As I sit here in the United States, it struck me that the best way for me to celebrate Israel’s birthday is to show my love and support for all of you. While many Jews and non-Jews alike have shown support in various ways over the years, it is all of you that are everything that is Israel. You’ve worked, farmed, taught, and built the land. You’ve served in the IDF to defend the Jewish homeland, experienced pain, exhaustion, fear and worst of all, loss. So many of you have children serving as we speak, putting their lives in danger to fight for the very existence of the Jewish state.
A few months back, one of my old buddies living in Israel appeared to take umbrage in my implication that those fighting do it for world Jewry. I want him and all of you to know that I recognize that with all the pain and sadness we feel over here, I am fully aware that ultimately all of you are right there, living through all the good and bad life in Israel has provided for you. It is easy to sit here and praise and thank those who make the sacrifices with words while so many of you have to deal with a reality we never have to face. But please know, that all of you are not only the foundation of the State of Israel, you are loved and appreciated for developing and protecting the Jewish state.
I pray not only for your safety, but on your collective birthday a speedy return to peace, happiness and prosperity.
Believe me when I say from the bottom of my heart, thank you for calling me a ghoul. To be insulted by someone of your caliber of dirt is nothing short of a compliment. The Jew-hating, anti-Israel rhetoric that you spew on a regular basis truly reveals how you feel about my people. But before I get into this more, I will put this letter into a more clear context.
For those of you who do not know, John Cusack, a man who thinks that because some people like his face and voice that he has a better functioning brain than everyone else, is someone who on a regular basis spews anti-Israel rhetoric. He is not someone who focuses on bettering the plight of Palestinians, making the world better or uniting people. He is someone who focuses mainly on the big bad Jews in Israel who have the unmitigated gall to think they have a right to survival. John Cusack is an actor, and someone I thought to be a fairly good one. When focusing on one role his played in particular, I am willing to admit that, based on his behavior in real life, his acting skills may exceed my previous estimations. The role I am referring to is from the 2002 movie, “Max”, in which Cusack plays the role of Max Rothman. Max is a wealthy Jewish art dealer-those damn Jews always have the money-who after losing an arm fighting for Germany in WWI, comes back to his home in Munich and befriends an aspiring artist also fresh back from fighting for the fatherland. This young artist, defeated and downtrodden, a former Corporal in the army, is none other than Adolf Hitler. Max makes some attempts to help young Hitler, but with Hitler’s growing personal misery and discontent, coupled with an outside faction trying to groom Hitler for politics, his struggle to help the young angry artist is a difficult one to say the least. Ultimately, in an ending in which it is implied that had it not been for one turn of events in particular, Hitler’s rise to brutal, sadistic leader and murderer would have been stifled, Max gets beaten to death by a group of Nazi thugs.
So in light of this movie, and the verbal onslaught by Cusack far more reminiscent of Hitler than Ghandi, I sent him the following Tweet on “X”.
It astounds me that you, as someone who played a Jewish man in the movie Max, in which Hitler’s henchmen murdered the same man for being Jewish, after he befriended Hitler, would be so off point and so on the wrong side of history regarding this subject. To which Cusack replied,
You ghoul – you missed the whole point of the film – didn’t you?
I am sure he is implying that I like seeing people being killed, but like so many other Jew hating cowards out there, rather than stay and debate the issue, Cusack’s reply was a hit and run, as he proceeded to block me from his account. At least I know I got under his skin. But in light of his reply, I decided to try and figure out exactly what “point” it was he insisted I am missing.
Is it that war is devastating and that in many ways no one ever wins? No decent person on the planet thinks war is good, but not to go to war with Hamas not only insures Israel’s destruction, but it also insures that what would otherwise be innocent Palestinians will instead continue to be used as pawns of hatred and destruction.
Is it that the experiences of WWI laid the groundwork for even more devastation, and that brutality creates an even greater brutality that often comes back to bite the masses? Maybe. But does that mean the allies were wrong for bombing Dresden into oblivion and ultimately putting an end to the evil of Nazi Germany? Anyone who believes that is either an idiot, a murderer themselves, or to use Cusack’s word, an actual ghoul.
Or maybe the point of the film for Cusack is that Hitler was right? After all, everything this narcisistic delusional actor posts is so against the ultimate survival of Jews, one might think that he sees us as the problem. Of course I will probably never know for sure because even if he would have the courage to respond, I would likely not believe anything he says. At some point an individual loses all credibility.
Since all you are John is an actor who is using his platform to incite hatred against Jews worldwide, I will use a reference to another one of your movies to tell you what I feel is your best course of action. Maybe you should just shut up and not “Say Anything”.
I am not going to lie. I hate every last one of the pro Hamas protestors on every American campus. But unless we identify those responsible for getting us here, it will be over for Jews in the United States, and after that happens the United States as we know it may ultimately be well on its way to a collapse.
