Justifying Terror Against Jews

(Brief essay on the recent Amsterdam proto-pogrom)

Jewish women attacked in Amsterdam

Have you ever had so much to say on a subject that it feels impossible to say anything at all? I’m sitting at my computer, my mind full of dozens of places to begin.

I’ll start with someone I used to know when I lived in New York in the mid-eighties. I won’t mention his name because I’m about to slam him in this piece. He was, and perhaps still is, a hairdresser of note. Funny to think of him—since I no longer have any hair—but I’ll explain why in a moment.

This “hairdresser of note” (let’s call him HON) was introduced to me by a mutual friend, a brilliant photographer who thought HON could revamp our band’s dowdy Minnesotan aesthetic with trendy 1980s hairstyles. I liked HON. He had charisma, and I appreciated some of his advice, even if it occasionally bordered on absurdity.

One pearl of wisdom: “Treat your hair like a salad. Never use shampoo, only water.” I followed this advice religiously for several months. While I suspect my subsequent hair loss was genetic, I can’t entirely absolve HON. The other advice he gave me was to write a song called Don’t Stop Me Now. I never wrote it, but the phrase stuck with me—an appeal, perhaps, to God, to life itself. Back then, even amidst mourning my father’s early death, I didn’t want to be stopped by anything, much less my own demise.

And now, onto the subject I want to address. (Sorry for burying the lede.)

Last night, not long after the pogrom against Israeli Jews—and can we just call them Jews, without the “Israeli” qualifier?—HON posted something vile on Instagram. In it, he blamed the Jews for the attacks. What he posted wasn’t truthful, moral, or informative, but it was revealing: a textbook example of how horrific acts against Jews have occurred for centuries.

HON claimed he’d been in Amsterdam, doing some amazing hairdos, no doubt, and had “knowledge” that the recent brutal attacks on Jews —proven to have been premeditated long before any Jewish soccer fan arrived in Amsterdam —were somehow caused by the Jews themselves. Too boisterous, perhaps. Too proud? Too…Jewish?

By blaming the victims, HON unwittingly provides a history lesson. This is how the Crusades began. This is how the Inquisition, the pogroms of Europe, and the Arab massacres in Hebron in 1929 happened. This is how the Shoah unfolded. This is how 10/7 happened: Little by little. With acceptance. With justifications.The Jew didn’t bow. The Jew didn’t cross the street. The Jew was too loud, too poor, too wealthy, too unwilling to assimilate. Always, the Jew’s very existence was deemed reason enough.

My question for HON is simple: Where is your evidence? There are countless videos of Jews being attacked in Amsterdam—beaten, run down, stabbed, thrown into freezing canals. Where are the videos of Jews committing violent acts to justify these atrocities? What did anyone do to warrant the brutality of these attacks? The King of the Netherlands himself admitted, “We failed the Jewish community of the Netherlands during World War II, and last night we failed again.”

What HON’s post shows is the insidious progression of hate: how the world can shrug, justify, and accept unspeakable violence against Jews. But it also shows something new. When nearly a dozen planes from El Al and Arkia flew to rescue Amsterdam’s Jews, the world was reminded that Jews are no longer willing to go like lambs to the slaughter.

Simply put: You don’t invade Israeli territory, brutally rape, torture, and kidnap Jewish men, women, and children, and expect the regime you elected—the one responsible—to hide behind terror tunnels or world opinion.

As for HON: Please stick to hair. Spreading bile and hatred against Jews doesn’t suit you. It makes you detestable.