#politically homeless Jews

[elder-millennial-of-zion]

I miss the days, way back when before October 7, when I felt like I was part of leftist circles. I miss feeling energised by leftist slogans because I thought they included me, instead of targeted me.

I miss hearing “eat the rich” and not hearing it as a dog whistle for “kill the Jews.” I miss feeling inspired by phrases like “our struggles for liberation are all connected,” instead of hearing its real meaning, “the Jews are the evil puppet masters behind everything and the world must unite against them.” I miss believing that when leftists talked about punching up at their oppressors, it wasn’t just an excuse to punch down at more vulnerable minorities that they decided were their oppressors despite all evidence to the contrary.

I miss the days when the left poured into the streets to protest cops and corporations instead of protesting Jews. I miss updating myself on those protests so I could join them, instead of to know which areas to avoid because they’ll be Judenrein for the day.

I don’t wish my eyes hadn’t been opened. I’d much rather see the truth no matter how painful and disillusioning it is, because the alternative isn’t actually “bliss.” It’s having a perpetual nagging feeling that something’s off but I can’t put my finger on it, or if I can then I must be overreacting or imagining it’s worse than it is.

But that pain and disillusionment is very real. That loss is very real. It was a community I thought I belonged to, a community I put a lot of work and energy into for many years, and there is grief at the loss of it. Grief that it’s gone, grief that it never was what it claimed to be in the first place. I guess I’m grieving the loss of that part of my identity. And grieving the loss of how people I thought were my friends and allies perceive my identity. Grieving the illusion that they were ever my allies at all, that they ever would be my allies if I needed. Because I haven’t really changed, but the way my former circles look at me completely changed. People who thought I was a good person and a good ally on October 6 decided I was the devil incarnate very literally overnight.

The person who privately reached out to me a few years ago to thank me for a Facebook post I made defending sex workers, because as a former sex worker they appreciated it. Now they’ve been posting antisemitic blood libel, the kind of rhetoric that’s already gotten Jews killed, for six months straight. I tried to tell them how much pain it causes me as a Jew to see their posts, and they only doubled down. It truly is their loss. I was a good friend and a good ally, and they threw me away because I’m a Jew. But it’s totally not because I’m a Jew, it’s because I’m the evil kind of Jew, the kind that just so happens to be the profile of ninety percent of the Jewish population.

I’m grateful I have such a strong sense of Jewish identity, because otherwise the loss of identity in this other way would be far more destabilising. I get why so many people cling to their political identities no matter how much cognitive dissonance they have to wave away; why they insist their ideology is righteous no matter how much evidence to the contrary. Without any other solid identity they would feel too adrift. But that doesn’t excuse their behavior. It’s not ok to jump on a bandwagon to persecute and kill Jews because you want to belong to something that badly, because you can’t handle your sense of self evolving with all the growing pains that come with it.

So many progressive Jews like myself have described ourselves as “politically homeless.” (Specifically in the diaspora; I know the political framework in Israel is completely different.) We can let ourselves sit in that grief. Being homeless is painful and uncomfortable, but it’s better than staying in an abusive home.

#antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #anti zionism is antisemitism #politically homeless Jews #israel #jumblr

[dhaaruni]

My dad asked me this morning if it's true that Muslim/Arab-American voters are a decisive swing demographic in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania because he heard it on the news and I'm like "Well they wish they were"

#politics #there are like zero Muslims in Wisconsin and more Jews in PA than Muslims in MI #like I'm politically homeless (want a dual ceasefire and think Israel's actions in Gaza are pure evil #but also really can't stand Islam as a religion and culture) #family blogging #personal

[specialagentartemis]

I get variations on this comment on my post about history misinformation all the time: "why does it matter?" Why does it matter that people believe falsehoods about history? Why does it matter if people spread history misinformation? Why does it matter if people on tumblr believe that those bronze dodecahedra were used for knitting, or that Persephone had a daughter named Mespyrian? It's not the kind of misinformation that actually hurts people, like anti-vaxx propaganda or climate change denial. It doesn't hurt anyone to believe something false about the past.

Which, one, thanks for letting me know on my post that you think my job doesn't matter and what I do is pointless, if it doesn't really matter if we know the truth or make up lies about history because lies don't hurt anyone. But two, there are lots of reasons that it matters.

It encourages us to distrust historians when they talk about other aspects of history. You might think it's harmless to believe that Pharaoh Hatshepsut was trans. It's less harmless when you're espousing that the Holocaust wasn't really about Jews because the Nazis "came for trans people first." You might think it's harmless to believe that the French royalty of Versailles pooped and urinated on the floor of the palace all the time, because they were asshole rich people anyway, who cares, we hate the rich here; it's rather less harmless when you decide that the USSR was the communist ideal and Good, Actually, and that reports of its genocidal oppression are actually lies.

It encourages anti-intellectualism in other areas of scholarship. Deciding based on your own gut that the experts don't know what they're talking about and are either too stupid to realize the truth, or maliciously hiding the truth, is how you get to anti-vaxxers and climate change denial. It is also how you come to discount housing-first solutions for homelessness or the idea that long-term sustained weight loss is both biologically unlikely and health-wise unnecessary for the majority of fat people - because they conflict with what you feel should be true. Believing what you want to be true about history, because you want to believe it, and discounting fact-based corrections because you don't want them to be true, can then bleed over into how you approach other sociological and scientific topics.

