I've stood for my gay friends, my Asian friends, my black friends… And where are they now —- silent.
Simma Levine
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Dear Bob - I was born Eisenstein but changed my name many years ago due to antisemitic death threats in my home country of Sweden.
Conveniently, around the same time, I moved abroad to pursue opera vocalist studies.
Stuck in the US due to health issues during the pandemic, I thought I was safe and free, hence considered changing my name back. Sad to see antisemitism has risen even more since then though.
I shall take back, claim and f*cking own my birthright now. My next song will be called… yeah, you guessed it.
Cheers,
Alex Hummingson
______________________________________
This is worse than the Nazis, they hid what they were doing, now you can walk down the streets and yell kill the Jews.
Imagine if you went to see a play of the Diary of Anne Frank, as soon as the Nazis walk in , half the audience would stand up and yell 'She is in the attic"
As for yourself you need to wake up, you had a President who Israel had no better friend and all you wanted was to get rid of him.
You support the Democratic party that contains rabid antisemitics.
Face it the left hates Jews. And as a man of the left you support a side totally opposed to your our interest and self perseveration.
Balrama Balrama
______________________________________
100% agreed that everyone who supports Israel and the Jewish people should state as much publicly. I'm a boomer and the vast majority of people I know support the Jewish people. Many of them don't want to say it out loud - don't want to take the heat - but doing so is critically important. Many college students and recent college graduates have been taught little-to-nothing about world history, including the millennia of Jewish persecution leading up to the holocaust and the UN's formation of Israel in 1948. This young cohort has zero context with which to consider recent events, so they default to "decolonization" and other such babble. The older, educated generation has a duty to help educate our younger generations and future leaders on this important history.
Gene Joly
Methuen MA
______________________________________
The biggest shame is the senior Black Civil Rights leaders who witnessed the major contributions of Jews to the Movement in the 60s &70s. Many idealistic and courageous Jewish kids went into the South when it was a very scary and dangerous place and fought for civil rights, some of them losing their lives. And without the huge amount of financing contributed by Jews, the Civil Rights Movement may not have gotten off the ground. Where's the reciprocity? The gratitude? The only Black leaders speaking out against anti Semitism now are those that are Republicans and Conservatives. From the Left: Crickets. It's shameful.
Mark Weiner
______________________________________
I live in Canada and have friends all over North America, every person in my network supports Isreal, however, everything I see in the media is a sad portrayal of another flavour of the month flag being flown by the followers of group think against the 'whiter' oppressive. You may be Jewish but you're more white than George Floyd, which is SO racist in itself. But this is fire that we get burned by, when playing these identity games.
I always have and always will support the Jewish people.
Julien Jorgensen
______________________________________
After writing a relatively measured public diatribe in support of Jews, a Hispanic member of my team resigned and is threatening a lawsuit because "as a brown person" he felt "unsafe" working at a company whose leader spoke out publicly in support of Jewish people while ignoring the plight of Palestinians.
I don't regret it. He has no case, not that I would do things differently anyway.
But it illustrates why business leaders are afraid to speak up. Somehow, rebuking violence against Jewish people has become short-hand for prejudice against Muslims. It's ridiculous.
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Wonderfully written and moving. Thank you. I am a non Jew and don't think I needed a kick in the butt, but even so it is always good to be reminded about rust.
John Gibson
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You're becoming the lone cry in the desert. Keep it up, Bob, and let's hope the tide will turn and all those stupid kids will realize the truth about the Palestineans.
Schuyler Bishop
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After reading, I can't bring myself to remove this email letter from my inbox. Looks like it's going to live there for some time. Thank you.
rdesjean
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Totally agreed with your points Bob.
One additional thought: I am also tired of being called antisemitic for questioning any action of Israel's government or for saying that the people living in Palestine deserve a decent life. This has made it harder for me to stand up against actual antisemitism, which is all around us every day.
John Horner
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Beautifully written, Bob. I know you must be getting just so much bile sent your way as you stick your neck out on this stuff. Thanks so much for sending it anyway.
Bill Higgins
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Even when I have spoken out against antisemitism it unfortunately hasn't changed people's minds. When I went to law school (at Southwestern no less), I occasionally studied with a couple of classmates, one whom would on occasion make some antisemitic comments. I would speak out against it and he would just laugh it off. Another person who was with us one time during one of our study sessions agreed with the other classmate by saying he didn't like Jewish people either, which just blows my mind, especially considering that he hung out with Jewish people from school.
I don't get it. I suppose I was naive, but it honestly shocked me that some people would honestly believe those things about Jewish people. I was always taught growing up that everyone is equal. I grew up in Utah where, as you well know, there are not a lot of Jewish people. I think I knew only one Jewish person before I moved to LA to go to law school. Nevertheless, I was at least educated about the holocaust, antisemitism, and the need to fight bigotry whenever I encounter it. Have I been perfect in fighting these things? No, but I can always change and do better going forward.
Since moving to LA 13 years ago, I have made friends with a lot of Jewish people and I am grateful for those friendships. It's one of the things I love about living in LA, ie becoming friends with people from different cultures and backgrounds.
I have been thinking a lot about what you said recently regarding Israelis Can't Win. I agree; if another country was taking the same actions that Israel is right now with respect to Hamas, I believe the reaction would be different. Do I agree with everything Israel is doing here? No, but I don't think it's too difficult to separate the decisions of the Israeli government from Jewish people as a whole, the majority of which live outside of Israel.
I'll stand up Bob, even if it changes no one else's mind. Thanks.
Samuel Jones
______________________________________
Due process is not something you can only stand up for when they come for the Jews.
I stood by my client Kevin Spacey (the son of nazi sympathizer) because that's how much I believed in due process.
And I told him and everyone in my orbit that a lack of due process (cancel culture) will always end up at the doorstep of the Jewish people.
