It turns out that the two people whose judgements and opinions I trust the most are Barry Rubin and Yaacov Lozowick, who are both Israelis. What I like most about Yaacov is that he has come to his opinions in the center after having been much further to the left, and he challenges me to remember my lefty roots. What I like about Barry is that he states, plainly and in a factual manner, the truth behind the issues that the media and government ignore.

There are many other people whose work I read. But these two men write the kind of information that I agree with and try to get out to my readers. Yaacov and Barry are historians, and it shows in their informative blog posts and columns (and excellent books). They’re not pulling facts out of the air; they have solid evidence backing up their statements. As far as I know, neither of them has ever written for World News Daily. I consider that a good thing.

On a similar subject, I also read Jeffrey Goldberg, but not for the same reasons as above. I don’t dismiss him out of hand the way so many do. He has many valid points. I don’t agree with him on a number of issues (Netanyahu immediately comes to mind), but I know that he, too, has Israel’s best interests at heart—even when he’s wrong. He has a point of view that is valuable to me, because even when I completely disagree with it, it still makes me think about that particular side. I don’t see the need to vilify Goldberg. By all means, call him out when he’s wrong. But the current campaign against him is despicable. Jeffrey Goldberg is a friend of Israel. The mouth-breathers calling him all kinds of Nazi epithets need a swift kick in the ass. He is not in any way in the Tom Friedman camp, and doesn’t deserve to be put there. But then, that’s the intertubes. When you don’t have to face the person you are insulting, it becomes a whole lot easier to do. Been there, done that, got the Master of Juvenile Scorn™ for it.

You don’t have to agree with someone to read him for valuable insight. Or to think that he’s being treated unfairly.

I’ve been writing about Jewish and Israeli issues since 2002. But the origin of my blog wasn’t Israel, or Jewish issues. That’s what this blog has turned into. It’s what I write about now almost exclusively. But it’s not why I started blogging.

The main reason I started this blog was to improve my writing. This blog helps me write something every day. The goal has always been to improve my skills, and ultimately, to get my fiction published. The fact that it’s become a soapbox from which I point out media bias against Israel, double standards from the world on Israeli behavior, and all things Jewish—well, you write what you know, and I’ve been interested in Jewish issues ever since I can remember, what with being Jewish and all. Thankfully, my parents did not bring me up to despise Judaism, unlike some I’ve written about over the years. I love being Jewish. That hasn’t changed in the past ten years, and never will.

I’ve struggled for years with writer’s block. I came out of the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writer’s Workshop with a short story sale and great contacts, as well as a wonderful writer’s group. But my writing stalled, and stalled, and stalled again. Every time I thought I’d gotten past whatever it was that was stopping me and start something new, after about a chapter or two, I’d stop again. It’s like there’s a switch inside me, but it was stuck in the Off position. I’ve been working on trying to get past that block for longer than I’ve been blogging.

This spring, something finally changed. This spring, everything’s different. The switch inside me is now in the On position, and I’ve got 8500 words of my novel, as well as over 30 4×6 index cards on my Outline Board in my office. I have a three-book story arc plotted, with an opening at the end of Book Three for another story arc. You can see the progression of my Outline Board in the last few weeks. On the left is what it looked like on the first day. The right-hand picture was taken 23 days later.

This is what’s going to be taking up most of my time from now on. That’s why I wanted to get a few more co-bloggers. Because when it comes down to it, writing fiction is more important than blogging.

Over the years, this blog has been great for me. It’s given me friends, relatives (a part of the family I never knew found me via Google), a new (used) laptop (reader contributions), a job, and now, it’s helped me get to the goal I was trying to reach ten years ago. About the only thing more I could ask this blog is to get me an agent and a publisher, when the first book is done next spring. (Fantasy, YA, if any agents are reading this, and it’s an extremely marketable concept.)

