#jews are your allies in this fight

[bertmobile]

saw this tag on a (perfectly reasonable and good) post advocating for palestinian liberation and i don't know how to feel. it could just be an emote expressing disdain for the israeli government and its actions, but the fact that the person who typed it chose to put a large pointed nose on it positively REEKS of antisemitic stereotypes. help me out here please

#antisemitism #this isn't to overshadow palestinian activism. but in my experience #pro-palestine spaces tend to at the very least be ignorant of issues surrounding antisemitism #and i'd like to do what i can to fix that #it's the right thing to do and i think will make the activism more effective in the long run #jews are your allies in this fight #please don't alienate us by spreading millenia-old bigotries

[arofili]

uh...........I've been Out Of The Game on tumblr for a bit and this definitely not a political blog but um. maybe don't glorify the fucking houthis on my dash ok???

#'yemen did nothing wrong uwu' the houthis have literally violently taken over much of yemen. reinstituted SLAVERY. #and exiled killed or imprisoned every. single. jew in yemen. #as well as being the main reason their people are suffering through this horrible famine. #they are not your allies they are not fighting for justice; they are just seizing onto the moment to ramp up their antisemitism. #pls dont reblog this post but my god. do some research before endorsing fascist regimes??? #tmi anna

[unbidden-yidden]

In general, I think it's currently really important for progressive Christians to be very loud about being both progressive and deeply religious Christians, and for everyone else fighting for progressive values to be supportive of them doing just that. I know that's like, idk, counter-intuitive or cringe or whatever, but seriously folks, the alternative is that progressive Christians have to be quiet about their faith to be accepted within broader secular and interfaith progressive advocacy, which means that the regressive asshole Christians (a) sound that much louder and (b) dominate the USian religious landscape all the more. That's a problem, for all of us.

We need people pushing back within the faith as well as outside of it, because that destroys any edifice that this is about Christianity and religious freedom.

You can be a devout Christian and also:

Openly, proudly, and without being forced to remain celibate or otherwise limit your full expression of self, identify as LGBTQ+ or be a supportive ally.

Advocate for full reproductive autonomy and comprehensive sex education.

Love and support people of other religious groups, non-religious people and/or atheists, by choosing to believe that a truly loving God would not pursue anything less than universal salvation.

Stand against evangelism and proselytizing as they have thus far been interpreted and used, because there are ways to interpret the Great Commission that don't promote colonialism and cultural genocide.

A steward of the earth, protecting God's beautiful creation and lovingly tending to it as the unique and incredible gift that it is.

A believer in science, rationalism, and human progress as part of God's divine plan for humanity.

A believer in history and someone who understands that the Bible can be both divinely given and open to interpretation (no really)(if you're confused, please talk to a knowledgeable traditional Jew)

An ally to Jews, who stands against supercessionism and antisemitism in the church.

And in before regressive Christians come shouting at me that (1) what do I know, I'm a Jew and (2) no lol you can't because of ___ reason:

My source is that I've personally met and talked to Christians of great faith and integrity - people who embody the closest forms of kindness I've seen to what Jesus himself advocated - who are each of these things.

It is 100% possible; you just choose to believe otherwise.

#every hour is theology hour around here apparently

[magnetothemagnificent]

Gentiles,

If you think there's no antisemitism at all in your community, you're wrong.

If you think there's no antisemitism at all in your place of worship, you're wrong.

If you think there's no antisemitism at all in your school, you're wrong.

If you think there's no antisemitism at all in your workplace, you're wrong.

If you think there's no antisemitism at all in your family, you're wrong.

You don't notice it because you don't know enough about or don't care enough about antisemitism to notice.

Antisemitism usually isn't as obvious as someone blatantly saying "I hate Jews".

Learn how to identify it. Fight it. Or don't call yourself an ally.

