I came here to cover the war and water issues, but I also came here to answer my own questions about whether Israel will survive. Even after so many visits, when you read about the threats Israel is facing, and the pressure it is under… you wonder.
I attended a gathering of survivors of the October 7 attacks; dropped in on a group of visiting legislators who are facing tough opposition to Israel from their young constituents; returned to the communities of Kibbutz Be’eri and Kibbutz Nir Oz; covered a Passover seder in honor of the remaining hostages in Gaza; met mourners at the Supernova memorial site; took in the broad vista at Kibbutz Har’el; and found joy again at an Idan Raichel Project concert.
I think the answer to my questions is that Israel’s survival remains a miracle, one that spreads love and light to the world, to those who wish to see.
It’s Purim time… time to get the sweet stuff baking.
This is for an apricot hamantaschen filling…
On Tuesday, I told a colleague that after several visits to UCLA's campus this week and last week, it was possible that a group of pro-Israel people would lose patience with the university and simply storm the "Palestine" encampment.
I joked that L.A. Jews weren't Ashkenazi intellectuals like me, but rather Persian Jews who fled the Iranian revolution. As one sign at the pro-Israel counter-protest Sunday at UCLA said: "My parents didn't leave Iran for this shit."
Insert compulsory condemnation of vigilantism here, but note that it was only the arrival of the vigilantes that triggered local and state law enforcement to do anything, after letting the thugs at the encampment bully people for days.
Local media are picking up the activists' mantra that police took too long to arrive at the scene of the battles overnight. No -- police were told to stand down from the moment the encampment arrived. UCLA coddled the thugs.
Jews lived through a version of 1930s Germany as the thugs, running security ...
I'm fresh from the front lines of protest -- the "encampment" at UCLA -- and I'll have a lot to say about what's going on on campuses around the nation, as a generation of radical activists is, generally, being allowed to destroy education.
Or was education destroyed already? Isn't that how we got to this point?
I'll also introduce an excerpt from my audiobook, "The Trumpian Virtues." It describes the unique characteristics that made Trump's first term successful. I will probably play a chapter every week for the next few months, if you like it.
Special guests:
- Carolyn Siegel - founder of "If You Heard What I Heard" Holocaust memoir
- Rahul Sur - pro-Israel Hindu activist, on the imposition of sharia law
Tune in: SiriusXM Patriot 125, 7-10 p.m. ET, 4-7 p.m. PT
Call in: 866-957-2874
