There is an expression that has been used over the past few years called ‘Jew Face’ which has two principle meanings: one is the proliferation of non-Jews playing the role of Jews in movies and shows, while the second has to do with using make-up to dress up these non-Jewish actors to ‘look more Jewish.’ The first category is seen in movies and shows like Golda, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and the Lehman Trilogy all with non-Jewish actors, while the second can be exemplified by actor Bradley Cooper sporting a large nose to play Leonard Bernstein in Maestro.
There is a related phenomenon happening in politics called ‘Jew Mask,’ where politicians strut out a prominent Jew to “reeducate” Jews that they have no idea what’s really in their own best interest.
In July 2015, President Obama sent Treasury Secretary Jack Lew out to tell Americans that the Iranian nuclear deal (JCPOA) was a really “strong deal,” even when everybody on the planet knew that it was a farce that left the entire Iranian nuclear program intact. Sending out the Treasury Secretary – instead of the Secretary of Defense – to make the point added to the ridiculous spectacle. Everyone understood that Lew was paraded as the Jew Mask for Obama to convince the world that if an Orthodox Jew thinks that the Islamic Republic of Iran which had sworn to destroy Israel is now effectively neutered, it must be true.
The trotting out of a senior-ranking Jew to state what the president cannot say convincingly happened again this past week, as President Biden (who was Vice President when Lew did his 2015 performance) had New York Senator Chuck Schumer lambast Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Despite Israel having a civilian-to-terrorist death rate of less than 2:1 in urban combat during the current war from Gaza, when historic norms are closer to 9:1, Schumer excoriated Netanyahu on the Senate floor.
New York Senator Charles Schumer berates Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Obama and Biden sent Lew and Schumer to be their Jew Masks, selling a narrative which the majority of Jews don’t believe. They attempted to convince global Jewry that they are actually safe and America has made them so, despite Jews feeling terrified under attack and threat of annihilation.
Jew Face plays out in Hollywood and Broadway, an ugly annoyance of watching the replacement of Jews with non-Jews even though there are plenty of Jews in the performing arts. Conversely, Jew Mask happens in the real world, a terrifying spectacle of observing a prominent Jew under direction of a powerful boss, lie to global Jewry that imminent threats are not lethal, to get the paltry number of Jews to relinquish their basic right of self-defense.
As it does every three months, the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR) conducted a poll of Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank in March 2024 as the war from Gaza continued to rage. The poll principally focused on the war, post-war, theoretical elections and Israel, and skipped many of the historic questions.
The results were a bit confusing, even for the pollsters.
The October 7 Massacre
Palestinian Arabs continue to support the raping and brutal slaughter of around 1,200 people in Israel. “While support for Hamas’ offensive on October the 7th remains as high as it was three months ago, Palestinian support in the West Bank has in fact dropped by 11 points while, surprisingly, support in the Gaza Strip has increased by 14 points.” As of March 2024, 71% of Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza support the heinous October 7 atrocities.
The vast majority of Arabs have still not watched the videos showing Hamas and Gazans torturing Israelis. “80% [now] (compared to 85% in December 2023) say they did not see videos, shown by international news outlets, showing acts committed by Hamas against Israeli civilians, such as the killing of women and children in their homes; only 19% (11% in the West Bank and 30% in the Gaza Strip) saw these videos.” Perhaps not surprisingly, only 5% of Palestinians think Hamas committed war crimes, while 94% think Israel has committed such crimes in the current war. Even among Palestinians who watched Hamas’s actions on October 7, 81% still believe that Hamas didn’t commit war crimes.
Blood soaked room in an Israeli nursery after Gazans slaughtered innocent Jews
The word “hostage” did not appear anywhere in the poll, ignoring one of the main reasons for the current war.
Ongoing War
Three months ago, there was a wide gap between Gazans and Arabs in the West Bank about who will win the war, with 50% of Gazans and 83% of West Bank Arabs believing that Hamas would prevail. That has now shrunken as more Gazans are optimistic about Hamas (56%) while the perceptions in the West Bank declined to 69%, producing an overall decline from 70% to 64% over the last three months.
With the majority of Palestinians believing in Hamas’s victory, a full 59% believe that Hamas will stay in power after the war. That 59% is similar to the 63% who prefer Hamas for the post-war ruling authority.
Palestinian Politics
Palestinians are disgusted by their political leaders. If parliamentary elections were held today, the largest segment (36%) would stay home. Hamas would cruise to victory among the voters winning 30% to only 14% for Fatah.
In electing a new president to replace the current corrupt leader Mahmoud Abbas, a man imprisoned with five life sentences, Marwan Barghouti would win a three-man race which included Abbas and the leader of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh. However, Hamas would win a two-person race between Haniyeh and Barghouti.
