#what did they accuse Hamas of doing again?

[frescopino]

Hostages guarded by refugees waiting for aid, uh?

Who knows what those hostages were more scared of: the starving kids or the indiscriminate bombardment from their own country.

[weemietime]

i am asking this in good faith

If the Bosnian Genocide is has been ruled a genocide and the death count was 33,071 people, how is what is happening in Gaza not a genocide when the number has been surpassed

Because genocide is not about the number of people being killed. Genocide is a specific legal term, and it has to have two components: 1) obviously people have to be murdered -- but this must be done systemically, as a policy (either written or unwritten) of the belligerent party. AND 2) there has to be genocidal intention to murder said people. Genocidal intention means that Party A (Israel) murders Party B (Palestinians) specifically because those people belong to Party B (Palestinians). There is no evidence that Israel has a genocidal intention. In fact, the October 7th massacre was actually a genocidal act on behalf of Hamas - Hamas committed the genocidal action and has been committing genocidal actions for over 20 years, because they specifically want to murder Jews for being Jewish. They also meet the first criteria because this is a systemic policy that is present in the Hamas Charter.

This is very important to distinguish because whilst genocide is a war crime, not all war crimes are genocide. Israel has committed war crimes, including murdering civilians, and even intentionally allowing civilians to be killed (such as bombing a house with a Hamas member in it and killing his family members). But this is not sufficient to rise to the criteria of genocide. We could make the argument that there is ethnic cleansing, because the vast majority of the people being evacuated are of a single ethnicity, Palestinian. However, again, ethnic cleansing alone is not sufficient to rise to the definition of genocide.

Crucially, the ICJ has not ruled that there is a genocide ongoing. They have ruled prima facie that 1) South Africa has the right to accuse Israel of genocide, and 2) that the ICJ itself is fit to hear and rule on the accusation. They have also ordered Hamas to release the civilian hostages, so if Hamas is saying they want to abide by the ICJ, they have already disregarded the ICJ ruling.

Genocide is not based on vibes. It's not based on bad feelings. It's not based on videos and images of dead kids, or destroyed rubble. Genocide is a specific legal term that can only be applied to the above scenario, and it cheapens our language when we levy it in circumstances where it does not apply. It especially cheapens our language when we engage in Holocaust inversion by claiming Israel is doing to Palestine what Germany did to the Jews, which is categorically false.

Beyond this, it belittles the groups that are involved in this conflict, particularly Hamas, to treat them like they are innocent civilians when they are in fact a very well-outfitted military brigade and the official armed forces of the Gazan government with over 40,000 fighters strong, who repeatedly and loudly say "death to Israel, we want to annihilate Israel, we will commit October 7th again and again until Israel is destroyed." They are being funded by the IRGC, they are being used as a proxy for Iran, and innocent Palestinian civilians are suffering as a result. Hamas has openly said that the "blood of martyrs fuels our resistance," they have openly said they hope Palestinian civilians die in droves while they steal aid and resell it at absurd mark-ups, while they flee to Egypt and Qatar so that they don't have to get their hands dirty. They recruit and brainwash young children to fight their "holy war" to murder as many Jews as possible.

And in terms of the death toll, you have to understand that this war is being fought in an urban environment where the belligerents are embedded purposely in the civilian population, in tunnels all throughout the civilian infrastructure. Violating the Geneva Conventions by using hospitals and schools as military bases, refusing to wear uniforms, and intentionally shooting their own people and blaming Israel.

These people even play tapes pretending to be hostages shouting in Hebrew "don't shoot," which is one of the reasons why a hostage was accidentally killed by the IDF, which is then turned around to show how evil the IDF is without understanding the context that these events happen in. In normal urban warfare the ratio of civilian to combatant death is around 9:1. In Gaza, the ratio is, according to Hamas's own numbers, 4:1. Literally twice as low as the average. So, yeah. War crimes are happening. Yes. Absolutely. Genocide is not happening, at least, it's not happening to the Palestinians.

[hindahoney]

Sorry for this but as a disabled Haitian black woman living in America, I cannot sympathize nor agree with Israel’s actions against Palestinian people and their own people. What they did to Ethiopian Jewish Women when they they sterilized them with their consent. I cannot support Israel ruthlessly bombing churches, schools, and people’s homes where people live. I feel so bad for the Palestinian people and hostages who have to deal with ruthless bombng in Gaza.

The lie that Israel sterilized Ethiopian women has been debunked countless times, and yet it persists and is used by pro-Palestinians to be like "Look! Israel really is apartheid!" so that you don't ask them why they have had black Ethiopian Jewish man Avera Mangisto hostage for 9 years, or why they beheaded a black man during the Hamas attacks with a shovel. So let's talk about it.

Israel never forcibly sterilized Ethiopian women. They provided them with the depo shot, which needs to be renewed every 12 weeks or it becomes ineffective, or in other words, you can get pregnant again. It is not sterilization.

So, why did Israel give Ethiopian women the depo shot?

Ethiopian women arrived to Israel in either transit or refugee camps due to them fleeing a genocide, both of which are always in constant need of birth control. They need birth control for a few reasons, the major one being that infant and maternal mortality rates in transit and refugee camps are incredibly high, few gynecologists are available to work at these camps, sexual violence is also higher in these camps than the general population, and post-partum care is lacking for the same reason that gynecologists are. This is true in every transit or refugee camp, not just in Israel. The advantage of the depo shot specifically is because it decreases the bleeding for women on their menstrual cycle, which is good when the camps are lacking in menstrual products, which can lead to health problems. If they were to get pregnant at the camp and decide to have an abortion, the mortality rates are, as predicted, incredibly high. I would also like to add that it is standard procedure to provide women in refugee/transit camps with birth control.

Due to the high volume of people at these camps who need medical care, and the shortness of staff, as well as a language barrier, it is possible some patients do not understand what is being administered. This means that it is a case of negligent medical care, and not eugenicist sterilization of black women. The conditions since the initial absorption of Ethiopian refugees has increased, given that there is no longer a rush to get them situated, and the Ethiopian population in Israel has grown substantially. That could not happen if the women were sterilized. Their population is now well over 160,000 and make up 2.3% of the population.

The accusation that Israel forcibly sterilized these women is as heinous as it is ridiculous, considering Israel was the one who did rescue operations to get them to safety in the first place. This is not to say that there is not racism in Israel, but there is racism in every country on the face of this planet, and Israel's racism is not so great that they forcibly sterilized an entire population of black women.

[charleezard]

I guess not being okay with the state of israel commiting serious war crimes against the palestinians, and even killing their own israeli civillians makes others anti simitic to you, yes?

Pretty sure the millions of anti zionist jews don't agree with that. The Jewish faith and the Torah don't agree with israels actions. Killing women and children, apartheid. Theft, taking what does not belong to you and more...

