Shmuley Boteach took out a full page advertisement. To condemn Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez. For trivializing the Holocaust.
I have written and discarded numerous pieces on Israel and its critics, Jews and their critics. Is Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib an anti-Semite? How about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar? Is Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez wrong to describe the American border camps as concentration camps?
I was born in 1941. Began Sunday School and Hebrew School in 1949 or shortly thereafter. We sang the national anthem of the new nation — Israel. Everyday. We learned about the war that preserved a Jewish country. We learned about kibbutzim and Israeli idealism. Our textbook was the History of the Jewish People.
I never lost the commitment to Israel, nor to Judaism. I have lost something, though. What? When? I can describe the when. When Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated by a right wing Israeli? When the obstacle to peace appeared to be Israel rather than the Palestinians? When the Israeli Prime Minister supported the American political party that was undermining my values and the worst, most retrograde President we have ever had.
Not that there were no other losses. That is part of growing up and growing old. When the Republicans turned their back on the American Civil Rights movement. When Lyndon Johnson led us into an unjust. When Richard Nixon extended that war, knowing that extending the killing to no good purpose.
What we have is dismaying. An Israeli government that has a greater resemblance to those who assassinated Rabin than to Rabin himself. An American President who resembles Mussolini more than he resembles Dwight Eisenhower.
We have Shmuley Boteach supporting both of these governments. Criticizing the critics.