How we think about history informs how we think about the present. A lot of people want certain things to be true - this famous person from history was gay or trans, this sexist story was actually feminist in its origin - because we want proof that gay people, trans people, and women deserve to be respected, and this gives evidence to prove we once were and deserve to be. But let me tell you a different story: on Thanksgiving of 2016, I was at a family friend's house and listening to their drunk conservative relative rant, and he told me, confidently, that the Roman Empire fell because they instituted universal healthcare, which was proof that Obama was destroying America. Of course that's nonsense. But projecting what we think is true about the world back onto history, and then using that as recursive proof that that is how the world is... is shoddy scholarship, and gets used for topics you don't agree with just as much as the ones you do. We should not be encouraging this, because our politics should be informed by the truth and material reality, not how we wish the past proved us right.

It frequently reinforces "Good vs. Bad" dichotomies that are at best unhelpful and at worst victim-blaming. A very common thread of historical misinformation on tumblr is about the innocence or benevolence of oppressed groups, slandered by oppressors who were far worse. This very frequently has truth to it - but makes the lies hard to separate out. It often simplifies the narrative, and implies that the reason that colonialism and oppression were bad was because the victims were Good and didn't deserve it... not because colonialism and oppression are bad. You see this sometimes with radical feminist mother goddess Neolithic feminist utopia stuff, but you also see it a lot regarding Native American and African history. I have seen people earnestly argue that Aztecs did not practice human sacrifice, that that was a lie made up by the Spanish to slander them. That is not true. Human sacrifice was part of Aztec, Maya, and many Central American war/religious practices. They are significantly more complex than often presented, and came from a captive-based system of warfare that significantly reduced the number of people who got killed in war compared to European styles of war that primarily killed people on the battlefield rather than taking them captive for sacrifice... but the human sacrifice was real and did happen. This can often come off with the implications of a 'noble savage' or an 'innocent victim' that implies that the bad things the Spanish conquistadors did were bad because the victims were innocent or good. This is a very easy trap to fall into; if the victims were good, they didn't deserve it. Right? This logic is dangerous when you are presented with a person or group who did something bad... you're caught in a bind. Did they deserve their injustice or oppression because they did something bad? This kind of logic drives a lot of transphobia, homophobia, racism, and defenses of Kyle Rittenhouse today. The answer to a colonialist logic of "The Aztecs deserved to be conquered because they did human sacrifice and that's bad" is not "The Aztecs didn't do human sacrifice actually, that's just Spanish propaganda" (which is a lie) it should be "We Americans do human sacrifice all the god damn time with our forever wars in the Middle East, we just don't call it that. We use bullets and bombs rather than obsidian knives but we kill way, way more people in the name of our country. What does that make us? Maybe genocide is not okay regardless of if you think the people are weird and scary." It becomes hard to square your ethics of the Innocent Victim and Lying Perpetrator when you see real, complicated, individual-level and group-level interactions, where no group is made up of members who are all completely pure and good, and they don't deserve to be oppressed anyway.

It makes you an unwitting tool of the oppressor. The favorite, favorite allegation transphobes level at trans people, and conservatives at queer people, is that we're lying to push the Gay Agenda. We're liars or deluded fools. If you say something about queer or trans history that's easy to debunk as false, you have permanently hurt your credibility - and the cause of queer history. It makes you easy to write off as a liar or a deluded fool who needs misinformation to make your case. If you say Louisa May Alcott was trans, that's easy to counter with "there is literally no evidence of that, and lots of evidence that she was fine being a woman," and instantly tanks your credibility going forward, so when you then say James Barry was trans and push back against a novel or biopic that treats James Barry as a woman, you get "you don't know what you're talking about, didn't you say Louisa May Alcott was trans too?" TERFs love to call trans people liars - do not hand them ammunition, not even a single bullet. Make sure you can back up what you say with facts and evidence. This is true of homophobes, of racists, of sexists. Be confident of your facts, and have facts to give to the hopeful and questioning learners who you are relating this story to, or the bigots who you are telling off, because misinformation can only hurt you and your cause.

It makes the queer, female, POC, or other marginalized listeners hurt, sad, and betrayed when something they thought was a reflection of their own experiences turns out not to be real. This is a good response to a performance art piece purporting to tell a real story of gay WWI soldiers, until the author revealed it as fiction. Why would you want to set yourself up for disappointment like that? Why would you want to risk inflicting that disappointment and betrayal on anyone else?

It makes it harder to learn the actual truth.

Historical misinformation has consequences, and those consequences are best avoided - by checking your facts, citing your sources, and taking the time and effort to make sure you are actually telling the truth.

#history #history and the world #misinformation

[bill-the-dog-for-the-check]

I want to go back to how things were.

I want to go back to when I believed that the progressives were on the right side of history, fighting against oppression in all its forms, and had critical thinking, honest compassion, and understanding in a way that the right--inundated with racist conspiracy theories and absurd lies--did not.

