And in doing so, making Israel (the Jew) the war criminal in its response to Oct 7. In reading this the overwhelming thought that I had was this collective memory that we Jews have of our history/trauma is what is behind the determination of Israel to finish off Hamas & finally tell the world that ‘Never Again, really means Never Again.’ The rest of the world really doesn’t ‘get it’ because they have no idea what this collective memory feels like. BTW, you can be an American Jew who was born right after the Holocaust & lost, or not lost family members but grew up steeped in the Holocaust fallout & deeply connected to Israel through your life to this day with relatives or marriage or many different ways. You can be a Jew anywhere & you can be part of this collective memory, if you know our history.
I understand your comment that we can’t make rational decisions if we’re responding to the past, not what’s in front of us, but Hamas has instituted 2 intifadas, one with suicide bombings murdering so many innocent civilians, stabbings, car rammings, kidnappings, etc. I don’t even know the number of dead Israelis or visitors to Israel that have been murdered just since 2006 when Hamas took over. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands rockets periodically fired into Israel keeping the Israeli people on edge constantly. So it’s not so much the distant past they are reacting to. I think Oct 7 was the straw that finally broke that patience. I was in Israel for 3 months in 2019. I rented an apartment in Jerusalem. It was walking distance from the Temple Mount. The Muslim behavior towards Jews, on our most sacred holy site, is intolerable. We are not allowed to pray up there. They built a makeshift Mosque on the Temple Mount. The Israeli government told them to remove it. They refused and for all I know it’s still there. The Dome of the Rock is full of bricks & rocks to throw down on the Israeli’s praying at the Western Wall. They play soccer up there. Have picnics up there. I have spent a lot of time in Israel, I was married to a Sabra. I have family there. Some were leftist leaning thinking that you could somehow live in peace with the so called Palestinians. Sad to say, I don’t believe that this is possible & most don’t believe it anymore either. Many of the hostages & murdered were peace activists, that’s why they were living so close to Gaza & some even drove Gaza civilians back & forth to hospitals & doctors in Israel for free treatment & the payment they got was to be murdered or taken hostage. Do you think that there are any hostages still alive? Doubtful. The worst part of all this is the explosion of Jew hate on every single social media platform including substack. Please tell me why there is no outrage over the hundreds of thousands of Ukraine citizens, including women & children killed by the Russians in the last 2 years. Is that not a ‘genocide?’ Especially if 20,000 approximately Gaza civilians are being killed because they are being used as human shields. There is no comparison in numbers, but no Jews, no news. Russia is not being hauled before the ICC for war crimes. The irony is that South Africa routinely murders white farmers but they are accusing Israel of genocide.
@ClaireBerlinski, I see the email with your reply but it’s not showing up on the substack. I will check it out. Thank you very much.
Well said Marc!
And in doing so, making Israel (the Jew) the war criminal in its response to Oct 7. In reading this the overwhelming thought that I had was this collective memory that we Jews have of our history/trauma is what is behind the determination of Israel to finish off Hamas & finally tell the world that ‘Never Again, really means Never Again.’ The rest of the world really doesn’t ‘get it’ because they have no idea what this collective memory feels like. BTW, you can be an American Jew who was born right after the Holocaust & lost, or not lost family members but grew up steeped in the Holocaust fallout & deeply connected to Israel through your life to this day with relatives or marriage or many different ways. You can be a Jew anywhere & you can be part of this collective memory, if you know our history.
I understand your comment that we can’t make rational decisions if we’re responding to the past, not what’s in front of us, but Hamas has instituted 2 intifadas, one with suicide bombings murdering so many innocent civilians, stabbings, car rammings, kidnappings, etc. I don’t even know the number of dead Israelis or visitors to Israel that have been murdered just since 2006 when Hamas took over. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands rockets periodically fired into Israel keeping the Israeli people on edge constantly. So it’s not so much the distant past they are reacting to. I think Oct 7 was the straw that finally broke that patience. I was in Israel for 3 months in 2019. I rented an apartment in Jerusalem. It was walking distance from the Temple Mount. The Muslim behavior towards Jews, on our most sacred holy site, is intolerable. We are not allowed to pray up there. They built a makeshift Mosque on the Temple Mount. The Israeli government told them to remove it. They refused and for all I know it’s still there. The Dome of the Rock is full of bricks & rocks to throw down on the Israeli’s praying at the Western Wall. They play soccer up there. Have picnics up there. I have spent a lot of time in Israel, I was married to a Sabra. I have family there. Some were leftist leaning thinking that you could somehow live in peace with the so called Palestinians. Sad to say, I don’t believe that this is possible & most don’t believe it anymore either. Many of the hostages & murdered were peace activists, that’s why they were living so close to Gaza & some even drove Gaza civilians back & forth to hospitals & doctors in Israel for free treatment & the payment they got was to be murdered or taken hostage. Do you think that there are any hostages still alive? Doubtful. The worst part of all this is the explosion of Jew hate on every single social media platform including substack. Please tell me why there is no outrage over the hundreds of thousands of Ukraine citizens, including women & children killed by the Russians in the last 2 years. Is that not a ‘genocide?’ Especially if 20,000 approximately Gaza civilians are being killed because they are being used as human shields. There is no comparison in numbers, but no Jews, no news. Russia is not being hauled before the ICC for war crimes. The irony is that South Africa routinely murders white farmers but they are accusing Israel of genocide.
Very well said, Leslie.