Horror and Resolve

For the rescuers, I am full of admiration. I admire their bravery, their skill, their patriotism — their humanity. How fortunate we are that such people exist.

• Here is Roger Waters, sitting with Glenn Greenwald:

There are always deniers. Always. There are deniers of the Holocaust. Deniers of Russia’s atrocities in Ukraine. Deniers of the Hamas atrocities against Israelis. At the same time, there are celebrators — celebrators of these same crimes. Sometimes, people deny in one breath and celebrate in the next.

• Have a look at this:

This represents failure. A failure of parenting. A failure of education. A failure of general mores. Failure after failure after failure.

• Think about something: On October 7, Hamas commits mass murder, killing more Jews than have been killed on any single day since the Holocaust. And it’s Jewish students on American campuses who have to fear? It’s Jews who have to disguise their identity — ditching their kippahs and whatnot?

What does this say about our United States? Something dark, I think.

• When there is general looting, people who would never steal, in ordinary circumstances, steal. They join in. They go with the flow. How about the recent explosion of antisemitism? Some people are deep-rooted antisemites, of course. Other people are merely joining in — going with the flow.

But the harm is the same. My guess is, the goers-with-the-flow always outnumber the true believers. The harm that has been done by going with the flow, throughout all history, is incalculable.

• Listen to Judith Butler, the renowned professor of comparative literature at Berkeley:

Thing is, Hamas and Hezbollah would eat Professor Butler alive. She would not last a day in their domains. Maybe she knows this, at some level. She has three degrees from Yale. Be that as it may, her words seem so . . . clueless.

• When I was in college, I saw kids drunk on ideology. They were horrifying. They helped me understand the 1930s as well as any textbook could. I thought, “They would have many of us in camps — they really would. They would do it without blinking.”

• Did you see this news? From NBC: “At least 45 U.S. service members may have been injured in Iran-linked attacks.” The subheading of that report is, “The number of injured, which includes two dozen service members who may have traumatic brain injuries, is more than twice as many as the Pentagon previously disclosed.”

Are these not acts of war? What would be a commensurate response?

• From France, something to rend the heart — and stiffen resolve:

• This piece was written anonymously: “The Guardian’s coverage and my colleagues’ comments mean I don’t feel safe at work.” (Go here.) I would very much like to shake the writer’s hand.

• There is a word for such a person — a person such as this diner-owner: “righteous.”

• Something in the news reminded me of Ed Koch — who was mayor of New York, for three terms. You recall that, before they beheaded him, terrorists made Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter, say, “My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish.” Koch directed that those words be etched into his tombstone (meaning, his own). They are.