Breathing Easier

Pictured: Phyllis, Jan. 1973, on Lake Kinneret, aka the Sea of Galilee

I can breathe more easily now with the arrival of the British-based group Feminists Against Antisemitism. They are so principled, so fair, so sharp, and so dedicated. They’ve been a long time coming, but now they are here. So is Eve Barlow, another very gifted writer on the subject--as are Zoe Strimpel and Nicole Lampert. Many of these wondrous women are half my age or at least twenty years younger than I am. (That’s you, the divine Susan McDonnell.) No, I’m not ready to stop writing--but I am ready to pass the torch and to be of service to the torchbearers. While I cannot predict the future, once I finish my new book, The Complete and Utter Palestininianization of American Feminism, I cannot promise to rest easy, but at least I know that others are here who have begun to take up the work, including Kara Jesella, whose forthcoming book was edited by my colleague David Hirsh; alas, both have, as yet, not shown me the book or the manuscript. I would gladly have endorsed it. Here is the latest piece just out from Feminists Against Antisemitism.

Everyone: A Zissen Pesach, as they used to say back in my childhood home of Borough Park, Brooklyn. Maybe this time Eliyahu will come to all our doors and usher in the Redemption. Suffering Jews and suffering humanity certainly need it.

Issue 5: Feminists Against Antisemitism Newsletter

It is April Fool’s day, but even though some of the events we report here seem absurd, there are no jokes here.

Apr 01, 2026

War on Jews: Making us Green around the gills

In our last newsletter, we wrote about the rise of the Greens in the UK. As we feared, the Greens won the Manchester by-election, with an unprecedentedly high turnout for a by-election (amid suggestions of illegal family voting; nothing untoward was proven).

By 28 March, not only did the Greens have a possible (though uncertain) lead over Labour in the polls, but they had a horrifying motion before their Spring conference: to declare Zionism to be racism. It called for a one-state solution – ‘a democratic Palestine’ – to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Some people seem to have naively imagined that the Greens were a party whose major concerns related to the environment, not the tiny state of Israel. Others were reassured that it couldn’t be antisemitic, because the leader of the Greens, Zack Polanski, is Jewish. (Wry laugh). Let’s be clear: the Greens are only a fringe party in that their obsessions are quite fringe. They aim, not unrealistically, to hold the balance of power in a left-led government in 2029.

Prior to the vote, pro-Palestine supporters were urged to join the Greens in order to vote on the motion. The party seemed ill-equipped (or did not want?) to deal with entryism.

Fortunately, after a nailbiting day, involving five, or possibly six (yes, it WAS that chaotic) votes of no confidence in the chair, a row over misgendering, a fierce rearguard action by some brave members and a fifteen-minute extension to the day’s voting, the conference ran out of time to vote on the motion. It was hard not to have a bit of schadenfreude.

The motion will, however, return for the Autumn conference. On the bright side, the issue has had national attention, and fewer people are in the dark about the Greens’ grim shift away from the environment.

To read the rest of the piece, click here