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zorciarkrildrush · 6 months

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I think the essence of what drives me crazy about current Enlightened Online Leftist Discourse Regarding My Life Personally And Whether This Time Killing Me Is Morally Correct (as in, commentary about the latest episode in i/p violence) is this:

I want a free Palestine.

I don't personally know a lot of people that don't! They might bristle at the tagline, because it's co-opted by people who do in fact want them dead, but as soon as I lay out why it's in literally everyone's best interest, how a non-free Palestine is horrific both to the people of Israel and to the people of Palestine, how pragmatically ridiculous the occupation of the west bank and the siege upon Gaza are (and I am a very pragmatic person), they get it. And I don't mean I debate people online about it - this, too, is a ridiculous concept - I mean having, time and time again, the deradicalization conversation with my friends, and colleagues, and my family. Obviously not only now - I've always been a very principled and argumentative Jew, ever since I became an adult - and I've been alive for, I don't know, a dozen flashpoints and operations and wars at this point, and I don't stop being argumentative and loud in peacetime either, but especially now.

But that's not what "from the river to the sea" means.

When you, gentle soul from across the sea, echo this slogan, you are either:

By apathy or will, ignoring that the sentiment cheers for the mass expulsion and killing of Jews. Indeed, any non-Muslim present from the river to the sea. This doesn't even begin to cover how even Muslim arabs still will not be safe under Hamas rule - and trust me, I don't care if a Hamas apologist told you different. A victory for Hamas (And we're ignoring the fact they do not have the military capacity for it - I hope you are aware of the privilege inherent to not understanding military conflicts) means exactly that. No "rule by the people". No socialistic, Palestinian utopia to be had, which is a fantasy I'm seeing alluded to a lot recently. Just an extension of the horrific power structure in Lebanon and Syria, where Hezbollah - friends and allies to Hamas - have been playing a tango for decades of both refusing to participate in actual government and betterment of civilian lives, while still draining their resources and controlling them with no real contest. "From the river to the sea" is not a sentiment for freedom fighting - it's a sentiment for a final solution to the people living here who are either Jewish, or for some Very Strange And Weird Reason would rather not submit to Hamas rule. You know - Israeli Arabs, secular and Muslim and Christian, Druze, Circassians, Bahai, take your pick. Their suffering, and my suffering - you know, a person who made the strategic error of being born in Israel while Jewish, which is inherently problematic and not okay of me - don't matter to you. Just the fantasy of an easy, morally correct cleanse of the land.

Are well aware of all of the above! You just don't care. You either smugly chuckle that I, and anybody else who will die, deserve it - or that it's an acceptable loss for the aforementioned fantasy. "Decolonization is an inherently violent process", you'll say to me, chillingly, before implying I have a summer home in Brooklyn I can just retreat to when things get tough. Israel is basically Rhodesia, a very popular blog here mentioned flippantly, so what's the issue with all of those lily-white Jews fucking off back home before the righteous freedom fighters strike them down? Well. This might be the part I urge you to open a book, or even Wikipedia or any god damn thing that will explain to you these upsetting, dense things you clearly struggle with.

So finally:

It's easy for me to discount islamophobes. Like, very easy. It's very easy for me to discount insane evangelistics who "advocate for me" simply because I'm a pawn in their religious rapture. It's easy for me to fight against Israeli and Jewish fascists - I have been long before this news item came across your feed, as did the insinuations that some civilian deaths are okay, actually.

It's easy for me for me to see promotions for donations to non-political aid in Gaza. It's easy for me to see the sentiment that hey! Palestinians deserve safe, healthy lives. That they have deserved an independent state, and were unfairly denied one, for decades. It's easy for me to see people saying "You know, the Israeli government is shit, actually, and their actions endanger and promote to the misery of innocents". Because that's right! I wouldn't be voting and protesting and donating for all of these sentiments otherwise!

It's not easy for me to see people, who I honestly held in high regard and saw having well thought out opinions on important matters, inadvertently echo the sentiment that my death is acceptable. That a terrorist organization, who rule over their own territory with fear and violence, are righteous freedom fighters, vox populi, only out to establish a free state. Like hey, their manifesto said otherwise, so it must be all there is - right? That Jews are just hysterical, they can easily live elsewhere - ever since that nasty holocaust business everything's fine abroad. Besides, it was just so long ago who even cares stop talking about it. Hamas, Hezbollah, ISIS, the Ayatollahs in Iran, the fucking Islamic Jihad - are not interested in freedom. They aren't, and echoing their slogan tells me you are either ignoring that, or support them anyway. If antisemitic rhetoric, half truths and lies by omission work on you today, they would have in any period of time. I'm sorry this makes you uncomfortable. I'm not, not really.

Know what your fucking words mean. Have a cursory glance at the history of the MENA and why it's so fucked, one that doesn't boil down to "The Jews, with American help, rolled into where they don't belong". This isn't even a joke. I've seen this braindead, history-revising sentiment repeated so many times, both online and in actual textbooks, that I feel I'm going insane. So many well-meaning people handwringing and assuring each other that repeating genocidal slogans is fine, that calling the i/p conflict "a simple problem" (which means it has a simple solution, right? Just kill the Jews.) is a well-adjusted and intellectual take. That "only the Zionists should die! The rest will be fine :)" I dare you to say that and also give me a correct definition of what Zionism is. Why I, a Jew that advocates for Palestinian statehood and rights and safety and always have, won't also face the wall in your little fantasy.

Freedom to Palestine. Peace in the middle east, fucking yesterday.

A curse and a plague on those who don't want either of those, and just want to cheer on the death of "the other side".

A curse and a plague upon you, when you tell me, smugly, from somewhere safe and far away, "from the river to the sea".

#selfpost #long post #i/p #israel #palestine #antisemitism #antizionism #I pondered linking every word of every claim I make to sources like Reuters and Wikipedia and what have you #but honestly? Please just read them #don't get your news off fucking Twitter #my respect for “critical thinking” online leftists is already at an all time low

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girlactionfigure · 1 month

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Some hard facts no one will tell you, but if you care about truth, you’ll want to know.

Let’s start with the most fundamental lie you’re being told.

“Israel occupied an Arab Palestinian state and stole their land.”

Sit down for this.

Such a state never existed in the history of the world. Don’t believe me? Try to find a date that the Arab Palestine was established. Try to find out who the president was. What currency did they use? What was their national anthem?

I’ll save you the time.

It never existed.

Onward….

The next blatant lie is “Israel occupied Gaza before October 7th, which is why Hamas attacked.”

Really?

Here. I’ll help you.

Open your web browser. Open Google. Type in “The Disengagement.”

2005. Israel forcefully removed 10,000 Israel from Gaza, dug up its dead (Yea, you read that right!) so Hamas wouldn’t rape (Yes, that’s a thing. Hamas raped corpses on October 7th.) the dead bodies, and handed the Palestinians Gaza on a silver platter for them to build a state.

The Palestinians pretty much immediately elected Hamas to govern them and chose a terror state over what could have been paradise.

There were zero Jews in Gaza on October 6th.

That’s not an opinion. It’s an indisputable fact.

Next…

Genocide. People love to use that word when describing the war in Gaza.

So there are a few ways to address this.

First of all, the numbers everyone keeps quoting are from Hamas, a terrorist organization that raped little girls and burned families alive.

Have you considered that maybe they’re lying?

But you know what? Let’s go with Hamas. What ridiculous number are they up to? 30,000? 40,000? You know what? Let’s go with 50,000.

50,000 dead in Gaza? Sure. How many of those were terrorists? Because according to the Gaza Health Ministry, out of those tens of thousands, zero of them were terrorists.

Cool. Makes sense…

But forget the numbers. Just kindly explain to me why Israel has lost hundreds of its soldiers in Gaza. Why didn’t Israel just attack from the air and flatten Gaza if genocide was what Israel was after?

How long would this war take if Israel didn’t send in soldiers and just dropped bombs on Gaza? Spoiler: It would have ended on October 8th.

Finally, do you know how those numbers, again, even according to Hamas’ fake numbers, compare to other wars and conflicts in the world? Syria, for example.