In many ways, I'm a perfect demographic fit in the pro-Palestine circles. I'm bisexual. I'm a young university student who's been progressive for as long as he knew what progressivism was, and I never experienced genuine economic insecurity or wondered if I'd eat that night. In another timeline, maybe I'd be there marching and shouting their horrible slogans. But there's one, teeny little thing that ruins it, which makes me fall through the cracks and renders me politically homeless, outcast by the progressive left and the MAGA right.

I'm a Jew.

And I'm trying so, so hard to hold compassion for the suffering of minorities who have not extended us that same compassion. I'm trying to maintain my progressivist urge to go out and help minorities in solidarity, but it's so hard when they make it clear that they hate us and want our state dead and gone. I supported BLM, but Al Sharpton, Leonard Jeffries, Alice Walker, James Baldwin, Louis Farrakhan, Malcom X, Jesse Jackson and many others either were or are wildly antisemitic, especially Sharpton and Walker, and so are the BLM movement's leaders, who openly sneered at Jews for being shocked by them by announcing, "I guess their activism was just transactional. How (((Zionist))) of them!"

And the queer community forced me out of their ranks for merely questioning whether the war in Gaza is a genocide, for pushing back against them saying that Hamas is fighting oppression. And spread antisemitic lies about me, claims of harassment and supporting genocide to my friends because I dared to question them. And they've chosen to side with those who would throw both of us off roofs for being queer. Cast out by the outcasts.

Like, what do I do? Our only allies are Hindus, Iranians, Kurds, Republicans, and Christian Zionists (respect to all of these groups for that... even you Republicans. This is one of our only points of agreement). That's literally it. No loud show of from indigenous nations supporting what is effectively the most successful anticolonial land back movement in human history. No push from "antiracist progressives" against rising antisemitism and genocidal terrorism from a reactionary fundamentalist group against a historically discriminated group.

And they aren't even just leaning back and being silent--many members of these groups are being actively antisemitic--especially the progressive left, which has morphed into the most antisemitic mainstream political movement since the Nazis. Instead, we're 'Zionazis' and genocidal colonizers who aren't even oppressed anyway, that's just evil Jewish Zionist lies designed to stoke sympathy for their unrelentingly evil nature, which we can't even help. The notion that Jews are intrinsically predisposed to evil acts and deception--never heard that one before.

So now, when I look at pictures of Pride Parades, a celebration of an identity of which I am a part and would have previously killed to attend--I wonder... would I be allowed to hold up a rainbow flag with a Magen David on it? If I asked any of their views on the state of Israel, what will they say? What about on Zionists who support its existence? Would all parts of my identity be respected, valued, and celebrated? Or would I be forced to leave the Star of David flag at home, pretend I don't notice their antisemitic views, and pass the litmus test of disavowing Israel before being accepted?

I feel suspicious and wary of the very community which I am 'supposed' to belong in. I feel uncomfortable. I hate, hate, hate that I feel this way. That I've become more closed, more cynical, more angry. Those of us who fall through the cracks, who hold multiple marginalized identities--queer and Jewish, black and Jewish, Indigenous and Jewish--we are ignored and silenced, our voices and experiences entirely spat upon as being a front for 'Zionist crimes' or whatever new buzzwords they create.

I've decided that first and foremost, I am Jewish. The me that was proud to be a part of the queer community is dead. I want to support the progressive causes of antiracism and social justice, but they hate us. They want us dead. They wouldn't view my participation as being a genuine gesture of solidarity, but an evil Jew Zionist seeking to con them and co-opt support in order to aid our evil apartheid genocidal settler-colonialist white supremacist illegitimate entity in a land that should really be given to Hamas anyway.

How am I supposed to hold space for other minorities when nobody is holding space for us right now?

#antisemitism #jewish #jumblr #leftist antisemitism #left wing antisemitism #jewblr #antizionism #progressivism

[jewish-sideblog]

Honestly we should stop calling them leftists. They’re rebranding conservative evangelical christianity as a neo-liberal evangelical atheism. They have created a cult of performative activism. The Revolution is their rapture, always to be anticipated but never to be truly worked towards. A public declaration of dedication to Jesus has been replaced with posting a tiktok with a filter for the newest cause.

Their gospel is propaganda, and blind faith is mandatory— G-d help you if you check the source on a Twitter post. Anyone who does not post for the Righteous Cause must be working against it, because you can either be with them or against them. They refuse to read and engage with leftist theory, political science, or even the basics of sociology, though they treat the misinterpretation of those texts and tenants as something sacred. The destruction of designated enemies, heretics, and non-believers is the only result actually worth fighting for. Destruction is more valuable to them than peace, voting, or true solutions to problems.

What is leftist about any of that? What is leftist about hate criming Jews and desecrating Holocaust memorials? They could be volunteering at homeless shelters or needle exchanges or libraries. What is leftist about valuing child murderers and disinformation when you could easily value peace and shared self-determination for native peoples?

We should call them what they are. They are evangelicals, forcing the gospel of a new age down the throats of everyone they come across. They are making a poor attempt at cosplaying leftism, the same as “Messianic Jews” hosting “Christian Seders” make a poor attempt at cosplaying real Jewish people.

