A friend called me this morning. He just walked out of a job at a Silicon Valley company and called his lawyer.
He was hauled into HR for putting a little 3" x 5" Israeli flag on his desk. "It upsets a coworker whose wife is Palestinian", HR said. (Fact check: His wife is from an elite French family who lived in Beruit.)
This is a company that put the Ukranian flag on everything before people could even figure out where Ukraine was on a map! This company still has on their website about their "continuing efforts to help the Ukraine." Do you think HR would entertain the request of an employee who had a "Russian wife?"
I won't name the company because there will most likely be a lawsuit. He has no intention of ever setting foot in this company's door again.
My wife's company hosted students thru a program which brings young women (students I believe) in and essentially 'mentors' them. Also in Silicon Valley. I'll name the company, it is Mozilla. The young woman was from Lebanon and in her presentation, she showed a map of where Lebanon was. Somehow, Israel didn't exist on her map.
Here's the problem. Someone had to review and help her with her presentation. Someone with knowledge had to say "this is acceptable, you can deny reality." One doesn't need to like reality or agree with it, but you aren't mentoring people if you allow them to live in a fictional world.
So not only did the mentors allow this, my wife (not Jewish, fwiw) noticed, no one who saw the presentation mentioned it during the presentation or Q&A. Not sure if anyone reported an issue with it after the fact, but yeah, it was disturbing. Not sure if anyone would dare to report it, because people can lose their career over this sort of thing. Just ask Tabia Lee over at nearby DeAnza College how that works.
Another friend had a speaker come to his company, VMWare, where they had a "Palestinian" "woman" speak on International Women's day. She showed a map of "Palestine". It included all of Modern Day Israel, including the Golan and the Sinai! And yes, this presentation was approved by VMWare management.
My friend has children living in Israel and he pointed out that he doesn't like seeing the nation where his children live wiped off the face of the earth. It fell on deaf ears.
He no longer works for VMWare. My small consulting company stopped using their products.
I used to work for a major company that makes Air Filters. They were Woke back in the 90's. I'd bring a book to read, at HR meetings. One day my boss asked me if I wanted a free day off with pay? I (of course) said Sure...Why? Because there's an HR meeting Tuesday and I'm tied of getting yelled at by my boss because of you, and don't want to lose you, so you've got Tuesday off.
A winner take all mindset. I hate the thought, but one year Israel is going to get in the winner take all business and that'll be the end of Palestinian hopes. It might happen now in Gaza. The folks in Gaza and Palestinians elsewhere who don't want to be on the end of 'winner take all' need to get their act together.
Still, gotta laugh a little bit -- they want parts of Syria and Egypt, too.
Thanks for posting! Sometimes I start losing hope facing the tidal wave of nonsense from th woke mob…even more importantly please tell your friend that there are millions of us out here who support him .
It seems like Hamas and Iran want to keep Gaza in a perpetual state of victimhood. They could use the money spent on bombs/war to make Gaza better - but won't out of hate for Israel.
Hamas butchered innocent Israelis, and now they themselves will be annihilated by the IDF. Hamas are not only terrorists, they are stupid. They have let their hatred for Jews get in the way of what is obvious to everyone except themselves, that they are handmaidens to Iran.
victimhood is their sanctuary. victimhood is what gives the evil cowards power, because the liberal west is obsessed with its past victimizing. or something. many of the Palestinian foot soldiers are probably mentally mutilated by their own leadership in addition to whatever life trauma they've had, and are suffering horribly. i do not say this to excuse their actions.
i suspect the western powers love "victims" more than they hate Israel
My child's elite boarding school refuses to issue a statement condemning the terrorist attack exacted by Hamas. He has met with the administrators and asked for one, but they say the Chaplain's offer of support is sufficient. It is not. The school immediately came out against multiple other incidents including the terrible murder of Asians at a Georgia spa, the murder of George Floyd and even changed their instagram page to support BLM. Yet the slaughter of Jews merits no such communications. This is what anti-semitism looks like in 2023.
I’m absolutely stunned by this firsthand account of this. I realize that there are extreme right wing nuts who harbor antisemitic views but they are a small few and people rightfully despise them. For whatever reason these leftist antisemites are too often allowed to be part of polite society. We should shun them as well and drive this dastardly ideology to the garbage where it belongs.
