Maybe, Maybe Not

I am actually glad my Dad is no longer alive; this America would break his heart. Dad used to say he fought in Germany so we would never have to worry about being Jews again. The events of the last couple of weeks would've decimated him. FIL, too...and he wasn't even Jewish.

I'm not just talking about the slaughter at the Supernova music festival, the kibbutzim, and the Israeli towns near Gaza. I'm not just talking about a raging mob in the Republic of Dagestan hunting for Jews at the airport. I'm not just talking about the crowd at the Sydney Opera House shouting Gas the Jews. I'm not even talking about Berlin where Jews are becoming afraid to go to the greengrocer because it's an Arab-owned store. 

No, I'm talking about America. 

I'm talking about Jewish kids being barricaded in the Cooper Union Library because a "pro-Palestinian" mob was trying to break in. 

I'm talking about Cornell University where the threats against Jewish students were so extreme the kosher dining facility and the whole of the Center for Jewish Living is now under police protection. Look at the screenshot on the right. Those are credible threats made against Jewish students. Not Zionists. Not Israeli. No, these are threats against all Jews on campus.

I'm talking about Jemma Decristo, a professor at US Davis, openly threatening "zionist" journalists...AND their families. In a Sacramento BEE op-ed piece responding to Decristo's post, Reuven Toff, writes:

Jewish college students across the U.S. have been subjected to antisemitism — and the incidents are only increasing. National Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has been at the forefront of demonstrations on campuses. They often use the chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in their demonstrations, which is a rallying cry used by terrorist groups, including Hamas, the organization responsible for the recent slaughter of more than 1,400 and the wounding of 3,500 men, women and children. 

Hamas’ Charter unapologetically calls for not just the destruction of Israel, but for the annihilation of the Jewish people. SJP, meanwhile, is routinely permitted by college administrators to spew its hatred toward Jews and Israel. Is it any wonder that Jewish students are increasingly feeling attacked?

I'm talking about Stanford, where a professor didn't simply harangue Jewish students, he/she sorted them out of the class and into a corner. According to a report in the British The Jewish Chronicle:

According to details shared by Jewish student leaders at the California university, a popular lecturer called out “individual students in class based on their backgrounds and identities,” asking Jewish and Israeli students to identify themselves during a class entitled “civil, liberal, and global education”. 

Rabbi Dov Greenberg, director of the Chabad Stanford Jewish Center, said he was told by three of the 18 students who were in the room that the lecturer separated them from their belongings and instructed them to stand in a corner. The non-faculty lecturer, whose name has not been publicised while the investigation is ongoing, is then alleged to have said: “This is what Israel does to Palestinians,” according to the student reports relayed to Greenberg. 

The instructor went on to ask how many people died in the Holocaust, to which a student replied “six million.”

The instructor is alleged by students to have replied: “Yes. Only six million,” and: “Colonisers killed more than six million. Israel is a coloniser.”  

This has not been uncommon. What's next? Yellow stars? Hamas would love that. Jews would be so instantly recognizable!

How about Let's all be mad at the Jews because they've managed to survive as a recognizable people? Maybe you should call that people envy.

Israel has been Israel for over 3000 years. When you dig up really old stuff in Israel, it's in Hebrew, the same language then as we speak now. Our language was never a lost language; it was always present in our prayers, our texts, our scrolls. We have the same communal calendar we had then, the same rituals, the same traditions, the same burial practices.

How are we colonizers in our own land?

And these people who shout "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free?" Free from what? Homosexuals and homosexualtiy? It's illegal in Gaza. Free from having a functional economy? Free from utilities and potable water?

Or did they really mean Judenrein....Jew Free? I think that's the one they're going for.

If you cannot call Hamas what they are...terrorists...or you find you are making up justifications for their actions, you are a terrorist. Just thought I'd say that out loud. Supporting it, justifying it, rubber stamping it...it makes you one of them. 

Body storage for those
yet to be identified.

