#what did they accuse Hamas of doing again?

[quandlesannees]

This is a classic terf -exclusionary rad-fem as well as a DARVO response, and I'll break down why (but I do admire your exclamatory language and usage of the thesaurus! ):

a) Didn't say you called me a man. I am a cisgender woman (therefore to you the most Woman TM a woman can be), have a degree in gender studies, something you conveniently left out, which means that, even though you don't like it, I've read my stuff and an accredited university gave my "pretentious asshat"-self a degree that makes me a literal expert in the field you claim to operate from by the technical definition of the word. Just as it is a classic Zionist response to claim that people who do not support Zionism are anti-semitic, so is it the rad-fem's immediate response to claim that anyone who disagrees with their opinion is a misogynist. Again, you're making real feminists look bad. Also, imagine being a misogynist in a doctorate level Gender Studies discipline hahahahaha. It's like having a creationist in evolutionary science or a flat-earther in geology. That would be hard AF.

Incidentally, I'm curious: what precisely is self-important in my post about Gaiman? Where did I mention myself at all except to say I explained to a friend? Is it because I used words that are very big for Elmo and you got defensive? As a Master's student, you should be fine.

If you had actually read your Andrea Dworkin, as you claim you have on your blog, then you'd know she actually was a trans ally, both in practice and theory :

I can also refer you to some of her theory if you'd like. I'm sure you're a fan because she was a Zionist though, hence the highlighted emphasis.

b) My father's family is Palestinian and my mom is Italian-Jewish, so you've struck out once more with these weird accusations (Classic DARVO). Where did I say any of these things you're accusing? You're floundering, babe. Israel stole land from Palestine the same way that Europeans stole land from Native Americans (a cause I'm sure you're supportive of, as intersectional rad-fems were), and England stole it from Ireland. But ok, to analyze your words, let's do it. In your posts, you refer to Palestinians as Hamas (as a unit) and claim that Zionists have a right to Israel, by definition, this makes you a Zionist.

The classic definition of Zionism as proposed by Gorny 1987, Shapira 1992, and Slater 2020 (among many) is the claim that Jews had a historical right to the land which outweighed the rights of the Arabs to their native land. As a result, Zionist jews have a moral responsibility to enact settler colonialism at the expense of the Palestinians, and other Arabs as we now see with Lebanon. Israeli historian Yosef Gorny argues that the establishment of a Jewish demographic majority is a foundational aspect of Zionism and depends uniquely on expelling Arabs (Gorny 1987): "[T}he desire for a Jewish majority was the key issue in the implementation of Zionism, implying a basic change in the international standing of the Jewish people and marking a turning-point in their history. The significance of this demand, and of the untiring endeavour to realize it in various ways, lay in the annulling of the majority standing of the Arabs of Palestine. The roots of the Jewish-Arab confrontation, therefore, are embedded in the incessant process of disturbance of the status quo ante as regards national status in Palestine." The Zionist cause is defined by a reduction of Palestinian identity as a means to define itself, both socially and biologically. One cannot be a Zionist and like Palestinians. It is oil and water. That's like saying someone loves fascism but supports women and minorities.... According to Israeli historian Simha Flapan, the view expressed by the proclamation "there was no such thing as Palestinians" is a cornerstone of modern Zionist policy and has affected many Israeli laws (Flapan 1979).

You've written in a former blog post (that is your 'solution' to the conflict, supposedly) that Palestinians need to create a "secular government". Israel is not considered a secular state by the technical definition, so I'm assuming in your two-state solution towards the act of settler colonialism, Israel should give up faith in government? Is that acceptable to you? ("Israel is consequently an ethno-national state that is not a secular state". (Guy Ben-Porat, Bryan S. Turner. The Contradictions of Israeli Citizenship: Land, Religion, and State. Routledge, 2011. p. 12) and "Israel cannot be considered a secular state" in Sebastián Cote Pabón, Secularism and Democracy in Israel: Military Service as Case Study. Middle East Policy, Vol. XXVI, N°3. 2019. p. 1.) You also say: "I would expect no objection from Israel (or little objection) since this is what they want and it is Palestine that has rejected statehood." Ah yes? Is that why Israel’s Knesset voted to reject Palestinian statehood on July 18th, 2024? (https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/18/middleeast/israel-us-biden-knesset-vote-palestinian-state-intl/index.html)

You're so far up Israel's genocidal arse, that you're practically a settler colonialist of Netanyahu's intestinal tract.

