I AM A ZIONIST JEW

The flag and the Kotel

I ran into an old colleague in the grocery store last week. The conversation was pleasantly generic enough until  she asked, "Are you still a Zionist?" I looked at her as if she had just stepped off the looney bus, but that didn't stop her. "I mean, you were always such a social activist. I cannot believe you're still pro-Israel after everything they've done." 

A zillion answers raced through my mind, most of them flip and dismissive, but as she kept rambling, digging her hole deeper and deeper, I realized flip wasn't the right way to go. When she finally stopped blaming Israel for everything wrong in the Middle East, I said, "I am deeply committed to Israel and its continued existence the same way you, as a progressive Democratic Socialist are deeply committed to the continued existence of the United States." 

Let me take a moment to make my position crystal clear:

• I am a Zionist
• I believe that Jews are the indigenous people of that land and have a right to be there. 
• Israel as a cultural entity on its own is first mentioned in the stele of Egyptian Pharaoh Merenptah c.1213-1203 B.C.E.
• By 1080 B.C.E. a kingdom was established. Around 930 BCE the kingdom split into two parts, Israel in the north and Judah in the south.
• Hebrew has been our spoken AND written language for over 3000 years.
• Our name is Yehudi. It means a person from Judah/Judea. A Jew from that place named for us, not the other way around. 
• Our literature and our liturgy have been in Hebrew for over 3000 years. 
• Mount of Olives is a Jerusalem cemetery in continual use over 3000 years containing 150,000 graves...and growing.
• The heart of our religion was the Temple in Jerusalem until the destruction of the Second Temple on the 9th of Av, 70 C.E. That day is still observed as a fast day for us.
• The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is revered by the three Abrahamic religion. Christianity begins in the first century C.E. and Islam begins in the 7th century C.E. 
• Jews have been exiled, persecuted, and abused by a litany of conquerors since then, but we have never completely abandoned the land. Jerusalem remains central to our liturgy. We end the Passover seder saying, Next year in Jerusalem.
• Since Israel was declared a modern state in 1948, its neighbors have continually attacked. And lost. In 1948, 1956, 1697, 1973, 1982, 2008. 
• Offered their own state many times, Hamas has never accepted nor ceased rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.
• We have an obligation to defend ourselves from those attacks whether they are from soldiers or suicide bombers on buses. 
• In 2005 Israel didn't just pull out of Gaza, it removed every Jewish person who had been living there since 1967, turning everything over to the Palestinians to begin their own journey to independence.
• Since 2007, when Hamas took control, over 30,000 rockets and mortars have been fired into Israel, aimed mostly at civilian targets like the town of Sderot. Approximately 1 in 5 launches misfire and land in Gaza.
• 
  October 7th, 2023 was not an attack on a military target, it was an attack on a music festival and people asleep in their beds. Rape, murder, torture are all documented for examination, including the videos taken by the attackers to show off their acts of violence. 
• If you have a strong stomach, this is a visual compilation of October 7th. Maybe you are one of the ones who needs to see this to understand what happened that day.

End of history section. On to today.

• Do I believe Israel has waged a long term war of genocide on Gaza? No. Populations experiencing genocide do not increase in size. Between 2000 and 2023 the population has almost doubled from 1.1 million to 2.2 million. They have one of the highest birthrates in the world.
• Do I believe the end result in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis and tragedy? Yes, but I believe the onus is on Hamas and its treatment of its own people. Had they built an economy instead of tunnels, industries instead of rocket launchers, Gaza would be much different. The Palestinians would be on the road to economic prosperity.
• Do I believe Israel wants to take Gaza back? No. Most Israelis would like an independent state with a burgeoning economy focused on the betterment of its population. 
• Do I agree with Bibi Netanyahu and his government?  No. Like most Israelis, I want him gone. According to Times of Israel, 55% to 61% believe he should be retired.
• I am also a voting American who believes the very fabric of our democracy is under attack. Did I vote in the primary? Absolutely. 
• I am not a supporter of Democratic socialism, but I do support a more socialist democracy that provides safety nets for its vulnerable citizens. [See last month's Junior High Cit Ed Refresher Course if you don't understand the difference.]
• I certainly am not a supporter of our current kleptocracy. President Feckless Felon's continued policies that enrich himself are anti-American at best and should be stopped. If only we had a congress that cared about Americans. 

There you have it. I dislike both governments equally. The bottom line? 

 

 I AN A ZIONIST JEW. I AM AN AMERICAN.

There is no conflict of interest here.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

Can someone explain who the hell Natalie Harp is and why the Coward of the Country took her on the catering truck for the ol' jet switcheroo while leaving cabinet members on the decoy plane in case Iran took a shot at him? I've heard her called a number of very interesting sobriquets ... including the human printer, the human binky, and diaper nurse (because of the claim she carries backpack of adult diapers for her boss. President Coward's dependency on Depends has been long speculated. 

Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia raised some interesting points on this topic. From The Independent:

While the sailors on the Lincoln fight his war, while he fruitlessly drains our munitions and oil reserves, the president sleeps through his meetings... He golfs and trades stocks. See, he doesn't want to do the job. He wants to build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace gifted by the emir of Qatar.

