Fill-In Show-SiriusXM This Week

Completion of playlists from previous shows.

Tune in Saturday December 20th to Faction Talk, channel 103, at 4 PM East, 1 PM West.

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app. Search: Lefsetz


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Renaming The Kennedy Center

This just feels wrong.

Most Americans were not alive when JFK was assassinated. One can argue that's when the sixties began. That's when the generations split. The fifties were somnambulant, even the hipsters had crew cuts. By time the sixties arrived, there were pockets of experimentation, the roots of new musical acts that would triumph after the Beatles, and there were always bohemians, still labeled beatniks, soon to be labeled hippies, however many wives did not work outside the home, GM was the wonder of the world and the U.S. was an international monolith that wasn't questioned by its citizens, never mind those from outside the country.

JFK barely won. Victory wasn't declared until the morning after the election. But JFK ushered in a new era of hope, a break from the past, you see he was younger than the old farts, the country was now looking forward, not back.

He asked what you could do for your country instead of yourself.

He didn't wear a hat at the inauguration and that business died overnight.

And he vowed to put a man on the moon before 1970. And manned spacecraft were launched.

Now protest was burbling. Civil rights were being fought for down south. It was a point of transition that Johnson ultimately certified into law, forcing the nation to treat everybody equally. And there was a folk music scene to support the underprivileged and abused, the U.S. was not mindlessly partying, then again, most people were not hip to the inequality and issues of our nation until later in the decade, after JFK was gone.

And then came the Cuban Missile Crisis. There hasn't been anything like it since. You really felt like the end was possible. We were still afraid of nuclear war, we hid under our desks to protect ourselves, and we saw the pictures of the missiles going to Cuba... And JFK stood up to Russia and the crisis was averted.

But some people didn't want progress. They wanted the country to be rooted in the past. With whites triumphant and illegality pushed under the rug...never forget that the original RFK was attorney general, and he was rooting out malfeasance...

And then JFK was murdered. Every boomer knows where they were when they heard the news. It was incomprehensible. Our parents had the TV on 24/7, Jack Ruby killed Oswald and then there was the day of mourning and...

They immediately started renaming things to honor JFK's memory. Idlewild airport became JFK. It seemed a bit overdone at the time, and a bit of it was pulled back, then again, the president was killed in cold blood.

And then the sixties ensued. The Vietnam War blew up, with America pouring gasoline on the conflagration. The younger generation separated from their elders. Not only did they have their own music, everything was in question, everything was up for grabs, the motto was "question authority." To be smart, educated and informed was a badge of honor, it was these people who were lifting the populace out of ignorance.

Then there was Jackie. Young with designer clothing. Who led tours of the White House on TV. We heard that she spoke seven languages. And she put the arts front and center. So it was not a big stretch when she started fundraising for a national cultural center, nor was it surprising when it was named the Kennedy Center, a living memorial to JFK.

Now every day I turn on my phone and it's looney-tunes, I can't believe what I read. I'm also aware that many people feel differently from me, they want to jet back to a past that they're looking at through rose-colored glasses. Progress has been good. Change still needs to be made. But the world always goes forward. JFK led the charge into the future. That is why he was both revered and hated.

Ironically, those with the anti-JFK viewpoint are triumphant today. Trump is in power. Unlike some of my lefty brethren, I feel he won fair and square.

And I can quote the litany of his efforts that stick in my craw. From throwing the baby out with the bathwater with DOGE, pardoning the January 6th rioters, wobbling on support of Ukraine in its war with Russia... These are all substantive issues, which deserve a debate.

As for the less important... There's the gilding of the White House like some Eastern European dictator. The plaques. The ballroom.

But renaming the Kennedy Center is just too much.

Because this is the arts. Something Jackie Kennedy not only supported, but did her best to spread across America.

And this is JFK. Set in stone.

Build some memorials to Trump after his term. He'll get a library, probably some statues, and I won't be happy with the lionization of the man and his memory, but I'll shrug and accept it.

But renaming the Kennedy Center? Why?

Trump has never been a champion of the arts. If anything, he's doubled-down on the commercialization of America, where the dollar is now king and the best and the brightest don't go into the Peace Corps or politics and try and improve the world, but go into finance to enrich themselves, to line their pockets.

Ain't that America.

But do you have to touch the arts?

That's the one thing we have left. Art foments change. But Trump is putting the kibosh on that. He's sending a message, that he is in control. It's all right to be an artist and sell out to corporations, make a ton of bread, but if you question authority, look out.

Then again, I am a child of the sixties. Sure, musical acts made good money, but the money was secondary to the music, the message, the exploration, the pushing of the envelope. We had rapid development and innovation not only in music, but movies...all the arts. We went from "I Want to Hold Your Hand" to "Sgt. Pepper" to Woodstock and "Hello Dolly" to "The Graduate" and "Bonnie and Clyde." This was the sixties, which started with JFK, an era many old white men have denigrated and tried to make disappear for decades.

But we still had our cathedrals, where the arts were displayed untouched. Carnegie Hall. The Metropolitan Opera House.

The Kennedy Center.

Art was up front and center in these edifices. They were bastions of creativity, of exploration, of soul-fulfillment.

But no more.

I could delineate all the negative moves Trump has made at the Kennedy Center this year, and the concomitant drop in revenues, but the building still stands as tribute to JFK.

But no longer. Now Trump's name comes first. It's a stick in the eye not only to Democrats, but to artists all over the country, all over the world. The message is not only that everything is up for grabs for Trump, but that the past that is revered by him and his cronies is being eviscerated, and a message is being sent that no one is safe, no one is untouchable. Artists better watch out. You think late night hosts are not safe...

Is nothing sacred?

I guess not.

Live long enough and the past you remember...seemingly no one else remembers it, or not how it really played out.

The brief tenure of JFK was about hope and freedom, righting wrongs.

But homey don't play that anymore. As a matter of fact, minorities got too big for their britches, they had to be taught a lesson, constrained. And on one level the renaming of the Kennedy Center is just another stake in the heart.

But it's so much more. It's an erasing of American values.

It's an erasing of JFK's memory.

It's an erasing of my personal past.

It's an erasing of the America I knew.

It's a bridge too far.

Is it the straw that breaks the camel's back? Is this when the public will say no mas? I have no idea.

But this one hurts.


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Mark Mothersbaugh-This Week's Podcast

Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mark-mothersbaugh/id1316200737?i=1000741822727

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3kRsSipsNznMKXlaUtRybt?si=SfAgd8NWShGhcxbjxo82JQ

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1119-the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-30806836/episode/mark-mothersbaugh-313521956/

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9ff4fb19-54d4-41ae-ae7a-8a6f8d3dafa8/episodes/d93ab284-6127-40bf-97b7-501450b03140/the-bob-lefsetz-podcast-mark-mothersbaugh


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Sofi Tukker At Ford Park

I was trying to figure out what was going on here.

The Europeans know how to party, they make American après-ski look like a joke. In America you might get tanked at a bar, there might be some dancing to a band playing classic rock, but at Ischgl especially...sure, there's skiing, but people go there to cut loose, to dance...you watch the videos and are amazed, they're aliens having such a good time, you want to experience it.

And ski resorts in America have been trying to replicate these extravaganzas, but so far to no avail... Maybe it's just that Americans take their skiing more seriously, whereas in Europe...skiing might be secondary to lunch and what happens after the lifts close.

So Vail books name acts a few weekends through the year, to try and draw patrons if nothing else, and last weekend it was Sofi Tukker.

But usually it's just one big show. On Saturday, they had Sofi Tukker play at the top of the mountain, a la Europe. And another deejay played at the bottom starting before the lifts shut down. And then at 8 P.M., the main show took place, at Ford Park. Outside, during the winter. Hell, they have winter shows at Red Rocks!

So I didn't catch the afternoon performance at Eagle's Nest. But as far as the deejay at the bottom...I've never seen the area so crowded.

And at 7:20, I put on my down jacket and started walking to Ford Park.

I was wearing my New Balances. It didn't occur to me to wear boots with tread, after all it hadn't snowed in a week. But it was slippery and...

I was wearing a down coat, but the lined leather gloves I had just didn't cut it, next time I bring ski gloves, I've got an ancient pair I keep in my boot bag that are perfect for these conditions, I broke them out in Aspen.

As for my hat... It said "Blue Man Group," and the guy manning the medical tent commented on it. Which completely surprised me. I've worn this hat for twenty years and no one has ever said a word.

And that's where I was standing, in back, by the big red cross, waiting for Don, to give me a wristband, which I never used...all the action was in front of the stage, not behind...and I don't know how you'd make your way to the back if you wanted to.

So, the show begins promptly, and it is a show!

