Waiting on the Sidelines

I am 47 years old.  31 years before I was born Jews were being murdered in Europe.  I am older than that now with a sense of history and time, and acknowledge that the Holocaust didn’t happen that long ago.  I can’t recall exactly how old I was when I asked my grandmother if she thought it could happen again; but when I enquired, she bluntly answered ‘just you wait.’  Naïvely, I protested that America is a Democracy and a multicultural society.  So of course, what’s happening now is unusual to say the least.  The new-old-hate isn’t being spearheaded by a twenty-first century Aryan youth equivalent; rather, it’s the same folks who require that you put he/him at the end of your work email or else.  Of course, there are the usual suspects who are part of the new madness, taking common cause against us, but why belabor the obvious.

I’ll never forgive those who share my background and are every bit as antisemitic as the other stalwarts.  When I say share, I mean that to even include ‘Gen Z’ blood relations.  There are so many words I could use but don’t since I’d come across as sounding angry.

Some of the rhetoric with the Biden Administration could be improved. Sure, Biden has condemned Hamas and has supported Israel with weapons deliveries minus just a few, but the Administration false statistics from the Hamas Death Ministry, and periodically joins a chorus of nations in an international blood libel, which is falsely assert that Israel goes out of its way to harm civilians.  None of that, of course, will enamor Genocide Joe among the hard Left.  Sadly though, there are enough Democratic voters for Biden who don’t support Israel who would take issue with full throated support.  It’s a sign of the times.  Chuck Schumer isn’t helping much.

In addition to the victims of October 7^th, their families, the hostages, and the Palestinians Arabs murdered by Hamas’ political strategy, I feel an indescribable emptiness from those on the sidelines.  When George Floyd died, countless numbers of liberals, political moderates, and even conservatives placed black squares on social media as an expression of solidarity; and when there was outburst of violence towards Asians there was a #StopAsianHate campaign, with the ubiquitous hashtag posted by liberal, political moderates, and even conservatives, appearing on social media platforms.

But since a thousand plus Jews were slaughtered, there’s been an unmistakable air of apathy.  There is little doubt that most Americans support Israel, but just not enough to say it when the saying it would be so nice.  Each morning, I view posts by other Jews discussing the double and triple standards applied to the only Jewish nation on Earth, protesters who really don’t like Israel or Zionists, or anyone who’s had a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, and false claims by those whom – more than anything – want the ‘[f]rom the River to the Sea’ to finally go into effect.   I don’t see or hear anything from allies though.  The silence from the radio is overwhelming and underwhelming.  Sadly, there won’t be a Stop Jewish Hate campaign, nor blue and white dots to show solidarity with Israel, and it doesn’t feel equitable.

Isaac Newton once said that “[a]n object in motion stays in motion…unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.”   Jew hatred will continue to snowball if no one gets off the sidelines.