A lighthouse. We all know what one is. It’s a sign in stormy seas that you’re almost safe. It’s a beacon of home in a vast sea of distress. We all need a lighthouse. We all should have a lighthouse. Tell me: is your lighthouse the one you expected it to be?
Yesterday, I tweeted about how I was “coming home” to Israel soon. Ratio ensues online, with over 1,500 responses that missed the mark. It’s not the “gotcha!” they think, when they inform the world that - yes - I was born in Scotland, and - yes - I live in Los Angeles. But “home” - my indigenous home - is Israel.
The tweet attracted a ton of attention because it is now commonplace to deny Jewish ancestry and indigenous rights to Israel. Jews don't deserve a state. Israelis deserve genocide. And it is so easy to destroy these knobs intellectually. The “free speech absolutists” and their ilk; they’re all rabid antisemites with an ego complex. What they are scared of and run away from is that I can talk about the facts all day. I can talk about what I know for hours. I can write and discuss all of this every single day since October 7, now going on almost three months, for a reason. The reason is thus: the truth is easy. It’s easy to speak. It’s easy to recall. It’s easy to teach. That’s how the truth works. That’s how life works when you’re not lying.
I also don’t have to couch the truth as antisemites (or Associated Press) do in coded displays of moral superiority, or in vastly constructed smear campaigns against individuals who the antisemites now have an opportunity to nuke. Their day has finally come! Let’s face it; for years they’ve been sat on the sidelines, envious and desperate for their chance to undermine us because – to them – we are a threat. Rather than join forces with us, they have to step on us to advance themselves. Oh yes, the war has been an opportunity for our enemies, and I’m not just talking the wider media, I’m talking the ones in and among us; the perfect moment to expose the Jews around them as not who they claimed themselves to be, so that they can be better than us. Question: why couldn’t they have just advanced themselves by way of being great on their own terms in their own lives? The war has been the best chance an aggrieved antisemite has ever had to isolate the Jews once and for all. I’m so sick of these people. I cannot wait for the moment they rue the day they ever tried.
The elite are living in their pathetic self-serving bubble where they pretend to themselves that they're good people advocating for the underdog in all things while guzzling on champagne and caviar, while the vast majority see Hamas for what it is: a genocidal killing machine. They spend their days nit-picking the minutiae of how we protect our Western freedoms, especially free speech, to dissect this war, and amply “criticize Israel” as an apartheid state, because god forbid anyone can’t speak the ahistorical crap they want to spread, while refusing to acknowledge that Hamas represent a world in which humans don’t have any rights, and won’t live longer than a grenade has the chance to eviscerate them. They are bad faith actors.
I’m so sick of them. I’m sure they feel very powerful. It feels good to lose compassion for Jews. It feels good to decide the Jew is the issue, and then to disempower the Jew. It must feel so good. This is not a mere misguided mishap. This is just a reversion to old-fashioned antisemitism. Throw the Jew down the well. Well, I’m not a time traveller but history says it really doesn’t feel very good or very powerful in the end.
The Gaza war will end, Hamas will be destroyed. But there is a world war against the Jews and it is now fully unveiled. As my peer David Hazony said in response to me yesterday on X: “It is a war against decency, against democracy, and against the West. It will be long and awful.”
What will be your lighthouse? Who will be your lighthouse?
I still can't sleep. Sometimes at night I lie awake and think about the hostages, particularly the girls, who remain in Hamas captivity. The other night I was thinking about Naama Levy, 19. Wondering who Naama's favorite artists are, the kind of music she likes, her favorite films, her favorite actors, what gives her joy and peace in life. And I'm thinking about how all those entertainers, and all the people who work with and for them are not saying anything in this moment, or - worse - are spreading propaganda and supporting the monsters who are holding Naama in captivity. I can't sleep because I used to help those entertainers find success in the world, and what are they using that success for other than their own promotion? What music is Naama singing to herself to calm her nervous system? Who does she wish could help raise awareness about her capitivity by spreading a simple message for her release, and for the release of ALL of the hostages like her. It’s so dishonest that they don’t. It’s so cowardly that in this moment they’d rather take an opportunity to propel themselves forward at Naama’s expense. Fuck them.
Yesterday my dear friend Jordyn Tilchen shared this on her Instagram and I wanted to share it here, because it’s stunning. Jordyn, like me, seems to be asking about her lighthouse, as she highlights the courageous work of Hollywood music mogul Scooter Braun who is currently in Israel sitting down with hostage families.
Scooter Braun’s advocacy has really shaken me in ways that I don’t know if I can explain, but I will try. I am angry for him. I am angry for any Jewish person who has had to put their lives and their passions and interests on hold to fight the war of words online. I’m angry at what the world’s pervasive Jew hatred has taken from us. We had hobbies and passions and interests. Things that made us light up when we spoke about them. I went through college and got a media studies degree so that I could write in magazines about the very pop stars that Scooter manages. I loved what I did. I loved it. Now I can barely stomach looking at celebrities, much less writing about them. Something I once cared so deeply about, something I was good at, taken from me because it was incompatible with the parts of me that I love the most; the parts of me that are absolutely unchangeable. My career proved to be incompatible with being loudly and proudly Jewish; it proved to be incompatible with loving Israel. The antisemitism permeated the newsrooms I frequented daily. I spent years writing about celebrities, giving them press for doing the most mundane, unimportant shit that they ever did, and where are they now? This is all to say, I’ve watched and read everything Scooter has posted on behalf of Jews and Israel and I crumble a little bit inside each time because I know the things he’s experiencing but *not* sharing. The tough conversations with industry friends who are staying silent, the arguments with those who refuse to publicly condemn terrorism to protect their careers, the ignorance from young artists who are getting their information from TikTok. As I sit here and watch Scooter do what’s right, I ache knowing that his life is changed forever. That there actually is no going back. He will never look at his industry the same just as I will never look at mine the same and many of you will never look at yours the same. Once upon a time, we could pour our hearts and energy into a mosaic of passions and interests. Now, *this* is the fight. We didn’t have another choice.
It’s taken a lot for me to rebuild myself and my career from scratch and by myself. To those who support my voice - thank you. From the bottom of my heart. Last night I hit 10,000 subscribers. I can’t believe it.
There will always be people who want to continue to ruin my name. Some of them pretend to be lighthouses, and turn out to be sharks.
To them I say: cry about it.
Anyway, here’s my friend Noa Tishby, with her friend Chelsea Handler. Enjoy:
Thank you. Thank you for your conviction, your heart, your posts, your voice and all the energy you bring to shining a dazzling light on the truth. All that you say + do strengthens me as I fight my own battles with those in my sphere who are so incredibly angry + hate filled that they’ve jumped on the antisemitic bandwagon with a vengeance + with ignorance.
Thank You Eve. 💙✡️🧡
You are our lighthouses. 🙏🏻 ❤️ together we remain strong.