Let me do some “splainin’.” I do love the old Lucille Ball or Lucy, seriously, who doesn’t! Lucille Ball was a one-of-a kind entertainer. However, her daughter, Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, also an entertainer, is a different story. I have used her as a microcosm of a wider, more alarming phenomenon that as of late has enraged many of us: the antipathy towards Jews and a love affair with a genocidal organization— Hamas. It’s as simple as that.
On October 7, we had all been transported to Medieval England, or Spain, or the Russian Empire and its provinces, to Limerick, Ireland, or Nazi Europe, or Bagdad, Iraq, or Aden, Yemen, or Fez, Morocco, or Libya, or post-war Kielce, Poland—where Jews were also murdered in pogroms, and it sure seemed like a time warp. It still feels like a time warp. Although for those of us outside of Israel, we got a front-row view of the bloodshed from the safety of our Ivory Towers. We were all privy to the most savage of human behavior.
We watched an army of bloodthirsty men descend upon innocent civilians and unleash the type of brutality that you only read about in history books. Yet this is a chapter in history that we will retell our grandchildren with a caveat of “Never Again.”
“Never Again” was the phrase that I grew up with; it instilled a belief of security and hope and yet, it happened again! But really, think about it, has antisemitism ever gone away? Is this not a case of history repeating itself?
As long as people believe that Jews are foreign interlopers in their own land and that Israel was born in sin, they will continue to use it as an excuse to unleash disturbing stereotypes and violence that belong in a yellow-paged book sitting atop a dusty, forgotten shelf. When you learn of the first blood libel that began as early as the 2nd Century BCE and the absurdity of the claims against Jews, still believed and adopted centuries later—the driving force of many other pogroms—you realize that the scapegoating of Israel and Jews with respect to Palestinians is another blood libel.
Today, I watch the unfolding madness surrounding October 7 with a sense of dread. Among the crowds that are protesting against Israel, there are children. Their parents seem to think that this tragedy is a good lesson in social justice or in freedom fighting. Those children will be our future law makers; the future that will uphold blood libels. And then we have those who remain silent. Not a peep as this ugly history repeats itself before their very eyes.
“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.” – Elie Wiesel.
Lack of nuance
Lucie seems to keep up to date with current affairs, always ready to offer her point of view to followers and friends. She shared a number of TikTok videos that channel her views on recent events in Israel and Gaza. Unfortunately, she is fixated on historical revisionism by focusing on ascribing to Israel the world’s afflictions and those include actions that posit Israel as an oppressor, occupier, and enforcer of apartheid and cultural genocide. She is heavily invested in parroting other people ’s ideas without proper context or thought to the effect her words may have on others. On Jews.
She shows a lack of nuance and an inability to understand the world in anything other than black and white. She did a complete about-face within hours of the barbaric slaughter, all this while the blood-stained beds, floors, and walls of the terror victims were still wet! Yet Lucie had instantly shifted her focus to other, more important aspects of this pogrom: castigating Israel and showing pity on Hamas.
Her empathy for Israelis who were slaughtered, raped, tortured, and kidnapped was short-lived. In one of her posts, she says that God forgives everyone, including Hamas. I dare her propose this idea to any mother in Israel who has just buried the remains of her mutilated child . . . I don’t forgive Hamas, never will.
She blames Israel for the events that took place, and she does not recognize October 7 as a pogrom or a massacre, which diminishes the impact of this horror. Neither does she share the harrowing stories of the tortured, murdered, and kidnapped Israelis. Instead, her words serve to demonize Israel and this resonates with a wide swath of society that views it as a warmongering, rogue state. You can almost hear the shrill in her voice when you read about her concerns for Hamas; something so terrible had occurred to those people who perpetrated the October 7 attack . . . You know what, Lucie’s rants are almost tantamount to victim blaming when there is a rape and one says “well, you know, did you see what she was wearing?” And is this any different to the scapegoating of Jews throughout millennia?
My concern is that so many had acted just like Lucie; their tone-deaf epithets began as soon as news of this horror hit our screens. She shared a number of videos that I find insulting and troubling, but she did good by Hamas by doing her share of mainstreaming antisemitism to all of her friends.
