I Can't Sleep

Me: "Seth Rogan?"

Wife: "Yeah, what about him?"

Me: "He's one of the good ones"

Wife: "Ah! Good. I always liked him."

It's been a mad couple of months in this house. It probably started on New Years Eve when we kicked off the new year with a screaming match between Christina's parents and the two of us. In one corner, the in-laws insisting that Israel isn't bent on killing everyone in Gaza and that the Palestinians had this coming, and in our corner absolute disbelief that these people who we love and respect are looking into the face of literal genocide and thinking: Meh, it's not that bad.

Update (2024-03-01): my in-laws have come around!

I'm afraid to talk to my parents about it for fear that they too are on the wrong side of this. My brother has already made it abundantly clear that he is, but that's not all that surprising.

It's a crazy position to be in, to see something so terrible in the world and to have people whose views you generally respect be so blasé about 10,000 dead children and a state that clearly has made this a key goal. Somehow, it was easier to be fine with this when Israel was only corralling millions of Palestinians in an open-air prison and restricting their access to food, water, medical supplies and even musical instruments, but now that they've dropped the mask entirely and are just erasing a people before our eyes... I find myself thinking of everyone in my life:

Are they one of the good ones?

It's not really about judgement, but rather solidarity. Most of the time it really does feel like we're out on a limb here, a handfull of people both enraged by this crime and terrified by the silence around it that emboldens it. Israel has managed to conflate criticism of Zionism with antisemitism, and this has had a chilling effect on criticism in the political arena all the way down. People are legitimately afraid of being fired for opposing genocide, and so -- I have to believe -- many of us recognise this for what it is, but stay silent for fear of retribution.

I know it's scary, but I need this right now. I think we all do. I need you to tell me you're one of the good ones, that you recognise this for what it is, and that you wish you could stop it. You may think that you can't do anything about it, and you're probably right, but I'm not asking you to fix this, I'm just asking you to help me feel like I'm not alone out here on this limb, that the people I love and respect in my life are on the right side of history, even if we're powerless to shape it.

Leave a comment, message me privately, tack on a 🍉 or ✊🏾 or 🇵🇸 emoji onto your social handle, or even tweak your avatar to show support for a Free people. Please, just show me that there are still some Good people in my life who are not ok with this. I can't begin to describe to you the degree to which the despair of feeling alone on this limb is taking on my psyche.