Skylar Ribotsky & Corey Ribotsky
Over the course of the several months, we here at The Ribotsky Institute have watched along and taken in what is going on in Israel, Gaza and now around the world. You see, the Israel/Palestine conflict is incredibly complicated, and unlike the celebrities posting on their Instagram stories we are not going to pretend to act like experts on the issue.
Though what we do know is that Israel has made many efforts with the Palestinian people in an attempt for peace. They have pulled their citizens out of their homes and most everything they offered the Palestinian people of Gaza was rejected. For one reason, the people of Gaza, or rather Hamas, do not want to live next to Israel, the Jewish homeland.
The popular media can focus on the eviction of citizens in the West Bank all they like but the situation is far more complicated then that. To have any kind of meaningful understanding of the situation, one must take into account who we are dealing with here, as we are sure you know Hamas, is a terrorist organization. One that clearly and openly states that their end goal is to get rid of all Jews. Period.
One of the leaders of Hamas publicly told his people to go out and buy knives and cut off the heads of Jewish people. Listen, we support the freedom and safety of the Palestinian people in Gaza, what we don’t support a terrorist organization such as, Hamas, who is oppressing the Palestinian people and putting their lives in direct danger. That is the real humanitarian crisis here and to support a terrorist organization is beyond our understanding. The fact that people are turning a blind eye to the fact that it is widely known that the leaders of Hamas use their people, as targets, putting them in the line of fire on purpose is a tragedy.
The rising increase of antisemitic incidences and occurrences has taken a sharp turn in our world. When celebrities who have more followers than the entire Jewish population are spewing things on their social media accounts that have led to personal attacks on people and property, we have to question the desire of the population to go backwards in time. In London, a group of pro-Palestinian protestors chanted, “kill all the Jews, rape their daughters.” In Italy, a group of people got together in the street and hailed Hitler. (if you are not scared yet you should be) In Los Angeles, a group of pro-Palestinian supporters jumped out of a car, approached a group of people eating outside of a Japanese restaurant and asked if anyone there was Jewish. When two men said that they were… they were attacked.
In New York City, pro-Palestinian supporters attacked Jewish men outside of a bagel store as well as at a pro-Israel rally in Times Square, where a pro-Palestinian group came and created havoc, setting off fireworks, and attacking multiple people. One man, who was on his way to the rally, wearing a yamaka was attacked and beaten with one man’s crutches that he was holding. Now in Boston a Rabbi has been stabbed near a Jewish School. To the rest of the world that is the equivalent of a Priest, or a Shaman being stabbed. (Anyone understanding yet?)
Bella Hadid along with Instagram accounts such as “diet_prada” posted an infographic that said that Israel is not really the Jewish homeland, and that we are just the occupants of the land. This infographic also said that Israel was ethnically cleansing the Palestinian people.
The man with the crutches who beat the Jewish man on the streets of New York City, just for being Jewish, was arrested and upon his arrest people realized that he was in one of the pictures that Bella Hadid posted at the pro-Palestinian rally she attended. He was holding the very same crutches that he used to beat a Jewish man in the post in which Hadid stated, “…to be around this many beautiful, smart, respectful, loving, kind, and generous Palestinians all in one place.” Has no one told her that the array of photos she posted to her account included a man who is the complete opposite of everything she said that group stood for in her caption?
When congress members like AOC and many others take to their social media accounts to speak out in support for the Palestinian people and at the same time speak out spewing hate when it comes to Israel; further fuel the flames of the antisemitism we see transpiring right before our very eyes. In the past AOC said she was not tackling the issue of antisemitism because she had “bigger” issues in her “own backyard.” Someone tell AOC that the Jewish people in her “backyard,” her Jewish constituents are at best, scared to leave their homes because they are Jewish and at worst, are being beaten and attacked because they are Jewish.
The fact that Jewish people in this country and around the world are scared to be who they are, openly Jewish, in 2021 is a travesty of monumental proportion. When all of a sudden in the past several years it is ok to be openly, whatever your sexual orientation is from a now list of 25 different kinds of sexuality. But being Jewish, that seems to be a problem for others.
Since every “social justice warrior” on social media loves a Holocaust comparison, Jewish people today are fearing for their lives like they did prior to the Holocaust; and just a small news flash for those of us who would like to forget, the Holocaust did not start with concentration camps and gas chambers, it all began with words. We say never again but we sit here facing the same hatred and the same fear is instilled in us all these years later.
What is it going to take for the leaders of this country and the free world to speak out against antisemitism and condemn it just as they have every other hate against every other group of people?
It may be very unpopular to stand up for Jewish people but it is the right thing to do. To the Jewish people that have stayed silent, may we ask why? We know it is scary, but if we do not speak up for our own people who will? To the non-Jewish people who have stayed silent, why are you so loud about every other social issue? Your Jewish friends are scared to leave their homes. As so many of you said about so many other social issues, your silence is complicity. We have stood by your side and used our voices to condemn the hate of all other groups, but you refuse to do the same for us.
For Jewish people around the world regardless of the fact that Israel has had thousands of rockets fired at them and that their people have spent countless hours in bomb shelters; we are acutely aware, that Israel, that little sliver of land, the size of New Jersey, is where we are safest and that should tell the entire world something. It is sad, but true.
On this July 4th holiday where America celebrates its freedom, remember that we are all supposed to be equal. That goes for Jews too everyone.
#JEWISHLIVESMATTER
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