#weaponized antisemitism

[odinsblog]

“I had a Zionist grandmother who grew up, she grew up in Poland, she was supposed to go to Israel to study. Her father had paid for her for the first year of tuition. And then in 1939, when she was in her last year of high school, Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland.

She ended up for a couple of years in the Soviet-occupied part of Poland, which was how she ended up in Moscow. And by the time Germany occupied all of Poland. So then she spent the rest of her life living in Moscow.

And 45 years after the end of the war, dreaming of being able to go to Israel, but not being able to because she was now stuck in the Soviet Union. And so I think I was very infected by, infected in a non-derogatory sense, by my grandmother's dream of Israel. And I had my own dream of Israel growing up as a, as a Jewish kid who was bullied and beaten up and teased.

I just wanted to live in a country that, that was majority Jewish. I could not understand why my parents would want to go to the United States and live in another country where Jews are in the minority. My parents on the other hand just didn't want to be Jewish.

Like their only experience of being Jewish was being systematically discriminated against. They were both born during the Second World War, so they were second generation, utterly non-religious and separated from any Jewish tradition, except the tradition of being a targeted minority. So they just, they just wanted to go somewhere where they wouldn't be Jewish.

And so when I was 15, a year after we moved to the United States, I actually went to Israel planning to stay there and didn't. For a variety of reasons, but one of them was being confronted with, with what I found at the age of 15, a shockingly racist society.

So the first time I went to Israel was when I was 15, it was 1982. And then there was like an 18, 17 or 18 year gap.

And I started traveling to Israel regularly from 1999, 2000. And the first time I went back was to actually complete the research on the book about my grandmother's. So it's been a good 25 years that I've been coming back.

And I think Israel has undergone a lot of changes in that time. But no, I don't think that like the kind of Ashkenazi Sephardic racism that shocked me in 1982 has found subtler expressions. But politics of settlement have only been exacerbated.

And I still find them extremely painful to observe, especially because some of my beloved relatives are settlers.

I did visit them this last time I was in Israel, because I really wanted to see what it looked like for them.

I was compelled to go visit them because of a Facebook post that my cousin made. And just to give you an idea, I really hold these people very, very dear. But for years, I would go to Israel, Palestine and not tell them that I was there, because I kind of couldn't face them.

So it's been a number of years since I last saw them, a number of years since I went to that settlement. But my cousin had posted something on Facebook. It was a picture of her son playing the violin.

And she wrote, in one of the houses where they stayed in Gaza, there was a violin. He played for his soldiers and then put the violin back. And I found that post-heart-rending and eye-opening, the picture of him playing the violin was not from Gaza.

It was from earlier, but he had apparently told her about playing the violin in Gaza. And obviously she was worried about her son serving in Gaza and so she's posting about it. And she wants to assert that he is a good boy.

But also, entirely missing from that post and from her world view is that somebody lived in that house in Gaza. That violin belonged to somebody. Like, it was such an extraordinary example of the blindness that we were talking about a little bit earlier that I wanted to go visit them and kind of engage with that blindness more.

And I got a really good dose of blindness to the point where, and we had this incredible moment when we went walking around the settlement after Shabbat lunch. And we sort of got to this hilltop where there's a swing and there's a little free library.

And we're looking out on a Palestinian village. And I said, what are we looking at, to my cousin? And she was trying to get her bearings.

And she said, where are we looking? And she named another settlement, which was kind of, which was not on our line of sight. It was like this literal example of looking at an actual Palestinian village that she drives past every day.

And before the village was sealed off after October 7th, she used to get gas there. And she knows it exists. But somehow she, also it also doesn't enter her geography.

It is nameless.”

—Masha Gessen, the descendant of Holocaust survivors, discusses the dehumanization of Palestinians (part 2 of 3)

[sissa-arrows]

A Zionist organization is asking for the censorship of Elise Lucet, a French journalist, for antisemitism. She could get a huge fine and her “show” could be canceled. You know what she did? She made a “investigation” about what’s happening in Gaza with the help of UNICEF and the help of journalists in Gaza.

The investigation aired two days ago and shows all the horrors happening in Gaza at the hands of Israel. Which apparently should be censored cause it’s antisemitic.

