It’s happening again. What my parents warned me about. Anti-Semitism.

My inbox is overflowing. Overwhelmingly in support of what I wrote about Gaza. But you know what so many of those e-mailers said? DON’T USE MY NAME!

And there you have it in a nutshell. Yes, I blame the Jews. Not Israel, but the assimilated Jews in America who stood by during the heyday of BDS, during the rise of pro-Palestinian sentiment, while the perception changed, from poor Israel to poor Palestinians.

“Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said in a briefing early Wednesday morning that no Israeli strike, either by air, land or sea occurred near the hospital at the time of the deadly explosion. He said the Israeli military would soon publish the radar information, footage and a recording of militants in Gaza assigning blame to Islamic Jihad, a group aligned with Hamas.

“Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations Riyad Mansour accused Israel of carrying out the strike and lying. ‘Now they change the story to try to blame the Palestinians. It is a lie,’ Mansour said during a press conference at the U.N. headquarters.”

https://tinyurl.com/5u626rkd

That’s from the “Wall Street Journal,” you could read it if you wanted to but you won’t. Because the truth is irrelevant today, now it’s only about perception.

I mean who are you going to believe? One of the most technically developed militaries of the world? Or the terrorist group in Palestine?

It’s easy. Of course the Israelis are guilty.

And none of this would have happened if the Israelis hadn’t decided to retaliate, right? I mean even if it was a wayward, failed Palestinian rocket, would they be shooting off rockets if Israel didn’t threaten to invade? Get it straight, Israel is the aggressor here. The poor Palestinians have just been trying to live their lives quietly and those damn Jews upset the apple cart. They’ve got no compassion. They want to see every Palestinian desiring to return to their homeland dead. If only they wanted peace, a two state solution…

WHAT?

My inbox says all that. And I’ve never had this many people unsubscribe in one day, never. And after posting this I’m sure I’ll lose the same number, if not more. But I’m not writing for those people, I’m not writing for those taking the side of the poor Palestinians, I’m writing this for you silent Jews, afraid of suffering individually. I mean haven’t we seen this movie already? Never mind the Nazis, but in Charlottesville, never mind terrorism in Pittsburgh?

Yes, I’ve gotten e-mail from people keeping their kids home from school, because they’re Jewish. Others afraid to go to synagogue, even though there are armed guards at the temple.

But you sit there silently, trying to stay out of the fray. Fearful of blowback. Yes, you who let the pendulum swing, who got fat and happy, seeing Israel as a safe technological juggernaut. You thought you were assimilated. But you haven’t gotten those e-mails I have, talking about anti-Semitism in this supposedly Jewish dominated business.

But you don’t want to get involved. You don’t want people angry with you. You don’t want to lose friends.

Forget the wimpy executives, who are only concerned about their paycheck, where are the Jewish artists? You can’t take a stand? You are who people listen to, if not now, when?

But the executives need to stand up too. I’m imploring you. If I can take the risk, you can too. We have each other, and we need each other, but now we are divided.

That’s right, whatever and if ever the truth about the hospital bombing comes out one thing is for sure, the image of Israel and the Jews will continue to decline, and it will only get worse.

As for those Jews at colleges and universities… They’re complacent, they didn’t live through the ’67 and ’73 wars, never mind Munich in ’72. They align with their Palestinian brothers, knowing nothing of the history of the region, only knowing that the Palestinians have a good case, and they do, BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

I’m not going to sit here and say Israel is perfect. But one thing I will say is it’s our last best hope if we are Jewish, it’s the only place we can go and not be persecuted. And if it goes by the wayside, it’s just a matter of time before they come for you.

I mean have you studied history? Again and again the Jews have been the scapegoat, and been exiled and limited in business and killed and you think just because we have the internet it can’t happen again? IT IS HAPPENING AGAIN!

Think of authoritarianism… We thought those days were through. And Poland just turned left, but what about Italy? Never mind Hungary? This was not supposed to happen, democracy was supposed to gain momentum and rule, but just the opposite seems to be happening.

