The evening of the Monday on which you’ll be reading this posting marks the start of the Rosh Hashanah holiday on the Jewish calendar, which in turn begins what is called the Days of Awe – the ten days till the end of Yom Kippur during which one repents for the sins one has committed during the past year and charts an improved course for the year ahead.
At least that’s the way I have approached this period every fall. But I must admit that, although there’s lots to repent for and to improve in my personal life, my thoughts are more directed toward the world beyond my individual moral accounting to the larger arena where several events are unfolding that occupy the bulk of my brain space.
Let’s begin closest to home in my Jewish world. Earlier this week, the Israelis launched the long-threatened ground assault on Gaza City. Like so many previous points in the war, this one is billed as the final step toward eradicating Hamas and ending the conflict. This escalation requires yet another relocation of the Palestinian population, even though there is no place safe for them to go. The attack will result in a huge spike in civilian casualties, adding to the already obscene number of deaths of civilians as we approach the second anniversary of the Gaza War.
For a long time I resisted applying the term genocide to what the Israelis have perpetrated, but I can no longer withhold that label from a campaign that has rendered the territory unlivable and has brought starvation and famine to countless innocent people. And all I can do is to publicly condemn these actions and distance myself from them by declaring that none of it is being done in my name. Yet, in the eyes of much of the world, this genocide is a stain on the Jewish people as a whole, with no exemptions for Jews like me who stand in opposition. After all, we were silent, all the way back to 1948 and then 1967, oblivious to the harm we were inflicting on another people. I am very aware that there is little that I’ve just said about Gaza that most of you don’t already know, but it’s important for me, particularly in this season, to express my strongest opposition and my deepest sadness in response to the tragedy which continues to engulf this sad little strip of land
I want to turn now to the assassination of Charlie Kirk. I begin with the all-too-familiar disclaimer that I don’t condone violence against anyone, regardless of how abhorrent their beliefs. My interest here is not to focus on Kirk and his assassin, but on how his death is being used by Trump to consolidate his control over the country and to punish and neutralize his enemies. The parallels to the Nazis’ use of the Reichstag Fire to capture the reins of Germany’s government are undeniable, yet few Democrats are willing to attach that name to it for fear of being accused of fomenting violence by branding Trump a Nazi.
I’m referring to events that occurred more than 90 years ago. Some readers may be unfamiliar with the details, while others, like me, just need a refresher to understand how timely the parallels are. In the elections of March 1933 the Nazi Party won about a third of the seats in the Reichstag, enough for Hitler to be appointed prime minister but not enough for him to enact his sweeping plans for authoritarian control. Shortly after the elections a fire broke out in the Reichstag building. Four men linked to the Communist Party, Hitler’s primary opposition, were charged with setting the fire, though three of them were later acquitted and the true cause of the fire is in dispute even today.
Using the pretext of the fire, Hitler arrested large numbers of communists before the next election which enabled him to increase the number of Nazi Party seats in the Reichstag, enough to enable him to win the power to rule by decree without consulting parliament and, ultimately, to suspend most civil liberties, including habeas corpus and freedom of the press. The rest is history.
I would contend that Charlie Kirk’s murder is Trump’s Reichstag Fire, the opening he is attempting to use to fill in the missing pieces of his push for authoritarian control. Already he has declared the mysterious, essentially non-existent Antifa as domestic terrorists, a cover for incriminating everyone on the left and those who fund them as enemies of the people. He has used Jimmy Kimmel’s rather innocuous remarks about the assassination as grounds for having him fired from his late-night TV show, a major blow to free speech condemned even by right wingers like Tucker Carlson. Kirk’s murder brings Trump closer to controlling a large segment of major media outlets and silencing his most hated critics. That is just the beginning of the ways we are likely to see Trump exploit the murder to achieve his ultimate authoritarian control. This and Gaza have invaded and occupied my brain space in ways that make it difficult for me to enter into the personal reflection that I consider to be the primary task and reward of the Days of Awe. I hope that the arc of justice of which Dr. King spoke so eloquently will soon bend in a direction that will enable me to get back on track next year.