She did this while grief-stricken Israeli mothers were still reliving the trauma of their helpless, terrified children violently torn from their arms. What absolute unimaginable torture. Lucie, however, had moved on. She said this while young women were being raped, and she continued on this path only days later when pathology reports described how these women were raped so violently that their pelvises had cracked. She said this while mothers and fathers were saying Kaddish for their children—while there was not one sole survivor to say Kaddish for entire families buried side by side. But she wasn’t alone.
The Genius of Larry
Lucie’s husband, Larry Luckinbill, had “lost his shit” when he first learned of the news. But don’t fool yourselves as his concern was not about the unprecedented massacre that had just occurred in Israel; it was of the tragedy he imagined would befall the Palestinians as a result of an inevitable counterattack by Israel.
Lucie dutifully sings his praises; she wants to make sure that if anyone has a shred of doubt, well, they’re dealing with experts in the field of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Apparently, Larry is a wealth of knowledge, he reads everything! He consumes six books at a time and he even played the part of two presidents. Two!
Larry had explained to Lucie that Palestinians were treated “so very badly by Israel (and others in the region) that they must have finally just had enough and retaliated . . .” Oh Lucie, that’s a wonderful explanation. Now we all understand. I only wish the folks who were murdered in the Holocaust had the Palestinians’ sensibilities. Why did they not think of massacring every German baby and child? I have a feeling that if I were to pose that question to Lucie and Larry their response would be that the Jews were just not as desperate!
Not that I want to be one of those pesky Jews, you know, but was Larry referring to Palestinians and not Hamas when he said they had finally retaliated? So which is it? Who’s behind the terror attacks? Lucie had originally asked friends “whether anyone was feeling for Hamas?” In any case, eventually Larry explained the conflict, and convinced her of the truth in ten minutes. Ten minutes, she says. Almost as long as the TikTok videos she shares; the videos that have educated her and enlightened her on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
There are many more who’ve abandoned Israel: human rights organizations, educational institutions, famous people in the arts, and the latecomer Greta Thunberg.
Clouds of Change
Greta ignored Israel, even though she has carefully molded herself into an altruistic climate change activist—admired for standing up to world leaders and bullies of all sorts—but still, not one tear for Israelis. But she had just witnessed premeditated, exceptionally personal types of killings. When pressure mounted on Greta to respond, she supported Gaza. And, similar to Lucie’s videos featuring pro-Palestinian Jews, Greta enlisted a “chosen one” who posed right next to her for extra reassurance, her safety blanket if you will.
But there’s no excuse, none whatsoever for not expressing horror, sorrow, and concern for what happened to innocent Israelis or for doing the bare minimum by mentioning victims in general (for fear of seemingly aligning oneself with Israel—never a good look!) and then qualifying one’s concern with a self-serving sentiment that fits an anti-Israel narrative. Unfortunately, we know that one-sided irrational empathy, even in this unprecedented act of terror, is indeed possible as long as people believe there is no such thing as an innocent Israeli, and the kibbutzniks were sitting on stolen land. They obviously had it coming.
Greta may know about clouds, but does she really understand the implications of standing up for Gaza after this pogrom? I believe she does, as does Susan Abulhawa, organizer of the “Palestine Writes” conference at the University of Pennsylvania who praised Hamas for their murders:
“Palestinian fighters finally broke free on 7 October 2023 in a spectacular moment that shocked the world” (Andrea Levin, “U Penn ‘Palestine Writes’ organizer Susan Abulhawa cheers Gaza Massacre,” October 17 2023, https://shorturl.at/biwAH).
Universal Amnesia
Let me get these facts off my chest right away: There is no occupation of Gaza, no matter what you’ve read, what your professors at university tell you, what the newspaper or magazine headlines tell you, not what an esteemed Palestinian guest speaker tells, what Justice for Palestine Students echo and echo and echo. But there is a blockade so let’s do some splainin’ right away.