Giant screens. Pots emitting fire. It's an extravaganza. I think it was Sophie Hawley-Weld standing atop the risers playing the guitar...but there was no live video feed and I wasn't that close and I was not familiar enough with the band. But one thing I heard was the big thump.

This was what is now called, has been called for nearly two decades, EDM.

Now if you're a classic rocker, you probably don't get it. You may even be categorically against it! A deejay spinning records, which are really files, the whole show can be contained on a thumb drive.

And that's what this show was. The guitar didn't last. Sophie danced and sang and Tucker Halpern was responsible for the beat, the music, the sound. And everybody in the audience was...

Dancing. Not wildly, like this was the end of the world. And not spinning like people do at Dead shows, but hypnotically, locked into the beat.

Were they on drugs?

This was not a young crowd. And it cost a hundred bucks to get in. I worked my way forward, to the degree I could, I checked the attendees out, and most looked like they were of working age, mid-twenties at the youngest, into their thirties. Sure, there were some ski town oldsters, but really, this show was for a younger generation.

And I can get into the beat. It does make you move. But I was wondering, what exactly was the attraction?

And the first thing that occurred to me was escapism. Now back in the nineties, raves were the other. But we've even had hit EDM singles this century. It's not an unknown sound. But...despite Alden telling me it was about the lyrics and Sophie's voice... They didn't seem that special to me.

And the funny thing is Sophie Tukker has been around, since 2014, the acts of yore didn't have such a long heyday. Then again, are they still potent, or is this the kind of act that plays out in the hinterlands?

Now when I lived in the hinterlands, if you got major talent even twice a year that was a big thing. But today, in Vail and Summit County...it's a veritable cornucopia of talent laying down their sound on a regular basis.

Now some of these acts play Goldberg's Belly Up in Aspen, but Aspen is a different headspace. Aspen is four hours from Denver, Vail is under two (assuming there is no traffic, which is a big assumption). And the Belly Up is a smaller room which tends to book elite talent, but...

You see there's a long stretch of highway between Denver and Salt Lake City. And the communities want culture. So at the Vilar and in Vail the shows are often underwritten. And there's an amphitheatre in Dillon and...

There are a ton of shows. You don't have to live in the metropolis to see high level entertainment anymore. But in the old days, it was all happening in the city. Now it still happens more in the city, but...most Americans don't live in New York or L.A. And when you see a show in those markets you can feel the pulse, this is where acts make their bones, these are the shows that count, the press weighs in. But those hundreds of millions across the nation need entertainment and these shows... This is not MTV, playing to all, this is positively local. It's a business for the touring acts, it's their livelihood...the shows are totally off the national radar screen, but is that the business today?

I'm not being completely clear here, but what I will say is it used to be when you were in the boonies, it felt like it. But it did not feel like it at Saturday night's show.

Now you could say the stars of the evening were Sofi and Tukker and their dancers, but really, the audience was the star.

This is not how it used to be. Back in the classic era, there was a clear line of demarcation between those on stage and those off. Those on stage were kings, and those in the audience were serfs paying fealty. But Sofi Tukker was doing it for the audience, to energize them, whereas it used to be those on stage were Gods who appeared not to care about the listeners.

So the audience... It's twenty-odd degrees and they're drinking and dancing (as for drugging, except in extreme cases, that doesn't show)... What exactly was the appeal?

We didn't have this kind of music, this kind of show in the days of yore. Sure, there was music you danced to, but it had singers and changes, songs you heard on the radio. Whereas these numbers...sounded like they came from outer space.

We wanted our music to have meaning.

Sofi Tukker is not about meaning, it's about experience.

Does everybody just want to leave the real world behind? Is it just too daunting, too overwhelming? Do people just want to be set free to be in a zone that has no intersection with the rest of the world?

Now like I said, in the nineties there were raves, which were veritable secrets, you had to be in the know and they took place out in fields and...

But Sofi Tukker...these EDM shows are big business.

So do we pooh-pooh this sound, this experience, laugh at it, or...

It's an anthropological investigation. There is something happening here, but it certainly isn't exactly clear.

But this was big time entertainment. The production was equivalent to that you find in an arena, this was not done on the cheap. You don't find Sofi Tukker in the Spotify Top 50, then again...

The Spotify Top 50 is now the other. People begging for fame, recognition.... Whereas acts like Sofi Tukker seem to hang in the ether, they're part of an overall culture, and if you don't get it, they shrug their shoulders, they don't care.

Now investigating further, going deeper into Sofi Tukker's story, I read about the "hits," the songs they were famous for, and I started to play them.

One is entitled "Drinkee."

Now the lyrics are in Portuguese so...if you think the track had traction because of the lyrics, you're sorely mistaken. As for the English translation, there's nothing special here.

But the music!

You listen for mere seconds and your head starts to nod and if you go as far as two minutes in, you can't get the hook out of your head... And I'm listening on the chairlift and I start to ask myself...is this radically different from "Sunshine of Your Love"? Even "Smoke on the Water"?

Now much of today's rock is hard, and it's fast and noisy and in your face, that's today's metal scene. But that's not what this is. "Drinkee penetrates a much wider net of people, and you come to it, it does not overpower you.

So, are the basics of "Drinkee" that different from the songs of yore, those based on legendary riffs? "Smoke on the Water" told a story, but "Sunshine of Your Love"...had both ethereal and simplistic love lyrics. Are these numbers all of a piece, or can you put the classic rockers high above "Drinkee"?

And I think "Purple Hat" is okay, good, but when "Batsh*t" started playing in my ears... Once again, I was hooked, in the groove.

So was everybody in attendance at the Ford batsh*t crazy, or did they just want to party like it's 1999 or...

I'm still trying to figure it out.

Spotify playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4nCf35T9r9gn8SgaeHE1q5?si=2d2c4fe289c546ac


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Diary Of A Ditched Girl

Netflix trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qw0qmhn7Sw

It takes three or four episodes to get completely hooked, but then...

We watched this show because the "New York Times" said it was one of the best foreign series of the year. And at first I didn't get it, it seemed too light, too surface, but then...

What we've got here is Amanda, who works with her mother and sister, who hasn't had a boyfriend for ten years and decides to dip her toe into the dating world.

But it never works out. Ergo, "Diary of a Ditched Girl."

Now it's hard to avoid politics these days, everything seems to hang in the balance, but the truth is most people are just trying to live their lives, like Amanda in this series. She's not setting the world on fire career-wise, she doesn't dream of being an influencer, she just wants the basics, work and someone to come home to, someone to talk to, someone to relate to, someone to have sex with.

And there's a lot of sex in this show. You'll be shocked that Amanda is frequently topless, but the Swedes don't have the same puritan values as Americans.

So... Amanda has friends. But except for her friend who is a doctor, they all seem to be much more fluent in relationships than she is. As for her sister Adina...she's got a boyfriend, Filip, who is nice, and they include Amanda in their lives, but to be the older single sister...at times that's wrenching.

And that's what makes this series so great, the emotions Amanda goes through.

How do you play the text game... Do you even call?

We've all been there... What does it mean if they don't respond... What does it mean if they don't respond quickly... Are they just not into you or are you too neurotic and should just roll with the changes.

Amanda is thirty one, and if you're older you're done with this phase, unless you too are now single... Then again, so many single Boomers and Gen-X'ers have taken themselves off the market, they just don't want to get hurt again, they can't handle it.

But Amanda is in the throes of it. How does she play it? Coy? Or does she go for it? She's trying out different strategies and getting different reactions. It all doesn't seem to make sense. Do these men want to see her again? Should she go along with their sexual shenanigans, should she insist on orgasming herself? She's lying in bed, right next to him, feeling far away...then again, how does he feel?

Carla Sehn as Amanda is incredible. The facial expressions, the way she displays emotions. She can be thrilled and smiling and then pensive and then destroyed, just like you and me. Her moods resonate. This is the most accurate depiction of the ups and downs of the dating world I've ever seen. But it's not only the interactions between two people, but Amanda's inner dialogue.

And her mother is involved with a man who is unavailable and her father is demanding and never there for her, he's invested in his second family. At times it's torturous... Just going through the days, existing, hanging on...

And, once again, do you get aggressive or do you hang back and wait for the world to come to you? And how come it seems so much simpler for other people, how come it never works out for you?

"Diary of a Ditched Girl" is only seven half hour episodes.

It's funny, before this we watched the new "Knives Out" movie, the only one I've seen... It's the opposite of "Diary of a Ditched Girl," it's flat. There are twists and turns in the plot, but you're watching and never involved, you don't feel it.

That's the advantage of series, the characters are more fully developed, the story slows down, not everything needs to be resolved in ninety minutes or two hours.

I was disappointed "Diary of a Ditched Girl" ended... I was invested in Amanda, I wanted to know more.

