#also shes very vocal about the Palestinian Genocide

[pieflavorpie]

I do not see enough Madeleine Hyland appreciation for the magnificent performances she consistently does in The Amazing Devil. Where is all the love for The Calling???? Pray??? "Im more than what my mum told me to be"???? Little miss Why So?

Even when i see people talking about Farewell Wanderlust i only ever hear people talking about Joeys bit at the end [which is fantastic] but. What.

Madeleines voice is so bloody good

[feuilletoniste]

We can all agree that this is just antisemitism, right? There’s no other more appropriate word for it, really.

(Context: Ira Steven Behr, who is Jewish, was one of many celebrities who signed an open letter criticizing and condemning director Jonathan Glazer for the speech he made at the Oscars in which he said "we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked" -- according to him, "I refute my Jewishness" was not how he intended his words to be interpreted, but if true, that just means it was a very poorly worded statement. This woman described Ira Steven Behr’s signing of a letter saying Jonathan Glazer said something antisemitic -- which he did, intentionally or otherwise -- as "morally unconscionable." This is just lunacy, actually.)

This video (I didn’t watch it in its entirety but I read the entire transcript) hits pretty much all of the antisemitic talking points people use when talking about Israel’s war on Hamas: genocide, Zionism, saying the reaction to the deaths of the WCK workers is "only coming because white people died" (what the fuck!), blaming Biden, neoliberalism, "the conflation of Israel the nation and its actions with not only Judaism but also the entire people of Israel," whatever.

One of the claims made in the video is (verbatim), "Ira Steven Behr is supporting Israel’s actions through his condemning of Jonathan Glazer’s speech." This is nonsense! This is "so you hate waffles"-levels of stupidity. Another claim is that the situation with Behr is similar to the situation with Joanne Rowling and transphobia, which is, hmm, very telling in terms of how you see the concept of Jewish people supporting our homeland.

Anyway, Jessie Gender then goes on to compare Major Kira ("a former terrorist who fought back against the fascist occupation of her land by the alien Cardassians, a settler-colonial government that not only store resources from her home planet of Bajor but also genocided her people") to, uh, Hamas I guess??????? I have only watched one of this lady’s videos besides this one but wow she sounds like a fucking idiot.

(To her credit, she does say, "this is not me approving … of all of Kira’s actions nor of Hamas specifically, but to understand the situations that people who are undergoing a genocide endure and the choices that they have to make in order to fight for their own liberation and personhood," so at leash she’s not openly supporting the real-life terrorists, I guess!)

Another very interesting (and saddening) part of the video is when Jessie says, "I know there will be some people in the comments that say, well, Ira Steven Behr must be facing a ton of pressure to sign this letter, as many Jewish people within the Hollywood industry and within America generally are feeling the pressure to do so -- certainly we have seen many people lose their jobs and places [sic?] for speaking out against the Palestinian genocide; I myself have lost connections both personal and professional, as well as had certain parts of my career hurt, because I have been very vocal about what is happening to the Palestinian people" (emphasis and punctuation mine). What a really shitty thing to say, the idea that Jewish people can’t support Israel without being pressured -- literally, in this case, by (((them))) -- to do so.

Anyway, one final note: Jessie says at one point, "Rick Burman, someone who I don’t have a ton of respect for, at least understood this [that the Bajorans were apparently an allegory for Palestinians]." To paraphrase an all-timer: you do not, actually, have to hand it to Rick Berman.

[protoindoeuropean]

ok so the slovenian government announced today it will participate in the ICJ proceedings against israeli occupation of gaza and the west bank, which is based on a december 2022 UN resolution and is thus separate from the SA genocide case {wiki page}

there have been calls for slovenia to intervene in the genocide case too, to which the minister of foreign affairs has said that "Slovenia supports the proceedings regarding the violations of the Genocide Convention both in the case of Ukraine and Palestine ...", but that it is not yet possible to intervene as the court has to first decide whether it has jurisdiction over the case or not (her statement of support is also not an official position of the country afaict) {x}. she said that the decision will be made at the governnent level {x} (i.e. she evaded the question, but the fact the she hasn't dismissed it is positive, and both the pm and the president as a rule follow her lead, not the other way around; not to mention that the left party, a coalition member, has been very vocal about how slovenia is not doing enough, how we should recognize the state of palestine, apply the bds measures etc., so that's a force pushing in that direction as well). the ambassador to the UN security council said that slovenia regards the case "with great interest" {x}

considering the fairly consistent discourse of slovenian foreign policy on the israel-palestine conflict and especially the expressed need for principled and consistent political positioning during the slovenian mandate in the UN security council, i am moderatly optimistic that it might actually intervene in the case

fajon can be quite frustrating, because you really have to comb through what she's saying to find anything of substance, but i have been surprised at times by her discourse in the past few months, for example when she said that if not the EU as a whole, then a smaller group of like-minded countries within the EU could jointly recognize the state of palestine "when the time is right" (– slovenian politicians have been waiting for the right time to recognize palestine for literally a decade, but in this context specifically fajon has said that the condition for that to happen is permanent ceasefire) {x}, or when she explitictly designated the attacks on schools and hospitals and critical infrastructure as severe violations of international humanitarian law – apparently she appeared on CNN a few days ago where she said that Israel was "definitely" in the breach of international humanitarian law {fb link to the video} {x}, which reportedly made israel angry, but she'd already said the same thing in the UN security council chambers a month ago {x}, so that wasn't new for them and she'd been saying that since november at least {x}. i was also really positively surprised when in the context of the exchange of hostages she designated the palestinian prisoners as political prisoners {x} (only in a podcast, but still)

ofc this is still far from ideal, much more decisive measures would be needed (cf. what the left party wants above) and they'd be more effective too, imho, but this is honestly more than i expected from a politician who, idk – i suspect! – wants to present our country as a potential mediator in the conflict and thus doesn't want to step on israel's toes too much, or at least wants to keep the image of a "reliable partner" with regards to the us, still, while going as far as possible in (what she thinks might be) toeing the line

[damnesdelamer]

Obviously a heavily tertiary issue, but the situation in Palestine has this side effect of making it all the more difficult to adequately assess antisemitism in the West, particularly (at least for how I'm currently thinking about it) from celebrities. Allegations of antisemitism become so worthless in this political environment, when someone saying 'Palestinians don't deserve genocide' is called antisemitic.

There's the obvious example of Musk, who's obviously a fucking fascist, but whom Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL apparently gave some kind of free pass to be antisemitic. But then there's like Susan Sarandon and Roger Waters. I think Sarandon is a liberal and not a very clever one, but on some level I think she can be seen as an ally; at least she's using her voice to amplify the plight of marginalised people. And Roger Waters, whose whole fucking fortune of hundreds of millions is built on satirising and lambasting fascism as absurdly evil (and rightly so!) and who's a vocal critic of Israel, oh and also he routinely mocks and uses slurs against Jews in his employment just gonna tag that on the end there no biggie. And these examples are apparently all equally weighted as evidence.

