What If.....?

In my last episode, I wrote:

Now the government wants to screen social media for what they consider anti-semitic rhetoric should scare the shit outta everyone. Oh, you think this is a good thing? Disabuse yourself of that notion. Neither President Felon nor Vice President Bedbug gives a tinker's damn about the Jews. We are a convenience for them. We're necessary for the second coming, but beyond that, we're fodder for under the bus. The tariffs are failing? He can blame the Jew Lutnick. Social media is being manipulated to search out anti-semitism? Or is it really consolidating identifiable pockets of support? 

Now I'm seeing all sorts of pundits saying that President Felon's war on antisemitism is not making Jews safe; in fact, quite the opposite. In an article on NPR, Michel Martin and Obed  Manuel wrote:

A coalition of Jewish groups warns that the Trump administration is making Jews less safe by targeting international students who protested Israel's war in Gaza and the universities where they study. 

In a statement released Tuesday, the coalition of 10 groups brought together by the nonpartisan Jewish Council for Public Affairs states that antisemitism is on the rise in the "public discourse, politics, and institution," but that it opposes the Trump administration's push to strip pro-Palestinian student activists of their visas and deny them due process. 

"Our safety as Jews has always been tied to the rule of law, to the safety of others, to the strength of civil society, and to the protection of rights and liberties for all," reads the statement. The coalition includes reform, conservative and reconstructionist organizations, as well as HIAS, as a non-profit immigrant aid group founded by Jewish Americans....

Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, told Morning Edition that she and her group are concerned that fear of antisemitism is being exploited to "undermine our democracy."  

She added: "What's clear as these actions continue and grow is that the overwhelming majority of American Jews are feeling many of those same concerns and speaking out." 

A couple of things crossed my screen this week and are tangentially related to being in the crosshairs. Both had to do with music and Jews, and neither was about Jews writing Christmas songs. 

Over in Boston, The Berklee College of Music was seeking out a new chair of the brass department. They appointed Nicholas Payton, an incredible trumpet player. Musically, he was more than qualified for the job. However....

Payton is a very public antisemite. He posts his hateful rants on X and Instagram. According to an article in the Algemeiner, 

In a 2020 Twitter thread, Payton defended a social media post of his of a video describing Jews as a “synagogue of Satan” and describing Jews as obsessed with blood. “I hate no one. And I posted nothing but fact,” Payton wrote then. “None of you can say where I’m wrong. Only that you don’t like it. The ‘lots of people had slaves, including Africans’ trope doesn’t absolve Jews for their participation in the enslavement of my people.”

Peter Himmelman, in his April 18th edition of Morning Musings: Hate In The Horn Section: A Response to Berklee’s Hiring of Nicholas Payton writes about this in depth. While it might seem a conundrum, it isn't. Payton gets a free pass to say whatever he wants because to object to it would be kowtowing to President Felon and his social media henchman. Instead of rooting out antisemitism, it allows it to grow wild and free. Would a professor saying the same thing about Blacks or Latinos be hired after a screed of conspiracy theories? Not bloody likely. Himmelman explains it this way:

This is how antisemitism mutates — not only through the rants of individuals, but through the institutions that reward them. It gains traction not just because people hate Jews, but because others are too apathetic — or too afraid — to say that such hatred is intolerable.

Add to that the added attraction of defying the present regime, and antisemitism twists again into a new life of its own...one that masquerades as outrage but, in truth, allows it to grow exponentially.

Not convinced? Take a quick gander at this year's Coachella Music Festival. 

, 

An Irish band whose name is not worth repeating here, performed at Coachella over the weekend took the stage chanting "FREE, FREE...." to which the crowd dutifully responded "PALESTINE" before putting up the message to the left. The Hollywood Reporter has published a pretty complete article about the event. 

And I am left wondering...what if Coachella was attacked by Hamas? What if hundreds of attendees were slaughtered, and hundreds more dragged into Mexico? What if it had been the smaller communities that surround Coachella that were infiltrated, their residents murdered in their bed and kitchens while women of ALL ages were raped and mutilated before being murdered? Would they have blamed Israel for that, too, because it was Hamas? 