If the numbers in Gaza are so microscopic compared to other wars, why is it that you haven’t heard about a genocide going on anywhere else but Gaza?

“Ceasefire now!”

Here’s a little secret for ya.

There was a ceasefire! Wanna know when? On October 6th. Then Hamas broke it and attacked Israel.

Want a ceasefire? Great. So do I. Right after Hamas returns all the hostages and surrenders.

If you’re calling for a ceasefire and looking at Israel, you must be confused. Israel has offered a ceasefire so many times in this war, all of which Hamas rejected.

We all want a ceasefire. Don’t look at Israel. Look at Hamas who broke the ceasefire then proceeded to reject offers for a ceasefire over and over.

Ok, moving on…

“Jews love to pull the antisemitism card. There is no antisemitism. It’s just anti Zionism.”

Really now…?

Because antisemitic attacks, against Jews, not Israelis, are up over 300%.

Kindly explain to me why Jewish influencers are getting thousands of comments about the war when they haven’t even stepped foot in Israel.

Kindly explain to me why synagogues are being vandalized and attacked.

Kindly explain to me why Jewish events need extra security or why Jewish speakers require body guards.

Kindly explain to me why there are marches around the world in which thousands chant antisemitic chants about Jews, not zionists.

I’ll wait for your explanation.

Ok, next.

“Israel is ethically cleansing Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank and has been for 75 years.”

Fascinating.

So if that were the case, you’d expect the Palestinian population to be on a sharp decline.

Wanna take a guess how many “Palestinians” (added the quotes because they didn’t call themselves that till Arafat hijacked the word that previously just meant Israelis.) were in Israel in 1948 and how many there are now?

Take a guess.

5,462,888. That’s how many Palestinians there are now. ()

You know what? Forget numbers. Here, I’ll give you a visual.

Does that look like ethnic cleansing?

Want to know what real ethnic cleansing looks like? Go choose any Muslim country and notice how many Jews lived there 50 years ago and how many live there now. That is ethnic cleansing.worldometers.info/world-populati…

“Israel is an apartheid state.”

That’s so interesting because I was just watching an interview with a member of Knesset, Israel’s parliament, who is not only a Muslim Arab, but he’s also anti Zionist. That means he opposes the existence of Israel and yet, he has a seat in the parliament.

If Israel was an apartheid state, why is every road sign in Israel written in Hebrew and Arabic?

If Israel was an apartheid state, why are there Arabs who are judges in Israel?

If Israel was an apartheid state, why do Arabs, Muslims, and Christians have total freedom in Israel?

If Israel was an apartheid state, why are there Arab doctors, lawyers, soldiers, actors, athletes, and CEOs in Israel who are Muslim?

Israel must really suck at this apartheid thing. But since there are so many people out there who are experts in apartheid, maybe some of them can train Israel to up its apartheid game…

🤣

Moving along…

“Give them a state. They deserve a state. If only they had a state, the terror would stop.”

Wow, how did we not think of that?

Oh wait, I forgot one thing.

They had a state given to them once or twice. Or 15 times.

1937, 1947, 1967, 1991, 2000, 2001, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2019, 2020.

Perhaps they don’t want a state…

What else we got…?

“End the occupation and the “Resistance” will end.

First of all, let’s just clarify some terms. Resistance. What is legitimate resistance?

Because Hamas beheaded babies, raped girls and old woman, burned families alive, and committed other unspeakable sexual crimes and they also made sure their family members watched their loved ones get raped.

Is that valid resistance to you?

But let’s address the premise.

Put on your logic hat for a second.

If occupation —-> terror

Then logic dictates

No occupation —-> no terror

Right?

So if I show you that Arabs were massacring Jews before any so-called occupation, this whole argument falls apart, right?

What if I showed you that there was Arab terror against Jews before there was even a state of Israel for them to oppose?

1929. Hebron. Arabs massacred Jews.

Great. Glad we cleared that up.

Next…

“Israel is lying about October 7th. There was no rape and Hamas only attacked soldiers. The rest of the people were killed by Israel.”

Um. Where do I even begin?

Ya know what? I can’t even. Go watch the GoPro footage. Go listen to Hamas who is so proud of what they did.

So you don’t believe Israel and you don’t believe Hamas. Got it.

Must be nice to live in a fantasy world.

“Israel is indiscriminately killing Gazans.”

Wow, had no idea.

So is Israel strong and therefore should act with restraint or Israel so weak that even though it’s killing indiscriminately, the numbers don’t reflect that.

Shouldn’t there be hundreds of thousands of dead Gazans if the mighty Israel is just trying to kill as many of them as possible?

Make up your mind. Is Israel strong or is Israel weak? It can’t be both.

Cmon you’re better than that.

Let’s see, what’s next…

“Islam is a religion of peace and the only reason there is so much radical Islamic terror in the world is because of Israel.”

Awesome. So it has nothing to do with the Quran encouraging violence, right?

Cool cool.

I’ll just leave this here.

Don’t worry, we’re nearing the end…

“Israel is a white colonial state that wants world dominance and is only starting with Gaza.”

Wow, so crazy how I didn’t know.

So how many wars has Israel started? I would assume all of them, since Israel is the aggressor.

How about none? Not a single one.

Israel has never started a war and attacked an enemy first.

Maybe those same people can teach Israel how to be better colonizers.

Also, you don’t have to spend more than 24 hours in Israel to see how many “Not white” people live there.

Ok, I’ll stop here even though I can continue for hours.

Stop spreading lies about Israel. Words matter and if you stand against Israel, you stand with rapists and pedophiles.

History will remember that.

Besides, siding with the Jews, history will show, is the smart thing to do.

Otherwise you join ancient Egypt, Rome, Greece, Nazis, Soviet, Babylonian, and so many other empires who messed with the Jews and are now extinct.

This isn’t just another war. This is a war between the dark forces of radical Islam and the western world and all that it stands for.

This is good vs evil and there is no nuance.

• • •

Hillel Fuld

#Israel #Palestine #October 7 #Facts

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nabulsi · 1 year

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Genuinely asking, where do you want the Jews of Israel to go then? You want a Palestinian state instead of Israel correct? No two states solution for you. So... what about them?

Im assuming you're someone who is skeptical of the single Palestinian state but asking in good faith, so given that:

I'd rather not say Jews and say "Israeli Citizens/Colonizers" here. I understand that Israeli citizens are mostly Jews, but there are also Jews amongst the Palestinians so it only confuses things. Also this is not Jews vs Arabs, but rather Israeli colonizers vs Palestinians, so let us be clear on that first.

I, personally, am not concerned with what happens with the Israeli Citizens. The goal is, as you said, for a single state under the sovereignty of the Palestinians as it was before the colonisation of the zionists.

What happens to the ex Israeli citizens in that situation is up to them really. If they accept sovereignty of the Palestinians, they can either choose to integrate into the Palestinian state as citizens of Palestine or leave and go wherever they came from originally if they prefer. If they oppose the Palestinian state they can definitely leave and I really don't care what happens to them.

This is really a very simplistic version of what could happen. And others have put forth more nuanced answers than this. But, honestly, I think I'm just not a fan of being asked this. I think Palestinians are constantly expected to have extensive and nuanced knowledge in their own political ideology beyond just "I want the colonisers off my land please", and and there are rarely other communities who are forced to be knowledgeable in that way.

And though I have gone ahead and assumed good faith, questions like this can easily be bait so we slip up and zionists can leverage that to further villainize us and justify our genocide to everyone else.

So anyway, if you have genuinely come in good faith, I wish you a good day and hope you got what you were looking for.

#paptalk #Palestine #anonymous #one state solution

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unhonestlymirror · 4 months

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When I was a kid, I used to wander around without any gadgets. So when mom allowed me to hold her smartphone, I was really excited. Usually, I just scrolled through her Facebook.

And I was really surprised to find out that her news feed had posts, "Today I wasn't killed with a rocket! Good morning, everyone! :D" or "I can't believe I'm alive just because I missed my bus. They had another terract there, N dead, X wounded." Almost every time, for many years.