I've been getting hate mail and death threats for 5 years now. And I will continue to stand by anyone entitled to due process regardless of what Hollywood or anyone else thinks of me.
Stay safe Bob.
Evan Lowenstein
______________________________________
I applaud your outspoken conviction. There is a moral decay in our Universities and amplified on social media. Professors (if you want to refer to them as such ) have supported an oppressor vs. oppressed analogy to simplify an extremely complex issue. It's one of those "who was here first" debates. Educated people know that the Jews (especially the Sephardic) were and have been indigenous to the holy land for thousands of years (only to be "ethically cleansed" repeatedly over past 2000 years. Educators are "preaching" that the "return" of Jews worldwide from Eastern European pogroms in the late 19th century through the holocaust along with Jews from the Arab nations in Africa and the Middle East (who were expelled) represent "settler colonialists". According to this assertion, these "interlopers" have no right to live in ANY of the land of Israel and in turn , are subject to their own version of ethnic cleansing. That's where the chant "From the River to the Sea" originated from. This isn't about the "occupation" of the West Bank or Gaza (which Israel gave back to the Palestine Authority back in 2005. Despite the vast majority of worldwide recognition of Israel's creation 75 years ago the protests deny the legitimacy of the entire land of Israel as a Jewish State. Accusations of "apartheid"are hurled despite the fact that 20% of Israel's population is Muslim and they live freely, have the right to vote, serve in the government and on the courts.
Israelis and those who support Zionism are labeled as "the enemy" and the horrific acts committed by Hamas are justified as "resistance". What's worse these protestors are getting their news (not from the Times, the Post , CNN or you) from Tic Tock influencers who spew misinformation. For example, many of the students interviewed question the authenticity of the atrocities committed by Hamas despite the fact that many of them were livestreamed.
You can't win a PR battle if Jews are "dehumanized" with lies. Those who celebrate the murder of men, women and children have lost all sense of humanity. It's 1939-45 all over again. Except this time the Jews of Israel have the ability to fight back.
Michael Borodinsky
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When people support those who chant Death to Jews, Death to America maybe it's time to acknowledge it and wait until they're slaughtering Jews before you begin whining about it. You (the collect you) caused this problem supporting the corrupt orgs like BLM and SLPC.
Tony
UpperMgt.
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Jewish people are indoctrinated from childhood with the belief that everyone hates them and wants to kill them.
And the belief that it is ok to preemptively kill anyone who hates you.
That is paranoia. It is dangerous and insane.
Israel is killing 1.1 million innocent children in response to 1200 Israeli deaths. May God have mercy in your soul.
Jennifer Bun
______________________________________
Thanks for this piece, Bob.
As for "All the people standing up for Black Lives Matter... You can't stand up for the Jews?", don't you know that the Jews are oppressors and black people (and Palestinians) are oppressed by definition, at least in the woke far left's neo-Marxist world view? I used to believe that this sickness of antisemitism has infected only the woke far left (aside of the far right). The response to the October 7 Hamas massacre showed me that the rot is far deeper on the left, infecting a pretty large segment of the Democrats, including people at the State Department and even in the WH security council. As a life-long Democrat this deeply worries me. It pains me to agree with DeSantis' banning expressly antisemitic student organizations from universities in Florida.
BTW, if you want to get depressed read the summary of what transpired at most of our universities and how meek and wishy-washy the response of the university presidents has been:https://spme.org/?mailpoet_router&endpoint=view_in_browser&action=view&data=WzMwNDUsImI1ZTkxNTg2NjIzMSIsMCwwLDAsMV0
The thought that these kids (well, young adults) whose minds have been infested with antisemitism during their college years, will grow up to be our nation's leaders in a decade or two is deeply disturbing.
Regards: Thomas S.
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Keep the faith Bob. Most of Christendom are ardent supporters of Israel and Jews. Most in the pulpit with global outreach speak fervently of their belief of Gods favor for Israel. That's no small body of empowered people. More importantly God insists that Israel and the Jewish shall prevail and prosper but like all of the sheepfold HE doesn't promise there won't be tribulation. Quite the contrary.
JB
Incredo
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Ask negative readers are they only watching GAZA shorts or the whole HAMAS movie?
Paul Bailey
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We're living in very scary times. Some of us terrified to leave our neighbourhoods.
Tonight I was at the Living Landmarks Conservancy Gala. I chatted with a fella who studied war theories in college and said WW3 is inevitable. I really hope he's wrong.
However, it does feel like 1938 in terms of tension and growing hatred towards the Jews.
We definitely need to stand together.
I haven't been publicly vocal yet but I've had many uncomfortable conversations with friends who are Jews and non.
All I can say is I've never felt prouder of my heritage. I'm a Jew and I'm proud. Say it loud!!
We all need to change the narrative before it's too late. I worry about this notion every day since Oct 7th.
I ran into a well known radio personality this morning. We embraced and got teary eyed whilst talking about the state of affairs.
We need to organize.
If you have ideas, I'm all ears.
Aside from speaking out, what else?
From a very disturbed human.
Fiona Bloom
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+1, Bob, +1. Thanks for this. I've not stayed silent (ever), and I'm not staying silent now.
I can't say I'm surprised though - saw it coming years ago - particularly not in the recent climate (by which I mean pre- and post-Trump).
Where's Jared and Ivanka now?
Again, thanks for this - let's hope it's just an earthquake/volcano eruption, and that it won't last longer than a real geological event.
Axel Bali
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Great Read!
Susan Collier
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We will stand together with our friends and allies, or we will stand alone. It doesn't matter to me. "Never Again" means what it says. In light of two thousand years of diaspora history following the genocide committed in Judea by the Romans, that's all there is to it. There will not be another, third Holocaust. Period.
