Will fear prevail?

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

American Jews have adapted to—pretty much to the point of resignation and acting like its “normal”—the fact that to do almost anything connected with being Jewish—go to synagogue, drop a child at day school or pre-school, work out at a Jewish community center, look around a Jewish museum, go to a meeting of any kind, go to a music or art show, in short, just about anything Jewish—they are going to face one sort of security measure or another, or several.

Jews know that to be a connected Jew in the U.S. today means being beeped in, showing identification, putting in a code, going through a metal detector, signing in, reserving prior to being told the location, and/ or being swept by a wand.

It is part of being a Jew in America in the 21^st century.  Jews do it without a second thought.  Few if anyone, Jew or non-Jew says “Hey, wait a minute.  This isn’t normal.  This is not the way it is supposed to be.  This is unacceptable.”  Because they’ve essentially accepted it.

Jews have also accepted the fact that there are streets and neighborhoods and many campuses across America where it is dangerous to publicly identify as a Jew.  There are places where Jews are afraid to wear a kippah (head covering), to speak Hebrew, to wear a Jewish star.

And displaying an Israeli flag or a sign expressing support for Israel, or putting a pro-Israel sticker on your car, or putting a pro-Israel button on your jacket, or putting a picture of a hostage on your lawn or in your window—the types of behavior that should be, and are for most people in America, accepted as just what you can do in a free country—they are very often considered ill-advised if not downright stupid. There has been no debate over it for quite a few years.

Then came the arson attack on the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion.  Then the murder of two young diplomats at the Capital Jewish Museum in D.C.  And then the Molotov cocktails at the Boulder walk for the hostages that caused 12 injuries, some severe.

Now Jews are wondering if it is even safe for them to gather in public spaces—to protest, or to walk, or to sing, or to pray, or simply to talk.  Many Jewish institutions and organizations—who already spend inordinate resources and time on security—are “reevaluating” their security measures.

Double standards

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

To all the folks who near-constantly ask me what I think of Israel’s conduct in Gaza, or constantly post about how Israel is unnecessarily killing “innocent civilians” in Gaza, or constantly ask why is Israel “punishing Gazans” for what “Hamas is doing:”

Now that Jews have again been targeted in Washington, D.C., with two beautiful young people murdered, I ask where are you?  I have not heard or seen you. Not one word. Not one post. Not one question.  Silence.

Three times in the last 10 days I was asked how do I feel about, or how can I approve, or why don’t I and my fellow Israeli citizens do something about the alleged “starvation” of Gazans.

None of the people asking the question mentioned the hostages or Hamas, who started the war, who explicitly adopted a strategy of embedding within and below civilians to produce as many Palestinian deaths as possible, and who continue the war by refusing to release the hostages and disarm.  The only issue apparently on the mind of these folks is why Israel was intentionally starving “innocent” Gazans.

My response:  Of course, I hate to see people, particularly children, suffering, but I think the question, along with much of the thinking of much of the Western World, betrays a moral system that is upside down at best.

When the Allies bombed the hell out of Dresden and much of the rest of Germany, did the world ask Americans how they felt about burning much of Germany to the ground, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, and blowing innocent kids to smithereens?

When the U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, did anyone ask Americans how they felt about incinerating hundreds of thousands of innocent kids, women, and men, young and old, and causing generations of deformed babies?

When the Allies fought the Axis powers, did the Allies supply food and other materials to the Germans and Italians during the middle of the war?  Did the Americans allow food and supplies to reach Japan during the war?  Did anyone expect them to or ask why they did not do so?

One could ask the same questions about any number of wars:  Iran-Iraq; Pakistan-India; the French and all their dirty little wars in Africa; and on and on.

A country cries out

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

These are difficult, complex, challenging, tense, and often depressing days in the Land of Israel.  The 88 year-old former Supreme Court President Aharon Barak, probably Israel’s most respected jurist, expressed his fear that the country could be heading toward a civil war.

The Israel Business Forum, which represents 200 of Israel’s largest companies, has threatened to “shut down the Israeli economy” if the government defies the High Court of Justice’s temporary injunction against the firing of the head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency.

The head of the Histadrut Labor Federation asserted that the country was on the verge of anarchy and that a failure of the government to comply with the ruling of the Court would be “a final red line that cannot be crossed.” He promised that the Federation would not “sit silently and watch them take apart the State of Israel.”

Several universities have threatened to go out on strike if Bar is fired.  Forty regional council and municipal heads signed a letter calling on the Prime Minister to publicly pledge that he would comply with the court’s decision.

