#When I said 'Jewish people deserve safe land' I don't mean it has to be Israel. It can be countries declaring their willingness to protect

[gxlden-angels]

jewish americans support ceasefire

I'm aware! Free Palestine!

[starlightomatic]

whats your stance on Zionism?

Thanks for asking this!

The way I view Zionism is that it was a political movement that arose in 19th century Europe as one of many answers to antisemitism, and I hold that in my understanding. What it became has been devastatingly harmful to Palestinians, as well as in some ways harmful to Jewish culture. However it also saved a lot of Jewish lives.

On the one hand, I understand the need for a place that will explicitly never expel Jews, and always accept expelled Jews from other lands. I'm not sure what bulwark against expulsion and displacement there can be other than saying "we will not leave our future in your hands anymore." The problem, then, of course, is that creating a situation in which one ethnicity is the deciders of their own destiny in this way means artificially engineering a majority of that ethnicity, which is inherently fascistic.

So I have no idea where that leaves us. Some things folks have said that have stood out to me recently:

"If the only way to keep me safe is to commit a genocide, leave me to God." (My life isn't worth the death of thousands of children.)

"They handed us a knife and asked 'Little Jew, will you kill yourself or the others?"

And of course, Hillel: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I?"

The answer to the knife question seems like it ought to be "Neither. I'll use it to kill the person who gave me the knife and forced me to make this choice."

And this is the path a lot of Jewish antizionists take. An imperialist and antisemitic world forced us here, so let's dismantle empire and antisemitism.

And that's what I wish for too, I just... don't really think it's possible. And when so many people in the Pro-P/alestine movement are antisemitic, and see any attempts to call that in as either a defense of genocide or a derailment, then it demonstrates to me that they are not actually aligned on that solution, and would prefer the answer to "who will you kill?" to be "myself; I deserve it for being a colonizer."

On the other hand, "okay, if I have to choose, I'll kill the others" isn't something I can stomach either.

That is to say, an antisemitic world forces Zionism as a response. If someone wants to dismantle Zionism but not the conditions that made it necessary, then I can't trust that they are building a better world for all of us, and I can't get on board.

And the people who will use my answer to this to determine whether it's worth listening to my thoughts versus instantly blocking me don't seem to be invested in building that world either.

[bingonamo]

I hate it when people think criticizing Israel is like criticizing the Jewish religion. Yes, Israel is full of Jewish people, but it has an extremest government that isn't even good for all the branches of Judaism. The branches that are more similar to the branches in charge benefit most while the branches that are less similar are not benefiting and may even be harmed by the government. There's a lot of variations in Judaism just like how there's a lot of variations of Christianity or Islam or atheism. Don't paint everyone with the same brush.

What Hamas did was wrong. I'm not afraid to admit that, but what the Israeli government is doing is bombing civilian infrastructure, cutting off power, cutting off food supply, and making it increasingly impossible for civilians to leave. (Including closing their border crossings and bombing the areas near the Egyptian border crossing, causing it to become increasingly difficult for them to leave to Egypt.) Both have done war crimes, but the Israeli government is doing more war crimes.

It's possible to condemn both while keeping in mind who has all the power and who has a history of abusing that power. Hint: it's the one that's sending it's citizens to colonize the other place's land.

I know everyone's scared. I know there are people who act like all Jewish people have a say in the matter. They don't. I'm just tired of people saying that criticizing Israel's government's actions is being antisemitic. That's propaganda.

Edit: people seem to be upset about me not saying that the Palestine government is extremist. (Which I am unable to find evidence of them being extremist in recent history. Seems to have a long history of the government changing, so maybe they are referencing a previous version?) I said Hamas was wrong for targeting civilians and the Israeli government targeted many more civilians using tactics that are so horrific that many are war crimes. No food. No water. No electricity. No escape. Bombing civilian infrastructure. White phosphorus. Even if a government is bad doesn't mean the civilians should be the target as recourse. Even if I was able to find the alleged extremism in the Palestinian government, that doesn't justify the war crimes. Civilians may vote for government, but the government is not the civilians. It's like if someone attacked the major cities in America because a bad politician got elected, and people justify it like "well, the United States government is bad, so the civilians deserve it." Doesn't make sense, right? So why are people using that as an argument? I try to keep my mind open, but a lot of the arguments forget that Palestinians are still people, and people deserve to feel safe in their own home. A lot of arguments I've seen are unsubstantiated claims made by the Israeli government. Do you think the government attacking other people is a reliable source and doesn't make propaganda to justify it's actions?

