#pre-war romania

[nadjaerna]

Postcard views of Culă Boierească, Romanian General Exhibition, Bucharest, 1906.

The Romanian Culă is a type of fortified manor house. The word kula means tower in Balkan languages (its roots are Turkish), and in Balkan countries kulas served as defensible dwellings. Those in Romania were built (and some can still be visited) in areas below the Carpathian Mountains in the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia, once a borderland at the periphery of and controlled by the Ottoman Empire.

As the Empire weakened, starting in the seventeenth century, the local Romanian boyars (or nobles) who owned large estates in the rich lands between the mountains and the Danube found themselves under threat from rebellious peasants and from bands of brigands. They needed safe places for their families and valuables, and so they created their own form of fortified tower houses.

[logansgaar]

Bucky's blue color coding is one of my favorite consistencies with him, as well as how consistent red is with negativity for him.

His blue coat during the war always makes me smile?? Every chance Bucky gets he picks blue.

Blue was still a feminine color back then, it only really became considered masculine and pink a feminine color heading into the 50s. It's just interesting to me that Bucky consistently picks blue, his all blue suit to Sarah's funeral is the equivalent of wearing an all pink suit now.

Steve's costume was designed for him based off the flag and aside from one greyish-blue jacket after his mother's funeral, he mostly chooses to wear muted, warm tones like browns, yellows and reds like other men in CATFA, especially Howard who wears a lot of red during CATFA. In the modern era Steve does also wear a lot of blue, but that could just be because of modern influences idk.

Every time we see Bucky dressed in something he would've chosen for himself pre-war it's blue, and even post-Winter Soldier he mostly wears blue with only once wearing a red shirt (when he was in hiding in Romania, when he presumably didn't have the liberty of being picky.) I'd almost say Bucky associates red as a negative color... Arnim Zola's bow tie he would've no doubt been wearing while he experimented on Bucky, Red Skull, blood, the HYDRA symbol, the Red Room, the Winter Soldier notebook, the red star on his arm, the Iron Man suit, the wall in his apartment in Romania (and arguably his red shirt in Romania too, since he was on the run and then mind controlled wearing it.) To a MUCH less severe degree, his and Sam's hostility with each other follows Sam's whole run with the red Falcon suit. Also lmao the suit he asks the Wakandans for for Sam is a lot less red than Sam's comic book CA suit is, the wings for example. This part is a reach but it's still a funny coincidence.

[adiradirim]

Portraits and candids of Ashkenazi Jewish women and girls from a pre-war photo collection From right to left: Dova Kopperstein (Poland), Miriam Blachowicz (Vilkaviškis, Lithuania), "An unidentified young Jewish woman reading a book in the street" (Warsaw, Poland), "Unidentified young Jewish girl with short hair" from photographs of families Szterman and Zimmerman (Užpaliai, Lithuania), Chana Sura Sindler (Fratauti Noi, Romania), Chava Shub (Duestos, Lithuania)

[sitp-recs]

Hello! I just wanted to say that I love your blog and the recs, especially the insights and recaps you tend to give.

I was wondering if you had any recommendations for my favorite sort of rare pair Draco/Ron? Possibly a hurt/comfort or something?

Ahh thank you, friend! That’s so nice to hear. Lists are easy to put together but I’ve been trying to ease back into the individual recs which are a bit more challenging (but my favorites!). I’m hoping to have more time to read & rec in December. I adore Dron and I think h/c is a really great fit for them because it keeps it fresh and distinct from Drarry, I’d love to see more. A few favorites, and you can also check my main Dron list here :)

Flare Up by Lokifan (E, 2k)

Draco is still afraid of fire sometimes. Ron helps.

Resting With The Enemy by Lokifan (M, 10k)

(Pre-)eighth-year hurt/comfort. Ron’s used to obsessive people, but this is something else.

A Soft Spot for Lost Causes by Helenish (E, 13k)

"Remember at school? Weasel? You’re so poor and dirty?" Ron said encouragingly "You hated me." "I did," Draco said.

revelations soft and bright by luminae (E, 23k)

The war turned everything on its head, assigned new roles and made adults out of the impetuous youth. There is no right way to deal with that. Draco, though, Draco is doing it wrong. That's okay—Ron is going to help him. They have all suffered enough.

Dreaming Skies by @sweet-s0rr0w, @tackytigerfic (E, 20k)

Draco's life is going nowhere, so when Charlie Weasley offers him a job out on his reserve, Draco doesn't think twice before booking a Portkey. After all, it's not as if he has many other options. But when he arrives in Romania, he realises that nothing is quite what he expected...

In My Room by @wolfpants (E, 21k)

Draco fell in love with Ron when he was eighteen. It was never supposed to happen, but it did.

Is this It series by MildredMost (E, 52k)

Ron Weasley and Draco Malfoy get trapped in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement during an attack drill. HOWEVER WILL THEY PASS THE TIME?

Bonus: Dronarry

Not very gallant by @tenthousandyearsx (E, 3k)

“He likes it when I hurt him,” Harry tells Ron with a smirk. “And then you come in and soothe him.”

The Sun, Shining Above You by @oknowkiss (E, 14k)

Since joining up with the dragontamers, Draco counts his days in nights. Nights spent drinking in the commune mess, making poor choices he doesn't regret, for once. Nights he doesn't remember, and nights he wishes he could stop remembering.

[juliaswickcrs]

oops another oc :: amara prince in "timeless" ( pre-cacw - tfatws )

Everything in time, fades. That much James Buchanan Barnes knew, even if the rest of his life was scattered to the winds while his past comes to him in unwanted flashbacks amongst the cobblestone streets of Bucharest, Romania. He earns what he can and keeps his head low to the ground, wishing never to be found. Until an antique shop filled with memorabilia from the war draws him out of his shell and into contact with a woman that triggers a memory long forgotten. Of nights in a German prison camp and an unfulfilled promise. But Amara Prince, despite bearing the same resemblance to the woman he once knew, has no memory of him or the war. Her artwork, however, reveals a different story entirely. He sees the exact camp he was imprisoned in, the exact men he served beside, he sees Steve and Peggy and the Commandos painted in red, white, and blue splattered across the canvas, and he knows--despite all impossibility--that Amara Prince is the woman he made a promise to all those years ago.

but before they can go home, the two must discover what makes Amara timeless.

