A pox on Jewish antisemites

This is my confession. In the wake of last week’s brutal pogrom, I find myself hating leftie, pro-Palestinian Jews more than I hate Hamas. Correction: not more. But with the kind of visceral rage you reserve for members of your own family. People who are supposed to know better. Folks you grow up with. Members of your own tiny tribe.

A pox on IfNotNow, who issued a statement saying:  “their blood is on the hands of the Israeli government, the US government which funds and excuses their recklessness, and every international leader who continues to turn a blind eye to decades of Palestinian oppression, endangering both Palestinian and Israelis.”

A curse on Harvard Jews for Liberation, who signed a statement, along with other anti-Zionist student organizations, saying “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” (Look at the group’s website for additinal nauseating declarations.)

A plague on Jewish Voice for Peace which recently issued a statement urging the Biden administration to cease funding the IDF as well as “to hold the Israeli government accountable for its gross violations of human rights and war, crimes against Palestinians.”

And here I was idly hoping that if there might be a silver lining, it would be that Jews—all Jews—would finally get it, come out of hiding, and pull their heads out of their backsides.

Of course we Jews have a history of disagreeing about just about everything. We came to blows with one another as early as Genesis and we haven’t stopped since. But a mere 78 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, you’d think we’d all be on the same page regarding what does and what does not constitute sheer barbarism. No such luck.

So yes, Jewish haters-of Israel, go ahead and empathize with the plight of the millions of Arab Muslims in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank who suffer under years of non-statehood. I empathize too.  But while you’re doing that, why don’t you ask yourself why neither next-door Jordan (which prior to the Six Day War was under Jordanian rule) nor next-door Egypt (which ruled Gaza from 1949 to 1967) won’t help out, including with humanitarian aid? For that matter, have you ever wondered why you’re not up in arms over Australia’s refusal to give the land back to its Aborigines, or, for that matter, America’s refusal to either compensate the ancestors of former Black slaves with reparations or give more than an insignificant bissel of our huge landmass back to its original human inhabitants, who have languished and continue to do so in impoverished reservations?

I write this as a person who has long supported the (ever vanishing) two state solution; an ever-hopeful liberal who would like every Muslim to enjoy the same freedoms that Jewish Israelis–and Jewish Americans–enjoy. A social liberal who is horrified by Bibi’s policies and governance and is praying for the innocents on both sides of the border.

All over the world, antisemitic incidents are on the rise.

Enough already.

As most (but clearly not all) Jews know, antisemitism is a hydra-headed beast. Tragically, the beast, continues to rage. Why any Jew would want any part in feeding the beast is incomprehensible to me.