So on my birthday a few years back I went to the Holocaust museum in Los Angeles. And they had reprints from the L.A. “Times.” And contrary to conventional wisdom, people knew! Yes, the repression of the Jews, their ghettoization, the stripping of their rights, their need to wear Jewish stars… WE KNEW! And what did we do? Nothing, not for a long while. And after the war the truth of the concentration camps was revealed, but now we find out the Holocaust didn’t really happen. And the Jews need to shut up anyway, because other people died too. It’s kind of like saying there’s no more racism, get the Blacks to agree with you on that one. But even the Blacks hate the Jews. Don’t tell me you don’t, do you think I’m polling each and every African-American? But the facts are there. Jews are the enemy, just ask Kanye.

Yes, Jews are the cause of all the world’s problems, don’t you know? And if they’d just let those damn Palestinians live in peace… And give them back their country while they’re at it, everything would be groovy. Iran would be happy and Lebanon would be happy and…ARE YOU DREAMING?

But you are asleep. Because you’re afraid to get in the fray.

But I don’t care if you’re mother’s mother was Jewish and nobody else, when they come looking, you’re going to be considered Jewish, there’s no getting away from it. You think you’re immune, but you’re not.

So can all you wusses out there, afraid of having your names revealed, stand up and be proud to be a Jew? Stand up to the misinformation?

Of course it’s a thorny issue. And the Israelis haven’t always been right, but they haven’t been celebrating the death of Palestinians, whereas it’s vice versa on the other side.

I won’t even talk about all the times the Palestinians were offered their own country as part of a two state solution..,

That’s another type of e-mail that drives me wild. The “risk-takers” who tell me that everybody just needs to believe in peace. That if we all sat down the problem could be solved. That we need a two-state solution. Don’t you get it, Israel has agreed to all that, it’s the Palestinians who are holding us back, who will only be happy when Israel ceases to exist, when the Jews are driven into the sea. Don’t think those are metaphors, that’s Hamas’s charter!

This is only the beginning. As this war progresses, Israel is going to look worse and worse, just you wait. It’s going to be even harder to be a Jew. The right has turned on Ukraine, what are the odds every American is going to side with Israel? And yes, there are Christians who support Israel because that’s where Jesus lived, but if you think this means they’re sympathetic to the Jews…

It is happening. Right now. We Jews are losing purchase, we’re losing power, we’re losing the argument, it’s going in the wrong direction. But you think it’s all happening over there, that it doesn’t affect you.

You couldn’t be more wrong.

WAKE UP!

_______________________________________

_______________________________________

From: Michael Fisher

Subject: Re: Gaza

“But that’s the society we live in. Where money, your job, triumphs. Tell me how that works for you when you’re rounded-up and put in a ghetto.”

Exactly. You should’ve added “and dragged off and murdered”. I’m African-American and German. My mother was German. I was born in Germany and grew up among plenty of “Ex-Nazis” and their children.  I grew up hearing what they said. To this day when I’m in Germany (I was there in the beginning of the year) I keep hearing “Well, you’re half black, but at least you’re not a Jew”. I’ll hear that from Germans who will usually present themselves as completely pro-jewish. So, don’t get it twisted. Anti-semitism is still around, rising and virulent. And it’s deadly. Anti-Black racism is about “keeping Blacks in their place”. Anti-Jewish racism (Anti-semitism) is straight up about genocide.

Michael 

_______________________________________

From: Jason Hess

Subject: Re: Gaza

A few years ago, My daughter was bullied in high school for being Jewish by pro Palestinian students. You know what the administration did? They said they were trying to have honest conversations about the issues. This is response to my daughter getting pictures of Hitler and being told that all Jews are racist animals. So you know what I did? I sued them in federal court at tremendous personal and emotional expense. I took a stand. I am no hero but almost everyone told me to let it go. But I could not do it Bob. We settled and received an apology. I hope I had an impact but I doubt it. They all hate us. But we must keep fighting.

