The Sin Of Moral Equivalence... and A Grieving Father Filled With Grace And Hope At A Double Funeral In Israel

Good morning…

I took the day off from the newsletter to just read yesterday and follow my friends in Israel.

The best thing I listened too was the Sam Harris piece titled ‘The Sin Of Moral Equivalence’.

To a Jew and Israeli this is non complicated so I hope others will really listen and share it.

I am so very disappointed with the people I know in my community of investors and founders that are ‘what abouting’ right now and maybe worse being silent. I am especially pissed off at the people that live on Twitter all day, everyday, silent on Hamas and terrorism and their charter to ‘kill Jews and all of Israel’. As if Hamas would stop there!

I am of course getting responses to my emails and tweets filled with ‘what aboutisms’ (Twitter 20 percent because of bots and idiots) and my newsletter (2 percent), mostly people that thought they liked me until right now. I do not/will notlet those people get in the last word. I generally have to read them because I never know what will come through, but this is MY newsletter and I will digitally get in the last word. Almost always I will block or send the ‘what abouter’ to spam.

I am not looking for trouble, but now trouble has reared its ugly head.

For you ‘what abouters’ I will share one story because this is how almost all Israeli’s think. I know because I travel there and talk to them and have long-time friends that have done battle there. Alan Feld who I knew growing up in Toronto (I was best friends with his brother Gary as kids), moved to Isreal at a young age. He has lived there and built an incredible business and raised a family that has done/is doing military service. He attended two double funerals yesterday, so let me share an excerpt of a note he shared with friends:

Eyal’s 24 year-old daughter Danielle, zl and her longtime boyfriend Noam, zl were at the “Peace Party” this past weekend. Both were brutally slaughtered by the terrorists. Their families decided that Noam and Danielle should be buried side by side and the funeral was held this afternoon on a hill in Northern Israel overlooking where both grew up. After several moving eulogies by family members and friends from both sides, Eyal spoke last. Eyal talked about his love for Danielle and for Noam and how wonderful they were and how in love they were. Eyal then spoke about how he has always believed in peace with the Palestinians and how he opened design centers in Ramallah, Nablus and, yes, even in Gaza. And then, over the open graves of the two people he loved, he committed that once the Hamas regime is eradicated, he will go back down to Gaza and help rebuild the Gazan economy so that no one else will have to suffer the loss that he and his family were facing.

I hope this helps people to think, smile, be graceful, be hopeful and share. Eyal is a better man than me, but I hear him.