Charlie Sanders
Music Attorney
NYC
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Thank you Bob!!! I cannot believe what I am Seeing in NYC… it's like watching a movie script unfold … everything was planned accordingly and the universities are following perfectly - exactly as Hamas had planned! Suddenly, it's 'cool' to be against Israel ( to be against the Jews). Just look at the signage and the chants!
NYU, Harvard , u of Penn, Cornell, Yale , u Michigan, UCLA , UCBERKLEY … college students are afraid to go to Their forms and silence from the administrators!
My parents told me about 1939 Germany and now I feel like it's happening again except USA has stronger rules in place in Our government.
NEVER AGAIN!!!
Give direction and suggestions because I AM SCARED AND NERVOUS!!!
Thank you , as always for your honesty!!!and love your articles on music / talent and our world!
Good health!
Debra Landsberg
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Thanks Bob
Rick Shrier
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You have a massive following. Perhaps you can use your popularity to get Elon Musk to utilize his tunnel boring machinery to bore tunnels to the Hamas command post under the hospital without injuring innocent civilians. Technically it is possible from the Mediterranean.
Ronald Linder
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Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Mindy Lehmann
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AMEN, Bob!
Jonathan Wolfson
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Bob,
Yes.
Check out this article from Rolling Stone from this past weekend:
"Low Cut Connie's Adam Weiner Dares to Celebrate His Jewishness in a Thrilling New Concert Film - There's different avenues to antisemitism now...you don't even need to look very hard,' says the singer': https://tinyurl.com/4d43htjx
Adam Weiner
______________________________________
F*ck the ignorant rabid goyim - say something jew hating to me and your going down (or i die trying)
These forever Jew hating goyim thrive on the fear (gheto jew mindset)
Israel gave us back our balls -Don't throw them away!
NEVER again -Be a fcking warrior!
Dave Nels
______________________________________
I'm sorry this is happening Bob.
I've always stated on social media and elsewhere that we are all the same and should be treated as such. I've never understood why antisemitism, and hate, and racism continues to be a corrosive thread in our world. I hope it ends one day, I really do. Sending love out to you and all my jewish friends everywhere, and there are many. peace.
- brad byrd
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You've lost the plot.
Morgan MacDonald
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My wife had many relatives murdered in the Holocaust. Her father helped his 5 brothers escape to Israel.
We were both student protestors against the war in Vietnam in the 60's.
However, the student protests against Israel is totally different. The rapid resignation of Jewish donors or board members from educational institutions seems abrupt only if one is not aware of the historical context in which they occur.
Most importantly, the Hamas and student chant "Palestine free from the River to the Sea," is a demand for a new Holocaust for "where are the Jews?" This is no different than the Nazi policy for a Europe "Judenfrei," free of Jews.
There is no question that its meaning is not simply 'anti-Zionist,' but unmistakablely antisemitic.
Secondly, to support or to not condemn the barbaric Hamas murder of 1200 Jews is the same as applauding the deaths of 36,000 Americans on 9/11 due to the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia.
Robert Shuman
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One of your best ever…spot-on everything.
Silence is complacency and we all need to be more like Neil in accepting responsibility for our words, actions or lack of either, especially now.
Sal Dickinson
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Couldn't agree more and is why I posted this following the horror.
"Richard Stumpf on LinkedIn: No room for demons. Make no mistake, these are demons we are dealing with. Take care not to conflate issues. This is evil and evil needs to be cast out.": https://tinyurl.com/yxb9teyt
It's absurd and feels alternate reality that some people are actually supporting a terror group. Not just run-of-the-mill average citizens, but elected officials too! WTF. You don't have to be Jewish to call this out for what it is, you just have to be human.
Some say hatred towards Jewish people stems from the fact that Jewish people remind everyone that there is a God and that God calls on all of us to be better, refrain from certain pleasures and generally sets a higher standard that isn't easy to live by. Who knows but either way it's just wrong. What's really a head scratcher is Christians, Muslims and Jewish people all share the same God - you know, the God that Jewish people connected with first. SMH.
Richard Stumpf
CEO
Hawkeye Music Group
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I'm Jewish and proud!!!
Sam Gladstein
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I believe it is worse today than WW2. For the sheer fact that the antisemitism is not hidden-away...and those aware of it are not in isolated German towns & villages.
For instance, nobody on American college campuses was imitating the brown shirts and lauding their praises in 1923. By the way, the 100yr timeline match is unnerving.
So, if left unchecked there will be a worldwide holocaust by 2033. It is urgent that people who support Israel take action.
Speaking on behalf of many evangelical Christians, we stand alongside Israel. Always have, always will.
Steve Wiggins
Memphis TN
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Hell yeah Bob, thank you for writing this. I was bar mitvah'd in the 80's and haven't been to temple more than 5x since but been a proud jew since birth and this moment in time is a wake up call for us all.
The road to hell wasn't paved only w good intentions, it was paved w w indifference
Mark Burrell
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This is so lucid, so thorough yet concise, Bob, illuminating the issue of antisemitism as I have never seen before.
Writing at its best, bottom line direct yet eloquent and moving at least me to FEELING it.
I am a non-Jew who believes very strongly we are all in this life together and MUST speak up and take action whenever possible.
I am choking up a bit writing this but thank you.
DG
P. S. I don't believe there is "a guy in the sky, either, but DO have a deep faith that there is a divine Power that runs through nature, which includes us.
We can and should call upon that POWER to help us now.
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Bravo Bob. In an endless acre of media quicksand, this is the most articulate essay I have read in 3 weeks. This is required reading.
