Berl Falbaum
After “retiring,” I am back as a Jew filled with a very heavy heart, anxiety, sadness, anger, frustration, depression and — fear.
Never did I believe I would write a column like this, or have the need to do so in 65 years at the keyboard. I’ll admit it is more personal than political columns should be, but I hope my editors will understand.
A few years into the Trump era, I asked how a democracy that valued decency, honesty, integrity, freedom, equal rights, etc., came to endorse a man so corrupt, so perverted, and his stoking of antisemitism.
The question, at the time, was, by implication, directed primarily at Republicans, but now I asked the question again, but it is much more serious because it includes Democrats, particularly as it pertains to the explosion of Jew-hatred and anti-Israel animus.
Consider: Dana Nessel, who holds the third highest public office in Michigan as attorney general, decided she would not attend her own party’s convention because, as a Jew, she did not feel safe.
It should send shivers down everyone’s spine. If it doesn’t, it should.
Consider: The Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, received $115,000 in campaign contributions from 41 donors linked to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been designated a terrorist organization — like ISIS, al-Queda and Hamas — by the United Arab Emirates — yes, by the UAE.
Consider: El-Sayed refuses to acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist and campaigns with a man, Hasan Piker, who says that Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel and he would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time. When a man with links to Hezbollah rammed his car into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in March, El-Sayed justified the attack, stating, “Hurt people do hurt people.”
Like others in the party, he accuses Israel of committing genocide, a blood libel, and describes it as a rogue nation that practices apartheid.
Let’s respond and examine this charge briefly with the following:
When Israel became an independent nation in 1948, the Arab population stood at 150,000. It is now roughly 2 million, about 21 percent of the country’s population. The Arabs have had political parties and representation in the Knesset (Parliament) from day-one and a Muslim sits on Israel’s Supreme Court. (This is not to suggest that some discriminatory practices, such as settler violence, must not be stopped).
In 1948, Jews totaled 1 million in Arab countries. Today, there are about 10,000. The rest were exiled or left because of discrimination and persecution. Most of their assets were confiscated by the state.
This fact has been ignored by all, including, sadly, the entire mainstream media. Not one word — and I mean one word.
Along with goosebumps come shivers.
The major point is that El-Sayed is not an aberration in liberal politics. In New York, we have Zohran Mamdani, who won the election for mayor last November and who may have provided El-Sayed the winning anti-Jewish/Israel script.
Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, has expressed anti-Jewish and anti-Israel beliefs and his father, Mahood, a former Columbia University professor, reportedly sits on a board that glorifies suicide bombers.
“We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier,” Mahood Mamdani said in a book he wrote.
He also is an advisor to Gaza Tribunal that supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Not to be overlooked, several so-called progressives who share El-Sayed’s hostility toward Jews and Israel, won races in districts around the country.
I want to stress these kinds of movements are evolutionary. They start slowly but quickly gain traction.
At about 2:30 a.m. after Trump’s victory in 2016, I wrote that this country has a cancer and I hoped it would not metastasize. Well, it has, especially as it pertains to antisemitism.
For instance, in 2006, President Carter wrote a book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” He was castigated by most for his charge, but now it and many other anti-Jewish/Israel accusations are embraced and touted by Democrats.
El-Sayed lost a race for governor in the 2018 Democratic primary.
In California, Scott Wiener, a Democrat running in the primary contest earlier this year to fill former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s seat, was booed during a debate when he refused to accuse Israel of genocide. Wiener, who is Jewish, quickly changed his mind and has won a place on the ballot for the November general election.
If U.S. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who might be considered a tutor for Mamdani, El-Sayed, and the other progressives, were running for president in 2028, he might very well be much more competitive in a presidential campaign than he was in 2016 and 2020. (He won’t run; he will be 89 in 2028).
On October 23, 2023, just 16 days after October 7, I wrote a column in these pages in which the first two words were: “Hamas won.” After just 16 days I saw all too clearly how the world “forgot” about the bloodiest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Who remembers Bondi Beach? (Look it up.)
Hamas’ political/propaganda victory is proving to be more valuable than a military one.
The political antisemitic cancer has spread and spread quickly. And no one, to continue the metaphor, in the public arena is ready to treat it with the necessary political chemotherapy.
So, I worry. I worry about the Jewish people. On a personal level, I worry about my grandchildren and the young children and grandchildren of Jews.
Some suggest I am crying wolf. Maybe. The trouble is that it all sounds so, so familiar. I have this uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. We have been through this before — and not so long ago when cries of wolf were ignored.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of the recently published book, “The Media’s Defamation of Israel: A Critique of the Israel-Hamas War News Coverage.”
Never did I believe I would write a column like this, or have the need to do so in 65 years at the keyboard. I’ll admit it is more personal than political columns should be, but I hope my editors will understand.
