Politics

It’s been a minute. These past 3 months were full of painful moments and awful headlines, but also some amazing, unbelievable experiences, some of which I’ve yet to fully process. I will elaborate on those in the future, hopefully, but for now, there’s something that’s been weighing on me for a while that I need to get out.

These past 11 months I’ve been writing political songs nonstop. Whereas before Oct 7th I’ve been writing them through a prism of hope, belief in the perseverance of justice and that people everywhere just want to lead a peaceful, fulfilling life – songs often took a comedic turn or had a light hearted optimistic undertone – my output since has fallen under one of two categories – very angry, or very somber. Or both.

I still need to refine these songs, finish writing some of them, and decide whether or not I want them out there, and in what way. For now, as most of my compositions do – they only comfort me.

The constant whiplash of feeling indignant and patriotic when confronted with online vitriol against the rights of Jewish people to have a country of their own in their ancestral homeland, only to be followed by anger and shame at the dishonest, manipulative, corrupted and atrocious ways the current Israeli government operates in all fronts – against it’s citizens, against democracy, against innocent Palestinians civilians (though I find actions against the militants in both Gaza & the West Bank, and the collateral damage that comes with it, justified), against a future for Israel and in many ways humanity itself, is doing a number on my mental well being. And boils my blood.

The way they are doing everything they can to destroy the bedrock of Israeli society is staggering, and the way a major fraction of the people eat it up is disheartening. By now, anyone who claims they can’t see Bibi is operating in complete dishonesty and only cares about maintaining power is either malicious, ignorant or enjoys the benefits supporting his regime sends his way. He has no intention to end this conflict in any way, certainly not to dismantle Hamas. He propped them up and he obviously will do everything in his power to make sure they keep existing as controlled opposition. The stagnation of the past 6 months can’t be interpreted in any other way.

If we want peace in this region, whether it’s by negotiation or by military victory, he and his corrupted, zealot government must go. I wish the media could finally ignore his vacuous, empty, self serving speeches.

I’m tired. Every thread i read, whether it’s full of blatant conspiratorial hate filled antisemitism, or messianic, fascist, jew-supremacist expansionist dogwhistles straight from the governments table, makes me less hopeful there’s a way out of this mess. They are serendipitous in leading us to the same defeat that ended in exile 2000 years ago, and they can’t even comprehend it. I’ve been fighting online with both anti Israeli hated filled bigots (some just severely misguided and misinformed) and with crazy, racist, Jewsupremacists bent on blood lust and seeking the decimation of every non-jew in Israel.

Like many around me, I feel helpless to affect the current situation in any way, and like many Jewish people across history, I’m considering contingencies and actions for if & when they succeed in destroying the foundation of Israel. I love this country, and I hope it prevails against these fascist demons, but if anything – history taught us to make plans, and identify danger when it comes for us. It’s crazy to me how Anti Zionist the current government of Israel is, and how obvious it is that as soon as shit will go sideways, and the economy will tank, they’ll just abandon it and go live a life of luxury in another country.

I hope I’m wrong, I hope truth, empathy and liberal justice wins, and soon.

I hope.