perfectlyvalid49

[perfectlyvalid49]

[perfectlyvalid49]

I truly wish I didn’t post any of this stuff. I wish I only shared videos of me swimming with orcas, or riding bikes with my friends.

But I’m distraught—not only by what’s happening in the war in Gaza and Israel, but by the war we’re losing here at home: we are losing our empathy.

We claim we have it—by posting about children in Gaza, or posting about hostages. But when we refuse to see each other… when we refuse to recognize that both of these causes are rooted in deep sorrow, we both lose.

Empathy cannot have borders. Empathy is not a choice.

Every Shabbat, I pray with my family—for the children in Gaza in need of aid, and for the innocent hostages taken at a music festival. We hold space for both.

Why so many of you can’t say both is beyond me. It’s what haunts me at night…

Why haven’t I seen one march demanding both? One march calling for peace? One march with both the Palestinian flag and the Israeli flag?

If you truly want peace in the region, why can’t we at least start by making peace here, in our streets?

And the thing is—I know both Israelis and Palestinians who would want this. But over the past two years, watching many of you, I’ve seen their hope begin to vanish.

So many of you are too busy following a trend built on fear, that you’ve stopped listening to the people actually suffering in the region.

You can’t even give them hope for peace.

So let me show you how…

I call for the return of all hostages.

And I call for aid and compassion for the children of Gaza who are suffering.

Empathy is not a choice. Empathy has no borders.

All innocents kidnapped at a music festival or from their homes should come home.

Every child deserves to be safe.

Before you scream at all the reasons for why… can you just say this for those innocents stuck in the middle?

I can.

the screencapped message is a response to this slide of Hen Mazzig’s:

I want to draw attention to: “over the past two years, watching many of you, I’ve seen their hope begin to vanish.”

it cannot be understated how damaging and wounding the reactions to this conflict have been, on multiple impacted groups of people. so many of those are from people entirely unaffected by this and yet have obsessively made it their only political cause, often driven by hatred. refusing to respond with empathy or understanding. refusing to champion humanity. refusing to support anyone calling for peace.

Hamas and the Israeli government are ultimately not the parties responsible for robbing me of my hope and my faith in humanity. as horrified and grief stricken as I will always be by 10/7, as appalled as I am by much of the government’s subsequent actions, they are not the powers that broke me.

it’s everyone else who did that.

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Following Netanyahu’s statement, and in response to the Hebrew media reports about cabinet plans to expand the fighting in Gaza, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said the premier “is leading Israel and the hostages to the abyss.”

“Netanyahu is preparing the greatest scam,” said the Forum, which represents a majority of the families of the remaining 50 hostages. “The talk, which has been heard again and again, about releasing the hostages through decisive victory, is a fraud.”

“For 22 months now the public has been sold the illusion that military pressure and intense fighting will bring the hostages back,” said the group. “Even before the draft for a comprehensive deal was written, we’re being told there is no feasibility for a deal.”

“The truth must be told: Expanding the war endangers the lives of the hostages who are at risk of imminent death. We saw the chilling images of the hostages in the tunnels, they won’t survive more long days of horror,” the group said, adding that expanding the Gaza war “is a guarantee of the failure of the century.”

“There is no victory nor any revival in it,” the group added.

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you will never, ever be good enough to be the “good Jew.” when you are part of a political, social, and cultural movement that has demonized Jews, that has demonized all Jews as “Zionists,” that has blurred the line between criticism of Israel and criticism of Jews, and has taken all the classic antisemitic, anti-Jewish stereotypes, tropes, conspiracy theories, and integrated them into their movement to the point they can’t tell the difference, you’re never going to be accepted. you are never going to be trusted. and no matter how much you give, even if you’ve given a flotilla and go to Gaza to prove that you’re a “good one,” they’ll always turn on you.

to illustrate the point, this was graffitied on a synagogue today, in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. note that it doesn’t disguise the language. it says “Jews.”

“Jews are evil! Because genocide is evil! Stop genocide, stop the Jews! the Jews are murdering thousands of gentile children. in the future Palestinians will get their revenge against you child-killing Jew-monsters!”

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I'm so sad in such a strange way to hear about the Corporation for Public Broadcasting officially shutting down. It's a weird feeling. Most of it is the intellectual level of "oh this is SO fucking bad and terrifying that we'll no longer have federally supported public information channels anymore, it will ALL be through the private market, not to mention the stark reminder of the US government's continued descent into anti-intellectualism and fascism," all of which makes my stomach sink.

But on a smaller level it is the disappearance of something that was so ubiquitous to American childhood. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans can hear the exact intonation of this phrase in their head: "This program made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and by viewers like you. Thank you."

There is a lot more that could be said about the likely repercussions of this. In addition to being sad, I am also exceedingly furious. I wish despair upon all the Republicans who helped kill the CBP just because it took its mission seriously and refused to broadcast overt right-wing propaganda as news.

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Former hostages and Israeli leaders reacted with shock and outrage Saturday night to new footage issued by terror groups of emaciated Israeli captives held in Gaza’s tunnels, as politicians accused Hamas of being the true culprit behind the hunger crisis in the enclave.

