My father, William K. Langfan, may he rest in peace, always told the joke about the one ship-wrecked Jew stranded on a deserted island. All of a sudden, out of the water limped another bedraggled ship-wrecked Jew. The newly arrived Jew asks the original Jew, “Do you have a synagogue here?” The original Jew proudly says, “Of course, we have two synagogues!” The newly arrived Jew asks, “Why two? You’re only one person??!!?” To which the original Jew responds, “One synagogue I go to. The other, I wouldn’t step foot into if you put a gun to my head!!!”
In abstract, it’s a funny joke because it’s really true. With regard to the “2-State” internecine schism between Jews, it was, and is, a deadly tragedy. How did liberal American Jews get here? How did leftist Israeli Jews get here? They both came to this fatal 10/7 catastrophe by reinforcing their mutual delusion, their mutual Golden Calf: the Peace Process. The leftist Israeli Jew (the others, of course, labelled untouchable "extremists," although they are the majority) reinforced the liberal American Jew’s “Peace” delusion, and the liberal American Jew reinforced the leftist Israeli Jew’s “Peace” delusion.
The liberal-leftist Israeli/American Jew mutual delusion society has suffered an inconvenient truth: The most violent and well-funded Muslims will always rule Gaza and the 'West Bank', and will always want to eradicate and behead every last Jew in Israel, and beyond.
But before we talk about the Jews, let’s talk about the Muslims. The current “moderate” Muslim states, up until recently, used the “Palestine” question to divert from their own failings. Then, it dawned on these “moderate” states that Iran was, in fact, using their own “Hate Israel” game plan to destabilize, and overturn, their own regimes.These Arab states also looked at the map and realized that far from Israel being a “destabilizing” force in the Middle East, Israel was the only military force that stabilized the Middle East. The simple map proves Israel is the only node that the United States can rely on to defend the oil-rich Gulf States. Critically, the last thing any of these “moderate” states wanted or needed was another Iranian “Super-GazaX10” state in the 'West Bank'. And currently, these Arab states will soon come to the realization that if Hamas doesn't get eradicated, they will lose, and lose bigly.
But now let’s talk about the Jews. What do Israeli generals and politicians do when they don’t have any real non-military or non-political skills? These has-been and often failed Israeli generals and politicians go to America, lecture Jews, and raise money for their “Think” Tanks and their campaigns.
And what did liberal American Jews want to hear for the last 60 years? Did the liberal American Jew want to hear that the Muslims were out to kill every last Jew? No. That was not a very PC/woke answer, and non-Orthodox American Jews are very PC and woke. Telling liberal American Jews the truth simply didn’t produce the “donations” to their “Think” Tank or their political campaigns. But, these very same failed Israeli generals and politicians realized there was an easy way to score huge donations from American Jews. Just sell them some “snake oil” that there was an easy way out of the Israeli/Palestinian problem: The Peace Process. So, for 60 years, American Jews have been fed a steady diet of what was always, objectively, a total military and political fraud.
Then, with their coffers filled by deluded liberal American Jews’ lucre, the left-wing Israeli generals and politicians were empowered to then further defraud the left and left-leaning Israeli public. A sector of the Israeli public, mind you, that was also all too eager to be deluded. For, who wanted to think that, “There is no solution.” Who wouldn’t want to think there was an easy way or any way out of the conflict. But, super-charged with American Millionaire and Billionaire money, as well as leftist academic foundations that gave one year stipends at US universities to those in officer school, the left-wing generals and politicians had all the resources they needed to defraud the Israeli public that was rightly tired, just wanted the conflict to end. And again, it was easy for these left-wing Israeli politicians to “otherize” the right-wing Jews who believed it was a “Piece Process,” not a Peace Process. There is always the “synagogue I wouldn’t step foot in.”
And getting back to the deserted island Jew, it was easy as pie for the American “Peace Process” deluded Jew to dismiss and otherize the non-deluded Jew as a right-wing nut job. The deluded left-wing American Jew had the Israeli general’s fraudulent “military opinion” that a 'West Bank Palestinian State' was “safe.” Actually, how I became interested in Israel was when I was at Cornell University as an undergraduate in 1979-1983, I witnessed dozens of times where the same two Palestinian Arab graduate students totally destroyed the lonely Jews sitting at the Israel table in the main hall. It was always the same killer-unanswerable-argument by the rabid Palestinian Arabs:
Don’t you know there are Israeli generals who say you can create a 'West Bank Palestinian State'??!!?? So, why is Israel still occupying Palestine!!
I knew what the Palestinian Arabs were saying was true: That there are Israeli generals who say that Israel should create a 'Palestinian West Bank State'. So, their argument appeared sound, and the Jewish kids didn't know enough to refute those generals, so the Jews looked like rank morons. 50 years of Israel’s teaching liberal American Jewish college kids and their parents that the “Peace Process was completely safe” has catastrophically hollowed out real liberal American Jewish support for Israel.
It was only after law school when I had time and I began to sift through all the Israeli generals’ and Israeli politicians’ double-speak was I able to understand that these Israeli generals and politicians were total frauds. But, unfortunately, not many liberal American or Israeli Jews had the time or the inclination to sift out the lies and get to actual reality. C’mon, what’s your problem you war-monger, “the Israeli Peace Process is as easy as throwing the keys to the Palestinian Arabs and turning off the lights on Israel’s way out.”
Well, the ugly reality is now on display for the whole world to see. And, as I’ve always said, “Just because I’m paranoid, that doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me.” Well, it’s time for the Jews to get paranoid and have just the one synagogue that we all go to, or we will all be wiped off the face of the earth.