At dusk on Halloween, in the vicinity of 34 years ago, about 1990, my cat B.C. and I happened to be looking out my front window, and she jumped, leaving the window for mid-floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I saw a young man halfway up the Little Rock apartment’s sidewalk in SS Gestapo gear: black coat and pants with a red armband bearing a swastika. I startled, gasped and shivered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then I saw him knock on my neighbor’s door and in seconds calmed down: the buddies were heading out to a costume party, poor taste but otherwise harmless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Did B.C. (for Ben’s Cat) recognize danger, or did she sense my adrenaline kick in before<\/em><\/strong> I felt it? The latter I’m sure, and it’s a lesson I had little use for until this past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The leading Hamas paramilitary group of Gaza viciously attacked Israelis on Oct. 7, 2023 \u2014 killing, kidnapping and raping \u2014 and the extreme and extended retaliation of the Netanyahu government against Palestinian civilians began within weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The reconsideration of Israel<\/a> by American Jews did not begin with 10\/7\/23 \u2014 that may have begun in earnest with the corruption investigations<\/a> into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu starting in 2017 \u2014 but the year-long Israeli slaughter of Palestinians accelerated it. (It took the dozen weeks from Oct. 8 to January 2024 for the public to grasp what the day-in day-out Israeli military response would be.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Initially and strongly responsible for the slaughter are groups like Hamas and Hezbollah who’ve perfected the “human shield” strategy of hiding militants and their munitions among civilian populations. The practice has been going on for over a century<\/a>, so Israel could have figured out a far less bloody counterstrategy than smithereens<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting another 250,” The Associated Press<\/a> reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Against that initial count, some 45,000 Palestinians<\/a> have been killed as of mid-December, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the United Nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This column’s focus is narrow, a hunch on the future of American Zionism. The choice was to fill hard arguments with dozens of citations and tangents, which I’ve been gathering off and on for months, or just say what’s on my mind. The former would surely fall short on impact \u2014 too complex or too boring \u2014 though it’s my journalist inclination. So I’m tumping the digital folder over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without belaboring or summarizing the thousands of online opinions, a few dozen of which are worthwhile, I have long supported a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinian people and have long seen Netanyahu as corrupt and cruel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have been following the acts of supporters of Palestinian rights in the U.S., often on university campuses. Some are of general Arabic descent, and liberal whites have been numerous. Not to be discounted among them are Jewish groups and media, whose members veer young. They include Jewish Voice for Peace<\/a>, If Not Now<\/a> and the publication Jewish Currents<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While the public university up the street has been far from a hot bed of protest, about anything, friends on social media who oppose the blood bath have been commenting non-stop. A few comments veer into anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes I’ve called the posters on it, sometimes I quietly block them while the rest of the time I move on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure I’m offended but more than that, these are people I’ve felt confident and comfortable with, small-d democratic, open-minded and as non-bigoted as anyone can be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scratch that now. They are haters. Maybe the anti-Semitism is deliberate and they really think like that. As a 4th-generation and longer Southerner though, I believe most don’t bother to be fully informed on the current situation, as well as not bothering to write carefully or persuasively but instead rely on phrases they picked up as children from their peers, parents or institutions (yes, churches).<\/p>\n\n\n\n It still boils down to Jew hatred, just not previously expressed this openly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I suppose I should quote them then cite historic blood libel fallacies so they can go “aha,” apologize and vow to do better. But what if the bile is subconscious on their part, unintentional?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then I recall how I felt the first time I read their comments \u2014 nervous, angry or scared, just like when B.C. and I jumped as we saw a Nazi walking up to the porch. I’ve always preferred to be analytical, but I now accept a visceral response to anti-Semitism as legitimate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are hateful comments from people who aren’t 100 percent nice, who aren’t contributing toward understanding, acceptance or mere tolerance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Social media and news media seem to have moved Jews from the generic white folk where they had been nearly indistinguishable from Gentiles, or so assimilated Jews assumed. (At the same time, some progressives who support all<\/strong><\/em> U.S. groups that face discrimination don’t include Jews as such a minority.) We are not and probably never have been indivisible from the majority, with liberty and justice for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In nearly every job I’ve had, in my decades of adulthood and not all of it in the South, someone who ranks above me though not necessarily a supervisor conversationally notes early in my tenure who they know is also Jewish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe they are trying to be friendly, by finding some commonality. Every time I’ve faced this, though, I have observed that they do not remark if a colleague is Lutheran or Methodist (or other Protestant). While I’m not particularly Semitic looking, how do they know?