Once Again

IN his fiery speech to the Security Council, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, presented a powerful indictment of the apathy and indifference of the Council concerning the Hamas butchery of October 7. He closed by declaring that until the Council labels Hamas a terrorist organization — which they have refused to do — he and his delegation will henceforth be wearing the yellow Magen David of the Holocaust. The purpose of this, he said, was to remind the Council of the world’s silence that resulted in the Holocaust, of which the Hamas pogrom was a reprise.

This was a dramatic gesture, but in all candor, I found myself somewhat uneasy about it. Granted, wearing the yellow star expresses deep feelings of identity with the victims of the October 7 massacre, and perhaps it will in some way affect the thinking of some people in the wider world who are not anti-Semites. (Prayerfully, there still are such righteous non-Jews.)

But beyond the practical outcomes of this gesture, my feeling is that the yellow star encapsulates so much suffering, martyrdom and, yes, Jewish pride, that it has attained a certain measure of sanctity. Like all sacred objects, perhaps its utilization, even for excellent reasons, should be off limits, even though Erdan’s motives are genuine and heartfelt.

What made me even more uneasy were the words inside Erdan’s yellow Magen David: the familiar “Never Again.” On one level, this is a moving slogan, a demonstration of Jewish defiance, but on another level, it is troubling. Never again what? Never again will we permit the wholesale slaughter of Jews as in the Holocaust? Never again will it happen? The Again just happened again on October 7, with over 1,000 Jews slaughtered in one day in a contemporary Holocaust unequaled in its unspeakable savagery. The Again is happening right now with the recrudescence of ugly anti-Semitism around the world because Israel has the chutzpah to fight back. Never Again these days has a very hollow ring to it. Never Again has become Once Again.