The worst part is that they kinda try to both side the responsibilities insisting on October 7th and pretending that it’s only a minority of Israeli who agree with the genocide and who block humanitarian aid. They also never say who is killing and wounding and traumatizing these children they show.

So it’s not even that good but they are still getting called antisemitic. You know why? It because while the words of the French journalist seems to both side a bit the horrors happening the images are very telling and anyone with a heart will understand that it’s not “both sides”. The contrast between the words trying to both side the situation and the images is actually so obvious that part of me suspect they did it specifically to avoid censorship.

Anyway here is a link in French to one of the videos and you can watch it fully too (~20 minutes) in French on the link they shared.

[rhaenyratheecruel]

Already seeing posts on here about how if Jesus were alive today he’d be a Palestinian man being massacred by Israel (*cough* Jewish people), and given the historical spikes in antisemitic incidents during Easter time, I feel it necessary to point out that when you say those things not only are you erasing Jesus’s Jewishness, you are buying into and spreading the conspiracy theory of Jewish deicide which has gotten Jews murdered for centuries. What Israel is doing is reprehensible and must be condemned, but spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories is not the way to do that. Please think and educate yourself before you speak. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_deicide

[notaplaceofhonour]

I don’t know who needs to hear this but famed civil rights leaders Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were not talking about pogroms or shooting up music festivals and daycares when they said “a riot is the language of the unheard” and resistance “by any means necessary” respectively.

[starwikia]

suicide cw

look i have been in this area before mentally. it sucks and i wouldn’t wish this on anyone. but, and this is going to sound callous, but i don’t feel any sympathy for james somerton. even if i hope he’s like. not dead. But thats all the amount of goodwill im willing to give him. The more i think about this really, the more angry i am. 

ngl this entire situation is another example of how white people weaponize their mental illness to avoid consequences. Im seeing it in real time.

this man has a continuous habit of using self-harm as a get-out-of-jail-for-free card. in both of his apologies, he has worded his supposed attempts in ways that were clearly meant to guilt people who displayed his plagiarism and overall horrendous history of racism and misogyny. i say supposed because, while i’m not saying those are lies and this would he such a fucked up thing to lie about that i don’t want to think he has, unfortunately, it’s been proven again and again that his word can’t be trusted, as he’s known to lie to try get out of consequences. Hes a proven liar. him lying about this is actually the best case scenario, because no one should go through this entire situation, wouldnt wish this on anyone, but you can only do this so often before people stop sympathizing with you. is this callous? Yeah, but like. I’m actually fucking angry he cant straight up take no as an answer. that this is how he reacts realizing he cant be one of the Cool Kidz™️ on youtube anymore. he acts like he DESERVES a career, like its not a privilege hes lost due to his own actions.

He lied about apologizing and forgiving people, he lied about giving the money to hbomberguy to give to ppl he ripped off (yknow, instead of doing it himself), he lied about the jessie gender situation and rewrote the narrative to make it so he isnt the bad guy, and hes the victim all along actually!

you can’t tell me that supposed last message of his isn’t meant to be a 13 reasons why esq attempt to deflect the blame “look i’m going to kill myself and it’s all YOUR PEOPLES FAULT for not letting me achieve my DREAM of being filmmaker IN PEACE!!! I just wanted Nick’s (the guy who I have thrown under the bus again and again) portfolio up!! Im just being a good friend dont you all FEEL BAD” he refuses to take ANY ACCOUNTABILITY of any of his actions and he IS STILL trying to shove the blame over to other people again.

it’s also pretty ironic people are like “uhhh well hbomber’s fans harassed him!!!” like hbomber outright told people NOT to HARASS JAMES!!! ALSO acting as if james doesn’t have a very real documented history of STRAIGHT UP sending his fans to harass and threaten smaller creators, more notably women, trans, and bipoc creators. especially after he’s stolen typically very personal anecdotes so he could profit from them. so why can he do it but the second people are like “hey this guys an actual piece of shit.” and he can’t handle it suddenly people are trying to white knight his shit? like no he doesn’t get that. he doesn’t get that at all just because he couldn’t handle the consequences of his actions. 