Probably.

Joshua Hoffman wrote a wonderful piece illustrating how antisemitism made us who we are.  If you haven't read it, you should, but here's a bit to get you started.

He begins with the baseline kernel of truth:

You say we run the banks. You say we run Hollywood. You say we control the media. You say we have too much influence, too much power, too much pride.

But you never ask why.

So let me tell you.

We were banned from owning land, so we learned to make a living with our minds. While others built legacies on soil and serfdom, we built ours in scholarship and study. We became merchants, financiers, physicians, and philosophers — not because we craved gold, but because the ground was never ours to till.

We were denied entry into universities, so we opened our own schools and studied twice as hard. Our emphasis on education didn’t arise from privilege; it arose from exclusion......

He goes on.... 

October 7th wasn’t just a massacre; it was a revelation. It reminded us that no amount of assimilation, no level of success, no Nobel Prizes, no peace treaties, and no hashtags will protect us if we cannot protect ourselves. 

 

We now live in a post- October 7th world. A world where Jews are done apologizing. Done seeking your approval. Done believing that if we just explain ourselves better, you’ll stop hating us. 

 

We now know, without a doubt, that the world’s memory is short, but ours is long.

We are a people who carry both trauma and tenacity. We are the children of refugees who became warriors. The descendants of Holocaust survivors who became state-builders. The grandchildren of exiles who came home.

You tried to destroy us on October 7th. Instead, you reminded us who we are. 

Here’s the irony you refuse to see: It was your hatred that made us this way. You forced us out of your professions, so we mastered the ones you didn’t want. You shut us out of your elite institutions, so we built better ones. You isolated us, so we built our own networks. You called us weak, so we became strong. You wanted us poor and powerless — and in trying to keep us there, you gave us every reason to rise.

Antisemitism didn’t stop Jewish success. It caused it. You wanted us out of your world. We built a new one. And now you complain it’s thriving.

So yes, we are proud. Yes, we are successful. Yes, we are influential. But none of it came easy. Every Jewish triumph stands atop centuries of exile, scapegoating, genocide, and resilience. We became strong because you gave us no other choice.

You made us into the people you now resent.

 And we’re not sorry. 

 No, we are not sorry in the least, and we won't apologize for surviving or thriving.  

Meanwhile, back at the UN....

It's worth noting that in recent weeks, a number of Arab nationals have spoken at the UN Human Rights Council demanding to know why their councils are silent about the humanitarian crises all over the Arab world. Luai Ahmed is a Yemani Swedish journalist who delivered a powerful speech last month at the UN Human Rights Council about their recent report on Israel on behalf of the @unitednationswatch:

I ask the UN, the Arab League, and everyone who had [sic] waving the Palestinian flag since October 7: Where is the flag of Yemen? In my country, half a million people have died in the last 10 years. The biggest famine and humanitarian crisis in modern history. Why does no one care when half a million Yemenis die?

 What about Sudan? In less than two years, more than 150,000 people have been killed. Where is the Sudanese flag?

What about Syria? Half a million people were killed. Where is the Syrian flag?
 
High Commissioner, why is it that when Arabs kill millions of Arabs, no one bats an eye? Where is the outrage? Where are the protests?

High Commissioner, may I ask why your report mentions Israel 188 times — yet fails to mention the Islamic Republic in Iran even once? How can you speak about the conflict while ignoring the party who armed, trained, and funded the terror proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis — who have been bombing Israel thousands of times? Why don’t you mention that the Houthis in Yemen have spent millions of dollars firing missiles at Israel, instead of feeding my starving people?  

And why is Qatar sitting here as a member of the Human Rights Council when they host the Hamas terror leaders in luxury hotels?

Their response?  Silence. Why doesn't this surprise me....or anyone, for that matter?

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

There is a strange sense of euphoria

when you reconstruct your kitchen to chametz

and the cabinets are all tidy...

for about 2 days.