stopmakingliberalslookbad

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Anti-Zionists: We support Iran. Evil Israel is attacking Iran for no good reason.

Iran:

Since 2020, Islamic Republic is thought to be behind at least 33 thwarted kidnappings and murders of officials, Jewish and Israeli targets in West — likely an undercount

Iranian Official Reza Taghavi: Hitler Was Right In His Approach Towards The Jews; The Zionists Must Be Persecuted, Deported, And Killed Everywhere; Soon The Zionists Will Eradicate America And Europe

The French police recently charged a French-Algerian dual citizen and his partner for allegedly conspiring to assassinate Israelis and Jews in Paris, Munich, and Berlin — all at the behest of Iran.

And this doesn't even begin to go into the billions spent by Iran on Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis so they will kill Jews without implicating Iran

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I am familiar with Matt and unfortunately, he IS Jewish. He constantly cozies up to antisemites and is a leading voice in the "Queers for Palestine" movement.

All from @mattxiv on Instagram.

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Islamophobic: freaking out about the Arabic word jihad in the context of clearly benign spiritual practice

Not Islamophobic: condemning the militant/extremist interpretation of jihad in the context of theo-fascist Islamist terrorist Jihadist ideology

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Leftists really hate Jews more than they care about anything or anyone, don't they?

Like. There is nothing they will not sacrifice. No one they will not push under the bus. No moral code they will not abandon. If it means they get to continue with their raging hatred of Israel and Israelis and Zionism and, most of all, Jews as a whole.

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I thought the general consensus of the left was "white savior narratives are inherently racist and infantilizing/demeaning of native experiences" but I guess that viewpoint got thrown out a window the moment a bunch of European names and less that 100kg of "aid" tried to take a yacht to Palestine

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glad the sharpest bulbs the u.s has to offer are on the case

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Every single time, without fail, that I say something along the lines of "antisemitism is bad actually and it's important we speak up whenever we see it," some terminally online idiot comes along going "it's not antisemitic to be against genocide blah blah blah." No one actually said that, mate, and it speaks volumes that that's the first reaction to "be normal about Jewish people."

Dickheads.

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Could've sworn we were all aware the Iranian regime was bad. Could've sworn just a few years ago my dash was full of people posting that Iran in the 70s video and spreading awareness about women getting murdered. Now that the fight is with Jews it's fine though, right? The enemy of (((my enemy))) is my best friend or whatever?

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How do you explain to the youth that the problem with Neo Nazis was not the aesthetics, iconography, or the lingo? It’s the racist, anti Jewish part?

If you go the last two things with different language and cloths… it’s bad? Maybe worse?

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I have a question for the pro-Palestine crowd: what actions are you taking to weed the white supremacists and neo-Nazis out of your movement?

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2025-06-15

Rabbi Isaac Choua

This was never really about Palestine. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini knew it. So did the Islamists who seized power in 1979. The target wasn’t Israel. It was the Sunni order. Palestine was the banner they raised to transform Shiʿa grievance into pan-Islamic legitimacy. They borrowed Marxist language, oppressed versus oppressor, anti-imperialism, national liberation and fused it with religious eschatology. The Iranian left marched beside them. The Tudeh Party, the Fedaiyan, the Mojahedin-e Khalq, they all believed they were building a just and pluralistic future. What they got was Velayat-e Faqih. In December 1978, six to nine million Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran. They marched under banners demanding democratic self-rule. “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his own country.” That wasn’t Islamism. That was democracy at its largest scale. The revolution was broad: liberals, Marxists, clerics, women, students. It was never meant to become a theocracy. But by March 1979, the first act of the new regime was a referendum on an undefined “Islamic Republic.” 99 percent voted yes. By December, a second referendum passed a constitution that made Khomeini the unelected Guardian of the State. He used the slogans, then crushed the people who wrote them. Between 1981 and 1988, thousands were executed, especially those who still believed in democracy. The 1988 prison massacres alone took up to 5,000 lives. The Islamic Republic rose on the back of a democratic revolution, and delivered a clerical police state wrapped in moral language. It turned anti-colonial struggle into theological absolutism. And now, we are watching that same playbook unfold in the West. A moral cause is elevated and flattened. Student energy is weaponized. Puffed up with catchy Slogans. Power consolidates quietly behind the curtain. The only difference is, this time, we’ve already seen how the story ends. We just pretend we haven’t.

