From the Republic of Conscience*

Recently, I awoke to the sounds of a man outside my window shouting, “Free Palestine! Free Palestine!” It was the dawn of a new day. Literally and metaphorically and most emphatically, the dawn of a new day, in a city now run by its first Muslim mayor and in places far beyond.

Support for the genocidal state of Israel has collapsed around the world. Here in the US, according to a recent CNN poll, a minority of those polled hold favorable views of Israel, a shift of 67 points in 8 years. In Australia, that number is 13%. The above-mentioned mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani, called for the arrest of accused war criminal Bibi Netanyahu on X and it was liked over a million times, a remarkable tally on that platform these days. (For comparison, the mealy-mouthed Zionist head of the ADL got fewer than 200 likes for sputtering about what an antisemite Mamdani is for saying so.) When Macklemore went to X to explain why he spoke the same words as the stranger below my window before an Ed Sheeran concert, it got millions more. Another record. And speaking of Macklemore, country star Zach Bryan recently wore a Free Palestine t-shirt at his concert at Gillette Stadium, a big eff you to owner Robert Kraft who tried to take Macklemore down for expressing the same thing.

Collaborators now express some cover-their-asses regret for fully supporting Netanyahu during the Biden administration. (Fuck your regret, by the way, Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan.) Across the country, Democratic socialists who denounce Israel are winning Senate primaries (most notably Abdul al-Sayed as the Democratic nominee for senator from Michigan who calls out the genocide in Gaza and US funding for it, despite tens of millions being spent by AIPAC and other big-money donors to try to block him). Meanwhile sycophants like Lindsey Graham are no longer around to beat the drum for genocide.

A young woman who was fired from Burger King for saying “Free Palestine” to a Zionist customer who was harassing and provoking her raised over $100,000 from supporters in a matter of days. The same goes for a woman who called a Zionist taunting her in a gym for wearing a keffiyeh a Zionist pig. Raz Segal, a renowned Jewish Holocaust scholar who was denied an academic post at the University of Minnesota for characterizing what is happening in Gaza as a genocide, was just paid a $250,000 settlement.

Things have gotten so bad Israel staged the most embarrassing false flag in the history of false flags by pretending a plumber on an AirDubai flight calmly walked Into the cockpit to wrest the controls away from a knife-wielding pilot as the plane was descending at a rate so fast he should have been plastered to the ceiling. The story has more holes than a Whack-a-Mole tournament and the jokes about It have gone viral.

I say all this because 2.5 years ago, such views were used as reasons to suspend and expel students from top universities, deport those here legally and fire people from their jobs. People like me.

A user who went by the name Petit Oiseau on Threads, when he learned I’d been fired, crowed: “Best day of my life!” The best day of this person’s life wasn’t their wedding day or the day their child was born but the day a stranger was fired for daring to suggest children in Gaza shouldn’t have their heads blown off. Then, it felt like a threat. Now it sounds like just more in a mountain of evidence that proves Zionists are evil and psychotic. I feel confident now that history will vindicate me and will shame those who either tried to take me down or didn’t stand with me against genocide. And I’m no longer afraid to tell them exactly how I feel. Not just the strangers, but the people I once called friends and co-workers.

The Former Boss: It wasn’t enough that I was fired. You had to try to make sure I was shunned by my former colleagues and never worked again. By claiming I was somehow stealing company secrets. Which is, of course, a lie. But it's no surprise that a boot-licking toady who is convinced she is always right would try to claim otherwise. You pretend to hold the values of Quakers so your kids can go to private school and so you can sit on its board and brag about yourself on LinkedIn. To be clear: The Quakers stand with me on this issue. Against the genocide and against anyone trying to destroy those denouncing it. By the way, the song "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" was inspired by the restaurant Fontana di Trevi, which once stood across the street from Carnegie Hall. Not some dump in your redneck hometown on Long Island. I once knew the daughter of the former owners so I should know. Oh, and one more thing: Studies have shown that GLP-1's may cause osteoporosis in post-menopausal women, so be sure to take your calcium. Being a shitty person is bad enough, but a shitty person with a hunchback and Ozempic face? Even I'd feel sorry for you. May your son forever be confused with the second sex pest currently sitting on the Supreme Court.

The Video Guy: You wear a t-shirt that says Soy Division. Show your son you care as much about children being slaughtered as you do about chickens being slaughtered.

The Teacher: Your sky fairy would like a word.

Rebecca Double-Barreled Surname: Does anyone give a fuck yet that your grandmother was Jewish? Didn't think so.

The Former Friend With Armenian Roots: I hope you never experience the pain you put me through and that if you do, you have friends like mine kind enough to find the best nearby mental health facilities and ensure they have a bed for you. Because I quite literally would not be here without them.

The Ukelele-Playing "Proud Zionist" Who Accosts People on the Street and Whose Tits Are Always In Your Face: One more time: Fuck Israel.

The Man Who Was Once the COO of the Firm Where I Once Worked: In a few years, you will rethink that LinkedIn post boasting that you are bff with a liar and a shithead and a war criminal like Isaac "Here's Another Pristine Copy of Mein Kampf I found in the Rubble of a Dead Palestinian's Home" Herzog. But those of us who saw it know who you really are. A name-dropping Nazi, a shameless propagandist and a genocidal ghoul.

To all the rest of you: Say it with me. From the river to the sea. Palestine will soon be free. Those who stood by its people will soon, finally, be exonerated and I'm here for it, Inshallah.

*This is the title of a Seamus Heaney poem I came across at an exhibit of his work while on a recent trip to Ireland, something I will be writing more about shortly.