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.

I Am A Zionist...And Damn Proud Of It.

This statement has been posted in a number of places, sometimes presented as a meme, other places as an unattributed quote. I cannot vouch for the statistics at the bottom, but they sound reasonable enough. 

I am not here to defend the actions of the government of Israel or the United States. I am here to tell you I am a staunch supporter of the right of Jews to live in our own homeland. 

That homeland called Israel may be a modern state, but the last time that strip of land had an autonomous government, not run by a foreign power of ANY kind, was the Hasmonean Kingdom of Judah that was absorbed into the Roman Empire around 37 B.C.E. when Herod (yes, that Herod) was installed as a puppet king by Rome. Even Christian history, the preferred version for a good chunk of the world, recognizes that Israel was a Jewish state even then. 

I've written these words before: we are the indigenous people of that area. 

We are not the only indigenous people. There are others with lots of other names. By comparison Palestine is a word invented by the Romans, has never actually been a country or an ethnic group. At least not until the establishment of the modern State of Israel. This is not fiction or opinion; this is historically accurate.

That said, the Palestinians identify as a group now; in a perfect world, the two state solution would have already have been accepted and the Palestinian people would have a working, functional, state of their own. But they don't. 

But that's not what I'm writing about tonight. Tonight, I want to simply point out that being a Jew living in the Diaspora does not mean we are group think, that you know what any of us think about Israel, Gaza, the West Bank, or even Jerusalem unless you have asked one of  us for a personal opinion. For as many Jews there are, there are that many opinions plus one or two or three or a hundred. 

If you don't like the policies of the Israeli government, that does not give you carte blanche to beat up random people on the street, burn synagogues or businesses, or threaten the rest of us with rape, death, mutilation, or anything else. That is ANTISEMITISM. 

Did you get that? 

Let me repeat it just in case you didn't quite understand what I mean:

If you don't like the policies of the Israeli government, that does not give you carte blanche to beat up random people on the street, burn synagogues and businesses,  or threaten the rest of us with rape, death, mutilation, or anything else. That is ANTISEMITISM. 

Increased violence against minority groups is not limited to Jews or the U.S. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen almost exponentially since the last administration blamed them for the pandemic. There is certainly a disconnect when it comes to the treatment of Black Americans by the justice system, including but not limited to cops. And the invisibility of the Native American population is beyond reprehensible. 

Jew hating is an ancient practice full of bullshit and lies that seem to cycle through every generation. Germany did an admirable job of attempting to rid the world of Jews, but alas, once again, we survived. One might think that after the oh, so public documentation of the Holocaust, some of this might stop, but no. Even Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan supported the ol' blood libel bullshit:

During a televised speech Monday, Erdogan criticized the ongoing conflict and said he had spoken to a “Jewish prime minister” during a past visit who told him it was the “greatest pleasure” to kill Palestinians when the unnamed official served as a general in the Israel Defense Forces. Erdogan said, “This is part of their nature" and “they are only satisfied by sucking blood."    (from AL-Monitor)

Great to know old habits die hard....or not at all. 

Which is precisely my point. There is a double standard for Us. And by Us, I mean Jews and Israel. It's open season to attack Us because Israel defends itself against thousands of rockets fired at towns and villages indiscriminately. As John Oliver pointed out so well on This Week Tonight last week:

And look, it is true that militants from Palestinian groups like Hamas fired over a thousand rockets toward Israel this week, and that is reprehensible. But — and I realize this is the most load-bearing conjunction in history, “but” — the majority of those rockets thankfully didn’t reach their target, for a very clear reason. The casualties and the damage would have been greater but for Israeli interceptor rockets, the so-called iron dome, which blew most of the incoming missiles to pieces. 

Yeah, Israel has a so-called iron dome. And I know “what if we blew up the rockets with more rockets?” Sounds like something someone drunkenly wrote down on a napkin once, but it is a real military defense system that works. And I also know not all the rockets were shot down. Israeli civilians were killed this week, which is terrible. But the point is, this isn’t “tit for tat.” There is a massive imbalance when it comes to the two sides’ weaponry and capabilities. While most of the rockets aimed toward Israeli citizens this week were intercepted, Israel’s air strikes were not.

 

So, if I'm getting this right, John Oliver would be happier without Iron Dome because then the rockets would've hit many of their targets, thereby killing lots of Israelis. But because they developed Iron Dome to protect their citizens, then there's an imbalance of power that should be negated.  Hmmmm. 

I think Tom Aharon did a great job of debunking John Oliver in his rebuttal piece. If you haven't seen it, it's worth watching:

The more I think about it, I understand that the surgical strikes in Gaza are painful for those people. But y'know what? I didn't see any Hamas warnings to the citizens of Ramat Gan warning those people missiles were being launched at them, whereas the people in Gaza were specifically told which building was being targeted and should be evacuated.

We can all agree what is happening in Gaza is not good. It's not good for Israel, it's not good for the citizens of Gaza under the thumb and above the rat warren of terror tunnels. And it's certainly not good for any of the children on both sides who are going to have long term PTSD from this never ending war. It has to stop. 

As does attacking Jews world-wide for being Jews. Or Asians for being Asians. Or Black American men for driving or walking while being Black American men. Or Indigenous women. Attacking random people for being something is, as Ziggy would say, the surest sign you have a tiny little dick and need to compensate by attempting to act like a bigger one. Guys, that is total bullshit, everyone sees it for what it is, and frankly, you look even stupider than you probably are. 

I am hoping to be back in Israel, pandemic and hostilities permitting, in the fall. When I'm there, I have a sense of belonging, a feeling of homey-ness I don't get anywhere else. Yeah, the Haredi attitude of we're right/you're wrong pisses me off no end. Still, I think about making aliyah a lot...but Little Miss and Young Sir keep me rooted here right now. 

I have been a Zionist since the day I learned what the word meant in first grade. I believe we are entitled to live in our own homeland. I believe ALL Jews should be welcome there. And I believe that we will eventually come to peaceable terms with our neighbors. 

That said, I guarantee that when that day comes, assholes are still gonna be beating up Jews and burning Jewish business and synagogues. Y'know why? 

Because it has NOTHING to do with Israel and the Palestinians. 

The Wifely Person's Tip o'the Week

Saturday, May 29th, is the 568th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople to the Turks.

Tradition requires an angel food cake with chocolate frosting. 

Just sayin'.