LIGHTNING DOES STRIKE TWICE

 First, deep apologies. Once again, the aviation industry managed to delay me for hours.  First, it is nigh unto impossible to find a direct flight to anywhere, especially from a smaller airport such as PBI. Evidently, flying in the opposite direction from one's final destination is the way to go, like it or not.  and wow, did we begin the journey with a bang, finding the baggage system in PBI was broken. Luggage being toted around by impressed luggage shleppers, our suitcases separated and worry over their eventual journey, hoping it would coincide with ours.

The first leg was okay, a tad delayed due to luggage location, and then Boom!  Thunder and lightning -not by us but at destination. A sunlit city amid huge thunderstorms. Already delayed by an hour We were boarded, taxied, told to halt, and there we sat until told to return to gate. No flight possible. And there we sat and sat and sat and sat some more. Some passengers were lucky enough to find alternate flights and some not. We sat until after 8 when we were told to get off the plane, timed out of our seats. along with many of the flight crew. Uh oh, now what? Suddenly about 10 minutes later, we were told to hurry up. Hurry up. Back on the plane. A flight that was to have landed a bit after 4:00 PM, we were finally home to our destination, in bed at 12:45 AM. A replay of my original experience the other week in Chicago.

The crew was amazing, pilot and copilot communicating with the passengers, the flight attendants maintaining humor and calm and did their best. However. people were hungry after those long hours sitting on that plane. When one asked about vouchers as in Chicago we were told basically, nothing.

 This cannot be. Airlines charge enough to factor in such a probability. This minor gesture would go a long way to neutralize the frustration that so many passengers feel as they are nickel and dimed to death when tickets are bought. Do the right thing and it will go the right way, a long way. 

Hence my apologies. I am hoping that I will be able to write a blog on Sunday but please understand that if it is delayed it is because that is the day for the commemoration for Yitzy, my beautiful, sweet golden boy. My grandson stolen from us via cancer at the age of 13. The influence he had on so many others of all ages, of all ethnicities, of all religions was, is truly amazing and all coming together on Sunday.  

IN STEP, OUT OF SYNC. IN SYNC, OUT OF STEP

Whatever the choice of the title, we never seem to be totally together, be it within groups or within    individual lives. Suddenly we find ourselves in sync, marching with a group, united, but as we look around, this is not where we wish to be. As a result, we find ourselves stepping to a different rhythm of a different drumbeat. Now you are out of sync, distinctly uncomfortable and a bit eerie. How did you arrive here? Beats you and us. You find it is not the group with which you wish to be associated   and so once again - out of sync.

These days it is more difficult than ever for an individual to find his heart's place within the many. Hence, we actually find ourselves scattering pieces, a piece of us here, a piece of us there. But as a whole? Nothing appears to be truly welcoming you in totality with warmth and a sense of belonging. Even groups once compatible, now shatter with inner strife and critical imbalances. Strident voices are raised and the beat, the sync, the unified step    are impossible to maintain. 

 In fact, we are in another pandemic, one where unity is gone, and favored are the voices of disharmony. The power, the lure, of these voices have a strong pull. Over “the noise of the madding crowd" these voices of disharmony prove to have a liberating attraction for the unsettled and the   misinformed. Are these violent raucous riots part of growing up, a rite of passage of every generation or are there more sinister motivations driving it all?  Is there any way to heed not the siren call of condoned violence, no rule?       

While the onus of the choice falls upon the one or ones making the choice, there is also the burden and responsibility of those who know better, of educators who are turncoats to a noble profession.  Those with nefarious motives ensnare the young and easily led and well, here we are once again, back at the old corral with the gate open. No restraints of any import. Something to do on a boring day, a nice day to be outside, perhaps meet a new friend or two and agitate authorities.  

 Today, authority is trying to put the toothpaste back into the tube. It is an impossible task. New approaches, strong approaches with backbone must be laid in place. Explain and then carry it out. Keep the promises. Keep your words. Be clear and be of strong spine. At times there is necessity to first gain the attention and then one can teach the lesson. One cannot defeat a roaring tiger without strong determination, plans in place, and contingencies analyzed and accommodated. Backing away only highlights weaknesses and instigators are quick to capitalize on them. 

Authority caved last year to hate, to extremes of “whatever means necessary” translating to approval, even recommendation of slaughter emulating the horrific example of the beasts of Hamas of October 7. and consequences. Approval of slaughter, for bestiality. Authorities caved to hate, to extremes, to the deliberate use of fellow Gazans as weapons of war. We must not repeat this error for if so, we only strengthen the forces of anti-society, anti-unity opposed to any kind of positive sync at all. It favors the scratchy violin, the mistuned piano and the weak, soundless tuba. It is   anathema to any kind of a civilized society of humane intent. Unless we do this right this time around, well, sync and unity will be forfeit. The out of tune voice will overpower and dominate shattering harmony and joy. The new chorus will be totally out of tune, out of harmony. The state of the world today.  

The ugly stink of vitriolic Jew Hatred was heavy upon the air on the campuses of universities last semester. Unfortunately, that same rank odor once again permeates these campuses. How will the authorities react? It is a wait and see situation for it will be awful unless we do it right this time around Not too hopeful, am I? These newly rephrased rules must not be merely words on a paper, flimsy, unenforced, meaningless. We actually would have told the rioters in so many words to "have at it!" Hey, free throw. Go out and do your worst. In fact, the whole world is watching.  

 This week, the campuses opened to the same old, same old. Will the authorities hold true to their words? Will they have the moral courage they so obviously lacked last term? Or will they once again cave and allow the raucous thoughtless mobs to perpetrate the same violence and attack upon society. Will the harassment of the Jewish students, of Jewish institutions, synagogue, schools, centers, so very carefully marked out on a map given out at MIT orientation prove to be the superior side here? Will there be actual bloodlust be satisfied via the spilling of the blood of Jews, from infant to elder, a repetition of Oct7? Not impossible - not at all.  Goals are bloody, echoes of October 7,of the beasts of Hamas.

Perhaps there are some signs of light. Highly antagonistic organizations. calling out for extreme measures against Jews and anything touching upon Jews have been suspended, their accounts canceled by Meta. Canceled again as they retried. People are beginning to speak up and out against this ugliness. Jewish students, their parents, board members, alumni are beginning to coalesce, to stand firm against the haters.  And the lower strata of the educational world had better do improved jobs teaching about antisemitism, the Holocaust, and hatred overall. Biased teachers must be rejected unless reeducation is successful.

We here in the greatest nation of the world, the United States of America must do better. We are falling down on the job. We have abdicated our role as leader. As example for the good, the positive, the altruistic. We have reengaged with hatred, forgotten our true self as a nation of immigrants, benefiting from their input, from their labor, from their ideas. 

We have got to return to where we should be. We have got to remember our better side and forgo the worst. We had better be better examples to our own young. We cannot remain in this position. 

The alternative to improvement is not an alternative at all. We must. do better. Can we? Will we? Do we even want to?       

   

WELL, AND HOW'S THAT WORKING FOR YA'?

It is a sad day indeed when the proof of the pudding is right there before your eyes, yet you remain willfully selectively blind to that truth. Oh, for sure we understand how difficult it would be for you to admit your errors and to actually, maybe, possibly, hopefully, in deference to the truth, actually admit your egregious misdeeds and erroneous beliefs. Of course, the best result would be a loud and vocal apology to those you have harmed, those you   mislead, and those you have 'inspired' to follow you down that path to Hell upon which you gallop in joyous frenzy. 

And so here we are at the very beginning of a new semester, and it is the same old, bloody old verbal violence, the same aura of imminent physical threat.   We are even more disappointed via the inaction of college and university employees and figures of authority and power. They boast of the new clothes they have bought and draped over the offenders, uselessly, in a vain effort to hide the truth, in all its ugliness. 

No, I am in error, for we knew then, and we know    now that there has been a change. However, that change has been for the negative. The agitators and their cohorts have learned well the lessons of last semester. Universities are ready and willing to be intimidated by a bunch of hooligans enamored by the media and the attention garnered. Oh, for joy, the masks, the draped scarves of hate, the frantic calls from parents. The joy of 'youthful' rebellion. Neither pleasant nor enticing for the targets of the hate, but, well, c'est la guerre.

In any case, now it is obvious that the university authorities are as threatening as a gnat. Just smack at it and away it flies. No resultant consequences of any consequence, at all, as all were forgiven over the summer break. And here they are again first day, in all their ugliness, reeking of bloodlust and rampant antisemitism. The same enabling nasty emails and texts between university officials who then must resign and so what - these protester gangsters could care less - there are plenty more in situ

Disappointing to us as we watch the hate unroll, but not surprising. Disappointing, but not surprising the constant, gravely mistakenly conflation of Islamophobia, barely ever even hinted at, never to be seen, with the rampant viral antisemitism so much in ugly blossom round the world. It is absolutely critically necessary to put that nonsense aside and deal with the brass tacks of reality.    

