Talking to Someone Who Lacks Facts and Context but Is Strong on Ideological Opinions

Substack

I admit that I and so many cherished companions are long past our prime--even though, in my case and, for that matter, in the case of most of my allies, we are all still going strong. I can't help it. I don’t' know what drives everyone else. I welcome the younger generations, who have passionately taken up their posts but, despite some laudable exceptions, most newbies do not seem to stand on our shoulders or even know that there are shoulders to stand upon. Many are busy reinventing the wheel. Is it because they do not know any history, reject all authority, or simply want to be seen as the original inventors of whatever they are writing about? This is how it's always been.... What saddens and annoys me is when newbies begin love bombing me daily, sometimes twice a day with their articles and, after only a month, they immediately monetize their words. This is far too mercenary, far too corporate for the likes of me. Sadly, I no longer have enough cash to pay for every damn thing that I want to read or watch and about which I sometimes write. Between the twenty streaming platforms and the twenty-five paid online sites, magazines, newspapers, and journals, I'm maxed out. A kind friend bought the Times of London for a year. Another very kind friend subscribed me to the online version of the (dreadful) New York Times. (I read the Obits rather religiously). Otherwise, I'm on my own. One excellent magazine and another excellent streaming service (I dare not name them lest everyone else immediately pile on) have given me complimentary access. Thank you One and All. I actually gave up my subscriptions to two opera journals. If you know me at all, you'll understand what a sacrifice that was. Now, here's what's on my mind today.  I began my Zionist journey a long time ago, as early as 1948, when Israel again became a sovereign nation. At the time, I was eight years old. I "got" its liberatory nature all on my own. My family never discussed politics or Israel or, for that matter, anything about their own tormented Old Country or impoverished lives. Anything that important was never mentioned. Like others, I lost or gave up many feminist friends and colleagues over the years--and definitely many more after 10/7. Over the years, I've remained in touch with a feminist, a very principled and honorable woman whom I've never met in person. At some point, she needed to "convert" me to her point of view about genocidal Israel. In her view, I was too "brilliant" to have been so taken in by the Dark Side. I hung in for a bit but then cut my losses and stopped writing. A few months went by, and yesterday, she suddenly wrote again. Since I and many of my readers are genuinely interested in how to have a civilized exchange with someone who is less educated than yourself on the matter at hand, if not totally brainwashed, I'm sharing with you one of many such exchanges. Anything else I could possibly have said? If so, tell me.  

6/21/2026 at 12:57 am

Dearest Phyllis,

I am trying again! Robert Manne (the author, below) is a right of centre Jewish intellectual with a feminist wife, Anne Manne. Love,X Subject: Hannah Arendt and the creation of Israel | Pearls and Irritations Robert Manne https://pearlsandirritations.com/post/2026/06/hannah-arendt-and-the-creation-of-the-israeli-state/?utm_source=pi_news&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly-2026-06-21  