[perrysoup]

New Zionist Twist regarding the Protests:

“The protestors are the real antisemites and the Jewish people there feel unsafe, the only thing keeping them safe is the cops and administrators”

Anyone paying a jack shit of attention knows that’s the opposite of reality and Jewish students feeling unsafe is because their own American government is sending cops to beat the shit out of them while administrators kick them out of school, make them homeless, and throw their stuff in the street.

Make no mistake, the Zionists always shift to make a new excuse of how they are the only ones caring about the safety of Jews while simultaneously praising the very things oppressing them.

And for the Zionists that still don’t get it:

Zionism is a political system. Antizionism is against that political system. It is not antisemitism and you damn well know that. You try and make them one in the same, but they aren’t and never have been.

Fuck the Zionists. Fuck Israel. Fuck the Cops and Administrators silencing the youth from speaking up against genocide.

Free Palestine

#palestine #free palestine #gaza #free gaza #israel #israel is a terrorist state #genocide #gaza strip #fuck the israeli government #idf is a terrorist group

[audhdnight]

Thinking about parallels between Israel and the US and how our cops are trained by their military programs. How the police violence is learned from their disgusting military policies. How we gave them so much money and they are now known as one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the whole world. With one of the most technologically sophisticated defense systems in the world.

Also thinking about the parallels between US veterans and Israeli holocaust survivors.

Israel talks some big shit about how they HAVE to exist because look how Jews were treated and they need a place all their own, just look at these poor holocaust survivors they need us!!! Except when you actually look, you find that most of the holocaust survivors in Israel are living in poverty, homeless, unable to afford food so they’re picking up literal scraps off the ground after markets end for the day. Israel wants you to think they’re doing this for the holocaust victims, but they’re not actually helping those survivors at all.

Like how in the US we have tons of programming about needing new soldiers, about thanking service members for our freedom, about celebrating holidays that uplift veterans and wars and political leaders. But the actual veteran population is largely neglected. They’re homeless, living in poverty, living with crippling medical debt because of injuries received in the field, or any number of other things. Programs set up to supposedly help them (like Wounded Warrior) are total scams that don’t help anyone.

Our governments use these people as scapegoats and toss them to the side like trash once no one is looking. It’s easy to say “how can you hate the military? look at what our veterans won for us!” while pushing a veteran out onto the street and using that money to pay more cops. It’s easy to say “we need a place for holocaust victims to feel safe!” while refusing to pay for the healthcare these people desperately need and instead funneling money into paying people to come live in Israel so you can grow your population and continue colonizing.

Colonialist governments will never adequately care for the people they supposedly represent. It is an ideal built entirely on greed, and a government built on greed will never fork over the money to actually make positive change in the world. All they care about is power and money and land, more and more and more. They don’t give a shit about us.

#current events #social justice #veterans #settler colonialism #police brutality #settler violence #exploitation #fuck israel #fuck the usa

[homochadensistm]

The discussion about American Jews moving to Israel and your info about it is really interesting. It also made me imagine my mom's husband living in Israel and I've been giggling for half an hour about it. He's a New York Jew. Reform, working class roots, academic now. He couldn't even deal well living in America outside of New York City. It's not even about money so much -- the culture shock would kill him. How's the pizza in Israel?

The reverse is also true! when I was in Merica every day I got whiplash from something else that I saw/experienced:

the sheer amount of fat, and I mean FAT, people. The ones that cant walk without a lil Walmart golf car thingy. No hate to them I just never saw something like that/ppl of those dimensions in my entire life.

The amount of homeless ppl. sad!

Lanes u can use to go in both directions. wtf is wrong with yall

Free refills. what an OP move

The fucking SIZE of meals. probably directly connected to the fucking SIZE of so many ppl in Walmart

Walmart

Bajilion (10?) lane highways

Ken Hams creationist museum (rly wanna go, only heard ppl talk abt it)

TACO BELL

Retail workers/waiters/etc constantly smiling at u and pretend-happy. creepy, weird, uncomfortable. I can see ur fake smiling, just b depressed/angry when u bring me food idgaf just Stop That

Huge lines, no one cutting, no yelling

Jehovah witnesses

Unwalkable cities. like, its not that the cities arent super walkable, its as if cities were MADE to be UNwalkable on purpose

Everyones polite, noones honest

China/Korea/Japantown

U can ride a helicopter for like $80???

Cussing at work (in general) is impolite. sad!

Huge fucking cars, 12/10

HUGE fucking trucks, 0/10

Knotts Berry Farm, 20/10

Raccoons

[hero-israel]

The leftist response to the current I/P situation made me feel physically ill at various points yesterday, and at one point I almost cried. I used to identify as an anarchist before I started just saying I’m a leftist without a specific label (antisemitic anarchists put me off from identifying as one).

Now I’m hesitant to even claim the leftist label. My views absolutely do still fall into leftism, but I don’t think I’ll personally use the label now because of all the rampant antisemitism in leftist spaces.

It sucks because I like having labels for myself! Now I feel even more isolated & alone having nothing I can cling to.

Jews on the left have been feeling increasingly politically homeless for years now. Since Corbynization, since fables like "from Ferguson to Palestine," since Netanyahu's trashy feud with Obama, and Trump's over-the-top embrace of Israel (even as he hates Jews).