I'm entirely with Bari. To extend her point, Ayatolla and company regularly announce that they support depravity and view western values as evil. First Obama, now Biden, pursue agreements, provide billions, and want us to share their delusion that Iran can be "managed." It reminds me of the fantacists who praised Lenin (and subsequently Stalin) from their revolution onwards, Hitler in the 30s, Mao from the 40s onward, and now Iran. I find it difficult to grasp how high IQs, extensive education, and plain, unequivocal facts can yield such stupidity.
Bari, Thank you so very much for providing the leading honest coverage of this horrific terrorist attack. I am so very sorry for your family and loved ones. This is soul crushing. We STAND WITH ISRAEL FOREVER
As a center right Catholic man of fifty I want to express my deep sympathy for the people of Israel and for Jewish people across the globe. The most recent attacks are beyond war, purely evil and no decent person should look at them with anything but anger towards the perpetrators and sympathy for the victims. I can also imagine seeing the rhetoric of people who in some cases being people who you thought you knew express such callous sentiments. It doesn’t mean that I agree with everything that Israel (or anyone) does but I can see the clear difference between the principals involved. May God help push his peoples to the light and to help our brothers and sisters deal with the enormous suffering.
Bari, you are the sole reason we subscribe to FP. The courage you show leaving NYT and calling out people is what this country craves: Courage and Leadership, not complacency and obfuscation. You have a platform us cowboys from Wyoming do not possess. Fuckin’ use it and call out these coastal and DC elites.
That was definitely one of events that really made me follow her more than casually as well. I remain quite impressed with Bari and her lovely wife as well. We have some differences of course but I suspect that it would be a pleasant exchange of ideas and finding much common ground should I ever meet them by chance. We really need to encourage thinking like this IMO, too much vitriol and portraying the other as Satan at present.
Years ago I heard Bari on a podcast (I think it was the Fifth Column but I've skimmed and cant find it) or possibly an interview with someone else. She spoke at length, it sounded like a monologue, something she had likely written: about the need for the centre to hold, that when it doesn't anti-Semitism is the first thing to rear its head. That the return of Anti Semitism is a clear indication the centre has caved. Does anyone remember this and where I can find it?
The depravity that led to the Holocaust, as well as the genocide in Rwanda and countless other examples of people butchering people because they belong to a different tribe, is as formidable as ever.
The world knows, Evan. It's just that, like history, the world looks the other way. I think that's Bari's point (fear).
Let's go back in the time machine.....
Only about 1/3 of Germans were official members of the Nazi party. For many, membership was necessary to keep their job. The fact is, Germans allowed the Nazi party to take power although the Party never won a plurality of votes in a national election. In November 1932, the last free and fair all-German election before the Nazi seized power, the Nazi Party (NSDAP) actually lost 4% of votes (33% received) and 34 seats in parliament. Even in the March 1933 elections, after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the Nazi Party ‘only’ garnered 43% of the vote. And that’s with thousands of SS troops monitoring and intimidating voters across the country and the Party controlling the vote results.
Many writers of the time and even historians since have apologized for the German people, suggesting that Germans were opposed to the death camps or they simply ‘didn’t know what was happening at the camps.’ But history has shown otherwise, as German’s turned their heads and elected to ignore the atrocities.
That brings us to today. As Peter Savodnik reminds, Palestinians 'elected' the terrorist group Hamas to rule them. And much like the streets of Berlin prior to WWII, message blogs and streets today are filled with a minority of protestors, to include a few progressive members of congress*, who continue to ‘sink below’ the bloodshed in a rush to blame Jews and the Jewish state of Israel for the crimes of Palestinian terrorist groups over the weekend. Even across many of the focused financial sources where I spend my time, the heavy hate within comment sections is palpable.
As Bari Weiss writes, “the last few days have been extremely clarifying.” History repeats. Of course, the positives of history repeating would be fine. But what is it about humans that allows the dark, hateful, and inhuman negatives of history to always find their way into our soul?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* I keep waiting for Bari, someone, to write an in-depth article that explains to me why(!) Jews continue to support Democrats when, individually and as a party, they have done nothing but stand in the way of a Jewish state. Most recently, it took Trump to finally move the embassy. Today's Democratic party harbors the Jewish hate spewed from groups like The Squad. I'm going to guess that 95% (prove me wrong) of the academics, the media Tweeters, etc. referenced in today's articles would identify as 'progressive' and Democrat. Change the writing on the signs and it looks like a BLM protest. Still waiting.
