#Isra Vision

[eleemosynecdoche]

getting a horrifying vision of the future where Palestinians are free, the right of return has allowed everyone driven out as refugees to come home if they so desire, and nothing stops anyone from walking freely from the river to the sea... but they neither expelled the entire Jewish population as colonizers nor rendered them permanent noncitizen residents. Awful. Horrific. Didn't they know that the only way to escape colonial existence is the very specific thing that Dessalines did in Haiti and has happened nowhere else since???

[notmuchtoconceal]

i wish for you whatever you wish for israelis

You're so sweet on me, bro. I also wish you a home and feelings of safety, belonging and a place in the world without the need to resort to an imperialist-backed genocide which wipes a city off the map to get it.

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

vetted fundraisers from today. please please continue to share and donate if it's within your means. today alone has been one of the most brutal and deadly since the beginning of the genocide. we can't let our focus wander now.

july 9th:

The AlBalawi family of 11, including many children (one is very sick with hepatitis; all are suffering from malnutrition) and two chronically ill members who urgently need treatment (€11,441/€50,000) - @elbalawi, @yasminalbalawiigaza, @bisanalbalawi, verified by @/90-ghost

Amina Abu Hashem, her husband, and their four young children, one a newborn and one needing treatment for a gland disorder ($19,271/$100,000) - @ameinababa, verified by @/ibtisams

Arwa Afana, her husband Naji Hamam, their newborn daughter (needs urgent treatment for oxygen deficiency and heart problems caused by white phosphorus), and Arwa's chronically ill mother (€2,020/€30,000) - @arwaafana, verified by @/90-ghost

Sick toddler Yousef (needs lifesaving treatment for a dangerous blood condition) and his parents (€2,265/€25,000) - @dima96yousef, verified by @/90-ghost

Helping autistic 5-year-old Omar Jad Al-Haq recover after evacuation, and evacuating the remainder of the Jad Al-Haq family (including a member currently paralyzed from a stroke) (kr4,754 SEK/kr200,000 SEK) - @doaa-jad, verified by @/90-ghost

Mai Balousha, her husband Raed (injured and chronically ill), their four children, and the childrens' grandmother (€40/€52,000) - @nourbader2019, verified by @/90-ghost

The Ayyad family of eight, four of whom are children ($22,681/$35,000) - @aymanayyad82, @raghadayyad81, @mayadayyad81, @ahmedharara, #144 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Tahani Shorbajee, her husband, their three children, and six other family members ($16,533/$50,000) - @tahanishorbaje2, verified by @/el-shab-hussein

Dina, her husband, and their three little children, one a newborn ($5,221 CAD/$20,000 CAD) - @dina179, verified by @/ibtisams

Safaa Abd, her husband, and their two little children (€4,630/€50,000) - @safaabed8, verified by @/90-ghost

The Al Azaiza family of six ($2,396 CAD/$48,000 CAD) - @isra-elazaiza, #236 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Muhammad Atallah (needs urgent surgery after being shot with an explosive bullet) and his family of 12, including children and a newborn (€1,356/€82,000) - @mohammed-atallah, verified by @/90-ghost

Mohammed Al Manasra, his wife, and their three little children (Mohammed needs treatment for chronic respiratory illness) (€18,429/€40,000) - @save-mohammad-family, #192 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Musab and his family (€155/€7,000) - @musababed, verified by @/90-ghost

Hanaa Jad Al-Haq, her husband Muhammad Hammad, and their little son Youssef (£1,249/£20,000) - @hanaajad123, verified by @/ibtisams

Mahmoud Al-Sharif, his wife (pregnant and urgently needs perinatal care), and their three children (Mahmoud also needs treatment to preserve his vision) ($524/$60,000) - @mahmoud-sharif, verified by @/90-ghost

Mohammed Alanqer, his wife Enas Majed, and their four children, one a newborn (€37,042/€38,000) - @mohammedalanqer, #174 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Helping Siraj Abudayeh, his wife, and their three young children rebuild their destroyed home ($4,711 CAD/$82,000 CAD) - @siraj2024, #219 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Munna Tashmali and her three children (this is the third time they've lost their house) (£1,766/£30,000) - @monashamali, verified by @/nabulsi

not yet vetted:

Reem, her husband, and their two young children (€1,955/€20,000) - @rem096

Eman Zaqout, her husband Mahmoud, and their two children (Eman is the recepient of a prestigious science fellowship and needs to travel abroad to participate) ($1,650 CAD/$40,000 CAD) - @emanzaqout

these families just want to live in safety. any contribution you can make, no matter its size, is one of hope for a brighter future

[nando161mando]

21 years ago, British journalist Tom Hurndall died after spending 9 months in a coma. Tom was carrying a Palestinian child out of range of Israeli army gunfire when he was shot in the head. We will never forget him, nor his vision of a free and independent Palestine.

[frecklenog]

i want you all to understand this.

insulin pens are very often used by diabetic children (or their parents, but they were very easy to use during the short time i was prescribed them when i was a child myself). they’re less cumbersome, produce less waste, and are far easier than pulling insulin from a vial with a single use syringe, as syringes are much more susceptible to air bubbles, which result in the diabetic not getting enough medication. i’m explaining this part because i know that some diabetic adults do also use them, and i’m sure that that’s true of diabetic adults in palestine with such scarce resources. when it’s life or death, you can’t really be picky.

the israeli occupation is now banning insulin pens from entering gaza.

lack of insulin results in diabetic ketoacidosis — essentially a very, very dangerous version of the effects of the keto diet. insulin is a key for the sugar from one’s food (both slow and fast acting, since all food has some carbohydrates, from nuts to potatoes to table sugar) to get from their bloodstream into their cells. without insulin, the body resorts to eating through its own fat stores rather than the sugar it cannot access and tries to flush the excess glucose that is in the blood through the urine. this results in weight loss, headaches, nausea, dehydration, blurred vision, abdominal pain, impaired mental faculties, and, if left untreated, will result in a coma, and eventually death within a matter of weeks. not “can.” it will kill you if not treated, and was largely considered a lethal diagnosis until insulin was discovered in the early 1900s and made readily available in 1922.

i’ve been in dka. admittedly, i was very young and have blocked much of it out. but i do remember that it fucking sucked. i couldn’t focus on anything, i was ravenous no matter how much i ate, and the room spinning to the point i felt like i was going to throw up became an increasingly regular occurrence. i was seven years old and wasting away like i was starved. i was dying. a few more days, and i likely would’ve gone into a coma and might not be here now.

to inflict that, willingly and knowingly, on innocent people, is nothing short of a crime against humanity, and violates the geneva conventions (item 2.a.ii. torture or inhumane treatment, including biological experiments and item 2.a.iii. willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health). not that the israeli occupation cares, of course, as south african prosecutors have already extensively detailed their crimes in the icj, and this one in particular has already been committed near-countless times.

this entire occupation is a genocide, and this is only one more nail in that coffin. but, as a diabetic — as a human being who has been in that state and was lucky enough to have the resources to live almost another fifteen years (with the anniversary of my own diagnosis about halfway through next month), i can’t find the words to express my disgust and rage anymore. maybe it’s selfish to be so deeply impacted by this particular blow. i don’t know. but these people have done nothing wrong but be disabled in gaza, and as someone with the same disability, i know that no one deserves this, even if they have committed a crime (which, again, these civilians, largely children, have not). i will not fucking stand for it.

we need a ceasefire. we need an end to the occupation. we need a free palestine. now.

here’s a masterpost of how you can help.

