#as to why your response when Jews tell you that you are wrong about anti-Jewish violence

[slyandthefamilybook]

Who is the antisemite?

I've made many a post about the nature of antisemitism, and I don't expect I'll ever stop. But I've made relatively few posts about antisemites, who they are, and why they are. I don't mean to make a list of every antisemite in the world; I wouldn't be able to finish it before I died at my keyboard. Instead I want to explore a bit into the nature of antisemitic belief and what draws people to it, in the hopes of helping people recognize their own behaviors. This won't be a thorough taxonomy, but will focus on something I believe is at–or close to–the heart of the issue.

When I tell people antisemitism can have a racial component the response I usually get is, "but Jewish isn't a race so you can't be racist against Jews!" Now it's true that "Jewish" is not (currently) one of the accepted racial categories (up until some time in the 1950s you could list your race on U.S. censi as "Hebrew"), but that's not exactly what I mean. What I mean is that there's a pattern of thought that's part-and-parcel of racism and racist ideas, even if it's not always deployed against what we would consider a race. That pattern is bio-essentialism–the belief that there are certain inherent and largely invariant differences between discrete groups of people. This, for example, explains the significant overlap between racism and transphobia, if not always in practice than in thought. If you believe these differences exist along racial lines, it's simple enough to map them onto sex as well. Bio-essentialism is not the only driving force behind racism, but it is a significant one, and one that can be reasonably used as a predictor of racist thought. In this sense, focusing on phenotypes common among Jews (prominent noses, dark curly hair, olive skin) can have a racial component, and can result in behaviors and attitudes that behave like racism, even if Jews aren't a "race".

So we have racial antisemitism, and from here we can sit around and postulate on other alchemical combinations; the intersection of antisemitism and sexism, for example, resulting in stereotypes about nagging Jewish wives, overbearing Jewish mothers, and the Jewish American Princess. The intersection of antisemitism and patriarchy, creating anxieties about weak or effeminate Jewish men. Antisemitism and classism; antisemitism and homophobia; antisemitism and anti-theism; and on and on. But what about anti-Jewish antisemitism? What do we find that makes people hate Jews for being Jews?

I'm going to lean fairly heavily on Anti-Judaism: The Western Tradition by intellectual historian David Nirenberg. It's a fantastic albeit excruciating read, and I highly recommend everyone–Jewish and not–pick it up from their local library.

Much like the habits of bio-essentialism characterize much of racism, obsession with blame is (I believe) the core driver of anti-Jewish antisemitism. Specifically blame of the other, although that's generally merely step two in the process. Jews occupy a fairly unique position in the world in that in the vast majority of places where we live we don't really belong. We're treated as guests, reliant on the grace and magnanimity of our hosts to ensure our protection and survival. Part of this is our own doing; throughout the Diaspora our struggle to cohere to our identity has set us apart from everyone else. We don't like to assimilate any more than we have to. But it would be wrong to place the blame for our status entirely on our shoulders, so I will not do so. For the purposes of this post let us take it prima facie that Jews maintain a role of perpetual outsiders–among the nations of the world but not of them.

Throughout history this status has allowed our hosts to define themselves in opposition to us. Jews, who never really belonged, became emblematic of whatever ill the current society, religion, or philosophy decided was most pressing. We gave people opportunity to externalize their own faults, to shift blame from themselves and their comrades to nefarious interlopers. To recontextualize their responsibility to themselves into a Manichaean (I use the word deliberately) struggle between darkness and light. If the anxieties of the day centered around hypocrisy, Jewish Rabbis were the hypocrites you should strive to be unlike. If it was infidelity, it was the Jewess temptresses who were to blame. If it was greed, it was certainly the Jewish bankers who were at fault.

Perhaps my use of past-tense verbs is misleading; this is still the nature of antisemitism today. But this is certainly also how it began. The urge to excise culpability is a fairly common one. It crosses cultural boundaries and expresses itself in toddlers the world around. And so whither the Jews went, childish vindictiveness followed.

When we understand how antisemitism is used as a tool, we can begin to understand the work it does for those who use it. Antisemitism is the antidote to critical thought, to skepticism and self-reflection. It creates a "them", not in reality but in the mind. It explains failure not through any self-conscious rumination, but in the creation of vagrants, infiltrators, and saboteurs.

It now becomes clear why nearly every conspiracy theory is antisemitic, or rapidly hurtling in that direction. One of the cornerstones of conspiratorial thought (as expounded by Michael Barkun in A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America) is the belief that the conspiracies are composed out outside forces. When neo-Nazis compose their "Every Aspect of _____ is Jewish" flyers, they can hardly focus on the fact that the vast majority of the people they blame are American. Americans are the in-group and as such cannot be at fault. Jews are an easily accessible out-group, in part because Jewishness is so "sneaky" (you can be Jewish and not even know it! Even Wikipedia can't seem to decide when someone is Jewish or not!). When people believe that the CIA was responsible for assassinating John F. Kennedy, it's never in their capacity as red-blooded patriotic Americans; it's always the result of insiders from Russia, China, and ultimately, Jews. Even conspiracy theories that don't explicitly name Jews are engaged in antisemitic thought, so long as they seek to pin events on the actions of "them". There's a reason "they" has become memetic in neo-Nazi circles; those who are "them" are most assuredly not "us".

It also becomes clear how and why antisemitism traverses political boundaries, and infects discourse left, right, and center. The extremes–the far-right and far-left (for all the usefulness of the political spectrum, which is not much)–are more prone to antisemitic thought precisely because they are so far from the norm. The more you see wrong with society the more you seek those who are responsible. (Again it's important to note that "antisemitic thought" in this context refers to the habit of looking for outsiders to blame, and does not always map perfectly onto open bigotry toward "real Jews".) When England is close to being a perfect country, it is only through the actions of the Jews that it is prevented from becoming so. When Sovyet communism begins to collapse in on itself, it is certainly the Jews who are accused. It is never "us" or "we"; it is always "they" and "them". And in a fit of cruel irony, when antisemitism becomes un-fashionable, the "no-true-scotsman" fallacy is often deployed, assigning the use of conspiratorial bigotry to impersonators and pretenders.

So what can we do? What can we learn, and how can we change? We can start by resolving to think critically, to not take the easy answers. We can look inward, not outward, and find things to improve in ourselves, rather than assuming that our faults are not our fault. We can be skeptical of conspiracy theories, of people who want to direct our anger in ways that serve their own goals. As always, we can protect and uplift Jews and Jewish communities worldwide. We can orient ourselves toward finding solutions, instead of finding reasons for why we can't. We can unlearn the thought patterns, cliches, and habits of antisemitic thought, or that lead to antisemitic thought. We can stop trying to look for the bad people, and start trying to be the good people.

[weirdmageddon]

i posted this on twitter also but it’s still eating at me. i’m so fucking embarrassed to be jewish rn. i dont want to be associated with this ongoing bullshit from israel. why do we need our own state. theyre just making every jew across the globe look bad in general even though many of us are conflicted about zionism and the legitimacy of israel as a state

people have hated jews throughout history for no fuckin reason but now israel exists but now its like. GIVING people reasons to hate us as a group. note that i DON’T conflate zionism with jewishness, but a lot of people in the world don’t know the difference because theyre uninformed and been dripfed cultural antisemitic tropes their whole life and that’s the scary part is them falsely putting two and two together. like what the fuck israel stop youre just putting fuel on the fire for people around the world to hate an entire group of historically persecuted people if youre being this shitty with your insane colonialism and apartheid like……I Want No Fuckin Part Of This. you’re spelling our own doom. you cant just swoop in and go “mine now” and then oppress the people you took land from under a regime without my blood boiling at the injustice no matter WHO you are. even if my lineage is tied to you. so when news outlets support israel it doesn’t feel like they have the best interest of jews as a people in mind. it’s in the interest of a zionist ethnostate and whatever that christian zionism belief is about the jewish people returning to the holy land as prerequisite for the second coming of jesus. its not like they care about us as a dispersed ethnocultural group, it’s all for that religious narrative that a bunch of people in the US are backing.

saying you want all jews to die is antisemitic. beating someone up because they’re jewish and no other reason without knowing their views is antisemitic. criticizing human rights violations perpetrated by israel and the belief that one group deserves more rights another is not antisemitic. and the fact that israel has the ability to pull that antisemitism card in response to criticisms of the violations they commit because their state is the “jewish homeland” drives me fucking insane. take fucking accountability for your actions. and yes, there do exist full-on anti-jewish groups in the middle east that go beyond hatred of israel’s policies and existence as a state and i’m tired of people pretending there aren’t in fear of appearing to seem like they support the state of israel. on the other side of things many people overestimate this by fearmongering and saying EVERY arab is out to get jews worldwide, telling people like me “they want YOU dead”. this is not the belief every person in the middle east and it really rubs me the wrong way that people group millions of individuals into all-encompassing lumps like this. many people there do understand nuance of this political situation.