Yet the constant cry is that Trump is an anti-Semite. Whom was it the Jews rallied behind, was it the Trump or Biden? Which candidate has their back? The price we pay for living in a post-truth world.
One thing to remember about the Nazis and Germany was at the time many of the educated and rich class supported the Nazis. Except for one particular group.
Can someone please elaborate on why pro-Palestinians necessarily hate all Jews? I had Jewish pro-Palestinian friends in college; even a Jordanian classmate dating a Jewish classmate. When I read this piece exposing underlying hatred of Jews I am confused—to me this feels like a rapid escalation towards polarization with loss of nuance for the other side, who in my understanding are objecting to alleged abuse of power on behalf of Israel and occupation. Does this mean these people hate all Jewish people? Does all of this necessarily equate to anti-semitism? Can the Israeli state not be criticized?
*Let me also state clearly that I am not very well-versed in the history of Israel, of the Palestinians, of the sociopolitical tensions in the Middle East, nor am I Jewish. I feel so viscerally, so deeply to the pain and trauma on both sides and am horrified by the atrocities being committed by Hamas against Israel, the influence of Iran, and feel so deeply for the simple right to exist and the plight of Jewish people to establish home and safety.
Welcoming your thoughts and perspectives, please help me better grasp what is being said here. Thank you.
I think it’s okay to disagree with the Israeli government on this or that, including how they’ve handled the Gaza and West Bank. I think it’s okay to be very angry with them, if that’s how you feel. But it should be impossible for anyone to justify celebrating the barbaric raping & killing of innocent civilians. An alarmingly large number of people have found a way to do that in their heads. That’s clearly antisemitic hate and a harbinger of what other hateful violence those people are capable of.
I was having a debate on this with someone who couldn’t make the distinction.. I said at times dying as unfortunate collateral damage especially given the propensity to be used as human shields. But what has happened by Hamas of intentionally slaughtering civilians including babies. Beheading infants, raping and torturing women is not in the same zip code as being a victim of being used as a human shield. He disagreed. I sleep less well at night knowing he’s not alone.
This I agree with fully. Those that supported the attack on those poor kids at the music festival are lost as decent humans. Justifying that is disgusting. And I support Palestinian rights in general.
There are only 2 things in play here. Jew hatred and ignorance. Jews lived in Palestine before it was called Palestine, and before Muslim Arabs invaded and occupied it. There is no abuse of power by Israel and no Jewish occupation in or near Gaza. Those are both lies.
They don't. The reality is many pro-palestinian people ALSO support Israel and it's right to exist. In Toronto - there are surprisingly large numbers of Muslims that support Israel's right to exist and want normalized relations with neighboring countries (heck - even Saudi Arabia is headed that way). The reduced numbers at the recent Palestinian marches reflects that (those disgusted by Hamas simply didn't come out to march). But these more moderate people don't really excite anyone - and people pretend they don't exist. They do.
Hating the Jew has been ingrained in their culture for 15 centuries, Margaret.
If your family and friends and neighborhood and city are criminal in culture, the odds of you being a law-abiding citizen are nil. More than likely, you will assume the culture and mores of your society.
Yes, Jews are a target for their rage and hate, but the chant also includes death to America. As an American, you are considered a colonizer and a member of an oppressive regime. It is cliche, but the lines of “first they came for….” needs to be recalled. This is not a Jewish or Israel problem, this is a problem for Americans, Europeans Australians, etc.
The it is “their culture” explanation does not fit many of the people in SJP organizations around this country’s university. Many are people with privileges, advantages, and progressive ideas who did not experience oppression and deprivation but are opting for a twisted hate that supports any means to achieve their goal du jour.
You are correct that this is a belief of hate of many from its inception. The rush to hate is shocking, but is it a the next emotional step for “victims”? Victim being an identity of many in a time of micro aggression, trigger warnings, etc.
Yes! Victimhood forms very strong bonds and a victim can use their or another “suffering” as an excuse and explanation for the most horrible behavior. Never thought of this attitude as sociological but your description of it is correct.