I thought, "Well, it must be horrible to live in Israel and be constantly scared for your life and for your loved ones. Thank God we don't have this all in Ukraine." But I didn't really care, and I didn't fully realise what they've felt. I was a kid, after all, a kid who didn't taste the true russian culture yet. I'm embarrassed to admit, but I didn't care.

What I want to say is that Palestine, as a state, has been doing to Israel the same things for MANY YEARS russia is doing to Ukraine now. Which is understandable since Palestine exchanges the knowledge of how to kill and rape people better with russia. By the time the Internet became worldwide, Israeli just got used to that.

And I was really surprised to find out how many people I used to find smart suddenly started repeating that Israel is an occupier fashist state. After October 7th. How many people started justifying organized mass rape and burning children alive "because Nakba" or something else. How many people, including Ukrainians, started justifying the state, which literally works with russia and teaches its kids how to kill Jews better. I was shocked and disgusted.

Then I wanted to laugh nervously after some people I used to read started doing this way: after every "Israel is fashist and occupier" they shared something about Jewish culture, to show they are not antisemitic. The fact that Israel is as much Jewish state as Ukraine is Ukrainian - they don't care about it. Watching your friends becoming brainwashed in real time is not the best experience I had.

It's not military targets that have been fired upon by Palestine in Israel at all. It was not the fashists zionists who were raped and killed on October 7th at all. It was the same people as me and you, kids, women, elderly, students, tourists, pro-Palestinian activists like Vivian Silver - they all were murdered brutally by Palestine because Palestine shares the same rhetoric as Houthis in Yemen. They just want to kill all Jews and "rule the whole world".

I think it's only natural to wish the state, which organises mass rape and mass murder on your land, to stop exist.

#and I think it's a shame that people believe only Israel has to hold responsibility for its actions #jews #antisemitism #israel palestine war #hamas attack

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trainer-blue · 6 months

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there are three terms i see being thrown around in a ton of posts "supporting" palestinians that don't actually apply. if you're someone who calls israel an apartheid colonial state committing genocide and you either actually believe it or have seen those terms often enough to copy them yourself, i encourage you to think a little more deeply about what these words mean:

apartheid:

this term isn't one that you use for just any form or extent of racial discrimination. i have never seen anyone use this term in reference to the united states, and i think everyone reading this can acknowledge that racism is extremely prevalent and systemic here. in fact, i've only ever seen this term used in regards to south africa and israel. if you use it about israel, think about what policies are in place that make it an apartheid state in your view, and then think about whether any other country in the world has comparable ones. if so, why is israel considered apartheid when others aren't? here is some information about the term and why it does not apply. why israel isn't an apartheid state arab political parties and participation in israeli government

colonial state:

to most people, colonization involves taking land from indigenous peoples so that people who are not indigenous to the area / have no ancestral ties to that area can control it instead. colonial settlers could, in theory, return to a country of ancestral origin in which they would be a cultural majority or be safe and not expect to be subject to hate crimes because they are of majority status. one can acknowledge that palestinians have been displaced without it being colonialism. jewish people are indigenous. yes, even the white ones. no, not all jews are white. if any of these claims seem far-fetched to you, or you don't understand how jewish people can be indigenous to israel, i recommend reading these posts: jewish indigeneity from an archeological perspective history of jewish presence in israel

genocide:

"the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group." if israelis-- even the israeli government, which even "zionists" consider right-wing, fucked, and nonrepresentative of their values-- wanted to wipe out palestinians, we would have seen very different actions from them throughout history. one can acknowledge and mourn the loss of innocent palestinian life during wartime without framing it as something it's not. growth of palestinian population rates

"why does it matter what terms we use? isn't it GOOD to exaggerate or use buzzwords to catch people's attention? how else can we make people understand the true plight of palestinians?"

there is no reason to use terms that don't apply, actually. when so many people parrot these terms without understanding whether or not they're accurate:

1. this actual situation gets muddled, leading to people who have done no research of their own jumping to pick sides because they think they’re rallying against "the new nazis." These people may then support Hamas as “freedom fighters,” attack Jewish people around the world, and celebrate the rape, torture, and death of Israeli women and children because they’re “complicit in colonial apartheid genocide” and no longer considered human.

2. you imply that it is impossible to care about or support civilians affected by war if they’re NOT victims of genocide, colonialism, or apartheid states. Why do you need to rely on these terms to feel empathy for palestinians? If you acknowledged that they’ve been displaced by other indigenous people and are being killed in and affected by war, would your fervor for their cause die out? if so, is that a reasonable response to the realization that the real world isn't cut and dry, and not every conflict has a completely evil side and a side that is completely innocent?

3. ACTUAL instances of genocide, apartheid, and colonialism get watered down. I’ve seen people compare this to the Holocaust, calling Jewish people Nazis. Look back at the resource I linked to above. When you compare steady growth of Palestinian populations with the brutal erasure of ⅔ of the jewish population in europe, you are not only overexaggerating current events, but you’re also saying that the holocaust wasn’t all that bad, actually. To weaponize a people’s own genocide against them is. Gross. Especially when recent events have been catalyzed by Hamas beheading and burning babies–rather reminiscent of the Holocaust–and when people continue to deny that the 10/7 attack even took place. Also. rather. Reminiscent of non-jewish refusal to believe accounts of concentration camps.

similarly, when you water down terms like “apartheid” to mean any form of inequality for racial minorities, you deny the realities of apartheid south africa and imply that that’s “pretty much the same” as racism experienced in other countries around the world

hamas calling for jewish (NOT ISRAELI) death

perspective on equating israel to apartheid south africa

thank you for reading. this is not a call to abandon support for palestinians. this is a call to think about the terms you use and the misinformation you've seen.

#jumblr #i/p #tw genocide #tw holocaust #tw current events #tw rape #tw child harm #tw child death

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longjiaojiao · 1 month

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yeah when China and Russia vote for Palestinian rights they are like "don't actually care about human rights they just want to fuck America" and when any other country vote for Palestinian rights it's like "thank you so much you are amazing you are the best" TBH I find it funny how naive people are that you really think there is ANY government in the world that care about individual human rights... The secret is thinking and learning is actually important dude, when you really learn about history, when you look at the world from a historical perspective, when you leave behind all your contemporary morals and capitalist worldview, you find that it's all about money, yes there is no such thing as human rights for the government, there is only money. Under capitalist I mean America, political power are only an adjunct to economic power. In fact one of the greatest advantages of being a Chinese is to see the world from a perspective that is completely unconstrained by Western values. You will see that the spread of Christianity is what forced the Jews to wander in Europe. In fact after the dissolution of Rome it was the Arabs who peacefully shared the land with the wandering Jews in Europe.

There is only one country's people in the world that is protected from being discrimination due to the loss of national honor, and that is America, because obviously when the Anglo-Saxon first arrived on this land it became a nation of immigrants. I don't know what moral superiority makes some people think that "fuck Israel" and "fuck Russia" is going to do any good, this sound only makes innocent Israelis and innocent Russians suffer from more racism, and by the way makes racists more racist, more extreme and more stupid, thus the new Nazis appear, endless loop! People will only hate each other more and more if you keep saying fuck something.

People just didn't fuck the right one. The arms dealers and rich persons are the ultimate winners. Jews are not bad, but the people who make the most money in America happen to be Jews. Sometimes the religion you hold dear is just an identity in the hands of others, a tool to get more resources.

The reason why Japan government is not apologizing for their actions in WWII is that their economy is not blocked by the world after all these shit. Germany was shunned by the whole Europe and could not make money without some apology. Don't think of politics as morality, or even expect it to be humane.

I have no morality myself actually, no one will force me agree on anything I haven't learn and think about, I only have what everyone else has: the lessons of history. The protection of minors that you attach great importance to came after the animal protection, and the concept of minors was formed because of the popularity of typewriters and printing presses. The concept of minors is so new and fragile that I think that now the Internet and video have replaced typewriters and printing presses, maybe the age of minors needs to be changed. So you see morality is inherently vague, which means being careful when enforcing it too, not to be deceived by anger and hate.

