Where Do We Go From Here?
BRING THEM HOME NOW!
As I turned my phone back on following Shabbos, I found out that the bodies of six hostages were recovered in Gaza. The news trickled in through the evening and we later learned their identities with Hersh Goldberg-Polin being the most prominent name. I was at my niece’s Bat Mitzvah party but much like Simchas Torah last year and much of the past 11 months, it’s hard feeling joyous when Israelis are being held hostage in Gaza and Jews are being targeted across the globe for their identities.
I should be feeling excited for the upcoming awards season but instead my focus, as it has been for nearly 11 months, is off. Movies are just not doing enough when it comes to escapism and I’m supposed to be writing about movies for a living! At least, not in the same way that books are fulfilling the job—especially baseball books. I can bury my head in a book and just read without paying any attention to my phone. I might check my phone once every 100 pages but that’s it.
I don’t know how many others feel this way but this is what I wrote on Facebook today:
Angry. Infuriated. As much as I would love to go back to October 6, we'll never be at October 6 ever again. The past 11 months have shown the majority of world Jewry who our real friends and allies are. Unfortunately, those now former friends who have pushed Zionists out of their lives will never be in our lives again. I experienced anti-Jewish hate in trans spaces back in 2017 but I never thought I'd experience the anti-Jewish hate that I've seen during the past 11 months. It was hard going to sleep last night (a sleeper sofa at the hotel played a part in that, for sure) but I feel for all the hostage families and all those who lost loved ones on October 7. The majority of them will never see their loved ones again. Time is running out for the hostages remaining in Gaza.
I don’t know what the future holds other than this: Bibi needs to be removed from power and Israel must hold new elections. I don’t hold dual-citizenship—at least not yet, anyway—but Bibi needs to stop focusing on staying beholden to his far-right coalition and do everything he can right now to make sure more hostages come home alive rather than did. Make no mistake that all the blood during this war is on Hamas as they are a terrorist organization but there is NO EXCUSE for why this war didn’t end months ago.
Here in the states, I’m hearing more incidents of campus protesters targeting Jewish institutions. Let me phrase this in no uncertain terms: targeting Jewish institutions on campus is anti-Jewish hate. Targeting Jewish institutions or Jewish students on campus because of how you feel about Israel is anti-Jewish hate. There are no ifs ands or buts about it. It is anti-Jewish hate and it must be called out for the virus that it is.
BRING THEM HOME NOW!