Ya Gotta Have Friends

I’m watching Morning Joe on MSNBC when Joe Scarborough says something along the lines of:

“Since Israel’s IDF killed five journalists in Gaza City, and Netanyahu doesn’t seem to know how—or want—to end the Gaza war, Israel is losing a lot of friends all over the world, especially in the States. And Israel needs friends.”

The word friends instantly flips a switch in my brain. Suddenly, I’m in Bette Midler mode, humming:

‘Cause ya gotta have friends…

I had some friends, oh, but they’re all gone
Somethin’ came and snatched them away.

And just like that, the Divine Miss M’s classic turns into a haunting question: Does Israel gotta have friends?

The answer, of course, is a resounding yes.

History reminds us—brutally—that six million Jews were murdered because we had no friends. And without friends (and the money, weapons, and shared interests that friendship brings), there is no Israel.

Without friends:

• There’s no Balfour Declaration.

• No weapons from Czechoslovakia.

• No Mirage jets from France.

• No statehood vote at the United Nations.

• No nuclear know-how from England and France.

• No US military lifeline in 1973.

• No German nuclear subs.

• No US bombing of Iran’s Natanz Uranium enrichment facility.

Friends kept Israel alive. Friends made Israel possible.

So when Scarborough says Israel is losing friends, it cuts deeper than politics—it’s existential.

And I can’t help but wonder: is the thing that came and snatched them away called Gaza?