The time of monsters

The above I Ching hexagram is called Po – Splitting Apart. It is a visual representation of oppressors violently seizing power by overthrowing the final top line. When you receive this hexagram, you’re about to be blindsided.

I’m giving it to you to heed.

It’s the final day of Elul; in the evening it will be Rosh HaShanah 5786. The immediate impetus for this post is the recognition of Palestine, without condition, of several European countries, including the one I live in whose prime minister I voted for. But I’m hoping, in this brief missive, to go a bit wider.

The UN General Assembly kicks off five days of debate tomorrow – Rosh HaShanah – with a scheduled briefing on the Middle East, on a day wherein Jews cannot participate. Regardless of whether conservative outlets are correct in their assessment that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation lobbied for this timing, the UNGA has still opted to hold a briefing on the region containing the only Jewish state, whose actions in Gaza will undoubtedly feature in said briefing, on a day when Israel’s representatives are meant to be celebrating one of the holiest days of our calendar.

I think back over the history of Israel’s wars with its neighbours, many of which were initiated – not by Israel – over the High Holy Days. This extends to the 7 October terrorist attacks, which happened not just on Simchat Torah (the conclusion of Sukkot), but also on Shabbat. I think about the synagogue shootings on Yom Kippurs of years past. A new front, once again opened at a time when we’ve made ourselves vulnerable to G-d.

I think about faeces smeared on the door of a Jewish nursery. I think about bullets fired at a Jewish school. I think about the fact that any Jew reading the preceding two sentences will know when and where these events occurred, whereas a Gentile will shake their head and wonder whether it’s really that bad.

I of course think about the dead and living hostages remaining in Gaza. I think about Evyatar David forced to dig his own grave. To give Hamas anything resembling a PR victory at this time seems to me to be the height of stupidity, the height of arrogance. And yet I voted for the man who did – what does that make me?

Let’s go even wider, to the country in which I was born. A memorial service was recently held for a murdered man. He held repugnant views, but it’s widely agreed that having despicable opinions isn’t a good reason to murder someone. Although some initial evidence points to the call coming from inside the house, MAGA Republicans have thundered about Antifa and weaponised this murder to legislate against them, even using the memorial service to run a Republican registration drive in a truly stomach-churning exercise in propaganda.

The far Left, in response, has doubled down on this murder, memeing about the many repugnant things this man said and even chastising the ‘Liberals’ pointing out that freedom of speech should mean both freedom to hold offensive views and freedom from being murdered for them. Faced with the adoption of cancel culture by the Right, the Left reinforces its neo-Maoist thinking with classes of undesirables to be targeted – billionaires, landlords, CEOs, ‘fascists’ (does that term even hold meaning anymore? ‘Fascism’ used to have a static definition).

Jews have to pick which poison to kill ourselves with. The Maoist Left counts support of Israel among Charlie Kirk’s many supposed sins, and the MAGA Right spreads conspiracy theories that Mossad bumped him off for being insufficiently supportive. We always unite the horseshoe, evidently.

Watch carefully what happens now in 5786, over the next few months, weeks… even days.

Things will happen faster than you think.

The global body politic is splitting apart, and our oppressors will swoop down to feast on its corpse. Now is the time of monsters.