EDIT: here’s a post on how to help diabetics in gaza specifically

[heritageposts]

By Antony Loewenstein, author of The Palestine Laboratory (2023)

[...] The problem in Israel isn’t solely Netanyahu. He’s the symptom of a major larger societal shift. Replacing him with another carbon copy will change little for the millions of Palestinians who live under a brutal military occupation. One possible successor, Benny Gantz, has spent his career proudly promoting the destruction he’s caused in Gaza in previous wars. [...] Back in 2019, I wrote for the Jewish Forward outlet in the US that anti-Palestinian racism was ubiquitous in Israel, undeniably exploding since 7 October, and Netanyahu had simply been a reflection of contemporary Israel.   A 2016 poll found that close to half of Jewish citizens wouldn’t live in the same apartment blocks as Arabs. Fast forward to early 2024 and 68 percent of Israeli Jews opposed facilitating humanitarian aid to Gaza, according to an Israeli Democracy Institute study. This is at a time when Palestinians in Gaza are starving to death due to Israel’s deliberate policy of withholding lifesaving aid into the besieged territory. As far back as a 2012 poll, a majority of Israeli Jews opposed voting rights for Arabs if the Jewish state annexed the West Bank, and one-third of Israelis wanted Arabs in Israel to be denied the right to vote. In other words, apartheid was the Israeli vision for Palestine.

. . . continues on MEE (1 Apr, 2024)

[mayaoftheflowers]

I do get people calling peaceniks/leftists naive. I genuinely do. I know the history- bus bombings, plane hijackings, killings. I also know Israelis- the last thing I want is my friends in harm's way.

But I urge not to give in to cynicism. I know a better world is possible, like how I know G-d is real, immanent and transcendent.

I also believe that the Jewish tradition teaches that moral vision must transcend realpolitik- commanded to pursue justice, not what is easiest.

[sayruq]

Just days after US Army Major Harrison Mann resigned, the Biden administration has been hit with another major resignation, this time Lily Greenberg Call, special assistant to the Chief of Staff

An interior department staffer on Wednesday became the first Jewish political appointee to publicly resign in protest of US support for Israel’s war in Gaza.Lily Greenberg Call, a special assistant to the chief of staff in the interior department, accused Joe Biden of using Jews to justify US policy in the conflict. Call had worked for the presidential campaigns of both Biden and Kamala Harris, and was a longtime activist and advocate for Israel in Washington and elsewhere before joining the government. She is at least the fifth mid- or senior-level administration staffer to make public their resignation in protest of the Biden administration’s military and diplomatic support of the now seven-month Israeli war against Hamas. She is the second political appointee to do so, after an education department official of Palestinian heritage resigned in January.Her resignation letter described her excitement at joining an administration that she believed shared much of her vision for the country. “However, I can no longer in good conscience continue to represent this administration,” she wrote. In an interview with the Associated Press, Call pointed to comments by Biden, including at a White House Hanukkah event where he said “Were there no Israel, there wouldn’t be a Jew in the world who was safe” and at an event at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial last week in which he said the 7 October Hamas-led attacks that triggered the war were driven by an “ancient desire to wipe out the Jewish people”. “He is making Jews the face of the American war machine. And that is so deeply wrong,” she said, noting that ancestors of hers were killed by “state-sponsored violence”.

The resignation letter:

[ayin-me-yesh]

lrb I am really bothered by the endless questioning I see of Palestinians about their vision for Israelis in a decolonised Palestine

it always seems to come with the following unspoken undertone: "assure me that decolonisation won't be violent and that settlers won't lose their colonial property or else decolonisation isn't worthy of my support and shouldn't happen."

And the thing that really gets me is that they're coming from a belief that an imaginary future possibility of violence or loss of property towards settlers is 100% unacceptable, but the current, ongoing violence and dispossession of Indigenous people must innately BE acceptable because it is the option they will support if they are not assured that decolonisation will cater sufficiently to the settler.

I'm going to spell out our position as settlers in settler colonies: our current position is completely unjust. It was created and is maintained through unimaginable violence.

Decolonisation absolutely should mean settlers do not get to continue being benefactors of injustice. It does mean that the dispossessed should regain access to their land and regain authority over their resources. That does mean taking them back from the settler apparatus.

How violent that process is is entirely dependent on the settlers. Settlers can absolutely side with the colonised. They can support justice for Indigenous people. They can support Indigenous sovereignty movements.

