An Open Letter to Simone Zimmerman

Simone-

         Normally, I wouldn't care to write this. I would ignore you like I do the other members of the small, but rabid and vicious, young, self-hating, American Jewish community who pop up here and there to scream and yell and wear keffiyehs and write patronizing and ignorant articles and tweet nonsense that no one notices, but you are different. You have been thrust onto the national stage as a "director of Jewish outreach" for the Bernie Sanders campaign, and for anyone who knows what you stand for, that should read like a The Onion headline. Normally, I try and keep infighting in the Jewish community to a minimum, L-rd knows we see a lot of it. But you are a rotten apple, with the ability to ruin the whole bushel, and you must be called out. You will be known to large swaths of the American population as a "Jewish representative," and that fact makes my stomach turn. What you are saying is not new, not innovative, nor progressive or cool. You are not a great Jew because you call other Jews "yids" or have bagel and schmears on Sundays. You are not open-minded because you went to Berkeley, a bastion of anti-Semitic hatred in the bleak and anti- Semitic UC system. You are somewhat more notable because of the extents to which you have gone to try and destroy Israel, I will give you that. You joined (and led!) blatantly anti-Israel groups, you wrote anti-Israel articles, heck! You even opposed university legislation trying to curb campus anti-Semitism! So when I say you are similar to other self-hating, liberal Americans of Jewish lineage, I don't mean to demean your efforts- you are certainly at the forefront of this vile movement. You must be, or I don't believe Mr. Sanders would have chosen you for your current position.

      But this letter is going to focus on the Facebook message that is now making the rounds (I've inserted it below for whomever reads this and is unfamiliar) on the Internet- and I've included the un-censored version you posted first, not the sanitized version you edited once you realized that the original version might come across as, well, insane. Kudos, by the way, for not letting your political aspirations keep you from voicing your truth. Before you changed your truth to suit your political aspirations.

     We can start with your beautiful summary of my several-times democratically elected Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Aside from being a war hero, a scholar, a head of state and someone you've never met in your life, you use the most nasty language to discuss the leader of an ally of the United States. The biggest ally in the Middle East, incidentally. It may have missed my attention, but would you please direct me to any similar posts calling out Bashar Assad, who is implementing genocide on the Syrian people? Did you write a similar rant about Khaled Mashaal, Mahmoud Abbas, Hassan Nasrallah, Ahmedenijad, Khameini- you know, leaders who are promising the death and destruction of your fellow Jews, both in Israel and abroad? I would love to see the tweets and Facebook posts you wrote railing against the incitement of Palestinian leadership that has caused innocents to be stabbed and run over and shot with abandon here in Israel these past 5 months. Oh, you haven't? Only Bibi is singled out and told "f--- you"? Nice.

      You talk of Bibi's fear mongering. Fair play, coming from some American Jew ensconced in Berkeley or NYC (where I'm from, actually!) Tell me, would you have the gall to say that to my face as I sat in my building's bomb shelter, praying for my life, 4 days after I moved to Israel and made it my home. Would you say Bibi is a fear-monger to the thousands of children from Sderot, Ashkelon and Ashdod who live with PTSD at age 5 because they have lived under the wail of a siren from incoming rockets their whole lives? You know, ever since Israel gave away Gaza in hopes of peace, only to watch their greenhouses turned into rocket launchpads and tunnel-building sites for Hamas? Would you like to go to Sderot and tell those people that Bibi is an ultra-nationalist, blood-lusting, fear-monger who only wants war? I dare you.