That exactly.

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It's really simple, actually.

If you want to stand against antisemitism — actually stand against it, not just claim you do — you need to listen to Jews and believe us when we talk about our issues and community. You need to seek out the mainstream, consensus views of the Jewish community regarding:

Jewish history

Jewish culture

Judaism and Jewish religious beliefs and practices

Jewish identity

Jewish pain and trauma

The meaning of Jewish words and texts

What counts as antisemitism

When people are being antisemitic

Boundaries and what counts as cultural appropriation

What is respectful engagement from outsiders

Who we consider community leaders and legitimate spokespersons for the community

Etc.

You need to seek out this information, you need to verify it carefully to make sure it isn't a fringe opinion, but has majority community buy-in and support.

And then you need to trust us to be the experts on our own identity, community, and experiences.

When other people inevitably come out of the woodwork to tell us that they know better and/or that their token Jewish "friend" who just happens to agree with them is totally more Jewish than all the other Jews, your best work is to shut them down, tell them they need to listen to Jews about Jewish issues, and then ideally either give them resources written by Jews or pass the mic. If you can't do that, repeat what you have learned and verified, and then make sure to note that this is coming from Jewish sources, who they should be listening to.

These are basic expectations for how to interact with marginalized communities, and you need to apply these principles to Jews, a tiny persecuted ethnoreligious group, the way you would to any other tiny marginalized group.

It shouldn't be hard, but so many people who supposedly care about social justice and marginalized groups fail to do this to the point that it's more shocking when someone does actually do this for us.

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Something that occurred to me just now (and now I feel stupid for just now realizing this and also I'm certain other people have said this elsewhere and I just didn't come across it) is the tactical purpose of Hamas killing and kidnapping non-Jews and/or foreigners on October 7th.

For almost two years now, I've wondered why the hell Hamas would attack any people they found indiscriminately, because wouldn't that spur the entire rest of the world into action against them? Why kidnap foreigners in the first place, and why keep them once you realized they weren't Israeli or even Jewish? What could the Thai workers and Nepali students (for example) have possibly done, even in the twisted mindset of terrorists?

And it occurs to me that the point is to make Israel a pariah state. Because right, wrong, or indifferent, even if the rest of the world had done the right thing (reacted with nothing but sympathy and support after the terrorist attack and before any military action had been taken) from jump, it still would have had a chilling effect on the rest of the world's willingness to create or continue educational exchange programs, work opportunities, research projects, etc., because what country is going to advise its citizens to go somewhere that they might randomly wake up one day to terrorists at their door raping, torturing, killing, or abducting civilians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time? It doesn't matter that the attack was done by terrorists and was not the country's fault; it's still dangerous and therefore even setting aside everything else about this conflict, it's most likely not worth risking people's lives from the perspective of a disinterested third party. That they've been able to spin the narrative to get people to blame Israel for being attacked is a bonus; the real goal was likely to scare off other governments and foreigners from even visiting Israel because look what happened to those innocent people? Why even take the risk?

[In b4 people want to make dumb remarks on this post; if you're a 10/7 apologist just do us both a favor and don't engage. Maybe find a hobby that isn't judenhass instead]

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Doesn’t the Egyptian navy also enforce the blockade?

I thought it was Israel and Egypt both. But I’ve seen no mention of Egypt’s involvement recently.

(I did see that Egyptian authorities have stopped, detained and deported many of the “march to Gaza” activists.)

Explained: Egypt, the Gaza Blockade, and the March for Gaza activists

If you've seen MSM coverage about the Gaza blockade, you may well believe that Israel is the only country enforcing it.

Egypt has also enforced a blockade on Gaza since 2007. This isn't a secret, it's a long-standing policy, but it rarely shows up in activist slogans, protest chants, or international outrage.

That's part of the reason why western March to Gaza activists were so confused by what they encountered in Egypt.

I can't find any clips of these encounters which aren't biased, so this will have to do:

So let's put this in context.

What Is the Gaza Blockade?

In 2007, after Hamas took control of Gaza from the Palestinian Authority in a violent coup, Israel and Egypt both imposed blockades on the territory.

Israel's blockade focuses on land, airspace, and maritime access (because it shares all of those with Gaza) with the stated purpose of preventing weapons smuggling and rocket attacks. Egypt's blockade is focused mainly on the land border at the Rafah crossing - the only non-Israeli border Gaza has.