And I think you will too if you watch this series.

I'm not sure it's for everybody, but I'm stunned there's no buzz on it.

Once again, Carla Sehn rings so true as Amanda...it's the best portrait I've seen of a young woman this year, fully three-dimensional, she doesn't seem to be playing the role, she is the role.

I just want to hip you to her and the series.


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More Bondi Beach

Thx for sharing these responses Bob. Very insightful to see all of the naive idealistic viewpoints of people who seem to live in a dystopian universe and would get their heads blown off in Gaza in no time. What is their answer? Let Hamas a terrorist group continue to lead?? Could you imagine if what happened at the music festival in Israel happened at a major festival here. The US would make what Israel has done Gaza seem like child's play. The only difference is unlike bush after 9/11 Israel actually responded by going after the right target.

Jarred Arfa
______________________________________

Keep writing, Bob.

I'm the grandson of an Auschwitz surviving grandmother, and also a grandfather who was involved in the stories depicted in the film, "Defiance."  I learned from them how Jews will always have our backs against the wall, and how serious and bloody the fight has always been.  

I can't stand Netanyahu, and I wholeheartedly disagree with so many of his tactics, from settlements in and around the West Bank to his blatantly corrupt seizure of the Israeli government.  But I applaud his actions in this war against Gaza because he understands the one thing that most people don't:  people are always going to hate and blame the Jews.  And he's made the decision to have them hate us while living in Israel instead of hate us while dancing on our graves.  

Remember that Israel has only one life to lose - and if they lose, it's all over. 

It's more complex than that, of course, but this has always been an existential question for Jews.  I can't expect those who have never had to hide their religion for fear of violence or mistreatment to understand; after all, it's easy to throw stones from a house without glass.  But to just forget completely that Israel has won their land through the same struggle of war that every other nation in the world used to obtain their own land is a double-standard that only works against a group whose entire population is smaller in total than that of the New York tri-state area.  And it's easy to be a bully when you have the numbers.

So to your point: people who protest "against Israel" at Jewish events are cowards and CLEAR anti-semites.  Why don't you ever see people protesting Arab-Israelis, of which there are millions?  It's because they're not Jews.  Plain and simple.  

And for all the people not old enough to remember the suicide bombs of the 20th century - the people who don't understand the fear and chaos created by the murders of innocent people in peaceful public spaces (sound familiar?) - please take note; this is why Israel has to have a piece of control over the West Bank and Gaza.  The Palestinians have never valued their own people and the creation of their own country more than they value the death of Jews and the eradication of Israel.  As Golda Meir so brilliantly put it: "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

So, I'll leave you, and anyone else reading, with Bill Clinton's famous reminder of exactly this, when he explains how Palestinian representation turned down a lucrative offer for statehood and instead began the Second Intifada.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/bill-clinton-young-americans-shocked-to-learn-arafat-turned-down-palestinian-state/

Cheers, and Happy Holidays,

Danny Segelin
Brooklyn, NY
______________________________________

The Bondi massacre just proves what Bob and other Jews have been saying all along - anti-zionism is antisemitism. If it were only about Israel's administration and its policies, then what do Jews in Australia, thousands of miles away from the Zionist state, have anything to do with Israel's actions?

Because it was about Jew hatred all along, just masked in the language of human rights. 

Here is why you anti-israel crowd are antisemitic - you only believe X amount of people were killed in Gaza and that Y amount of them were women and children because Hamas told you so. There is no independent journalism in Gaza, just like there isn't in any other authoritarian country - if I was a journalist interviewing the Director of the North Korean Health Ministry would I believe anything I was told? Of course not! Hamas is the sister organization of Al Qaeda, it's the same people with the same mission. 

It would be like me believing the KKK if they told me that 49 white women were raped by black men last month alone and I, based on that information, started condeming black people and reveling in their deaths. You would call me a racist. 

Just as much death and destruction was caused in the war against Isis. Many more died in Saudia Arabia's war against Houthis in Yemen, including a blockade and restriction on aid. These wars weren't called genocides. 

Hamas, in in its own state media, boasts of using child soldiers and using women and children as human shields. Every legal system around the world recognizes some version of the felony murder rule such that in a situation where a bank robber grabs a hostage and starts firing but police fire back, killing the hostage - the bank robber is criminally liable for murder. Hamas is responsible for the deaths just like Hitler was responsible for 2 million German deaths, not the Allies. 

Finally, Israel never stole anyone's land any more than Pakistan stole India, or Hashemites in Jordan stole the Mandatory Palestine, or Iraqis stole Mesopotemia.

Moshe Sinar, Esq.
______________________________________

Wow. The first bunch of responses in this email, in essence, are saying that, because of the Israeli governments actions (whether the writer is accurate or not), it's ok to slaughter innocent people that have absolutely nothing to to with the Israeli government or the army. Basically, kill any Jew, anywhere, because of what the writers believe the government of Israel is doing. 

By that logic anyone should be able to murder anyone anywhere. Pick a nation or people. Russians: kill them cuz of Ukraine. The US: kill white people cuz of slavery. Armenians: kill Turks cuz of what they did. Doesn't matter if facts are true or not. If you don't like what some group of doing to another group - just kill them, anywhere in the world, even if they have nothing to do with anything. It's ok. But NO ONE will say that about any other people, nation or group - except when it's Jews!

So Bondi Beach is ok because even they see that ALL Jews are the same, no matter what they believe, where they are from, what they support, whether they ever stepped foot in Israel, whether they're religious or not. Doesn't matter. If you see Jews feel free to kill with impunity - because, you know, Gaza.

Uch. 

The interesting fact that these morons can't wrap their heads around is that they're not the first that have wanted to wipe out the Jewish people. Countless nations before them, more powerful, smarter with much greater numbers, have also tried to destroy the Jewish people. Somehow, even with our incredibly low numbers, by comparison, we're still here (and those nations are not) Not only here but thriving! Amidst all the insanity, the Jewish people, even in their low population numbers, STILL remain a beacon of light, hope and success in a dark world.

We will mourn the dead in Australia, we will keep moving forward, looking ahead and continue to live. Am Yisroel Chai! 

Etan G
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You were correct about the blowback to your comments. Non- Jews simply don't and cannot understand. I like to think I am open minded and respectful of others' opinions but on the Gaza issue and anti-Semitism in general I am a brick wall. I agree completely with your comments. I converted to Judaism over 30 years ago. I don't wear my religion on my sleeve but when someone somehow becomes aware that I am Jewish I can see the subtle changes in their demeanor. My attitude now is f$ck 'em.

Joseph Barbarotta
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Thanks for your column which you knew would bring a sh*tstorm from the From The River to the Sea crowd. Anti-Zionism has not morphed into anti-Semitism? Were those Hannukah celebrants on the beach the IDF? The naïveté and ignorance of the left never ceases to amaze.

Mitch Tenzer
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I live in western Sydney Bob , and around the corner of the Shooters home. I am a child of Italian descent , first generation of immigrants. My parents came to Australia for a "better" life ! We became educated and went from "poverty" to upper middle class . ( Some family members are multi-millionaires)..... We appreciated the country that gave us a home , we worked hard and we were still able to practice our culture and religion. Australia is a very welcoming country , despite reports of us being racist. Not true , but we do not like being told that we should be sorry for our way of life. I know Muslims , Aussie born who do get embarrassed of those that carry on with all this BS from overseas , they are running business growing their families and contributing to society. But that's the point, we are trying to all get along , growing our families , respecting every one. There is a bit of economic disadvantage among us , contributing to the ill minds among us , like the world over, its not the fault of Jews or western culture, just the economic times we live in . However, I don't think that Islam fits our western democratic system overall , and those that are venerable build up the courage to commit these despicable acts in the name of whatever suits their agenda !

It is getting worse, our current government is the opposite of yours at the moment (very left ) our Prime Minister a former young Pro Palestinian (anti Zionist) , he cannot shake that image , and now in times like this cannot lead our nation ! 

They have allowed all the protests the last 2 years, our Iconic Harbour Bridge being over run with anti Israel protests , pictures of Iran leaders and ISIS flags, incredible scenes really , that frankly aussies are sick to death to witness , and now we have the tragedy of the events of Bondi ! 

I don't know where we go from here , I know its seems normal for America, its never been normal , not for America , not for the UK and especially not for Sydney Australia. 

Thanks for your insights.

Joe Mirarch
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Thank you for speaking up. I wholeheartedly agree with everything you wrote and I wish people would wake up, read a history book, and stop with the anti-semitism. I know you don't listen to all these ignorant comments against you and their threats to unsubscribe. I just wanted to make sure you know some of us agree with you too. You are in a unique position to reach people across a broad spectrum and I'm grateful you use your voice and opinion to speak up for the Jews. 