Natalie, backpack, & boss

I'm not so naive as to think men of power don't have their side pieces. Think Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII,) Madame de Pompadour (Louis XV,) Nan Britton (Warren Harding,) Lucy Mercer (FDR,) Monica Lewinsky (Bill Clinton) and while no one mistress has been assigned for President Felon, he's extra-marital assignations are well known since he also marries them. Natalie seems to be the current sycophant-in-residence. Let's see how long she lasts...before Melania puts a stop to her. Or not. Maybe Natalie keeping him busy and his butt clean is a load off Melly's plate. Stay tuned. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

For a really interesting read 

on our government's spending habits, try this: 

The Hartmann Report: Republicans Rigged America’s Debt: 

Now We’re Paying the Billionaires Forever

I thought it was fascinating.

When Truth Is Barely A Consideration

Wow. Only Monday, and already it's a busy week. The Senior Son is home for the weekend and will stay at lease long enough to play at the blues jam at the Midway Saloon tonight. I have a great soft spot for Moses Oakland who runs the jam. He was Ziggy's friend, and dad to Senior Son's friends. I like having the Senior Son home. I like being Mam even if it's just for the weekend, after which I go back to being, oh, mother! I don't mind; I'm just glad he wants to come home every so often.

We got to watch Young Sir play baseball...he did get a couple of good hits off the pitching machine and didn't have to use the T even once! We all went to Snuffy's for malts. I come from a great baseball lovin' family and watching Young Sir made me so happy. Right now, he says he likes being catcher best. That will change again and again, I'm guessing. Still, seeing him in the mask just makes me grin all over. After the game, we all headed over to Snuffy's for onion rings and malts. Nothing is more fun than cramming 3 grandparents, two adult kids, and a hot, sweaty grandson into a booth. I'm absolutely serious about that!

Tuesday, my cousins come for an overnight before heading to Duluth for a couple of days, and then back to me for Shabbat. Since the overnight is Tuesday, there will be tacos....made with Impossible Beef because I want to serve cheese and sour cream and all sorts of stuff and if they were made with meat, most of that is off my very kosher table! I'm kinda excited about this, by the way. I haven't made tacos since Ziggy left the building. But all this vegetarian cooking for my vegetarian cousins is not what has me so excited about this visit. 

See, the cousin whom I lovingly call Perdita, is, in reality, Barbara Mazor, champion of the fight against BDS at the Park Slope Coop in Brooklyn. In the past few weeks, the debacle at the Coop has made a whole lotta newspapers. This is not the first time I've written about the demonization of Israel and Jews at that august institution. Barbara started a blog, Stop BDS At The Park Slope Coop, about the fight. Back in March, 2012, I wrote an episode about it: When The Coop Is In The Balance. At that time, they were able to beat back the BDS movement, and she even changed the name of the blog to We Stopped BDS At The Park Slope Coop. But like all pernicious diseases, it percolated in the background. And now it's back.

The City Journal did a better job of explaining the issue than either the New York Time or The Guardian. They also quoted Barbara:

Barbara Mazor, who opposed the boycott movement alongside Maislen, told City Journal that the vote was “a lost opportunity to build a politics of co-existence.” The purpose of a co-operative, she said, is to “put your difference aside” to work on something collaboratively. Many members stressed that their ability to do so, even when they did not agree on everything, contributed to the Brooklyn neighborhood’s unique social fabric.... 

...In evaluating the vote, it is hard to ignore the influence of the wave of anti-Semitism and religious intolerance that has erupted in New York City since the October 7 attacks. Though many of the boycott’s leading figures are Jewish themselves—including Alyce Barr, who led the push to divest—Mazor suggested that the move “provides a lot of validation for people” who dislike Jews more broadly. “It provides encouragement for the most extremist actors, and it’s a permission structure for attacking Jews,” she said.

Mazor’s suggestion is borne out by members’ reports. Those who opposed the boycott were likened to antebellum “pro-slavery” supporters. When a member declared “Jewish supremacy is a problem,” 50 people applauded, Maislen told City Journal. One Israeli member working a shift who requested anonymity was told by a customer that she smelled “of Palestinian blood” and that “Jews are rejoicing in raping and killing Palestinians.” 

This is not some tempest in a teapot. That the anti-BDS side was not permitted to present their side at the meeting speaks volumes to those of us watching this fight, ostensibly because of technical issues. Regardless, this was shutting down the opposition and screams of a variety if messages to whatever side you're on. 

But here's the thing: how did we (meaning all Jews) become the genocidal maniacs in the court of public opinion after Hamas raped, murdered, decapitated, mutilated, and kidnapped over a thousand people attending a music festival on October 7th, 2023? What if those same terrorists did that at Coachella? What if they did it at Wembley Stadium? What would the response have been then? 

People usually fixate on Jewish tragedy...why is that? They're fascinated with death camps, gas chambers, and ghettos. Why can't they see the benefit of live Jews? The ones who invent stuff and make medical devices and apps and desalination plants that bring water where there wasn't any? Not to mention their boycotts are selective. I don't see them advocating the removal of messaging from their phones or WAZE from their cars. I cannot speak or think for anyone else, but I gotta wonder what their end-game really looks like. 