Barry Avrich
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Your antisemitism post reminded me of the poem turned video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRDq7aneXnk The Hangman by Maurice Ogden, read by Herschel Bernardi. My freshman year political science professor in 1996 read the poem and showed the video in class. A couple years later, I was speaking with him, and he mentioned how he didn't like the direction academia was going. An early warning to what we've seen in colleges for the past several years that has erupted with all the blatant antisemitism on college campuses. The videos on college campuses where students are paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for what, being harassed and bullied by other students, while administrators do nothing are sickening.
We have to speak up and demand to be treated fairly and equitably. We must remind other Jews that are sympathetic to any cause of the downtrodden to speak up for themselves because it doesn't look like those "allies" have their back and probably never did. I've only had to speak up a handful of times in my life, but I'm glad I did, and I will continue to.
--Steve Hutter
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Thank you Bob
I am reminded of Pastor
Martin Niemöller's inspiring words.
Your words ring just as true.
"First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me"
John Kanakis
Toronto ON
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Well said!
Russell Paris
______________________________________
You speak the truth, but this is nothing new for American Jews.
It is well documented that while Arthur Hays Sulzberger was CEO and Publisher of The New York Times, the "Newspaper of Record" failed to report on "Hitler's Final Solution" and the targeting and extermination of Jews.
Kudos to the gentile law firms that responded to the Professors and Harvard students who supported in writing the October 7, blaming Israel for the atrocities.
Shame on Bill Ackman, the billionaire CEO of Pershing Square Capital Management, who backtracked on his demand to release the names of those students when another Harvard scholar said - on video - that "all Jews should be exterminated."
Ackman wrote on Twitter "identifying this racist anonymous thug and giving the world an economic incentive to find him isn't the answer."
Yes it is Bill. To use your own words, I demand they are identified from that group picture they posed for and their names listed forever on Google..
Paul Brownstein
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Great column Bob. I'm a Jew. I feel you here.
Doug Deutsch
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THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Karen Sraberg
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As a proud, and very outspoken (especially now) Jew, I want to thank you for not staying silent, Bob. Let's keep up the good fight and encourage others to do so alongside us. Shalom aleichem.
Marni Greenberg
______________________________________
Thank you Bob
Don VanCleave
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Hi Mr. Lefsetz,
We live in a world of two-faced f*cks!
Even when you're right they will not admit they are wrong either!
My beliefs are worth more than money also but I am silent because if anybody in my orbit says anything bad about the Jews I don't use words, I just use the folding chair I just smash over their head talk for me, no sh*t!
Must be why I don't hear any of it!
John Payne
______________________________________
Thanks for this. Having people with a wide audience, i.e., not just us Jewish people is a good thing. I get a 100+ emails every day since Oct. 7th, from people I know. I forward some of it, and when I look at my BCC list, 90%+ are Jewish. We need voices like yours who can reach out to others.
Nathan
______________________________________
Btw, my parents were Holocaust survivors.
They wiped out my mom's father, mother and brother.
My father's mom and brothers were also killed.
Thank you for your words.
Justin Pierce
______________________________________
Anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism. Period. Bari Weiss calls anti-Semitism the canary in the coalmine of a society in decline.
Keep this up and absolutely do not back down. It's the good vs evil story of our lifetime. And the fact people don't easily grasp this is because anti-Semitism is as old as time.
Thanks for this note and STAY SAFE!!
Edward Ryan
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Silence is a killer
Whatever kind of Jew you don't like, I'm that one.
Rose Gross-Marino
______________________________________
WAY TO GO, BOB!!
HAMAS, and the Palestinian citizens they use as fodder for Allah (as well as the ones cheering in the streets over butchered israelis), are now reaping the whirlwind they've sowed for themselves, due to their collective responsibility for raising and brainwashing a generation of young men (born during the 2nd Intifada circa 2002) capable of the beyond-inhumane, literally evil acts of wholesale slaughter and degradation, raping, beheading and burning that they committed, beyond almost ANYTHING even the Nazis EVER did to "their" Jews. The whirlwind is not "revenge," it is JUSTICE for the 1400 (and probably all the doomed hostages, too). DEAL WITH IT, Jew-hating world. AM YISRAEL CHAI
Arlen Schumer
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Please comment on why all these left leaning universities are spear-heading this antisemitism…its such double standard.
Exposes the true left leaning globalist bs…
jorantex
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I'm with you.
Paul Ewing
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Well said Bob. I had friends who were in Israel at the tie time of the attack, they are fine back in Canada now.
I've RTed a lot of pro Israel statements on Twitter and Facebook. Got in a long discussion on Twitter with a pro Palestinian fellow. Once he realized I won't agree with him about Israel, he said I must have a low IQ, that was it for that conversation. The strangest was a cab driver that tried to convince me that the Jews were OK, just not the Zionists. I was kinda surprised to hear that here in Halifax.
Bob I'm not doing that much but what I can. For the record I'm not Jewish but my friend Ros is!!
Doug Gillis
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As a secular Jew whose family was deeply committed to the civil rights movement of the 60s, it saddens me greatly that so many black Americans were raised on a steady diet of antisemitism from the likes of Louis Farrakhan and even the more noteworthy black leaders like old "Hymietown Jesse Jackson" who was barely criticized for that remark or Al Sharpton who used to babble incessantly about "Jewish shopkeepers in Harlem" before they cleaned him up for TV. Now you have Kyrie Irving and Kanye West and apparently Chappelle joining in the festivities adding credibility to my lifelong belief that "everyone needs someone to hate" and the Jews have been handy for the last few thousand years.
The families of Jews who died in Mississippi must feel like they died in vain seeing today's result. We thought we were trying to eradicate white supremacy and white racism but all we did was encourage ignorant black Americans to become equally racist as the worst whites. Sadly many white Americans and the Democratic Party has to a large degree joined them in that thinking.
I solidified my theory one day riding in a limousine in Montreal when I heard the driver ridiculing "Newfies". I said "Newfies?" and the driver replied "yes, you know, dummies from Newfoundland". It was then and there that I knew "EVERYONE NEEDS SOMEONE TO HATE".