However, since you care so much about National Socialism and Zionism, feel free to take this quiz to figure out which hate-fueled political party said which genocidal quote about which hated ethnic minority (it's much harder to discern than you'd think): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd1c-_56yYGTJNit_GjUB-th5C8M4SKapOibN8vsmicakWNCA/viewform

c) If you had a Master's in science then I'm sure you would know how to write and argue a lot better than you have (due to having to write and argue the thesis), as well as learn to not be as reactionary and attack-oriented as you are. For example, I'm sure you'd have a much better mastery of hyphen usage. Also you tend to start sentences with "Do you hate XYC enough to [insert bad faith argument here]??????" This is not an argument. It's you being inflamed and attacking with an explosion of anger, not because you care, but because you enjoy getting angry for anger's sake in the name of claiming moral superiority. Perhaps you should have taken more rhetoric courses. This once more proves you are a performative feminist of which I've warned in my original post.

If this is the future of science, then I am worried. Do they teach you in your Master's classes how to to argue with someone by saying they should have been aborted? I am a professor at a university and I'd be ashamed if you were my student and this was how you were acting out in the world. Given that you're a rad-fem and they're historically active on the topic, I'm getting the vibe that you're quite sensitive, caring, and thoughtful to the history of abortion. You're clearly so kind and understanding to rape victims in the flesh, of which we have evidence here right now. Do you tell other rape victims they should get aborted too? You act so strongly from a well-informed place of kindness.

Also, what is Judith Butler's ilk? Gender-affirmative theorists, maybe....?

d) Girl.... you're literally making this a bad faith conversation because you have not a leg to stand on. You just admitted that you just cherry-picked to get something you could be mad at because I said your post was vaguely disingenuous. Big yikes.

Since you're a TERF, I believe you rose to the occasion for the sole purpose of protecting fellow TERF JK Rowling and not because you care about rape victims (clearly), women's rights, or the horror that Gaiman has inflicted on vulnerable people. Hence why you're so upset.

JK Rowling is different but also bad because of the following:

JK Rowling has enabled rapists to continue their abuse by hiring them (Gary Oldman is only one example). Where was her outrage when Oldman hit his former wife in the face with a phone? Or when Johnny Depp abused Amber Heard? This is especially sad because Rowling herself is a victim of domestic abuse. She cares about women when it's convenient and she can use them as a tool for her agenda. In a different way, this is similar to Gaiman, who only cared about women's rights to lure vulnerable women to him. They are performative but reveal their real colors when pressed.

She also praised your favorite REAL anti-semite, Elon Musk, and, with him, has harassed and led a campaign against respected athlete Imane Khelif, because she (an Arab) was better than her white European opponent and didn't look like a delicate, fragile white woman. Therefore, she led a campaign of harassment that made Khelif's life hell during a time of great success in her career.

She has also enacted indirect violence by donating to terf agencies (https://www.outfrontmagazine.com/jk-rowling-donates-to-anti-trans-organization/; https://www.scottishdailyexpress.co.uk/news/scottish-news/proud-jk-rowling-donates-70k-32149025), which actively harm trans people by denying them healthcare, legal protections, and the sheer dignity of life. This is an active form of hatred because she is funding these efforts with money that is used to hurt people. If we can follow the train, she is hurting people, albeit more indirectly.

Did JK rape someone? Not that we know of! Does she actively use her money and influence to enact realized and active legal, medical, and social harm against a group that she decided she hates and must eliminate? A group that has one of the lowest life expectancies because of suicide and homicide, as well as poverty risk factors? A group in which the suicide rate was 6.8 times higher for transgender women than cisgender women? Absolutely yes!