Working class settlers can understand class warfare through the lens of colonialism and fight for shared freedom from the ruling class and justice for Indigenous people. Marginalised communities can see how their marginalisations revolve around colonial paradigms and fight alongside Indigenous peoples to dismantle them.

But if settlers choose to violently uphold a system of theft and murder against Indigenous communities, those communities have a right to resist. Including with violence.

Where settlers in Palestine fit into a free Palestine is up to them. And settlers in Aotearoa, in Australia, and in Turtle Island also need to make those choices.

But do understand that settler colonialism is always genocidal. Is always police states and police brutality. Is always war. Is always dehumanisation. Is always homelessness and statelessness and loss of autonomy. The status quo IS violence in the absolute most extreme. And Indigenous people have a right to fight back.

[zvaigzdelasas]

Israel’s security cabinet has approved a controversial proposal to facilitate Palestinian emigration from Gaza, a move critics warn could amount to ethnic cleansing.

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Sunday said the security cabinet approved the proposal by Defense Minister Israel Katz to organize “a voluntary transfer for Gaza residents who express interest in moving to third countries, in accordance with Israeli and international law, and following the vision of US President Donald Trump.”

The decision marks a remarkable endorsement of a plan once considered a far-right fantasy – and comes despite the prime minister’s earlier pledge not to permanently displace Gaza’s civilian population.

Critics have said that any mass displacement of Gazans in the midst of a devastating war would amount to ethnic cleansing, an act associated with war crimes and crimes against humanity under international law. Israeli officials have countered that emigration would be voluntary and in line with international legal standards.

But aid groups argue that Israel’s war has made life in Gaza nearly impossible. Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ top emergency relief official, has called the enclave “uninhabitable,” saying its people are “witnessing daily threats to their very existence.”[...]

The Palestinian Authority’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Varsen Aghabekian Shaheen told CNN’s Becky Anderson last month that Palestinians “are steadfast to stay in their land and will not move.”[...]

Smotrich said Sunday that the security cabinet also approved the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, noting that 13 areas in the West Bank would be split from existing settlements and would be recognized as independent settlements.

24 Mar 25

[sarcasticscribbles]

BOYCOTT EUROVISION FOR ISRAEL PARTICIPATION.

I am the Eurovision gay this time of year, I love this show. Not only is my country hosting 2024 but it's also in a city I love, but I can't watch as people sing about peace and love while Palestinians are getting killed by one of the participants.

I've complied a couple of petitions, open letters and information regarding Eurovision: Eurovision isn't the highest priority regarding Gaza, but this show is marketing & tourism for countries, Israel is using it to pink wash their politics

According to SVT, Swedish television network in charge of Eurovision 2024 in Sweden Malmö, Eurovision is apolitical, and therefore Israel qualify. They refer to any calls for boycott meaningless ( via )

SVT statement:

[ID: "SVT statement on the debate over Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest

Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest is generating debate and today a number of Swedish artists have called on the EBU to cancel Israel’s participation in the Eurovision Song Contest 2024. It is the EBU’s decision which public broadcasters may take part in the event, and as the host broadcaster, SVT follows the EBU’s decisions. The humanitarian suffering in this deeply complex conflict is devastating. Nobody can be left unmoved by the current situation in Gaza, or by the Hamas attack in Israel. We are also concerned about these developments. We understand and respect that groups of people wish to make their voices heard. As the host broadcaster, SVT has an ongoing dialogue with the EBU about the challenges of producing Europe’s largest TV-production in times of unrest. We are humbled by the task and are working to ensure the project can be carried out in the best way possible, with the vision that music unites." END ID]

Eurovision has always been political, and was created as a celebration of peace after WW2. Songs are statements, and EBU took action by banning Russia and Belarus for the invasion of Ukraine. It's a way to show sympathy and solidarity, which Gaza is in need of now.