BONUS

taglist: @bisexualterror @foxesandmagic @iron-parkr @camiemendess @a-song-of-quill-and-feather

@arrthurpendragon @starcrossedjedis @drbobbimorse @kingsmakers @noratilney

@stanshollaand @astarionbae @darth-caillic @mystic-scripture @aliverse

@misshiraethsworld @asirensrage @eddiemunscns @princessmadelines @impales

@waterloou @daughter-of-melpomene @eddysocs

MARVEL TAGLIST: @notxjustxstories @themaradwrites

[mariacallous]

Defying all predictions, populist Russia-friendly politician Calin Georgescu won the first round of Romania’s presidential elections on Sunday – signalling that the EU member state has joined the growing trend towards the far-right in the region.

Georgescu, 62, who has no party of his own, got around 23 per cent of the votes, with more than 99 per cent of ballots counted.

At midnight on Sunday, Georgescu hailed the first-round vote as a victory for the “Romanian people”.

In another big surprise, centre-right Elena Lasconi, the leader of the reformist Union for Saving Romania, came second, just a few hundred votes ahead of Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, who leads the Social Democratic Party.

George Simion, leader of the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians, came fourth.

Experts’ pre-poll predictions had put Ciolacu and Simion as the favourites.

“This vote is the biggest surprise in all the elections held so far in Romania,” said journalist Dan Tapalaga.

The second-round run-off will be held on December 8, but before that, Romania has parliamentary elections on December 1, with its political scene thrown into in turmoil by Georgescu’s unexpected success.

Under the Romanian constitution, the president wields considerable power – including oversight of foreign and defence policy and responsibility for appointing the prime minister.

‘TikTok candidate’

Georgescu, a religious nationalist, conducted a low-profile campaign, focusing primarily on social media platform TikTok and making in-person appearances only in selected rural areas. He received no coverage in the mainstream media.

In his campaign messages, he advocated reducing imports, strongly supporting farmers, and boosting food and energy production. He also criticised the EU, claiming it does not adequately represent Romania’s interests.

Georgescu questioned military aid to neighbouring Ukraine and called for an end to the war. In a 2020 interview, he described Vladimir Putin as one of the world’s few genuine leaders, stating that the Russian president loves his country, regardless of the methods he employs.

Speaking late Sunday in front of his home near Bucharest, as he did not even have a campaign headquarters, Georgescu congratulated the Romanian voters for backing him.

“By rekindling the flame of hope, the Romanian people have chosen to no longer kneel, to no longer be invaded, to no longer be humiliated,” he declared.

“Tonight the Romanian people shouted ‘peace’ and they were very loud ,” he added.

Experts struggled to explain the election’s outcome.

“The result of the vote was made possible because there is a significant demand in Romanian society for a politician like Georgescu. Why? I could give a more precise answer if there were high-quality sociological data on what Romanians want. Unfortunately, we lack such data,” said political analyst Claudiu Tufis.

Journalist Tapalaga said he believes that Georgescu’s success, after largely conducting his campaign via social media, also marks a shift in the way political communication is conducted in Romania.

Tapalaga said it was “the first election where social media has been more influential than television. We have seen how TikTok can defeat mainstream media,” he added.

The Romanian diaspora played a crucial role in the first round of the presidential elections. Over 800,000 Romanians living abroad cast their votes – a record turnout.

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Musings - Tentative Timeline (Pt1: 1940 - 1948)

I've been struggling with this for a while, cuz this ish just don't make sense, AMC. (I fully expect S3 to gotcha/retcon/fix stuff, esp. since who knows what Armand's tinkered around with in Louis' head.) I split this timeline in 2 parts: Pt1 has everything from 2x1 - 2x6ish; and then ofc Pt2 will cover as much as I can understand from the Trial's shenanigans.

(I'm just one person tryna figure out wtf is going on, so if y'all have any insights, please share!)

1940 - 1945

Claudia & Louis cross Eastern Europe (2x1)

pre-February 6, 1940: Mardi Gras, NOLA.

1x7 diary entry (x x): "Dear Diary, I've been planning the trip out in my head. When we get to Europe, we aren't going to look at any of the touristy sights. We are instead going straight to the Black Sea and then on to the Carpathian Mountains. Those are the places I've been reading about in the books I've brought with me. We had to learn so much…." (Carpathian countries inc. Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovak Republic, and Ukraine.)

Roget (2x2): "We have not heard from Monsieur de Lioncourt since February 1940, when we processed several wires for him, for a party he was throwing."

September 8, 1941: 1x4 diary entry, Ploiesti, Romania: "The POWs are malnourished, nothing but bone and sinew. Their blood is bitter. It almost makes you feel sick to drink it. Catch 'em as they trudge from their work in the oil fields every night. They don't have much strength to fight..." (Ploiesti bombed for its oil from 1941-1944.)

1944: Madeleine's head is shaved during Paris' épuration légale along with the other Nazi collaborators. (An IRL photo from June 21, 1944.) France's Nazi occupied Vichy regime: July 10, 1940 - August 9, 1944. [see De Gaulle below]

Pre-1945: Cross from Ukraine into Nazi Romania (again). Claudia is speaking German to the Nazi at the checkpoint, who says "Black Ukranian? Waffen-SS, Checkpoint 30317."

DREAMSTAT: "Four years of grim wayfaring, and still no sight of the benevolent vampire."

April 30, 1945: "In Germany, Herr Hitler had popped a pill in his bunker, and Europe celebrated."

1944 / 1945: "But in Romania, the champagne fizzled and went flat. Soviets replaced Nazis.... War became occupation." (Soviet occupation of Romania lasted from 1944 - 1958.) Stopped by the racist Soviets in Emilia's town.

Post-April 30, 1945: 2x1 radio announcement: "The triumph over Hitler's evil can be felt throughout France, and in no more fantastic an example than the priceless works of art being bundled up in the countryside, lifted on to trucks and returned to their rightful place in Paris. And we of the BBC World Service, speaking for the rest of the western world, send a most grateful thank you to our allies in France with one of your very own. ['Y'a Pas D'Printemps' by Edith Piaf plays]."

1944 / 1945: "There is No Spring” by Edith Piaf is recorded July 4, 1944.

Late June, 1945: Louis & Claudia leave Romania (after Emilia & Daciana died); near the 1-year anniversary of There is No Spring; right before Venus de Milo was about to head to Paris along with the rest of the "priceless works of art being bundled up."