Jed Garfunkel
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If the U.S. was located in a region where it was surrounded by hostile countries - with some of those countries calling for our complete annihilation - and a terrorist group like Hamas came over from one of these neighboring countries and committed an October 7th on American soil, damn right we'd light 'em up. 

Vince Welsh
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I'm not Jewish, I am an Agnostic/Canadian and, like you, am a very intelligent member of the human-race. That is why I find it so refreshing to read your letters. (The truth is an endangered species in this day and age) If only one of these protestors used the power of conscious-thought instead of blindly following the other kids. I'm sure they must have history books or programs at their education institutions but that would be an uncomfortable truth that doesn't fit their hate-mongering narrative! The media is awash in a torrent of Islamist Nazi propaganda. It's been lapped-up by ignorant, racist students at universities who are not bright enough to see what hypocrites they are as they condemn racism while calling for the massacre of an entire race. That, my friend, is a SPECIAL kind of stupid. (Not to mention how EVIL it is) You could agree with these ignorant dullards but then you'd both be wrong! Keep speaking the facts and the truth!!!

Scott Barratt
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My god. The sh*t that sprays back is all the colors of the rainbow. I will say, there are a lot of people saying one way or another, "this is to be expected after Israel went to war with Gaza". Yet if you simply propose that what happened in Gaza was to be expected after Oct 11, these same people would get defensive, start arguing about a history they don't fully know or understand, and write you off as uncaring/a genocider/warmonger/etc. 

Look, at the end of the day, if you pick a side, you're either pro western civilization or pro Islamic fundamentalism. Both sides have issues, but let's not make false equivalencies. 

I know what side I'm on. And in the spirit of Hannukah, let me say, it is the light that is the antidote to darkness.

Dylan Charbeneau
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I'd like to thank you deeply for conveying the frustrations, fear, and sadness that this industry is woefully ignorant to. 

The responses you've published thus far are frightening, as people are justifying a massacre and diminishing the value of human life. 

If you lost readers because of this, they aren't the type of readers you want in the first place. Those who can think critically, and live with curiosity & empathy do not react the way that some of those submitters did. They live in anger, plain and simple. They have a place to channel that anger.. repeating history before our eyes. 

It's easy to look at one side and blame the other. It's hard to apply yourself. And even harder to admit when you're wrong. Rationale only fuels their hatred because they can't meet others at the table and contribute meaningfully. A scary, steep echo chamber. 

Your email conveyed true emotion and rationale - and for that, thank you.

Best,
Ben Klein
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I didn't respond and don't have anything snarky to day  like those you published. I'm with you Bob. The part not being spoken about is the decorum and slight antisemitism at the fringes. I'm a minority Jew living in your old town of Fairfield CT and have been quietly observant over the last few years. I don't look Jewish, my mom is Italian but in drunken conversations, I can't tell you how many abhorrent comments I've heard re Jews. When I tell people I'm Jewish they backtrack but I can sense the uncomfortable feeling they have.

Mark Burrell
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Appreciate your work. Tough world out there. 

Meditesh Rock_N_OM
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I read these comments and, although not surprised, was definitely disheartened.

I also will not get into defending Netanyahu; however, there is no question that there is a combination of ignorance and antisemitism in the responses.

What many of the Palestinian sympathizers do not want to see and are unwilling to admit to is that although Palestinian civilians have suffered enormously, their leadership — particularly Hamas — has consistently chosen violence over coexistence, with devastating consequences for their own people.

The history that they are either not aware of or not willing to acknowledge is that it is the Jews that have historically been persecuted and forced into Diaspora by Romans, Muslims and Christians alike.  They have been subjected to pogroms and the Holocaust.  They are the true victims throughout history.

In response to the Holocaust, Israel was created in 1948 following a UN partition plan that was accepted by Jewish leadership and rejected by Arab leadership, leading to a regional war initiated by surrounding Arab states. To this day, the vast majority of Arab and Muslim nations do not acknowledge the right of Israel to exist and have been committed to its destruction.  They have been continuously attacked, most recently the Oct. 7 massacre.

In spite of this, Israel has evolved into an advanced liberal democracy and contributed an outsized amount to the technological advancement of our civilization relative to its size.

The Palestinian sympathizers will also not acknowledge is that militant Islamist movements like Hamas and Islamic Jihad explicitly reject Israel's existence and justify violence through selective religious interpretation.  They continue to war amongst themselves throughout the region. To my knowledge of the Koran, there is very little written about peace and kindness, and Islamic Jihadism is based on the teachings of the Koran.  Their civilization is generally not liberal, treats women as 3rd class citizens (their animals are treated better), and is intolerant of any ideas outside of their own.  Their reaction is always violence first.

Those that do not see any of this are either poorly educated or have antisemitic tendencies or both.  It is possible to feel genuine compassion for Palestinian civilians while recognizing that Israel faces an adversary that openly seeks its destruction and embeds itself among civilians. But as the old saying goes:  "If the Palestinians laid down their arms there would be peace.  If the Israelis laid down their arms their would be no more Israel".

I fear there is no hope. I'm deeply concerned by the growing tolerance within parts of the Democratic coalition for rhetoric that crosses from legitimate criticism of Israeli policy into denial of Israel's right to exist.  Not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic. But when Israel alone is denied the right to exist, held to standards no other nation is, or portrayed through conspiratorial narratives, it's reasonable to ask whether latent antisemitism is at work.

As someone who is horrified by Trump and the Maggats that have overtaken the Republican party, but as someone who is pro-Israel, I feel that I am between a rock and a hard place.

Keep at it Bob, no matter what the haters have to say!

Andrew Mehlman
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So infuriating to read the comments from Jews demonizing Israel. How uninformed can they be about their own history? It's as if they are in the back of the lines going into the Holocaust gas chambers and shoving those in front forward and yelling" hurry up we don't deserve to exist".

Alan Segal
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Thanks for this…and boy are you gonna get sh*t for expressing what every Jewish person above the age of 40 knows and feels.  We are always held to a higher standard, always, and when you poke us one time too many, like Hamas did on October 7th, you risk the full throttle pent up wrath  based on  thousands of years of feeling " I have had enough…f*ck you for real this time!" 

  While I am disgusted by the Netanyahu government ( definitively NOT rising to a higher standard) and would applaud the West Bank settlers being prosecuted to the highest degree of the law, and feel sick over the tragedy of the innocent Palestinians who are tortured, murdered and starved by their own "government" Hamas,  I am now completely feed up with  the uninformed, "progressive" bullsh*t position spouted every day that the Jews are somehow at fault here.  F*ck off…or  understand the nuanced history of the situation.  

We have a president who uses Jews in a transactional way allowing anti-semitism to seep into all aspects of American society while masquerading as someone who is a "friend" to Jewish America…to that I also say. F*ck off…you are simply using us and allowing your true hatred to grow. 

 Never thought I would have to be dealing with this in my lifetime…and for the last several years I tried to ignore it or look at both sides, listen, ponder, reacquaint myself with the history of Israel and Palestine, re-evaluate everything I was taught and raised to believe, think more critically about the lessons taught by my grandparents who fled and believed that all people should be free,  feel sick about the tragedy of the Palestinians, argue with my 20 something deeply Jewish but deeply skeptical and progressive children… and after all that thinking and searching I STILL come to the conclusion that if we do not protect ourselves and our culture no one, and I mean no one, will.  

The more things change the more they stay the same.

Susan L. Dodes
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We disagree on some things but we agree on the important ones. Like how The Who were an awesome band. 

We mostly disagree on politics since I'm further right than you. That said, I read what you write and appreciate your viewpoints. What's funny is we both acknowledge the same problems (affordability, etc), but our reasons for the problems, and therefore the solutions, differ. That's life. 

On this Bondi and greater recent antisemitism issue, though, I agree with you. I know the below is a sampling of emails you received, but it's disheartening to read so many people who think the Jews and Israel are the sole reason for this problem. Please know that I support you and hope you keep sharing your side of the issue. Even if it doesn't win converts, it's important that people know there are smart people who hold this view. 

By the way, what a rough weekend. This Bondi massacre, Brown, and then the Rob Reiner news? As John Fogerty said, "I see a bad moon a-risin'."

James Stockdale
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Long time subscriber, first time emailer, new(ish) parent to a Jewish child and fully concerned about the world.

What you said about assimilated Jews rings especially true. I'm the first generation American in my family, first to be born in the States to Soviet immigrants who made sure to stomp the different traits out of me. I was never taught the language, can't read and write, wasn't really fed the food. After all, it's exhausting to have to explain why my last name is the way it is, and yes my family is from Kiev but no we speak Russian, not Ukrainian, but no, we're none of those things because when my family left, their passports said "Jew."