what? were supposed to stay quiet about a man profiting off of other minorities because he wanted to be the spokesman for all gay people? people tried to solve this on a smaller, more private scales for YEARS and he kept doing it. it was clear that the giant public video was the ONLY way to get people to notice. HE WOULDVE GOTTEN AWAY WITH STEALING 87 FUCKING THOUSANDS WORTH OF DOLLARS. HE CANT HANDLE THE FACT HE CANT GET AWAY WITH IT. 

am i supposed to feel bad for the guy who basically threatened a trans woman with the police? i don’t care what anyone says, it’s so fucking obvious that he threatened jessie by implying he was getting the police involved in their conflict. what am i supposed to act like that didn’t happen? are we supposed to pretend like he didn’t glorify nazi’s and outright said that gay people made up a good chunk of the nazis? That he didnt say america joined ww2 bc they were jealous of the NAZIS. WHAT WOULD POSSESS YOU TO FUCKING SAY THAT. but then? He gives women (not even women most of the time, he misgenders nonbinary ppl constantly) shit for writing mlm. are we supposed to act like he doesn’t straight-up sees himself superior and better than people of color and steals their works to put himself on a pedestal? Are we supposed to act like he didnt spit on our elders by saying “only the boring gays survived aids” like man! Fuck you! He BLANTANTLY MAKES UP HISTORY TO PUT HIMSELF ON A PEDESTAL!! HE ACTIVELY TRIED TO REWRITE LGBT HISTORY TO SUIT HIS FUCKED UP NARRATIVES!

yes this sucks ! no one deserves this but no one should be making him a martyr. Thats what he fucking WANTS! He wants to be immortalized as a victim!! (again, supposedly, it was reported hes alive but its not confirmed).

The shit he got isnt near the amount of fucking callous behavior hes done again and again. Again, to drill this point, EVEN IF HE DIDNT CALL THE POLICE HE THREATENED A TRANS WOMAN INTO THINKING HE DID!!! The fact he tried to use a head injury to justify years of the outright ghoulish shit fucking astounds me. Why the fuck did anyone in his life thought it was a good idea to let him TRY to come back. in the end, he had options. he didn’t need to try to make a comeback. HE DIDNT NEED TO FUCKING LIE OR IGNORE THE SHIT HE WAS CALLED OUT ON the reality is, he wanted to come back thinking he could shove it under the rug, was told that no dude, you’re not allowed to be a youtuber anymore. you’re done. you need to move on and went full nuclear. it’s not on anyone’s hands but his own. HES BEEN DOING THIS TO HIMSELF!! But nah man we cant call his shit out bc hell may or may not kill himself. Fuck the other minorities who have the same issues but worse and sometimes BECAUSE of him. This is going to SUCKKKK so bad when other ppl, specifically white gays, are going to weaponize this shit to get away with their stuff.

[abla-soso]

[koshercosplay]

Saw that you answered questions so here goes. If this is outside the scope of this blog no worries ❤️.

This is a bit of a long question bear with me please. So I want to preface this by saying that I am not Jewish and this is more of a "is this anti-Semitic" sort of question. I am a young American woman who is considering buying a gun for self defense. I would need something small, easily concealable, and with reasonably light recoil, but I really don't think .22 is what I need, so I've decided on .380. Based on these needs and what I've shot the Walther PPK deeply appeals to me. Unfortunately, it has been the German police service pistol since 1931. I would be buying a new production, not a wartime pistol, but I want to know if you think it would be anti-Semitic?

off anon so i know when(if?) this gets answered

honestly I think it's a bit of a stretch?

like I know some Jews would probably not buy it, and it's sweet that you, as a non-jew, are concerned about this enough to ask. but also it's not something that would immediately strike me as "oh this person is antisemitic." it's also probably not something that the average person knows offhand? or maybe that's just me, I don't really know much about guns at all lol.

that being said though, if even the thought of potentially coming across that way makes you uncomfortable, you could always try to find a different one of similar make.

thank you for asking!

[news4dzhozhar]

[juanabaloo]

Omer Bartov, Israeli American scholar and a professor on genocide studies, speaks with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now about campus protests and antisemitism.

"And then we visited the encampment [at UPenn]. We talked [with student protestors] about antisemitism and about its current use. There was absolutely no sound of any — no sign of any violence, of any antisemitism at all.