Jason

_______________________________________

Subject: Re: Gaza

Bob, 

I read your news letter daily. Sometimes it’s too long. But today u got it right. I have lived as a Jew with anti semitism my entire life. From having pennies thrown at me in middle school to being ridiculed because I am a female JEWISH lawyer. I remain a proud Jew, maybe not religious, but I know I am a Jew. Each day at my previous job, now retired, I tried to have a Holocaust moment and explain to my associates that every day I say NEVER AGAIN. You got it right. We killed innocent people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. With war comes consequences. Hamas started it. Let Israel and the US if necessary finish it. Those hostages are goners their lives are done even if saved. They will forever suffer. The time is now. So shut up and stop crying for innocent people. Let’s get this job done the way we should have when people walked my relatives to ovens. It’s time. 

Thanks for reading

Gail LEVINE

A proud Jew

_______________________________________

From: Ronli Tzour

Subject: Re: Gaza

Thank you for speaking out, Bob.

It’s nauseating to see fellow jews say nothing.

It’s nauseating to see non-jews say nothing.

It’s nauseating to see people I called friends, people I still have to work with, people that were in my home liking and sharing posts that are riddled with misinformation.

And it’s nauseating when I reach out to explain why what they’re engaging with is straight propaganda or incorrect and they simply, don’t respond.

Our babies are beheaded. Our women raped then butchered. Our families erased. Our college kids mourn our slaughtered, behind them is a group of pro-Palestinian students screaming at them how it’s justice. Our houses are being marked with ‘Jew’ or Magen Davids to indicate jews live there. Our businesses are being trashed either physically or accounts are being unfollowed or spammed with hate. Our flags are being burned in the name of another statehood and there are chants of our genocide and yet in Israeli marches – we sing about how we just want peace for Israel and dance around together. There is video evidence of all of this.

People don’t want to see what’s happening. They want to blindly hate Israel and jewish people. They want to believe we’re evil, no matter what we do.

We are seeing the 1930s play out in front of our eyes. People watching our Instagram stories but won’t say anything to us or on their own socials is the equivalent of their not-so-distant ancestors just watching jews thru their windows being rounded up..

Thank god we have our own defense force to help us in 2023. Never again is now. And truly (and I mean this from the bottom of my soul and from my long line of actual resistance fighter ancestors), f*ck anyone that believes any differently. Too harsh? Too bad.

In multiple jewish group chats I am, we are discussing: Removing our mezzuzahs from our doors. (We dont want to.)

Is it safe to wear our Magen David necklaces? (No, but we’ve dusted them off and are now constantly wearing them.)

Do people need security to walk them to synagogue? (Yes, in LA there is a volunteer group that walks families to synagogue whenever they need – let alone the amped up security at synagogues to begin with.)

Amongst many, many other things but these barely just scratch the surface.

May peace be with us soon, may all of our families stay safe, may the 150+ hostages make it back to us alive and unharmed, may we never know this kind of terror again, and may Hamas be eliminated forever.

Our hearts are so broken and also so angry. I will never understand this level of hate that has been unleashed.

Thanks again for speaking out, Bob. We need more people to use their voices, too.

Am yisrael chai –

Ronli Tzour

_______________________________________

From: Gary Lucas

Subject: Re: Gaza

Thank you for this Bob. We’ve all been there—even in a supposedly Jewish-dominated music biz.

Years ago when I was a copywriter at CBS Records, I really wanted to get into A&R, but found it to be a closed shop (especially for a guy who had played with Captain Beefheart).

After much badgering, the Jewish head of A&R at Columbia told me:

“Bring me a hit first, and then we can talk about hiring you.”

So in 1986, I’m in the UK with my English-Jewish wife visiting her family, and while there ventured forth into UK record company-land in search of a hit for Columbia.

I lined up a meeting with the head of A&R at London Records, who was a very affable fellow.

I told him Columbia had just done a licensing deal with Geoff Travis’s  Rough Trade Records—and did he have any potential hits for us to license?

He proceeded to play me the soon to be released new single by The Communards, a cover of Thelma Houston’s smash “Don’t Leave Me This Way”.

This new version had “hit” written all over it.