Be ashamed of yourself mate.

Look up the long list of israels crimes against humanity. It is not anti Semitic to be against war crimes. Do you even hear yourself??? Besides the palestinians are a semetic people aswell.. it's israels saying they're going to kill all the palestinians.

I hope you allow yourself to see the truth i really do

First of all, I'm not your mate, I don't know you.

Second, you're just making a whole lot of assumptions about me, and most of them are wrong so I'm guessing you didn't even read my previous posts.

Third, you come here with all this information, and clearly you didn't do any research because you're wrong on multiple fronts

Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right of self determination in their own land. Y'know, where we're indigenous from and all that. That's literally all it is. Also millions of anti-zionist Jews? I don't think you did your math correctly. There are 15 million of us, and even if 10% are anti-zionists which would be a very generous guess, that would not even get to 2 millions. So calm down.

"Semitic people" is a defunct term. It doesn't refer to anything anymore. Semitic is only used to refer to languages, and antisemitism refers specifically to hatred of Jewish people.

Israel never said it wanted to kill all Palestinians, you're full of shit. It's also not an apartheid, words have meanings, and that's not it

And don't come in here trying to tell me what the Torah says and doesn't say, you literally have no idea what you're talking about.

Lastly, I'm absolutely against war crimes, on all sides. They should be investigated and punished accordingly if needed. I've said it before and I'm saying it again. But I can tell you Hamas committed many more war crimes, so I'm assuming you want them investigated and punished for it as well right?

Lastly, you coming in here accusing me of all these things without proof is indeed antisemitic, yes. Now if you'd like to have a proper discussion about it, you can come off anon and DM me. Although no anon has taken me up on that offer yet so I don't think you will either

[germiyahu]

Another point about inverting Jewish arguments. Someone (glad I don't remember who because I value my time more than this), posted a tweet saying "Israel claims it killed 9k Hamas fighters but actual Israeli newspaper admits they haven't even killed half of the estimated number of Hamas fighters!"

Which firstly, 9,000 is not even a quarter of 44,000 so are we just being stupid on purpose? Like if you can't even do basic math then you must be trying to obfuscate basic math. Why does anyone trust you??

But then a chorus of reblogs started chirping to the tune of "And Israeli counts all male causalities as Hamas fighters," "They're adding civilian deaths to the total count!" "Wow they picked a random number out of tens of thousands massacred and claim they killed terrorists!" "Israhell sees every Palestinian as a terrorist!"

Which again, was literally what Hamas was being accused of doing, by Jewish blogs, to counterargue against your idiocy. Hamas was accused of adding combatants (who are not wearing uniforms) to the civilian death tolls. They are not releasing their own casualty numbers. They only emphasized the women and children statistics of their reports. Hamas was literally already treating all male casualties as the same, just from the opposite direction.

But now Israel started it actually, and in that case it actually is moral bankrupt and dishonest. This is their strategy: make claims, wait for them to get debunked by people who naively believe they're not hypocritical incompetent ingrates, then steal their rhetorical points and accuse Israel of everything a Jew just accused Hamas/their supporters of. And if their double standards are ever pointed out? Deny deny deny. Anything Hamas is accused of is propaganda, and that accusation can be retooled into an accusation against Israel, often with zero proof or context, and they all believe it without question.

You should be suspicious of these kind of rhetorical tricks. Why did we suddenly hear out of nowhere about "IOF" soldiers executing entire families at their front doors? Because Jews were attempting to get people to realize how evil Hamas is by explaining that this is something that Hamas did! If you hear about the "IOF" doing something that seems like it's weirdly new for the antizionist to be condemning, or out of character (though they'll say it's perfectly in character), or coming out of nowhere, you should look into it. It will probably be false, or at least have more context, and you might just discover that it's a claim made against Hamas at an earlier date.

[eretzyisrael]

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

It is sickening that, despite the American people’s rejection of the Biden-Harris administration’s policies on November 5th, the lame duck Biden-Harris administration has continued to betray and make absurd demands on Israel.

In recent days, after the election, the Biden-Harris administration again outrageously threatened an anti-Israel arms embargo if Israel did not meet its demands that Israel do more and more to move aid into Gaza by tomorrow (November 13) – despite the fact that much of the aid is stolen by Hamas, who sells it for hundreds of millions of dollars to pay and recruit terrorists to murder Jews. The Biden-Harris administration’s absurd threats and demands are also despite the fact that aid to Gaza has increased in recent weeks, and despite the fact that between October 2023 and November 6, 2024, Israel facilitated 1,115,128 tons of aid into Gaza, on 56,402 trucks and 9,979 pallets – including food (including fruits and vegetables, ready-to-eat food parcels, meat, poultry, fish, dairy products, eggs, flour, rice, sugar, cooking oil, etc.); shelter equipment; water; medical supplies; fuel; and infrastructure equipment. (See also “ZOA Condemns Biden Administration’s Dangerous Threat to Stop Arms to Israel – Could Cause Massacre of Jews,” Nov. 4, 2024; and “ZOA Condemns Biden Pressuring Israel Not to Attack Iran’s Oil and Nuclear Facilities, and Threatening an Arms Embargo Against Israel,” Oct. 16, 2024.)

The administration is reportedly already holding up needed bulldozers that Israel already paid for.

As ZOA previously pointed out, the last time the U.S. had an arms embargo against Israel, when Israel was being attacked by seven Arab nations in 1948, over six thousand Jews ended up being murdered. Israel is again fighting an existential war on seven fronts against enemies seeking to destroy it.

Some people thought it was merely a pre-election ploy when the Biden-Harris administration ramped up its dangerous arms embargo actions and threats in May, and again in mid-October, and just prior to the election. But the fact that the administration is still pursuing the same anti-Israel threats now says volumes about this administration’s dangerous actual ideology, and raises alarm bells as to what else the administration might do to harm Israel during its lame duck period in power.

Additionally, on election day – the Biden-Harris administration quietly waived needed sanctions on the Palestinian Authority – despite acknowledging that the PA continues its heinous “pay-to-slay” payments to terrorists to murder Jews.

And during a press briefing a few hours before the election, the Biden-Harris State Department condemned alleged “extremist settlers” (Jews); bragged about imposing sanctions on 14 Jews (including brave Jewish soldiers combatting Hamas in Gaza) and 13 Jewish groups (including a group protesting sending aid into Hamas’ hands and coffers); and threatened that the Biden administration “will continue to use all the tools at its disposal” to hold [Jews] accountable “for violence in the West Bank and around the region.” The State Department spokesman also revealed that the Biden-Harris lame duck administration will try to undermine the Knesset law outlawing Hamas-filled UNRWA from operating in Israel; and accused Israel of not getting enough aid to Gaza (meaning to Hamas), etc. The State Department briefing failed to mention Palestinian Arab terrorists’ hundreds of attacks on Jews in Judea/Samaria, Jerusalem, etc.