I am fascinated by the colonization part. What do they think the Muslims were doing during their conquest period? Bringing free press to Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Algeria, Tunisia, or Libya? What do all those kind hearted protestors think were happening to the indigenous populations or, for that matter, all the Christians that lived there? And what about, in recent years, the plight of queer or gay communities living in those countries? Especially in places like Gaza? Are they holding Gay Pride Month parades there? Yet, those communities are silent on those issues. Dead silent. And that's not meant to be a pun. 

How is it that millions of Israelis sheltering against bombing attacks that have been ongoing for decades makes them aggressors? And the ultimate question: why isn't Israel allowed to defend itself?  Like this is news. Not. 

In his Morning Musings on Substack, Peter Himmelman digs deeper into the heart of that question:

And on the other side we do not see merely opposing viewpoints. There are states, media networks, political movements, universities, NGOs, influencers, bots, and vast oceans of money invested in the creation and dissemination of anti-Israel—and often overtly anti-Jewish—sentiment. There is the propaganda machinery of Iran. There is Qatar's immense financial reach and its state-sponsored media network, Al Jazeera, arguably the most influential anti-Israel media platform in the world. There are Russian and Chinese information operations—coordinated networks that seed anti-Western narratives across social platforms, for which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a reliable accelerant. There are social media algorithms that reward outrage and flatten complexity. There are hundreds of millions of people predisposed to see the conflict through ideological, religious, or historical lenses that Israel has little power to alter.

With a PR machine like that, it's amazing Israel has lasted this long. 

Or maybe it isn't all that amazing. Israel takes defense seriously. Citizens are not used as human shields, nor are they told death is a desirable outcome. The rest of the world never sees that part, thanks to the PR machine, but we know better. What other ancient civilization has survived intact the way we have? Same language, same culture, same religion despite exiles, persecution, and a real attempt at genocide? And what other people have welcomed others into the safety tent expecting nothing more than community...not conversion, not extra taxes,  not assimilation...the way Israel has. Look at the demographics: nationality is ISRAELI. Not Jewish. Over  20%  of the population is Arab and they, too, are ISRAELI. As is the almost 6% of other population segments like Druze or Baháʼí; they, too, are ISRAELI. And the official language may be Hebrew, but the street signs are all in Hebrew, Arabic, and English. Is that asking anyone to relinquish their cultural heritage or identity?

Does anyone actually care about the lives and livelihoods of the Palestinians? No one gave a damn about the billions funneled into Gaza that built the murder tunnels and paid for the bombs, many of which never made it across the border and fell on their own people while they huddled in tents and watched Hamas commandeer their food supplies. The only things all those Greta-Thunberg-wannabes care about are the creative optics designed to provide sheeple with a scapegoat on which to vent their self-righteous and misplaced fury. In the end, no matter what happens to Israel, Gaza will still be occupied by terrorists who are in it for the money and the chance to spill blood...even if it's the blood of their own people. They'll just find another group to victimize. 

Just ask any gay or trans Gazan.

Meanwhile, back at the farm, Meet the Press held a show in a barn. It didn't go well.

President Felon: Your elections are crooked and you’re crooked, and Meet the Press is crooked.

Kristen Welker:   But Mr. President–

President Felon: And so is ABC and CBS and CNN.

Kristen Welker:   But Mr. President--

President Felon: You’re a one-sided crooked network. Sorry. Let’s call it quits because I’ve had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.

Kristen Welker:  Mr. President, let’s — please, I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.

President Felon: I’ve sat in the rain with you--

Kristen Welker:   I traveled all — I know. I traveled all the way--

President Felon: I sat in the rain with you for an hour.

Kristen Welker:   --to Wisconsin.

President Felon: On and off in the rain, and I’ve given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press, because you know what?

Kristen Welker:   Mr. President--

President Felon: A country can never be great with a dishonest press.

Kristen Welker:   – we traveled all — listen. We traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview. 

And then he got up and walked out. Wanna know what I wanna know? If a country can never be great with a dishonest press, what are we supposed to do with a dishonest president? Read the transcript of the interview for yourself. The lies per square minute are astounding. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week:

As Kander and Ebb wrote for CHICAGO, 
(and I am asking the same questions daily) 

Whatever happened to fair dealing?
And pure ethics
And nice manners?
Why is it everyone now is a pain in the ass?
Whatever happened to class?

The Wifely Person's EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS Tip o'the Week

If you are interested in hearing Barbara speak about the Coop,

drop an email to thewifelyperson[at]gmail.com.

And Another Thing....

Since I got back two weeks ago, I have been steadily trying to process a whole boatload of information. The sheer normalcy of everyday life in Israel is astounding. People ride the buses and trains, go to the markets and supermarkets, eat in cafes and restaurants, go to the beach, walk in the parks, and even now, have an ear open to the sirens even though there is currently somewhat of a cessation of hostilities. I say somewhat because everyone knows this is not over. Armed Hamas fighters are reported to be hiding out throughout the tunnels. My friend (and cohort in adventure) Jen has a wonderful blog and wrote about our trip to Nova, but this section was edited out. I asked her for it because she wrote what I could not. 

