"Israel's Dilemma"

While, in my opinion, Israel’s plight against Hamas’ terrorism, along with Ukraine’s war against Russia, are the West’s most important fights – and, sadly, the West sems to be abandoning both projects (or at least not providing the tools needed to win) – conservatives in the U.S. are abandoning their fight for free speech. Brendon Carr should be fired for pushing ABC to fire Jimmy Kimmel. He was losing audience and would have been fired for business reasons, but government should not have forced the issue. As I told my grandson, Kimmel, in my opinion, is an ass, but he should be allowed to bray.

 

Censorship, as conservatives wrote continuously during the Biden and Obama Presidencies, destroys democracies. To now practice it, while in power, is hypocrisy of the first order. Throughout our history, censorship has been practiced by both sides: Democrat Attorney General Mitchell Palmer in 1919 during the “Red” scare; Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy in the early 1950s. There is nothing to prevent private companies from firing employees who they feel are hurting their business with crude or offensive comments but, apart from calling “fire” in a crowded theater when there is none or urging one’s friends to assault an individual or institution, government should allow people to speak freely. Words can be offensive to some people’s sensibilities, but that is not reason to censor what they say.

 

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Enough of that. Despite warm days, summer is at an end, at least here in the Northern Hemisphere, with the arrival of the autumnal equinox this afternoon. With celebrations for Rosh Hashanah and the start of the Jewish New Year beginning this evening, it seems timely to consider Israel’s dilemma.

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

Thought of the Day

“Israel’s Dilemma”

September 22, 2025

 

“The reality here is that public opinion is shifting

very quickly and very dramatically away from Israel.”

                                                                                                                Howard Wolfson, Democratic strategist

                                                                                                                As quoted in The Wall Street Journal

                                                                                                                September 13-14, 2025

 

In Hamlet, (Act 1, Scene 4) Marcellus, after seeing the ghost of the murdered king, says: “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” In my opinion, something is rotten among Western nations – theoretically enlightened individuals and governments – in their attitude toward Israel, a country, a democracy, that is trying to survive almost continuous threats from state-sponsored terrorists and authoritarian governments. It is now involved in, as Lauren Smith wrote last week in The European Conservative, “...a war between the West and barbarism. It is a battle of truly civilizational proportions.”

 

This condemnation and abandonment by most Western democracies and the United Nations represents, in my opinion, the world’s biggest threat to Western liberal ideals and precepts. Israel stands accused of genocide in Gaza and then starving those they did not kill. That is wrong. Israel has done more to warn the citizens of Gaza of impending attacks than any other country in time of war. Unlike other nations involved in war they have helped their enemies’ civilian populations by attempting to bring in food and aid.

 

Israel – a Country of less than 10 million that sits amidst almost 500 million Middle Easterners – is engaged in an existential war, battling for its very existence. In perfect double-speak, the UN recently condemned the October 7 (2023) massacre: “We condemn the attacks committed by Hamas against civilians on the 7^th of October.” But then the document went on: “We also condemn the attacks by Israel against civilians in Gaza and civilian infrastructure, siege and starvation, which have resulted in a devastating humanitarian catastrophe and protection crisis.” 

 

“Any man’s death diminishes me,” wrote John Donne in 1624. The death of innocent civilians during war is a tragedy. It would be nice if war played out on assigned fields, with the only victims being combatants. However, that is not the way wars are fought. During three months in 1940 over 23,000 Londoners were killed in the Battle of Britain. A like number of Germans were killed in the February 1945 fire-bombing of Dresden. And more than 200,000 Japanese were killed in the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. It is estimated that total civilian deaths in World War II were over 50 million, almost two-thirds of the total. It is estimated that Korea saw about two million civilian deaths and Vietnam around 600,000. In both cases, civilian deaths exceeded military deaths. Unlike past more conventional wars, Hamas is using schools, temples and apartments to hide combatants, terrorists, weapons and hostages. And unlike the Allies (or the Axis) in World War II, or the combatants in Korea and Vietnam, Israel warns civilians of their intent. Too many in the West – political leaders and the media – simply accept Hamas’ reports of civilian casualties in Gaza. Responsibility for those casualties lies with Hamas, not Israel.

 

For the most part, the post-World War II order held through the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991. Walter Russell Mead wrote in the September 16 issue of The Wall Street Journal that the subsequent decade saw “the muddled thinking of a generation of policy elites, who foolishly supposed that geopolitical conflict had ended forever.” That thinking prompted Francis Fukuyama to write The End of History and the Last Man. What these globalists failed to understand was the nature of man and nations – that men seek power and power corrupts. While Western governments reduced defense spending over the past thirty-five years, China and Russia have grown stronger, absolutely and relatively. That naivete should have ended on 9/11 when 19 Islamic terrorists flew two planes into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and a fourth into a field in Pennsylvania, killing 2,976. 

