by Dr. Susan Block.

Flying over Kinktober’s spooky full moon on my magic dildonic vibrating broom, I deliver my Ode to Halloween to start up the scene… as well as our newest street in Bonoboville, “Poet Avenue.”

Gypsy & Me Riding Our Magic Dildonic Vibrating Brooms to the Moon! Photo: Franz Salvatierra

We want your poems! Don’t be afraid. Give “poetry therapy” a chance.

AND we want a ceasefire now! It’s been three weeks since “Israel’s 9/11” on October 7^th, when Capt’n Max and I broadcasted live the day after attending “Gaza Fights for Freedom” filmmaker Abby Martin’s art party, only to wake up to Hamas attacking Israel, and then Israel attacking Gaza, which it is still attacking… and bombing in a frenzy of atrocity after Zionist atrocity, slaughtering thousands of Palestinians, including many children.

Give Peace a Chance

I’m Jewish but never Zionist; not even when I believed the poisonous pablum fed to me like toxic baby food in Hebrew School about Israel being “a land without people for a people without land.” I felt like modern Israel was a warrior state—more in tune with Joshua invading Jericho than King Solomon’s erotic Song of Songs—and I was a make-love-not-war kind of gal.

Ceasefire for Palestine! Ceasefire for the hostages… Ceasefire for Israel itself. The only ones who won’t benefit from a ceasefire are Hamas, because Hamas feeds off of everyone’s outrage over Israel’s war crimes. The best thing Israel can do now is to negotiate with Hamas, to neutralize the “enemy” with peace, like bonobos.

Nevertheless, I have long had Zionist friends and family, some of whom live in Israel, so it has taken me years to clearly see just how bad it is—bad for Palestine, bad for the Jews, bad for everyone—and to take a stand against Zionism, Bibi Netanyahu and the whole Israeli War Machine supported by American tax dollars, my tax dollars.

When I first saw footage of the Hamas attack, I was mortified. I still am mortified. I see images of Israelis being murdered and being kidnapped, and I see my old friends from Har Zion Hebrew School and Camp Ramah. I see myself. I can’t unsee myself in those images. But then I see the Palestinian people, and I see myself in them too. They’re not as ethnically close as my old Ramah friends, but they’re people, like me. But unlike me, they’re trapped in a concentration camp, slaughtered by Zionist bombs.

What a shame—a shondah, as they say in Yiddish—for the Jews; even for us anti-Zionist Jews, because unfortunately, most non-Jews don’t see the difference. So, I join the voices of my fellow anti-Zionist Jews protesting Israel’s bombs who cry, “No! Not in our name! Not in my name will you commit such atrocities. Ceasefire now.”

It’s heartening to hear these words of peace sung and shouted in the huge protest marches in all the big cities around the world.

The whole world is watching YOU, Israel. Even as you bomb Gaza and cut off their food, water, medicine, electricity and Internet, bombing hospitals, homes and schools, the world still sees, and now knows. Israel may be stronger, thanks to American weapons, but Israel is losing the war of world opinion.

So, my Israeli friends and family, if you’re listening: Ceasefire now! Ceasefire for Palestine! Ceasefire for the hostages you are currently killing with your bombs. Ceasefire for Israel itself. The only ones who won’t benefit from a ceasefire are Hamas, because Hamas feeds off of everyone’s outrage over Israel’s war crimes. The best thing Israel can do now is to negotiate with Hamas, to neutralize the “enemy” with peace, like bonobos. Hamas may well refuse to negotiate because that would legitimatize Israel, and delegitimize Hamas. More bombing as usual is just proving Hamas’ point—as it murders thousands of innocents.

It’s also heartening to see Israelis on the streets of Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities protesting the bombing and especially the bomber, Bibi Netanyahu who, like his counterpart Trump, belongs in prison (even more than Trump belongs in prison).

Speaking of the devil, Trumpty Dumpty deserves some of the blame for this mess, since his son-in-law Jared Kushner’s much ballyhooed “Abraham Accords” totally ignored Palestine, making Hamas feel it had nothing to lose. And that cool $2 billion that Jared picked up from the Saudis… could it have been payment for a bit of top secret info on Israel’s defense systems?

We all want peace—at least those of us who don’t profit from war. But how to make it? Who knows? Maybe our kissing cousins, the Make-Love-Not-War bonobos, know.