I'm sorry.

The Jewish people will be there for you, at least most of us. We have to stand for each other, as there are so few others who will.

#leftist antisemitism #jumblr

[laineystein]

If I may? You seem to have an incredibly rosy view of Israel and live comfortably there. And I am happy you do! I just also have seen Israelis on tumblr speak of the struggle with the rising cost of living.

This includes having to be self conscious about the price of brands to pick, and the rent of apts. (Which are pretty common things to deal with anywhere lately). I’ve also seen an Israeli blogger say that if you don’t have a background in engineering and tech, there’s not much of a future for you in Israel-or at least not one where you can live well.

On a personal level, I struggle to comprehend the idea of bomb shelters being a conscious part of every day life in so many parts of Israel. I don’t know how you guys do it, I really don’t.

I’ve been passive-aggressively criticized for having what some would deem a rosy view of life in general so I don’t know if I’m the best person to be giving you my feedback. What I can say confidently is that I have lived elsewhere and I will forever choose to live in Israel because it is the place I truly feel is home. Yes, things are expensive but they’re expensive where I lived in the diaspora as well. Homes here are not any more expensive than they were where I lived in the diaspora. Our economy is certainly curtailed to specific professions but so is every economy. Being an engineer and being in tech is also currently the most lucrative profession in the diaspora. I’m not saying that Israel doesn’t have its issues. It does and I reference them often. I’d probably talk about them more if I wasn't so used to a lot of it; I’m used to sirens and bomb shelters and tzahal and I don’t know how to explain that to someone who isn’t. It’s just always been apart of my life and it’s not going to change anytime soon so it is what it is. I also have no problem acknowledging that I grew up very privileged and still live a very privileged life so that may have something to do with my viewpoint. But here’s the thing - I just can’t live in a non-Jewish world. I can’t live my life comfortably in a non-Jewish world. And that’s not solely because of antisemitism. I keep kosher. I keep Shabbos. And nearly everyone I love (in the diaspora) is visibly Jewish. The men wear kippot and tzitzis. The women dress tznius and cover their hair. When you are this religiously observant it’s difficult to exist in a non-Jewish world. Our holidays are different and it’s not a default to have them off and not every company you work for will be fine with you taking them off - even if it’s illegal for them not to. In the US, you can’t make friends with coworkers because you can’t see them on the weekends or eat at their restaurants or in their homes. Sending your children to a Jewish school like the one I attended is like paying college tuition per child, per year; my parents paid over 100K every year sending me and my three brothers to school - the same school would be much more affordable in Israel. We’re nothing but pawns to the political system there - the right and the left both hate us. We are politically homeless and we’re too much of a minority for it to matter. So there’s a million reasons *not* to live in the diaspora as a Jew. For me, there is also a million reasons to live in Israel. The proximity to our holy sites. The weather. The fact that we have beaches and deserts and mountains and forests and rain and snow and sunshine. The diet and the healthier lifestyle. The joy. There’s so much joy here and I feel sorry for anyone that disagrees. I can be openly Jewish here. My Jewishness is not an inconvenience here. I do not have to apologize for it or hide it. And yes, I will forever feel safer here than I ever have in the US. Is Israel also an absolute dumpster fire sometimes? Of course it is. I’m not saying it’s for everyone. Living here will be a huge shock for many Jews. But for some of us, it makes sense and the pros will forever outweigh the cons.

#lainey things #ask things #israel things #my heart my home

[pineapplerightsideupcake]

yo the notes on that post going around tumblr about the nyc guys who went to fight in israel are fr kind of scary. like how do the people on twitter and now the people on tumblr not hear themselves saying “the jews left so take their houses” and think huh where else have i heard about people moving into jews homes and taking their property as soon as they’re gone. maybe thats a dumb comparison but its the first thing i thought of man. this isnt some kind of pro israel take either just nobody seems to think antisemitism is a big deal for real.

It’s so scary because I think the current Israeli govt is doing some really awful shit like I’m not interested in defending the actions of the IDF at ALL. But like people are straight up trying to sacrifice Jews so nobody points out the hypocrisy of a bunch of Americans and other westerners saying they should just “leave”.

First off it’s not a 1-1 with American/New World colonialism. Because 25% of the Jews in Israel are indigenous. Mizrahi Jews are a thing. And any American/Canadian/Australian that wants to talk shit better be offering up their homes to indigenous peoples and picking a European country to return to.

And it’s so transparent. Because if you asked these same people if non white people should be forcibly removed they’d be horrified.

Usually the whole “white people are inhuman monsters” thing guilty white people screech about to avoid having to affect any real change or improve themselves hasn’t hurt anyone yet. It’s been annoying but the entire point is it doesn’t actually challenge white supremacy.

But this time they’re punching down at Jewish people, who CAN be harmed by this rhetoric. And it’s scary. Because I’m not seeing people call for a peaceful resolution that lets the people of Israel and Palestine live together. They aren’t even just calling for an end to the current regime, which is not only reasonable but popular. No, I’m seeing people delighting in violence that will never impact them and cheering for the gruesome deaths of an entire region. I’m seeing people gleeful at the thought of dead and displaced Jews. I’m seeing people repeating rhetoric that nothing less than the complete destruction of Israel is acceptable.