July 2, 1945: Venus de Milo officially returns to the Louvre. Louis & Claudia arrived in Paris with it. (August 1945: Louvre reopened.) "Claudia was entirely broken. She had left a part of herself in Romania. I knew I had to steer her far away from it. I chose the city that called to us on the radio. To the mother of New Orleans.... The war had turned off the lights, stripped its streets of their beauty, sent its avant-garde into exile. But now, the whole world was ready to return, to remake their lives. Pilgrims on their hopeful way."

1945

Claudia & Louis in Post-War Paris (2x2)

1944 - 1946: Charles De Gaulle chairs the Provisional Government of the French Republic June 3, 1944 - January 26, 1946. "De Gaulle's Paris had me etherized. If Claudia and I were looking over our shoulder at all, it was in astonishment our skin did not attract the same attention it did in America."

May 8, 1945: France's Sétif and Guelma Massacre of Algierian citizens (Franco-Algerian relations evaporated). DANIEL: "Right, because there wasn't any racism in mid-20th century France. I think your Algerian inferiors of the time might disagree." LOUIS: "But I wasn't an Algerian. I was an American, and if there was an assumption that I'd arrived to blow a trumpet or sing for my supper, it did not register as a slight in those days. I was just grateful knowing no one wanted to lynch me, or direct me to the far end of the café counter!"

1944 - 1949: Black markets & rationing chokehold over Paris.

LOUIS: "We hid ourselves away in an inconspicuous apartment in Le Neuvieme, passing ourselves off as moneyed Americans, over-spending for black market baguettes. It was the perfect cover."

ARMAND: "The estate of the family De LaCroix. Whilst their countrymen clutch ration cards, they've made quite a killing manipulating the black markets."

1945 - 1950: Paris' economy impoverished. "No salt, no butter. Can't have milk unless you got a newborn. And read here, 'Hospitals running low on Plaster-of-Paris for a record number of broken bones due to decalcification and undernourishment.' You want francs in pockets? These people are broke! I saw a woman tonight in a patchy five-year-old dress putting on a brand new lipstick.... Paris is on her way back. Give her a little time, is all."

LOUIS: "Five months of anxiety-producing choices, and not one 'bonjour,' or 'prépare-toi à mourir'?!"

ARMAND: "Five months removed from their velvet-heeled arrival, the Americans were finally coming to Pigalle."

SANTIAGO: "Five months of nights. Five insolent months of nights, waiting for you to humble us with your appearance. I ask you, Maitre, was it worth the wait?"

November 1945: Armand confronts Louis; invites Louis & Claudia to the Theatre des Vampires. (June to November is 5 months.) (ARMAND: "I had lost patience. I was convinced we were being toyed with and I could hold back the coven only so long. I knew the park well myself, knew what went on in the rambles there, so I was not surprised to find him without the girl. I would confront the elder, and make him aware of the ways rogue vampires were dealt with in Paris.")

LOUIS: Armand knows all about Lestat. CLAUDIA: How long's he known?! LOUIS: The whole time. Read our minds, first night at the theater.

November 14, 1945: 1x4 diary entry: "We've arrived in Paris, what a relief! My whole dead self feels revitalized head to toe. We might be outsiders to both human and Parisian life, but I do appreciate both now with such fervor! Granted, I've never hated my body [more]...." This also matches with Claudia meeting Madeleine and wanting clothes tailored to her size. And also with Louis remarking that it was only at the Theatre that "Claudia absolutely loved them. And it was the first time in Paris I had seen a smile or a laugh come out of her that wasn't for my benefit." By mid-November, Claudia's unhappy mood had vastly improved.

mid-December 1945: The coven hunt at Chateau de la Croix. "Claudia had attended a month of performances and the coven felt she had proven herself sincere." (Mid-December means this was likely a Christmas party the coven crashed! 😂🤣) Armand warns Louis to stop visiting Roget, and stop lying to the coven about Lestat/"Bruce."

1946

Claudia's coven initiation period; Loumand's courtship

Spring 1946:

Estelle sneezes during No Pain: "It's hay season!" This makes no effing sense for vampires to have allergies, but whatever, it was funny.

Louis keeps cruising gay parks. "There was a park I'd heard about. I would go to this park often. I was an armored thing that spring, someone steady on his feet, but… With a history of chasing the wrong kind of love." It is impossible for Louis to mean Spring of 1945, cuz that's when Hitler died, and that's before Venus de Milo arrived in Paris. This also makes no sense, if we accept that Armand met Louis in Nov. 1945, five months after their arrival.

Loumand starts courting. (LOUIS: "I walk a new part of the city every night. I try to get lost. Somehow I always end up back by the river [Seine]." ARMAND: "I started spending less time at the theater and more nights strolling the boulevards with Louis.")

Claudia is initiated in the coven; she doesn't sleep in the apartment anymore. (2x4, "What the f**k's gone on without me here?!")

Spring - Summer 1946: Baby LouLou starts performing [See Sept. '47 below.]

1946: Jean-Paul Sartre: "Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract what is concrete," (2x3). A wildly popular quote, which no one ever cites. I can only assume it's an English translation of something Sartre originally said in French. All I could find that came remotely close is his Oct 1945 - Dec 1946 speech(es) L'existentialisme est un humanisme: "If values are uncertain, if they are still too abstract to determine the particular, concrete case under consideration, nothing remains but to trust in our instincts." IDFK, I'm not into all that confusing philosophical blahblah.

1946 - 1949: Loumand's sexcapades, Louis' photography. (RASHID: "The Paris Albums, 1946-1949." LOUIS: "Those were our young friends. Humans. Guys." ARMAND: "Some are very old now, most are dead. And some we simply drained for sport. Well… generally me! Louis has his ways.")

1947

Spring - Summer 1947: Louis starts art dealing.

LOUIS: I bought a Fougeron from you early in the year. I was a little short of asking, so I threw in that watch I was wearing. ALOIS: Ah, yes, yes, a good watch. Where did you hang the Fougeron? LOUIS: Over my bed all spring. Then I sold it to Germain Seligman in summer.

Fall 1947: Claudia's sick & tired of Baby LouLou

LOUIS: "By the 500th performance, Claudia was beyond bored."

ARMAND: "So explain to the company why the 500th performance of 'My Baby Loves Windows' felt more like a slog than a celebration?"

