4 | JULY 6 • 2023 

for openers

Hyperbole In Action
O

verstatement is one 
way to get a point 
across. I have written 
about exaggeration before, 
but I was reminded by some 
readers that I left 
the field untilled. 
Therefore: 
When you 
make something 
seem much 
better than it is, 
you are trying 
to gild the lily or 
pull the wool over someone’s 
eyes. They may realize that 
you are trying to build castles 
in the air and calling you on 
this may cause you to die of 
embarrassment.

Body shaming is not 
PC. Therefore, to describe 
someone as skinny as a 
toothpick or tall as a beanpole 
is not going to be endearing.
Are you familiar with 
those hot summer days when 
you could fry an egg on 
the sidewalk? Nothing like 
blowing a description out of 
proportion or laying it on 
thick.
Some days those grocery 
bags seem to weigh a ton, 
don’t they? Maybe you bought 
so much because you were 
hungry as a horse. Not good to 
shop under such conditions.
Can you recall a speaker 
who seemed to go on forever? 

Listening could make you 
want to spit bullets. Not to 
toot your own horn, but you 
were just dying to try your 
hand at the subject; you did 
not because you were scared 
stiff.
Someone who picks at their 
food may be said to eat like a 
bird. If they can move rapidly, 
they can run like the wind. 
If they have had too much to 
drink, they are said to be as 

high as a kite.
Sometimes when it is quiet, 
you could hear a pin drop. 
Don’t push the panic button; 
just take a deep breath. Going 
off the deep end may add fuel 
to the fire and cause folks 
to think you have lost your 
marbles.
Well, as I have told you a 
million times, it is a jungle out 
there, so be careful. Rein in 
your hyperboles! 

Sy Manello
Editorial 
Assistant

PURELY COMMENTARY

opinion

The Democratic Party’s Anti-Zionist 
Wing is Growing. Here’s How.
I

n recent weeks, the New 
York political scene roiled in 
the wake of three separate 
but significant controversies 
revolving around 
American 
support for 
Israel: city and 
state legislatures 
divided over 
two separate 
votes relating 
to antisemitic 
violence and charities 
supporting Jewish victims of 
terror, and a City University 
of New York (CUNY) Law 
School valedictorian delivered 
a fiery polemic against Israel, 
the United States and the rule of 
law itself.

Each of these controversies 
derived from a growing split 
within the Democrat Party 
between older, moderate lib-
erals who have traditionally 
supported the Middle East’s 
strongest democracy, and an 
ascendant, far-left wing of 
younger Democrats opposed in 
principle to Israel’s existence as 
a Jewish state.
New York is seen by Jews all 
over the world as a kind of sec-
ond home and major center of 
Jewish life. Yet while Israelis and 
diaspora Jews may think of New 
York as a place where Jews may 
live safely and unapologetically 
both as Jews and fully invested 
Americans, the rise of hardline 
leftists in New York politics and 

their views regarding Israel, 
challenge these assumptions 
and have serious implications 
for the future of the Democrat 
Party.
“Personnel is policy” is a 
familiar axiom in politics. 
Today’s leftist city council and 
state assembly members are 
tomorrow’s mayors, governors 
and members of Congress. And 
there are strong indications 
that the Democratic Party’s foot 
soldiers — staffers, campaign 
workers and activists — who 
will eventually run for low-
er-level positions are even fur-
ther left than their bosses.
While the aging old guard 
of the Democratic Party at 
the national level has tamped 

down some (but not all) of the 
anti-Israel stridency of Rashida 
Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio 
Cortez, Ilhan Omar and the 
rest of the “Squad” for the time 
being, their young Democratic 
Socialists of America (DSA) 
cohorts at the state and local 
level in New York are embold-
ened, with indications that 
their hostility to Israel extends 
to even liberal Jews who dare 
support the world’s only Jewish 
state.

END JEW HATRED
In the wake of antisemitic 
attacks in the city, the New York 
City Council recently passed 
a resolution establishing April 
29 as “End Jew Hatred Day,
” a 

continued on page 6

E J Hare
Times of 
Israel

