Some of it from other Jews.
There was my neighbor (a Jew), who stood with me on the roof of my building on the morning of 9/11, watching the towers burn, and said, "Why don't they just bomb Israel and leave us alone?"
The other day, a artist pal of mine (a Jew). said, "Why don't they just give them back Israel. It's causing too much anti-Semitism. The Jews should come here to America, where Jews control the media and the money."
Spoken like a true neo-Nazi.
Just perusing The New York Times today, I read about the destruction of over a hundred Jewish graves in Slovakia and the possible election of a Nazi sympathizer in France.
"Is there a difference between being anti-Israel and being anti-Jewish?" my editrix asked.
"It depends," I answered.
In the case of all the anti-Semitism in Europe, clearly not. Europeans are pissed at Israel and are taking it out on synagogues and Jewish soccer teams and Jewish cemeteries.
In the case of my Jewish neighbor on the roof, yes, possibly there's a difference. Although I think maybe he's just anti-human, to tell you the truth.
Almost immediately after 9/11, I started receiving "Help the Muslims!" e-mails from a pal of mine who works with an organization of Jews that fights for racial equality and justice for all people. This same organization now sends me e-mails denouncing the violence against Palestinians.
Jews fight for the rights of other people all the time. We are a minority, after all.
But who fights for the rights of the Jews?
Who fights for the right of Israel to protect itself?
Oddly, (oh my *&^$ God) unbelievably ... it seems to be Republicans and the Christian right. I cannot even believe this is coming out of my mouth, but for once, right--wing Republicans are on my side??!?!? Gasp! I don't even have a filing cabinet in my brain to handle the fact that Newt Gingrich and I are on the same page here.
I think I'll just keep this as like a fluke of nature sorta thing, but where are the Democrats?
Helloooooo, Democrats!! Israel needs you! We're still small. You can still like us!!
Damn! Now I'll really be screwed on election day. My lesbian feminist side will be voting Democrat, and my save Israel side will be voting Republican.
The Passover massacre was a turning point for me. Perhaps before that, I was trying, really trying to fight with my Zionist soul and feel the plight of the Palestinians.
Then they blew up a seder.
They walked in and blew up a seder!!!!?!?!?!
I assumed that no one in the world could condemn Israel after that. How could anyone deny Israel the right to defend itself from this kind of cowardly terror?
And yet they did, and they do. ...
If Israel were not a Jewish state, but a Christian state or a Muslim state, or shit ... almost any other kind of religion, I highly doubt they would be taking this kind of shit.
I was not alive in the 1930s when plumes of anti-Semitism laced through Europe like poison gas, easing the way for the discrediting and the dehumanizing of the Jews, which then made it oh so easy to simply slaughter them like cattle.
But I wonder ... that poisonous anti-Semitism ... did it really subside after WWII or did it just go undercover, lying in wait for a time when hating Jews would be all the fashion again?
Israel is in trouble. It is surrounded by Arab enemies plotting its destruction. It is chastised by Europeans who prefer the Palestinian plight to the Jewish one. Only the United States is hanging in there as an ally, however frayed those ally strings have become.
I have this terrible fear that I will witness the demise of Israel, and I will have to confess to my children and my grandchildren that I did nothing to stop it.
"What did you do to save Israel, Grandma??"
"I wrote it about on my website and prayed."
Is it anti-Semitic to be anti-Israel?
It depends who you ask.
If you ask me ... I'd say abso-fucking-lutely.