500 nights = 16 months, or 1.3 years, assuming Claudia did 1 performance every single night. In 2x4 Armand said: "Fifteen minutes a night to pretend."

CELESTE: Maitre might not have noticed as he has been nomadically attending the Theatre Des Vampires. SANTIAGO: And the infection spread what, year and a half ago? CELESTE: When a certain vampire was granted dispensation from coven membership.

September 1947: Boris Vian/Vernon Sullivan's Les morts ont tous la meme peau published. If we take Louis reading Vian's book the month it came out, in September, and 16 months of Baby LouLou performances, Claudia would've had to have started performing around June/Summer of 1946, give/take a few months, depending on when Louis got the book, and how regularly Claudia performed.

Fall 1947: Louis discusses R-26, where he's been visiting in 2x4.

ALOIS: So, you've been showing your work at the Perriers' salon? LOUIS: Always something interesting happening there. ALOIS: Maybe before the war more than now. But then I'm rarely out of my gallery.

Late 1947 - Early 1948

(There's A LOT that happens from 2x4 - 2x6 that I'm really unsure of. The ONLY diehard dates I have are for Louis' Wols painting, and Sam's Godot play. So I have to assume everything below happens within that timeframe.)

Celeste, Estelle & Santiago investigate Lestat at Roget's.

Armand lies about the Maitre coup: "In retrospect, the buffoon was in the audience, oblivious to the conspiracy uniting around him."

Madeleine almost gang-raped; Claudia reveals her vampirism

Claudia's final diary entry "Diaries are friends of last resort. I have found one not made of paper and glue. F**k these vampires."

Louis buys the Wols / Let's Go Sunning plays on the radio(?)

Louis meets Madeleine; Armand meets Madeleine

Sam's Godot play

Late 1947 - Early 1948: Santiago's Maitre coup starts; steals Claudia's diaries. Louis dumps DreamStat; Loumand's Arun/Maitre roleplay starts. (Because of the rain & lack of snow, I wonder if this is Fall 1987 / Spring 1948?)

Late 1947 - Early 1948: Sam starts writing several scripts:

Whatever play Santiago was rehearsing for, in 2x6's title "Like the light by which God made the world, before He made light." Meanwhile, the coven is passing around Claudia's diaries.

Waiting for Godot

The Trial script(?)

Late 1947 - Early 1948: Celeste, Estelle & Santiago investigate Lestat at Roget's.

Late 1947 - Early 1948: Louis buys a Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze), It's All Over The City (1947).

(Question: Is Jack Shaindlin's Let's Go Sunning (which plays as Santiago eavesdrops on Loumand banging) anachronistic, or does AMC know something I don't--more than likely--cuz Google keeps telling me it was first used in 1954 in the film Garden of Eden?)

Late 1947 - Early 1948: Louis meets Madeleine; Armand meets Madeleine (the same night, since they're all in the same clothes).

1948

HUGE timeskip. The ONLY definite timeframe I have is Godot.

October 9 1948 - January 29 1949: Waiting for Godot, by The Vampire Samuel Barclay / IRL Samuel Barclay Beckett.

Right after this scene, they cut to Dubai!Louis describing IRL events from 1949. So I'm cutting this post off here, to put all of that in context wrt the Trial, that also happened in 1949.

[probablyasocialecologist]

Anti-Zionism is still a tenet of faith for many ultra-orthodox Jews, who view the creation of the state as heretical before the Messiah’s return. In fact, the Agudath Israel World Organisation which had official pre-war recognition in the parliaments of Poland, Lithuania and Romania, actually petitioned the UN against recognising Israel in 1947. Moreover, the largest secular Jewish party in swathes of pre-war eastern Europe was the Bund, a socialist and fiercely anti-Zionist party. On the eve of the Holocaust in 1938, it won 17 out of the 20 Warsaw city council seats taken by Jewish parties.   Most of these Jews – including members of my family – died in the Nazi genocide. Were they antisemites? Would this Congress not have made a distinction between them and the fascists who murdered them? Apparently not.  To please Tel Aviv and its backers in Washington, the 5 December Congress resolution spits on their memory and goes after their spiritual descendants, the thousands of anti-racist Jews who blockaded New York’s Grand Central station and the Manhattan bridge in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.  

[...]

The tragic bad maths of the stripped-down equation that ‘anti-Zionism = antisemitism’ answers no questions posed by oppressed people. It is just applauded by pro-Israel lobbies in the US such as AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League. The equation is banner-headlined in Israel by the Jerusalem Post, in the US by the Wall St Journal and, here, by the Spectator and Daily Telegraph. It turns reality on its head to label opposition to ethnic cleansing and apartheid as racism.

[lostdrarryfics]

Hello! As always, thank you in advance :)

This fic was on ao3. It was set after hogwarts, my gut wants to say 5 yrs post war? I'm so bad at word count but I'd like to say it was at least 30k.

Draco and Harry were pre/slash or already in a relationship when Harry basically has a well-earned meltdown and flees to Romania, leaving everyone behind. But then he's asked by Ginny and Pansy to be a groomsman in their wedding and he comes back and Draco is also in the wedding.

It gives Sweet Home Alabama (the movie) where Harry's a bit of an ass and picks on Draco for perceived shortcomings but slowly finds out that Draco owns and works at a shelter and also owns the wedding venue they're using for Ginny/Pansy.

You know what? I think they were in a relationship prior to Harry leaving because I think they have makeup sex but they don't actually get back together for a couple chapters...?

It gets fuzzy for me... but it has a happy ending. Like, Harry goes back to Romania in the middle of the wedding but tells Draco to wait for him because he promises to come back... and he's super late but Draco is still there (one of, like 3 ppl left behind) and they finally get back together.

I promise, I'll bookmark it!!

We believe you are looking for Blood and Fire by @lqtraintracks (44k, E)

Don’t forget to bookmark, leave kudos and comments!

[stillunusual]

ProleWiki lies about the Soviet invasion of Poland…. ProleWiki - the online Marxist-Leninist "proletarian encyclopaedia" - is a rich source of unintentional humour that's full of reality-denying Kremlin propaganda, unfiltered tankie insanity and shitloads of vacuous political necrophilia.

