AT THE END OF THE DAY

  While one is in the midst of a day's activity, there's no time to think, to assess, with any kind of true long-term planning and assessment. The pace, particularly at times of war or semi war, is too fast, even too frantic to allow for calm thinking and rethinking. One must reckon with the immediate facts on the ground and the time for real longer planning must wait till the end of the day. 

 That day's ending isn't necessarily on 24-hour cycles; hence, the impatience, the recklessness, of the battlefield along with those not on the active battlefield who have a different viewpoint. The 'end of the day' conference must allow for a difference in perception, assessment, planning for future end of the day realities. There must be a point where there is a true interfacing of facts, hopes and dreams.

I am not a general. I never had any wish to be one. Such responsibilities would weigh too heavily upon my shoulders. Perhaps that is cowardly, but that is a fact. Therefore, I know my place in the context of war. However, I do know that waging war is best when it actually arises from a need, a desire, to wage peace. Most unhappily, waging peace has become a nonentity within the context of Jew vs Rest of World. The battlefields vary in number, sizes, location and format. The timing and manifestations are also different, as the beginning of it all is lost in the fog of time and there is no visual sighting of an ending. 

There is no valid reason, no excuse, for anyone to deny blatant truth. One side resonates with shouts of bloodthirsty intent and blood curdling threats, rapidly turning to physical violence. Screams and threats. Chanting phrases of Hate. "From the river to the sea." "By any means necessary."   Dehumanization. Anti-Zionism to anti-Israel in any existence to antisemitism to maniacal JewHatred. Open support of murderers who invade and burn and kill, from babies to the elderly. From the wounded to the ill. A ghoulish enemy which drags off the dead to be used as weapons of war. A nation fighting for its life, for the lives of her citizens, be they Arab, Jew, Moslem, Christian, Bedouin or Druze. A nation in torment, racked with grief.  A dialog of any consequence?

Israel's President Herzog, in an interview Sunday with an openly hostile interviewer, held his own quite well and stated truths denied and denounced by a world now busily engaged in hampering Israel's ability to withstand invasion, multifaceted attacks, multiple missile attacks generally intended to hit civilians. Between the bestiality of Hamas and the ugliness of Hezbollah, Israel has evacuated north and south to ensure the safety of her population.  And the world? Shtum lashon! Silent! A silence so deep it resounds. Apparently, the deaths and wounded of Israelis nor its infrastructure are insignificant, barely worth a mention. 

 Here are his words in response to a question as to why Israel is trying to escalate the situation into a full-blown war.

 " Life has been shattered in our northern border. I don't think any American would have accepted it as a kind of a status quo situation in the United States. And at the end, there are things that must be done. The duty of a government or a nation is to take care of its citizens and bring them back home. And don't forget, it's 252 days- 352 days, sorry. 352 days, two weeks short of one year since our hostages were taken. We have 101 hostages in the dungeons in Gaza already waiting and waiting and we are pleading for them.  This is jihadism at its best, and that's what we are fighting. And I wish, truly, and I say it as the President of Israel officially, and I say it outright, because I know we don't want war, but if it's waged against us, we go all the way."

Danny Danon said it more succinctly but equally as well.  “The days when Jews are massacred with no consequences are over.”  

Amen to that.  

 Hillary Clinton outdid herself in her interview with Fareed Zakaria. It behooves all to find it and to listen to it. Would that she had been elected instead   of that monstrously dangerous man who persists in his antisemitism wherein he reiterates that tired meme of how Jews are the cause of it all. Had she been president then and today I believe this current ongoing horror would never have been, so many lives gone. What a difference it would have made. She was totally -TOTALLY - right on the mark.     She says near the end how when it is all "unpacked" the truth will be obvious. Powerful interview. 

This ugliness has developed a life of its own and unfortunately has sunk its claws into the educational system of this nation. I don't quite understand how or why this has happened, with teachers bringing their anti-Semitic tropes and memes and personal feelings into the classroom. But it has. That is a fact. At least the Portland education system is combating it and hopefully others will do the same, including the educational systems of New York City and environs.    

How have we hit this depth of hate, actually challenging the levels of hate and Hell put forth by Dante. We have allowed it by ignorance, by the shrug of shoulders, by indifference, and by purposeful intended barbs and deeds of hate. We have forgotten the lessons of history or in fact, absorbed them and behave accordingly in a negative manner. In any case, at the end of the day we are combating thousands of sparks threatening to set the world afire. We must be aware. We must be alert. We must be proactive, not merrily reactive.  

At the end of the day where will you stand? Where will I stand? In fact, who will be standing at all?

Time to unpack. Time to meet and greet the end of the day and ensure a better dawning of the day tomorrow.