No, there’s one other thing I’d really like. I’d like to have Soccerdad back as my co-blogger, but I know that’s not going to happen. Life is more important than blogging, and he’s got things to take care of.

So I think I’m in it for another ten years, but I’m working towards being able to blog on my own time—in between writing, editing, and plotting—instead of doing it before and after work.

Change is coming for me. I’m sure of it.

As for the blog? Take a look at this post from nine years ago. Compare it to today. That’s why I’m still here. When it comes to Israeli and Jewish issues, nothing’s changed.

First. Second. Third. Fourth. Fifth. Sixth. Seventh. Eighth. Ninth.

Back then, the JBlogosphere was Tal G in Jerusalem, and Israeli Guy, Imshin (Not a Fish), Gary Farber, and Allison Kaplan Sommer—and I was here before all of them. Lair Simon was a commenter at LGF when I first started blogging. Israpundit/Ted Belman started around the time of the posts I’m reprinting. The Elder of Ziyon? Pshaw, he’s just a toddler in comparison (although an extremely gifted one).

Ten years. I’ve been doing this for ten years. I can’t even begin to estimate the number of words I’ve written, or the thousands of hours I’ve spent blogging. But I do know that I’m not bored yet, and I’d like to try to get some of my old fire back. The redesign was originally planned for the Yourish.com birthday celebration, but thanks to my tech support, Jay, we have the new layout now. And as I have the time, I’ll be bringing back more posts that I’m pretty sure very few of you have read. My blogging time is more constricted lately because I’m writing fiction again. (That’s the main reason I’m so interested in the ebook revolution. A writer no longer needs to rely on the agent-publishing house route to becoming a published author.)

It’s always been about the writing for me. That’s why I started this blog, and that’s why I keep going. That, and the message. I know you can get the other side of the Israel story in dozens of places now. But none of them has my specific level of snark, and, well—I was here first.

Kate‘s still blogging away, too. And Mac Thomason, though he and I are on opposites sides of the political fence these days (but I still like you, Mac!). Dustbury, Cold Fury, Jim Miller—wow, lots of people from the old days are still blogging. Patti‘s still here, too. Shirl‘s moved, but she’s still here. (Shelley Powers moved, too.)

These are all voices from my past. My tenth blogiversary is coming up. Nostalgia is setting in.

In those days, I was firmly on the left side of the fence, and argued incessantly with a reader whose handle was The Dumb Ox (but who was not dumb), my resident conservative. In those days, I realized that it was not accurate of me to say that abortion was merely getting rid of a bundle of cells. As you can see, I was and am willing to change my mind on certain things if a good argument is made.

I went online in the summer of 1986, so I’ve been on the internet longer than the Hipster generation has been around. (And my sarcasm beats theirs by several levels of magnitude, but that’s both upbringing, innate talent, and practice, practice, practice.)

The man who wrote my BBS software is now the editor of the Hugo-winning online magazine Clarkesworld. The man who was one of my most frequent BBSers as a teenager is now a big force in the online politics/journalism world. My, we had a talented crew back then, and while we realized it somewhat, it took a few decades to shake itself out.

So I’ve been online just about a quarter of a century, and I’m not close to tired of it yet. Yourish.com turns ten this spring. I think I’ll stick around a while longer.

A wonderful thing happened this week. Adil at Muslimpundit.com, whom I have been reading for months (and you should be reading him, too), mentioned me kindly in a recent blog, and told people to take a look at Iseema’s Diary while they were here. It got picked up by BBSpot and Metafilter and a few other places. (Not, may I point out, by Daypop.)

And thousands of people came.

They came, they read the diary, some of them looked around at other pages, and I hope to have interested some of them enough so that they come back on Monday.

But the most important thing, I think, is that they came not for a funny cat picture, not for a “Which X are you?” quiz, not for some freakish story, but for the writing. It’s up to me to keep them here now. I will do my best.