Bar’s dismissal would be the first time in the history of the country that the head of the Shin Bet has been fired.  Netanyahu claims that this unprecedented step is necessary because he and Bar have lost "mutual trust." Bar was planning to resign within months, but apparently the Prime Minister feels the lack of trust is so compelling that he must move the date up, even at the risk of a constitutional crisis.

Many others suspect that the real reason for the hasty sacking, against the admonitions of the Attorney General and possibly in defiance of the High Court, is more likely due to the fact that the Shin Bet under Bar’s leadership is investigating allegations that some of Netanyahu's closest aides were in the employ of Qatar, an enemy country that harbors terrorists and supports terrorism and that purports to be a good-faith mediator of hostage negotiations.

Many fear that firing Bar and installing a Shin Bet chief more likely to toe the line could result in the suppression of the investigation of this incredibly serious conduct. And, of course, this alleged scandal was quickly given the moniker of “Qatargate.”

As if this were not enough, there is this:

We have a renewed war whose timing, need, and impact on the lives of the hostages are in dispute, and the motivation for which by the Prime Minister is suspicious and political in the view of many.

Israel refused to negotiate about and proceed to Phase 2 of the agreement with Hamas.  If the breaking of the agreement advances Israel’s security, helps defeat Hamas, and/or keeps hostages alive and brings them home sooner, no reasonable person should have any qualms about Israel’s breach.

Is this normal?

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

It is hard to describe the mood here.  What we have experienced in the last 48 hours is indescribable.

We thought we had already experienced the worst.  October 7th.  Families destroyed.  Hostages returned to learn that their spouses and their children were murdered.  Young women kept in dark tunnels.. Emaciated men displayed on stages in bizarre "ceremonies." Hostages finally freed after hundreds of days of captivity given farewell certificates and goodie bags.  Unimaginable, sick behavior.

Only to be topped by the last 48 hours.  Four coffins.  A red-headed baby in one.  His red-headed four-year old brother in another.  Latest reports are that Hamas murdered the kids "with their bare hands."

An 83 year-old peace-activist great-grandfather who drove sick Gazans to Israeli hospitals in another coffin.  And in the fourth an unknown woman's body that Hamas tried to pass off as the children's mother Shiri Bibas.  Hamas says transferring the wrong body was due to a "an error or mix-up" and it will now investigate, as if this sort of "mix-up" happens every other day.

[Latest report as this is finalized:  Hamas has transferred another body to the Red Cross it claims is that of Shiri Bibas.]

A bizarre, depraved "ceremony" transferring the murdered bodies.  The caskets of the elderly man and the unknown woman affixed with a sign saying "Arrested October 7, 2023." Arrested???

Where is Shiri Bibas' body?  Speculation is that it was so tortured, so mutilated, that they did not return it.  Are they stupid enough to think that Israeli forensic specialists wouldn’t figure it out?  Whose body did they produce?  Do these sick people just keep extra bodies hanging around?

The word "surreal" is often used to describe things that are just strange.  But what has happened here, is truly not of this world.  It is like an infinitely deep, dark universe.

A fantasy?  Yes, if a fantasy includes a cruel nightmare.  Unimaginable, sick, bizarre behavior.

Somehow life goes on—people shopping for Shabbat, at restaurants, putting gas in the car.  All the trappings of "normal" life. But there is nothing normal about what has happened here.  There is a huge pall hanging over this country.  There is depression, dismay, and anger.

In November of 2023, just seven weeks into this ordeal, I questioned the entire idea of negotiating with Hamas.  I argued that only when Jews are subjected to terrorism does the world expect negotiations.  I argued that this process "normalizes" the taking of hostages by terrorists, and that it encourages further hostage-taking and terrorism generally.

Elation, trepidation, disappointment

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

Today was a clear, beautiful, and warm Shabbat in Jerusalem, more like April than January. We were sitting in our synagogue, just starting to read the Haftorah portion, when a tzeva adom, a red alert, wailed out.

There was a little hesitation, some quick quizzical looks. One of our members called out something like “walla,” shorthand for “what are we waiting for,” and we all traipsed down to the shelter.

No panic. No rush.  More like resignation, a feeling of “once again.” A question of “isn’t this over yet?”  A look of “they have to get in one last shot.”

A couple of us pulled out and turned on phones and confirmed what we suspected: it was the Houthis firing their one-a-day ballistic missile at a population center in Israel.

Some people take a one-a-day vitamin.  The Houthis shoot a ballistic missile from a dirt-poor, failed nation that could use every dollar it can find at a people 1373 miles away who have done absolutely nothing to them. Their second in command has straightforwardly declared that their motivation is pure hatred of Jews.

