The Wisdom of Uncle Abe

My favorite uncle died years ago -- Abe. He was my Mom's sister Lorraine's husband, and like my Dad, a WWII veteran who came back from the "big one" and made a wonderful life for himself and his family.  He and Lorraine moved from the Bronx to Spring Valley, in Rockland County, and Abe and his brother started a prosperous business -- coin laundries all over the place, which they installed, serviced, and most importantly, collected the money.

Abe and Lorraine raised 4 kids, all classic Boomers. The oldest became a hippie and never left the life -- married to a former college professor who dropped out of regular life and started a farm. I think they still live in rural North Carolina.  The husband, Marty, was actually on FaceBook, and we became friends, but I realized something -- his posts were increasingly anti Israel -- to the point I unfriended him.

That made me recall the words of Uncle Abe, who told me that in his experience, some of the worst anti Semites are Jews. Lately, his words resound with me quite a lot.

Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem. I really can't care less about that. But coincidental to that, the Arabs celebrate Nakba, or their day of catastrophe, marking their stunning loss to Israel for control of a New Jersey-sized lump of land. And in Gaza, controlled by Hamas, they sent thousands to try to breach the fence and enter Israel -- including 25 known terrorists. The IDF, badasses they are, killed 50 of them. And so the FaceBook posts began, about awful Israel.

It's funny -- neighboring Lebanon, a Muslim county abutting Israel, has 500k Palestinians. They have no rights -- can't own land, go to college, etc...And yet we never hear about that -- only how the mean Israelis treat the Palis in Gaza -- land Israel gave back to them 9 years ago.

I almost don't mind when I read about non Jews criticizing Israel. They often come up with the line "I'm not anti Semitic, just anti Zionist." Bullshit. You can't be one without the other -- if you really care about international rights -- there are plenty of places to place your sympathy other than the Jewish state. But that's ok.

What puts my briefs in a twist is Jews who ought to know better who criticize the Jewish homeland.  Debate whether Bibi is a bad actor inside the family -- fine. But when they publicly add fuel to the anti semitic/anti Israel fire?

My in laws knew first hand what genocide is about -- they lost most of their families to the death camps -- just for being Jews.

But my mother in law's one lingering physical injury came from a fellow Jew -- a kapo, or collaborator, in a camp. This bastard smacked her so hard when she refused a double kitchen shift that she lost her hearing in one ear -- later to become fully deaf.

Years ago, she was his picture in a national Survivor picture -- he was living in Australia. She asked Wifey to call the Melbourne, or Sidney police about him. We placated her, but realized it would be pointless.

But that cut was the cruelest -- and has a lot to do with my detesting tribe members who are anti Israel.

My DNA testing, done at D1's request, showed I have more than the usual amount of Italian blood than the average American Ashkenazi. Maybe that informs my philosophy -- you don't speak ill of the "family."

There's plenty of hate from outside. We don't need to feed it from within.