Bomb shelter at Nova/photo by Jen

 Both at the Nova site and at Tkuma there are bomb shelters and signs posted in Israel's three official languages (Arabic, English and Hebrew) instructing you what you need to do in case there is a missile alert.

There are bomb shelters at all the bus stops and public areas in the Gaza Envelope and if no shelter is available, you lay down on the ground and cover your head. You have 15 seconds to get to a safe place.

  

On October 7th, the terrorists first fired multiple rockets into Israel and counted on people herding themselves into bomb shelters and make their murderous attack more "efficient." The terrorists killed anyone they encountered. They didn't stop to ask if you were Jewish, Muslim or Christian, Ba'hai or Buddhist. They didn't stop to ask if you were in favor of a Palestinian state or not. They killed and have been doing it nearly non-stop since Israel left Gaza in 2005. That's nearly 20 years ago.

Today, the United Nations Security Council approved President Felon's 20 point "peace plan" for Gaza, Hamas did not. In a statement, Hamas leadership did not. The Washington Post reported:

Hamas, in a statement, said the resolution “does not meet the level” of Palestinian political and humanitarian demands. 

 “It imposes a mechanism to achieve the [Israeli] occupation’s objectives,” the group said. 

Turning in their weapons, as the peace plan demands, Hamas said, “must remain an internal national matter” tied to the end of the Israeli occupation....

...While initial elements of the plan — a ceasefire, the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas and expansion of humanitarian aid to Gaza — have at least partially been carried out, the rest has been stalled.

The U.S.-sponsored resolution enshrines the complete plan in international law, establishing a vaguely defined Board of Peace, headed by Trump with membership chosen by him, that for two years will control virtually every aspect from security and governance to reconstruction of Gaza.

The highlight is mine. Draw your own conclusions, just make sure you follow the money.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... sources in Gaza report that Hamas is stockpiling weapons outside Gaza. The Palestinian Authority was approached and asked not to destroy their arsenal, but to hold it for Hamas. The PA, in an odd moment of clarity, declines the request.  KAN-news floated an unsourced report that Hamas was stockpiling weapons in Yemen and unnamed African states with the intent of smuggling them into Gaza. Since the report is unsourced and I could not find other confirmation, I'm not endorsing this theory. HOWEVER, (and is there always a however) it's not a big stretch to see the possibilities there. Additionally, there are grumbles that President Felon is considering dropping the disarmament portion of the "peace plan." 

And if you're wondering why this is not acceptable, look at this picture.

This is not a playground climbing toy. This is a playground bomb shelter in Sderot, the city that has been under constant siege since 2005..when Israel left Gaza. That's right. Israel vacated Gaza and Hamas began firing missiles at Sderot. It is not a military installation or an armaments manufacturing center. It is a town whose schoolyards are in missile range of Hamas. Children in Sderot only know life with bomb shelters...some even have underground play areas because being above ground is not reliably safe during the day, at night, whenever. 

The children of Sderot have spent the last 20 years living a reality no one wants to acknowledge exists. But it does. Herein lies one of the biggest differences between Israel and Hamas-controlled Gaza: Hamas built tunnels to protect their fighters, not their civilians. Israel built happy looking bomb shelters and underground playgrounds to protect their children. 

Think about that for a while.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you haven't been to Israel, you don't get to have an opinion

about life there because you don't know squat.

If you haven't been to Israel lately, you need to go back.

Israel defies the imagination. 

It's frickin' magic....warts, faults, and all.

When Do I Get My MedBed Card?

I worked really hard to find the fake medbed video, but the closest I came was finding a screen shot. Honestly, I don't know why people are so surprised/shocked/upset that he posted a fake video with him in it. I mean, folks, the guy has a well established penchant for medical quackery. Just look at his appointees: Ben Carson (who walks with Jesus,) RFK,jr, who has worms in his head and puts dead whales atop his car while claiming vaccines are responsible for what's wrong with us. (As a polio survivor, I definitely have an opinion about that and it's not one shared with that whack job Kennedy.) And let's not forget Dr. Mehmet Snakeoil Oz who now sends me emails as administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services full of nonsense. I have a headache; please pass the Tylenol.

Let's not discuss how President Felon is losing his grip on reality. Just listen to his speech to the General Assembly at the UN and that, alone, should give you a pretty good idea of how bad it really is. The guy lives in fantasyland. 

First...no one sabotaged the escalator. Second...no one sabotaged the teleprompter. From Reuters:

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said a readout of the escalator's central processing unit indicated it "had stopped after a built-in safety mechanism on the comb step was triggered at the top of the escalator."

He said Trump's videographer had been traveling backwards up the escalator to capture his arrival with First Lady Melania Trump.

 "The videographer may have inadvertently triggered the safety function," Dujarric said in a statement. "The safety mechanism is designed to prevent people or objects accidentally being caught and stuck in or pulled into the gearing."

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the U.N. findings.

On the teleprompter, Trump told the General Assembly on Tuesday: "I can only say that whoever's operating this teleprompter is in big trouble."

However, a U.N. official said the White House had operated its own teleprompter.