#jumblr #antisemitism

[determinate-negation]

genuine question: why do you say that zionists engage in holocaust revisionism and denial? I've seen a few posts of yours talking about this but I don't think I fully understand what you mean. Thanks in advance

so much of the history american politicians are obliquely referencing when they compare palestinians to nazis is COMPLETELY incorrect and they are obscuring americas enthusiastic support for the nazis and apathy towards the jews, both before they entered the war, during, and after the war. before 1941 there was a lot of support from american politicians for nazis. they were reported on very favorably for years, major american industrialists and businessmen worked with nazis, people were unsure what side of the war the us would join on, the american public in fact generally blamed jews for antisemitic persecution and didnt want to allow in jewish refugees. there were pro nazi rallies in madison square garden with thousands of people. henry ford got a medal from hitler. during the war americans didnt believe a genocide was taking place, 'reputable news sources' questioned jewish eyewitnesses and death tolls. during the war american companies made millions off of the holocaust. after the war the us government protected high ranking nazi officials and put them in the american government. american politicians historically love nazis, they protected nazi war criminals, and they fund european neo nazis today. jewish holocaust surivors lived in displaced persons camps for years mistreated by american troops after the war. the holocaust was not even in public consciousness until decades afterwards, this entire culture of responsibility or whatever is completely superimposed retrospectively. every time that they try to invoke some memory of the holocaust to justify what they are doing in gaza its a shameful and cynical lie because america never cared, they love nazis and they have always allowed genocide to happen. ken burns did a documentary on this called the us and the holocaust thats really good

also the book Hitlers American Friends and this book

and zionists continue to make the insane claim that hitler didnt want to kill all the jews until palestinians convinced him even though this is just softcore holocaust denial about germanys central role in it. also this is not my main point, but the allied bombing of german civilians in dresden was in fact a controversial action, so the way that senate guy is talking about it is historically crazy. and bombing an industrialized fascist nation with a modern army like nazi germany is not remotely comparable to bombing a literal ghetto like gaza which can only fight using asymmetrical guerrilla warfare

#posting this publicly just bc it has info #ww2 #shoah #history

[zorciarkrildrush]

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

[eretzyisrael]

by Jake Wallis Simons

Therefore, the number of women and children killed was likely grossly exaggerated. If that is the case – if, as Prof Wyner suggests, “the casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters” – where does that leave western outrage? Has the West fallen victim to a monstrous con?

The true ratio of civilian casualties to combatants is likely to be exceptionally low, “at most 1.4 to 1 and perhaps as low as 1 to 1”. This, Prof Wyner says, is a “successful effort to prevent unnecessary loss of life while fighting an implacable enemy that protects itself with civilians”.

By rights, if the central pillar of the anti-Israel edifice has been discredited, the whole structure should come tumbling down. But don’t hold your breath. The reason why Hamas’s dodgy data is so easily believed is confirmation bias. The drip-drip of Israelophobic propaganda over the years has created a powerful tendency to view the Jewish state, Britain’s democratic ally, as a colonialist aggressor and the Palestinians – even as they butcher children – as the “freedom fighters”. Regardless of the evidence, to many people this has become second nature.

It speaks of millennia of inherited anti-Semitism. A 2012 study by economists Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth found that Germans from towns where Jews were blamed for the Black Death and burnt alive in the 14th century were significantly more likely to vote for the Nazis 600 years later. In his 1945 essay, Orwell recalls a “young intellectual, communist or near-communist” remarking: “No, I do not like Jews. I’ve never made any secret of that. I can’t stick them. Mind you, I’m not anti-Semitic, of course.” Depressingly little has changed.

That is the advantage enjoyed by the jihadis of Gaza. They didn’t even need to keep their strategy a secret. Everyone knows they try to get civilians killed for propaganda gains, aiming to curtail Israeli operations with international outrage. Everyone knows that their censors keep dead terrorists away from the cameras, giving the world the impression that Israel is only attacking civilians (look up former AP reporter Matti Friedman’s seminal 2014 essay, “What the media gets wrong about Israel”, for a sense of how long such games have been played). A gang that murdered and mutilated babies may also, on occasion, be tempted to lie. So much should be obvious. But all this is smoothly eclipsed when a greater narrative is at work.

#hamas #hamas death figures #statistics #gaza #anti-semitism #inherited anti-semitism #jihadis

[ed-wwarren]

Warsaw, Poland.

That’s where the good old U.S. Army was sending Captain Edward Warren. The war was turning south for the allies so it was all hands on deck in Europe. He was more than happy to leave and do his duty. He had nothing keeping him in America anyway. His mother died, his father was God knows where probably drunk or dead. He didn’t have any brothers or sisters and he didn’t have children. He just had a wife.

