On 5 May 2024 my wife and I visited Kibbutz Be’eri and stood silently and sadly outside Vivian Silver’s bullet riddled home. I understand that the house has now been demolished alongside the hopes and dreams of peace that many had longed for over the previous 75 years.
I am not able to put myself in his shoes. That said, there are ideas that make sense and those that don't. There is no appetite for a Palestinian state because they have no intention of co-existing with Israel.
Yonatan Zeigen’s views, of which he is perfectly entitled to, perfectly reflect the fact that some people don’t see the world for the way it is but the way they are.
His reaction to his own mother’s death reminds me of the mentality of all of the (mostly) women who are clamoring to defend Lindsey Clancy. These people are impervious to facts and logic and their numbers seem to be growing
I do not think the case of Lindsay Clancy and her killing of her children is a good analogy when it comes to Gazans invading Israel and killing Israelis. The only facts that they have in common is that innocent people were killed. You may not agree with the logic/reasoning of those who believe that Clancy should not be held criminally responsible for killing her children, but the reasons that people have for that are nothing like the reasons which Zeigen uses to explain and excuse what Gazans did to his mother and others on Oct. 7.
I wasn’t trying to draw an analogy between the two events. I was likening the illogical and misguided reactions from certain people regarding both of those horrific events. People that seem increasingly detached from reality
Proponents of the two state solution always imagine a peace loving Palestinian state where people have equal rights regardless of religion, sex or ethnicity and where elections are regular, fair and democratic. This fantasy is ridiculous as it is not even close to reality in even one Muslim majority country. Why it would suddenly sprout in a Palestinian state is unfathomable.
Just like the parents and families of murderers cannot bring themselves to face and admit that their child/sibling etc committed the foulest of deeds, Yonatan Zeigen cannot bring himself to admit that his mother lived and died for a delusion and that the reward for her life's work was to be brutally murdered by the Gazans she imagined she could help and change.
It is an understandable psychological defense mechanism, especially after such a terrible tragedy. The larger issue is that many others share the same response but for much less understandable reasons, mostly their sacred belief in human universality and the idea that "we're all the same" and that Palestinians might become civilized with enough therapy and with Jews feeling their pain.
Vivian Silver is far from the first person to die for her beliefs, however deluded, but I do salute her for having skin in the game and risking her life for what she thought was right. There's a whole American division of As A Jews like the loathsome Peter Beinart who make their careers by selling the bogus "one state/binational" solution, which is essentially asking other people to bleed and die for your theories and empty idealism. When Beinart et al move as close to Palestinians as Silver did, then they can ask Israelis to face the same risks (which they'd never be stupid enough to do) and bet their lives and the lives of their families on the proposition that Jews can have jihadists for next-door neighbors.
What happened to Vivian Silver and her friends and families is a terrible tragedy, but at least she lived and died with more dignity than the Peter Beinarts of the world. And that's something her son can be proud of.
A note about the vacuum: Sadly there is an re-emergent Overlord to the calls for Gazan Hamas Statehood. This hidden hand is increasingly present in international conflicts now, including the War in The Ukraine: The Nazi Party. We are a group of Monitors here in Europe who have watched the Explicit Re-formation of The Nazi Party by Nazi Elements in The Armed and Intelligence Services of Europe. In 2014 this very highly placed group were caught as they proposed ‘Rolling Internecine Genocidal Warfare’ in The Middle East, and they offered Weapons of Mass Destruction to Terror Groups including Hamas in the Region. This same Nazi group were caught in Maidan Square actively operating International Military Communications Equipment for The Neo-Nazis in The Ukraine, which was instrumental in the Putsch. The Nazi Party is now the new European reality. They have been caught ready to arm any such State in Gaza, or Judea and Samaria. Our verified Reports are with the Authorities.
I know too many Leftist Jews that cling to that fairy tale. Of course they voted for Mamdani and El-Sayed. I have family members who voted against their own survival as well.
It is "suicidal empathy"--"Tikkun Olam" carried to the extreme. They never heard the logic of the flight attendant who instructs"Put YOUR oxygen mask on first--then others". Common sense and logic are overridden by an emotional need to be "caring" and to be viewed as such. Even Spielberg congratulated Mamdani.
One such person (born Jewish) has worked as a psychotherapist in NYC. He gave the poor discounts--and unsurprisingly is low income himself. Yet he adores Mamdani.He never even mentioned Oct 7th. It's as though it never existed for him. I pity his "patients"-"free" or at a discount--his advice would never recognize reality. Who ever coined the adage "The road to hell is paved by. good intentions" --must have had these irrational people in mind.
You have parsed a complex situation and found the essence of it. Ideas are the most powerful - and often dangerous - engines we have in the world. After October 7, I could have gone either way, as a left-leaning diaspora Jew with limited knowledge of the history of Israel. But I understood two things : 1) that I needed to inform myself of our history, and 2) that if push came to pogrom, I would be judged as a Jew. Nothing else I had supported, believed, voted for, donated to or done over my lifetime would save me. The hypocrisy of those groups and causes I had supported became obvious on October 8, and my faith in them collapsed like a house of cards, along with all the leftist assumptions I had learned.
No one cares about the Jews except the Jews, and I now understand my inherited obligation to stand with my people and everything my ancestors struggled, against all odds, to sustain. Am Yisrael Chai!
Excellent piece. You explain the true situation perfectly 👌
Zeigen apparently suffers from suicidal empathy, and the murder of his mother appears to have made it worse!