My parents met here, as college kids, already deep into Brooklyn culture of the '80s. They love America. And despite it all, it didn't really matter, because no matter how hard we all tried to assimilate, our accents were always a touch off, and the food was always a little different, and the grandparents still held onto the wacky little superstitions and fashion and patterns from the old country. And most importantly, we were still Jews, still the Other. I can have all the friends in the world, and be open minded to their cultures, and be married to a non-Jew. And still, and but, and and and.

We'll always be the Other. 

I am angry, and I am disappointed, and I am so fed up with the Other being treated the way we are. I have no answers.

I am little Matilda. Her parents named her the most Australian name they could think of, just proud to give her a life and an opportunity to exist and be free and live as a happy human. That was taken from her and her family. May all of the victims' memories be a blessing.

-Michelle Yampolsky-Gomez
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None of these pro-Hamas river to the sea bullsh*t commentators have LinkedIn presences.  Easy to hide behind fake names or X handles.  Put your livelihood on the line if you're so fired up or else go back to your hole.  

Best mailbox ones were cementing the tunnels and the empathetic one about what if this happened to the US.  We'd scrape the Earth and be right about it.

I'm an athiest, so f*ck all religious wars while I'm at it.  Biggest fraud in human history is the afterlife, what a crutch, and just about always a weapon.  Hamas leaders brainwashing the notion of getting to heaven as a martyr warrior in madrasas where the only book is the Quran is an abomination both ways - to innocent people who otherwise wouldn't pick up a gun as well as those they kill.

Writing in because of your last part about dinner with Jews.  A Texas cowboy knowing no one in a different state walks into law school with a majority Jewish population.

He walks out with some of the best friends for life.  Never thought about it, just friends getting together.  I wrote this to my friends yesterday:

"Hey - I don't ever bring this up with y'all, but I wanted to sit down and write something.  

I don't know what it's like to be Jewish.  

But I do know how I've been treated by Jews as a complete stranger in a completely new environment for three years.  

And they are nothing but the kindest, most respectful people I've ever come across.  

They care for each other and open their doors to their fellow man.  

They stand for morals that are intrinsic to any functioning society of human beings, whether you're religious or an atheist like me.

They earn my respect by their work ethic and for their family bonds.

And after that three years in a new environment, they became some of my lifelong best friends who I care very deeply for."

I think it's proper to say "shalom" at this moment.  

Just wanted to let you know we're here, Bob.  Keep telling it straight.

Dustin Thompson
______________________________________

Thanks Bob for saying what needed to be said!!!

And for all those who have swallowed the Muslim Brotherhood, Iranian government and Qatari propoganda of a repressed people in order to decimate western governments and society,  I urge you to research real history and ignore what you see on social media.

You will discover a people ( jewish who have had a presence in Judeah, their ancestral homeland for over 3000 years ) and their struggle to exist despite historical anti-semitism in the middle east and worldwide.

You will see an arab people ( now called Palestinians ) who have resisted a jewish presence as the arabs think that it is all theirs and even their supreme leader, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, enlisted the help of Hitler ( before Israel declared independence ) in the 1930's to rid " their land " of jews!
In spite of this Israel has made overtures over the years to make peace with these jihadist loving people of Gaza and even totally vacated Gaza of every jew in 2005 only to be bombarded almost daily by a wanton barage of rockets culminating on Oct 7 in a hate fueled pogrom by Hamas ( which was streamed by Hamas to showed how delighted they were to gang rape young concert goers, incinerate, torture and kidnap mostly innocent Israeli kibbutz members ).  Read Hamas's charter and learn of their Islamic death cult depravity.

Golda Meir ( a former Israeli leader ) said it best " We will have peace when the Palestinians love their children more than they hate us "!

This was true then and today!  My heart goes out to the Palestinians who do not support Hamas but must keep their head down or they will be killed just like the gay and trans people of Gaza have been.   The lucky gay community who sought refuge in Israel can now breath free and join the close to 2 million arabs who live in Israel and enjoy full rights to vote in arab members of the knesset, become doctors or lawyers and even join the armed forces which many do!
I am not jewish but consider myself a zionist! 

Don Elliott
Canada
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Bob, I'm a business lawyer (small market M&A, contracts, etc.) and I just closed a nice small deal for a Seller—a husband and wife (let's call them Jon and Jane for storytelling purposes).

Not to humblebrag, but I ran point for the deal, taking on responsibilities left and right that other parties and their lawyers said they would handle. My clients wrote me a lovely email after the deal closed thanking me for my dedication, work ethic, professionalism, and general service.

I'm on the phone with them yesterday afternoon to tidy up some post-closing items. We've been negotiating with the Buyer and other relevant parties throughout the deal over the past couple of months, and yesterday we were discussing negotiations with one of these relevant parties that's not the Buyer--let's refer to this party as R.

To make a long story short, R did not disclose a material fact with Seller, and now we're dealing with R's payment. So I go through with Seller the merits of their arguments, the available remedies if they prevail, likelihood of outcomes, etc. I propose a few ways to proceed, one of which is contacting R and negotiating. Jon casually tells me he "doesn't want to Jew R down" for small amounts.

I thought about saying something right then and there, but I didn't. I'm still thinking about it to be honest. But here I am working my ass off for a good client—great relationship for both sides—and now my Jewish people are catching strays. For protecting my client's interests no less!

Antisemitism of all stripes is back en vogue Bob. I'm not comparing my situation with Bondi Beach by any stretch, but folks are totally comfortable with casual antisemitism again. The horseshoe of American politics is a dangerous setup for Jews right now. GOP anti-wokism has given the Right the confidence to spout off about anything and everything, and the Left has its head so far up its own ass that you have LGBTQ and civil rights supporters supporting Hamas and repressive regimes.
______________________________________

I deeply appreciate your printing the counterresponses to your anti-semitism piece. I grew up in a Cleveland suburb where antisemitism was everyday. The guys I knew from the Temple changed me. Now, as a Christian Pastor of the progressive Presbyterian Church (USA), I work to bring people together to talk and listen to differing views. I don't agree with some of your pieces, but I keep learning. Thanks for writing. 
 
Sincerely,

Jim Monnett
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Bob, F all these people, the haters, wow shows how deluded people are over this issue. I loved the last article, you were on the pulse and are not afraid to speak 'objective' truth. 

Cheers, 

Julien Jorgensen
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Thank you for continuing to tackle the difficult truths in this world. I cherish reading your words every week.

-Jordan Kleeman
______________________________________

This breaks my heart man. I don't know what else to say. Thanks for sharing.

Landry Butler
______________________________________

What's striking about so many of these comments is that they draw a false equivalence between Jews in Australia and Israel, as if Israel's actions in Gaza somehow justify killing innocent people in Bondi Beach.

Jeff Damens
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Wow, it looks like you have a bunch of brainwashed liberals subscribing to your email list.  It's unbelievable how many white liberals have sided with the antisemitism and the "Palestinian cause." These people are upset over what you wrote about this horrific attack on Jews in Australia, but they're not upset about the attack, they're upset about the fact that you're calling out antisemitism. These dumb liberals quickly forgot about the horrific October 7 attack, which is what led Israel to "commit genocide" (LOL) in Gaza for almost 2 years to begin with.  It's not like Israel wanted to do that, but they had to eliminate the threat that was in their backyard. Liberalism has poisoned the minds of many Americans and people around the world, most of them being white liberal virtue signalers who just jump on the latest cause.  In just the last few years, liberals have been brainwashed to side with criminals, rioters, antisemites, terrorists, drug smugglers, assassins (the guy who killed Charlie Kirk, and Louis Mangione), etc. And, they violently opposed DOGE's efforts to cut wasteful spending by firebombing Tesla dealerships and vandalizing Teslas that were ironically mostly owned by other liberals. They're also violently attacking ICE agents for enforcing immigration law. But, they ignored the mass illegal immigration crisis of over 8 million people coming to the US in 4 years, which ironically led to Trump being reelected and embarking on mass deportations, which he didn't do in his first term. Liberalism is going down a dark path.  Hopefully it reverses course at some point.   

Tony Ferrara
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Thank you for writing this! Dare I say but you are a mensch! F*ck everybody! We know who we are and aren't! It is sad but most of the world is stupid and just plain hate Jews! They hate us because they ain't us! I never understood Germans talking bad about Jews and then just replacing them ie taking their houses and valuables! People who say Israel commits genocide don't know or refuse to accept reality! All of these so called stars are stupid, stupid idiots! So they are successful at singing or acting it doesn't make them an authority on moral issues but just gives them a soapbox to preach off of and for their acolytes to soak it up! Stupidity is truly alive and well and rampant! Keep writing and telling how it is! Why aren't the stars screaming about all the dead Jews! It only matter when it's the peaceful Arabs! Stupid people and f*ck them! Long live Israel!

