#no it didn't start on oct 7

[beardedmrbean]

PITTSBURGH — On the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre, Pittsburgh’s Jewish community mourned the victims. Their politicians were busy mourning the Palestinians — and blaming Israel for the terrorist attack.

Rep. Summer Lee, Mayor Ed Gainey and Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato issued a joint Twitter statement saying they have “hearts big enough to grieve those killed one year ago and those massacred in the year since.”

“Our grief is compounded by the fact that it didn’t have to be this way,” they went on. “This violence did not start on October 7.”

Pittsburgh’s Jewish leaders read the statement loud and clear.

“This warped and deliberate weaponization of language can only be interpreted as a way to undermine the Israeli and Jewish victims of October 7,” the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh responded, adding the pols “place the blame on the victims of October 7: Israel and its people.”

“It displays a stunning lack of sensitivity that veers into antisemitic territory,” Rabbi Seth Adelson of Beth Shalom Synagogue told The Post. “I’m just baffled that they thought on this day that could have been received well.”

Adelson admitted his mind was elsewhere: His son Oryah Meidan had just deployed to northern Israel to fight Hezbollah in a war that began with another terrorist group on Israel’s southern border.

One year ago, Hamas terrorists murdered, raped, beheaded and kidnapped more than 1,400 people, including more than 40 Americans. Hamas is still holding 97 people hostage.

But Pittsburgh’s political leaders did not mention Hamas, nor “that Israel is fighting a just war for her survival,” Adelson said while gripping his guitar, which he had just played for an audience of more than 1,200 people.

He was one of a group of performers in a series of songs, prayers and stories to commemorate Oct 7. victims at a Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh event, which ended with a prayer for Israel, its national anthem, “Hatikvah,” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“They seemed to be signaling to political allies, and those are not the majority of their Jewish constituents,” Adelson said of Pittsburgh’s pols.

In a letter shared with The Post, Rabbi Aaron Meyer of Temple Emanuel begged his elected officials “to reconsider and remove this hurtful, hateful statement.”

But others suggest Pittsburgh remove these leaders entirely.

“On one thing we can agree: we are looking for elected officials who find the courage to lead with empathy. We need leaders who can find empathy for Jewish and Israeli victims of terror,” the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh finished.

One of those elected officials, Lee, is up for reelection in November. Surviving a pro-Israel primary challenger, the Democrat is up against Republican James Hayes.

The Squad member pushed for a cease-fire just weeks after Oct. 7, when Hamas committed the deadliest attack against Jews since the Holocaust. She’s called for an arms embargo against Israel and accused the Jewish state of committing genocide. 

More than 40 of Pittsburgh’s Jewish leaders this spring denounced Lee for her anti-Israel rhetoric and taking money from people who celebrated the Oct. 7 attacks.

Though Jeff Finkelstein, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh CEO, commended Democratic Sen. Bob Casey for his support of Israel on Oct. 7, Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick has tied Casey to Lee for not retracting his endorsement of the freshman congresswoman.

“I am definitely aware of people in the community who are considering voting Republican for the first time in their lives,” Adelson noted.

[irhabiya]

it is what it issssss

[groovyfandomhuman]

[potofsoup]

i love your fourth of july comics every year but this years feels extremely optimistic about biden’s abilities in the face of him letting roe get overturned and funding a gen*cide at worst or letting it happen at best by taking the bare minimum of regulatory action… i mean can he really be trusted at all anymore to do the right thing or act in line with the people’s demands? and how do we know the people behind project 2025 won’t just rig the election again to get in under false pretenses?

Hihi! Thank you for reading and enjoying my July 4th comics every year! I am in a non-US airport en route to a month-long trip in a place with sketchy internet, so sorry in advance for sloppiness in my response (and potentially going radio silent).

But:

I don't think he "let" Roe get overturned, since that was the Supreme Court's overwhelming conservative majority, which really started with Mitch McConnell refusing to approve Obama's appointee and forcing it into a 2016 election issue. The fact that Trump got to appoint 3 Supreme Court Justices is what got us here.

Re: Biden and the Israel/Hamas war ... on the one hand, there's definitely more that he could have done, but on the other hand, they are a whole other country over there. It's Hamas that initiated the Oct 7 attacks and took the hostages. It's Netanyahu and his right-wing government who decided to retaliate to such extreme extent. Biden can talk about how he would really like Netanyahu to stop fighting and step down, but at the end of the day that's not his call, any more than he can stop the Sudan fighting that is near-genocidal either.

So, to come to your question #1: "Can he really be trusted at all anymore to do the right thing or act in line with the people’s demands"?

For me, it's a resounding YES. Guyz, he has passed so much good domestic policies. My spouse works in green energy and the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act halved his anxiety and gave him legitimate hope. The tumblr post I linked to in my comic has links to many of the other great things that Biden has done. Tbh I voted for him in 2020 because "a moldy onion is still better than Trump", and I've been pleasantly surprised. Like how he tried to cancel student loans, the Supreme Court overturned it, and then he came back 6 months later with a different way to do it that didn't lead to a court challenge.

Is he perfect? Hell no. There's tons of stuff that I wish he did more about, or he went further on, but also he's just one guy heading one branch of government who is heading into an election year. (Just like FDR promising not joining WWII, while behind the scenes doing all the Lend-Lease Act stuff). And "the people" have lots of demands, many of them conflicting.

I'd also like to push at the unspoken part of your question... "Can he really be trusted to do the right thing..." compared to whom? Because right now the answer is "compared to Trump." And compared to Trump... I don't even trust Trump to respect the results of a legitimate election. Heck, he might just take his favorite state secrets, sell them to the highest bidder (or just show them off to someone for funzies), and then claim Presidential immunity. A decent Democrat who got stuff done vs someone who probably wants to pardon himself and all his friends and do Project 2025 stuff is not even on the same level. (Do I wish that there was a viable Democratic alternative to Biden? Sure! But who?) Heck, at this point -- imagine if it's Kamala Harris vs. Trump. Who would you vote for?

As for your question #2: "How do we know the people behind project 2025 won’t just rig the election again to get in under false pretenses?"

We don't. But also what can we do besides showing up to vote?

Actually, I need bullet points for this:

The 2022 midterm elections brought in fewer-than-expected election-deniers into crucial electoral offices at the state level, which means that hopefully most state electoral boards will continue to have integrity

Yes, voting is harder but at least we can still vote. So it's about getting out there and getting your vote counted. For some states, it involves waiting in 8 hour lines. For some states, it involves bringing 2 forms of ID. Document. Track. Make sure it's dropped off in a real ballot box and not a fake one. Don't believe messaging that the voting is happening on a different day or location, etc.

A 50.1% majority is easily challenged. A 55% majority, less so. Which means getting people out to vote.

The more people know about and think about the reality of a second Trump term (versus being disappointed by a Biden term), the more they will be motivated to vote against Trump.

Finally, let's be real here: I'm braced for a 2nd Trump term. That said:

I'm still going to go and vote for Biden, because the only way to prevent a 2nd Trump term is to vote.