On 5 May 2024 my wife and I visited Kibbutz Be’eri and stood silently and sadly outside Vivian Silver’s bullet riddled home. I understand that the house has now been demolished alongside the hopes and dreams of peace that many had longed for over the previous 75 years.
A great essay and a great author. I know Yonatan on a personal level, such a passionate person he is.
I am not able to put myself in his shoes. That said, there are ideas that make sense and those that don't. There is no appetite for a Palestinian state because they have no intention of co-existing with Israel.
Yonatan Zeigen’s views, of which he is perfectly entitled to, perfectly reflect the fact that some people don’t see the world for the way it is but the way they are.
His reaction to his own mother’s death reminds me of the mentality of all of the (mostly) women who are clamoring to defend Lindsey Clancy. These people are impervious to facts and logic and their numbers seem to be growing
I do not think the case of Lindsay Clancy and her killing of her children is a good analogy when it comes to Gazans invading Israel and killing Israelis. The only facts that they have in common is that innocent people were killed. You may not agree with the logic/reasoning of those who believe that Clancy should not be held criminally responsible for killing her children, but the reasons that people have for that are nothing like the reasons which Zeigen uses to explain and excuse what Gazans did to his mother and others on Oct. 7.
I wasn’t trying to draw an analogy between the two events. I was likening the illogical and misguided reactions from certain people regarding both of those horrific events. People that seem increasingly detached from reality
Proponents of the two state solution always imagine a peace loving Palestinian state where people have equal rights regardless of religion, sex or ethnicity and where elections are regular, fair and democratic. This fantasy is ridiculous as it is not even close to reality in even one Muslim majority country. Why it would suddenly sprout in a Palestinian state is unfathomable.
Just like the parents and families of murderers cannot bring themselves to face and admit that their child/sibling etc committed the foulest of deeds, Yonatan Zeigen cannot bring himself to admit that his mother lived and died for a delusion and that the reward for her life's work was to be brutally murdered by the Gazans she imagined she could help and change.
It is an understandable psychological defense mechanism, especially after such a terrible tragedy. The larger issue is that many others share the same response but for much less understandable reasons, mostly their sacred belief in human universality and the idea that "we're all the same" and that Palestinians might become civilized with enough therapy and with Jews feeling their pain.
Vivian Silver is far from the first person to die for her beliefs, however deluded, but I do salute her for having skin in the game and risking her life for what she thought was right. There's a whole American division of As A Jews like the loathsome Peter Beinart who make their careers by selling the bogus "one state/binational" solution, which is essentially asking other people to bleed and die for your theories and empty idealism. When Beinart et al move as close to Palestinians as Silver did, then they can ask Israelis to face the same risks (which they'd never be stupid enough to do) and bet their lives and the lives of their families on the proposition that Jews can have jihadists for next-door neighbors.
What happened to Vivian Silver and her friends and families is a terrible tragedy, but at least she lived and died with more dignity than the Peter Beinarts of the world. And that's something her son can be proud of.
A note about the vacuum: Sadly there is an re-emergent Overlord to the calls for Gazan Hamas Statehood. This hidden hand is increasingly present in international conflicts now, including the War in The Ukraine: The Nazi Party. We are a group of Monitors here in Europe who have watched the Explicit Re-formation of The Nazi Party by Nazi Elements in The Armed and Intelligence Services of Europe. In 2014 this very highly placed group were caught as they proposed ‘Rolling Internecine Genocidal Warfare’ in The Middle East, and they offered Weapons of Mass Destruction to Terror Groups including Hamas in the Region. This same Nazi group were caught in Maidan Square actively operating International Military Communications Equipment for The Neo-Nazis in The Ukraine, which was instrumental in the Putsch. The Nazi Party is now the new European reality. They have been caught ready to arm any such State in Gaza, or Judea and Samaria. Our verified Reports are with the Authorities.
This is horrifying.
I know too many Leftist Jews that cling to that fairy tale. Of course they voted for Mamdani and El-Sayed. I have family members who voted against their own survival as well.
It is "suicidal empathy"--"Tikkun Olam" carried to the extreme. They never heard the logic of the flight attendant who instructs"Put YOUR oxygen mask on first--then others". Common sense and logic are overridden by an emotional need to be "caring" and to be viewed as such. Even Spielberg congratulated Mamdani.
One such person (born Jewish) has worked as a psychotherapist in NYC. He gave the poor discounts--and unsurprisingly is low income himself. Yet he adores Mamdani.He never even mentioned Oct 7th. It's as though it never existed for him. I pity his "patients"-"free" or at a discount--his advice would never recognize reality. Who ever coined the adage "The road to hell is paved by. good intentions" --must have had these irrational people in mind.
You have parsed a complex situation and found the essence of it. Ideas are the most powerful - and often dangerous - engines we have in the world. After October 7, I could have gone either way, as a left-leaning diaspora Jew with limited knowledge of the history of Israel. But I understood two things : 1) that I needed to inform myself of our history, and 2) that if push came to pogrom, I would be judged as a Jew. Nothing else I had supported, believed, voted for, donated to or done over my lifetime would save me. The hypocrisy of those groups and causes I had supported became obvious on October 8, and my faith in them collapsed like a house of cards, along with all the leftist assumptions I had learned.
No one cares about the Jews except the Jews, and I now understand my inherited obligation to stand with my people and everything my ancestors struggled, against all odds, to sustain. Am Yisrael Chai!