Am I pretentious? Maybe. Am I an asshat? Potentially. Am I an anti-semite? That would be hard considering my mom is Jewish and I went to the synagogue earlier (maybe I should ask my rabbi). Am I (and my lovely mother) anti-Zionist? Abso-fucking-lutely. I'll wear my anti-Zionism with pride.

Stop using women as tools to further your Zionist and TERF agendas.

Tl;dr for everyone except this silly goose:

Looking back, it's insane how spoiled we were by J. K. Rowling's unmasking.

The signs WERE all there from the beginning, from interviews to her personal life to the work itself. So when the mask finally came off for good, our eyes were shot open to all the red flags.

And a lot of folks keep expecting that same revelation every single time another beloved artist turns out to be a bastard. But here's the thing; Rowling is an outlier. Most predators are nowhere near as unsubtle. And everyone telling you all these "solutions" to make sure you don't get hurt again are in willful denial of this

"Don't trust charming people", "don't trust people who declare themselves allies of this or that cause", "charisma is a red flag". All of that may be true, but lemme tell ya - it won't save you.

Because here's the uncomfortable truth: there were zero signs. I followed Gaiman for years, both with his work and here on tumblr. Never noticed a single red flag - and looking back, I can't think of a single sign. And the same can be said for all of you.

It is possible to commit no errors and still lose.

[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.

[matan4il]

Hi Alice! All my love to you in these dark dark times. You've been instrumental to me learning more about what it's like in Israel on the ground right now, and helping me not get swept up in the vitriolic rhetoric so many of my fellow liberals are espousing. I've been horrified by some of the behavior I've seen from the pro-Palestine crowd. I quietly support both sides of the conflict, and hope to see a return of the hostages, a subsequent ceasefire, and a realistic path to a two-state solution in the near future.

I'm asking this in good faith because I trust your research and input on these things, and I'm curious about your perspective. TW for rape and torture. I've seen a report come out on one of the tumblrs I follow (who is very pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist, unfortunately, I only follow them for fandom content) stating that there's been torturous conditions inside Israeli prisons–Sde Teiman specifically–detaining Palestinians. It includes accusations of rape, beatings, and amputations due to injuries from being cuffed. I was wondering if you had seen this report and had thoughts about whether this is another anti-Israel smear campaign or a cruel reality of bad people doing bad things. I'm always inclined to believe victims, and as an American, I'm painfully aware of the atrocities that can happen in detentions centers, especially during wartime.

Please know I'm not accusing you of anything or trying to make this a gotcha thing! I'm curious about your thoughts as an Israeli who does good research and knows her country and history. Thank you again for all you do, and I'm so sorry to hear about your colleague's murder. May you and your loved ones find as much rest and peace as can be found in a time like this. Take care.

Hi Nonnie,

thank you so much for your kind words (especially regarding Alex), your humaneness and willingness to listen to Jews and Israelis! Absolutely, there is no contradiction in supporting regular people on both sides of this conflict. This is NOT a zero-sum game. Both sides can thrive, if we all choose and are just allowed to coexist.

Okay, the Sde Teiman accusations...

Let me start with the history of this army base, because it is relevant to how it was used.

In 1942, the Nazis landed in northern Africa, and were headed eastwards, toward the Land of Israel. As a part of getting ready for that, The British (who ruled Israel at the time) paved a strip of asphalt in the desert, not too far from the expected direction of the Nazis' invasion, and used it as an airfield. They also built a few hangars next to the runway, and this is what in the 1950's became the military base called Sde Teiman ("Field of Yemen," in honor of the Israeli's air force operation of airlifting the Jews of Yemen, and bringing them to Israel. Along with the operation to bring the Ethiopian and Indian Jews to Israel, these mark the only times when a "first world" country brought people from "third world" countries - with the goal of making them citizens with equal rights). I'm sharing this info, so everyone can get an idea of how small and insufficient this army base is for the purpose of detaining prisoners. And indeed, under normal circumstances, it is NOT used for that purpose.

However, when Hamas launches surprise attacks from Gaza, it has been used for temporary detention (until arrested terrorists can be transferred to more adequate facilities) simply because of its proximity to Israel's border with Gaza.