Why is the Biden-Harris administration still not sanctioning the actual terrorists? Why is it waiving sanctions on the PA – which pays terrorists? Why is the administration instead threatening Israel and sanctioning Israeli Jews? And why is this continuing now that the Biden-Harris administration no longer has a mandate from the American people? Disgraceful and frightening!

[jewish-vents]

The argument happened a few days ago, but I'm still thinking about it. I messaged a friend to stop reblogging people who want to murder me and make that clear in their profiles, or in their usernames with certain flags or emojis, even if it's just a harmless fandom post. Just don't reblog people who want to murder me. I didn't ask her to be political. I just asked her not to put hateful people on my timeline.

What I didn't expect was for her to get aggressive. Before she deleted the messages on her own I glimpsed a tirade about how she doesn't support hamas, or nazis, or jew hate, or Israel's war crimes. But the messages she kept undeleted were ones telling me that she had heard me the first time I asked, that she just sometimes forgets to look, and that me asking her for a second time was annoying her. I tried to change the topic. I didn't expect the aggression. I wanted to deescalate. I had made my point clear, even if she reacted with anger to it. I had said what I needed. She didn't let me. She persisted. She accused me of trying to get her to take a side. I told her I wasn't. I wasn't telling her to reblog posts supporting Israel. I was telling her to stop reblogging people with obvious flags altogether. I told her she could hate both sides all she wanted. We left it at that.

Perhaps, I should've expected this. Back in October I messaged several friends my pain. I talked about it for days, for weeks. I later found out that behind my back she was discussing with others how to politely ask me to stop talking about it.

I was upset the entire day, and I was upset when I woke up on the next day. Finally I messaged her again, and told her that what she did was unacceptable. I would not tolerate it again. That I expected her to listen to me about what made me uncomfortable, which people I consider a danger to myself and my family. That I was sorry I annoyed her, and that this was the last time I was talking to her about this.

She apologized. We agreed not to discuss this again. But now, I am left feeling like I don't want to talk to her about personal things ever again. She has problems with her family that she often messages me about. I comfort her. I support her. I give her advice. However, when I share my own problems with her - I don't feel like she's reciprocating. I feel like I'm giving, but she's not giving back. I feel like ignoring her if she talks to me about something personal again. Send her to talk to someone else with my silence. It's probably not smart. It will be an escalation. Something that can be avoided. There are many personal reasons why I don't want to break my friendship with her.

I don't know what to do.

.

[prodigal-explorer]

You say that both Palestine and Israel are in the right and wrong, which first of all is the most bullshit I've ever heard.

Stop saying that you're "staying neutral" when it's fucked up, sick headed people like you that the government leeches off of. Its your ignorance that they profit off of, your privilege to lay in bed, to watch a fun movie, to hang out with friends and eat your full plate. That is a privilege that Palestines dream of.

Little kids dreams of Palestine dream of watch TV. They dream of playing outside without the fear of their lives on the line. They dream of going to school, having families, growing old, yet Israel kills them for no reason. This is genocide of innocent civilians.

And don't say "BuT hAmAs!!" As if that's your supporting argument. Nothing, and I mean nothing in the world can justify the genocide happening in Palestine right now. The numbers don't lie, Annie. The 30,000+ people didn't deserve it.

I hope you enjoy riding Israel dick and I hope the true guilt you feel once you finally see past your comfort zone hurts you so bad.

Genuinely, for all of us. Delete your pathetic excuse of an account and never post a thing ever again.

hey!

first of all, i never said that i’m staying neutral. wanting peace isn’t the same as staying neutral. i’m not encouraging the genocide just because i’m holding empathy for both sides and wanting both sides to have peace.

your cruel words are just a further example of all the hate that social media is spreading that isn’t helping anyone. i’m spreading information about charities to SUPPORT PALESTINE. i’m spreading information to uplift the voices of israeli and palestinian people who have LOST FAMILY MEMBERS due to this conflict, and trying to uplift the things THEY are saying. if i deleted my account, all of that stuff would be gone. the stuff that’s helping palestine. so you want palestine to have less help? that’s so woke of you. /s

i never said that israel should be bombing innocent people. i’m not supporting that and i never ever did. i never justified the genocide one single time and the fact that you think i did only goes to show that you didn’t read my posts. you just wanted to get angry and righteous and you chose me to attack, but it’s not going to work. i will apologize for saying that both sides are in the wrong because that is a bit of a bold statement which could easily be taken as excusing the actions of the israeli government, which was not my intention. palestine didn’t do anything to deserve this attack. the actions of hamas do not represent palestine as a whole.

for the record, if i had to choose a side, i would choose palestine. the way that the israeli government is using the money america is feeding them is horrible and disgusting. too many people have died in this conflict. but it is unfair to paint israel as a whole in a light that suggests that they are trying to wipe out the palestinian race because that’s not what’s happening. did you know that in israel, citizens are required BY LAW to serve in the military? they’re sacrificing their lives and being forced to do things they don’t agree with because the government is forcing them. israeli people don’t enjoy doing this. if you’re going to point fingers at someone, point at the 0.01% of israeli government officials who are making these decisions. not at an entire race, an entire population of people who are just doing what they are forced to do. it’s hypocritical to get mad at people for addressing hamas while also accusing all of israel of terrorism when the only real decision makers are the government. it’s the same thing, blaming an entire population for something that only a small group of people are responsible for. neither should be encouraged.

i don’t agree with what the israeli government is doing whatsoever. but that is not an excuse to wish death upon the people who didn’t even make any of these choices. these people were born in israel and they have to follow the laws. you can’t stand here while you’re privileged and on your phone typing angry little paragraphs that you wouldn’t do the same to keep yourself and your family safe.

so many people are using this issue as an excuse to be antisemitic. that is what i’m addressing in these posts. people like you are so fucking performative that you can’t see what the real issue is.

i know both israeli and palestinian people whose families have died. who’s YOUNG family members have died due to this conflict. and you know what they are telling me?

they aren’t telling me to go on social media and attack random people. they aren’t telling me to post about how all israelis/palestinians are awful people who deserve to die. they are telling me that the only way to stop all these innocent children and people as a whole from dying is to promote PEACE. and guess what. it isn’t just palestinian people saying this to me. ITS ISRAELI PEOPLE TOO.

