Hey, What Happened to the Axis of Genocide?

How my writing fits into this Substack's signature Zionist content

Hello!

Hello! I'm Sally Shideler, and I'm a Managing Editor here at the God of the Desert Books Substack. I figured that I ought to introduce myself to our wave of new subscribers and talk a little bit about what I do around here, and why you sometimes don't see Zionist content.

One role I fill is that of Director of Marketing for our publishing company. It's a pleasure for me to study all the many ways to get satisfying books into the hands of their perfect readers! I'm also a writer myself - by birth as much as by practice! I'm the daughter of two prolific writers, editors, and English teachers/professors, and for too long I ignored my writing calling as a pitiful way of rebelling against my parents! Luckily, I've realized that decision was tantamount to cutting off my nose to spite my face, and I'm now nurturing my own writing career.

But now: to the reason you're here.

I'm fairly new to the Zionist cause, but it's become very important to me in many ways: as a morally conscientious person, as a spiritual buffet-goer, and even as a German-American who's lived in the Vaterland and cringed at the long shadow cast by the Holocaust.

To be clear, I'm not Jewish by ethnicity, culture, or conversion, though I greatly admire Judaism and its values. In an age where so many people's political priorities are born of identity politics, I think this is an important fact to underscore: Israel’s fight is not my own, but I support it vigorously just the same.

As a student of Zionism, Israeli-American relations, and the increasing antisemitic sentiment worldwide and in the States, I tend to leave the complex analysis to my fiancé and partner, David Swindle. He is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of this Substack and its parent publishing company, and is the driving force behind the Zionist content you likely signed up for.

The man with the plan!

David is also a reporter for Jewish News Syndicate, where he covers all sorts of Jewish news, including war reporting. He has become one of the country's most-informed experts on antisemitism, curating a report of antisemitic incidents for JNS that is sometimes so maddeningly lengthy that it's released daily. Check out his JNS activism at the above links. And check out The Algemeiner, a legacy American Jewish publication where Dave is a weekend editor, here.

The Zionist calling is an important one which I support fiercely, even as I tend to write about lighter subjects. Why is that? In a sense it's because learning about new paradigms requires a lot more listening than talking - but it's also because I see what lingering too long in this space can do to people.

The situation in Israel (not “the war in Gaza") is much worse than it was when we founded this publication in July 2022. Since then, Kanye West has gone on a talk show to say, "I looove Hitler.” Former President and current Presidential candidate Donald Trump has had dinner with West and Nick Fuentes, antisemites both. Twitter has been turned into a Jew-hatred haven under the non-leadership of antisemite Elon Musk. Dozens of incidents of antisemitism each month have metastisized into hundreds. And now that Israel is at war after the vile and unprecedented Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, they're at all all-time high: the ADL’s Center on Extremism tracked a 388% increase in public acts of antisemitism in just the two-week period after Hamas started the war.

War is disgusting. It's terrible. And I don't dispute that thousands of citizens, both in Gaza and in Israel, have had their lives disrupted or worse because of Hamas’ unnecessary, cruel campaign of terror. And you can't eat, live, and breathe terror. Human life cannot be sustained that way. Constant anger, fear, and defensiveness can change a person's brain chemistry, and not for the better.

I really worry about this effect on Dave, my partner. When you research, interview, analyze, and write war all day long, the world can look pretty bleak. But the truth is that most of us here in the Western world have a degree of remove from the worst of it, and I believe God means for us to realize that and know that it's a blessing.

So I try to write stuff that distracts us. Maybe it'll be a reflective piece about my perceived obligation to an overly-ambitious to-do list. Maybe it'll be an analysis of the new “Frasier" revival, or perhaps the occasional humor piece. It's good for us to laugh.

Any time you see such posts, I want you to know that your Zionist content will resume shortly! We do have readers here for cultural commentary and other lighter fare, so we like to try to cater to all comers as much as possible. If the Axis of Genocide series brought you here, please know that it will resume this week … right after these messages! (I'm the messages.)

Happy reading, folks!