OpinionIsrael at War

The wrath of Israel

Know this, all the enemies of the Jewish people: You are done, over with, finished. You just don’t know it yet.

Thousands attend a "Bring Them Home" rally hosted by Israeli-American Council in Times Square, in the heart of New York City, in support of as many as 200 Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 19, 2023. Credit: IAC.
Thousands attend a "Bring Them Home" rally hosted by Israeli-American Council in Times Square, in the heart of New York City, in support of as many as 200 Israeli hostages being held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Oct. 19, 2023. Credit: IAC.
Benjamin Kerstein
Benjamin Kerstein is a writer and editor living in Tel Aviv. Read more of his work on Substack at No Delusions, No Despair. Purchase his books here.

In the two weeks since “Israel’s 9/11,” the thing has begun to become real to me. At the intense urging of my family, I decided—with some shame and some shameful relief—to go to them in the United States, but the relief has not come. The feelings aroused by the atrocities have not abated in the slightest.

In this autumnal city, I have moved beyond sadness. It has been replaced in recent days by something else: An utter, inchoate, primordial, primeval rage. It is difficult for me to think of anything but vengeance. I cannot sleep at night. My thoughts race towards longing to hear of the deaths of the monsters and the lamentations of their women. I hope I will hear of them soon.

My rage is only exacerbated by what I knew was coming: the blithering of the apologists, the cowards and the acolytes of slaughter. While I have been comforted by the immense outpouring of support from President Biden, the American people in general, and especially my non-Jewish friends—some of whom tell me that acquaintances previously hostile to Israel have had their minds completely changed by the atrocities—I cannot but stare into the face of the manifestations of pure evil that have raged through this society.

There have been statements by the likes of Ta-Nehisi Coates and Rashida Tlaib that can only be described as indicating the emergence of a kind of Neo-Nazi Left. The media has decided to erase the Jewish victims and engage in a chorus of frenzied weeping on behalf of Hamas and a vaguely defined “people of Gaza,” there being no need, apparently, for coercion to convince them to promote terrorist propaganda.

Indeed, The New York Times disseminated a blood libel and has yet to apologize for the antisemitic violence it incited as a result. Major publications are writing pieces weeping over the predicament of “pro-Palestinian” activists on campus such as members of the unremittingly racist Students for Justice in Palestine, as if those “activists” have not been intimidating and attacking Jewish students for years while advocating genocide.

I hear now that a Detroit synagogue president has been murdered for reasons yet unclear. I do not think they will remain unclear. If my suspicions prove accurate, I hold all of the above responsible for her death.

What I feel, above all things, is rage. Rage at all of them. Rage at their atrocities. Rage at their arrogance. Rage at their racism. Rage at their impunity. Rage at their redolent narcissism and self-regard. Rage at their empty pretensions of moral superiority. Rage at their dehumanization of my people and our martyrs.

I take comfort that I am not alone. Jews are usually inept at expressing their anger, but when we are driven to the extreme, we excel at it. All of us, whether we admit it to ourselves or not, are enraged.

That rage has only just begun to be expressed and it will not expend itself for some time, if ever. We are a people with long memories. We are still annoyed with Pharaoh and despise Haman. We did not forget then and we will not forget now. The face of every one of those who committed, celebrated or justified these atrocities is etched forever on our memory, and we will see to it that they are made aware of this.

The reckoning is already underway. The IDF is fighting back and will only intensify its mission of compensatory justice. American Jews are beginning to guard and patrol their own communities. They are confronting “progressive” politicians who, we now discover, have forged an alliance with barbarism. American Jews have begun to withdraw their support—political and financial—for institutions and individuals who have defamed and degraded them for years without consequence. They are thinking very hard about who their real friends are.

I have it from a trusted friend that the Jews of her city are beginning to purchase handguns at an accelerated rate. For a community as liberal as the Jewish community, this represents a sea change, though the community may not know it yet.

So, the fiends should know this: We are about to see to it that the perpetrators’ bones are ground to dust. As for their apologists, we are about to see to it that their careers are over, their candidacies defeated, their reputations annihilated, their pro-terrorist antisemitic activism banned and canceled, their universities defunded and sued into oblivion, their bank accounts drained paying settlements and their job prospects nonexistent—their names erased.

If they physically attack Jews, I think it very likely they will be repaid in kind twice over. They are about to know fear, just as we have for centuries. They made the terrible mistake of forgetting that those centuries are over. The line was drawn in 1945 and they have now crossed it. They will face the consequences and they have earned them.

Know this, barbarians of Hamas and the “Arab street”; know this, you of the “day of rage”; know this, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib; know this, every one of you bullies and cowards who contemplates antisemitic violence; know this, Ta-Nehisi Terrorist and all who sail in you; know this, you “professors” who profess genocide; know this, Students for Terrorism in Palestine and your accomplices; know this, imams who preach racist murder and those among the faithful who follow you; know this, “protesters” who chant “from the river to the sea”; know this, you who consider yourselves beautiful souls and a caste of saints even as you cry onanistic tears for the murderers; know this, all of you who guzzle upon the blood of babies and worship at the feet of swine and demons—the wrath of all Israel is upon you, from every corner of the earth.

So, I say to you: You are done, over with, finished. You just don’t know it yet.

I do not think you will have to wait for long.

The opinions and facts presented in this article are those of the author, and neither JNS nor its partners assume any responsibility for them.
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