I'm on a flight to Israel, on El Al. It's full. And mostly Israeli -- families returning home from trips abroad, soldiers going to fight.
Two weeks ago today, it was the sixth day of the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, a day known as Hashanah Rabbah. I noted that it had been one of the best Sukkot holidays I could remember. We had hosted several dinner parties in our new backyard sukkah -- a kind of hut -- and I spent the day balancing work and fun, even going surfing.
The Middle East was calm, and people were talking about peace. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had just returned in triumph, two weeks before, from a successful visit to the U.S., where he talked up his country with Elon Musk and told the UN about the growing momentum toward peace with Saudi Arabia, among others.
That was Friday, October 6. I even remember looking out over the Pacific and thinking about the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, which Jews had observed the week before, according to the Hebrew calendar. I thought about the diminishing power of dates.
I was wrong. We were all wrong. And just like in 2000 -- when the Palestinians launched a bloody second "intifada," ripping up the dreams of Shimon Peres and others for a "new Middle East" -- we were all plunged back into darkness. For how long this time?
Netanyahu, who guided his nation through so much, and who came out of a tumultuous fight over judicial reform with polls that show Israelis would throw him out today, if there were an election -- is this to be his legacy? This atrocity, on his watch, after so long?
Yossi Klein Halevi remarked that on Oct. 7, Israel became the most dangerous country in the world for Jews, a reversal of its mission. That is a depressing thought, and -- at the risk of gratifying the haters who like it when Jews have doubts about Israel -- we have to ask whether there is a point to it all. True, there was no alternative...
What happens to Israel if the dream of "Free Palestine" comes about? What will happen to the cities, the fields, the streets? Gaza is their fate. (At best, "free" South Africa, which is becoming Gaza.) What happens to the people? We know that, now: Kibbutz Be'eri.
No, there is no alternative. But more than that: I love Israel. There is so much to love. The fusion of the spiritual and the sensual... the woman next to me, for example, appears completely secular, wearing a tank top and yoga pants for the flight, and yet she broke out a book of Psalms and began reciting them, likely praying for a safe return.
I'm very happy to be on this flight. I'm going to tell the stories, to see for myself... and to show solidarity with the people of Israel. I'm going to do what I can to help this country, and through it, America...
But I would rather none of this had ever happened. A nightmare.
The story of Noah is familiar; the details, less so.
Noah is often seen as an ambivalent figure. He was righteous -- but only for his generation. What was his deficiency?
One answer suggests itself: knowing that the world was about to be flooded, he built an Ark for the animals and for his own family -- but did not try to save anyone else or to convince them to repent and change their ways (the prophet Jonah, later, would share that reluctance).
Abraham, later, would set himself apart by arguing with God -- with the Lord Himself! -- against the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, saying that they should be saved if there were enough righteous people to be found (there were not).
Still, Noah was good enough -- and sometimes, that really is sufficient to save the world. We don't need heroes every time -- just ordinary decency.
Hi all -- as I noted last month, I'm going to be closing down my Locals page, at least for tips and subscriptions -- I may keep the page up and the posts as well, but I'm no longer going to be accepting any kind of payment.
Look for cancelation in the very near future. Thank you for your support!
An interesting weekend -- one of the last of Daylight Savings Time -- in which there is much to celebrate, much to contemplate, and a bit to worry about.
The Gaza peace deal is shaky, but holding, after the living hostages returned; the shutdown is still going on, with no end in sight; the China trade war is heating up; and the confrontation with Venezuela continues to escalate.
The "No Kings" protest was a dud, despite the media's attempt to inflate it. What I find fascinating is that the Democrats have basically stolen the rhetoric and the imagery of the Tea Party protests, circa 2009. They claim they are defending the Constitution -- just like the Tea Party did.
On the one hand, this is good. How wonderful to have a political system in which both sides, bitterly opposed though they are, articulate differences through the Constitution -- and not, as in so many other countries, outside it.
On the other, this is sheer hypocrisy for the Democrats. Not only did they malign the Tea Party as ...