And every time I think “you first”. Go give your home to a Cherokee family and immigrate to Europe with nothing and live in a ghetto in Paris or London.

I dunno. I was already politically homeless but I’m scared by how emboldened people are these days.

#radical feminism #radical feminist safe #radical feminist community #radical feminists do interact #radical feminists do touch #radblr #radical feminists please interact #radical feminists please touch

[eretzyisrael]

by Dov Fischer

Warning: This is much harsher than the last Dov Fischer piece we ran. Compared to the Hamas massacre however, it is just words.

Let us be clear: If the Government of Israel were trying to murder civilians wantonly, just to inflict terror and to horrify them into submission, I would condemn that. No Jew can accept or refrain from criticizing organized institutional efforts to harm civilians wantonly. If Israel were deliberately bombing residential structures just to leave a population homeless and bombing hospitals just to inflict suffering on the ill, I would be outspoken in these pages criticizing them. But that is not the Israel I know, nor the Jewish people I know. We have our ethic, and the Arab Muslims have theirs. We have our religious guidelines and theological authorities, and they have theirs. Israel will not target civilians knowingly. They destroy known military targets: rocket launchers, land mines, IEDs (improvised explosive devices), military drones, RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades) and their launchers, anti-tank missiles, and other military battlefield materiel — and the people storing and launching them. If such terrorists are operating from specific residential buildings — say, running a rocket factory or storing attack drones in an 8th-floor apartment — then Israel may well bomb the entire building. But they won’t bomb the building next door. They attack with whatever precision is humanly possible. And if the day comes that they make a mistake, they will apologize, perhaps even compensate. That is what America does. By now, we all know that Hamas men and their weapons hide in and behind women, children, residential apartment buildings, hospitals, mosques, schools, and ambulances. When any or all of these are identified positively for their military threat, Israel will destroy them. And if the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) cannot avoid killing civilians alongside, then Dresden entails collateral casualties, and Israel now must Dresden Gaza. (READ MORE: Arab Muslim Foreigners and Illegals Stoke Campus Anti-Semitism) Importantly, Israel has had to fight five previous Gaza wars started by Hamas these past 16 years. Each time, Israel stopped its winning responses, forced by international pressure to cease fire. Each time, Hamas used the ceasefire to re-arm, build more tunnels, and militarize more of the population. They now have 40,000 terrorists in 300 miles of those tunnels. This time, upon having experienced the terror attacks of Shabbat Shmini Atzeret on October 7, Israel has learned the price of stopping halfway through a war. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now is political “toast” because he adopted his advisors’ recommendations (known in Israel now as “The Concept”) that Hamas could be controlled with measured responsive wars, and then hoping that new money pouring in would persuade them to stop attacking. But that Concept simply left behind the weeds to grow back and fight an even more destructive next war. This time Israel must uproot even the weeds. Netanyahu will be replaced politically soon after. When the Washington Post and others present their empathy for the “poor innocent Gaza civilians,” I don’t care. They are poor only because Hamas has used the billions of dollars they have received from Qatar and European — and American — taxpayers to build an underground tunnel system as expansive as the New York City subway system instead of allocating the money to the public by building a beautiful country. Believe it or not, with all that money that has poured in — more than $8 billion — they have not even built a water or electricity infrastructure in their 16 years.

#hamas #gaza #dresden #germans #nazis #washington post #war crimes

[distilled-prose]

You're forgetting the misconception about Democrats. Not all Democrats are "Leftists". Not all Democrats are against guns. That said; there is a slight difference in a semi-automatic rifle and an AR-15. Yes, I know the AR doesn't stand for "Assault Rifle". The difference is in the looks of a rifle and the use of the rifle. As many has said, I can use my AR-15 to hunt. Yes, you can but, why would you want to use that to hunt deer? I've got a 308 semi to hunt deer but I use my AR-15 to hunt coyotes and pigs. The purpose is to annihilate a species that is invading a territory and causing harm to the environment. Oh! There ya go! A mentally deranged person would do that at a school or a mall with an AR-15 because.....they're fucking deranged and they don't deserve to own that weapon because they have a history of mental problems and they had a friend buy that gun for them or they lied about they're history or whatever. Special permit to own that gun and extended background checks paid for by the the person buying the gun and, red flag laws upheld by Law Enforcement. Period.

Dear Anonymous, Like the question I recently just answered, a couple of things: Thank you for being polite. I wish I knew what prompted the comment/question. That said, you know the second amendment wasn't enacted to protect hunters rights, correct? And just for the record, I am not a hunter. I found early in my life I did not like killing things. But I enjoy target shooting. And I enjoy a variety of weapons in that endeavor. I also know from personal experience that not all democrats are anti-gun. I had a meeting with my attorney several years ago about my wife's and my will. He was a state representative (Democrat) who was wanting to run for a recently vacated senate seat. The discussion turned to that nomination process. He said his position on guns would be a big stumbling block for him in getting the Democratic party's support. (We lived in a rural community.) He did ultimately get the support and won the senate seat. But by his own acknowledgement, the Democratic party did not like it.

