I taught my children to be proud of their Jewish heritage. When someone sneers with disgust at them for being Jewish, I taught my children to be proud to receive such treatment; to never feel ashamed of who you are and where you come from.
I am not Jewish but my heart was broken by the actions of the barbaric terrorists. I became enraged when I saw the cowards chant for the eradication of Israel. I will never forget. I am glad you are so brave. You are right. The majority of this country is on the good side. Not the evil that is espoused by the University cowards.
I have for years been saying that this generation of Jews will not be walking meekly into cattle cars, confused, cowered, and mumbling to ourselves. I am outraged by it all and will never back down from this insanity, this 7th century death cult. What Oct. 7 has done is created a clarity. It has seemingly given permission to the worst instincts that some- many- have. To no one's surprise, the marriage of Marxism and antisemitism is an easy one to see coming. And I have seen the coming wave of it dripping out of our campuses all across this nation for years. Same thing with the UN, the EU leadership. And of course, it's no surprise to me to see the Democratic Party in the US wondering what to do with half of its membership, not to mention all of its younger voters.
But...I do believe that the very existence of Israel, the years of battle, struggle, and standing strong and brave, has shown a way for this generation of Jews to not cower. To stand up to the hate. To remind us that we have a long history of having to fight our way out of this. Frankly- people who hit and then run to hide behind babies (Hamas) are not truly fierce. They are enthusiastically antisemitic, but they are, in the end, cowards. Brutal, mean, hateful, but cowards all the same. We all know this.
In the end, there is nothing to do but stand up to this. Every one of us- Jew and non-Jew alike. But for us Jews...it's a must. As we have learned to do throughout our history, there are times to fight. This is such a time. In every possible way.
Batya, that woman who shouted at you in the airport? I'm not sure I would have just kept walking away. I would have been in her face. Not to win the day, but to let her and all of them know that we are not cowering any longer. Not today. Not this generation.
A great and invigorating note that reminds us CampusLand is not mainstream America and the nutjobs praising Hamas are out on left field.
"The assaults on Jewish students at Harvard and UMass are crimes and should be prosecuted as such." This seems unlikely as university presidents are cowed beyond recognition: at MIT, Hamas supporters physically prevented Jewish students from attending classes in one building. The MIT administration suspended them only from campus activities but not from the university itself; otherwise their student visas would have been revoked.
I assume the MIT administration would react in exactly the same way if a student mob was preventing Black students from going to class.
I think Ungar Sargon is right that there are millions of people sickened by these large hate filled demonstrations..people who never or rarely encounter Jews...but go to church each Sunday.....the people in the "fly overs" so in the heart of hate filled Manhattan I was gladdened to have my Argentine waitress in a Chelsea diner express solidarity with Jews and with Israel....she is Christian.
This. Ms. Ungar-Sargon, I read your book ("Bad News") when it first came out (after I saw you on Bill Maher) and I recommended it to everyone. The woke can find racism in a sunset. They get hysterical over every slight (though I believe most of this is theatrics). If we (Jews) start to behave this way, we validate their ideology, that victimhood is what makes one special. I am openly, proudly Jewish and don't see anti-semitism everywhere I go (in fact, I am 46 and have never encountered a single instance of it in my lifetime.) That said, I am bracing myself for my first swastika, or obnoxious remark made in the supermarket. At which point, I'll document it, report it, and be on my way. It won't send me to bed for days, traumatized.
Never trust people who make signs and scream slogans they don’t really understand. America is with Israel and always will be. Beware of the pampered, narcissistic, professors who bravely hide behind their tenure !!!
The message is refreshingly honest, don't repeat the woke culture you criticize. However this read as, "Jews are victims but let's not subscribe to victimhood." No. Jews are not victims, that ended with Hitler. Antisemitism exists as does racism, elitism and all sorts of isms and they will continue to exist because some humans just use hate as their tool to mourn their own misfortune.
The Israel Palestinian issue is at best a battle of haves and have-nots that Iran is leveraging
to create geopolitical instability. Hamas is an Iranian puppet, Israel knows this yet feel justified bombing innocent civilians. They're committing mass murder under a guise, utterly shameful, they're no better than Hamas.
Israel should seriously consider if it's worth it to look the other way while, I hope, a small minority continues to expand into the Palestinian territories. Ignoring atrocities against Palestinian civilians will not erase the reality. They can live as good neighbors only if both sides are completely honest about their own actions first.
" Israel knows this yet feel justified bombing innocent civilians."