even if i have that “right of return” by israeli law or whatever, i don’t feel obliged to it; it does not register as fair. why do i have a “right of return” when i’ve never even been there in the first place while palestinians who have homes there can’t return to them? what’s the basis for that? substituting objective reality with an imaginary reality? i don’t think like that. i can hypothetically come and go whenever i please but palestinians are severely limited in mobility? what makes me more entitled to that land than the people who lived there for centuries? nothing that comes from natural law thats for sure. it’s all artificial and inflated.

but at the same time i also dont want to be the target of antisemitism and caught in the fray just for being ethnically jewish. once people start calling for the genocide of entire groups we’ve got issues (and you better believe this absolutely applies to the palestinian victims in gaza too), because people who dissent to the violence perpetrated by the loudest are caught in there with the people who are perpetrating the violence. lack of nuance. people conflating israel and its zionist apartheid policies with jewish ethnicity and culture worldwide. other people conflating being terrorist anti-jew with muslims worldwide (like that 6-year old palestinian-american boy that was just stabbed to death in chicago). scary times man. but as a jew i can’t just opt out of this if it’s how i was born as. i don’t have control over that. but i can control what i think and what my beliefs are

[woman-respecter]

I’m Mizrahi and akajustmerry is just your regular Arab antisemite. I was going to be level headed about this but I am going to be a massive cunt instead.

Any Arab who says their family fought against Zionism is an antisemite. When Mizrahi Jews faced an actual genocide at the hands of Arab countries and forced into Israel (the popular belief is that WE CHOSE TO LEAVE so let that sink in), it was and is still considered anti Zionism. Why? Because most Arabs and Muslims in general have effectively and brilliantly absorbed their antisemitism into “ANTI ZIONISM” since the beginning so no, they can’t possibly ever be antisemitic when Israel is soooo bad and mean and evil :(

If you look at akajustmerry’s account, you will see no sort of self reflection. Arabs have been babied so much by the West that they will never stop to consider the possibility that they can be antisemitic. The typical response is “We’re semites”. Losing all common sense because they refuse to be held accountable. I have lost my fucking mind and been in countless fights with Arabs/Muslims because they refuse to acknowledge that they have oppressed us and they continue to. I know you’re a white Jew in America who probably don’t feel like it’s your place to talk about these things but Mizrahi Jews need your help. Seriously. What you’re dealing with since October 7th has been Soviet antisemitism mixed with Arab antisemitism.

Celebrities wearing those red hand pins “in honor of Palestine”. Girl Arabs have been haunting Mizrahim with red hands since forever. They did it to us during the Farhud, for example. It’s classic blood libel. There’s a joke that Arab antisemites are obsessed with dogs (their go to insult for “Zionists”). Well, they’re obsessed with telling us we have blood on our hands. It is so important that you read and educate yourself about Arab/Islamic antisemitism.

Going back to akajustmerry’s account, you will immediately see a HUGE issue. What is it you may ask? Well, they don’t believe in peace. They believe in a one state solution where Israel is destroyed and Israelis “face the consequences of their inherently evil behavior” aka be genocided again. Their entire account is filled with hatred against Israelis, wanting them be punished and killed, believing in CLASSIC antisemitic conspiracies that are INHERENTLY ANTISEMITIC such as ZOG (ZIONIST OCCUPIED GOVERNMENT). They believe this is okay because Israelis are “white Europeans” but at least half of Israelis (and most “Jews of color”) are Mizrahi who they forcibly removed from the Arab world, claiming we were all Zionists. But to acknowledge this means that they have to own up to their wrongs. so we may be here forever. A lot of us were Zionists but some of us were anti Zionist as communists and that meant NOTHING because all of us paid the price and it’s not the fault of Zionism. It was your classic case of “ugh, the Jews don’t want to be citizens of our countries, they’re scheming behind our backs and are only loyal to themselves”. Because to be Jewish is to be Zionist to Arabs. People don’t realize this but in the Muslim world, Israel and Zionism and Jews are one. which makes sense because most Jews are Zionist. we have integrated Zionism as a major part of us. Let’s not lie. Israel is very important to Jews. More than half of the world’s Jewish population lives there. so their convenient anti Zionism ends up encompassing all of us hence the inevitable antisemitism. The fact that they won’t self reflect or even put up a front where they hide their antisemitism and pretend to care about being accidentally antisemitic to the good ones SAYS A LOT. Akajustmerry got an anon accusing them of being antisemitic and their response was ZIONIST!!! and that was that. When any Jew you don’t like is a Zionist, well. What are you?

Lastly. All I have to say is. there are HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF ARABS. there are OVER A BILLION MUSLIMS. does this ever happen naturally? no. it was through colonization and genocide. they are no stranger to that. and yet Israel is bad? I wouldn’t have any problems with them hating Israel if they were at least honest and fair. They are no stranger to people doing bad things in their name. There are a fuckton of terrorist groups and extremists (majorly fucking up the Middle East btw) who are Muslim/Arab and many many of them are proudly supported by other Muslims/Arabs. To single out Israel is batshit insane. Mizrahi Jews in Europe (for example France) are facing some huge problems because the much larger Muslim population transported their antisemitism problem there. Think Sarah Halimi, Ilan Halimi. The second intifada enabled Muslim extremists in France to create a wave of antisemitism in response to “supporting Palestinians”. Of course any Jew would have to be insane to think Muslims are our enemy. So why are Arabs and Muslims allowed to think that of us, of Israelis and Israel and Zionists in particular? That will never be normal. Wait guys I think it’s…antisemitic….

They always say we cry antisemitism. If you spoke Arabic you’d know Arabic social media is just straight up saying yahud (jew in arabic but casually used as a slur by like everyone) instead of Zionist. They don’t even pretend. Al Jazeera knows their audience and just says yahud when talking about Israel/Israelis/Zionists.

So yeah to pick apart Jews and to say batshit insane things like anything about Israel that’s positive is propaganda. Well that’s fucking insane. it’s a complete denial of reality where Israel and Zionism is not important to the vast majority of Jews. current anti Zionism (and anti Zionism in general) has always been about ignoring reality. Because the common belief in order to pretend you’re not antisemitic JUST ANTI ZIONIST is that well only a few Jews (the bad ones) are Zionist therefore we aren’t the bad guys. but also everyone’s a Zionist because of the Zionist machine since the ZIOS (slur created by David Duke the KKK guy) control the world.

this is a long ask and i don’t 100% agree w every part of it but yeah i think ur right about how oppressed mizrahi jews have been, mostly by arab communities, and how it seems we aren’t allowef to talk about it. amd i absolutely would not be surprised if “fighting zionism” for that person entailed making lebanese mizrahi miserable or worse. i think also it’s funny when these people pretend they care about mizrahi when they can act like ur noble savages oppressed by the evil “white” ashkenazi jews when they are supporting the people who persecuted mizrahi jews most (not that u aren’t also oppressed within the jewish community at times, it’s just a less deadly oppression than literal murder etc)

[historicity-was-already-taken]

Welcome New Followers Post xiv

gonna make this bullet points of Things to Know because deadlines, but hi! welcome!

-this is not a jewish identity or a jumblr blog. i am a jewish person and a holocaust historian, so my content often overlaps with those realms of tumblr

-this is first and foremost a public history blog. public history and public historians do history for the public. we're passionate about transmitting complex historical topics from the academe to the people, and we're in constant (one-sided lmao) conversation with entities such as: film writers and producers, textbook writers, government bodies, journalists, etc regarding the construction of public memory, and the responsibilities that entails

-you don't have to ask if something is ok to reblog. I appreciate the thought, but unless I turn off reblogs or specifically ask people not to engage in certain ways, you're fine, that said:

-I do see and read all tags, replies, and rbs. I consider them public, and I often respond to them as new posts. If you want to engage with me and don't want others to see, then send me an ask which includes the words "please respond privately"

-You can should disagree with me and tell me when you think I'm wrong! Now, I won't lie, years of existing as a young-appearing hyper feminine (i like skirts and bows and sparkly shoes it is what it is) female, Jewish historian have made me defensive and bitey af, and I often misread neutral tones as "coming for me" tones and respond in kind. I apologize for when/if that happens to you, and I assure that, once I realize you're not coming at me in bad faith, I will feel horribly guilty.

-There is a learning curve here. I don't have any desire to gatekeep my blog (it's the opposite tbh), but I do use high level terms which can have multiple meanings in different contexts. I actively try to avoid using impenetrable academic jargon in this space, but sometimes that jargon is the only appropriate phrasing available. In those cases, I urge you to do some research and poke around and then, if you still don't understand what I mean, DM me.

