Substack seems to be all the rage so I'm gonna give it a try. Just getting going so not much is up yet. If you'd like to check Mike's At The Beach out on Substack go to:
Tuesday, November 14, 2023
Monday, November 13, 2023
KNOWING WHAT WE ARE FIGHTING FOR
As things spin out of control on all fronts I've come to believe that this is a defining point for the West. To me we are clearly at another inflection point like 9/11/2001. The Jihadists have gained ground while we weren't looking. And they have corrupted well meaning but naive citizens who are unknowingly doing their bidding. Listen to Bari. I believe her assessment is spot on. Look....know what's worth fighting for...stand up to the bullies.
Sunday, November 12, 2023
JIHAD II
This is a followup to my post of a few days ago. Coincidentally a podcast was put out on The Free Press called, "The Bright Line Between Good and Evil" by Sam Harris. It is a one hour description of the evil of Islamic Jihadists and it is compelling. In a more articulate and complete manner, it describes fully what I was describing in my original post. You can get it on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Or you can go here and listen.
If you don't have the time or inclination to listen to the podcast here is a partial transcript provided The Free Press. I've underlined selections that are particularly important to consider.
In the wake of Hamas’s October 7 attack, it’s important to keep in view the bright line that exists between good and a very specific form of evil. It is the evil of bad ideas—ideas so bad that they can make even ordinary human beings impossible to live with.
There’s a piece of audio from October 7 that many people have commented on. It’s a recording of a cell phone call that a member of Hamas made to his family, while he was in the process of massacring innocent men, women, and children. The man is ecstatic, telling his father and mother, and I think brother, that he has just killed ten Jews with his own hands. He had just murdered a husband and wife and was now calling his family from the dead woman’s phone.
Here’s a partial transcript of what he said:
“Hi, Dad—open my WhatsApp now, and you’ll see all those killed. Look how many I killed with my own hands! Your son killed Jews!”
And his dad says, “May God protect you.”
“Dad, I’m talking to you from a Jewish woman’s phone. I killed her, and I killed her husband. I killed ten with my own hands! Dad, ten with my own hands! Dad, open WhatsApp and see how many I killed, Dad. Open the phone, Dad. I’m calling you on WhatsApp. Open the phone, go. Dad, I killed ten. Ten with my own hands. Their blood is on their hands. [I believe that is a reference to the Quran.] Put Mom on.”
And the father says, “Oh, my son. God bless you!”
“I swear, ten with my own hands. Mother, I killed ten with my own hands!”
And his father says, “May God bring you home safely.”
“Dad, go back to WhatsApp now. Dad, I want to do a live broadcast.”
And the mother now says, “I wish I was with you.”
“Mom, your son is a hero!”
And then, apparently talking to his comrades, he yells, “Kill, kill, kill, kill them.”
And then his brother gets on the line, asking where he is. And he tells his brother the name of the town, and then he says “I killed ten! Ten with my own hands! I’m talking to you from a Jew’s phone!”
And the brother says, “You killed ten?”
“Yes, I killed ten. I swear!”
Then he says, “I am the first to enter on the protection and help of Allah! [Surely that’s another scriptural reference.] Hold your head up, father. Hold your head up! See on WhatsApp those that I killed. Open my WhatsApp.”
And his brother says, “Come back. Come back.”
And he says, “What do you mean, come back? There’s no going back. It is either death or victory! My mother gave birth to me for the religion. What’s with you? How would I return? Open WhatsApp. See the dead. Open it.”
And the mother sounds like she is trying to figure out how to open WhatsApp. . .
“Open WhatsApp on your phone and see the dead, how I killed them with my own hands.”
And she says, “Well, promise to come back.”
I don’t speak any Arabic, and it seems to me that not every word in the audio that’s being circulated was translated, but I think we get the gist. When I spoke to Graeme Wood about this, he said that to him, the mother and father sounded more shocked and worried than anything else, which would be understandable. But I would submit to you that this piece of audio is more than just the worst WhatsApp commercial ever conceived. It is a window onto a culture. As I told Graeme, this is not the type of call that would have been placed from Vietnam, by an American who just participated in the My Lai massacre. Nor is it the parental reaction one would expect from an American family, had their beloved son just called them from a killing field. I mean, as terrible as Vietnam was, can you imagine a call back to Nebraska, “Mom, I killed ten with my own hands! I killed a woman and her husband, and I’m calling from the dead woman’s phone. Mom, your son is a hero!” Do you see what a total aberration that would have been, even in extremis?
This call wasn’t a total aberration. This wasn’t Ted Bundy calling his mom. This was an ordinary member of Hamas, a group that might still win an election today, especially in the West Bank, calling an ordinary Palestinian family, and the mere existence of that call, to say nothing of its contents, reveals something about the wider culture among the Palestinians.