Today's "progressive" will give a pass to any person of color who disses a Jew. Ilhan Omar can talk about "Benjamins" as if ALL lobbies don't do the same thing which is trying to "buy influence" but its only a problem for Hamas supporters when Jews do it. They will get a pass over and over again even when equivocating about Hamas terrorists.
Spike Lee's prognostication that "blacks can't be racist because they are not part of the power structure" was one of the stupidest things a smart guy ever said but a lot of black Americans believe it. As we speak black Africans are selling other black Africans into slavery but black Americans are too focused on Jews to notice. Saudi Arabia buys slaves from third world nations, mostly people of color, and holds them against their will but again, black Americans are too obsessed with hating Israel to do much else.
I am a simple man and silly me, .. I think ANYONE who HATES ANYONE for their skin tone, nationality, or any other condition of their birth is a racist.
I don't like the idea of any nation predicated on one religion but we are talking about one tiny Jewish state among dozens of Islamic theocracies to which a Jew cannot even get a passport to visit but they go unnoticed.
Many of the most racist cultures in the world are not white. What is happening to the world today is Darwinian in my opinion. Mother Nature is spitting us out like a bad taste and I don't blame her. The human "race" sucks.
Larry Brown (the guitarist)
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Well said
Hannah Schwartz
______________________________________
Thanks Bob,this world is crazy.I thought people were nuts when Trump was around.But now with Jewish people being attacked,it's even crazier.The hired goons in Russia going after Jewish people was a new low.Stay well Bob.I was raised Catholic,but reformed from that.I am on your side.Thanks again,Ted Keane
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As a wife of a Jewish man and mother of two sons who are half-Jewish, this antisemitism is not abstract for me or my family. What I have never understood is how a small minority population whose members have and continue to contribute so much to art, to science, to medicine, to life can be so profoundly hated. Is it fear? Jealousy? Ignorance? All three? Something else entirely? The fact that college kids have so little historical understanding about the Middle East I suppose in part explains how they can side with the Palestinians. I disagree with it, but it's like understanding why a three-year-old can't grasp the concept of existentialism or neurobiology. Or perhaps it's based in the hate-filled rhetoric of social media and the 'go along to get along' ethos of Gen Z? Does it matter? Where are the adults to explain that blanket hatred of any group simply tees your group up to be next? What would Hamas do with all of the gay singers/actors/artists/corporate moguls who remain silent? I think we know the answer to that.
It's going to get worse before it gets better. I fear for everyone who may be in the sights of the terrorists.
Thank you for this essay.
Medea Bern
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AMEN. Very well said.
Jeremy Levine | Head of Digital & Publishing
Live Nation Entertainment
______________________________________
as always thank you for the words!!
when i finally stood up bout
roger waters i felt a weight
lifted off my shoulders.
i felt free and realized why i don't hang out with anybody.
ur right,
if ur jewish u are always
calculating, working the room.
from the time my 3 rd grade teacher made me stand in the trashcan in front of the whole class facing the corner a couple times a week because i was jewish and she was german.
after school i would get the sh*t kicked out of me.
there wasn't any other jews
in my grade, just a couple in the neighborhood.
the entertainment executives should be ashamed but they think their power and money will save them. ask the bankers, artists, etc
in germany how that worked.
maybe ur artwork will be repatriated to ur ancestors?
good luck.
the democrats are gonna save u? good luck.
they are cowards.
its always about the money.
the majority of jews in power and money are hedging their bets.
getting the bunker ready.
thanks bob for being yourself and speaking the truth to inspire people.
love
marc brickman
______________________________________
I am Jew. I'm 62. I was taught to bare witness. Never to turn away from man's inhumanity to man. That was the lesson of the Holocaust, of my mother who survived the Holocaust.
I watched the videos posted by Hamas on October 7, I read the Zakah descriptions of what they found. I'm sick, I can't sleep, I walk around with a heavy heart
Worse than all of the that was the worlds reaction, the morally bankrupt UN, the morally bankrupt university Presidents, the blatant Jew hate coming out of college campus seat. My brain can't process the level of hate spewed at Jews.
So my reaction like yours is to wear my Judaism on the outside. I'm on LinkedIn and even though I'm out of work, I don't care if my posts standing up for Israel prevent me from ever being hired again! There is only one thing that matters, standing up to hate, educating those who care to know the truth and standing up to all the anti-Semitic bullies.
Am Yisrael Chai!
Philip Greenstein
Btw: check out Michael Rappaport and Backandjewishunity on Insta, Hillel Culd on LI, they lift me up, we are not alone
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I have "I Stand With Israel" at the top of my FB page and I have gotten a little bit of grief from people saying "What about the innocent non-Hummas Palestinians?" and I don't have a good answer for that. I am worried about American citizens stuck in Gaza, but I will always stand with Israel and their right to have their own peaceful nation.
Katie Bradford
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Bob, you're on a roll! I want to say how proud I am of you for standing up in an industry that mostly looks down on anyone who speaks about these issues the way you have, but I'm scared it comes off as patronizing.
Since October 7th, I haven't slept a single night in peace. I was shocked by the savagery of these terrorists and what they did to men, women, children, toddlers, babies and the elderly, including Holocaust survivors. But what hit me in the gut were peoples response, or their lack of. The sound of silence. Ooof, it hit hard. Nobody cares. Nobody, Bob. Where were the celebs? A few spoke up, but so few it was stunning.
Amir Epstein
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Totally agree with you. So disgusting what is happening. Especially the Squad defending Hamas. The billionaire that has quit donating to the Ivy League school has put his money where his mouth is.
Kelly Breaks
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Thank you for speaking up.
Livia Trink
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Thank you for this.
