One Can Only Hope

This is going to be a relatively short post this week. It's Sunday and the last two days of Passover begin at sundown which means it's chag...holy days...until Tuesday at sundown. Yeah, it's schlep. I know this. But it is what it is. 

Me during my protest period

I want to take a moment to write about the protests, demonstrations, and comparisons to the anti-war protests of the 60s and early 70s.To be honest, there are similarities, but there are also vast chasms of difference. I will absolutely admit to being part of the anti-war and free speech movements, probably beginning around 1967. I grew up in New York, on Long Island, but much of my time was also spent in the city. I participated in all sorts of anti-war demonstrations both in the city, at my high school, and later at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan where I spent my freshman and part of sophomore year. These were non-violent, directly in protest of American involvement in Vietnam, and, by extension, the draft. 

Those Columbia protests in the spring of 1968, however, were actually about two separate issues: the building of a gym in Morningside Heights and an anti-war protest. Two very different issues that were rolled together. It was not all peace and love; there were actions that resulted in the cops coming in. People were arrested. Sit-ins, building takeovers, and assorted rallies were largely non-violent although taking over Hamilton Hall was a bit dicey. But the two issues were clear: the gym and American involvement in Vietnam. 

Free speech is a cornerstone of American law and culture. But that does not mean any ol' speech qualifies as free speech. Free speech cannot mean hate speech, nor falsehood speech, nor even yelling FIRE in a crowded theater when there is none. Free speech comes with responsibility and if you wanna have it, you have to take the opinions you like as well as the ones you don't like. Truth telling must be central to free speech. My 7th-grade civics teacher used to remind us daily, free speech is an American right, but a civil responsibility. Use it wisely; guard it well.

The protests taking place at Columbia and universities across America are not quite like Miss Pease's vision for American wisdom. There's a fundamental lack of truth-telling and a whole lotta hyperbole going around. And while some might think this bolsters their case, it does, in fact, weaken it significantly. Hang on to that thought.

I am not a Ross Douthat fan even remotely, but I think he made a strong point in his op piece in the New York Times. He writes about what was once required reading versus the more recent changes to introductory curriculum:

But if you’re willing to simplify and flatten history — 20th-century history especially — it is easier to make these preoccupations fit Israel-Palestine. With its unusual position in the Middle East, its relatively recent founding, its close relationship to the United States, its settlements and occupation, Israel gets to be the singular scapegoat for the sins of defunct European empires and white-supremacist regimes...

Recognizing that this is happening — that Israel is a kind of enemy of convenience for a left-wing worldview that otherwise lacks real-world correlates for its theories — does not excuse the Israeli government for its failings, or vindicate its searching-for-an-endgame strategy in Gaza, or justify any kind of mistreatment of student protesters.

But it helps explain the two things that seem so disproportionate in these protests and the culture that surrounds them. First, it explains why this conflict attracts such a scale of on-campus attention and action and disruption, while so many other wars and crises (Sudan, Congo, Armenia, Burma, Yemen …) are barely noticed or ignored.

Second, it explains why the attention seems to leap so quickly past critique into caricature, past sympathy for the Palestinians into justifications for Hamas, past condemnation of Israeli policy into anti-Semitism.

The truth is that these aspects of contemporary protest politics are not just a recrudescence of past bigotries. They are partially that, but they are also something stranger, a reflection of a worldview that has come to its anti-Semitic temptations through a circuitous route.

This worldview is broad enough to set curricula but too narrow to find full purchase in the world as it exists, intent on finding enemies but discovering more of them in the past than in the present, and fastening on Israel with a sense of excited vindication — a spirit that yields easily, as righteous vindication often does, to hate.

While I rarely agree with this guy on anything, Douthat's observation on scapegoatism is really spot on. But I don't think that's everything. Ignorance of facts is part of the rhetoric being accepted as gospel. Refusing to recognize Jews as indigenous to the land sorta flies in the face of admitting your building is sitting on top of Second Temple. Calling Jesus as Palestinian when he was Judean is ridiculous, yet he is being played as an agent of resistance against Jews. Calling Jews colonizers when they returned to their traditional homeland, speak the language that is basically the same language as 1000 years ago, based the monetary unit on the shekel, the same monetary unit from ancient time, are not the marks of colonizers. They are, in fact, the hallmarks of DE-colonizers, but none of that matters in this world of make-believe history. 