Jac Berman
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Bizarre. All these blood thirsty demons who dont give a f*ck how many people get killed, bombed, starved, or opressed in Gaza for almost a century that we can see through intense and through documenation. What does Israel expect? Have they ever heard of the word karma? Consequences? To hear some of these people say that the world is 'out to get them' is mind-blowing.

Thank you for sharing their thoughts and comments. It's a bit easier now to see where the source of insanity stems from.

If two gunmen shot and killed innocent palestinains in Gaza today, nobody would give a f*ck. 

Oh wait - that happens every single day. 

The rest of the world has watched Israel treat the Palestinians like dogs for many decades. Did Israel think that they would get away with all of this without repercussion? Am i on another planet right now? My head is spinning. 

Dear Jesus - the insanity!!!!!

Bill West
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PLEASE please please keep being a voice of moral clarity in this sea of misinformed, uneducated, history-re-writing haters.

Happy Chanukah
- Drew Muroff
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I'm sorry you're getting these crazy responses 
American Jews are lost 
They never experienced the holocaust or it's aftermath. 
Please keep up your writing we need it more than ever 
Happy hannukah   

John Lieberberg
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And of course Hitler happened because Israel was coming shortly thereafter and the Nazis got ahead of it.

Michael Fremer

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Re-Bondi Beach

The deaths today on Bondi Beach are a direct result of a country committing a genocide and claiming to act on behalf of Judaism. Look around at the disgusting comments that people feel so free to speak about Islam. Look at the anger surrounding the election of Mamdani. Look at high-level political pundits talking about the eradication of Islam, and keeping "Sharia Law" out of politics.
For years we in Australia have seen attacks like this happen overseas and have always felt safe. Until last night - we were watching in real time on the TV just like 9/11 which happened in our evening too. I live in Melbourne now but for my first 45 years of life lived in Sydney and Bondi was a beacon - A place where silly Brits would get turned into Lobsters on Boxing Day cause they think they wont get sunburned and wankers with big subwoofers would drive up and down Campbell Parade thinking they were gangsters but were largely just annoying. That image has been shattered for ever. To know that the bridge the gunmen stood on and the park they killed so many has been well worn by my own footsteps over decades is a surreal feeling.

The rise of Jewish hate in this country has been left unchecked by the government for years - our Prime Minister is on video attending a communist rally where an Israeli flag was burned back in the 90s when he was a student at Sydney uni. His words of solidarity and 'anti semitism must be stopped' are just empty words.

A war has been brewing in Sydney and there is a dividing line between the Jewish in the east and the vast western suburbs where a lot of their haters live. Sparks have been going off for years and it was all just chest beating from the suburbs, until last night. 

And like you said, this is not the end of it - Unfortunately this will result in f*ck all change in policy, those who marched 100k strong across the Harbour Bridge in August sprouting 'free free Palestine' will just remain silent on social media and those who finally speak up will probably be denounced as anti islamist, racist or some other 'ist' but, like me, I dont think they f*cking care anymore. 

Chris Maric
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I live 5 minutes from Bondi Beach (when there's no traffic). I lived in North Bondi for a few years, and most of my life have lived not far from the bustling Bondi citiscape. I've lived most of my life surrounded by people who are Jewish whether I knew it or not. I've loved them, shared meals, work days, weekends and some of their holy and celebratory days with them. At 19 my boyfriend was proudly Jewish. All living here knew growing up that the eastern suburbs of Sydney had a strong Jewish population. 

All the Jewish schools in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney are behind fences with massive security. Cameras, security guards just to keep their children safe - in one of the safest cities in the world. Believe me there's no illusions held by Jewish people in Australia as to the possibility (probability even) of violence toward them. 

The pro Palestinian sentiment in Australia is strong. There was a massive march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge ostensibly protesting the loss of life in Palestine. In a rudimentary way, Australians are proud of our gun laws and we are sensitive to violence in the world, and are inclined to show up on our safe streets where we are allowed to protest. We don't expect violence at home. It makes us brave to protest. We don't know what it is NOT to be allowed to protest. 

The Gaza situation has been such an inciteful social media war - as if roughly 63 other war zones in the world didn't exist. As if 20 million women in Afghanistan weren't being treated as less than slave animals. As if America wasn't sinking into fascist oblivion - that the size of the march in Sydney was not a surprise. It caused some worrying people crush emergencies on the north side of the harbour. It was a statement of the Facebook followers that they saw the crisis and they're responding with virtue. 

So with sentiments so high in one of the safest cities in the world, I'm not surprised either that goonish cowards who in a horribly primitive way sought to prove their stupid manhood by killing innocents - shooting wingless ducks in a pond. They will be racially profiled and the Muslims of Australia are likely waiting for the backlash. Fortunately one of the heroes of the day had an Arabic name. In Australia we are pretty proud of our mutlicultural nation. That is despite the ubiquitous but small white supremicist mob. I wish some cultures were more progressive toward women but they live here in peace and that's a work in progress. 

This year I went to my local cinema to watch some Altman films. At the same time there was a Jewish film festival. I was worried - in one of the safest cities in the world - because the social media Gaza war was so inciteful. I was worried that someone may target our beautiful art deco cinema were many cultural film festivals are held. 

We will be back to Bondi Beach with our Jewish friends for company. We will overcome that fear, because we live in one of the safest cities in the world. We make it safe because we can.

Cate Cahill
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Long time subscriber here, I've enjoyed reading your newsletter for the past 10+ years but I'm going to have to unsubscribe after this one. Thanks for all your insights and I've learned a ton from you.

I'll leave these links here if you want to see a different perspective: 
https://www.cfpeace.org/
https://www.standing-together.org/en

Thank you and take care. 
Angelo Spampinato
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Yet for some reason, you choose to ignore these blaring sirens to focus on calls against violence as coded antisemitism.

I don't blame you for the occupation of the west bank, decimation of the Gaza strip, or the apartheid system of government that makes this all possible within the state of Israel. I blame Israel. For lying to you, and twisting their ideology into your faith, to build a global following of people who would never dream of questioning their government. I don't blame any Jews for this, because we know better. But I also know that when a group of people is attacked and mistreated for decades and the attacker claims to be acting in the name of "the Jews," it's understandable that a significant population will mistakenly be made to hate them.

This email was the equivalent to George W Bush exclaiming "They hate us for our freedom." What's frustrating to me is that you see it as bullsh*t when it's a right wing government within our own country, but would call it antisemitic if someone were to say the same when the message comes from Israel.

Do better, man.

Rich Gilberto
_________________________________________

I don't know what Zionists expect Palestinians to do. "Take my house, take my farm, take my identity, take my cuisine, take my dignity, make me live as a refugee in a foreign country"? Is that it? It's like how Hillary Clinton has recently been criticising anti-Zionist students for not knowing (in her opinion) the full picture. What information are they lacking, exactly? She never says.

CHARLES KENNEDY
_________________________________________

You think the killings in Australia have nothing to do with what
Israel has done in Gaza? World antisemitism is skyrocketing because of
this.

If you really care about your people, and mine, you should tell
Israelis to stop acting like Nazis.

Your column today is an embarrassment.

David Rubien
_________________________________________

Sorry, Bob, this is a bridge too far and I'm all done. 

I've enjoyed and respected your professional insights into the entertainment industry and American culture but I can't abide your recent spate of myopic 'anti-Zionism equals anti-semitism' hogwash.

Your hot take on the inherent evil nature of the Palestine people is entirely tone-deaf and has no place in civil society. 

Just to be clear, I'm a real Jew that came from straight down the line from Holocaust survivors. Cut, bar mitzvahed… the whole schmear. My bubbi and zadi were on my brother and I, from the minute we could walk and talk, about how we were going to have such fun on the kibbutz.
I also remember some 45+ years ago, playing cards with my brother at b and z's feet as they watched the news about something or other in the Middle East. They turned my brother and I around and in their most earnest tone, told us that when we go to the kibbutz, we must never turn our back on a Palestinian. 

I was too young at the time to pars out the real meaning of this instruction, but it stayed burned in my mind to this day. Not because of their seriousness or the warning, but because I could feel in my bones, even as a 6 or 7 year old, that what they had told me was deeply wrong. 

With time, the hate with which they spoke and the fear that moved them to do so has been repeated by so many and illustrated more clearly in every pro-Zionist's hypocrisy. In the dehumanizing of of the Palestinian people and the diminishment of their suffering. In the self-righteous denial of the evil nature of the apartheid state and the racism and genocide it has been built on. In the fact that the  tenants and techniques visited upon the Jews by 1930s Germany are not made less evil when wielded by the Israelis against the Palestinians. Change the hats and costumes around and Hamas would be the Jewish resistance. 

