The only relevant fact is that some Jews are suffering.
In the Tablet, by Ani Wilcenski and Isaac De Castro.
In the past two days, Jews in the diaspora have experienced the horrors of a 1940s-style pogrom through our phones. We have been frantically refreshing Twitter and Israeli news, worrying that the next victim will be our sister or friend or grandmother or nephew—because it could be. We all know someone in Israel. …
War crimes and murdered toddlers are not a “complex political situation” with “arguments on both sides.” You can support Palestinian statehood—in fact, you can have any opinion you want about the regional politics of the Middle East—and still believe that jihadist terrorists abducting 85-year-old Holocaust survivors should be condemned. Conflating those two things only gives credence to the idea that violence against Jews is political; violence against anyone else is unquestionably evil. Insisting on that distinction, in the public arena where narratives are created, is the only way to break the cycle of demonization and intimidation-into-silence. …
In case those population statistics weren’t clear, we are a tiny minority waging an uphill battle, and we’ve been fighting it for centuries. Ask your Jewish friends how they’ve felt over the past few days, and we bet they’ll tell you that they feel isolated, hopeless, and alone. And you should understand that you are part of why they feel this way. We notice when you reach out in private but go radio silent when, and where, you need to put your own skin in the game, leaving us to defend our basic humanity alone.
