Dec 30, 2025
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We Can Stop WWIII: Just Say No to Fascism
by Doniphan Blair
The author presenting on 'The Liberal Way of War: Reinterpreting Sun Tzu for the Modern Era' at the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur, California, 7/27/25PLEASE support our GoFundMe campaign to cover research expenses for our articles and rebuilding the cineSOURCE site.
DEMOCRACY HAS BEEN TAKING IT ON
the chin of late, some of its worst blows since 1939. There’s the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now Europe’s biggest war since World War Two, radical Islam’s century-old jihad against Arab liberals, Christians, Sufis and Druze as well as Jews, now including a grotesque massacre on a beautiful beach thousands of miles from the Middle East, and 49.8% of Americans voting to reelect Trump. Not a full-fledged fascist, which I define as abrogating rule of law and elections, Trump has long fudged legalities and singlehandedly fabricated the stolen election hoax of 2020. Although he did achieve a cease fire in Gaza and the disruption of bureaucracies from Washington to Brussels, he destroyed more American alliances and soft power than Noam Chomsky in his wildest dreams.
This Republican, Russian and Islamist assault on the world order, abetted by a misinformed Left, could dim democratic progress for generations as well as end nations.
“We're already in a Third World War,” a baby-faced, 21-year-old Ukrainian soldier told me on my first trip there, in October 2022, which started eight years earlier. That was when Russia seized Crimea to punish Ukraine for its democratic Maidan Revolution. Although still largely irregular and hybrid, meaning more about bribes, assassinations, cyberattacks and conspiracies than tank battles and aerial bombardment, Ukraine has suffered four years of hot war, the dystopian future of drone warfare, and the death of at least 150,000 citizens, who fought for and deserved life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Julie took a JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM sticker in an Austin Whole Foods, where two employees did also but declined to be photographed (12/19/25). photo: D. BlairAlas, you wouldn’t know the situation was so dire in most of the United States or Europe. Indeed, I saw no Ukrainian flags nor heard much advocacy driving from California to New York, in August 2025, or taking trains from Paris to Poland, in September. My Dutch friends, with whom I travelled to India in 1972, suspected CIA skullduggery. In Cologne, Germany, the “Support Ukraine” table in the crowded main square was empty and my old German friends insisted Putin could be appeased with eastern Ukraine. Regardless, their sons were pacifists and would not fight.
Europe does have determined defenders, like Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski, husband of the great autocracy analyst Anne Appelbaum, who openly excoriates Russian militarism and imperialism while arming up his economically empowered country. The previously pacifist Denmark also tripled its military budget, to Trump’s requested 5% of GNP, and sent many jets and volunteer fighters to Ukraine.
Many Israelis enjoy Poland for work and play, including these modern Orthodox who did music and fashion shows in Warsaw.Most other European nations, however, have yet to cancel their contracts for Russian oil or prepare their citizens or economies for war, the mandatory first steps to negotiating fair deals with fascists, as Sun Tzu, Lincoln or Churchill will tell you.
Fascists will attack democrats, sooner or later, due to their belief that democrats are decadent and weak, that conspiracy theories and other psy-ops are legitimate political instruments, and that they’re entitled to use a democracy’s freedoms to destroy it and seize its assets. They don’t seem to notice that economies generally do better with democracies than under fascists, due to the benefits of free speech and markets.
Despite those sobering realizations, my 20,000-mile world tour was not one big bummer or eschatological nightmare. Try to enjoy life, even on the edge of the abyss, I learned from my mother, a Holocaust survivor. And I did exactly that, attending gallery openings, performances, parties and two weddings, one in Ukraine, the other Israel. Societies under existential attack may seem like poor places for romance and children, but Ukrainians and Israelis share long histories of oppression and actual genocides and a deep devotion to their beloveds and societies.
Vasyl's close friend Andriy, enjoying the wedding banquet banter as well as wine, Lviv, Ukraine (10/26/25). photo: D. BlairThe Ukrainian groom, Vasyl, I met in 2022, when he was a happy-go-lucky 21-year-old craft-beer aficionado, voracious intellectual and computer programmer. Two years later, however, he quit his job, joined a gym and enlisted in the Azov Brigade.
Called fascists by Russian propagandists, the Azov began as the boys with bats who defended the more pacifist Maidan revolutionaries from the riot police. After Russia grabbed Crimea, they bought weapons and formed militias to fight the invaders. After the full-scale invasion of 2022, they fought the butchers of Mariupol to a standstill in the enormous Azovstal Steel Works, an apocalyptic setting and story suitable for a major motion picture. Heralded as heroes across Ukraine, as well as by their Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, they can be considered one of the premier defenders of democracy today.