 

But it did not. The lessons of World War I and World War II – the Armistice that ceased hostilities during the First World and the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan that ended the Second World War – seem lost on much of Western leadership. Armistices and ceasefires do not work against those intent on global domination, as we saw in the two decades following the first World War, with the rise of Mussolini and Hitler. On the other hand, the unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan in 1945 allowed for the re-building of those defeated countries via the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan. By 1960, a mere fifteen years after surrender, West Germany and Japan, respectively, were their region’s largest economies.

 

One does not have to be a fan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appreciate what the abandonment of Israel by so many in the West means. Unlike its neighbors, Israel is a democracy. Its leadership changes according to popular elections. Since its founding in 1948, fourteen individuals have served as Prime Minister (the same as the number of U.S. Presidents who served during that same time). As well, Israel is more inclusive than its neighbors. About 20% of Israel’s population is Arab, while ten of the 120-person Knesset are Arab. Can one say the same about Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, or Saudi Arabia?

 

Hamas, which has with the blessing of the Palestinian Authority governed Gaza since Israel withdrew in 2005, is intent on eliminating Israel. As Fred Fleitz, vice chair of the America First Policy Institute in the Center for American Security, wrote on americangreatness.com last Friday: “...the Palestinian leadership rejected statehood offers in 1947, 2000, 2008, and 2009.” Their goal is the eradication of Israel, and the establishment of a Palestinian state, “from the river (Jordan) to the sea (Mediterranean).”

 

Yet, the truth is that the Palestinian people will only survive and thrive if the terrorists who now lead them, in Gaza and the West bank, are eliminated. In a victory for Hamas and other terrorist organizations, twenty-three European states will have recognized Palestine as a state (a concept, not a physical place) by the end of September. That marks a defeat for Israel and, importantly, a defeat for the Palestinian people. For the West, it marks a big step in the wrong direction –  another rung down the ladder that leads up to liberalism.

"Ghosts on the Boardwalk"

 

Sydney M. Williams

 

More Essays from Essex

“Ghosts on the Boardwalk”

September 9, 2023

 

“We’re all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.”

                                                                                              Liam Callanan (1968-)

                                                                                              The Cloud Atlas, 2004

                                                                                              (Edgar Award for best first novel by an American author)

 

“If dreams are like movies, then memories are films about ghosts.” Those lyrics, written and sung by Adam Durwitz, are from the song “Mrs. Potter’s Lullaby.” They reflect a truism, at least for me. As well, ghosts are common in literature. Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Washington Irving, Henry James, Oscar Wilde, and J.R.R. Tolkien included spirits and ghosts in their stories.  

 

Embedded in memory, they flit in and out of my consciousness, triggered by a word, song or a photo. On a table in our living room, a digital picture frame presents a new photo every few minutes, letting the past slip into the present, recalling days gone by, and reminding me of those known and loved.

 

The beach club we belong to in New Jersey provides an embracing venue for such memories. It is where Caroline spent summers growing up. It is where our children spent a month or two every summer while they were growing up. And it is place familiar to our grandchildren. Caroline’s family has a long history there. Our bath house, where spirits of dead ancestors watch over never-known descendants, has been in her family since at least 1931. Her maternal grandparents joined the club a few years after its founding in the late 19^thCentury. My in-laws joined in 1931, and we joined in 1972. 

 

Some things change; others do not. The ocean, cleaner that it was half a century ago, is still captive to the motion of unchanging tides. The beach has shrunk and expanded. The people are different, yet faces are familiar. Walking along the boardwalk, I pass by tables seating children and grandchildren of those I knew sixty years ago. There are differences. In the mid and late ‘60s dress was more formal. Some of the older men, like my father-in-law, wore ties, and most of the older women wore dresses and low heels. One was more likely to see a cocktail than a glass of wine on the table. The times were more formal: gentlemen stood for ladies; we referred to our elders by Mrs. or Mr. But conversations have a familiar ring – families, current events, books read, movies seen, and gossip about neighbors.

 

We are forged in a crucible that includes genes from our forefathers and the environment in which we were raised and now live, combined with the influence of family, friends, coaches, and teachers. In returning to the club each August, I recall those no longer with us. I miss their greetings, their smiles and witticisms. While their loss is felt, I don’t despair. They live on, ghosts in my memory.

