Can it get worse?
As we teeter on the edge of a new civil year the question on most people’s minds is whether 2022 will be worse than 2021.
Michael Kuttner
Although my crystal ball is just as murky as anyone else’s the short answer is – YES.
One has only to survey the landscape to discover that all the problems and threats which menaced us this year are still lurking.
Sweeping problems under the carpet, wishful thinking and half-hearted attempts at combating threats have all contributed towards making this new year potentially far more lethal. As far as Jews and Israel are concerned the levels of animosity are destined to soar to new heights with repercussions well off the Richter scale.
At the end of last year, I predicted that we would be in for a rough ride and so it has transpired. All those politicians, including our previous Prime Minister, who triumphantly proclaimed that their brilliant strategies had defeated Corona, have been proven once again to be wrong.
The list of challenges ahead is long and of course, only includes those things we already know about. There are plenty of unknowns waiting to ambush us, some as a result of inaction this year and others because of unforeseen developments.
Without a doubt, the continuing rampage of COVID and its variants will make 2022 a make or break year. Israeli “experts” confidently predicted that as we were the first nation in the world to vaccinate a large percentage of its population we would show how to defeat this virus. Well, after two shots of the vaccine, lo and behold, immunity has waned and a third booster within the space of a few months was said to be needed. Now with Omicron rampaging it transpires that this third booster is still not enough and there is talk of a fourth booster. Children as young as five are now being vaccinated and in the face of unknown long term side effects, including cases of cardiac complications there is a general wariness by an increasing number of the public.
Not helping in the slightest are the almost hourly changes in regulations concerning quarantining, international travel, green passes, shops and mall requirements and gatherings for weddings, funerals and worship. In other words, total balagan with confused messaging, reversal of policies and with medical experts and politicians issuing conflicting misinformation.
All this should be a lesson for those countries which still believe that a third booster is their salvation. Our experience proves that there is still a long way to go to control this virus and there is no guarantee that 2022 is going to see the end of it. Meanwhile hysteria reigns.
The world’s longest rampaging virus is meantime mutating at a fast rate. If you thought 2021 was bad as far as Judeophobia and anti-Israel outbursts were concerned strap yourselves in because 2022 is going to be wilder. No amount of boosters will protect us from the onslaught of hate by an increasingly infected mass of individuals and groups on all continents. Every variety of inoculation has been tried ranging from education, tours to Poland, building ever more grandiose holocaust museums, visiting Israel and Yad Vashem plus interfaith interaction. While all these attempts at vaccinating youth and adults alike are commendable they unfortunately only provide immunity to a minuscule minority.
The number of high school students and young adults who do not have a clue about the Shoah and its implications is growing. In countries where assimilation and alienation are rife the number of Jews tuning out is increasing.
Universities have become fertile grounds for targeting students who stand up for Israel and increasing numbers of Jewish students now feel threatened and intimidated by the virulent hate promoted by faculty and fellow students alike.
Jews are no longer safe in a number of countries and this trend will accelerate in the coming year. The tragedy is that like in the 1930s far too many don’t want to know and close their eyes to what is unfolding. Aliyah figures for 2021 give us a glimmer of hope that some at least realize that their future as Jews no longer resides in exile from the Promised Land.
Trying to appease and please those who hate us never has been a successful option and is especially doomed today. Therefore when Israel eventually takes firm steps to deal with the Iranian threat, be prepared for an avalanche of sanctimonious drivel from the morally degenerate international community and its supporting chorus of self-loathing Jews.
The coming year will see China hosting the winter Olympics. Nothing has changed since 1936 when the IOC enthusiastically sponsored the Olympics in Berlin while German Jews were already being targeted for dispossession, incarceration and expulsion from society. Allowing countries which target their minorities and shlep them off to re-education camps to host the Games should be a mark of shame. Fear of upsetting the host country should not override the moral imperative to uphold human rights. It is therefore doubly troubling that the Israeli Olympic Committee is prepared to not only participate but also to send officials to Beijing. Of all people, we should know and act better.
Will our eight party coalition make it through to the end of 2022?
Can long overdue reforms actually eventuate in the conversion process and kashrut certification? This would open these areas to long-delayed competition.
Logic would seem to indicate that the answer is no. However, this being the land of miracles one would be rash to predict its dissolution. A hundred and one dramas and crises will no doubt test its viability but so long as Netanyahu refuses to retire the desire to break up will be tempered. However, nothing is guaranteed so the coming twelve months will be a roller coaster ride.
Is it likely that the Palestinian Arab Authority and its partners in crime, namely Hamas and Hezbollah, will finally bite the bullet and reconcile themselves to recognizing Jewish indigenous rights to Israel? If you believe in fairy stories and fantasies and there are far too many who still do, you will without a doubt be sorely disappointed. Once again, those whom the international community continues to fund will invest your money in manufacturing rockets, digging tunnels, educating their next generation to hate Jews, denying any Jewish historical presence here, venerating “martyrs” who murder Israelis and keeping their refugees in perpetual servitude and misery.
The tragedy of course is that in 2022 just as they have done in previous years the international media will distort, deliberately misreport, excuse and overlook each and every terror promoting act perpetrated by those masquerading as victims of Israeli colonialist policies. Instead of honestly reporting the facts we will again be faced with endless reports of how Israel is oppressing, suppressing and sponsoring apartheid. These lies have now become embedded, so much so, that George Orwell would have a field day if he were alive today. We have the ability to fight these media distortions but regrettably, the lies have already taken on a validity which is very hard to erase.
Israel is not the only potential victim being prepared for sacrificial offerings as we welcome the new year.
Taiwan, Ukraine, South Korea and minorities from Kurds to Uhyigars and Christians are endangered and liable to be invaded, persecuted or murdered. One wouldn’t know it from the avalanche of UN resolutions passed which condemn Israel alone for committing the heinous sin of actually existing and thriving.
These are just a sample of the challenges confronting us.
We are in a better position to counter them if we acknowledge their potential for causing us harm rather than living in a state of denial and delusional la la land.
The Jewish People have been around for longer than most. We have experienced the worst that humanity can throw at us.
We should by now have devised and employed effective strategies to counter those targeting us.
That means removing blinkers, rolling up our sleeves and girding our loins for the battles ahead.
Michael Kuttner is a Jewish New Zealander who for many years was actively involved with various communal organisations connected to Judaism and Israel. He now lives in Israel and is J-Wire’s correspondent in the region.
