Looking for Someone to the Right of Me
On Israel, that is
I had a text exchange last night with a young friend who has spent time in Israel and is well informed on Israeli politics.
He thinks Netanyahu is manufacturing a crisis to maintain his own power. That’s a quote.
In my world we call that Bibi Derangement Syndrome.
It’s so odd to me to be on a completely different planet politically from some of my closest friends, people who are incredibly intelligent, civic-minded, good people. Yet it happens more and more.
One of my closest friends of all time who moved to the opposite coast a few years ago has been back in touch. In what I always notice as a balancing in the Force, my Irish Catholic friends reappear at just the moment when I need fellow blue people in my life. This friend is an old Marxist, and while he hates woke blank blank, he is in the anti-Israel camp. We remain friends over other things and just agree to disagree and not talk politics. That seems like a good solution. I hate losing friends over political stuff.
Last night I was remembering how I gradually moved away from my American Jewish friends as I got more involved with Israelis. I was very sad at the time. It was lonely to be an isolated Zionist out here in Philadelphia when it felt like I had more friends between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem than in my own city. (This is still the case but now I’m happy about it.)
I had gone way out on a limb to write in support of Israel and I felt all alone. Felt like the throwaway girl… I tried to minimize it at the time but it really hurt. Even though I understood that everyone had to cope in their own way and try to live their “normal” lives, I was at war. Then you came along! Worldwide family!
Much later I met some real American Zionists, who happen to be conservatives. It’s been fun to have people to text with who are totally on the same page. As missiles fly and bombs drop, we are in touch with each other.
Yet still I wonder… have I drifted to the Right of everyone? Is there going to come a point when my only friends left are Gadi Taub and Netanyahu? (Ari in Jerusalem pitches in that Netanyahu is very unpopular in Israel which I am aware of. I do not count him as a friend and I doubt he’ll be offering me his What’s App anytime soon. But I do think that it’s a rare person who would have the toughness to carry out this war.)
As I meet more American conservatives, I continue to be amazed that everything I was taught to believe abomut conservatives doesn’t play out. Of course they are as varied as liberals. There’s a long way between Josh Shapiro (whom I love) and AOC (who I most definitely do not!) I grew up with such a demonized view of anyone who voted Republican that I still sometimes find it odd to have Republican friends. Most of my new friends are a little less interested in politics than I am. Then again, it’s hard to find much of anyone who is more obsessed with Israel than I am. Eventually, normal people want to talk about something else.
Maybe I should take up a nice hobby like surfing. That seems to work for my friend Mark Judge. But wait… there’s no ocean near here. Scratch surfing off the list. And I’d no doubt fall and smash my head if I tried to skateboard.
Fortunately I’m doing some writing that is not about Israel, keeping my mind active on other things. But my heart remains in Jerusalem, with the rest of me in Tel Aviv waiting to meet Gadi for coffee when it’s safe to do so.
I mean, when there are no longer missiles flying. Is it ever really safe to meet Gadi Taub?
In the words of PM Dawn, “I guess I’ll leave that question to the experts.”