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over 2024, various public opinions by leaders or writers have been called anti-Semitic. Then critics bicker with one another on the degree of its Jew hatred or whether the opinion is anti-Israel or anti-Zionist then whether that factor should be included in the definition of anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We sometimes debate whether Judaism is a religion or race when it’s not ours to confirm: it’s been the call of the oppressor, whatever works to rally the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is time American Jews realize we’ve never truly blended in, at best some of us may pass as white Gentiles and that there is strength in being conscious of the fact: We didn’t see 2024 coming, and we should’ve. We are an Other. That’s good for the Jews as we need to keep on our toes \u2014 as does every other minority population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n American Jews especially younger folks have begun seeing the nation of Israel as less vital to their identity, never mind that nation’s birth out of the ashes of the Nazi Holocaust. This evolution will cause Israeli lobbying groups to evolve or melt. Federal funds to Israel will come with more strictures or decrease. That will force Israel into less dependency. For a realistic future, that nation needs the autonomy. We Americans who are Jewish need it, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 2025 Ben S. Pollock Jr.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This Is Good for the Jews At dusk on Halloween, in the vicinity of 34 years ago, about 1990, my cat B.C. and I happened to be looking out my front window, and she jumped, leaving the window for mid-floor. I saw a young man halfway up the Little Rock apartment’s sidewalk in SS Gestapo […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Tallitt-yarmulke-1920x1080-010125.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":78,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/the-passion-of-the-gimmick\/","url_meta":{"origin":8017,"position":0},"title":"The Passion of the Gimmick","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, March 9, 2004. \"The Passion of the Christ.\" I have not seen the movie, though it's been out a couple of weeks. I am not curious about it, the way I have been about other movies about Christianity, and so may not see it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7548,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2023\/07\/allen-texas\/","url_meta":{"origin":8017,"position":1},"title":"Allen, Texas, of the 1980s Was a TV Show","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 5, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Editor's Note \u2014 wait, the writer is the editor: Each time I cleaned some syntax, another mass shooting or three were reported, and the shore moved even quicker from my drifting dinghy*. Time for a final update, publish and move on.*\"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Jan. 7, 1985, Allen American","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allen-American-01-07-1985-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allen-American-01-07-1985-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allen-American-01-07-1985-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allen-American-01-07-1985-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allen-American-01-07-1985-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Allen-American-01-07-1985-1920x1080-1.jpeg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1127,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/04\/introducing-mani\/","url_meta":{"origin":8017,"position":2},"title":"Introducing Mani","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"This is dogging me. Now that we have a pup (14 months, actually) joining our two cats, our role in the world is changing fast. My Beloved and I are seen differently. We now number in the society of dog owners, as collegial and helpful, nipping and hypocritical, a group\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mani 041709","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/04\/mani041709.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":72,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/05\/down-to-the-level\/","url_meta":{"origin":8017,"position":3},"title":"Down to the level","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, May 5, 2004. A note about the U.S. MPs' sexual and general humiliation of Iraqi civilian\/military detainees. Here's The New Yorker's link to photos and articles. Jews are not supposed to make Holocaust comparisons lightly and don't want non-Jews to make any at all.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2016,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/06\/helen-thomas-ripped-in-pieces\/","url_meta":{"origin":8017,"position":4},"title":"Helen Thomas, Ripped in Pieces","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"A statement on Helen Thomas from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, written by Ben Pollock as its vice president, edited by informal committee: For decades, Helen Thomas has been a paragon for younger journalists and her closing her career as a bad role model provides lessons as well, the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4626,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/11\/why-deer-cross-road\/","url_meta":{"origin":8017,"position":5},"title":"Why Did the Deer Cross that Road?","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 5, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"About 5:10 or 5:15 this afternoon, I was down here at my lower-level office, and I heard Hopper the black Tibetan terrier bark and growl. Stewie the schnauzer and his dad already had their walk so it wasn't them irritating this watchdog. I didn't see any UPS truck from my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8017"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8270,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8017\/revisions\/8270"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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