THATS WHAT IM ADDRESSING IN MY POSTS. promoting PEACE is how we can do more for these poor children than just getting angry on social media. when we pick sides and polarize, we create more of a divide between two beautiful nations who deserve to live in peace and harmony. we further remove the chances of there being a reconciliation.

what do you suggest we do? kill all the israeli children? what will that accomplish??? this is so much more complicated than petty revenge. what feeds a war is the possibility of winning. and creating sides and pretending that the other side are full of evil heartless monsters who are doing this for no reason is only making the war WORSE because it fabricated the possibility of one side winning MORE.

so if you think you’re helping anybody with this bullshit, you’re not. your mindset is a prime example of the horrible performative activism that america is doing in order to pretend to be helpful while thousands of innocent children are dying.

maybe put some of this righteous energy into donating, or listening to israeli and palestinian voices instead of talking over them and speaking for them. that’s what would really be helpful in a time like this.

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Believe Jewish Women.

Unfortunately, this doesn't seem obvious to some people here, and it seems like I have to make another post on the matter: Whenever I write about how Jewish/ Israeli women and girls are treated by Hamas, I receive at least one comment along the lines of Once again, Please read this article as it perfectly sums up the horrors Israeli women and girls have gone through:

I have shared this article before in the hopes of preventing rape justification and violent rhetoric often used against Israeli women.

Unfortunately, that is not the case.

-Global women's rights organizations have constantly failed Israeli / Jewish women and girls since the events of October 7th.

It has taken more than 4 months for them to report on the matter: https://ynetnews.com/article/hy0kjj6ra

Their silence and lack of proper response personally infuriate me and other Jewish women worldwide, and it will not be forgotten.

-I've had people here try to justify what happened to Israeli women and girls on October 7th- nothing justifies that.

Jewish women deserve to be believed, just like any other woman. Their identity shouldn't deny them of that. They deserve to be taken seriously and protected as fiercely as others.

It's believe *all* women, not only women you like.

----

Another popular response I get to my posts is " The IDF rapes or abuses Palestinian Women in jails".

Not only is this a false accusation, but it is also an infuriating case of "What about-ism", it is meant to discredit what many Israeli and Jewish women have actually gone through on October 7th.

-The most popular example of this false claim is a 13 girl allegedly raped by her Israeli jailers, while held in Israeli jail. This has been proven to be completely fake and untrue.

In fact, it has been proven that no girl that age has been incarcerated in Israeli jails in recent years.

In the few extreme incidents where it did happen, the incident was heavily criticized, and the perpetrators were sentenced to lengthy jail sentences. ----- It seems like Anti-Zionists here can not fully read and comprehend my posts if they don't align with their false narrative and antisemitic agenda. Perhaps a video will help: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3Xwsv5ocBA/?igsh=MXJkN2w4OGZjM2NpeA== Israeli journalist Emily Schriber has described this topic perfectly, and I hope that she helped you understand my points.

----

The facts are simple: Hamas used mass rape, gang rape, and mutilation of Israeli Women, girls, and men on October 7th. They continue to do so against Israeli hostages currently held in captivity.

There is so much physical proof and witness accounts. Don't look away or deny what happened.

[infiniteglitterfall]

I'm so fucking done right now

I have a friend. We're going to call her "AAAAAAA!!!!"

AAAAAAA!!!! and I have been friends for more than twenty years. LONG before I started converting to Judaism.

She grew up in an area Jewish enough to get the high holy days off. She has as many Jewish friends as I do. She is more knowledgeable about Jewish stuff than anyone else I know who isn't Jewish. To the point that I've sometimes thought about asking her why she doesn't convert.

Sure, she's a staunch atheist. So nu?

I don't think we'd ever had occasion to talk about I/P politics before a couple of years ago. We immediately discovered we had uhhhhh. Very opposing views. We both backed off of what was clearly going to be a charged and messy discussion.

I didn't know enough yet to try anyway. All I knew, mainly, was that (1) Jews are the indigenous people of Israel and (2) both Israel and Palestine have Done Bad Shit!

That's a very, very, very inadequate understanding. But I did feel pretty confident that point #1 contradicted her apparent stance, which was more "Israel is the one that has Done Bad Shit."

We backed off for a couple of years. She would occasionally mention how much she wished I would read Edward Said, so we could talk about him.

She is, to her credit, totally against Hamas's attack. But we conflict on most other issues. And they're so charged for her that we can't really talk about any of them.

It turns out that the reason they're so charged is that her niece got yelled at and called out for "being an antisemite" for supporting BDS in college, and it was traumatizing for her.

In other words, she and her family stopped at "I had really really big feelings of shame and fear about this," and chose not to see "and I tried to find out why this marginalized group was saying that" as an option.

And also, AAAAAAA!!!!'s sister, a local elementary school principal, went through a stressful time recently for similar reasons: Jewish families were accusing her and/or her school of being antisemitic, and one (1) family left.

AAAAAAAA!!!! set the boundary, with me, that we should not talk about the definition of antisemitism, or antisemitism related to the protest movement, after I posted a list of things on Facebook that the ADL is charging the Berkeley Unified School District with.

Including that K-12 students have been saying and/or writing, "Kill the Jews," "Jews are stupid," "Of course it was the Jews," and telling Jewish peers, "I don't like your people."

My friend is angrily convinced that "such accusations are a flood of SEWAGE smeared on protesters, professors, etc. I am not saying there is no antisemitism, though Berkeley is a very weird place for it to crop up in the from-zero-to-a-thousand way it is described. Of course there can be a) isolated incidents that hit fucking hard in these circumstances, and b) deliberate elisions between, again, being against what Israel is doing, and having that portrayed as being antisemitic."

/looks at the camera/

All of this is just context for what I came here to say 😅

I WAS TONIGHT YEARS OLD WHEN I FOUND OUT WHAT EDWARD SAID WROTE, AND WHAT THE ENTIRE FUCK. FUCK THAT DUDE TWICE.

Constantine Zurayk's fiction that the “Arab nation” suffered the Nakba didn’t survive for long. [By 1967,] the meaning of the Nakba had already changed as Palestinian activists and historians began depicting the events of 1948 exclusively as a tragedy for their own people.

...The most influential of those [new books that framed it that way,] particularly for audiences in the West, was Edward W. Said’s The Question of Palestine, published in 1979.

Said, a popular Columbia University English professor [OH HELLO] and a member of the Palestinian National Council, was something of an icon in liberal intellectual circles because of his earlier book, Orientalism. In that work, Said framed the history of colonialism in the Arab and Islamic world within a system of Western racialist thought.

I'm just gonna guess that he didn't go back farther than 50 years. Because before that point, you get 1,300 years or so of Arab and Islamic colonialism, and I don't know how it would make sense to frame that within a system of Western racialist thought.

In The Question of Palestine, the author argued that the game was stacked against the native Palestinians in favor of the white Zionists, because of the same dominant racist ideologies.

THAT'S HIM, OFFICER. THAT'S THE GUY.

That's what my friend has been trying to get me to read for three years? An ahistoric mess that pretends Jews were actually white supremacists at the time that white supremacy was actively trying to wipe us out?

I'M SO TIRED, YOU GUYS.

