I AM AFRAID. VERY AFRAID

 Out there in the open. I confess. I am afraid. For me, for my family, for my people, for my country and the world. It appears that the oldest hatred in the world, well acknowledged as such, anti- Semitism is alive and well, not only in the sick minds of those who openly talk and act it, but in the minds of those deluded into believing it and spouting it. That is most dangerous of all for they think it natural, of no consequence, for truth is truth. Correct? No, so wrong, so very wrong, so very frightfully, life threatening wrong.

Ilhan Omar, that big mouthed proponent of hate, who cannot let go of any opportunity to trash Jews, to demean them wherever they are, is one of the worst offenders and the biggest proponent of hate even as she poses as one who opposes it. Nothing is beyond the pale in her lexicon of statements.

First, I guess, we must congratulate her in her open bipartisanship, as she so greatly fits the mold of right wing extremists who also spout poison such as "Jews will not replace us." I hope she is oh so proud of herself, for only the evil are. But it is not the openly sick minds that are so much to be feared, for most recognize them and their damaged souls. However, those who refuse to speak out, particularly re her latest barrage of hate speech, are implicit in her hatred as well. Even as she digs her shovel deeper and deeper into the shitpile of her hatred, these people join her, saying nothing, certainly nothing of any consequence, and add their own crap to it.

Of late we Jews have certainly been active. We have caused the pandemic. At the same time we have encouraged the awful crime of mask mandates and vaccination. At the same time Jews have spread the disease by not vaccinating or wearing masks. Take your choice; it is wide open. Fair game and open season all year long.

The victims of hatred and prejudice, from time immemorial, from the first Jew till the present and apparently well into the future. The irony of it all is how these same haters and denigrators of Jews and Judaism, spout how our 'culture' is based on Judeo-Christian ethics. Yes - Judeo, so where do you think that word and those ethics came from? Abraham is a Jew. So were Moses and Aaron. So was King David and his son, Solomon. So was Jesus. So were the Apostles. So was Einstein. So was Mendelssohn. So were so many - authors, scientists teachers, doctors, plumbers, carpenters, artists and artisans, winners of Nobel and other distinguished awards and on and on we go. So how is it that we are accused of wishing and acting on the goal of destroying society?

The Torah, the original Bible in the original language,  states and commands the rule of society. Tzedek, tzedek, tirdof"  -Justice shall ye pursue. Justice noticeably having the same root as the word Tzedakah - charity and so Jews down the ages have been great philanthropists to all and participated in insuring that laws of a country be just, be fair, be compassionate, and if not, then worked to improve them. They marched in the front lines of protests. They wrote great treatises regarding humanity. They fought valiantly for the rights of workers in our own country, right here in the good old USA. So from whence does this illogical, dangerous hatred grow? Why does it continue?

  Omar states, out of ignorance and deliberate hatred, that oh no, she did not mean to imply that Jews - and hence, Israel, thus all Jews - committed atrocities. Never mind that they did not as a policy. Anyone who crossed the lines, well, they were prosecuted and imprisoned for those crimes. On the other hand, those terrorists who bombed civilians, murdered children, kidnapped schoolboys, claimed rape as a legitimate weapon of war, blew up schools and buses, well, they and their families receive pensions! Great career path! Kill a Jew, the more the merrier, and be set for life.

Worse, she has condemned Jews as inadequate in fighting injustice, with little effort in it. I guess that is an improvement over her first statement that we did not do anything at all to fight prejudice and injustice. She damned the Jewish people with faint praise. She damned the Jewish people by lumping them into one indistinguishable mass, naturally rife with poor character traits and a penchant for evil. She condemned Jewry by equating them with Israel and then condemning Israel which apparently has no redeeming features at all. So contrary to the truth. 

Omar claimed this week on CNN her Jewish colleagues in Congress have not “been partners in injustice.” They’re simply not as committed to fighting injustice around the world as she and her cohort supposedly are, Omar said, adding her Jewish colleagues just don't understand injustice the way she does. 

“I think it's really important for these members to realize that they haven't been partners in justice. They haven't been, you know, equally engaging in seeking justice around the world.”

She added, “It is important for me as someone who knows what it feels like to experience injustice in ways that many of my colleagues don't to be a voice in finding accountability, asking for mechanisms for justice for those who are maligned, oppressed, and who have had injustice than to them.”

This, about the people who were subjected to a scientifically organized campaign to kill the last Jew on earth - and damned near succeeded. Called the Holocaust, in case you did not know that! The same country that allowed her in as a refugee, denied that to Jews fleeing for their lives - literally - and sent them back to their inevitable deaths.

And so she dignifies hatred. She validates hatred as it applies to Jews, certainly not to her. She claims Islamophobia even as she engages in blatant anti-Semitism. Hypocrisy at its worst. She enables those people who wear a yellow star to prove such unrelated statements such as "We are all Jews" and why, for being told to wear a mask!!!! Stupidity only makes it worse, belittling the truth and the dire consequences to those who are hated to that degree - and to those who fall for it.

A note for the future, college campuses, historically as a source of fighters for justice, against hatred, are now a growing source of anti - Semitism, cursing and physically threatening, harassing Jews on campus, from student to professors, for daring to be Jewish. So where do we go? Again, not here, not there, and apparently certainly not in the USA, so where? Israel - oh, you forgot, its right to exist is non existent. So where?

We have been taught, told, lectured, re the principle that all it takes for evil to be triumphant is for good men to be silent. Why are we repeating history? Again. And again. Why? Why have we not learned its lessons? Silence is complicit in this new/old anti-Semitism. 

I am afraid. Very much so. You should be afraid too.