Everyone go watch Princess Mononoke ten times.

在西方待久了实在受不了客体化的东方世界和低语境的伪善了…喜欢中国也不是喜欢中国的政府，而是喜欢中国的文化和历史。中国和美国这两个词就是两个极端，一个偏向文化代指，一个偏向政权代指。但非要说的话，墓志铭也得是『中国饭很好吃，死而无憾了』。

#suibianlao

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beardedmrbean · 5 months

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The 19th century Austrian socialist Ferdinand Kronawetter once remarked, "Antisemitism is the socialism of idiots." He was not wrong, but I believe even he would have been surprised that most of these idiots are either celebrities or attend the West's most prestigious educational institutions.

From Greta Thunberg to Harvard yard, you can barely throw a stone without hitting someone holding an anti-Israel rally. Apparently, we also have normalized Jewish students needing to be locked up in university libraries for their own "safety," or the BBC regularly publishing blood libels, first about a supposed bombardment of a hospital in Gaza by Israeli forces, and a few weeks later with the claim that Israeli Defence Forces are intentionally targeting medical personnel and Arabic speakers.

But even that is, in fact, old news: In January 2009, the French public broadcaster France-2 aired footage of Palestinians killed in an Israeli air raid on New Year's Day. As it turned out, however, the recording was from 2005 and not 2009, and the victims were not killed by the IDF but an "accident" of Hamas explosives detonating prematurely. And on it goes: Recently, pictures showing the carnage inflicted on the Syrian people by the Assad regime made the rounds claiming to show destruction in Gaza.

Who needs the "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" when you have the mainstream media?

Sometimes it seems as if no ideology evolves as quickly as antisemitism: Before Israel, the Jews where hated for being rootless and without national allegiances. Now that they have a state, they are hated for that. And if the last Jew were to leave the Middle East tomorrow, some other reason would be found to justify Jew-hatred.

In fact, after 1948, Jews had to leave most of the Middle East and North Africa: Once thriving communities from Morocco to Iraq ceased to exist after the regimes of these countries drove out their Jewish populations. Many of them moved to Israel, the only state in the region that actually allows Muslim Arabs and Jews to live side-by-side.

Alas, if you are Jewish, it is never enough: Unless all of the Middle East is "Judenfrei," the Jews will always be painted as oppressors and everyone else as oppressed.

So in some ways, it's not surprising to see antisemitism thrive in the ranks of the global leftist elite. When global climate celebrity Greta Thunberg blabberers on about "no climate justice on occupied land," she is only revealing the next iteration of Jew hate. It turns out that for the "environmental movement," the solution to the "Jewish Question" seems to be more important than addressing climate change.

Similarly, in the famously tolerant Netherlands where government advisors are openly pushing for the normalization of paedophilia, the line needs to be drawn somewhere: Several filmmakers pulled out of the International Documentary Festival in Amsterdam after the organizers refused to allow their stage to be used for promoting the eradication of Israel.

Pot, porn, and paedophilia are all a go for the Dutch, but being pro-Israel? One should be careful not to go too far!

Another turn-of-the-century Austrian who would have a lot to say about this would probably be Sigmund Freud: If the West is suffering from the pathologies of historical guilt for all the alleged sins of its past, Israel and the Jews are the favourite object of projection. If the Jews are as bad as the Nazis and European colonialists, then opposing them is like re-running history, but this time those Westerners on college campuses can finally be on the side of the oppressed.

Both Israel and the Palestinians are just extras in an exercise of excessive narcissism that allows one to stand "on the right side of history" and virtue signal at no cost. Of course, this doesn't apply when Arabs are slaughtering Arabs. There were no protests for the peoples of Syria or Yemen or when ISIS was committing an actual genocide against the Yazidis.

That's what this all comes down to: a rewriting of history so that the Jews' oppressors can absolve themselves of guilt and claim to be the oppressed. During the Holocaust, the Jews experienced the worst that men can do to their fellow man, and many in the West are itching for the opportunity to find historic salvation in creating a moral equivalence between the Nazis and the state of Israel.

Neither Greta Thunberg nor her acolytes have any clue about Middle Eastern or Jewish history, because it is not about that—just as her climate activism was never about climate, but the usual Leftist tropes from colonialism to social justice.

In 1968, Eric Hoffer wrote about a premonition that would not leave him: "As it goes with Israel, so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the Holocaust will be upon us." After all we have seen in recent weeks in in Western capitals and college campuses, I am afraid that he was right.

#nunyas news

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sissa-arrows · 7 months

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Feel free to ignore this but i need a place to let this out cus im not active on tumblr much but with the current events ive been checking the tags and today ive noticed multiple posts (that gained a lot of traction unfortunately but are we surprised?) from zionists that basically call Palestinians antisemitic bc some use the word “jew” when they talk about israelis and i need to make some things clear: all these Palestinians have ever known their whole lives is jews who want to kill them. What exactly do these people expect?? Is it the fault of the Palestinians that their oppressors and killers are all jews??? What kind of fucked up logic of blaming the victim is this? They’re calling them jews bc thats what they all are!!! I’m Palestinian and have grown up around this language and know for a fact that when Palestinians use the term they dont mean Literally every single jew, or even the religion itself, they specifically mean the jews who are targeting and murdering them and making their lives a living hell, the word jew also most often than not goes hand in hand with the word zionist so we say “zionist jew” but even when the zionist part is dropped in day to day conversations its still subconsciously acknowledged. People on tumblr who have never set foot in occupied Palestine or ever interacted with a Palestinian simply do not get to police the language Palestinians use. They dont have the right. Palestinian Jews (yes, they exist, even if they’re a small percentage) also know and acknowledge this, they know they arent included in this. Its a word that gets used because we grew up around it basically. (And again, we grew up around it bc they literally are all jews! AND the israeli government and israeli settlers make a huuuge deal out of the fact that they have a right over the land BECAUSE theyre jews and its their “promised land” but Palestinians are supposed to gloss over that??? Over the fact that these murderers are using their religion as an excuse to murder us??) I also need to emphasize that this has been a tactic of Israeli propaganda to shut down any conversation around Palestinian oppression for decades!!! They’ve always been playing the antisemitism card whenever it serves them (whenever the oppression of Palestinians is brought up) when in reality they couldnt give less of a shit about actual jewish struggle

People refuse to put things in their context. They also refuse to acknowledge the horror of colonialism. Nobody but the colonized know how bad it is how horrible and violent it is. Nobody but the colonized know the breaking point when dying fighting is just a better option than anything else. Everyone can understand the horror of colonialism in a moral theorical way if they educate themselves but only the colonized understand the real horror.

People outside of Palestine need to be careful with the terms they use I will always correct them. But for Palestinians? I won’t tell them which words they should or shouldn’t use because there’s a context. Palestinians use the term Jews in the context of Palestine because that’s what they live what they grew up around. The people oppressing them, killing them, stealing their land happen to ALL be Jewish and they happen to claim to do it in the name of Judaism.

It’s also a settler colony situation. It means that every single settler is making a choice. There’s no such thing as a “liberal settler” or “liberal zionist” or an Israeli ally. A settler who actually cares about Palestinian will leave the fuck out of stolen colonized land. Some did already. They realized how the situation was horrific, they realized how the education system was raising their children to be racist supremacists and they came back to Europe.

Just take a look at the videos of Israeli leaving out of fear… compare them to historical images or refugees fleeing war and to colonizers being kicked out of a land that doesn’t belong to them. I can assure you that it looks much more like the second rather than the first.

Last thing. Israel encourages and feed that confusion between Jews and Zionists. Israel and Zionists are the first ones who use the term interchangeably and pretend they are synonymous. They are the one telling Jews in the rest of the world that they are targets too despite the fact that the Palestinians resistance didn’t not threaten Jews worldwide they threatened their colonizers. Calling out Palestinians without addressing that is ignorant at best, at worst it’s an hypocritical diversion meant to put on the same level the illegitimate racist unprovoked violence of the colonizers and the legitimate violence the colonized use to defend themselves.