After Trump finished speaking, U.N. General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock said: "The U.N. teleprompters are working perfectly."

Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire

And for the record, he wasn't speaking from his heart; he was reading his speech....until he wasn't. As he wandered all over the map with his misstatements, preposterous opinions, and delusional attributes for his Nobel Peace Prize campaign, I was stunned the audience was not rolling in the aisles at this obscene comedy performance. How could they keep straight faces listening to him? Granted, his attack on the UN as a toothless joke wasn't too far off the mark, but he more than made up for that with the part about mahogany walls and marble floors. 

Moving on, the world got a glimpse of the tastelessly gilded Oval Office. I kept thinking about Napoleon and his grandiose coronation for some reason. The ormolu reliefs and friezes are just plain gauche:  tacky, cheesy, and cheap-looking. The august simplicity of the office once reflected the idea of democracy, a republic, and of-the-people. This looked like a whale vomited a gold leaf on the walls. Gilding the lily, as it were. But this isn't an accidental juxtaposition; President Tasteless's diatribe about refurbishing the UN is interesting since he's bringing that same over-the-top tasteless gilding to the White House. Has he never heard the expression Less Is More? Obviously not. 

His ravenous appetite for gaudy expression extends to this new dining hall carbuncle he's attaching to the White House. Today, it was announced he has settled his lawsuit with YouTube. From the Washington Post:

                               YouTube to pay $24.5 million to settle Trump lawsuit  

over post-Jan. 6 suspension

The agreement says $22 million will go toward construction of a new White House ballroom. The settlement follows similar multimillion-dollar agreements with Meta and X.

So just like this airplane from Qatar, President Emoluments is profiteering from the office but at least he's spending the money on the White House for which I am certain he will take one giant tax deduction. Nothing this troll does is without personal financial gain for him. Since the airplane is destined for his presidential library in downtown Miami (that'll be a good trick,) where's he gonna stash the dismantled balls room after he's out of office? 

Oh, wait. He's not planning to leave office. Ever. 

Oh, you don't believe that? Well, it's like this: if someone tells you who they are, you might want to believe them. President Felon keeps on ordering troops, National Guard or otherwise, into cities that clearly don't need help preserving public safety. Despite what the governors, the mayors, and even the state AGs say, he's sending troops where troops are not wanted. Ziggy woulda called this serious dick-waving. I would've agreed with him,

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Portland, Oregon, a city that usually defies description by us regular folks, is preparing for the invasion in a most Portlandian kinda way. I imagine Bette Midler will be leading a cadre of women ready to throw their PBS tote bags at them. I can almost imagine the denizens of the area trying to put daisies in gun barrels. Maybe they're gonna mobilize the backyard chicken populations? 

I've never been to Portland, but it's a place I would like to visit. I hear they do serious composting there, and, like Minnesota, pay close attention to the environment. They have a progressive tax in the city, and enforceable  laws and goals for emissions. Frankly, it sounds like my kinda town. There's a Masorti shul with a morning minyan! I would fit right in! If the country breaks apart and the West Coast becomes the place to go for now, Portland would be on my list.

And I'm still waiting for my medbed card. With insurance rates rising significantly, We, the People, have to be prepared for a catastrophic number of people to be without health insurance. As vaccinations become unavailable, we must be prepared for the surge in measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, and other preventable diseases we once thought to be eradicated. The fact is, the only disease believed to be completely eradicated is smallpox, but even that could come back. The reality is that right now, the US is taking massive steps backwards in terms of population health.

Maybe that shouldn't surprise us. A country that refuses to pass reasonable gun control laws as mass shootings increase across the nation while discouraging parents from vaccinating their kids is NOT a country that believes in the sanctity of life. Another church, this one Mormon,  was shot up and set on fire up this past weekend, in Grand Blanc, Michigan, leaving 8 injured, and 4 dead, including a 6 year old. 

But then again, this is a country carrying on about Gaza while ignoring the famine in Yemen, genocide in the Sudan, China, Syria, and Cambodia. No Jews, no news? Isn't that how it goes?

If you're not taking to the streets to protest Yemen, Sudan, China, Syria, and Cambodia, but you want to reward and encourage terrorism by supporting Hamas, that is your right. And it will be your right to be slaughtered just like the kids at Nova when the intifada comes here. The guys in the keffiyehs and the headbands will not spare you. They will simply put a bullet in your back after they rape you. They already have told us who they are. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

!‏צום קל וגמר חתימה טוב

Oh, for G-d's Sake....Stop Drinking Hamas Kool-Aid

Rabbi Levi Yitzhak Pash, Sarah Mendelson,
Yaakov Pinto, Rabbi Israel Matzner
Rabbi Mordechai Steintzag, Rabbi Yosef David

I lost my editor today. She is very ill, and I knew this day would come. But that's not the whole reason I lost her. She is angry with me because I don't simply condemn Israel to its core over Gaza.  Today. When 6 people were gunned down at a bus stop in Jerusalem. When 6 people were minding their own business when terrorists fired into the crowd

Of course, the NYT headline read "Gunmen Attack Bus Stop in Jerusalem, Killing at Least 6;" G-d forbid they should call them terrorists because, after all, it happened in Israel. If a bunch of guys shot up a bus stop in Peoria, you damn well better believe they would've immediately been labelled terrorists, domestic or otherwise. But wait! There's more. The NYT goes on to say:

The Israeli police described the shooting as a terrorist attack and said that the perpetrators had been killed at the scene.