It’s important to point out that not only members of Hamas but ordinary Gazans appear to have taken part in the torture and murder of innocent Israelis and the taking of hostages. How many did this? And how many ordinary Gazans were dancing in the streets and spitting on the captured women and girls who were paraded before them after having been raped and tortured? What percentage of Palestinians in Gaza, or the West Bank, many of whom are said to hate Hamas for their corruption and incompetence and brutality, nevertheless support what they did on October 7 with a clear conscience, based on what they believe about Jews and the ethics of jihad? I don’t know, but I’m sure that the answers to these questions would be quite alarming. We’re talking about a culture that teaches Jew hatred and the love of martyrdom in its elementary schools, many of which are funded by the UN.
Of course, all of this horror is compounded by the irony that the Jews who were killed on October 7 were, for the most part, committed liberals and peace activists. Hamas killed the sorts of people who volunteer to drive sick Palestinians into Israel for medical treatments. They murdered the most idealistic people in Israel. They raped, tortured, and killed young people at a trance dance music festival devoted to peace, half of whom were probably on MDMA feeling nothing but love for all humanity when the jihadists arrived. In terms of a cultural and moral distance, it’s like the fucking Vikings showed up at Burning Man and butchered everyone in sight.
Just think about what happened at the Supernova music festival: at least 260 people were murdered in the most sadistically gruesome ways possible. Decapitated, burned alive, blown up with grenades. . . and from the jihadist side, this wasn’t an error. It’s not that if they could have known what was in the hearts of those beautiful young people, they would have thought, “Oh my God, we’re killing the wrong people. These people aren’t our enemies. These people are filled with love and compassion and want nothing more than to live in peace with us.” No, the true horror is that, given what jihadists believe, those were precisely the sorts of people any good Muslim should kill and send to hell where they can be tortured in fire for eternity. From the jihadist point of view, there is no mistake here. And there is no basis for remorse. Please absorb this fact: for the jihadist, all of this sadism—the torture and murder of helpless, terrified people—is an act of worship. This is the sacrament. This isn’t some nauseating departure from the path to God. This isn’t stalled spiritual progress, much less sin. This is what you do for the glory of God. This is what Muhammed himself did.
There is no substitute for understanding what our enemies actually want and believe. I’m pretty sure that many of you reading this aren’t even comfortable with my use of the term enemy, because you don’t want to believe that you have any. I understand that. But you have to understand that the people who butchered over 1,400 innocent men, women, and children in Israel on October 7 were practicing their religion, sincerely. They were being every bit as spiritual, from their point of view, as the trance dancers at the Supernova festival were being from theirs. They were equally devoted to their highest values. Equally uplifted. Ecstatic. Amazed at their good fortune. They wouldn’t want to trade places with anyone. Let this image land in your brain: they were shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) all day long, as they murdered women and children. And these people are now being celebrated the world over by those who understand exactly what they did. Yes, many of those college kids at Harvard and Stanford and Cornell are just idiots who have a lot to learn about the world. But in the Muslim community, and that includes the crowds in London and Sydney and Brooklyn, Hamas is being celebrated by people who understand exactly what motivates them.
Again, watch Hotel Mumbai or read a book about the Islamic State so that you can see jihadism in another context—where literally not one of the variables that people imagine to be important here is present. There are no settlers or blockades or daily humiliations at checkpoints or differing interpretations of history—and yet we have same grotesque distortion of the spiritual impulse, the same otherworldliness framed by murder, the same absolute evil that doesn’t require the presence of evil people, just confused ones—just true believers.
Of course, we can do our best to turn the temperature down now. And we can trust that the news cycle will get captured by another story. We can direct our attention again to Russia, or China, or climate change, or AI alignment, and I will do that on this podcast, but the problem of jihadism and the much wider problem of sympathy for it isn’t going away. And civilized people—non-Muslim and Muslim alike—have to deal with it. As I said in a previous podcast on this topic: we all live in Israel now. It’s just that most of us haven’t realized it yet.
Saturday, November 11, 2023
A GREAT ANALOGY
Sometimes stories are best told in pictures. This pretty much captures what's been going on in the world since Oct 7. He's probably got a tree to hide in behind the females and babies!