-I am a white, American woman. I am actively anti-racist, and anti-bigotry in general, but there will be times when I do or say something clueless or privileged. If you see that and you have the energy, please tell me! I want this blog to be a welcome place for all,* and I appreciate call-outs as an opportunity for (un)learning.

-Building on that, this is an anti-bigotry space which I'd like people of all demographics and identities to feel comfortable engaging with.* That said, I don't play nice when some random corner of tumblr rolls up in here and barfs their shit all over my posts.

-I am a cringe millennial. I started this blog in 2011, when I was 21, had just finished college, before I'd heard back from any graduate schools, and before I had much resembling a career. I am currently 34. It's fine. But a lot of you are in your teens and 20s and are just starting on your careers, so like, please don't negatively compare yourselves to me or get self-deprecating when/if you want to contact me. We all learn and achieve at different paces and that's ok.

-My book, The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto, will be released in Fall 2025. Trust me I will be screaming from the rooftops and you will not miss the announcements lmao.

-If I don't reply to an ask or a DM, it's not because I hate you. There are 800 reasons why I may not reply, and none of them are personal.

and finally

-I am not your Good Leftist Anti-Zionist Jew. I am not here as a rhetorical cudgel for left-wing anti-Semites who seek out Jews with politics similar to mine to then use as a weapon against other Jewish folks. Don't fucking do it.

*That does not mean that everything I post here will make you feel comfortable. History isn't supposed to make you feel comfortable. Sometimes, it can and should make you feel actively uncomfortable, because that discomfort/cognitive dissonance means you're learning (keep your cognitive dissonance temper tantrums tf away from me, tho). It does mean that I, as an individual, want you all to feel that this is a space where you are welcome to learn and ask questions.

i tried to use bullet points to keep this short, and i failed miserably. on brand.

[mariacallous]

Down the road from where I live a friend came across a man tearing down pictures of Israeli hostages. You’ve probably seen the portraits by bus stops and railway stations. Activists print them off from sites highlighting the hostages’ plight and fly-post pictures of the men, women and children Hamas kidnapped.

As the hostages are civilians, my friend asked why would anyone want to destroy their pictures.

He was beaten up for his pains. Defending innocent Jewish civilians makes you an accomplice of Benjamin Netanyahu in London today.

And not just in London. Anti-Jewish hatred in the UK has exploded since Hamas attacked Israel – recorded incidents have doubled.  The violence my friend experienced is still rare, thankfully. But the fear of Islamist terrorism or just everyday thugs running riot is everywhere in the Jewish community, and to a lesser extent in wider society as well.

A drumbeat of stories builds the tension.

Belatedly and reluctantly, the Labour party disowned its Muslim candidate in the forthcoming Rochdale by-election. He had all the usual prejudices, and a few I had not heard about before.

He imagined that “people in the media from certain Jewish quarters” were targeting pro-Palestinian politicians, and that the Israeli state had allowed Hamas to rape, shoot and burn alive 1200 of its people because it wanted a pretext to invade Gaza.

As I am writing this piece, there’s news of a (white) comedian, who describes himself as an “experimental fusionist” and an “absurdist laughter chef,” and is just as stupid as his description implies. In a scene redolent of medieval prejudice, he encouraged the audience at the Soho Theatre in central London to chant “get the fuck out” and “free Palestine” at a Jewish member of the audience.

Incidentally the Soho Theatre is on the site of the old West End Great Synagogue, built at a time when Jews were welcome in London

Before that Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch, the Jewish chaplain of Leeds University, his wife and two kids were moved to a safe house on  police advice after receiving hundreds of death threats.

Online “activists” pointed out the rabbi had served in the Israeli Defence Force, and so presumably any number of violent threats were justified.

The justification, such as it is, would have carried more plausibility if incidents of hatred had not exploded as soon as the news of the Hamas massacres broke in October.  They were celebrations of anti-Jewish violence not a reaction to the violence of the Israeli armed forces.

If you doubt that there are reasons to be frightened, go to your nearest synagogue and see the guards. Or talk to the parents of Jewish children and hear them describe how Jewish schools tell pupils to discard uniforms that allow potential attackers to mark them out as targets.

All of this and much more is causing deep alarm in the Jewish community, and a dangerous reaction among right-wing Jewish pressure groups, who are getting the response to racism about as wrong as they possibly can.

Here’s how.

The Jewish right is caught up in the same paranoid ideology of the rest of the modern British right, and indeed of the Trumpian right in the United States. It sees the woke mind virus everywhere. It assumes that progressives have marched through the institutions and made them borderline antisemitic, if not all-out racist.

In the case of violence against Jews, the supposed triumph of wokedom means that ideologically compromised police officers will not protect Jews by standing up to far leftists and Islamists.

 The Campaign Against Antisemitism, has encouraged its allies in the Conservative government to introduce ever-greater restrictions on rights to protest. This week it was welcoming new punishments for demonstrators who desecrate war memorials (who could already be prosecuted under existing law) and who wear face coverings to conceal their identity.

I do not want to condemn the campaign out of hand. There’s no doubt the pro-Palestinian marches in London frighten Jewish people. Some  90% of British Jews say that they would avoid travelling to a city centre if a major anti-Israel demonstration was underway.

There is no doubt, too, that fear of violence is not just confined to Jews. It is everywhere, although we don’t like to talk about it.

People disappear in ​the UK for offending Islamists, and respectable society looks the other way. Before the rabbi at Leeds University, there was a religious studies teacher at a Yorkshire school. Three-years ago he showed his students a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad. He still remains in hiding and is unlikely ever to return home.

The UK is nowhere near being the free country it pretends to be. I understand why so many are frightened. That said, you can still look at right-wing politicians and organisations and wonder where they are heading.

While praising Conservative ministers’ trifling changes to the law, which are little better than PR stunts, the Campaign Against Antisemitism denounces the police.

“For months now, we have been asking for tougher restrictions to be placed on these protests, which have made our urban centres no-go zones for Jews. While the police have failed the Jewish community and law-abiding Londoners, the Government, to its credit, is listening. These new laws will help address the mob mentality that we have observed in these protests. There is no justification for such scenes, and now, there will be no legal defence.”

Jewish leaders who work to protect the community told me on condition of anonymity that the attacks on the police make no sense. They consult with officers regularly, they say. The idea that the police are part of some woke conspiracy to ignore radical Islam and turn a blind eye to potential terrorism is ridiculous.

So it is, and it conceals a dangerous desire.

For if you think that conservatives are yearning to ban peaceful demonstrations, you are not wrong. Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman, his radical right home secretary last year, tried to force the police to do just that.

Braverman fell into anti-woke conspiracy theory and accused the police of taking a tougher approach to right-wing groups than to “pro-Palestinian mobs displaying almost identical behaviour”.

The Met to its credit refused to buckle under the pressure. Officers told the politicians they could interfere with freedom of assembly only if there was a threat of serious disorder, and that the "very high threshold" has not been reached.

The right has not given up. Here is the Campaign Against Antisemitism again.

“The people of this country expect the lawlessness on our streets to be brought firmly under control, and with these changes there are now even fewer excuses for police inaction.”

The attack follows the Campaign’s previous denunciations of London’s liberal Muslim mayor Sadiq Khan (which I covered here). Khan has gone out of his way to defend London’s Jews, but is the centre of a far-right and at times a fascistic hate campaign from Donald Trump and others, simply because he is a Muslim.

Yearning for bans is hopeless from both a moral and practical point of view. Tactically, it is all wrong. I can think of nothing more likely to fuel conspiracy theories about Jewish power than the banning of demonstrations.

If they were turning into riots, it would be another matter, and they should be banned regardless of the conspiracy theories.

But they are not degenerating into riots, and in a free country, people should be free to protest. We do not want to be governed by the Western equivalent of Hamas, after all.

Equally if protestors are not engaged in violence or the incitement to violence, it is a waste of police time suppressing them: police time which – and forgive me if I am labouring the obvious – could be better spent countering authentic threats to Jews and everyone else.

For who on earth do right-wing Jewish groups think stand between them and Islamist terrorism? The Tory party? The comment desk of the Daily Telegraph? A professional loudmouth on GB News?

Or the police service they waste so much time and energy denigrating?

[girlwithlionmane]

Vetting every Jew you see to see if they’re Zionist or not and announcing it to make sure your goy friends know is feeding into antisemitism b t w

Like….yes and no.

Assuming every Jew is a Zionist is antisemitic, yes, but that’s not something I do, especially since I’ve had that exact flavor of antisemitism directed at me in the past. (Not something you would know about me, so I’m including it. I’m not mentioning it as a like get out of jail free card that I’ve also experienced this.)