 

John Donne, who often wrote of the supernatural, began his short poem Meditations XVII: “No man is an island entire of itself; every man/is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;” Donne was writing of the metaphysical mysteries of death, but his words apply to our interconnected lives, where the past is linked to the present and future. I see those connections as ghosts, as I walk down the boardwalk.

"The COVID-19 Pandemic - Some Random Thoughts"

Sydney M. Williams

www.swtotd.blogspot.com

Thought of the Day

“The COVID-19 Pandemic – Random Thoughts”

March 18, 2020

“Fear cannot be banished, but it can be calm and without panic;

it can be mitigated by reason and evaluation.”

                                                                                                Vannevar Bush (1890-1975)

                                                                                                Scientist, Educator, Inventor

Sensible advice has been offered by many: Scrub your hands, socially distant yourself; isolate yourself if sick. Nevertheless, manifestations of fear and panic are all around us. Restaurants, bars and casinos have closed in the part of the Country where I live. Colleges have sent students home. Schools have been closed, while grocery stores cannot keep up with demand for toilet paper, hand-wipes, latex gloves, disinfectants and many other household and food products. ‘Social distancing’ is nowhere to be seen when it comes to filling one’s larder or closet. Yet, with the exception of products directly related to coronavirus, like hand-wipes and latex gloves, final demand for items like toilet paper and frozen foods will grow in terms of population expansion, or about 0.5 percent. (In Connecticut, population growth will probably decline about 0.2 percent, as it did in 2019.) Understocked shelves will become overstocked.

“Any man’s death diminishes me,” John Donne wrote, and all deaths are, indeed, to be regretted. But perspective should be maintained. The question we all struggle with: Is the fear we exhibit rational? We don’t know, but containment and mitigation seem to be working, at least in China and South Korea. According to their numbers, since last November China has had 190,000 individuals infected with COVID-19 (out of a population of 1.39 billion). Just under 7,500 have died, implying a mortality rate of 3.9 percent. Keep in mind, numbers from China are suspect and between 30,000 and 40,000 people die every day in their Country. South Korea’s statistics are likely more accurate. Their first case was noted on January 20. As of March 16, two hundred and twenty thousand people had been tested in South Korea, out of a population of 51.4 million, 8,320 cases had been confirmed and 81 had died, or just under one percent. Health officials in Seoul claimed on March 9 that their Country had passed the peak of the contagion. They credit their “trace, test and treat” system, where an individual can drive to a testing site and have samples taken from the back of one’s throat and nose. A few hours later, the individual will get a call if the test is positive or a text if it is negative.

The world was slow to take note of the seriousness of the crisis. China, a Communist dictatorship, delayed informing the outside world for a month and a half. More than three weeks after China did, and with the contagion already having infected half a dozen countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared, on January 23, that the coronavirus did not constitute a public emergency of international concern. (It would be March 11 before they declared it a pandemic.) Early on, the President was ahead of the curve. He formed a White House task force for coronavirus on January 29, led by Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alexander Azar, and he shut down flights from China on January 31. On February 27, he placed Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the Task Force. Contrary to some reports, the White House did not “gut” the National Security Council’s counter pandemic effort. But he was slow in promoting tests for the virus and urging the search for a vaccine. He was not alone. The press was more interested in impeachment than in informing their readers and viewers of the virus China had exported, which was beginning to contaminate the world.

Throughout most of February and early March, the U.S., President Trump appeared to minimize the health impact of COVID-19, while he emphasized the need for calm. It was not surprising, and he was not alone. As a businessman, he knew what fear and panic do to an economy – creating artificial shortages, while negatively impacting economic growth. Keep in mind, every day the U.S. economy generates roughly $60 billion in national income. Shutting down commerce will have serious consequences for individuals, many of whom will be laid off, even if temporarily. Government will step in to help – the House passed an $850 billion stimulus bill yesterday – but we should not forget that we are already carrying the largest amount of debt, relative to GDP, since World War II. Adding another trillion is important now, but even low-cost debt must be repaid. When (not if) interest rates move back up, the pain is going to be severe – for governments, corporations and consumers. Neither should we forget that an economic system that preserves uneconomic businesses for “humanitarian” purposes is neither compassionate nor financially viable.

The closing of restaurants, gyms, casinos, schools, colleges and churches is critical and will limit the spread of the virus. While there is much that is unknown about COVID-19, it is known to have a high R0 (R naught), a mathematical determination of its contagion properties. Questions remain: Will healthcare be rationed? Will further restrictions be imposed? However, we cannot ignore its effect on the economy, the education of our youth and the social and spiritual well-being of us all. While we cannot return to normal, we must be alert to unintended consequences.

