Is it OK with you that Israel is killing babies, starving people to death, bombing entire cities into ashes, wiping out generations of families, torturing prisoners, mass murdering medical workers, killing people trying to get food for their children, murdering journalists? If not, speak out.

Did you know that Palestinians had nothing to do with the Holocaust? That the history of colonization, mass expulsion, and ethnic cleansing of the Indigenous people of Palestine to create the Jewish state of Israel in 1948, was erased, as if generations of farmers, orchardists, herders, poets, scholars did not exist? 

You’re not supposed to know. We’re not supposed to talk about the roots of fascism, homegrown, imported from Europe, rebranded. Let’s talk about it.

Los Angeles is under attack by our own government, an attack against immigrants, people of color, working people, state and local authority. Peaceful protestors are called “insurrectionists” and blamed for the escalating violence, an old strategy in the fascist playbook. 

Do you want to be controlled by a police state? If not, speak out because this is a test.

Do you know about Project Esther, a Heritage Foundation/Project 2025 policy blueprint that lays out plans for surveilling, silencing and punishing pro-Palestinian activists as “terrorists,” deporting non-U.S. citizens, withholding funds from universities, targeting migrants as “criminals,” and inciting violence to justify these attacks. If not, check out Jewish Voices for Peace for a clear and concise analysis.

We’re all learning. Don’t be afraid to learn and don’t be afraid to speak out. 

SUSAN BANYAS

Astoria