A Trump term where either the House or Senate is controlled by the Democrats will be *very* different from a clean Republican sweep.

Even with a clean Republican sweep on the federal level, States have so much more power now, and voting the state level stuff will help shore up Democratic goals for the future. States get to draw voting districts however they want. States get to decide on abortion policies. If you live in a deep Red state, there still might be things to vote for that make it easier to live in now, and turn it purple a few elections down the line.

So at the end of the day, it's "Vote AND". Vote and keep living your best life. Vote and tell others about Project 2025. Vote and have hope. Even if Trump wins, at least you'll have voted against him. Vote and stay to build up a progressive wave for the next election.

[evilwickedme]

It's so clear to me that so many so called "anti Zionists" - especially the non Palestinian goyim - have no idea how the Israeli election system works, and how bibi remains in power, and why we had five elections in like, three years, despite elections supposedly being every four years - because he couldn't keep a government stable enough to stay in power. Bibi netanyahu is MASSIVELY unpopular, and his approval rate has tanked even more since the war started, even among likud voters, the people who vote for HIS party (although their approval rates ranked less than the rest of the population). He has an extreme right wing government because if he didn't cooperate with right wing extremists and haredim he straight up wouldn't have the majority he needs to be our prime minister in the first place. He's been on trial for corruption for years at this point, and tried to completely restructure the judicial system just to avoid prison - leading to nearly a full year of protests until Oct 7. Luckily it didn't end up passing.

If elections were held at any point in the last five months since this war started, not only would he not be PM, we'd straight up have a center-left government. My recent transformation into a Yair Golan stan account is a joke but also 100% real - according to polls from the last three months or so, if he does what he's campaigning to do, leading a combined avoda and meretz party, he'd get enough votes to have an actual influential left wing party in the government for the first time in decades. An unbelievable amount of Israelis are calling for bibi to resign, many of them not calling for it to happen after the war ends, but right now.

I am sourcing this information from polls conducted by channels 11 (kan), 12, and 13, as well as by the Israeli democracy foundation, all but one of our important news channels - channel 14, the last channel, is our equivalent of fox news, and despite their numbers often being extremely different due to what is in my opinion biased reporting and flawed methodology, even they at times have had to admit that gantz is currently leading in the polls.

(Disclaimer that I work for a company that provides subtitles for channel 13, but i do not directly work for channel 13. Channel 13 leans mostly center left, and employs several (self identified) Arab Israelis in front of the camera, including Lucy Aharish, who makes considerable effort to bring Palestinian and Bedouin perspectives to her show. It also employs at least one massive racist though.)

I write this post because I keep seeing an unsourced claim by goyim that there's a poll showing a high rate of approval - 88%! - of the destruction and/or deaths Israel and the IDF are causing in Gaza. I went down a rabbit hole and simply couldn't find a poll asking about approval of deaths or destruction, although maybe I was looking up the wrong keywords? As a result I have just... So many questions. Because with the information I have from trustworthy local news sources, from the news channels I mentioned above and papers such as yediot aharonot/ynet and Haaretz, it doesn't fit with current public opinion, including many recent protests for more efforts towards a ceasefire. So my questions are thus -

Who conducted this poll? Was it a think tank, a government agency, a paper, a news channel? If so, which one? Are they left leaning, right leaning? Was it conducted by an Israeli or foreign institution?

Who did they ask? Was it a sample of likud voters; all Israeli adults; did they include only Jewish Israelis or also Arab citizens (approx. 1.5 million out of our 8 million population), Bedouins, and other minorities?

When was the poll conducted? Was it in October, immediately after the Oct 7 massacre, before the death toll in Gaza grew? Was it conducted more recently?

What, exactly, did they ask? Did they ask about destruction in general, or about the death toll in particular? Did they ask about the attempts to rescue hostages with military means, or all military actions? Did they ask about the number of Hamas operatives dead, about their estimated ratio of Hamas to civilians, about the total deaths?

What was the size of the pool surveyed? Was it conducted on a few dozen, a few hundred, or a few thousand people?

Because without this information, that one, sole statistic is essentially useless. As Mark Twain said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics. Always look at the source and ask: who asked the questions, who got asked, and what the questions were.

More specific statistics and sources under the cut.

I did find one survey by the Israel democracy foundation that asked if the IDF should take the Gazan suffering into account - an entirely different question, although it did still have a horrific 89% Jewish Israelis and 14% Arab Israelis and Palestinian citizens who said they shouldn't. That said, the pool they were drawing from was not very large - 500 of the interviews were conducted in Hebrew, 100 were conducted in Arabic. Also, of the people who supposedly said that they shouldn't, a little more than half of both populations said they should "somewhat" take it into account - that is, they didn't say they shouldn't take it into account at all, just not make it their first priority. This survey was conducted mid December.

In another survey by the same source with a slight larger sample size (a little over 600 Jewish Israelis and a little over 150 Arab Israelis), an insanely low 15% still wanted Bibi to be the PM, with the only candidate who received more than 6.5% being the center candidate Benny Gantz, who historically has tried to cooperate with center and left parties, with a whopping 23% of the votes. The survey included 10 candidates, as well as five other non candidate options. 4% voted "just not Bibi", and an actually insane 30.5% voted they were undecided. Only a quarter of those surveyed believed Bibi would manage to maintain a coalition after the war, a number that includes more extreme right wing voters, and only the ultra Orthodox haredi population had a majority of people (60%) who believed he can. This survey was conducted in January.

The channel 13 news survey from early March - barely over a week ago! - covered more specifically which parties would manage to get into the government and how many seats they would get, as under a certain amount of votes you simply do not get seats. Not all seats get into a coalition. According to their poll, the amount of seats the likud would get is halved, from 32 to 17, while gantz's the state camp would grow from 12 to 39. While currently meretz gets 4 seats and haavodah do not get enough votes to get a seat at the table so to speak, a combined haavodah and meretz under Yair Golan gets 9 mandates. In total, the right wing only get 47 mandates, well short of the amount of mandates necessary to create a government.

Channel 12's corresponding poll from January shows 35 mandates for gantz, and bibi had 18 mandates. Channel 11, in the same month, gave gantz 33 mandates and bibi 20.

I also sources an English Jerusalem post article which reports on channel 14's polls; jpost is a right wing biased paper, and yet even they report 36 mandates for gantz and 18 for bibi as of February.

Sources

The Israel democracy institute: 1 (English), 2 (Hebrew), 3 (Hebrew)

Haaretz: 1 (English) (paywalled)

Channel 13: 1 (Hebrew)

Ma'ariv: 1 (Hebrew) (reporting on channel 12)

Podcast which summarizes the above article: 1 (English) (includes transcript)

Kan 11: 1 (Hebrew)

Jpost: 1 (Hebrew)

[queer-geordie-nerd]

I've said this before but it does bear repeating - I've always known antisemitism existed, of course - in a standard goy, frankly naive, "this doesn't really affect me" way. I learned about the Holocaust in school, always been pretty aware of the double standards surrounding Israel, but I was also certain I knew I wasn't antisemitic, so didn't give it much thought. Until the last few months.