Former hostage Tal Shoham said he had been held with Evyatar David and other captives in the tunnel where David was seen in a video released by Hamas, and that off-camera, terrorists were enjoying air conditioning, cable television and “plenty of food” stolen from aid deliveries.

The footage of David, a clip of which his family approved for publication on Saturday, came after Palestinian Islamic Jihad released similarly harrowing propaganda footage of hostage Rom Braslavski. The clip of David showed him to be skeletal and digging what he said he feared was his grave.

Shoham spoke with Channel 12 as Israel accused Hamas of starving both the hostages and Gaza’s civilians, amid mounting international criticism of Israel over the humanitarian crisis in the Strip. Meanwhile, some members of the opposition assailed the government for failing to secure the hostages’ release.

Shoham, who was released in February as part of the last ceasefire-hostage deal with Hamas, said he had been held together with hostages David and Guy Gilboa-Dalal, as well as fellow former hostage Omer Wenkert, in the tunnel that could be seen in the Hamas footage.

Shoham said Gilboa-Dalal was likely standing behind a blanket seen in the video that the Hamas captors had put up as a curtain.

“Behind the curtain they’ve put up, which is just one of the blankets we used, apparently Guy Gilboa-Dalal is standing or sitting, because they don’t let them go to a different tunnel,” said Shoham when asked what the video didn’t show.

“And right behind the cameraman, there’s an iron door, and a well-lit room, with air conditioners and a group of terrorists who sit and sleep there. They have cable TV; they have plenty of food — food they have stolen from the humanitarian supplies that Israel sent in for a very long time,” he said. “We could see that they were well fed, that they lacked for nothing. They also bragged about having stolen it, that they had months of supplies in that tunnel and all their tunnels.”

Shoham said his captors’ weight appeared to remain stable even as he lost 30 kilograms (66 pounds) in captivity: “We didn’t see them losing even a kilo.”

Shoham said he was “shocked to the depths of my soul” to see David’s condition in the new footage. “He is broken mentally, emotionally. I can’t see now any of the joy of life that he had managed to retain in his eyes,” said Shoham. “Really, it’s a shell of the Evyatar I knew.”

He said David was doubtlessly digging the ostensible grave in the clip on the orders of his Hamas captors, “but I can see that he believes it. He really believes that [he and Gilboa-Dalal] will end their life there.”

Shoham also recalled that Hamas had at one point filmed himself, Wenkert, David and Gilboa-Dalal being fed generously in a propaganda video shot shortly before he and Wenkert were released.

Another video later showed David and Gilboa-Dalal pleading for release while being forced to watch the propaganda ceremony where Shoham and Wenkert were handed over to the Red Cross.

Appealing to his former cellmates, Shoham said: “Hold on… I want to believe that the government will do the right thing very soon, free you, make a deal.” He also expressed hope that Hamas could be pressured “to give you food, because there’s food meters away.”

Do everything you can to hold on,” said Shoham, “so that we can embrace you both at home, God-willing, soon.”

(article continues)

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Bows vs slingshots vs slings: which is which, and when is one better than the other?

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Hey. Look at me. Please leave yourself a note somewhere you'll see it later that says "it is going to take years if not decades to get the United States government to the level of functionality it had in November of 2024." If we elect a democrat in 2028, we are not going to be up and running by 2032.

Please make sure you have a reminder in your phone reminding you to not look at 2028/32/36 Democratic candidates and say "why are they not promising/delivering Cool Shit?" because you are going to understand that to get Cool Shit we must have competent people running a decently funded government, and we are not going to have that.

We are not getting UBI. We are not getting single payer healthcare. We are not getting free college or free preschool. We are not redistributing wealth on a large scale. We are not getting free internet. We are not getting ranked choice voting.

If we are lucky, we are going to get an IRS that can collect taxes, qualified schoolteachers, research grants, Social Security, and a government that thinks maybe it should be a priority for people around the worlds to not have AIDS, malaria or TB.

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In the eight decades since the Holocaust, just about everyone has wondered: had I been alive during World War II, what would I have done? Would I have I have hid Anne Frank or would I have been a silent bystander or collaborator? Everyone, except the most rabid of Jew-haters, reaches the same conclusion: of course I would have hid the Frank family. I'm not a monster.

The problem is that most people have been playing the wrong game, deliberating on a misguided rhetorical exercise. If it's between the bad guy and the good guy, well, of course everyone will choose to be the good guy. But in truth, it's not between the bad guy - and don't get me wrong, the Nazis were certainly bad - and the good guy. It's between the antisemite and the Jew.

Look, I get the confusion: for 80 years, whitewashed Holocaust education and media has overemphasized the role that Righteous Among the Nations played during the Holocaust. But this is a distortion, a fantasy: the white saviors were few; the bystanders were most. Even those who most ardently opposed the Nazis -- the Allied forces, even the non-Jewish anti-Nazi resistance -- cared little at all to do anything about the plight of the Jews.

Hamas released a propaganda video showing Israeli hostage Evyatar David emaciated after more than 650 days in captivity - being forced to dig his own grave.

No celebrity outrage. No media headlines.