Gaza was supposed to be part of the Arab State under the UN’s two-state solution, which Israel accepted and Arabs refused. In 1948, Egypt conquered the Gaza Strip but refused to annex it as part of her territory. Gaza was fenced off and a military force controlled its Arab-Palestinian population for decades. The Egyptians were not interested in Palestinian welfare, neither did they extend Egyptian citizenship to the people of Gaza. They would conduct arbitrary arrests of thousands of Gazan residents and take them to military prisons in Egypt. As for the rest of the population, they were not allowed into Egypt without further hardships. Today, Egypt still controls the border and decides how often and how many Arab-Palestinians may enter the country.
Missing from the conversation is the fact that by 1967 about 9,000 Arab-Palestinian families were reunited, and in 1971, 40,000 refugees were readmitted into Israel because descendants of refugees from decades earlier were granted refugee status by UNRWA. While Gaza was under Egyptian control, Israel endured years of fedayeen attacks on its citizens. The terrorists were guerrilla fighters trained in the Egyptian army. In my youth, we had ropes tied to the foot of our beds in the event terrorists would enter our building and we would have to escape from the second floor. In what society is this normal or acceptable? And just as troubling is the idea of a safe room, something that every Israeli household must have.
Israel conquered Gaza during the 1967 Six-Day-War, and in those years the PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) controlled Gaza. Still, Israel allowed for 8000 Jews to settle in Gaza, which meant they had to be protected by the IDF. This in turn created much unrest among Israelis who could not bear the loss of lives among soldiers forced to protect the settlers. The IDF encouraged Gazans to move out of their favela-like homes in the refugee camps and into new developments, but they refused to budge. The PLO had their hand in this maneuver to gain world sympathy and support for the establishment of an Arab state over the entire territory of the former Mandatory Palestine.
The first Intifada was a tricky mess; the image before the world was that of innocent rock-throwing youth against the almighty IDF, and Israel had lost in the court of world opinion, and the world screamed genocide. When Hamas arrived on the scene, there was a glimmer of hope that they would actually be a better fit for Gaza as they were heavily invested in promoting social services for Gazans. That was a fleeting moment and by the ‘90s the violence towards Israel had reached a new peak with suicide bombings all across the country. Our relatives, the Ron family, father and two teens were victims of a suicide bomber at the Matzah Restaurant on March 31, 2002.
By the second Intifada Israelis had grown weary of Gaza. Hamas started firing Qassam rockets and some of those first attacks killed 30 and injured thousands of Israelis. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched Operation Defensive Shield in order to subdue the out-of-control terrorism aimed at Israeli citizens. They also heavily secured the border. In a move that surprised much of the nation, Sharon decided it was time to withdraw from Gaza. The hope was that land for peace would usher in a better, brighter future for everyone. Gazans were left with beautifully developed farms, and infrastructure to help them develop into a paradise along the Mediterranean Coast.
No sooner than the last soldier exited the Strip, Palestinians dismantled every, single, piece of Jewish property similar to what Arabs had done for centuries—destroying evidence of Jewish life and building right on top of it, doing their utmost to rewrite the history of the region—by writing the Jews out of it. I’m only surprised that Gazans still want to live in the very land occupied by the Hasmoneans at one stage, before the advent of Islam. Instead of developing infrastructure for electricity and water, Hamas spent all of their money on rockets and weapons to attack Israel. It’s also the reason that Israel provides Gaza with electricity and water in spite of years of terror attacks . . .
In 2006 Palestinians voted Hamas into power; it was a landslide victory that shoved the PLO out of Gaza, although the Islamic Jihad also meddles and together they maintain a strong following and presence in the West Bank too. Many Palestinians seem to belong to one organization or another. Mahmoud Abbas is the president of the Palestinian Authority, he presides over the West Bank, but he’s also a prolific Holocaust denier who pays the families of martyrs a monthly stipend amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars per year—money that is donated to Palestinians from all corners of the world. Thus, he too incentivizes terrorists and subsidizes the murder of Jews.