Nonsense, the Geneva Convention (Third Convention, Article III I believe) only forbids bombing civilian areas that have no military value. Once Hamas places weapons in those areas there are no longer innocent civilians to bomb, only human shields for which only Hamas is responsible. Although not required, Israel has already sent millions of text messages to Gazans warning them of impending bombings, in order to reduce casualties. The USAF never did this in Iraq nor Afghanistan and thus caused far more civilian deaths.
The Allied Strategic Bombing Campaign against Nazi Germany, which resulted in close to 1M civilian deaths, is a better guideline.
If any of my loved ones had voted in the Nazis (in the 1932 election that brought Hitler to power) or voted for Hamas (2006 election), then they would no longer be my loved ones so yes, I would answer exactly the same way.
Hamas won the overwhelming majority of the votes in Gaza in 2006. Those Hamas voters are today posing as "innocent civilians". Reap what you sow.
There are consequences to choices and I agree with your sentiment of reap what you sow, we definitely need some accountability in our country and not rescue people for their poor choices, the student loan forgiveness being the latest. Hamas was voted in 2006, bad decision, agreed. But in 2007 Hamas took over in a military coup so the local population has had no choice for the last 16 years.
After all the pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses gloating about the Israelis murdered on Oct 7, those students can pay every last penny of their student loans themselves.
Thank God the taxpayers and the Supreme Court agree on that!
As you correctly point out, "There are consequences to choices".
Thank you Batya for this article. Ever since October 7, I have felt such a strong and blanketing feeling of Jewish Pride.
There's just something deeply comforting about knowing, without a doubt, that you're standing firm on the right side of history, regardless of creed or nationality.
This is an amazingly powerful piece. I am not Jewish but I stand with the Jewish people. I am horrified by what I have seen on college campuses and completely agree that the progressives have shown their true colors. Stay strong! America is with you!!
I don't answer to any god, but I absolutely agree with you. Hamas runs Gaza like the Hells Angels run the drug trade and strip joints. I am not at all clear on how people who have been in Judea for 3000+ years are "colonizers". Oh yeah, stone cold ignorance on the part of their accusers.
I taught my children to be proud of their Jewish heritage. When someone sneers with disgust at them for being Jewish, I taught my children to be proud to receive such treatment; to never feel ashamed of who you are and where you come from.
i am forever a jew and forever proud. i will never be ashamed of who i am, never.
I am not Jewish but my heart was broken by the actions of the barbaric terrorists. I became enraged when I saw the cowards chant for the eradication of Israel. I will never forget. I am glad you are so brave. You are right. The majority of this country is on the good side. Not the evil that is espoused by the University cowards.
I have for years been saying that this generation of Jews will not be walking meekly into cattle cars, confused, cowered, and mumbling to ourselves. I am outraged by it all and will never back down from this insanity, this 7th century death cult. What Oct. 7 has done is created a clarity. It has seemingly given permission to the worst instincts that some- many- have. To no one's surprise, the marriage of Marxism and antisemitism is an easy one to see coming. And I have seen the coming wave of it dripping out of our campuses all across this nation for years. Same thing with the UN, the EU leadership. And of course, it's no surprise to me to see the Democratic Party in the US wondering what to do with half of its membership, not to mention all of its younger voters.
But...I do believe that the very existence of Israel, the years of battle, struggle, and standing strong and brave, has shown a way for this generation of Jews to not cower. To stand up to the hate. To remind us that we have a long history of having to fight our way out of this. Frankly- people who hit and then run to hide behind babies (Hamas) are not truly fierce. They are enthusiastically antisemitic, but they are, in the end, cowards. Brutal, mean, hateful, but cowards all the same. We all know this.
In the end, there is nothing to do but stand up to this. Every one of us- Jew and non-Jew alike. But for us Jews...it's a must. As we have learned to do throughout our history, there are times to fight. This is such a time. In every possible way.
Batya, that woman who shouted at you in the airport? I'm not sure I would have just kept walking away. I would have been in her face. Not to win the day, but to let her and all of them know that we are not cowering any longer. Not today. Not this generation.
A great and invigorating note that reminds us CampusLand is not mainstream America and the nutjobs praising Hamas are out on left field.
"The assaults on Jewish students at Harvard and UMass are crimes and should be prosecuted as such." This seems unlikely as university presidents are cowed beyond recognition: at MIT, Hamas supporters physically prevented Jewish students from attending classes in one building. The MIT administration suspended them only from campus activities but not from the university itself; otherwise their student visas would have been revoked.
I assume the MIT administration would react in exactly the same way if a student mob was preventing Black students from going to class.