Arieh O'Sullivan, a reporter for KAN English news in Israel, (and the son of my dear friend Dina,) sent this to his mother this morning when she expressed concern about what was happening in Gaza:

Here you go mom, bodies of dead Jews, unable to bury yet because the Arabs mutilated the bodies so much they haven't yet been identified. Babies, found burned in ovens, put in alive. Women raped and murdered their faces so cut up they can't be identified. Did u see this on CNN? Don't compare us with the Arabs. All of Gaza is hamas. 

Yet, in spite of that, as Jews, we are told to be concerned about our enemies; even as we celebrate our freedom from bondage, Egyptians died. When we recite the 10 plagues, we remove a drop of wine from our cups for each plague to remember the suffering of those who would have seen us dead. 

Yet, even with the murder and the missiles, there is a prayer we've been reciting at morning minyan that has been adapted from Psalm 91 for the hostages, the IDF and the defenders of Israel. Please note the line I have bolded:

Our God, the One who raised Joseph up from the pit, be "a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble" 

Send complete rescue and full redemption to those held captive by the enemy. 

Strengthen their spirit and bring them our prayers that they be protected from all harm. 

Implant understanding in the heart of the enemy that they may return the captives in wholeness of body and spirit. 

Grant wisdom to the Israel Defense Forces that they may secure freedom for the captives without loss of life. 

Grant strength of spirit and courage of heart to all the sons and daughters of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar to release bonds of captivity and allow us all to live in freedom. 

"They shall call upon Me, and I will answer them; I will be with them in distress; I will rescue them, and honor them" 

We are not the only ones who live on this planet, we are not interested in world domination or shutting people out. Israel, warts and all, is still a democracy where Arab Israelis serve in government, the IDF, go to school, become doctors, lawyers, supreme court justices, police people, and do everything a Jewish Israeli does. Straight, gay, bi, trans, whatever...you get to live in a society where you can be what you want. Sure, they are crazy haredi that hate everyone who's not like them, but about 78% of Israelis consider themselves non-haredi. In the same breath, we just want to be what we are: Jews living free in the land we've inhabited for 3000 years. 

I'm guess most indigenous peoples feel the same way about their original homelands. Some have even come out to support Israel and the hostages. A group of Maori in Wellington, New Zealand, came together to perform a Haka to send strength and fortitude to IDF and the hostages in Gaza as they demanded their release. Their Haka is a powerful message that we are not alone in our desire to be our own people. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Speaking of that desire to be left alone to practice our religion and our culture without fear of proselytization from those who think they have a lock on religion....the US House of Incredible Stupidity elected an openly christofascist, Mike Johnson, R-LA as its new Speaker of the House. From Heather Cox Richardson:

The rejection of democracy in favor of Christian authoritarianism at the highest levels of our government is an astonishing outcome of the attempt to prevent another Great Depression by creating a government that worked for ordinary Americans rather than a few wealthy men.

But here we are.

After Johnson’s election as speaker, extremist Republican Matt Gaetz of Florida spelled out what it meant for the party…and for the country: “MAGA is ascendant,” Gaetz told former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, “and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”

This guy believes his religion belongs squarely in the center of governance. In their article detailing the new Speaker's position, The New York Times reported:

Mr. Johnson declined an interview request and did not respond to a request for comment about whether he considers himself a Christian nationalist. But the little-known speaker of the House has made clear that his faith is the most important thing to know about him, and in previous interviews, he has said he believes “the founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around.”

Just where does that leave the rest of us? Not so sure it's America if this guy and his cabal have anything to say about it.

Yeah, this stuff keeps me up at night. And I keep thinking about mob rule, and the squeaky wheel, and whether or not America is at the end of our noble experiment in democracy. Or maybe this is the end result of democracy? The majority does rule and if that majority thinks Feckless Loser should be the winner. If enough congressclowns are voting a christofascist in as Speaker of the House, and enough people are questioning the veracity of our electoral process, and if enough people are running for office as right-wing local school board and city council members, and enough of those candidates are winning.....that's democracy. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Maybe we who feel differently no longer have a place in these here United States. 

Ever think of that?