JEWISH LIVES DON'T MATTER? Yeah, actually Jewish lives DO matter

Someone close in my inner circle of lunatics announced they were withdrawing from Facebook communication for a while due to the incredible upsurge of Jew-hate on the board. Frankly, I don't blame them in the least. Ergo, I am dedicating this week's episode to the painful reality of being a Jew these days. Not everyone will agree with or support some of what you'll read below, but I can guaran-damn-tee you every Jew who reads this will pause to consider whether or not I'm being too harsh/realistic/paranoid in my rant. Not that I care at the moment. I'm facing a whole new world and it is closing in around We, The Jewish People. 

Let's set the stage:

Hamas bodycam footage

On October 7th, terrorists crossed the Gaza border intent on murdering Israeli civilians in their homes. In a well planned raid, they entered towns and kibbutzim where they hunted down residents, broke into homes, to slaughter men, women, children, babies, and the elderly. No one was safe. Not even in the safe rooms. 

This is a child's bedroom. And yes, that's blood. There are also pictures of nurseries where children gathered to play now riddled with bullet holes. These are not a combatant hiding place; they are supposed to be safe places where children can play. Then again, after Sandy Hook, Parkland, and all the other school shootings, we still don't have sane gun laws in the US, so I guess this is okay, too. 

Terrorists went to a music festival where young people had gathered in the desert and slaughtered them like so many fish in a barrel, shooting many as they ran, shooting them sitting in their cars, hunting them like animals. This is a tent full of body bags. 260 kids were murdered at a rock festival. Well, I guess it's okay because it wasn't Woodstock or Coachella even if there were Americans and other foreigners there. I guess no one would've minded much if 260 kids were gunned down over at Max Yasgur's place because he was Jewish, too

Over 200 men, women, children, and elderly have been taken hostage to serve as human shields along with every other civilian in Gaza. That's what they do; Hamas has been using human shields since 2005 when Israel left. They use the population as human shields by setting their launchers in the middle of dense populated neighborhoods, near hospitals, mosques, and schools; a great way to boost casualty numbers. Playing the victim card is a mainstay of this production. Now they have Israeli shields, too.

Let me repeat that in case you missed it: Israel left Gaza in 2005. The only ones holding Palestinians hostage is Hamas. Yup, they're the ones standing between Palestinians and modern utilities. Not Israel. Not the US. Not even Egypt. Hamas is decimating its own population.

Israel does not want this war. They will be castigated for any response to the attacks, but that is to be expected. What Israel wants, what Israel has tried for decades to do, is to create a second partner state that would provide all Palestinians with economic stability, education, heath and utility infrastructure, and a partnership for peace, cooperation and growth. It's really hard to do that when your cities are under constant shelling. Face it, Israel doesn't need Gaza or the West Bank economically or for land; a modern, thriving economy exists in Israel. Two states, side by side, supporting each other for growth? That's the ideal. 

However...

Hamas has rejected every attempt to create an independent state of Palestine. The Hamas Charter, however, does not call for a two state solution, it calls for the absolute destruction of Israel and death to all Jews. Not exactly a partner, is it?

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, understand you are supporting terrorism, the murder of civilians, and constant bombing of towns, villages, and farms. What you are NOT supporting are the people of Palestine who long for economic freedom, education for their kids, and a peaceful place for families to live and prosper. 

Hamas has never hidden its intent of genocide for the Jews, even when it exchanged the word Jew for Zionist in the 2017 revision of its charter. Regardless, Hamas wants a Palestine from "the river to the sea" that is Jew free, and getting it to be Jew free requires the "removal" of the Jewish population. While Hamas claims all religions can be practiced in their new state, don't believe them. From this month's ATLANTIC:

Tucked into Article 31, toward the end of the delineation of its three dozen guiding principles, Hamas claims that all faiths can “coexist in peace and quiet with each other” under its unique “wing of Islam.” But lest anyone be lulled into believing the promise of this paradise on Earth, Hamas demands as the price of entry full allegiance and unquestioning compliance with its rule: “It is the duty of the followers of other religions to stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region, because the day these followers should take over there will be nothing but carnage, displacement and terror.”

Meanwhile, back at the ranch....

The only country on the globe that is not permitted to defend itself is Israel. Actions against Israeli civilians are never supposed to be acted upon. Suicide bomber? No problem; just watch out for people in winter coats in July. Endless barrage of rockets fired into towns like Sderot and directed at the school yards or bus depot? That's okay, you Iron Dome, so there's not a real threat there. Missiles fired into the north toward Haifa and Tel Aviv from Hezbollah OCCUPIED Lebanon? Oh, not to worry, they can't reach the population centers. 