I started doing a lot of reading and learning and listening to Jewish voices in the wake of my disgust at the overall leftist reaction to Oct. 7 and I have been bowled over and utterly appalled at the sheer scale and insidiousness of the way antisemitism is baked into the very foundations of Western society. As a goy I would have sworn upside down I'd never had an antisemitic thought or belief in my life. And while consciously that may certainly be true, the process of unlearning centuries of unconscious extremely prevalent prejudice is not a straightforward one and the only way to do it in good faith is listen and learn.

That's why I do not trust fellow goyim who are so adamant that they know exactly what antisemitism is and isn't and know for a fact that they aren't - because the deeply insidious nature and long, long history of antisemitism means it is almost impossible to live and grow up in Western society (obviously antisemitism exists elsewhere but as a Westerner that's the experience I'm talking to) without being influenced in some way by it.

If a Jewish person tells you you are being antisemitic, sit down, shut up, swallow your pride and your indignation, and LISTEN AND LEARN.

[matan4il]

The other day, I went with my rl bff to the Jerusalem branch of the Museum of Tolerance for an exhibition on the Hamas massacre.

This is the sight that greeted us. "Esthers of the world, rise up!"

It's a poster celebrating two women whose families had lived in Iran, one is Jewish, the other is Muslim, and both women ended up being murdered due to the Islamic regime of that country, even though the Jewish woman's family had escaped Iran and fled to Israel after the Islamic revolution. The face of each girl is actually a composite, made from many smaller pictures of her people who have lost their lives because of the Islamist regime of Iran.

I knew this right away, because I have shared a piece that was done about the poster and how it came to be almost 2 months ago. 

"You don't understand!" my bff (who works as a teacher) said, all emotional, "She," my friend points to the Jewish girl on the left side of the poster, Shirel Haim Pour, "is the cousin of one of my students."

There is zero distance in Israel between us and the Oct 7 atrocities. 

We go in and join the tour of the exhibition. The guide tells us it was built jointly with Malki Shem Tov, who is a well known name in Israel, if you work at a museum. Malki founded a "creative visual solutions" company with his brother Assaf, through which among other things, they helped build many Israeli exhibitions over the years. "His son..." the tour guide starts to say and I don't need more than that for something to click in my head. I know so many of the names, faces and stories of the hostages, and so Omer Shem Tov pops right away into my mind. I didn't make the connection before, but now I can only imagine what it meant for this father to work on an exhibition that recounts, among other stories, how his son was victimized and robbed of his freedom during this massacre.

There is zero distance in Israel between us and the Oct 7 atrocities. 

The opening wall has a huge time stamp, 6:29 in the morning. 

The tour guide doesn't have to explain this number to Israelis, or why it's designed to look like an alarm clock display. We were all woken up on that fateful Saturday morning by the alarm clock of Hamas' rockets. And it doesn't matter what we thought or believed the day before, as the full scale and horror of the attack were starting to become known along Oct 7, we were all woken up.

There is zero distance in Israel between us and those atrocities. I know this, and still it strikes me, again and again.

There's an area dedicated to the pictures of one photographer who went to the south soon after the massacre. I knew some of them already, like the pic showing the bodies of 13 elderly Israelis, who were on their way to a tour of the Israeli south on that Saturday.

Some are new, like the pic of the door handle in one bomb shelter. I stop for a second, because now that I've moved into my new place, it hits me that the bomb shelter door was made by the same company. Suddenly, I feel like I'm inside the picture in a reality where the terrorists took a slightly different route on Oct 7. The door was photographed from inside the bomb shelter, and the bullets that pierced it, they had to have hit the personal holding it shut. The handle has blood stains on it, and it's broken off. I can only imagine how many hours this person held, and how much force they had to use, for that to happen. I know one thing, even without knowing exactly who this bomb shelter belonged to... If this person was on their own, they would have probably ended up surrendering rather than keep fighting to hold on to the handle this desperately. This was likely someone trying to keep their family safe. 

One note retrieved from the body of a terrorist is on display. It says everything about the motivation of the monsters who committed these atrocities, and every word is purely motivated by antisemitism and religious zeal. The note is actually not in Arabic, as it may first appear, it's in Farsi, the language spoken in Iran, hinting at the source, the Islamist regime there, which doesn't care about the liberation of anyone, it aspires to create a global network of fanatic terrorism.

The translation: "You must sharpen the blades of your swords and be pure in your intentions before Allah. Know that the enemy is a disease that has no cure, except beheading and uprooting the hearts and livers. Attack them!"

There is a section dedicated to women's stories. The exhibition visitors spread out to watch the testimonies, each on a separate screen. It's a not like a forest, you can't really see it for the trees, and it's another moment of feeling overwhelmed because we can't truly get it. It's just not comprehensible, facing so many stories about intentional, face to face cruelty, brutality, sadism and joy in it. Mali Shoshana tells the story of how she tried to play dead while lying shot in a pool of her own blood, but her body wouldn't stop shaking, so she somehow turned on her side to the wall and knocked her injured knee against it, causing herself to pass out from the pain. It saved her life. Ricarda Louk tells the story of the last message they got from her daughter Shani, trusting she was right and there was nothing for them to worry about. Then Ricarda's son started screaming and crying, because he saw the same vid many of came across on that day, of his sister being dragged into Gaza stripped down, mutilated, abused, molested and humiliated, while Gazan civilians were celebrating the public degradation of her body. And there's more and more and more. "You can come back and continue to listen," the guide promises as he moves us to the next segment, but the truth is no matter how many stories I've listened to and absorbed, it still doesn't feel like enough.

There is a wall with the head shots of the victims in Israel who lost their lives due to this war, whether they were murdered on Oct 7 or since, but it's only been updated up until Mar 27 of this year. Even so, no matter what angle I tried, I couldn't fit in all of the pictures.

Interactive screens allow a geographic telling of the massacre's story. They show maps of Israel's south, with dots on them, red for the murdered, dark blue for hostages, bright blue for hostages who have been returned, grey for the injured. You can tap a dot and read a story. Or you can zoom out and try to comprehend how is it possible for there to be that many dots on the maps.

"From darkness to light," reads the exhibition title. That's the perception of time in Judaism. We always move from darkness to light. And there's a section for the light, for stories of resilience, of bravery, of rehabilitation, of mutual support and caring. Filmed interviews that do their best to summarize an incomprehensible amount of good we've seen in response to an incomprehensible amount of evil. It features people from every demographic in Israel, and in that way also serves as a reminder of just how diverse we are as a society.

This part, I think to myself, was included for visitors from abroad. We Israelis, we know.