Harv Glazer
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Thank You
Mike Medvin
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A-f*cking-men, Bob
Barry K. Herman, M.D., M.M.M.
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Why is the left so helpless to find the moral equipment to side with you here?
Todd Fernandez
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Thank you for this Bob. As head of Public Relations at The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles, we can tell you every voice and every message like this counts.
Aram Goldberg
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I have yet to meet someone antisemitic who can supply a fact-based reason for their antisemitism. And that's why it persists - as Jonathan Swift said, "You cannot reason a person out of a position he did not reason himself into in the first place."
Craig Anderton
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Amen dear man.
Xeni Jardin
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Well said. I started wearing the Star of David some years back. I have never been inside a temple, save for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah or two. My father was Jewish, which, I believe does not count since my mother was a WASP. Neither my Jewish grandfather or grandmother, that I never met—they died before I was born—or my 12 Aunts and Uncles, except one, ever admitted their Jewishness. Grandfather took a non-Jewish name and raised all his kids with it. This started in 1903, but as you said, anti-semitism is just as rampant today. I am an old Berkeley liberal, and it irks me that younger self styled progressives conflate anti-semitism and liberal politics. I won't let those comments stand in my presence. No one should.
Steve Greene
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I loved this email because it was straight to the point. You are absolutely right. So many people that I know have "come out" as Jews in the recent weeks and I admire them so much for doing so.
I try hard to support and show my admiration for my Jewish friends. It doesn't seem much in the great scale of things, but I hope it helps.
Best wishes
Peter Brentall
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Jews have been at the front lines as activists standing up for oppressed peoples wherever and when ever because they uniquely understand what it feels like to be oppressed, and in this country they have been particularly helpful to the black community. As one example, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwermer were murdered in Mississippi in 1964 solely for supporting African-Americans during the civil rights movement. And Jews were largely responsible for helping black music and musicians, yet which many black artists today either don't know or have conveniently forgotten about this so only a very few of those musicians and execs have made their support public like Russell Simmons ,did (and that got little to no converge compared to the massive coverage of Kanye West's off-his-meds anti-semetic rants which too many young people who follow him got exposed to). The silence is deafening.
Jews are always the first in line to help, yet they are the last to be defended by those whom they selflessly help when the Jews are under attack. So if there were ever a time to stand up and do the right thing and show what your character is as a human being, Jew or non-Jew, as you say the time is now….
Fred Goldring
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I think that Iliza Shlesinger has been the most articulate voice of all.
"Iliza Shlesinger: 'Jews Have Been Left Off the Agenda' - The stand-up on why she finds the latest rise of antisemitism painful but not surprising and her anger that many progressives fail to acknowledge Jewish suffering and marginalization.": https://tinyurl.com/36p4bu4c
Toby Mamis
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We may be on different sides of the political divide, but this is humanity vs. hate & ignorance...and this hillbilly stands with the tribes.
Tucker Woodring
Nashville, TN
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I'm trying REALLY REALLY hard to educate my "friends" on social media and other contacts when they (mostly unwittingly) make extremely painful antisemitic ignorant statements, but it's hard when one is in so much hurt and fear. Most people just don't understand how f*cking scary and painful this attack was to us given the historical context (some have likened it to a modern-day Pogrom). I expressly thank those of my friends and colleagues who are able to see past the noise and grasp the true good v. evil here, but the real challenge is to explain things CALMLY when you're in pain (especially since the person I'm usually trying to be calm towards is someone who's casually posting ignorant-ass "I'm anti-zionist but not antisemitic" horsesh*t).
This is our current mood: https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/dear-world-i-dont-care/
Best,
Kia Kamran
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It's always been a mystery to me that Jews have no tradition of trying to convert anybody to Judaism. Neither have the Hindus any tradition of conversion thru evangelism, nor Confucianism, nor Buddhism.
But dammit, the Muslims and Christians have always been into killing anybody who doesn't believe in the same imaginary people that they believe it. Such Hubris.
Alan Howard
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THANK YOU.
Josh Grabelle
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Amen...
Michael Rosenblatt
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AMEN
THANK YOU
APATHY DOESN'T WORK
Brian Schwartz
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Great work and staying with or even ahead of the story is what we must do....always. Whatever the risk.
Talk isn't cheap anymore.
Jonathan Gross
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Thank you for this, Bob.
Justin Kleinfeld
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Well done, Bob. Thanks.
Jon Sinton
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From: Scott Macklin
Wow, Bob! I appreciate you doubling down on your stance. Before I met my Israeli wife, I was a liberal, American Jew who leaned toward the Pro-Palestinian crowd. Then after understanding the perspective of my wife, who lived in Israel for the first 12 years of her life, I couldn't help but change my views on the situation. Having to constantly watch her back as she rode the bus or walked with her grandmother to the store, hoping to not be attacked. Having in the back of her mind that any bus ride could end in her and her family being in the path of a suicide bomber certainly shapes how you look at the world. Growing up in a very Jewish part of Baltimore, her childhood was not one with which I was familiar.
And the anti-semitism in this country has definitely been on the rise over the last few years. Trump made it ok to outwardly hate, which you've mentioned in your writings. But to worry about whether or not to send my daughter to daycare last Friday when Hamas called for a global jihad or about covering up my Jewish star tattoo on my arm when I walk the streets of New York City is something I've never had to deal with before. Protests at Columbia University and in Times Square chanting "From the river to the sea...," they know that means to kill all the Jews. They don't care. They mean it.
Earlier this year, my wife and I saw a play called Leopoldstadt on Broadway. It follows the life of a Jewish family in Vienna from the late 1800s to the 1950s. Some of the family tried to assimilate, some married out of the faith and some openly practiced Judaism. They participated in banking, manufacturing, sent soldiers to WW1, one who died and the other lost an arm. In the end, it didn't matter how Jewish they were. During WW2 the Nazis came in, took their businesses, their property and sent them to concentration camps. This play was amazing and I recommend it to anyone interested in theater, Jewish or not.
