Silly sideshows dominate much of the news on Israel and other Jewish and general issues. So much so that keeping up with them amounts to “posing problems that would cross a rabbi’s eyes,” to quote Tevye as he croons “If I were a rich man” in the musical “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker needs to suspend his job search for a new pulpit. Instead, he must find a literary agent – if none of them have found him yet – and publish a book recounting his background and the 11 hours that Malik Faisal Akram held him hostage at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas on January 15.

What a relief that pro-gun advocates routinely offer prayers whenever innocent people are threatened with or harmed by firearms. Abbott maintained the pattern as we worried what would become of the four hostages at Congregation Beth Israel.

“Are we going to be a nation that lives not by the light of the truth but in the shadow of lies?” The forceful, stammer-free President’s Speech launched the 10-month election cycle to remove the Republican “dagger held at the throat of America” – while enabling political allies who persist in vilifying American Jews.

Across the pond, Jewish leaders are protesting the BBC’s news coverage of an incident in which pro-Palestinian advocates threatened Jewish bus passengers in London.

A few Hamas leaders fully expect Israel’s downfall, yet Israel may not want to dislodge Hamas from its perch in Gaza. That is due to the equally firm expectation Hamas will be replaced by something worse.

Instead of blaming Sen. Jon Manchin III for the uncertain status of the Build Back Better bill, perhaps we should direct our wrath at the ghost of William Paterson. New Jersey’s one-time governor might well be disgusted with himself if he was alive to witness the suspension of the $1.7 trillion social policy legislation.

It is alarming, if not surprising, that Israeli and American officials are clashing over whether to revive a nuclear-arms deal with Iran or initiate military action.

Says U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, “Words can cause violence.” The Minneapolis Democrat was referring to the words of Rep. Lauren Boebert, who represents much of western and southern Colorado. Omar could have been referring to her own words – words like “the evil doings of Israel,” “the apartheid Israeli regime” and “all about the Benjamins” in reference to pro-Israel lobbying.

The black community will protest police and vigilante-like killings of African-Americans; the ongoing violence within black neighborhoods; criminal trials that resemble kangaroo courts; and over such issues as voter suppression, schools and housing. Rioting over metal-detectors, though, has not emerged in the Black community’s struggle for social justice.

We cannot argue with Nancy Pelosi: “When a member uses his or her national platform to encourage violence, tragically, people listen.”

New York state Jews who live in the Bronx’s Riverdale section or Scarsdale and New Rochelle in Westchester, not to mention their non-Jewish neighbors, almost lost their infrastructure funding thanks to their congressman, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman.

Those “authoritarian school board Nazis.” “Israel literally owned Congress.” Reckless words. Wacky parents raging at school officials? Pro-Arab students whipping a crowd into a frenzy? Comparable words were uttered by them, yet such words were echoed in the past week by the unfiltered voices of Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Oh, c’mon, Doug and Eileen, quit messing with us. To block anti-Semitism in Virginia, vote for Democrats?

If you must criticize Israel, Mary, can you please get your facts straight?

“Saying ‘Free Palestine’ is the beginning of what we meet to talk about on this issue,” says Canadian author Desmond Cole. As I moved on to read his further comments, I was anxious to finally learn what “Free Palestine” means. Many readers are probably cynical enough to expect Cole to disappoint.

It might otherwise have been delightful to witness a lone irregular Republican senator join with a handful of insufferable House Democrats who take a bipartisan stand over process and money in the halls of Congress.

In his address to the U.N. last Friday, Abbas demanded that Israel turn over its territories to the Palestinians within a year or he would reconsider recognition of Israel, according to the Associated Press.

The so-called “progressives” in Congress led Democrats to commit an act of war against the Jewish people on Tuesday, when the House leadership slashed $1 billion incorporated into the spending legislation for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system in an emergency spending package.

, the weekly newspaper Seven Days reported, “Singing by Jewish members of the audience overlapped with the pro-Palestinian contingent’s chants of ‘free, free Palestine!’ When the slogan shifted to ‘Equal rights are human rights,’ pro-Israel attendees responded, ‘Then tell Hamas!,’ referring to the extremist Islamic group that maintains control of the Gaza Strip.”

During his 1968 presidential campaign, Robert F. Kennedy proposed sending 50 military planes to Israel. Two decades later, Sirhan B. Sirhan revealed that RFK’s support of Israel motivated him to fatally shoot RFK in the pantry of a Los Angeles hotel on June 5, 1968.

This was the second time in three months when gun violence directly touched the Jewish community, while Congress refuses to enact gun-safety measures.

In the Famous-Last-Words department: “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

Cori Bush, after serving seven months in Congress, now rates comparison to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. What follows is no compliment.

As the saying goes, so many distortions, so little time. Bruce Ticker debunks a few popular ones.