#ask

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statementlou · 7 months

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I’m Jewish and Anti-Zionist as well and I respect your opinion but does it not bother you that people only act this way with Israelis? There is literally no other country where fans would be getting called ugly and racist and people would be demanding violence just because they showed up with a flag. Random citizens of a country aren’t responsible for the actions of their government and no one ever assumes they are except for in the only Jewish country in the world. Harry wrote a whole song about his love for England and no one has ever called that a ‘disgusting display of nationalist allegiance to a racist apartheid state’. You say you wouldn’t wave a US flag but people do or wear it on their clothes or whatever else and literally no one cares. As Jews maybe we shouldn’t condone hatred towards 40% of Jewish people in the world under the guise of social activism?

Okay well I appreciate you, and that the balancing act of being a Jew-- being at risk of anti-semetic violence and prejudice but also benefiting from white privilege-- is a tricky one and there ARE gray areas, for sure! Unfortunately, I disagree with pretty much everything you’ve said here, I am sorry to say. It is true that anti-semites glom onto anti-Israel talk to try to further their agenda, but that is because they are fucking nazis and that is not my responsibility- nothing I say condones their garbage and we can't just not talk about real issues because someone might twist our words. I also disagree that there is no other country regarded with such venom and think that is a narrative perpetuated by zionists and racists: I think the difference is that Israel is talked about that way by WHITE PEOPLE (and yeah lots of times it is because they're just fucking racist, but so is the 'only Israel is treated this way' narrative). As far as I know the powers that be in Iran still refer to the United States as The Great Satan and burn US flags for propaganda purposes, for example, and I think if you ask people in Africa or LATAM how they feel about various colonial powers you will find similarly hostile reactions to flag waving. You say that people wave or wear US flags and no one cares- but that’s literally just not true. A lot of people in a lot of places care plenty, and in fact US tourists wearing Canadian flags to try to avoid the worldwide hatred of USAmericans is huge thing that very much happens. But by all means, go get barricade in LATAM and wave a US flag in everyone’s face and let me know how that goes! And I completely disagree that random citizens of a country bear no responsibility for their governments actions as well. Our taxes and our silence are what make atrocities possible! Here in the US it can be hard to feel like we are complicit in the actions of a government that we ourselves are also fighting tooth and nail to survive, that also attacks and starves and victimizes us, but unfortunately we still do have a responsibility to resist what is being done in our names (in this case, $158 BILLION US tax dollars to Israel to date and that doesn't even include all the military equipment), or at the bare minimum to speak out against it. And in Israel this is even less theoretical: when they turn 18 every Israeli Jew has to choose to either actively resist and refuse military service or to literally join the army and personally participate in the genocide of the Palestinian people. These fans, who according to another anon have told people at shows that “you don’t understand we were just reclaiming our land” and have said they take pride in their flag, have picked a side, and it is the side of murder and colonization. I don’t hate every citizen of Israel simply for where they were born any more than I hate every US citizen; but I do judge and personally do not want anything to do with those who choose to support their government, in both places. This is not ‘the guise of social activism’: it is choosing to be actively anti-racist rather than silent and therefore complicit. As for the rest, I don’t think anyone has considered LOML a nationalistic anthem, but while its true that most people don’t care some people most certainly DO complain about Harry waving flags of any countries, and most especially the UK flag (as opposed to the England one); that in particular because, like the Israeli flag, it touches on colonization that is happening and actively being resisted RIGHT NOW (Scotland and Wales' struggles for independence.)

#I didn't think I was going to talk about this anymore but... I guess I was wrong ¯\_(ツ)_/¯#you can blacklist though #israel discussion #anyway anon clearly doesn't follow ralph if they think no one is complaining about harry and nationalism lol #I think somewhere where you can see the disgust towards colonizer flags being openly displayed is around football #and clashes around national team matches especially colonial derbys #blah blah blah #free palestine

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gryficowa · 22 hours

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Do you know where else Israel lies? About Poland and its pseudo "Participation" in the Holocaust, and the worst thing is that many Jews outside Israel believe in this propaganda

Israel lies about everyone, about Muslims, about their crimes, about Poles and everything else, why the fuck do you believe his lies about Poland when he has already proven that he is lying?

This is my main problem with Jews from the US and Israel, they believe in propaganda, even those who are for Palestine believe it

We must end this, all the lies that Israel has told and that people have believed

Israel lies, let's stop believing him in everything since the time he was created, he has always lied

This country is built on lies, even its citizens believed it all, people outside Israel believed him, we must end his lies

Israel does not listen to people who survived the Holocaust because their opinions are contrary to Zionism

Israel doesn't care about Jews, it cares about power and gaining lands, even if they were never his, because this Israel was not created by indigenous Jews, these indigenous Jews are actually Palestinians whom they are so eager to kill

Israel lies about DNA when its DNA reveals a different truth about its people

Israel lies about the Holocaust, lies about who the Jews are, lies about everything, and the people of this country believed it

Poland gave a financial penalty in 2018 for spreading this propaganda, not for hiding the facts, Poland did not participate in the Holocaust and did not create concentration camps, this is a lie by Israel

Israel has deceived you all, especially you Jews

A few rotten Poles do not mean that Poland participated in the Holocaust

Poland was a victim, people did bad things to survive, do you seriously fucking accuse the victim of doing bad things so that the perpetrator doesn't hurt him?

People back then had no access to the Internet, they were helpless, they had no better options, they were driven by fear, and now you accuse them of being Nazis

Weren't Poles supposed to defend themselves and make bad decisions to be the perfect victim for you?

Other countries also did a lot of bad things during colonization, because, as I mentioned, they had no fucking access to the Internet, they simply couldn't know what to do

People didn't know how to defend themselves and how to survive, they made mistakes because no one fucking taught them how to do it, just because we have the fucking privilege of the Internet today doesn't mean they fucking had it

Must the victim not defend himself or try to survive in order not to be considered by you as an accomplice to the crime itself?

Seriously, you are like those who attack Gryps, because the poor autistic was manipulated (I have ASD and I am disgusted by you) and was so unaware (UwU put your eyes here and your index fingers touching) by a bad girl and that's why he killed her mother, because after all Grypsy could have escaped (Oh yes, when her mother called the police and forged documents, she was of legal age, she had no fucking choice)

To me, you look like those who attack Gryps, because the victim must be flawless to be considered a victim.

Poland was a victim, Israel is lying, Jews believe it all over the world, it's time to end it

#free palestina #fuck israel #israel is a terrorist state #israel #israhell #zionist #zionistterror #israelis #zionistcensorship #israel propaganda #israel lies

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haughty-ojousama · 7 months

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Hi there, i rlly like your blog, ive followed you a while. I support palestine as my mother and uncle are both Palestinian immigrants, and i have been appreciative of all the support given, but i am growing concerned about some of the ways its being done. We’re supposed to be supporting people from ethnic cleansing and genocide but everyone on this site seems to be making really racist remarks to jewish people just for saying they don’t want their friends to die and i saw your post where you reblogged one person saying the jewish woman was a ‘nazi cunt’. I’m not jewish so I don’t know everything but given the holocaust and most modern jews being descended from survivors, i thought that comment was disrespectful and not really productive or helpful to our cause. Being racist and showing no compassion for other innocent lives like ours is not going to help us win this war… i still love your blog, i just wanted to drop in and point it out okay peace and love to you

I appreciate the concern. A couple things of note:

A: idk who's making actual racist remarks towards jews as a whole, and I understand that this situation is like, really easy anti-semite ammo. I've taken care to platform the commentary of jews wrt zionism both because that's the decent thing to do and I don't wanna make it seem like they're a unitied front, and also because close friends of mine are jewish, anyone else's behavior isn't something I can do much abt but bitch when it comes up

