I am reluctant to declare at the outset of this piece exactly what it’s about. The reason is, I am worried that you will immediately conclude that I have gone nuts. You see, I suspect that I have developed prophetic powers!
Just to stop you from moving on to read some other column instead, I want to make it clear that I am not a megalomaniac. I take no pleasure in having reached this conclusion. It is just that the evidence seems to be undeniable and overwhelming.
Now, before my editor decides it’s time for The Jewish Press to find my replacement, and for me to find a nice psych ward, I would like to explain. It appears that my Jewish Press column is responsible for the emergence of my supernatural powers.
Quite simply, it has become disturbingly frequent, that whatever topic I choose to write about, seems to become a major news story soon afterwards.
Perhaps the logical reason for the connection between my pen and events is that history seems to be unfolding at such a frenetic pace. With so very many crises and events unfolding simultaneously, it simply makes it more likely I will anticipate one or two.
Take my last piece for example. It was called “The Sound That Travels Around the World.”
I discussed the topic of political assassinations and the cataclysmic outcomes they often produce. I focused on Gavrilo Princip, the Serb nationalist university student who murdered the heir to the Austrian throne and his wife. He was only nineteen when he pulled the trigger. That act, unleashed the First World War and the deaths of forty million people.
Despite that fact, Princip is still celebrated by his as a hero. A bronze statue of him stands in Belgrade and his house is a shrine to Serb nationalists.
Then, just days ago, American Conservative leader Charlie Kirk was assassinated at a rally at Utah Valley University.
The U.S. was shocked and outraged; or rather many Americans were outraged. Distressingly, others celebrated.
An opinion piece appeared in the Wall Street Journal, entitled, “Why Do So Many Young Americans Justify Political Violence?” It revealed that 93% of baby boomers think political violence is never acceptable but only 56% of Gen Z agree.
Being America, political violence is hardly confined to only one part of the political spectrum. Still, at this moment in history, with the Right ascendant and the Democrats suffering some of the lowest popularity polling numbers in their history, violence and political killings seem to becoming a bit of a fashion.
More horrifying, is the number of people, both young and old, who celebrated, sneered at and delighted in Charlie Kirk’s death.
The man arrested for the killing is called Tyler Robinson. He is also a student, and just two years older than Princip was when he pulled the trigger.
The justification for Princip’s actions was nationalism. The justification for Robinson’s alleged actions is an extreme Leftist agenda.
In the eyes of many on the Left, particularly the young, he is as big a hero to them as Princip is to the Serbs. There are virtual statues and shrines being “erected” to him across the internet.
Extremist ideologies clearly create extremist violence.
Another of my recent articles was called “Israel’s Enemies and Sun Tzu.”
In that one, I discussed the fact that the 6th century Chinese strategist Sun Tzu wrote, “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
According to ex-KGB agent Yuri Bezmenov, this was the main strategy of the USSR towards its adversaries; encourage conflict from groups within the countries you wish to destabilize.
I then cited all the discoveries DOGE and congressmen Jim Jordan and Brian Mast made about American money under Joe Biden’s White House being directed through USAID to the organizations that funded and ran the massive demonstrations in pre-October 7 Tel Aviv.
These demonstrations declined after the Gaza war began, but since writing that a few months ago, they came back. They are not as well funded, but they are still as hate and rage driven as before. Sadly, they are even more violent.
I live in the Rechavia neighborhood of Jerusalem where the Prime Minister’s residence is.
A couple of weeks ago, I was walking my wife’s puppy on the streets as demonstrators began to arrive from Tel Aviv and elsewhere for another of their protests outside the residence.
It’s a funny thing. If you want to break down the barriers between secular Israelis and religious ones, I have discovered the best way is when they see a charedi walking his or her dog!
The secular Israeli is simply astonished. I have lost count of the really nice conversations and even friendships I have had with people because of this little dog (she’s call Paisley by the way, and she’s a mini Goldendoodle).
It starts with a look of surprise on the face of the person walking towards me, which quickly turns into a big smile. After that they usually say chamud – sweetie and then ask to pet her. Before you know it, you’ve made a new friend.
There were no smiles on that night from any of the protestors that I met with Paisley the puppy. Instead, there was raw hatred.
They waved their placards and banners as they walked through the mostly religious neighborhood. Their protest seemed to be directed at the ordinary inhabitants of Rechavia, as much as its most famous one.
I have seen those expressions countless times before.
I saw them over the seven years I spent learning in Gateshead Yeshiva in England’s Northeast. That is one of the most antisemitic places I have ever lived.
I saw them countless times on university campuses in England as I stood with my Jewish students at countless anti-Israel motions or debates.
That night, as I walked near the protest, I could hear a woman speaker at the demonstration, her voice amplified many times. She wasn’t actually speaking; she was screaming and raging. The tone was violent, and threatening.
Later that night the Leftist crowd, to use the Prime Minister’s words, “Crossed a line” into violence. Residents’ cars were set on fire.
Thinking it over, I am not so sure that I have attained prophecy after all. I think I have just been writing in the end about obvious and predictable events that are already in motion with clearly logical outcomes like…
Movements that incite and encourage people to see those with different views as inherently evil, will encourage violence and in the end the murder of those people. Or…
Young people are particularly susceptible to this kind of indoctrination and violence. And…
Bad actors who want to destroy a state know that the best way to do it is by arranging for it to destroy itself. Lastly…
Jews, despite witnessing all of the above countless times throughout their history, are just as vulnerable to indoctrination and manipulation as anyone else.”
Still, if only it was true that my words somehow could come true. If they could… My final words for this piece are that Klal Yisrael, here in Israel and wherever they are outside it, should be blessed with a sweet year of shalom.