Seriously what the fuck.

[catgirl-kaiju]

No, sweetiepie. You support Pussy Ass Bitch. Your imbecility and solipsism (you doubtless voted for Shrill Jill the PUTA Shill in 2016) helped PAB steal the White House and you're doing your best to make it happen again. YOU are partially responsible for the death of Roe and every other fascist act committed by our Nazi SCROTUS. YOU, bitch, and all your little online 'leftist' edgelord-wannabe friends. EAT IT. OWN IT. YOU ARE TO BLAME.

okay... so... most of this is incoherent, but i will respond to each claim that i can understand one at a time.

i'm assuming "Shrill Jill" refers to Jill Stein. i did not vote for her in 2016. i voted for Hillary Clinton. I still have some criticisms of Jill Stein's past behavior and stances, and i am skeptical of her viability as a candidate in the current election, but she has been vocal about her wish to stand with the ICJ in prosecuting isreal for their genocide against the Palestinian peoples, more than most candidates in this race can say. also, "Shrill Jill" strikes me as a very misogynistic nickname, seems ethically dubious to use that.

i'm not entirely sure who PAB is supposed to be, but in context, it seems like you mean donald trump? i don't know how you get PAB from that, but i digress. have you actually taken the time to go look at the publically available voting statistics from 2016? bc I have, and those statistics do not reflect the story of people voting 3rd party giving trump an advantage in that election. in fact, i've reviewed the voting statistics of every presidential election so far in the 21st Century, and there has not been a single time i can find that voting 3rd party over one of the big two made a significant enough difference to impact the results for either the dem. or rep. candidates. 3rd party voters are not a large enough group to have any relevance statistically, unfortunately, and this has been the case even as far back as the 80s. besides, if you really want to get mad at people voting 3rd party, the libertarians are right there. why don't you badger them about voting democrat? they're THE most popular 3rd party by a WIDE margin. if there's any group that could even come close to making a difference, they're it.

the loss of Roe v. Wade is a collective failure on the part of every administration since its ruling. no one has done enough to protect and enshrine the ruling as reflective of an inalienable right. while it's true that the trump administration was able to stack the supreme court, making the final pieces fall into place for the removal to happen, the ruling happened under the joe biden administration, and thus administration has done NOTHING to negate the ruling or provide better protections for the right to abortion access.

i think you need to look inward at the party that YOU support and what THEY are culpable for, what your support of them makes YOU an accomplice to under your own logic. stop blaming people on the left for progressive policies not happening, and accept that the dems have been the less fascy right-wing for a while now. accept that, unless you vote 3rd party or withhold your vote, you are voting for a candidate and a party that supports genocide. ask yourself if that's a concession you're willing to give.

i doubt that any of what you've said has been in good faith, anon, but i felt it worth it to use your drivel to push back on the common talking points you're using. i hope you grow a new and worse appendix, especially if you still have your's.

[placeinthisworld]

Taylor dating Matty Healy who'se the most morally corrupt, racist, islamphobic/ antisemetic person ever and not speaking up about politics concerning LGBTQIA people after saying she would, not speaking up about literal GENOCIDE is just : ( ( not to mention hanging out with smn who assulted somebody, and his crazy sister in law who supports him. I used to absolutely adore her but this is just too much and i feel so hurt. Taylor, you're losing me : ( </3

yeah I mean I love Taylor, I’m not saying she’s this morally corrupt money hungry soulless monster but her lack of advocacy just speaks volumes!!

ALSO I’m not supporting Matty BUT I know my bestie is a huge the 1975 fan and she recently showed me that they are doing things at their concerts and their fanbase definitely calls him out when he’s on the wrong side and their fanbase is very vocal and have actually raised money for organizations like war child!! So while yes Matty himself can be…very messy lol his fans don’t just let him get away with it and they actively take a difference which is sooo good imo like can you imagine what could happen if swifties had the motivation to do this instead of doxxing Palestinian people on the internet instead 🫠

[legilimensims]

i know i have been *very* vocal about my support of ukraine during the current russian invasion, and pretty much silent about what’s happening in palestine and israel. the reason being: i have ukrainian friends, my mother has ukrainians friends and colleagues, and i feel i am much more educated on the matter to comfortably have a strong opinion and a strong position to defend, no hesitation.

one thing i’ve noticed since october 7th being online most of my time, being a member of community notes on twitter (x…whatever) and fact-checking a hell of a lot of stuff, trying to educate myself, is…how quickly narrative spins. how quickly misinformation spreads. how quickly one nation is labelled the victim, then the aggressor, and vice versa. how quickly and promptly acts of immeasurable, atrocious violence were justified - some sort of perverse “well she was wearing a skirt so she brought it on herself, she deserved it” - and called it “resistance”. how quickly antisemitism escalated (like, don’t even deny this), jews around the world experiencing hate crimes, stuff we thought was left behind after ww2. how quickly palestinians as a whole are called terrorists, and actual terrorist supporters gleefully celebrate beheadings whilst in the comfort of the democratic countries in which they were born in or found refuge. how quickly a country can be accused of fabricating/staging video evidence of atrocities just because of its flag and preexisting hate.

i don’t think i’ve ever witnessed this much hate around the world, it’s…abhorrent. people (again, from the comfort and protection of their democratic, free countries) wishing others to experience pain and suffering and being remembered as murderers for stating an opinion and supporting a specific side? like what. the. hell. we’ve reached a new low as a collective.

i have a lot of opinions, but to comment on the latest happenings i think that the blame of this current escalation solely lies on israeli politicians currently in charge, they were just waiting for the opportunity to level gaza to the ground and no foreign government could’ve done a thing - i saw how fast some are pointing their fingers at the usa especially and, speaking as a staunch biden supporter, i firmly believe that, naively and stupidly, nobody expected that by following international law, the right of defence, the israeli president would commit genocide as a retaliation to a terrorist attack. i expect the usa and the rest of the world’s democratic governments to firmly condemn this.

speaking of, it is also my belief that the perpetrators of the attack against israeli civilians backed by other dictatorial countries, absolutely 100% knew what they were doing. they knew israel would retaliate, and they knew this situation would create disagreements among nations - look at the hate towards biden, only him as usual. somehow the decisions of other countries' presidents are always magically his fault, damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. you just have to thank your gods biden is in the white house right now and not puZZin's puppet the orange tangerine, elections are next year and you have to pray he wins 2024 and not only because he's the best, most succesful president the usa have had in fucking years and yet americans are too stupid and ungrateful to see it; if you are american and are like "nah i'm not voting him because blah blah" you ARE NOT in the position to have a 3rd party candidate, if you don't vote biden you ARE handing the victory to extreme far-right politicians - don't you dare come crying & blame the other side when republicans obliterate your rights, your medicare, your social security, they WILL impose a christian theocracy on you, if biden is not the democratic candidate or if he loses you are fucked. YOU. ARE. FUCKED. and the world's gonna be even more disastrous. i won't hear any arguments on this.

destabilizing and undermining global democracy is the point of the two most prominent current wars and in the end it’s always the innocents who pay the hardest price.

to conclude this world salad…idk. it’s all so overwhelming, and discouraging, and i feel in conflict with myself for “sympathizing” with both sides, to a degree.

i just want people to live in peace.