Two-State Solution
A slim majority of 52% of Palestinians reject a two-state solution. The 45% who support a two-state solution is up significantly from 34% and 32% in December 2023 and September 2023, respectively.
War, or as Palestinians like to say “armed struggle,” is still the preferred approach of the local Arabs to end Israeli “occupation.” The percentages are 46%, 25%, 18% for war, negotiations and “peaceful resistance,” respectively. That is a significant change from three months ago when the numbers were 63%, 20% and 13%, respectively. Palestinians are seemingly beginning to tire of the war, even as they remain optimistic about the outcome.
Overall Palestinian Priority
The current war from Gaza is the most pressing issue for Palestinians but the priority is divided between Gazans and West Bank Arabs. A larger 66% of Gazans (up from 64% three months ago) consider the war the most pressing matter, while 50% in the West Bank (up from 42% three months ago), are focused on the war.
The overall most vital issue for Palestinians has become a close race between ending the occupation and forming a state with East Jerusalem as its capital (42%) to 33% desiring a full “right of return” into homes in Israel. This less than ten percentage gap has been a finding in these polls since the May 2021 short war; before that date, there was almost a twenty percentage gap in those two goals.
Conclusion
Palestinians continue to support Hamas and the October 7 massacre, and want to see Hamas continue to rule in Gaza, as they think that ultimately the political-terrorist group will prevail in the war. They seemingly are acknowledging that the battlefield is going horribly but that the world will deliver them a victory, possibly including a new Palestinian state and millions of Arabs pouring into Israel. It’s the 1.5 state solution for Arabs and 0.5 states for Jews as long desired by the fat-left anti-Zionists.
ACTION ITEM
As Palestinians are counting on global support to deliver a victory which they cannot achieve on the battlefield, it is critical to contact elected officials to continue to support Israel and limit support for Palestinians strictly to humanitarian aid until Hamas is completely defeated.
The sadistic massacre committed by Palestinian Arabs from Gaza on October 7 will impact the emotional and mental health of Israelis for a generation. That thousands of Palestinians could enter Israel and rape, mutilate and burn alive 1,200 people, brought back closeted inherited memories of the atrocities of the Holocaust and pogroms for Israelis and global Jewry. That Palestinians cheered the event and a majority support the heinous attacks, has scorched the sensibilities of Israelis, a trauma of the past that they will carry every day.
Palestinian leaders remain in control of Gaza and broadcast that they are committed to repeating the massacre, that “there will be a second, a third, a fourth because we have the determination, the resolve and the capabilities to fight…. We are not ashamed to say this, with full force. We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do this again and again.” The deep-seated evil ideology makes Israelis fear for their future.
Outside of Israel, hearing college professors say that they were “exhilarated” by the mass rape and butchering of Jews and felt “jubilation and awe” at the attacks has infused terror into the hearts of diaspora Jews, the 55% of global Jewry who live outside of their homeland in the land of Israel. Jews see that the attackers are not just Gazans but their global supporters.
For Jews, October 7 was a continuum of thousands of years of antisemitism brought forward to today and tomorrow. After centuries of instilled knowledge that nothing has ever appeased anti-Jewish zealots, Jews around the world look at the Israeli Defense Forces – a new army which was absent for 2,000 years – to reshape their future.
Israeli Defense Forces sing Israeli national anthem of “Hatikvah”, “The Hope”
For Palestinian Arabs, the IDF is their sworn enemy. Raised to believe that Israeli Jews are an illegal occupying force who stole Arab land, the IDF represents the boot on their necks enabling that crime to continue. As they watch tens of thousands of Gazans die and their infrastructure get obliterated by that army, they seethe in the present.
So despite the clear military trouncing of the Palestinian army of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the local Arabs are optimistic for their future. They are playing the long game and believe that Israel will soon cease to exist. In a June 2023 poll, “two-thirds say Israel will not celebrate the centenary of its establishment, and the majority believes that the Palestinian people will be able in the future to recover Palestine and return its refugees to their homes.”
The Islamic jihadists in the region believe that the IDF and Israeli Jews are evil but temporary. They see the tidal wave of global support crushing the “occupation army” and sweeping Jews from the region. The United States is Israel’s last column of support, and Islamic extremists see it buckling in the polls. With the help of Iran, Qatar and Turkey, they see a “liberation” of their land before Israel celebrates its 100th birthday.
Palestinians take dead Israeli bodies as trophies as part of October 7 atrocities
The IDF is the perceived game-changer for global Jewry, a chance to fight the toxic and violent antisemitism that has been killing Jews for thousands of years. It is the instrument to terminate their collective trauma and protect the ability to coexist in peace.
That same IDF is viewed by Palestinian Arabs and their supporters as deeply evil, causing a “genocide” of Gazans who, in their view, just want to live in peace in their land: everything from the River to the Sea, devoid of Jews.
