Funny & Serious

A mix of anecdotes and observations

As a non-American, I once got a hard time at Immigration in JFK, and I always get nervous. On my latest trip, being aware of the outburst of antisemitism, I was even more nervous. So when the Immigration officer said “Did you just come from Israel?” my heart was in my mouth. But then the officer followed it up with, “My son is in Shana Bet of yeshiva there!”

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Meanwhile, even though I’m not American, and I never listen to podcasts (I’m strictly a visual learner), I’ve heard of Ben Shapiro, though I’m not familiar with his material. And so when he visited the museum a few months ago, I introduced myself to him. We posed for a photo which I posted to Facebook; I was suprised at the backlash which ensued, which I tried to balance out by posting a picture of Senator Joe Lieberman at the museum, and then a picture of Barbie at the musem.

Anyway, it turns out that Ben enjoys my books and he invited me to give a shiur at his house, which I did last week. In the question session that followed, one person asked me what’s the most controversial thing that I’ve ever posted. I answered, “A photo with Ben Shapiro.”

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And now on a more serious note: The New York Times published a lengthy article about the roots of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, interviewing three Arab and three Jewish “experts.” Needless to say, the Arab scholars toe the Palestinian propaganda line, while the Jewish experts also reflect anti-Zionist perspectives. Historian Benny Morris - himself far from a right-wing historian - wrote a very important response documenting the errors and fundamental distortions, which should be widely read and spread. You can read it at this link.

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While we’re discussing the horrendous New York Times, it also just published a deeply unfortunate article by the bereaved left-wing Israeli author David Grossman. Grossman basically claims that there’s no good reason for “normal” people to live in Israel if the conflict can’t be solved, and that October 7th will hopefully shock everyone into creating a two-state solution, along with our acknowledging guilt over all the innocents Irael has killed.

While Grossman correcty states that Hamas is implacably opposed to Israel’s very existence and would always want to act on that, what he fails to acknowledge is that most Palestinians are basically aligned with Hamas. With some rare exceptions, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians have never believed that the Jewish People have any right to any part of the land, and see any “peace” as a stepping stone to the eventual destruction of Israel. This has always been the insurmountable problem and nothing has changed; October 7th and its aftermath did not bring the Palestinians any closer to accepting Israel's existence. Israel should firmly declare that just as it has been open to two states in the past, it is still open to it today (and Bibi and co. are causing great damage and endangering Israel by raging otherwise), but we should equally make clear both internally and externally that the fundamental obstacle has always been Arab rejectionism and violence.

Yes, this means that life in Israel will unfortunately always be a struggle for the forseeable future. Nu nu, it also has its rewards, and it's still a better life than many people globally and historically (especially Jews) have ever lived. More importantly, it's still our only national homeland - and many Jews have no other place to go.

Finally, we do not need to feel guilt over a war that we did not start and did not want, with an enemy that not only seeks our annihilation, but also tries to maximize civilian casualties on both sides. Even if turns out that there were isolated “war crimes” that Israel committed, it should be remembered that war is always hell and chaos, and other countries are not in a position to condemn us. No country fights a war without ever messing up. Many countries have the luxury of never having to fight a war; Israel wishes it had that luxury, but suffers from the unfortunate reality of being surrounded by (and even being home to) people who want to annihilate it. It's wrong of Grossman to claim in the NYT that Israel should feel guilt.

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To finish on a lighter note: While I was in the US, I was picked up by a friend for lunch. As we were coasting down a long, straight road, I happened to notice that he had both hands on his lap. Now, my friend learns in Kollel and wears black-and-white, and I couldn’t help but think of how yeshivish Jews are known to have a rather relaxed approach to driving laws and safety. I was feeling very uneasy.

Then the car changed lanes and turned a corner.

The Americans here will probably laugh at me. I had no idea that self-driving cars are a real thing!