Nor does it seem to matter that the hatred espoused at Jews, Zionist or not, is given a clean pass.

In his NYTimes op-ed piece, I’m a Columbia Professor. The Protests on My Campus Are Not Justice,  John McWhorter writes:

I thought about what would have happened if protesters were instead chanting anti-Black slogans or even something like “D.E.I. has got to die,” to the same “Sound Off” tune that “From the river to the sea” has been adapted to. They would have lasted roughly five minutes before masses of students shouted them down and drove them off the campus. Chants like that would have been condemned as a grave rupture of civilized exchange, heralded as threatening resegregation and branded as a form of violence. I’d wager that most of the student protesters against the Gaza war would view them that way. Why do so many people think that weekslong campus protests against not just the war in Gaza but Israel’s very existence are nevertheless permissible?

Although I know many Jewish people will disagree with me, I don’t think that Jew hatred is as much the reason for this sentiment as opposition to Zionism and the war on Gaza. I know some of the protesters, including a couple who were taken to jail last week, and I find it very hard to imagine that they are antisemitic. Yes, there can be a fine line between questioning Israel’s right to exist and questioning Jewish people’s right to exist. And yes, some of the rhetoric amid the protests crosses it.

I've been wondering about that a lot. If people were standing in the middle of campus shouting "Go Back to Africa!" all hell would  break loose. What if the Sioux banded together to demand the return of their traditional lands? How about if a band of Mexicans for Repatriation of Texas (I made that up but I'm sure there are some who would love to take back Texas) crossed the border, murdered a swath of people in Laredo, kidnapped a whole lotta people and took 'em across the border as hostages?. How long would the US put up with that?

So, here's where I'm at, just so you know:

I do think Netanyahu is responsible to the debacle unfolding Gaza, but I don't agree that he is the root cause. 

I do believe there needs to be a ceasefire. 

I do believe all the hostages MUST be returned. 

I do abhor the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and I want an absolute end of the hostilities. 

Most of all, I want to see Gaza freed from the shackles of Hamas to build an economy and a country where its people can be free, self-reliant, and successful. ALL its people. Not just the straight ones.

But....and isn't there always a but?

There is a group called Shakara, Arabic for Partnership, consisting of men and women from Muslims countries. It's worth reading about them just to be reassured what is happening here is not universally shared. The article, In Israel, activists from Muslim countries denounce common threat of radical Islam appeared in The Times of Israel and is worth reading. This social media post on X is from one of the  participants; I thinks it speaks volumes:

One can only hope.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

May unmaking Pesach be easy and stress-free. 

And may there be a big cheese pizza the end. 

LET MY PEOPLE GO - Day 199

Shabbat table in London

DAY199

Tonight (Monday) is the first night of Passover, the first seder night. When we should be celebrating freedom, this night will be different from all other nights for all Jews worldwide. Just as shabbat tables are set with empty chairs, dining rooms all over the world will have empty chairs at the table, not for Elijah the Prophet, but for all those held hostage in Gaza. These are the newest slaves in captivity, but there is no hero, no Moshe, to lead them to freedom right now. 

The hostages are held in unspeakable conditions, beaten, sexually abused, and denied aid or even visitation from the International Red Cross who, just in case you haven't heard, recently hired Pierre Krahenbuhl, former head of Hamas-supporting UNWRA who quit his UN post over ethics violations, as its new director general. Then again, the ICRC has never been a friend to Jews, much less Israel. But who's counting? 

Certainly not Hamas. They claim they cannot produce 40 living hostages for the initial cessation negotiation. According to CNN:

Hamas has indicated it is currently unable to identify and track down 40 Israeli hostages needed for the first phase of a ceasefire deal, according to an Israeli official and a source familiar with the discussions, raising fears that more hostages may be dead than are publicly known.

The framework that has been laid out by negotiators says that during a first six-week pause in the fighting, Hamas should release 40 of the remaining hostages, including all the women as well as sick and elderly men. In exchange, hundreds of Palestinian prisoners would be released from Israeli prisons.

Hamas has told international mediators – which include Qatar and Egypt - it does not have 40 living hostages who match those criteria for release, both sources said.