Said denounced “the entrenched cultural attitude toward Palestinians deriving from age-old Western prejudices about Islam, the Arabs, and the Orient. This attitude, from which in its turn Zionism drew for its view of the Palestinians, dehumanized us, reduced us to the barely tolerated status of a nuisance.”

Yeah, THAT'S what happened.

“Certainly, so far as the West is concerned,” Said continues, “Palestine has been a place where a relatively advanced (because European) incoming population of Jews has performed miracles of construction and civilizing and has fought brilliantly successful technical wars against what was always portrayed as a dumb, essentially repellent population of uncivilized Arab natives.”

This was a harsh and distorted view of the Zionist movement.

I said I was so fucking done, and what I MEANT was that I was so fucking angry, and NOW I'M TEXTING HER SUPPORTIVELY ABOUT OTHER STUFF WHILE I WRITE THIS.

I just.

Please drag Edward Said for me or otherwise Go Off. Thank you

[mask131]

It is very amusing - and yet quite terrifying - to see how still to this day there are blogs on Tumblr that support the belief that "All these things the West claims Putin did outside of Russia? He didn't do anything because there's no proof so people are just making it up, Putin's my poor innocent little baby :3 owo". I just saw a post like that two days ago. [It would be interesting to see what those people think the "West" means, because this range from "It is just the USA" to "It is just Western Europe" - anyway]

So, today is my obligatory post about the fuck-ups of Putin's Russia within other countries. And while I always wanted to make a post about the various misinformation campaigns and manipulations of Wagner in various countries of Africa (including the creation of a false mass-grave in Mali that Wagner wanted to use to accuse the French military in place in the area of war crimes - hopefully this plan was foiled because a drone ended up filming them as they were preparing the mass-grave), today I will rather focus on a more recent and more worrying case. And much more "hot-topic" because it involves... The Hamas-Israel conflict, and the mass wave of antisemitism in Europe that recently rose!

Let us go back in time briefly. 7 of october 2023, terrorists of the Hamas organize a surprise attack on Israel. On the 8th of October, Israel starts throwing bombs at Palestine in retaliation - and this is the beginning of the Hamas-Israel war. A war that completely, vividly and violently split the opinion in both Europe and North America, due to how muddled and complex and devastating this conflict is. And a war that had one notable very dark side-effect in Europe (but also in North America) - it woke up a dormant wave of antisemitism. Due to Israel position when it comes to the history of Palestine, and due to how excessive Israel's attacks towards Palestine in retaliation for the Hamas' actions were - notably leading to a grave humanitarian and sanitary crisis in Gaza, that a lot of people chose to define as a "genocide" - a "pro-Palestine" wave arose in Western Europe that was against "Zionism" (understand, support and affiliation with Israel). Problem is - for decades now a lot of antisemitic people had been using "anti-zionism" as a thinley veiled excuse for what was pure antisemitism, due to how Israel is THE Jewish nation. AND for years now, especially in France, antisemitic actions have been on the rise (in France we had the graves of great Jewish personalities covered in antisemitic tags, and various synagogues degraded). As such, alongside movements supporting Palestine and denouncing Israel, numerous antisemitic actions and attacks started happening in various European countries.

In this context, end of October, in the Ile-de-France region, in the Parisian area, over several habitation buildings, more than 250 Stars of David had been painted in blue, overnight. On the morning of the 31st of October, they were on display for everyone to see.

This of course only fueled further the panic and the socio-political debate. The blue color of the stars clearly indicated a tie to Israel. But the fact was that these buildings were habited... by Jewish people. These stars were used to "mark" these buildings - with the clear message "Jews live here". And due to the blue color, it seemed to be part of the whole antisemitic distortion of the pro-Palestinian message: "There are Jews here - There are people of Israel here".

This made all the news, and one interview in particular was in loop over the various info channels of France. Several of the inhabitants of this building were elderly people. Old enough sometimes to have known World War II. And one of the old ladies that lived in these buildings broke down in tears when interviewed because as she explained: "This is all like when I was a child. It is happening all over again."

Because, it should be known - and if you don't know, you will now - that France wasn't just invaded and occupied by the Nazi forces during World War II. The Vichy government of France actively collaborated with the Nazi government to "save" a bit of French independance and "prevent" some casualties - and this formed the darkest part of France's history, La Collaboration. France was divided in two - and while the South was the "free" zone... the North, including the Ile-de-France, was the "occupied" zone where Nazis and collaborators were in control. And Paris saw some of the worst things... Like the infamous "Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv", when the French government, by order of the Nazi government, arrested and gathered in a velodrome more than 13 000 Jews before sending them to the death camps.

As such, to have buildings in the area marked by David stars (the symbol used during World War II to mark Jews on their clothes, shops and houses) as a "visual denunciation" in the context of an antisemitic wave tied to foreign governments' decisions... You can understand how traumatizing this can be - or rather how this wakes up the old trauma and the old shames of France.

But here is where things get INTERESTING.

The police of course searched thoroughly the ones responsible for all these tags - and they ended up finding them... It was a couple. A man, 29 years old, and a woman, 33 years old. They were actually caught while they were painting more of those, in the 10th arrondissement de Paris. But... they were not of French nationality. They were from Moldavia. And this was intriguing. Everybody believed this had been done by antisemitic French people... But no.

And what was the Moldavians' justification for what they did? Support for Palestine? Antisemitism? No. They were "paid" to do so. They just did a job. Curious isn't it? The police found, by digging in the couple's phones, who exactly had paid them and given them the instructions for this operation... And it turned out to be another Moldavian man, but not anybody.

Anatoli Prizenko. A Moldavian businessman known for his strong pro-Russia views and for his open support of Putin. Of course, Prizenko was asked about this whole affair - he was notably interviewed by French media. And what was his answer? When asked why he paid a couple to go paint more than 250 Stars of David in the Parisian region, what did he answer? The funniest and most pathetic excuse you can find. "This was a gesture of support. This was a gesture of support towards the Jews of Europe. It was meant to be positive". I put pictures of the painted tags in this post: I will let you judge if it seems like a support for the Jewish people of Europe, or if it rather looks like the kind of tags left on buildings during World War II.

Okay, so a pro-Russia Moldavian businessman did this in hope to exploit the current tense and hostile climax in France, in light of the disastrous events in Palestine. But beyond his support of Putin, nothing actually clearly ties this operation to Russia, right?

Let us go deeper down the rabbit hole... By November, French authorities revealed that yet another campaign of mass information led by Russian entities was plaguing the French Internet. I say "yet again", because it wasn't Russia's first attempt. Already the French authorities had to denounce and warn the population about an enormous amount of fake websites created by Russians. These fake webpages were almost perfect copies of the ACTUAL websites of the various newspapers and information channels of France, and all covered the war on Ukraine... With the difference that these fake websites twisted the words, faked the numbers or outright invented elements that made it seem like Europe's support of Ukraine was a bad thing, causing all sorts of troubles and dysfunctionments, or that made it look like Ukraine was wasting all the resources it was given. A pure misinformation-operation in hope of making people lose faith in the support of Ukraine, or even making people hate Ukraine for "stealing all our money and weapons".