He told me they are about to make a deal for America, but that if Columbia wants in…

He gives me a cassette to take back and play for my guy. His parting words as I leave his office are :

“What’s the matter with Columbia—do they just want to do a deal with a bunch of Jews??” (Geoff Travis is Jewish).

I don’t know if he knew that I was Jewish or not. Perhaps he just thought he was being funny–but I was seriously offended.

Nevertheless, as I wanted an A&R gig, I swallowed my pride and said nothing–which I regret to this day.

When I got back to NYC, I duly delivered the cassette to my “rabbi”, and gave him a big pitch on The Communards—and he duly threw the tape in a drawer…next!

A few months later this song is #1 on the Billboard Dance Charts. I felt more than vindicated re my A&R instincts, but whatever.

A few years later, partially out of frustration with the record biz, I left my day-job of 13 years to become a full-time artist.

And I did a collaboration in London with Alabama 3—huge Beefheart fans who had recently been schmeckled vis a vis their song “Woke Up This Morning”–part of the very warp and woof of “The Sopranos”—

which their manager licensed away forever for a pittance in a one-time buy-out with HBO.

While doing this session for their new song about the Great Train Robbery, “Have You Seen Bruce Richards Reynolds”

(you can hear it here, I’m on National steel bottleneck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QbmRgKuWa8 ),

they played me another new track entitled “Hello I’m Johnny Cash”, whose lyrics consisted of lines from various Johnny Cash songs.

In settling up on the phone with their manager for the session the next morning, I mentioned how much I enjoyed their Johnny Cash pastiche, and he said:

“I’m sure some Jew lawyer from New York will try and sue us for that”.

Ouch!  I should have said something right there again, but as I wanted to get paid…

Anyway, you could say maybe it’s just a UK thing. Maybe it was just crass Jew-baiting.

But we all know too well that anti-semitism is worldwide, it sucks, it ain’t going away—and we should call it out for what it is whenever it rears its ugly head.

Gary Lucas

NYC

_______________________________________

From: Lynn Crosswaite

Subject: Re: Gaza

Yes! Right on! I’m losing my mind over the pro-Palestinian marches. We need Doron!  Send in Doron and his crew to obliterate Hamas off the face of the earth! 

Lynn

This is a magical show. With a guest star so left field and so right it’ll stun you when you see him on the screen.

Well, now that I’ve given him such an intro it won’t, but when this Argentinian series suddenly shifts locales…it’s a complete surprise.

So what we’ve got here is the aged dandy Manuel, who earns his living as a restaurant/food critic. He’s got kids, but has little interaction with them. He had a relationship with Grace, but he’s too difficult to be with. It’s just him and his housekeeper in his densely decorated home. He’s afraid of dying, but almost has one foot in the grave.

“Nada” is slow until it isn’t. There isn’t a lot there until there isn’t. But ultimately it is very satisfying. It’s on Hulu and…

Don’t put it at the top of your list, it’s nothing like “The Bureau,” or “Master of None”…I could name twenty series you should watch before “Nada,” but if you’ve seen the heavyweights and are looking for something different…

It’s set in Buenos Aires. And South America is foreign to the U.S. What I mean is most Americans know more about Europe than they do about the continent just south of them. And Americans always believe foreigners are living an inferior life, that no one outside their country’s borders is sophisticated. But Buenos Aires is certainly sophisticated and cultured, and you get to see a bit of the city, but really this is a character study.

And a food study.

One of the highlights is when Manuel describes the three levels of consumption. I won’t ruin it, but I will say that a meal can be an artistic experience. Now in truth, America has come a long way in the past twenty five years, you can get more than hot dogs and popcorn at the stadium, they’re even selling daily passports to the Atlanta airport, so you can sample the food and shops, but this does not mean Americans have a sophisticated palate.

Manuel is all about splitting the hairs. And that resonated with me, because I’m the same way. I don’t care if it made a lot of money, I don’t care if everybody anoints it as great, I want to start from zero and make my own evaluation on an absolute scale.