There must be a change - big change, many changes. There must be an acknowledgement that. their vaunted programs to educate people about antisemitism are useless. Certainly, as they are right now. Perhaps the authorities need to be reminded that “if you build it, they will come” is only so in the movies. These protesters and vandals want no part of them nor, if they ever attended a session, an email program, have they internalized any aims and goals of said program. These purportedly 'new' programs of education, dressed as new, are not.     Berkely has had one in place since 2019 and “Well, how's that working for ya?”  Not!! Empty words, useless programs, not followed up with boosters, are they? No actual impact at all. 

"The University of California Berkeley is expanding its antisemitism education in the 2024-25 school year as well as banning encampments and prohibiting masking to conceal one’s identity. ... announced “new campus programs to provide antisemitism education to larger numbers of students, staff, and faculty,” in a letter to the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Jewish Student Life and Campus Climate.

Of the three main areas ... one is focused on incoming students, one on RAs, and one on registered student organizations.

Incoming students received expanded antisemitism education at Berkeley’s Golden Bear Orientation. RAs receive a “more intensive orientation process” for their education, while registered student organizations’ signatories “do a series of online trainings” that includes education on antisemitism and Islamophobia."

Still ignoring a major, influential source of inspiration of much of the protest movement, the violence, the intense hatred, the ever-rising clarion calls for elimination of Israel, denied right or legitimacy as a nation, and for the determined effort to exclude, isolate, dehumanize, and exterminate. The professors encourage and practice this policy within their classrooms, encouraging students to focus on the Jew, the Israeli and demean them, chase them out. Where are the programs to stop that egregious violation of ethics and the purpose of higher education, the responsibility of professors to reach for, encourage and role model the highest levels of humanity rather than wallow with and in the dregs. 

We, the universities, the authorities, political leaders, law enforcement, and yes, parents, have not internalized these lessons, understood the fact, the basic fact, that consequences and carry through are a must, that not doing so kayos the program before it even begins. The response to "Well, how's that working for ya'? will be an emphatic "Well, it is broken, and can we fix it?" We are late at the gate already and had better get going.

Can we?

Are there enough of those who actually wish to do so?  Is there strength enough to conquer the hatemongers, the negative voices? Or is the power of the negative too overwhelming to be defeated? 

Questions we all must ask ourselves and of others. To stand aside and do nothing is to be complicit, to enable the ugliness to continue and grow ever stronger, ever more consequential, ever more harmful and savage and finally bloody.  

That is where hate and violence lead and quite frankly we have all been there, done that and we should all be tired of that.   

SURPRISE!!! NOT REALLY

Nope, no surprises left, positive ones, within the world at large. Pleasant surprise on a worldwide or national level is most definitely an endangered species. This morning, once again awakening late - now that remains a surprise - I wondered if I have the time to take a look around the world and discern some timely topic. Well, all I had to do was turn on Morning Joe, and my cup runneth over.

Needless to say, the topics that immediately arose were of no surprise. Not in this crazy world of ours. So, up for the first look - censorship. As an educator, as a voracious reader from the time I was four until now, and hopefully into the future, it is anathema to me to suggest book censorship. Actually, there is one point on which I agree. That is that books advocating and inciting and urging violence and hatred, destruction, should be banned. There is no positive or redeeming facet within them.  

 On the other hand, there might be books that I might not appreciate, or you might not appreciate, but that 3rd person will definitely appreciate it. There is no harm within it. No advocation of violence against anyone else. No tendency to increase hatred. Perhaps, though, it has a degree of understanding and or appreciation or sympathy for a different lifestyle. Frankly, I see no harm in that. If such lifestyles exist and do so without inflicting violence upon others, there is no reason, no right, no justification for that censorship.

When I was a kid if I brought home a library book of which my parents disagreed, they would simply take it away and tell me there's a better one. As a youngster, I would agree to go along with it. However, that parental dislike stuck in my head; hence, when I was older, I took the book out and hid it from my parents and read it. Generally, at night with a flashlight when the entire household was asleep. Sometimes I shook my head and wondered what the fuss was all about. Actually, I think my parents knew, but believed, possibly, that at that point I was capable of reading that book and dealing with its content. At times I could not fathom their thinking while at other times I agreed with it - deciding for myself. No harm, no foul.   

It is the right, the duty, of parents to raise their child properly and well informed and capable of facing the world. You can supervise what your child is reading but know that that supervision has a time limit, a reality check. It is far better to discuss things which might upset you rather than simply issue dictats which only encourage disobedience to those dictats.

Unfortunately, there have been thousands upon thousands of book censorships during the 2023 - 2024 school year, from kindergarten to university level. Smell the smoke of the book burning of Hitler? It is merely a difference of degree, but not. of content, action or motivation. What the hell are we doing? What are we teaching our kids? Are we educating them to suppress viewpoints of others, to violently disagree with those viewpoints? And ban them? And ban those who support those differing viewpoints? To imprison them, shoot them, deport them? As long as those views do not incite violence or hatred there's nothing wrong with them. One might disagree with their content, but certainly the content of these books is protected under the right of free speech within this country. We must resist and deny the rather determined efforts of the extreme right to ban books with which they disagree or do not like. There is no room for that within an American democracy.

And immediately we touch upon the second. No surprise this topic. That is the topic of the Supreme Court of the United States, a bench which is now overrun by extremists who had no right to be there in the first place. Two have been accused of sexual harassment. Rightfully so. Four have been accused and shown to have accepted bribes in the forms of gratuities, RVs, whatever suited the need. They have failed to recuse themselves from cases where there is obvious conflict of interest. The Chief Justice is apparently weak and cannot impose order and ethical practices on his bench. Six right wingers against three women of humanity.  This is a crucial issue and no surprise, must be attended to and remedied - in a permanent manner. No surprise at all. Definitely not.

Finally, no surprise, a topic utmost on my mind. I hate it, I fear it. I worry about it. Rising anti- Semitism. Rising decibels of howling voices of hatred, with incitement to violence, with actual calls for the extermination of Jews, within and without Israel. It has become the trendy, the in thing to do, so liberating, knowing there are no consequences which will stick so - have at it! Shout and scream and do whatever the hell you want.   Visibly violently violate the laws of decency, of justice, of the campus rules. No surprise to find that on the first day of the new term at Cornell University once again anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli protests. Yet again, a university failing in its duty to protect all within its campus.  The physical and emotional abuse perpetrated upon the Jewish students is unacceptable and yet it is tolerated and even worse, celebrated. Professors, Board members, students are harassed for disagreeing, for being Jewish!

 Many universities. take the cowardly way - that of appeasement. Any student of history, any person with a thinking brain knows that appeasement is a policy of preordained failure, generally with a huge thud and great damage ensuing. And yet they follow that policy.  

“The question of divestment has brought to the forefront strong and contrasting views, and the vote this fall will bring clarity to an issue of sustained interest to many members of our community,” said Brian Clark, a Brown University spokesperson. “We cannot speculate on the outcome.”The Brown Divest Coalition struck a deal with college bosses for a vote to be held this October in return for ending the months of pro-Hamas protests that engulfed the Rhode Island campus."

There is no making a deal with such kind of pressure. Yet there is as continued effort to do so, to aid and abet the spread of hatred, revitalize an ancient trope thousand-fold. Numerous campuses are guilty of this failing. In fact, the AAUP, the American Association of University Professors voted on August 9th to add fuel to the fire and canceled an almost 20-year-old policy of opposition to boycotts and voted this way: that academic boycotts " can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education". Glaringly there in its glaring absence of direct statement is the resultant legitimization of academic boycotts of Israel. a rather strong giant pillar of the BDE movement.   Massive caving to pressure. Is this, was this, a surprise? Unfortunately, not.

Students and outside agitators know that there are no consequences sticking to the landing, nothing forbidding their movement.  The direction these 'protests' will take is one of more violence leading inevitably to bloodshed. 

The world will be the worse for it if we do not actually surprise ourselves and push back against this ugliness. We must remember, remind ourselves that hatred spreads and overwhelms all, including the original haters. A word to the wise.   

   

WHAT'S APP?

  Not a typo nor a misspelling. It is a simple question which belies the confusion trailing behind. It is with a deep sigh of resignation and hopelessness with yet another app mysteriously joining the already overloaded screen pages of computers and phones. The already numerous ones already challenging you welcome yet another to the fold. End result? A longing glance at the bar or fond memories of one's old flip phones, so small, so easy to work, with nary a challenge to your cognitive status.  