Why Eurovision is so important to Israel is the opportunity of pink washing, and appearing liberal and LGBTQ-friendly, that the show encourages. This leads to great marketing and tourism for the country, alqueerian on twitter did a great thread about it:

[ID: Tweet from @ alqueerian on X formerly known as Twitter. Tweet: "A really quick thread on pinkwashing and why it’s wrong: pinkwashing is a term that was coined by LGBTQ Palestinians to specifically refer to the use of homophobia as a justification for israeli war crimes, ethnic cleansing, mass displacement, starvation etc." END ID]

Full thread

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Here are a couple of petitions, open letters and links to encourage the ban of Israel in Eurovision

And if all fail: we boycott

Here are two petitions for the ban of Israel: Petition 1

Petition 2

A list of emails and contact information for broadcasters regarding Israel participation: copy, paste and send. Document

It's created by verilybitchie on YouTube who also made a great call to action video I can recommend

[ID: Screenshot of verilybitchie youtube video "Genocide at the Eurovision Song Contest". The video is showing an article by Chris Lockeyer, news reposter, titled "Israel to compete at Eurovision despite boycott threats" The article says: "The European broadcast Union said its member organisations approved Israel's participation in the competition and it remains aligned with other competition organisations on its stance." The article is from December 19th, 2023. END ID]

And for Swedes, I think it's extra important for us to speak up; here's what we can do:

Open letter via Björk & Frihet, a charity in Skåne offer letters to sign but also have pdf version to print at home!

[ID: Photo from Björk & Frihet, a swedish charity offering open letters to sign to send to the government. "Stoppa folkmordet" as the letters are ladled, means "stop the genocide" END ID]

This is also a letter regarding the contest being held in Malmö, a city with a long history fighting for Palestine! Sign here

[ID: Vote for Swedes in Malmö to sign to protest Israel's participation in Eurovision. END ID]

Meanwhile, don't forget your daily clicks to help Palestine while we wait for EBU to stand by their words and prove we are united by music!

[ID: Iceland's Hatari holds up Palestinian flags during Eurovision in Tel Aviv, May 19, 2019. END ID]

[riding-with-the-wild-hunt]

vetted fundraisers from today. i know you're probably seeing a lot of posts like this, but please continue to engage and support these families in whatever way you're able. their situations get worse each day.

july 11th:

Ameina Albaba, her husband, and their four children, one a newborn and one needing treatment for a gland disorder ($19,492/$100,000) - @ameinababa, verified by @/ibtisams

The Ayyad family of eight, four of whom are children ($23,785/$35,000) - @aymanayyad1, @raghadayyad81, #144 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Reuniting Youssef Helles with his wife and five children after five years of separation (€4,763/€23,000) - @4-zien-yousef, #206 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Student Bilal Abed Rabou and his family (€985/€80,000) - @bilalassadabedrabou, verified by @/90-ghost

Safaa Abd, her husband, and their two little children (€5,439/€50,000) - @safaabed8, @abedalazeiz, verified by @/90-ghost

Aseel Asaad and her family of ten, including her sick parents (kr7,459 SEK/kr200,000 SEK) - @aseelooooo, verified by @/90-ghost

Aya Alanqar, her husband Jihad, and their three little children (€1,756/€35,000) - @ayaanqersblog, verified by @/90-ghost

Israa Al Azaiza and her family, including several children and her father, who needs treatment for a heart condition ($2,431 CAD/$48,000 CAD) - @isra-elazaiza, #236 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Omar Sobhi and his family (they lost their previous fundraiser and have had to start over from scratch) ($150/$60,000) - @omargazablog, verified by @/nabulsi

Wafaa Alnhal's family of 15, including four children and a newborn (they've already lost multiple family members, including Wafaa's young niece) (€30,171/€50,000) - @wafs-posts, #171 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Evacuating Firas Muhaisen's family of six (including three children) and continuing he and his sister's education ($2,820 CAD/$82,000 CAD) - @firasmuhaisenn, @nisreenameen, @hashem-fromgaza, verified by @/90-ghost

Maram Ashour, her husband, and their two little children (£50/£25,000) - @maramashoursworld, @maramashour, @ashourmohammed, verified by @/90-ghost