The above screenshot includes all that Prolewiki has to say about Poland's experience of the Second World War. Apparently, nothing else happened that was worthy of mention…. 😂

It's true that Germany invaded Poland on 1st September 1939, but the claim that the Polish government left the country on 16th September is a lie, and the reason given for the Soviet Union's invasion of Poland is also deliberately dishonest.

With regard to the first claim - Polish government officials had begun to leave Warsaw on 7th September to escape the city's imminent encirclement by the German forces, which was complete by 16th September. The government initially relocated to Nałęczów, then to Krzemieniec. They had to keep moving to avoid being captured by the advancing Germans, and followed retreating Polish forces who were forming a bridgehead in south-eastern Poland in the forlorn hope that France would fulfil its treaty obligations to Poland by attacking Germany from the west by 17th September.

Here, with their back to two friendly nations, Romania and Hungary, the Polish army intended to make a last ditch stand - and if overwhelmed, to cross the border into Romania and make their way to the west to continue the fight from there. The government relocated to Zaleszczyki near the Romanian border on 14th September. When the town was bombed by the Luftwaffe, they moved to nearby Kuty (the Polish GHQ was now also nearby in Kolomyja), while some of the various foreign ambassadors and their staff crossed the border into Romania.

The Polish government was still in Kuty when, in the early hours of 17th September 1939, two Red Army groups (consisting of 25 rifle divisions, 16 cavalry divisions and 12 tank brigades with a total of half a million men) stormed into Poland's sovereign territory in a simultaneous offensive that was launched along the entire length of Poland's border with the USSR, aiming to occupy the eastern half of the country.

As a result, the Polish government held a cabinet meeting at 4PM on 17th September, in full knowledge that Soviet forces were rapidly advancing towards them. It was concluded that they should leave for Romania, and from there go on to France. Most of Poland's highest government officials managed to cross the border on the night of 17th-18th September. Marshall Rydz-Śmigły and his GHQ staff crossed the border the next day.

The truth is that they were forced to leave Poland as a direct consequence of the Soviet invasion, to avoid being captured by the Soviet invaders.

The claim that the USSR "entered" Poland to "protect its borders" is also false. The truth is that the invasion had already been pre-arranged with the Nazis, during and after the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 23rd August 1939, which had defined the "spheres of influence" agreed by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, ie the territories that each of the signatories could invade without having to worry about retaliation from the other.

Soviet mobilisation began on 6th September.

On 9th September, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov sent a telegram to his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop, to inform him that Soviet military intervention "….would take place within the next few days".

On 10th September, the Soviet press was full of "in depth analysis" of the situation in Poland, stressing that German victory was imminent.

The Soviet ambassador left Poland on 11th September.

The next day the Soviet press launched a strident propaganda campaign of fake news about the treatment of the Belarusian and Ukrainian minorities in Poland (which was remarkably similar to the propaganda campaign of fake news the German press had launched about the treatment of the ethnic Germans living in Poland to justify the Nazi invasion), along with claims that the Polish army was scarcely fighting at all. And - of course - as the Polish state was disintegrating, it was imperative for the Red Army to prepare to rush to the aid of their Belarusian and Ukrainian "brothers" (this campaign also had more than a few things in common with the Kremlin’s campaign to justify Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, in which it claimed to be defending "oppressed" ethnic Russians).

On 14th September Molotov explained to the Germans that although the Red Army was ready to invade Poland, in order to justify the invasion politically: "….it was of the greatest importance not to take action until the governmental centre of Poland, the city of Warsaw, had fallen". Molotov therefore asked to be informed as soon as possible when the Germans expected to capture Warsaw.

Ribbentrop sent Molotov a message on 15th September which stated that: "The destruction of the Polish Army is rapidly approaching its conclusion, as appears from the review of the military situation of September 14 which has already been communicated to you. We count on the occupation of Warsaw in the next few days"….

This was premature (Warsaw actually held out until September 27th), but inspired an immediate response from Molotov. According to the German Ambassador in Moscow, Molotov told him that: "….military intervention by the Soviet Union was imminent - perhaps even tomorrow or the day after. Stalin was at present in consultation with the military leaders and he would this very night, in the presence of Molotov, give me the day and hour of the Soviet advance".

The USSR then put its invasion plans into action without delay.

In the early hours of 17th September a telegram from the German ambassador to the German Foreign Office confirmed the news that the Nazis had been eagerly anticipating: "Stalin received me at 2 o'clock at night in the presence of Molotov and Voroshilov and declared that the Red Army would cross the Soviet border this morning at 6 o'clock along the whole line from Polozk to Kamenetz-Podolsk. In order to avoid incidents, Stalin urgently requested that we see to it that German planes as of today do not fly east of the Bialystok-Brest-Litovsk-Lemberg Line. Soviet planes would begin today to bomb the district east of Lemberg. I promised to do my best with regard to informing the German Air Force but asked in view of the little time left that Soviet planes not approach the above-mentioned line too closely today. The Soviet commission will arrive in Bialystok tomorrow or day after tomorrow at the latest. Stalin read me a note that is to be handed to the Polish Ambassador tonight, to be sent in copy to all the missions in the course of the day and then published. The note contains a justification for the Soviet action. The draft read to me contained three points unacceptable to us. In answer to my objections, Stalin with the utmost readiness so altered the text that the note now seems satisfactory for us".

Stalin kept his word to the Germans about when the Soviet invasion would begin - 6AM - and at the appointed time, Soviet troops invaded Poland. Fortunately for them, there weren't many troops defending Poland's eastern border. The Polish army's south-eastern bridgehead was also rapidly destroyed by the combined pressure of the German and Soviet armies, although nearly 100,000 soldiers did escape before Soviet forces prevented any further troops from crossing into Romania. Many more were captured and deported to the east, including 15,000 officers who were murdered by the NKVD a few months later in what became known as the Katyn Massacre (another subject that ProleWiki is - not surprisingly - in denial about)….

[eretzyisrael]

by Ben Cohen

One of Canada’s leading French-language news outlets abruptly removed a crudely antisemitic caricature of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from its website on Wednesday morning following a storm of protest from Canadian politicians and Jewish advocates.

The image, drawn by veteran cartoonist Serge Chapleau — who has won several awards for his work and was honored with the Order of Canada medal in 2015 — was published by the Montreal-based newspaper La Presse and appeared on the front page of its print edition. It showed Netanyahu as Nosferatu, the titular character of a classic 1922 German Expressionist silent movie about a blood-sucking vampire, Count Orlok, who preys upon a real estate agent and his wife under the cover of purchasing a house and who, later in the film, unleashes a plague of rats onboard a ship on which he is traveling. The film is based on the famous 1897 novel Dracula, set in Romania.

