#honestly i'd argue indigenous american history is worse

[grimm-the-tiger]

Studying Scandinavian history is downright painful sometimes. Excuse me, sir, I don't want to read about your weird opinions on racial superiority, I just want to read about Denmark and Sweden kicking each other around like footballs.

[sawthatmountainburn]

first off, based on what data do you think Israel's war against Palestine is "well below the average of civilian casualties"? how do you measure this average? is it net number of deaths or per capita? which other wars are you comparing it to?

second of all, nobody is saying Israel is the only state to kill civilians or commit atrocities. but it is a state currently at this moment committing these things, the current campaign has been going on for months and has only gotten worse and more cruel, so it's going to be the current topoc of discussion. just like a lawyer would be laughed out of court if he tried defending their client by saying something like "Your Honor, there's other crimes being committed out there, it's unfair thay only my cliemt is being judged!" it's also laughable to try and pull this defense here. yes, other people and nations do commit crimes, but this case isn't about all crimes ever, it's about something specific that happened / is currently happening.

furthermore, it's worth naming the exact atrocities it's committing and it's worth talking about other injustices it perpetuates. there are laws in Israel that massively privilege non-Palestinian Israelis over Palestinians, Palestinians have their homes seized by Israelis with the government either not giving a shit or supporting the thieves, Palestinians routinely have their power shut off, aren't granted access to water or food, and they're prevented from returning to their place of birth if they're away for "too long". these and more are all acts that prove there is an intent to ethnic cleanse the whole region of Palestinians, that Israel is currently an apartheid state. sure, it's a war, but there's no war in history that was started for shits and giggles, so what exactly is the goal of the war? because everything points to trying to get rid of the Palestinians for good. if you're so upset by calling this genocide, do inform me what the correct term for this would be.

and by the way, it's actually bizarre to claim that calling it apartheid is exceptionalizing it, considering the very word comes from the institutional decrimination in 20th century South Africa. it is, by its very definition, saying "this injustice is just like this other injustice". but I digress.

plenty of leftists DO talk about how this is similar to things other nations have committed. there's the aforementioned comparison to South Africa, there have been comparisons to what settlers on the American continents did and are still doing to Indigenous Americans, comparisons to what the US has done in the SWANA region in general, and so on. some of them, the more anarchist-leaning I'd say, also talk about how they are indeed against states in general and against borders. you however, have reblogged at least one post that argues this is an illegitimate argument and actually they're secretly targeting Israel specifically. so which is it? are all states subject to criticism and leftists aren't focusing on it enough, or is it particularly unfair to criticise Israel?

honestly, just seems like you'd rather nobody talk about the specific actions currently carried out by Israel, but rather stick to general statements about how war is bad, without ever naming any particular nation as a perpetrator. and I'm sorry, it sucks to have a nation you're attached to be named and shamed for carrying out injustice, but this is not a reasonable or good faith demand. Israel, the state, intends to ethnically cleanse Palestinians and is doing so by various means including the current war. if the current war ends, it does not end all the suffering and humiliation Palestinians have to endure, and denying the intent behind the war will only ensure their suffering is allowed to continue while the rest of the world looks away.

One of the most frustrating parts of the extreme rhetoric around Israel/Palestine (besides the obvious reliance on antisemitic & anti-Arab, Islamophobic tropes) is that it exceptionalizes so many things that are actually pretty standard features of nation-states and war in a way that completely compartmentalizes the criticism of these things into just being about criticizing the “few bad apple” countries instead of criticizing the entire institution of nation-states and war as a whole.

For instance: the fact is that war kills civilians, at an alarming average of 6:1 civilians-to-combatants deaths. The status quo of war, across the board, is that way more civilians die than combatants. And yet, despite the high death toll, despite Hamas using civilian infrastructure & noncombatants as human shields (which Hamas has openly admitted to doing), despite the imprecise & destructive nature of using bombs on urban targets, and despite the inadequate humanitarian aid that has been able to make it into Gaza… the IDF has still managed to stayed well below the average of civilian casualties.

The point of saying this is not “this is what war looks like so it’s not a big deal” it’s “this is what war looks like so we as a species need to stop doing it”—seeing the devastation war has brought to the people Gaza should move you, and it should make you never want to see another war again. It should make you want a ceasefire not just for Israel and this war but all wars always. And obviously, in practice, it’s not that simple—peace is more than “just don’t do war” and the thing about ceasefires and peace treaties is they kind of have to be mutual to mean anything—but the point stands: War Bad.

However, if instead you see the destruction in Gaza and think it’s an exceptional case, where Israel is evil and the only way war could be this destructive is genocide, you get to preserve this romanticized, idealistic fantasy of war as, violent yes, but perhaps only in a cathartic, tragic-but-beautiful way—a glorious struggle where two armies clash on a battlefield far removed from everyday life and only soldiers die. You get to preserve your belief in Just War, to look forward to a morally uncomplicated Glorious Revolution™️—you may even preserve your ability to cheer on the death of Israelis.

And that’s just one issue. There are others: the claim of “ethnostate” obscures criticisms of nation-states as a concept, the claim of “apartheid” obscures criticisms of how borders & citizenship are set up across the world, etc. This inverse Israeli Exceptionalism where Israel is treated as uniquely or exceptionally problematic isn’t simply discriminatory or rooted in prejudice (which are reasons enough to criticize it, as I have), it’s actively impeding the left’s ability to criticize the actual structural systems that are the problem.