Suad Ahmad, her husband, and their newborn son, and two other family members ($14,958/$28,000) - @suad-ahmad, verified by @/nabulsi

Amal Ashour, her husband, and their one-year-old daughter (€10,465/€30,000) - @amalashuor, @moatasim20101010, #175 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

Mohammed Al Manasra (he's already lost many family members), his wife, and their three little children (Mohammed also needs urgent treatment for chronic respiratory illness and a foot injury) (€20,270/€40,000) - @save-mohamed-family, #192 on @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein's spreadsheet

Muhammad Al-Habil, his wife, their three young children, and Muhammad's chronically ill parents (€9,302/€50,000) - @alhabil, @aya2mohammed, verified by @/el-shab-hussein

Helping Siraj Abudayeh, his wife, and their three young children rebuild their destroyed home ($5,187 CAD/$82,000 CAD) - @siraj2024, #219 on @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi's spreadsheet

not yet vetted:

Widow Hadeel Abu Jiab and her family of 13, including three little children (one an orphan and one needing treatment for vision problems) and two injured members who need care (€2,265/€20,000) - @palestinianhadeel

Eman Zaqout, her husband Mahmoud, and their two children (Eman was awarded a prestigious science fellowship and needs to go abroad to participate) - @emanzaqout

Wafaa Resh and her large family, including her chronically ill mother and several children (€30/€100,000) - @wafaaresh

The Ayyad family of seven, five of whom are children (€11,098/€35,000) - @m430235341, @mohammad1980ayyad

your help can make such a big difference, even if it doesn't feel that way to you. every post, share, donation, and kind message is hope made manifest

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I have a post that I'm not sure how to write (but am going to try anyway) about how the valid fight for the equal rights of Palestinians is directly tied to the fight against antisemitism; they are, in fact, the same fight.

Because the truth is that many of the worst Israeli policies and certainly Jewish support for them, comes directly from Jewish fear. And unless and until that fear stops being valid, those ideas will continue to have power and support for them within the community will continue. It's not paranoia or bigotry wearing the skin of fear if people the world over have, in fact, carried out numerous genocides and ethnic cleansings against your people. The Holocaust was just one of the worst in recent memory, but it is far from the only extreme mass violence against Jews. It is simply the culmination of 2000 years of anti-Jewish hatred and institutional oppression.

There MUST be a real, concrete answer to Jewish safety.

Anything less is sanctioning the violence already done to us and passively accepting more in the future, if not actively calling for it or starting those wheels turning yourself.

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about this.

Palestinians deserve an answer and justice. You will not get any argument from me about that. (Quite the opposite, in fact.) However, any answer to their safety that callously ignores the need for Jewish safety and self-determination is doomed to end in either another genocide against Jews or failure. It is as wrong as any form of Zionism-as-an-answer to Jewish safety that callously ignores Palestinian safety and self-determination.

Any answer that treats either people as lesser, as unimportant, that values their lives less, and does not flow from a place of truth, reconciliation, peace, and mutual respect is doomed to fail and likely to devolve into more bloodshed.

If you want to fight for Palestinian safety, freedom, dignity and self-determination, you must also fight antisemitism. If you want to fight for the safety, freedom, dignity, and self-determination of our brothers in Israel, we must also care about our Palestinian cousins. There is no other way. You cannot care about only one side and expect peace.

That's why I'm really drawn to organizations that have both Israeli Jewish and Palestinian leadership and fight for a shared vision of the future. They see that the only way forward is together, and those of us outside the land would do well to listen and adjust our advocacy and message accordingly.

[amaditalks]

"I mourn the innocent lives lost in Gaza. I pray for Palestinians to live in freedom and dignity, just as I pray for peace and safety for everyone living in Israel; Jews, Muslims, Christians, Druze, everyone. I can mourn for Palestinians and still refuse to stand alongside calls for the destruction of Israel. I will not support the extermination of any people.

God knows, I wish the October 7 massacre had never happened. And I wish, with all my heart, that Hamas had released the hostages on October 8. If they had, I believe this war and all the suffering that has followed for both Palestinians and Israelis could have been avoided.