One begins to question one's sanity. How the heck did that get here? It was not here yesterday - or was it? It might have been the app poltergeist striking when you were not paying attention. More likely, it was those pesky units called children and grandchildren who so erroneously think the old folks will be so much better off with the new app and the next and the next three ad infinitum. Then the 'best' part - the frustration expressed by these 'do-gooders', demanding, "Why didn't you look at your phone or check what's app, or messages, Instagram, disappearing photos, dms - whatever those are! And mind you, all the while you know for sure, that one of those snarky ladies, Siri or Alexa, are laughing at you, constantly challenging you. 

Ah, for the good old days of those heavy black Bakelite dial phones of two twisted cords,   guaranteed to knot up within five minutes of installation. The hunt for privacy as you stretched those cords to their limits and then beyond. As you knew, just knew that the rest of the family was listening in, paying close attention to every word and discussing what might have been the response on the other side of that call. It was the frantic gestures by the parents indicating that three minutes were up and were you going to pay the extravagant costs of overtalking!? Oh, those gestures of knife across throat, ominous warnings to hang up NOW! Or face the consequences. Hmmm, a tad tarnished these memories of old.

Even so, life definitely seemed less confusing, less entangled in complicated knots defying solutions. Lines were clearly drawn, and one knew where one stood. Consequences were clear. and carried out. One learned to think before acting, to follow the thread through to the end. Spontaneous hugs or family giggles were plentiful, and rooms shared with siblings fostered close relationships for life.   Best of all, we all lived close together, family nearby, rather than scattered among several cities and states, even countries. 

Life was, if not golden, at least simpler. Decision making was easier. TV? Channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13. I still use those numbers today even though they do not apply in Florida! Habits are hard to break. TV late night binging? Nope, for at 11 or midnight the flag waved onscreen as the national anthem was played and then ...static, until 6AM when programming returned with cartoons for the kids. And we kids - we were mesmerized with that little round screen hidden behind closed doors of that heavy wood cabinet and the miracles it brought right into our living room. Wow! Of course, not to forget when the TV repairman came to the house with his giant bag of tools and racks of mysterious glass tubes. It was fascinating, especially if we were allowed to 'help'.

Oh well, all good things must come to an end. And here I end today's posting. Too much to do. Too many questions to answer. For example, is there anything to watch tonight? Or is it all reruns or game shows? What about all the streaming possibilities? Which do we get again? Which remote and where the hell are they? Or maybe let's play that new cognitive challenging game we just bought on Amazon. Oh, no? Your brain is too tired? Okay, maybe tomorrow. I'll read the book I finally wrangled from the library on its rather challenging ever-changing website, bugs and all. Or maybe we should pre-open the items we need for tomorrow's meals as it is nigh unto impossible to open food packages, any packages these days, other than the ones coming battered and bruised via shipping services. Even with fragile plastered all over. What is the menu for tomorrow? 

Wait! The phone. Where is it? How did it get there? You must have put it there. Better answer before the calls to emergency services as to why we haven't answered and are we okay? After all, the last conversation ended at least ten minutes ago. Which one is it now? 

But then again would we want it any other way?

Well... 

Memories are good; creating new ones is even better.    

 

     

TRUTH TO TELL

Truthfully, truth to tell, I am so tired of the consistent destructive bias present in every aspect and form of the media. From outright questioning and/or the denial of anything pro-Israel, to outright seeking and encouragement of harm to Israel, it is a highly troublesome and troubling phenomenon. Always, statistics and data as stated by Israeli authorities, are attached to words insinuating doubt and uncertainty as to the veracity of such data, particularly when that data conveys any kind of support for Israel. Worse is the reversal of facts into 'truths' never even ever having been in proximity to real undeniable irrefutable truths.  

A blatant example of the above is the rapid turnover of October 7 from an attack upon Israel to an attack waged by Israel upon its own people, thus creating a cause allowing them to invade Gaza and wreak havoc on those 'poor innocent civilians'. The world bought it all, lock, stock and barrel and continues to decorate and enhance these lies, shouting their 'truth' which is most definitely not truth to tell. Not in any way, not in any form, not in any manifestation.

 Israel left Gaza in 2005 and within days the PA was thrown out, its agents literally banging on the gates of the border, asking Israel for refuge from their fellow 'innocent' civilians, fellow 'Palestinians', the same ones who took to the street in support of that overthrow of government. The same ones who cheered every time they heard of a successful terrorist attack upon a Jew, upon Israel. Who taught the children to hate almost from the very moment of birth and sent them to military camp at age 7. Who taught their children that it was a blessing to die while taking the lives of Jews with them. Who cheered the parade of captives dead and alive, clothed and unclothed, bloodied and hurt. Who volunteered their homes to be used for exits and entrances to tunnels. Who vied for the privilege of holding a captive within their home, to toy with at will. Who allowed arms and ammunition from bullets to rockets and launchers to be hid under their children's beds, in their living rooms.  Who allowed for their Hamas, to use their deaths, as a weapon of war, crying oh so piteously at rising numbers of casualties - deliberately placed in the path of harm by Hamas. Cold blooded, monstrous, and successful.       

Here is another truth to tell. Last night 100 jets from Israel flew over into Lebanon and bombed the crap out of military areas. It was an attempt to take preemptive action as it was disclosed that Hezbollah was ramping up to a monstrously large rocket and missile attack upon Israel. Even as they flew, the rockets had been launched. An ugly business but, truth to tell, the world will accuse Israel of increasing tension. 

Truth to tell, no matter what Israel does or says, it meets immediate refutation and denial. Evidently, in their twisted minds, providing shelter for civilians, rather than placing them in harm's way, having concern for their lives as opposed to sacrificing those lives in cold hearted, ruthless manner, is contrary to their rules of war. Evidently their idea of war with Israel is to ensure that Israel either matches body for body, wound for wound, or be far greater. So, what is the answer? Is there an answer to these barbaric trends of thoughts? Truth to tell, I think not. I know not. 

This morning, I read an interesting article purportedly defining an answer to "what is Judaism”. The conclusion was that it is at one and the same time-or at different times, a religion, a culture, a heritage, a genetic component. And yes, within each category there are major and minor differences, endless bouts of arguments and the shaking of fists and heads, differences among the groups. However, the world must remember, as we Jews remember, when pushed against that wall, we are, bottom line, all Jews. Defined by others, truth to tell it matters not, for we will recognize our shared faith and fate, with the word "Amcha"  (your people") as our term of identification and shared family. All the differing branches, truth to tell, matters not, for the parts make up a whole.  

Truth to tell the world is replete with lies more so than truths. Truth to tell, human beings seem to have a stronger affinity to falsehood than to the value and virtue of truth. Truth to tell, that concept of truth and its necessity is bypassed, stomped upon, ignored and trashed. We expend our intelligence and time on rebutting the truth and reinforcing the lie with even more lies in number, intensity, and egregiousness.   

Truth to tell, along with all the above comes, inevitably, tied to it with Gordian knots, is the emotion and acts of hate, of hatreds of great intensity and rife with madness and ignorance.   Hatred is a visible and powerful motivation. Its dark presence is within most of us. It is the "dark passenger" of Dexter's which inhabits too large a place within too many of us. 

Truth to tell, I have a deep hatred for those who have made me hate them. That dark passenger glows within, intensified by each and every piece of falsehood, every diminishing second of survival for our hostages, every threat and act of more war, every act of national hostility, from Putin to terrorists, to Moslem nations, to nations coveting territory of others, and to crazed with grief Israelis who give way to blood revenge - it diminishes all of us.      

 Truth to tell, it is an ugly imperfect world. It is upon us to fix it and ourselves. It is a huge job, perhaps never ending one, but we must try. We must make progress. We must adopt truth and stop lying to ourselves for if we do not there is no future. How to go about doing this, achieving or meeting with any modicum of success? Beats me.   I guess we all need to begin at the beginning. With ourselves. But how does one shed the hate of those who do me, and mine, harm? How? Truth to tell I have no answer.  How then does one proceed if there is no guidance available as to direction taken or path trodden.

Truth to tell, is there any positive answer to solve this problem? I hope so. But I am more than beginning to think not so. Unless there comes along some blessed individual of great mind, heart and charisma to inspire us to follow him/her, and at least make a dent in the armor of hatred and its perpetration upon this besieged and broken world of ours.  

Can it be? Will it be? 

Truth to tell ....

As an aside, a brief segue to the question of what Judaism is, what is a Jew - here is an answer while not complete does go a long way in the right direction. And always with some humor, for humor is most necessary in the composition of a Jew. 

"So what is Judaism? It’s a religion. It’s a culture. It’s a heritage. It’s a box you might have to check at the doctor’s office. It’s a complicated, ancient, incredibly diverse, permeable peoplehood. And yes, it’s true that where there are two Jews, there are probably three opinions."

