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Israel: A Leftist’s Guide
Hamas atrocities? Don’t say a word,
To point them out would be an act of treason.
A level playing field? Don’t be absurd.
Make sure your slogans take the place of reason.
Remember: Israel’s name is always mud.
The Jewish state must always be to blame.
When ayatollahs scream for Jewish blood
You overlook it, for it’s not the same.
You must proclaim: “I’m not anti-Semitic.
I’ve not a trace of bigotry, no way!”
And yet you’re always Israel’s fiercest critic.
Real tyrannies? You’ve not a word to say.
You’re smug and cocksure, in the liberal West.
Yet don’t be too complacent, for you’re next.
.
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David Whippman is a British poet, now retired after a career in healthcare. Over the years he’s had quite a few poems, articles and short stories published in various magazines.
Technically a pro-Arab or even pro-northern/eastern African position could be called pro-Semitic, since those ethnic groups trace their descent to Abraham too…
Nicely constructed sonnet.
Thank you Priscilla. You are right; in fact, some people hold that the word semitic should be applied to a language group, and is not ethnic at all.
Very powerfully and succinctly said, with great rhymes (especially Semitic/critic). This is a strong and well-constructed sonnet.
Thanks Cynthia.
How fitting a poem for these times!
Thank you Roy, glad you liked the piece.
Very fine work, David, which, unfortunately, states the actual facts without the slightest bit of exaggeration. It’s true reporting masquerading as satire. I feel for you in the U.K. because I’ve seen the videos of extraordinary numbers of people turning out in demonstrations in favor of Hamas. It looks to me like those old newsreel videos of Nazis demonstrating in Nuremberg before a beaming Hitler. Not that things in the U.S. are much better as academia turns on its Jews with a savagery I never thought possible. As you know, my father was Jewish and I was raised in that faith. It shakes those of us with Jewish backgrounds down to our core to discover that so much of the world wants us dead. How does one respond to a new call for Jewish genocide and the celebration of barbarism? Poetry is a good start but I’m not naive enough to think it’s going to save the world. Still, let’s keep civilization and sanity in the public eye for as long as possible. Truth matters even if only one person speaks it and no one listens. God is watching.
Thanks Brian. I think Oct 7 and the demos etc following have polarised things. The Jew haters are coming out of the woodwork, and our allies and supporters are lining up with us.
It must be a difficult time for those Jews who instinctively approve of immigration, multiculturism because of our history. I wasn’t surprised to hear demonstrators – many of them no doubt immigrants – shouting “Gas the Jews! F**k the Jews!” etc; realists like you and I know these people for what they are. But it’s a wake-up call for the trendies.
As you say, poetry can’t save us but it can give us a voice and help keep us sane.
Right now, today, Israel represents what the West ought to be, and how we ought to act: fighting back without pity against the barbarian hordes that threaten us. This is the REAL reason why the left has become apoplectically anti-Semitic. Israel doesn’t apologize (like most Western leaders reflexively do) for daring to oppose and combat those who want to erase our civilization from the map.
Israel kills terrorists, and it doesn’t give a damn how old or how young they are. This enrages the left, because it gives an example to the West about how to deal with our enemies, and Israeli success shows us that our passivity and weakness in the face of being culturally inundated with Levantine scum are not the only ways to react. Israel does not intend to commit cultural and racial suicide.
This is why the cries for a “cease-fire” are becoming really strident with rage and desperation. You think it’s because anyone gives a damn about Gaza residents or their kids? No — it’s because the left cannot endure the spectacle of seeing Hamas (one of their many beloved terrorist organizations of “freedom fighters”) being blown to smithereens. Refugees and children and food shortages and bombed hospitals have nothing to do with it. The left simply believes that no non-Western terrorist organization should ever be defeated
The Israelis are closing in for the kill right now, and the left cannot bear it. Listen as the decibel levels of left-wing screaming rise to earsplitting heights in Mainstream Western media during the next two weeks.
Thanks Joseph. I agree with pretty much all you say. The Left – and many Muslims – don’t care that Palestinians are suffering; they just hate the fact that Jews can fight back. Where are the demos about the Uighur Muslims in China? The Muslims killed in Syria? But then, Israel can’t be blamed for all that.
And yes, I mourn the death of any innocent person, Palestinians included. But if Hamas embeds itself in schools, hospitals and so on, what can Israel do? The IDF is more mindful of civilian casualties than almost any army in the world.
David, twelve lines of your sonnet could serve as a straightforward tactical manual, as we hear from far too many news reports around us. Eleven lines twist today’s main issue, and you are perceptive enough to make the twelfth line an instruction to remain silent on anything else that should be of major concern. The couplet outlines the consequences. On the Left Coast of the United States, we see criminals already adopting methods from terrorists. So far it only involves invasion or infiltration by large groups for the purpose of robbery. But one recent criminal spree began with assault and battery done to create a chaotic atmosphere in which numerous thieves snatched phones, wallets, and purses. Police respond in a way that may lead to arrests afterward, but does not a thing to prevent or stop ongoing crimes. Charges and prosecution may not result. Victims do not get property back.
That’s the small perspective. On the large issues, I agree with Brian Yapko and Joseph Salemi. The current situation would have been unimaginable not long ago. Talking back and fighting back need to be done, even by lone individuals. But as Joe says, only organized determination can succeed.
Margaret, thanks for such a detailed analysis. It seems to me that for quite a while – especially maybe since the George Floyd killing – the west has been in the grip of a kind of collective madness. To some extent, I see the hatred of Israel as part of this.
My last line was heartfelt, because the smug woke people who espouse the antizionist cause would most definitely not enjoy life in an Islamist state.
A stark poetic warning indeed in words we should all heed. Thank you, David, for your poem and for calling out the “current thing” for what it is.
And thank you, Susan. I’m lucky in that I live in Blackpool, a rather apolitical place despite high levels of poverty. So personally I have been spared a lot of the hypocrisy and thuggery from the leftist-Islamist alliance which has of course been very active in recent weeks.
Thank you for this. I’ve been absolutely livid about the left’s reaction to the attacks on Israel, blaming the victims.
I saw a meme that said, “Being pro-communist is just a basic sociopathy test. If someone hears over 100 million slaughtered, and replies, ‘Yeah, BUT…’ Boom. Total sociopath.”
I believe that being pro-“Palestinian” is similar.
An excellent comment on this was made by the Catholic blogger Mundabor, at his website. Speaking of the Hamas terrorists, Mundabor says: “The evil men who staged the attack are now using their own children as human shields, hoping that their own kids die to score propaganda points with the stupid, the overly emotional, and the logically challenged.”
The stupid, the overtly emotional, and the logically challenged are those Western idiots in our streets who are demonstrating for a “cease-fire,” and screaming about Israeli “war crimes.”
I agree totally, Joseph. To some extent, I see such people as part of the strange communicated insanity that (eg) “deplatforms” people for saying there are differences between men and women. If they have discarded common sense and logic, then I guess they can easily regard Israel as the villains and hamas as victims. Plus there is good old antisemitism to add to the mix.
Thanks for your comment, Joshua. The problem I have with the pro-Palestinians is that they are almost always unmoved by the plight of Muslims in China, Burma etc. Indeed, they are unmoved by the deaths of Muslims at the hands of other Muslims. So it’s not that they are pro-Palestinian but anti-Israel.
Of course it’s about being anti-Israel, or more to the point, anti-Semitic. Before this happened, I thought I could not have less contempt for the left and everything they are and stand for… I was wrong!
Shoot, I meant to write “more,” not “less.” I must have written this late at night, which I really should stop doing for this reason.
Dave, so precise and laconic!