And they did it again... With this case. Another important Internet operation by Russian - from fake web pages to fake web accounts, this new operation was about mass-sharing and mass-spreading the news of the Stars of David... And insisting upon all sorts of fake rumors that were later debunked, and highlighting the antisemitism in France. (As I said, they didn't really need to do that since there is already an antisemitism on the rise that was well-noted and is already worrying everyone, so Russia didn't invent that... But their point was to overblow this specific incident in order to create a true mass psychosis). France denounced this Internet operation - and Moscow only answered by saying France was "stupid" for suspecting them in such a way...

And does it stop here? NO MY DEAR! Because these last days there's been a new development! Now it is not fully confirmed/revealed, because the investigation is still underway. But after all these months of research, there are pretty solid and conclusive elements to determine who was behind this Internet campaign of misinformation and rumor-spreading... All the clues point towards the "fifth department" (foreign business department) of the FSB, the Federal Security Service of Russia.

So yes... We are back to the Cold War...

And you want to know the worse thing? European countries have started collaborating on this business, because as it turns out, there were a lot of pro-Russian and anti-Otan manifestations or "waves" in several European countries recently (Spain and Germany for example)... that when investigated tie back to the FSB in one way or another. The oldest identified FSB operation of the sort is - at least from what I heard - from the spring of 2023, in Poland. There was a series of misinformation, sabotages and spying actions with strong anti-OTAN slogans used - and at first it seemed that this was a manifestation of the will and desires of Polish people themselves, as it was presented as "the folks of Poland are speaking"... But a bit of investigation revealed the core of this movement were... again, Moldavians, not Polish people. And further digging proved that these Moldavians had ties to the FSB, who very likely ordered them to do all this...

[mariacallous]

A Trump-appointed prosecutor dropped an unfalsifiable partisan bomb on President Joe Biden Thursday, playing into a years-long right-wing media campaign — and U.S. political journalists decided to treat it as a valid and impartial charge.

Biden, who has a 40-year record of public service in the U.S. Senate, as vice president, and in the Oval Office, is a self-described “gaffe machine” with a well-documented stutter. He is also, at 81, the oldest president in U.S. history.

The right has dedicated substantial time and resources since Biden launched his 2020 presidential campaign to attributing his verbal miscues to his age. Republican political operatives surface out-of-context snippets of Biden’s misstatements and try to blow them up into national stories, and it is rarely-disputed canon in the right-wing media that the president is a mentally failing dementia patient. 

This argument blew up in their faces when Biden performed so well in a debate against then-President Donald Trump that the GOP resorted to accusing him of taking performance-enhancing drugs, and again in 2023, when his canny dealings with then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy led McCarthy to describe him as “very smart” and Republicans to question how they’d been outmaneuvered by someone purportedly in mental decline. But undeterred by reality, the right has maintained the drumbeat over Biden’s mental status, driving up public concern over the president’s age.

Enter Robert Hur. Attorney General Merrick Garland presumably selected him as a special counsel to investigate Biden’s possible unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or other records because he thought he could quell potential complaints of political bias by putting in charge a former clerk to right-wing judges whom Trump appointed as a U.S. attorney with every incentive to do maximum political damage to the Democratic president. This is a regular pattern — Republican and Democratic administrations each appoint Republicans to investigate both Republicans and Democrats, though that never seems to halt the complaints from the right about the handling of those cases.

On Thursday, after a year-long investigation, Hur issued a 345-page report in which he concluded that “​​no criminal charges are warranted in this matter” and that “the evidence does not establish Mr. Biden's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.” But rather than stop there, he also levied an incendiary and gratuitous attack on Biden’s mental status, claiming that, “at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” Hur cited specific mental lapses he’d observed during their five hours of interviews — conducted at a time when Biden was responding to the international crisis caused by the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel — including that his “memory appeared hazy” when discussing the intricacies of 15-year-old White House policy debates.

Hur’s argument that lawyers for the sitting president of the United States would argue in court that he shouldn’t be convicted of a crime because he is a senile old man is facially absurd. Indeed, Biden forcefully pushed back on the critique during a White House appearance Thursday night.

The special counsel’s actions drew sharp criticism from the legal community. Biden’s lawyers blasted claims about Biden’s memory in a draft report, saying, “We do not believe that the report's treatment of President Biden's memory is accurate or appropriate. The report uses highly prejudicial language to describe a commonplace occurrence among witnesses: a lack of recall of years-old events.” On MSNBC, former FBI counsel Andrew Weissmann called the claims “wholly inappropriate,” “gratuitous,” and “exactly what you’re not supposed to do, which is putting your thumb on the scale that could have political repercussions.” Neal Katyal, the former acting U.S. solicitor general, likewise said that based on his tours in the Justice Department, Hur’s statements were “totally gratuitous” and a “too-clever-move-by-half by the special counsel to try and take some swipes at a sitting president.” And Ty Cobb, a former Trump lawyer, said on CNN that he had served on an independent counsel probe that declined to prosecute someone due to “health issues, but we didn’t tell the world that,” suggesting that such statements by Hur were inappropriate.

But by including those inappropriate and gratuitous statements, Hur put an official seal on a partisan attack. 

The right jumped on Hur’s claims, with Republican politicians and right-wing commentators falsely claiming that the special counsel had found that Biden “is not competent to stand trial” and “has dementia.” Some called for the Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and remove him from office.

The mainstream political press, meanwhile, turned Hur’s insinuations about Biden’s mental health — and not his declination to prosecute — into the report’s big takeaway. Here’s a sampling of top headlines from major newspapers, political tipsheets, and digital outlets on Thursday and Friday.

New York Times: “Eight Words and a Verbal Slip Put Biden’s Age Back at the Center of 2024” Axios: “1 big thing: Report questions Biden’s memory” Semafor Flagship: “DoJ report questions Biden’s memory” Washington Post: “Special counsel report paints scathing picture of Biden’s memory” Wall Street Journal: “Biden’s Age Back in Spotlight After Special Counsel Report, Verbal Flubs” CNN: “Biden tries to lay to rest age concerns, but may have exacerbated them” ABC News: “Special counsel blows open debate over Biden age and memory” CBS News: “Biden disputes special counsel findings, insists his memory is fine” Politico: “Age isn’t just a number. It’s a profound and growing problem for Biden.