"ALLO, HELLO, SHALOM KNOCK, KNOCK, ANYBODY HOME?"

  Or I hear ya' knockin' but you can't come in". Or "Go away; not wanted." Or the ultimate truth - "we do not want your kind here." And that is the bottom line, unvarnished brutal reality of the truth. This time around this ever-present animosity has managed to grow and encompass all variations within its serrated sharp-edged borders, no possibility of exit in sight. Well, perhaps I lie. Apparently, I have disremembered that if one denied one's own being, totally negated oneself in abhorrent abnegation, in surrender of all dignity, well, maybe, a passage for that brief second appeared, but it was only for THAT moment. Instantaneously the process reset itself and it was a case of ad nauseum ad absurdum - only it was not absurd, was it?  

In fact, it is a return to the ugliness of yesteryear, sans the Lone Anger, Tonto, Zorro, Sabra, Golem, nor knight in shining armor atop a huge white horse. No, only that overwhelming suffocating ugliness and an inability to transmit that state of being to anyone not within the target zone of those practicing this newly elevated 'religion' of condoned, even sanctified violence and bloodshed with an acknowledged and open goal of final status; exclusion and extermination.

Clear as glass. and yet the world once again turns its back, makes excuses, refuses to acknowledge its moral cowardice. Its silenced voice is heard loud and clear, is, in fact, deafening. "We need to attend to business, old business. New business is shit outta' luck!" Into each life some rain must fall, correct? Only why must this rain of blood pouring from battered souls and bodies be a constant, ever ongoing, never openly acknowledged, ever savage in intent?  Ever discernable no matter the disguise.

A columnist recently wrote with good intention in mind that what all this amounts to is an attempt to break the "moral spine" of Jews. He quotes:

"In support of Jewish emancipation in 1789, the Comte de Clermont-Tonnerre told France’s National Assembly: “The Jews should be denied everything as a nation but granted everything as individuals.” On a growing part of the American left, the offer stands. To debate whether this violates one Jew or another’s freedom of religion is to miss the point."

The spine is a forced denial of the essence of most people - the right to be seen as a peoplehood, a nation. But it is more than that. It is not so much a separation of that peoplehood right as to a surrender of religion, though our foes claim that falsehood. Its lie is clearly displayed via the morphing signs calling for defeat and erasure of Israel, segueing into chants and posters calling for "death to the Jews. Same difference. All even remotely associated with Judaism, Jews, Israel, Zionism is anathema to these beasts. All of those concepts are denied and discredited. It becomes a sacred duty to kill Jews, to destroy Israel.  

 It is not the spine of Jews and Judaism that is being broken. Our students made us proud and are determined to follow through, not to surrender to fear and threats, to intimidation. to renounce their   Judaism, their support for Israel, and even to hide     their Judaism by forswearing any and all symbols of such. The response was the immediate growth. of the wearing of the Jewish star, of kippot, of any symbol of Judaism. Neither their physical nor moral spine was broken. In fact, they were strengthened. In fact, broken shards of spines still diseased and dangerous belonged to the protesters, the supporters and advocates of murder, bestiality, of Hamas. 

The broken spines belonged to the Arab and Muslim nations, nations of the world who refused to condemn the bestiality of Hamas, the massacre of Oct7and the continued holding and slaughter of hostages taken that day, from infant to elderly, men and women, who tortured and raped and killed in cold blood. No, we know whose spine is broken. Though subjected to battering it remains intact and strong, even better than before as our unity is strengthened. Those whose thinking is off, who align with those calling for their demise, will come face to face with the truth and when they do, they will be taken back into their people. Our moral spine is intact. 

We do not separate ourselves and divide via religious observances, for bottom line, those differences that exist are family squabbles, some more serious than others, like any family. That does not negate our oneness, our unity, our commitment to and with each other.  

Am Echad, Lev Achad.

One People. One heart.          

A SEA

 ...of questions but nary an answer in sight. In fact, when we look for answers, we find we are in the midst of a desert, and the answers to questions are as scarce as water is in a desert. What is also scarce today for me is time to write this blog, yet again another very early appointment. Thus, today I leave the answer finding to you and please, if you have any satisfactory ones please send it along. We, the world, are in desperate need of some. 

Why are some people shocked that the "close at hand, nearly there, ceasefire deal" evaporated into the air?

Why would anyone with even a partially working brain be shocked at the new demand, personalized by Sinwar, that no agreement would be signed until Israel promised not to kill him!!! Really? Yoo-hoo, take a look around, Sinwar, and ask yourself why Israel would agree and allow a cowardly bully, a damned murderer, a miserable weasel who hides like a mouse in dank tunnels with captives protecting him, to continue to live in assured safety. So many have died because of you. The blood of our sisters and brothers calls out for revenge, for justice, for remembrance. All things come to those who wait, so please, extract a worthless promise, continue to skulk in dark places reeking of evil - and your just dessert will make its way to you. 

Why do deluded non thinking college students fall as willing prey to the pull of the oh so chic trend of draping a now red kaffiyah (black so last year) over one's shoulders? Bold red, the color of the blood you are calling for. Why do you not understand that you are not pro-Palestinian, for your shouts call for more war and slaughter, more death among Israelis and among Palestinians, the ones you are supposedly protecting! Wake up!! 

Why not call for Sinwar to emerge from his hidey-hole? Why not accept the horrid truth of Oct7? Why not call for protests demanding truth from all? Why not? Instead, you close your eyes and ears, sabotage your own minds and taint your souls. You wallow along with Sinwar and his fellow murderers in the sea of blood that you enable, and indeed encourage. 

Why have the people in the world rather joyously hopped onto the bandwagon of antisemitism raised to a height rivaling that of Hitler and in fact all extremists. It is antisemitism on crack, a vicious viral toxic antisemitism calling for the exclusion and extermination of all Jews, beginning with those rather pesky Israelis. The contributions of Jewish people to humanity and its ethos are denied, as are all the contributions of Jewry to the world and its progress and betterment.  

  Why? Why has the population of America gone so egregiously off the tracks of life as it should be? Why do we now expend our energies and output of our brains onto falsehoods and manners by which to enhance these falsehoods. Why have we succumbed to the Big Lie philosophy, believing the falsehoods we are fed via various social media sites and spewing forth from the forked tongues of the selfish and the greedy. People with no hearts or functioning souls. 

Why do we call for destruction rather than discussion? Why do we tolerate so the goals for violence? Why have we allowed the government in many aspects to become corrupt, to accept bribery in all forms, to allow the incompetent and the evil to rise to seats of power in all branches of the government, in all levels of the government?       

Why have we eschewed progress? In fact, why do we now call those who are actually regressive as misnomered progressives? These people encourage exclusion and separation, violence, loud voices drowning all others out, and deny humanity of those who differ from them.   

In fact, why have we grown so in the wrong direction? Why have we discarded empathy, sympathy, understanding, kindness and in turn adopted ruthlessness, anger, violence, the dehumanization of others.? Why?

These are some of the why questions that I have. There are so many more, but time is short, and I need to get a move on.  

 One last question for old times' sake, when times were sweeter. Why is the sky blue? Where does the sun go at night? 

Modern update: Where the hell have we all gone? 

Answers, anyone?  Please?

LOSING TOUCH

  Yesterday, an artist involved in the creation and functioning of Hostage Square Chicago used that term “losing touch”. It describes the ever-ongoing torturous situation of people ripped from their lives, slaughtered in captivity. brutalized until they breathed their last, forgotten by the world. For most already the only release possible is that of their remains for proper burial. Instead, there they remain in the dank, dark, stifling tunnels, starved of food, denied water, denied air to breathe, all the while facing conditions inconceivable to the normal mind and brain.

These hostages have been consigned by the world to a trash pile of discarded and discounted humanity. They count for naught in the ledgers of the world. The horror of October7 is downplayed and downright minimized, playing the numbers game, reporting on dead and wounded as declared by a branch of the Hamas government - the 'Health Ministry' of Gaza. Yet another branch engaged in the dissemination of lies, always lies. Allergic to truth. No dissemination of methodology as to the supposedly precise numbers of men, women and children killed or wounded, no numbers of combatants as opposed to noncombatants. No proof other than replayed scenes and photos of purported casualties - some openly dolls, of corpses capable of movement beneath the shrouds, and agile personnel able to be at rescue in different sites at the same time. So gifted!     