So, welcome, new readers. Kick your shoes off. Put your feet up, get comfortable, make yourself at home, and as soon as I’m settled back in from my Virginia trip (which will be tomorrow), I’ll be serving up some more helpings of what got you here in the first place.

But Adil is the one who gets to sit in The Chair That Swallows You Whole (so comfortable that you can’t get out of it), so nobody else sit there.

Yesterday I mentioned the things to expect during the Blogathon. But I forgot one. Violence.

After only an hour and a half, and due to the fact that I have no prepared posts, I’ve realized that I might get a mite testy by the end of the day. So please forgive me when I do, because I’m pretty sure it’s an inevitability.

If this keeps up, I might get desperate enough to post pictures of my cats.

Well. The least you can do is contribute to Shaare Zedek. There’s still about a 90% non-contributor rate out there, which saddens me. Six hundred-plus (non-Instalink) visitors a day, on average, and only 69 sponsors as of 10:30 a.m.

Wait! I know! I’m giving away free words with every contribution today. That’s right, you get to read 48 posts in 24 hours! Hey, how can you go wrong with that? And not only that, you can use my words anytime, in any situation, thereafter. Free words, no fair use constraints—why, it’s an invitation to plagiarize. That’s right, impress your friends. Guys, impress that girl you’ve been wanting and see if those free words don’t just get her into the bedroom. Use them in any combination, and you’ve got words for every occasion! I’ll even throw in a few swear words so you can tell off that asshole that sits next to you at work.

Yourish.com. The place on the Internet where you can get all the words that are fit to speak. And then some.

About a week and a half ago, I found a brief mention of my first essay on Metafilter, along with a question in the comments that needs answering. The question:

“I’m confused. I thought that the implication of his ‘I am a Jew’ statement was that it was something he was forced to say by way of giving the murders justification for killing him, claiming he was a Mossad spy or something.”

And there was something else, something from Mike Golby’s website, posted in response to my earlier essay. Here are the pertinent paragraphs, since Blogger seems to have damaged Mike’s archives (the essay is from March 3; you need to scroll down to read it):

“However, neither article will do much to assuage Meryl’s concern at the hatred others show towards her because of her faith. I firmly believe that, while others can support her, only she can do something to assuage the real anger she experiences at the thought of others hating her simply because she is Jewish. If it’s of any value to the feisty Ms. Yourish, I’ve seen infinitely more people twisted, broken, or driven crazy by the hatred they carry within than I have people who’ve been crippled by any viciousness voiced.

Those who hate are victims of self-abuse. I’d ask Meryl to follow the path she and her Polish friend took in their childhood, that most sensible time of our lives. Wait until they stop behaving like idiots, because, most of the time, and if South Africa is anything to go by, they eventually do.

Perhaps not in our lifetimes, but eventually.”

I can’t really speak for the hatred in South Africa. I ‘m no expert on South African history. And it is usually an exercise in futility to get into a comparison of whose misery goes deeper, but it must be pointed out that Jews have been subject to anti-Semitism for thousands of years, in, as far as I can tell, every nation in the world in which they have lived. Our history and South Africa’s are vastly different; it’s not a workable comparison.

Anti-Semitism doesn’t seem to be showing any sign of going away, except in places like the United States–which is over and above more tolerant of every ethnicity and religion than any other country in the world. Many of my anti-Semitic experiences have been with students or immigrants–Iranian Muslim students or immigrants, in point of fact. The negative experiences of my friend’s father and my mother–both native-born Americans–are the only ones that changed. The Iranian students weren’t willing to so much as give me a chance to become friends with them. In fact, the only Iranian I ever became friends with was a student at my college who had come to America as a small child, and whose parents deeply opposed the Ayatollah’s revolution. Nader was, in any case, completely Americanized by the time he met me–a critical factor in our friendship, I believe.

So here’s the problem, Mike. You recommend to me that I don’t fall victim to hatred. That I simply wait until the people who hate me because I am Jewish simply stop behaving like idiots.