Ed had been nervous to tell his wife, Natalie, that they had to pick up and move but she seemed almost…excited at the thought. He found that odd but he didn’t argue because she was taking it well and they weren’t fighting over it like they had been fighting over everything in their marriage over the past year. They had been married for twelve years and he didn’t know at what point they had stopped loving each other, at what point they had turned from husband and wife to roommates, but he was always waking on eggshells around her and almost wanted to leave her in America but he couldn’t just do that to her. She was still his wife and he had a responsibility to her. He didn’t know when this war would be over or when he would get sent back to the states so she was coming with him.

Once they had settled into their home in Warsaw, they were given a tour by a few of the enlisted soldiers. As they drove through the streets, Ed felt his heart breaking. He saw so many shops and businesses closed, hateful things spray painted on the broken windows. He was happy to see there were nice parts of the city as well but he hated to see German soldiers sitting at the cafes. He just knew they were taking advantage of the poor people of Warsaw. They probably never paid for their food or things they needed and they probably took advantage of the women. He hated to think what they were grooming the kids to believe. He had seen glimpses of the propaganda the Nazi’s were playing about Jews being dirty and evil and filled with hatred, wanting the world to burn, and could hope and pray that no one really believed it.

“Oh, Ed, look!” Natalie had said, gently squeezing his arm to get him to look out of the same window she was. “Look at that cute little shop! I want to go in and buy some dresses! Pull over!” She demanded the soldier driving the car.

All of the men looked at Ed, unsure of what to do. This was an alright part of town but there were still Germans around every corner. Ed saw the excitement in his wife’s eyes for the first time in a long time and slowly sighed, nodding his head to the soldiers. “It’s alright. Pull over please.”

Once the car was stopped and her door was opened for her, Natalie hopped out of the car and walked to the shop like she wasn’t in a war torn country. Ed got out of the car and looked around before he noticed his wife was almost out of sight. “Natalie, wait,” He called, hurrying after her.

“Oh, Ed what are you worried for?” She asked with a chuckle, twirling in the street to look at him. “We are surrounded by your soldiers. We’re fine. I want to shop!” She pouted.

Ed pinched the bridge of his nose and gave her a look. “Have you not noticed all of the Germans that are also all around? Because there are a lot of them. There is a war going on here. Please remember that.”

Natalie rolled her eyes and sighed. “How about you go over to that little cafe across the street and I’ll shop. You need to have a drink and relax. You’ve been so tense since you got ordered to come here. Anyway, I won’t be too long,” She said before she kissed Ed’s cheek and walked into the shop without a second glance behind her.

Ed opened his mouth to argue with her but by the time the words were on his tongue, she was through the doors. He closed his eyes for a moment before he sighed. He looked at one of his men who was staring at him in worry. “Stay in front of this door. Don’t let her go anywhere else, okay? I don’t know why she thinks this city is so safe.”

The man looked nervous at having to possibly tell the Captain’s wife she wasn’t allowed to go anywhere but nodded his head anyway and stood in front of the shop door.

“I think I am going to go across the street for a drink. She stresses me out,” Ed said with a small and very tired smile. He had been so stressed out lately with this move and his marital problems that he needed to take a moment to stop spinning.

Ed walked over to the cafe across the street but unlike his wife, he walked slowly and cautiously, looking around. When he walked past a table full of Germans, he noticed the way they eyed up his uniform and started to talk in German.

That was good.

Ed sighed again and walked into the cafe, sitting at the counter. He felt…uneasy even with his men around him. They were outnumbered here no matter where they went. This was Europe not America and he couldn’t let his guard down no matter what.

Maybe he should just drink a tea….

@giftedclairvoyance

[tilting-at-windmills]

We too mourn Palestine

Do not pretend to be immune to the occasional blunder when anti-Semitism is so ingrained in every western culture that you must consciously acknowledge and fight simply to remember that we are just people, good and bad and beautiful and riddled with mistakes like everyone else.

Do not pretend it was us who as conquerors claimed the land, when it was those who had failed to protect us, who felt just enough guilt at six million dead to offer land in the midst of those who hated us— but not enough to let us in. Who had already planned the division.

(Do not pretend they actually care for us.)