Bonobo Peace Summit

Watching Zionist bombs pulverize Gaza on our phones from our privileged perch here in Bonoboville LA may be physically safe, but it’s emotionally enervating. So, when Friends of Bonobos (the outreach arm of Lola ya Bonobo) invited us on a backstage tour of the bonobos (pan paniscus) at the San Diego Zoo, we jumped up and hooted like bonobos at the chance.

Bonobo Peace Summit. Video Still: Rodrigo Alvarez

Guided by veteran primate specialist Kimba Livingston who I’d met way back in 2004 when I had my close encounter with bonobo Lana, we were treated to “inside” views of the orangutans, gorillas and, of course, the bonobos.

Thanks to new fences and other barriers, this was nowhere near as intimate an encounter as I’d had with Lana, or even with Lisa (in 2016’s Opera for Bonobos). But we had a great time at our “peace summit” with the quintessential peacemakers: the bonobos. Observing them made me even more certain that peace is the way, even in Palestine.

Bonobos make peace through pleasure, which often means sex. Unfortunately, the San Diego bonobos seem to have less and less sex every time I see them. I was afraid to ask Kimba if they were feeding them saltpeter, or maybe Prozac, though I had to wonder.

Bonobo Handshake. Video Still: Susan Block

They did have a little bit of sex, and it was clearly a form of conflict resolution to defuse their competitive tensions and stop their fighting over food. So fascinating and edifying to see peace through pleasure in action!

Bonobo Peacemaking: Hoka Hoka at Lunchtime. Video Still: Susan Block

My most exciting human-bonobo encounter this trip arose from playing catch, of all things. Due to my astigmatism and general lack of athletic prowess, I am usually a lousy pitcher; but when Kimba suggested I toss a walnut to Lisa the alpha female bonobo, I figured I’d give it a toss. Kimba herself wasn’t exactly Pedro Martinez, and the bonobos were missing her pitches.  So, I took a deep breath, stepped back and threw the nut, and lo and behold, my old friend Lisa stretched out her big bony hand and caught it! Then I did it again and she caught it—though it bounced, but then she caught it again—and I could swear she winked at me whilst devouring the crunchy treat.

Alpha Bonobo Lisa catches my nut. Video Still: Rodrigo Alvarez

Maybe instead of bombing and shooting, the Israelis and Palestinians could play soccer or volleyball. Sounds crazy, but no crazier than massacring hundreds of humans every day.

Be Bonobo: Save the Humans. Please donate to Friends of Bonobos…

Fab Fairouz for Baba Ghanouj

Thanks to Netanyahu’s genocidal blockade, Gazans are going hungry right now, which we “never forget.”

Nevertheless, starving ourselves wouldn’t feed Gaza. So when our San Diego Peace Mission needed to eat, we checked into a wonderful Palestinian restaurant called Fairouz (which means “turquoise” in Arabic), recommended by one of our regular Callin listeners, Fahim aka “Cut the Pentagon.”

Serving traditional Middle Eastern dishes like kebab and falafel, if I didn’t know Fairouz was a “Palestinian” restaurant, I’d think it was Israeli. Of course, Israel stole Palestinian and Lebanese cuisine, which is the least of Zionism’s crimes against the natives. This is why I grew up thinking that kebab, falafel and hummus were Israeli foods. Boy was I wrong!

With Sami Alnashashibi at Fairouz. Photo: Rodrigo Alvarez

Well, at least I didn’t think that hummus (mashed chickpeas) was Hamas… like Trumpty Dumpty. But just to be safe, I ordered the Baba Ghanouj (mashed eggplant).

But Fairouz is more than a restaurant; it’s an art gallery. The walls are covered with the vibrant and colorful paintings created by one of the owners, Ibrahim Al Nashashibi, also a poet. His brother Sami Al Nashashibi, who looks like Peter Sellers (star of one of my favorite films, Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove), was a charming host, treating us like friends. Sami’s twinkling eyes lit up the space, and his broad smile seemed to stretch across the great divide between Palestine and Israel, Muslim and Jew; with love, art, poetry and great food.

Bonobo Peace Summit at Fairouz. Video Still: Susan Block

Sami and his wife, the chef, exclaimed that I reminded them of “the famous [Lebanese] singer” Sabah. When I replied, “Thank you, I’m a little bit famous too,” a diner shouted from another table, “Yes, that’s Dr. Susan Block!” Then he pointed to Max and said “you must be Max.”

Who knew we had such gregarious fans in San Diego? Turns out the guy’s a cop. Wonder if he’s checked out our rants against police brutality. If he did, he’s probably one of the good ones.