6/21/2026 at 11:01 am

Dearest X: I am both moved and yet also puzzled--by your refusal to let go of us. You know that I admire you tremendously in terms of your feminist principles and now for your continuing to "reach out." I will read what you've just sent but know that at this time in history my priority is the survival of Jews and of Western civilization and I've very little time to "debate" the issues of Israel/Palestine. Given what is now considered "feminist" I am torn about even calling myself one. Feminism today is all faux-feminism e.g. pro-trans, pro-"sex work," pro-identity politics, pro-Islam, pro-barbarism, and an obsession with the alleged "occupation" of Palestine over and above the "occupation" of women's bodies and minds everywhere. With some exceptions, (WDI, WoLF, IWF) the left-liberal-lesbian feminist silence for two months after 10/7 is now a dividing line between myself and my past. So many of the anti-pornography, anti-prostitution, anti-trafficking, anti-trans, anti-surrogacy, anti-battery, etc. Feminists were so very silent for so very long and then could only, weakly, whisper "something" about 10/7 but only by balancing it against Palestinian female suffering, and pointing out that rape is common in war-zones, nothing to see here. They failed to note what was gruesomely unique--I will not go into here right now.I still get letters for help from women IN Kabul. I have been honored by those brave, brave Iranian women who translated "Woman's Inhumanity to Woman" into Farsi (they pirated it--God bless them!) and then demanded a zoom QNA between us. I said: "That's not a good idea. I am a well-known, Zionist, Racist, and Islamophobe"--and they said: "No, you're not. And we don't care if you are. You're the author of this very important book and we want to talk to you." And so we did. This is the book that no American feminist "icon" would endorse or, in some cases, even read because the subject disgusted and frightened them. This work, together with "Women and Madness" is being used by two Afghan women who are counseling online other Afghan women who are still trapped behind Taliban lines. As you know, Iran, with its' genocidal intentions towards Jews, Israel, infidels, non-Shiia Muslims has just sentenced an Iranian woman singer who dared sing without her chador to 74 lashes--a death sentence via torture. And that that Taliban just shot down two women who were protesting....and in Gambia, they want to lift the ban on FGM. How far have we come since Diana Russell and Nicole Van Den Ven held their Tribunal Crimes Against Women in Brussels in 1975?Anyway, breakfast is calling--I will send you a most interesting article about the tribal rights of Jews to Israel and articles which cover a bit about Hannah Arendt and about Britain today. Love, also,Phyllis Jewish Statehood and American Tribal Law  6/21/2026 at 12:03 pmX dear: If you view this author as right center— oh dear! That he is not. And one more time. For the last time. There is no Israel perpetrated genocide in Gaza. Ha’aretz is the most left-wing Antizionist rag there is. Israel did not kill or exile 700,000 Arabs even before they came to be referred to as Palestinians. Are you even aware that even more Arab Jews were tortured, impoverished, murdered and if lucky, exiled from Arab Muslim lands?  The war against Israel is a religious war. Muslim Jidadists did not & do not want peace with Israel. They want to destroy it. The illegal settlements in the Jewish homeland are mainly caused by Arabs, not Jews. The media refuses to cover this. Until you begin to get the facts on just this, you will continue scapegoating Israel for the crimes committed by the Islamists. Oh, give me strength. Please read Kaplan's article below. https://moralclaritynewsletter.substack.com/p/everything-you-know-about-settlements-2fd  

6/22/2026 at 12:17 am

Dear Phylis, Okokok. I should just stop sending you articles in the naive hope that one of them might be able to shift your blinkers!!  Even just a bit. But according to you there are just two world views: yours and your supporters and you are always right. The other is me and the rest: and we are always wrong. Just because Hannah Arendt was wrong on Heidegger makes her wrong in Eichman too. Really? I still passionately hope that the world is not so black and white. Seeing Netanyahu continue to bomb Lebanon - 2 small babies dead yesterday - clearly terrorists in the making - unfortunately or fortunately your side of the world loses supporters by the day. If only Trump could bring himself to stop sending weaponry to Israel, Netanyahu might have to stop. Alas too much money involved … so it is Israel and the USA (albeit grudgingly) against the rest of the world … But you will probably say that just shows that Jewish people are the victims…as always. Also, below is a google entry on Robert Manne whom you called out as ignorant and on the Left … You know Phyllis, there IS another worldview… Take care Love X https://www.google.com/search?q=who+is+robert+Manne&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-au&client=safari  

6/22/2026 at 11:12 am

Dear X: I was not the one who broke our silence. You did. You seem to want to convert me to your view. I have no desire and no need to convert you to my fact-based views. But when I do send you articles--fact-based, thoughtful, creative (like the one on the definition and history of tribal and indigenous people for which Jews/Israel truly qualifies), you don't respond as if you've bothered reading it. You instead defend what you view as the bona fides of your appointed defender-of-your-faith.Just because someone is Jewish or is married to a Jewish woman or is the grandson of Holocaust survivors does not give them any particular creds to pronounce on the matters at hand. As to the point being made about Arendt--I thought it was an interesting, even an illuminating point. Of course, I've also read other books about Arendt and evil--she was indeed very smart, I met her once, her husband was one of my professors at college....which is neither here nor there. Why do you need us to agree on all matters concerning Israel, the Jews, Gaza, Palestine, Islam and the Middle East? It is YOUR steadfast belief that you--and you alone--are in the Right. I understand that the Jews and Israel stand alone at this moment in history. I am not about to join the braying mob scapegoating us and calling for our blood. Love for our shared feminism of yore, Phyllis