As well, we should be wary of hyperbole, of those who see a crisis as something for personal advantage. Last Sunday, Goldman Sachs, according to Zero Hedge journalist Tyler Durden, spoke to 1500 clients and told them 50% of Americans will contract the virus and that mortality rates could reach two percent. Perhaps they will be right, but that would contrast with less than one tenth of one percent of South Koreans and Chinese who have contracted the disease. In Italy, the 30,000 cases thus far represent about 0.05% of their population. In the U.S., the disease will become more widespread before it abates, but one wonders if Goldman was pandering to hedge funds that were short the market. If they were, they had happy clients on Monday, when the market dropped thirteen percent. It is only to be expected that Democrat Presidential candidates will use the virus against Mr. Trump. (Republicans would do the same were roles reversed.) We should also note the pandemic has brought a cease-fire – probably temporary – in the partisanship that has marked our politics. Both Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York have praised the President for his response to the crisis. (A cynic might say they were looking for federal funds). However, Governor Cuomo complained on Monday that “the federal government has been behind on this crisis from day one.” Still, praise is praise.

In a recent column, Peggy Noonan wrote that telling people not to panic is bad advice. I disagree. People should be told to be wary, especially around the elderly and the vulnerable: to wash their hands regularly and vigorously, to avoid unnecessary personal contact, to sneeze or cough into a Kleenex or handkerchief, to use handwipes and surgical gloves when in stores, and to stay home, especially when a fever or cold persists. But we should not panic. “Panic,” as Stephen King once wrote, “is highly contagious, especially when nothing is known, and everything is in flux,” as it is now. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “…panic is the terror of ignorance, surrendered to the imagination.” “Fear,” as Vannevar Bush is quoted in the rubric above, “cannot be banished,” but it can be rationalized. During the depths of the Depression, Franklin Roosevelt said, in a fireside chat, when so many were fearful: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Our hospitals and healthcare are second to none. Containment and mitigation will conquer COVID-19, so long as we comply with basic rules of hygiene and common sense. We cannot and should not, let fear and panic catapult us into a recession or worse – a situation where Constitutional rights are abrogated.

"Murder in the U.S.A."

Sydney M. Williams

swtotd.blogspot.com

Thought of the Day

“Murder in the U.S.A.”

August 12, 2019

“Any man’s death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind…”

                                                                                    John Donne

                                                                                    “No Man is an Island”

Devotions from Emergent Occasions, 1624

New Hampshire’s White Mountains, with their rugged, natural beauty and the sense of peace that whispers through the Pines, Hemlocks and Spruce that comprise their forests, seemed a long distance from the mass murders in El Paso and Dayton, as well as the never-ending killing of – mostly – young, Black, inner-city males. But this is a big country and it holds people of every ethnicity, nationality and religion – most all who are good, but a few who are evil. When united, we are morally strong; when divided we are vulnerable. 

What unites us is the idea of America. At our core, we love what America represents – the freedom it gives us and the opportunities it provides. Among our freedoms are those that allow us to speak up when we disagree, to protest policies that are at odds with ours. We can, in fact, insult our President. It is this personal freedom and the opportunities for social and economic advancement that attract so many to our shores.

What divides us has been the rise of extremism, driven by a sense of being ignored and by politicians who find compartmentalization of the electorate – by gender, race, religion and sexual orientation – politically opportunistic. The result is a culture that promotes identity politics and victimization; hatred is their progeny. In an August 6 op-ed for the New York Times, David Brooks wrote: “The struggle between pluralism and anti-pluralism is one of the great death struggles of our time, and it is being fought on every front.” What he wrote I believe to be true, but he did not connect anti-pluralism with politics of identity. Pluralism is preferred by those who believe in integration, not just of race, gender and religion but of ideas. It was what drove Martin Luther King, while Anti-pluralism is a consequence of those who thrive on politics of identity – be it white nationalism, Antifa, BlackLivesMatter, #MeToo, LGBTQ, or neo-Nazis. These lead to politics of hate and, thence, to acts of terror. We would be wise to heed David Brooks’ call for pluralism. After all, it is the motto on the Great Seal of the United States – e Pluribus Unum.

Politics, it has been said, is a blood sport. This is particularly true during elections, a cycle that today never ceases. Extremism did not originate with the election of 2016. “Never let a serious crisis go to waste,” said Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff in 2009.  Extremism did not originate with President Obama either. Consider how mocked was George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and how sullied was Bill Clinton. Time white-washes some of the vitriol, but it was there. Politicians claim to abhor the consequence of this hatred, but they fail to take responsibility for the role they have played in its genesis. In dividing us, they have found benefit in addressing specific concerns for specific groups, but they have failed to foresee the unintended consequences of pushing people into segregated compartments. We have become, with their help – and abetted by the media – divided. We are like the Jets and the Sharks in “West Side Story.” We promote victimhood and then wonder at its deadly consequence. 