These Gazans who now weep, playing the poor victims! now were cheering when the parade of hostages was triumphantly presented. Dead, alive, wounded, raped, burned, brutalized, through the streets of Gaza paraded before rejoicing crowds     shouting and whooping and shooting guns into the air. They have forgotten the captives they guarded, tortured, starved, held within their own homes. They disremember the tunnel exits and entrances hidden in the walls and floors of their own homes.  They call for pity for the consequences of their own   misdeeds. Such combat ready hostages they held, oh so brave - 2 infants less than a year, children of 3 and 4 and 6 and 8 and12. Half dead wounded and beaten men. Young women in shock at the immediate brutality inflicted upon them at capture. The elderly, so fierce with canes and medicine bottles, so worthy of warrior status. And always, etched into our very being the face of Shiri Bibas as she clutched her two babies tight.      

While the world has decided these hostages are of no import, the people of Israel, the Jews of the world have not done so. We have not lost touch. We never will. We remember with every breath we take, with almost our first and last thoughts of the day: Where are they now? Where are our people? Where are Kfir and Ariel. Where are our people? And so. as the animals of hate and bloodlust rage in the streets and inside as well, creating and encouraging havoc, violence, hatred, calling for the annihilation of the Jewish nation, of Jews, worldwide, masking their faces in cowardly shame and fear, we recreate the Israeli Hostage Square, presenting it to all of Chicago, to all  the delegates who can see and hear past and over the noise of those calling for support of  murderers,   and bloodshed. 

Thus, right in Chicago, we paint the faces of those remaining hostages. 115. and now 109 with the recovery of 6 more dead captives. There is the painting of an Israeli tree. dripping drops of blood. There are the personal objects left   behind as they ran for their lives. Chased by the ravening beasts of Hamas. There are representations of despair, of loss, and of hope and love and of determination. to bring everyone home. Habayta. Home. We do not write off our family members. We are one family, whether or not the deluded Jews who stand with those calling for their demise understand that truth or willfully deny that fact. 

Presently, push has come to shove. Whatever metaphor we choose - the rocks and hard places, the devil and the deep blue sea, there is no more time to waste. There is no more room in which to maneuver We, the nation, the political parties, must choose. We are at that fork in the road where those who make deals with devils are buried.  The   Democratic Party especially must decide whether it will sell its soul for the sake of 100,000 votes of Arab Americans in Michigan. Why is it necessary that we play these partisan politics and remind all that there are far more than 100,000 Jewish votes in many states. 

Who can I, we, trust? Who will have our backs? At this point in time, I cannot make any decision with a surety of being right. It is a decision eating away at my soul. It eats away at the once proud patriotism for how is it possible to be a patriot of a country which does not have my back, which allows crazies of both parties to spout words of hate as official representatives of our nation? How to be a patriot and the lover of a country which allows those who do not want me to prevail, who shout over the voices of others of sanity and truth.

 How do I trust in a county, in the structure of a nation which allows its institutes of higher education to not enforce any and all regulations regarding protests espousing hate and incitement to violence, of disregard of all laws, who seek my exclusion from society? All consequences for rampaging through campus and its buildings, for   occupying land, for threatening of the students, for demanding that they denounce their faith, again, in America! How can this be? How can this be my country? 

The whole situation is exacerbated. as all violations and charges, rightful and righteous consequences dismissed. Twisted professors within the classrooms bullying students, encouraging others to do the same- have at it! All these dangerous, yes, dangerous students and agitators who return free and clear will do it all over again. Why not, as there are no consequences of import or permanence?     

There are no easy answers, no magic spell or cure, no magic powder. It is a question, a situation, an ugly fact of reality. Quite frankly, I, along with many, many others walk in confusion. The path ahead is not clear at all. Most of us are doing what we can. Will it be enough? My questions have no answers etched in ink.  I can only make demands upon myself. The rest comes from you and you and you. All of you out there.  

Emotions are high. Fear is high. Every cell in my body has warned me. Beware. Beware. There be monsters. Here they be. No bold knights in sight. It is a battle we must fight, depending mostly on ourselves along with our friends.

In the meanwhile, I must strengthen my soul as I prepare for a difficult weekend next week. Beautiful but difficult, straining the tethers of emotion and control. Miss you, my boy.

Always and forever. Always and forever.

DIFFERENT. SO HEARTBREAKINGLY DIFFERENT

Over the past few weeks, a large number of people, a highly mixed crowd, have been feeling their own rocks and boulders. Shoulders begin once again to bow under the pressure of these boulders, despite time wearing away some of the sharper edges of these boulders. The burden, the pain does not seem to lessen. Oddly enough, within that oppressive burden there are vibes of peace, of harmony, of warmth, of light and a love eternal, always and forever. It will come to a peak in a week and a half, the last weekend of August and the first weekend of September - an ending and a beginning. So apt for the occasion.  

It is a weekend meant to commemorate that which is untimely, heartrending and yes, amazing. How one little boy, unassuming, unaware of the myriad talents and graces with which he had been gifted, he made his way through life with his contagious grin, his amazing blue eyes, and blessed personality, universally beloved. Never was heard a word of spite uttered about him; he was a friend to all and enemy to none. Even the glint of mischief sparkling in his eyes never touched upon spite or malice, only good fun and shared laughter.

To his family, Yitzy was special, though we were unaware of how special he truly was.  We were unaware of the amazing degree to which he was loved and admired - and mourned - by the outside world, from baseball coaches to teammates and opponents, from the school community, teachers and students, from birdwatchers he met as he strode the paths of nearby nature preserves, with his father always at his side, as they explored the world  of birds and snakes and nature at large. He touched the hearts of so many during his too brief life and the outpouring of grief upon his death both heightened and eased that grief though that burden never went away. Ever. That too, Yitzy, sweet boy, is always and forever.  

On Saturday August 31, the family will be together again. Love, joy, sorrow, grief - all at one and the same time. We will invite Yitzy to share the weekend with us as we speak of him, laugh about him, his little pranks recalled, special moments we remember, his grin and love of life, his faith, deep and pure, his love of Judaism, his goodness - and the loss still so achingly real.    

On Sunday, we will be reminded of the Pittsburgh City Council declaration, the naming of a street in his name, nearby his beloved baseball fields, and then a special walk, from home where the last letters will be inked in to school and we will complete his last wish - for a Torah written in his name. A moment of joy and grief, of faith and yes, anger in my heart. Why, why, why, reverberates within my soul. Why, dear G-d, so wrong, so very wrong.     

And so, a little boy, 13, a gift given to the world and taken back too soon will be remembered in all and with all who knew him - from the nurses who cared for him, to the baseball world, the school community - once again we will share the unshareable. We'll talk of him. We will laugh about him and imagine holding him again.   

We pray that his journey of transition between this world and the next was quick and filled with the bright light of love and warmth, and welcome. by his Lord and by those who had gone before him, waiting to welcome him and cherish him and comfort him.      

And so, we mourn, and so we cry, again, yet again. Will the tears ever stop? Perhaps they will not happen as often, but they will never end. The ache, the loss, too powerful, too deep, Everlasting.    

Below, is a letter written by his parents re the weekend and its purpose. Read and understand and if you can see your way to joining in the mitzvah, the good deed of the weekend, please use the link at the end. 

Thank you - and remember our boy, Yitzy, Yitzchok Elimelech ben Akiva Ze'ev, the son of Chana Sarah, his beloved mother, his closest companion during his final year's journey.   

Yitzy, always and forever, as write to you, of you, almost daily in my blog. I miss you so, more than words can convey.  Always and forever sweet boy, always and forever.

 Dear Friends, 

This is a personal message from my wife and I.

Our dear son Yitzy passed away almost 8 months ago and the pain is as raw as ever. 

It may always be. 

There are things that help us through this journey; most importantly, the constant support from family, friends and community. 

BH we were able to raise money for the sefer Torah that Yitzy asked for before he was niftar. We appreciate everyone who took part in that fundraiser. 

In his short time on Hashem’s earth, Yitzy accomplished a tremendous amount and affected so many. 

He was recently honored with a City of Pittsburgh proclamation, there is a plan for an honorary street renaming for him, there is a Sefer being written l’iluiy nishmaso, a siyum hashas, many programs started for his holy neshama, and of course, the Sefer Torah. 

To our complete honor and amazement, our beloved Hillel Academy will be naming the brand new 10 million dollar campus “The Yitzy Sutofsky z’l Campus”. 

Yitzy loved Hillel Academy, and exemplified everything Hillel stands for.

Like Yerushalayim, a city that gives the nation of Yisroel the ultimate achdus, Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh in its own magical way does the same. It is a true community school for hundreds of precious children. 

Yitzy was someone who had relationships with a wide variety of kids, and he used his talents, intelligence, sweetness, compassion, competitiveness, sense of humor and loving spirit to connect with everyone. He took what Hillel taught and internalized it. 

We know and appreciate that we collected for the Torah and now we are asking for the Yitzy Sutofsky Campus. 

