Our new upside down world

All is upside down these days. Let’s start with the sudden appearance of a new hero, the alleged murderer of United Healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson. Yes, Luigi Mangione is cheered on by quite a few people, among them Senator Elizabeth Warren claiming that you can push people only so much, before what? I guess before they go and kill somebody, though she quickly added that, of course that doesn’t justify murder. Many women are taken by Mangione’s physical attractiveness. People sympathize with his “anti capitalist views” against greedy corporations, and go on applauding his action. Some write about his bad experience with health insurance after undergoing back surgery. One problem, he comes from a very wealthy family that wouldn’t have any difficulty paying for his surgery and medical care. He is also an admirer of Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, who terrorized Americans (killing 3 and injuring some other) for many years before he was caught in 1996. Do not remember anybody idolizing him.

But the adoration of Mangione brings me back to another horrible, actually much more horrible event, October 7, 2023 where 1200 Israelis were butchered in the worst possible manner imaginable, many more wounded and some still being hostages in Gaza. Yes, there were some who rejoiced and are still rejoicing over the slaughter of innocent people, including babies, slaughtered because they were Jewish, oh, pardon me, they deserved this because they were settler colonialists. If Hamas and their debauched supporters can justify and celebrate such massacre, then perhaps we should understand why some individuals can support murder of CEO Brian Thompson. I guess murder of certain type of people, especially Jews, has become a virtue. If not murder than at least the sounds of loud antisemitic mobs gathering in our streets, burning Israeli flags and calling for the end of Israel is reverberating through many lands. Are some of the people participating or following these mobs the same people admiring the alleged murderer?

Wonder where we will go next? Go and have a look at our neighbor – Canada. The Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau announced recently that he would arrest Netanyahu and Gallant because ICC edict has to be fulfilled, and Canada is one of the signatories of ICC and Canada plays by the rules, and that how Canada is, like what? Like Nazis chasing Jews in the streets? In the meantime, Trudeau has been caught imitating emperor Nero playing his harp while ancient Rome was on fire – Trudeau dancing at Taylor Swift concert while downtown Montreal was being seriously vandalized by pro Hamas mob. I guess that what Canada is like these days. What I find particularly distressing is how quickly has Canada transformed from a tolerant country welcoming refugees from all over the world (I and my family were among them) to a hostile territory where Jews are hated by certain segments of the population and hunted by Jew-haters with the government looking on and by its non-action supporting, if not encouraging this Jew-hunt. All this happened in the last few years of Trudeau’s reign as the Prime Minister. I find this quite baffling and terrifying – if this is what Canada is what can we expect from other countries, and even from the US? There are signs (and events) that this is already happening in Europe – look at the Netherlands. And now Ireland. Ireland has been becoming more and more hostile towards Israel since October 7, 2023. Something I would not expect from a country clamoring for a peace between Israel and Palestinians. Most recently, ex post facto, after the fact, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Micheal Martin asked the International Court of Justice or ICJ to change and expand the definition of genocide so Israel can be pronounced guilty for genocidal activities in Gaza. Does that mean that the current definition does not make Israel guilty of genocide? Yes, this is quite likely, and the Irish request indicates the depth of hatred for Israel. And it does nothing to bring peace to the region. Reminds me of communism, the paradise of my childhood, where dissidents were presumed to be guilty even when shown to be innocent and sent to prison.

And I did not know whether to laugh or cry when I read in Jerusalem Post this morning about Ione Belarra, the general secretary of the Spanish Podemos party, claiming with a straight face (well, I did not see her face) that Israel is committing genocide by destroying military facilities of Syrian ex-dictator Bashir Assad, these facilities include chemical weapon depots and factories, military fleets and warehouses. Does not she think that we should be grateful to IDF for this? And cannot she educate herself or at least read the news more carefully?

And, last but not least, we have the sad case of Pope Francis and falsification of history by Palestinians. No, the Pope is not claiming that Jesus was a Palestinian, but he is not correcting it either. Rather, he seems to be pandering to them. Does not he realize that because of PA actions the number of Arab Christians living in Bethlehem has been steadily going down while the Arab Christian community in Israel is thriving? More and more people accept the claim that Jesus was a Palestinian, i.e., a man of Arab descent, rather than a Jew living in ancient Israel, which went by the name of Judea in those days. And in spite of being clearly Jewish as recognized by Christian denominations, including the Catholic Church it is not clear to some people what religion was he – I guess what Palestinians, or at least some of them would say – that he was a Muslim. Do not these people know that Arabs colonized Israel and Levant in the 7th century of CE after Islam was founded by Mohammed in Arabia (today’s Saudi Arabia). By not disputing Palestinian claims about Jesus and by not showing a minimal or even lack of support for Israel the Pope shows weakness and subjugation to Islam.

Unfortunately, I could go on to about many other examples of our crazy upside down world. And maybe next time I should remind myself that all is not bad, that Jews and Israel still have a lot of supporters and that we ourselves could do better as well. It might be time to look up some new recipes for Chanukah coming to our homes in a couple of weeks to remind us that not all is bad, especially when Chanukah and Christmas coincide.