        Let's move on to him "sanctioning the murder of over 2,000 people" in a "brutal military occupation." I'm going to go out on a limb and say you probably are not a big fan of the IDF. You probably love "Breaking the Silence" and whatever anti-Israel former soldiers who decide to put the love of leftist American Jews, before loyalty to their families and country. I am nothing like you. I love the IDF, the most moral army in the world. Aside from the fact that many past and present members are family and friends of mine, I know who and what they are and I am so proud to have them to defend me. Let me tell you who they are. They are generally 18-21 years old men and women, who have been drafted and asked to give up a chunk of their young lives to protect their family and friends. They are essentially kids who realize that to live in a Jewish homeland, one needs to make sacrifices. Some of them will die. That is a tragedy. I mourn for each life lost like I would my own family member. And I know that if there was no Arab threat to Israel, none of them would ever be killed. They exist because we are under constant threat in Israel and have been since before 1967, before 1948 and before 1929. Either you are entirely ignorant of history, or you are willfully ignoring it. This isn't about Gaza, or 2-states, or even our one state. It's about our existence, in Israel, in America, on this earth. Yours and mine, actually, as we are both (inexplicably) part of the same Jewish people. I'm just not naive enough to think hugs, kisses and capitulation will change reality.

       About the Iran deal. How dare you gamble with my country, my people and my life because you think Obama knows better than Bibi about what's best for Israel. Let's say you're right (you're not). Why is Bibi wrong for taking Iran at their word that they want to destroy Israel. It's a matter of public record, in video and print. They want Israel off the map, they will have the tools to do it, an infusion of US cash and they are run by radical mullahs. Why shouldn't Bibi do everything possible to protect his country? Why should you, some know-nothing leftist, sitting safely in hipster Brooklyn think you know anything more that a certifiable genius with mounds of intelligence in front of him? Who ARE You?

      I will end with how you signed off. Unfortunately, you are a leftist American Jew who cares more about literally everything than Israel and your people. It is evident from everything I've read about you (considered me obsessed with you, but not in a good way). You speak for a loud, arrogant, willfully ignorant group of disillusioned young Jews who are regrettably growing in ranks. You are so dangerous to American and world Jewry, you can't even imagine. I do hope you see the error of your ways, as you call yourself "a thinking person "although I know you won't. I see you rising in the self- hating ranks in your future career- I'm relatively certain there's a lot of money and prestige in selling out Israel at every turn.

      But please know that as loud and vocal as you will be in your life, calling for boycotts, giving anti-Semites ammunition against American Jews and shaming our nation; I will be here on the other side, defending Israel, our people and our right to exist, just as strongly and with the might of right on my side.

Hey girl hey!

Wishing you a complete change of heart,

Jordana Brown
Jerusalem, Israel

Enough is Most Definitely Enough

      Hello readers! Thanks for stopping by. This post is going to talk about some hard truths, so if you are the type of person who wants to debate murders in Israel based on where they occurred, please stop reading. If you want to explain to me the pathological and psychological reasons that would justify this murder, please stop reading. If you want to equate this murder with unsolved "Jewish extremism" cases and "price tag" graffiti, please stop reading. If you want to just forget about this terror, see how we can build bridges and move forward as soon as possible, please stop reading. If you are choosing to blame this on Bibi, or settlements, or poverty in Gaza, or recent incitement or anything except a culture that, since its inception, has sought to raise, train and glorify murderers of Jews, please stop reading. And none of this is because I think you are a bad person, or unworthy of reading. It is because my words and my anger and my anguish will be so outside your realm of comprehension, I fear you will gain nothing from them.

        For everyone else, scream with me. Raise your streaming eyes to the sky with me and pray as hard as you can for G-d to protect our holy brothers and sisters. Place your well-earned fury where it needs to be- at a people and an ideology that do not care that you are a mother, or that you live in Otniel versus Tel Aviv. They do not care if you are 80 years old, shuffling along with a walker. They do not care if you shirked the draft, or if you have served in the IDF for 20 years. They do not blink at the sight of your crying baby in the backseat or shrink at the possibility of having their "holy work" cut short by many armed civilians nearby. And sure, they are being incited, but this is not new. This is not some new wave of hatred that has suddenly and recently grabbed hold of the Palestinian population. This is what they have been raised to believe in 2016, but also in 1995, 1968 and 1925. 

         If you are reading this, you understand all this. You, like me, are at a loss for what to do. How do we keep our people safe and cut off the threat? How do we fight this unwinnable social media battle against a world that sees us as the oppressors and our murderers as the underdog? How do we cut through the divisions that live in our own camp, where so many well-meaning Israel- supporters still erroneously blame our struggles on "the West Bank?" How do we explain to them that they need to change their terminology, their mindsets; to realize that Jews have valid, ancestral, real, indigenous rights to all of Israel, including Judea and Samaria?