I guess it’s that excellence is so satisfying. Like when my car’s just been serviced and it’s running perfectly. As a matter of fact, my car is in the shop right now and they gave me a brand new Outback as a loaner. I’d never buy it. The center of gravity is too high and the suspension is too soft, why does everybody want an SUV? To sit higher in an inherently unstable machine? Fashion and industry profits have everybody buying an SUV/truck when they’d be better serviced with a sedan, but people can’t go against trends, conventional wisdom. When the turbo in my ancient machine is turning, when all four wheels are pulling, when I’m accelerating or going around a corner, it’s a thrill, it’s a high.

Like the right pair of skis. As someone said, there’s no such thing as a bad pair of skis these days. But the right ones? It’s such a sweet experience.

And the same thing with food. When they nail it…

It’s not about quantity. And it’s not about complication. That’s one of the points in this movie, a simple country soup can be exquisite. When it is made with love and experience and…

This is what life is really about. These tiny moments of elation. When Manuel eats something spectacular he’s elated, if it’s just a bit off, he’s disappointed, no matter how good it is. He says he’s only got so many meals left in his life, he doesn’t want to waste one.

I understand that. Actually, right now I’m paralyzed. Because I don’t want to waste time with the time I have left. I don’t want to be blind and miss it. I want to eat up life. But there are so many things, so many people, who are unsatisfying, or not satisfying enough and…

I hear people rave about this act or that. But I’ve seen that act, the first time around, the comeback and then on the endless tour and really, they were great in the beginning and now they’re running on fumes and nostalgia is overrated. I don’t want to be calcified, talking about what once was. But everything important to me is denigrated by my cohorts. Technology? It’s the enemy, right? Man, all the people I know who are afraid of AI who don’t really understand it.

That’s another thing, the misinformation. Got to blame technology, communication methods, for that. My inbox overflows with people citing incorrect facts. They could just google the truth, but then they’d be disillusioned, because they’d realize what they’ve been spewing is wrong, and their self-identity can’t handle that.

So one ends up feeling alone, on their own adventure. At least I do. I find my connection in streaming TV. I’d like to find my connection in music more, but the purveyors are brands, not artists. They’re fearful of complaints, they don’t want to alienate anybody. They’re more like Procter & Gamble than John Lennon.

And Manuel can’t even get along with his friends.

Assuming you’ve got friends, who are alive and kicking. You learn to live and forget, but not Manuel, he’s irascible and it’s funny except he’s the person paying the price.

You know people like this, who are convinced they’re right, always. And when you inform them of possibilities, new items or methods of behavior or anything new they don’t want to hear it, they’re comfortable where they are. When did everybody become afraid of the future?

And on one hand Manuel knows what a pain in the ass he is, it’s one reason he stays isolated. But his heart can be warmed.

And he does have status. Everybody knows who he is, he eats for free, but caught up in his quest for the mountaintop he doesn’t realize he’s pissing people off.

But the show is slow at the beginning. Not so slow it’s akin to watching paint dry. But it’s not intense, vivid, not that much happens. You just see Manuel living his life. But as the episodes unfold…

“Nada” is not a big commitment. It’s five half hour episodes. But you won’t watch it and forget it. You’ll continue to think about it and talk to people about it, just like I am doing here.

I can’t say I know of another series like “Nada.” Maybe a couple of movies, but they’re a different paradigm from series. And isn’t that what we’re looking for, the new and different? Wasn’t that the story of Barbenheimer, killing the sequels?

But many are happy with what was, what they know. But the real stimulation is that which is riding the edge, off in the distance, that’s what gets your brain going, cogitating, and feeling.

I don’t want to overhype “Nada,” it’s just that it’s a special show. I can’t see them making it in the U.S. We need more. Beautiful people acting irrationally…wait, that’s not only TV, that’s real life! Today it’s Britney Spears getting an abortion, yesterday it was Kanye and his new wife in Italy. These people live on publicity, their whole lives are based on being in the public eye. And not only do so many follow them, they want to be them. Sounds like an empty life to me. Kinda like Taylor Swift. She’s setting all these attendance and gross records. Kudos, that’s fine with me. But who would want to do the work? The same show, week after week, for years on end? I’d rather do something better with my time. It’s one thing if you’re trying to make it. Swift ends up in the public eye, she’s certainly famous, she’s America’s darling, but what exactly is it like being her? I mean on the inside?

