Polarization is also the enemy
On Heil Hitler salutes and whataboutism
Elon Musk saluted the inauguration crowd in a way that was evocative of a Heil Hitler salute. I don’t know what he believes, nor do I care. The fact is: the salute was troubling to behold and it was an incredibly loud dog whistle — more like a truck with such squeaky brakes that even humans could hear the pitch — to the neo-Nazis on the far right. It told them their ideology was not only welcome, but something he and Trump were grateful for. Musk is not an idiot, and whether he was deliberate or holds those views or not doesn’t matter, because he communicated a very clear message to very dangerous people.
Meanwhile, since October 7, 2023, and bubbling beneath the surface before then, there has been an outspoken, largely unchallenged campaign by progressives to attack Jews and spread blood libels and support terrorists and ignore rape and murder because the people who were raped and murdered were Jews who deserved it. The silence around this cultural emergence is deafening. The hidden antisemitism justified as anti-Zionism is terrifying. This is propaganda at work, and we know how it ends.
It ends with the heroes of the aforementioned neo-Nazis coming to power.
I set out to have an image tell 1000 words for this piece. I tried to use AI to generate it1, but friends, the good news I have is that AI is not there yet, and it also won’t let you generate images with words like Nazi, neo-Nazi, or Hamas in order to “curb hate speech.” Small wins.
The image was — and use your imagination to respond to this prompt, as I assure you it will be more accurate than the AI —
On one side, a group of progressive college students protesting Zionism. They’re wearing keffiyehs, holding signs that say “Death to Zionists,” and “Intifada Revolution,” and “Gas the Zionists,” and depict Jews being through in the trash or drinking the blood of babies. These students are riding horses.
On the other side, Elon Musk has his hands in a Heil Hitler salute. He’s riding a chariot, leading an army of chariots behind him. In those chariots are the recently freed January 6th protestors wearing sweatshirts that say things like 6we (six million wasn’t enough") or other white nationalist phrases, holding signs alongside their M16s that say “Jews will not replace us” and “Hitler was right” or waving American and Confederate flags.
Above the side-by-side images is the verse from Psalms 20:8:
My writing is my art, it is my voice, it is my protest.
And in this writing, I beseech you: Do not fall prey to the rhetoric that Elon Musk’s salute isn’t bad because he sometimes wears dog tags with the name of hostages. Do not fall prey to the rhetoric that Elon Musk’s salute isn’t bad because AOC thought it was bad, and she supported college protestors and chastised Israel for taking out Hezbollah with the pager attack. Do not fall prey to the rhetoric that Elon Musk’s salute isn’t bad because he’s autistic and didn’t know what he was doing (which is pretty rude to people with autism) and anyway Trump got the deal through to free the hostages and even if it all falls apart tomorrow, we have three beautiful souls back, women who the “feminists” ignored.
I further beseech you: Do not fall prey to the rhetoric that because Trump is in power, we need to focus on right-wing antisemitism more than left-wing antisemitism. Do not fall prey to the rhetoric that we need to join coalitions with the people who have chanted for our deaths and laughed on our graves for the last 473 days because it’s for the greater good and we should let it go. Do not fall prey to the rhetoric from those on the left who have tried to minimize the realities of antisemitism for the last 473 days that they suddenly believe it is a problem now because of neo-Nazis. Do not fall prey to the rhetoric that neo-Nazis are actual Nazis, as that is a form of Holocaust minimization.
In this moment, as Jews and people who care about Jews, we have to see the antisemitism on the right and the antisemitism on the left. As Jews, we have to remember that our religion is not politics, and we are not loyal to Democrats or Republicans, but to our people, our heritage, and our God. If you are not Jewish, you have to remember that your allyship is only true allyship if you stand with us against all those who seek to destroy us, and that your devotion to being on the right side of history transcends any political narrative and manifests your humanity more than any political party can. We can and should champion the politicians who have our interests at heart, and it’s okay for us to disagree about who that should be.
But we should not, we should never, we must never allow ourselves to be pitted against each other in a fight over who wants us dead more.
Some come with horses, under the guise of anti-Zionism, with the goal of ridding the public sphere of Jews because we are too powerful to be victims and too bloodthirsty to be indigenous.
Some come with chariots, loudly proclaiming their hate for us because we are subhuman vermin that are too powerful, and we use our power to destroy their White world.
But they both come. They are both here.
And we will rally and gather strength.
.ואנחנו קמנו ונתעודד
I don’t usually think AI should be used in the place of artists, but an artist friend recommended it. I can’t draw nor can I afford to commission an artist, but if you want to patronize the arts, you can by hitting this little button below…