Cornell University professor Russell Rickford celebrating the October 7 raping and slaughter of Israeli Jews
October 7th is fading in the world’s memory and is losing influence on opinions and policies. There is declining empathy for the ongoing Jewish trauma, as people focus on the latest body count of Palestinians. As part of that transition, the IDF is becoming the story as intended by the jihadists. The anti-Zionist extremists believe that neutering the Israeli army is the pathway to alleviating Palestinian trauma and perpetuating Jewish suffering.
Hamas might soon fade from public discourse. The political-terrorist force will blend into a new organization, having met its primary goals: the end of American support of the IDF as the pathway for the destruction of Israel. The political-terrorist group always knew that it could never defeat Israel militarily; its war mission was to weaken American support for the Jewish State, for its jihadi allies in Iran, Syria and Lebanon to strike the fatal blow.
ACTION ITEM
Write your politicians to maintain military aid to Israel to not only confront the Palestinian army but Hezbollah, Syria and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Many commentators about the 2023-4 Hamas-Israeli War quote body counts to not simply frame and update the situation but to drive emotions and policy. While it is true that every civilian death is a tragedy, using statistics distracts from the core problem.
And it’s intentional.
Mainstream media and pro-Palestinian voices use Hamas-fed figures of Gaza’s dead and injured to make the claim that Israel is committing “genocide” and “ethnic cleansing” of the enclave. Pro-Palestinian lawmakers compare the roughly 1,200 people in Israel killed to the much larger number of Gazans. They append the figures of the hundred-plus Israelis held in Gaza with finger-pointing to thousands of prisoners held in Israeli jails.
Yet there is no mention of the qualitative chasm between the perpetrators.
Gazans invaded Israeli homes in the early morning and pulled women in their pajamas outside to be raped and mutilated. Members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad burned families alive. They spent hours going house-to-house to butcher and slaughter children and the elderly. Fellow Palestinians celebrate and applaud those actions, and their leaders have promised to commit the atrocities again-and-again.
Meanwhile the Israelis simply want to bring their hostages home and the perpetrators to justice. The Jewish State wants the fighting to end quickly with as few casualties as possible to achieve their aims, while the goal of Palestinian terrorists is the death or expulsion of over 7 million Jews.
And people are deliberately silent about these critical facts when they discuss the war, all in an effort to shield Hamas and its aims to destroy the Jewish State.
Palestinians take back the dead body of an Israeli woman to parade through the cheering streets of Gaza
Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) just spoke about the evil ideology of Hamas at a UN Watch panel and opened (0:53) with a quote from the prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials saying “‘The wrongs which we seek to condemn and punish are so calculated, so malignant, so devastating, that we cannot tolerate them being ignored, because we cannot survive them being repeated.‘ Those same words should be said about October 7th.”
The number of dead on each side of the conflict has nothing to do with the disproportionate intentions of each side. Knowing this full well, pro-Palestinian activists ignore or deny the barbarism of Gazans and only repeat figures as a way to shield Hamas.
All decent people want the violence to stop but it can only end when Palestinians are freed of their toxic ideology seeking the death of Jews and destruction of the Jewish State.
Sunday morning is a time for protests in Barcelona, Spain. Advocates for Peru took their customary spot on top of La Rambla. About ten people listened to a woman yelling into a megaphone.
Just ahead of the small gathering were thirty people protesting Russia’s war on Ukraine. They held placards and then marched together through Catalunya square of people feeding pigeons.
Further ahead were 2,000 people marching with Palestinian flags down the main street of Pg. de Gracia. Led by a ten people wearing kaffiyehs on a truck, they marched with signs calling to “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Israel.”
Thousands marched for Palestinians in Barcelona, Spain on February 25, 2024 (photo: First One Through)
Many of the marchers wore kaffiyehs and held signs “it did not start with Hamas.” They chanted in Spanish about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and blamed the United States for “Genocide.”
There were no counter-protestors.
The Jews of Spain have long since been vanquished. Once the greatest center of Jewry in the 1400s, Spain is amongst the dozens of countries which now have fewer than 25,000 Jews. By way of comparison, there are 27 cities in the United States with over 25,000 Jews.
But Muslims have returned to Spain. After the Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War brought thousands of Muslim refugees and immigrants to Europe, many have once again settled in the Iberian peninsula.
Consequently, the street narrative – populated by many local Catholics – was neither nuanced nor balanced. There was no mention of the Israeli hostages or Hamas burning families alive. No demand for the Hamas rapists to face justice. Just for Israel to be replaced “from the River to the Sea.”
Pro Palestinian protestors in Barcelona
Catholic religious fanaticism routed Jews from Europe 500 years ago. Today, Muslim jihadi extremism is attempting to do the same in both Europe and the land of Israel.
