To ignore genocide is to remain silent
As a Jew who doesn’t like being hated, I would like to response to the Liz Gabert letter extolling the Governor for naming April 29 as “End Jew Hatred Day.” She ends the letter “We the Jewish people of New Hampshire thank Gov. Ayotte for standing with the Jewish community at a time when so many remain silent.”
Liz, you don’t speak for me, and you are the one who remains silent.
Antisemitism is exploding across the globe mainly because of Israel, a state that appropriated our Jewish star for its flag and has nearly obliterated Gaza. Those who have been touched by the Holocaust — my late uncle survived Auschwitz — can’t remain silent when we see it happening again, especially when it is perpetrated by a Jewish state.
However horrible Oct. 7 was, and indeed it was a war crime against 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians, it is almost completely overshadowed by Israeli destruction of Gaza with more than 72,000 dead, the ongoing Israeli-blessed West Bank settler violence and the blatant ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Lebanon. More than thrice as many people died AFTER the Gaza ceasefire than on Oct. 7.
To condemn antisemitism and ignore Islamophobia and actual genocide is to remain silent. The only reason to do so, besides racism, is the misguided belief that Jews are always victims, never perpetrators, which is itself antisemitic. Jews can be just as good, and bad, as anyone else.