One of the "clarifying" aspects here is that there is a total silence on the part of the Palestinian community to disavow this carnage. Are they are saying, "Well, even if they are monsters, they are our monsters"?
There is zero need for Hamas to be the face of the Palestinian cause - they have many rival groups within the Palestinians, they have made Gaza a hellhole by siphoning all their aid money into militarization, so why get behind them? It should be possible for "Pro-Palestinian" groups to denounce this horror and still maintain their political stances.
(And if anyone maintains that Hamas have any moral ground at all, why didn't they simply take the 30 soldiers they found sleeping hostage, back into Gaza and demanded whatever they thought they were demanding. Would have been a real coup for them, and no one would have said boo from the international community, because they could have called them legitimate targets [not really true - the soldiers are posted there in a defensive capacity, not to aggress upon them, but still], but they instead murdered them in their sleep, mutilated their bodies, filmed the fun, and then continued their rampage. So - yeah - Hamas.)
This is clarifying because, underneath it all, it's just "From the River to the Sea".
I’ve never understood the Western World’s silence on the Palestinian community’s silence on terror attacks committed by their compatriots. As for currently, are they cynically hedging their bets in case Hamas ultimately prevails? Which is the ruse - that they don’t approve of Hamas’s atrocities, or that they do?
A friend called me this morning. He just walked out of a job at a Silicon Valley company and called his lawyer.
He was hauled into HR for putting a little 3" x 5" Israeli flag on his desk. "It upsets a coworker whose wife is Palestinian", HR said. (Fact check: His wife is from an elite French family who lived in Beruit.)
This is a company that put the Ukranian flag on everything before people could even figure out where Ukraine was on a map! This company still has on their website about their "continuing efforts to help the Ukraine." Do you think HR would entertain the request of an employee who had a "Russian wife?"
I won't name the company because there will most likely be a lawsuit. He has no intention of ever setting foot in this company's door again.
My wife's company hosted students thru a program which brings young women (students I believe) in and essentially 'mentors' them. Also in Silicon Valley. I'll name the company, it is Mozilla. The young woman was from Lebanon and in her presentation, she showed a map of where Lebanon was. Somehow, Israel didn't exist on her map.
Here's the problem. Someone had to review and help her with her presentation. Someone with knowledge had to say "this is acceptable, you can deny reality." One doesn't need to like reality or agree with it, but you aren't mentoring people if you allow them to live in a fictional world.
So not only did the mentors allow this, my wife (not Jewish, fwiw) noticed, no one who saw the presentation mentioned it during the presentation or Q&A. Not sure if anyone reported an issue with it after the fact, but yeah, it was disturbing. Not sure if anyone would dare to report it, because people can lose their career over this sort of thing. Just ask Tabia Lee over at nearby DeAnza College how that works.
Another friend had a speaker come to his company, VMWare, where they had a "Palestinian" "woman" speak on International Women's day. She showed a map of "Palestine". It included all of Modern Day Israel, including the Golan and the Sinai! And yes, this presentation was approved by VMWare management.
My friend has children living in Israel and he pointed out that he doesn't like seeing the nation where his children live wiped off the face of the earth. It fell on deaf ears.
He no longer works for VMWare. My small consulting company stopped using their products.
I used to work for a major company that makes Air Filters. They were Woke back in the 90's. I'd bring a book to read, at HR meetings. One day my boss asked me if I wanted a free day off with pay? I (of course) said Sure...Why? Because there's an HR meeting Tuesday and I'm tied of getting yelled at by my boss because of you, and don't want to lose you, so you've got Tuesday off.
A winner take all mindset. I hate the thought, but one year Israel is going to get in the winner take all business and that'll be the end of Palestinian hopes. It might happen now in Gaza. The folks in Gaza and Palestinians elsewhere who don't want to be on the end of 'winner take all' need to get their act together.
Still, gotta laugh a little bit -- they want parts of Syria and Egypt, too.
and oh yes, fuck VMWare
Its The Oldest Hate. 3500+ years.
Thanks for posting! Sometimes I start losing hope facing the tidal wave of nonsense from th woke mob…even more importantly please tell your friend that there are millions of us out here who support him .
It seems like Hamas and Iran want to keep Gaza in a perpetual state of victimhood. They could use the money spent on bombs/war to make Gaza better - but won't out of hate for Israel.
Iran wants to fight Israel down to the last Palestinian.