That’s what’s interesting, what makes people tick, their motivation… This used to be part of the musician ethos. People were 3-D. More of a scan, actually. It wasn’t about the image, but the interior. Kind of like David Crosby… He went on the road spewing anti-Trump vitriol and said he didn’t care if he lost fans over it, he didn’t want those people at his shows. I don’t care if you agree, and David was a difficult guy, but that’s someone with an identity, a backbone, and he wasn’t compromising for anyone. He wasn’t dancing, he wasn’t doing commercials, he wasn’t toning down his speech or behavior. That’s the life of an artist, more than chart positions and awards.

I guess you’ve learned more about me than “Nada” in this screed. But maybe that’s the point, “Nada” is getting me to open up, to deliver my feelings and wants. You might have the same experience.

Trailer (only watch if you need convincing, because it reveals too much): https://tinyurl.com/4xp8srux

Spotify playlist: https://tinyurl.com/mrxdwzrz

“Take a Look Around” – James Gang

“Bluebird” – James Gang

“Fred” – James Gang

“Stop” – James Gang

“Stop” – Howard Tate

“Funk #49” – James Gang

“The Bomber: Closet Queen”/’Boléro’/’Cast Your Fate to the Wind'” – James Gang

“Ashes the Rain And I” – James Gang

“Walk Away” – James Gang

“Turn to Stone” – Barnstorm

“Rocky Mountain Way” – Joe Walsh

“Meadows” – Joe Walsh

“Welcome to the Club” – Joe Walsh

“Pavanne” – Joe Walsh

“Time Out” – Joe Walsh

“All Night Laundry Mat Blues” – Joe Walsh

“County Fair” – Joe Walsh

“Song For Emma”

“Meadows” Joe Walsh

“Life in the Fast Lane”: Eagles

“At the Station” – Joe Walsh

“Life’s Been Good” – Joe Walsh

“In the City” – Joe Walsh

“A Life of Illusion” – Joe Walsh

“Rivers (Of the Hidden Funk)” – Joe Walsh

“Space Age Whiz Kids” – Joe Walsh

“I Broke My Leg” – Joe Walsh

“Bubbles” – Joe Walsh

“Slow Dancing” – Joe Walsh

“The Confessor” – Joe Walsh

“Rosewood Bitters” – Joe Walsh

“Dear John” – Joe Walsh

“Don’t Mean Nothing” – Richard Marx

“In My Car” – Joe Walsh

“Ordinary Average Guy” – Joe Walsh

“Analog Man” – Joe Walsh

“Baby Come Home” – J.D. Souther

“Ridin’ the Storm Out” – REO Speedwagon

“Little Criminals” – Randy Newman

“Thunder Island” Jay Ferguson

“Dirty Laundry” – Don Henley

“Split Decision” – Steve Winwood

“Freedom Overspill” – Steve Winwood

“Impulsive” – Wilson Phillips

“Wild Ride” – Kenny Chesney

“The Mountain” – Bob Seger

The Israelis can’t win.

I’m sick and tired of the bothsidesism employed by every celebrity with a pulpit. I’m looking at you John Oliver, never mind the silent musicians fearful of alienating just one fan. Of course innocent people in Palestine will die. And I can’t find a single person who wants them to. I certainly don’t. But that didn’t stop the U.S. when it invaded Iraq.

Relative to population, tens more people died in Israel than in 9/11. Did we hear people rising up in the wake of that tragedy telling us to learn our lesson, that we were the oppressors, and we should just ponder the destruction and take no action? No, we had a government that decided to enter Iraq under false premises, never mind what happened in Afghanistan, and nearly the entire country was behind the U.S. actions.

