Kintsugi
I wrote this blog a year ago and I am sad to say that it has all come to pass. I would much rather admit delusion than be right about emboldened jihadism and the exponential rise in Jew hatred around the globe—violent assaults, harassment and intimidation, vandalism of businesses, homes and synagogues, and countless bomb threats, to the point where it has become commonplace. I’m not talking about Eastern Europe or the Middle East, this is happening in the streets of LA, the subways of NY, and on college campuses throughout the U.S.A. (Please don’t blame the war. I mean… How many Russians in the diaspora have been beaten and boycotted since Putin invaded Ukraine unprovoked?)
“The FBI’s new (2023) antisemitism statistics are shocking, and they’re exactly what your Jewish friends have been warning you about.” -Hen Mazzig
The calculated misinformation and propaganda war*, the unreported billions in Qatari funding of American higher education, the presidents of elite universities who could not denounce antisemitism when asked about it point blank, the indoctrination of K-12 students, the deeply distorted illiberalism posing as progressive values, the irredeemable corruption of the UN and its agencies, the weaponization of international law, the glorification of radicalism, the selective outrage, the revisionism, the inversion, the denial, and the virtual absence of non Jewish friends in the wake of the pogrom in Israel are but a few examples of the madness.
Almost daily I am shocked and horrified. But also eternally grateful for those who are brave enough and clear sighted enough to see and say what is happening, plainly and with moral clarity. Thank you Douglas Murray, Hillel Neuer, Einat Wilf, Jonathan Sacerdoti, Luai Ahmed, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mosab Hassan Yousef, Ateret Shmuel, Ritchie Torres, Emily Schrader and Michal Cotler-Wunsh, to name just a few! Saying an emphatic and unequivocal no to jihadism in the western world is essential, with force if necessary. Bleeding heart liberals branding that as Islamophobia are perilously misguided.
“To have real liberalism you have to say no to evil.” -Ruth Wisse
Also misguided are those “good people” who swore that had they been alive during the third Reich they would have done things differently and defended the Jews… Where are they now?! (The holocaust did not happen overnight—Jews were scapegoated, dehumanized and targeted with random and organized violence long before they were sent to the gas chambers. Small acts made way for larger atrocities. Radicalized university students and passive bystanders each played a role in our annihilation.) Insidious conspiracy theories and libelous canards are alive and well today as ever. This is intentional.
“Forty years ago the Muslim brotherhood laid out a strategic plan to isolate Israel from the United States and the west—to isolate it, to destroy it, and to use antisemitism as a way to fragment and weaken the USA. The small state and the big state. Forty years later and look around us—we are in disarray and we don’t know what’s hitting us.” Source: ISGAP
October 7th changed me. But the subsequent response from much of the western world towards Israel and diaspora Jews has changed me even more. Not only do I now believe in evil, but my open armed embrace of the wider world, and my trust in non-Jews as friends and allies is fractured. What has not changed for me is that I am now as ever so very proud and so very grateful to be Jewish. Am Yisrael Chai!
“To all our ill-wishers in this room and beyond, to those who place clocks counting down to our destruction in their cities, those who pray for our disappearance, those who plan for our extinction, and most of all, those who rejoice in our pain, I would like to tell you about the Japanese art of Kintsugi. In this art form, pottery that was broken is mended, stronger and more beautiful than before. In Kintsugi one does not conceal the breaking, one honors what has been broken, and more importantly, what has survived, by highlighting it with seams of gold. Few things exemplify the Jewish people like Kintsugi. We have a long and painful history. We do not hide the damage, we highlight the repair. Like a vase that has been broken and repaired countless times, we live to tell the story, our story. We rebuild ourselves stronger than ever, more determined. Our will to live, to love, to flourish and to overcome is unbreakable. If you wish to see us disappear into oblivion, by all means I invite you to hold your breath.” -Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar in her address to the UN
*Some examples include: the heavily skewed and highly manipulated TikTok algorithm (for every single pro-Israel post there 54 pro-Hamas/pro-Palestine posts,) the coordinated effort to manipulate public opinion via the intentional amplification of antisemitic narratives, anti-Israel bias and misleading information on Wikipedia (to date there have been 2,000,000 edits across 10,000 pages,) and the ongoing multi-front war being waged at Israel and Israeli civilians, while legacy and social media spin Israel’s defensive actions as genocidal.