Much is written in Jewish law regarding the ransoming of those in captivity. Ransoming captives is a mitzvah, a sacred duty, for which the community is responsible. From the Jewish Virtual Library: Bava Batra:

CAPTIVES, RANSOMING OF (Heb. פִּדְיוֹן שְׁבוּיִים; Pidyon Shevuyim): The religious duty to ransom a fellow Jew captured by slave dealers or robbers, or imprisoned unjustly by the authorities to be released against ransom paid by the Jewish community. 

The fulfillment of this mitzvah was regarded by the rabbis of the Talmud as of paramount importance (BB 8a, 8b). It is told of R. Phinehas b. Jair that he went to ransom captives, and because he was fulfilling this duty, a river parted to enable him to cross (Ḥul, 7a, TJ Dem. 1:3). Maimonides explains that "(The duty of) ransoming captives supersedes (the duty of) charity to the poor.…" (Yad, Mattenat Aniyyim, 8:10).

Notice the line: paid by the Jewish community. Jews have been subjected to kidnap and captivity as long as we have been a people. It comes as no surprise to any of us that segments of our law deals with ransoming our own. Even in THE POMEGRANATE, Batsheva's brother comes to pay ransom for her freedom. It's what we've been doing for thousands of years: taking care of our own. 

Because no one else will. 

This is crucial to understanding the anger Israelis currently feel about their government. Throughout our history, we have rescued and redeemed our own, and the mounting outcry that the government is not doing its job grows louder daily. 

Yes, thousands have died in Gaza. Pointlessly so. But they, too, were held hostage by Hamas, used to shield the military installations hidden in hospitals, schools, and beneath apartments. Their deaths were wholly preventable had Hamas chosen to release the hostages. No matter who you want to blame, or what you want to say, Israel did not begin this war. 

At the seder table, we recite the 10 plagues delivered on Egypt, the last of which was death of the first born sons, and for each plague, we remove a drop of wine from our newly filled cup. The removal of wine is a tangible symbol of the diminishment of joy.

We do this because we do not celebrate the tragedies and misfortunes of others, whether it is through natural disaster, war, plague, or for any other reason. People died when we left Egypt, and those deaths remain with us amidst our greatest celebration.General Yitzchak Rabin (z"l) made this observation after the Six-Day War in 1967:

While the joy of victory seized the nation, there is a strange phenomenon among the soldiers themselves: their celebration is not whole-hearted, as it is mixed with a large measure of sorrow and shock. Some soldiers cannot celebrate at all. Those in the front lines saw with their own eyes not only the glory of victory, but also its price: their comrades fallen beside them soaked in blood. I know, too, that the terrible price paid by our enemies also touched deeply the hearts of many of our men. It may be that the Jewish people have never learned and never accustomed themselves to feel the triumph of conquest. And so we receive our victory with mixed feelings. There has never been any hatred for the Arabs. Can one fight against enemies without hatred in one’s heart? Perhaps in this respect, too, we are different from many other peoples. I do not believe that hatred adds anything to fighting capacity. We go forth to war when we are forced to, when there is no other choice.

We echo Moshe's cry to Pharoah: LET MY PEOPLE GO. We demand the same of Hamas. They have experienced their version of the plagues at the will of Hamas, not the will of Israel. We still take drops out of our cups as we always have. We still will recognize the loss of human life in a war. We will still shake our heads, unable to understand why Hamas would put their people in harm's way.

And now, for an update. Back on March 18th, I wrote a very short blog. It said: 

WATCH IRAN

I wasn't kidding, was I?  On April 1st, Israel killed two Iranian generals at an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria. Last Saturday, April 13th, the Islamic Republic of Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel.Over 300 things were launched, but few made it into Israel.

But I want to clarify something here. I intentionally said IRAN because there are two vastly different entities within those borders. The first is the Islamic Republic of Iran, an Islamist regime that according to Wikipedia's page on Human Rights in Iran:

Restrictions and punishments in the Islamic Republic of Iran which violate international human rights norms include harsh penalties for crimes, punishment of victimless crimes such as fornication and homosexuality, execution of offenders under 18 years of age, restrictions on freedom of speech and the press (including the imprisonment of journalists), and restrictions on freedom of religion and gender equality in the Islamic Republic's Constitution (especially ongoing persecution of Baháʼís).