That's how it was used following the Oct 7 Hamas invasion of Israel, too. Things to note about this: Israel did not initiate the massacre and following war, so it didn't have time to prepare a better temporary detention center with personnel properly trained to be jailors, and also, while Sde Teiman had been used temporarily for terrorist detention before, it was never used for as many arrested terrorists as after Oct 7. Consider that on the day itself alone, around 3,500 terrorists invaded Israel, and that was just the first day of the war.

When it comes to general accusations of awful conditions there, which might lead to terrible consequences, a big part of it is probably down to the fact that this base was not meant for this purpose (and the fact that it was used this way is because of the nature of Hamas' attack rather than any intended maliciousness).

The conditions were all wrong as a result of the chaos of war regarding the sexual assault case, too. The guards were not trained to be jailors, they didn't have the right tools to deal with arrested terrorists, especially these terrorists, who belonged to the Nukhba, a Hamas "elite" unit and the main perpetrator of the massacre (the Nukhba to Hamas are like the Waffen SS to the Nazis, imagine what Israelis feel when they hear "Nukhba"). Think of the atrocities committed by these men: the rapes, the beheadings, the mutilations, the murder of children, the burning down of homes with people inside, the extermination of entire families, the destruction of Israel's southern communities, and the psychological trauma caused to the entire country, when many are already dealing with lots of trauma, including of the inter-generational kind. Now imagine being an ordinary reservist, a regular civilian, not someone who has chosen the army as a way of life, not someone who has seen the horrors off war recently (or maybe ever), someone with a family that could have easily been targeted on Oct 7, someone who isn't trained for how to jail the vilest of criminals, then tasked with guarding in over-crowded and extremely close settings such monsters while being psychologically affected by their terrorism (which is the main goal of terrorism! To terrorize even those not directly harmed!)...

Initially, 10 soldiers, who are all reservists, were arrested. Since then, it turns out only 5 of them will be indicted (indicating that there is no substantial evidence against the other 5) for supposedly sexually assaulting a Nukhba terrorist. Specifically, the Nukhba company commander of Jabalya. He's not any regular terrorist, he's someone who was a commander that partook in the Oct 7 massacre, he oversaw the committed atrocities, he didn't only commit crimes, he gave the orders. At least one of the suspected soldiers testified that this Nukhba commander was going haywire, and had to be physically subdued. According to reporters, a doctor initially checked this Nukhba commander and found no signs of abuse. Only later did the terrorist start bleeding from his behind. According to a submitted report by Prof. Alon Pikarsky, a senior doctor at Hadassah, the civilian hospital this terrorist was later admitted into, the harm to the terrorist's behind is most likely self-inflicted. Based on accounts from reporters, the overall medical and forensic testimonies submitted cannot confirm nor refute the claims of the Nukhba terrorist.

So when it comes to the case itself, I can't say much. The accusations are serious, the question marks are serious, and I don't have the professional tools to figure out where the truth lies. There will be a trial, more qualified people than me will decide.

Obviously, as an Israeli, I hope the accusations are false. Not because I think there is ANY society out there which is perfect, and in which no crimes ever take place, especially where extreme circumstances are involved, but because I think it's natural to hope for the best for one's people.

Where it comes to the people who tried to stop the arrest of the suspected soldiers, I believe they're in the wrong for multiple reasons: for the sake of justice, for the state of the Israeli justice system, and even for the sake of the soldiers, if it turns out they're innocent. At the same time, while I am NOT okay with the arrests being stopped, I can understand the sentiment. In Israel, especially post Oct 7, soldiers are our most immediate heroes. They risk themselves, they save countless lives, (even the ones "only" guarding terrorists know they could be killed doing this, and they're saving people by keeping the terrorists locked up), they're dealt shitty hands sometimes (like having to guard Nukhba terrorists when they're not even trained for it), and they do all this for us, as a collective, men and women, adults and kids, Jews and Arabs. We ALL owe them, every Israeli. So the sentiment is that there is something difficult to process about a situation where the word of a massacre-committing terrorist commander is believed over that of people who are perceived as heroes. It makes a protective side of people come out, even people who at the end accept that the justice system must do its thing.