... antisemitism... is a vile sentiment... And no one should condone it, and obviously none of us would ever condone it. But it has also become a tool to silence speech about Israel.

... there’s nothing threatening about opposing occupation and oppression [in Palestine]. That is not antisemitism... Even being anti-Zionist is not antisemitic."

source: DemocracyNow.org

[odinsblog]

“I'm observing such a huge gap between different social groups that I didn't even realize were different. I, you know, most of my friends are in the media. A lot of my journalist friends are just much better informed.

A lot of them have had experience reporting in Israel, Palestine, and are quite critical of both Israel and the antisemitism narrative. Then, like, my wife is a lawyer, and her circle is a little bit different, right? It's not dominated by media people, like people in the law or in other professions seem to be broadly much more kind of taken by the sense of profound insecurity and shift in the American Jewish experience.

I think we sort of see different things, for example, when we watch the hearings in Congress on antisemitism on campus.

The university presidents, of which there have now been two hearings, one with three presidents, one with the president of Colombia, and there will be many, many more. And what I see is a right-wing campaign against higher education that is weaponizing antisemitism as an idea, right? Not antisemitism as a practice.

And what they see is, with the possible exception of the president of Colombia, is people who represent institutions or lead institutions that they feel an affinity with, often institutions that they graduated from, who are not standing up for them. Which I find that viewing of those hearings somewhat shocking because people seem to be turning off their critical faculties. But people, intelligent, educated, politically astute people don't turn off their critical faculties unless they're scared.

So I think the underlying fear is real. But just because it's real, it doesn't mean it's justified.

I think a factual account of what we're seeing on campuses now is that this generation of Americans is far more critical of Israel than their parents' generation. And this is true of both Jews and non-Jews. I think that they look at information available to them and they see a 57-year brutal illegal occupation.

And they don't understand how it's possible that their parents and the politicians that their parents support and the politicians who come and give commencement addresses and all that other stuff that I can say about politicians, how it is possible that these people support that state? I think that is an entirely understandable view. It also reflects a huge generation gap.

I think some of those young people are assholes, and some of them are antisemites. I think it's a small minority of the protesters, and it is not actually part of the critique. The protesters' demands, the protesters' organizing beliefs are not in any way or shape antisemitic.

And then there are Jewish students who were brought up Zionist, who were brought up to identify strongly with the state of Israel, who are, I think, a little bit like my cousin in the settlements again. They see these protests, and even probably the participation of their fellow Jewish students in these protests, as threatening their core identity, as threatening their ties to their families, as threatening everything that they were taught for the first 18 years of their lives is true. And of course they feel rattled, of course they feel unsettled, of course they feel threatened.

Like, wouldn't you, if you felt that everything you had believed in was being turned on its head, and if you, by apparently reasonable people? And so you have a couple of options. One is to look at what the protestors are saying, to engage with the facts, to engage with the critique of everything you've ever believed.

There was a terrific, George Curran's podcast a couple of weeks ago with three Columbia students, one of whom sort of narrated that kind of trajectory, getting to university and finding this stuff out and having their mind blown. That's a very difficult path, and it's a very difficult path, especially if you are, say, a first year student in 23, 24.

And then there's the easier path of staying integrated in your community, in your beliefs, and saying this is antisemitic.

Because unfortunately the things that the protestors are talking about are so horrible that you can't say, okay, let's agree to disagree, that you can't hold both of these things in your mind at the same time.

You can't continue to hold your family's uncritical, long-standing support of Israel, and an understanding of what is happening in Gaza and the occupation that has preceded the war in Gaza.

So yeah, of course they feel rattled. That doesn't mean that they're being surrounded by antisemitism.”

—Masha Gessen, the descendant of Holocaust survivors, discusses campus protests (part 3 of 3)

[gay-jewish-bucky]

As an ex-fan I saw a really good take that I want to expand on that I think also applies to a lot of people who like (or defend, despite not liking) Peggy Carter, her (often impulsive and violent) abusive behaviour, and especially her Nazi ties; which go beyond being based off a Nazi (which should be more than enough on its own), and reaches into actively welcoming Nazis into the organization she created to "honor" a man who not only died trying to fight them, but was created to fight American complacency, and giving them the resources and access to infiltrate every single level of SHIELD.