Reported abuses falling outside of the laws of the Islamic Republic that have been condemned include the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988, and the widespread use of torture to extract repudiations by prisoners of their cause and comrades on video for propaganda purposes. Also condemned has been firebombings of newspaper offices and attacks on political protesters by "quasi-official organs of repression," particularly "Hezbollahi," and the murder of dozens of government opponents in the 1990s, allegedly by "rogue elements" of the government.     

The drone attack was, near as anyone can tell, some kind of test, seeing if Netanyahu could be pushed over the edge to attack Iran, thereby instigating a hot war in the ME. Instead, Israel retaliated with a small demonstration of arms and accuracy, hitting a specific target in Isfahan, a strike the ISRI pretty much ignored. It's interesting to note Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, and Yemen remained virtually silent about the drone strike and the retaliation. 

London 24 Jan 2024

But there is another part of Iran that is not Islamist. In fact, they are often called Monarchists, indicating a desire to return to the modern Iran they once had under the Shah. Whoever they are, they are the ones who are defying the regime are growing numbers. Iranians outside Iran are increasingly showing support for Israel against Hamas and Hezbollah. In unexpected places, the Iranian flag has appeared at pro-Israel rallies. 

This should not be surprising. Before the Islamic revolution back in 1978, Iran was a modern, thriving society. Not so much now. Young Iranians want their country back. They want their freedom back. One might think others living in the neo-dark ages would want the same. So when I say WATCH IRAN, I'm talking about both sides. This is far from over. And the internal struggle in that nation is just beginning anew.

And here’s Muppet Newsflash for you: it matters to us. One day the kids of Gaza, like the kids in Iran, Morocco, and the rest of the Arab world, are gonna wake up and wonder why they are being left behind, why just next door is start-up nation while they’re still struggling to keep the lights on. Young people aren’t stupid…unless they’re American young people who are too busy drinking the Kool-Aid to understand the propaganda they are being hand fed.  There is a second Arab Spring happening and while the goals maybe unclear to us, the revolt is directed at repressive, authoritarian regimes. Will they succeed? Far be it from me to predict. We can only hope access to information will bring them into the 21st century.

Meanwhile, when we remember Pesach of 5784, we will remember it with the pain and sadness of this war. Our joy is diminished by the reality of bloodshed and loss. Like every war before it, all the dead, Israeli and Palestinians, will be mourned. It's what we are taught, that ALL lives are precious. Each drop of wine taken from our cups will be for all the dead, not just our own. 

The Wifely Person' Tip o'the Week

The game remains the same:

return the 129 hostages and Israel stands down.

Hamas, the ruling party of Gaza, refuses.

Maybe it's time to consider the possibility that Hamas is also holding

2.1 million hostages as well?

Aunty Gladknit is on her way to Aunt Ruthie's to meet the gang.

 With no surprise to any of us who knew her, but Aunty Gladknit took control of her own ending. 

Jamming at Conways

Aunty G was a take charge person. She skied, she golfed, she was an engineer. She took charge of Jewish War Veterans Women's Auxiliary and rose to National President . She took charge at Temple Emeth in Delray and oversaw its merger with a shul in Boynton Beach to become Temple Torat Emet. She was a great mastermind of anything she decided was worth her energy. She knitted, she embroidered, she did needlepoint, beading, and cake decorating. There wasn't a craft she could not master. She was at the senior son's wedding, and danced the night away at the after-party blues jam at Conway's Bar until 2 a.m. When COVID hit and her shul stopped having daily minyanim, she became a regular at our zoom minyan in Minnesota. Nothing stopped her; she was a rock star.

But after receiving the happy title of Great-Grandmother, Aunty Gladknit decided 95 was enough. She'd had a good run (her words) and it was time to stop fighting the rapidly encroaching frailty.  So she called a halt to all treatment and with her kids, her IDF-serving grandson, and her sister (yes, she has a younger sister) by her side, she went to join Uncle Budge.

Sunday, we all gathered (missing only one newborn baby and one first cousin) on Long Island, New York to bury my Aunt Gladys. 