There's one story I know already. Tomer Greenberg, an Israeli officer, rescued on Oct 7 baby twins from the carnage. He was later killed fighting in Gaza. Like a puzzle, I've heard this story from several angles, including from Tomer before he died. This movie features an interview I hadn't heard yet, with the volunteer paramedic that Tomer handed the twins to. Shalom, this medic, talks about how they clung to him desperately as they got to be fed and feel safe and cared for again for the first time in what's estimated to have been 14 hours. I'm sitting there, thinking of those babies crying, not understanding why their parents aren't coming to feed them, and I don't know how to deal with this.

Shalom shares that the experiences of Oct 7 have inspired him to try and become a combative soldier, something that wasn't on the cards for him before that. I wonder again at people who can act like subjecting an entire (already traumatized) society to a sadistic massacre can liberate anyone.

And I understand Shalom fully. When your family is in the pits of hell, there's nowhere you want to be other than there, with them, doing what you can, rather than sit and watch helpless from afar. Most people would say he did a lot on that day. Shalom must have felt like that still wasn't enough.

At the very end, visitors are invited to add their own little piece of light, through neon notes and pens on which they'd share their thoughts. Nothing feels like it can sum everything I'm thinking and feeling up, but not writing anything feels worse, so my bff and I add a few of our words to the notes.

I don't have any profound conclusions for this post anymore than I did for my note. I just know that this still hurts, that we're still losing people daily, that we can't begin to heal, because we're still in the middle of the wound being inflicted. But I also know that we WILL heal, that even if the wound can't be closed yet, our collective immune system kicked into action on Oct 7 already, that we will continue to share the pain and the comfort and the care, and this massacre and war will probably never stop hurting, that we'll never be the same, but eventually we will be alright. Where people choose to care, there's just no other option.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[ragnarssons]

Ok. Well, I'll educate you on this whole thing, because this is abhorrent. You say "People keep saying Free Palestine but I can’t tell if they’re against Israel or Hamas, which currently controls Palestine." The article says

Hamas has two branches, one armed branch, and one political branch. The political branch got elected in Gaza/by Palestinians. They didn't "take over" Palestine or Gaza. It is also important to note that 2006 dates back to the times after the Second Antifada (a rebelious movement from Palestinians), sparked from the death of Mohammed al-Durah, an 12yo Palestinian child, you know him, from this very famous picture.

The second Antifada was a series of uprisings in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and even among the Arab community in Israel: the IDF violently repressed the uprisings, leading to a whole lot of deaths, and Hamas were responsible of several terrorist attacks in Israel. It lead to the dislogement of a whole lot of Israeli settlers from the West Bank and Gaza, and led ultimately to Israel building a whole ass wall around the West Bank to literally imprison the Palestinians inside the West Bank [x] [x] (to note, the wall around the Gaza Strip, also named The Iron Wall, had been built WAY BEFORE the 2000s) [x]. This wall, looks like this:

The Iron Wall looks like this:

The Iron Wall around the Gaza strips expands to the sea itself [x] and the coastlines are heavily guarded by the IDF, and the beaches are oftentimes targeted by missiles, such as the ones who killed 4 children, playing on the beach [x] (notice the title here, jeesh a good thing the Israeli gov is here to "exonerate itself" from killing children hey?!) It is important to note that despite the fact that Hamas got elected, it was elected at a time were tensions were high between Palestine and Israel, just coming out of really rough and violent times, where Palestinians literally were only defended by the fact that Hamas and the Islamic Jihad had even weapons to attack the IDF that was storming around Gaza and the West Bank to repress all the protests. And on top of that, it's important to note that, as stated in the article, the elections were held in 2006. That's 17 years ago, with half the population in Gaza being under the medium age of 18, which means more than half the Palestinian population today, did not elect Hamas. Second of all, it's also important that there are legislative elections. Hamas has majority of the seats at Parliament, BUT they're not the only ones, and the Fatah is relatively close behind (so much so that the US put their grubby hands in this election, and even tried to evict Hamas from the Parliament to replace it with Fatah buuuut that's another story- another story called corruption). So now, let's adress the "Hamas are terrorists" argument. So these lists of terrorists or not are actually decided and written by governments. There are several gov around the world that don't consider Hamas as a terrorist group: such as Egypt, Qatar, all the Arabic neighbors of the region, Russia, etc etc. On the other hand, yes, most of the Western countries, such as the US, the EU, all have written Hamas as a terrorist group. Now, the complexity of this whole notion is the fact that, through history, in colonialist regimes, such as THE WESTERN COUNTRIES, several resistance groups have been labeled as terrorists. The IRA in Ireland, Nelson Mandela and his NPA in South Africa, the Black Panthers in the US, etc. It's also important to note that there are several evidences, that Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's current prime Minister, had pushed for Israel and their allies to finance Hamas in order to undermine the Fatah's influence in Palestine. [x] Now, for the rest, I think you totally misinterpreted the article. So October 7th. You say: "the fighting this year started because Hamas attacked and bombed Gaza" So. No. Hamas attacked Israel. Hamas breached the Iron Wall and entered the "Israeli" territories. They led several attacks across Kibbutz (small villages) near the Gaza strip, killing what is said by the Israeli gov, 1400+ people and taking Israeli citizens (and other tourists that were there) hostages, allegedly taking them back to Gaza (but since the hostages have not all been released... who knows!) [x] Last reports say that Hamas has approx. 200 hostages. Hamas says 50 hostages have been killed by the Israeli bombings on the Gaza strip. But again, it's all a battle of propaganda from both sides with an impossibility for international and independant groups, journalists and authorities to check anything. The article you cited as source explicitely says so:

"I also saw that Israel had 1 million Palestinians evacuated because they were anticipating a ground assault from Hamas." So. That pissed me off. Ngl. Israel DID NOT evacuate anyone from the Gaza strip. Ever since the attacks on October 7, Israel has done nothing for the Palestinian civillians, and even before that, they have not. Israel started by declaring a complete siege of the Gaza strip, cutting off food supplies, water supplies and electricity from the 2.2 million people living inside the Gaza strip. [x] Israel then started carpet-bombing the entirety of the Gaza strip (which is a zone 40km long and 12km large...). I don't need to link any source, I'm sure it's easy to find, it's been like this for 23 days, non-stop now. And then, on October 14th, some 7 days after the Hamas attacks, Israel ordered the 1 million people still living in the North of the Gaza strip to up and leave. [x] They did NOT evacuate the people from the Gaza strip, they just sent out fliers, urging them to leave the zone, with a 24 HOURS NOTICE. 1 million people, having to been displaced, South of the Gaza strip, without food, water and electricity, in less than 24 hours! [x] Of course, the UN, among other organizations, pointed the finger at Israel and explained how impossible the task was, and how mass deportation of 1 million people is a breach to international laws. [x] [x] [x] And to remember, this order of evacuation has been given WHILE Israel was still heavily bombing the entirety of the Gaza strip. South, North, East, West. Planes constantly flying over the strip and dropping bombs everywhere. And that's without mentioning that after this order of evacuation, forcing people from Gaza to flee North of the strip to South of the strip, Israel bombed South of the strip and the convoys of people fleeing south. [x] [x] And I'll let you look into it because I'd like to have some time back for me, but that's without mentioning the fact that Israel bombed and is still bombing, hospitals, residential buildings, UNWRA schools, UN schools that are used as refugee camps, churches and mosques where people were seeking shelters from the bombing. It's also without mentioning that Israeli settlers (citizens) are currently attacking the West Bank (where there is no Hamas) and driving Palestinians out of their homes. Over 110 people have died in the West Bank, resulting from these violences. [x] And the most recent reports state that the IDF and the Israel Gov have targeted Jenin, a city in the West Bank. [x] Now. "I know there’s this whole thing with Israel having taken territory from Palestine, but Israel had that land first before Palestine took it." SIGH NO. JUST NO. NO NO NO NO NO NO

NO

Okay can someone explain what’s happening with Palestine?

