By Sid Schwab / Herald Columnist
I took one of those send-your-spit DNA tests. As expected, it showed me to be 99 percent Ashkenazi Jewish, because both sides of my family are Jewish, going back past Adam and Eve, probably to Graecopithecus. I’ve written about why I’m not proud of things over which I had no control, born Jewish among them. But I’m glad of it.
When I meet Jewish people, I feel unspoken kinship. Jews have contributed disproportionately to the arts, technology, science, medicine. If I’m not among those contributors, I admire them from closer than afar. Jews have survived centuries of hatred. My grandfathers lost family in the Holocaust, which, contrary to the belief of many in the MAGA camp, actually happened. Seeing pictures of those skeletal outlasters of incarceration makes me physically ill. As does the rise of antisemitism under the leadership of “good people on both sides” Trump.
I’m glad for the existence of modern-day Israel, in awe of its research achievements that have benefited humankind. If its re-creation after World War II as haven and homeland for survivors of the Shoah engendered unceasing animus within the countries surrounding it, it was the right thing to do. As have been its wars of survival, like its stunning victory over the outnumbering, attacking nations in the Six Day War.
My point: I’m not someone you could consider antisemitic.
So when I say I’m revulsed by what Israel is doing in Gaza, it’s not about religion or ethnicity. It’s about humanity. If a strong response to the horrifically cruel attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 was absolutely called for, Israel has long-since gone beyond justification. I’m angry over it, and filled with sorrow. If I can’t claim pride in being born Jewish, I can feel uneasy — embarrassed, even — to be associated, however tangentially, with the brutality, the indiscriminate slaughter being carried out by Israel. Starvation. Interdicting aid. Killing people, children included, as they scramble to receive what little nourishment is available. Recently allowing some food convoys back in, plus Donald Trump’s meager contribution of cash last week: too little, too late.
I abhor what Benyamin Netanyahu is doing and I hate that our “president” openly encouraged him. “Finish the job,” he said. “Do whatever you want.” No one should be surprised, though, because what Trump is doing to immigrants in America, adults and children, recent arrivals and law-abiding residents for decades, if not causing as many deaths as Israel’s, is equally heartless and dismissive of the humanity of his victims. Plus, because Republicans cheer Trump’s immigration cruelty at home and Trump facilitates Bibi’s abroad, both are being done in our name.
Criticism of Israel’s actions does not equate to antisemitism. Nor does it justify Trump’s rounding up, imprisoning, and deporting students, here legally, who’ve been protesting them. (Which he’s not doing to protect Jewish students: it’s an excuse to subjugate universities to his will.) America has supported Israel since its creation and, as long-term policy, that shouldn’t change. To preserve its existence, Israel will likely need America’s help forever. But, especially now, it ought not be unconditional. Seeing children of bone and skin, barely holding off death, knowing there were many who couldn’t: Enough is much more than enough.
The U.S. could put its aid to Israel on hold. It might not halt the carnage, but it would disassociate us from the inhumanity. It would also, no doubt, cause outrage among many of Israel’s American supporters. Matters of conscience, though, are more important than politics or the flow of money that’s become indispensable to American politicians of all persuasions. They used to be.
I’d like to believe the majority of Israelis, like the majority of Americans who disapprove of virtually all of Trump’s policies, reject Netanyahu’s scorching of Gazan earth. Hamas is a barbarous terrorist organization that needs to be eradicated. Surely, though, a country as skillful as Israel could find a way to do it without starving civilians and, like MAGA’s BFF Vladimir Putin, bombing their hospitals and homes. Maybe that’s impossible, but it ought to be the goal.
Enough said. If the Gaza tragedy is overwhelmingly awful, the Epstein saga continues to confound. Trump’s former personal attorney, Todd Blanche, now an obedient DO“J” employee, has been interviewing Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s chief accomplice and pedophilic facilitator, serving 20 years for her crimes. Trump, who never lies, says he hasn’t been following it, says issuing her a pardon after she says whatever they get her to say “is not something I’ve thought about.” Only the most Trumpomagafoxified could consider that, or her spillage, credible.
MAGAs have another challenge to rationalization: Trump only “wins” tournaments at his own golf resorts. From his taxpayer-funded trip to promote his courses in Scotland, there’s now video proof of his oft-reported cheating (Crooks & Liars: tinyurl.com/golfcheat4u). Defend, worshippers, the character of the man you revere, who cheats at golf and brags about winning. Because character isn’t conditional. His explains everything he does.
Email Sid Schwab at columnsid@gmail.com.
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