“You don’t have any cards,” Trump sneered at Zelensky on live TV, on February 28th, 2025, even though Zelensky knew Operation Spiderweb was coming in three months. That was when Ukrainian special forces concealed drones in commercial trucks, infiltrated them into Russia and destroyed a fifth of its strategic bomber fleet—you’re welcome NATO! Despite Ukrainian achievements and Zelensky becoming this world war’s Churchillian cheerleader, Trump, much of the media, and isolationists of all stripes keep repeating Russian lies about their advances and peace plans. On December 29th, after yet another meeting with Zelensky, Trump told him, "Putin wants to see Ukraine succeed."
Vasyl and Olenka's wedding in a smallish Ukrainian Orthodox church on the hill overlooking Lviv (10/26/25). photo: D. BlairOn leave from operating drones somewhere along the 700-mile, World-War-One-esque front, Vasyl enjoyed a storybook wedding to his beautiful, brilliant betrothed, Olenka. Its first half was in a gorgeous Ukrainian church, a mystical experience replete with soaring choruses, beautiful icons and ubiquitous gold plating. The second was in an Italian-themed hotel where family and friends, a cohort I was honored to be included in, enjoyed extensive eating, drinking and dancing.
My other wedding was in Israel, between the even younger Simon and Chana, daughter of Rabbi Bald and his wife Sarah, originally of Brooklyn. Since 1992, however, the Balds have lived in Lviv, running its only synagogue, the Beis Aharon V’Yisrael, which provided succor, supplies and spiritual uplift to the city’s surprisingly large Jewish community. Ukrainian democracy was finally strong enough, they felt, to come out of the closet. I was honored to be at the Beis Aharon for Yom Kippur, other services and even a children’s party (see my YouTube story), which I found both moving and unsullied by the extreme orthodoxy now confounding Israel. Hassidic wedding are big on single-sex dancing, with spirited performances by the men, perhaps to fortify the groom for his romantic journey, with something similar I’m guessing happening among the women.
In Israel, I also celebrated my birthday, November 4th, at the home of Hanna, the daughter of Bluma, my mother’s partner during the Holocaust, where I stayed my first week. Coincidentally, November 4th is the birthday of Hanna's boyfriend Shlomo, so she bought balloons, cooked up a storm and made a nice party, attended by some of her sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, whom it was fantastic to finally meet. A retired teacher, Hanna plays various musical instruments and makes sculptures and art.
An Israeli just out of the army, who I picked up hitchhiking and dropped off at a school for wayward teens in the Jordan Valley, where he was a teacher (11/20/25). photo: D. BlairWatching the nightly news with Hanna immersed me in Israeli culture, which is full of dramas and complexities ignored by those obsessed only with killings. The Gaza-Israel war ended with a ceasefire on October 11th, a welcome relief, even though violations and violence continued to be perpetrated by both sides. By my birthday, the big news was the tens of thousands of Hassidic students protesting a possible draft, from which they were previously exempt. They carried banners like “We Will Never Serve in the Army of the Israeli Enemy State,” which made them nominal allies of western progressives and Islamo-fascists. Although they deny Israel’s right to exist before the coming of the messiah, until that time, they welcome being protected by Israeli Jews and funded by Israeli Arabs and Jews. Their archaic worldview, many children, and almost two million on religious welfare could cripple Israel, according to Hanna and most Israeli liberals, but they believe their prayers and studies are actually saving the illegitimate state.
As if that weren’t crazy enough, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to fight Hamas not only with western liberals tying one hand behind his back, threatening to arrest him for war crimes even, but while governing through a fragile coalition of Hassidim, Arabs and the hard right.
Accusations of genocide are belied by the fact that Israel supplied virtually all of Gaza’s food, electricity and water, a unique occurrence in the annals of war, even though Egypt shares a border with Gaza. After selecting anti-Zionism as their unifying project, the Arab governments refused to accept Palestinian refugees, also unique in history, and forced them to become shock troops, to redeem the failures of Arab armies. This apocalyptic cynicism pushed the Palestinian radicals from socialism to Islamo-fascism, replete with indoctrinating their children into death cults and diverting a majority of funding for the Palestinian welfare state to weapons and tunnels.