However, a lot of popular Jumblr bloggers have made it very clear in the last few months that they are in fact Zionists. I don’t know all of them, and there’s no way for me to—unless I take the time to scroll through each Jumblr blog I come across, there’s no way for me to know one way or the other how they feel about Israel. I would like to have the time and the energy to look at each blog, because just like it’s important to me not to reblog from TERFs, it’s important to me not to reblog from Zionists. That being said, the time and the emotional bandwidth that that takes are not things that I have, specifically because I’m also Jewish and it uhhhh really hurts to find out that another Jew is in fact a Zionist.

So, really, I’m not expecting every Jew I see on tumblr to be a Zionist, but if I haven’t previously encountered them before, I’m going to have a certain level of caution when interacting with their blog, just like I would when I interact with feminist blogs. Is this good for my mental health as a Jew either? No lol but it’s the safest course of action on a site where if I reblog from the wrong person I *will* get anons about it.

Relatedly, I’m not “announcing to my goy friends” that I’m vetting Jumblr bloggers, I’m literally venting in the tags about how difficult the conundrum is of being an anti-Zionist Jew on this site. I expressed my feelings in the tags of a post in an effort to avoid getting anons telling me that I had reblogged from a Zionist, and instead I’m getting anons accusing me of contributing to antisemitism. Do you see why I’m stuck? I’m damned if I do, damned if I don’t.

And yeah I suppose I could turn anon off but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I don’t want to shut out people who use the feature in good faith.

Have a good night, anon. This long winded response might not be good enough for you, but it might be interesting to some people.

[jewishbarbies]

ok so i t h i n k i get most of the stuff on your dni but what did mcr do? ive never heard anything problematic about them

And then other things, despite having a basic idea of why theyre problematic, its only that... a basic idea

a masterlist or smth would be really helpful because as an example, looking up taika waititi, the only thing i see him having done wrong is changing the tone of the mcu?

Sorry i just don't understand and i wanna know and as much as i wanna follow the "just google it law" im still not getting much info

I don’t have receipts because the tweets were relatively quickly deleted, but mcr is on it because gerard way is an antisemitic dick. he was just ignorant in his defense of making captain america, a jewish character with golem qualities whose original purpose was to fight hitler, a nazi for fun. but when he was educated on why Jews were rightfully upset, he doubled down and called us all snowflakes, essentially, and said it was an attack on artistry. like those comedians who think comedy is untouchable by criticism just because people wanna laugh at racist and bigoted jokes. the response was overall antisemitic and I don’t fuck with that.

taika is on the list because he’s an arrogant asshole that uses rapist language and he’s overall just unlikeable as a person, and I don’t get along well with the kind of people who actually like him. the language was telling someone genuinely just critical (not a hater or even being disrespectful) that they “didn’t know what they wanted until he gave it to them”, and it rubbed a lot of people the wrong way for good reason.

you can probably search my blog with tags like #anti(whatever it is) and get some posts on why it’s on the list if you need more info.

[catsconflictscopicsandchamomile]

not sure what you're trying to insinuate here with "you say you are Jewish".

I am Jewish. By heritage. Matrilineal. Polish & Russian if you were wondering.

and, given current events, when I find out that people I respect are Jewish

ESPECIALLY in this context

I become concerned over their views on genocide.

Not all Jews are Zionists. Opposing anti-semitism is NOT the same as supporting Israel/being a zionist

but, especially with ppl who are rich/white/famous/etc, they tend to go together. I hate that this is a fact. it supports ALL of the worst stereotypes about our people and wipes away the VERY many jews who are standing against the Palestinian genocide.

However (again since I can't really tell how good your reading comprehension is here) MAINLY WHEN THE PERSON SPEAKING IS A CELEB/FAMOUS ARTIST, and IF I HAVE NOT SEEN THEM SPEAKING OUT OTHERWISE ON THIS ISSUE

then yes

I have concerns

and if they are someone I hold in high regard

I will ask the important questions in the hopes that they won't be as bad as most celebs (JEWISH OR NOT) inevitably seem to be

oh yeah bc also. I will ask this of random celebs online whether they are Jewish or not, if they bring up something even tangentially related. like. I'm just gonna do that. sorry if you dont like seeing it.

that being said. I just got home from school. opened my tumblr. and saw this. and honestly its pissing me off. I hope this was a good-faith answer (though whatever "you say you are Jewish" is trying to insinuate doesn't appear particularly Nice), I gave it my best good-faith response. there's no "lack of awareness" on my end. I'm FULLY aware of the deeply unfortunate and troubling way that the issues discussed here interact, and with that awareness I CHOSE to ask this question here

maybe you should consider why that upsets you.

Zionism IS Antisemitism, it is the biggest danger to the Jewish people, goes against the Jewish faith (though personally do not practice) and is a disgrace to our heritage.

and also its a war crime and sorry but there's really no WRONG time to be like "hey btw, Famous Person On The Internet Who Will Likely Never See This Or Know I Exist, why haven't you spoken out about the GENOCIDE?"

anyway if you're still pissed idk what to tell u. block, mute and move on, or yell urself blue in the face if you want but im not responding anymore.

fed up

cant say shit on this site

who rly has the lack of awareness here

You mentioned you like Stephen Fry! Be wary, he is a Yid and he is only friends with you to extract wealth, which is the primary objective of a Jew. He may seem nice to you but in reality all he wants is more sympathisers and your money. You can't trust a Jew as far as you throw it. No need to thank me, education on them should be mandatory not volentery. Dirty, evil creatures. Keep up the good work with the books.

Look, this is a bit embarrassing, but I’m afraid that I’m a fully-paid-up honest-to-goodness barmitzvahed-and-circumcised Jew myself. And while I would, of course, like sympathisers and money, I most certainly do not want yours.

Also, it’s spelled ‘voluntary’.

[brick-van-dyke]

Then don't condescent to mine which you've done repetitively and don't try to investigate my heritage and try to dissect it for me to be allowed to talk, which you've also done multiple times. If you want respect, you have to give it. But you have been nothing of the sort so why should I grant you that? You don't respect Yorta Yorta culture or land back, you co-opt our movement to excuse your own actions despite knowing it DOESN'T mean any of what you've said (again, it's a right to sacred sites and to practice, not exiling whoever else is around), you don't respect the rule of not killing, you're okay with making land uninhabitable for you or others, and you're okay with pollution from the conflict so?? What the hell is your point here?? That you just want to OWN the land? The fuck is Jewish about that? The fuck is LAND BACK about killing the animals and nature on that land? If you just want to say "it's line! I have a deed!" That's totally only political and power motivated and NOTHING to do with land back so keep our movement out of your mouth??

And, again, reading comprehension. I said it typically is orthodox Jews. I never fucking said "there are no Zionist orthodox Jews", sorry you suck at readying, but that's really not my problem.

Israel has over three meanings in ancient Hebrew, and all of them refer back to God and his rule. To claim it as something else literally makes no sense?? "Israel is a man made land" is basically like saying "god is man made" which is...yeah it's not Judaism I'll tell you that. If your religion refuses god and his rule, that's not a religion. Israel refers to god himself, his rule and his people. Israelites are the people of God, literally, they have to follow his rule or they are not his people/ will be sent into exile or punishment for doing so. That's the whole point??

The thing is that if I know orthodox Jews who are anti zionist, you're immediate response isn't "oh okay, I'm not but they exist", it's "they can't exist because I do". Which is fucked up, right? Like you understand that telling people that "this specific type of Jew can't exist because I exist" is literally my entire point of why I think that you sound antisemetic when you say this? Like "that's the wrong Jew and they shouldn't exist" is gross, you can disagree but to claim they should not exist because you do?? Nah. That's not community, that's bloodline obsession bullshit with entitlement over what it means to be allowed to live and have a religion, and that's why I'm so angry. White people say this to us as Yorta Yorta all the time, but we don't. We don't tell each other we're not indigenous enough or refute each other's existence because of where we sit. The only, and I mean ONLY, exception is when they deny us our culture or claim we should be dead. Which is what I often find I'm hearing from Zionists to non Zionist Jews; "if you're not with us you're not allowed to exist".

