Elon Musk likes to express himself, as many of us do — and he has a mighty perch at the platform he owns, X (as he renamed Twitter). Musk has 163 million followers. That’s a lot.
He has opinions about Taiwan. The PRC’s ambassador to the U.S. publicly thanked him for them. He has opinions about Ukraine. He was cited, of course, by the Russian embassy in Washington. He has opinions about Israel, too.
Indeed, advice: “I would recommend that Israel engage in the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible ever. That is the actual thing that would thwart the goal of Hamas.”
There was once a popular bumper sticker: “Practice random acts of kindness.” Perhaps Musk was remembering that.
What he may not know is that Israel has bent over backward. The government withdrew entirely from Gaza in 2005 — a painful, very difficult thing to do. Israel left infrastructure for the Gaza Palestinians — which militants immediately destroyed. Shimon Peres, the late, great dove, used to say how he, personally, had raised millions of dollars for the care of sick Palestinian children. Etc., etc.
The problem is not that the Israelis have not been nice enough. The problem, for their enemies, is that they exist. Hamas is determined to wipe Israel out; which is why Israel, in turn, must wipe Hamas out.
A man who, on X, goes as “The Artist Formerly Known as Eric” wrote,
Okay.
Jewish communties [sic] have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.
I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.
You want truth said to your face, there it is.
Musk responded, “You have said the actual truth.”
A reader writes to me,
Hi, Jay:
Sorry to bother you with this, but I’m hoping that you might be able to clarify something that no one at our local bluegrass jam can explain — not even the banjo player. . . .
I understand “hatred,” and I thought I had a vague understanding of “dialectical,” but I can’t seem to grasp what those words mean when put together.
I’m also a bit confused by the apparent contrasting of “Jewish communities” and “whites.”
As to “dialectical hatred,” I’m with the banjo player: Beats me. As to Jews vs. whites — well, other people are eager to count Jews as whites (and thus among the baddies). Color in America will drive you cuckoo. (You should have heard what “whites” once said about Italian and Slavic immigrants.)
Some years ago, a government agency — or some other body, I can’t remember — announced that Jews would no longer be considered a “minority.” A reader wrote to me, “When I heard that Jews were no longer a minority, I had my first good night’s sleep in 2,000 years.”
Anyway, back to “You have said the actual truth.” Last year, the House Judiciary Republicans tweeted out a kind of trinity: “Kanye. Elon. Trump.” That was the whole of the tweet. Oh-for-three, as far as I’m concerned.