People keep saying Free Palestine but I can’t tell if they’re against Israel or Hamas, which currently controls Palestine.

I looked it up and it doesn’t make sense for people to be against Israel bc the fighting this year started because Hamas attacked and bombed Gaza. I also saw that Israel had 1 million Palestinians evacuated because they were anticipating a ground assault from Hamas.

From what I read, Hamas is considered a terrorist group.

I know there’s this whole thing with Israel having taken territory from Palestine, but Israel had that land first before Palestine took it.

Idk someone explain it to me please.

Source: https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict

[littlemssam]

Since not everyone saw my latest Statement on Discord yesterday, I wanted to post it here as well, and I also want to clear a few things up.

For those who do not know what this is about, I made a post that I should not have, or at least I should have phrased it in a way where the meaning is clearer. The Post I made was "Since I was one of those that got tagged in there, I can just say that I will not partake in any Anti Israel Pro Hamas Propaganda, and I will most certainly not forget what Hamas did Oct 7th like a lot of these ppl seem to do." I now see that the way I phrased it made it seem like I feel that the attacks on Palestinian Civilians were/are justified, and that is not what I meant, and I am deeply sorry about that. Edit: To make it clear I am against the Israel Government and Netanyahu, just like I am against Hamas. I am pro ceasefire now.

On June 25th I had to face the consequences in my Discord. A lot of ppl came in and confronted me about it. When the first ppl joined and started the confrontation, I did knee jerked again and banned the first three of them, because one of them insulted me and wrote that the attack on Oct 7 was made up. There were a few follow up bans of ppl, who also insulted me, but I did not ban anyone on purpose because they are Pro Palestine. There were also some Posts deleted that should not have been. It was not done by me personally, but I was also not fast enough and clear minded enough to stop it and I could not undo it, so I apologise for that as well.

I locked the Server down in the End, because it was 3 am for me and I was, and still am, very overwhelmed and exhausted, and the Server will stay down for a while. This is the latest Statement I made, and I know it will not be enough for everyone and I respect that.

"I did not mean to seem to take a stance that seems like I am pro-Israel as if I believe this is all their land (a Zionist). I do not want to condone the violence happening in the country right now or pretend that Palestinian lives don't matter. It was never intended in what I said. I did not mean to phrase things in a way that make me seem to be against the problems palestinians are facing in Gaza. I inserted myself into something I don't know enough about or how to talk about in an educated way, so I should have better not said anything at all. I am sorry that I did. I do feel it is wrong that some people feel like what happened on October 7 is fake and I have already had people say it is. I have banned people who have said so while attacking me. That is wrong. Those people died and it's sad, so too it is sad the people who are dying over the military actions of Israel in attacking the groups who did this causing a loss of Palestinian life without considering who will be hurt. I am not a Zionist. I am just someone who felt sickened by what happened in the attacks last year and didn't like how I see some people pretending that is all a hoax."

[sapchat]

IDK if this has been done but I went through the 3 reboots and did a timeline of events so you wouldn't have to!

Side notes: sometimes I use the first initial for who it is! also some of MW3 has timestamps. I also apologize for spelling. Also, lots of this shit happens over like 7-12 days April 6, 2019 Makarov bombs Verdansk Price, Ghost and Soap know each other at this point, have NOT met Gaz

Start of MW1 Oct 24 2019 'Al Qatal' moves gas Oct. 25 2019 Piccadilly Square Oct. 25 2019 Price meets Gaz Oct 26 19 Alex & Farah blow Barkov's bombs Same day destroy one of B's bases Oct. 27 19 Price and Gaz go to Picc Safe house Oct 28 19A&F go to Urzstan hospital for "The Wolf" Oct 28 19 P&G meet up w/ A&F for the Wolf Oct 29 19 Plan ambush for Butcher & Wolf - Hadir uses the gas, learn Hadir stole the gas Oct 29 19 PGAF Go to kill W, & get H Oct 29 19 PGAF kill the wolf, H is 2 Russia Oct 31 19 PGN go 2 Russia, Capture Kill Butcher (and traumatize a family) Nov 1 19 Hadir is handed over to Russia Nov 3 19 Take down Barkov's gas production plant & K Price meets Kate @ Tea shop makes TF 141 w/ Ghost, Soap, & Gaz END of MW1 - May 22, 2022 Soap goes side questing, turns green (idk I didn't watch the trailer (I did but I just know there's like green gas)) Start of MW2 July 15 22 Ghost Blows AlMazrah base (Honestly didn't get the point of us seeing this) Oct 28 22 GS Kill/Cap Mission for Hassan -> Find American Missiles not Hassan Oct 28 22 PG in Amsterdam for Missile info (Think they used it as an excuse to swim) Oct 29 22 Capture a cartel mem 4 info Oct 29 22 Alej. Go for cartel jumping border Oct 30 22 GSAlej go 4 Hassan safehouse They capture Hassan (picnic in the desert omg!) Oct 31 22 PG in Spain for Hassan info Kate gets caught Shepherd tries to abandon her Nov 1 22 PG meet with F to get Kate (they get her and get juicy gos on Shep) Nov 1 22 Soap goes into Casa de Sin Nombre Nov 2 22 Gulf oil rig, blows up by G&S (philip was here too) Nov 3 22 Soap & Ghost are fighting Shadow co Nov 3 22 SG go for Alej w/ Rodolfo. PG meet up Nov 3 22 141 goes for Graves Nov 4 22 Go 2 Chicago 4 Hassan & missile kill both END of MW2 - Kate (& tech. Gaz) learn about Makarov

Start of MW3 Nov 10 23 Makarov is broken out of jail 2am Nov 10 23 Farah is ambushed Konni got missiles around 6am Nov 10 23 141 go for Nuc Power Plant, P get gased 9am Makarov has been out for 6 hours Nov 11 23 They go for Missiles in Urzikistan Nov 11 23 Kate is going 4 intel on Makarov meets Yuri @ 3pm Nov 11 23 Makarov crashes plane, blames Farah and Alex go there 7:30-9:30pm meet with Kate and Nikolai in hanger Nov 12 8am Nov 12 23 they go for Milena 7pm Nov 13 23 they get Makarovs right hand man Nolan 11am Nov 14 23 They find Shepherd swimming at some point 9:30 Nov 16 23 SG stop Verdansk dam bombing Same time PG are at airsti Nov 21 23 141 go after Makarov Hacker Nov 21 23 They stop Makarov bomb, Soap gets killed. Price kills Shepherd after spreading Soap's ashes.