We are asking you to please help us reach our goal and to help us keep Yitzy's legacy alive and linked to such a unique school and community. 

Thank you,

Akiva and Chana Sarah Sutofsky 

https://causematch.com/hillelpgh/sutofsky-fam

    

ROCKS AND HARD PLACES IV - AMERICA, AMERICA

G-d has obviously refrained from shedding His Grace upon us, the people of America. In fact, we can easily enlarge that circle of deprived and contain within the remainder of earth's population. Such an achievement! We should all be not so proud. Is there, are there, any ideas as to how to successfully mend the situation, if not to a tee, then perhaps to a point where we stop the hands of the midnight clock? If no sun, then at least a lightening of the skies? 

We have come so far so fast even as we deny the proof before our eyes. Yes, we have come far. But have we gone too far? Not far enough? Are we turning our backs on that progress, returning to deeper darkness and abnegation of all that we have achieved? Sometimes it seems as if we are eagerly returning to the slime from which we crawled or to the dust from which we were made. 

Worse, are we so confused that we actually know not where we are, where we must go and how to get there? Our GPS and our Waze are malfunctioning as is the internal monitor within each and every one of us. We roam in circles of confusion and uncertainty with every so often a false prophet of direction rising above the swampy waters only to disappear into the depths again, leaving behind a slime trail of further infusion of concern and confusion. How do we deal with the new wounds, ameliorate or lessen the havoc raised?

There are two words in Hebrew easily translated into English, though much is lost in the translation. These two words are first cousins. Yay-ush - despair, and halevai, if only. These two words derived from a state of anguish of the soul so deep, so dark, so all-encompassing that its only outlet is the stream of heartfelt longings of the world of halevai, if only. If only we could change it all. If only we could go back and change time. Change events. Change humanity. If only. Unfortunately becoming clearer and clearer, is the realization that perhaps we are way past the point of no return, red lines crossed miles back, unnoticed, with all U-turns or k-turns or any reversals denied. No wiggle room remains, and we have done it all by ourselves to ourselves. And aren't we proud.

Yesterday it seemed as if a miracle was on the edge of achieving reality - an end to the war in Gaza, the return of the remaining living hostages, as pitifully few as they most probably are and a start on the release of the remains of those killed within captivity. A huge "Halevai" was sent heavenward - and by this morning it has crash-landed, dead on arrival.

Much of the blame, plentiful. and abundant, can be generously shared among many. Sinwar and his band of murderous beasts. Iran. Hezbollah. Voices of jingoism and hate. Revived JewHatred. The entitled. Nefarious Moslem professors with an agenda of violence. Educators who bring shame to a noble and vital profession. Incompetent American leaders. Deranged American leaders. Weak leaders of Europe. Petty dictators of Third World nations subjected to bloody purgings ever ongoing. Haters who thrust the blame of war on the invaded rather than on the perpetrators. Willfully blind citizens who refuse the truth and buy heavily into the false. 

In fact, it is a deliberate preponderance of Evil that has overpowered the world.  And yes, folks, Evil is real: it is even tangible in places of great violence. Take a trip to a now empty gas chamber, or the killing field of Nova, or the bloodstained beds of children slaughtered by grown men and there you will feel the Evil, now deep within the very atoms of these sites. Evil is real and Evil is here. Whether it stays or goes - up to us. You. Me. Everyone.  

The world reacted to this invasion of evil with a great deal of waffling. Truth, reality, empathy all was set aside, tossed aside, discarded. Instead. the victims, the invaded, the butchered. whose last moments of agony cry out from the blood-soaked grounds they lay upon, to avenge, to remember them, to make it so it never happens again, cried out to be heard. What did the nations of the world voice? Did they call out justifiable anger? Did they send words of powerful condemnation? No. We heard instead words calling for restraint. Very few words of sympathy and they disintegrated almost instantaneously. Demanding, harsh voices calling for ceding victory to the beasts, all the while spewing forth false empty words of sympathy and    understanding, of support, so conditional that it was almost useless, as those words gave succor to the enemy and thus allowed the war to go on rather than having the defeated instigators and murderers concede defeat. Instead. we received horrendous videos of Captives, bloody, frightened, threatened, tortured and dead.  

The nations of the world turned cold shoulders to Israel. The leaders of the world did the same. Their responsibility denied. The necessity of serving truth and honor, rather than filth, was an antiquated state of mind, almost extinct, within Congress and the political leaders of the United States forsook their role as leaders of the moral and the right, of   justice. The nations of the world followed suit with barely a word heard. in opposition. What was heard? The raucous hateful voices of the protesters urged on by professional instigators. Hatred infused into many of those spouting hate with mother's milk. Just a jolly good time had by all - otter than the targets of those pro-murdering Hamas.

The opening of universities once again alongside the busy beaver work over the summer and the arrogance of university committees sure they had solved the problem by rewriting old rules in other terms merely rephrasing the same old, same old, and a list of consequences useless if not enforced - amounting to - got it! A hill of beans.      

 America. Americans. We must make a choice. And the choice is ours. The consequences of that choice will fall upon many, so think carefully. Think wisely. And choose. Make your voice heard.  Choose leaders who are honorable, moral, and know the honor of public service. Tolerate no corruption, no obfuscation of the truth as do so many of our top officials today in all branches of the government. Silence the voices of the beasts. No one will do this for us. WE must do it ourselves. We need to take up the cudgels of the right, of justice, of humanity and do it now.

America which should have led the fight to combat this glaringly evil situation was caught within its own throes of agony as false prophets vied for positions at the head of government. Students on campus were co-opted by professors with agendas, by outsiders who stalked among them and captured by their own sheer stupidity and moments of feeling of liberation, from all rules and regulations.  As do many adults, who know better.  Waffling and huge amounts of hot air amount to not even a hill of beans, merely adding amounts.

Poor leaders have done us wrong even as we allowed them to do so. Hatred was okay, the rescinding of rights was okay. Shutting the borders to others was okay. Isolationism and populism were okay. Incompetent deranged leaders were okay. Banning of books and increased censoring were okay as well. Cut of the flow of ideas. And we wonder why this nation, this world, is in such a mess! Beans galore.

I came across this term the other day.  "Doom loop." I believe we are now enmeshed in such a thing. Round and round and round we go and actually, going nowhere. What we do gin up via this useless movement are ever larger hills of beans now challenging the mountains. That loop must be cracked open and that deep intense despair, its yay-ush must be thrust aside, break its hold upon us. Happier notes must be found and sung, loud and strong. These notes will transform the minor scale notes of Halevai into major scale notes conveying faith that we can so do.

 Halevai. If only.    

  

   

    

   

ROCKS AND HARD PLACES III - AND A HILL OF BEANS

 Or words stuffed with hot air producing nothing other than discomfort and mistrust. Practical aid and ideas as to how to minimize the blockades and find a path through or around or over or even under are scarcer than hen's teeth. Moreover, when ideas sent forth are revealed as facades for "nothing doing", all previous failed thoughts and suggestions morph into hills of beans. Lots of hot air and noxious gases emanating from the sudden appearance of hills of beans attached to the rocks and hard places, further impediments to viable solutions and cooperative action. The uselessness of proposals is revealed, some accidental while others were meant to sabotage efforts and delay, delay, delay. Result- deepening despair and hopelessness. 

Unfortunately, too often, these supposedly minor irritations are deemed, insignificant, easily surmountable, merely "a hill of beans". However, when push comes to shove another reality emerges from those same hills. These once thought to be minor impediments, discounted and devalued, suddenly become crucial to a successful negotiation. It happens when one side has not understood that that particular hill of beans is dear to the hearts of others and only with an acceptable resolution can other issues be addressed, resolved and reach a final and successful close. The dial goes back to reset. 

One of the major factors of success of bean hill sabotage is when it is well known, via bitter experience, that what is promised or proposed, even laid out with details and presented as ironclad actually remains as empty promises yet again.      Consequently, we now have once more an insurmountable hill of beans. Yet again the drafting tables, the endless fruitless negotiation meetings, even as a war continues, or an environment permanently damaged, or a trade treaty crucial but missing, never materializes

Take the hard situation. of the current state of affairs in the Middle East. Will there ever be a time of peace? A time of recognition that it is better to begin a journey with a trusted friend rather than with an enemy. Will there ever be a generation of leaders wise and strong enough to lead their respective nations to a true peace and prosperity?  One wise person put it this way. “There will be peace in the Middle East when the sons of Ishmael accept and recognize the sons of Isaac.”  In such a time there will be no more scenes of death and horror as loved one are butchered or taken hostage, left to die within captivity or remains traded for murderers with hands dripping with the blood of others they have slaughtered. 

