Thomas Wictor

Imagine living a world in which almost everyone who interacts with you is dishonest, corrupt, irrational, implacable, and hostile. Again and again you find yourself facing generic personalities, humanoids that repeat the same slogans endlessly and can’t be reached. They screw you without mercy, but you have no recourse. Nobody understands. I don’t have to imagine that kind of world; I’ve lived in it all my life. Israelis know what it’s like in my world.

Last night I had long argument with a person who wanted me to remove material from a post. In order to make me comply, the person threatened me and then denied threatening me. Unwittingly, the person admitted that my observation was accurate, but then the person moved the goalposts multiple times in order to play the victim. The substance of my own complaint was ignored. Here’s a pretty accurate representation of the discussion.

Do you know what it’s like to have that kind of demented confrontation, and it’s for no other reason than someone’s lust to impose their will on you?

Israelis know.

The injustice committed against me—I entered into a business deal in good faith but didn’t receive the service I purchased—was irrelevant. Though the person repeatedly showed that my accusations of unprofessional behavior were correct, the tactic used against me was to enlist the help of others and to fire off a blizzard of creative reframing. My own actions were exaggerated into crimes. For no reason at all, I’d simply gone off! The helpers that the person called were drooling imbeciles who asked such stupid questions that they were impossible to answer. Do you know what it’s like to have to lower yourself to the level of an animal just to try and understand what the thing communicating with you is saying?

Israelis know.

And then well-meaning people tell you to give in. Choose your battles! Don’t get personal. Be nice. Just stop.

They can’t grasp how enraging it is to be at the mercy of people who knowingly, deliberately abuse their power for the sheer satisfaction of fixing you. There! That’ll teach you!

Do you know what it’s like to have nobody in your corner?

Israelis know.

The person I argued with last night was delusional in a very real sense. Legal threats were made based on a TV-watcher’s understanding of the law. I’d decided from the beginning to remove the material, but I wanted to see how far this would go. The answer is that it would’ve gone on forever. All that mattered was that the person’s demand be fulfilled. There was no give and take; it was just, “You’re wrong. Now do what I want.” My viewpoint was not a consideration.

It would’ve been fun to dig in my heels and let everything get blown completely out of proportion. I can honestly say that it was one of the dumbest experiences of my life, similar to doing this for a few hours.

But I was also furious enough to do some very serious damage. Over the past two months, several Israelis have confided in me that they get really angry and bitter. As an experiment I’ll go look at the news right now and see how long it takes me to find a dishonest piece about Israel.

Eight seconds.

“It’s Time for the EU to Impose Sanctions on Israel,” by Bruno Jantti.

In fact, the latest carnage in Gaza, did not move the American public at all. A solid 57 percent of the Americans regarded Israel’s recent offensive on Gaza as justified. In early August, US President Barack Obama stated that he has “consistently defended Israel’s right to defend itself, and that includes doing what it needs to do” and that it’s Hamas which is putting the Palestinians at[sic] harm’s way. No major political figures in the US have come out staunchly against Israel’s military aggression.

Well, Bruno, we support Israel because we’re not Jew-hating Europeans. Operation Protective Edge is justified, Israel does have the right to defend itself, and it is Hamas that’s putting the Palestinians in harm’s way.

Jantti uses the sleazy technique of pretending that he’s in a state of confused disbelief. And he’s wearing an olive wreath.

Like a Roman emperor.

Obviously he’s completely off his rocker, but people listen to him. The person I argued with last night could be Bruno Jantti’s clone. The total lack of integrity—and the self-knowledge thereof—is what I find so repulsive.

Alien mindsets. They’ve bedeviled me for fifty-two years. Last night the person with whom I argued said that I had “cried wolf too often,” and that it wasn’t believable that Mike Albee and Lura Dold had robbed me of my life’s savings. I have no idea what that means. The person was speaking as though we’d known each other for years. This is a total stranger reacting to private issues and then projecting them onto me. Again.

This is what Israelis experience every day. Mike Albee and Lura Dold got into my head after my father killed himself, and they used the prolonged suicide of my mother to drain my bank account. And this…utterly mediocre person says last night that my version of events is not believable. Just casually dismisses that period of absolute, end-of-the-world agony. Like everyone else in the publishing world, this person is indifferent. I had to drive Mike Albee and Lura Dold out of business myself. Nobody helped. I was on my own.

Israel is fighting homicidal lunatics who have no brakes. There’s no act too depraved for them. And the world says, “You’ve cried wolf too often. Your story isn’t believable.”

That’s why I write my Pallywood posts. I can no longer count the messages I’ve gotten from Israelis and Jews all over the world, thanking me for providing evidence that they don’t do the things they’re accused of doing. They tell me that my posts give them hope.

And thus my Pallywood posts are the most meaningful work I’ve ever done. I wanted badly to be a successful author, but it was too late. The time for novelists like me has passed. Instead, we’ll keep getting putrid, gatekeeper-approved, ordinary schmaltz, and in about five years everyone who disdains the sort of fiction I wanted to write will be out of work.

Good.

My Pallywood posts will last forever, and they’ve given people hope.

I’ve been rewarded far more than I ever thought possible.