Israel’s response, meanwhile, was one of the most proportional in history, especially if you consider Hamas’s genocidal intent, its proximity to Tel Aviv (44 miles) and the size of its tunnel system (Paris Metro), which turned all of Gaza into a human shield. Hamas violated every norm of war on 10/7, except cannibalism, which is why they had to be defeated, simply to prove that liberal democracy is superior to fascism, militarily as well as otherwise, and that Israel was not crippled by wokism, despite its popularity among Israeli liberals.
Unfortunately, many liberals don’t get that, given the proclivities of fascists, this is the periodic chore of liberal democracies. Indeed, their support encouraged Hamas to keep fighting and sacrificing Gazans, who were barred from entering the tunnels and from whom Hamas stole much of the donated food. The anti-Zionist demonstrations, which started on 10/7 and raged for two years, became the biggest progressive movement in history, despite attendance by conservative Muslims and neo-Nazis, or the fact that Hamas openly murders gays and political opponents.
Another Israeli hitchhiker who said the upcoming election would be his first time voting and that he preferred centrist candidates (11/20/25). photo: D. BlairAlso on my birthday, the Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won 50.4% of the vote to become the mayor New York City, the world’s biggest Jewish city. Many Democrats see him as the future of their party, despite his vocal opposition to Israel, support for globalizing the intifada, and silence on Ukraine. Mamdani considers Ukraine an imperialist NATO project not the evolving liberal democracy I saw on my three, month-long visits. I grew up in a socialist family, lived in a commune and support sensible socialism, when it crosses into tolerating or enacting fascism, it must be opposed.
Accusations that Israel is racist, apartheid and fascist are especially rich, considering 900,000 Jews were expelled from their ancient homes across the Middle East and had to go to Israel, that Blacks are oppressed in many Arab countries, including actual genocides in Darfur and Sudan, and that religious minorities are often persecuted, while Israel is a liberal, multicultural democracy. In fact,Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an actual fascist organization which started in 1928, allied with Italian fascists and German Nazis, and remains dedicated to destroying the liberal West as well as Israel.
Conversely, the democrats of the Middle East—of which there are many, inspired by Sufism, Arab liberals of the 20th century and the Arab Spring—benefited from Israel’s resistance to Islamo-fascism on seven fronts: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria’s dictatorship, Yemeni Houthis, Iraqi radicals and the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as Hamas and West Bank militants. Israel’s September 2024 “pager operation” and other precise attacks, including on Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, freed Lebanon from foreign domination for the first time since the Palestinians fomented civil war in the 1970s and ‘80s, and helped overthrow the Assad dictatorship, which murdered half a million Syrians.
Finally Israel tackled their principal patron, Iran, an ally of Russia which has been bullying the Middle East for 40 years. First, they eliminated its air defenses, then many of its generals and nuclear scientists, in a series of well-targeted assassinations, finally the nuclear installations themselves. That was during 12 days in June, 2assisted by American B-52s and bunker busters. The destruction of Islamo-fascism’s “ring of fire” around Israel has reconfigured the Middle East, along with the Abrahamic Accords, the peace treaties between Israel, the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, Kazakhstan and now Somaliland, which Trump developed in his first term.
Ibrahim, Arab Israeli, AirBnB owner and car nut, at his picturesque place in the old city of Acre (11/12/25). photo: D. BlairOnce a fairly socialist society, Israel turned right after the Palestinians rejected the Oslo Accords, which won leader Yasser Arafat a Nobel Peace Prize, and multiple land-for-peace deals. It's completely comprehensible that Israel would after 80 years of criticism, war and terror, including the Second Intifada’s 140 suicide bombings, which killed over a thousand and only ended in 2005. If liberals won’t defend a society, the hard right will, as the Azov illustrated.
Nevertheless, Israel remains a vibrant, liberal democracy, where women, gays and atheists as well as Arabs enjoy equal rights. Tel Aviv’s gay pride parade and party week in June is Asia's largest LGBT event and features fantastic floats, outfits, parties, performances and quite a few Arabs (before 10/7 including those sneaking in from Gaza). Israel’s beaches are full of burka-ed and bikini-ed women, and its culture is bursting with free expression and economic opportunity. The economy kept expanding during the war, even as many businesses went bankrupt due to employees being called up to fight, so much so Israel became the world’s leading "start-up" nation in 2025.
I talked to a few Arab Israelis and many Israeli liberals, including a queer activist who organized presentations for the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. He opposed Netanyahu but applauded his prosecution of the Gaza war. Indeed, many Bibi haters accepted that it was a standard Middle East battle against suicidal Islamo-fascists, a problem dating from the medieval Hashasheens to Syrian’s slaughter of 30,000 in 1982, in a town coincidentally named Hama, while acknowledging its tragic and confusing elements.