There used to be jokes about how to handle one’s racist uncle during the holidays. Now the question is how to deal with a person’s antisemitic niece.
While many older cisgender White men continue to be challenged by the changing nature of America, a large percentage of women aged 18-34 (and under 24 in particular) have a hatred for Jews that would make Nazis blush.
The results from the December Harvard/Harris poll about views of Israel and Hamas segmented by age were shocking. While well over 90% of people over 55 viewed the October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion and slaughter in Israel as an act of terrorism, only slightly more than 70% of the 18-34 cohort believed the killing of 1,200 people to be terrorism. An estimated 90% of people over 55 thought there was no justification for the Hamas attack, but 60% of people 18-24 thought the massacre was justified.
Young people are evenly split on supporting Hamas and Israel, while almost every older person supports Israel. After the October 7 attack, 76% of 18-24 year-olds thought Hamas is a rational actor with whom Israel can negotiate while 87% of those over 65 believe Hamas is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Consequently, 84% of seniors oppose a ceasefire now that would leave Hamas in place while 67% of the youth think a ceasefire should happen immediately and leave Hamas intact.
In the aftermath of the worst murder of Jews since the Holocaust, a majority of 51% of 18-24 year-olds think Israel should be dissolved and handed to Hamas and the Palestinians. Only 4% of those over 65 hold such views, with 71% preferring two states and 25% supporting Palestinians moving into neighboring Arab countries.
Lastly, the poll touched on gender-related violence. Two-thirds of seniors believe that human rights groups did not adequately condemn the rape of Israeli women, while 80% of those 18-24 thought that women’s rights organizations condemned Hamas sufficiently.
These findings confirm a January 2023 ADL poll which found “Young adults have more anti-Israel sentiment than older generations.”
The age divide is much the same regarding antisemitism in the United States.
An estimated 90% of people over 65 years old think that Jews face harassment on college campuses which drops to about two-thirds for 18-34 year-olds. Much of that disparity seems to do with whether words constitute harassment, as 92% of people over 65 think that calling for the genocide of Jews should be against university rules, while 53% of people 18-24 think students should be free to call for the genocide of Jews.
In addition to penalizing particular speech, one of the drivers seems to be driven by ideology. Roughly 81% of people over 65 oppose the notion that people should be viewed through the lens of White oppressors and non-White oppressed classes of people, while 79% of 18-24 year-olds support the ideology. Among those over 65, 91% believe that Jews should not fall into the White oppressor class while 67% of 18-24 year-olds believe Jews should be in the oppressor class.
What has driven the enormous disparity of opinions in which young people side with terrorists who slaughter Jews? What drives so many 18 to 24 year-olds to be so anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist?
A few ideas to review including a post-9/11 world, indoctrination in schools, race, social media and human rights groups.
Post-9/11 World
Americans who were adults in 2000 and 2001 can easily remember the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the continued heinous killing of Israeli Jews by Palestinian Arabs from 2000 to 2004. The clarity about the jihadi extremists perpetrating the disgusting murders was apparent to all, so the support for the United States and Israel responding to the attacks was wide and deep.
For young people who do not remember the attacks but only the consequences – America’s 20-year long war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Israeli Security Barrier which was put up to stop the flow of Palestinian Arab terrorists – the cause-and-effect is now inverted. Rather than see the Security Barrier as the effective reaction to jihadi terrorism, it is viewed as an obstacle to coexistence. Rather than appreciate the lack of mass casualty attacks in the U.S. over the past two decades, young people question why America fought wars abroad for so long.
Young people have come to believe that western powers are “imperialist” and wage wars to subjugate others. They have internalize the Iranian narrative of the US and Israel being “big Satan” and “Little Satan”, respectively, aggressively fighting Muslims and people of color for no reason.
When the 2014 Gaza War concluded around the same time as the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, the SJP chapters started to align themselves with the Black community in an effort of allyship. It created narratives of “Gaza to Detroit” and “Ferguson to Palestine” as if the two have anything remotely in common.
Muslims claimed it did – and latched onto the oppressor/oppressed narrative which has now become university doctrine over the past decade. Teacher union bosses pushed the notion into lower schools as well, that Jews should be seen as part of the elite “ownership class” who try to keep others down.
Coupled with this incorrect portrayal of American Jews as powerful is the mischaracterization of Israel as a European colonial project. In university departments focused on decolonization, Israel is being cast as a racist state which must be dismantled. There is no subtle debate about Israel/Palestine for young people; they have been taught that Jews are not indigenous to Israel and “stole” Palestinian land.
As toxic ideologies like this inevitably metastasize, the calls to actively be “anti-racist” compelled students to become vocal anti-Zionists. Elective courses on “anti-racism” in California universities soon became mandatory in high schools, infecting the minds of tens of thousands.