This whole scene is one of the hills of beans that the nations of the world do not see or deny seeing. There is a huge denial of its importance. and relevance to the people of Israel, to Jews around the world. We mourn with the families and rejoice with the few who are lucky to have their loved ones returned. We hope and pray that there will be more alive than only 30 and in good condition. We watch the news, all media, for any such good news of a return and we wait with bated breath for the return of the young women, for the survival of the Bibas babies. Are we optimistic? Not really, but we hope this hill of beans, so heedlessly designated as such by the nations of the world will be recognized as a huge heap of giant, immoveable boulders - unless the proper approach is taken.  

There are many more hills of beans of consequence.  In fact, there is a rather large grouping now staging a comeback, with hills of greater height and width. If unaddressed or incompetently addressed, these hills of beans threaten to develop into a new range of huge and immoveable boulders obstructing the passage to a civil and peaceful society. These are the rather toxic and threatening "protests" on campuses and the tangible fear it causes in the targets of these orchestrated hate fests. 

Contrary to those who present these encampments and the population within as mere hijinks of an idealistic youth, admittedly perhaps over the top are most dangerously wrong and way underestimating of the damage they do and of the powers driving these violent activities. Using a rather holey blanket of the right to free speech, these well-organized national and international campaigns of hate and isolation use that blanket to obfuscate the truth.  It is a campaign of hatred and violence, rising to the point of instigation and incitement of violence, targeting specifically one group - any and all having connection to Judaism, Jews, Israel and any movements supportive of the reality and truth of Zionism. Its historical imperative is denied, downplayed, declared a lie and deserving of extermination. The only good Jew for these criminal instigators and their followers are those who deny their Judaism, deny the right of Jews to have a Jewish nation and stand among those who call for their inevitable demise, for they too, are Jews. 

Last year University authorities sat by and allowed this small pile of insignificant beans to become a foothill of beans. almost as high and as deep as a mountain of boulders. Ignored and downplayed was the “coming out” of the professors who heretofore had quietly, slowly, with malice aforethought, to build a coterie of hatemongers, to build an organization claiming spontaneity, even as the clearly organized campaign of hate and exclusion, isolation of Jews, rolled out with identical chants, the same invective and posters, the same growth of violence, the same tents - all the same, with identical timing. The same everything. Spontaneous? Absolutely not. 

Campus authorities were caught with their pants down and colluded, knowingly, or passively and/or incompetently with the hateful goals of these campus disruptors. These gangsters chose to revive in a big way, societally approved, the ancient trope of virulent JewHatred. Violence grew, and open exclusion and persecution of Jews became ever more prominent.

Fed by the nonthinkers who reveled in tolerated freedom, the true organizers wallowed in their obscene success and over the summer they have drawn plans for a continuance of further lawbreaking and hatred with announcements of these plans. And why not, as they had gotten off scot-free of all consequences, received praise from people in power, denied the butchery of Hamas, and touted their victories at every opportunity. The universities are spouting the same words of no weight as they are expected to be as weak and wimpy at enforcement of rules and regulations, along with the eminently useless "committees" who are excellent consumers of drinks and food at these meetings but useful plans? Never.  

And so here we are again. When will the first tent be opened on campus? When will the first shouts be heard? When will Jewish students once again be threatened and hurt? Pretty damn soon, I would say. A bunch of hills of beans allowed to turn. into a full-scale mountain range. Replete with mammoth boulders, both immovable and capable of rolling downhill taking out all before it, in its path.  Preventable? Possibly. But have we the will to do so? You tell me. 

Unfortunately, there will be a Rocks and Hard Places IV, this one concentrating on the rather ridiculous yet extremely perilous reality that is America today. 

Have a good day.     

ROCKS AND HARD PLACES II - AVALANCHE!

And here we are, back at the old crumbling trails of a challenged world. Rocks and hard places galore, leaving very little room for safer paths to tread. Now the questions are whether or not we can find or attempt to build paths of and to safety, if we can warn enough people that falling rocks remain a source of peril, and if we can find and motivate enough to roll those boulders out of the way. Might we be able to build upon that clearing of roads and actually arrive at a point where bridges can be built to deny the power of those boulders, as we bypass their obstructions and negate their damage.    Beautiful thought, but percentage of reality and actuality ......  

To the point, take a look at some of those designated as immovable boulders. The United States continues to give comfort to the enemy as it tells Israel that she has done all that she might within Gaza. Give it up, Israel is told. Hamas hears encouragement, rescue, and victory, snatched from the Israeli soldiers and nation and has been handed to them on a silver platter bespattered with the gore and the agony of the dead and slaughtered, the tortured and the missing. The echoes of their suffering continue to resound in the air, from the sands, from the bloody and violated homes   belonging to them.

Israel is to cede victory, hand it over to the beasts of Hamas and even apologize for the unavoidable consequences of a war purposely waged by Hamas within populated areas and compromised infrastructure.  Israel cannot do that, for in so doing she cedes all further rights of self-defense against inevitable attacks and attempts to destroy her and her citizens. But Israel cannot do that. 

Part of her very core is to provide an assurance to the Jews of the world that here is a home for them whenever they return. Here is a place of safety for them. That promise is now in danger for even as she is attacked in that very homeland and fights for her life, those for whom she represented safety are now themselves endangered within their current homelands, declared unwanted, deserving of death - awful echoes of a past never denied. 

Think of the danger and the angst it engenders as the home of refuge is now in acute danger, her very right to exist denied. Historical truths ignored and new myths created instead. A sense of danger grows within Jewish communities around the world. Perversely, the massacre of October 7 seems to have invigorated the haters who now stand and shriek insanely calling for the complete extermination and erasure of Israel, her citizens within and while they are at it, the Jews of the world. There are even deluded, self-denying Jews who collaborate with those calling for their demise!! A rather rusty bloodstained mantra of old never ever dying away is revived, "You can't live here. You can't live there. In fact, you can't live anywhere." Here is a representative statement, from a British Jew, but the sentiment is the same round the world Jewish communities. 

   "The silence was deafening. From the distress of bullied children to the cold shoulder of colleagues or the parade of friends who turned out not to be friends at all, testimonies from the Jewish community in Britain reveal the same bleak experiences. 

It wasn’t just the world that changed the day Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year. The world of British Jews did too, as mutating strains of anti-Semitism worked their way beyond smashed shopfronts and violent protests and into the domestic and everyday. And each witness uses the same expression. The silence was deafening."

Boulders galore. Defying all removal. Ideas?  Anyone? Someone?  

These immovable boulders proliferate around the world. They move of and with their own momentum. The results are rather ugly. Unfortunately, more rocks and hard places for Sunday, so accursed is this world of ours. As a bit of a preview. here is a piece. that you might want to chew on.

"...his remarks began with a promise to focus on some “big facts and very substantial truths”, as so often they more than strained the definition of both. ...He claimed, once again, that some countries are emptying out their prisons and “insane asylums” to flood the US with illegal migrants, despite there being no data on the prison history of migrants crossing the border or their mental health status.

And he repeated – without any evidence and contrary to government data - that 100% of new jobs have gone to migrants, while regurgitating false claims about having won the 2020 election."

And this deranged, vastly incompetent man might most frighteningly be the chosen candidate to win the office of President, again? Yet another unthinkable, disastrous, dangerous. term in office!!! How can this be? Simple, and while I speak for myself, I do know that my dilemma is shared by many others. How much can we possibly overlook and discount when faced with this awful choice? Which danger is more imminent? Is it the existential danger to Israel? The existential danger to the United States and its democratic foundation? And what then would be the effect upon Israel? These questions and concerns go round and round and round, pounding away at head, heart, and soul.  

One candidate is banking on the fact that many Jews traditionally have voted the Democratic slate finding its platform planks more to their liking. However, the unease grows as the present candidate Kamala Harris, appears to be drawing closer and closer to a rather ugly cohort of Arab/ Palestinian/ Muslim who have managed to set aside their intramural hatred and competition and replaced it, at least for now, with hatred of Israel and hatred of Jews. How far will she go? How long will Israel stand if she's deserted by her major ally and all those who will follow.   

 On the other hand, what is the choice? Trump is a danger to all. He and his supporters speak of the elimination of America as she is - from democracy to authoritarian.  Frightening. This is a man who is cognitively damaged. Quite openly so and is out of control, always willing to throw any and all who displeased him under the wheels of the bus. That ever-present bus he drags along with him. He speaks in demented manner, makes accusations out of left field, perhaps out of space. He has shown some favor to Israel, but he can change in a moment of mercurial temper, and then, where are we at that point?   

What the hell!!!!!

Rocks and hard places aplenty!

What to do?

Damning deafening silence.

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Yitzy, I so miss your goodness and your warmth. Always and forever. Always and forever.