And yes, to tie back to the terf example it's exactly the same as "well you're not enough of a woman I'd you don't have XX chromosomes" and "well Real queers believe this so you can't exist as a queer". I get it so often, I'm told I can't be bi, gay, or anything if the sort if I let trans people exist. I'm told I personally can't be queer if I am trans because "well I'm queer and not trans so you can't be queer!" It's such a far right talking point and you all just. Don't care if you align with them and use the same rhetoric, as long as it benefits you. You wanna know why I'm so mad at your land back shit? Because you don't respect OUR right to land back and would rather use it than actually show any solidarity so yeah I'm not going to throw my hat with Zionists who disrespect other indigenous people, who hate any Jew who isn't like you and who reject history if it doesn't match what you want out of it.

dear jumblr: STOP LOOKING DOWN ON AND CONDESCENDING TO CONVERTS.

this includes saying “ofc converts don’t notice antisemitism.” or “they’re a convert, they don’t know any better.”

i really don’t think a lot of you realize how many converts don’t reveal they are converts because of this kind of behavior. my own patrilineal convert parent refuses to publicly, not because they are excluded, but because of the condescension. the way converts are basically patted on the head even if they have ancestry, are patrilineal, were raised in a jewish environment, etc. or have none of these at all.

if converts are equals to you, treat them that way. most gerim learned more during their process than many of us learn in hebrew school, let alone what most secular “born” jews learn throughout their lives. so yes, converts DO spot antisemitism. they DO know things. and there isn’t an excuse for them to be bigoted, to spread lies about our people, or to side with our enemies or to otherwise harm their community. just like there isn’t an excuse for any other jew to do so.

you are not being open minded or accepting thinking and talking this way. you are actually engaging in exclusion and separation. you’re looking down on converts instead of treating them like they have equal standing.

if a convert doesnt know something or does display bad behavior? call them in instead of making excuses for them. treat them like equals, because that is what they are.

[shiinayumi]

I'm back with another unpopular opinion! This is a rant so like..it's long I guess. I am Jewish and also for what it's worth Native American so I have two majors parts of who I am that have faced or continue to face genocidal actions. And I am begging people, Stop. Saying. Attack. On. Titan. Is. Antisemitic. It's not antisemitic or supporting fascism. I can't believe I have to explain this but here we are. Most people who make this claim or support it haven't read the manga which just finished like 2 months ago, and only rely on bad summary or little snippets of shit and all of this started from one person here on tumblr who apparently isn't even Jewish that made the claim it's antisemitic and it blew up and continues to do so. Stop it. I'm not going into full details because plenty of other more eloquent people than me have and shocker, a lot of them are Jewish too. Go to Google, look it up and look on YouTube. Polygon picked the shit up and ran with it for clicks and it hasn't died since. Plenty of other Jewish people have tried to bring this up to be ignored and the other Jews I've seen go along with this idea haven't even friggen read it or not the whole thing. You find out any instance of Marleyns saying the Eldians are responsible for bad things is *gasp* propaganda! Amazing. The story is complex as shit and Isayama shows bad things to get people to understand, war and genocide no matter the reason is fucking bad, Eran is a bad person people admit he's a mentally disturbed pos in the end of the fucking story etc. This isn't a story you can just look at with broadstrokes and hope to completely understand it. It requires understanding of nuance and critical thinking. There are a lot of red herrings and fake outs in the story and a lot of that comes off as attempts to show the story as being like people and people at war, which is that we're super fucking complex and war fucks all of us up. The story has a large overarching message of anti fascism and the actual heros are the "Jews" in the story.

Since it ended I have read through the God damn thing 3 times to make sure of my stances here because hey we all miss shit. It hasn't changed. Also please don't do the "but Jewish caricature Titan cause big nose!" Yea a couple have big noses, becoming a Titan fucks up your body in weird ass ways, so all ways are ok AS LONG AS THE NOSE ISNT TOUCHED? That's ridiculous. Everything else on their body can because weird as fuck except the nose because otherwise Isayama is CLEARLY shitting on us Jews 🙄. Also I stg if anyone calls me a bootlicker or self hating Jew I will reach through the computer and throw moldy Matza at you.

This is a case of people wanting to be the most woke and "helping" minorities that yall are causing more damage than anything. Most people I see lifting this are usually not raising up anything else antisemitic, just this because it's easy and that is performative allyship. This is a hard truth that I had to learn and so do other people, and yall need to hear this, performative alleyship hurts us. Latching yourself onto false shit without thinking hurts us. We don't want it. Latching onto and spreading information without actually looking into things or asking more informed Jewish people, as an example, hurts us. Ignoring us who've read the shit and are trying to tell you that it's wrong hurts us. You're basically crying wolf about a topic but people don't see you crying wolf, they assume us Jews are doing it, and when something actually antisemitic comes up (or any other form of racism for that matter) people fucking ignore us because of this. If you aren't Jewish and you see shit that says it's antisemitic, listen to it, but be willing to listen to all Jews, and unless we ask you to lift us ourselves, stay out of it and stay in your lane. Helping minorities doesn't mean getting out in front of us and speaking OVER us, it means making other listen to US OURSELVES, including you listening to us.

Isayama was also accused of other horrible shit largley starting because someone found a Twitter, assumed it was his with no proof and no real name attachment and because of all of this? He's received horrible death threats and other threats of violence for shit that isn't true and because people jumped the gun.

Too my fellow Jews, I understand why it's scary to see and hear that something is awful and I don't blame you for not reading it because why would we be want to read something and force ourselves too look at a work of fiction that so closely resembles our past, but I am begging you to not listen to random people on the internet spreading false narratives. It's hurting us. This hurts us in so many ways. I'm not asking you to read the manga or watch the anime, I'm just asking that you look at perspectives of other Jews, those of us who have read the material, and our concerns with spreading false narratives of antisemitism, a narrative that I have seen many actual antisemitics latch onto to use against us largley in the way of Jews "being too sensitive and full of shit and we're trying to censor the world blah blah fucking blah".

Please, going forward think critically about the claims you see online. Where are they coming from? Who's saying them? What other motives could they have for doing a thing? Not all motives are pure and in the spirit of raising awareness of actual issues of things like racism and antisemitism, but are to get more sales or views or followers etc. Stop assuming everything you see online to be the gospel truth and that everyone has good intentions. Research research research.

[docholligay]

Yes, exactly! It’s that whole “among two Jews there are three opinions” I’ve at talked about this before when people ask me about like, a Jewish afterlife and like, *I* don’t really believe in an afterlife at all, but there certainly are some Jews that do, and when people are like, “Jews don’t believe in Hell” well it’s more complicated than that though, because the Torah is pretty light on the issue, so there’s a lot of room for latitude. I mean, my Jewish groups have even gotten into arguments about calling someone “more religious” because what does that even fucking mean? What's the benchmark for that? Is it more traditional? Or? And none of us really agree on that, there’s all kinds of sniping among us about why anyone would bother with X when Y, and that’s just part and parcel of the Jewish experience. It’s not personal, really. 

Oh my god, yes, I talk around this and about this, all the time, because thought crime is such a culturally Christian thing! The idea that you thought something bad, and so you may as well have done it, is ripped right from the New Testament. “Sinning in your heart”. And it’s that thing of All Sins Are Equal too, like...no, no they aren’t. It’s not the same to drown a child as it is to kill someone in a barfight, even if they’re both a sin/transgression. 

And then we get to A Favorite Soapbox. Being a good person isn’t the absence of doing bad things, it’s the doing of good things.  I know SO MANY PEOPLE who are like, ‘I’m a good person” and I think, “based on WHAT? not being overtly cruel?” I don’t even think myself good, because I’m...not, most of the time. 

“It’s what’s in your heart that matters.” not really, no. If you think noble things, but never act on them, what merit is there to that? And I think that goes back so much to how Judaism is an action of DOING moreso than BELIEF, in my experience. It’s that old joke about the rabbis sitting together one night, talking, and concluding there is no God, and the rabbi looks out his window the next morning and sees his fellow rabbi ging to service, and he yells, “I thought we agreed that there is no God!” and the other rabbi answers, ‘Well, of course there’s no god! What does that matter?” 

There is a man in my temple that I have a NEAR VENDETTA WITH. We disagree on so so much, to the point that when we agree my rabbi is like “IS EVERYTHING OKAY” It’s like There is one God, the Hebrew God and we shall have no other gods but God and if it’s not that, DISPUTE. I would love to fight him in the parking lot because I find him wrong and I find his approach to Judaism wanting, and we constantly are getting into it. We are so strongly examples of a ritual Jew and an ethical Jew. But he is a Jew! And he is one of my people! And I can hold that he frustrates THE SHIT out of me, but he’s a member of my community and I would stand up for him. I can say “you guys are fucking anti-Semites” over some of the shit said about Jared Kushner, but have literally told my rabbi that if the fam is vacationing in Montana and he shows up? I am literally going to hit him, first chance I get, so, be ready. I am going to hit him and tell him he’s a fucking Kapo son of a bitch and go to jail and then he can attempt to carry on service while I’m getting my ass kicked by Secret Service. BUT, he’s still a Jew! 