[depressed-changeling]

America has contributed to fascistic groups taking over democratic nations globally in order to seize resources (specifically sugar cane and oil in the past century), or forced nations to becomes either becoming states (Hawaii) or territories (Puerto Rico). However, the actual US itself has not YET become a dictatorship to itself. Hypocritical about freedom and perpetrated war crimes in the entirety of it's history, absolutely, but not full blown fascism.

It has been steadily marching to that point since Nixon. Nixon introduced the very concept that a president is above the law with Watergate. Reagan allowed the Heritage Foundation to take root in the government, introduced the experimental trickle-down economics, and twisted healrhcare and college to only be accessible to the rich (Reagan did SO MUCH horrible shit so I'm just ending the list here to save space).

But it doesn't end there. We can observe since Nixon that every Republican president dragged the country into an unimaginable state, then the Democratic president that follows fixes it until the country is in a neutral state, only for the next Republican president to tear it all down again and install insidious footholds for authoritarianism to take root. Stacking judges, introducing Citizens United, defunding education, etc. All of it to bring the country closer and closer to full-blown dictatorship.

All of it leading to this point. We as voters are fucking exhausted with our political choices constantly being between two shades of evil and of combating gerrymandering that makes it feel like our choices mean nothing. We as a society swore never again, and yet the US is funding and sending our weapons and soldiers to Israel to commit genocide against the Palestinians. We're fucking pissed, we're exhausted, we're scared, and that's so incredibly dangerous.

The US has had decades long ties to Israel that goes beyond party, so we're forced to choose between politicians that are either gleefully willing to expedite the Palestinian genocide or pretending to be ignorant of the war crimes being committed. Unfortunately, the politicians that are most vocal about Israel's war crimes won't be able to become president, at least not this election, noy with how close it is.

But our choices do matter. Thanks to protests, calls, emails, and pressure from Pelosi, Biden finally stepped down from the election. Harris, while certainly not a perfecr politician and with many valid complaints, is a better candidate for the simple fact she can be persuaded. Her call for a ceasefire and a two-state solution, while a rather tame call, is genuinely far more than I was expecting for any candidate to make, especially this close to election day. Her choice of Walz over Shapiro is also quite interesting as the usual D playbook for presidents it to choose a more independant/centrist. Instead she went with Walz who, while imperfect with plenty of valid complaints, has made many steps to actually serve the citizens of Minnesota. May be too soon so say, but I'm actually hopeful that after the election in the case they win, that we can make the Harris/Walz house actually listen to us.

Trump, on the other hand? He wants to expedite the Palestinian genocide, aid Putin in his war against Ukraine, and likely supply nuclear weapons to these facists. He wants to make Project 2025 and Agenda 47 law of the land, cementing the Heritage Foundations's hold on the government, all without consequences thanks to the Supreme Court ruling making thr president essentially a king. He even promised his followers that there would be no more elections if he wins.

We already saw the mayhem he created in his first term, we DON'T want to see what a second will make. I know I don't, I already spent 4 years worrying about my grandpa or four of my aunts being arrested and deported. I spent four years worrying that my cousins and other grandparents and parents would be left with no medical care because they're disabled or chronically ill. I know I won't be so lucky as to only worry if Trump wins this election.

Shitty as it is, there is a clear difference between the two parties. Shitty as our government is right now, it can and will get worse under Trump with the powers of a king. We don't want to vote for anyone that facilitates or wants to make the Palestinian genocide worse, but we have no choice.

This election is not about a perfect fix. Change unfortunately takes time and strategy. It's about buying time so we can continue to protest and fight for real change, so we can hold our government and politicians accountable. It's about buying time to end the Palestinian genocide, and to force the US and Israel to comply with the ICJ. We can't do any of that if Trump wins.

It's finally dawning on me that a lot of hard leftists actually do think the US presidency is already a dictatorship.

Like they think that the reason the Biden administration didn't cancel college debt on the grand scale they pictured, is that he just didn't want to. They have no comprehension just how much Republicans were working against him to stop literally anything he could do to make things in this country less dogshit. (BTW, this is why we need to vote blue all the way down the ticket.)

And then they think they can elect some third party rando with no actual allies in the senate or congress or anywhere, and people will just have to do what they say, and won't try to sabotage them even harder because they're even further left. (The aforementioned efforts to sabotage Biden? It would be even worse for an actual leftist president.)

Like no, sorry, the US presidency is not actually a dictatorship.

[zigcarnivorous]

Greta Thunberg STILL Undefeated As She Calls for Chevron Boycott

The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini)

Sep 29 2024

What do the Palestine movement and environmental movement have in common? Plenty.

Recently, at the intersection, our girl Greta Thunberg is uplifting a BDS call to boycott Chevron because of their exploitation of Palestinian land and resources. : “In Palestine and all over the world, the fight against colonialism and corporations’ destruction of the planet are intrinsically linked,” said Thunberg. “Look at Chevron. Everyone knows that Chevron is one of the world’s biggest climate criminals, but the oil giant is also fueling Israel’s genocide in Palestine.” Chevron runs pipelines and extracts natural gas on occupied land in partnership with Israel and the company is a major economic partner of the Israeli government. They made an estimated $1.5 billion in revenue from Tamar and Leviathan gas sales alone in 2022.

Beyond Chevron, the bombing of Palestine itself is immensely harmful to the planet. In just the first two months of the war, the carbon emissions generated from the bombardment are on par with that of the country of New Zealand or Uruguay annually. Even after the military occupation retreats, they will leave behind contaminated soil, water, and air.

Overall, scholars estimate that militaries are responsible for 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Clearly, it's integral for the movement against climate change to stand against war. This is something Greta is very vocal about, even if it loses her centrist followers and fans. By standing up for Palestine, Greta Thunberg is making enemies.