One of Israel’s hard-to-believe aspects is peacefulness. There were only ten murders among its eight million Jews in 2024; there are many hitchhikers, including women at night; and the many sacred sites imbue reverence, even on those of other or no religions. As I toured Israel in a mini-muscle car (which the rental agency upgraded me to for some reason), I was surprised by its California-esque car culture, including many six-lane freeways, traffic jams and gear heads, including among the Arabs. Ibrahim, the friendly owner of my AirBnB in the walled, Crusader city of Acre, has a Pontiac Firebird and GMC van, both fire-red, which he fixed up and painted himself. With its bed in the back, the van would be perfect for touring the Golan, Israel’s northern California, replete with wineries, weed farms, horse rentals and kibbutzes full of hippies.
Israeli gay activist at his day job in a Tel Aviv pod hotel, (12/11/25). photo: D. Blair Alas, many progressives feel the Golan was stolen from Syria and Israel should be eliminated or fully reconfigured, despite its provision of equal rights and success or the fact that the new state would probably be Islamo-fascist.
Oh well, in a democratic society, we’re entitled to our opinions and votes and now in the conspiracy era our own facts. Anti-Zionists, isolationists and socialists base a lot of their thinking on conspiracy theories. For example, the Soviet Union initially supported Israel, voting for it in the UN and supplying its first weapons. After the 1967 Six Day War, Soviet spy masters developed a plan to punish America through Israel and pushed through the UN the “Zionism is racism” declaration. Even though Israel is half Jews of color and a fifth Arab and the declaration was repealed in 1993, it remains the infectious germ that drives the conspiracy theory.
Despite their enjoyment of liberal largess, tolerance and toys, many young westerners have come to favor Russia and Hamas, which oppress their own people and provide no path to democracy. They’re also equally divided between left and right, according to recent polls. We can try to blame smart phones, social media or the modern information environment, but there’s no magic bullet, aside from setting a good example and growing up, which is the ancient human challenge.
Indeed, each of us must take responsibility and do our part, voting with our voices and feet as well as at the ballot box. Hope and innovation must be maintained, especially since it may take a generation or two of stochastic war to restore rationalism and democracy. Perhaps we can avoid the incredible human, economic and environmental cost of a full World War Three with innovative initiatives. Disruption and change are inevitable, even welcome, but letting fascism win against democracy would be devastating.
Kirell, a hard-rocking Ukrainian saxophonist, after his gig in Kyiv, shortly before the start of the ballistic missiles, (10/24/25). photo: D. Blair I thought for a long time about what to do in our new era of incipient fascism, rampant conspiracy theories—fascism of the mind—and the modern threats of AI, plagues and pollution. As well as publishing cineSOURCE, with articles like “Meet the Kids of Maidan: My Journey into Ukraine’s Democratic Revolution”“Dear Oakland: Why Doth Thou Forsake Our Freedom Fight?”, and “ The Genius of Gombrowicz and Poland: Becoming Adult in the Age of Trump and Putin”, I developed a credo, radical multiculturalism, and a logo and performance piece called JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM.
Admittedly, my JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM world tour has not taken off in terms of major bookings, Instagram interest or donations, although you are welcome to change that, see below.
Nevertheless, I did accrue a lot of experience, connections and data over the last year. As I drove and took trains across America, Europe and the Middle East, much of it wearing a JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM T-shirt, I handed out quite a few three-inch square JUST SAY NO stickers and chatted with many people. From a Holocaust Survivors conference in Paris to weddings in Ukraine and Israel, from old friends in France, Holland and Germany to locals or world travelers I met on the streets or in cafes, I connected with a plethora of fascinating folk and heard their worries and hopes. I also did some lectures and theatrical pieces.
