks the most is not goodwill or more organizations. It is Israeli media outlets reporting in English. Had Yedioth Aharonot, Maariv and the Israeli TV broadcast in English, they would provide an excellent source for explaining the Israeli point of view. So far, the only Israeli websites that provide continuous and serious news from Israel are IsraelInsider, Haaretz and the Jerusalem Post. They do have problems. Haaretz is left wing and balanced, not Pro-Israeli. Furthermore, it’s English edition is an abridged version of its Hebrew counterpart. IsraelInsider is not a newspaper, and has much less content than the others. The Jerusalem Post is too serious, has too long editorials and not a lot of news from Israel. It is as small as Haaretz’s English edition. We need unabridged versions of tabloid like, mainstream newspapers available in English. We need every book and textbook published in Israel to be available in English. We need our TV and radio to be available in English and broadcasted over the internet to the whole world. This is the only way to deliver our point of view.

One of the most important factors in a conflict is to know your enemy. We once knew about the Arabs. The early Zionists admired them and learned their language and habits. Then the massive immigration of the oriental Jews provided Israel with many Arabic speakers. Today, the wheel is rotating. The generation of the Jews whose native tongue is Arabic is dying out, while a lot of Arabs are learning Hebrew. Most of the Israeli Arabs, especially the youth, are fluent with Hebrew, and many Palestinians and other Arabs learn it for “knowing the enemy” or other reasons. The Arabs definitely win in the language criteria. With the recent budgets cuts in the ministry of education, there is no chance to start teaching Arabic well and from young age. Currently, Arabic is taught on grades 7-9 (in some schools till the 10th grade) and then becomes optional. The vast majority of the Israeli Jews doesn’t and won’t seriously learn Arabic. Another language to be spoken by the people can’t pop out of nowhere. There is one way to make the Israelis know Arabic: cancel the Hebrew and upgrade Arabic to a second language.

The Jewish people have survived almost everything: The Babylonians, the Romans, Medieval Europe, the pogroms, the Holocaust and more. Will we survive the pointless revival and preservation of the Hebrew language? Only the time will tell. So far the Zionism provided the Jews with a language of their own, an independent state, though it’s definitely not a safe haven. Unfortunately, if the state falls, the language will follow it, among with the whole Zionist dream. For the sake of Israel, the Jewish people and the Zionism, we should admit that resurrecting the Hebrew was a mistake, and try to correct it. The sooner we do it, the easier the correction will be.

Letting uncommon languages with few speakers die is unpopular today. There are struggles to revive old, local languages and preserve the less common ones. It is one of the fronts in the anti-globalization war. But why? What damage does it cause to the ones who are stuck with a useless language as their native tongue? Usually it is hard to be perfectly fluent with a second language, especially when the languages are totally different and the education system is ill, as in Israel’s case. Egoistic linguists, nationalists and others who are so willing to revive those languages and preserve the Hebrew language should wage the war by themselves, not on the backs of Israel and other whole countries. Leave the children alone. Today, speaking English as a mother tongue is a basic human right.