Hamas butchered innocent Israelis, and now they themselves will be annihilated by the IDF. Hamas are not only terrorists, they are stupid. They have let their hatred for Jews get in the way of what is obvious to everyone except themselves, that they are handmaidens to Iran.
victimhood is their sanctuary. victimhood is what gives the evil cowards power, because the liberal west is obsessed with its past victimizing. or something. many of the Palestinian foot soldiers are probably mentally mutilated by their own leadership in addition to whatever life trauma they've had, and are suffering horribly. i do not say this to excuse their actions.
i suspect the western powers love "victims" more than they hate Israel
You may be right!
My child's elite boarding school refuses to issue a statement condemning the terrorist attack exacted by Hamas. He has met with the administrators and asked for one, but they say the Chaplain's offer of support is sufficient. It is not. The school immediately came out against multiple other incidents including the terrible murder of Asians at a Georgia spa, the murder of George Floyd and even changed their instagram page to support BLM. Yet the slaughter of Jews merits no such communications. This is what anti-semitism looks like in 2023.
I’m absolutely stunned by this firsthand account of this. I realize that there are extreme right wing nuts who harbor antisemitic views but they are a small few and people rightfully despise them. For whatever reason these leftist antisemites are too often allowed to be part of polite society. We should shun them as well and drive this dastardly ideology to the garbage where it belongs.
Perhaps you should get your child out of that school.
Leave the school - find one that fits your values
I'm entirely with Bari. To extend her point, Ayatolla and company regularly announce that they support depravity and view western values as evil. First Obama, now Biden, pursue agreements, provide billions, and want us to share their delusion that Iran can be "managed." It reminds me of the fantacists who praised Lenin (and subsequently Stalin) from their revolution onwards, Hitler in the 30s, Mao from the 40s onward, and now Iran. I find it difficult to grasp how high IQs, extensive education, and plain, unequivocal facts can yield such stupidity.
Bari, Thank you so very much for providing the leading honest coverage of this horrific terrorist attack. I am so very sorry for your family and loved ones. This is soul crushing. We STAND WITH ISRAEL FOREVER
As a center right Catholic man of fifty I want to express my deep sympathy for the people of Israel and for Jewish people across the globe. The most recent attacks are beyond war, purely evil and no decent person should look at them with anything but anger towards the perpetrators and sympathy for the victims. I can also imagine seeing the rhetoric of people who in some cases being people who you thought you knew express such callous sentiments. It doesn’t mean that I agree with everything that Israel (or anyone) does but I can see the clear difference between the principals involved. May God help push his peoples to the light and to help our brothers and sisters deal with the enormous suffering.
This article is a perfect example of liberal folly.
****************************************
"Let's open our doors and let in 'those people' who say they want to kill 'my people.' They don't mean it, it's just a political stunt."
Next, 'my people' are slaughtered by 'those people.'
Sure enough, the liberal is outraged and wants them thrown out.
And finally, and inevitably, the liberal blames everybody else for their own folly.
****************************************
This comes from precisely the same place as:
"Illegal immigrants are welcome. We are a sanctuary city."
Next, illegal immigrants flood the city.
Sure enough, the liberal is outraged and wants them thrown out.
And finally, and inevitably, the liberal blames everybody else for their own folly.
I am a bit confused. Are you saying that Bari holds “liberal” views?
what is confusing about it?
I see her as center left on most issues but more conservative views on issues involving Israel and the excesses of the progressives.
Bari, you are the sole reason we subscribe to FP. The courage you show leaving NYT and calling out people is what this country craves: Courage and Leadership, not complacency and obfuscation. You have a platform us cowboys from Wyoming do not possess. Fuckin’ use it and call out these coastal and DC elites.
That was definitely one of events that really made me follow her more than casually as well. I remain quite impressed with Bari and her lovely wife as well. We have some differences of course but I suspect that it would be a pleasant exchange of ideas and finding much common ground should I ever meet them by chance. We really need to encourage thinking like this IMO, too much vitriol and portraying the other as Satan at present.
Bari, you are doing tremendous work. Keep doing it.
Pretty soon, there will be food shortages all over Gaza.
Let them eat rockets.