In any case, like you I don't think this is an argument I can win. I just can't listen to someone I respect in so many other aspects show such compromised morals on such a seemingly obvious right vs wrong issue. 

I hope you can see more clearly what the rest of world is slowly walking up to and be a voice for something better. 

Be well,

Jason Prack
_________________________________________

You mean 70+ years of theft, oppression, imprisonment, torture, and murder by Israel has created some fairly strong anti-Israel sentiment amongst the victims???

Shocking! 

Mike Froedge
_________________________________________

So so much wrong with piece. Wilfully ignoring the facts of the past 2-3 years and of historical facts. Lazy and misinformed. Tragic what happened to the Jewish people celebrating in Australia. Really is, but don't use it as a stick to ignore the barbaric action of the Israeli government. They are savages. The river to the sea seems to be their modus operandi now.

Chris Agnew
_________________________________________

"but what do you expect the Israelis to do?"

It boggles the mind that this is even a question.  Like, boggles in an alternate reality/what the actual f*ck way.

The answer is clear to everybody not named Bob Lefsetz or Benjamin Netanyahu:

STOP BEING THE MOST TERRORIST NATION ON EARTH WHILE GASLIGHTING THE ENTIRE WORLD FROM THE GET-GO THAT IT IS ALL IN SELF-DEFENSE.  

OH, AND WHILE WE'RE AT IT, STOP MASQUERADING PROPAGANDA AS FACT. 

There's the answer to your insanely rhetorical question.

Jeff Andrews
_________________________________________

What do you expect? 
Flowers and kisses from the world after 60 years of oppressive occupation - and the obliteration of Gaza?
While all the while blowing up every chance at peace because the real aim is your own 'from the river (and beyond) to the sea' ?
This is insane. 
Keep this course and the end will become inevitable, however long it takes.
Fortresses always fall.

Jd Sellier
_________________________________________

Thanks for weighing in on this issue.  Jewish blood has been cheap for thousands of years.  Israel has made it clear that this is no longer the case.  Right now, the main problem appears to be a portion of the Muslim religion who refuse to live in peace with anyone outside of their interpretation of Islam.

Regarding Israel's response to Gaza, Netanyahu and the Israelis finally said enough is enough.  They are no longer going to allow thousands of rockets to be fired indiscriminately into their country.  Unfortunately for the Gaza citizens who opposed Hamas, Israel had little choice but to destroy the areas where Hamas and their supporters were hiding out.  Hospitals, tunnels,  schools, you name it.

I would hope our country would respond similarly if we had the equivalent of 40,000 of our citizens murdered, kidnapped, raped, etc.  on top of having rockets fired at us for many years.

What confounds me is that the Jewish people have produced so many accomplished citizens whose discoveries in science, medicine, and other fields benefit the entirety of humanity.  I guess many people need someone to blame for their own shortcomings and Jews are an easy scapegoate.

Thanks again for your thoughtful observations on this subject.

Don Weis
_________________________________________

I feel it everytime I go to Temple. Even on an average Friday night or Saturday morning Shabbat service my Temple has armed security guards and metal detectors. Someone put a swastika on the door of the Temple office not long again.

Not long ago not far away.

Michael Rosenblatt
_________________________________________

Well put. Here in Mexico the local temple stopped publishing their address. And this in a small expat enclave.

It's getting weirder every day

Stan Goman
_________________________________________

Well said Bob, I have a Jewish friend who travels to Israel frequently caring out humanitarian help to Israel. I've known Ros and her husband for 45 years and I fear for their safety every time they go. They were in Israel on Oct. 7 but away from the fighting. 

Such horrible news out of Sydney and just after the school shooting at Brown, it's all a bit too much at times. 

I am dumbfounded by the support for the terrorist Hamas, on college campuses and with many in US/European intelligentsia. After Oct. 7 the wrath of the world was unleashed on Isreal and Jews in general. All the while turning a blind eye to the atrocities committed by Hamas and other Islamic terrorist organizations. 

Our Western governments are not doing enough to take on antisemitism, we have problems with it in Canada as well. Fire bombs, people shooting at Jewish schools and defacing of property. 

Bob it is a sad and terrifying time to be a Jew in this world. I'm 68 and I thought that after WWll and the horrors of Auschwitz, that we'd never see antisemitism like that again, I guess I was very sadly wrong. 

Doug Gillis
_________________________________________

You must be blue in the face by now. It's all on deaf ears at this point. Married to a great Jewish guy and together still fight the exhaustive fight to allow Israel and Jewish folk to live in peace vs a statehood desired by a population lead by a 'formerly' internationally recognized terrorist organization. We're living in Crazytown. 

Alex Novielli
_________________________________________

It's def not the end. Never has been and never will be. It says it explicitly in the Bible. The only saving grace, is unlike the past millenia, we now have a homeland to go back to. We have an army. We have technology. We have each other. We can finally defend ourselves and self govern. (not always perfect. Every Jew has an opinion but at least we control our own destiny now.) Moreover, that Jewish sheepish guilt mentality is slowly melting away and we, as a people, a nation, are getting tougher, mentally, physically, intellectually, than we've ever been. It's fascinating to see. I spend most of my time in Israel now and I see the badassery first hand. It's pretty awesome!

Thx. 

Etan G 
www.rock4israel.org
_________________________________________

I know you know my feelings on this. Not complicated. Jews need to take the hardline. Anti-Zionism is 100% anti-Semitism. Period. Anyone who knows history knows how this trash flares up. It's scumbags like Father Coughlin 2.0 aka Tucker Carlson who spread the hate. And average people look the other way as you note. It's a disgrace. Not in my house I assure you. And l tolerate zero Gaza nonsense propaganda whenever I hear it. 

Anyone who pays attention knows there's tons of Hamas love in Australia. Just as there is in Ireland among my so-called people. It's an absolute disgrace. Bibi should have flattened the place and cemented the tunnels. Don't even get me started on Pep Guardiola. 

Bottom line for Jews: don't back down, don't be naive. Stay safe sir. 

Best,

Edward Ryan
_________________________________________

Today I woke up like every day since October 7th and grabbed my phone to see what new attack happened overnight -- either IRL or online. I had hoped that once the war ended, we'd have a little peace and quiet but then I remembered what we say at seder fron the Haggadah: "in every generation they rise up against us to destroy us." 
 
Chanukah is my favorite holiday, and not just because of the fried food. It's not religious but symbolic. It celebrates a Jewish win against oppressors. It's actually a true Zionist holiday.
 
In 2025, incidents like the massacre at Bondi beach where a Chabad rabbi, a holocaust survivor, and 10 year old were murdered among 9 others, is no longer rare. It's clear that there is a global war on Jews. It's never been about Gaza or Israel but about Jew hate. And it's just beginning.
 
Thank you for speaking up. I'm sure you get a lot of hate. I want you to know that reading your email today meant something. To me.

Chag sameach.
Anat
_________________________________________

Unfortunately it's not only the left 
It's also the right look at nick funtes 
It's closing in on us from every direction 
That's why 
We have Israel in the first place

Tom Twin
_________________________________________

Thanks for this, Bob.

I have so much rage I'm almost incoherent. 

Thank you for your clarity.

People have been gaslighted about Israel over decades of funding a certain narrative  from Qatar, with the backing of Iran and the planning of Russia.

It's easy enough to look at how we go to this moment.. where this came from, if people would only read. 

Or listen.

There are people screaming from the rooftops about what's going on and the incredible dangers, first to Jews, but then to the west in general, 
but too many people have settled into a comfortable place in their minds and so won't be moved. 

You try to talk about it, and they tell you to get mental health help.

Or, unfriend and block, instead of reaching out to hear your point of view, and to see if they're somehow missing something. 

The propagandists have done an incredible job.. targeting academia and the media, Hollywood figures who can't seem to recognize a storyline, or balance a narrative, outside of a studio...or understand the way things work by reading history of the 20th century.

Or listening to warnings from some incredible people out there,who are trying to get the truth out there, 

Warning about what's going on, and again, not just against Jewish people. 

For so long people bought into this notion that Jews ran the US because of AIPAC's contributions without looking to see what the actual figures are and how much countries like Qatar and Saudi Arabia spend lobbying the government.

I feel that there is something in the collective unconscious going back centuries that is so deep in people's minds that they have a knee jerk reaction when it comes to Jews, but don't really understand why. 
It's possible to find that bias and examine it, but how many people really self examine? It's worth doing, mind you,  especially if you think of yourself as a moral person.

And of course, there's the irony of Jesus being a Jew. 

If you look at the west as a storyline, there is a reason that he was born into a very persecuted minority..and that has been ignored for two thousand years.