The point is that there is no assimilating for Jews. We are Jewish whether we play golf at the right country club, eat at the best restaurants or work at the most innovative tech firm and everyone around us is very aware of it.
The only way out of this is to fight. Israel can't let Hezbollah or Iran think for one second that they are vulnerable. I fear that both of those groups were involved in the strategy of the Hamas lead terror attack but I hope I am wrong. All my life I've heard how smart and cunning the Mossad is. I hope that's proven to be true in this case.
Thank you for your strong words, Bob!
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I don't know you, but I agree with much of which you penned about the current situation in and around Gaza. I take passionate exception, however, to your statement that no one cares about antisemitism but the Jews. I am an honorary member of the tribe and, as such, I care. I call it what it is …anti-Jewishness to avoid a distracting debate about who is a Semite. I'm looking at a certain rapper and sometimes sneaker seller.
Almost all of my best friends are Jewish and they, for example, have stood by me and asserted that Black Lives Matter. I especially appreciate the historical support of the civil rights movement by American Jews including rabbis.
As a Yale Law School graduate and now a retiring lawyer, I hope to beseech America's Jewish billionaires to fund a foundation to counter the dangerous and depressing rise of anti-Jewishness especially among Black Americans. There has been no more urgent time to use "soft power" to influence hearts and minds. This isn't for Bezos, Musk and Gates to do….this is for our crowd to make happen.
Alfred Clinton Perry
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From: Andre' Cholmondeley
This is a litmus test I've been asking some (fellow) leftist friends
exactly what you bring up —-when 911 happened those of us on the left who COULD HAVE listed every f*cking reason that the USA created the situation and the conditions for such an attack —— it's really not hard to argue that america basically begged for it — thru what we were doing in Afghanistan and Iran and Iraq for decades …..you could go back to the British and Germans & Americans carving up the Mideast for Standard Oil etc a hundred years ago……
but when the 9/11 attack happened did we focus on that ??
despite how much it was "deserved"?
nope—we immediately had compassion for the victims …and expressed anger at the brutality and insanity of the attack. There was no parsing of "well yeah, but the USA has been so brutal, responsible for endless death in the Mideast blah blah blah"
(Even tho that's a valid charge!)
very interesting and telling of a litmus test that the left is doing just that when it comes to Israel. Of course, I got attacked when I bring this up. whatever. Anyone that can condemn Israel (as one should) for its right wing government and apartheid actions, land theft when that's factual….but then NOT condemn Hamas for its murderous, racist, extremist Islamic views? That person is deeply dishonest
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From: Aron Lichtschein
Subject: Re: Gaza
Bravo, Bob. It is so refreshing to read an honest, frankly, sane take on what is happening. Provides me with much needed strength in this tough time (I had a family member murdered by Hamas at kibbutz be'eri).
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Thank you Bob for your strong wordsregarding antisemitism. Although I'm a lawyer in New York City now, I grew up a Jew in Columbia, South Carolina. My mother moved to South Carolina in the late 50's from Brooklyn. In school the kids used to ask her where her tail and horns were. Most of the Jewish kids at that time felt very alienated. One would have thought that was behavior of a bygone era, but as I was growing up in the 1980's and early 90's, I was still experiencing antisemitism. Oh, sure all the kids loved coming to our Bar Mitzvahs--great parties--but the antisemitism and alienation and otherness was always there. There were country clubs that had a "No Jews" policy, camp counselors that tried to convert me to Christianity, Christian prayers in our public high school before football games, and fights with kids that called me a "dirty jew." When I was in high school, I was going to miss a test due to Yom Kippur and the teacher said she was going to flunk me. When I protested she told me, "It's a Christian world, get used to it." Once, my best friend went to church and his pastor pulled him aside and told him he had heard he had a Jewish friend and he better stop hanging out with me or he would go to hell. The worst moments were when my closest friends would let an antisemitic phrase slip out of their mouth such as "He Jewed me down." Where does one learn such language and that it's acceptable-from their parents most of the time!
Yesterday, the friend that the pastor had warned about me said to me: "I didn't realize until this week how antisemitic the country was." Really? He then said, "Everyone in my neighborhood is flying Ukrainian flags in support of Ukraine. No one is flying a Star of David. Why do you think that is?" I responded, "Simple. No one wants to be mistaken for a Jew." Doesn't that say it all right there?
Bryan J. Swerling, Esq.
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From: Irene Twomey
Dear Bob,
Thank you for speaking out for all of us, Jews. You are my inspiration!
30 years ago I immigrated to US from Soviet Russia where antisemitism was accepted as normal part of life. There was no escape from it, it was the government that was enforcing it.
You could get in jail for studying Hebrew. You could get expelled from college or lose your job if you got caught attending a synagogue on a Jewish holiday. Jews were not accepted into most prestigious colleges, many jobs were not available for Jews, they were not allowed to travel abroad. You were harassed in school, on a bus, at work, anywhere. Nobody would ever speak up for you or try to defend you. You were a scapegoat by default.
I was incredibly naive to think that there was no antisemitism in US. Thank god it is not a government policy and discrimination is against the law, but on a personal level there is no shortage of it.
What is happening in Israel now and the way international community is afraid to stand up for Israel is a crying shame. It was not just Hamas, not just the Palestinians, it was the whole Arab world celebrating horrific mass murder of Israeli civilians on October seventh instead of condemning it.
Now they are all demonstrating in support of "poor Palestinians" who just a few days ago were dancing on the streets of Gaza celebrating the slaughter of Jewish women, children and elderlies.
Our home grown liberals will tell you that "there are good people on both sides" and demand that Israel stops military action to dismantle
Hamas once and for all.