Chapleau’s cartoon imposed Netanyahu’s features on that of a vampire wearing a grim, lifeless expression, with his hands replaced by long claws. An accompanying text displayed the word “Nosfenyahou” — a contraction of “Nosferatu” and the Francophone spelling of Netanyahu’s last name — dripping with blood. Another text beneath declared “On the way to Rafah,” the city in Gaza where Israeli troops have been battling Hamas terrorists.

Historically, antisemitic caricatures of Jews frequently depicted them as blood-suckers, building on earlier Christian libels that falsely accused Jews of using the blood of Christians in their religious rituals. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel, the same motif has appeared across the Arab world in relation to Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, with news outlets in Morocco, Jordan, and Qatar all publishing cartoons of Netanyahu drinking the blood and consuming the flesh of Israel’s adversaries.

By the middle of Wednesday morning, La Presse had removed its contribution to the genre following widespread protests on social media. However, the paper has not apologized for the offending image nor offered an explanation as to why it was published to the 860,000 followers of its feed on X/Twitter.

“No big deal, just the second-largest newspaper in French Canada caricaturing Jews as vampires,” David Frum — a Canadian-American writer and former speechwriter for US President George W. Bush — remarked in a post. Frum added: “That’s how antisemitism often works. A rich inventory of anti-Jewish images and themes pre-exists: the Jew as bloodsucker, the Jew as child-killer, the Jew as alien enemy. When a user wants to vent rage or dislike … the resource accumulated over centuries is waiting for him.”

Canadian politicians who condemned the cartoon included Quebec Senator Leo Housakos, who said he had been “appalled” by it.

“While Mr. Netanyahu, as with any politician, is not above criticism, this kind of antisemitic trope is reminiscent of the 1930s. I’m saddened for Jews across Canada for the level of hate to which we, as Canadians, have co-signed,” Housakos’ X/Twitter post continued.

[ssuzii]

Victor Brauner, Self portrait with Enucleated Eye, 1937

Victor Brauner (1903 - 1966) is the most important painter of the Romanian avant-garde. After his early Impressionist and Expressionist works, he has contributed to every avant-garde movement/group. However, most of his oeuvre fits within Surrealism, Brauner being regarded as one of the major pre- and post-war Surrealist painters.

As early as 1930, Brauner settled in Paris, where he lived in the same building with Yves Tanguy and Alberto Giacometti. In 1935, he returns to Romania for several exhibitions, but in 1938 he returns in France. On the 28th of August, he loses his left eye in a fight, after having painted a few years earlier ”Self-portrait with enucleated eye”. After several large Surrealist exhibitions, in 1966 (the year of his death) he is chosen to represent France at the Venice Biennale.

[sunny-honeytears]

I fucking love the concept of Tanz der vampire as a hungarian.

Because yeah it plays out in Erdély (too lazy to type out Transylvania every time) which is part of Romania now, BUT the show is set in late 19th century so preWW1 SO PRE TREATY OF TRIANON which means Herbert and Krolock are hungarians.

This also means they most likely speak hungarian as every character, expect Alfred and Professor

For some reason the hungarian production kept calling Sarah Sarah, but the og movie changed it to Sára which is as you can guess is the hungarian variant of Sarah.

But the best thing? As a hungarian, knowing whats going on around the Castle. For example, imagine the Count seeing the current Prince, Rákóczi GO AND ATTACK WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND LITERALLY END THE GOLDEN AGE OF ERDÉLY BECAUSE HE WANTED TO BE THE POLISH KING

and now you lose a lot of wealth depending on your position, you get attached to the Ottoman empire and have to sit another couple of decades until Hungary gets claimed back, only now you arent actually part of the country anymore. But thats surely it right? NO BECAUSE GUESS WHAT A GUY FROM THE SAME FAMILY STARTS A WAR OF INDEPENDENCE -

AND LOSES.

And they just....sat through it.

Those two dudes watched the entire language get reformed by almost one guy.

They saw the ENTIRE war of independence in 1848-49

THEY SAT THROUGH THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN COMPROMISE

Like imagine the conversations they must have had

"Dad do you remember Zrínyi the guy who wrote bangers like Szigeti Veszedelem and Az török áfium ellen való orvosság?"

"Yeah what of him?"

"His son was executed for treason, his grand daughter was named the Bravest woman in europe by LOUIS XIV. oh and his great grandson started a war of independence"

"What the fuck Herbert"

Imagine hearing about this kid called Petőfi writing really good poems than you wake up one day and BUMM he started a revolution and then just disappeared into the fogg in one battle and still noone knows where he is.

I could, and will go on and on about this because I don't even have to stretch to say they're hungarian

[djuvlipen]

[T]he count of half a million Sinti and Roma murdered between 1939 and 1945 is too low to be tenable; for example in the Soviet Union many of the Romani dead were listed under non-specific labels such as “remainder to be liquidated,” “hangers-on,” “partisans,” [&c. . .] The final number of the dead Sinti and Roma may never be determined.  We do not know precisely how many were brought into the concentration camps; not every concentration camp produced statistical material . . . Sinti and Roma often. . . do not appear in the statistics.

Also, as the Auschwitz Memorial Book points out, Romanies were murdered unrecorded, sometimes by the hundreds, outside the camps, in the most numbers in the eastern territories, for which only scant records exist.  As research continues, for example that being undertaken for Czechoslovakia by Polansky (Strandberg, 1994) or for Serbia by Ackoviƒ (1995), the figures rise steadily higher.  In order to estimate the percentage of total losses, we would have to know, in addition to the number of dead, the number of Romanies throughout Europe before 1933, and this we will never be able to determine accurately, although both Colliers Encyclopedia and the Encyclopedia Americana list the pre-war European Romani population as 700,000.  A guess as good as any is that there were perhaps three million Romanies throughout the German-controlled territories at the period of their maximum extent, between one and one and a half a million of whom were murdered, i.e. between a third and a half of the population.  The world population at the same time was probably ca. five million.

Only a few thousand survived in the Nazi-controlled territories, and none was asked to testify in behalf of the Romani victims at the war crimes trials.  Reparations to Romanies as a people have yet to be made by the German government, which has only in recent years even admitted the racial motivation of the Nazi genocidal campaign against the Romani people.

