Dad, you match the terrorists!

Good morning in West Philly

As I was walking to the trolley yesterday morning, I saw a young white man, maybe in his thirties, accompanying what I assumed to be his daughter to catch a school bus. She was adorable, definitely under ten, in pink clothes, maybe a Hello Kitty backpack. He was wearing jeans, a winter coat, and a keffiyeh. Just like the ones the terrorists were proudly wearing at the recent staged, tortured scenes of hostage releases! All match-y match-y with the terrorists!

My neighborhood is filled with people wearing keffiyehs. I would be interested to know what the keffiyeh means to them. They would probably blather on about opposing settler colonialism, seemingly oblivious to the fact that their European of some sort presence in North America is a testament to settler colonists who actually were settler colonists, and that their presence in West Philly displaced black Americans from the neighborhood as it gentrified. The symbol of a terrorist organization is the fashion accessory of choice among the educated elite and the anarchist vagrants.

Some like to call these people “useful idiots,” and I’m sure quite a few are idiots, but some are quite smart. They are very smart people who are so deeply steeped in an ideology that worships the concept of “oppression” that they condone the brutal rape, murder and hostage taking of their pet group of victims as “resistance.” It’s much more frightening to me when smart people have these beliefs. They seem to think they are so clever that they have figured out why an extremely repressive regime that opposes all the liberties they hold dear are actually the good guys. I still don’t get it.

My father warned me more than thirty years ago about how this kind of thinking was infesting academia, where he was a professor for most of his career. I listened. That is the topic for another entry.

It is one thing to pray for or hope for or work towards peace. Terrorizing Jews on campuses and elsewhere, spreading lies about Israel and Jews everywhere, displaying Nazi symbols and wearing the symbol of a terrorist organization as a scarf is not praying for peace.

I’ve been wearing my Star of David when not at work (I don’t bring any religious or political symbols into a workplace, ever, I just wear cat necklaces - which I suppose you could say is a religious symbol of my Fluffy Power, the Goddess Bastet, but so far no one has made that connection or seemed offended) but I decided that I need an Israel-supporting scarf. So I ordered one on Amazon. It’s a soccer scarf, which I hope means it might keep me warm at a soccer game but does not obligate me to attend such a game. It looks soft and warm and has Israel written in English and Hebrew. I want to show that we will not be disappeared, we will not be afraid to stand up as proud Zionists… and we will not freeze to death this winter!

If you want to be all match-y match-y with me instead of the terrorists, as well as warm and supportive of Israel, get yours here.

Stay warm, stay safe, stay strong.