[mayra-quijotescx]

If there's actually a bunch of other Houstonians on this website I've been regrettably pretty bad at locating them, so I apologize in that this may not be relevant info to most people who see it, but for those of y'all in or near Houston, TX, I wanted to warn y'all against supporting or visiting Canal Street Studios.

The owners of CSS are currently evicting a few artists (one of whom is Palestinian) from their shared studio because a zionist who's friends with one of the owners saw their work during an art crawl and raised hell about it. (This particular zionist has a passion for trying to get Palestinians and supporters of Palestinians fired, when she's not too busy posting islamophobic vitriol and race-replacement screeds that would make a nazi blush to facebook.)

Silencing the voices and artistic expression of targeted people (and anyone who vocally acknowledges their humanity) is another facet of genocide, and Canal Street Studios has chosen to take part in it. Other artists in the studio are leaving in solidarity with the targeted artists, and I want to also do what I can as an (admittedly very small fry) part of the arts community in Houston to help spread the word that no one should support or visit Canal Street Studios. They've chosen their side, and they've chosen wrong.

Screenshots of the artist's IG stories discussing the eviction below the cut; I have already described the situation in the above paragraphs and will not be transcribing the racist vitriol used by the zionist targeting them, but the posts feature screenshots of some of her posts. As such, I'm not adding descriptions, and I'm putting them under a cut so people can make their own decisions about whether they want to see such ghoulishness.

[menta11yi11]

The found family in CO State government wound up supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people. She's a Jewish senator that prides herself in inclusiveness and mental health support yet the hate mongering spread on socials and in meetings, pro-Zionist movement has me incredibly disappointed. This is someone I trusted deeply, and she trusts me. I feel crushed. Why do I keep trusting people who end up disappointing me in very serious ways (like my foster Mormon parents) it's devastated me recently to the point of rapid splitting into new alters. Also hi to any followers that see this. I mostly post on the-swing-system tumblr and ramiel-novak but I didn't want to have this on my main due to the sensitive nature. I spent around a week's time at her home getting close with her before I learned about the real news of the attacks on the Gaza strip. How can people be so fucking inhumane? I know there's things I've done I'm not proud of but actively using a seat of government and vocally supporting a genocide is disproportionately worse than whatever smaller level bpd shit I had going on. (This is not a hate on her mental health status, but her continued ignorance to see the truth in the matter. Free Palestine 🇵🇸 )

We all have a right to clean water and safety, food, medicine, power (electricity/fuel)... Why are some people's lives lesser? Because you need a reason to justify stripping and destroying a whole culture and people living there because you feel entitled to it. I'm Pro-Jewish. I'm Pro-Muslim. I'm Pro-Native (I'm Native American myself) I actively try to seek out community members who often get left out within society. I understand what it's like to be a ethnic minority whose family was ethnically cleansed. I go to sleep and feel my ancestors stirring inside me wanting me to sink into the core of the Earth and send a message to them that Gaia will not stand for these attacks and violations of nature and humanity. How can you hide behind your religion to claim you're actually the one being oppressed when you've had control over them for many decades now. 🤔 like we can go back in History all we want to figure out which groups were where first but it's never going to justify the sheer horrors that have been ramping since Netanyahu declared war on Hamas (which is a whole other can of worms) Like I keep having derealization because this sounds so fictionally evil and cruel? Like accepting that this reality is indeed going on and has been going on for a long time. The "woke" agenda of being aware of how much the propaganda machines pump out messages inciting violence on others for our differences of being that are more often than not harmless traits of culture and personhood. I'm so emotionally drained. I don't see how people are genuinely laughing at the idea of calling others subhuman. What's the fucking joke? What if the tides shift and you're now seen as subhuman? How do you live with yourself, knowing that you're part of a marginalized community you've spewed bigotry against for a long time? Fucking. What the fuck. (No tags or reblogs. I'm sorry I do not have the capacity to have this spread and the lashback I may receive from this is just. Not something I can handle. I'm at my limit y'all.)

[lizardsfromspace]

Apparently there's a movement called "blockout2024" that is blocking celebs for many reasons, but I've seen it on here from people saying you should block every celeb at the Met Gala, and also a hundred more who nebulously "haven't done enough". This list includes everyone, including Gigi Hadid. You know, the Palestinian-American who is one of the most outspoken pro-Palestinian-freedom celebrities? In fact, it has several Palestinian and pro-Palestinian people prominently on it, lumped in with actual supporters of the genocide against them, and classed as one and the same

Obviously this is a stupid - no wait people are defending it

This isn't even thinking imperfect allies are worse than enemies. The idea that Palestinians who are extremely vocal about supporting Palestine should be dismissed as gross, awful, tone deaf people who need to be blocked and ostracized for attending an event that wasn't even being boycotted is just. What are you even doing.

Gigi Hadid, who donated all of her 2022 earnings to Ukraine and Palestine. Gigi Hadid, who has received death threats over her support for Palestine & who had family members doxxed. Gigi Hadid, who needs to be held to account for...attending a museum fundraiser? Eurovision was being boycotted for very specific reasons, this one is a bunch of people on social media saying "well it's a bit Hunger Games isn't it" because they have the secret BDS list that has all the celebrities they already hate on the top of it. In this case there's also evidence like "she was holding a Starbucks cup in one magazine photoshoot" & "she may be in the background of this photo someone took at a Starbucks", definite proof that she doesn't care and is secretly evil and lying about everything so she can maybe stand in the background of a Starbucks

How can the type of slacktivist that constantly calls everything a psyop look at a list saying "hey, go ahead and block all these pro-Palestinian activists! Make sure to trash them as awful people too. This is violating BDS guidelines btw" and go, this is legit and I need to defend it to the death. They're seriously not only not questioning that but coming up with reasons to justify it? Not the SLIGHTEST bit of pause about anonymous uncited internet lists telling them comrades are irredeemable scum? Everyone who is a slightly different type of communist than them is a Fed, but this anonymous internet list telling them to stop boosting anyone with a platform who supports their cause...that's the real thing baby

Also it is slacktivism. It is slacktivism to make a righteous cause out of blocking celebrities on Instagram en masse. It's funny that a lot of these posts say they don't care about celebrities when like. Yes, if you're attaching grave importance to methodically blocking thousands and thousands of famous people, you...are actually extremely celebrity-obsessed? Far, far more than most people. Literally no one else is still talking about the Met Gala, if it was a distraction, the one getting distracted is you. If your activism is about finding ways to justify silencing Palestinians and supporters for minor mistakes bc a random internet list told you to...I repeat: what are you even doing

If someone tells you to block and denounce people from the oppressed group you're supporting, your first reaction should be "are you a cop?", not "yes, I'll do this unquestioningly, and you're an awful person if you don't too"

Not that it's above criticism, it's not, but I feel your Met Gala take should at least acknowledge it's a fundraiser for an art museum with pay-what-you-want admission instead of vaguely presenting it as as if it's an event where everyone goes to dump their money in Scrooge McDuck pits and jump around in it

[morrigansmuses]

3 Golden Rules.

On Ethical disappointments. 