[mariacallous]

When President Biden called the emir of Qatar and the president of Egypt on Thursday, his message was direct: Get me a deal, two U.S. officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: Biden, under increasing pressure from progressive Democrats, desperately wants a temporary ceasefire in Gaza. He sees a deal for the hostages held by Hamas as the only way to get it while maintaining his unwavering support for Israel.

Biden wants the Qataris and the Egyptians — the key mediators in the hostage talks — to get the terror group to agree to a deal before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which starts March 10.

Driving the news: As part of the framework presented by the U.S., Egypt and Qatar in Paris on Feb. 23, Israel would release about 400 Palestinian prisoners — including 15 convicted of murdering Israelis.

In exchange, Hamas would free about 40 Israeli hostages, including women, female soldiers, men over 50 and men who are in serious medical conditions.

The framework also included a roughly six-week pause in the fighting in Gaza — one day for every living hostage released — as well as a readiness for an initial and gradual return of Palestinian citizens to the northern part of the Strip.

U.S. and Israeli officials say Hamas' response to the proposed deal didn't include a list of hostages who are alive, or how many Palestinian prisoners the group is demanding in return.

Hamas is believed to still be holding 134 people it took hostage during the attack on Israel that began Oct. 7; 32 of the hostages have been confirmed dead.

Behind the scenes: In his call with the Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Biden told them how the U.S. is pressing Israel to agree to the deal, and urged them to push Hamas to do the same, two sources with direct knowledge of the calls said.

"All three leaders agreed the onus is currently on Hamas to close remaining gaps in the package," another U.S. source with direct knowledge of the calls said.

"The Egyptian and Qatari leaders described their efforts with Hamas and shared the sense of urgency to get this done."

Mossad director David Barnea, who is leading Israel's negotiations team, speaks each day with CIA director Bill Burns about the hostage talks, a senior Israeli official said.

The official put the chances of a deal at 50-50. "Biden's personal involvement and his calls with the leaders of Qatar and Egypt are very important," the official said.

The big picture: The deaths of dozens of Palestinians on Thursday amid chaos surrounding an aid convoy in Gaza increased Biden's urgency in seeking a hostage deal that would lead to a ceasefire, a U.S. official said.

The U.S. began air drops of aid to Gaza on Saturday, which will continue, but aren't a game changer in addressing the humanitarian crisis there, U.S. officials acknowledge.

Two U.S. officials said only a hostage deal and a ceasefire could dramatically improve the situation in Gaza by allowing significantly more food and medical supplies to reach people in need — and lower criminal gangs' incentive to loot the aid.

State of play: A Hamas delegation is in Cairo to meet with Egyptian intelligence officials, according to press reports there. Representatives of the CIA are also there to follow the talks.

There have been two main sticking points in the negotiations: the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released for every hostage released, and how many Palestinian civilians would be allowed to return to their homes in northern Gaza.

"The Israelis accepted the terms of the deal and if Hamas agrees, a six-week ceasefire can start immediately," a senior U.S. official said.

"We still hope we can get a deal by Ramadan. The ball is in Hamas' court."

What's next: Israeli minister Benny Gantz, a member of Israel's war cabinet, will arrive in Washington on Sunday. Gantz is pushing hard for a deal and has said the release of hostages is more important and urgent than destroying Hamas, which is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's goal.

Netanyahu didn't want Gantz to visit the U.S. and told him in a call on Friday that "there is only one prime minister in Israel," Netayahu's aides said.

Gantz will visit the White House on Monday and have separate meetings with Vice President Kamala Harris and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, a Biden administration official said.

Qatar's prime minister, Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani — a key player in the hostage-ceasefire negotiations — will visit Washington on Tuesday to discuss strategy with U.S. officials.

[twig-tea]

GL odds and ends 20 October 2024

Still feeling out how regularly it makes sense to do this; first one was 2 weeks ago on 6 October. If you're interested in GL older than that, check out my GL rec list through Feb 2024 and my update in July 2024. New series marked with an asterisk*.

Currently airing (with thoughts up to Oct 6):

Reverse 4 U 7/8 (Thai, Tuesdays 1:00 PM EDT, Netflix / YouTube) I'm disappointed by how this final arc has gone. We haven't really seen any growth for Wa, and the whole plot with Wa and Vivi's father didn't really make sense. I really don't understand why he had to stay away, or why the rules are so different for him than for Wa. The relationship between Wa and Four also feels flat because we've barely seen them together. I was rooting for this one but alas.

Unlock Your Love ep 6/8 (Thai, Wednesdays, GagaOOLala / YouTube [cut version]) The sequence where Rain and Love keep trying to have sex but getting interrupted/hurt was very funny; this show still drags but the core of it is pretty good. I mostly just wish it were tighter.

Chaser Game W s2 ep 5/8 (Japanese, Thursdays 12:30 PM EDT, GagaOOLala) @lurkingshan is already doing a great summary of this week to week in her JQL weekly round-up!

Affair the series ep 8/8 END (Thai, Fridays 11:15 AM EDT, iQIYI/ YouTube) Other than the jealousy in the last 10 minutes of the show, I really did like this ending for the series. I really liked Wan's decision to take time for herself after being disappointed by Pleng's decision again. The plot and melodramatic-ness of this show is not my favourite, but I enjoyed it week to week in spite of that. The acting was so solid, the women so gorgeous, the chemistry so fire, and the writing was great for the genre its in (the story was internally consistent and coherent, and the characters were complex and their motivations were clear. There was even a good plot reason for the 'they might be siblings' twist). If you don't mind melodrama, give this one a try!

*Pluto ep 1/12 NEW (Thai, Saturdays 9:30 AM EDT, YouTube) Starting off with a fantastic kiss and Namtan on a motorcycle is truly an incredible opening gambit. That being said, I don't buy the core premise of the plot and it is making it difficult for me to actually enjoy the show. I'll probably be mostly quiet about this one because the things I don't like about it aren't actually about its execution but rather my taste.

*Apple My Love ep 2/7 NEW (Thai, Saturdays 11:45 AM EDT, GagaOOLala and YouTube) I already shouted on main about ep1 here; so far I'm obsessed with this show. Kris is too gay to function, and the misunderstanding is perfectly executed. Very excited for this one, it's so far fantastic.

The Loyal Pin ep 12/16 (Thai, Sundays 12:15 PM EDT, YouTube) Anin's speech in this episode was fire. I feel for these girls, Anin and Pin are just so desperate to be together and their choices are limited. This show continues to be gorgeous and so well done, and I keep bracing for pain.

Red Whisper ep 4/8 (Korea, [schedule is kinda unpredictable; vaguely every 5 days??], YouTube) Cheating and taking advantage while your crush is heartbroken and drunk is not my fave but is par for the course with these SukFilm short series; my fave so far has been their first GL so if you haven't seen that yet I'd honestly recommend that instead.

