Antisemitic Ice Cream

How to give up sugar in one easy step

In case you didn’t know, Ben and Jerry’s boycotted the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2021. Recently, they called for a ceasefire, which I notice never seems to include anything about release of the remaining hostages or any protections at all for Israelis against the oft-promised by Hamas rerun of October 7. Basically, these obesity-peddling Vermont good old boys are pushing a ceasefire that applies to Israel only.

So I did what I should have done a long time ago: I completely stopped eating Ben and Jerry’s.

Ice cream used to be a thing for me. I used to find myself driven to walk to the corner store, especially on a Friday night if I was home alone after a stressful work week, buying a pint of Ben and Jerry’s and eating it, consuming 1200 totally unnecessary calories all at once. Sugar makes me feel terrible; I have a much worse reaction to it than most people, so this was not just bad for my weight, it was bad for my immediate sense of well-being.

How easy it was to turn away in disgust at the sight of Ben and Jerry’s once I found out they wish death to Israelis. For those of you who make hand-waving gestures because I put it that bluntly, here is my answer: calling for a ceasefire without release of hostages and the defeat of Hamas or some reasonable basis on which to believe that Hamas and others can not repeat October 7, which they have promised to do again and again, is simply wishing death on Israelis. And y’all know that Hamas rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, even as more Hamas-supporters around the country were protesting/rioting asking for a ceasefire. Ye gods and culturally appropriated scarves!

As I said, sugar does not agree with me. So I thought I’d try an experiment. It’s similar to how when my mom was on Weight Watchers when I was a kid, she told me she’d look at a dessert and pretend it had bugs in it.

I am now telling myself that all sugary foods hate Israel. Of course, many do not. I would never attempt to get others to avoid foods that do not in fact hate Israel on the basis of my quirky little diet trick. But if it keeps me off sugar, that is good for me, and in a round about way maybe good for Israel because I am more able to do good things for the cause when I am not in a sugar coma.

In harm reduction, we are big believers in “whatever works.” So far, so good

My father is making a list of the places I must go to when I finally get to go. I’m making a list of the people I want to see. Of course all of you who are my new Israeli friends! Do you think Daniel Gordis and Gadi Taub might agree to have a cup of coffee with me? I would LOVE to interview them for the blog, or for a bigger publication. I wonder if they are friends. Or maybe they don’t like each other. I can’t even keep up with who likes whom and who is mad at whom in my own country, in my own field. I do somehow manage to stay friends with most everyone even if they don’t like each other.

I try never to burn bridges. You never know when the grass that was greener on the other side might catch on fire, forcing you to return to the previous side. While some people have cut off contact with me as a result of my views on the current conflict in the Middle East, I cut off contact with no one. And if they want to be friends again, I will be happy to see them. The people who cut off contact with me are, if I recall correctly, fans of cancel culture. I suppose I got cancelled. But there are very few of these, and many, many more of you!

Meanwhile, this is a valuable essay on October 7 → now.

And Gadi Taub has a new podcast out! I’m sure a lot of people think he is too… something. But even when I don’t agree with them, I always like the guys who other people say are too much.

“I’m sorry sir, I was looking for someone a little… less… moderate.”

I haven’t said that yet, but I’ve thought it.

The Flower Show does not equivocate. It is all about the plants, the plants…