It must be because our community has been so othered for so long, but like, for example I’ll talk shit about Hasids all day long and if I hear a goy doing it I’ll tell them to shut the fuck up just as vehemently. A sort of family thing, almost. 

ANYWAY I’M SO GLAD YOU CHIMED IN. Jetty was reading your responses as I was writing this and said, ‘You can tell you two miss going to service, huh?” ahahah

[whyshedisappeared]

do you see the difference between 188 casualties and 10? the difference between a defense worth billions of dollars and one worth nothing? a dome that stops 90% of rockets vs absolutely nothing to stop airstrikes? between having bomb shelters and a place to go vs being completely trapped in territory that israel controls the borders to? and (this particular instance) started because of israel evicting palestians from their homes in east jerusalem! a territory that israel illegally occupies

ok, i don’t know if you want a genuine answer or just looking to start a fight, so i’ll answer this seriously and if you have more questions DM me and if you wanna start a fight lmk who you are so I can block you.

first, you got some facts mixed so lets get to that before we talk casualties.

so, i’m not going to get into the state of the country through all the wars, we’ll just talk what was proposed to be the land in proposition 181 of the UN, which the UN accepting it cause the Independence war, and we’ll go over the way the country is divided rn.

So, the day the war started (Nov. 30th 1946) the country was divided the way you see in the first map. there weren’t a lot of Jews here until 1881 when the first wave of aliya happened, then the 2nd one started in 1904 when Hertzel died. the British mandate the ruled here favored the Palestinians over the Jews, because they were the majority when we first came here in waves, so they obviously had more land, and it was strategically smarter to side with them.

The previous day, the partition plan that is shown in the 2nd map was voted on and was passed with a majority. That plan is called proposition 181, or the partition plan. Israelis weren’t that thrilled about it because geographically the Israeli land wasn’t connected and Jerusalem was inside the Palestinian land while being under international jurisdiction, but it was better than nothing so we took it. Palestinians disapproved of it, and that started the war, which ended in 1949, a year after we got our independence on May 14th, 1948.

between ‘49 and 2000 the boarders moved a lot the wars, we took land, some we gave back during cease fire agreements and peace treaties and some we still have, but the last picture is the way it still is. The west bank is a bit tricky so let me explain it to you, it isn’t officially Israeli territory, we took over the area during one of the wars and the government refused to give it back during the cease fire so we ended up with this very weird and precarious solution, yes it isn’t legal but the government refused to relinquish control over it because they didn’t want whatever terror organization that was there at the time to be really close to the other boarder, they refused complete control because we took that land in a war, so here we are. The Jewish settlements there are part of area C, which is in full Israeli government and military control. You have area B, with Palestinian cities and villages (apart from Hevron that has both Jews and Palestinians), which is in Israeli military control and Palestinian Authority (PA) led. and area A which is fully controlled by PA and also only has Palestinians in it.

Now, this is all a very long way to explain to you, that while there are Muslims, Christians, Jews and other religious minorities in Jerusalem, excluding east Jerusalem, where it is under no official authority which is part of the problem, it is still under Israeli control and outside of the West Bank, just on the edge of it, but not in it. It doesn’t let the government permission to evacuate civilians out of their homes, by no means, but east Jerusalem is a problem area. Here’s a closer look at the map:

As I mentioned earlier, the fact that the Israeli government has jurisdiction somewhere doesn’t give it the right to evacuate civilians from their homes. I think it was unnecessary and uncalled for and never should have happened.

Ok, now let’s talk casualties. first, you need to remember that Israel gives Gaza (well, more like Hamas) money. However, instead of using it for the civilians’ advantage and to take care of them, Hamas uses it to buy weapons to arm itself and for anti-Israel propaganda. Yes, the Palestinians in Gaza has it bad, but that’s not because Hamas doesn’t have money, trust me they get more than enough. It’s because Hamas doesn’t care about the civilians in Gaza.

Israel invests some of the defense budget to create better, more advanced means to protect ourselves and the people living in the country, that’s why since 2004 we have the “Tzeva Adom” (literally translates to Red Color) alerts, which are the rocket sirens alarms that lets us know to take shelter. The government invests in having bomb safe rooms. We have Iron Dome since 2014 (that summer protective edge happened and the system was put in use during it) for that same reason. We invest in our protection, and therefore our casualty numbers are lower.

Also, I would like to point out that a solid percentage of the rockets Hamas fires at us never even cross the boarder and land inside Gaza, which kills people.

When the IDF plans to have an airstrike on a building, because Hamas puts the rocket launchers inside homes, schools, kindergartens, hospitals, etc. the IDF calls every single person in the building hours before to let them know to evacuate. Hamas prevents them from evacuating. Which is how they end up with the high death toll.

But, and that is very important, just because our death toll is at 10, doesn’t make it ok. Those 10 people, one of them a 6 year old kid, should never have died. Those 188 people should never have died. The only acceptable death toll is 0.

Now, to your last point, that Palestinians are not allowed to cross the boarder. They are. Both in the West Bank and Gaza. In order to be allowed into the country the IDF first makes sure the individual has no ties to a terror organization or carrying explosives by going through metal detectors, but they are allowed into the country. However, if an Israeli Jew were to cross the boarder they would be killed. Either on the spot or tortured and then killed.

I would like to reiterate, I do not support, by any means, the evacuations of Palestinians in east Jerusalem. I think it was uncalled for and never should have happened. It was the direct cause to this escalation. I do, however, support Israel’s right to defend itself.

To put this simply, if Hamas were to lay down their weapons, there would be peace and the violence would stop. If Israel were to stop fighting, we would be wiped off the map. However, it isn’t as simple as that. and the narrative changes depends on where you start to tell the facts, which means, like I previously mentioned, there is no right side and wrong side. There is no clear cut good and evil.

However, you must understand that us Israelis, both Jews and Muslims, suffer from the actions of the Israeli government and Hamas. It isn’t us that are fighting, it is the leading bodies on each side of the boarder and the civilians suffer as a consequence of that.

Please make sure that when you talk about what we’re living through right now, you don’t blame Israel/Israelis, or Palestine/Palestinians. Make sure you blame those responsible, the Israeli government and Hamas.

[ugly-crying-over-bucky-barnes]

Blue Eyes Part 30

Summary: After the Garrison is shot up, the youngest Shelby daughter finds a new home in London. She strips herself of her last name and tries to live a peaceful life far away from her brothers’ chaos in Birmingham. But fate leads her right back into it after she runs into Alfie Solomons.

Part 30: Tommy receives a letter from a dead man. 

       “Mr. Shelby, this was delivered to you.” Tommy’s assistant at the House of Commons set the envelope down on his desk.

           “Thank you.” He set his pen down for a moment and picked up the letter. It did appear addressed to him although the penmanship was very unkempt and blotted. Either way, Tommy opened the envelope.

           Inside was a very brief letter written in the same scrawling handwriting with several errors in spelling and grammar, almost as if a child had written it.

           Dear Tom,

Try an stay awy from black horrses. Rmind El ta feed Cril n Antea.

           Alfe

           It was utterly puzzling, to say the least. Tommy was holding what seemed to be the drugged-up stream of consciousness of a man who was supposed to be dead. If the letter was coherent, he would’ve assumed it had been sent before Alfie was shot. However, it wasn’t only the disjointed writing that proved that theory wrong. Up in the top right corner, no matter how much pain medication he was on, Alfie still managed to scribble out the correct date.

           Three days after he was supposedly gunned down.

           It took Tommy a moment and he wondered if he was mistaken. The idea seemed so outlandish but he had some sort of evidence.