Recent One-offs & Side Couples

We finally got the sapphic backstory in The Hidden Moon but it was (as expected) sad and mostly inferred.

We also got more of the Aim as a Lesbian plotline in the new Love Sick 2024 remake (this was not a plotline in the 2014 version and it's one of the changes I really like and that I think works really well)

Sastra film app YouTube channel has several short Cambodian GL series that come out weekly Honestly they are not to my taste but I don't like gatekeeping GL especially from smaller markets. I check in on these time to time and if there are any that I think are great I'll give them a shout-out

Ditto above with JPC media YouTube channel for Thai GL shorts if there are any that stand out to me I'll say so

Starting soon:

The Nipple Talk, [ensemble] Taiwanese, 1 November GagaOOLala

My Ex's Wedding [in theatres in Thailand 14 November]

Mom Ped Sawan, Thai, 17 November [international distribution uncertain; it should be on VIPA app with subs, but that is region-locked]

Petrichor, Thai, 23 November, TBD

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Five Fics Friday: Year Five Masterpost

WHAT A SPECIAL WEEK, Y'ALL! This week marks the end of the FIFTH FULL YEAR I've done UNINTERRUPTED FIC RECS every SINGLE FRIDAY! This is quite the achievement, I think. I genuinely didn't think I would make it this long being a reliable source for guaranteed recs every Friday 💜 It's something I'm super proud of and something I really genuinely hope that you guys love as much as I love posting them. I SERIOUSLY couldn't do it without you guys, since I literally get these weekly suggestions primarily from y'all!

For anyone who is new to my blog, every SINGLE Friday I post up 5 fics recently added to either my Marked for Later list or my Bookmarks, or as a way to promote new fics suggested to me by authors as a Signal Boosted fic! I haven't missed a single Friday since its inception in 2019, and it's still going strong!! It's the ONLY guaranteed weekly list on this blog, since YOU GUYS provide me the content!! :D I love doing it, and it makes authors feel loved :)

Next Friday, September 27, 2024 starts year six, so until there, here's your opportunity to check out any lists you may have missed this past year!

There are over 1,300 fics on the lists below, and that DOESN'T count the bonus extended lists I do once in awhile!!!

Again, hope you enjoy and I hope you guys continue to support my fic rec lists. For anyone curious, these are the best lists to get fresh new fics, as often these lists feature fics that authors have posted recently! Enjoy!

PREVIOUS YEARS (2019 to 2023):

YEAR ONE MASTERPOST (Sept 29/19 to Sept 25/20)

YEAR TWO MASTERPOST (Sept 25/20 to Sept 24/21)

YEAR THREE MASTERPOST (Oct 1/21 to Sept 23/22)

YEAR FOUR MASTERPOST (Sept 30/22 to Sept 22/23)

YEAR 5 OF FIVE FICS FRIDAY:

September 29/23

October 6/23

October 13/23

October 20/23

October 27/23

November 3/23

November 10/23

November 17/23

5FF “LOKI” Bonus: November 17/23

November 24/23

December 1/23

December 8/23

December 15/23

December 22/23

December 29/23

January 5/24

January 12/24

January 19/24

January 26/24

February 2/24

February 9/24

February 16/24

February 23/24

March 1/24

March 8/24

March 15/24

March 22/24

March 29/24

April 5/24

April 12/24

April 19/24

April 26/24

May 3/24

May 10/24

May 17/24

May 24/24

May 31/24

June 7/24

June 14/24

June 21/24

June 28/24

July 5/24

July 12/24

July 19/24

July 26/24

August 2/24

August 9/24

August 16/24

August 23/24

August 30/24

September 6/24

September 13/24

September 20/24

[historicity-was-already-taken]

This whole exhausting months-long exercise of talking about The Conflict only started because I had the nerve to post here about Jewish resistance in Warsaw during the Holocaust--you know, the topic of my book. A very smug person left a comment comparing Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto, and I spiraled.

Because that person didn't leave the comment because they were genuinely interested in discussing the parallels which could be drawn, and the appropriateness of such parallels (I've had those conversations offline; they were fascinating, difficult, mutually respectful, and no I'm not repeating them here); they left it to troll me and make me feel like an oppressor for....studying the Holocaust and posting about my work. And it worked. And the fact that it worked made me very angry, and...here we are.

I won't do that shit again. From this point forward I'm going to follow the rule I set for myself back in 2011: no talking about the Arab-Israeli Conflict here unless it's in regard to reference materials.

This also applies to questions in my inbox. Some of them are requests for secondary sources; when my draft is submitted to my editor I'll update the Reading List to include volumes which speak to the history of Zionism(s), and the international context surrounding the founding of the State of Israel. I also might delete some of the material posted between Oct. 7 and now. Mostly because I'm sick of the notifications. But I don't dirty delete, so there's your heads up.

And if any of you are going to learn a lesson from this, I'd say that if you know hostile online interactions trigger your anxiety, you should do the opposite of me and refuse to engage. Or just, you know, don't post about topics you know invite toxic interactions and generally make you into a basketcase (that's me calling myself a basketcase).

Take care of yourselves please, and make sure your activism benefits more than simply your ego.

Now, I'm going to back to writing vivid descriptions of what happened inside Treblinka's gas chambers before the improved group went operational in late August 1942.

[matan4il]

Have you noticed how almost everything that the anti-Israel crowd accuses people who simply recognize Israel's right to exist of, is (in additional to usually being false) stuff they're guilty of themselves?

"You support ethnic cleansing!"

What do you think it means, when you chant the English translation of "From water to water, Palestine will be Arab"?

"You support an ethno-state!"

Do you call for the destruction of every single nation state, such as Germany, Japan, France, and so on? No? Then so do you. Have you called for the establishment of a Palestinian state? Then, so do you. Between Hamas ruling Gaza and being genocidal when it comes to Jews, and Mahmoud Abbas (president of the Palestinian Authority) stating no Israelis will be allowed in the State of Palestine (and by "Israelis" we all know he doesn't mean the Arab citizens of Israel, he's talking about Jews) that's going to be an ethno-state, too. Oh, you meant a "pure" ethno-state. Those don't exist in today's reality, and Israel, with 27% of its citizens being non-Jews, is no exception.

"Oct 7 didn't happen in a vacuum, you're ignoring the context of the past 75 years!"

You are ignoring big chunks of anti-Jewish violence during these 75 years, you're ignoring the expulsion of almost 900,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim countries, you're ignoring the anti-Jewish violence and persecution that preceded the establishment of the Land of Israel, and you're ignoring all 3,500 years (at least) of Jewish existence in and connection to our ancestral homeland, Israel.

"You support collective punishment!"

The same way you do, when you chant, "When people are occupied, resistance is justified"? Because that's what it means, that for the sin of Israel supposedly being a colonial state (a false claim, since Jews are native to Israel), you're justifying raping 13 year old girls, shooting them in the head, murdering Holocaust survivors, burning babies alive... what's that if not supporting collective punishment? (that's before we get into the fact that Israel not surrendering in a war started by Hamas is NOT collective punishment, or else we would have to define the allies not surrendering to the Nazis in WWII as collective punishment of the Germans)

"You suppor apartheid!"