Do not pretend the colonizers of the past were not the ones who calculated the creation of an ally in a fraught zone and do not imagine that there was anywhere else for us to go. They did not care more for us; they simply knew they could make us dependent on them for our survival.

But Netanyahu—! you say.

Do not pretend government means people, and that resistance doesn’t exist, hasn’t existed, wasn’t started long before this new horror began.

Do not pretend that Zionist means Jewish, when there are more Baptists and Evangelicals who would like us all to leave for the Holy Land and be killed fighting their wars than there are Jews who wish the same.

And do not pretend that it is unimportant to say this loudly, clearly, and repeatedly.

(No, you say, you are not different enough to experience discrimination. Then: You must prove you are one of the good ones; you must prove that you are not like them.)

Because each time you say anti-Semitism doesn’t matter, that it is us being anti-Semitic for worrying that hatred of Israel is hatred of our people, that we conflate the two and prove your very point even as we beg you understand the vast, wide, ever-growing distinctions between the two—

You are reminding us that we are the group that will never be right for this world. It is always okay if we die, and die we do when no one will speak for us, when no one will correct the ignorance that has spread insidiously through the right and left alike, and will continue, continue, continue until you listen to us and afford us the same chance to be innocent that the west gives to its cause of the day.

(No, you say, you have too much power to be hurt. But when we remind you we are .2% of the population, there are those who smile because there are so few of us, and we won’t be that hard to fight when they are ready.)

You are right when you say a Palestinian should not have to denounce Hamas to prove their righteousness, yet in the same breath you demand the Jew excoriate Israel, and that they offer up this damnation axiomatically to prove their worth in these complicated times. (When are they not?) After all, are not the Palestinians suffering? Should you not prove your allegiance to the human race because, after all, you are a Jew?

Why, we ask yet again, can we not mourn for Palestine, and still care others as well? Do we need to die in millions for you to notice the growing violence and hate?

It is not about, at this moment in the conversation, what Israel has done, because that is the very point, is it not? Why can we not be granted the common courtesy of believing we are against violence to civilians until proven otherwise?

Don’t you see? It is about the fact that Jews must always prove we are Jewish second, and human first, and that we must remind you every time to earn the indulgence of respect?

Because god forbid you don’t first and foremost question the allegiance of, attack the words not yet spoken by, and demand an answer from the Jew.

#fuck it #here's the whole poem #poetry on antisemitism #mine #writing #spilled ink #free palestine #jewish safety

[edenfenixblogs]

"Night" is Free if You're an Audible Subscriber

A lot of people's only experience with learning about the Holocaust is Anne Frank's Diary or works of fiction.

Anyone speaking about i/p right now NEEDS to read this first person account of life in a concentration camp.

There is a right way and a wrong way to read this book.

The right way: Sit with the uncomfortable feeling that non-Jewish people did this to Jews. Not just Germans and not just Nazis. The European leaders who aligned with Hitler and fought with him did this. The Russians who distributed and popularized the antisemitic conspiracy theories which informed much of Europe's Jew hatred at the time did this. The neighbors who sat back and watched as government officials carted off people they knew and saw every day or shot them in the streets and buried them in mass graves. The ones who convinced themselves they were good people simply because they didn't pull the trigger or operate a gas chamber. The citizens of nations of the Allied powers who turned away Jewish refugees from Europe. The Nazi sympathizers in the US. The vast ,expansive hatred against Jews that prevented anyone from intervening on our behalf.

Sit with the fact that nobody intervened to protect Jews, ever. The Allied powers intervened to stop German expansionism, not to protect Jews. They did not fight in WWII to protect Jews. That any Jews survived at all is a miracle. The fact that the camps were liberated at all is a miracle. Because it wasn't a goal. It wasn't something that people were fighting to achieve. That's what people don't seem to understand.

Killing Jews WASN'T the thing that the Allied powers had a problem with.

Plenty of Americans and Europeans from Allied nations thought it sure was a shame that Hitler was so aggressively expansionist, because he had some great ideas about how to kill all those Jews.

And unless you're Jewish, there is the extremely uncomfortable but likely chance that someone you loved was pretty OK with killing my family.