Excuse me??????? Described ???????? What? Did they think it was some unruly teenagers?

This is the double standard in the media. Had this happened ANYWHERE in the world except Israel, it would've immediately been labelled terrorist. 

The civilian deaths in Gaza are tragic. The death of children is hard to fathom. Yet, it really isn't. Their deaths underscore the arc of the human shield. They are meant to die, and their deaths are meant to cause outrage and anger. Hamas had more than enough room in the hundreds of miles of tunnels to protect most of their civilians, but the chose to put them directly in harm's way. And when their own bombs fell on their own civilians, they made sure to take no responsibility for those deaths....remember Al-Ahli Arab Hospital? 

When your charter calls for the dismantling of an entire country and executing the population of said country, why would you think said country would go, "Okay. We'll just march into the sea for you." ?

If only Israel had Hamas's PR machine.

If you drink the Kool-Aid, you do more damage to Palestinians than Israelis. If you insist on chanting FREE PALESTINE!, do the Palestinians a favor and add the real, second part of that sentiment: FREE PALESTINE FROM HAMAS. Give those people a fighting change to actually have a state. Unless you rid them of the yoke, the oxen will never be free. 

In today's, MORNING MUSINGS, Peter Himmelman puts today's terrorist attack into harsh perspective:

This “oppressor versus oppressed” binary makes Israel automatically the villain. The narrative requires it: Israel strong, Hamas weak. Once you’ve accepted that framing, the facts no longer matter. And here is where the human cost comes in. I have seen the images from Gaza—children torn apart, families buried. The kind of horror no parent, no human being, should ever have to witness. Anyone who claims those lives don’t matter has cut away their own humanity. 

Yet, to see those deaths and leap to the word “genocide” is to compound the tragedy with a lie. When you declare that Zionists are Nazis, you are saying my mother, my late father and sister, my other siblings, my wife, my children, my grandchildren—you are calling nearly everyone I know and love a Nazi. You may revel in the irony of calling Jews Nazis. To you it feels clever. To me, it is sickening. It shows your ignorance, your gullibility, and your malice. 

Because I’ve seen the other images too; the ones you never mention. October 7th. Hamas slaughtering, raping, burning people alive. Hostages dragged into tunnels, some barely alive, others fully murdered. And still, marches in Western capitals waving Hamas flags, demanding ceasefire before a single hostage was freed. Hamas is not a liberation movement. It is a death cult steeped in radical Islamist ideology that seeks not peace, but the eradication of Israel and the murder of Jews. That day, as today, showed us exactly what we are up against. 

And here is the brutal irony: supporting Hamas does not “save” Gaza—it destroys it. Every rocket fired from a schoolyard, every tunnel dug beneath a hospital, every hostage still held prevents any chance of rebuilding. Gaza cannot be restored so long as Hamas remains, because Hamas thrives on ruin. It needs suffering as its currency. Those who excuse or endorse it are not allies of the Palestinian people. They are accomplices in ensuring that the rubble remains rubble.

When you boycott Israel, Israeli products, Israeli artists, scientists, engineers, and medical research, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face. None of that helps the world, much less the Gazans who live beneath the thumb of a regime that sees them only as cannon fodder.  It doesn't get them food or jobs or housing or clean water. You are simply enabling the leaders to take the money and run...usually to Dubai where they live is opulence while Gazan children starve. It's nothing more than performative activism that is all show and absolutely no action. All those celebrities and musicians who preach this non-active performative activism are doing nothing to help the people of Gaza. If anything, you are supporting the very regime that continues to enslave them. 

Look, when Europe was done trying to kill us, they sent us to a barren strip of sand no one wanted to settle. But like Br'er Rabbit in the briar patch, this is exactly where we wanted to go. It's our home. Before you know it, the desert is green, industry is booming, and Israel, that little strip of land, is thriving. So instead of saying, "Hey! How did you do that?" our neighbors attacked with the intent to destroy. It didn't work in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, two intifadas, 2008, 2012, 2014, or on October 7th, 2023. Offered a state 5 times since 1948, they have never accepted the offer of statehood. Why do you think that is? Because it meant Israel would continue to exist. 

I've said it often enough in this space: the government of Israel is not perfect and Israelis are as unhappy with the prosecution of this war as everyone else. They want the hostages, alive or dead, to be returned. They want the missiles to stop. Everyone is tired of racing to shelters. Israelis are no more interested in war than anyone else, but it's tough to stand down when you are constantly under attack. 

Just like all Americans in this melting pot of a country, everyone has a vested interest in American democracy...or so we all hope.. Same in Israel, a smaller but no less diverse democracy. Most of all, Israelis, whether they are Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Druze, Baháʼí, Buddhist, Rastafarian, or pastafarian...they all want one thing: to be left in peace to live their lives. 