Israel is resoundingly condemned at each event perpetrated against the civilian population. Sure, there's a moment of Oh, how awful almost immediately followed by cries of occupiers, colonialists, whatever. If Israel responds to an attack, they are attacked for defending their civilian population because, after all, they're occupiers and colonialists.  Forget the facts. Forget they left Gaza and the population elected Hamas in 2006. Never mind there hasn't been an election since 2007.

And how poor Gaza suffers at Israeli hands! Shhhh...don't mention the pipes ripped outta the ground to make rocket launchers instead of a clear water supply. If you don't tell anyone about the number of missiles fired by Hamas that didn't quite make it into Israel but fell in Gaza City itself. You can blame Israel for leveling all the buildings, even when they didn't do it...like that hospital last week. Israel didn't bomb that hospital, an Islamic Jihad rocket missed, fell, and blew up a bunch of cars that did the ultimate damage. But it's okay; mainstream media blamed Israel and now everyone believes it rather than all evidence to the contrary. Cries of "gas the Jews, "kill the Jews," and "Jews are baby killers" work well to supply all the kindling you need to light a fire under the Jewish Lives Don't Matter Handbook and Platform. Mass hysteria will take care of the rest.

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, your Jewish friends do not have a friend in you. They are probably nervous about what's happening around them. Wanna guess why?  Can you say Germany in 1938? 

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, try to be honest here...you're gonna be the first ones to close the drapes and ignore what's happening outside your living room window.

If you have a joke tombstone display for Halloween on your lawn, and one of those tombstones says, "ANNE FRANK," guess what? YOU ALREADY STAND WITH HAMAS and will be one of the drape pullers.

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, you are standing for laws requiring homosexuals to be jailed. Bet you forgot about that one. However, in 2016 Hamas executed on of their own leaders, Mahmoud Ishtiwi, under allegations of gay sex and theft. I bet their Gay Pride parade more closely resembles lemmings and a cliff rather than a happy event for all LGBTQ folks. Come to think of it, I don't think they have a Pride Parade in Gaza City. 

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, I'm guessing you never heard about Black September. That was when the PLO, the forerunner of Hamas, tried to overthrow the Kingdom of Jordan and started a civil war.Y'know, you really have to be otherworldly if you think this is about a land grab in the Middle East, or prevention of statehood for Gaza and/or the West Bank. There is no colonization or occupation by Israel. They don't want Gaza. Nor does anyone else as long as terrorism is their stock in trade. Egypt already worries about what happens if you let large numbers of known terrorists come into your country. And let's not forget Hezbollah in Lebanon. Now that's an occupation!

It's not about Israel occupying Gaza. It's about baseline Jew hatred, and in your heart of hearts, thinking the Germans could've done better. It's okay; you don't have to keep it a secret any more. We already know, and frankly it's okay to be honest about it. We, the Jewish People, prefer that to blowing smoke up our collective ass. 

That way, we know right out front who wishes us dead. 

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, you really are the enemy of the people of Gaza. Their choices have been stolen by the people elected to bring them statehood. Instead, those elected have prevented humanitarian aid from reaching those who need it because it was used to dig tunnels under the border to kibbutzim in order to kill civilians. Hamas has used the funds for utility maintenance to line their own pockets as they build bombs and rockets. The last free election in Gaza was in 2005. According to Freedom House:

The PA has not held a presidential election since 2005, when Fatah faction's Mahmoud Abbas won with 62 percent of the vote. Following its win in 2006 legislative elections and a violent rift with Fatah and the West Bank-based PA in 2007, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. Abbas's four year electoral mandate expired in 2009 though he has continued to govern in the West Bank. 

IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, you are sentencing the civilians of Gaza to economic and political death while you support genocide for Jews all over the world. 

Or maybe that's what you're really hoping for. Is that some kind of apocalyptic thing?

I STAND WITH ISRAEL even though I'm not overly happy with the government, especially the Prime Minister, and I worry about the toll the response to the invasion will take on the population in Israel, the Diaspora, and yes, even in Gaza. Are all Israel's responses perfect? No; far from it. But do I support the right of We, the Indigenous People of the tiny Mediterranean strip of land to live there in peace? Absolutely. All of us. Just like they do in Israel. Jew, Muslim, Arab, Mizrahi, European, African, Asian, American. All of us. And if you wanna know the absolute truth? I want Gaza to succeed as a state. I want the Palestinians to have a country they can thrive in, be proud of, and open itself to the world. No one wants them behind barbed wire, but they have to stop sending rockets into schoolyards. 

