Ye can't be serious
I'm going to do something I never do. I'm going to write this, and I'm going to stop writing it, and then I'm going to press 'publish' before I read it back. I want you to know how I feel right now. And I want to say exactly what's on my mind.
I don't know why I have to write the same things over and over, and I don't know why thousands of years of history isn't good enough to motivate a shift or a sea change. I don't know why we are back here and I am scared. I am scared because I have time to be scared, and I have time to be scared because I have had my life stripped from me because I'm a Jew. Not because I'm a Zionist. Because I am a Jew.
In case you've been living under a rock; at the weekend Kanye West rejoined Twitter. He was met with applause from his “friend” Elon Musk, who welcomed him with open arms despite the fact he had just been kicked off Instagram for spewing antisemitic hate. Elon Musk is one of the richest men in the world, and sells himself as a savior of humanity. Kanye West thinks of himself as a preacher and a cultural clairvoyant, I guess. You know what these two men are? Powerful egomaniacs with a lot of influence to define the zeitgeist. Kanye immediately turns his attention to antisemitism again and tweets in favor of the destruction of the Jewish people. He says he's going “death con 3” on the Jews in the morning when he wakes up. Twitter then remove Kanye's tweet after hours of outrage from Jews online.
Later on the next day in LA on Sunday, there are billboards spotted on Melrose & Fairfax for Jewish companies, and the billboards had been vandalized with signs that read: “ZIONIST JEWS CONTROL AMERICA”. Kanye didn't put the billboards there. It's a wild coincidence, I guess, that some antisemites decided that they could get away with that in broad daylight the same day that a man with over 30 million online followers compared with a global population of 14 million Jews said we should all die. And by the way; whatever purpose Kanye's rant served (whether it's to get out of an Adidas contract or something else), Jews are not and should never be collateral. Immediately Jews were criticized for calling out Kanye West, because that's how this goes. We called it out, and thus we honored the self-fulfilling prophecy that we do indeed control everything. God forbid, we try to stop antisemitism in its tracks when death is called to the 0.02% of the population that we Jews comprise. Remember: we're the ones punching down at one of the most powerful narcissists alive. Kanye's tweet had more than 45,000 likes before it was deleted, by the way. This is not a game.
Anyway shortly after, along comes Candace Owens, queen of gaslighting, who defends Kanye and says he wasn't being antisemitic, and we really need to be “honest” about what this was. Here she is if you can stomach it:
Antisemitism has now become mainstream. And I don't know what's more depressing. Kanye's tweet, or the fact that the cool kids have all been saying what Kanye is now saying for two and a half years, thinking they were having lucid, intellectual, helpful, progressive thoughts about Jews, racism, and intersectionality. They started with all of you on the political fringes. The indie bands. The alternative comedians. The edgy social justice causes. And now it’s everywhere. Now Kanye West is gonna make sneakers out of it if he can. Antisemitism doesn't come around overnight. All these players had a part; whatever side of the political spectrum they're on. There is no difference between calling “death con 3” on Jews, and screaming that you want to “globalize the intifada” at a Free Palestine march. These are two sides of the same Jewish genocide coin. And in news that will shock nobody who paid attention to all of this: after Kanye's tweet, the New York Times downplayed the incident and referred to his words as “widely criticized”. Come again?
The part that angers me the most, however, is the Jewish leaders who have offered wimpish reactions if any, presumably because they think American exceptionalism will save us. American exceptionalism is actively failing us Jews. Have the chutzpah to call out Kanye West’s antisemitism or keep internalizing your own shame. Joe Rogan had Roger Waters on his podcast the other week. Roger Waters is one of the most antisemitic figures in the music industry and Joe Rogan has one of the biggest platforms in the country. Why are our Jewish leaders not calling Joe Rogan out? He didn't challenge Waters once. He let him rant. It wasn't journalism, it was a pulpit for propaganda. I guess we can see that there are two types of Jews; those who want to score points and keep their political alliances; and those who want to protect Jewish life at all costs. Jewish leaders have a responsibility to address these events. Our community deserves representation at the very least. Where is that representation?
Tonight the antisemitic alliance that played out between Kanye and Candace Owens has climaxed on a red carpet.
To our leaders, our establishment, I ask: you do remember the last time antisemitism was this popular? If you want to be part of the zeitgeist it’s your funeral. Speaking of, I saw Ben Shapiro's tweet about Kanye. Ben who hired Candace Owens for the Daily Wire, by the way.
As Tevye in Fiddler On The Roof says: “On the other hand… There is no other hand.” There is no “two things can be true at once” about this. Denounce these bigots or admit that you’re part of the problem. Who needs an antisemite to fit your political agenda, or to lend clout to your venture, or to give your platform a boost?
I want you all to know that two of my friends here in the US - both Americans - consecutively called me crying the past two mornings. Both at the top of their fields. Both told by dear colleagues and friends that they can no longer associate with a Zionist. I know this pain. My story is very public. I know that everything I’ve done the past three years is worthwhile, and that I saw a horror of a reality coming. I couldn't turn a blind eye. And we’re now in it. We’re living it. Jews are being excluded from society regardless of their success. Where do you stand? When are you going to speak out? This isn’t Twitter. This is real life. This is in the office. It’s at the bar. It’s around a dinner table. It’s in our homes. It's on our sidewalks.
When counselling one of these friends, I told them to stop letting colleagues into their most intimate spaces; their Shabbats, their candle-lighting, their breaking bread. Keep it business. Get what serves you out of the relationship. Protect your family. Thrive as you deserve to, because you deserve the best. And under no circumstance lend the gifts of your spirit, your soul, your ancestry to people who will hurt you, spite you with those gifts, and ruin the memory of your ancient traditions for you. That is not respect. That is not love. Be careful who you let in, and when you teach those people what is good and they choose to ignore it and they choose to spit in your face, show them the door.
Stay safe. Know your enemies. Remember your friends. We have each other.
THIS alone is worth the subscription fee. The well-articulated primal scream (is that an oxymoron? as well as a Scottish band? which is why I’m happy to leave the writing to you). Thank you (again) for fighting the good fight, for taking the public hits for so many of us (not only on this issue), for staying clear-eyed, for the calling out, for being so wonderfully “stiff-necked” about speaking truth.
Shapiro's comment was a loser. As was Rogan and all his Jewish fans who will say nothing when he shills for Waters. It's good to see a few public Jews standing up for Jews for a change but of course West is a "right wing" figure so it's easier when it can be tied to their politics. Waters and the campus crowd are much more dangerous as they use their anti "Zionism" to inflame antisemitism and most liberal Jews will be clueless on how to deal with that until it's too late.