[the-leftist-n-slander-kids]

As a Palestinian, so much of the things on this blog are wrong. It's deeply upsetting.

I'm from Gaza and was there when the bombings began and had to return back to the United States where I had family. I was incredibly lucky to get out.

I see your intentions are good, but extremist "death to Israel" ideas are dangerous and wrong. Israel is a safe haven for many Palestinians, including myself and families. There are many issues there, however, they treat us better than Hamas. All Israelis I've talked to want a better life for Palestinians and most want a ceasefire now. Those that don't (while I disagree with them) still believe what they believe because they think it will harm the fewest people. Israelis are not their awful government. There are bad people everywhere, but Israel is one of the kindest countries I've lived in. Hamas is a terrorist organization terrorizing Gaza. I watched them kill my neighbor because he was accused of gay sex. I watched them steal food and aid (provided by Israel) from children. And as a woman, I have to constantly be aware of the looming threat of rape when I'm there.

Hamas brutalized Israeli civilians. I witnessed their bodies being thrown like garbage. I heard rumors of hostages being held in homes near mine. Hamas wants to kill all Jews and take all of Israel's land. If Israel is abolished, they will commit a massive genocide of all Israeli jews, all LGBT people, and everyone that doesn't comply.

Israel has many problems. These issues affect both Israelis and Palestinians negatively. We all deserve better. I desperately yearn for a 2 state solution where everyone can live at peace without the threat of violence from one side or another. Destroying Israel will not save us. You are furthering the detriment to Palestinians by taking an extremist view that has only ever been used to harm us.

It's obvious no one on this blog has ever spoken an Israeli or Palestinian, and you all have no idea what is actually happening. This blog is a cesspool of wartime propaganda and misinformation. You all are hurting Palestinians by spreading this. You hurt us all when you write justifications for Hamas's atrocities against Israelis and call them Nazis and terrorists.

Please learn that the world is more complicated than one predator and one prey. Two sides can be bad, and both sides deserve justice and protection and nuance. Extremism hurts everyone, even those you think you are protecting.

And again, I'll remind you that I am a Gazan Palestinian. I love Palestine and I love Israel. I love both peoples. But I hate their governments and attacks against each other.

I apologize if my wording is wrong anywhere. English is my 3rd language and I've been writing this with the assistance of Google translate.

First of all thank you for talking to me about it! I’m glad you and your family are safe and out of it. And your wording is great /srs

Second I’m not sure if I said death to Israel or not, if I did it was most likely in tags where I was just trying to spread out reach, I didn’t mean to sound like I was wishing death upon anyone. I meant the state and not the people, like I was trying to say that we shouldn’t colonize the land, not that Israeli people shouldn’t live there at all or we should kill them, that’s my fault and I 100% take accountability for it. My hope for the Palestine and Israel conflict is that in the future either it goes back into the original hands of Palestinians (NOT HAMAS) or they both settle on a two state solution! I have talked to people who are from Israel and support palestine completely and I have seen Jewish people stand against the state of Israel as well. Admittedly it’s a lot harder to talk to people who are Palestinians as a lot of them are still in Palestine, and there’s also 8.1 billion people (according to world meter) which makes it quite difficult. However I do listen to a lot of Palestinian voices on social media even if they won’t interact with me directly!

Third I don’t support Hamas in general, I support the fact they are a resistance group but that’s it. I know that Hamas has committed unfair crimes and I don’t support anything else they do minus resisting. I can acknowledge their resistance but not support their crimes. When I wrote out against someone I was simply pointing out the fact that it’s not JUST Hamas and the fact that the Israel government isn’t just aiming for Hamas, admittedly I’m not always the best at wording things and I may have sounded like I was supporting them 100%. I was very pissed at the time so I wasn’t thinking clearly. Also I didn’t call anyone a Nazi, only having nazi-like or terrorist ideas until I was called one myself and told to fuck off and watch another person get called wrong for rightly calling out that sort of anti-resistance speech. I think it’s fine to point out Hamas crimes and their wrongs but completely saying that it’s all Hamas is wrong too. When looking it up the military the IDF has compared to Hamas is way larger, and their amount of weapons is a lot more too. Israel is number 15 in military expenditures according to wiki. I support resistance of any kind.

But listen. I don’t plan to down play your experiences. You’re Palestinian and I’m not, and since I’m apparently spreading misinformation I’ll stop. I wish you and your family good luck!