JIHAD
It's almost impossible to not see the increasingly passionate demonstrations in our country and around the world pitting Palestinians and their sympathizers on one side and Israel, Jews everywhere and their sympathizers on the other side. Only it's not that simple. It's not really Palestinians. It's really Islamic Jihadists and the useful idiots who buy their sick dogma that is coming after western society. We've seen it many times. A small, vocal minority can stir up an amazing number of sympathetic supporters. It seems like with every passing day the zealots get more passionate, more demanding, more entrenched, and more dangerous. I can't help but think the whole thing is playing out based on a plan and a strategy. Oct 7 wasn't something that was spontaneous. It was a classic surprise attack using definitive tactics and had operational support from the larger organization. They had to know that it would cause an epic response by the Israelis. Had to. And in turn it's not a real stretch to figure out that there are Jihadis embedded in key cities around the world who can take the Israel response and generate an enormous popular response in the streets. These demonstrations have proven to be a great opportunity for them to intimidate, bully and sometimes harm (there have been deaths) the citizens going about their daily business. They are also stressing the local law enforcement capabilities and the patience of community leaders.
The demonstrations have evolved from a focus on Palestinian liberation and elimination of Israel ("From the River to the Sea") to calling for a ceasefire on humanitarian grounds. But they know that won't happen. They only raise that cry to gain sympathy and recruit more bodies for marches. It wouldn't have happened after Dec 7, 1941, or after Sept 11, 2001, or after the Battle of Britain, or any other war. After the rubicon of war has been crossed, it's very difficult to effect a ceasefire short of one side or the other capitulating. Israel has allowed humanitarian pauses, but they aren't going to give up. They have said return the hostages and we'll talk. The fact that the Hamas cowards hide behind children and hospitals garners sympathy from those sitting in their armchairs in the West, but Israel isn't buying it. Nor should they. They are being as careful and targeting as best they can, but they will not stop! They see this, I think properly, as a war for survival.
I'm not sure that demonstrators realized that at the same time they took to the streets they could uncover the amazing amount of antisemitism that has reared its ugly head. And ugly is too gentle of a word. Disgusting and unforgivable is more like it. I guess it's just never going to go away. The Jihadists have been relentless for a long time and continue to show their true colors. They aren't interested in peaceful coexistence. They want all Jews and infidels (any other religion) dead. They are akin to other hate groups we know. Jihadists = Hamas = Hezbollah = Houthis = ISIS = Taliban = Nazis = KKK. They are all the same. Think about this. If Hamas and the Palestinians were to put down their arms and ask for peace they would be met with open arms by the world community and with cautious listening by Israel. After Oct 7, it would take quite a lot to forgive their actions. But it would happen. But if Israel put down their arms....well, you know what would happen.
This is not to say that the Muslim down the street, living in the community, attending religious services and going about their day is a Jihadist. There are 1.9 billion Muslims in the world. Estimates of how many Jihadists there are in the world are all over the map. They range from 400,000 to 20 million. I tend to think it's closer to the low end, but there are a lot of Muslims in poor countries that are susceptible to radicalization. Clearly, the solution lies with the Muslims who are just living their life standing up to them. But we've been dealing with this issue since before Sept 11, 2001 and have not come close to resolving it. All this to say I don't think a solution resides in the Western world. The Muslim world has to fix it or it will remain and increase. So if we have a problem that doesn't have a realistic solution and it's one that threatens our way of life, we better be able to protect ourselves from it. It requires smart defense, real intelligence and deliberate offense. It's got a technological, cyber and human dimension. It requires clear eyes and strong hearts. It requires leaders with vision, realism, competence, transparency and stamina. It requires our engagement. Do we have all that? Sadly, today we don't. There is time, but the clock is ticking.
Friday, November 10, 2023
Cowards!
This cartoon ran in the Washington Post a few days ago and then they removed it because it was offensive to the bloodthirsty, baby killing, murderous, cowardly Hamas terrorists who routinely hide behind children, hospitals, schools and women. Talk about cowardly! You'd think we didn't have a 1st Amendment.
Wednesday, November 8, 2023
MARKETING
I distinctly remember this ad when I was...ahem...much younger. Had to look twice. Didn't really think about the marketing aspect of it. But it was genius. And that genius wouldn't fly today. Which is too bad.
GET ME SOME BBQ!!
Kansas City barbecue is great but now she is heading to Brazil and Argentina on tour. If you've ever been there you know they do some serious barbecue too. I mean serious. The meat. The smoke. The flavor. Of course, Travis will be there to provide some distractions...
THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY
A good cultural definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That is where the Republican Party is today. I guess that they feel ideologically justified in some of their positions and that they'd rather stay true to their ideas and philosophies than move on the political spectrum to a position that would win an election. At least that's the only explanation I can see.
Yesterday was an off year election in several places. I think Kentucky, Virginia, Maryland and a few other places. It was mostly an election to choose state and local representatives and for voters to vote on a few measures before them in a few places. In the scheme of things not a big election, but of course it was touted in the main stream media as a bellwether of things to come over the next year culminating in the Presidential election a year from now.
Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade last year and sent the abortion issue back to the states for the states (in my view rightly) to determine the issue of the legality of abortion, that has been the central issue in every election. We all know that there are zealots on both ends of the spectrum on this issue who will never, ever change their minds. Some want abortion right up until the time of birth and some want a total ban on abortion. The American people time after time prove to be rather pragmatic in most things. Most aren't interested in the extremes. Most, like a large percentage of the enlightened world believe, like Bill Clinton, that abortions should be safe, legal and rare. Most would be perfectly fine with reasonable laws at the state level that allow abortions up to a certain time in the gestation period (15 weeks is the most common point of departure) and have accommodations for rape and incest. It seems pretty reasonable. In Ohio, voters approved by a wide margin an amendment to the state’s constitution which would guarantee access to abortion up until fetal viability, and allow for the procedure beyond that point if the life or health of the woman is at risk. It was a blow to Republicans but I don't see any evidence that they understand that their position is not viable. Until they move to middle ground, they will continue to lose.
So the Republicans got creamed yesterday and in reading the results and comments in the main stream media and on social media, I really don't think they understand why. Americans are simply not going to stand (in most places) for a radical ban on abortions. The Democrats have been masterful in two things. One is painting all Republicans as wacky MAGA loving zealots and two as not giving an inch on abortion bans. Here's the evidence of the strategy in a tweet this morning from Senile Joe...
The extreme and dangerous MAGA Republican agenda is out-of-step with the vast majority of Americans.
We will continue to protect access to reproductive health care and call on Congress to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law once and for all.
Of course, that's not true, but the Dems have been wielded that claim like a hot knife through butter with the American public. It's actually sort of PR genius and they'll keep doing it for as long as the public and the compliant media buys it.
The second thing that did the Republicans in is Trump. Even though he wasn't on any ballots, he loomed large. As I said above, the Dems are masterful at portraying every Republican, no matter how moderate or reasonable they are as MAGA loyalists. He is in the news every single day with all of his trials, bluster, and whining accusations. Now don't get me wrong. If you go back in this blog to the 2016 timeframe you'll see that I supported him. Or rather I would have supported almost anyone over Hillary. But that was then. Now we have a 77 year old man who is running a grievance campaign with a vengeance to regain the White House. I, like most people, believe all the legal entanglements he finds himself in are politically motivated, but that doesn't lessen the impact of him sitting in a courtroom defending himself. He has burned so many bridges that I can't even imagine who would be willing to serve in a future Trump administration. It certainly wouldn't be the best and the brightest. And so like the abortion zealots, the Trump diehards hang on and he has a reasonable shot at the Republican nomination. And in turn several very capable, viable, reasonable candidates will fall by the wayside.
The other thing that will happen is that he can't win. In today's electorate no one can win with only Democrat votes or only Republican votes. The independents are the key and he can't get them. That's been proven by the recent election results in which Republicans didn't draw many independents.
There are other issues of course but as long as the Republicans are vulnerable to the Democrats accusing them of being a monolithic, radical MAGA crowd, they will lose. I live in a state with one party rule and it's no fun. It also doesn't contribute to good governance. The tension and back and forth dialog on issues between the two philosophies of the parties contributes and I might even say is healthy for a vital and growing country and economy. Without it there is stagnation, resentment, depression and people begin to lose hope. It also can be an economic disaster. That has certainly been the case where I live. I really hope that the reasonable pragmatists in the Republican Party can somehow manage to wrest control from the people currently running the show who don't seem to mind losing while sticking zealously to their ideas.
Monday, November 6, 2023
THE RULES FOR BEING HUMAN
Like a lot of people my age, I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time going through papers, photos, mementos and keepsakes with the intent on thinning out what seems like a massive amount of "stuff". This is stuff no one wants. It means something to me and my wife, but most of it has no or little significance to our kids and certainly anyone else. I distinctly remember going through my parents "stuff" after they passed away and it was no fun. The vast majority of the "stuff" was tossed. Like my "stuff" their "stuff" meant nothing to me. So it was deposited into the ash bin of history.
But here's something that happens when one engages in this process. It's easy to get distracted. You open an old box or file and an hour later you're still sitting there reading. Sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a frown, sometimes with an amount of amazement, but always with interest. So it was that I spent some hours today going through an old file of material I had spirited away going back decades. They were old speeches, inspirational sayings, deep thoughts, quotes by those I admired, and some miscellaneous "stuff". I distinctly remember using this file sometimes when I needed a reference for a speech or if writing something, but I hadn't looked at in many years. Hence the hours I spent remembering those more active days in my life. And while reading I came across a sheet entitled "The Rules For Being Human". I think I discovered these rules when I was about 26 or 27. I remember being stuck by their simplicity and wisdom and I referenced them many times over the years. But like I said, I haven't referred to them in many years. So it's time for a reprise. And I think they are worth it.
The Rules for Being Human
- You will receive a body. You might like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around. Take care of it.