But when it comes to Israel, with a history of terrorist attacks upon its soil and against its people? They should just eat it, they should stand down. Because innocent civilians will be killed in Gaza. What kind of bizarre world do we live in where that plays?

Let me see… Someone keeps breaching your property line, do you just take it?

But everybody hates the Jews. Oh, don’t argue with me. Coded antisemitism is rampant, and the only people who care are the Jews themselves, who’ve been subject to it. I certainly have, throughout my life. Right now there is antisemitic b.s. in my inbox. All about the eradication of kikes. But I live in a civil society so I should just endure it, because after all, there are good people on both sides.

One of the best e-mails I got about the Roger Waters controversy asked how come it took the people in those documentaries so long to stand up. I was taught from a young age that you immediately respond to antisemitism, and I have, and believe me, it’s been uncomfortable. And I’ve lost opportunities as a result. But some things are more important than money, like your identity and dignity. If you’re a Jew and you’re not standing up to antisemitism, you’re complicit. If you hear anybody make a joke, make a comment, you need to say something, immediately.

But that’s the society we live in. Where money, your job, triumphs. Tell me how that works for you when you’re rounded-up and put in a ghetto. Don’t tell me it can’t happen, history has taught us that it has happened on a regular basis. And just because you lived through the enlightened sixties and seventies doesn’t mean society keeps progressing. Just look at the political landscape. You could get an abortion in the seventies, easily. Good luck today. Talk about religious persecution.

So, all you celebrities. STFU. Or speak English. Otherwise you’re just like Trump and Charlottesville. Thank god there was a lawsuit there, which the Jews won, because if you don’t fight back, not only antisemitism creeps in, but authoritarianism too. We enabled Trump again and again. And it’s our fault.

So what we’ve got here is a terrorist organization, Hamas. Does every Palestinian in Gaza support Hamas? OF COURSE NOT! But did we poll every Iraqi to find out whether they supported Saddam before we went into that country? It’s been driving me nuts, all this talk about Hamas not being representative of the Palestinian people… Both Trump and Bush became President after losing the popular vote, but did anybody doubt they represented America, led the country? OF COURSE NOT!

Let’s not even bother to recite history. Bottom line is Hamas controls Gaza, and it uses civilians as human shields. And historically Hamas is willing to sacrifice lives in a way that the Israelis are not. But it’s the Israelis who are the targets of hate, who are told they’re warmongers and need to step back, take a breath and then lay down their arms. Believe me, if it weren’t for the hostages, Israel would be a lot more aggressive. Israel has a long history of trading for hostages, usually at a rate insanely higher than one to one. But let’s not remember that, let’s not remember Munich or ’73 or… Yes, today’s crisis exists in a vacuum. The Middle East was a land of peace and harmony and then one group made an incursion into Israel, it was an anomaly. WRONG! They’ve been throwing bombs at Israel since its inception. But let’s throw the baby out with the bathwater. The Israelis need to stand down because some Palestinian civilians might be killed.

No one, including the Israeli government, is saying they want to kill Palestinian citizens willy-nilly. Come on, what country in war warns the civilians of their opponent, telling them to get out of harm’s way?

Don’t tell me these people have nowhere to go. Why don’t you start attacking Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza, never mind the rest of the Arab countries who are not rising up in support of this humanitarian crisis.

Yes, I believe this is antisemitism. Because if any other country, and I mean any other country, suffered a proportional loss and invaded its attacker there’d be crickets.

You know, those loud-mouthed Jews. Running the world. They need to be taken down a peg. George Soros. He’s putting his money where his mouth is. Having survived the Nazi occupation of Hungary, Soros wants it never to happen again. Where is Bezos? Playing on his yacht with the woman he stole from his supposed best friend. Ditto Elon… Who is doing the opposite, stirring hate on X. And Bill Gates, who pledges to give away his money. He caused Covid, don’t you know? 

Why is it those trying to do something good are excoriated? This causes too many to sit on the sidelines, where nothing gets done. And if you can’t stand the slings and arrows, you’re a wimp. Take a stand. Certainly the pro-Palestinian cohort is.