While older Americans were spared this indoctrination, many Americans under 30 have been schooled in antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
UN and Human Rights Groups Slander
Universities celebrated when Amnesty International published a report in February 2022 calling Israel an “apartheid” state. It gave credibility to anti-Zionists who had long defamed Israel at will – like The New York Times – using a third party’s definition rather than state personal bias.
The Obama Administration’s last middle finger to Israel as it departed was allowing United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334 to pass which made it illegal for Jews to live east of the 1949 Armistice Lines with Jordan, including in Judaism’s holiest location of the Old City of Jerusalem. While older people may recall that Jews have been a majority of Jerusalem since the 1860s, younger people have grown up where Jews living in Jerusalem is an act of evil colonization.
Racial Overview of Youth
Today’s youth is much more multi-ethnic than older generations.
America’s youth has many more non-White people while older Americans are mostly White. According to Pew Research, the most common age for Whites was 58 in 2019, and a much younger 29 for Asians, 27 for Blacks and 11 for Hispanics.
Among 70 year-olds, there are about 2.5 million White people but not even 1 million non-White people. However, among 20 year-olds, there are roughly 2.3 million White people and only slightly fewer, 2.1 million non-Whites, roughly an even split.
The multi-ethnic youth have come to see their White Jewish peers as part of the “White oppressor” class. They incorrectly assume that Israeli Jews are mostly White, like Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In fact, White Ashkenazi Jews make up only one-third of the Israeli population.
Race In Colleges
The race of college students varies by the type of school. Overall, 42.3% of students are White, 17.4% Hispanic, 10.6% Black, 5.8% Asian according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. The figures change dramatically when considering the type of school and degree.
At private, nonprofit four-year universities, 47% of students were white and 33% of students were Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC). A similar mix was found at public four-year schools where 46% of students were white, 38% were BIPOC. Shorter associate degrees attracted more minorities, with private two-year schools, 38% of students were white, 44% were BIPOC and public two-year schools, 29% of students were white, 42% were BIPOC.
More people are opting to not attend colleges, viewing them as expensive and not worth the time or investment. White enrollment declined the most from 2018 to 2022, dropping by 17.4%, while Black and Hispanic enrollment declined by 13.6% and 3.6%, respectively. Men are skipping universities in greater numbers than women, with women now accounting for 8.3 million students compared to 6.1 million men.
Despite women and minorities making up a greater share of college students, the professors are still mostly white, with White men making up 39% of all faculty and White women, 35%.
While White people make up a plurality of four-year degree programs, the schools have made very direct actions to change their faculty and curricula. They have implemented DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) programs, which are getting a lot of attention after the resignation of Harvard’s Black female president who failed to clearly condemn antisemitism at a congressional hearing.
Universities are not simply deploying indoctrinating students in a new socialist ideology compared to past generations; they are preaching to a more muti-ethnic population who are embracing the theology.
Social Media
The socialist antisemitic educational system deserves part of the blame but social media has fostered the toxicity as well.
While smartphones came to the world in 2008, the social media phenomenon on phones really took off from 2010 to 2015. Young people began to rely on news from influencers they followed (think sports stars, models, entertainers) rather than on professional news outlets. Young people fled to these idiots who offered opinions rather than facts, on platforms that pushed engagement via extremism rather than nuanced debate.
People like Kanye West, Kyrie Irving and Bella Hadid have many more people reading their drivel than CNN or the Wall Street Journal, especially young people. The youth get to enjoy the thrill of interacting with their stars rather than sit passively taking in boring news. Instagram became the simplest (fewest words) and most popular social media platform for young people while older Americans barely touched it.
And here also, race plays a part.
According to a May 2020 PRRI report, “young adults (ages 18-29) are notably more likely to use social media frequently than other age groups. Nearly half of young Americans (47%) report using social media sources frequently, compared to one in four (25%) Americans ages 30-49, about one in ten (11%) Americans ages 50-64, and only 3% of senior Americans (ages 65 and older).” It added that “Hispanic Americans (30%) are substantially more likely than white Americans (19%) and black Americans (19%) to be frequent social media user.”
According to Statista, Blacks are as likely as Hispanics to be active on social media, both much more than Whites. Daily use of social media is 46% for Blacks, 44% for Hispanics and only 34% for Whites. The gap in never-users shows the same contrast with only 18% of both Blacks and Hispanics never using social media and 30% of Whites never using it. So while 2.5 times as many Blacks and Hispanics use social media daily compared to never users, the numbers are almost the same for Whites.
So while over 70% of older Americans are White and not active on social media (and more inclined to use Facebook), the younger generation is almost 50/50 White/non-White and active on Instagram.