The author at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany (9/20/25).My Performances and Investigations
A Brief Explanation of JUST SAY NOT TO FASCISM, East Jerusalem, Israel, 11/27/25
A View from Maidan Square, Kyiv, Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, 10/20/25
A View from Maimonides’ Tomb, Tiberias, Israel or Maimonides’ Tomb, the Short Version , Maimonides ’ Tomb, Tiberias, Israel, 11/23/25
The Liberal Way of War: Reinterpreting Sun Tzu for the Modern Era, Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur, California, 7/27/25
A View from Berlin's Memorials to Victims of Fascism, Berlin, Germany, 9/26/25
A View from the Babyn Yar Massacre Site, Kyiv, Ukraine , Kyiv, Ukraine, 10/24/25
A View of the Russian Invasion, Three Years On, Lviv, Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine, 10/14/25
‘What they Did Here,’ my version of Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address’, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 10/8/24
The author at the Warsaw ghetto memorial, Warsaw, Poland (9/27/25).Despite the frightening fascist surge, I remain optimistic. Liberals always take a long time to mobilize. Ensconced in intoxicating consumer goods and civil rights, it is hard to believe we're under existential attack. Radical multiculturalism, my philosophy, means the acceptance of all culture, including White and Jewish, but evaluated through meritocracy—adopting whatever actually works. This can also be called radical centrism, since that is the only structure ample enough to include such diversity, and expand the democratic tent.
Some say liberal democracy has run its course and a new paradigm is needed. Unfortunately, that’s the simplistic “Let’s have a revolution” solution, which history has show to be an abject failure, almost universally. Communism is not only unicultural and top down, making it inherently unresponsive and hard to manage, it mirrors fascism’s industry control of the state with state control industry as well as slippery slope to totalitarianism. Instead of looking for easy fixes, we are obliged to confront the traditional human chore of becoming a responsible adult, and judiciously removing failures, fixing inefficiencies and improving successes.
We all have to do our bit to deter a fascist takeover and descent into World War Three. This is mine and I invite you to join me. Indeed, my hometown of Oakland, California, although a hot bed of socialism and anti-Zionism is also a place of innovation, art and entrepreneurs, with many honest free spirits who might review the history and revise their trajectory.
JUST SAY NO swag: T-Shirt, $25, Stickers, $1, Bumperstickers, $5Earn a JUST SAY NO T-shirt or sticker by donating to Buy Me a Coffee or subscribing to cineSOURCE magazine. The JUST SAY NO revolution has plenty of swag, in fact, including 2.5” square stickers: $1 for one, $5 for eight, $10 for 20—email orders . When you're wearing a T-shirt and get a smile, you can hand them a sticker—kids love stickers!
I am also available for dialogues, performances, Ted Talks and more, check out my Instagram or YouTube or support me at Buy Me a Coffee, cineSOURCE magazine or GoFundME.
Posted on Dec 20, 2025 - 10:37 AM
by Doniphan Blair
The author presenting on 'The Liberal Way of War: Reinterpreting Sun Tzu for the Modern Era' at the Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur, California, 7/27/25DEMOCRACY HAS BEEN TAKING IT ON
the chin of late, some of its worst blows since 1939. There’s the Russian invasion of Ukraine, now Europe’s biggest war since World War Two, radical Islam’s century-old jihad against Arab liberals, Christians, Sufis and Druze as well as Jews, now including a grotesque massacre on a beautiful beach thousands of miles from the Middle East, and 49.8% of Americans voting to reelect Trump. Not a full-fledged fascist, which I define as abrogating rule of law and elections, Trump has long fudged legalities and singlehandedly fabricated the stolen election hoax of 2020. Although he did achieve a cease fire in Gaza and the disruption of bureaucracies from Washington to Brussels, he destroyed more American alliances and soft power than Noam Chomsky in his wildest dreams.
This Republican, Russian and Islamist assault on the world order, abetted by a misinformed Left, could dim democratic progress for generations as well as end nations.
“We're already in a Third World War,” a baby-faced, 21-year-old Ukrainian soldier told me on my first trip there, in October 2022, which started eight years earlier. That was when Russia seized Crimea to punish Ukraine for its democratic Maidan Revolution. Although still largely irregular and hybrid, meaning more about bribes, assassinations, cyberattacks and conspiracies than tank battles and aerial bombardment, Ukraine has suffered four years of hot war, the dystopian future of drone warfare, and the death of at least 150,000 citizens, who fought for and deserved life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Julie took a JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM sticker in an Austin Whole Foods, where two employees did also but declined to be photographed (12/19/25). photo: D. BlairEurope does have determined defenders, like Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski, husband of the great autocracy analyst Anne Appelbaum, who openly excoriates Russian militarism and imperialism while arming up his economically empowered country. The previously pacifist Denmark also tripled its military budget, to Trump’s requested 5% of GNP, and sent many jets and volunteer fighters to Ukraine.