Both countries restrict what and who can move in and out. Both justify it on security grounds. Israel cites rocket fire and terror tunnels. Egypt cites Hamas’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned and often brutally suppressed group inside Egypt.

What did Egypt do differently at their border with Gaza after Hamas took over?

Tightened Restrictions: Egypt imposed much stricter controls on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza.

Rafah Crossing Closure and Intermittent Openings: The Rafah crossing was largely closed by Egypt after the Hamas takeover. It has only been opened intermittently since then, primarily for limited purposes, such as allowing special shipments of medical supplies or facilitating travel for individuals requiring medical treatment.

Participation in the Blockade: Egypt joined with Israel in enforcing a blockade of Gaza, aiming to prevent weapons smuggling and exert economic pressure on Hamas. The blockade has severely restricted the flow of essential goods, contributing to economic hardship and limiting the freedom of movement for Gazans.

Crackdown on Smuggling Tunnels: Egypt launched efforts to destroy the smuggling tunnels that had become a vital lifeline for goods entering Gaza, going so far as to flood the tunnels in 2015.Mediation Efforts: Egypt has engaged in mediation efforts between Fatah and Hamas, the two main Palestinian factions, attempting to broker reconciliation agreements. The Rafah crossing has sometimes been used as a tool in these negotiations.

Focus on Security Cooperation with Israel: Egypt has coordinated closely with Israel on security matters related to the border, which has contributed to the tightening of restrictions on the Rafah crossing. 

Egypt's policies regarding the Rafah crossing have not been static. They have varied depending on internal Egyptian politics, regional dynamics, the state of relations between Egypt and Hamas and security concerns.

Here's a snapshot from August 2023 put out by OCHA, using data provided by Hamas (accuracy questionable, but this demonstrates international attention to the matter.)

While participating in the blockade, Egypt has also sought to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, particularly during times of crisis. For instance, in 2014, Egypt permitted the World Food Programme to bring food through the Rafah crossing.

Does Egypt Enforce a Naval Blockade Too?

Not like Israel does because it doesn't have to. Egypt controls its own coastal waters, but doesn't patrol Gaza's maritime border.

It does tightly restrict access to its land border at Rafah and coordinates with Israel on border and security policies. So while there isn't a direct Egyptian naval blockade, Egypt enforces restrictions on movement and trade just as seriously on land.

Why Don't Activists Talk About Egypt's Role?

Egypt's participation in the blockade is a matter of record. It controls a major border crossing. It restricts people and goods. It's even used violence to destroy smuggling tunnels and detain activists. Yet I've never seen news of protests against Egypt.

Why? Because nuance messes up the narrative and doesn't fit into the oppressor/victim dynamic.

The dominant narrative in much of the West frames the Gaza conflict through the lens of settler colonialism, with Israel as the powerful, evil, European colonizer and Palestinians as the indigenous, helpless, innocent, virtuous colonized. That framing doesn't leave room for Arab states to be seen as complicit or even hostile to Hamas. It flattens the region's politics into a binary that leaves out information which is needed to understand the region.

Put another way, it's easier for some activists to blame Israel alone. Criticizing an Arab country like Egypt (especially one run by an authoritarian government) complicates the story. Also, it doesn't fit on a sign or in a hashtag.

What About the "March to Gaza" Activists?

As noted above, Egyptian authorities detained and deported international activists trying to join a solidarity march to Gaza. These are the same types of activists who accuse Israel of violating human rights for restricting access to Gaza.

So finally, a certain kind of Westerner has noticed that Egypt also has a blockade. Even so, there were no major headlines, no global protests against Egypt, and barely a whisper on social media. Ground News shows the coverage spread is spread pretty evenly.

When Israel stops people at the border, it's called apartheid. When Egypt does it, it's mostly ignored. Why the double standard? (You know why.)

Why Does Egypt Enforce a Blockade at All?

Egypt sees Hamas as a national security threat. Hamas is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which Egypt's government sees as a terrorist organization. President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi came to power after removing a Muslim Brotherhood president from office in a military coup. Sisi subsequently was elected as Egyptian president and enjoys substantially more support than his predecessor. He has cracked down hard on violent Jihadist/Islamist movements of all kinds.

