Yes, You Do 'Have a Dog In That Fight'

The final installment in this series, as I shift toward a war focus for its sequel.

Oct 10, 2023

An AI-generated image created by me using the prompt “blue and white angry giant dog sharp teeth” and the “epic” filter.

Click here to check out the first 30 Installments - Volume I - in this series on Antisemitism and Culture. The top 5 most important pieces from this first wave:

This is the 30th installment in Volume II, a second collection of 30 essays exploring the many manifestations of Jew Hatred and the issues surrounding it in America and globally. See the 29 previous installments listed at the end of this article. This is the final piece in this series. A sequel series will be announced at this post’s conclusion.

These writings were part of my ongoing effort to overcome my PTSD by forcing myself to try to write and publish something every day. Since May, most of my writings on these subjects have shifted over to news reporting at Jewish News Syndicate, including a weekly report of antisemitic incidents around the world.

“Politics is downstream from culture,” the late Andrew Breitbart popularized among conservative bloggers while he was alive. I’d go a step further: Everything is downstream from culture. The cultures you embrace determine who you are and who you become. You become what you worship.

Yesterday I began the work day much earlier than usual. Since antisemitism reporting is my job, I planned to keep a live list of the significant stories I came across - much as I had the previous day. I’m still largely in a daze: still just trying to comprehend and make sense of the war that Hamas unleashed on Israel last Saturday.

I had hoped to publish the resulting collection yesterday evening, but by the end of the day, I’d descended into the usual PTSD puddle where I end up most nights. (That means that I’m going to have to update that body count …)

So here, instead, today, is a survey of current war-related updates and topics. It should give you a nice idea of where we are with this situation - and I do mean “we:"

8:10 a.m.

IDF hits hundreds of Hamas assets as Israeli death toll passes 800

Here were yesterday’s numbers:

Israel Defense Forces soldiers were still fighting with Palestinian terrorists at seven locations in southern Israel, the IDF said on Monday morning.
…
Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported that security officials estimate that between 800 and 1,000 terrorists entered Israel during the initial attack through some 80 gaps in the border. They attacked 20 civilian communities and 11 IDF bases, the report added.
The Hamas terror group killed at least 800 Israelis and wounded more than 2,300 on Saturday in a massive offensive launched from the Gaza Strip, that included the launch of thousands of rockets at the Jewish state.

And here they are today, up by 100:

The military said it struck the shaft of an underground tunnel and other assets used by Hamas to penetrate Israeli territory on Saturday and indiscriminately butcher at least 900 Israeli men, women and children.

Israeli forces retake control of Gaza border region

Some encouraging news, to see some security regained:

Israeli forces have regained control of all the communities near the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday morning after two days of combat with Hamas terrorists.
“We are in control of the ‘Gaza envelope’ communities,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told journalists during a press briefing. He warned, however, that there are still terrorists in the area.
Hagari added that the military has called up 300,000 reservists.

8:23

A congresswoman blames Israel and refuses to condemn Hamas

I’m grateful that, yesterday, I did not have to get into the sickening, but inevitable question, “What are the horrible statements going to be from the leftist Hamas supporters?” But I imagine that, later today, that respite will end. So for now I’ll just highlight this quote from one of the most malevolent antisemites in Congress:

rashidatlaib

A post shared by @rashidatlaib

8:44

Following a call from my editor, I began collecting a list of pro-Israel rallies and events to take place across the country. Here’s the story Jewish News Syndicate published.

9:51

I also received an assignment to collect the images of which government buildings around the world expressed support of Israel with blue and white lights. Here are several from Australia. And here’s the story after it was published.

12:11 p.m.

From

Eve Barlow

And the latest breaking news is that Hamas have promised to broadcast live on Telegram every execution of a hostage from Israel.

I cannot even begin to process what this would mean and do to the world.

What happens when public executions of Jews start happening on a global level?

1:25

WSJ: Iran helped plan Hamas attack over weeks, gave go-ahead

The extent of Iran’s involvement in the attack is still an open question. It will, no doubt, be debated in the coming weeks as new facts emerge:

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps helped plan the Hamas attacks on Israel and green-lit them in Beirut during a meeting on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing senior Hamas and Hezbollah members.
…
“A direct Iranian role would take Tehran’s long-running conflict with Israel out of the shadows, raising the risk of broader conflict in the Middle East,” per The Wall Street Journal. “Senior Israeli security officials have pledged to strike at Iran’s leadership if Tehran is found responsible for killing Israelis.”