The massive increase in neo-Nazi activity since the reunification of Germany and the collapse of Communism need not be elaborated upon here; it has been documented in a series of book-length treatments published by Helsinki Watch, and in a 50-page report by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission.  And in poll after poll, the Romani population in Europe stands as the prime target of both sanctioned and unsanctioned discrimination.  In 1995 alone, in the Czech Republic alone, there were over 450 documented attacks against Romanies, several resulting in death; those were only the reported incidents.  There have been rapes and house-burnings in Romania and Bulgaria; letter bombs and booby-trap explosives have killed four Romanies and blinded and maimed many more.  At the October, 1995 OSCE meeting in Warsaw, one of our delegates was hit and robbed by four youths on the street shouting racial epithets; another was turned back at the Polish border simply because he was a Romani, and as a result was not able to attend the meeting.  The previous year, in the same city, a group of nine of us, all Romanies, were refused service in a restaurant. 

One of the issues at the 1995 conference in Warsaw was the official protest of Romania’s resolution to replace the words Rom and Romani with Úigan in all official documents.  The word, which was a synonym for “slave” during the five and a half centuries of Gypsy slavery in that country, is as offensive for Romanies as the word “n*gg*r” is for African Americans.  The Romanian government’s reason for this is that Romani sounds too much like Romanian, and outsiders might think that Romanians were Gypsies.  In November, 1995, Amnesty International released a 62-page document on human rights abuses in Romania which referred in part to “reports about torture and ill-treatment by police officials [and their] violent abuse of power . . . Massive arbitrary measures against the Romani minority and the lack of protection of this group against racist attacks have continuously posed a problem since March, 1990.”  The Romanian government has responded by declaring that “hereafter, slandering of the state and the nation will be prosecuted by imprisonment of up to five years” (Romnews, No. 46, November 19th, 1995, p. 1.).

-- Ian Hancock, The Roots of Antigypsyism: to the Holocaust and After.

(I censored the n-word)

[mariacallous]

The Kremlin’s hysterical responses to Europe’s actions reveal Moscow’s growing inability to shape the world to its liking.

As Russia’s war against Ukraine grinds on, the Kremlin’s desperate attempts to mould reality to its liking are falling increasingly flat. Whether it is trying to discredit democratic processes, undermine civil society movements, or tarnish European institutions, Moscow’s spin and clumsy fabrications keep clashing with the facts on the ground.

The Kremlin’s manipulations targeting Georgia

The Kremlin’s playbook is getting tediously predictable in its attempts to discredit legitimate protests in Georgia. As Georgians have taken to the streets following the Georgian government’s decision to suspend EU accession talks(opens in a new tab) and allegations of electoral fraud in the October 2024 parliamentary elections, pro-Kremlin mouthpieces have immediately reached for their favourite bogeymen: ‘Western-engineered coups’ and ‘colour revolutions’.

While President Salome Zourabichvili has raised serious concerns(opens in a new tab) about electoral irregularities, the EU called for a transparent investigation of reported violations and has expressed serious concerns about Georgia’s democratic backsliding(opens in a new tab). Meanwhile, Moscow’s mouthpieces were busy recycling their decade-old conspiracy theories about Ukraine’s 2014 Revolution of Dignity.

This Kremlin narrative is not just stale – it is part of a deliberate strategy to pre-emptively discredit Georgian civil society, with pro-Kremlin outlets having spent months warning about an imaginary ‘upcoming colour revolution’ to poison the information space ahead of likely protests against the ruling party.

… and Romania

The Kremlin’s inability to accept democratic realities is also evident in its attempts to interfere with Romania’s presidential election process. The pro-Kremlin TV channel Zvezda, run by Russia’s Ministry of Defence and under the EU’s restrictive measures(opens in a new tab), is trying hard to spin the first-round results into evidence of widespread pro-Russian sentiment in Romania.

After a full recount of 9.4 million ballots(opens in a new tab), right-wing candidate Calin Georgescu, whose campaign included reducing Romania’s support for Ukraine, will face reformist Elena Lasconi in the second round on 8 December.

The Kremlin vs the new European Commission

The approval and the start of the second von der Leyen Commission(opens in a new tab) has triggered an uncharacteristically intense wave of attacks from pro-Kremlin outlets. As we recently reported, Russian state mouthpiece RT is frantically pushing narratives about ‘EU militarisation’, while Konstantin Gavrilov, Russia’s representative at the Vienna arms control talks, speculated about the EU transforming(opens in a new tab) from a ‘purely economic and political association’ into a ‘military threat’.

Moscow seems particularly triggered by the new Commission’s composition, with Dmitry Medvedev dismissing its members as ‘non-entities with inflated self-esteem’.(opens in a new tab) Pro-Kremlin outlets have been especially hostile toward former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas as High Representative and former Lithuanian Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius as Defence Commissioner, dubbing the latter the ‘Commissioner for War against Russia(opens in a new tab)’.

Our monitoring of Russian-language pro-Kremlin outlets and mouthpieces revealed a major spike in hostile messaging. On December 2, we recorded 179 news mentions – a whopping 1105% increase from the daily average. Unsurprisingly, the coverage was overwhelmingly negative, with 75% of non-neutral mentions expressing negative sentiment – a staggering 5800% increase from typical levels. The narratives focused heavily on HRVP Kaja Kallas, whose name appeared in 141 mentions, alongside frequent references to security policy matters.

The Kremlin henchmen’s hysterical rhetoric, ranging from calling von der Leyen ‘Queen Ursula(opens in a new tab)’ to attacking new commissioners and spinning conspiracy theories about Brussels seizing power from Member States, reveals Moscow’s growing anxiety about a more assertive European Union and frustration with the Kremlin’s dawning irrelevance.

