Our Jewish friends need us

I stopped writing here in the fall, not because I meant to, exactly, but because two things happened that arrested my writing. First, our beloved dog Rufus died. Second, the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel left me horrified, and the response by the Left in my own country left me bewildered and angry.

With nary a moment to acknowledge or grieve what had happened to the Israelis and others who were raped, murdered, and kidnapped—to mourn the hole that had been ripped into the fabric of everyday life in Israel—the Left began . . . to celebrate. To treat the terrorist attacks as a legitimate act of resistance. To declare loudly their exhilaration that Palestinians had “broken out of their open-air prison”—never mind that among the perpetrators were men who had worked in Israel. And, in large protests all over the Western world, to call for a free Palestine “from the river to the sea.”

I wrote on Facebook in early November:

“Why have the mass murder and kidnapping of Israelis, and the ongoing violent attacks against the Israeli people, been met with hundreds of thousands of people marching to "free Palestine"? What is the connection?

“What is the connection between genocidal mass murder by Hamas and a liberation movement?

“Why aren't Western people marching against Hamas? Why aren't Western people marching to free Palestine from violent, apolitical terrorists?”

And as I wrote on Instagram yesterday:

“My progressive politics have always included opposition to antisemitism, just as I oppose racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, ableism, and body-size discrimination. I prefer to think in terms of what I support: cosmopolitanism, multiculturalism, religious freedom, liberalism. And I support Palestinian self-determination free from radical Islamism, as I support freedom and democracy everywhere and oppose authoritarianism and illiberalism and terrorism everywhere.

“I support the right of Israel to exist and flourish (which it can’t do under Netanyahu any more than the U.S. can flourish under Trump). I oppose Islamism just as I oppose white supremacist Christianity in my own country. And I wholeheartedly support mu Jewish friends, neighbors, and family (my in-laws and nieces) to live lives free from hatred and violence. Antisemitism on the left is just as objectionable as antisemitism on the right, and I will speak out against it wherever I can.”

This year, I’m writing again. And I look forward to writing here about what I love, because the things we love are touchstones in times of upheaval. Social justice, among other things, is the right for all people to live surrounded by beauty and beloveds, by the things that make being human wonderful.

Next up: A post about how much I love SNOW.