Beautiful piece, LJ. I especially appreciated the bit about how Jews are not a monolith. This conflating criticism of Israel/Likud conduct with antisemitism must end. It is beyond reason that we cannot have an adult conversation about this situation - which affects every single American - without being thrown in the proverbial gulag of discourse. Our leaders cannot have an honest conversation about this and if anything it’s gotten harder, not easier, to be frank about since 9/11. I don’t like where this is leading us.
As a proud, liberal, American Jew, I would add that a good chunk of the citizens of Israel (and sadly also the US) “are backwards and homophobic and sexist and authoritarian and generally unpleasant to be around.” Furthermore, those citizens are well represented in the current Israeli government.
I want Israel to respond to the Hamas attack strategically, not with blind rage. Hamas wants blind rage from Israel, because that will weaken Israel both internally and on the world stage.
Israel has been ethnic-cleansing Palestinians, using lethal force indiscriminately, & lying about both for 75 years. After Oslo was signed, Israel used less lethal force & (mostly) stopped stealing Palestinian land.
Bibi reversed that. Consciously. His central policy for 20+ years has been to turn Israel away from a 2-state solution. His own Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said openly what we all know is Bibi's policy: "On the international field, in the game of delegitimization - the Palestinian Authority is a burden and Hamas is an asset."
Delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority allows Bibi to point to Hamas as representing Palestinians. And since Hamas refuses to negotiate, that justifies Bibi's policy of refusing to negotiate... while stealing more Palestinian land.
As far as I can tell, after Hamas' massacre of Israeli civilians & hostage-taking, it would be political suicide for Biden not to continue arming Israel. But I wish Biden had limited himself to criticizing Hamas for their war crimes & not pre-endorsed Israel's retaliatory invasion. Netanyahu's disgrace & removal from office is the only good thing I can see likely coming from this war. Israelis blame Bibi for Israeli's intelligence/strategy failure that led to their horrific civilian losses. Biden hugging Bibi gives the murderous putz a little shelter.
Israel is going to either invade Gaza or at the very least, bomb anything they suspect of being a Hamas strongpoint. Hamas consciously chooses to co-locate their positions under/with civilian residences/businesses & mosques. Israel is going to kill 1000s of Palestinian civilians.
You may disagree that Biden needed to go on arming Israel to avoid a domestic political backlash. I won't reply. My instincts about American politics are shit. I could be wrong.
You may disagree that Hamas co-locates its military sites with Palestinian civilian sites, with an aim of ensuring civilian casualties. I'll engage on that.
You may feel Hamas can be negotiated with & that taking civilian hostages is 'negotiating'. I'll engage on that.
Thank you for this. I am an anti-zionist Jew, and you are correct. There are many of us who do not stand with Israel, and condemn what Israel has done to Palestinians for the last 75 years. It pisses me off to no end when Zionists try to claim that any criticism of Israel, or even any support of, or compassion for Palestinians is antisemitism. It is not.
I suspect the "reporter for Iraqi state TV" you remember was Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. He talked about the situation at the Baghdad Airport, contradicting reports that the airport was controlled by coalition forces:
My heart aches for all those who have died and who will die on both sides.
But let's at least mention one of the roots of the problem: Sovereign Immunity and the lack of enforced international law. Right now, international law is determined by treaty and not be representation (e.g., enacted by the UN General Assembly). If a country does not sign a treaty or decides it wants to back out of a treaty, they are no longer bound by the laws associated with that treaty. It's time to hold leaders of countries and of corporations accountable for the evil that they do, regardless of who or where they are.
I know this isn't top of mind right now with hospitals being bombed, but we need to change the whole structure of governance at a global level.
It's a very sad day when the statement "Palestinians are human" is somehow controversial or "supporting the terrorists," etc.
I'd hoped we were better than this. Nothing supported the idea that we were, and we clearly aren't
Thank you for a balanced (really), informative, cogent account. As usual, great journalism. Be well and keep it up.