I first started identifying a disturbing trend after 9/11. There were those on the right that blamed what they called failed policies by Bill Clinton. There were those on the left that attacked then president George W. Bush for not publicly showing alarm in front of kindergarteners when he first heard of the attack. Those that did that seemed too afraid or too political to go after those responsible for the attack, namely Al Qaeda and their leader Osama Bin-Laden. Why? Maybe because it felt safer to them to react in the manner. Do I hold young adults protesting on behalf of murdering terrorists accountable for their actions? Of course I do. But that can not let any one of us stay silent about those that either planted the seeds or fertilized the ground. We need to speak openly and honestly about how we got here.
First and foremost, let me be perfectly clear. Anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. You do not have to like Israel’s current government, a large percentage of Israelis do not. But Israel is a strong and functioning democracy that can work it out for itself, and standing against it in what may be the most perilous time in the history of the Jewish state is ultimately calling for the death of Jews.
If you are a proud Jew and Zionist such as myself, one who makes every attempt to learn from history, holding back on speaking the truth should no longer be an option. The seeds of this cancer have been planted by Qatar, the most devious country on the planet. With its annual influx of billions of dollars to College administrations, this country, one that is playing everyone, has in essence bought the narrative of America’s future.
Then there’s the 10’s of billions of dollars of frozen assets released to Iran during the Obama administration, culminating with a massive airlift of cash in his last days in office, in essence supplying the money needed to fund Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and of course Hamas which ultimately led to previous wars, October 7th, and the current war in Gaza. This is not a truth many people want to admit to, but a truth nonetheless.
But let’s not forget the era in which we live. An era of Instagram posts and Tik-Tok reels in which Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish politician in U.S. history, calls for elections to replace Israel’s Prime Minister in the middle of a war. Students see and hear this. When Jonathan Glazer, a Jew himself makes an acceptance speech at the Oscars for Best International Feature Film and states that his Jewishness and the Holocaust are “being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people”, young college students see this clip. It is widely believed that when you follow the money, much of what does not lead back to Iran and Qatar leads back to George Soros, a Jew himself and one who escaped the Holocaust. Bernie Sanders, notoriously anti-Israel to the point of providing false statistics during previous conflicts, can only be described as a traitor, who, as one of my brothers so eloquently put, should rot in hell. Even if you want to say that many of those among my fellow Jews mean well and have even done a lot for Israel and the Jewish people before now, what they are doing today is fueling the burning and growing fire of Jewish hatred in America and worldwide. To put it more bluntly and to clarify how devastating this is, giving life and power to these protestors is likely killing any hostage still alive, because as Hamas sees the societal disaster taking place in America, they have increased incentive to keep the war going. Why would they accept Israel’s terms when thanks to the voices against Israel and the agitators protesting on campus, some of which are actually students, Hamas is in effect, winning the war.
There are the Jew hating celebrities like Roger Watters, Susan Sarandon and Jon Cusack, who repeatedly accuse Israel of committing Genocide and will insist that some of their best friends are Jewish. They are all cowards and fools, as displayed by Cusack who banned me from his X account after I accused him of being on the wrong side of history. https://x.com/HollandsHeroes/status/1785158544645378104 . They are cowards because it is truly my belief that deep in their hearts they see a world with growing Muslin extremism and they feel safer going after 8 million Jews. It is hard to argue with their logic if you only look at the numbers, but it brings their cowardice into focus.
Let’s not forget the squad and the loud and proud Jew hating voices led by Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman, whose growing power have forced President Joe Biden into hiding during the crisis on colleges campuses.
The heroic voices of people such as Douglas Murray, Bill Maher and John Fetterman need to grow. Proud Jewish celebrities like Robert Kraft and Jon Lovitz need to be identified and supported for their position in favor of their people.
I recognize that America and the current administration has supported Israel since October 7th, and for that I am grateful, but if the people in power spend more time worrying about keeping their jobs than doing their jobs, this will only get worse, and history is flush with stories of empires that collapsed after they persecuted and either killed or expelled the Jews. Past is prologue, and those who do not learn from it are in essence digging their own graves. This is not meant only for Jews, but non-Jewish Americans as well. When protestors on campus are calling for Intifada, if you believe it is only directed towards Israel, you are a fool.
When I started watching the news last night, it was so disturbing that I wanted to turn off the TV. However, what happens if I and all of you choose to bury our heads in the sand will make what it happening now look like a picnic, so I kept watching. Silence is not as option. Never Again is Now.
As I remember my mother on her Yahrtzeit, the Jewish anniversary of her passing, I think back to the woman who left our earth 7 years ago. She lost her mother at the age of 13. Was engaged to a man who was taken and killed by the Nazis before she turned 18. She slept underground for 16 months during the war. Her oldest son was separated from her for months soon after the war due to her having pleurisy. When life settled down it turned into a normal, but often difficult life. At the age of 85 when my father passed she was left without the man she had been with and loved for over 60 years. And yet, after all of this, she died a happy woman at the age of 95.
If you choose to honor my mother today, smile at someone who needs a smile, and stop, think and be grateful for the blessings that make life worthwhile.
Holland's Heroes 