Or, at the very least, that someone killing my family was not something they had the emotional capacity or willingness to engage with. Think about what that does to my trust for YOU. And if you don't think that someone you loved passed on that apathy and antisemitism to you, then you're naive.

The only correct way for a non-Jew to read this book is to sit with who they are as people and think about how they treat Jews and try to empathize with how this indescribable tragedy affected and continues to affect Jews worldwide.

If you have never read this book, I want you to think long and hard about how absolutely terrifying it is for Jewish people that, I, a Jewish woman, have to BEG non-Jews to read it. Because your education system failed you. And because Jews are afraid that YOUR BEHAVIOR WILL DO THIS TO US AGAIN.

The wrong way: Making this true memoir about living through an industrialized genocide about ANYTHING other than antisemitism and antisemitic apathy. You don't get to use it to draw parallels to other atrocities or wars or people. At least not during/while processing your first reading of this book. Why? Because until you sit with your own internalized antisemitism, where and who it came from, and are willing to confront your own hate toward us, then you are missing the point. The point is that people can convince themselves they are good and that they care about their fellow humans and they can have empathy for everyone except Jews. Sure, they might think it's sad that bad things keep happening to Jews. But it never really seems to be the priority, does it? It never seems to be a pressing enough issue to be worth addressing. There's always something more important happening.

That's antisemitic thinking too. You do, actually, need to prioritize dismantling your antisemitism in order to, you know, dismantle it. Just because you don't sit around daydreaming about Hitler doesn't mean you're not antisemitism. Ignoring us is part of your antisemitism--one of the most damaging and intrinsic parts of antisemitism actually. The Holocaust did not happen because most people hated Jew enough to kill us. The Holocaust happened because a bunch of people didn't care enough Jews to stop the people who DID want to harm us.

If you can't think of the last time you tried to unlearn something antisemitic within yourself, then people like you are why the Holocaust happened. If you have had to tune out Jewish pain because it feels like a "distraction," then people like you are why the Holocaust happened. If your reaction to reading this is to feel some kind of righteous anger that I've called you a bad person because you have proof you care about other people, then you are the kind of person who allowed the Holocaust to happen. And you're also wrong.

Because I'm not calling you a bad person. I'm calling you a flawed person who has the ability to fix a flaw that has the potential to harm others. I'm not asking you to care about other, non-Jewish, people. And I'm not asking you to STOP caring about the non-Jewish people you care about.

What I am saying is that claiming that you care about Jewish people is not the same as actually caring about us.

I'm asking you to sit and read this book and to remember that it is about JEWISH PAIN and a JEWISH TRAGEDY that happened to JEWISH PEOPLE. You need to actually devote time to caring about Jewish people, because society never taught you how to do that, and it has no infrastructure built to help you do that. Because antisemitism is baked into the infrastructure itself. Take the time. Read the book. Let Jewish pain be about Jewish people. Let us own our own tragedy. Do not take it from us to apply to other situations. ESPECIALLY not when the actual original situation was something that nobody cared about enough to prevent.

Understand this: If you're not Jewish, there is no way I can explain to you how painful it is to watch people be so invested in likening every terrible thing that happens to any other group of people to the Holocaust, when those same people never actually first tried caring about the Holocaust and the people it actually happened to.

#an eden original #elie wiesel #antisemitism #holocaust inversion #leftist antisemitism #shoah tw #holocaust tw #night

[olderthannetfic]

There was a post a while ago pointing out that "Zionism" doesn't actually mean support for Netanyahu or the present-day government Israel, opposition to Palestinian rights or a Palestinian state, etc. when condemning the way it gets used on this website (I literally saw someone the other day list it in a DNI right next to "Nazis" with no sense of irony). And some people in the notes who are usually well-informed claimed this was "whitewashing" it, referring to an older term to erase how it's used now. Well, the problem is.... if you were actually as fully informed on this topic as you think you are, you'd know that this "older definition" is still how the term gets used in a lot of present-day Jewish communities, especially in the diaspora. That's one of the reasons that the term polls so well among Jewish people in the diaspora, even though a lot of them obviously don't agree with what the current government is doing in Gaza and a lot support a two-state solution - but upwards of 90% or more of Jews in the U.S. and UK for instance identify as Zionists.