Democrat candidates were quick to blame President Trump for the murders in El Paso, for his alleged condoning of white nationalists, but were more subdued regarding the Dayton shooter Connor Betts and his support for Elizabeth Warren. The El Paso shooter, Patrick Crusius, has admitted to targeting Mexican immigrants. And, until this past week, President Trump had not singled out white nationalists as carriers of hate, but neither had Democrats condemned Antifa or those in the entertainment world who have called for Mr. Trump’s assassination. The hatred for President Trump exceeds anything our history offers. It is a hatred that knows no bounds. It is not limited to the Left. It has blurred the vision of publications like the National Reviewand individuals like George Will. When President Trump first spoke after the tragedies, he called for unity, but has been given no credit. The headline in the first edition of the New York Timesthe next day read: “Trump Urges Unity vs. Racism.” But that was too much for biased readers. The headline over the same story in the second edition read: “Assailing Hate but not Guns.” In their sanctimonious hypocrisy, the media enflames the division. In an editorial on the causes of the tragedies in El Paso and Dayton, the Times referred to “white nationalists” fourteen times. They also mentioned “white supremacy” and “white extremists.” To ensure their opinion was not muddied, they added: “white nationalism has attained new mainstream legitimacy during Mr. Trump’s time in office.”

There was no mention in the Times editorial of the role played by mental health, identity politics, or the part played by a lack of moral teachings in families and in schools. No mention was made of politicians who have adopted political correctness as their mantra and who bow to union leaders, in a mutually symbiotic relationship. The editorial was not balanced with discussion of violent left-wing extremists like Antifa. There was no mention of those in the entertainment world who have publicly called for Mr. Trump’s assassination. All blame lay on the President and those who support him. While extremist talk is common in elections, we have reached a point that would be unrecognizable to prior generations. Both Patrick Crusius and Connor Betis should have been red-flagged, by parents, teachers and society.

Members of both parties must own up to and condemn extremists in their parties. In a passage attributable to Aristotle, it has been said we cannot change human nature, so a successful governing body must include concepts of virtue and compromise. We are a myriad people, representing different religions and races. We are conservatives and progressives, extremists and moderates. We come from different socio and economic backgrounds. We are not equal, nor can we ever be. Some of us are athletes, others are intellectuals. We range the spectrum in terms of abilities and aspirations. We are men, women, tall, short, heavy and thin. We are individuals, yet we are part of the greatest country the world has ever known. We are blessed, but only if we recognize the redeeming necessity of compromise. Out of many, one. Pluralism, as David Brooks reminded us, had better be our future. 

While mass shootings command our attention, thousands more get gunned down on city streets, with cities like St. Louis and Baltimore leading the way in urban murders. We need to talk about gun ownership, especially the ownership of assault weapons, while recognizing that restrictive gun laws do not prevent gun violence, as can be seen in cities like Hartford, CT. Nevertheless, we need to discuss universal gun registration and intelligent, thorough background checks. We need to do something about the danger represented by extremists, whether on the right like white nationalists or on the left like Antifa. We need to understand the role played by mental health and to red-flag those who might be at risk. We need to address the anti-social consequences of violence in movies and video games. We need to celebrate marriage and reflect on the cultural downside of single-parent families, a decline in church attendance and an abandonment of community memberships, and the loss of virtue mentioned by Aristotle. We need to dowse the heated rhetoric, whether coming from the President’s Tweets, political candidates or members of the media and entertainment communities, recognizing that one unintended consequence of social media is that what you say, do or write will follow you the rest of your days. We need to think of the damage done to the goal of pluralism by identity politics, and the hatred it spawns. We must regain the ability to laugh at ourselves. We are all, conservatives and progressives alike, as John Donne’s words remind us, “involved in mankind.” Every death affects us.

This essay was completed back in Essex, Connecticut, along the estuary of the Connecticut River. On Saturday, following the Connecticut River south from Brattleboro, Vermont, I thought of it as a metaphor for our nation. A river reflects the woods, fields, farms, towns and cities through which it passes.  It carries myriad objects, natural and man-made; and I thought of how man can pollute it, but also of how it provides enjoyment, employment and enriches and cleanses the land through which it and its tributaries pass. Diversity, like that in the river, is our strength. United we rise. Divided we fall.