In the years that followed their rise to power, Hamas had dug a labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers that also enabled their illegal entry into Israel to carry out their deadly stabbings and attacks. Once Iran had entered the picture to support Hamas and fund the war of terror against Israel, new measures had to be taken in order to curtail the smuggling of weapons into Gaza. The naval and air blockade were a direct result of terror attacks that had escalated after Israel withdrew from Gaza. Short of scattering every single Jew into the Diaspora, it was the only course of action they could take in order to cripple Hamas and secure Israel. Lifting the blockade here and there sure helped their building aspirations—the extra shipments of cement were put to great use underground.
On the one hand, if Israel takes a passive stance to terror it emboldens the enemy and causes fear and distrust among Israelis. Passiveness also encourages other organizations to attack as is the case with Hezbollah in the northern border. Another perceived weakness for the Israeli government is the precedence they’ve set with respect to prisoner exchanges—one Israeli for a thousand terrorists imprisoned in Israel. After terrorists commit atrocities in Israel, they know that sooner or later they’ll be back home, and back to the drawing board. And so it goes on and on and on.
What about the complicity of reporters, NGOs, and peace activists who have seen what Hamas is doing in Gaza but they play along. Instead, they continue with the hospital scenes and feature every single shot and angle that Hamas has planted for the world to see. Some of that, as trite and cruel at it sounds, is heavily scripted and made up.
There are pages and pages of details; I haven’t even touched on the flotilla incident or explained the Iron Dome system but we already know it’s not a fool-proof system because as I write this, a building in Tel-Aviv was hit by a rocket this morning. I can list one attack after another. I can list instances when Hamas targets its own people and bombs facilities to create an Israeli-made humanitarian crisis; it has even bombed receiving terminals and shelled its own gas stations, but news reports and protests will decry yet another heinous Israeli-made humanitarian crisis.
My goodness, Israel has its share of difficult dilemmas to consider whether securing its borders, going to war in heavily populated areas, or making peace with a terror organization. There is not one sovereign state in the world that would sit idly by while terror dictated the lives of its citizens. And it’s been decades. Decades! But the international pressure that impedes Israel’s ability to eliminate terror from its borders persists. They place Israel under a magnifying glass, watching its every move, as though it were not already maintaining the highest of moral values. And all the rest of the noise, the BDSers etc., that’s troubling too, because we already know that at its core lies a maniacal, primitive aggression towards Jews that manifests as a hostility towards Israel. The treatment of Israel after October 7 just strengthens this notion.
Talking to a Brick Wall
I think it’s useless to argue with those pontificating against Israel, with those who claim that Jewish life in Israel had ended 2000 years ago, thus Jews have no business in Israel. More troubling is their belief that Jewish presence in the land is casus belli for rationalizing terror against Israelis. They believe in self-determination for Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza, but not for Jews in the very land where they had self-identified as Jews and developed their culture even before the advent of Islam. They imagine that Arabs were the only people to occupy Palestine, an untruth that is tragically absurd but repeated by every nincompoop that screams “Free Palestine.” They assert that Jews who immigrated to Palestine one hundred years ago were intruders, while Arab immigrants, who migrated to the land by the thousands, in the same period of time, apparently had every right to be there. Neither do they care that Israel was created by the League of Nations Mandate and reaffirmed by the UN Security Council in UN Resolution 181. But still, for some this doesn’t count:
Screenshot, a friend of Lucie’s anti-Israel narrative, October 7, 2023, accessed October 21, 2023, lucie.luckinbill-Facebook Post
With this type of especially selective memory they malign Israel, and with the aid of academics, students, and celebrities the lines are blurred between mainstream and extreme opinions. What is going on here?
Is it a wonder that riots have once again brought antisemitism to the forefront? You think it’s easy being a Jew? Every single day of our lives we are reminded that we are the epitome of the other. But when there is a flare up of tension in the Middle East, oh boy, it’s scary. Watching Palestinians and their supporters chant and wave their flag with such excitement and fervor sends chills down my spine. We see this onslaught of “Free Palestine” hashtags everywhere, and because of its bloodied implications, and torrent of people rationalizing the massacre of Jews—it’s like watching people I know gripping the Nazi flag with all their might!
