The Things We Get Used To
Whether it be moving house, changing jobs, or adjusting to a new family situation, getting used to new situations shows that we are resilient creatures. Our ability to adapt is often for our benefit, but getting used to things can also be to our detriment.
Let’s say we wake up one day with a dull pain somewhere. It’s uncomfortable, but we shake it off. It doesn’t feel that serious and its too much trouble to go to the doctor – because we are busy – so we buckle up and learn to live with it. Time passes and as it does, we adjust to the niggling and growing pain. Finally, when we can stand it no longer, we go to the doctor for tests. The news is grim. Neglect has caused that nagging pain to turn into a deadly tumour.
When it comes to Israel, the world has one of those deadly tumours. That cancerous growth – otherwise known as antisemitism – has been, at best ignored, met with indifference, and at worse has become not only acceptable, but has bulged and swelled so much that even the most indifferent cannot help but notice the growth. And where we are today, one has to wonder, if this untamed tumour, is a deadly blow to civilisation.
“The previous years of getting used to antisemitism, have now erupted in outbursts of savagery worldwide”
Ever since October 7th, the previous years of getting used to antisemitism, have now erupted in outbursts of savagery worldwide. Through the streets of Paris, London, New York and other civilised cities, thugs surge through the roads destroying property, harassing opponents and mocking the helpless police – all in the name of Palestine, their favourite fictitious perpetual victim and calling for the death of the Jewish people.
Antisemitism and Israel hatred didn’t start with this thuggery. Like a tumour, it started with the unnoticeable, was ignored, was got used to, and now things have spun out of control.
“Israel is the only country in the world that has an official government ministry that deals with “Hasbara””
To our detriment, Israel has also got used to things. For years we have put up with the abnormal and we have told ourselves it is normal. For example, Israel is the only country in the world that has an official government ministry that deals with “Hasbara.” This word comes from the word “to explain.” Explain what exactly, one may innocently ask. “Explain our right to defend ourselves” comes back the staggering reply.
It is mind-boggling that only seven decades after the Holocaust, Jewish people, in an official and non-official capacity, have to engage in “hasbara.” Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn, as well as mainstream media, are flooded with Israelis doing their best to “explain,” that just like any other ethnic minority or sovereign state, Israel and the Jewish people also have a right to exist.
“Hasbara” is so part of the fabric here, that no one even questions it anymore. This need to justify our existence has sunk so deep into the Israeli mindset that explaining to the world that we also have a right to life, is as normal as having wifi. Hasbara is part of life. It’s part and parcel of being Jewish, so we tell ourselves. Just as a world without wifi is unimaginable, so is the idea of living one day in Israel without Hasbara.
“Not once have hundreds of thousands of people marched through European streets frenziedly calling to liberate Russia from Ukrainian aggression, or calling for the genocide of the invaded”
Yet this idea of Israel, a sovereign country, explaining our right to exist, hypocritically – only pertains to Israel. When Russia brutally invaded the Ukraine, the West was rightly horrified. Not wanting to become involved in the conflict for fears of things escalating to another world war, the Western nations unreservedly sided with Ukraine by arming them and executing certain sanctions against Russia. Charities in Europe raised money for the war-torn Ukraine, and millions touchingly opened up their homes to Ukrainian refugees. The latest round in that war, has gone on for nearly 2 years, and support has never waned. In all that time, not once has Ukraine been made to feel that they have a limited time to respond to the Russian aggression before popular opinion turns against them. Not once have hundreds of thousands of people marched through European streets frenziedly calling to liberate Russia from Ukrainian aggression, or calling for the genocide of the invaded.
Yet with Israel, it is different. In Israel, following every single act of aggression by the Palestinians, and no matter how brutal, we have got used to what is known in Hebrew-speak, as a “window of opportunity.” This window is a time slot, where the world allows itself a slither of sympathy to make themselves feel moral and pure, before turning on Israel by reversing the roles of aggressor and victim.
“The murder of 1,200 Israelis and over 200 swept into captivity was a horror to the world which lasted a handful of days: at best”
Initially the world was horrified at the murder of 1,200 Israelis and over 200 swept into captivity. But it was a horror which lasted a handful of days: at best. While we were still collecting body parts, and human ashes from our corn fields, changing sides was in full gear. Outrage, hatred, calls for Jews to be pushed into the sea became the norm in the streets of western civilisation. Those calls have turned into violence. Jewish people in Europe and North America are verbally and physically attacked, and posters of the likes of those who have been raped and dragged off into Gaza are torn down in a fit of fake moral outrage. It is to Israel’s detriment that we got used to the idea throughout the years that no matter how brutal the attack, we only have a “window of opportunity” to respond. To acclimatise to the moral distortion helps to getting used to the fact that no matter what we do, we will always be hated. It is time to assert the, “We don’t care what the world thinks anymore. We will do as is best for us.”
Both Israel and the nations have got used to the slogan that “Zionism is racism,” first passed in the United Nations way back in 1975. It was unfathomable that the free world would think as much just 25 years after the Holocaust. That resolution opened the sewers, and ever since there have been more resolutions passed against Israel, more than any other nation on earth.
The UN was supposed to be a bastion of “fairness and equality,” yet has spewed out hatred against the Jewish people. The irony is that just a stone’s throw from the UN building in New York, is the statue of its inauguration inspired by a verse from the Jewish prophet Isaiah. Getting used to this hatred, has enabled antisemitism to drip down into other political platforms as well as an endless stream of “human rights” organisations and universities. Getting used to it has seen to it, that of late, these organisations have cast doubt on the rape of Jewish women, and if yes they are to be believed, then it is all and only about “context.”
Israel has got used to terminology which dictates the mindsets of the ignorant masses. Instead of being embraced as part of Biblical Israel, “Settlements” is a pejorative. They have been absorbed into consciousness as being extraneous from Israel. Those who live in them are not commended for efforts at coexistence, but rather viewed as nothing but violent thugs.
For the last 2000 years, Christianity in the West has also got used to things. Always responsible for the death of Jesus, for hundreds of years the Jewish people have been blamed and shunned and purged. Someone needs to take the place of God’s “former chosen faulty people” and hey presto! Here comes the church…..
The church got used to this replacement theology advocated by the Church Fathers. Marcion proposed that Jesus was a warm and snuggly god – unlike the vengeful nasty one of the Jews, and Israel, instead of being viewed as a physical entity and homeland of the Jewish people, is a spiritual state of being reserved for Christians, a feel-good factor. But getting used to that, didn’t stop there. Engaging in cultural identity theft, the Jewish historical Jesus morphed over the years into a blonde man who moves around the hills of Galilee in a white dress, looking distinctly Swedish.
In a world swarming with hatred against the Jews, that cosy idea of a fictitious Jesus could not last. Absurdly and chillingly, it has now been dished for an Arab Palestinian Jesus, donning a Kafiya and a Kalashnikov hell-bent on destroying the Jewish people, and all who align with them.
