Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

I don’t get along great with my family.

The one that raised me.

(Mom, Dad and Brother.)

Back in the weekly column days at APE, I definitely shared details, (perhaps overshared,) but haven’t written on the subject lately.

Frankly, I don’t want to get too deeply into it here, but there is one connecting point to land.

In our family unit at present, I’m on the outside looking in.

My younger brother has acted like an older brother our entire lives, and has never expressed the slightest interest in me.

But we have a civil level of communication at present.

(While I was the favorite growing up, he usurped the position years ago, and my parents moved to his town in 2022 after nearly 30 years in Taos.)

With my folks, we’re essentially estranged, as we cannot have contact without conflict.

In their eyes, because I’m at fault for the drama, they’re justified in treating me in ways I deem cruel.

That’s the key concept here: because they think I’m “bad,” they believe I deserve to be treated poorly.

It’s my fault they can’t be generous or kind to me.

Because I get what I deserve.

Sound familiar?

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Yes, I’m back to teaching in parable.

What I really want you to consider is what it feels like to be a Jew in 2024.

Pretty much everybody hates us.

The right and left wings have converged, united in the common opinion that Jews deserve to be harassed and vilified.

We’re the worst.

All of us are Zionists, and no matter how long we go back in America, our allegiance is to that apartheid state across the world.

On the left, unless you believe that Israel should be disbanded, returned to the Palestinians, and all Jews should go back to whatever Diaspora country their ancestors fled 100 years ago, you’re out.

That is their legitimate position.

On the far right, where Jews will not replace us, anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Evangelical Christianity will know that what Jews get is a choice, in the End Times:

Convert or Die.

So there you have it.

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Personally, where I live, being Jewish doesn’t impact my daily life.

In Taos, everyone’s always been on edge, as this is a Frontier culture, so being a Jew here is fine.

However, most of us also live online in 2024.

And it’s pretty shitty to be Jewish on the internet.

Always being told you suck.

You’re wrong.

Being conflated with Netanyahu.

Here on the blog, I’ve called that fucker out twice already.

As I believe both sides in this conflict have behaved abominably.

There is no glory here.

For anyone.

The only step that makes any sense at all is to find peace.

That’s it.

Let’s figure out how to find a peaceful solution, how to de-escalate, how to return to a world with less prejudice.

And let’s have two separate countries: Israel and Palestine.

Please and Thank you.