LIFE'S LIMBO

      “How low can you go?” That is the question of the song as people twisted themselves into pretzels, bent bodies at unthinkable angles all to get beneath a poles or rope, to be the last one standing as the cheers and laughter of the onlookers rose in volume. It was all done in fun, no animosity among the competitors who hugged each other. Good wishes and comradery were in evidence.      However, this dance has other sides.  

For the contestant who goes lower, who is forced to dig deep beneath its feet to enable lower depth, forced into more intense "pretzeling', breathing, the very act of existence is challenging, more and more. The movements of the dance become the throes of murder even as the onlookers rise to their feet in a delirium of victory and the flush of bloodlust satiated, at least for the moment. 

Onlookers uneasy with what is going on are cowed into submission or forced to leave. Those who champion this perverted version of limbo send out rather liberating vibes and more join the flock of black sheep, don wolf's clothing, free their inner beast, and press ever closer and closer to the victim nation who now recognizes its new reality. The oppressors, reveling in the agony they have engendered now walk out in mob formation and identity, submerging their individuality to the anonymity of the mob. They go forth on the hunt, allowing the ravening beast free rein, off the leash, free to do as it wills.

Irony abounds. At the very same time that this nationHatred, JewHatred, is ramping up there's   increased attention paid to the Holocaust, the not-so-distant nearly successful attempt to wipe out at the very least the Jews of Europe and North Africa.  Its failure was mourned by too many. They now try to install yet another Holocaust in place while accusing the victims of genocide as the seekers of genocide. Anathema. Blasphemy.

The irony intensifies and the rust drips, drips, drips, scalding, maiming all caught within its web. No one escapes the ugly forces of the gale winds of its maelstrom. No middle ground here. One is either a supporter of the oppressor, or one of the oppressed.  One who stands quiet, stands by and watches or ignores, is merely an oppressor of differing degree.

 The haters wrap themselves well with the blankets of Holocaust memorials and speeches, vowing "Never Again" even as they foment the Again. Elie Wiesel caught that attitude, challenging it. At a meeting of members of the EU boasting of their efforts to establish Holocaust memorials within their country, Elie Wiesel spoke after they were done, so self-satisfied, so smug in their hypocrisy. His response was thus: " That's what you are doing for dead Jews. What are you doing for Jews living in your country?" 

That question is even more relevant in the existentially challenging times we are experiencing. The growth of hate, vitriolic and violent grows by leaps and bounds. Authorities enable it as they cave shamelessly to the demands of uninformed, deluded college students, brainwashed by Moslem and Arab professors financed by funds from deep nefarious sources, and supervised, taught by activists of these funders of mayhem and danger. The authorities abdicate their honor and sense as they acquiesce to "review' their Israeli ties, to divest from any and all - politically, economically, historically.

They are to buy into denial of the Holocaust, to deny Hamas's beastly massacre of civilians of all ages on Oct7, breaking a ceasefire and instigating a war Israel neither wanted nor set in place. But must complete. The calculated deaths of the Gazans were coldly planned and instigated by the murderers, achieving the goal of having the world blame Israel for the deaths of this war even as the blame is truly belonging on the shoulders and at the feet of Hamas and Sinwar, the leader, a coward who hides behind hostages and his own people.  

The world buys into his lies and Israel is now well on the way to being designated a pariah among nations. This a nation which has punched way above its weight in its contributions to the world. Shame on the people. Shame on the leaders. Shame on all of us who continue to enable this to be so as they downplay its importance and relevance until it will be too late. If not already so. 

The sickening hypocrisy grows ever larger and more encompassing of the leaders and followers of the world. They lie with every atom and molecule, with every syllable emerging from their twisted forked tongues. They vow to memorialize the Holocaust even as they energetically enable another as they then turn on Israel, embargo its weapons at the very moment that Israel faces an existential threat far more severe than ever before.    In fact, should it, G-d forbid, ever come to pass it will place the original Holocaust and all the horrors of the millennia, in the shade of a far greater one.

In the words of Rabbi Avi Weiss, spoken to Jimmy Carter on the White House lawn, and as relevant today, after the words and actions of Biden. “Don't give us the Holocaust at the expense of Israel.” 

 In other words, either you are with us to solve this perennial dangerously nonsensical hatred or stand aside, and we will do it ourselves.  

We will not play nor participate in the new version of limbo. We will not go low as we can go. In fact, we will rise to the challenge and force the world to rise to the understanding that it needs. It will be difficult. It will be the cause of many a tear, but never again do we do the limbo. Do not stand beside us even as you hold guns and knives behind our backs. How low will YOU go?

 We will only dance the dances of joy and celebration. We will dance the dances of victory. We will dance the dances of the righteous and the safe. But we will never again allow anyone to force us to dance the new limbo or to the tune of their tainted instruments. No more. No more.            

NO MORE.

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Yitzy, my sweet boy, so many have written to me, spoken to me of the golden middot, manners and values which you evidenced in your too short life. Would that you were here to teach them to others.  Perhaps to bring peace to this world. But you are not. So do your best up there. Bother that Big Guy. Force Him to see the truth below. 

 Love you and miss you more than words can say. 

 Always and forever. Always and forever.