Oh, but I can already sense an eye roll or two for mentioning antisemitism and anti-Zionism in the same breath. Whatever academic arguments you may have for excluding anti-Zionist from antisemitism it’s nothing more than dormant prejudice that is masquerading as enlightenment.
In Sartre’s essay “Anti-Semite and Jew” (Reflexions sur la Question Juive), he explains that antisemitism embodies a passion that preceded the facts, all you need to do is mention a Jew and they become irritated (Jean-Paul Sartre, “Anti-Semite And Jew,” p. 17). He goes on to explain that unique brand of passion that we only experience with anti-Semites; it’s a chosen passion of hate that does not just flair up now and again but it’s permanent. A hate that is lived out and is reflected in speech, in reflection and in response to others. It is a hate that accompanies the anti-Semite throughout their life. A hate that waxes and wanes but one that is endless. One lives and dies an anti-Semite and all of life’s experiences merely confirm and validate the reality and justness of that hate.
October 7, 2023, accessed October 21, 2023, lucie.luckinbill-Facebook Post
I look at this post and I realize that Lucie—I don’t know—I really don’t know what to think. Is this an instinctive or conscious reaction? I, I just don’t know. She said this even though she had just become privy to the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust. But this is what her focus was and still is. In doing so, she joins millions of others showing their support for Hamas—for a Palestinian terror organization, elected by Palestinians and dedicated to the annihilation of Jews. But this post has also made me realize that Hamas were not worried about their public image when they planned the October 7 massacre. They knew that Larry Luckinbill, Greta Thunberg and, the Lucies of this world would blame Israel for all the deaths on both sides of the border.
Tell you what Lucie, how about you put some pressure on Egypt to open the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, and send prepaid tickets to Gazans to fly to America so they can stay with you in the desert. Is that too crazy?
Celebrating Death
On October7 Gazans/Palestinians marched to the streets of Gaza in droves to celebrate death. It’s not an unfamiliar scene but this one, this particular scene was like no other. The image of Shani Louk, almost naked, not sure whether dead or alive, with her leg bent in an unnatural position, and blood-stained hair is an image that will haunt me for the rest of my life. She was paraded through the streets of Gaza as though we were watching a fictional episode of “Game of Thrones”; you know which one I’m talking about—when Cersei Lannister is sentenced to a public walk of atonement for committing adultery. She is paraded through Kings Landing while crowds of blood-thirsty men and women pelt vegetables at her while booing mercilessly. October 7 unleashed a free-for-all opportunity for Gazans to show their support for the murder of Jews. They chanted “death to Jews,” some spitting and smacking them. It was shocking. If that did not rattle your soul then you have lost your moral compass completely. Your humanity is non-existent.
Another one of those first distressing videos released by Hamas on October 7 was of Na’ama Levi, a young woman with cuffed—hands behind her back, squeezed into the boot of a jeep. Her eyes conveyed that she had given up hope, that all of humanity had deserted her while she had confronted the devil. Her groin was saturated in blood; she had already been violently raped. She was forcefully pulled out of a jeep by her hair while a cacophony of exchanges in Arabic assailed our ears. Sadly, I have seen many more of these types of videos since October 7, and each time I feel sickened that I do not hear this world so appalled, so heartbroken, so disgusted, angered, and enraged. I would like to see the type of rage they felt when George Floyd was murdered. The type or rage they feel for Gazans. But they are silent. For Jews, there is no rage. For Jews an age-old irrational hate outweighs any fair and balanced approach to life, and to any situation that involves Jews or Israel.
Most of Lucie’s friends have embraced her rage towards Israel. They shower her with encouraging messages and thank her for enlightening them.
