For many years my political activism was based on a fragment of a poem by John Donne:
"Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee."
Jews were overrepresented in the civil rights movement. Now Blacks are overrepresented in the verbal and physical attacks on Jews.
Jews were at the forefront of the struggle for gay emancipation. Now they are kicked off marches for gays.
Individual Jews and Jewish organisations supported the influx of migrants. I remember a speech from the Jewish mayor of Amsterdam when he compared the situation of migrants in the Netherlands to situation of his parents in the 1930s.
Now these migrants are leading the new upsurge of Jew-hatred.
And then came October 7. Many of the Jews who Hamas butchered in the kibbutzim on the Gaza border believed in equal and peaceful coexistence with Palestinians.
The kibbutzniks picked the Gazans up and drove them to hospitals in Israel.
They offered them work, which allowed Hamas to map out their homes.
They travelled in buses to protest against the current Israeli government.
They joined international organisations calling for peace and equality.
Yet for Hamas and its civilian accomplices it did not make any difference: for them Jews are Jews and should all be slaughtered.
John Donne? Who? Do they make tractors?