Stories about Biden’s mental state are clearly catnip for political journalists. They can demonstrate how “fair” they are by providing negative coverage of Biden to balance their treatment of his likely opponent Donald Trump, who is an unhinged authoritarian facing scores of federal and state criminal charges, including for attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election. And they don’t need to bone up on policy nuances separating the candidates — “is the president addled” is an easy venue for hot takes.

The storyline is particularly toxic because no matter how many times it is repudiated by Biden’s public actions or the statements of people who have spoken to him privately, it cannot be falsified. The White House physician can release health summaries calling him “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency.” Democrats who have recently spoken to the president, like Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), and reporters who have recently interviewed him, like John Harwood, can attest to his mental acuity at the time of his special counsel interview. But Biden is still Biden, so he’s going to keep making gaffes, as he did Thursday night when he referred to Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as “the president of Mexico,” leading journalists to downplay his newsmaking statements about the Israel-Hamas war and fixate instead on what the statement says about his mental health. 

The choice for reporters is how they respond to such misstatements. On NPR, Mara Liasson said that the White House is pushing back by pointing out that Biden’s foes, like Fox’s Sean Hannity and Trump, have had similar mix-ups.

“But the difference is that one of these missteps, one of these guys who forgets things, Biden, has become a viral meme, and it's become a big problem for him,” she said. “Trump's misstatements, for some reason, have not risen to that level.”

It’s true that Trump’s own verbal missteps have not coalesced into an overarching narrative about his mental fitness for office. But the reason why is obvious: Political journalists decided to treat Biden’s missteps as a big problem, and Trump’s as a small one. They’re setting the agenda, following the lead of the Republican Party, the right-wing media, and now, Hur.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Qasim Rashid at Let's Address This:

Yesterday, Israel and Hamas announced a ceasefire agreement that promised to end Israel’s 16 month siege on Gaza and secure the release of dozens of hostages. No sooner was this deal announced, but the Israeli military viciously bombed civilian tents and a residential building in central Gaza, one in which disabled children were seeking safety, killing at least 77 more Palestinians. Adding to the injustice, and as has happened so many times, the deal seems to already have unraveled as Israel has furthermore delayed a cabinet vote, accusing Hamas of creating a “last-minute crisis.” Hamas has affirmed its commitment to ceasefire, stating it had upheld all terms outlined by the mediators. Meanwhile, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu openly accused Hamas of thwarting the deal, he refuses to identify what Hamas allegedly did. This isn’t the first time Netanyahu has obstructed progress on a ceasefire or hostage deal. In fact, the receipts show this is part of a disturbing pattern, and it is a disgrace the Biden administration continues to fall for it while innocent people continue to suffer and die. Let’s Address This. Before diving into the history, it’s critical we frame this situation accurately.

A ceasefire deal between both sides was announced to stop the fighting.

Israel then bombed civilian tents in central Gaza, killing 77 Palestinians.

Hamas still states that it is committed to the ceasefire deal as presented.

Netanyahu then delays the cabinet vote to affirm the deal on the Israeli side.

Netanyahu then blames Hamas for thwarting the deal—but refuses to identify what Hamas allegedly did.

The Biden administration is still sending $8B more in arms to Netanyahu.

The fighting is at high risk of continuing, with more civilian deaths resulting.

The most depressing part about this cycle described above is that—as the receipts below show—this is what the Israeli media, Israeli generals, and Israeli hostage families all themselves document that Netanyahu has done over the past 16 months.

A History of Sabotaging Peace

According to reports from Haaretz and The Jewish Independent, Netanyahu’s negotiation team has consistently been undermined by the Prime Minister himself. Haaretz, Israel's longest-running newspaper, has confirmed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has actively blocked every potential hostage deal since October 7th, 2023.

[...]

The Families’ Verdict: “Mr. Death”

Perhaps most damning of all is the condemnation from hostage families themselves. They’ve labeled Netanyahu as “Mr. Death,” accusing him of valuing his political survival over the lives of their loved ones. These families revealed how they learned that a full hostage deal was on the table in October of 2023—but Netanyahu rejected it outright. This betrayal is even more egregious considering Netanyahu’s propaganda campaign. He frequently claims that Hamas is to blame for the ongoing bombings, stating he would stop the airstrikes if Hamas released all hostages. Yet when Hamas accepts terms for a deal, Netanyahu himself blocks it, or continues to bomb Gaza—as he is doing yet again right now.

Yesterday’s ceasefire deal that was reportedly agreed to by Israel and Hamas could be on ice due to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's crass political games.

Bibi has repeatedly sabotaged hostage release and ceasefire deals over the past year-plus.

See Also:

The Guardian: Netanyahu: no vote on Gaza ceasefire deal until Hamas accepts all terms

[germiyahu]

I don't find the whole "Chickens for KFC!" argument very convincing. Like, it's a pretty good barometer to indicate that the person you're talking to is on the right wing of politics lol. Like, pointing out that Hamas is homophobic will convince exactly zero Western antizionists.

Because they don't have to deal with Hamas' homophobic/transphobic violence. And I shouldn't even have to explain all the ways the average person will insulate themselves from facts or uncomfortable truths. Many insist this is just propaganda or will retort with "how do bombs save queer Palestinians?" or whatabout quite easily into instances of Israelis being homophobic, or Israel not being the world leader in queer rights. Throw out the babies with the bathwater! There is enough distance between the Western "activists" and these hypothetical victims of an anti-gay regime that it won't persuade them. They will not abandon a cause they believe to be righteous and necessary just because "Hamas aren't perfect uwu~" this has been well documented online from innumerable accounts.

It's also just pretty bratty and callous. Like yeah, use those queer Palestinians as nothing more than props against people who are just as removed from their oppression as you are, you're doing so great!

I think a better argument, is to argue against accusations of Pinkwashing. Focus on that. Because let's say the antizionists get their magic wish, and Israel is (forcefully) integrated into a Palestinian ethnostate from river to sea. What happens to the queer people living in former Israel? These people are not hypotheticals, they objectively exist and objectively do have more rights and freedoms than they would under Fatah and especially Hamas?

What happens to them? I see a lot of these people gleefully fantasize about a "substantial" portion of Zionists fleeing, but almost all of them concede that many Israelis would stay and even seem to want this (maybe just for appearances sake).

What is your plan then? This fits into a larger issue of "reincorporating" land given "back" to the "indigenous" population. Israel is (and in their minds will be "was" but whatever) a functioning society with unique laws and customs. What is the plan to respect those? Not just queer people, but women, Druze and other religious minorities, people of African descent. the list is pretty long. Actually for every xwashing they come up with, it's a credible question of how a landmaxxed Palestine would handle that issue?

Because I understand that to most of these people, appealing to Jewishness doesn't work, they believe wholeheartedly that Zionists are the new Nazis, they'll get what's coming to them. They do not care about history, they deny it outright. Antisemitism does not pull at their heartstrings. But what did gay people ever do to them? And this is pertinent because they are also queer people in the West advocating for a one state Palestine, even cheering on Hamas. Where is their solidarity with queer people around the world?