B: the israelis who are dying are near gaza, the places near that, until now, pressure cooker, were recent developments only obtained by seizing land and dispossessing palestinians into gaza, which means, every settler there is more likely than not there of their own volition. In addition, over the past 15 years, gazan fighters have launched bombs and media has made that place out to be dangerous so as to justify further military activity in the area. I don't think the settlers there should be shot, but the majority of them didn't have to be there, their deaths are as much a result of israel's policies and their own stupidity as it is palestinian bullets

C: zionists have more in common with nazis than they do other jews, in fact, they worked with nazis. zionism requires the ethnic cleansing of palestinians, and as such, is at its core, the same ideology as any other fascism. maybe the iof lady was not literally a 'nazi', however she supports genocide all the same, so basically it's calling a spade a spade

anyways, hope your mother and uncle, if recent migrants, are able to settle in peace, take care

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christian-perspectives · 7 months

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The Chosen People Of God

For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his own special treasure. Deuteronomy 7:6 Moses, the servant of the Lord, spoke those words to the nation of Israel just before they were to enter the promised land. They weren't the biggest or strongest, but they belonged to God. The Lord did not set his heart on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Deuteronomy 7:7

God Had Chosen these People

Why had God chosen these people above everyone else? Why was He willing to destroy seven nations so they could inhabit the land? Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you, and he was keeping the oath he had sworn to your ancestors. That is why the Lord rescued you with such a strong hand from your slavery and from the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:8 On the day of this writing, war broke out in Israel. As we slept, Palestinian militants from Gaza attacked the southern part of Israel. Over 3,000 missiles showered the country. This prompted the Israeli President to declare war. The Islamist group who made the attack also called on other like groups to attack Israel from all sides. These enemies of Israel don't understand that they have attacked the chosen people of God. He swore an oath to them, and God always keeps His Word. Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands. Deuteronomy 7:9

God Has Also Chosen Us as His People

God has never taken His hand off the nation of Israel. In fact, many of the end-time events revolve around them as they finally accept Christ as their Messiah. We must realize that God gave us, Gentiles, access to Him through His Son Jesus. So, when it comes to the Christians and the Jews, it's not us and them. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. Ephesians 1:5 The Lord didn't replace Israel with us. God included us with His chosen People. Jesus came for the decedents of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but they rejected Him. Because they rejected Jesus, Paul also had quite a burden for them. My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief for my people, my Jewish brothers and sisters. I would be willing to be forever cursed—cut off from Christ!—if that would save them. Romans 9:2-3 But God didn't go to plan B by including us when Israel rejected Him. No, the Lord decided in advance to adopt us. I'm telling you this to let you know we're all in the same family.

Are We Close to the End Time Events?

So, as I watched the news today, my heart went out to the Israelis. I saw people in gurneys pushed toward ambulances and black smoke rolling out of burning buildings. I'm not as concerned so much about their defeat because God has a covenant with His chosen people. However, they can be scattered because that has happened more times throughout their history than we'd care to count. They won't be scattered, though, if we are closing in on the end of time. I know Jesus said in the end times, many will come in His name, claiming to be the Messiah. He warned that famines and earthquakes would happen in many parts of the world. Those things have happened many times. But He also spoke of wars. Could this one be part of the birth pains He mentioned, with more to come? I'm hoping it's leading to an end-time event. And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. Matthew 24:6-7 How does this all fit into what God has planned for His chosen people? We don't know, but we must pray that His will be done, whatever the case.

Pray For Israel

The Psalmist prayed a prayer in Psalm 83 that covers the immediate need of the nation of Israel. And what better way to pray for someone than praying God's Word? - O God, do not be silent! Do not be deaf. Do not be quiet, O God. - Don't you hear the uproar of your enemies? Don't you see that your arrogant enemies are rising up? - They devise crafty schemes against your people; they conspire against your precious ones. - "Come," they say, "let us wipe out Israel as a nation. We will destroy the very memory of its existence." - Yes, this was their unanimous decision. They signed a treaty as allies against you. Psalm 83:1-5 Then, the Psalmist named ten kingdoms that came against the chosen people of God. The very people who attacked Israel today could be descendants of some of those kingdoms. The Psalmist ended his prayer with the following; - Utterly disgrace them until they submit to your name, O Lord. - Let them be ashamed and terrified forever. Let them die in disgrace. - Then they will learn that you alone are called the Lord, that you alone are the Most High, supreme over all the earth. Psalm 83:16-18 End-time event or not, let's pray for Israel. As His chosen people, let's lift them up before God. Related posts for those Called and Chosen by God. - Our Inheritance In Christ - Do You Obey God The First Time He Speaks? - Called By God For The Glory Of God - God Chose Us Before We Were Born - Are You Called And Chosen By God? Read the full article

#BibleStudy #Deuteronomy #Devotions #EndTimes #worship

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sylvielauffeydottir · 3 years

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Hello, it is I, your friendly neighborhood historian. I am ready to lose followers for this post, but I have two masters degrees in history and one of my focuses has been middle eastern area studies. Furthermore, I’ve been tired of watching the world be reduced to pithy little infographics, and I believe there is no point to my education if I don’t put it to good use. Finally, I am ethnically Asheknazi Jewish. This does not color my opinion in this post — I am in support of either a one or two state solution for Israel and Palestine, depending on the factors determined by the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli Government does not speak for me. I hate Netanyahu. A lot. With that said, my family was slaughtered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have stood in front of that memorial wall at the Holocaust memorial in DC for my great uncle Simon and my great uncle Louis and cried as I lit a candle. Louis was a rabbi, and he preached mitzvot and tolerance. He died anyway.

There’s a great many things I want to say about what is happening in the Middle East right now, but let’s start with some facts.

In early May, there were talks of a coalition government that might have put together (among other parties, the Knesset is absolutely gigantic and usually has about 11-13 political parties at once) the Yesh Atid, a center-left party, and the United Arab List, a Palestinian party. For the first time, Palestinians would have been members of the Israeli government in their own right. And what happened, all of the sudden? A war broke out. A war that, amazingly, seemed to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from criminal prosecution, despite the fact that he has been under investigation for corruption for some time now and the only thing that is stopping a real investigation is the fact that he is Prime Minister.

Funny how that happened.

There’s a second thing people ought to know, and it is about Hamas. I’ve found it really disturbing to see people defending Hamas on a world stage because, whether or not people want to believe it, Hamas is a terrorist organization. I’m sorry, but it is. Those are the facts. I’m not being a right wing extremist or even a Republican or whatever else or want to lob at me here. I’m a liberal historian with some facts. They are a terrorist organization, and they don’t care if their people die.

Here’s what you need to know:

There are two governments for the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. In April 2021, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed planned elections. He said it was because of a dispute amid Israeli-annexed East Jerusalum. He is 85 years old, and his Fatah Party is losing power to Hamas. Everyone knows that. Palestinians know that.

Here’s the thing about Hamas: they might be terrorists, but aren’t idiots. They understand that they have a frustrated population filled with people who have been brutalized by their neighbors. And they also understand that Israel has something called the iron dome defense system, which means that if you throw a rocket at it, it probably won’t kill anyone (though there have been people in Israel who died, including Holocaust survivors). Israel will, however, retaliate, and when they do, they will kill Palestinian civilians. On a world stage, this looks horrible. The death toll, because Palestinians don’t have the same defense system, is always skewed. Should the Israeli government do that? No. It’s morally repugnant. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s hurting people without the capability to defend themselves. But is Hamas counting on them to for the propaganda? Yeah. Absolutely. They’re literally willing to kill their other people for it.

You know why this works for Hamas? They know that Israel will respond anyway, despite the moral concerns. And if you’re curious why, you can read some books on the matter (Six Days of War by Michael Oren; The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich; Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergmen; Antisemitism by Deborah Lipstadt; and Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis). The TL;DR, if you aren’t interested in homework, is that Israel believes they have no choice but to defend themselves against what they consider ‘hostile powers.’ And it’s almost entirely to do with the Holocaust. It’s a little David v Goliath. It is, dare I say, complicated.

I’m barely scratching the surface here.