I was raised to be tolerant. To consider the views and opinions of others, to keep and open mind. I was a social outsider (homeschooled due to racism in the local school.) I vowed I wouldn’t ever exclude people for being different to me or having different values. I was desperate to make and keep friends. More than anything.

I was 15 in the late 1990s. Lonely as hell. I decided that I would befriend absolutely anyone who would have me. Essentially anyone who wouldn’t beat me up on sight for being foreign.

I decided that I had 3 and only 3 dealbreakers in terms of friendship.

RULE 1. They couldn’t be cruel to animals.

RULE 2. They coudn’t sexually abuse children.

RULE 3 They couldn’t be a card carrying Nazi.

If anyone in my life did any of those things I couldn’t associate with them anymore. But barring that I would try to accept them as individuals. 

Thats a pretty low bar right? I mean how could anyone fail to meet those insanely low standards?

See back then I didn’t know that shades of grey existed. I knew in theory that we were all imperfect beings, but I didn’t know what that meant yet in reality.

So I began to make friends. With normal kids. Actually probably nicer than average kids because they were sweet and sensitive enough to accept me for who I was when no one else would.

So the first hurdle I came across was that some of these people I was friends with enjoyed hunting. They would say for meat. I get that. Better than factory farming right? less cruel, less wasteful.

“You shouldn’t eat meat unless you’re willing to kill it yourself” They’d say virtuously.  

But then I saw them in action. Delighting in the act of killing in a way that I knew wasn’t healthy. Laughing at the kid goat’s head bursting in a shower of gore or the way an animal screamed upon being shot. Killing more than they needed… That’s an impulse I don’t believe humans should engender in themselves.

But it was for food. Right? So I overlooked it and silenced the voice in my heart.

One day my best friend shot a stray cat with his bb gun just for the laugh. It didn’t kill the cat or anything but the animal yelped and ran away. I was so upset and shocked that I burst into tears and it all came pouring out. Was he training himself to become a sociopath? I asked him.

He apologised. He never did anything like it again. He was very kind to animals, especially cats, ever since and doesn’t hunt them anymore for any reason.

I forgave.

That’s the first time I remember compromising a core value. It was like a tooth being pulled from my 15 year old head. 

I don’t regret it.

We’re still best friends. 

The second hurdle that started to crack my young heart was the undeniable fact that in the early 2000s almost every guy I knew in his early 20s had a girlfriend between that ages of 12 and 15. NEVER OLDER. I can’t stress this enough. They would vomit in disgust at the thought of a crone of 18 or 19. They were also VERY vocal about their desire and right to have sex with children after a few drinks. By the time I was 20 I knew I had aged out of the 20s dating pool. I wasn’t attracted to older men. 

No matter. I’m asexual and prefer platonic relationships anyway.

To this day I’ve never had a romantic relationship with a man. Because once I realised that Rule 2 wasn’t one any of them could keep, the trust was broken.

It wasn’t only men either. My closest girlfriend was a 26 year old substitute teacher who fucked one of her 15 year old students on a drunk night out once…

So they both had fun and boys that age are up for anything right? I mean. He probably still boasts about it today…

Right?

Plus… She was all I had. Like the only one I had at the time. I was so scared of losing her.

I turned a blind eye and ear. I tolerated. I didn’t have to approve of their teenage girlfriends did I? After all there were so many of them that if I cut them out of my life I’d have no friends ever again. Because the whole of society looked like them…

Thats the truth.

People in my extended family have dated 17 or 18 year old girls and encouraged them to drop out of school to have their children. People I love have done that.

I once knew a handsome, intelligent and charming man. He was dating a family member for a few months. He often defended the right of adult men to date teens. “Girls mature more quickly than boys.” He’d argue. Everyone would agree. After all hadn’t my great grandmother been 12 years old when she met my great grandfather and married him on her 16th birthday (with parental permission)? He was in his 20s. Just a boy himself surely? “We all know what children boys in their 20s are right?” Said my Mother… Whom I love very much.

Excuses were made.

Years later I discovered the the handsome, intelligent and charming man had been raping a 6 year old the entire time we’d known him. He is still wanted by the police today.

My father tells that when he was a boy of 18 back in the 70s he had kicked an older German man, a respected family friend, out of his car because the man had asked him to pull over, he had something important to tell him. When he did so, the man said that the Holocaust was a myth. An exaggeration, a Zionist hoax.

My Father was dating my mother at the time. She’s Jewish. So is his uncle, a Holocaust survivor.

He yelled at the man not to talk shit and made him walk home.

I am not my father.

The first time a Holocaust denier (a respected local businessman) voiced their opinion to me I froze. Then laughed. Surely he must be kidding... I argued briefly before realising that he’d made up his mind.

My well meaning people said I’d made a mistake. It was my job, they said, to change his mind. To educate him. Otherwise how would he learn?

I didn’t speak to him again but I still nod at him in the street because he employs a few of my friends and I wouldn’t want to make things awkward for them.

And also I don’t want him to yell at me. 

I have worked with Holocaust survivors and have survivors in my immediate family and I still nod in the street at a Holocaust Denier because we are raised to be polite aren’t we? Let’s not make a scene. 

We’re mature adults.

Aren’t we?

People are starting to turn weirder than they used to be. Politically.

My Leftist friends are in a secret facebook group... Strenuously defending China’s Uyghur genocide because Communism can do no wrong… And at the same time saying all the Israelis need to be killed for what they’ve done to the Palestinians. One suggests a biological weapon tailored to Jews.

My Centrist friends are suggesting we “Hang up democracy for a while” in order to combat global warming and welcome a global police state and stop “kicking off” about our rights all the time. “Maybe we need a jackboot up the arse” one of them says.

And the ones that aren’t on the Left?

My facebook feed these days is getting awfully full of Rothschild memes.

“We own every bank in the world and funded both sides of every war since Waterloo.” They say, next to a grinning caricature of Jacob de Rothschild. Reminiscent of a Nazi cartoon of a “Rat Jew.”

Even a hedge fund billionaire prick doesn’t deserve that, does he?

I don’t comment. What’s the point? They’ve watched all the youtube and don’t read history books on principal.

My Brother is getting into Qanon. So is my Sister in Law.

She follows the medical teachings of a man who thinks the Jews invented Chemotherapy to kill the Germans after the war. Apparently he is becoming more and more popular.