Uncle, Aunty, Mom, & Dad

Aunty G was the last of my aunts and uncles. Standing at the gravesite, it hit me harder than anticipated. I was sorta frozen to the spot as the idea settled over me that I was really a full-fledged orphan. See, there was the circle: the grandparents in the middle. then the siblings and their spouses. The Simons (mom's clan) just sorta joined up with the Schwaidelsons (dad's clan.) We grew close. We have pretty much remained close. Without thinking about it, I can tell you where all my first cousins and even their kids are. 

Jewish tradition dictates that we bury our own. Literally. It's the last mitzvah you can do for a person and it's one that can never be repaid. The first bit of dirt is thrown from a shovel turned upside down. One should never be too anxious to bury the dead. Then you turn the shovel over and begin moving dirt in earnest. When you have shoveled enough, you never hand the shovel to someone; you stick it back in the dirt. Everyone who can, participates. There is no sound worse in the world than dirt hitting the top of a plain wood casket. In my heart, that moment when you pull the shovel from the mound of dirt. you perform the most important act one person can do for another. Once you hear your dirt echoing in the grave, you can never unhear it, just as you cannot undo death.

My much older bro hit 75 this week. I will hit 72 this summer. My cousins on both sides are all around the same ages. In other words, we’re not kids anymore no matter what we wanna think. We are the ones sitting at the survivors’ table. My hair may be grey and my joints creakier than they used to be, but that doesn’t make me old. Knowing one’s limitations does not make me old, either…it makes me smart enough to know I have to adapt/adjust. Not understanding the lyrics of a new song does not make me old; it makes me open to the idea that I do not care.

And that brings me to the martinis. 

On her way to Ruthie's

After my dad's older sister Ruthie died, the running gag in our family became "going to Ruthie's for martinis"...a rather strange euphemism for dying. I don't remember how it got started, but shortly before he died, Ziggy told me he would meet me at Ruthie's for a martini when it was my time to go, but he was going on ahead. Right before he died, Dad told me Uncle Lenny was hiding in the bathroom waiting to take him to Ruthie's for a martini. And even before she died, Mom said she was ready to go to Ruthie's whenever Dad came to get her. So as Aunty G was fading, Perdie told her to go to Ruthie's because the gang would be waiting for her, and the seder would be there. Of course, potato vodka would be served for Pesach. 

Do I really believe everyone is at Aunt Ruthie's drinking martinis? Eh, probably not. But more important is why I do want to believe in that euphemism? It's not about some kind of heaven, or even the Olam ha'Ba. It's about everyone I love being together. That in my heart of hearts, my family still hangs out. I am certain if they're waiting for me, Ziggy has found a way to procure pastrami and half sour pickles to go with the martini. As more and more of my peeps take off for parts unknown, I need to hold them inside me, imagining them standing around Ruthie's living room or the giant backyard with all the peonies, martini glasses in hand. When I envision that, all's right in the world. 

THE WIFELY PERSON'S TIP O'THE WEEK

This weeks tip is from Scottish poet Jenny Joseph who, in 1961 wrote THE WARNING:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people’s gardens

And learn to spit.

 

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

 

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

 

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple

    

An Open Letter to My Non-Jewish Readers

This is the actual abduction of the Bibas family

Dear Non-Jewish Readers, 

On October 7th, Israel was attacked not by an army, not by an air force, not by a navy, but by a roving band of terrorists who murdered kids at a music festival, people in their homes, parents in front of their children. Over 1,160 people were murdered in cold blood. Over 250  hostages ranging in age from 9 months old to 86 years old were abducted to Gaza. 

6 months later, 134 hostages remain in Gaza, amongst them, 11 of are foreign nationals, 8 are American. No one really knows who is alive and who is dead. Shiri Bibas, and her sons, Ariel and Kfir, were claimed by Hamas to have been killed. Yarden, her husband and father of the boys, was taken separately and is thought to still be alive. 

But no one knows for sure. 

Let me repeat that: NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE.

Here's a fun-filled fact. Hamas could stop this war any time it wants. Piece o'cake. Israel has said it every day in every way. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES and the war stops. If Hamas released them tomorrow, the war would stop on a dime. 