The Chinese company Tik Tok has a similar pattern. Roughly half of viewers are under 29 years old and 57% of all viewers are female. Almost no one over 55 uses the platform. Further, 80% of the content is made by people under 24 years old.
While the United States has the most viewers, it is followed immediately by Indonesia, Brazil and Russia. Almost all of the countries where the platform has the highest penetration are Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait, followed by Thailand, Qatar and Malaysia.
Antisemitism in Young People / Non-Whites
Aggregating this information leads to a real divide among older and younger Americans. Those 65 and over tend to be White, remember 9/11 and the Second Intifada, get their news from newspapers made in western countries and went to work believing in meritocracy. That’s in sharp contrast to Americans 18-24 who are are as likely to be non-White as White; have no recollection of 9/11, just the War on Terror; get their news from social media stars and very young people alongside the Muslim world and Russia; and receive an education that meritocracy is a myth and that they live under the thumb of a White patriarchy which imposes its imperialist whims on the Global South from where many of the youths’ ancestors originated.
Young people don’t comprehend that Jews were active in the 1960s Civil Rights movement and view Jews as part of the White elite. They don’t believe the FBI Hate Crime reports that Jews are the most targeted group of hate crimes, and they hold antisemitic views that Jews and Zionists are deeply racist who only care about money, power and themselves.
Older Americans are relatively homogenous and see a disappointing new generation which hates America and its ally Israel. They watch young people loudly cheering the mass slaughter of Jews in Israel, and call the young socialists and jihadists out as antisemites. For their part, the young see the older generation as impossibly out-of-touch White racists, unwilling to let the multi-ethnic future take the reigns of power.
Jews know math and their impossibly small numbers, and turn to the government and cling to law enforcement to protect them from the percolating tidal wave of hate.
For the last few hundred years, Jews inserted three lines after their penultimate prayer in their daily services. Right after Aleinu and before the final mourner’s Kaddish, a sentence from Proverbs and two from Isaiah are found:
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
Al-Tirah
Roots Of Al Tira Prayer
Leaving synagogue was often a traumatic affair when Jews were scattered around the world. Inside of the synagogue, Jews were both together and felt connected to God; outside was a starkly different reality. Sometimes the local non-Jews would attack the Jews with pogroms and edicts, and at other times, Jews would be fortunate to find salvation.
Today, very few congregations actually recite the prayer despite its inclusion in prayer books.
I suggest that perhaps it is now time for all congregations to begin saying it.
Israel has responded to the Palestinian barbarity. It has killed and injured roughly one-third of the political-terrorist group Hamas in Gaza and has leveled much of the terrorist enclave. Hamas has claimed that nearly 30,000 Gazans have been killed at this point, with children accounting for over one-third.
On top of the frozen state of terror of Jews from the ongoing antisemitic attacks since October 7 is the sadness of watching the destruction of Gaza. Why did Hamas do this and why does the evil group insist that Israeli forces continue to pound Gaza rather than release the hostages and surrender the terrorists?
Hamas has an evil and twisted ideology rooted in a radical interpretation of Islam that demands the destruction of the Jewish state, believing its presence is an embarrassment for Muslims. As it states in its foundational charter “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it…. Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious… There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time… In face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised…. the Palestinian problem is a religious problem, and should be dealt with on this basis.”
For its part, Judaism has a different set of beliefs that stretches back thousands of years before the Islamic prophet Mohammed was born. It urges calm in the face of fear.
Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. (Proverbs 3:25)
Jews are carrying both the shock of October 7 in Israel and the sickening reaction of Hamas’s fans around the world. They are simultaneously witnessing the destruction of that enemy. It’s a lot to process – the “sudden fear” and the “desolation of the wicked” – and has led many Jews and Zionists to huddle together in synagogue, and hide symbols of being Jewish when they go outside.
Jewish Calendar And Numbers
The Jewish year 5784 is a Jewish leap year which adds another month, and the year 2024 in the secular calendar is also a leap year which adds a single day. Both the Jewish calendar and the secular calendars add the time in the winter to “correct” the calendar for the upcoming spring.
We are now in the first of two months of Adar. Jewish tradition holds that Adar is a month of happiness and when Jews defeated their mortal enemies who attacked the weakest Jews. The double month of Adar is meant as a moment of double celebration.
This year of 5784 is the eighth year of the 19-year Metonic cycle which marks leap years on the third, sixth, eighth, eleventh, fourteenth, seventeenth and nineteenth year. Just as 2024 is the eighth year in the cycle, so was 1967, when Israel reunified Jerusalem, as was 1948, the year that the Jewish State was reborn. From 1948 to 1967 was one Metonic cycle and from 1967 to 2024 were three full cycles.
