Let me introduce those of you who might not know to a new word in Hebrew. “Hippuch”, pronounced Hee POOKH’ with that guttural sound at the end, is a very common word here. It means flipped. Upside down in an ironic sort of way that you’d never expect. Like the ending of that movie, it was totally hippuch. It’s a great way to describe the world right now.

Good is evil. Evil is good. Genders are completely interchangeable at any given instant and if you don’t acknowledge how a person feels or labels itself, then you are the one with huge problems. What is legal for some is totally against the law for others if certain acts are committed. It’s all about freedom and tolerance unless, of course, you are the one that needs to be cancelled. A person has autonomy over their own body except when it’s mandated that a certain treatment must be given. My friends, we are living in a world of absolute hippuch.

It has been pretty evident by the past few weeks’ display on university campuses across the U.S. What started out as a “grassroots” movement has turned out to be incredibly well funded and incredibly well organized. Yes. I write of the pro-Palestine ceasefire/peace movement. They are all for peace except “Long live the Intifada.” Or as we say, “the infants.” To be clear, an intifada is an armed, Islamic movement that wishes to rid the world of infidels (Jews, Christians, LGBTQBiPOC+++, and other undesirables). As in eradication. Intifada is to bring the whole world under domination of Allah. A peaceful movement for sure.

These are not just young college kids involved in the resistance movement, but professors and outside organizers. These are the people that are fighting injustice and oppression of the Palestinians. Yet Hamas are the ones who have oppressed the people of Gaza (73% of Arabs living in the West Bank of Israel still support Hamas… that’s hippuch). We hear nothing of that.

The people that screamed “Believe ALL women” just two years back are the ones who demand proof, yet still deny rape, torture and sexual abuse of the Israeli women, men and children at the hands of Hamas and the Gazans. The demands that the Red Cross or Red Crescent be given access to the captured Hamas terrorists are the same people who have denied the captive Israelis humanitarian visits and delivery of/access to their lifesaving medicines.

“What do we want? Ceasefire! When do we want it? NOW!” Sounds nice. We all want an end to this horrible situation. Truly. Yet why did these same people at Columbia, NYU, Yale, Harvard and other schools cheer when Iran launched over 300 intercontinental ballistic missiles and suicide drones laden with explosives at Israel??? Total hippuch. Last week the chant was “Bomb, bomb Tel Aviv!”

A beautiful, young, Jewish university student- a senior now- who really has a soft heart for the underprivileged and the victim… someone who we are very, very close with…has recently joined up with the pro-Palestine resistance movement. She is now sending my husband and me regular messages, articles, posts about her most recent cause. The ultimate hippuch.

Even though she was raised in a Jewish home, I don’t believe she understands the definition of “Zionist.” She has informed us that as a Jew, she is not antiSemitic, but anti Zionist. She knows we live in Israel.

Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people have the right to live autonomously and sovereignly in their own ancestral and ancient homeland, Israel. That’s all. Nothing more. To colonize one’s own home, a home that as Mark Twain put it in his travel diary, The Innocents Abroad, in 1885, “…it was a vast wasteland. An uninhabitable wilderness of rock and bleak and barren landscape. Nary a tree or shrub for miles and no one except the occasional Bedouin seeking bakshish.” To colonize one’s own land, keeping the same language spoken for over 3000 years, the same religion, the old cities, is not the definition of colonization.

“An apartheid state” she writes continually. We’ve invited her several times to come see for herself. Take a Birthright tour. She would see a land where all citizens whether, brown, white, black or yellow; whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Jew or Baha’i are given the exact same rights and opportunities. Where the LGBT community has Pride ingparades and civil rights. Where true Democracy is happening.