A screenshot from one of Lucie’s supporters, October 7, 2023, accessed October 21, 2023, lucie.luckinbill-Facebook Post
Similar to Lucie’s husband, my husband’s reaction to the first breaking news report of the massacre was of great distress. However, unlike Larry Luckinbill, his anguish and concern were for Israelis because no one else had been savagely murdered that day, other than Israelis. We found out a few days later that his relative Avia Hetzroni from Be’eri was murdered and his 12-year-old grandchildren were missing. The mood in our home turned somber, none of us could do our work and with eyes glued to the TV and phones we followed the unfolding nightmare. On the second day, the hour was late, and I was finally ready to plop into bed and that was when my husband’s complexion turned to ash. He pointed towards the TV unable to utter a sound. There it was, Avia’s home on our screen during a CNN report—the camera showed a river of blood on the kitchen floor, and as the cameras combed the rest of what was left of their home, they showed photos that were scattered on the ground. We were able to see members of Greg’s family in those photos.
A week later, we found out that one of the twin’s bodies had been identified. We don’t know about the fate of the other twin. But just like that, beautiful lives were cut short in a place that nurtured love and life and opened its doors to people worldwide. Gazans would come to work on those kibbutzim too; roughly 18,000 Gazans have permits to work in Israel, in spite of rockets and stabbings and suicide bombings as the backdrop to life in Israel since its founding.
It’s not complicated
People of all ages were targeted and massacred. The religion or nationality of the victims should not make a difference to anyone, and the deluge of venom-filled remarks about Israel should have called to action anyone with a healthy, normal sense of just.
Lucie should have never anguished over her support for Israel at this time and conflated it with politics. But she did, and in doing so she turned her back on the Jewish victims and their families. The video below is another example of what she chose to post at this critical time in our history.
A still frame, TikTok of Palestinian incitement, accessed October 21, 2023, https://shorturl.at/bjkpT
This sing-song video is absolutely vile. I suggest that you click on the link and view it before you continue to read this article. It is meant to incite violence. So you want to Free Palestine of Jews? Are you sure about that Lucie? Do you also understand that it was never named Palestine because of Palestinian-Arabs? “The bearded guy who had no right . . .” you say? She meant that Herzl had no right to create Zionism and call on the Jews to return to their ancestral homeland. Who gives you the right to decide Dania? And Jews, Arabs, and Muslims did not “live fine” either. Do you think that Jews had a choice in the matter? In the Middle East, just as in Europe, there were periods where Jews were tolerated and even thrived. What do you know! However, no Jew wanted to be occupied by Christians, or Muslims, or any of the many nations that coveted their land. Well, maybe Hellenistic Jews didn’t mind . . .
Jews, for most of their history, have been the victims of occupation, oppression and expulsion in their own land and it’s an important conversation to have if there is to ever be proper, civilized discourse.
Remind me how many Islamic states there are? How many Jewish states?
Cognitive anchoring
Another one of Lucie’s heroes is Mathew Cooke. In the next video he explains the essence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. When Cooke talks about Judaism, his antipathy towards Israel is very clear; he explains that our commandments teach us that we should not “steal other people’s land or blockade them . . .” More depressing than his hate-speech are the comments:
“I had no idea… this is 100% enlightening. Thank you for this perspective. I have so much to learn ❤”
“I so appreciate your words. I am a retired professor who taught this history and you are so on point. more people need to learn this.”
“This is the nuance that the media and the public so desperately [needs] to understand and convey, thank you.”
Still frame, TikTik video defamatory towards Judaism, accessed October 21, 2023, TikTok-Mathew Cooke
The terminology used by Cooke is another crafty way of expunging Jewish history from Israel, and prolonging a never-ending conflict. These very words have juxtaposed Arab exclusively of the Levant with Israeli appropriation of their land, food, and culture. He pushes that narrative even though Israelis did not steal Palestinian land and as for the blockade, I’ve already discussed how it is partial—a safety measure to prevent even more weapons entering the Gaza because otherwise October 7 would repeat itself over and over again.
The problem is that words have consequences; we’ve seen the tragic outcome when the very idea of Jewishness is perceived as hostile. Unfortunately, it is still the prism from which many of Israel’s critics see the world. The fact that falsehoods and mythology are accepted as fact, points to a form of systemic erasure and this is possible regardless of a history that is not so convoluted, not difficult to follow, or understand.