Like why punish gay (former) Israelis? Can you not at least agree that Hamas would not be a good governing body for the queer Israelis (Jewish and Arab) and the queer Palestinians who live in Israel as asylum seekers?

Or is ever facet of Israeli society going on the chopping block? Sorry but that's what you get for being a COLONIZER, hope you enjoyed not being persecuted for things that have nothing to do with being Arab, Jewish, Israeli, or Palestinian! Since we magically erased Israel we can magically deduce that there would be no resistance or sectarian violence coming from millions of people who are having everything about their way of life forcibly cast aside. Or maybe they'll only care after they get what they wish for and they can be the underdogs again. Zionist problem taken care of! Now let's immediately criticize the brand new Palestinian state! Who really knows, all I know is that their top priority is never voting for Democrats lol!

Whatever their ideas or plans, this is purely a fantasy. Not a single one of us can force Israel to fall, or force Hamas to stop being anti-queer fascists. All of this is firmly in the territory of fiction.

[ironbloodaika]

Not gonna lie, this crap with Tara Strong is starting to irritate me. While I'm fan of her work, that doesn't mean I agree with everything she does. That said this latest thing accusing her of being a bigot? That's bullshit.

She said in multiple posts she was referring to Hamas. Not to Palestinian or Muslim civilians. I've seen that same screen capped pic of her Tweets and people tend to ignore the posts she made before and after it specifying who she was addressing: Hamas.

The only thing Tara is guilty of is the same thing a lot of do when something horrible happens that we have something horrible happens that hits close to home: post/reblog/like without making sure we're getting our point across. She's since deleted and apologized for posts she liked that went beyond criticizing Hamas. It was foolish, but not malicious.

And look, I get it. What happening now in Gaza is horrific. I don't pretend to be knowledge on the history of either nation or this conflict, but I can see it is taken VERY seriously and a lot of people are taking sides. On my timeline I have friends each sharing posts taking up different positions in this conflict. And I've seen just as many demonizing the opposing side and accusing them of being Anti-Semitic or Islamaphobic. It's not pretty.

And to accuse Tara of it? Doesn't fit with her history of speaking out against bigotry especially against Muslims. She spoke out against Trump's Travel Ban and against all the rising hate crimes Muslim Americans faced in a Post 9/11 America. I don't see how that could suddenly change.

Ultimately this weird sort of mob mentality is annoying cause it happens SO often with VA's when ever they do something people don't like. Just a few months ago Grey DeLisle was getting shit over how she reacted to someone using AI of her voice. Yeah, somehow they made HER the bad guy there.

Overall I just find this mess exhausting. Look, if someone I admire does something fucked up, I'd have no issues washing my hands of it. I did it with JK Rowling and with Vic. I'm not gonna call someone a monster or "always had" for mistakes made by foolishness and not malice.

Anyway, this has been one of my rare returns to long posts. Will I regret it or do it again? Who knows. Have a good weekend everyone!

[aspiringwarriorlibrarian]

Hey, its the Israeli again.

I feel like I need to say one more thing.

First of all, when I said “conflict” I obviously didn’t mean the Israel- Palestine conflict. I understand that was poor choice of words. I meant, as stated, this specific war. I live here. Talking as if you understand this conflict better than I do is frankly incredibly rude.

You say you want the people of Palestine to receive humanitarian aid. You say they don’t get any and that everything goes to Hamas. That is exactly the problem. There is no way to get support to the people of the Strip without going through Hamas because they control Gaza.

You say you choose life, but that is not the choice presented to you. If only it was that simple.

Hamas is killing people. It is hurting Palestinians as well. It is hurting people from all walks of life. We have to fight it. We can’t just do nothing. they’ll kill us.

There is no simple solution that will just magically fix everything.

But tell me, if someone was trying to break into your home to kill you, would you meet them with empathy?

Would you welcome them in, or would you defend yourself?

And don’t tell me that’s not the same because that is literally what happened. They broke into homes, killed the people inside and set the houses they couldn’t get into on fire.

Im not evil. I don’t want anyone to get hurt. I feel for the people suffering in Gaza. I always have.

I don’t have all the answers. No one does.

I’m just a scared 20 year old girl who wants to live.

I know, or at least I want to believe you mean well. Please try not to take my words with bad faith. They were written emotionally during the worst time of my life, worse than anything i could have possibly imagined.

What is happening here is terrible. Its tragic. But it is not one-sided. It is not genocide. Saying things like that about holocaust survivors (there are holocaust survivors among the kidnapped and killed) is clearly done in bad faith.

It is the same as calling lying gaslighting. A gross, dangerous exaggeration.

Saying we should just all leave is ridiculous and cruel. Especially with the fact that antisemitism has been on the rise for years now.

There is nowhere safe for the jewish people in the world. That is why we need this country. That is why we have to fight for it.

Obviously I can’t sum up everything there is to say about this in an ask. I apologise for the length, I tried to be as concise as possible. That may be why my words were misinterpreted.

If you want to discuss this further I can do that but I can’t send an ask that isn’t anonymous because I don’t want to get doxxed.

If nothing else, I appreciate you taking the time to respond to me sincerely. Thank you for that.

Then perhaps you should have actually responded to my comments rather than accusing me of things I never said. I never said that all Israelis should just leave, I never said that Israel should do nothing in the face of attacks from Hamas, and I especially never said that the victims of Hamas attacks are the ones committing genocide.

I am aware that this is complicated. But I utterly despise people who look at something complicated and use that as an excuse for a simplistic and cruel solution. Oh it's just too complicated to try and attack Hamas without hurting innocent civilians, so the innocent civilians will just have to be collateral damage for our safety. Complex problems require complex solutions, not careless brute force. Moral complexity is not an excuse to ignore morality entirely, and it's certainly not an excuse to label evil actions like the murder of innocents as inevitable or necessary.

"It's not one-sided ergo it's not genocide". It is one-sided. The people of Gaza did nothing to deserve this and they are getting slaughtered all the same, to the tune of thousands, for being in the way. They have no defense because Hamas will not defend them. Their only hope is Israeli restraint, and there is no sign that is coming. Israel's three part plan for if it wins this war is destroying the infrastructure of Gaza, eliminating any resistance, and then establishing a "security regime". No part of that involves the well-being of Gazans or their preservation. They are in the way and will be slaughtered because it's "too complicated" to spare them. The purpose does not matter if the end result is the same.

You are scared and threatened, I know. But this war will not make you safe. You could wipe out the entire Gaza strip and Hamas would remain, in fact, they'd only be emboldened by cruelty. So why should innocents die for a cause that won't make you safer? How many people have to die before you‘d consider it too much?