Beautiful piece, LJ. I especially appreciated the bit about how Jews are not a monolith. This conflating criticism of Israel/Likud conduct with antisemitism must end. It is beyond reason that we cannot have an adult conversation about this situation - which affects every single American - without being thrown in the proverbial gulag of discourse. Our leaders cannot have an honest conversation about this and if anything it’s gotten harder, not easier, to be frank about since 9/11. I don’t like where this is leading us.
As a proud, liberal, American Jew, I would add that a good chunk of the citizens of Israel (and sadly also the US) “are backwards and homophobic and sexist and authoritarian and generally unpleasant to be around.” Furthermore, those citizens are well represented in the current Israeli government.
I want Israel to respond to the Hamas attack strategically, not with blind rage. Hamas wants blind rage from Israel, because that will weaken Israel both internally and on the world stage.
Israel has been ethnic-cleansing Palestinians, using lethal force indiscriminately, & lying about both for 75 years. After Oslo was signed, Israel used less lethal force & (mostly) stopped stealing Palestinian land.
Bibi reversed that. Consciously. His central policy for 20+ years has been to turn Israel away from a 2-state solution. His own Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said openly what we all know is Bibi's policy: "On the international field, in the game of delegitimization - the Palestinian Authority is a burden and Hamas is an asset."
Delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority allows Bibi to point to Hamas as representing Palestinians. And since Hamas refuses to negotiate, that justifies Bibi's policy of refusing to negotiate... while stealing more Palestinian land.
As far as I can tell, after Hamas' massacre of Israeli civilians & hostage-taking, it would be political suicide for Biden not to continue arming Israel. But I wish Biden had limited himself to criticizing Hamas for their war crimes & not pre-endorsed Israel's retaliatory invasion. Netanyahu's disgrace & removal from office is the only good thing I can see likely coming from this war. Israelis blame Bibi for Israeli's intelligence/strategy failure that led to their horrific civilian losses. Biden hugging Bibi gives the murderous putz a little shelter.
Israel is going to either invade Gaza or at the very least, bomb anything they suspect of being a Hamas strongpoint. Hamas consciously chooses to co-locate their positions under/with civilian residences/businesses & mosques. Israel is going to kill 1000s of Palestinian civilians.
You may disagree that Biden needed to go on arming Israel to avoid a domestic political backlash. I won't reply. My instincts about American politics are shit. I could be wrong.
You may disagree that Hamas co-locates its military sites with Palestinian civilian sites, with an aim of ensuring civilian casualties. I'll engage on that.
You may feel Hamas can be negotiated with & that taking civilian hostages is 'negotiating'. I'll engage on that.
Thank you for this. I am an anti-zionist Jew, and you are correct. There are many of us who do not stand with Israel, and condemn what Israel has done to Palestinians for the last 75 years. It pisses me off to no end when Zionists try to claim that any criticism of Israel, or even any support of, or compassion for Palestinians is antisemitism. It is not.
I suspect the "reporter for Iraqi state TV" you remember was Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahhaf. He talked about the situation at the Baghdad Airport, contradicting reports that the airport was controlled by coalition forces:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?176012-1/iraqi-information-minister-briefing
somewhere, i have a long-sleeved t-shirt with an image of al-Sahhaf and his quote, "There are no American infidels in Baghdad. Never!"
the man was quite the Orwellian quote machine:
https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/mohammed-saeed-al-sahaf-quotes
unlike his boss, al-Sahhaf survived the war and occupation, and as of 2008 was reported living in the UAE
My heart aches for all those who have died and who will die on both sides.
But let's at least mention one of the roots of the problem: Sovereign Immunity and the lack of enforced international law. Right now, international law is determined by treaty and not be representation (e.g., enacted by the UN General Assembly). If a country does not sign a treaty or decides it wants to back out of a treaty, they are no longer bound by the laws associated with that treaty. It's time to hold leaders of countries and of corporations accountable for the evil that they do, regardless of who or where they are.
I know this isn't top of mind right now with hospitals being bombed, but we need to change the whole structure of governance at a global level.