Hamas as Counterweight
A prime example of these falsehoods is the article by Michael Moore that Lucie shared with her friends. She emphasized that his words mirrored hers. I just don’t know where to begin. His rendition of history is that of a first grader. He writes that “not one Palestinian helped build Auschwitz.” “Not one Palestinian led a Spanish Inquisition.” And in this vein he is trying to convince his readers that Palestinians have never harmed Jews while Israelis are about to commit genocide in Gaza. “Your only true enemy for the past 2000 years has been and still is the White Christians!” (October 17, 2023, accessed October 21, 2023, Michael Moore ).
White Christians are the Jews’ worst problem? Seriously? That’s not entirely true, because Islam has had an equally troubling past with Judaism and it continues to do so. First of all, I need to tackle Moore’s ignorance with respect to the Nazi influence on Arabs. Both Nazism and fascism were a source of great inspiration for a number of Islamic movements such as the Syrian Socialist National Party and the Muslim Brotherhood. What about classic antisemitism in Israel’s nascent years, during the alliance of Haj Amin el-Husseini, the leader of Palestinian Arab nationalism, and Adolf Hitler? Muslims that were influenced by Hitler had the same pathological obsession with Jews and they sympathized with the Axis powers.
The history of persecution of Jews in Arab lands is by no means a secret, it is well documented and a well-known part of the Jewish story. My own grandfather had fled Yemen. What about the modern-day problem of Islamic-led antisemitism that has spread to every corner of the world? What about institutionalized antisemitism in Gaza and the West Bank? In the Palestinian educational system? The erasure of Jewish history from their textbooks? The demonization of Jews? What about Palestinian children educated in the UNRWA schools who’ve been brainwashed to say that “Jews are evil and shifty,” and “killing Jews brings pride to Palestinians.”
How can anyone give this man any credibility? Ah, but Lucie does.
Arab lands had expelled almost every single Jew living in their midst, turning their countries into Jew-free zones. What about Jewish refugees from Arab lands? About one million Jews had lost their homes and livelihood; Arab governments seized more than $1 billion dollars in communal and private property; today this would amount to 100-billion dollars. How strange that their plight has been purged from the consciousness of human rights activists, UN committees, and organizations that care for refugees. The Farhoud, for example, took place in Iraq (on Shavuot 1941) when thousands of armed Iraqi Muslims carried a savage pogrom against the Jewish community that had a history of 2,600 years in the region. Their front doors were marked with red hamsas before the killing began. The British ambassador ignored orders from Churchill to intervene; instead, he enjoyed a candlelit dinner in the safety of his home. As for the rest of humanity – they just don’t give a damn – the very existence of Israel, a country they believe is responsible for creating the Arab-Palestinian refugee problem, automatically negates their plight.
What about the early Yishuv in Palestine where the Arab onslaught on the Jewish community included pogroms, massacres, and destruction of property. Farmers would work the land by holding a shovel in one hand and a rifle in the other. Moshe Beilinson was a doctor-turned writer whose articles, dating back to 1920, expound on the frustration of the Yishuv in light of the useless response by the British and Jewish leadership to non-stop murder of Jews. The Battle of Tel-Chai on March 1, 1920, had rattled the community. Arab villagers together with fighters from Irregular Arab Armies surrounded the village of Tel-Chai; among the dead was Joseph Trumpeldor, the commander of the Jewish defenders. The Arabs’ mission was to scare the Jews out of Palestine, and to a certain extent they succeeded; after the attack residents of all surrounding villages escaped and their villages were destroyed by the Arabs.
How apropos to bring up this tragic episode in Jewish history, today of all days.
Moore’s article suggests that Netanyahu had been holding meetings for years with Hamas in an effort to conquer and divide; possibly this is all on Bibi. Oh my goodness, he too is parroting misinformation, and taking things out of context in order to blame Israel for the October 7 pogrom. Moore is not only an irresponsible fool but he is a dangerous fool that has turned a complex political situation into a cheap conspiracy theory. Lucie has lapped it all up and I’m sure Hamas are thankful for this too.