But that would be a problem for Hamas. They WANT to be victims. They want to blame everyone and every institution for their failure to establish a country. Being a victim is so much more fun. You don't have to do anything. You get to stand there and look pathetic while you spend every fucking dime to get to reinforce your tunnels and buy missiles to fire on civilians because no one thinks firing thousands and thousands of missiles on civilians who happen to be Jews is a problem.

IF Hamas released the hostages, countries across the globe, including Israel, the US, and maybe even a few Arab states, would be stepping up to help the Palestinians rebuild their country. Oops. Excuse me. It should  BUILD an actual country since Hamas never bothered with an economy or a government before this. Now that the network of tunnels has been exposed, it would be harder to divert funds to rebuild that network while the civilian population is starving, right? 

But screaming FREE PALESTINE doesn't really recognize that Palestine needs to be freed from Hamas, which is really the issue. But no one wants to talk about that part. Why would they? It would mean that the Palestinian people are opting for a real country. So far, that does not appear to be the case. 

Insisting that Israel is committing genocide in Palestine is another piece of abject stupidity being funded by Islamist groups like ISIS, Iran, and Islamic Brotherhood. Allow me to disabuse you of that concept with numbers. 

1. If Israel want to commit genocide against the Palestinians, it would've been over in a day or two. Okay? Clearly, that's neither their target nor their intent, but admitting that doesn't make for a good chant.
2. If Israel wanted to commit genocide against the Palestinians, the population of Gaza would not have grown exponentially since 2005. With a high birth rate (28 per 1000 people in Gaza. ) When Israel left Gaza in 2005, the population was 1.3 million. The most recent estimate is 2.1 million, not quite twice as many people as when Israel left. 
3. Does Israel want to take Gaza back? Hell, no. They want Hamas out so the daily missile barrage will cease. And yes, it's still going on. See Newsweek.
4. Arab Israelis currently make up about 20% of Israel's population. Those who hold Israeli citizenship have the same legal rights as any other Israeli. Is it perfect? No.  Are there problems and issues? Sure, just like minority populations in any other western country. But women fare far better in Israel than any other Arab nation. 

5. 

   Half Shekel coin issued by the Jewish rebels in 67–68 CE
   Letters are in Paleo-Hebrew.

   Israel is the poster-child for DECOLONIZATION. After more than two thousand years of facing east toward Jerusalem to pray, standing at the remnant of Solomon's Temple, continuously living in the land, Jews began to buy back their traditional homeland from the Ottomans. Piece by piece, land was purchased, developed, farmed, and the seeds of an economy were sown. Hebrew, the language of the Bible, our holy books, and our liturgy was resurrected as our daily language, replacing Yiddish and Ladino and other dialects that once divided us. The first modern currency, Israeli Pound (or lira yisraelit,) officially reverted to the shekel, our traditional monetary unit, in 1980.
   

It's pretty widely established that the goal of Hamas is to obliterate Israel and remove all Jews from Israel and the globe. The ADL published Hamas in its own words:

Statements by Hamas officials make clear the terrorist organization’s commitment to destroying Israel and killing Jews and Israelis around the world. 

• Ismail Haniyeh in 2020: He explained that Hamas rejects ceasefire agreements by which, “Gaza would become Singapore,” preferring to remain at war with Israel until a Palestinian state is established from the River to the Sea: “We cannot, in exchange for money or projects, give up Palestine and our weapons. We will not give up the resistance... We will not recognize Israel, Palestine must stretch from the [Jordan] River to the [Mediterranean] Sea.” 
• Hamas official, Hamad Al-Regeb in an April 2023 sermon: He prayed for “annihilation” and “paralysis” of the Jews whom he described as filthy animals: “[Allah] transformed them into filthy, ugly animals like apes and pigs because of the injustice and evil they had brought about.” Al-Regeb also prayed for the ability to “get to the necks of the Jews.” 
• Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Saleh Al-Arouri in an August 2023 interview:  He expressed Hamas’ desire for “total war” with Israel: “Therefore, we are convinced that if a total conflict begins, the airspace and seaports of this entity will be shut down, and they will not be able to live without electricity, water, and communications.” 
• Ahmad Abd Al-Hadi (Hamas representative in Lebanon) in an October 12, 2023 TV show laid out Hamas’ expectation that it would be Israel that would sue for peace and indicated that a ceasefire is part of Hamas’ overall strategy, but said that he was not at liberty to say what exactly Hamas has planned for the next step after a ceasefire. He also stated that October 7 had achieved its intended purpose of landing “a blow to the normalization (of relations between Israel and Arab countries).” 
• Hamas member, Ghazi Hamad on October 24, 2023: “Israel is a country that has no place on our land […] because it constitutes a security, military, and political catastrophe to the Arab and Islamic nation.” (October 24, 2023, LBC TV (Lebanon)). He also vowed to repeat the October 7 attacks “time and again until Israel is annihilated,” and expressing a desire to “sacrifice martyrs” (referring to Gazan civilians) for Hamas’ ideological aim of destroying Israel. 
• In a speech before the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Doha on January 9, 2024, Ismaeel Haniyeh, chairman of Hamas's political bureau, called the October 7 massacre the “advanced [battle] front of the Ummah.” Calling for “financial jihad” (donations to Hamas) and “jihad of the teeth” (physical jihad), he asked the international audience, “Who wishes to invest in building the jihadist generation to liberate Jerusalem and to unite the blood of the Ummah with the blood of the people of Gaza, Jerusalem, and Palestine on the land of Palestine for its liberation and the liberation of Jerusalem?” 

