Israel and Gaza

It seems wrong not to express some words about the war in Israel and Gaza. I often don’t respond quickly. In fact, I often go numb when horrifying things happen and have to gather information, read a lot, and get the facts. Here we are almost two weeks later and I feel empty of words. I don’t consider myself a cynical person, but I’m now of the opinion that hatred and fear are universal feelings that are much stronger than “World Peace” no matter how many beauty contestants pray for it. It is also wrong to completely abandon thoughts on Ukraine. The media only writes about the ugly stuff never the good stuff. I get an e-mail from the Guardian every Sunday with Good News. It is a short e-mail. We are taught to believe that only hatred, war, shootings, and bad deeds are newsworthy. People have expressed shock and outrage that Hamas, a known Terrorist organization, has done what they do best—wreak terror, spread fear, and kill in the name of religion.

My cousin’s eldest daughter sent me a Twitter/X on Tuesday of a nineteen-year-old girl, living on a kibbutz near the Red Sea, expressing rage (watch it)—not just at Hamas but at Netanyahu. She says everyone saw this coming. They’ve been asking, begging for help and protection for years. She calls him Bibi. I haven’t heard him called that in years. It sounds so intimate.

So while the world expresses shock and outrage at terrorists doing what terrorists do, Israelis are going to funeral after funeral, yelling at the neglect of this corrupt politician who somehow manages to keep getting back in office. There are innocent Palestinians trapped in Gaza knowing an Israeli ground force will soon be on them while Bibi yells “Revenge.” Revenge for something he might well have prevented.

I blame him for the murder of a teacher here in France by an Islamic yelling “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic during the attack. The Louvre was shut down on Saturday and Versailles on Sunday. Both were due to bomb threats. Macron has deployed 7,000 military soldiers to protect us. Six French airports were shut down earlier this week. My metro line received a bomb scare and for forty-eight hours, the trains moved very slowly and stopped three or four minutes in each station. In my hometown, Oakland, and the immediate surroundings in the Bay Area, fifty schools received bomb threats last Monday. Much like Trump, Bibi has unleashed the dogs from hell.

This is all much more complicated than my simple retelling of what most of us know. But the big picture stays the same. If we elect autocrats to rule because we’re afraid of ‘someone else’ and want that ‘leader’ to take care of it, we’re going to get the Trump rhetoric—pushing fear and hatred, calling innocent people “enemies of the people” if they have a differing opinion. All leaders, according to this philosophy, must lay down the law, construct walls both physical and metaphorical, making sure that the small people know who is right and who is wrong.

The media loves it and eats it up. Peaceful times are not newsworthy. When I was writing my book: Saving Sara, I wrote about the hell of food addiction and the wonder and excitement of recovery in my draft. My editor told me “Stop your story when you first get into recovery. No one is interested in your recovery. They only want to read about the down and dirty times.” I was shocked. I shouldn’t have been. I went back and watched movies about alcoholics and alcoholism. She was right. They all end the moment the alcoholic stops drinking. Who wants to read or hear about good things?

When I was in college, a group of cinephiles brought International films (mostly French, Italian, and Swedish) once a week for students to watch. I loved going to them. Friends would say “I don’t understand why you like them. They’re so slow, nothing happens.” Nothing happens, just a little slice of life written by a brilliant filmmaker, usually an affirmation of life, these little everyday moments that bring us love and show us how to get through conflicts. I only mention this because little slices of life that are uplifting just aren’t newsworthy - unless they are films and I’m willing to bet that less that 5% of Americans like Int’l Films.

Monday, President Biden flew to the Middle East. His intention was 1—to caution against Revenge and 2—to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. According to a wonderful synopsis by Heather Cox Richardson which you can read here, President Biden has a huge following in Israel. They love him. He gave a stirring speech, and Netanyahu, who most often wants to align himself with Trump, made sure he was in every photo opportunity with Biden.

I also read today and found it heartbreaking, that for the first time in this White House, people of the opinion such as mine have been shut down. Aides and staff are divided but cannot discuss it. So where does this lead us? I don’t know. I want the world to surprise me. I don’t think it will happen. But I’ve joined all of you in saying out loud how angry I am—at Netanyahu, at terrorists in general, at two wars being fought at the same time. I’m quite sure that Putin who is visiting his “dear friend, Xi, in China, is like a pig rolling in shit.

A bientôt,

Sara