My son was a sheriff's deputy for 10 years, and he would quote statistics to me all the time. The majority of mass shootings are committed with hand guns, not long guns, and certainly not by AR style long guns. You are more likely to get killed by a driver misusing a cell phone while driving than to die in a mass shooting. In fact, (I think I am remembering this correctly) a person is more likely to die by a teenager misusing a cellphone while driving than to die in a mass shooting. He also pointed out that Great Britain has a similar number of violent deaths per capita as we do (excluding deaths in this country due to self defense). But in England it's with knives. And now you need a permit to buy almost any kind of knife in England. And look up the statistics of people having acid thrown on them in England. It's crazy. Lastly, I am the second oldest person I know of on Tumblr. As a grade schooler I would hear my parents, their friends, their neighbors, talk about the horrors surrounding and leading up to WWII. Not just the German persecution of Jews, but the Stalinist purges, the atrocities committed by various governments against their own people. Our neighborhood back then had a number of families supporting displaced persons. One neighbor in particular used to tell my grandmother whenever he saw the Texaco big red star it absolutely infuriated him. He just wanted to climb up the pole and tear it down. He lost his whole family in Russia. They were defenseless in one of the purges. Your conclusion regarding the mental heath crisis in this country I believe is correct. Not only the crazy mass shootings, but the homelessness problem, the out of control drug use, etc. all point to a lack of support for people who are struggling. I would offer, however, that your proposed solution will not correct the problem, merely shift it (as in England). Solving the problem at its core is essential. Thank you for the comment.

[bill-the-dog-for-the-check]

I feel like I'm constantly talking like a broken record, lol, leftists this, leftists that.

Sometimes it's surreal to see myself typing that and agreeing with it, given I used to be very left wing myself until the response on the left to October 7th. And I hate the idea that it's giving other people the impression that I'm conservative--I'm not. I have some views that I'd share with conservatives--being a Zionist being one of them... obviously.

But I'm literally bisexual. I support same-sex marriage. I think democracy is the best form of government, that the US should have universal healthcare, should abolish the Electoral College (National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, I'm praying for you). I think the invasion of Ukraine is a monstrous crime and Putin is a threat to world peace. I think systemic racism is a real thing in the United States, as is police brutality against black people. I think vaccines work, and mandates are a good idea. I think most right-wing politicians are right-wing populists more interested in causing democratic backsliding and peddling conspiracies than they are in fixing literally anything.

But I can't call myself a leftist anymore, even with this set of values. Why? Because--oh, God--I believe Israel has the right to exist. And to defend itself.

I'm not even some radical on Israel unlike some friends of mine--I think it's a travesty that Israel hasn't yet legalized same-sex marriage or established a civil marriage system. I think the 2018 Nation-State Law was racist in making Arabic no longer a co-official language with Hebrew. I think Bibi is one of those aforementioned populists. I think Israel has a democratic backsliding problem.

But the rest of the left--the rest of the queer community, especially--has made it clear in no uncertain terms that I am not welcome among them anymore. Like, they genuinely think I'm a genocide defending fascist, which is just so weird to me sometimes. Yeah, me, the fascist who thinks queer rights should be non-negotiable in any society. And they, who are posting pro-Hamas slogans, are the ones standing against genocide and bigotry. Uh huh. Oo-kay.

I don't want to constantly be saying 'Oh, the left...' and 'Leftists when...' like I'm some boomer posting shitty memes on Facebook. The right has its share of problems, too. And I'm sure they'll do something soon to make their antisemitism known as well--especially as the 2024 presidential election draws nearer.

But right now, the immediate threat isn't in Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or whoever. I'm more worried about being accosted by pro-Palestine protestors with something to prove than I am about neo-Nazi gangs. And so are most Jews right now. And that's why I'm posting about the left more than the right here... even though my values are mostly left.

Oh, the wonders of being politically homeless!

#jewish #jumblr #anti zionisim #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #israel #judaism #pro israel #zionism #antizionism #left wing antisemitism

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

 Eolo Perfido

* * * *

Who Are We? By: Alan Kaufman

Into the past I go like a stranger to discover why at night I lay alone as a child waiting for the front door to slam, my father gone to night-shift work, and my mother, Marie, to enter, unable to sleep, and tell me tales of childhood war, pursued by those who, as she spoke, seemed to enter the room, Gestapo men in leather coats who ordered me to pack and descend to a waiting truck, for I am still going to Auschwitz though a grown man in 1998 I am still boarding the freight, crushed against numbed, frightened Jews and Gypsies and Russian soldiers and homosexuals crossing frontiers to be gassed

I am her, in my heart, though I am six feet two and two hundred and ten pounds and have played college football and served as a soldier and have scars from fights with knives and jagged bottles smashed on bars

I am still her, little girl, hiding in chicken coops and forests, asleep on dynamite among partisans I am still her, brushing teeth with ashes from the ruins of nations gutted in war

I am still her brown eyes and black hair of persecution foraging scraps of thistle soup, a star-shaped patch sewn to my shirt

I am still my mother every day in the streets of New York or San Francisco, the chimney skies glow and swirl with soot like night above a crematorium, or the Bronx incinerator chute where I threw out trash in a brick darkness shooting sparks