         Seems you can't use the word "indigenous" these days in some circles without mentioning super-Zionist, and indigenous-rights activist, Ryan Bellerose. As a Metis Indian, Ryan speaks out tirelessly to try and teach Jews how our struggle for our homeland is one of an indigenous people returning to their rightful home, not some colonialist enterprise for a safe space after the Holocaust. One of the things I like about him is that he speaks his mind, without editing, and people respond. As right- wing as you think I am, I could be a lot more so, and I definitely temper my words depending on the company around me. Ryan doesn't. I'm pretty jealous. He's here in Israel this month, touring and lecturing and hanging out, and I was lucky enough to meet him in one of his rare breaks in action. Meeting him was weird- I get a lot of friend requests on Facebook from fellow active Zionists, but I generally don't accept if I don't know them. My mom instructed me to accept Ryan, and in the time since, I've found myself nodding my head and "liking" much of his words of "politically incorrect" wisdom. 

I am not this tiny. Ryan is just bear-sized.

        I asked him 3 questions: Why are Jews right in thinking this land is ours? Why are we so scared to say that out loud? And finally, what can we do to argue our case more convincingly? His basic premise, on one leg, is this: The Jewish claim to the land of Israel (and the whole land, by the way!) is irrefutable. It is archaeological, it is linguistic, and cultural. Our claim is everywhere in the country, under the ground and permeating every tree in the forest and rock in the desert. We are scared to assert this right because our mentality is one of the Jew who still desperately wants to be thought of as "the white European" otherwise known as the apex of civilized society. We have, throughout our tenure in the diaspora, strived to ingratiate ourselves into that genteel society, to "pass" in a community that always rejected us. I nodded along as he explained that we are still doing that, and that Jews who apologize for Israel constantly, whether outspokenly (like in JVP or JStreet) or even more passively, are trying their hardest to maintain their seat at the "white European" (or American, or Canadian) table. He suggests to fix this, we as Jews need to "de-colonize." He explained we need to "see yourselves through a Jewish lens and stop identifying ourselves through a white-European lens." Whoa. 

          I feel comforted by these words. Having never doubted the Jews claims to the Land of Israel and always fought against those who would marginalize us realists who have found "land for peace" a ridiculous notion, Ryan's words resonate. They resonate more so because as a non-Jew, he is able to tap into a population that will take everything I say with a grain of salt. For everyone who dismisses me as some brainwashed, modern Orthodox, Bnei Akiva-type, crazy right-winger, Ryan is none of those things. And if both of us can come to the same exact conclusion, I welcome him and thank him for his contributions to our fight.

         As I write this, there has been another attack in "the settlements." A pregnant woman has been stabbed by a terrorist who was shot in the chase as he ran away. Reports are the woman almost lost her baby. Thoughts I had? I'm glad the murderer was killed and not taken to an Israeli hospital for treatment by a Jewish doctor. I don't care if they name 100 streets after him, it just shows the world their depravity. I wish a checkpoint had been there to stop him. I wish we could employ only Jewish labor, at least until we see real changes and can ensure our safety. I wish this attack wasn't just one of so many, destined to get lost in the shuffle. I wish this would stop occurring in "the settlements" which will no doubt cheapen her blood and breed excuses. I hope this is  the attack that turns leftists into crazy right wingers like me. I hope we can all finally band together, no matter our ideology, and work toward a better future for the Jews in this country. There will be other times to talk about "coexistence" and "meeting in the middle." More silly conversation about "2- state solutions" and "finding the Muslim moderates." There will be more time for daydreams in the future. But for me, that time is not right now.