The daily missile crosses a wide swath of Israel, inflicting terror and sending a substantial segment of the population to shelters and safe rooms.

They usually take their shot at night.  Today they chose the morning. Perhaps they were afraid they wouldn’t get it in before the ceasefire took effect.

We stood around in the shelter for about 10 minutes, waiting, resigned, chatting, thinking.  Then we went back up to the sanctuary and finished the service, undoubtedly like hundreds of thousands of other Israelis.  Life went on almost like nothing had happened.

As we finished the service, I did take special note of the last sentence of Psalm 29: “The Lord shall grant strength to His people; the Lord shall bless His people with peace.”

I hope so.  But I have my doubts.  Big ones.

Ceasefire now???

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

Israel conducted a massive targeted bombing in a Beirut neighborhood, killing Hezbollah chief Nasrallah and several Hezbollah leaders.  The world is a better place because they are gone.  The world should rejoice.

But much of the world has reservations about killing these terrorists and crippling Hezbollah.  Russia condemned Israel.  Palestinian President Abbas called for Israel’s expulsion from the U.N. Hezbollah’s sponsor and chief funder, Iran, is absolutely appalled.

Even the so-called “enlightened” world is ambivalent.  Before Nasrallah’s death but after the killing of many of his commanders and after Israel began its intense bombing of Beirut, the U.S. and France called for a 21-day truce so that negotiations could occur.

Since Nasrallah’s death the U.N. Secretary-General, as he does whenever Israel acts to defend itself, has expressed his alarm at the violence.  President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have welcomed Nasrallah being sent on his way to his 72 virgins, but they have also said now it is time to stop fighting.

One would have hoped the President would have said now that Hezbollah is reeling from its defeats, now is the time to finish it off or at least to do as much damage as possible. Macron has called on Biden to pressure Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire, not Hezbollah and its sponsor, Iran.

One wonders why the Western leaders were so intent on a truce and negotiations prior to Nasrallah and his comrades’ demise, and one wonders why they continue to be so insistent now, despite Israel’s successes.  I don’t recall such interest in negotiations when the West was pursuing Al Qaeda and ISIS.

I argued early in the Gaza War that, when it comes to attacks by terrorist groups on Israel, the world acts as if terrorism is a normal and accepted behavior, and that negotiations are the appropriate and judicious response.

By treating the situation as normal and expected, the world encourages the terrorists to expect their terrorism to work, and it often does.  The same dynamic is now being urged on Israel by the United States and much of the rest of the “free world.”

To stop the fighting there is no need to negotiate, unless the intention is to concede something to Hezbollah.  All that is necessary is to enforce an agreement already negotiated.

My day in the South

(Originally published in The Times of Israel)

I had been reticent to go down south to the sites of the October 7^th massacre.  Firstly, we live in Israel.  We are surrounded by reminders of the deadly day, the pain of the hostages and their families, the daily deaths of our soldiers, the hate that is directed at us.

We know people whose family members and close friends were killed and kidnapped.  We have close friends whose sons and daughters and their spouses have been called up for milluim (reserve duty) for months, some in Gaza, some in support roles.  The thought of the pain of seeing the sites of the actual massacre seemed over-the-top, unnecessary, just too much to take.

The second reason for my reticence was a feeling that perhaps going to see the killing and torture fields, the kibbutzim and moshavim, the Nova festival site, was an invasion of privacy, a desecration of holy sites.  I was afraid of feeling and looking like a gawker, like somebody who stares at a car pile-up.

I saw nothing wrong when others took a different view and chose different behavior.  Thousands of volunteers have poured into Israel to help during the difficult months since October 7^th.

They have selflessly given their time, their labor, their emotional support, and their money.  They have made a difference both materially and emotionally.  They and many others, visitors and Israelis alike, have made the trip to the south.

They have paid their respects, lent shoulders for those who needed them, and borne witness.  Many of those from abroad are going to go home and report to their families, friends, and communities on what happened there in a way only someone who has been there can.

We were prompted to finally go to the south to donate to and see the “Shuva Junction.”  Shuva is a moshav (cooperative community) a few kilometers east of the Gaza border. Immediately after October 7^th, three brothers set up a little coffee stand for soldiers going in and out of Gaza at the intersection that leads from the main road into Shuva.

The coffee stand grew into a way station where soldiers can take some R&R, eat, clean up a bit, and collect some snacks and other “extras” that the army does not provide.  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-769644