Other than two brutally murdered babies and a missing corpse...

How was your week?

Flipping between the Substacks I read, the X feeds I follow, and my Facebook feed is a dizzying and disheartening experience.

The Substacks, mostly Jewish in the US or Europe or Israel, were following the horror of the hostage releases and the despicable psychological torture of the Israeli people and all the humanity-loving world. We all know what happened. The Bibas boys were strangled then their bodies were mutilated to make it look like they were killed by an airstrike. What was supposed to be Shiri’s body was not. Two hostages were made to watch other hostages being released and then taken back into the hell of Gaza. Busses were set to explode but thanks be to G-d, this plan did not quite work out. One of my favorite writers wrote about how this can only be attributed to divine intervention.

Then occasionally I look at my Facebook feed, which is mostly friends from high school, college, and the years I was a labor organizer.

No mention from anyone who is not Israeli or one of my new Jewish friends of the hostages. No outrage at the beaten and murdered babies, the ridiculous ceremonies staged by Hamas to make the releases as painful as possible, no mention of Yarden Bibas’ plea that we make sure the world knows how his sons were murdered.

Those facts are inconvenient for those who support terrorism in the name of “decolonization,” and the rest of my American friends don’t much care. A few Marxist “As a Jews” have posted long, complicated narratives about why they hate Israel that don’t make a lot of sense to me, even though I really liked the people who post them, back when we all worked together.

My Facebook friends post meltdown after meltdown about what Trump/Musk/Republicans are doing. While I do not find the hysteria productive, I actually agree with a lot of their criticisms and concerns. What makes me sad, actually sad not just angry, is that they don’t care at all about the suffering of actual people who were actually tortured and murdered and lost family members, including their pets.

I’m guessing my Jewish friends have known this for a long time, but forgive me, I am new at this. These people don’t give a blank about us.

I mostly post cat pictures and cat memes because I don’t feel like getting into it on Faecbook - I’d rather spend my energy here and publishing. But when I do occasionally lack the resistance to temptation and post a comment on someone’s rant, the response is usually something to the effect of, “You’re stupid and you’ll suffer for your bad judgement.”

Not exactly a way to win people over.

I hope that my liberal Jewish friends are not falling prey to the hysteria and guilt trips about fighting for your safety and the safety of Israel. Has anyone told you yet that the Dems would have won if you had put more of your energy into campaigning for the candidate who said the pro-Hamas protesters outside the Democratic National Convention had a point, and less energy into advocating for Israel and against antisemitism?

One advantage to the fact that most of my ultra-left friends realize that I’m not with them politically anymore is that they leave me alone. I miss some of my friends, and I appreciate the few who have remained on speaking and exchanging cat pictures terms. I don’t think it’s helpful to cut off relationships, but some of my old friends have.

However, for every old friend lost, there are five to ten new friends found. I had the wonderful joy of speaking with my first Israeli friend early this morning. Well, not early for me… it was 8:15 am by the time we jumped on What’s App, which is midday for me (I just say that to alarm you Jill! Don’t make me do anything after 9 pm!). I have more Israeli friends now, and all of you, and more.

It was a hard week. I miss the community I don’t have, the community of other people who care. I wish I had that in person. I didn’t go back to synagogue this weekend because I was wiped out tired after a busy work week and I didn’t want to go to the lefty synagogue that I feel out of step with, nor did I feel up to trying a new one that sounds like a much better fit. I just rested. Sometimes we need to rest.

It is almost Monday again and I have been preparing for the work week by making an almost-Israeli salad: tomatoes, cucumbers, fresh parsley, fresh lemon juice and sea salt. Oh and red and yellow bell peppers. I added some fresh feta from the farmers’ market to it to eat it. I may put in some Greek yogurt instead for the next serving. My old blogs were filled with recipes… maybe I should include more here. Anyone want the recipe for curried pumpkin chili?