(We won’t get into this in this post, though if you want to DM me for details, it might be worth knowing that Iran funds Hamas and basically supplies them with all of their weapons, and part of the reason the United States has been so reluctant to engage with this conflict is that Iran is currently in Vienna trying to restore its nuclear deal with western powers. The USA cannot afford to piss off Iran right now, and therefore cannot afford to aggravative Hamas and also needs to rely on Israel to destroy Irani nuclear facilities if the deal goes south. So, you know, there is that).

There are some people who will tell you that criticism of the Israel government is antisemitic. They are almost entirely members of the right wing, evangelical community, and they don’t speak for the Jewish community. The majority of Jewish people and Jewish Americans in particular are criticizing the Israeli government right now. The majority of Jewish people in the diaspora and in Israel support Palestinian rights and are speaking out about it. And actually, when they talk about it, they are putting themselves in great danger to do so. Because it really isn’t safe to be visibly Jewish right now. People may not want to listen to Jews when they speak about antisemitism or may want to believe that antisemitism ‘isn’t real’ because ‘the Holocaust is over’ but that is absolutely untrue. In 2019, antisemitic hate crimes in the United States reached a high we have never seen before. I remember that, because I was living in London, and I was super scared for my family at the time. Since then, that number has increased by nearly 400% in the last ten days. If you don’t believe me, have some articles about it (one, two, three, four, and five, to name a few).

I live in New York City, where a man was beaten in Time Square while attending a Free Palestine rally and wearing a kippah. I’m sorry, but being visibly Jewish near a pro-Palestine rally? That was enough to have a bunch of people just start beating on him? I made a previous post detailing how there are Jews being attacked all over the world, and there is a very good timeline of recent hate crimes against Jews that you can find right here. These are Jews, by the way, who have nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. They are Americans or Europeans or Canadians who are living their lives. In some cases, they are at pro-Palestine rallies and they are trying to help, but they just look visibly Jewish. God Forbid we are the wrong ethnicity for your rally, even if we agree.

This is really serious. There are people calling for the death of all Jews. There are people calling for another Holocaust.

There are 14 million Jews in the world. 14 million. Of 7.6 billion. And you think it isn’t a problem the way people treat us?

Anyway (aside from, you know, compassion), why does this matter? This matters because stuff like this deters Jews who want to be part of the pro-Palestine movement because they are literally scared for their safety. I said this before, and I will say it again: Zionism was, historically speaking, a very unpopular opinion. It was only widespread antisemitic violence (you know, the Holocaust) that made Jews believe there was a necessity for a Jewish state. Honestly, it wasn’t until the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that I supported it the abstract idea too.

I grew up in New York City, I am a liberal Jew, and I believe in the rights of marginalized and oppressed people to self-determine worldwide. Growing up, I also fit the profile of what many scholars describe as the self hating Jew, because I believed that, in order to justify myself in American liberal society, I had to hate Israel, and I had to be anti-Zionist by default, even if I didn’t always understand what ‘Zionism’ meant in abstract. Well, I am 27 years old now with two masters degrees in history, and here is what Zionism means to me: I hate the Israeli government. They do not speak for me. But I am not anti-Zionist. I believe in the necessity for a Jewish state — a state where all Jews are welcome, regardless of their background, regardless of their nationality.

There needs to be a place where Jews, an ethnic minority who are unwelcome in nearly every state in the world, have a place where they are free from persecution — a place where they feel protected. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that place being the place where Jews are ethnically indigenous to. Because believe it or not, whether it is inconvenient, Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. I’ve addressed this in this post.

With that said, that doesn’t mean you can kick the Palestinian people out. They are also indigenous to that land, which is addressed in the same post, if you don’t trust me.

What is incredible to me is that Zionism is defined, by the Oxford English Dixtionary, as “A movement [that called originally for] the reestablishment of a Jewish nationhood in Palestine, and [since 1948] the development of the State of Israel.” Whether we agree with this or not, there were early disagreements about the location of a ‘Jewish state,’ and some, like Maurice de Hirsch, believed it ought to be located in South America, for example. Others believed it should be located in Africa. The point is that the original plans for the Jewish state were about safety. The plan changed because Jews wanted to return to their homeland, the largest project of decolonization and indigenous reclamation ever to be undertaken by an indigenous group. Whether you want to hear that or not, it is true. Read a book or two. Then you might know what I mean.

When people say this is a complicated issue, they aren’t being facetious. They aren’t trying to obfuscate the point. They often aren’t even trying to defend the Israeli government, because I certainly am not — I think they are abhorrent. But there is no future in the Middle East if the Israelis and Palestinians don’t form a state that has an equal right of return and recognizes both of their indigenousness, and that will never happen if people can’t stop throwing vitriolic rhetoric around. Is the Israeli Government bad? Yes. Are Israeli citizens bad? Largely, no. They want to defend their families, and they want to defend their people. This is basically the same as the fact that Palestinian people aren’t bad, though Hamas often is. And for the love of god, stop defending terrorist organizations. Just stop. They kill their own people for their own power and for their own benefit.

And yes, one more time, the Israeli government is so, so, so wrong. But god, think about your words, and think about how you are enabling Nazis. The rhetoric the left is using is hurting Jews. I am afraid to leave my house. I’m afraid to identify as Jewish on tumblr. I’m afraid for my family, afraid for my friends. People I know are afraid for me.

It’s 2021. I am not my great uncle. I cried for him, but I shouldn’t have to die like him.

Words have consequences. Language has consequences. And genuinely, I do not think everyone is a bad person, so think about what you are putting into the world, because you’d be surprised how often you are doing a Nazi a favor or two.

Is that really what you want? To do a Nazi a favor or two? I don’t think that you do. I hope you don’t, at least.

That’s all. You know, five thousand words later. But uh, think a little. Please.

#jumblr #free palestine #zionism #gaza #signal boost #antisemitism #jew tag

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awed-frog · 3 years

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What I find scary as fuck is how unwaveringly anti two state solution the loudest pro Palestine voices on the internet are. What do they think is going to happen to Israeli Jews under Palestinian rule? Do they think it's going to be any different than the rampant antisemitism faced by Jews in any other Middle Eastern country (which led to such a great influx of Middle Eastern Jewish refugees to Israel in the 1950s in the first place)? Or do they (rightfully) consider Israel an apartheid state but not Islamic states’ treatment of dhimmi under Sharia law?

I have much empathy for the Palestinian plight and I used to think antisemitism was only ever brought up as an excuse to deflect any criticism of Israel. But the more things escalate in Palestine, the more comfortable people become in being openly antisemitic and the more it dawns on me what Israelis mean when they say it's essential for a Jewish state to exist. Yes, Israel should absolutely be held accountable for its war crimes against Palestinians. But seeing liberals talk about Holocaust victims fleeing Europe, people who were open to negotiations with Arabs and a two state solution so they could make a home in the land of their ancestors as “colonizers” is just heartless

I have a lot of issues with current (American) left-wing activism, but its enthusiastic adoption of Noble Savage tropes and unquestioning parroting of radical Islamist points are probably at the top of my list. And while many people are just young, a lot of others should really know better.

As for the current situation, look - personally I don’t see the whole ‘colonizer’ mindset as useful at all. I think that, realistically, every nation state in the world got where it is by appropriating someone else’s land and massacring or assimilating minority communities. That’s how things work. And before nation states there were kingdoms, and before that villages and tribes and groups of wandering half-apes, and this is a thing that always happens: sooner or later, you’re going to want or need more land. Maybe yours got barren, or submerged by a flood, or invaded by someone else. Maybe your community grew too big. Or maybe you have a visionary or an asshole chief who’s all like, ‘If we had more pastures then we’d have a godzillion horses and no one would ever go hungry again’ - in a way, the why doesn’t even matter. The realpolitik here is that these things happen and have happened a lot over the last three centuries or so, which means the number one item on our list as democratic governments (term used loosely and optimistically) is always the same: making sure people are fed and making sure they know their voice counts so they don’t start to question why the country exists at all.

(It may sound cynical, but we often lose sight of the fact there’s a difference between ‘moral discussion about moral implications of moral choices’ and ‘practical decision we can bring to a negotiation table with enemies and opponents’. Sometimes you’re right but you need to compromise anyway, and that’s something else that’s never going to change.)