Photo by Sharon Waxman

In a few weeks, I will be in Israel. One of the things we are planning is a trip to the Nova site. It's not that I want to go; I feel that I must go. Just like the World Trade Center site, I never want to go, but I do because it's my cousins' grave site. I may not have known anyone who died there or in the kibbutzim, but they are also my family. Each one has had a profound impact on my life, my psyche. I will go and I will grieve for the lives mowed down by terrorists. 

If anyone is to blame for all the deaths...Israeli or Palestinians....it's Hamas. They attacked. They raped. The executed children in front of parents and grandparents. They used their own children as shields. They stole humanitarian aid to feed their fighters and left the civilians without sustenance. The Palestinian people are caught in the middle of a war they probably don't want either....but what choice do they have? Just remember, all those dead bodies would probably be alive had Hamas not attacked on October 7th. 

If you really wanna free Palestine.....Free Palestine from Hamas. That is the only chance those people have. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

It's getting to be cemetery visit time again.

Jewish tradition tells us people die twice:

once when they leave their body

and again when people no longer say their name.

Talk about your family...the live ones and the ones who are gone.

From generation to generation, pass on that which makes you unique.

Oh, What A Tangled Web

Tough week for Chief O'Hara

Like most Americans, I have a lotta rocks rattling around my head these days. The murder of children in prayer in the church of Annunciation School has rocked the Twin Cities in new and horrible ways. That Robin Westman was in transition only shifted blame calling to a new low, implying that all trans people are mentally ill. Really? How about the guy who shot in a crowd standing on a sidewalk the night before? From ABC NEWS:

A gunman opened fire with a high-velocity rifle at a group standing on a sidewalk in Minneapolis on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring six others, police said.

At least one of the seven victims appears to have been the target of the shooting, according to Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, who called the incident "deeply troubling."

That shoot has all but disappeared into the mists, and I don't even think he's been apprehended. It took a whole lotta hunting around to even find this from KARE-11

A man and woman are accused of being accomplices in a deadly south Minneapolis shooting last week, in which the gunman has not been arrested. 

Ryan Timothy Quinn, 33, and Tiffany Lynn Marie Martindale, 30, have both been charged with the felony of aiding an offender to avoid arrest in connection with the shooting that left one person dead and six more injured.

Funny thing about all this. Minneapolis, the city of George Floyd, Philando Castile, and Annunciation School is not even on the list of most violent cities in the US. Stay with me here. 

On August 11th, Newsweek published a list of the 30 most violent cities in the US. Thankfully, both Minneapolis and Saint Paul are absent from the list. But the list is worth mentioning. Notice that of the 30 cities, 9 are in blue states, and one is in a purple state. Washington, D.C. is not on that list. All the other cities are in deeply red states, yet President Felon has not ordered National Guard troops to any of those cities, but he has fingered #16-Chicago and #26-Baltimore as his next targets. Why is that?

Maybe it's because he doesn't want to risk upsetting his devotees? Or is he worried about managing the midterm elections in states he's less likely to win?

Defending our cities from crime,
weeds, and trash.

Or maybe, he just needs really, really expensive groundskeepers and trash collectors he doesn't have to pay? Maybe he'll be sending them over to his golf courses next. It doesn't much matter, but using the National Guard as groundskeepers and trash collectors is obscene. Who the hell do you think is paying for this? While government programs are slashed, burned, and ripped away from locations that are desperate for help, this is another colossal waste of capital. 

Is it possible the deployment of troops, Guard or federal, is a slow move toward manipulating the midterms?  But wait! There are other ways to undermine a nation. No matter how you dice up the optics, this is a power grab.

But it's not just the deployment of troops that undercut the sense of security and safety. It's financial and it hits the middle class directly. Cuts in renewable energy and transportation projects that are already underway and headed toward completion ultimately cost the government more than it saves. Thousands of workers are laid off. They lose that great golden egg of health insurance. Food security becomes an issue when you cannot buy groceries. In her Substack, Letters From An American, Heather Cox Richardson writes:

Another cut last week sums up the repercussions of the administration’s attack on renewable energy. On August 22 the Interior Department suddenly and without explanation stopped construction of a wind farm off the coast of Connecticut and Rhode Island that was 80% complete and was set to be finished early next year. As Matthew Daly of the Associated Press noted yesterday, Revolution Wind was the region’s first commercial-scale offshore wind farm. It was designed to power more than 350,000 homes, provide jobs in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and enable Rhode Island to meet its goal of 100% renewable energy by 2033.

The Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut expressed their dismay at the decision, noting that Revolution Wind employed more than 1,000 local union workers and is part of a $20 billion investment in “American energy generation, port infrastructure, supply chain, and domestic shipbuilding and manufacturing across over 40 states” by Ørsted, a Danish multinational company.

“Stopping this fully permitted, important project without a clear stated reason not only seriously undermines the state’s efforts to work towards a carbon neutral energy supply but equally important it sends a message to investors from all over the world that they may want to rethink investing in America. The message resulting from the President’s action is a lack of trust, uncertainty, and lack of predictability,” they wrote.