In September of 2013, an Egyptian court banned the Brotherhood and ordered the seizure of its assets and associations. In December of 2013, the Sisi government officially declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization.

In addition to targeting the Muslim Brotherhood, Sisi's government has waged a continuous and often brutal campaign against various jihadist groups, most notably Wilayat Sinai (formerly Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis), which pledged allegiance to ISIS, in the Sinai Peninsula. This campaign has involved large-scale military operations, curfews, and the displacement of residents.

The Sisi government consistently frames its actions as a necessary "war on terror" to protect Egypt from extremism and instability, and this narrative has resonated with many Egyptians weary of political turmoil.

So Egypt's policy isn't about helping Israel. It's about controlling what happens on its own border and containing a group it sees as dangerous and destabilizing.

Why Does Any of This Matter?

If you want to understand the blockade (and the conflict in general) you need the full picture.

You need to embrace complexity nuance, and shades of grey. You need to let go of the egotistical Western view that the world generally thinks like you do and shares your general values. They don't, it doesn't. The world is too complex to flatten to a binary. Here are some complexities which many Western leftists seem not to grasp:

Arab Regimes are neither Anti-Zionist Saints nor Pro-Hamas Allies.

A common but false assumption among many Western activists is that Egypt and other Arab states are natural allies of Palestinians in their struggle against Israel. Egypt:

Is deeply suspicious of Hamas (an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is outlawed in Egypt and viewed as a terrorist threat).

Has its own national security interests that are often at odds with Palestinian groups.

Maintains its own blockade on Gaza, which predates and operates alongside Israel’s.

Western activists who believe that "Free Palestine" is the unifying moral cause of the Arab world often miss that most Arab regimes are more concerned with their own security concerns, domestic stability, counterterrorism, and maintaining authoritarian control than championing Palestinian liberation. It just doesn't matter to them the way it matters to the Western "Pro-Palestinian" activists.

Egypt Co-Enforces the Gaza Blockade

Egypt controls their Rafah border, the only crossing from Gaza not controlled by Israel.

Egypt routinely keeps the Rafah crossing closed, except for specific humanitarian cases or diplomatic arrangements.

Egypt blames Hamas for instability and violence that spills into the Sinai, and it does not want a flood of refugees escaping into the Egyptian Sinai.

Anti-Imperialism Has Become Weirdly Pro-Imperial

One of the bitter ironies of the Western left's approach is that their anti-imperialism tends to romanticize or whitewash non-Western authoritarian states.* In the name of fighting US or Israeli imperialism, they ignore or excuse:

Egypt's military dictatorship and brutal police state.

Assad's war crimes in Syria.

Iran's suppression of women and minorities.

Russia's aggressive expansionism.

China's human rights abuses against many, including the Uyghurs

This highlights broader confusion among Western "Pro-Palestinian" activists

They seem to reduce every situation to "colonizer vs colonized," or "Oppressor vs Victim" and place all Arab actors automatically on the side of victims justly seeking justice...ignoring that states like Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia have their own histories of colonialism, suppression, and regional imperialism which are varied, complex, and frequently in competition.

They treat Hamas as if it's just a resistance movement rather than a militant Islamist regime which is:

Hostile to Egyptian authority,

Fundamentally illiberal

Hostile to the rights of women and LGBTQ+ persons

In conflict not just with Israel, but also with Fatah (the Palestinian Authority), Egypt, and much of the Arab world.

Missing out on post-colonial dynamics

Try to watch this with Egyptian eyes:

The Egyptians in the video don't just despise Hamas. There's more happening here.

Keep in mind that Egypt was ruled (in whole or in part) by the British as a colonial power from 1882 to 1956.

This uninvited guest, this British Welshman who doesn't speak Arabic and knows nothing about Egyptians or Gazans...is condemning and lecturing Egyptians on their moral obligations as Muslims...on their own soil...with patronizing language like "I believe that the people of the Arabic nations have a white heart."

How might you feel if you were an Egyptian cop or soldier who was expected to be calm while being condescended to this way by this man?

Can you see the extraordinary privilege of which this Welshman is totally unaware and how inappropriate his actions are even by the Western left's own domestic standards and social mores?

His condescension to Egyptians is textbook Orientalism. It's cringe on so many levels.

Projection of Western Political Tropes

These activists (instead of learning about peoples who are geographically, ideologically, and politically distant from them and just as complex as people anywhere) project their own local, parochial, left-wing, binary, intersectional frameworks onto a region where those frameworks don’t translate.