In the end, this is what 99.9% of people care about: if your kids are happy, if you have a house and a job, and if you feel yourself represented and part of the country you live in (and know you can peacefully demand meaningful change if you need to), you don’t give that many fucks about everything else. That’s why, on the whole, most separatist movements go nowhere: because while many people agree on a very basic human principle (“Things would be much better if everyone was like me and thought like me”), they’re not that keen to trade their stability and security for economic chaos or even civil war...for what? All nation states, in the end, are fictional creations, and deep down everyone understands it: when you’re leading a decently happy life, the colour of your passport doesn’t really matter all that much.

So the issue here is not even who’s right and who’s wrong. Of course it’s important to recognize even old crimes and tragedies: it’s definitely one of the steps towards healing and peace and (let’s be optimistic again) the reason why international courts exist, but the immediate priority is always keeping people safe. I mean if you had to make right all the border insanity that went down even in the 20th century, you wouldn’t have the time or resources to do anything else, and, more importantly, you would only create more hostility and conflict in the process. The issue is, a) let’s try not to make more mess in the future and mostly b) let’s make sure everyone is happy and feels heard where he is. If Israel had a system like, idk, Switzerland, with tons of shared wealth and a Parliament full of different voices and minority people getting federal subsidies to preserve their unique cultures and traditions, there would be zero violence. Like of course some people would still resent Israel is there in the first place, and others would resent Israel existing not as a Jewish state but as a nation with sizable Muslim and Christian minorities or whatever else, but it wouldn’t come to civil war because everyone would have too much to lose.

Unfortunately, in many cases it’s just too late to undo the initial damage. The best we can work towards is ensuring people are safe, can build good lives and are politically represented. The main problem we have now in many regions around the world - like the Middle East - is that lots of powerful people have zero interest not only in righting historical wrongs but also in ensuring literal human beings are not killed in the streets. And as long as their power is made stronger by chaos, hatred and violence, we’re not going to get anywhere.

#ask #news #potentially unpopular opinion

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eretzyisrael · 4 years

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Social Media and the Cognitive War Against Israel

Time to take a break from giving and receiving abuse on Twitter and do some work.

Last night we watched the Netflix documentary “The Social Dilemma.” It’s about the big tech companies and how their systems manipulate us into giving them what they want, which is our time and attention.

About 25 years ago I was stuck in the airport in Reno, Nevada, where there were slot machines available for waiting passengers to entertain themselves. I recall watching a woman play one, rhythmically swaying back and forth to the musical accompaniment from the machine as she pulled the lever over, and over, and over. I could see from her glazed eyes that she was in a trance, one with the machine. I wondered if she would succeed to pull herself away in time when her flight was announced, or if indeed she would even hear the announcement. Later, I recognized the same look in the eyes of someone scrolling through Facebook or Twitter on their phone.

These systems, which although they have been developed by humans, work autonomously and learn from experience how to control the behavior of their subjects. Their developers only care about getting us to sit still and eat the ads we are “served” (I love that locution), but of course it has destructive side effects. The creation of ideological bubbles, the dispersion of fake news, and the encouragement of extremism are some of them, but there are other, deeper changes that are not obvious, like the contraction of the subject’s attention span, the forced withdrawal from normal social activities, the decline in risk-taking, and the abysmal waste of time.

The abuses of political correctness, cancel culture, and the wide popularity of absurd, self-contradictory theories and ideologies are all epiphenomena of the ubiquity of social media. They would not be possible without the ability to disseminate emotion-loaded stimuli widely and instantaneously to groups of like-minded people, people who are often in the receptive trance-like state engendered by the medium.

How, for example, did the Israeli-Palestinian conflict come to take over the mind-space of the Western world? Almost none of my Twitter abuse comes from actual Arabs or Palestinians. Most of the folks accusing me of supporting “land theft,” apartheid, ethnic cleansing, and genocide of Palestinians live in the US or Europe, places which have their own problems. And yet they care so much about the Palestinians!

The Palestinization of the Western mind is a long story. It started with the KGB, who wanted to find a lever to get support for its Arab clients in the Middle East. It continued via the massive inputs of Arab oil money into Western educational institutions and “human rights” groups. It got a big boost from 2001’s Durban Conference on Racism, where the popular theme of anti-racism was successfully applied to Israel – a remarkable feat of reality inversion, since the Arab rejectionism that underlies the conflict is at bottom a particular rejection of Jewish sovereignty, and a desire to ethnically cleanse the region of Jews.

But the advent of the Internet multiplied – exponentiated – everything. It first became available in universities in the 1980s with email and Usenet newsgroups (like mailing lists) facilitating the democratization of the distribution of information. The first rudimentary social networks like Compuserve and America Online arrived in the 1990s. The dam burst with the creation of Facebook and others in the early 2000s.

The universities have always been repositories of misoziony, extreme and irrational Israel-hatred. This is because of the general leftward tilt of university faculties, who were fertile soil for the Soviet anti-Israel propaganda that began in the late 1960s and continued through the dissolution of the USSR. There was also the effect of the aforementioned Arab oil money donated to create departments of Mideast studies that were little more than indoctrination units. Students and faculty, early adopters of new technology, used it to organize and propagandize for all of their causes, including the increasingly popular Palestinian one.

Some important characteristics of social media that particularly affect cognitive warfare in this conflict are the immediacy of transmission of information, its bias toward emotional content, its tendency to create opinion bubbles, its encouragement of extremism, and the effect of numerical superiority of one side or another in a dispute. Let’s see how this works.

One of the propaganda techniques used against Israel is the “spaghetti test,” in which false accusations are rapidly thrown against the public in the hope that they will stick. By the time the information to refute them has been collected, the damage has been done and new accusations have been launched. The ability of social media to plant an idea in numerous receptive minds instantaneously with no filtering (such as is at least supposed to occur in traditional media) greatly increases the effectiveness of this.

It is well known that emotional content makes a story memorable, as well as serving as a motivation for action in a way that factual information cannot. Social media tends to be biased toward the transmission of emotionally affecting content, since that is what drives a person to share or retweet an item. Emotionally moving items (“IDF soldiers shoot Palestinian children for fun”) tend to dominate the timelines of its targets, arriving faster and more frequently than factual, but boring, corrections (“nobody was shot”).

The opinion bubbles prominent on social media, in which a person tends to collect “friends” and followers with similar political opinions means that propaganda will be repeated and amplified by the echo chambers formed by the bubbles. As it bounces around in an eagerly accepting environment, it creates anger and indignation, as well as accumulating greater authority (everyone is talking about the murder of Muhammad al-Dura, so the story must be true).

A participant in a social media opinion bubble is a player in a social game in which points are won by being first with the most shocking information. The “alphas” in the group are the ones whose opinions are the most exciting, which usually means that their positions are the most extreme. This forces the window of discourse in the direction of extremism, which is why it seems so shocking when it escapes from the bubble. The group “Canary Mission” often exposes social media posts in which students and academics express themselves against Jews or Israel in a way which is acceptable within their group but appears (and is) appallingly vicious to an outsider.

Jews and Israelis are a small minority compared to their enemies, and defenders of Israel are an equally small minority on social networks. The numerical advantage on one side makes it possible to “pile on” to a person and overwhelm them with verbal abuse. It seems that the Palestinians and their supporters are using social media much more effectively than those on the Israeli side. I am not sure if this is simply a consequence of their numerical advantage, or something else.

Technology of this kind has made everyday life much more convenient. Can you imagine life without Google? As the documentary points out, social media has reunited families and made it possible to become acquainted with people that one would otherwise never know. It can provide a lifeline for shut-ins, especially in this time of pandemic.

But – as its effects in facilitating cognitive warfare in our own sphere show – it has changed the world in ways we are just beginning to understand, and have made no effort to control. It has increased political polarization in general, fostered extremism, and seriously damaged traditional journalism.

No, I don’t want to be without Google (I think). But I wouldn’t cry if Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. disappeared.

Abu Yehuda

#information war #media

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