A few years into the Trump era, I asked how a democracy that valued decency, honesty, integrity, freedom, equal rights, etc., came to endorse a man so corrupt, so perverted, and his stoking of antisemitism.
The question, at the time, was, by implication, directed primarily at Republicans, but now I asked the question again, but it is much more serious because it includes Democrats, particularly as it pertains to the explosion of Jew-hatred and anti-Israel animus.
Consider: Dana Nessel, who holds the third highest public office in Michigan as attorney general, decided she would not attend her own party’s convention because, as a Jew, she did not feel safe.
It should send shivers down everyone’s spine. If it doesn’t, it should.
Consider: The Democratic Party candidate for U.S. Senate, Abdul El-Sayed, received $115,000 in campaign contributions from 41 donors linked to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has been designated a terrorist organization — like ISIS, al-Queda and Hamas — by the United Arab Emirates — yes, by the UAE.
Consider: El-Sayed refuses to acknowledge that Israel has a right to exist and campaigns with a man, Hasan Piker, who says that Hamas is a thousand times better than Israel and he would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time. When a man with links to Hezbollah rammed his car into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield in March, El-Sayed justified the attack, stating, “Hurt people do hurt people.”
Like others in the party, he accuses Israel of committing genocide, a blood libel, and describes it as a rogue nation that practices apartheid.
Let’s respond and examine this charge briefly with the following:
When Israel became an independent nation in 1948, the Arab population stood at 150,000. It is now roughly 2 million, about 21 percent of the country’s population. The Arabs have had political parties and representation in the Knesset (Parliament) from day-one and a Muslim sits on Israel’s Supreme Court. (This is not to suggest that some discriminatory practices, such as settler violence, must not be stopped).
In 1948, Jews totaled 1 million in Arab countries. Today, there are about 10,000. The rest were exiled or left because of discrimination and persecution. Most of their assets were confiscated by the state.
This fact has been ignored by all, including, sadly, the entire mainstream media. Not one word — and I mean one word.
Along with goosebumps come shivers.
The major point is that El-Sayed is not an aberration in liberal politics. In New York, we have Zohran Mamdani, who won the election for mayor last November and who may have provided El-Sayed the winning anti-Jewish/Israel script.
Mamdani’s wife, Rama Duwaji, has expressed anti-Jewish and anti-Israel beliefs and his father, Mahood, a former Columbia University professor, reportedly sits on a board that glorifies suicide bombers.
“We need to recognize the suicide bomber, first and foremost, as a category of soldier,” Mahood Mamdani said in a book he wrote.
He also is an advisor to Gaza Tribunal that supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel.
Not to be overlooked, several so-called progressives who share El-Sayed’s hostility toward Jews and Israel, won races in districts around the country.
I want to stress these kinds of movements are evolutionary. They start slowly but quickly gain traction.
At about 2:30 a.m. after Trump’s victory in 2016, I wrote that this country has a cancer and I hoped it would not metastasize. Well, it has, especially as it pertains to antisemitism.
For instance, in 2006, President Carter wrote a book, “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” He was castigated by most for his charge, but now it and many other anti-Jewish/Israel accusations are embraced and touted by Democrats.
El-Sayed lost a race for governor in the 2018 Democratic primary.
In California, Scott Wiener, a Democrat running in the primary contest earlier this year to fill former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s seat, was booed during a debate when he refused to accuse Israel of genocide. Wiener, who is Jewish, quickly changed his mind and has won a place on the ballot for the November general election.
If U.S. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who might be considered a tutor for Mamdani, El-Sayed, and the other progressives, were running for president in 2028, he might very well be much more competitive in a presidential campaign than he was in 2016 and 2020. (He won’t run; he will be 89 in 2028).
On October 23, 2023, just 16 days after October 7, I wrote a column in these pages in which the first two words were: “Hamas won.” After just 16 days I saw all too clearly how the world “forgot” about the bloodiest slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust. Who remembers Bondi Beach? (Look it up.)
Hamas’ political/propaganda victory is proving to be more valuable than a military one.
The political antisemitic cancer has spread and spread quickly. And no one, to continue the metaphor, in the public arena is ready to treat it with the necessary political chemotherapy.
So, I worry. I worry about the Jewish people. On a personal level, I worry about my grandchildren and the young children and grandchildren of Jews.
Some suggest I am crying wolf. Maybe. The trouble is that it all sounds so, so familiar. I have this uncomfortable feeling of déjà vu. We have been through this before — and not so long ago when cries of wolf were ignored.
—————
Berl Falbaum is a veteran journalist and author of the recently published book, “The Media’s Defamation of Israel: A Critique of the Israel-Hamas War News Coverage.”
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