Thank you again for speaking up.
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From: Karen Gordon
Thank you for keeping up with this, Bob.
You're dead on, but people don't want to hear it.
Rather than unsubscribing, I wish people would just read what you're saying here and absorb it. It's passionate, sure, but it's the way a lot of us feel, and speaks to what we've been carrying for a long time.
I feel like if it was any other ethno-religious group, people would listen with some interest and respect, but the really depressing fact seems to be that when it's about Jews, there is that anti-Semitic piece that is so deeply troubling. .
My cousin told me that her granddaughter stopped wearing her Star of David necklace to University classes because of the level of talk and hatred being aimed now at Jewish people. SO if people don't believe that the conversation has triggered something really ugly, as you keep writing about, then they need to listen.
There is so much misinformation that has become accepted rhetoric about the situation in Gaza and you can see that people repeat it without doing their own research.
There's also a staggering lack of insight on what Hamas is.
But if an attack of this immense cruelty, and depravity doesn't get people looking more deeply for answers in what Hamas is, and instead send people into knee jerk reactions, anti-Semitic rhetoric,then I'm not sure what can be done.
It's so depressing.
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AMEN AMEN AMEN
From your fellow Jew-ess, and yes, have had plenty of experiences to remind me that they will indeed come for my (blended) family and me. But not without a fight.
I have also actually READ history, going way way back. And yes, saw the brilliant exhibit in the Warsaw Jewish museum about the history of Jews in Poland and the roots of anti semitism going back to just after that poor Jewish boy got crucified for being a reform Jew back then around 1 CE a bit ahead of his time, and turned into a symbol of one of the great horrors humanity has managed to create.
No fan of Bibi and his tone deaf right wing government, and I can separate Hamas from Palestinians, the Taliban from Afghanis, that dumb weird ultra Islamist fundamentalism from everyday Saudis, and Americans from Trump. However, I must stand with Israel at this time, and stand up against anti-semitism, as you have said.
And some of my friends are so out of it, they don't realize how much they're contributing to the problem.
As I've tried to point out to folks, if you LIKE what's happening to everyday people and especially women in Iran, Saudi, Afghanistan and other countries ruled by Islamic fundamentalists, by all means, trumpet your "support" (without discernment between Hamas and the general population) for Palestine to the sea—an actual Jew posted that the other day (!). Ladies, you'll look good in a burka and surely some male in your family will drive you to CVS: forget getting that degree or that business you were starting.
I'm a bit all over the map here, I know, Bob, but there's so much to unpack, pardon the expression. Let's not forget that all of our do-good, liberal bleeding heart money that was supposed to go to the Palestinian PEOPLE has gone to build a macabre, brilliant and deadly system of tunnels and weaponry designed only to eradicate Israel and Jews, no other purpose. But people aren't reading the Hamas manifesto, nor the history of Israel—such as the fact that we are indeed the indigenous people from that area—hence discovering ancient manuscripts in our own language, duh.
Thanks for your courageous stand and I will attempt to repost.
Wendy Waldman
P.S. I think this is very important but people are so unwilling to educate themselves now—this actually requires some critical thinking which alas has been all but eradicated in our global education. I mean, the difference between Hamas and the people of Palestine is no harder to figure than the difference between Americans and Trump or Poles and Duda (thankfully they just sidelined him). But the younger generation is so out of it, they can't seem to make the distinction.
What do we do? I'm not some rabid Zionist but on the other hand, I've never been more sympathetic to that position than I am now, so hell.
You would be amazed—no, no you would not actually, at some of my liberal friends and how stupid they are!!!OMG! They want to be hip so they go on the free Palestine trip, no mention whatsoever of the history of the Palestinian leaders who refused to accept statehood, not the least being Arafat who had a pretty good deal on the table.
And yeah, Bibi is one of them too.
Israel could fix this if it had a decent government, I suspect.
But no, the men are all about war now, and all we will have is a new generation of Jew haters both in the Islamic countries and in the west, starting with some of our best friends.
Lord, not again.
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From: Steve Schnur
Subject: Re: The Hospital Bombing
PLEASE USE MY NAME
On October 7th, in an act of unprecedented and unimaginable terrorism, Israel was attacked. The first bullets were fired into young people at a music festival. The horror continued with the slaying of women and children, infants and the elderly.
Jews worldwide felt the shock, the anger, and the fear. Because Judaism was attacked too. If you spent any time on social media over the past weeks, you saw it and felt it. And if you're like me, it has left you shocked, angry and very, very frightened.
In America, Jews marched with Dr. King. We marched for George Floyd and Leonard Peltier. We stood up at Stonewall, at Charlottesville, at The March on Washington. But when it came to the October 7th attack on Jews, the silence spoke volumes.
Why is Hamas being considered anything but a vile group of terrorists? Why are Jews murdered in Auschwitz, Israel, Paris and Pittsburgh? After 3000 years, why is Judaism still being vilified? More importantly, how can this still be allowed to happen?
Tikkun Olam – Hebrew for 'Heal The World' – is the guiding concept of Jewish faith. But over the past decade, the term 'woke' somehow became a weapon used to mock empathy. Yet empathy is not a weakness. Discord should not be normalized. And antisemitism must never, ever be okay. Jews are the original liberals, and tonight we proudly reclaim that word. That's because liberals build bridges rather than walls. We seek understanding rather than sow division. And we will always be stronger than hatred and ignorance.
But as Shakespeare's Shylock said, 'Hath not a Jew eyes? If you prick us, do we not bleed?' We do bleed. We weep. We bury our dead. And we fight back.
Now is the time to stand together like never before. For Israelis. For Palestinians. For Jews. For each other.
For peace.
Steve Schnur
Worldwide Executive, President Music
Electronic Arts
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