Brilliant.

By Zamboni

We cats don't get anti-Semitism. So much of what we admire and enjoy is thanks to Jewish people that we have no idea why anyone would not like them. George Gershwin? Rhapsodic. Carl Reiner? "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth" alone would put him in the TV Hall of Fame. Jonas Salk? A genius who saved countless lives. Sacha Baron Cohen? Sexy in real life. Leonard Cohen — please. We love Cohens.

Which means that since October 7, world events have been very difficult to watch. And talk about. So we haven't talked about them much, at least not in the blogosphere.

Which brings us to a confession: We've been frankly shocked at the lack of global sympathy for Israel after the October 7 attacks. Do we not have enough information about what happened on that awful day?

Hamas's massacre of Israelis last month was horrific and disturbing. Although we haven't seen the videos shown to journalists and other selected audiences, we know that it was the stuff of nightmares. (We agree with Alfred Hitchcock that the most terrifying thing is that which you don't see — so thanks, but no thanks, on viewing whatever footage is available.) And despite Israel's hammering of Gaza, we don't see how a ceasefire would be the solution, since there already was one that Hamas violated on the day of the attacks. As Hillary Clinton and others have pointed out, another ceasefire would just allow Hamas to regroup, and would do nothing to get the hostages back.

So we were left with this conundrum: Is the lack of sympathy really all about Netanyahu? We could get behind that — we loathe him with the heat of a thousand suns. We pine daily for Israel to get rid of him, and yet we're not sure how they could do that. So we cling to polls that show that three-quarters of Israelis want him gone. Please, folks, don't let him prolong the war just to stay in power.

But, hey! Is there a potential breakthrough tonight? We're hearing news of a tentative Israel-Hamas deal to pause the war for five days to free some of the hostages — brokered by the US. This is obviously why President Biden refused to go into details with braying journalists during his post-China-summit presser. As he pointed out in a thoughtful op-ed in The Washington Post, "The United States is the essential nation." And clearly the essential dude is leading us now.

Just as we don't get anti-Semitism, we cats will never understand why people doubt Dark Brandon. He always delivers. And he'll keep doing so as long as we have his back. So get ready for 2024, folks — we, and the world, just might be okay if we put in the work. We cats PURR.

(IMAGE: Carl Reiner and Mary Tyler Moore in "Coast-to-Coast Big Mouth," The Dick Van Dyke Show, 1965)