In Egypt, you don’t get to chant "Free Palestine" and assume the police will see you as righteous or even harmless. You're more likely to be detained, interrogated, or worse - and not because they oppose dignity, safety, and self-determination for Palestinians, but because they oppose dissent and are sick to death of being condescended to by Westerners who don't know a single thing about them.

Well, Israelis don't know anything about them either!

~20% of Israel's citizens are Arab and speak Arabic. Another 20% of Israelis who are Jews speak fluent Arabic and you can study Arabic as a second language in Jewish public schools in Israel.

About 40% of Israeli citizens speak Arabic.

Most Jewish Arabic-speakers' families came to Israel from Arab lands where they'd lived for centuries as second-class citizens. They know Arab people and Arab culture. They have Arab co-workers, Arab doctors, Arab judges, and Arab members of their parliament. They have no problem seeing Arabs, individually and collectively, as complex, sophisticated people with intelligence and agency.

Israeli journalist Haviv Rettig Gur:

Western activists seeking to enter Gaza via Egypt discovered to their horror this week one of the most obvious and basic facts about the Gaza war: That Egypt's military dictatorship doesn't care one whit how much Palestinians suffer behind the heavily-armed border fence it has installed between Egypt and Gaza. That this came as a shock to Western activists is itself a function of the fact that they know very little about the subjects of their moral emotions, because the basic purpose of Palestinian activism in the West isn't to move the needle for Palestinians - a task that would require knowledge and nuance and a capacity for self-critique - but merely to experience those moral emotions. I know it can be hard to see it, but this is as far from actual focused concern for Palestinians as Iran's, Egypt's and France's diverse hypocrisies. If given the choice between, for example, an Israeli victory that produces a free and prosperous Gaza and an Israeli loss that sends Gaza back into the clutches of Hamas for another generation, most of these activists will enthusiastically endorse the latter. Because feelings.

Yep. Because feelings.

Tacked on at the End: The Open Air Prison Myth

The claim is often made that the blockade by Egypt and Israel made Gaza, until 10/7/23, an open air prison.

I'm not even going to waste words disputing this. Watch these:

(*Any interest in a future explainer on Tankies?)

Further information:

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finding it incredibly amusing how western leftists are saying "israel has randomly bombed iran for no reason!!!!! think of the children 🥺" meanwhile iranians are yelling "KILL KHAMENEI FASTER"

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Ok so leftists tried to poison thousands of Jews with pesticides at a music festival (and thousands of gentiles? But they estimated that 1/4th of the people killed would be Jews and that's worth it??) And on the same day (June 8th 2025) leftists spray painted the words FEED ME in enourmous red letters on the Canadian Holocaust Museum and ALSO on the same day leftists set a synagogue on fire and all of this was done "for Palestine" and this is just what I heard about casually throughout the day in between my work appointments without going looking for information. But the left doesn't have a problem with antisemitism and all the Jews are lying to discredit antizionism. Ok!!!

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I'm not Jewish but am still completely sickened by the antisemitism coming from pride orgs. But even if i were to put that to one side, I feel like I don't even know why queer people care (or claim to care) about palestine so much more than the current rolling back of their own human rights?

Like, the massively antisemitic statement put out by the Dyke March was obviously bigoted and disgusting but also why on earth is 'combating zionism' more important to a queer rights group than queer rights?

It just makes me feel crazy that not only are these people participating in hate movements but are so fucking wrapped up in their hate filled little make-believe fantasies that they are completely ignoring their own lives and happiness.

I appreciate this ask. I think it’s just another avenue for antisemitism to seem “woke” to put it bluntly. Antisemitism seeps into all parts of society, and queer orgs aren’t immune. They see the propaganda and buy in hook line and sinker. They think that they’re defending the “right” side because they view Palestinians as more oppressed than Israelis, not realizing that Israelis are indigenous to Israel despite history and biology blatantly proving them wrong. Genocide is a scary word, so they don’t want to be siding with these genociders, in their minds.

I think that there’s also this element of thinking Jews are privileged and that rubs queer orgs the wrong way because a lot of them do play oppression Olympics. It’s a really complicated topic but ultimately queer orgs as a whole have made the culture incredibly toxic for Jews and they have a lot of work to do if they want us to feel safe.