Numbers have significance in Judaism. One is connected to the singularity of God in the Jewish monotheistic faith. Three symbolizes Judaism’s founding fathers, the sections of the Shema prayer, three holidays of pilgrimage to Jerusalem and the three groups of Jews.
Eight is also meaningful. Beyond the day that Jewish males are circumcised to join the Jewish nation, tradition is that eight connects man in the natural to the supernatural world. While God made the world in seven days and had seven branches on the menorah in the holy Temple, eight is the step beyond. The seven branch menorah was for the Temple, while Jews light an eight branch menorah in their homes and synagogues today to connect to the miracle.
Take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us. (Isaiah 8:10)
These months of Adar seem like important months to recite the oft-skipped prayer. A time to mark the third complete leap year cycle of Jewish control Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. It is a time to remember that God is with us and he is the sole source of fear.
Amalek And Arms Aloft Together
When the Jewish people left slavery in Egypt they were attacked by the nation of Amalek. During the battle, Jews looked up to Moses who held his arms pointing to the sky with the assistance of Aaron and Hur who held the elderly prophet’s arms. The Jews were empowered when they saw Moses praying to God to vanquish the enemy, and prevailed as God enabled their success.
And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you. (Isaiah 46:4)
Today, there is no Jewish leader like Moses to pray on behalf of the jews, and every Jew takes their own prayer book to talk to God. They gather in minyanim around the world to pray for Jewish soldiers fighting with weapons, and Jewish lay leaders who fight against Hamas’s supporters in governments, college campuses and everywhere.
Let us all recite Al Tirah together, holding the hands of the people to our right and left, and pray for God to deliver success in defeating all of our foes.
The images of death and destruction in Gaza are terrible. The cruelty of Hamas’s leaders of letting the population suffer while refusing to surrender and instead hiding in tunnels underground, is a shocking display of cowardice that will be marked by generations of orphans.
Gaza ruins
Many countries are trying to figure out a way to bring humanitarian supplies to the civilians of Gaza without the food and medical supplies being rerouted to the Hamas political-terrorist group which has directed the atrocities. The arguments about whether UNRWA is best qualified to handle the situation as they have existing facilities and personnel in Gaza bypasses a critical and fundamental matter.
Why should descendants of Palestinian “refugees” from 75 years ago get better medical treatment and access to food during this war than regular Gazans?
There are a few hundred thousand regular Palestinian Arabs who have lived in Gaza for generations. They are just as injured and displaced as their “refugee” neighbors who have been living next to them for the past 75 years. Will the United Nations only supply food and medicine to those who call themselves “refugees” while letting other Gazans go hungry?
The crux of the situation in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis, not a refugee crisis. It should be handled by the Red Cross which is best equipped to enter war zones and remain neutral.
UNRWA is a toxic organization which has fomented hatred and discontent which led directly to the October 7 massacre. Its mission, budget and staff are vehicles designed to end the Jewish state. It causes emergencies, it doesn’t address them.
All emergency relief for Gaza should be handled by the International Red Cross as a matter of efficiency, neutrality and equity. Showing preferences for the grandchildren of refugees is a mockery of humanity and shows the ongoing perverted nature of the United Nations in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It surprised no one that attacks against Jews around the world spiked after the Hamas political-terrorist group invaded Israel and butchered and slaughtered around 1,200 people. The bold and not-so-out-of-the-closet antisemites had reason to cheer the death and mutilation of Jews and took to the streets to swear allegiance to the atrocities’ actors.
Slightly more moderate and less gleeful were those who adamantly declared they didn’t hate Jews, just the Jewish State. Francesca Albanese, whose title is “UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” rebuked French President Emmanuel Macron who had decried the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. She wrote “The ‘worst antisemitic massacre of our century? No, Mr. President. The victims of 7/10 were killed not because of their Judaism, but in response to Israel’s oppression.” Perhaps she thinks that Gazans would have raped and burned alive Ottoman Turks and British civilians too when they ruled in Palestine.
Many people are calling for Albanese’s resignation, not because she’s pro-Palestinian but because she’s sanitizing antisemitism to the world. People can read, and the virulently antisemitic Hamas Charter is online.
Antisemitism continues to inch beyond the borders of Israel and the confines of self-declared Jew-haters. Even those who have historically done outreach to Jews are turning away from them now, while Jews around the world pray for the dead, the injured, the hostages and their families.
There is a restaurant in Barcelona, Spain called Xerta. It is a Michelin-starred restaurant since 2016, and once a week it makes its kitchen kosher so it can accommodate the dietary restrictions of Orthodox Jews. Jews around the world have come to dine at the famous restaurant, the only kosher Michelin restaurant in the world.