           So, he picked up the telephone to find out where his sister was.

~~~~~~~~~~~

           To Ella’s dismay, it didn’t take Tommy long to find her. She wasn’t surprised when she heard his voice on the other end of the line, but she was disappointed.

           “Packing for America, then?”

           “Are you taking that tone with me while I’m grieving?” She retorted.

           Tommy leaned back in his desk chair and removed his glasses. “About that. I realized I never offered my help in assisting with the burial.”

           “Well, Jews have their own customs. They’re not like Travelers, they’ve got different ways of doing it.” She replied. The phone call had come out of the blue. Ella had returned to her room at the inn after walking the dogs to visit Alfie at the hospital. She brought them back and planned on returning to him once Cyril and Anthea were settled. Tommy caught her with one foot out the door.

           “Right.” He nodded. “Does that include addressing a barely readable letter to their brother-in-law?”

           Ella froze in place. Alfie was starting to slowly be weaned off the medication. He hadn’t mentioned anything about contacting Tommy, in fact, they both agreed that they’d lay low. At least until things were properly sorted and there wasn’t an evil anti-Semite threatening them.

           But she hadn’t been there by his bedside every second of every day. “I don’t know what you mean…”

           “I just received a letter from your deceased husband warning me about black horses and asking me to remind you to feed your dogs.”

           “I’m not sure what he meant, but I’m sure he sent it before he passed.” Ella clung onto the lie. The veil of falsehood was all she had to protect her husband as he lay vulnerable in a hospital bed. Absolutely no one could know.

           “Does he date his letters for the future?” Tommy inquired, clearly not buying what his sister was trying to sell him. He’d bought the tears but he liked cold hard facts.

           “Must’ve been a mistake.”

           He rolled his eyes. After all, he only had himself to blame for teaching her how to be such a damn good liar. “Where is he, Ella?”

           Silence.

           “My husband is dead.” There was no telling who was listening to Tommy’s calls in the Commons. Even if she was going to admit the truth to him, it wouldn’t be over the telephone. “But if you’d like to say goodbye to me before I leave for America, you’re welcome to do so. I would ask Polly of my whereabouts.” She wasn’t even willing to divulge her location just in case Mosley decided she was a loose end that needed taking care of.

           Tommy glanced at the phone and began to pick up on what his sister was implying. “Alright. I’ll talk to her.” He said. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything about Alfie. I misread the date on the letter. His fours look like nines. It wasn’t fair of me to confront you while you’re grieving.”

           Ella could hear when Tommy was lying to her. He was playing a part over the line just like she was. “Alright, come soon then, I’ll be leaving within the next week and I don’t want to miss you.”

           “I’ll come as soon as I can.”

~~~~~~~~~~

           Tommy consulted with Polly who didn’t know Alfie was alive but did know Ella was still in England. She was in Southampton, still giving off the impression that she was leaving the country.

           He arrived at the small inn and met Ella at the door.

           “Where is he?” He asked the same question but with the intention that he was going to get the truth this time.

           “The hospital.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

           Tommy ran a hand over his face. “Why…why?” He asked. “Why did you lie to everyone? Ollie said…then you told me…”

           “What was I supposed to do, aye?” She snapped. “Let it get out that Mosley’s men missed the mark? They’d be storming the hospital room within hours. And they wouldn’t leave him alive the second time around.”

           It was a valid point that Tommy couldn’t refute. He sighed. “How is he?”

           “He’s making slow improvements.” She admitted quietly. “He’s blind in the left eye now. The stitches will heal but they’re worried about damage to his brain. He’s always complaining about pain if he hasn’t had medication. Said his head hurts.” She swallowed, her brow wrinkling. “But at least he’s alive. That’s all I can thank God for now.”

           “I’m sorry, El.” Tommy pulled his sister into a hug. “I really am, I just…”

           “Who’s doing it?” She asked, her voice muffled into his shirt.

           “Who’s doing what?”

           “Who’s killing this son of a bitch?” She pulled away. “Because I want to do it.”

           “I already recruited someone. I need you to stay as far away from this as you can.” Tommy replied firmly.        

           “That man tried to murder my husband solely because of his religion.”      

           “And if he finds out that you want to kill him then he could put hits out on our entire family.” He interrupted. “And if you killed him, the police would lock you up.”

           Ella looked disgruntled but dropped the matter. It was true that she didn’t want to worsen matters. She just wanted a little revenge. “Fine.”

           “Are you going to go see him now?”

           “Alfie? Yeah, I was just about to leave.” She nodded. “Do you want to come see him?”

           “I need to discuss plans with him.”

           “Plans? No, no, no, Alfie is not a part of this anymore. It’s over, Tom. He’s dead to everyone except you and me and that’s how it’s going to stay.”

           “I need his help for this to go through…”

           “No!” She shouted. “You keep pressing and pressing and I’ve had enough. He is in the hospital, nearly off his rocker because of the drugs they’ve had to keep him on because of how much pain he’s in! I could’ve lost him, Tommy, another centimeter and he would’ve been taken from me.”

           Tommy didn’t know what to say. At the end of the day, he knew that Ella didn’t control Alfie’s decisions. But it was rare that Alfie would disagree with her to agree with Tommy instead. Still, he knew he needed men from the Jewish community to cause a stir at the rally. And Alfie was the only way to ensure that.

           “Can I at least talk to him?” He asked.