I agree with you about not falling into hatred. It is extremely difficult not to, though, when I see Jews being gunned down at a Bar Mitzvah celebration, or while they are eating lunch at a cafe, or simply trying to study in their religious school. My anger overflows, but it is ultimately reined in and turns to sadness for the dead. I won’t fall into hatred, because it’s not in me to hate for no reason. And because when I do fall into anger and despair, I have friends–good friends–who can remind me that hate is the wrong path to follow.

But to “wait for them to stop behaving like idiots”? They’re not behaving like idiots. They’re behaving like murderers.

My mother and my friend’s father were acting like idiots, but they weren’t trying to kill us. Arab terrorists will kill me because I am Jewish. Danny Pearl is dead because he was Jewish. More people will die because they are Jewish, and this will keep happening for a very, very long time. I don’t have the luxury of waiting for them to stop behaving like idiots. My life could be at stake.

Which brings me around to answering the question from Metafilter: The reason we use that phrase is because even knowing full well that Danny Pearl was forced to recite the words that became his last, they resonate in every Jewish person’s soul: Yes, I am a Jew. Whether it is said voluntarily, or whether it is forced out in some pretense of justification by the executioners, it has the same resonance. I am a Jew, and I may die because of that. How many Christians ever think they may be killed for being a Christian?

The mob that surrounded and murdered Yankel Rosenbaum in Crown Heights was chanting “Kill the Jew!” In Nazi Germany, Jews who had completely assimilated were put to death alongside those who were deeply religious. If only one of your grandparents was Jewish, you went to the camps alongside someone whose Jewish lineage went back hundreds of years. It isn’t a question of faith. There is a distinction that gentiles make that cannot in actuality be made about Jews. If you take away my religion, I am still a Jew. Judaism is both religious and cultural. You cannot separate the two like you can, say, an Italian Catholic. Take away my sister-in-law’s Catholicism, and she is still an Italian-American. Take away my religious Judaism, and I am still a Jew. All of us know this, consciously or subconsciously. Because even if we want to no longer be Jewish, the world rarely lets us let go of our Jewishness. Hitler certainly didn’t. A lapsed Jew is still subject to the same hatred and bigotry that a religious Jew endures.

Therein lies the distinction that no other culture can claim. Therein lies our difference, our Otherness. Therein lies the reason for the continued attempts at our extinction. Therein lies my reason for taking the words forced upon Danny Pearl, and putting them out on a banner for all to see. Yes, I am a Jew. I was born a Jew, and I will die a Jew. I certainly hope I won’t die because I’m a Jew.

nice a day Yourish.com , i look your blog , this a nice blog and useful. Great for everyone. a lot of Iran and content. i going to plan to read and comment your blog.

He wasn’t my first co-blogger, but he was the most committed and held the longest term of all my other co-bloggers. His posts were deeply interesting, well-written, thorough, and in the last year or so, seemed perfectly attuned with many of the posts that I was writing. Our sentiments on Israel (and other issues) match fairly well. I will miss him as a blogging partner, and this place was definitely the better for having such a talent on display.

Damn. I just realized this means I have to start reading Tom Friedman or Paul Krugman. Ew.

In any case, I’ve been going through blog ennui again, which I’m sure you’ve all noticed. I was wondering if I should look for more co-bloggers, because the solo blog is a dwindling return effort, but then I realized that I do go through periods of time when this blog bores me, and then it stops boring me again, and I still have readers. So I’m going to do what I’ve always done, which is please myself. I think you’re going to see more of the personal posts, and I’m going to try to come up with some new things, because ya know, predictability is, well, boring. (Rahel, if you put “More cat pictures” in the comments, I’m going to find someone in Israel to smack you upside the head. Consider that comment a given in any blog discussion post.)

I have to think this over and decide what to do. This spring will be my tenth blogiversary. I’m not quite sure I’m ready to give it up yet. But I am sure I need to make this thing more appealing to both you and to me.