Many Israelis enjoy Poland for work and play, including these modern Orthodox who did music and fashion shows in Warsaw.Fascists will attack democrats, sooner or later, due to their belief that democrats are decadent and weak, that conspiracy theories and other psy-ops are legitimate political instruments, and that they’re entitled to use a democracy’s freedoms to destroy it and seize its assets. They don’t seem to notice that economies generally do better with democracies than under fascists, due to the benefits of free speech and markets.
Despite those sobering realizations, my 20,000-mile world tour was not one big bummer or eschatological nightmare. Try to enjoy life, even on the edge of the abyss, I learned from my mother, a Holocaust survivor. And I did exactly that, attending gallery openings, performances, parties and two weddings, one in Ukraine, the other Israel. Societies under existential attack may seem like poor places for romance and children, but Ukrainians and Israelis share long histories of oppression and actual genocides and a deep devotion to their beloveds and societies.
Vasyl's close friend Andriy, enjoying the wedding banquet banter as well as wine, Lviv, Ukraine (10/26/25). photo: D. BlairCalled fascists by Russian propagandists, the Azov began as the boys with bats who defended the more pacifist Maidan revolutionaries from the riot police. After Russia grabbed Crimea, they bought weapons and formed militias to fight the invaders. After the full-scale invasion of 2022, they fought the butchers of Mariupol to a standstill in the enormous Azovstal Steel Works, an apocalyptic setting and story suitable for a major motion picture. Heralded as heroes across Ukraine, as well as by their Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, they can be considered one of the premier defenders of democracy today.
“You don’t have any cards,” Trump sneered at Zelensky on live TV, on February 28th, 2025, even though Zelensky knew Operation Spiderweb was coming in three months. That was when Ukrainian special forces concealed drones in commercial trucks, infiltrated them into Russia and destroyed a fifth of its strategic bomber fleet—you’re welcome NATO! Despite Ukrainian achievements and Zelensky becoming this world war’s Churchillian cheerleader, Trump, much of the media, and isolationists of all stripes keep repeating Russian lies about their advances and peace plans. On December 29th, after yet another meeting with Zelensky, Trump told him, "Putin wants to see Ukraine succeed."
Vasyl and Olenka's wedding in a smallish Ukrainian Orthodox church on the hill overlooking Lviv (10/26/25). photo: D. BlairMy other wedding was in Israel, between the even younger Simon and Chana, daughter of Rabbi Bald and his wife Sarah, originally of Brooklyn. Since 1992, however, the Balds have lived in Lviv, running its only synagogue, the Beis Aharon V’Yisrael, which provided succor, supplies and spiritual uplift to the city’s surprisingly large Jewish community. Ukrainian democracy was finally strong enough, they felt, to come out of the closet. I was honored to be at the Beis Aharon for Yom Kippur, other services and even a children’s party (see my YouTube story), which I found both moving and unsullied by the extreme orthodoxy now confounding Israel. Hassidic wedding are big on single-sex dancing, with spirited performances by the men, perhaps to fortify the groom for his romantic journey, with something similar I’m guessing happening among the women.
In Israel, I also celebrated my birthday, November 4th, at the home of Hanna, the daughter of Bluma, my mother’s partner during the Holocaust, where I stayed my first week. Coincidentally, November 4th is the birthday of Hanna's boyfriend Shlomo, so she bought balloons, cooked up a storm and made a nice party, attended by some of her sons, daughters-in-law and grandchildren, whom it was fantastic to finally meet. A retired teacher, Hanna plays various musical instruments and makes sculptures and art.
An Israeli just out of the army, who I picked up hitchhiking and dropped off at a school for wayward teens in the Jordan Valley, where he was a teacher (11/20/25). photo: D. BlairAs if that weren’t crazy enough, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had to fight Hamas not only with western liberals tying one hand behind his back, threatening to arrest him for war crimes even, but while governing through a fragile coalition of Hassidim, Arabs and the hard right.
Accusations of genocide are belied by the fact that Israel supplied virtually all of Gaza’s food, electricity and water, a unique occurrence in the annals of war, even though Egypt shares a border with Gaza. After selecting anti-Zionism as their unifying project, the Arab governments refused to accept Palestinian refugees, also unique in history, and forced them to become shock troops, to redeem the failures of Arab armies. This apocalyptic cynicism pushed the Palestinian radicals from socialism to Islamo-fascism, replete with indoctrinating their children into death cults and diverting a majority of funding for the Palestinian welfare state to weapons and tunnels.
