Bibi's Visit: Solidarity in a Time of Betrayal
“A friend in need…”
When Israel called for support in the wake of the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, I and all decent humans across the globe showed up for the people of the Jewish nation. We didn’t check to see if our favoured political opinions had majority support among the electorate of the only democracy in the Middle East. Some things transcend politics. Atrocity transcends politics.
October 7th transcended the political when Hamas terrorists massacred a music festival in cold blood. When they chucked grenades and shot into safe rooms, into families and young adults and parents and children. When bodies were found naked or pantsless in indescribably horrific conditions of brutality. When “screams, before silence”.
When Bibi Netanyahu came to America, he wasn’t coming as some “religious right-winger” in our terminally America-centric vocabulary. He came as the democratically-elected representative of the Israeli people, who have suffered and bled and are yet bleeding more. You may hate his politics. You may hate him. But you cannot—you must not—allow your biases to cloud your moral compass. Bibi as the leader of their democracy must be respected as such. To channel hatred through Bibi at Israel and/or the Jewish people is simply wrong.
What do you think, O Great Sages of the “New Progressives”, happened to your political equivalents in Israel? I’ll just cut to the point: the people that ascribed most to your brand of politics and the people that were most sympathetic to the Palestinians were the very ones who were massacred on October 7th. Not only is your “solidarity” a joke to begin with, you’re actively cheering on the people who massacred people like you and would gladly murder you under the right (wrong?) circumstances. But you can’t see around your own biases enough to even understand what the situation is in reality.
You can’t grasp that you’re acting as useful idiots for the quasi-fascistic and religiously fundamentalistic government of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Oh, and (gender) apartheid too. Standing with “Palestine” as some ignorant first world adult child, you may as well slap a Khamenei sticker on your Macbook. And as you may have worked out at least this far, all of the things that the government of Iran stands for and enforces are things you are diametrically opposed to. So why are you supporting them? Is it really just for the chic? Are keffiyehs so totally in right now?
Bibi’s visit to the United States (which is nominally what this essay is about) brought out hate the likes of which America hasn’t seen in a long time. The usual suspects amassed in DC and were so morally reprehensible that Vice President Kamala Harris (who did not attend Bibi’s speech to Congress despite being President of the Senate) issued what was admittedly a very forceful and direct renunciation of such despicable individuals that invoked centuries-old stereotypes and antisemitic tropes while paying lip service to the Palestinians. It’s really all the same with them, for months and months (and years and years)—Jew haters are gonna hate Jews. Rhetoric from white supremacists and the far-right has leaked in to so-called “progressive” circles and is now running roughshod. Protip for anyone that ever uses the term ‘Zionist’ as a slur: I’d start saving for your future unemployment now. “Anti-Zionism” = antisemitism. That is the undeniable truth. And if you can’t see that now, then it’s already too late for you.
Bibi hit all the right notes speaking to Congress and the American people. Thank you especially to freed hostage Noa Argamani for coming to see us and share your story, and to the heroes of the IDF and Israel. He touched on a good number of things I have been writing about: protestors, Iran, academia (he lit academia up and it was absolutely deserved). And antisemitism and its pernicious nature and manifestations in our time. Overall, he knocked it out of Nationals Park.
I’m not writing this as an endorsement of Bibi—I know that public sentiment is complicated, to say the least. There are many accountings to be had for a great number of things. I trust that the Israeli people can handle such at the appropriate time to do so. We appreciate his visiting us as the chosen representative of the Israeli people, and we apologize for our hateful collection of sad, angry clowns that can’t for a single second stop and ask themselves what they’re doing.
Many can’t see past the political to understand what’s really happening. They can’t grasp that people in Israel can and do disagree vehemently about how best to run their democracy, and that Israelis have no other land—they want what’s best for Israel and will fight for it, because they must. Because Israelis understand. No matter their political opinions, Israelis know that Israel must continue to exist for themselves and their family and for the safety and survival of the Jewish people.
The tragic news this past weekend was that Hezbollah attacked a Druze town in the Golan Heights and killed twelve kids playing soccer in Majdal Shams. Israel is attacked again and again and again. What other country in the entire world is expected to have its children be slaughtered repeatedly and then do nothing in response or mitigation of the chances that it happens again?
Far too many in America and elsewhere get swept up in “protests” for “Palestine”, without realizing that many at those protests are directly calling for the total destruction of the Jewish nation and by extension the Jewish people living in it (at a bare minimum 7.2 million Jews). And once they do realize what they’re cheering for, they far too often double down (justifying it to themselves however they have to) and become absorbed in “anti-Israeli” rhetoric and propaganda pulled directly out of history. It is not a healthy thing; not by any stretch of the imagination. The last time we had a Nazi problem this bad, tens of millions of people died. And this time around we have nukes. “I know not with what weapons world war three will be fought…”—probably nukes though, right?
And it’s in troubling times that it’s good to know who your real allies are. It’s as if October 7th shot up a flare, and for the first time everyone could actually see where everyone else was. Friends, enemies, everything was clear—even the people stabbing you in the back. A shocking number of people (some I used to respect) are willing to act like goose-stepping fascists if given the tiniest bit of self-righteousness and a “cause”. Pride goeth.
I could fill a book trying to diagnose the pathology of today’s antisemites. It actually amazes me how quick a certain kind of conspiracy theory activates in someone susceptible to that particular type. Once it takes hold, it quickly strangles any potential for critical thinking around the most critical subject for it. If only there were a way to shake them awake and force them to confront the possibility that they’re wrong about things; not just wrong, but catastrophically wrong.
Such a tool would be useful for monitoring my own sanity. Doubt is rational. I hope I never become someone who does not on occasion have doubts. Be extraordinarily cautious when encountering a “true believer”, as they are forces unto their beliefs—for better or for worse.
What I do know is that we are stronger together. From a proud American to my Israeli brethren:
God Bless America, and Am Yisrael Chai 🇮🇱 🇺🇸