Eccentrics.

Thats all.

I’m half Jewish. Like My Brother.

One of the Survivors I know said that 3 weeks after the Nazi propaganda came into the school he attended, he was in Bergen Belsen and half his family was dead.

His neighbour was jealous because his father had 2 more cows than he did.

I hear Marine Le Pen is neck and neck with Macron to win France.

A good friend of mine said it's because by 2030 Muslims will outnumber white people in Europe. He won’t read the articles I send him. But he sure sends me a lot of YouTubes.

I ignore them because I don’t want to hate him. Maybe he ignores my articles for the same reason.

Hey 15 year old me…. You, skinny thing with the ethics, the braces and black eyeliner…

Those compromises I made were made out of love... And also fear. 

Please stop looking at me like that little girl.

“It’s true” writes my friend. They’re trying to breed us out. It’s all an elite Zionist plot.”

I close Whatsapp.

Here I go again I guess…

[daminwayne]

I wanna watch ww so bad, but I just can't reconcile the character's peace loving nature with gal's vocal support for the idf. :((( I wish it was just a matter of different political opinions, but supporting the genocide of palestinians is not just 'an opinion'. I do wish i could shut off my brain and just watch the movie as it is (hearing so many amazing things about it) but i actually feel physically ill thinking about it. :(((

yeah, and I respect that and I think if you don’t watch the movie for that, then you have every right not to. I am a Palestinian myself, and I don’t support Gal. But there are many actors & actresses that are problematic (I mean Scar Jo is like high up on that list for me even with the Palestine issue) but sometimes you can take a step back and try to enjoy the material without associating it with the actor. If you can’t, or don’t want to, it’s obviously understandable. I was personally able to watch WW and enjoy it for the masterpiece it was, while still not supporting Gal’s political standpoint outside of the movie. 

and this may sound odd, but as a Palestinian, I find there are many ways you can speak up and bring awareness than to stop yourself from enjoying the movie. I know people who never join peaceful protests, who never join fundraisers, who never donate money, etc. but they’re always the first to boycott Starbucks (for 2 days before going back to it) and now the movie, etc. And you need to take a step back and think: is drinking the starbucks cup what’s going to destroy the world?

I was hesitant walking into the movie, too, because I was disappointed in the casting of Gal. But as an actress, she did her job very well. Am I happy with the platform she’s getting as wonder woman and the all-knowing about peace? No. Am I stopping myself from enjoy the movie? Also no. 

But if you’re not able to do it, then again it’s definitely your right not to. I know some people couldn’t watch POTC because they hate Johnny Depp now, for example. It’s really all down to you and how much you can differentiate between the actor and the character.

You may also hear conflicting povs from Palestinians: some of us will tell you that watching the movie won’t really affect us, so go enjoy yourself but don’t support Gal outside the movie and spread awareness of the fact. Others will think you’re cheating them by watching the movie. So at the end of the day, it’s a very subjective matter. I’m personally more for the –– watch it and enjoy it if you can still be aware of it. The movie already broke records. The story was amazing, the characters were great, and you should def watch it if you can push aside the actor from the character for the duration of the movie.

All up to you, tbh!

[reneeacaseyfl]

Trump says Ilhan Omar ‘hates Jews’ to defend against racism claims

President Trump speaks outside the White House on Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump, unrepentant after hurling racial invective at four nonwhite lawmakers, accused one of the first two Muslim women in Congress of harboring animosity toward Jews in an apparent attempt to claim the moral high ground in an explosive contest over identity, patriotism and bigotry.

Trump asserted that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali-born refugee who fled civil war when she was 12, “says horrible things about Israel, hates Israel, hates Jews.”

“Hates Jews,” the president repeated from a lectern at the White House on Monday. “It’s very simple.”

The tactic demonstrated how aggressively the president has courted Israel and its most fervent American supporters, as well as his willingness to use that base of support as a bulwark against accusations of intolerance. So, too, it highlighted divisions within the Jewish community between those who look skeptically on a newly vocal left-wing flank of the Democratic Party and those who see these voices as natural allies in the struggle against religious prejudice.

Wrapped up in the protest against Trump’s language is discontent about how non-Jewish commentators have appointed themselves guardians of Jewish interests in a moment of rising anti-Semitism.

“I was disturbed by the president’s weaponization of people’s indignation about anti-Semitism from some of these women to cloud the accusations of racism against him,” Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, said in an interview with The Washington Post.

[Trump says they ‘hate our country.’ The Democrats he attacked say the country ‘belongs to everyone.’]

The charge of anti-Jewish animus was especially noteworthy because the quarrel’s basis — the dissent of the four freshman Democrats against an emergency border aid package and their criticism of Trump’s handling of immigration enforcement — bore no obvious relation to accusations of anti-Semitism that have dogged certain members of the liberal cadre. Omar apologized in February for comments suggesting that politicians were motivated by money to support Israel. She has also faced backlash for discussing the “allegiance” of Israel’s American proponents.

But the two issues — the fate of migrants detained at the southern border and the mounting incidents of anti-Semitism — have now been mixed together in a politically toxic brew.

When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, compared migrant detention centers to concentration camps, Trump’s allies in Congress accused her of minimizing the horrors of the Holocaust. Hundreds of historians have since signed an open letter defending the use of analogies to the Nazi genocide, though not all agree with the accuracy of the freshman lawmaker’s claim.

It was again the accusation of anti-Jewish bias that became prominent in Trump’s escalating war of words this week with the progressive women of color. In addition to verbally attacking Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, he appeared to target Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Omar and Tlaib are the first two Muslim women in Congress. Pressley is black, and Ocasio-Cortez has described herself as a “Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx.”

Trump initiated the feud when he tweeted on Sunday that the Democratic women, only one of whom was born outside the United States and all of whom are American citizens, should leave the country if they were unhappy because they “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.”

The comments were roundly condemned, with some in his own party chiding him while many others defended him against accusations of racism.

Trump, speaking at an unrelated White House event on Monday, said the women were the ones at fault. And the alleged wrong he chose to highlight, focusing in particular on Omar, was anti-Semitism. He also asserted that the women “hate our country,” in addition to Israel, and made the baseless claim that Omar sympathized with al-Qaeda. Trump previously called President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black commander in chief, a terrorist who was born in Africa.

Omar has been critical of the Israel lobby, at times using language widely seen as inflected with anti-Jewish conspiracy. Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, had advocated for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which Jews and Arabs would jointly govern. Both women support the movement known as BDS, for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Modeled on the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the campaign aims to leverage economic pressure on Israel to win Palestinian rights. It bitterly divides American Jews, notably on generational lines.