And that's the point that was being made. The way that the term is used on Tumblr or even in left-wing activist and academic spaces on Tumblr is pretty different from how it's used among a lot of Jewish communities, and that disconnect in terminology use is leading to a lot of people who should otherwise be allies alienating each other. Don't be so arrogant as to assume that when it comes to a term that is most associated with a group you're not a part of, that how you're seeing it used is the only way it's being used anywhere. And don't make fights over one term obscure the end goals of uniting to support Palestinian liberation. The point was that a lot of people who aren't very informed on what the term actually means are using it as a slur word to mean "people who have the opinions on I-P I disagree with," and don't realize that they're both alienating a lot of people that definition actually does fit in while also encouraging people they probably don't actually agree with, antisemites. (There are literally posts I've seen going around on Tumblr about "Zionist-controlled Hollywood" and "Zionist-controlled media" and look, people. The famous Jewish conspiracy theory is literally called ZOG or Zionist Organized Government. If you sound indistinguishable from those people, then it's not about Palestine anymore. And if you want it to be about that and not about just pushing away Jews, then you need to better inform yourself on the history of antisemitic tropes and find different ways to phrase your argument.)

--

[decolonize-the-left]

i am so, so sick of being told by zionists/pro-israel freaks (many of them not even jewish themselves) that i'm a 'token jew' or a 'kapo' and that my non-jewish friends would kill me or turn me over to nazis given half the chance. it hurts because i'm mostly in community with black and indigenous comrades who have deep historical trauma themselves. i can't fathom using my own community's history to justify the genocide of another people. my heart is permanently broken for palestine and by the fact that so many people use my people's history and faith as a means of endorsing another shoah (which, like nakba, means catastrophe).

Go off, bestie, addressing shit like this and being on the receiving end in your Own community is the fucking worst and a special kind of hurt. And when their opinions stem from their hurt and trauma it can be a sensitive subject for everyone (to say the least).

I can empathize as a native and I do, anon ❤️ There's more than a few elders in my own tribe who use their trauma to 'protect' the younger generations from experiencing the same things they did. It seems so backwards to tell us to play by colonizer rules and it's an incredibly loaded topic to address with them...

You are strong for continuing to fight the good fight despite not having as many allies in your corner as you should. Keep fighting and that will change, tho, I promise ❤️ These effort are never wasted.

#asked #answered

[a-very-tired-jew]

Remember when I said age is a factor regarding how informed a person is? About how life experience, world experience, education, and biology all play a role in how you process information and come to conclusions? https://www.tumblr.com/a-very-tired-jew/746376840485257216/youre-not-as-informed-as-you-think-and-age-does?source=share Well I have seen some token "Good Jews" exhibiting this exact thing as of today (04/20/2024).

Fig. 1. User (Early 20s) claims Zionism is antisemitic, repeats Bund talking points, and repeats the genocide claim.

Fig. 2. Same user says they needed to deprogram from indoctrination.

Fig. 3. Same user as above claims elder Jews (read: Jews that are older than them) are indoctrinated. These are the most egregious examples that this Good Jew has with another Good Jew in this particular discord (you know which one). What we see in Figure 1 is the same Bundian philosophy that got Jews betrayed and killed in the USSR. It's the same philosophy that we have tried over and over again with the same results: Jews tortured, killed, and exiled by the larger goy communities we thought we were accepted in. I would hazard a guess that this young person is not aware of the Dreyfus Affair or other issues in "Liberal" societies that led to Zionism.

