I thought the lady on the phone was asking what I thought about June.
“June?” I repeated, or thought I was, back to her, thinking this was some kinda prank. I decided to answer the phone in the first place as a break from housecleaning on a spring Saturday afternoon about 12 years ago.
“Yes, June. What do you think about June?” sounded like what she said, repeated brusquely with a distinct Brooklyn accent.
“June? Like the month of June?” I asked again, probably sounding every bit a dumb Southern hick, really trying hard to clarify what seemed a bizarre question out of the blue.
“No, not June. Jews!” came the reply.
“Jews?!” I asked, even more baffled about this strange question, and to me.
“Yes, Jews. What is your opinion of Jewish people?”
“Oh, you mean Jews, like the Bible & God’s chosen people?” I clarified, still unsure why in the world anyone would call someone in Texas about their opinion of Jews. Not that Jews don’t live out here and suffer through the oppressive heat and backwoods state government like the rest of us.
I answered positively: I think Jews are great people. I hold them in the highest regard.
Then she continued with what became an obvious survey that somehow included little ol’ me: “On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the greatest, where would you rank the Jewish people?”
I replied straight up: 10.
Then questions continued with ranking the Jews, Israel, the Arab people, and Palestinians in particular. These questions came at a time when not much was going on in that part of the world—not like it had been for decades, dominating nightly news: always the Israeli/PLO conflict. Always no peace between those two nations, those two ancient people. But that seemed long ago as Israel signed peace accords with a few Arab nations including the Palestinians. I remember the televised historical moment well: With our mouths agape, we saw PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, whose organization was known for terrorism, shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin over a peace accord during the Clinton administration. Things seemed optimistic back then. We don’t hear about the PLO anymore or Arafat and Rabin, both dead—Rabin assassinated by one of his own people for trying to create peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
When the surveyor questioned me about which side I was on: Israel or Palestine, that’s where I had to be honest and not so much solidly pro-Israel. In two questions, I ranked both nations or people at a level 4 or 5 on questions, especially about which side I thought truly wanted peace. She asked why. So I told her. I’ve paid attention to the situation from the news including 60 Minutes and other in-depth coverage in print, TV, radio and online reports about the two feuding nations (ancient hostilities than go back to Bible times—”Father Abraham had two sons: Ishmael and Isaac …”) and concluded both nations “give as good as they get.” She didn’t understand that expression and wanted me to elaborate. I said I don’t believe either side wants peace anymore, which would mean vowing to never war again. Neither side is willing to put down their arms or their emotional and physical defenses. I couldn’t blame Israel, I noted. The Arab world has always hated Israel, a speck of land on the world map—created internationally after World War II, for obvious reasons.
Then, aha!, the survey queried my knowledge of the Carter Center, which I support, and how I feel about President Jimmy Carter, whom I love. Now I understood how I was on a list to survey about Israel and Palestine. If I recall correctly, when pressed about the Gaza strip, if it should be returned to the Palestinians or if Israel should remain in control of the area, I said I think it should be returned to the Palestinians. I thought there might be peace then. I admitted to being extremely naïve on this subject—all of it. Who am I to have any opinion on it? I don’t live there. And whatever happened to the two-state solution?
But during the Trump administration when the U.S. suddenly decided to recognize the capital of Israel as Jerusalem and Palestinians in Gaza elected as its government Hamas—an organization that wants Jews cleared out of the Middle East for good—I knew war was inevitable.
Caught unaware
Where I’ve lived most of my life, north and east Texas, and having been raised by a blue-collar country music- and gospel preaching-loving family, I never heard the phrase ‘dirty Jews.’ Seriously, never. Only read it in school studies of the Holocaust and maybe heard it in movies. But in a graduate course called The Psychology of Hate, the Dallas director of the local Anti-Defamation League brought up the phrase ‘dirty Jew’ as if we’ve all heard it, like it’s some ethnic slur we all grow up hearing.
Not in my family. Not among my friends and neighbors. I’d say I never heard anyone even say the word ‘Jew’ unless talking about a biblical passage—even then rarely.
What I know of Jews is from comedians and their dry humor: Billy Crystal’s line when Jimmy Swaggart cried sorely when a-comin’ clean to his congregation about a sexual secret: “I’ve sinned against you,” Crystal mocked the reverend in heavy NYC Jewish accent, “I bought retail! So, sue me.”
Perhaps like most Americans, all I know about Jews is humor. The big-name comedians seem to joke a lot about themselves, their culture, their families’ struggle to assimilate into American culture—which Jewish people have struggled to do throughout history in every nation the world over.
Now … 1,400 Israelis were slaughtered and many more injured and physically taken away from their homes like it’s Nazi Germany.
Israel was caught unprepared. News prior to the Hamas attack was of a divided Israel with many public protests and half the country distrustful of its leader who many now blame for a slow effort to stop Hamas during the shocking murderous rampage which included rape and kidnapping. So until further notice, it’s total war until Israel or Hamas drives their eternal foe to the sea.
Meanwhile, those of us who are news junkies will see reports 24/7 every possible angle of the war, from both sides. Just like Ukraine, Afghanistan and Iraq.
The truth is we Americans are war weary. We just ended two 20-year wars, leaving many families without loved ones or returned military to deal with injuries, a third of which are unspeakably cruel and lifelong. We spent a generation of blood, time and treasure to war in the Middle East. American society will remain more angry and violent for a generation to come directly linked to the once-proclaimed ‘perpetual’ twin wars.
And what did we learn? We learned that our natural human instinct is to be at peace not war.
There is extreme controversy for supporting the Palestinians, thousands of them killed and being killed and removed by Israel’s military—or as Arabs say in that part of the world “by Jews.”
Why entire cultures of people hate Jews even to this day, I’ll never understand. But Israel’s response—ferocious and unrelenting—is understandable. They know their enemy … apparently better than they know themselves.