Years ago I heard Bari on a podcast (I think it was the Fifth Column but I've skimmed and cant find it) or possibly an interview with someone else. She spoke at length, it sounded like a monologue, something she had likely written: about the need for the centre to hold, that when it doesn't anti-Semitism is the first thing to rear its head. That the return of Anti Semitism is a clear indication the centre has caved. Does anyone remember this and where I can find it?
The depravity that led to the Holocaust, as well as the genocide in Rwanda and countless other examples of people butchering people because they belong to a different tribe, is as formidable as ever.
Thank you for this Bari. This is what "by any means necessary" means.
https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/hamas-terrorists-murdered-40-babies-including-beheadings-says-report-2fdcCmtBjFvAcCCf5MDwKU
The world needs to know.
The world knows, Evan. It's just that, like history, the world looks the other way. I think that's Bari's point (fear).
Let's go back in the time machine.....
Only about 1/3 of Germans were official members of the Nazi party. For many, membership was necessary to keep their job. The fact is, Germans allowed the Nazi party to take power although the Party never won a plurality of votes in a national election. In November 1932, the last free and fair all-German election before the Nazi seized power, the Nazi Party (NSDAP) actually lost 4% of votes (33% received) and 34 seats in parliament. Even in the March 1933 elections, after Hitler was appointed Chancellor, the Nazi Party ‘only’ garnered 43% of the vote. And that’s with thousands of SS troops monitoring and intimidating voters across the country and the Party controlling the vote results.
Many writers of the time and even historians since have apologized for the German people, suggesting that Germans were opposed to the death camps or they simply ‘didn’t know what was happening at the camps.’ But history has shown otherwise, as German’s turned their heads and elected to ignore the atrocities.
That brings us to today. As Peter Savodnik reminds, Palestinians 'elected' the terrorist group Hamas to rule them. And much like the streets of Berlin prior to WWII, message blogs and streets today are filled with a minority of protestors, to include a few progressive members of congress*, who continue to ‘sink below’ the bloodshed in a rush to blame Jews and the Jewish state of Israel for the crimes of Palestinian terrorist groups over the weekend. Even across many of the focused financial sources where I spend my time, the heavy hate within comment sections is palpable.
As Bari Weiss writes, “the last few days have been extremely clarifying.” History repeats. Of course, the positives of history repeating would be fine. But what is it about humans that allows the dark, hateful, and inhuman negatives of history to always find their way into our soul?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* I keep waiting for Bari, someone, to write an in-depth article that explains to me why(!) Jews continue to support Democrats when, individually and as a party, they have done nothing but stand in the way of a Jewish state. Most recently, it took Trump to finally move the embassy. Today's Democratic party harbors the Jewish hate spewed from groups like The Squad. I'm going to guess that 95% (prove me wrong) of the academics, the media Tweeters, etc. referenced in today's articles would identify as 'progressive' and Democrat. Change the writing on the signs and it looks like a BLM protest. Still waiting.
Yet the constant cry is that Trump is an anti-Semite. Whom was it the Jews rallied behind, was it the Trump or Biden? Which candidate has their back? The price we pay for living in a post-truth world.
One thing to remember about the Nazis and Germany was at the time many of the educated and rich class supported the Nazis. Except for one particular group.
Just when you think it cannot get any worse. Hamas is evil. No buts...
Can someone please elaborate on why pro-Palestinians necessarily hate all Jews? I had Jewish pro-Palestinian friends in college; even a Jordanian classmate dating a Jewish classmate. When I read this piece exposing underlying hatred of Jews I am confused—to me this feels like a rapid escalation towards polarization with loss of nuance for the other side, who in my understanding are objecting to alleged abuse of power on behalf of Israel and occupation. Does this mean these people hate all Jewish people? Does all of this necessarily equate to anti-semitism? Can the Israeli state not be criticized?
*Let me also state clearly that I am not very well-versed in the history of Israel, of the Palestinians, of the sociopolitical tensions in the Middle East, nor am I Jewish. I feel so viscerally, so deeply to the pain and trauma on both sides and am horrified by the atrocities being committed by Hamas against Israel, the influence of Iran, and feel so deeply for the simple right to exist and the plight of Jewish people to establish home and safety.
Welcoming your thoughts and perspectives, please help me better grasp what is being said here. Thank you.
