Various disjoint notes on the on-going disaster in Israel/Palestine.
On the problems of establishing a single secular state in Israel/Palestine
So on which day does this secular state observe the sabbath? No-one there, not the Jews, not the Muslims, wants a secular state. Nor will Jews give up Israel as a refuge, not after 1600 years of persecution. If there is to be peace, this has to be addressed. Here in the United States, the Christian holy days are legal holidays, and the Christian sabbath is kept. Do you think anyone could make the USA give up these practices?
Let us not preach what we do not practice.
To a person who, oh so politely, wants to see the ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Israel
Should European Jews have stayed where they were and died at the hands of the Nazis? When they tried to leave Europe, they were turned away. And that is what took Zionism from a fringe ideology to the hope of Judaism. It was not just the Nazis. For 1600 years, always the pogroms came. Ultimately, the jackboots marched. And that is why there is Zionism. I abhor Likud. I oppose Israel’s current conduct. But neither will I ignore centuries of antisemitism.
If you throw out all the history, if you throw out all the other things that led to the Zionist movement, if you ignore the Holocaust, you can get to the conclusion you have arrived at. But it’s a monstrous one. And the same of course applies to what Israel is now doing in Gaza and the horrifying politics that led up to it. The Jews of Europe who settled in Palestine were refugees, and desperate. They were returning to their ancient home when their adopted home was killing them, and the rest of the world turned them away. I wish the moderate factions had won out, I wish they had conducted themselves better, I still wish they would, but I ask no people to die by the millions.
This century is going to see many more refugees. I will not–I do not–ask that they die.
“You shall not wrong nor oppress a stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” – Exodus 22:21
Decolonization is hard. Peace is hard.
Peace.
On Palestinians as, also, indigenous to Palestine
The olive tree is a symbol of the Palestinian cause and a sign that the Palestinians have been there a long time – you only have an olive grove if your grandparents planted it.
On Netanyahu, Hamas, and Gaza
Netanyahu picked this fight, supported Hamas until this, and now is attacking Gaza. It may even be that, in Nixonian fashion, he deliberately ignored the warnings so as to cement his hold in power. “Egypt warned Israel of Hamas attack days earlier, senior US politician says” – The Guardian, Oct 12, 2023. "US intelligence warned of the potential for violence days before Hamas attack – CNN, Oct 13
The Likud-Hamas war and the Jews of the diaspora
Israeli conduct in Gaza is leading to an explosion of antisemitism in Europe and the United States and the Israeli government doesn’t care. “Netanyahu’s Israel Is About to Slam the Door on the Diaspora. The relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and liberal American Jewry has often been tense, but he never sought to sever ties. His coalition partners have other ideas, though, and he may be powerless to stop it.” – Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz
On the ties of House Speaker Mike Johnson to the Israeli far right
Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson described his 2020 visit to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount as ‘the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy’; his election is the most significant victory to date for evangelicals in D.C – Ben Samuels, Haaretz
On the problems of Zionism as a decolonial movement
The Indian independence movement was decolonization. The US civil rights movement was decolonization. Terrorism is not decolonization. What is left of the Zionist dream, now that Israel is committing genocide? Now that Israel has allied itself with Nazis, white supremacists, and Christian nationalists? How can Israel survive when its allies hate it, and all that it stands for? The disastrous conduct of Likud and its faction of Zionism ought to give pause to every decolonial movement.
1 comment:
Netanyahu's allies in USA are not the Jews but the Evangelical Zionists. He knows what they are but can use them to his benefit. He is also responsible for the rise in antisemitism as you say since most people do not separate Zionists from other Jews. Which is the fault of the ADL etc. which calls any criticism of Israel antisemitism.
Apparently Balfour was an Antisemite and supported the creation of a Jewish state as a way to get them out of Europe.
Palestinians have every right to the land they inhabited before they were driven out by Zionist terrorists. Israel as it now stands is a European colony imposed on the Native inhabitants. And they have become the very things they fled Europe to escape. Now what?
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