A World Gone Mad.

– Howard Feldman

 Is it that time in the circle of our history again? It seems just yesterday that some of us, the fortunate ones, emerged broken and scarred from the rubble of a still smoldering Europe. When we struggled to recover from the pogroms, the blood libels and the Master of Evil. Where we scraped together a people whose spirit and flesh had been ravaged, as we did after emerging from Egypt, and as we did after the destruction of Jerusalem and expulsion from Spain and cruelty of Russia and North Africa. We limped towards a safe place to recover, we paused, we caught our breath and then we build families and we build a nation. We wrote books and music and created empires and found ways to improve the world through medicine and science and technology. We spoke out against injustice and we became an example. And now the wheel has rotated and we are back in a place where we are told that to be Jewish is to be a demon. And the world nods its head in silent agreement.

How is it possible that others cannot see what we do, cannot feel our pain and see our desperation as we stamp our feet screaming,  “This is not fair!” How can they ignore Isis and Boko Haram and Iran and Afghanistan and Sudan where children are severed and tortured and decapitated? Where woman and children are being sold as sex slaves if they are “lucky” enough to have survived the carnage. Where public hangings and beatings are commonplace, but where quite simply no one seems to care. For when the global media does report on these travesties, the tone of the presenter is invariably professional, as if they were announcing the daily price of gold. No emotion, no anger completely matter-of-fact.  Contrast this to the reporting on Gaza and one begins to see what is so horribly obvious.

And yet try as we might; we seem to screaming in a vacuum.  We remain unheard. Our bodies’ shout out in frustration as almost daily we catch them in blatant vile acts of hypocrisy and deception as they make excuses for flagrant and vicious anti Semitism that leaves us gasping and bewildered. From London to Florida, Paris and Scandinavia to our own blessed rainbow nation anti-Semitism has become acceptable and there seems to be no limit as to what is possible.

I was imagining what would have happened had the raid of Entebbe happened today. There is no doubt Israel would have been condemned by the UN for the unlawful invasion of another country. No doubt there would have been voices raised in unison again the “war crimes!” and accusations of breaches of International law. There would have been protests and actions and boycotts calls to removed ambassadors and we would have been tried and convicted in media as we are today.  But that was many decades ago when the world celebrated our victory and our fight against terrorism, as the circle had not yet fully turned and we were still in recovery.

It’s bad. It’s really bad. We can blame social media and we can blame Hamas, the BDS and we can blame each other. We are victims of severe racism, more severe than I have yet to witness in my 45 (okay, 46) years. The storm clouds have gathered and the wind has picked up and we need to hold on tight.   

Only this time we have a Jewish home. We have an identity, we have strength, and warts and all, and are a bastion of democracy in desert of hate. We have an army to be proud of, one that cares about civilians even if we are told that they do not. We have a magnificent judicial system and an open and thriving economy that is an example to the world, even if they refuse to see that. And we have a people who have given up so much for our greater good.

At a time when the world is against us, we can only rely on ourselves, on our heritage and on our belief system to know what is right and what is not. And most importantly we need not turn against each other as they have turned on us, for our brothers and sisters need us just as we need them.