         Now is the time to stand up for your Jewish brothers and to pray for your soldiers and policemen. Now is the time to stand shoulder to shoulder with the "settlers" because they're not different, and we're all hurting. Now is the time to pray for every victim of terror, just as peace-loving and kind-hearted as anyone else you know. And now is the time to be strong, to not be afraid. To be vigilant, but not become a shut-in. Now is the time to wave your flag, stand on your rooftop (proverbially or literally) and scream "Am Yisrael Chai- The nation of Israel lives!" We are here, we deserve to be here, and we are not going anywhere.

It's Been 9 Years

             

     
                I think I mentioned before that I am not middle of the road. I veer right, on almost every issue, including the one in this post. I hope it doesn't offend those of you who differ in opinion, and that even if you don't agree with me, you can still see where I'm coming from. Nine years ago this week, the Israeli government (under the auspices of Ariel Sharon) made 8,000 Jewish residents of Gaza (or "Gush Katif") leave their homes and businesses, in a unilateral withdrawal from that area. "Unilateral" refers to the fact that the Palestinians made no such counteroffer, and the only concession Israel hoped to receive in return was a peaceful existence. The name of this operation was "The Disengagement", or as we extreme right wingers refer to it "The Expulsion." Never in history had Jews been forced by other Jews to leave their homes (in some cases for 40+ years). Here we are 9 years post, and a lot of questions have been answered. 
               I can still remember the Expulsion and the year leading to it. I remember reading an article about it in the New York Sun, (remember that fabulous beacon of journalism? A NY paper that actually liked Israel? Miss it) waiting for a friend outside Hunter College on the Upper East Side, crying in the middle of afternoon traffic. The people must have thought me slightly insane, reading my paper, tears streaming down my face, sniffling- truly, I am not the most delicate crier. I remember being in Israel a few months prior, tying an orange ribbon onto my bag, orange being the color of the anti-Disengagement movement. I remember leaving my safe orange cocoon of Jerusalem and venturing into Tel Aviv, where orange ribbons were engulfed by the blue and white ribbons, signifying various degrees of agreement with the Disengagement Plan. I remember the teenagers of Gush Katif; the boys with huge knitted kippot and the girls with flowy skirts and Naot- giving out fliers to cull support for their towns and communities. I remember the human chain- Jews holding hands from Kush Katif to Jerusalem- in solidarity with the cause. And I remember after, images of Jews being wrenched from their homes, their synagogues, their communities. Images of youths spray-painting heartbreaking messages on their homes' walls: "A Jew does not expel another Jew." And the crying, so much crying. The children, the parents, the rabbis, the soldiers- pain you can't imagine, etched on the faces of those who genuinely could not believe this was even happening. Even those who agreed with the disengagement had to feel pain, only it was buoyed by the belief that this, finally, would bring peace with our neighbors. That only by leaving the Gaza strip completely Judenrein, would our Palestinian neighbors be appeased, and we could live in harmony.
              I am not saying this to be facetious or callous. I know truly that those who supported the disengagement had every faith that finally the aggressions would cease. Obviously, that is not what came to pass. Nine years of increased aggression later (including thousands of missiles and several ground operations into Gaza) and we have essentially given the Gaza strip to a militant terror group. Democratically elected, Hamas now has a larger and closer launching pad with which to terrorize their Jewish neighbors. Many people now see that it was never about Gaza. It was about shrinking the geographic size of Jewish Israel and ultimately turning Jew against Jew.
              Last week, not realizing that it was about to be the anniversary of the Disengagement, I went to the Gush Katif Museum (conveniently located in central Jerusalem, right by the shuk.) There, I relieved that painful period, led by the docent, a former Gush Katif resident. She told me how the greenhouses and agricultural sector of Gush Katif brought in 60 million dollars a year. These greenhouses were left for the Palestinians as an act of goodwill, so that they too could make the desert bloom. Then she told me how every greenhouse was destroyed beyond recognition by those who moved in. She told me how most of the towns the Jews left in perfect condition, remain untouched (saved for the synagogues, which have been desecrated and turned into pig pens). How there is plenty of room for the citizens of dense and overcrowded Gaza City to spread out and live comfortably, but which none of them choose to do. She told me how the citizens of Gush Katif have been scattered to different communities, to varying levels of permanent housing. Many moved to Ashkelon, and I shivered at the thought of them living through the Expulsion and then this past war just a few years later. Needless to say, it was a heavy visit.
              So why am I even mentioning all this in a blog post? Well, for one, it is a significant part of my aliyah process, learning the complicated political history of this land. Also, it is almost exactly the anniversary of the Disengagement, so it is on the minds of many Israelis. But probably, it's because of all this talk of "the settlements." Many people, good people, kind people, believe that the major roadblock to peace is the "settlements in the West Bank." That if only we would stop building there, leave, move elsewhere, peace would finally be achieved and our 2 states could flourish into eternity. What is that expression about the definition of insanity? Doing the same exact thing over and over and expecting a different result? Yes, to me that is what blaming "the settlements" is. It is believing that our brothers and sisters, living in Judea and Samaria, are the reason that we don't have everlasting peace, and that if they just left, all would be well. The 9 years since Gush Katif proves that as tempting as that premise might be, the reality is most likely the opposite. Please take a moment to remember the communities of Gush Katif, and hope that never again shall a Jew be forced to hurt another Jew. Am Yisroel Chai.