I think Ungar Sargon is right that there are millions of people sickened by these large hate filled demonstrations..people who never or rarely encounter Jews...but go to church each Sunday.....the people in the "fly overs" so in the heart of hate filled Manhattan I was gladdened to have my Argentine waitress in a Chelsea diner express solidarity with Jews and with Israel....she is Christian.
This. Ms. Ungar-Sargon, I read your book ("Bad News") when it first came out (after I saw you on Bill Maher) and I recommended it to everyone. The woke can find racism in a sunset. They get hysterical over every slight (though I believe most of this is theatrics). If we (Jews) start to behave this way, we validate their ideology, that victimhood is what makes one special. I am openly, proudly Jewish and don't see anti-semitism everywhere I go (in fact, I am 46 and have never encountered a single instance of it in my lifetime.) That said, I am bracing myself for my first swastika, or obnoxious remark made in the supermarket. At which point, I'll document it, report it, and be on my way. It won't send me to bed for days, traumatized.
Never trust people who make signs and scream slogans they don’t really understand. America is with Israel and always will be. Beware of the pampered, narcissistic, professors who bravely hide behind their tenure !!!
The message is refreshingly honest, don't repeat the woke culture you criticize. However this read as, "Jews are victims but let's not subscribe to victimhood." No. Jews are not victims, that ended with Hitler. Antisemitism exists as does racism, elitism and all sorts of isms and they will continue to exist because some humans just use hate as their tool to mourn their own misfortune.
The Israel Palestinian issue is at best a battle of haves and have-nots that Iran is leveraging
to create geopolitical instability. Hamas is an Iranian puppet, Israel knows this yet feel justified bombing innocent civilians. They're committing mass murder under a guise, utterly shameful, they're no better than Hamas.
Israel should seriously consider if it's worth it to look the other way while, I hope, a small minority continues to expand into the Palestinian territories. Ignoring atrocities against Palestinian civilians will not erase the reality. They can live as good neighbors only if both sides are completely honest about their own actions first.
" Israel knows this yet feel justified bombing innocent civilians."
Nonsense, the Geneva Convention (Third Convention, Article III I believe) only forbids bombing civilian areas that have no military value. Once Hamas places weapons in those areas there are no longer innocent civilians to bomb, only human shields for which only Hamas is responsible. Although not required, Israel has already sent millions of text messages to Gazans warning them of impending bombings, in order to reduce casualties. The USAF never did this in Iraq nor Afghanistan and thus caused far more civilian deaths.
The Allied Strategic Bombing Campaign against Nazi Germany, which resulted in close to 1M civilian deaths, is a better guideline.
Would you answer the same way if your loved ones lived in one of those homes bombed?
If any of my loved ones had voted in the Nazis (in the 1932 election that brought Hitler to power) or voted for Hamas (2006 election), then they would no longer be my loved ones so yes, I would answer exactly the same way.
Hamas won the overwhelming majority of the votes in Gaza in 2006. Those Hamas voters are today posing as "innocent civilians". Reap what you sow.
There are consequences to choices and I agree with your sentiment of reap what you sow, we definitely need some accountability in our country and not rescue people for their poor choices, the student loan forgiveness being the latest. Hamas was voted in 2006, bad decision, agreed. But in 2007 Hamas took over in a military coup so the local population has had no choice for the last 16 years.
"student loan forgiveness"
After all the pro-Hamas demonstrations on campuses gloating about the Israelis murdered on Oct 7, those students can pay every last penny of their student loans themselves.
Thank God the taxpayers and the Supreme Court agree on that!
As you correctly point out, "There are consequences to choices".
Thank you Batya for this article. Ever since October 7, I have felt such a strong and blanketing feeling of Jewish Pride.
There's just something deeply comforting about knowing, without a doubt, that you're standing firm on the right side of history, regardless of creed or nationality.
Loved Batya Ungar-Sargon on Glenn Greenwald's System Update. She knocked it out of the park!
This is an amazingly powerful piece. I am not Jewish but I stand with the Jewish people. I am horrified by what I have seen on college campuses and completely agree that the progressives have shown their true colors. Stay strong! America is with you!!
Beautifully put.
I just read an opinion posted today by Doris Wise on the Blaze that is worth considering. I hesitate to post a link but the piece is easy to find.
I don't answer to any god, but I absolutely agree with you. Hamas runs Gaza like the Hells Angels run the drug trade and strip joints. I am not at all clear on how people who have been in Judea for 3000+ years are "colonizers". Oh yeah, stone cold ignorance on the part of their accusers.
Thank you - Batya - for your courage and your goodness. Your words strengthen and inspire. You give me hope for a better future.