Do We, the Jewish People, have the right to defend ourselves? You bet your sweet ass we do. As Charles Krauthammer said,

Israel is the very embodiment of Jewish continuity: It is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago. 

Look, we get it. If you're Christian, think about this: I bet Jesus would get it, too, since he's one of us. Hamas would have no compunction about killing him, too. Just thought I should remind you about that. In case it makes a difference.

And breaking news as of 4:30 CST: two more hostages have been released: Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 of Kibbutz Nir Oz. Their husbands, however, remain in Gaza. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Remember this: IF YOU STAND WITH HAMAS, 

you stand for the extermination of Jews everywhere. 

All of us. No exceptions. Just like the Nazis.

Even if you don't consider yourself Jewish anymore. 

You're probably Jewish enough for them. 

No, No, No, We _Should_ Talk About Putin

I listened to any number of talking heads talking about why Putin did not invade Ukraine while Feckless Former Leader was in office. Oh, all sorts of people said all sorts of stuff, but one refrain sorta resonated with me: he didn't need to. 

The thinking behind that is Feckless Former Leader's not-so-subtle attempt to weaken NATO was at Putin's behest. IF, and this is not as big an if as it was a couple of weeks ago, Putin's plan is to restore some semblance of the Soviet Bloc renamed as Russian Confederation or even United States of Russia, then he needs to be able  to move on the smaller former Soviet states to make that happen. As long as NATO is the dominant unifying force in Europe, he cannot make that happen. Putin was getting exactly what he wanted from the US, and a second Feckless presidency would've sealed that deal. When Feckless lost to Biden, Putin lost his toehold in the Oval Office. He no longer had a way to influence American foreign policy through the highest office in our land. 

Crimea had been Putin's test early in 2014. At the time, the GOP resoundingly criticized the Obama administration's lack of response to the annexation of Crimea. They felt economic sanctions against Russia were an insufficient response to the action. President Obama even told The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg:

The fact is that Ukraine, which is a non-NATO country, is going to be vulnerable to military domination by Russia no matter what we do.

In creating their platform for  the 2016 presidential elections, despite their criticism, the GOP did not include a plank for sending weaponry to Ukraine to fight Russian-backed separatists. During the campaign, Feckless even intimated he would recognize the annexation of Crimea by Russia. So by the time the election occurs and the inauguration takes place, Putin already knew he had a new  BFF in the White House. Just about every interaction with Russia after that has Putin's fingerprints all over it.  

Cut to 2022, and Feckless Leader, now Feckless FORMER Leader, is still singing Putin's praises. In February, during an interview on the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,  Feckless  gushed:

I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius.' Putin declares a big portion...of Ukraine, Putin declares it as independent.

Someone please explain what is genius about Putin's actions? 

I find it odd that Feckless Former Leader is still the de facto head of the GOP even though he is openly encouraging Putin's aggression. Seems to be a rather large disconnect between supporting Ukraine's government, and by extension, its right to exist as an independent nation, and supporting a guy who openly supports the architect of this egregious war crime by calling him a genius. These are the same folks who claim the election was stolen and their constitutional freedoms are at stake. Why aren't they responding to the death of democracy as it unfolds and spreads to Ukraine as it already has to Crimea? 

Meanwhile, back at Red Square, Putin is misinforming his citizens about the war by blocking outside news from filtering into Russia except Tucker Carlson on Fox News. What message does that send you, dear reader? Maybe it's because Tucker Carlson and Fox, and by extension, Feckless Former Leader, are allied with Putin's positions? I don't know. You tell me. 

Ukraine is fighting back. Zelensky is talking to every parliament he can, including our Congress. He has become a global hero for standing up against a giant bully with little more than a slingshot. Good for him! He sets the bar higher for every head of state on the globe. He is calling out every leader who has been silent or not vocal enough. Whether he wins or loses this war, Vlodomyr Zelensky is a global hero. 

He's the hero Feckless Former Leader imagines himself to be. He is also the hero Putin portrays himself to the Russians. As international business pulls out of Russia, Putin is losing his grip on that hero image. As banks and businesses close, he's no longer leading Russians into a great economy, he is leading them back 70 years to Stalin's Soviet Union. The ruble has tanked. McDonald's is gone along with every other recognizable brand that once lined streets and malls. The carpet bombing of Ukraine doesn't just kill people; it's happens to be destroying the bread basket of eastern Europe. Ukraine is a major wheat exporter. If the people are hiding in bunkers and the land is burned to a crisp, what are the odds the fields will be planted and flour will be available for purchase? Not bloody likely.

