It seems as if I haven't posted anything for years--it's been a long time away, at least for me, eleven long days of uncommon silence. Yes, it was Passover, and while we have all been "passed over," safely brought out of Egypt, there are still those among us who have fallen or been wounded in battle and those who are still recovering from their wounds and those who are mourning their lost loved ones.

And then there are the unlucky accidents to which "seniors" are prone. (Spoken with high dudgeon: "Who are you calling a senior?" "I guess that would be me,” she humbly said).

I fell--I actually took quite a tumble going UP (try doing that you whippersnapper!), as I was trying to get up a mere two steps from the living room to what one might call the bar/kitchen area. I live in a "charming" vintage apartment which features a dropped living room. I have now learned that other seniors in the building have also fallen down or fell up such steps. I no longer find it charming, not at all.

I must now install two staircase-railings, in addition to the grab bars I already have. It may prove unsightly, but I have no choice. And luckily, while bruised, chastened, and shaken, I broke no bones.

Now: What if I had fallen during the Crossing of the Red Sea? Or while under siege in any of the world's war zones? (No. Of course not. I will not single out Gaza as the symbol for the world's suffering as too many others do.) What if I'd fallen while walking along a city street where medical services are slow and leave everything to be desired?

Let me be honest. I also missed each and every news story and opinion piece not only for reasons of holiday merriment and not only because I'd taken a fall. No, not at all.

I was also working very hard on completing a new book, tentatively titled Talking to the Dead. I am sending it forth later today. It's been three a half years and enough is enough. It's time to put the baby on the auction block. A heartless way of thinking, methinks.

So, as of this morning, I rushed to read all that I'd missed.

In my eleven-day absence, nothing seems to have changed--if anything, matters have gotten worse. Peace has not broken out anywhere on earth. Not even in the safest and most privileged of cities; in my own city for example. Ordinary people are still rude. Career criminals are even more brazen. Mere differences in political or intellectual opinion have literally become nasty and dangerous culture wars. Elected politicians are being physically attacked outside their homes, offices, where they dine and on their blogs. Angry citizens speak to each other only in the hostile language of a lawsuit.

Civilians everywhere are also caught up in hot war zones on almost every continent, most notably in Africa (think Sudan, Nigeria, Congo); in central Asia (think Russia and Ukraine); and all across the Middle East (think Yemen, Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan, and Israel). Anti-White, Anti-Western, anti-Infidel, and anti-Zionist propaganda have all led to genocidal antisemitism on the ground not only in the Middle East but also on American streets and campuses. It is fueled by the media, the internet, the professoriate, the Red-Green alliance on Western campuses--and further powered via lawsuits, UN resolutions, and by the enormous funding and training coming from Iran and Qatar.

These are formidable forces acting in concert to provide cover for what Islamist terrorist boots on the ground have been doing in (and to) Israel long before the infamy of 10/7. Antisemitism is antiZionism, an idea which I first began writing about in 2002-2003. It is still being hotly contested by those who insist that the two are very, very different.

Read Benjamin Kerstein's excellent article about a recent piece published in the New York Times by Michael S. Roth, the president of Wesleyan University.

I am weary. I have been at this theme ever since Arafat's Intifada of 2000. Even more intensely since 9/11. I will have more to say about this long war later this week.