Allowing themselves to understand and accept criticism against her, instead of brushing it off or twisting it, requires they sit with their own culpability, their own guilt in ignoring it and defending her for so long. For a lot of them, the ones that are generally pretty understanding people, they aren't really defending her, they're defending themselves for liking her.

They'd rather preform apologetics (including Nazi apologetics), embrace rad/fem ideology, intentionally misrepresent people and arguments against her, and silence or ignore the voices of groups negatively impacted by her deification (especially SA survivors, Jews, and fans of colour) so they can maintain a feeling of righteousness and innocence, rather than admit that they've made a mistake. To admit that is to admit their own biases and moral vulnerability. To admit they've perpetuated harm against groups they claim to ally with.

Admitting she's not an innocent angel/feminist icon who is the poor defenseless victim of hypocritical womanhaters, requires a level of maturity to be able to confront and admit one's own guilt, to acknowledge where one's privileges warp one's perspective, to hold oneself accountable, to learn and grow and be better, are skills they do not possess.

[andi-o-geyser]

To answer your question, it's trending because of a new leonard bernstein movie- and how the actor playing him (not Jewish) wears a prosthetic nose 😐

oy vey

[flowers-and-pollen]

I'm scared

There was a rocket that exploded above Dalyat El Carmel

They never got this close to here

It's not even a jewish village, it's mostly druze people there

It's getting closer every time

And i'm scared

It's 15 minutes from here

I heard the boom from where i live

The house shook

Israelis don't deserve to die.

Palestenians don't deserve to die.

No one does.

I just want everything to go back to normal

Please

[cree-future-rabbi]

My ancestors: "hey man you look cold and lost, you need some help"

Colonists: "yeah I'd love the warmth and help, maybe food?"

Ancestors: "okay I got you"

Colonizers: "hey since you taught us how to thrive also on your land, take some of these blankets in appreciation"

My ancestors weeks later: *silence*

There you go Columbia students, that what your school is named after and supports...

🙄

[hussyknee]

the reason that the US treats the holocaust the way it does is so it can congratulate itself on "saving" jews from it and ending the holocaust. never mind that a huge reason so many jews died is bc the US basically wouldn't let us in after 2023 and we weren't able to escape Europe (many, many tried). Anyway the response to this isn't "stop thinking the holocaust is important" or "antisemitism isn't pervasive/non-Jews don't harbor subconscious antisemitism." Honestly your post is pretty gross and I've unfollowed. Sorry my intergenerational trauma no longer serves whatever political affiliation you have, and so now you have to minimize it as a reaction. Maybe Jews shouldn't be rhetorical tools at all. The Holocaust was a massive disaster to Jewish culture and soul and identity that will take centuries to heal from, and we never fully will. And none of that is what the US cares about. Be careful when you critique philosemitism you don't just veer into antisemitism instead. Because that's all philosemitism ever really was.

...why are you repeating everything I said back to me?

Me: ''The US governments

used philosemitism to weaponize the Holocaust by pushing a revionist narrative about their role in it

and making themselves look like the champion of Jews

to push their own military propaganda and deflect from their own ongoing war crimes and genocides

and turned antisemitism into a cudgel to attack anyone criticising Israel or the political establishment

(mostly BIPOC‚ so it looked like racism and anti-blackness mattered less)

all the while ignoring actual antisemitism or protecting their own Jewish citizens in any material way

as though the state had no role in empowering white Christian nationalism

because it served their purpose for Jews to migrate to Israel."

Some weirdo who can't read: ''you think antisemitism doesn't exist and the Holocaust doesn't matter??? Antisemite??"

I have better things to do than endlessly refute shit I never said nor implied and deal with your piss on the poor reading comprehension. This commitment to misunderstanding everything a PoC says and whitesplaining stuff we already said comes from your own racist suspicion and condescension. Dont let the door hit you on your way out.

[nonokoko13]

Friendly reminder that being queer/LGBT ally/jewish/pro-semitism isn't, can't and shouldn't be used to justify and support ethnic cleansing, colonization and genocide. If you do think so then I don't want you to talk to me ever again 👉🚪