3:53

A rough afternoon PTSD-wise slowed me down a bit. Then I came across this video which seemed a proper way to conclude the day:

But there was one last story of the day which some people need to read and begin to process:

Biden: At least 11 US citizens killed, ‘likely’ Hamas holding others

U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement on Monday about American citizens impacted in Israel. It is as follows:
As we continue to account for the horrors of the appalling terrorist assault against Israel this weekend and the hundreds of innocent civilians who were murdered, we are seeing the immense scale and reach of this tragedy. Sadly, we now know that at least 11 American citizens were among those killed—many of whom made a second home in Israel.
The safety of American citizens—whether at home or abroad—is my top priority as president. While we are still working to confirm, we believe it is likely that American citizens may be among those being held by Hamas.

I’m used to getting some pushback from certain people when they learn that I’m a loud Zionist activist who spends most of his days writing about antisemitic, genocidal hate groups. Usually it’s from someone on the far left or the far right. I know by rote their ideological objections to what I’m doing. I’ve studied and written about these motherfuckers for so many years; I've confronted them fucking face-to-face on the street. They don’t intimidate me. I understand where they’re coming from - they’ve got an evil, antisemitic ideology they’re committed to, and they allow their actions to simply flow from it automatically.

So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth. - Revelations 3:16

The pushback I’ve actually received that is much more inexplicable to me, and honestly, more rage-inducing, is from assholes who say, when confronted with the facts of the ongoing antisemitic genocidal war against the Jewish people, some variation of:

“Well, I just don’t have a dog in that fight.”

Well, I do - I've got friends and colleagues over there. You don’t care about their lives? Then fuck you. More than that, though, minority rights are human rights.

That's worth saying again: minority rights are human rights.

This is everybody's business.

There is an imperial war of conquest happening right now in Europe, unleashed by Vladimir Putin.

There is an imperial war of conquest happening right now in the Middle East, unleashed by the Islamic regime running Iran.

Will China now realize this is an ideal time to wage their own imperial war of conquest to capture Taiwan?

Will that little bastard enslaving his people in North Korea see his chance here to inflict some damage on his neighbors?

We are on the verge of a global world war. During World War II, the Axis powers were Germany, Japan, and Germany. As the War on Terror began over 20 years ago, George W. Bush named an “Axis of evil” - Iraq, Iran, and North Korea.

I propose a new framing as the next phase of the war begins: the Axis of Genocide. The three evil nations allied together who are giving the most fuel to global warfare and oppression are:

Russia, Iran, and China

These three nations are allied together in the genocidal wars waged against the Ukrainian people, the Jewish people, and the Uyghur people.

If these evil slave states are not fought against vigorously then their oppressions will only extend further across the planet. This, we learn from even the most cursory glance back at history, is likely to destabilize the global economy, ultimately requiring American troops to fight somewhere, and making a series of terrorist attacks on American soil much more likely.

Make no mistake: the Hamas fighters are terrorists. Hamas is a terrorist group.

This threat should feel uncomfortably familiar - not utterly foreign - to Americans.

When I began this series last fall, I had made my focus “antisemitism and culture,” explaining in the second entry that I regarded the culture someone embraced as the primary factor in whether they became an antisemite and to what degree. I wanted to pick apart and exhibit the varieties of cultures involved here. After dozens of entries on these themes, I’ve now shifted my writings on these subjects primarily to news reports at JNS. So I think that, for now, I’ve covered this territory enough. It’s time to refocus.

And so I announce a new series, a shift in my writings at this Substack on antisemitism. When I began full-time writing in 2009, I joined a new, though well-established tradition: “war blogging.” 9/11 and the War on Terror coincided with the rise of blogging technology, leading to many writers dedicating their publications to chronicling and analyzing the war.

I’m now going to return to that tradition. The war against the Jews is a global one and it is genocidal in its aims. It’s time to start talking about it in those terms, and further talking about the broader “Axis” of supporters in this war.

I hope you’ll join me as I continue in this new direction here at God of the Desert’s Substack. At the same time, I assure you that we will continue to offer content on a variety of subjects, beyond the horror of war.