Israel’s response, meanwhile, was one of the most proportional in history, especially if you consider Hamas’s genocidal intent, its proximity to Tel Aviv (44 miles) and the size of its tunnel system (Paris Metro), which turned all of Gaza into a human shield. Hamas violated every norm of war on 10/7, except cannibalism, which is why they had to be defeated, simply to prove that liberal democracy is superior to fascism, militarily as well as otherwise, and that Israel was not crippled by wokism, despite its popularity among Israeli liberals.
Unfortunately, many liberals don’t get that, given the proclivities of fascists, this is the periodic chore of liberal democracies. Indeed, their support encouraged Hamas to keep fighting and sacrificing Gazans, who were barred from entering the tunnels and from whom Hamas stole much of the donated food. The anti-Zionist demonstrations, which started on 10/7 and raged for two years, became the biggest progressive movement in history, despite attendance by conservative Muslims and neo-Nazis, or the fact that Hamas openly murders gays and political opponents.
Another Israeli hitchhiker who said the upcoming election would be his first time voting and that he preferred centrist candidates (11/20/25). photo: D. BlairAccusations that Israel is racist, apartheid and fascist are especially rich, considering 900,000 Jews were expelled from their ancient homes across the Middle East and had to go to Israel, that Blacks are oppressed in many Arab countries, including actual genocides in Darfur and Sudan, and that religious minorities are often persecuted, while Israel is a liberal, multicultural democracy. In fact,Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, an actual fascist organization which started in 1928, allied with Italian fascists and German Nazis, and remains dedicated to destroying the liberal West as well as Israel.
Conversely, the democrats of the Middle East—of which there are many, inspired by Sufism, Arab liberals of the 20th century and the Arab Spring—benefited from Israel’s resistance to Islamo-fascism on seven fronts: Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syria’s dictatorship, Yemeni Houthis, Iraqi radicals and the Islamic Republic of Iran, as well as Hamas and West Bank militants. Israel’s September 2024 “pager operation” and other precise attacks, including on Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah, freed Lebanon from foreign domination for the first time since the Palestinians fomented civil war in the 1970s and ‘80s, and helped overthrow the Assad dictatorship, which murdered half a million Syrians.
Finally Israel tackled their principal patron, Iran, an ally of Russia which has been bullying the Middle East for 40 years. First, they eliminated its air defenses, then many of its generals and nuclear scientists, in a series of well-targeted assassinations, finally the nuclear installations themselves. That was during 12 days in June, 2assisted by American B-52s and bunker busters. The destruction of Islamo-fascism’s “ring of fire” around Israel has reconfigured the Middle East, along with the Abrahamic Accords, the peace treaties between Israel, the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, Sudan, Kazakhstan and now Somaliland, which Trump developed in his first term.
Ibrahim, Arab Israeli, AirBnB owner and car nut, at his picturesque place in the old city of Acre (11/12/25). photo: D. BlairNevertheless, Israel remains a vibrant, liberal democracy, where women, gays and atheists as well as Arabs enjoy equal rights. Tel Aviv’s gay pride parade and party week in June is Asia's largest LGBT event and features fantastic floats, outfits, parties, performances and quite a few Arabs (before 10/7 including those sneaking in from Gaza). Israel’s beaches are full of burka-ed and bikini-ed women, and its culture is bursting with free expression and economic opportunity. The economy kept expanding during the war, even as many businesses went bankrupt due to employees being called up to fight, so much so Israel became the world’s leading "start-up" nation in 2025.
I talked to a few Arab Israelis and many Israeli liberals, including a queer activist who organized presentations for the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. He opposed Netanyahu but applauded his prosecution of the Gaza war. Indeed, many Bibi haters accepted that it was a standard Middle East battle against suicidal Islamo-fascists, a problem dating from the medieval Hashasheens to Syrian’s slaughter of 30,000 in 1982, in a town coincidentally named Hama, while acknowledging its tragic and confusing elements.
One of Israel’s hard-to-believe aspects is peacefulness. There were only ten murders among its eight million Jews in 2024; there are many hitchhikers, including women at night; and the many sacred sites imbue reverence, even on those of other or no religions. As I toured Israel in a mini-muscle car (which the rental agency upgraded me to for some reason), I was surprised by its California-esque car culture, including many six-lane freeways, traffic jams and gear heads, including among the Arabs. Ibrahim, the friendly owner of my AirBnB in the walled, Crusader city of Acre, has a Pontiac Firebird and GMC van, both fire-red, which he fixed up and painted himself. With its bed in the back, the van would be perfect for touring the Golan, Israel’s northern California, replete with wineries, weed farms, horse rentals and kibbutzes full of hippies.