- You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant or stupid. But they will be lessons. It's to your advantage to pay attention.
- There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error called experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately works.
- A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you will go on to the next lessons. However, this is not always obvious.
- Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
- "There" is no better than "here". When your "there" has become a "here", you will simply obtain another "there" that will, again, sometimes look better than "here".
- Others are merely a mirror of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
- What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
- Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen and trust
- You will forget all of this.
WHERE WILL YOU STAND?
The world seems to have turned on its head since the massacre in southern Israel on October 7. I don't need to describe what's going on. Turn on the TV to any news channel (except MSNBC who is only focused on Trump) or call up any news website and you will be bombarded with the latest in excruciating detail 24/7. Of course, as always I recommend you check several sources because they are all biased. Then try to knit together what you think is close to the truth.
One of the most surprising things to me is the blatant rise of anti-semitism. I've never really had any strong thoughts about that issue being something of the 21st century. Of course, I'm a product of my environment and where I live. But after the Holocaust I guess I naively thought that when people said "Never Again" they meant it. That after 6 million Jews were killed just because they were Jews was so horrific that the world wouldn't countenance a return to that kind of vitriol and murderous activity. I say the world but I guess what I really mean is the western world. I've traveled to the Middle East quite a bit and am acutely aware of the animosity toward and rejection of Judaism in that part of the world. And of course we've had to deal with Islamic radicals over the years, especially since 9/11 spouting their antisemitic bullshit. But in the western, enlightened world, I thought (again naively) that we were beyond that. I guess not.
I'm sure you seen the massive demonstrations in our cities and on some of our university campuses. Of course it's happening also in Europe and other major cities around the world. The interesting thing to me is that the protestors are tipping their hand in a very direct way and very few people and especially the media are picking up on it. The protestors and the compliant media and even a few in congress keep saying that these protests are about the oppression by Israel of the Palestinians and to stop the genocide in Gaza. They spout that the Palestinians have a right to their land and that Israel needs stop the war in Gaza and provide more and more concessions.
But here's the deal. These protests are NOT about Palestinians. They are not about finding a peaceful solution. They are definitely not about a two state solution. They are about the annihilation of Israel. They are about the extermination of the Jews. That's what the slogan, "From the river to the sea" is all about. I've watched a few of these marches and the chanting is difficult to hear. I heard one group chanting "Israel, Israel you can't hide. We want Jewish genocide".
So this post is not really about the massacre, the despicable terrorists, the Gaza situation or the current strategy or even the longer and larger term ideas like the two state solution. It doesn't take much research to study the history of the region, the history of the Jewish people, the history of the Palestinians, or anything else that is relevant and has to do with with the region and the conflict. This is not about that. And we can all have a different take on this issue that is certainly worthy of debate. No. This is about the disgusting, regressive, appalling and unacceptable call to once again eradicate Israel and in turn the Jewish people. And don't get me wrong. I'm am a supporter of the 1st Amendment. The organizers have a right to march and spout this nonsense. But they also need to be called out for what they are. Many are immigrants from the Middle East who have come here and never lost their hatred. Many are their children and have benefitted from everything this country has to offer. Many are naive converts. And many are fools and useful idiots. Make no mistake, the people spouting this vile are either stupid or have been brainwashed. They don't really have an appreciation of everything that allows them to do what they are doing. If you need a primer, check out this video for what the West has given the world. The alternative takes us back to the 7th Century.
So I will lay down this marker. I won't remain on the sidelines on this issue. I won't blithely go about my day and not stand up to this horror. What about you? If you have kids in school, especially at one of the "elite" universities where this garbage is being spewed, talk to them and make sure they are not swallowing this line. Don't shy away from the discussion with friends and colleagues. Stand up! Don't be someone who someday can repeat the famous words below from Martin Niemöller...
First they came for the Communists and I did not speak out because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists and I did not speak out because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Tuesday, October 31, 2023
PROFESSIONAL PROTESTORS
Earlier today as I was perusing the news I saw a story about protestors disrupting a Congressional hearing in which Secretary of State Blinken was testifying about the Administration's request for funding to support Ukraine and Israel (and a few other things). He was repeatedly interrupted by protestors in the hearing room. It was very disruptive. As you can imagine they were dressed in all manor, had signs emphasizing their protests, and screamed out their objections. They went one at a time so they had to be removed one at a time so the disruptions continued for the whole hearing.
Back in the 90's when I was at National War College, I took a few courses on the workings of Congress and spent a fair amount of time up on capital hill going to meetings, meeting various leaders, and attending hearings to get the feel of the workings of government. It was a fascinating experience to spend some time learning the nitty gritty sausage making of governing. Most of the hearings I attended were pretty routine, but there were a few that were disrupted by protestors.