Statements by Hamas officials also make clear the terrorist organization’s disregard for the loss of civilian life not only in Israel but also in Gaza. 

• Hamas senior leader Khaled Mashal stated on October 19, 2023 that he views the current loss of civilian life in Gaza – brought about by Hamas' strategy of using human shields – as essential: “No nation is liberated without sacrifices... In all wars, there are some civilian victims. We are not responsible for them.” 

• Hamas senior leader Ismail Haniyeh, commenting on the loss of civilian life in Gaza on October 26, 2023: “The blood of the women, children and elderly […] we are the ones who need this blood, so it awakens within us the revolutionary spirit.”  

I've left the links intact in case you want to see more.  Some of it is pretty terrifying, but you have to understand....it's not just about Israel and Jews. When they finish with us, they are planning to go after the rest of the non-Islamic world. And some of the Islamic world as well..the part that doesn't agree with their brand of sectarianism. (Gee, doesn't that sound a little like the Christofascists in our world? I thought so.)

Meanwhile, what's happening to the people of Gaza is reprehensible, made worse that Hamas refuses to do anything to help them as evidenced by the statements above. The targeting of WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN relief workers is equally inexcusable and the reaction of Israelis should drive home the point that they are not happy with how the war is being conducted by Netanyahu. Their collective anger with their own government should demonstrate that not all Israelis are supporting the government, and that like anything else in the Jewish world, there are enough divergent opinions for everyone to have one. 

The Times of Israel reported recent polls showing 71% of Israelis think Netanyahu should resign. This is not a surprise. Israelis are unhappy and the hostages are at the center of that anger. Do not make the mistake of thinking we are a single voice led by a single voice, Jews are great at arguing. Just look at the Talmud. It's what makes us strong. 

We are not sheep. We are  not lemmings. We are not the Jews of 1930s Europe. We have reclaimed our homeland and we're not going anywhere, so disabuse yourself of that notion. What Hamas did was to declare war on us, and by G-d, they got one. Now they stand there blaming us for the destruction, yet no one is talking about the missiles and the tunnels, the suicide bombers or the threats to wipe us from the earth. 

But they are the victims.

I don't think so. 

The victims are the Israeli kids at a music festival, families at home in their beds, children who watched their parents murdered, and parents who watched their kids die. 

The victims are the Palestinian children offered up as blood sacrifice to the gods of greed and power while their parents stood by and did nothing to stop Hamas from using them as human shields. 

The victims are the Jewish kids on college campuses being attacked and covered in a hatred they did even know existed. 

And the biggest victim of all? 

Truth. 

Newspapers don't print it, they spin it. TV presenters don't ask questions, they set traps for interviewees, then manipulate the footage. Politicians don't talk about what's really happening; they only talk about what will get them donations and votes. 

We are knee deep in this bullshit and there isn't a clear path out. 

And for the record, April 7th marked 6 months. Today, April 8th, 2024. was Day 183

THE WIFELY PERSON'S TIP O'THE WEEK

Release the hostages.