I think it’s okay to disagree with the Israeli government on this or that, including how they’ve handled the Gaza and West Bank. I think it’s okay to be very angry with them, if that’s how you feel. But it should be impossible for anyone to justify celebrating the barbaric raping & killing of innocent civilians. An alarmingly large number of people have found a way to do that in their heads. That’s clearly antisemitic hate and a harbinger of what other hateful violence those people are capable of.
I was having a debate on this with someone who couldn’t make the distinction.. I said at times dying as unfortunate collateral damage especially given the propensity to be used as human shields. But what has happened by Hamas of intentionally slaughtering civilians including babies. Beheading infants, raping and torturing women is not in the same zip code as being a victim of being used as a human shield. He disagreed. I sleep less well at night knowing he’s not alone.
This I agree with fully. Those that supported the attack on those poor kids at the music festival are lost as decent humans. Justifying that is disgusting. And I support Palestinian rights in general.
There are only 2 things in play here. Jew hatred and ignorance. Jews lived in Palestine before it was called Palestine, and before Muslim Arabs invaded and occupied it. There is no abuse of power by Israel and no Jewish occupation in or near Gaza. Those are both lies.
They don't. The reality is many pro-palestinian people ALSO support Israel and it's right to exist. In Toronto - there are surprisingly large numbers of Muslims that support Israel's right to exist and want normalized relations with neighboring countries (heck - even Saudi Arabia is headed that way). The reduced numbers at the recent Palestinian marches reflects that (those disgusted by Hamas simply didn't come out to march). But these more moderate people don't really excite anyone - and people pretend they don't exist. They do.
Hating the Jew has been ingrained in their culture for 15 centuries, Margaret.
If your family and friends and neighborhood and city are criminal in culture, the odds of you being a law-abiding citizen are nil. More than likely, you will assume the culture and mores of your society.
Yes, Jews are a target for their rage and hate, but the chant also includes death to America. As an American, you are considered a colonizer and a member of an oppressive regime. It is cliche, but the lines of “first they came for….” needs to be recalled. This is not a Jewish or Israel problem, this is a problem for Americans, Europeans Australians, etc.
The it is “their culture” explanation does not fit many of the people in SJP organizations around this country’s university. Many are people with privileges, advantages, and progressive ideas who did not experience oppression and deprivation but are opting for a twisted hate that supports any means to achieve their goal du jour.
Hating the Christian has been ingrained in their culture for 15 centuries, Joanne.
It's barely a matter of degree.
As far as universities? Look a few comments higher for my view on that.
You are correct that this is a belief of hate of many from its inception. The rush to hate is shocking, but is it a the next emotional step for “victims”? Victim being an identity of many in a time of micro aggression, trigger warnings, etc.
in my view, 'victimhood' is a form of mental illness.
it is both psychological and sociological
Yes! Victimhood forms very strong bonds and a victim can use their or another “suffering” as an excuse and explanation for the most horrible behavior. Never thought of this attitude as sociological but your description of it is correct.
One of the "clarifying" aspects here is that there is a total silence on the part of the Palestinian community to disavow this carnage. Are they are saying, "Well, even if they are monsters, they are our monsters"?
There is zero need for Hamas to be the face of the Palestinian cause - they have many rival groups within the Palestinians, they have made Gaza a hellhole by siphoning all their aid money into militarization, so why get behind them? It should be possible for "Pro-Palestinian" groups to denounce this horror and still maintain their political stances.
(And if anyone maintains that Hamas have any moral ground at all, why didn't they simply take the 30 soldiers they found sleeping hostage, back into Gaza and demanded whatever they thought they were demanding. Would have been a real coup for them, and no one would have said boo from the international community, because they could have called them legitimate targets [not really true - the soldiers are posted there in a defensive capacity, not to aggress upon them, but still], but they instead murdered them in their sleep, mutilated their bodies, filmed the fun, and then continued their rampage. So - yeah - Hamas.)
This is clarifying because, underneath it all, it's just "From the River to the Sea".
I’ve never understood the Western World’s silence on the Palestinian community’s silence on terror attacks committed by their compatriots. As for currently, are they cynically hedging their bets in case Hamas ultimately prevails? Which is the ruse - that they don’t approve of Hamas’s atrocities, or that they do?
Bari Weiss always hits the nail on the head . She truly deserves my 5$/ month!
😉
"I learned to trust the threats of enemies before the promises of friends."
Elie Wiesel