In Figure 3 this same person states that older Jews are indoctrinated and in Figure 2 states that they needed to "deprogram" from their "indoctrination". They posit that the reason young Jews are anti-Zionist is because they haven't been indoctrinated yet and/or have deprogrammed themselves from their childhood. However...this is typical teen/young adult behavior where they're "Fighting the narrative" and lashing out at the perceived "status quo of indoctrination". I've heard these words for years, hell I said them myself. But because this person is under 25, around 22/23 from my understanding, they simply don't have the experience or education to really understand what they're talking about. Yes they are Jewish. But the points I made about age in my other post still stand. The likelihood that they have the world and life experience is very slim. Add in that they use inflammatory language that is often associated with the current batch of young antisemitic activists and...well...you get the picture. But let's talk about the greater implication here. This is one glaring example in a discord. There are more throughout our own community. There are young Jews who are screaming at their elders and repeating talking points that they heard on tiktok, social media, and at protests*. The very same protests where they will hear chants of "Gas the Jews", "Hitler was right!", and so on. At what point do they realize that even if they care for innocent lives (which I have yet to see anyone besides outright racists and bigots call for actual genocide) that allying themselves with antisemites who would kill them in an instant is a bad idea? In part, I think it has to do with Westerners distrusting their Democratic governments as we have seen them repeatedly drop the ball on issues. They yearn for a revolution against the status quo because the future is bleak (and trust me, as an ecologist I understand climate anxiety and as a millennial I understand that and so much of the other shit too). But this yearning to have meaningful change in their own country has been coopted by terrorist organizations bent on killing Jews. That energy around positive activism and meaningful change has been manipulated by an organization that has been caught on tape saying they would manipulate these very people to bring about their violent intent. And here's the thing...many of us elders have gone through that very same phase of rhetoric. I remember being an edgy anti-Zionist myself when I was a teen and young adult (I was of the Bundian philosophy as well, and yes I had grown up Reconstructionist, there's a lot to unpack there for a later time). I remember thinking my elders were brainwashed and just scoffing at their retorts. I remember thinking that they had just fallen for the propaganda and needed to open their eyes. As I got older and became more educated, as well as had more world experiences and reached certain biological milestones, my views changed. Not because I became more conservative, but because I was no longer an emotional, hormonally driven young adult who thought they knew more than others. There's a saying in academia that goes something like "In undergrad you think you know everything, in masters you realize you were woefully uninformed, and in your doctorate you realize you don't know shit about anything." But if you tell them that, they just say it's Hasbara (propaganda) because those same orgs have told them it is. Only hindsight and time will let them go beyond their surface level reactionary reasoning and see the bigger picture. They think they've been deprogrammed, but in reality they've fallen for a different manipulation that will use their good intentions to do harm.

*This is reminiscent of young LGBTQ+ behavior where the young queer kids are yelling at their elders, telling them they don't understand, and the elders are warning them about something dangerous. The youngins then come back and cry "why didn't you warn us?" to which they respond "you didn't listen".

#jumblr #leftist antisemitism #activism #Token Good Jews repeating Bunds points are ignorant of history #They're not your allies or friends if they want to kill your people #Everyone has an edgy phase - even Jews

[ftafp]

Look, I know I'm going to piss people off by saying this, but it needs to be said, bolded, underlined, AND CAPITALIZED because people's lives are at stake.

To say I'm unhappy with Biden's handling of the palestinian genocide is like saying the marianas trench is a little humid this time of year. People are dying because of his actions, and I hope he burns there.

BUT

2024 is 9 days away, and right now, Donald "Grab her by the pussy" Trump is looking like a frontrunner, and if you think Biden has been bad for this country, I need you to remember just how bad life was under him

Make no mistake, Trump is no ally to palestine

Nor to american jews who he accuses of destroying america

He's already stated his plan to lock up politcal opponents and quoted ADOLPH FUCKING HITLER in response to immigrants, and promised to cut federal funding for any school or program that promotes "gender ideology or any inappropriate racial, sexual or political content onto our children"

I understand why so many liberals are turning on Biden. I understand why I'm turning on Biden. But 2024 9 days away. The election is coming. YOU DO NOT HAVE AN EXCUSE TO SIT THIS ONE OUT!

America's system is beyond fucked, but saying "the lesser of two evils is still evil" overlooks the fact that the greater of two evils will result in your own persecution and possible death.

LETTING AMERICANS DIE FOR YOUR PRINICIPLES IS NOT THE MORAL FUCKING HIGH GROUND!

VOTE!

Not for a third party who has no chance of winning and will only serve to split the party handing Trump the victory. For Biden. It may suck. You may hate it. Too bad life doesn't offer any better options.

I have loved ones–family memebers who supported me growing up even when my own father wouldn't–who will die under Trump's policies. If you don't fight in this election, and he loses, they will have died because of the choice you made thinking it was the moral one!

VOTE!

#us politics #politics #joe biden #biden administration #donald trump #2024 #2024 elections #palestine #free palestine #gaza #immigration #transrightarehumanrights #israel