I am still her in the streets of Berkeley, walking among sparechangers, dyed-hair punkers, gays in stud leather, Blacks, Mexicans and Asians

I am still her rounded up among poets and thieves and politically incorrect social deviants on sun-drenched sidewalks in the Mission and the Haight, Greenwich Village, the Lower East Side, or anywhere the weird congregate in tolerance

And every day in this age of intolerance, in a mental ghetto affirmed by the homeless, I pass the dying with the loud ring of my boots, ashamed to think that perhaps my heels are the last thing they heard Every day I am a survivor of AIDS and poverty

Every day I sit in cafes watching tattoos turn to numbers and I grow angry I want America back I want America to be the home I never had

And you, who are you if you hear my voice? Who are you, stranger if you read these words?

Who are we who stand threatened in these times of darkness? Who are we, condemned to die, who do not know ourselves at all?

[Poetic Outlaws]

#Eolo Perfido #poetic outlaws #poem #poetry #mother #Alan Kaufman

[batboyblog]

Okay you may ignore this question so dearly because I can freely admit this can chalk up to my personal religious-political ignorance on how things truly operate so I apologize in advance;

Regarding Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, since he holds the highest office in the land that’s been long regarded as the Holy Land for both the Jewish people and faith, does he have influence over the faith akin to how Pope Francis at Vatican City has the influence over the Roman Catholic Christian faith (to which I belong too but I digress) Or is Netanyahu’s office a purely secular position with no tangible influence on the faith?

Again this is purely my complete utter ignorance on this subject and I offer all my sincerest apologies

Short answer: No the Prime Minster of Israel has no religious function or influence.

For one thing Judaism unlike Catholicism is not a top down religion with one agreed on "head" who can make rulings that all Jews agree to. So While there's a Chief Rabbi of Israel (actually there are two) his rulings are unlikely to be even be noticed by American Jews, and if any do its out of respect for the Rabbi's learning not so much his office and the power of it.

For another thing, for millennia, Jews have believed and hoped for a coming Messiah who would unite the Jews and return us all to the Land of Israel and found a Kingdom there etc. From time to time since the exile waves of Jews would go to the holy land believing the moment was at hand. In the 19th Century some Jews who had become more secular but hadn't given up on the dream started talking about maybe a secular political movement could return the Jews to the land, they also felt with rising violence against Jews in Eastern Europe that a safe place for the Jews was needed. All this crystalized into the Zionist movement around Theodor Herzl and his book "The Jewish State" in 1896 and the first Zionist Congress in 1897.

Herzl himself was very Secular, and the generation of leaders that came after his death in 1904 were more secular and the Zionist movement quickly became socialists. Soon there was a pretty strong conflict between Zionists and ultra Orthodox Rabbis. The Zionists felt like over strict obedience to the laws of Torah had made the Jews in exile passive. The Rabbis had long rejected ANY involvement in secular government, fearing angering the Gentiles. Indeed to this day there are ultra Orthodox who feel that the only defense of the Jews is the study of Torah and the involvement of Jews in politics is not Kosher, a leading Rabbi, Yitzchok Sorotzkin, called on Jews not to rally against antisemitism in Washington last month (500,000 did any ways) but study Torah

Understandably the Holocaust greatly changed the relationship on both sides with many homeless and stateless Jews settling in the new state of Israel after 1948. But the founding generation of Israel remained very secular and socialist and the Religious Jews remaining at best lukewarm to cool toward the state and many using the term "Non-Zionist" or even "Anti-Zionist" As the founding generation of Israel left power in the 1970s and secular socialist Labor Party became less dominant relationships between the state and the Religious has slowly warmed and Israel's political class has become less defiantly secular for better or worse. In 2021 Naftali Bennett became Israel's first prime minster to wear a kippah regularly.

Before I wrap up, I should note that while the Prime Minster is a secular job with no religious role or influence. Israel is not a purely secular state the way the US is. Family Law (marriage, divorce, child custody) are governed religiously. Meaning there are judges paid by the state who are religious experts who rule on divorce cases and other family law matters, and that representatives of the faiths are the only people who can marry people. There are a number of religions recognized by the state, Judaism of course, Islam, the Druze (an important Religious-Ethinic minority in Israel) and a number of branches of Christianity. As part of that there's an officially recognized Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which has two Chief Rabbis, one Ashkenazi one Sephardi. Together they can make rulings on "who is a Jew" which determines if a group might immigrant to Israel, they also oversee who is licensed as a Rabbi and oversee the Jewish Courts that rule on divorce and the like. As a religious body that is supported by the state and has real powers in it, its very controversial both in Israel itself and among American Jews who tend to be much more liberal religiously than Israeli Jews who are religious. There's not much space for liberal religion in Israel its very Secular=liberal religious=conservative

Also while Israelis can't get civilly marriage in Israel (so no interfaith or gay marriages) the state is required to recognize any marriage carried out overseas so for generations secular Israelis and interfaith couples have taken vacations to nearby Cyprus to get married and in the 21st century Zoom weddings were recognized leading to a boom of gay marriages by Zoom officiated from Utah of all places

#Israel #long #Judaism #religion