And when it comes to the justice system, I think it matters SO MUCH that it will do its thing. No army can prevent every single one of its soldiers, as individuals, from committing crimes. But there are armies that, as a system, commit crimes. The justice system that prosecutes individual crimes is a part of the difference.

Still, even if the accusations are true, even while I'm happy they're investigated, I went into the details of the case, because I do believe that even at worst, there are extenuating circumstances. Those don't turn a wrong act into a right one, but they acknowledge that, under extreme circumstances, and without the right tools, many normative people without criminal intent might end up doing the wrong thing. The psychological burden of guarding extremist terrorists who have traumatized an entire society, including their guards, in close quarters and without the right training, it could be one that would make a lot of regular people crack. I'm glad I've never been tested like that. I'd like to believe I wouldn't have done the wrong thing, but who knows. We're all human, we all have our triggers. Especially in the face of complete evil that harmed our loved ones or threatens to. I feel lucky that I was never put in an extreme situation, like those soldiers, I hope they did the right thing, but I find it hard to morally judge them if they didn't, even where I recognize that if they did what they're accused of, they should be legally judged.

IDK if this helped, but I hope it at least reflects the fact that for quite a few Israelis ('coz I can't speak or all of us, but I think this probably represents a fair number of people), it is complicated, and not a clear-cut case of black and white, good vs evil...

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

[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.

[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.

[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

[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.

.

[batboyblog]

Have you ever heard of the phrase "Every Zionist accusation is a confession” because that story about eviiiiil Palestinian putting an innocent Israeli baby in an oven, just like the story about eviiiiiil Islamic jihadist Palestinians beheading 40 Israeli babies, is a fake propaganda stories with absolutely no real proof beside Zionists saying its true, but you know what is a real story? Israeli soldiers ordering Hussein al-Shareed to throw his own son in a burning oven then throwing that baby in the oven themselves after his father refused to do it closely followed by throwing Hussein behind his son.

And this doesn't of course take into account how a huge portion of the 4000 Palestinian children Israel killed in "self-defense" this month were babies or the other babies that they killed in prior years, but why would a fascist scum like you bother showing sympathy to thousands of systematically murdered Palestinian babies when you can save all that energy toward a fake proof-less story about one dead Israeli baby?

Ps: I know you will not actually answer this and would instead make a post about "omg anti-semites in my inbox are wishing death on me simply because I'm Jewish AGAIN! :/ " but Idc I just wanted to remind scum like you that literally no one is falling for your old Zionist tactic of victimizing yourself and demonizing Palestinians (at least normal people, I'm sure fellow White Supremacists would be with you)

And good morning to you too. This is a taste of the delightful antisemitism clogging up my inbox

any ways this is pretty classic of how holocaust denial works, ie "It didn't happen! but you totally deserved it!"

of course there's lots of proof of what Hamas did on October 7th, they filmed a lot of it, if any one wants to traumatize themselves they can hear it all in the survivor's own words here

but the real reason I want to publish this is when you google the name "Hussein al-Shareed" you know what you find? nothing. After assuring google that no I didn't mean Hussein bin Ali, King of Hejaz died 1931, the closest match to "Hussein al-Shareed" was from Linkedin Pakistan. I've even put in a good faith effort to google the story without the name, and couldn't find anything that matched. Not a crappy story from some troll farm, not a tweet by someone who pays for twitter, nothing, nothing at all. So this person came into my inbox, made up a story, made up a name, all to prove "the evil dirty Jews Zionists lie!" truly every accusation is a confession my friend.

Am Yisrael Chai.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[matan4il]

Update post:

Today is the 180th day of the war. Almost 6 months since the Hamas massacre started this war. And still, when I came across a video clip of TV announcers broadcasting on Oct 7, 2023 and I heard the words, "hundreds of Israelis have been killed" (even as I know that the number was actually greater than that, something that took time to confirm back in October), it still felt like it just happened, like it's still hard to believe it's real, and not a nightmare that we might wake up from any moment now.

A combined terrorist attack (vehicular and then stabbing) took place over night. A 26 years old Arab man drove his car into 4 policemen, injuring them, one initially was in a serious condition. The terrorist then drove on, stopped by another group of police personnel, where he got out of the car and tried stabbing them. He was neutralized.

