I mostly try to avoid politics on the blog, but here I take the plunge for an issue I care about. I’m currently reading the autobiography of Abba Eben (three days away from finishing, so a review coming probably next week). Thus I’ve been thinking a lot about Israel of late. A cousin who, I believe, approaches life from the conservative end of things, perhaps extremely so, posted this on social media.
If you’re worried about the outcome of the midterms, you can rest easy knowing that Netanyahu will still be America’s president…
To which I facetiously responded, in part:
The last conspiracy theory I heard that is as ridiculous as this was that LBJ assassinated JFK at the launch of the moonshot.
After that she later posted, in part:
Quoting Abbas Araghchi (whoever he is): “Without Israel, There is No Hamas, ISIS, Al-Quada, 9/11, Epstein, AIPAC, Or The JFK Assassination.”
A different cousin who approaches life from the Left wing, so far out there on the left wing that he thinks all Trump voters are Nazi fascist f——- c——- child rapists, etc., posted this on social media:
Trump is owned by Israel because they have videos of him raping children. If you dont know this basic fact then you live in a fantasy world.
It’s interesting how the Left-Right continuum on Israel is not really a continuum at all. Rather, the two ends of the line bend into a circle and meet. The overriding views of both Left and Right extremes seem to be hatred for Israel. Hatred for Israel knows no political ideology. Nor gender.
Does hatred for Israel equal hatred for the Jews? I’m not prepared to say that these two cousins hate the Jews, but it’s a very small step from hating Netanyahu and hating Israel to hating the Jews.
I’ll be the first to admit that, in their extreme response to the Palestinian attack in 2023, Israel has crossed the line from goodness to evil. They have destroyed all the goodwill they built up in their measured response to Arab initiated wars in 1947-48, 1956, 1967, 1973, the 1988 ff intifada, and a few others I’m forgetting. Not only have they lost goodwill, they are raising up in the Arab world the next generation of terrorists and will reap the results of that in 20 to 30 years. They need to stop the Gaza campaign and take the lead in rebuilding Gaza after first spearheading a massive humanitarian relief effort for Gaza. Then they, and the world, need to assist the Palestinians in forming their own nation—something that’s been offered and rejected multiple times in the past—and that nation agreeing to live in peace with Israel. It could be that the West Bank and the Gaza strip will need to be two separate nations. I’m still thinking that over.
I support Israel but do not support what they’ve done in Gaza, what it seems they continue to do in Gaza.