Nothing you can know that isn't known...

I was supposed to be in LA last week, attending an Emmy event on the technical side with one of my cousins, a film editor. I was packed and ready to go when, at 4 a.m., my phone fired up with a text message. All bets were off: COVID arrived in LA ahead of me. I have to say the JW Marriott was lovely and waived the cancellation fee. As did Delta, although now I have an unused ticket. I am certain I can put it toward something. So, instead of wearing a chic little cocktail suit, high heels, and real makeup while chatting up people in the industry, I was puttering around the house in sweats and fuzzy slippers. And yes, I was about as grumpy as I ever get. I'm more of a make lemonade kinda person. Or take a nap. One or the other. I opted to split the difference. Not to worry; we'll figure it out. And the most important part....my cousin is finally on the mend. 

So now, I have to learn a new skill: screenwriting. 

INT/ HOME OFFICE - LATE NIGHT.  CLUTTERED WITH BOOKS, PAPERS, ELECTRONICS...2 MACS, A PRINTER AND BLUE DENBY TUDOR MUG. 

THE AUTHOR 

I'm a playwright, damn it; not a screenwriter. 

[BIG GIANT SIGH AS SHE LEANS BACK IN HER CHAIR AND CLOSES HER EYES IN FRUSTRATION. SHE SUDDENLY SNAPS UP.] 

Who knew they had cockamamie formats for this? This is insane...but I'm gonna hafta script the pilot myself. Or so I am being told. The look-book is gorgeous they say, the story is compelling, and going forward, they're gonna wanna see some attempt at a screenplay.Bah Humbug! But I'll figure it out and do it. I am tough stuff.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

My bull-o'meter is off the scale from city councils adopting resolutions demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. Really? City Councils?

Last time I looked, no city of any size has a role in international politics. Having listened to today's exercise in asininity at the Minneapolis city council, I would be embarrassed to admit it if I voted for some of those people. (I don't live in Minneapolis, thank G-d) One jackass stood up screaming "When I look at Gaza I see genocide!" Really? You got that from looking at the television? 

What's happening in Gaza is unspeakably horrible. Most Israelis feel the same way. Netanyahu is routinely hated, but in the middle of a war, it's tough to flush an entire government. I wish they could oust him. The man is single-handedly damaging the entire State of Israel. He should be stopped. But that's another post. 

But here's the thing, none of those self-righteous idiots ever gave a damn about Palestinians. Never. Not once. All those years Palestinians were dying at the hands of the Syrians and the Lebanese, where was your outcry? Where was your outrage when:

1. 

   Listen to the post

   ...more than 4000 Palestinians in refugee camps were slaughtered in the Syrian civil war
2. ...it was exposed that the Palestinian Authority is torturing Palestinian prisoners
3. ... 850,000 Palestinians were displaced in the Syrian civil war
4. ...the Lebanese militias killed 2500 refugees in refugee camps
5. ...Hamas dragged bodies of Palestinians through the streets of Gaza for "cooperating" with Israel
6. ...Palestinian women were being raped by their husbands because it is legal in Palestine
7. ...innocent people were beheaded in Palestine for being gay? You will never hear about them; you will never hear about their stories, you will never know they even existed.

I vetted the numbers and she is pretty accurate. And she is certainly correct about rapes and gay men. And yes, many more have died in recent weeks during this war, but she raises a valid point: when did you start caring about the Palestinians?

Or, did it become your issue when Jews/Israelis defended themselves against a terrorist attack of such heinous proportion that it rivaled viciousness of the ghetto attacks during the Holocaust? When did it become not okay to defend your citizens, your homes, your country? Or are you just expecting Jews to be weakling victims? 

But, wait! What if it's Montreal, Canada raiding Montpelier, Vermont....or Chukchi, Russia attacking Nome, Alaska? Would that make a difference? What do you think those terrorized cities would do? Sit down in sackcloth and ashes?

City councils across the United State are engaging in nothing more than mental masturbation when it comes to these absurd resolutions. They are opening the door to tacitly sanctioned antisemitic attacks. Jews who live in communities where these ridiculous statements are being made are becoming targets for the haters, and perhaps, what's worse, is the implication that Jews are no longer welcome in those cities. 

Brilliant at Breakfast's Jill in Durham, NC wrote to their mayor after one of these absurdities was presented at the city council meeting:

Nowhere in Durham's charter is there a call for participation in international affairs.  A local resolution does NOTHING for the Palestinian people, but signals Durham's tacit support for Hamas to keep their extermination campaign against Jews going.  In turn, the message locally will be of the Council's support for open season on Jews and Jewish businesses in Durham. Passage of a resolution will tell a segment of our city’s population that they are not welcome here.  Far from being a message of diversity, equity and inclusion, a resolution from the city council calling for Israel to essentially accept its own extermination by Hamas via a permanent ceasefire, even in the face of continued Hamas attacks, only serves to make the city appear to endorse what is a dog-whistle for antisemitism, not just anti-Zionism.

Better they should demand the return of the hostages....those women, children, and BABIES still in the hands of Hamas...because that would bring an immediate cessation of hostilities. But that will never happen because, after all, we're talking about Jewish babies. And Hamas is not about to give up its biggest bargaining chip...although it would mean saving hundreds of Palestinian lives. 

Hamas doesn't want you to see what's behind the curtain; they only want you to see the propaganda they manufacture. They don't want you to know if the hostages, especially the children and babies, are dead or alive. For Hamas, there is only one endgame: destroy the State of Israel and rid it of all Jews first, and then on to the other religions. That's not opinion, that's from their charter document. 

That, in common parlance, is genocide. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Nothing you can know that isn't known

Nothing you can see that isn't shown

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where

You're meant to be

It's easy

All you need is love....

and a really good screenwriting template.