Connecticut governor Ned Lamont and Rhode Island governor Dan McKee, both Democrats, are working together to save the project. In a statement, Lamont said: “We are working closely with Rhode Island to save this project because it represents exactly the kind of investment that reduces energy costs, strengthens regional production, and builds a more secure energy future—the very goals President Trump claims to support but undermines with this decision.”

“It’s an attack on our jobs,” McKee said. “It’s an attack on our energy. It’s an attack on our families and their ability to pay the bills.”

Taking a page from Hitler's playbook, deny your population a way to earn a living and they will become desperate to feed their families and keep them sheltered. Denying Jews the ability to work made it infinitely easier to herd them into ghettos and concentration camps. Deny an entire political population the ability to earn a living and over time, they, too, will cave. 

Vote for me, and I will employ you.

This is one of the oldest ploys in the book, right up there with free ice cream at lunch; when you put families at risk, people will do whatever is needed to protect their own.

Sounds a bit draconian? Sure. But look around you. It's already happening. Although North Carolina is technically a red state, their AG is bright blue.  He's suing FEMA on behalf of his state:

I’m suing FEMA.

Why?

Because they illegally cancelled more than $200 million that was headed to North Carolina for water and sewer upgrades.

It was basically a flood preparation fund. Congress created it, funded it, and told FEMA to run it.

Before FEMA pulled the plug, they had approved over 60 projects across our state - mostly moving pump stations and sewer lines to higher ground.

A few examples:

• $22.5m for Salisbury to move a pump station. The city already spent $3m of its own funds getting started.
• $5.9m for Gastonia to move sewer lines out of the floodplain.
• $4m for Mt. Pleasant to improve drainage in the town center, which regularly floods and damages businesses.

And then there’s the Hillsborough pump station, where I spoke yesterday. It was set to receive $6m to move to higher ground. Also cancelled by FEMA.

But here’s the thing:

Three weeks ago, a tropical storm hit. The nearby river rose 24 feet and submerged the entire station. Millions of gallons of untreated sewage poured into the river.

I spotlighted this pump station because it’s a perfect example of why this funding matters - and what happens when it’s taken away.

Most people agree that keeping drinking water flowing and sewage contained is a legitimate use of public dollars. I appreciate that Sen. Tillis and Rep. Edwards have also urged FEMA to reverse course.

Heck, President Trump signed this program into law in his first term. He wanted it.

So we’re going to court, along with a number of AGs, and I’ll report back.

There is no way in hell that I do NOT believe this is scheduled manipulation. This is an attempt to restrict potable water for a large portion of North Carolina. There's a pattern of municipal control being established. It's easy to roll in troops with trucks of clean water and then call yourself a savior. Nothing happens unless there is something in it for Feckless President Felon. 

Without FEMA and other government agency assistance, come hurricane season, people will become violently desperate for aid and relief. What better way to cement your image as hero than to provide it...with strings. There are always strings. 

I used to think he was simply blind to the needs of the poorest states in the Union. Now, I think he knows exactly what he's doing. Voter suppression and disenfranchisement are useful tools with this administration. The push for paper ballots only, cessation of early voting, understaffed and undersupplied voter sites are all methods of stopping voters from casting ballots. The MAGA corps operates under the idea that they can control the outcome of any election if they can prevent voters from exercising their right to vote, and to some degree this is true. The attempts to overthrow the last two presidential elections point to that very issue. And if you think the MAGA GOP is not learning how to master electoral manipulation from those last two events, guess again. 

Scare enough people and they will elect the status quo. Feckless President Felon and his cabal are counting on that. 

Meanwhile, back at the Himalayas....

Someone is upset because President Felon claims to have negotiated the India/Pakistan ceasefire. That someone, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, had a terse call with the former Nobel Peace Prize Would-be Candidate. From the New York Times:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India was losing patience with President Trump.

Mr. Trump had been saying — repeatedly, publicly, exuberantly — that he had “solved” the military conflict between India and Pakistan, a dispute that dates back more than 75 years and is far deeper and more complicated than Mr. Trump was making it out to be.

During a phone call on June 17, Mr. Trump brought it up again, saying how proud he was of ending the military escalation. He mentioned that Pakistan was going to nominate him for the Nobel Peace Prize, an honor for which he had been openly campaigning. The not-so-subtle implication, according to people familiar with the call, was that Mr. Modi should do the same.

The Indian leader bristled. He told Mr. Trump that U.S. involvement had nothing to do with the recent cease-fire. It had been settled directly between India and Pakistan.

Mr. Trump largely brushed off Mr. Modi’s comments, but the disagreement — and Mr. Modi’s refusal to engage on the Nobel — has played an outsize role in the souring relationship between the two leaders, whose once-close ties go back to Mr. Trump’s first term.

Now, I guess plan B is to bring peace by removing all of the Palestinians from Gaza to make it into the Riviera of the Middle East. 

The leaked image from the Great Trust proposal 

The plan even has a name: GREAT TRUST- Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation Trust. And who, exactly, do you think benefits the most from this scheme? It ain't the US and it sure as hell ain't the Israelis. Just think of it as a bigger golf course and enterprise destined to bankruptcy.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

If you had a lovely holiday weekend, thank all those pesky labor unions. 

No, they're not perfect, but they did a helluva a good job protecting We, the People.