These positions have brought the freshman lawmakers into conflict with some Jewish members of Congress. One of their especially outspoken Republican critics, Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, did not take issue with the president’s remarks on Monday, instead writing on Twitter that the onus of “self reflection” was on those with a “blame America 1st mentality.”

The charge of anti-Semitism lobbed by Trump was echoed by other congressional Republicans, some of whom said they regretted the president’s style while making clear that they sided with him against the Democratic women.

Monday morning on “Fox & Friends,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) advised the president to “aim higher,” but suggested that the more grave transgressions were those committed by his colleagues on the other side of the Capitol.

“They’re anti-Semitic. They’re anti-America,” he said, also accusing the congresswomen of being communists.

Sen. Susan Collins, the self-styled moderate Republican from Maine, called Trump’s initial tweets “way over the line,” recommending that he “take that down.” But she began her statement on the matter by chiding the freshman congresswomen. Among the issues where she disagreed with them, she said, was “their anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

Trump relished the support from fellow Republicans. He quoted Graham in tweets on Monday, adding, “Need I say more?”

The Republican Jewish Coalition also promoted Graham’s statement, writing on Twitter, “He isn’t wrong.”

Meanwhile on Monday, speaking at a forum on combating anti-Semitism, Attorney General William P. Barr said a “body politic must have an immune system that resists anti-Semitism and other forms of racial hatred” and condemned “identity politics” for breeding hate.

Some American Jews have objected to the injection of concerns about anti-Semitism into partisan contest.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) drew on long-simmering resentment about the way accusations of anti-Semitism were being deployed when he responded to the president’s remarks.

“I have been pretty polite about this and so have other American Jews,” the lawmaker wrote. “But you really have to leave us out of your racist talking points.”

He protested, “Your racism is your thing and we are not your shield.”

I have been pretty polite about this and so have other American Jews. But you really have to leave us out of your racist talking points. You are not helping us, you are not helping society, you are not helping Israel. Your racism is your thing and we are not your shield.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 15, 2019

Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, struck a similar note when he observed on Twitter that Trump was harming “the Jewish community” by “using Israel to defend his blatant racism.”

“He doesn’t speak for any of us,” wrote Greenblatt, who has previously spoken out against Omar, calling statements from the freshman lawmaker plainly anti-Semitic and urging House leaders to pass a resolution clarifying that the chamber prized different values.

#AntiSemitism is on the rise.@realDonaldTrump using Israel to defend his blatant racism only hurts the Jewish community. He doesn’t speak for any of us.

We call on ALL leaders across the political spectrum to condemn these racist, xenophobic tweets & using Jews as a shield.

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) July 15, 2019

Still, others saw danger in dismissing complaints about anti-Semitism as self-serving politics. While he hardly thought Trump’s accusation absolved him of blame, Amos Bitzan, a professor of Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said he worried about describing the invocation of anti-Semitism as a shield employed by racists.

“I don’t want people to say that everyone who levels the charge of anti-Semitism is racist, or on the far right,” Bitzan said, pointing to the example of Britain’s Labour Party, which has been roiled by complaints of anti-Semitism. The concerns, the historian said, have been dismissed as a conservative attack on the party’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

But Lipstadt, the Emory professor, said Trump was brazenly attempting to pit those most concerned about racism against those most concerned about anti-Semitism. Jews, she said, should be alarmed by the president’s rhetoric about foreign loyalty, and his suggestion that the congresswomen leave the country if they are unhappy.

“One of the tropes of anti-Semitism is that Jews don’t belong, that they’re more connected to each other than to the country in which they live,” she said, also noting that it was the denial of citizenship, under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, that paved the way for the Nazi extermination.

The “terrible irony” of the conflict over race and loyalty pitting Trump against the minority lawmakers, Lipstadt said, was that the president was “hoisting Omar on her own petard” — using a racist trope about loyalty similar to the one that she apologized for enlisting earlier this year against backers of Israel.

If the controversy were to have a positive outcome, the historian said, it would be Omar gaining greater insight into how the rhetoric of loyalty and belonging is deployed. By the same token, she said, Jews who were upset by the congresswoman’s comments about loyalty to a foreign country “should be equally outraged by this comment from the president.”

“Don’t weaponize your indignation and only see it on the other side of the political transom,” Lipstadt said.

More from Morning Mix:

A neo-Nazi unleashed a ‘troll storm.’ Now he could owe his Jewish victim $14 million.

A graphic suicide scene in ’13 Reasons Why’ drew outcry. Two years later, Netflix deleted it.

Credit: Source link

The post Trump says Ilhan Omar ‘hates Jews’ to defend against racism claims appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/trump-says-ilhan-omar-hates-jews-to-defend-against-racism-claims/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-says-ilhan-omar-hates-jews-to-defend-against-racism-claims from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186327843217

[velmaemyers88]

Trump says Ilhan Omar ‘hates Jews’ to defend against racism claims

President Trump speaks outside the White House on Monday. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

President Trump, unrepentant after hurling racial invective at four nonwhite lawmakers, accused one of the first two Muslim women in Congress of harboring animosity toward Jews in an apparent attempt to claim the moral high ground in an explosive contest over identity, patriotism and bigotry.

Trump asserted that Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a Somali-born refugee who fled civil war when she was 12, “says horrible things about Israel, hates Israel, hates Jews.”

“Hates Jews,” the president repeated from a lectern at the White House on Monday. “It’s very simple.”

The tactic demonstrated how aggressively the president has courted Israel and its most fervent American supporters, as well as his willingness to use that base of support as a bulwark against accusations of intolerance. So, too, it highlighted divisions within the Jewish community between those who look skeptically on a newly vocal left-wing flank of the Democratic Party and those who see these voices as natural allies in the struggle against religious prejudice.

Wrapped up in the protest against Trump’s language is discontent about how non-Jewish commentators have appointed themselves guardians of Jewish interests in a moment of rising anti-Semitism.

“I was disturbed by the president’s weaponization of people’s indignation about anti-Semitism from some of these women to cloud the accusations of racism against him,” Deborah E. Lipstadt, a professor of Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, said in an interview with The Washington Post.

[Trump says they ‘hate our country.’ The Democrats he attacked say the country ‘belongs to everyone.’]

The charge of anti-Jewish animus was especially noteworthy because the quarrel’s basis — the dissent of the four freshman Democrats against an emergency border aid package and their criticism of Trump’s handling of immigration enforcement — bore no obvious relation to accusations of anti-Semitism that have dogged certain members of the liberal cadre. Omar apologized in February for comments suggesting that politicians were motivated by money to support Israel. She has also faced backlash for discussing the “allegiance” of Israel’s American proponents.

But the two issues — the fate of migrants detained at the southern border and the mounting incidents of anti-Semitism — have now been mixed together in a politically toxic brew.

When Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, compared migrant detention centers to concentration camps, Trump’s allies in Congress accused her of minimizing the horrors of the Holocaust. Hundreds of historians have since signed an open letter defending the use of analogies to the Nazi genocide, though not all agree with the accuracy of the freshman lawmaker’s claim.

It was again the accusation of anti-Jewish bias that became prominent in Trump’s escalating war of words this week with the progressive women of color. In addition to verbally attacking Omar and Ocasio-Cortez, he appeared to target Reps. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. Omar and Tlaib are the first two Muslim women in Congress. Pressley is black, and Ocasio-Cortez has described herself as a “Puerto Rican girl from the Bronx.”

Trump initiated the feud when he tweeted on Sunday that the Democratic women, only one of whom was born outside the United States and all of whom are American citizens, should leave the country if they were unhappy because they “originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe.”

The comments were roundly condemned, with some in his own party chiding him while many others defended him against accusations of racism.

Trump, speaking at an unrelated White House event on Monday, said the women were the ones at fault. And the alleged wrong he chose to highlight, focusing in particular on Omar, was anti-Semitism. He also asserted that the women “hate our country,” in addition to Israel, and made the baseless claim that Omar sympathized with al-Qaeda. Trump previously called President Barack Obama, the nation’s first black commander in chief, a terrorist who was born in Africa.

Omar has been critical of the Israel lobby, at times using language widely seen as inflected with anti-Jewish conspiracy. Tlaib, the daughter of Palestinian immigrants, had advocated for a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in which Jews and Arabs would jointly govern. Both women support the movement known as BDS, for boycott, divestment and sanctions. Modeled on the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, the campaign aims to leverage economic pressure on Israel to win Palestinian rights. It bitterly divides American Jews, notably on generational lines.

These positions have brought the freshman lawmakers into conflict with some Jewish members of Congress. One of their especially outspoken Republican critics, Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York, did not take issue with the president’s remarks on Monday, instead writing on Twitter that the onus of “self reflection” was on those with a “blame America 1st mentality.”

The charge of anti-Semitism lobbed by Trump was echoed by other congressional Republicans, some of whom said they regretted the president’s style while making clear that they sided with him against the Democratic women.

Monday morning on “Fox & Friends,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) advised the president to “aim higher,” but suggested that the more grave transgressions were those committed by his colleagues on the other side of the Capitol.

“They’re anti-Semitic. They’re anti-America,” he said, also accusing the congresswomen of being communists.

Sen. Susan Collins, the self-styled moderate Republican from Maine, called Trump’s initial tweets “way over the line,” recommending that he “take that down.” But she began her statement on the matter by chiding the freshman congresswomen. Among the issues where she disagreed with them, she said, was “their anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

Trump relished the support from fellow Republicans. He quoted Graham in tweets on Monday, adding, “Need I say more?”

The Republican Jewish Coalition also promoted Graham’s statement, writing on Twitter, “He isn’t wrong.”

Meanwhile on Monday, speaking at a forum on combating anti-Semitism, Attorney General William P. Barr said a “body politic must have an immune system that resists anti-Semitism and other forms of racial hatred” and condemned “identity politics” for breeding hate.

Some American Jews have objected to the injection of concerns about anti-Semitism into partisan contest.

Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) drew on long-simmering resentment about the way accusations of anti-Semitism were being deployed when he responded to the president’s remarks.

“I have been pretty polite about this and so have other American Jews,” the lawmaker wrote. “But you really have to leave us out of your racist talking points.”

He protested, “Your racism is your thing and we are not your shield.”

I have been pretty polite about this and so have other American Jews. But you really have to leave us out of your racist talking points. You are not helping us, you are not helping society, you are not helping Israel. Your racism is your thing and we are not your shield.

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) July 15, 2019

Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League, struck a similar note when he observed on Twitter that Trump was harming “the Jewish community” by “using Israel to defend his blatant racism.”

“He doesn’t speak for any of us,” wrote Greenblatt, who has previously spoken out against Omar, calling statements from the freshman lawmaker plainly anti-Semitic and urging House leaders to pass a resolution clarifying that the chamber prized different values.

#AntiSemitism is on the rise.@realDonaldTrump using Israel to defend his blatant racism only hurts the Jewish community. He doesn’t speak for any of us.

We call on ALL leaders across the political spectrum to condemn these racist, xenophobic tweets & using Jews as a shield.

— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) July 15, 2019

Still, others saw danger in dismissing complaints about anti-Semitism as self-serving politics. While he hardly thought Trump’s accusation absolved him of blame, Amos Bitzan, a professor of Jewish history at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, said he worried about describing the invocation of anti-Semitism as a shield employed by racists.

“I don’t want people to say that everyone who levels the charge of anti-Semitism is racist, or on the far right,” Bitzan said, pointing to the example of Britain’s Labour Party, which has been roiled by complaints of anti-Semitism. The concerns, the historian said, have been dismissed as a conservative attack on the party’s left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

But Lipstadt, the Emory professor, said Trump was brazenly attempting to pit those most concerned about racism against those most concerned about anti-Semitism. Jews, she said, should be alarmed by the president’s rhetoric about foreign loyalty, and his suggestion that the congresswomen leave the country if they are unhappy.

“One of the tropes of anti-Semitism is that Jews don’t belong, that they’re more connected to each other than to the country in which they live,” she said, also noting that it was the denial of citizenship, under the 1935 Nuremberg Laws, that paved the way for the Nazi extermination.

The “terrible irony” of the conflict over race and loyalty pitting Trump against the minority lawmakers, Lipstadt said, was that the president was “hoisting Omar on her own petard” — using a racist trope about loyalty similar to the one that she apologized for enlisting earlier this year against backers of Israel.

If the controversy were to have a positive outcome, the historian said, it would be Omar gaining greater insight into how the rhetoric of loyalty and belonging is deployed. By the same token, she said, Jews who were upset by the congresswoman’s comments about loyalty to a foreign country “should be equally outraged by this comment from the president.”

“Don’t weaponize your indignation and only see it on the other side of the political transom,” Lipstadt said.

More from Morning Mix:

A neo-Nazi unleashed a ‘troll storm.’ Now he could owe his Jewish victim $14 million.

A graphic suicide scene in ’13 Reasons Why’ drew outcry. Two years later, Netflix deleted it.

Credit: Source link

The post Trump says Ilhan Omar ‘hates Jews’ to defend against racism claims appeared first on WeeklyReviewer.

from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.com/trump-says-ilhan-omar-hates-jews-to-defend-against-racism-claims/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=trump-says-ilhan-omar-hates-jews-to-defend-against-racism-claims from WeeklyReviewer https://weeklyreviewer.tumblr.com/post/186327843217