 

ROCKS AND HARD PLACES PART I

  Or damned if you do or damned if you don't, or too many dang pickleballs in play. Whatever the choice, they are equally discouraging and equally clear. They are descriptive of the reality of the world today. It is a harsh reality, a cruel one, and inevitable harsh consequences, meant or not.  In such a world where conditions change in a minute or two, there is great difficulty to correctly assess decisions and reactions, and too late to recall. Tough times in a tough world.  

There are too many balls in play, so many that attentions are distracted, and when that is the case, most often it proves to be an ominous lapse. At that moment, the world, rather than offering aid, sympathy, understanding or reassurance, turns instead towards its usual trash reactions - hysterical, hypocritical rants aiding no one other than serving as food for a voracious media.   

The world is engaged in a cutthroat game of pickleball on a rough and uneven playing surface. No repair in sight or even deemed possible. Perhaps those repairs are unwanted. and prevented. Moreover, the danger increases as more and more players demand entry and shove their way onto the court, into the heart of the ever-intensifying fray.    Racquets wildly flail the air as a multitude of balls fly through that same airspace. Targets are plentiful.

 The game becomes less a game and more and more warlike.  Competition becomes enmity. The end of the game is missing in action. The players are increasingly violent and the result inevitable. In     such a 'game' There are no winners only losers, with perhaps one the lesser loser. Certainly, the bottom lines of both sides of the game are in a deep red situation. 

Yet the bloody deadly game continues, Adding or subtracting participants. Changing the venue and amending the supposed causes.  It actually matters not as time goes on for this deadly 'game' has   gained a life of its own. Within this life, the competitors become incidental, and their deaths incidental, of no real concern or importance.  It generates a bloodthirst so deep, overpowering, and it consumes all it touches. A most horrid game of pickleball and on it goes besmirching even those who enter with honor and virtue. 

To walk between the flailing racquets and the missiles of those smacked balls is to walk a dangerous path. In fact, there is no safe path, because one is between that perennial rock and hard place. Even should one seek an end to this eternal   abomination there is no one around. All have been consumed either by this vicious game or by serious concerns within their own neighborhood, precluding all thought of all other matters. They are beset and surrounded, are amid, their own rocks and hard places. 

Why do we never seem to be capable to solve our problems via discussion, open debate, civil debate. Once we had them but now - lost, through disuse and misuse. It is a serious loss and called for is further delving into the how and why, the purpose perhaps of its withering away.  I believe it is caused partially by modern life with its lack of face-to-face communication even as the decibels of noise become overpowering and certainly highly uncomfortable, along with or aided by the instantaneous gratification need of the younger generations. They have been raised in a world ever more infused by computers and their faster and faster speeds, providing instantaneous gratification and results. Time to debate and pause - wasteful, discarded, the butt of jokes. Neither time nor skill to wait and think, only rush and hit that keyboard.  

Some clever distorted minds saw a clear way to use these realities to enhance and grow their own agendas. Infiltrating the halls of debate, the universities, they discourage debate and civility.  Pushed instead were the far more liberating, less demanding shouts and threats, of physicality rather than mentality. Perverted actions became the norm and people flocked to the 'fun' without any understanding of the. issues involved. Why bother?!

Thankfully more and more people are apparently recognizing the ominous danger posed by such a society. One of the universities, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, has thought this through and accepted its responsibility, the traditional one of the higher levels of learning - to grow the future generations of leaders -wise, civil, patient and skilled in debate. They have established. The School of Civic Life and Leadership with three introductory courses this fall and nineteen professors. These courses will present the philosophy behind debating, its uses, its importance, the value of and need for civility, along with its integral importance and relevance to American political history and tradition.  

Students within this program will be allowed and encouraged to speak freely, to speak properly, to debate views, to be flexible, to understand how to hear the words, the hopes, the dreams of others rather than discount them. To pay attention is better than to totally ignore and create a tense situation where it was not meant to be.  That is how a civil society progresses. That is how it functions well and fulfills the responsibilities and duties owed by a government to its populace and vice versa as well.   The entire landscape can be rehabbed and along with the dead remnants of flora poisonous and noxious, we can add to that heap the pieces of a broken and destroyed pickleball court.  

 Perhaps. Maybe. Hopefully.    

More tomorrow.

RUNNING ON EMPTY

 Think of the on edge feeling you have when you suddenly notice indications that you are basically running on empty.  Your fuel gauge is noisily warning you of your rather critical lapse. Why you forgot to fill up, why you neglected to check or possibly it is broken. Nevertheless, there you are wondering "Will I make it home? Will I pass a gas station to refill - and what if I don't? and actually, where the hell am I?"

It's kind of like the current situation of those who are driving the cars of this world, including passengers willing or unwilling. Some have wise heads, understand the situation and the dire necessity to refill. On the other hand, there are those who deny it all and insist on driving further. No reassurances as to the location of the closest gas station; in fact, total actual disregard as they engage in wistful magical thinking, ignoring the enveloping darkness and rising tension of other passengers within the vehicle. At that moment, being the majority and/or the most powerful, their stupidity and lack of foresight governs the situation. Where and when will the gas gauge present the image of the empty gas tank? Fuel all gone and options limited. Soon enough, soon enough. 

Here are the readings of the current gas gauges of the world, in particular within the Middle East.

"...senior Iranian security official is warning that Iran will attack Israel if its talks with Hamas for a ceasefire in Gaza fall apart, Only Israel and Hamas reaching a ceasefire deal would hold Iran back from a direct strike against Israel ..."

" ...accused Netanyahu of failing to prioritize an agreement that would temporarily halt the fighting and bring Israeli hostages home.

" ,,we do believe that what’s left here really can be bridged, and there’s really just no time to lose.”

"U.S., Western and Middle Eastern officials also say Hamas has often shown a reluctance to compromise and has demanded new conditions at times that have made an agreement difficult to obtain. " (Ya' think!")

Not very encouraging, is it? Please note there are many more statements alluding to and openly referring to the lack of time, the necessity of a better do it soon ultimatum. That empty gas gauge leaves little room to maneuver, with only worn out already failed options remaining. - along with the stubbornness of the negotiators, their blindness   as they give away the store to the instigators, with no certainty that the egregiously evil Oct7 ever be allowed or enabled o reoccur. How is one even supposed to conduct any kind of negotiations when the parties most involved, Hamas and Israel, refuse to attend the negotiations. Surely, there must be wiser heads available in some car on the road.  

Sinwar, fortified by the foolish statements of other nations, brashly demands that there be no restrictions upon his terrorist group. He categorically refuses to send a list, a true list, of those captives who remain in life, such as it is, and those whose return home will be for an honored sad burial. Israel wants All Hostages returned, certainly all living ones without this dangerous path of partial release and partial release and halted release with no specific dates, enforced dates and immediate visitations by IRC. Only the same vagueness is presented and then Israel is accused of recalcitrance and stalling. 

Why is Israel to remain quiescent, ever so generous as to sign away her rights to defend herself should - and it will - the need to do so arise? Why is it expected of Israel to pull back her troops and return hard fought for and hard-won pieces of territory from which the beasts of Hamas operated? Where they endangered their own and then blamed Israel for that? Why is Israel expected to go far above and beyond anything that is asked of any other nation? Why is it being asked to excuse, even justify, the massacre of October7, the hostage taking of innocents, including children, the brutal treatment of them, particularly the female captives, and the admitted mistreatment and even slaughter of captives? 

These whys, like the whys of young children, often are unanswerable, inexplicable and remain so.  Why are the righteous grievances of Israel ignored, downplayed, outright denied? In fact, Israel is even assigned blame for this massacre, accused of staging it all simply to gain sympathy and permission to enter Gaza. Oh, see how that would have worked!!!   

We are indeed running out of time. We are indeed coming to the end of a road with no gas stations to refill appearing. No clear path ahead as we enter unknown territory. It will be "here be dragons", or here be necessity - to negotiate and to compromise fairly. One can feel, as best one can, the dreadful emotions of those families awaiting the return of their loved ones, in any condition. But we also must remember the nation at large, as we contemplate the horrific casualties should such a conflagration, a WWIII be sparked. I doubt any nation would be unaffected should the demented rulers of Iran, in the throes of a deadly religious dementia set off their bombs. 

Is there any possibility of refills or must we accept the ugly hopeless truth. There is none. It is permanently gone. Even should we sign a negotiation would we be signing away our future? Can the signatories of such a negotiation particularly from the world of Arabia and sundry others be trusted? How can any head of state of Israel possibly weigh the balances and do the right thing, displease someone, for there is no pleasing all in this decision. The catastrophic possibilities of both sides of the equation are front and center. How to distinguish? Beats me, but then again, I hope, I sincerely hope, that there are wiser heads among at least some of our cars on this dark, sans fuel road. The alternative is not really a good one, is it?