What troubles me most is not the presence of hate. Hate has always found a way to survive. What troubles me is the way it is being rationalized. Dismissed. The way it is reframed as something noble. The way it becomes invisible, especially to those who should know better.

Jewish safety and progressive values should never be in conflict. If they are, we have to ask whether we’ve drifted from our humanity. The test is whether progressivism stands firm, not just when it is easy but when it’s hard; when it forces us to confront multiple truths.

In the end, every movement tells you who belongs by what it is willing to protect.

I still believe in the progressive vision. But I’m watching closely, because if it can’t make space for my community, then it’s not what it claims to be."

Debra Messing "My inconvenient Jewish fear"

[blachernaepalace]

For one Jewish woman who had been involved in the Weather Underground, what she called “born-again Jews” in the women’s movement were using the perception of belonging to “some other group seen to be less saddled with class/race privilege” than whites in order for them to feel less like a white oppressor. Looking back years later, she said such women “never felt Jewish until it allowed them to be part of a group that experienced discrimination— and thus feel less like a member of an oppressing group and more like an oppressed group.”

[...]

The critique of this trend emerged as soon as Pogrebin’s article appeared in the February 1983 issue of Ms., the editors decided to run a sample of the various letters to the editor the magazine had received in response to her article. One was signed by ten women. It commented on the “disproportionate” attention that the question of anti-Semitism was receiving in the feminist movement, and offered one answer as to why this was the case: “Many white feminists, defensive about constant charges of racism from Third World and white women alike, may be seeking to restore their sense of political rectitude by identifying an oppression of their own. . . . An assertion of Jewish identity and a focus on anti-Semitism allows many Jewish feminists to participate in the politics of the oppressed.” The ten signers were distressed that a “politics of identity” appeared to be “superseding a politics of issues.” The ten women who wrote the letter also believed that an unfortunate side effect of the Jewish identity movement and the high-profile discussion of anti-Semitism in the women’s movement was the tendency to “psychologize dissent that inhibits the process of rational discourse crucial to democratic political deliberations.” This came through the labeling of women who opposed Israel’s actions as either anti-Semitic or, in the case of Jewish women, “self-hating.” The signers of the letter went on to note:

If ever there was a time when it was urgent for Jews and others to feel free to criticize Israeli politics, that time is now. Such criticism from Jews need not be self-hating, nor from non-Jews, anti-Semitic. Rather it may be the most morally and politically defensible appraisal of the Middle Eastern dilemma possible. These distinctions are easier to comprehend in the current context of the appalling, we believe genocidal invasion of Lebanon by Israel. . . . There is a long, honorable tradition of Jewish opposition to the Zionist vision and Zionist politics. We hope that charges like Pogrebin’s will not contribute to the decline of that tradition nor silence the open expression of controversial views in the Women’s Movement.

Michael R. Fischbach, The Movement and the Middle East: How the Arab-Israeli Conflict Divided the American Left

[unsolicited-opinions]

Biden was shaped by his conversations with Israeli leaders since Golda Meir. He had a vision of Israel one day living in peace next to a sovereign Palestine. He understood that Israel under Netanyahu instead risks becoming an international pariah that gradually loses its democratic soul. So he kept prodding Bibi, in vain, to change course. For that effort, the Republicans pounced on Biden for not being sufficiently pro-Israel.

Trump instead pretends to be a Zionist when it suits him and costs nothing, with performative gestures such as moving the US embassy to Jerusalem in his first term. He’s never disavowed the two-state solution (which has been US policy for decades); nor has he done much to bring it closer. Instead, he recently surprised the visiting Netanyahu, along with everybody else, by announcing that the US would “own” Gaza and turn it into “the Riviera of the Middle East.” Now that Netanyahu plans to occupy the strip, Trump seems to have dropped the idea.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2025-05-14/trump-might-abandon-israel-as-biden-never-would-have

Right wing Jews in both Israel and the US seem surprised and confused.

The rest of us knew it was coming and are anticipating worse.