It’s the eighth day of Hanukkah, known as the “festival of lights,” and I’m sitting at home hoping for a miracle that won’t happen. The world seems like an awfully dark place this December, and not just because the sun sets early in the night sky and darkness lasts longer than in summer. In a dark mood, I initiated a conversation with a neighbor I call “AS.” We talked about the state of Israel and the condition of Jews around the world. AS, who is an Orthodox Jew, said, and I agreed with him at the time, that the existence of Israel has provided Jews with a certain degree of protection against anti-semitism. I now think that was wishful thinking.
Israeli governments have wanted the world to believe that it has provided a bulwark against the discrimination and the persecution of Jews. No such hard and fast evidence seems to exist, though Israel has provided a sanctuary for some Jews who have fled from the Soviet Union and elsewhere, many of whom discovered that Israel wasn’t for them.
Now, in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel and the Israeli assault on Gaza, I don’t think anyone in his or her right mind would say that Jews are safer in the world today because of the existence of Israel. In fact, the Israeli assault on Gaza has provoked world wide attacks on Jews. After all, the world is outraged. No Jew is safe, not even in Israel; maybe especially not in Israel.
The current state of anger and hatred is largely due to the bombing of Gaza and the killing of Palestinians and other inhabitants of that open air prison and now open air graveyard. This is not to say that Hamas bears no responsibility for the horrors that have unfolded over the past weeks. Hamas committed crimes against Jews, but those crimes don’t and haven’t justified what some call “ethnic cleansing,” and others call genocide on the part of Israel.
Anyone in this day and age who puts his or her faith in any government, whether in the US or Israel, Ukraine or Russia, to make the world a better and a more peaceful place, and to bring about justice for all, is largely delusional. The US is as culpable as the Israeli government. After all, it supplies the weapons. More guns won’t help. Calling for a cease fire and “save the children” can open one to physical and verbal assault even in supposedly liberal environments. It’s dangerous to be a Jew, an Arab, a Palestinian and for anyone who inhabits the planet. And forget about freedom of speech.
This is nothing new. The current situation isn’t worse than it has ever been. Remember the Holocaust and the Nazi extermination of Jews, communists, catholics, the Romani, and anyone deemed “unfit.” And don’t say “never again” if you put your faith in guns and bombs. If you remember, Johnny, a patriotic American soldier, did get his gun, and ended up in a hospital without his arms, legs, and his whole face (including eyes, ears, nose, teeth, and tongue), making him a prisoner in his own body. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas, folks. And while you're at it, praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.
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