Towards the end of the podcast, Fahim calls in to discuss more of the wonders of Fairouz, where he has been a regular diner for many years, as well as to express solidarity for Gaza and support for a ceasefire.

Fahim also regales us with tales of our mutual friend Abby Martin’s beginnings as a young artist and citizen journalist when she was an undergrad at San Diego State in 2006.  So moving to hear how he almost wept with joy when Abby returned to San Diego in 2019 to show Gaza Fights for Freedom. If you haven’t already, please see that film and Abby’s interviews for background on the current horrors. After the screening, they all went to Fairouz.

We can’t wait to return! In the meantime, we are enjoying the two poetry and art books we bought there, Ibrahim Al Nashashibi’s Written with Colors, Drawn with Words, and Spirit Whispers, Heart Listens, which Ibrahim dedicated to his beloved younger brother, the warm and welcoming Sami.

Fahim’s description on this show of Abby Martin as “the next generation of Protest Mommies” is perfect. Hopefully, the “Protest Mommies” of the Left will overtake “Moms for Liberty,” and soon!

Embracing Peace

The next night after the Zoo, my brother Steve and sister-in-law Tiya took us to the Fishmarket, another fun San Diego dining experience.

Are oysters really aphrodisiacs? Video Still: Rodrigo Alvarez

We slurped up fresh oysters, which are said to be aphrodisiacs, perhaps because their texture is akin to female genitalia, or maybe it’s the zinc. Sounds fishy, but they did trigger great sex—great disabled, senior sex, that is—later at the hotel. Then again, maybe we were inspired by the bonobos, but it was delicious and multi-orgasmic, in that order. Max felt so good in the afterglow, we almost tossed his wheelchair off the balcony (good thing we didn’t act on that fantasy). #GoBonobos for sexual healing!

As for the hotel itself, another Hilton Doubletree, it was pretty bland, but comfortable, wheelchair friendly (very important for us these days), and rather nostalgic. We’d stayed there when it was just a Doubletree back in 1996, on our very first trip to see bonobos, when I was giving a talk to the San Diego chapter of MENSA on The 10 Commandments of Pleasure.

Before dinner, we all walked around—well, Max rolled around—the Fishmarket area which is surrounded by a fleet of ships and a huge, menacing aircraft carrier (like the two Joe sent to the Mediterranean to menace the Middle East). Next to the carrier is a huge statue called, of all things, “Embracing Peace,” which felt like a fitting focal point for our San Diego Peace Summit.

Embracing Peace (in a wheelchair). Photo: Rodrigo Alvarez

The giant sculpture by Seward Johnson is also called “Unconditional Surrender,” though it’s best-known as “The Kissing Statue,” based on Albert Eisenstaedt’s “V-J Day in Times Square,” the famous photograph of a sailor passionately kissing a nurse at a parade celebrating the end of WWII.

V-Day in Times Square. Photo: Albert Eisenstaedt

When it first appeared in 1945, it was a big hit, but it’s very controversial nowadays, as some think it depicts an assault. It’s true that the sailor and nurse were strangers, but there’s no evidence of assault, and we love it. It reminds us of one of our own grand public embraces in France when we hadn’t seen each other in a couple months.

Speaking of “Embracing Peace,” I’m on a show called Embrace this week, an interview with Coralyn Jewel, who is also one of our therapists!

Also on this FDR:

• The new U.S. Speaker of the House MAGA Mike Johnson is a true Christofascist. Watch out!
• Our Vice piece has almost 250,000 views—with hundreds of comments filled with great love and virulent hate that are a soap opera show of their own.
• I’m still banned on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Spotify. Do they think I’m Hamas? We’ll find out soon, as we’re taking Zuck the META Cuck to arbitration.
• FREE ASSANGE! He’s got it almost as bad as a Gazan.
• Maine Mass Murderer Robert Card, who murdered 18 people and injured many more, appears to have been an ammosexual, possibly incel, and certainly had “mental health” issues. The point is, there were many warning signs—especially his firearms fetish—but nothing was done, nobody took his guns.
• The next generation of sexy lefties: Daniele Watts aka DaLove!
• Make Kink Not War: Be Bonobo. Save the Humans. Happy Halloween. Ceasefire NOW!

© October 28,  2023 Susan Block, Ph.D., a.k.a. “Dr. Suzy,” is a world renowned LA sex therapist, author of The Bonobo Way: The Evolution of Peace through Pleasure and horny housewife, occasionally seen on HBO and other channels. For speaking engagements, call 626-461-5950.

PHOTOS