Will that continue? 
I've noticed that the same propaganda machine that has created this weird narrative of Israel as a 'white colonial apartheid settler state' is now trying to convince people that Jesus was 'Palestinian' in the modern sense.

So how much more distortions of history will there be?

I keep thinking about Orwell and how he built in the two minutes of hate that workers had to go to daily event--where they were mandated to rail against the alleged enemy-- encouraged to rail against Emmanual Goldstein..

Orwell knew what he was doing. 

There's also the business of people shutting down Jewish voices.  You post too much about this on social media, people tune out. 

Hollywood is trying to shut down Jewish voices.
Eurovision, the same.  

It's a campaign. a strategic, well funded campaign, that includes movies.. but that's a whole other story..

Sorry for the ramble. 

Thank you so much for saying what needs to be said. 

Karen Gordon
_________________________________________

What the nincompoops in the west fail to realize is that Jews have always been the canary in the coalmine. That is, what happens to Jews now will, if left untreated, metastasize into the same happening to the rest of the western world. Then it will be their problem as well as ours. Like the masses of Christians being slaughtered in Africa, which no one wants to talk about because it's not the fake country called "Palestine". I can't even keep up with the hypocrisy and the utter stupidity that fills the halls of discourse the world over. Wake the f*ck up, world!

Andrea Bergman
Toronto  
_________________________________________

Well done Bob. Too many who don't know history have been brainwashed by the media and the internet. Finding objective truth is near impossible. Are the Israelis starving the Palestinians in Gaza! Of course not. And there is video of the facts! The fact that anyone can call what is happening in Gaza a genocide only underscores their lack of education not to mention understanding and knowledge of history. The idea of 'no Jews no news' is real. We get blamed somehow. Thank you for speaking out on behalf of those of us who are proud to be Jewish and who do not support Bebe's actions and know him to be the criminal he is. Who are against those settlers setting up in the west bank. I would also say that many of us have known since the start that Bebe's method to eliminate Hamas was misguided from day 1. It was as much about him avoiding prosecution as anything else. The highest officers were not in Gaza. Even flattening Gaza will not eliminate Hamas and I think to some extent this situation sadly has helped recruitment. But you are right. What else can we do? People don't understand that the way Hamas fights by building tunnels and putting weapons under schools and hospitals is designed to draw us into the untenable situation of firing on those locations to sow the kind of antisemitism we now see rising. It's part of the plan! We in the west don't understand the mindset of those in terrorist organizations. They are thinking in terms of decades…of hundreds of years not in terms of months or years. And you are so right about so many of us who are afraid to show their Jewishness. We need all of us to stand up. Don't stop celebrating our holidays out in the open. Where are those in Hollywood who signed that petition today? Where's Annie Lennox or Lorde (especially Lorde) or Bjork or (self hating Jew) Paul Simon or Michael Stipe or Dua Lipa being outraged by the mass shooting in Australia. And cease fire?? What ceasefire. The killing of that hostage who was injected with air and then had the video sent to her father. I just visited the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, Italy and was given a tour by a Jewish woman who had been living there with her family for 2 generations. On October 7 she and many of her friends who had family in those kibbutzim and at the Nova festival were sent video of the rapes..the murders the horror. Sent to their phones!! And they call us barbaric?? Not sure how this all ends. But in the words of Golda Meir..."When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

Mark Goodman
IG/X
@goodymade
@sounduppod
_________________________________________

"A celebrity-backed letter shows antisemitism entering the mainstream - Signatories demanded the release of a convicted Palestinian terrorist. It signals a deep problem."

Free link: https://wapo.st/3MCP4cQ
_________________________________________

Bob I would not change a comma of your note on antisemitism. Thank you for taking the time to write the uncomfortable truth.

Lyor Cohen

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Bondi Beach

What did you expect?

Oh that's right, anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. They why did they shoot up a celebration in one of the world's safest countries? What was the motivation?

Somehow most of the world can't understand "from the river to the sea" means elimination of Israel. That's the goal. And Hamas is still fighting for that in Gaza... Selling food at inflated prices. But the horrible Jews stole that land and just won't give it back to its rightful owners.

Hogwash.

I've given up writing about the Gaza crisis. Because the blowback is too big, and I don't think I'm converting anyone.

To be clear, I don't want to defend Netanyahu, I definitely don't want to defend the West Bank settlements, but what do you expect the Israelis to do? Against an enemy that not only wants them eliminated, but attacked during a ceasefire?

But the whole world has jumped on the bandwagon. Countries have recognized a Palestinian state that does not exist. Never mind that the Jews were there thousands of years ago. A false narrative has taken hold.

And if you think the Palestinians have not fomented it on college campuses, have not had a decades-long campaign, then you think Russia is America's friend. But let's settle the war in Ukraine on Putin's terms, think of all the money we can make in business in the wake of arms being laid down!

Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. Like Israel, they were attacked. But that makes no difference, nor the number of soldiers Russia has lost, which is in excess of a million. As for the casualties in Gaza...horrible. However, the estimated numbers do come from the Palestinians... Maybe they're that high, maybe they're not.

And we've got many of today's young Jews protesting against Israel. As if when the new Hitler arrives they'll be let to live in peace. Did everybody on Bondi Beach pledge fealty to Israel? No, they were just Jews, trying to celebrate in peace.

Oh, but they shoot Christians too. The problem is religion. I'm with you on that, but Jews have been targeted for millennia!

Somehow assimilated Jews in America think they're safe. They don't know what people say behind their backs. It's not only that they're Jewish, but they're loud and pushy and money-grubbing and different. The Jews are the OTHER! Why can't young Jews accept this?

Do I think there is a guy in the sky who sees everything and knows whether I've been naughty or nice? Of course not. But that does not mean I'm not a Jew. It's not like being a lapsed Catholic. You're forever branded, whether you believe or not. And that's fine with me, I'll own being Jewish, but history is laden with people who couldn't carry this burden, who changed religions to live in peace, hoping nobody would find out.

The Jews on Bondi Beach were proud of their Jewishness. What's so different from this and Christians celebrating? Oh, that's right, we live in a Christian nation. Only we don't, the founders specifically desired church and state be separated. But somehow the originalists who refuse to believe we've evolved in two hundred and fifty years, looking into the minds of ancient men who couldn't contemplate today's world, think otherwise, that Christianity is American bedrock and anybody who complains about prayer meetings for players...

Do you know what it's like to be in these circumstances? When everybody assumes they're the same, part of a group, and you're not? I've been there, it's very weird.

And too many of today's American Jews refuse to own their religion. To the point where the Orthodox in hats are deemed representative of Jews, because too many regular Jews are afraid to speak up.

Did you read that story about the killing of a hostage by injecting air in her veins?

"'Doctor Killed My Girl' - 'Gaza doctor murdered Israeli hostage by injecting air into her veins...before her father received video of her dying and begging for her life'"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-15373777/Gaza-doctor-murdered-Israeli-hostage-injecting-air-veins-sent-video-dying-begging-life-father.html

Debate all day long the veracity of the story. But if you think Hamas is equivalent to the Israelis... You're probably antisemitic, you don't care if the Jews are gone.

The whole world doesn't seem to care if the Jews are gone.

Most people will read today's news and shrug their shoulders. After all, it wasn't them. And didn't they just kill students at Brown? Just another mass shooting, nothing to see here, move on.

Why is it when Jews are involved there's a double standard? All we heard about the Gaza war was that the Jews should step down, stop and return to peace, as if there's been peace in the middle east during my lifetime, never mind all those thousands of years before. The goal of Netanyahu was to eliminate Hamas. Was that reasonable, was that doable? We can debate that. But the bottom line is Hamas still controls a section of Palestine, and if you think you'd rather live there than Israel, I hope you're not gay, or trans...and even if you're just an average Christian, the standard of living is much lower in Gaza because of the firm grip of Hamas. You want freedom? That's not what you get in Gaza.

But everybody blames it on the Jews.

I want all of America's Jews to wake up. Especially those at the "New York Times." They think they're immune to antisemitism, that it all doesn't come down to their religion, their upbringing, their genes. Self-hating Jews, I've got no time for them.

We can debate all day long about the Palestinian problem...a group of people who have refused every offer of land for a nation since the creation of Israel, a group of people that no surrounding Arab state will accept with full rights, if at all...but we've got to stop denying antisemitism.

The deaths today on Bondi Beach are a direct result of the media and left leaning politicians who are afraid of siding with an oppressed minority, and that's what Jews are, despite having some members of the tribe who've done well financially through hard work. Why don't Americans invite a Jew for dinner? Why don't Jews ask to become members of clubs that still don't want them? Why do today's Jews think it's any different than it's been for five thousand years? Antisemitism is a cancer on our society and too many have added fuel to the fire.

Leading to today.

And this is not the end of it.


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