Every country has had to play a very delicate balancing act with its enemies. I explained earlier how Israel actually supported Hamas in its early days, believing that they were the moderate ones who were trying to improve conditions for Palestinians. Israel supported Hamas as a counterweight to Arafat’s PLO, and this was a huge mistake. They even made a distinction between Hamas’s military and political wings but those lines had long since become blurred. Especially after it was clear that Hamas was aiming to erase Israel and kill every single Jew—that it was etched in their 1988 Covenant. I mentioned this earlier in passing, but what about the pressure that Obama placed on Israel to lift the blockade in order for Gazans to receive cement for “building” homes and hospitals etc. Well, in spite of Israel cautioning Obama of the dangers that the request had posed, namely the tunnel project, Gaza received cement, and Israel received October 7. Is anyone going to blame Obama for conspiring with Hamas?
Again, the blockade is not complete and it does not cut off Palestinians from the rest of the world. It is a partial blockade that is meant to prevent Israel from being erased from the face of this earth.
And as for the comments that appeared below his article, here’s one by K. Miller, October 17, 2023:
Thank you for speaking out…the oppressed became the oppressors. Being anti-Zionist is not anti-Semitic. Israelis do not have a right to Palestinians lands and their property. Yet we have stood silently on the sidelines for no less than 7 decades while Israel continued to overrun and expand beyond what was given to them in 1948. That gift was at the hands of Great Britain and the US who wanted to break up the last of the Ottoman Empire and they found Zionism to be a very convenient friend. Every action has a reaction. We’ve allowed Israel to marginalize and violently expel Palestinians from their homes with no retribution from the U.S. since 1967. We’re been supporting an apartheid state and now we’re supporting genocide. Where is our humanity?
Moore ends his article with an image of Netanyahu with a blood-stained hand across his face. Netanyahu should resign in the near future because this intelligence failure happened under his watch, and that failure will define his leadership and overshadow any other failings or criticisms. However, Moore should have placed that blood-stained hand on Ismail Haniyeh who orchestrated the October 7 Pogrom. But the damage has been done. The image is ingrained in people’s minds and so is the blame.
While Lucie continues to focus on finding fault with all that’s wrong with Israel, I have written this article in memory of all the Israelis massacred in the name of Free Palestine. While I abhor the idea of war or death on either side of the border, still, this article is dedicated to the kibbutzim—the beautiful souls who lived there—and to the lives of those who came to celebrate nature and love in the supernova music festival at Kibbutz Re’im. I will never forget to mention our soldiers, old and new, who rushed to protect all of these lives.
Life on a kibbutz is like living in a world untouched by time, where children run barefooted through fields of tall, swaying grass. It’s a place where every sunrise paints the sky with a promise of new adventures, and every sunset whispers secrets to the stars. The kibbutz is where you’ll find the salt of the earth types, with a love for life that is so infectious that it draws visitors from all over the world. Be’eri was one of those places with fields that were more like open canvases—where beauty unfurled every season and where the sun would rise and kiss the fields to ignite a landscape of endless wonders.
Today, Kibbutz Be’eri is marked by endless carnage, and all over Israel and beyond there are families that are grieving their dead—feeling dead and hollow themselves, as they agonize over the safe return of their loved ones. However, the unity of Jews worldwide, the wait list for a flight to Israel, and volunteers (Jews and Arab-Israelis) who are aiding in any way they can—gives us all a glimmer of hope. My friend sent me a photo of himself harvesting cherry tomatoes on one of the kibbutzim and he said: “Ilana, we have returned to the days of the Yishuv, all of us working the land.” Another time warp, but also a testament to a nation that can find strength and resilience to live on.
Let me remind everyone that as I write this and possibly as you read this, there are still Israeli kids and babies in the hands of Hamas!
*Extra
Not Hamas, Just Gazans
The cameras in Kibbutz Be’eri captured the steady stream of Gazans/Palestinians joining the pogrom. Even crutches could not hold back one man eager to enjoy the spoils of war.
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