Senate Majority Leader Schumer apparently felt the need to emphasize the importance of Israel having elections, with an eye towards replacing Netanyahu. In case the Israelis did not get the message, he added that the U.S. may "have no choice but to play a more active role in shaping Israeli policy by using our leverage to change the present course." That's nice. What did you have in mind, Chucky? Cut off military aid in the middle of a war?
Here was the Vice President of the United States, Kamala Harris: "Any major military operation in Gaza (presumably referring to Rafah) would be a huge mistake." Why is that? Don't we want Hamas to be defeated? Why does the left seem to have a problem with winning wars? Harris: "I have studied the maps, there's nowhere for these folks to go, and we're looking at about a million and a half people in Rafah who are there because they were told to go there."
Oh, she studied the maps. What a condescending tone and attitude. If you studied the maps, Madam VP, you would see an area known as the Sinai peninsula, which is part of Egypt, bordering Gaza. If Egypt let them all go through their border with Gaza, the Sinai is more than large enough to accommodate all those people. But Egypt does not want them. Jordan does not want them. I know the rationale - maybe Israel will not them back into Gaza after the war. Except, Egypt and Jordan never wanted them.
Harris: "...we have been very clear far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed." That is a sad fact of any war - innocent civilians being killed. What I do not understand is why isn't the United States putting the pressure on Hamas and their supporters? Hamas started this war. Hamas could at least get a ceasefire by releasing the hostages. Or, they could simply surrender.
A confession. My wife and I watched the Oscars. I saw a Ukrainian film maker speak proudly in the defense of his people in their war with Russia. I saw actor Ramy Youssef, a proud Muslim, joining others in wearing a pin that read "Artists 4 Ceasefire." What about the Jews? Steven Spielberg, perhaps the most well known Jew in attendance, also spoke. Anything about the hostages? Nope. Did I see anyone wearing yellow ribbons for the hostages? Nope.
But I did see Jonathan Glazer speak, following his acceptance of an award for "The Zone of Interest." Glazer: "Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7 in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza - all the victims of this dehumanization, how do we resist?" Did he just refute his Jewishness?
One left-wing site, Vox, said he was misunderstand. Rather, Glazer was saying that Jewishness and the Holocaust should not be used justify the attack on Gaza, Maybe. It is a plausible interpretation of Glazer's remarks. But even so, why wasn't the attack on Hamas in Gaza justified? And why did Glazer suggest that the conflict resulted from the "occupation?' No, the conflict results from 100 years of Jew hatred by Arabs in the historic land of Palestine. (And for those not familiar with the history, Palestine was never a country. It was also understand as the homeland of the Jewish people.)
On the good news front, over 450 other Jews in Hollywood, including actors and producers, wrote a rebuttal to Glazer. "We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime (Hamas) that sought to exterminate a race of people (Jews), and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination."
A final note. Michelle Goldberg is an Op-Ed writer for the New York Times. In her Sunday, March 17, 2024 column she said, among other things, this: "I'm a secular Jew with no particular attachment to Israel." Uh-huh. What? Actually, I get the secular Jew part. There are quite a few secular Jews here and even in Israel. I do not get the "no particular attachment to Israel." It is sad that she has no attachment to her fellow Jews in Israel. It is sad that has no attachment to the land of Israel. I don't follow her enough to now how much she may have been affected by the events of October 7.
But she knows enough to say in her column that "rituals for the two most important Jewish holidays, Passover and Yom Kippur, culminate with the words 'next year in Jerusalem.'" To which I would add: "Am Yisrael Chai!" The People of Israel Live!" I hope that Ms. Goldberg will come to understand that Jews everywhere are the people of Israel.
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