Obviously, everyone in Israel has heard about the aid workers killed in Gaza. IDK yet how it happened, what the details are, we're all waiting to hear, just like other fair-minded people are (I'm not talking about the anti-Israel crowd, who have made up their minds before the incident even happened, they come pre-programmed with the belief that everything wrong is both Israel's fault and intentional). For now, it looks like a huge, tragic mistake, based on misidentification in the middle of the night (such mistakes sadly happen. The accidental death of 3 Israeli hostages in broad daylight was an example that it does, and other "friendly fire" incidents that have happened to Israeli soldiers are another. That's war, there's tragically no army with zero mistakes on its record). I am SO sorry for the innocent people killed, and their loved ones. I feel for them, for their pain and loss.

That said, how do I know it wasn't intentional? For one thing, because World Central Kitchen is actually one of the few humanitarian aid organizations that tried to help both Palestinians and Israelis. Which is one reason Israel very much wanted WCK to be a major factor in aiding people in Gaza in the long run, not just during the war, and the last thing it would want, is for these workers to be hurt, and for this organization to stop working there. The other thing is that we know an incident like this might provide enough international pressure to force Israel to stop the war, while our hostages are still held in the hands of brutal rapist terrorists, and while Hamas still exists, and threatens more massacres like the one we saw on Oct 7. What logical country would sacrifice the safety of its 9.8 million citizens (and the 8.4 million non-citizens it sees itself as responsible for, too) just in order to kill 7 random people, who were perceived as helping it, and who aren't even a part of the group that supposedly this country is targeting? It's not a logical call to make. Anyone who thinks Israel did this intentionally, is treating the Jewish state as if it's a comic book evil villain. I wonder why. When a humanitarian aid airdrop accidentally killed at least 5 Palestinians, and at least 18 were killed during another, I don't remember that anyone was quick to say it was intentional without so much as an investigation, or that those responsible for it must be stopped, rather than that they must study what went wrong, and continue while taking precautions that it won't happen again.

In Belgium, a home for Holocaust survivors has been vandalized with supposedly pro-Palestinian graffiti, reading "Gaza free" and followed by a swastika. This is pure antisemitism, very thinly veiled.

Here's a reminder that if Hamas is allowed to continue existing, and ruling Gaza as a dictatorship, that's not just a threat to the lives of Israeli and Jews, it's also horrible news for Palestinians. IDF soldiers found in Gaza documents that reveal how Hamas had tortured and brutally executed one of its own commanders back in 2016, based on the accusation that he's gay. Anyone who claims to be pro-Palestinian, but is silent about the human rights abuses that Palestinian suffer at the hands of their own leadership, is not that at all, they're just exploiting the Palestinians to demonize Jews.

This is 22 years old Dor Almog (right) and his best friend, Amit.

Amit invited him to the Nova music festival, but he had to miss most of it due to an exam he had. Dor planned to study, and then join his friend at the end of the party, but he fell asleep, and was woken up by the sirens alerting everyone about the thousands of Hamas rockets fired at Israel at 6:30 in the morning. "That was the last time I saw Amit," Dor said about the moment his best friend left for the party. "We've been friends since the age of zero." Amit went to the party and was murdered by Hamas terrorists. Dor and the rest of Amit's friends decided to get his tattoo on their body, and that at some point they would travel to India, which was his dream that he didn't get to fulfil. Dor fought to be called for reserves duty in Gaza. He's the only soldier who survived the deadliest incident there, in which 21 Israeli young men were killed, the last operation his unit was supposed to be a part of, before being discharged. When the explosion took place, he was in a building that collapsed, he fell two floors, and the building crashed over him. "I smiled, because I thought I was about to die, and be with Amit again. But then I literally saw a light at the end of a tunnel, and started crawling there." He was kept in a coma for 5 days, to help his body cope, and only 2 days after he woke up, was he told the news about what happened to his friends in the unit. "That was the real blow." When asked about being a hero, he said, "I'll be that when I get back on my feet."

May Amit's memory be a blessing.

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