Fast forward to 15 years later and I attended a few congressional hearings and events advocating the potential of unmanned aerial systems (drones in the common vernacular). My company was a major player in the development of that technology and we had the occasion to visit with staffers and Congressmen to ensure they were supportive of budgets to move these systems forward. I didn't have a big role, but I spent some time up there and once again was fascinated by the inner workings of our government. And once again, I was in an event inside the capital that was disrupted by protestors.
And guess what? I saw one of the same people that were disrupting hearings back in the 90's and when I returned 15 years later. Literally the same person! It was eye opening to see the her, in the same clothes, holding the same signs with different words. See the woman in the photo below. I saw her at a few hearings in the 90's and I saw her 15 years later!
The media was full of more photos and I'll include a few below. But I remembered that I thought then and I continue to think that these folks are paid to do what they do. How else could you explain it? I mean, who thinks about and then puts into action a plan to go disrupt a congressional hearing. And who has the time to do that? Like I said, what goes on up on capitol hill is largely sausage making. And sausage making can be dirty and messy. I know it's just part of the process but it's also a performance. Someone is funding these activities and counting on them getting noticed on the evening news, or Twitter, or wherever. So the next time you see some drama unfolding in the nation's capitol, take it for what it's worth. A performance.
Sunday, October 29, 2023
HALOWEEN CANDY
I feel like I don't even need to say this but just in case....on Tuesday evening there will be millions kids all around the country trick or treating for candy. We get a ton of kids every year. In fact, we usually run out and have to turn out the lights. It's usually a fun night. But here's some advice. When you are getting candy to hand out, don't get this. No one likes it. No one!
Friday, October 27, 2023
THE FREE PRESS
I have become a HUGE admirer of The Free Press. It's a site that was started by Bari Weiss and is as fair as anything I see in the media world. Bari was a reporter at the New York Times before she decided to leave mainstream media and strike out on her own. She started a blog called "Common Sense" and it really took off. After several months she upscaled to establish The Free Press. The stories are widely diverse but I rarely find something that is not interesting, relevant, thoughtful and unbiased. If you'd like to check it out go here. There is a subscription charge of $50 per year but I think it is well worth it.
For full disclosure Bari is Jewish and a lesbian. She wears neither as a badge, but rather a fact of life. As a result of her Jewishness, there have been an inordinate number of stories about Israel of late. I don't mind that because I am squarely in Israel's corner.
Thursday, October 26, 2023
THE POWDER KEG IS LIT!
The biggest thing, the most dominant thing happening in the world right now is happening in Israel. The stories coming out of Israel since October 7 have been excruciating. What Hamas did to Jews is beyond my imagination that humans could be so brutal. In my view the response by the Israeli's has been rather restrained. Oh, it's been devastating to people in Gaza, and you have to feel for the average person in Gaza who has been brutalized by Hamas. But...when the Israelis left Gaza they voted for Hamas. However, it's still been restrained compared to what is coming, for both sides. So when we sit from afar and watch what is happening, it's pretty easy to become detached. It's almost like a movie...and unless you have loved ones either there or impacted, it's difficult to view it through a personal lens.
But what we are seeing on university campuses and in the streets both here and in Europe, while for me even more difficult to comprehend, is certainly more personal. The anti-semitism, the hatred of the Jewish people, the blind admiration of the bloodthirsty thugs who are Hamas is beyond troubling. I just keep thinking...whatever happened to "Never Again"? The only conclusion I can come to is that there are a lot of people of Arabic and especially Palestinian descent both in our country and universities and they have influenced behavior. How could it be otherwise? While it is true that there is blame on both sides, if anyone were to take a rationale look at history, I don't see how in the world they would come down on the side of the Palestinians, especially after Oct 7. But I see kids at various universities around the country that never in a million years would I expect the hatred and vitriol against the Jews come out of their mouths. Did you see the images projected at George Washington University in Washington, DC? I figured that some administrators would come out and issue an apology. But...crickets. It's just beyond belief. I see protests in the street that are threatening and full of hatred. What is going on? Even our government has equivocated in a few instances regarding the atrocities perpetrated on Oct 7. It feels like the world is turned upside down. I get free speech and all, but if ever there was "hate speech", which some like to prosecute, this is it.
And here's another thing that isn't spoken out loud but you all should be ready for. This isn't going to end well. We aren't moving forces into the region just for presence. War is messy. Sooner or later, some incident is going to go down sideways and we'll need to respond. I don't know what, where or how our response will unfold, but sooner or later it's got to involve Iran. And I've got to say I fully support it. If we can't take a stand here, I don't know where we would take a stand. My worry is the leadership vacuum in Washington, DC. I don't know anyone who has faith in their ability, especially after our humiliating retreat from Afghanistan.
I saw an essay in The Free Press tonight that is better than anything I've read on the subject. You can read it here. I'm also going to copy it below.