           “You can talk to him for as long as you want. But under no circumstances will you put his life back in danger.” She jabbed a finger at him before starting to walk off.

~~~~~~~~~~~

           Alfie wondered if he was starting to see things now. His dose of morphine had been decreased but it still affected him. Still, he’d yet to have hallucinations.

           “Tommy?”

           “Hello, Alfie.” The Blinder walked in and took a seat. “I was hoping to talk to you about something.”

           “Hang on,” Alfie looked to his wife for clarification, “I thought I were s’posed to be dead to you.”

           “You wrote me a letter, Alfie.”

           “Did I?”

           Ella frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. “Yes, you did.”

           “Well, fuck, m’sorry for what I did while I was on drugs. I were shot by a fucking cunt, weren’t I?” Alfie grumbled. “What’d I write to you about then?” He asked.

           “You told me to stay away from black horses,” Tommy replied.

           “Oh, right, right…see I’ve been having dreams, mate. Dreams, yeah, ‘bout you with a horse. Big black horse out in a field, right, and you said goodbye. Then, bang.” Alfie folded his hands over his stomach. “What’d you reckon that is then, Tom, aye?”

           “I would say it’s the drugs talking,” Tommy replied coolly.

           “What’d you want to talk ‘bout then?” Alfie asked.

           Ella perched on the edge of the hospital bed. She wasn’t going to leave and let Tommy talk Alfie into doing something silly. She had a feeling her husband might be pissed off enough to be talked into getting some revenge. Hypocrisy at its finest, as far as she was concerned.

           “I’m in need of some of your men. There needs to be a disruption at the rally Mosley’s speaking at. I need a distraction.” Tommy explained short and simple.

           Alfie pondered the idea. “Right, how much then?”

           “How much? Alfie, people need to think you’ve passed. You cannot get yourself involved in this again!” Ella exclaimed in disbelief. “You were nearly killed and now you want to put another target on your back?”

           “No, love, what I want is for this fucker to be killed. So if Tommy needs some of me men, then he can pay for that privilege.”

           “It’s never enough for you two, aye? You can be shot a million times over but as long as you fucking survive, you’ll keep at it. When will you learn? Because I’m fucking sick of this!” She snapped and stood up to leave.

           “El, Ella, c’mon!” Alfie groaned as she slammed the door behind her.

           Tommy sat quietly for a moment. “You don’t have to do anything if you don’t want to, Alfie.” He reminded him.

           “I fucking know that.” He muttered in response. “But I ain’t just gonna sit ‘round doing nothing, am I? You need men, that’s fine. People are bound to find out ‘bout my survival anyway. Long as the right people don’t know then that’s fine. But you’re gonna need to offer me something in return.”

           “I’ll offer each man twenty pounds,” Tommy suggested.

           “Nah, mate, I want protection for Ella. Twenty-four-seven. From good fighters with good aims. ‘Cause if I do this for you, and it gets out that by God’s good grace that I’m still alive, he’ll be after her. Don’t fucking care if he offs me. But I’ll be damned if he even goes near her, right?

           Tommy nodded. “Alright. I can do that.” He stood up to shake his brother-in-law’s hand.

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[cosmiccalliope]

I have a lot of Hard Feelings when it comes to Christianity.

(Prior note, if I say anything offensive in this stream of consciousness musing on why I don't like Christianity, tell me. Everything that follows this is based on my personal experiences and thoughts that come from the 16 years of Baptist education I've been through.)

Let me start this off by outright saying that the feelings aren't towards Christians, but the Church and its History. I don't think a lot of Christians have an Ass To Shit With when it comes to their faith in general, don't care for it, don't care against it. They've just kind of always had it and never known anything else.

Christianity, as a system, has caused Global Scale problems, in my perspective. It started off as a branch of Judaism, one where the promised coming of a Christ figure happened, and the old ways could be completely done away with. As you can imagine, this wasn't super popular. You try telling people that everything they've always been doing can be done away with, cast aside, because now this New Thing is to be done.

You get a lot of angry people when you do that.

But then it became seen as a brilliant tool for control by Rome. It's simple, only having 1(3) God with a Captial G, and the rules can be read in a way where the Church becomes to absolute center of Everything. If the Church becomes the center of the Roman Empire, and if they control who knows what about the faith itself, that gives them the power to do whatever they want. They make the tithe mandatory and monetary, and now that's money coming in from everywhere under their empire. They call X a Sin, and can prosecute you accordingly.

And so, Christianity spread like a Plague upon the world, a scourge against all other Pantheons it touched. Gods died, for all intents and purposes, when Christianity came knocking. Systems these people had been engaging with for centuries, integral parts of their cultures and heritages, wrenched away in the name of the One True God of Christianity.

Nobody likes when you come in and tell them that they're doing everything wrong.

So what's at the front of the Bible? What is the central focus of Christianity? For all reason, who is that book about?

Jerusalem, Israel, and the Jewish people. The Old Testament is just a translation of the Tanakh. All the important Figures and stories? All Jewish tales about how the Israelites suffered and overcame struggles. So who becomes the focus of blame, who becomes a strong target to attack when people inevitably get upset that this strange foreign faith has just waltzed in and told them they're all wrong, despite not deserving any of the flack it gets?

Christianity, as a System, is inherently Anti-Jewish. On a fundamental level it paints the Jewish people as Outdated, still following practices and systems that the Christ has already fulfilled and nullified.

The Jewish people don't deserve it, they never have. It's not their fault Christianity exists, or did what it did, or became what it did. They aren't responsible for Christianity. Just as the Greeks are at the center of the original Greek Religion, and as the Maya are at the center of the original Maya Religion, so ar the Jewish people at the center of the Jewish Religion, and because Not-Jewish people were spreading it like wildfire, the attention and ire got shifted from the ones spreading it, to the ones at the center of the faith being spread.

And then, Christianity became the primary lens through which we viewed all other faiths, including Judiasm. Judaism, in and of itself, is nothing more than any other religion. It's a set of stories and beliefs that gives a culture their morals, gives them hope, explains the universe, and generally provides an identity for a group of people. It's history and cosmology from before history and astronomy. Religion is a set of stories that can be related to that imparts some message. If Christianity never mutated off of Judaism and then tore across Europe like a plague, I sincerely doubt the same issues of Anti-Semitism would be present nowadays. But because of Christianity, Judaism became a popular target and thing to rag on, despite the fact that it has done nothing wrong. The only people saying that the Jewish people are up to some shit are asshole nazis that want all Jews dead.

I do not know enough about Islam to comfortably say that it is to Asia, what Christianity is to Europe. But with my admittedly limited knowledge, I will say exactly that. Churches and Mosques are common in their respective reigns, predominantly so in different places. Temples to all other deities, all other stories and myths and legends, all of them have been destroyed, more or less. We know of the gods, but not how to worship and venerate them.

Because of this predominantly Christian lens, the only Faiths we typically see as Religions, are just Judiasm and Islam. Satanism is just Bastardized Christianity, which itself is Bastardized Judaism, making Satanism into Double Bastardized Judaism. Mormonism and the Jehova's Witness –alongside most Door Knocker sects– are genuine cults that are seen as legitimate because they're Christian In Origin. Hinduism and Buddhism are easily seen as these vaguely Asian Mysticisms, and entities from Native American Religions have become American Cryptids and widely used by people who have no right to use them (S**nw**k*rs and W*nd**o, censored heavily because I'm not part of those groups, are Navajo, and Non Navajo aren't even supposed to really know or definitely talk about them, which should not be hard to respect, just stop talking about the damned things if you aren't Navajo, come on. I think those are both Navajo, anyways, I know that if you're not part of the group that they belong to, you're supposed to shut the fuck up about them because they aren't yours to begin with).

Christianity killed many, many religions and many, many, many more people. It killed Religions and stories and cultures and histories, and superimposed itself wherever it went. It destroyed the identities of whoever it found to not be them. Religions change, pantheons definitely so, but that happens organically as their people do. Christianity's spread is artificial and forced. New gods entered the Greek pantheon somewhat regularly, for example, with Aphorodite being theorized to originally be Ishtar of Sumerian origin.

Because of Christianity, all other religions have an almost negative connotation to them, and the word Relgion generally ends up being used anonymously with Christianity specifically. Every Pagan/Non Christian Faith? Wrong and Bad and Witchcraft and Evil and Satan is in their hearts and "we must preach the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to them so they might be saved from the evils of their ways."

After 16 years of Baptist education and indoctrination from the schools I've been in, my only feelings towards Christianity are just that the faith has done some unforgivably shitty shit and has been used as a tool for Colonization and Genocide since basically its inception. I can't look at Christianity without seeing Everything It Has Caused, all the hate and blood and war and genocide, the fact that war and crusades are the single common thread through history for this so called "Religion of Love and Peace" where if you question any of it, that means Satan is infecting your heart.

Oh, but Christianity allows and encourages you to mock and ridicule all other religions, as it is "the One True Faith, and all others are sinful devil worship". Their are no other gods, after all, but the Christian god, Muslims and Jews are to be treated a little nicer, because they're just misguided, following the functional same God, just in the "Wrong Way".

If you can't tell, I don't like how Christianity does things, and as someone who has gone through 16 years of Baptist centric education in total, I think I'm qualified enough to complain about Christianity. Are all Christian Chruches this way? No, but it is undeniable that mine were not outliers, given the history of Proselytizing and Missionary work and Violent Crusades that is so present in Christian History that it Can Not Be Ignored.

[jewish-privilege]

...When I meet new people and they ask me about my extracurriculars or what I’m involved in on campus, I always wince and hesitate to admit that I am involved in Hillel and the Jewish community, afraid of how they may react. Being the best public university in the world (sorry not sorry @UCLA), the home of the free speech movement, and notorious for protesting in the name of social justice, you would think that the UC Berkeley community would recognize Jewish students as a minority group who has faced a history of persecution and suffering. Yet, many people view us as the oppressors, echoing the classic anti-Semitic trope that Jews are responsible for everything wrong with the world.

On many occasions, students at UC Berkeley have equated Judaism with Zionism, as if our entire religious identity is solely based on our relationship with Israel, and further equate Zionism with white supremacy and settler colonialism, using these words synonymously. Most notably, claims of this nature were made at a live-streamed student senate meeting in April. Not to mention that this meeting was about senate elections and had essentially nothing to do with Israel. During public comments one student said: “All I was hearing for a fat minute was some white tears, some Zionist tears, some Greek tears about some disenfranchisement. Y’all don’t know what disenfranchisement even means, alright?“

This provoked other comments around the topic of Israel, such as one student claiming that the Israel Defense Forces train American police to kill black people and that if you don’t call out your Zionist friends, you are “implicit in the oppression of Palestine and the oppression of settler colonized countries all across the world” as well as implicit in the “prison-industrial complex,” “prison militarization,” and “modern-day slavery.” You can watch the video of the entire meeting here. I’m not making this up.

...Last spring, I was sitting at a popular cafe near campus, getting a coffee with my friend, telling him how excited I was to be going to Israel for the first time that summer. He, having been many times before, shared some of his favorite memories praying at the Western Wall and relaxing in the sun at Gordon Beach.

A girl sitting at the table next to us was listening in. After a few minutes, she turned to us and asked if she heard me correctly that I was going to Israel.

“Yes, why?” I answered, suspicious of where this conversation was going.

“Why are you going?” she asked angrily.

“For Birthright and a summer internship.” My excitement from moments prior began to fade.

“No, but why Israel? Don’t you know that by going you are supporting a murderous regime?”

“A mur—” She cut me off.

“Israel is a murderous regime. Everyone in the IDF is a murderer. How could you possibly go there and give them your money knowing this?”

“I’m going because…” Cut off again.

“You should cancel your trip. You shouldn’t go there. You’re supporting oppression. You’re supporting murder” she screamed.

“But…”

“You need to reevaluate your moral compass, you’re a terrible person.” And with that, she stormed off. Everyone in the cafe was staring at me, having witnessed the entire interaction.

Beyond the aggression and public humiliation, what bothered me most was that I never had the chance to speak. With all of the accusations she made, both about Israel and myself, I never got the chance to defend or explain myself. And to me, that is the root of the issue: people’s unwillingness to be open minded and hear the other side. Being so stubborn as to not even let someone voice their opinion, whether you agree with it or not, means that we are never going to progress. Nothing will get resolved this way. We need to communicate more. We need to listen more.

I have Jewish friends who are adamantly, unwaveringly 100% in support of Israel and in their eyes, Israel can do no wrong. On the other hand, there of course are people like this girl and the students from the senate meeting who are 100% against Israel and its existence. However, the situation in the Middle East is incredibly nuanced and complex. In my opinion, the conflict is often oversimplified into either pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, with people (like myself) who fall in the middle being rejected by supporters on both sides. Even among the Jewish community on campus, Jewish students who acknowledge that Israel doesn’t always do the right thing are often ostracized by other Jewish students, with the argument being that Israel has enough outside criticism, and it doesn’t need internal criticism as well.

Personally, I believe internal criticism is exactly what both sides need. Compromise cannot exist without people admitting some flaw and attempting to see the situation from the opposite point of view. I try to understand the pro-Palestine argument of people fighting for their freedom, and I would hope people on that side would try to understand that Israel is fighting to defend itself...