Ms. M (she/her) attended an Interfaith Intersectional Passover Seder last week at the Liberated Zone on her campus. Instead of a commemoration of the Children of Israel’s exodus from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt, it was a modern day representation of social injustice. The traditional Seder plate was replaced by a large hand-drawn-canvas plate. The evening/night event was held in the morning for brunch. Instead of unleavened matzah, there was a generic Middle Eastern pita and humus, which was ‘culturally appropriated by the Israelis from the Palestinians.’ The Muslims respected the Jews and it was a big loving peace fest. If only the real world was more like this-

She gave us a Podcast to listen to of her Columbia University compatriots. Three Jewish girls demanding the university divest from Israel in all ways: research, exchange programs, funding, products received that are Israeli manufactured. They speak eloquently of the love they have received from the Muslim students. The food shared. The peace movement. And how they have been kicked off campus, arrested, and their tents taken down They have no support- The podcast is called ‘On the Nose’ on open. Spotify and is sponsored by Jewish Currents.

I did my own sleuthing and what do you know? Hippuch! This grassroots movement was well in the planning for months by Jewish Voice for Peace, a radical leftist progressive Jewish organization funded by the Open Society and ultimately George Soros and Peter Beinart. Green and green and white two person tents were distributed by the thousands to campuses all across America over the past three weeks. Leaders were brought in to train the student organizers. Food has been delivered… halal and vegan, of course. Sound systems supplied. Posters and placards handed out. Chants taught. Ultimate hippuch? The podcasters are paid and the interviewees were given honorariums as well as relocation options after dorms were closed to them. The arrests lasted all of 3-5 hours for process and release/no bail/no charges.

The three girls on the podcast decried the fact that Conservative politicians were allowed onto their closed campus as a publicity and propaganda stunt. They said nothing about Ilhan Omar’s visit.

Even though it’s all about peace and tolerance, at Columbia, lead activist Khymani James, has called for the outright murder, eradication and killing of all Zionists “They should not have the right to live. They shouldn’t be allowed to exist.” At USC today, a Hamas supporter graffitied “Say no to genocide” in red paint onto the Tommy Trojan mascot. At UCLA, a journalist was denied entry into the enclave (university square) as it was a student- proclaimed media free zone. Protesting the ‘Open air prisons of Gaza’ the students locked arms, completely encircled the reporter, and refused movement to him unless he surrender his camera. Now that is the definition of hippuch.

To complain they are not being fairly treated by letting the students and professors have their encampments, yet when the Columbia U CEO locks Professor (Shai Davidai) out of the school and fires him is hippuch. To vandalaze the dorm rooms and doors of Jewish students on campuses (spray painting ‘Jew here’ ‘Jew go home’ Zionist sympathizer’ and swastikas and Stars of David). For the campus rabbis, chaplains and Jewish Student Organization heads to call up the students and tell them to leave campus and return to their homes for their own safety….isnt just hippuch anymore. It’s 1939 again. Germany. Nazi regime.Jewish kids are now afraid to live in their once- safe communities. Barred from classes. Barred from businesses.

The war here in Israel has been on delay for the past six weeks as hostage negotiations and US/UN/ICJ appeasements and deals are being made. The Biden administration is supporting the prosecution of Israeli officials for war crimes at the International Criminal Court, which means all of our top democratically elected officials here in Israel including Netanyahu, President Herzi, Defense Minister Gallant, Head of the IDF Herzi Halevi counts face potential extradition and areest (if they leave Israel).

The invasion of Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold is on hold. Awaiting a hostage deal. Awaiting Secretary of State Blinken to arrive in Israel Tuesday, his tenth visit since 7 October. Awaiting an appeasement- an ultimatum by the Biden admin: give up on Rafah and accept a peace deal with Saudi Arabia. Of course this is to cement Biden re-election. A probable Nobel Peace Prize for bringing peace to the Middle East. Hippuch.

Putting pressure on Israel like this, they know, is sure to topple our current administration. It’s by design. The White House wants Bibi gone. If the Rafah operation does not happen after scores of promises and assurances Hamas would be brought down in its entirety and the hostages liberated by force, if necessary, members of the IDF have stated they would personally take off their uniforms, take the government, and finish the war.

And the last example of hippuch: in a meeting between US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the military and Israel’s Secretary of Defense…the US is now expecting a “zero civilian casualty report” in any further stage of the war in Gaza against Hamas. It’s a war. There, unfortunately, will be casualties. It goes above and beyond upside down.