Until recently.
due to the current situation in Middle East, the Management Team has decided to interrupt the service, so no Kosher service is scheduled, at least at the moment
Xerta Restaurant, February 2024
What does kosher food in Spain have to do with a war between Hamas and Israel? Why should Jews in Spain suddenly lose the opportunity of dining in a fine restaurant? The establishment clearly made an effort of outreach to the Jewish community in the past, so why the shift in stance?
Possible reasons include:
Penalizing Jews for the actions of the Jewish State
Demonstrating to fellow Spaniards that they are so against Israel, that they would deprive Jews service even though they have nothing to do with Israel
Out of fear that the restaurant would be attacked by antisemites who make no distinction between Jews and the Jewish State
The managers of the restaurant are clearly not antisemites or would not have historically offered kosher food. But they have taken action specifically against local Orthodox Jews at this time because of activities 2,200 miles away.
Xerta Restaurant in Barcelona, Spain. Emptied of Orthodox Jews
The restaurant managers know that Spain is not like other western countries and Barcelona has a radical streak. While almost every western country stopped making voluntary payments to UNRWA after it was shown that many of its employees participated in the October 7 pogrom against Israeli Jews, Spain decided to INCREASE its donations. Just last year, the mayor of Barcelona severed the ceremonial “sister city” relationship with Tel Aviv because she said Israel committed “apartheid.”
Perhaps Xerta’s management watched the news about the spike in antisemitism everywhere with chants to “gas the Jews” and attack Zionists everywhere. Maybe they feared that their neighbors’ hatred for the Jewish State would come for Jews dining in its establishment, so it kept the kosher patrons away.
Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) would be ashamed. He knew his silence was complicity for Nazi atrocities.
Cold-blooded antisemites are killing Jews, and friends of Jews are abandoning them in the cold.
It’s an old lesson for this generation. Jews are being schooled on the fragility of allies and the antisemitism of adjacencies.
‘Shield’ is an English word which is both a noun and a verb. As a verb, it means to protect something, and as a noun, it means an emblem that represents an organization.
UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees, acts and is Hamas’s shield.
In attempting to root out the Hamas political-terrorist group from Gaza which committed savage butchery of Israelis on October 7 in line with its antisemitic genocidal charter, Israeli troops entered and dug around UNRWA schools, hospitals and administrative buildings. It found incontrovertible proof that UNRWA is part of the Hamas war machine against Israel.
Hamas not only stores weapons in UNRWA locations, it deliberately locates its command centers under UNRWA facilities to keep the IDF from bombing it. While Israel developed an iron dome defense system which uses technology to shoot down Hamas rockets targeting Israeli civilians, Hamas uses UNRWA to protect its military infrastructure in Gaza.
In New York City, where the thin veneer of UNRWA’s 100 or so Europeans cover the fact that the rest of UNRWA’s 30,000-member staff are local Palestinian Arabs, the well-dressed leaders of the “humanitarian” agency defend Hamas to its voluntary donor countries. UNRWA talking heads appeal to countries assembled at the once-respected UN halls and attempt to deflect attention from UNRWA’s complicity and participation in the sickening and sadistic attacks on innocent Jewish civilians.
The dozen-plus member of Hamas that participated in the cruelty were dismissed as a few rogue employees. The 3,000 Hamas teachers that celebrated the massacre on Telegram were ignored. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on occupied Palestinian territories, said (5:35) in the immediate aftermath of October 7 that “you Palestinians are always questioned, second-guessed, misinterpreted and defamed.”
Finally, many countries are looking at the plain evidence and can no longer turn away from UNRWA’s ongoing flimsy protection of vicious murderers. The UNRWA misdirection campaign which attempted to tug heart-strings is unraveling, and moral countries have begun to halt their donations to the agency which is complicit in the ongoing genocidal actions against a member state.
Unbowed, UNRWA continues to appeal directly to individuals donors on social media, hoping that they don’t read the news or despise Jews and the Jewish State to fund the UNRWA-Hamas front.
UNRWA campaign on Facebook, February 2024
UNRWA is not simply trying to defend itself against the mounting evidence of working hand-in-glove with Hamas to keep the money flowing to 30,000 Palestinian employees of the organization as well as to keep the lights on in hospitals and schools. As the world sees that UNRWA is not a neutral party, the agency loses all aspects of immunity. Its locations can be raided and bombed and its officers charged alongside Hamas with crimes against humanity.
The entire United Nations knows its on a sinking ship and is throwing the heaviest burdens overboard (firing the dozen October 7 murderers) and is spinning wild and unbelievable narratives. UNRWA is in a fight for its survival and will not pause in lying boldly and repeatedly that it is a humanitarian group that at worst is woefully ignorant and inept.
UNRWA acts as a shield FOR Hamas in Gaza, and a shield OF Hamas at the United Nations. The end of Hamas in Gaza must be coupled with the end of UNRWA at the UN.
First One Through 