The wholesale destruction of Ukraine will be felt across Europe. According to Wikipedia:

Ukraine is a developing country with a lower-middle income economy, ranking 74th in the Human Development Index. Ukraine is among the poorest countries in Europe. As of 2020 it suffers from low life expectancy and widespread corruption. However, due to its extensive fertile land, Ukraine is one of the largest grain exporters in the world.

Antonov 225 taking off

The red highlight is mine. This is excessively important because while their transportation industry is probably their most profitable asset, that they feed large portions of Europe is just about as important. Humans cannot live on ginormous Antonov Airplanes alone. They must have food, and Ukraine is good at providing that. And as the Russian economy tanks, they're gonna need all the food they can get. 

But no one is in the field night now. They may not be safe enough out in the open to prep and plant crops. 

Putin's long game would not be centered on Ukraine if they did not have something he wanted. Antonov is the biggest airplane in the world. Just look at all those wheels! Think of the thrust it must take to push into the atmosphere. If you've ever seen one take off...and I have seen several coming and going at MSP... they are more than big; you can feel the thrum of the engines throbbing even when you sit in the car. All that throb and thrust. Wow. Makes me think Putin needs manly Antonovs to offset his little dick. 

Okay, okay, I know. Or rather, I don't know how big his dick is, but if you've ever known someone with a really small one, chances are they're driving a Ferrari...or whatever biggest engine muscle car they can get. Putin had control of a whole country and an economy that was viable, but clearly it wasn't enough. He could've chosen his people over Swiss bank accounts he can no longer access, but he didn't. Like every other dictator/totalitarian putz, he's started a war because the thought that would make him the Big Man in Europe. Hell, it didn't work for Hitler, Mussolini, or Franco....why would it work for him in the age of instant and aggressive media? 

Yeah, the same questions can be asked about Feckless Former Leader. Narcissism and ego are turning out to be not merely speculative issues, but uncontested fatal flaws. Feckless aspired to be Putin or at leasts what his pea-sized brain saw as Putin's flash and grandeur. At the same time, Putin bought into Feckless's fantasy camp support system.

President Obama may have seriously underestimated the importance of the whole of Ukraine versus the Crimea annexation, and that error may very well have set this ball rolling. Putin chose not to invade Ukraine while Feckless was in office because he believed Trump was a shoo-in for a second term, especially with his special assistance. Never underestimate what We, the People, will do when someone attempts to corner us. They were counting on We, the People to be taken in by their flimflam performance No matter how loud he screeched about fake election results, Feckless believed the fantasy when, in fact, the only one tampering with the election was him. And he lost. Fair and square, Biden won hands down.

Without Feckless in office, Vlad the Dictator had to shuffle his playbook. That shuffle is what we are seeing now. The war against Ukraine is supposed to make him great. 

However...

Gone is the long game, the one that would've won the hearts and minds of the Russian people. Instead, Putin's scorched earth policy has earned him the derision of the global community. He is the one cornered and that's what makes him excessively dangerous. Like the snake that he is, Putin will strike out. That instant news cycle he didn't understand is what will ultimately bring him crashing down, but not before way too many people die.

Despite his best efforts to hide reality from the Russian consumer, they will find out. When the stockpiled Mickey D's and Starbucks' coffee pods run out with no replacements forthcoming, the people will figure out their grease and caffeine deprivation mode is caused directly by Vlad the Dictator. They're not stupid. When they quickly figure out that IKEA and Deutsche Bank have suspended activity,  Estee Lauder and Ferragamo are gone, and Ferrari is no more, they are not going to blame America or the UK or France or Italy...their sites will be leveled at Putin. 

You see, it's the economy, people. All those oligarch wannabes are now locked up in the New Russia and not only can they not get their luxury goods fix, they can't leave. They are all prisoners of one man's cupidity and unending stupidity. 

Putin has already lost. He's locked in his room, a toddler with a temper, destroying all his toys. In the end, he will be exposed. He will grasp at straws and find nothing in his hands. Meanwhile, the swath of destruction will be named in his memory.

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Day

"Quand les riches se font la guerre, ce sont les pauvres qui meurent."

                                                                      Jean-Paul Sartre

When the rich go to war, it is the poor who die.