Let's Settle Things

     

         I'm really trying to keep this blog funny and silly and light and fluffy. And 99% of the time it will contain self-deprecating stories of the jams I've gotten into and the ridiculous thoughts that float through my head (like why do we park on a driveway and drive on a parkway?!) but once in a while, I'm going to give my view on something that can be seen as "controversial" so I add the disclaimer that this is my viewpoint only, shaped by my own experiences and in large part my Zionist- religious upbringing. So this post is going to focus on "the settlements" or as I glibly refer to them "biblical Israel", "Judea and Samaria", "the Gush" or simply "Israel." Some amongst you, I'm guessing (hoping!) a minority, may know them as "the occupied territories" or "the single greatest obstacle to peace." Semantics. The reason I'm even mentioning them is because this past Shabbat (thanks to the amazing Berg and Mark families) I had the great pleasure of spending the holy day in the evil settlement of Efrat. I'm sorry, did I say evil? I meant wonderful, beautiful and special!
     To call Efrat a settlement is a little bit of a misnomer as it's basically a city, with thousands of Israel- loving Jews living, working, playing and serving their country with a joy and pride rarely seen in Tel Aviv or maybe even Jerusalem! I'm serious- these "obstacles to peace" out in Judea are madly in love with the land of Israel- every part of it. So in love with it are they that a huge percentage of them left their cushy lives in the States to live a much different and low key life out in the Gush. So in love with their country are they that their levels of enrollment in active military service are unparalleled anywhere else in the whole country. So in love with their country are they that they eschew the relative ease of living in a big city like Jerusalem or Modiin for the privilege to live in ALL the land that G-d promised the Jews so long ago. That's love!
    Not only do these folks love Israel, they're also pretty enamored of their fellow Jews. While we've heard of the horrors of "tremping" or hitchhiking here in Israel, fact is, it's kind of awesome that it's a way of life to stop and give a ride to some Jewish kid you don't even know. How many of us in NYC have ever in our lives picked up a teenager and taken him to his destination? Not me! While at lunch on Shabbat, I heard of the way the community of Efrat banded together to take care of the soldiers stationed there while searching for the kidnapped boys. The community didn't just offer blankets and water. They made every night a celebration for the soldiers, complete with barbecues, every need met, and a huge screen set up so the soldiers could watch the Mondial (World Cup)! Can you imagine the love these people have for their fellow Jew? Wow. Word on the street is that many of these soldiers who grew up resenting these same people for living in the Gush as "obstacles to peace", really had to rethink that stance after experiencing the unmatched embrace of hospitality they were shown.
      Now, I'm not here to argue the case for those Jews who hate non-Jews. That is not me and that is not this blog. I'm here to tell you about loving our fellow Jews in this country as if they are truly all part of our own family. That's rare. And special. And beautiful. And I was lucky enough to experience it this past Shabbat in "the West Bank" and I hope to do it again, many times in the future!