No global rallies. Just silence.

The world is indifferent because decades of anti-Israel propaganda have made this horror feel justified, and Hamas knows it.

This is what it looks like when dehumanization works.

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something else that’s interesting (in the most horrible sense) is the way Hamas has been so emboldened and supported, particularly by the west, that their own public strategies have changed. they cut off communication with mediators and abandoned negotiations, because the catastrophe in Gaza is an advantage to them.

they’ve also changed their strategy in regards to the hostages. earlier in the year, when more reports surfaced of the hostages’ conditions and suffering, we also heard that Hamas was delaying deals and releases because they needed time to prepare the hostages by bettering their physical appearances. they didn’t want to give them back in the states they were in - I distinctly remember the concern about this with Sasha Troufanov and Edan Alexander. multiple of the returned hostages have shared that their food intake increased before they were released. Hamas was not doing this out of humanitarian concern, but for PR reasons.

except. they murdered the beautiful six, whose conditions were devastating, and nobody cared.

they had that grotesque death parade for Shiri, Ariel, Kfir, and Oded, and nobody cared.

they released Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami, and Or Levy looking frail, emaciated, and broken, and nobody cared.

what this did was signal to Hamas that the PR for them absolutely does not matter. it hasn’t this whole time. they can do anything they want. their goal in carrying out the atrocities of 10/7, from a media standpoint, have been perfectly achieved.

so now that the crisis of agony and death in Gaza has reached a fever pitch, now that even the Arab League has finally been forced to condemn them at the UN, they continue to have the ultimate leverage. even if they eventually surrender the damage is done - Israel’s status on the world stage is compromised irrevocably (and Bibi and his coalition have contributed to this with their own terrible and failing actions, and played right into Hamas’ plans), and the worldwide violent Jew hatred is endemic and not going to go away.

we are to the point where we’re even being gaslit about our own grief.

I want to share this, even if you don’t agree with everything Jonah says, I’m very disturbed by the initial message he received. we’re being shown that our own people and pain have no meaning, and it’s very easy to start believing it.

granted, I am more critical of the Israeli government and the actions of the military than he is being here.

be devastated, heartbroken, outraged by the civilian toll in Gaza, I am too - but please don’t be manipulated into thinking that the depth of the violence and depravity on 10/7, the horror that began this awful war, the profound mourning and correlating betrayals and cruelty we have endured, have ceased to matter. if we don’t care about the suffering and memories of our people, if we don’t care about each other, no one will, and we are lost. we’re all we have.

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August 2 - International Roma and Sinti Genocide Remembrance Day

This date, August 2, is devoted to the Roma Genocide or Porajmos (“the Devouring”), which took place during World War II as a result of the racial purification efforts by Nazi Germany and its Axis Powers allies.

In November of 1935, the Nazi German government amended its Nuremburg Laws, which codified its agenda for racial purity, to officially include the Sinti and Roma community among those labeled as “racially inferior.”

Current estimates place the number of Roma people killed during the Second World War at nearly 500,000. This figure includes tens of thousands murdered by Nazi military and secret police units across the Soviet Union, as well as approximately 3,000  who were exterminated in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau, while others endured forced labor and perished at camps such as Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka.

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“so ur saying the media is wrong”

ashley, youre fine with saying the government is always up to something, but the media having biases and hiring terrorists is wild to you? here:

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Has anyone on here ever brought up the dissapointment and frustration from all the men in your life suddenly being so ready and willing to excuse, rationalize or even advocate for jihadists, the dictatorship in iran (suddemly it's all western propaganda), the atrocities on oct 7, all while most still claim to be proud feminists.

It's scary to know that if just the right movement comes along, if just the right promise of revolution come along, womens rights really don't matter anymore and honestly probably never did, it's really been something I've personally struggled with. I have a lot of brothers and they all fit this description now.

Yes. People have brought it up.

They've said what you just said. It is horrifying to watch so many men who once claimed to be feminists rationalize or celebrate groups that openly abuse, rape, and silence women. As long as it feels anti-Western enough, they seem to excuse anything.

Hamas is a jihadist organization. Their charter rejects pluralism, liberalism, and women's rights. Their fighters carried out mass rapes on October 7. They burned civilians alive. They filmed it. They posted it. These are not disputed facts. They have been documented by the United Nations, by journalists, and by survivor testimony.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has murdered, imprisoned, and raped women for wanting basic human freedoms. After Mahsa Amini was killed in custody for showing her hair, women were arrested, tortured, and in some cases raped and/or executed by guards.

These are not liberation movements. They are authoritarian regimes built on submission and control. The idea that this is somehow compatible with feminism is dishonest. It only works if you treat feminism as an aesthetic, not an ethic.

And that is what this is. These men never internalized feminist values. They memorized the language. They wore the slogans. They struck the right poses. But when feminism required courage, they found a new identity instead. Revolutionary. Anti-imperialist. Whatever word lets them feel righteous while ignoring the actual bodies on the ground.

It is not complicated. And it is not a phase. It is a test of character. A lot of people are failing it.

You are not imagining this and you are not overreacting. You are describing exactly what is happening, and you are not alone in seeing it, Anon.