All Israeli citizens have the same civil rights. Apartheid in South Africa was a system where citizens of the country had their rights limited based on skin color/ancestry. The issue in South Africa wasn't that racism existed (IDK a single country where racism doesn't), it's that it was codified into law, and used against the rights of that country's own citizens. Israeli Jews and Israeli Arabs have the same rights. Non-Israeli Palestinians not having the same rights as Israelis, including as Israeli Arabs, is the same as French Canadians not having the same rights in the US as French Americans. It is NOT proof the US is applying a system of apartheid unto French people. And if it were, then I have news for you, every country applies different rights to citizens vs not citizens, so every country would be an apartheid state by this criterion. Which would make the word meaningless, and it would diminish the suffering of non-whites under South Africa's apartheid (as some young black South Africans who have actually been to Israel now point out). Meanwhile, I'll point back up to where Mahmoud Abbas said no Israelis (i.e Jews) will be allowed in Palestine, and that under the Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian can be jailed or executed for selling land to Jews, which means the PA demolishes the right to property (of Jews to own it, and of the PA's Palestinian citizens to sell it as they see fit) based solely on the ancestry of the buyer... And you support the PA, right?

"You deny the Nakba!"

I had never encountered any Israeli denying that roughly 850,000 Arabs fled Israel due to the War of Independence. Pointing out that the Arabs are the ones who started that war isn't the same as denying it happened. Meanwhile, the people who make this accusation, largely deny the expulsion of the Jews from Arab and Muslim countries, deny the suffering, discrimination, expulsions and massacres Jews had endured for centuries under Arab and Muslim regimes, and deny the atrocities of Oct 7.

"You support colonialism!"

Say the people who deny the native rights of the Jews, who act as if these rights are limited by time (as if such a limitation benefits anyone other than actual colonizers), who ignore the fact that Palestinians wouldn't exist here without Arab colonialism, or who wish to confer a native status unto them by virtue of... being settler colonialists for a "long time" (to be clear, the way the UN's definition of a Palestinian refugee works, it only requires a person to have been an Arab* settler colonialist in Israel during the 2 years prior to the founding of the Israeli state, to be recognized as a Palestinian. To become a US citizen, in addition to other requirements, you have to live in the US for at least 5 years, 3 if married to an American citizen. That means in June of 1946, it was easier to become a Palestinian "native" in the eyes of the UN, than an American citizen). Don't get me wrong, Palestinians have a right to live in the place where they were born. I can both recognize that they're here due to Arab colonialism, AND be okay with them living here. Just like I can recognize that no Americans today deserve to be displaced, even though the majority of them are there thanks to colonialism. And I don't have to pretend like Americans of European descent have suddenly become native (something that if I did, would probably hurt actual Native Americans), in order to recognize their right to live where they were born. It's just ironic that if we took the logic of the anti-Israel crowd when it comes to native Jews, and applied it to all native peoples, this would harm the natives, erase their rights, recognize their colonizers as natives, and generally help colonialism.

There's probably more, but I think this is demonstrative enough.

* Technically, the UN didn't specify ancestry. As an idea, you could be Arab, Jewish, a Polish Catholic priest living in a convent in the Land of Israel from Jun '46 to May '48, and you'd be recognized as a Palestinian by the UN, but in reality this definition ended up favoring all non-Jewish colonizers of the land. In 1952, Israel said, "It's okay, we'll take care of the Jewish refugees displaced by the War of Independence. No need for the UN to do so. This is what we set up a Jewish state for." This is in addition to Israel taking care of the Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries, and Jewish Holocaust survivors. And for Israel's show of responsibility, the now-Israeli Jewish refugees have been punished. They don't get recognized as existing, as having been displaced by, and having suffered due to the war the Arabs started in the Land of Israel against its Jewish communities. "Palestinian" refers to non-Jews only from the second The British Mandate in Palestine's Jews became Israeli Jews, but that doesn't stop the anti-Israel crowd from falsely claiming there are Palestinian Jews today... even though since May of 1948, there aren't, and before that, those Palestinian Jews were British subjects, not the citizens of an Arab independent state called Palestine (something that has never historically existed). Thanks to the exclusion in practice of Jews from the definition of Palestinian refugee, the UN agency for taking care of Palestinian refugees, UNRWA became a tool of spreading anti-Jewish hate.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[redjaybathood]

i was blocked by the user who posted this - good riddance; people who are blocking me lately are not the people in general I would like to interact with, since they want me and my country dead - but here's the link.

this (the croudfunding project user posted) is great (maybe, I don't know if they're trustworthy) but i'd like to address the tweet on the first screenshot above. Please read the text below after you donate to Palestine and Sudan's women, if you personally find this user trustworthy; because while I am pissed af, women in war zones do need your help.

"I remember this headline addressing women's health in Ukraine" - curious, because as a Ukrainian woman, I do not, in fact, remember this headline addressing women's health in Ukraine. I did remember buying a menstrual cup for like. A whole lot of money. Because there was a blockade around the city, nothing goes in and out, so pads disappeared pretty quick, quicker than I got the money to buy them, so when I did have the money, I had to use an expensive and really really uncomfortable device because I had no alternative. Well, unless toilet paper or cotton can be considered an alternative. (do not recommend)

Don't get me wrong, I found an article (amount: 1; one) with this headline, posted in March 2022, that did mention Ukrainian women and humanitarian relief for them needing to include feminine hygiene products. But you know who else the article mentioned? 40 millions of displaced women and girls around the world since 2020.

The article also mentioned refugees and displaced women and girls since 2014. I did not, in fact, hear anything about anyone sending pads as humanitarian aid to Ukraine in 2014. Funny, right? Because the war started 10 years ago, and it took the world eight years to get on the page.

But Razi on twitter here doesn't think so. They think it's unfair, that there's been a whole article shared a whole of eleven times on twitter since March 2022. Yeah, Razi, good memory you have.

Well. I might be unfair to Razi. Maybe they don't mean to do that thing where you mention Ukraine only to boost engagement, by pitting Ukraine and other countries, such as Palestine or Sudan, against each other. With the main message being: Ukraine "steals" the aid that should have come to us! Nobody helps us but they help Ukraine! And the takeaway your audience has: bad Ukraine, stop helping it.

Maybe they didn't mean to. But this is a pattern, and there are consequences. And those consequences leave Ukrainians dead.

(and yeah, for the op I linked - they 100% do it intentionally; the only times they mention Ukraine is only for this reason)

Please. Please, please, please, STOP pitting Ukraine against your cause of the week - most people doing that didn't really post anything about Gaza or Sudan before Oct 7. (Raza themself only woke up to Gaza in December, but at least they did care about Sudan before).

I know the perception is that the whole world is enthusiastically helping Ukraine but... this is not really the case, unfortunately.