Fighting for our lives
Yesterday I put my head in my hands and I just screamed.
I do not know what other words there are to help explain, to turn heads, to change minds. And I’m a wordsmith so this is a real fucker for me. But here it is:
It's not about land. There are 22 Arab countries. Israel is 18 times smaller than the state of California. They don't need the land. They want us all dead. There isn't even a letter "P" in the Arabic language. It’s the biggest scam.
And it’s called Free Palestine.
What are you going to tell your children? In 20-30 years? What are you going to tell them about who you were in this moment, in these days? There are 101 hostages remaining in Gaza. It’s day 335. Let today be the first day you decide to say something, to post something, to make the voice louder, to dissent, to resist, to call the Jewish person in your life and say - I am so sorry. I see you. I hear your pain. I know the world is swallowing the Big Lie again and I know you’re afraid. What can I do for you?
There’s a lot going on right now. And increasingly in European cities, and America’s major centers. These places are turning into full-fledged Jew-hating societies. A terrorist attack on the Israeli consulate in Munich this week. In London, the Mayor Sadiq Khan this week announced a new bus service in North London for Jews, to help them feel safe. No Apartheid in Israel, but in Finchley…
(I understand that this was a response to a request from Jewish commuters for 20 years so that they no longer have to change at Finsbury Park, where they feel threatened… Khan is using this as PR to make himself look like he’s dealing with Jew hatred by uh putting us on a separate bus. Not a target, at all. How about dealing with antisemites using the full force of the law and policing weekly protests by Hamas supporters?).
And then there’s the Gazan dissenting journalists who are being picked off by Hamas for reporting the real truth of the situation. You won’t hear any of the human rights lawyers who spend their day between glamorous Instagram posts screaming about how many “journalists” (read: Hamas collaborators) the IDF have killed in Gaza. Ask them why they are so afraid to mention Ihab Fasfous who has been kidnapped by Hamas. We don’t know Ihab’s fate. On his Facebook, he wrote:
“All of my fellow journalists who work for Al Jazeera and others transmit radically misleading news that is consistent with political goals and is in the interest of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Let’s pray for him.
Eden Yerushalmi weighed 79 pounds when her body was recovered for burial in Israel this week. The Red Cross didn’t visit her once. Israel send 2-300 trucks of aid into Gaza every day, the press lies that there is a starvation crisis, but says nothing when Hamas starve and torture our hostages for 11 months.
Anyway, I really only came here to share this, which has reached almost 1 million views this week. I hope it puts words to your own pain. I haven’t moved much since the weekend, but I will not wallow for long. We don’t have time to wallow. We must fight for our lives.
Shabbat shalom.
I agree with you on two things: there's no way I'd be getting on that bus in London; it's the first thing those unhinged Islamists will target. Secondly, it's better to have just one trusted friend than a hundred you're unsure of.
Although I am not Jewish, I will do all I can (legally) to support the Jewish people and Israel by confronting antisemitism where I encounter it and counter-arguing any fake or false claims some make of the history of Israel, Islam and the Holocaust, also, by voting for politicians that support Israel and the right of its people to live free and defend themselves. I know many Jewish people may feel isolated and abandoned right now, but there are many like me who support you. Never give up.
So grateful for your writing. You give voice to the inchoate jumble of thoughts, disbelief, abandonment and generalized rage felt by so many of us these days. Thank you.