But even Jews, mostly youngsters, are taking the Palestinian side. Furthermore, not being a Jew, many don’t know that the goal has been assimilation, keeping your head down, so it won’t be chopped off. For all the hatred of Jews, the goal of many is just to try to be invisible, to cause no trouble, they’re pessimists, in an optimistic nation.

And the truth is Jews are going to fade away anyway, at least in America, because of intermarriage. I could quote the statistics, but numbers no longer mean anything, everybody runs on emotions.

Give credit to Rowan and the rest of the donors clamping down on Penn and Harvard. This is the rule of life, you take my money and you’re beholden to me. So now there’s a call by Rowan, et al, not to give another dollar until these administrations wake up. That seems to be the only way you can fight antisemitism, with money. And you complain about Soros?

So if you’re sitting at home whining about the imminent death of Palestinian civilians, you’re part of the problem. You’re punting. You’re employing bothsidesism. You’re taking the easy road out. You say you’re on the side of humanity. So let me get this straight, whenever a nation is attacked the victim should just stand down forevermore?

As for doing its best not to kill innocent civilians… Israel has already said it will do this. But you know there will be collateral damage, and innocent people will be killed. Hell, Hamas told Gazans not to move, even though Israelis told them to. That’d be like your teacher telling you to stay in the classroom after the fire alarm went off and you could see the flames. Explain that one to me, makes no sense. But once a single Palestinian is shot or blown up, loses his life, expect an international uproar, pictures on the front page of the paper. Yes, the news media is afraid of taking a stand too. And don’t tell me the media doesn’t take a stand, just tune in Fox or MSNBC. But they’re fearful of alienating a viewer, losing an advertiser, they’ve got no soul. If you think AI is the number one enemy of the people you’ve got it wrong, it’s the people themselves!

The one good thing is Israel doesn’t give a f*ck. In that it’s not going to be cowered to act against its own interests.

Yes, all you people out there afraid of taking a stand, or the wuss musicians and celebrities lamenting the death of innocent people on both sides… Anybody who works in the public eye knows that you cannot please all of the people all of the time. If I listened to my audience I would never write again. People find fault with everything I write. And I could excise all the edgy elements, but you know what happens then? Nothing. You’re overlooked, you don’t matter.

It’s all about having a backbone. Standing up for what is right.

And standing up for human life… Whoo-hoo! Aren’t you admirable, aren’t you taking a risk, saying you don’t want people to die. I never thought of that, how insightful, how innovative. No!

And you Jews doing your best to assimilate, trying not to live up to a perception of being noisy and dirty and…you make me puke. Everybody knows you’re Jewish, doesn’t matter what they say, when they start rounding up Jews you’re going to be sent away, no matter how much you’ve integrated with the goyim. There’s a line, and you’re on the wrong side of it. Know that, acknowledge it, and stand up for your Jewishness. You’re entitled. And the more of us regular people who stand up, the more we’ll counteract the crazy Orthodox who have become the image of the Jews.

So everybody needs to start looking at themselves, asking themselves hard questions. What exactly do you want the Israelis to do here? Even better, what would you do here? Nothing? Human history tells us this is never the case. And everybody knows if you don’t stand up to bullies they come at you more frequently, and harder.

Yes, it’s a thorny situation. But all the Israelis want to do is live in peace. And don’t tell me that the Palestinians want the same thing, otherwise they’d stop shooting rockets, being terrorists. Yes, show me all the data where the Jews are the aggressors.

Do I think Israel is perfect?

Far from it.

Am I an Israeli or an American first?

I’m an American, hands down.

But at the core I’m a Jew. Not because I think I am, but because you think I am. And if there’s no Jewish homeland, where are we supposed to go? There are still clubs we cannot join, and then there are those with a token Jew. If you think antisemitism is absent from America, you probably think racism has been eradicated too.

Get off your high horse. Get down into the pit. Get educated, take a stand. Don’t just condemn the terrorism, that’s no risk at all. Go deeper.

Like I said, what do you want the Israelis to do?

Think about it.