More pro-Kremlin disinformation this week that deserves our collective facepalm

A pro-Kremlin outlet in the Spanish language is recycling one of the Kremlin’s all-time favourite narratives about Western sanctions backfiring, falsely claiming they’ve led to astronomical US debt and Europeans freezing rather than affecting Russia. While US public debt has indeed reached 36 trillion dollars(opens in a new tab), attributing this to military support for Ukraine is a mathematical sleight of hand. Military spending represents roughly one-sixth of yearly federal spending(opens in a new tab), or an estimated total of 916 billion US dollars(opens in a new tab), while security assistance to Ukraine represents just a fraction of that(opens in a new tab), or 64 billion US dollars over the ten-year period since 2014. The Kremlin’s doom-and-gloom predictions about freezing Europeans also clash with reality: EU gas storage stood at 95% capacity(opens in a new tab) ahead of November 2024, and 42% of EU energy consumption is now met through domestic production. The Kremlin’s wishful thinking about Western economic collapse continues to fall flat, while Russia’s own economy shows clear signs of sanctions-induced strain, with the ruble taking a nosedive and inflation spiking(opens in a new tab) in November 2024. Narratives such as this serve a dual purpose: to discourage Western support for Ukraine by grossly exaggerating its economic costs, while simultaneously masking the real impact of Western sanctions and restrictive measures on Russia’s economy.

Another poorly crafted hit piece in the French language targeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his wife, Olena Zelenska, has emerged, this time falsely alleging they purchased an 88-million-euro luxury hotel in Courchevel. As reported by Random osint(opens in a new tab), the supposed ‘French media report’ turns out to be a video by unidentified individuals speaking French with Russian accents, complete with forged documents and a fake website(opens in a new tab) registered just days before the disinformation story broke. The fraudsters even added the word ‘hotel’ to a legitimate domain name in their clumsy attempt at deception. This fabrication follows a familiar pattern, reminiscent of last year’s ‘Jules Vincent’ disinformation campaign about Zelenskyy allegedly selling Ukrainian land to Soros. See also our debunking of Zelenskyy’s alleged purchase of Hitler’s Mercedes. These desperate attempts to paint Ukraine’s president as corrupt demonstrate the continued deployment of Kremlin tactics aimed at undermining Zelenskyy’s presidency and Western support for Ukraine.

In a particularly cynical attempt at atrocity disinformation, the known pro-Kremlin information manipulation network Pravda is now spreading baseless claims in Polish about Polish ‘punishment squads’ allegedly executing civilians in Selidovo. This fabrication follows a well-worn Kremlin playbook: accuse others of the very war crimes Russia has been documented committing, while simultaneously pushing baseless hostile narratives about foreign volunteers supporting Ukraine. Notably, when Ukraine invited the UN and ICRC to investigate the situation in the Kursk region(opens in a new tab) in September 2024, the Kremlin’s response was telling. Peskov, Putin’s mouthpiece, quickly labelled these requests as ‘provocative’ and made it clear international observers would not be welcome. This latest disinformation piece, which joins earlier disinformation claims of French soldiers allegedly hanging children, serves multiple propaganda goals: deflecting attention from real war crimes that Russia commits and attempting to discredit Ukraine’s international supporters.

[cowboymaterials]

"im not jewish myself but i think that the proper way to deal with the jewish population of israel would be—" please don't be so idealist. im unlearning zionism myself, but no one wanted us after the war and no one wants us now. we don't want to go back to france, romania, poland, russia... the antisemitism there never went away. it isn't better there. and my extremely left wing, pre-1967-borders-wanting cousins in israel are so far removed from our romanian roots that they would be strangers in a strange land there. the majority of israelis aren't even from europe but other middle eastern nations, to whom it's extremely unsafe to return.

i get where you're coming from but it's really, really not so easy.

I appreciate this message, thank you for sharing your perspective, but I do want to challenge you on this.

You are right, of course it is not easy. I never said it was. My post was a reflection on what justice beyond the settler colonial nation-state could look like. There are no easy answers to this, but the obligation to end colonial occupation globally requires us to try. Just because it is hard doesn't mean it is impossible. Just because it is hard doesn't mean it is necessary.

It is not idealist to call for the end of genocide, occupation, and apartheid. And calling for this requires thinking in new ways about what true justice and safety looks like for Jewish people, otherwise the state of Israel will seem to be the only place that Jewish people can be safe.

But are Jewish Israelis safe? Not physically: Palestinians fight back to reclaim their occupied territory, Israel makes war against its own people, forcing its people into military service, building homes in areas of conflict, promoting violent racism that results in crimes against Black and Brown Jewish people. Not emotionally: the trauma of permanent war and the ideology of racist militarized nationalism are scarring. Not culturally and spiritually: Israel's ethnonationalism privileges Orthodox Judaism and Ashkenazi tradition and the banning of Yiddish resulted in a loss of culture only being recuperated now.

The fault lies in the state of Israel and the antisemitic colonial powers that facilitated its creation and its continued existence. It is an injustice for Jewish people to be forced to replicate the same genocide, displacement, and dehumanization they face in order to feel safe.

Many of the countries whose antisemitism forced Jewish people into diaspora are supportive of Israel, and many of these countries are also colonizers. This is not incidental. Instead of real reparation, these countries chose to benefit from the displacement of Jewish people. The British created Israel not to bring justice for Jewish people but to widen their geopolitical sphere. British politicians called for the "restoration of the Jews" to Palestine in the 1840s, prior to the political zionist movement. This was motivated by antisemitism and by Britain's ambitions to expand their empire. Since its inception, Israel has fought colonial wars internally and externally, acting as a militarized arm of European imperialism. Exporting arms India to be used in the occupation of Kashmir, to Hutu militias carrying out the Rwandan Genocide, and to the Guatemalan army aiding in the massacre of Indigenous Mayans. Allying with Apartheid South Africa, training the Serbian soldiers carrying out the Srebrenica genocide (and then granting them citizenship to protect them), training US police (and FBI, CIA, ICE officers), refusing to recognize the Armenian genocide while arming Azerbaijan's military to continue ethnic cleansing of Armenians. This is not a complete list. There are many other explicit instances where Israel has supported genocide and police violence globally.

I say this to demonstrate how not only is Israel not safe, but Israel makes the rest of the world less safe too. Israel reinforces colonial conquest, not acting in service of Jewish people but in service of imperial powers.

I do think there is another question in here too: Where do Jewish people go if Israel does not exist? This is a question settlers globally ask in response to Land Back. The answer is varied. Pam Palmater speaks to this, while referring to Canada this can also be applied to Israel. Maia Ramnath offers some insight from an anarchist perspective, saying that decolonizing may result in the replication of the nation-state, but this is not symptomatic of the decolonial effort, but rather the global dominance of the nation-state form, requiring global revolution.

And FYI Majority of Israelis are from Europe.