"Michael Oren: A War Against the Jews
Hatred of Israel cannot be distinguished from hatred of the Jewish people. Incontestably now, anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
By Michael Oren
October 26, 2023
“The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews. When the Jew will hide behind stones and trees, the stones and trees will say, ‘O Muslims, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ ” —The Hamas Charter
“The conventional war of conquest was to be waged parallel to, and was also to camouflage, the ideological war against the Jews.” —Lucy Dawidowicz, The War Against the Jews 1933–1945
It wasn’t the rallies with “Keep the World Clean” posters and chants of “gas the Jews.” Nor was it the glorification of Hamas paragliders by the Chicago branch of Black Lives Matter or, in New York and London, the tearing down of posters with the faces of Israeli children held hostage by Hamas. Not even the off-the-charts uptick in antisemitic incidents in Germany (240 percent), the United States (nearly 400 percent), and London (1,353 percent) convinced me.
It was, rather, one of those realizations that so many generations of Jews before me have experienced. A realization that they, like me, surely tried to push out of their minds until the reality became unmistakeable.
This war is not simply between Hamas terrorists and Israelis. It is a war against the Jews.
The insight began with the international media’s coverage of the conflict. Again, it wasn’t the press’s insistence on calling mass murderers “militants” or citing Hamas and its “Health Ministry” as a reliable source. For close to fifty years—as a student activist, a diplomat, a soldier, a government and military spokesman, and above all, as a historian—I’ve grappled with the media’s bias against Israel. I’ve long known that the terrorists are “militants” solely because their victims are Jews, and only in a conflict with Israel are terrorists considered credible.
Instead, it was the media’s predictable switch from an Israel-empathetic to an Israel-demonizing narrative as the image of Palestinian suffering supplanted that of Israelis beheaded, dismembered, and burnt. It was the gnawing awareness that dead Jews buy us only so much sympathy.
In fact, there is probably a formula. Six million dead in the Holocaust procured us roughly 25 years of grace before the Europeans refused to refuel the U.S. planes bringing lifesaving munitions to Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Fourteen hundred butchered Jews bought us a little less than two weeks’ worth of positive coverage.
Europeans, it’s long been said, never forgave the Jews for the Holocaust. Their guilt was collective and their antisemitism no longer socially acceptable. What a relief many of them felt when it became de rigueur to call Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians Nazi-like. Similarly, haters of Israelis can’t forgive them for being massacred by Hamas terrorists on October 7, and were relieved when, on October 19, they could go back to vilifying the “colonial apartheid state.”
October 17—that was the date of the al-Ahli Arab Hospital incident. Hamas claimed that an Israeli bomb hit the hospital and killed 500 civilians. Again, there was nothing new about Hamas blaming Israel for atrocities that never happened and counting as dead the many who didn’t die. What was unprecedented was the speed at which the world accepted this triple lie—not a hospital but its parking lot was struck by a Palestinian rocket, not an Israeli bomb, killing far fewer than 500. Nevertheless, reflexively, the world imputed evil to Israel.
Within hours of the al-Ahli bombing, both Israel and the United States revealed the truth behind it. Still, almost no one in the media apologized. A full week after the explosion, The New York Times was still bringing in “experts” to intimate Israel’s guilt. After all, the paper was subtly telling us, Israel is perfectly capable of bombing hospitals and, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary, possibly bombed this one as well.
What was previously an inkling became, October 19, an epiphany. It marked the moment when I finally peered behind the headlines and recognized their ancient, vicious, core.
For many centuries, the term “innocent Jew” was an oxymoron. Jews were guilty by birth, by belief, and by ancestry. There is a religious tenet of Judaism, reenacted each year at Passover, that all Jews were present at the exodus from Egypt and when God gave the laws to Moses at Sinai. Twisting this is a Christian belief that all Jews were present at, and responsible for, the crucifixion. More than Pilate, more than Judas—a name not chosen randomly—the Jews were damned for deicide.
But killing God is only one of the sins for which Israelis—read: Jews—are being demonized in this war. Behind the reports of the deliberate Israeli bombing of Palestinian neighborhoods—reports that meticulously stress the number of children killed—lies the 144,000 children mythically massacred by the Judean King Herod.
Though understandably feeling vengeful toward Hamas and their allies in Gaza, the vast majority of Israelis do not want innocent Palestinians to die. Hamas, however, places its bunkers, rocket launchers, and headquarters in civilian areas. Though Israel warns these noncombatants to evacuate, Hamas tries to prevent their flight, sometimes at gunpoint. The goal is twofold: to kill as many Israelis as possible, and to kill Palestinians to win the sympathy of the world and so that Israel can be denounced internationally for war crimes.