Israeli gay activist at his day job in a Tel Aviv pod hotel, (12/11/25). photo: D. BlairOh well, in a democratic society, we’re entitled to our opinions and votes and now in the conspiracy era our own facts. Anti-Zionists, isolationists and socialists base a lot of their thinking on conspiracy theories. For example, the Soviet Union initially supported Israel, voting for it in the UN and supplying its first weapons. After the 1967 Six Day War, Soviet spy masters developed a plan to punish America through Israel and pushed through the UN the “Zionism is racism” declaration. Even though Israel is half Jews of color and a fifth Arab and the declaration was repealed in 1993, it remains the infectious germ that drives the conspiracy theory.
Despite their enjoyment of liberal largess, tolerance and toys, many young westerners have come to favor Russia and Hamas, which oppress their own people and provide no path to democracy. They’re also equally divided between left and right, according to recent polls. We can try to blame smart phones, social media or the modern information environment, but there’s no magic bullet, aside from setting a good example and growing up, which is the ancient human challenge.
Indeed, each of us must take responsibility and do our part, voting with our voices and feet as well as at the ballot box. Hope and innovation must be maintained, especially since it may take a generation or two of stochastic war to restore rationalism and democracy. Perhaps we can avoid the incredible human, economic and environmental cost of a full World War Three with innovative initiatives. Disruption and change are inevitable, even welcome, but letting fascism win against democracy would be devastating.
Kirell, a hard-rocking Ukrainian saxophonist, after his gig in Kyiv, shortly before the start of the ballistic missiles, (10/24/25). photo: D. Blair Admittedly, my JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM world tour has not taken off in terms of major bookings, Instagram interest or donations, although you are welcome to change that, see below.
Nevertheless, I did accrue a lot of experience, connections and data over the last year. As I drove and took trains across America, Europe and the Middle East, much of it wearing a JUST SAY NO TO FASCISM T-shirt, I handed out quite a few three-inch square JUST SAY NO stickers and chatted with many people. From a Holocaust Survivors conference in Paris to weddings in Ukraine and Israel, from old friends in France, Holland and Germany to locals or world travelers I met on the streets or in cafes, I connected with a plethora of fascinating folk and heard their worries and hopes. I also did some lectures and theatrical pieces.
The author at Brandenburg Gate, Berlin, Germany (9/20/25).A Brief Explanation of JUST SAY NOT TO FASCISM, East Jerusalem, Israel, 11/27/25
A View from Maidan Square, Kyiv, Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine, 10/20/25
A View from Maimonides’ Tomb, Tiberias, Israel or Maimonides’ Tomb, the Short Version , Maimonides ’ Tomb, Tiberias, Israel, 11/23/25
The Liberal Way of War: Reinterpreting Sun Tzu for the Modern Era, Henry Miller Memorial Library, Big Sur, California, 7/27/25
A View from Berlin's Memorials to Victims of Fascism, Berlin, Germany, 9/26/25
A View from the Babyn Yar Massacre Site, Kyiv, Ukraine , Kyiv, Ukraine, 10/24/25
A View of the Russian Invasion, Three Years On, Lviv, Ukraine, Lviv, Ukraine, 10/14/25
‘What they Did Here,’ my version of Lincoln’s ‘Gettysburg Address’, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, 10/8/24
The author at the Warsaw ghetto memorial, Warsaw, Poland (9/27/25).Some say liberal democracy has run its course and a new paradigm is needed. Unfortunately, that’s the simplistic “Let’s have a revolution” solution, which history has show to be an abject failure, almost universally. Communism is not only unicultural and top down, making it inherently unresponsive and hard to manage, it mirrors fascism’s industry control of the state with state control industry as well as slippery slope to totalitarianism. Instead of looking for easy fixes, we are obliged to confront the traditional human chore of becoming a responsible adult, and judiciously removing failures, fixing inefficiencies and improving successes.
We all have to do our bit to deter a fascist takeover and descent into World War Three. This is mine and I invite you to join me. Indeed, my hometown of Oakland, California, although a hot bed of socialism and anti-Zionism is also a place of innovation, art and entrepreneurs, with many honest free spirits who might review the history and revise their trajectory.
JUST SAY NO swag: T-Shirt, $25, Stickers, $1, Bumperstickers, $5I am also available for dialogues, performances, Ted Talks and more, check out my Instagram or YouTube or support me at Buy Me a Coffee, cineSOURCE magazine or GoFundME.
Posted on Dec 20, 2025 - 10:37 AM