Hamas’s strategy is clear. Yet much of the press prefers to ignore it. Instead, it repeatedly accuses Israel of seeking to inflict the maximum number of civilian deaths and especially of children. In the media’s rendering, Israel is the new Herod butchering Palestinian innocents.
Forgotten are the thousands of Gazans who followed Hamas terrorists through the ruptured fence into Israel where they joined in the mutilations and raping. Forgotten are the Gazans who beat and spat at a nineteen-year-old Israeli woman who was raped and paraded through their streets. Gone were Gazans who gave out candy and celebrated the slaughter of 1,400 civilians who were truly innocent.
Finally, there is the media meme that the Jews are responsible for their own suffering. This, too, has late Roman roots—in the belief that homelessness and oppression were the punishments due the Jews not only for killing God but then rejecting his resurrected son. Anyone being interviewed by the international press, as I am, repeatedly receives the question: “Doesn’t Israel, by opposing peace with the Palestinians, bear some responsibility for the Hamas attack?”
My response is to recall how Hamas opposed the Oslo process and every subsequent peace initiative, and that Hamas assassinated not only Jews but also the Palestinians who supported the two-state solution. I explain that the reason most Israelis now oppose that solution is because they know that Hamas would take over the nascent Palestinian state in a day. Israel bears much of the responsibility for tensions in the West Bank, I admit.
But the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is purely Hamas’s fault. As a deputy minister in the prime minister’s office, in 2017–18, I was tasked with improving living conditions in Gaza. I learned how Hamas used Gaza’s water pipes to make rockets and dug tunnels under the aquifer and drained it. I learned how Hamas diverted electricity to illuminate its underground bunkers and drastically limited the supply of basic commodities to the population, keeping it dependent on the terrorists. I learned that, when it came to Hamas, everything I knew about human decency was irrelevant.
These are my responses to the journalists. They listen but are seldom, if ever, convinced. Much of the press, I’ve learned, has internalized the ultimate antisemitic myth: that Jews just have it coming.
Accordingly, Noam and Yishai Slotki who, waking up to the news of the attack on October 7, instinctively put on their reserve uniforms and left their families to fight only to die and be buried side by side in Jerusalem—according to much of the media’s interpretation of this war, both Noam and Yishai deserved it. By the same token, Tamar Kedem-Siman Tov, a community activist, who, together with her husband and three beautiful children, was gunned down by Hamas, got her comeuppance.
The media is both a mirror and a disseminator of ideas, its two-way function incalculably amplified by the internet. So, the assumption of Jewish guilt and Palestinian innocence permeates the petitions signed by Hollywood stars and Starbucks workers that scarcely mention Hamas’s unimaginable crimes while emphasizing Israel’s imagined ones. So, the image of Jews as both child-killers and God-like in their powers translates into accusations that Israelis actually enjoy murdering women and children, deliberately targeting journalists, and crucifying the pure and powerless Palestinians. The notion that we Jews have it coming to us informed the letter, signed by more than 30 Harvard student organizations, claiming that Hamas’s barbarism “did not occur in a vacuum,” and that “the apartheid regime is the only one to blame.” Not coincidentally did UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres open his October 23 speech to the Security Council by asserting, “the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.”
When Hamas itself says its targets are Jews, not Israelis, who’s to question Hamas’s supporters abroad who fail to make that distinction? When a Hamas terrorist phones his parents from a ravaged kibbutz and boasts, “I killed ten Jews with my own hands!” who will wonder why a Berlin synagogue is firebombed? When the UN and other international bodies refuse to condemn the mass evisceration, immolation, and brutal incarceration of Jews in tunnels under Gaza, who will be surprised by the silence of actors, writers, artists, and college presidents? And who will be astonished when Diaspora Jews in increasing numbers say they feel more secure in embattled Israel than on the streets of London, Paris, or New York? Five years to the day after the massacre of eleven worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue, who will be shocked if another diaspora community is targeted?
In an agonizing irony, Hamas and its supporters have succeeded where the Jews have long failed. Incontestably now, anti-Zionism is antisemitism. Hatred of the Jewish nation-state cannot be distinguished from hatred of the Jewish people. The war between Hamas and Israel, involving the largest and cruelest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, is a war against Jews everywhere. To paraphrase Holocaust historian Lucy Dawidowicz, this is the second war against the Jews.
Michael Oren was formerly Israel’s ambassador to the United States, a Knesset member, and a deputy minister of diplomacy in the prime minister’s office. For more of his writing on Israel visit his Substack, Clarity.
A recent poll of 18- to 24-year-olds found that when asked, “In this conflict do you side more with Israel or Hamas?” 48 percent said Hamas. Read Stanford junior Julia Steinberg to understand how antisemitism, aided by social media, has infected Gen Z: Why My Generation Hates Jews."