#and that you use 'zionist' when you either mean 'israeli' or 'jew who i disagree with'

[boasamishipper]

this may sound harsh but if you refer to the posters with pictures of the israelis kidnapped by hamas on 10/7 as ~zionist propaganda~ and/or deface or tear them down, i think you are a despicable human being and i hope you drop dead

[jewishvitya]

Pro-Israel people love both invalidating my Jewishness and giving me death threats by proxy.

And like. Their words aren't a magic spell that's going to erase my ethnicity, heritage, and cultural identity. Anti-zionist Jews have existed for as long as zionism has existed. Even if you disagree, I'm not the first Jew to think that the fight for our safety shouldn't mean an ethnostate, a concept that can only be maintained with violence and oppression towards other ethnic groups in the area.

And I have a lot of feelings about these softer definitions of zionism. Because what does this mean in practice. We've been moving places for thousands of years, immigration is not what I'm objecting to. I love this land, it's the only home I know, and my heart breaks for the destruction we cause here. From burning olive trees to poisoning the soil and the water with our weapons. This is not an expression of our connection to our ancestral homeland. This is violence on both people and land.

But the most jarring element of comments like this, especially now, is that they're treatening me with hatred from Gazans. I'm not scared of them right now. I'm scared and horrified for them.

A Gazan person I know lost contact with his family around a week ago and I've been praying for their safety while knowing that they're traumatized beyond anything I can imagine. And safety isn't even a word I can use for them even if they're alive. They've been homeless for a couple of months now, their house destroyed in the bombing. What safety can they find?

If I was in Gaza right now, I wouldn't be worrying about Palestinians learning I'm queer, I'd be worried about Israeli bombardment, about starvation and dehydration due to the siege, and about the diseases caused by the conditions Israel created there. The hostages that returned spoke about how they were more scared of the Israeli attacks than they could be of their captors.

Even ignoring the "they're not a monolith" and "some of them are queer" and "queerphobic people that hate me don't deserve this either" - how are you threatening me with their supposed queerphobia when the worst danger in Gaza right now is us?

You're not saying this because they want to hurt me. You're saying this because you want them to hurt me. They hardly know I exist. You want me to get hurt to satisfy your hatred of me for being against your movement, and to justify your dehumanization of Palestinians. You want me to be proven wrong for seeing them as people who deserve dignity and freedom and happiness. You're the one wishing violence on me. So don't be shy. Own your death threats instead of projecting them.

[jewish-vents]

first - i just want to say thank you for making this blog. it’s so important to know that we aren’t alone in the many things we’re experiencing and feeling right now, especially when so many of us have become painfully isolated as of late.

i apologize for how long this one is going to be.

i’ve been feeling so, so alone recently. my tumblr dash has been cut down to just a handful of jewish blogs that i can trust to be kind and understanding and nuanced, but it means that the majority of the content i see is about antisemitism and the war. after a while, it becomes draining to scroll through what feels like endless sadness. i turned to looking at fandom tags instead of following fandom blogs, but it makes me feel equally as insane to click on a blog about race cars and immediately see a post with 60k notes calling what’s happening in gaza “the new holocaust”. i started going back on twitter, but fan accounts on there too are only safe for a day or so before the account owner shares some awful antisemitic tweet from an account known to be an anti-jewish extremist. i went back on instagram briefly, but i was soon afraid to look at people’s stories for fear i’d see something terrible and lose yet another trusted person from my life.

in person, i have to walk by signs saying “zionism = genocide” and hastily scribbled palestinian flags with the colors in the wrong spot on my way to class every day. a wall across from my apartment says “BDS” in giant letters. i haven’t opened my curtains in months because of it. a “protest” of about 25 people stood in the center of campus and yelled and waved their fists in passing students’ faces, so jewish students didn’t go to class on any of the days they gathered. i only have one non jewish friend left at school - the rest abandoned me because i either called them out on antisemitic rhetoric or refused to go along with the idea that anyone, palestinian or israeli, muslim or jewish, is less than human. i had taken several of them along to our hillel’s seder in the past. i don’t know who i can safely go with this year. i have a few jewish friends, of course, but i love bringing goyische friends with little connection to judaism along to experience how joyful and loving jewish holidays can be.

it feels like there is no escape from this fucking war. it sickens me that it’s the only thing people pretend to care about - where is the attention for sudan, ukraine, armenia, uyghurs in china, syria, guyana? how is putting an emoji in your twitter bio or putting a translucent overlay of the palestinian flag on your tumblr icon any sort of real activism? how have we gone from “antisemitism is wrong” to “(((zionists))) control the world media”? it seems like the war is a fandom to these people. it seems like nobody cares enough to fully read and think critically about what they share, let alone do real research beyond looking at an infographic somebody shared on their instagram story. they’ll add on “don’t forget your click today!” to an unrelated twitter thread that went viral, flip the bird at the local starbucks, and put “won’t you free my palestine” on their instagram stories. they’ll anonymously tell a jew online to commit suicide. they’ll feel secure in the knowledge that they’re the perfect leftist, that this is somehow “good trouble”. all this praxis, and nothing to show for it but massive surges in hate crimes against jews. good job, guys! you singlehandedly saved every innocent person in gaza!

it’s isolating. it’s scary. jews can’t mourn. jews can’t be angry. jews can’t disagree. jews can’t suffer. jews can’t be whole, complex people with diverse beliefs and experiences. suffering is a game, and the goal is to hurt the most, scream the most, die the most, all to appease western leftists whose closest connection to war and violence was reading the hunger games in middle school.

i’m tired of it all. i want a peaceful and just resolution to the war. i want the mindless hatred everywhere to stop. i want to be able to scroll through social media and see nothing but fandom. i want to walk through campus with my magen david showing and all the friends i lost by my side on the way to the hillel seder. i want to open my curtains again. i know the experience of one diaspora jew is nothing compared to what people living in israel and palestine are currently going through, yet i still need this all to end. i don’t think any of us can go on like this, but we must, because we have. for thousands of years, we’ve gone on. that still doesn’t mean it has to be this hard all the time.

all i can think is “now we are slaves. next year may we be free.” now we are slaves to hatred and violence and suffering. next year may we all be free. next year may we all be in jerusalem.

.

[hawkinsschoolcounselor]

Hello. I'm conflicted and don't know what to do so I've decided to turn to you, the Byler fandom's school counselor, for advice. Some people who I consider to be my friends said I must no longer ship Byler since both actors are Jewish and one of them is a Zionist so shipping them means supporting genocide.

I googled the word Zionist and learned that even lots of nice and peaceful Jews identify as Zionists so I was confused and asked my mom and she said that my friends were being anti semitic, but when I told them that they said they think my mom supports genocide too and that I mustn't fall for western propaganda and that their opinion isn't anti semitic but realistic.

They even showed me videos of people in Gaza being attacked by the army of Israel and it was horrible. But now I don't know what to do believe anymore. My mom's always been a nice and peaceful woman and I love her and Byler has always been my comfort ship. I'm still not fully convinced that my mom, Noah and Finn are bad people or that the things Noah's said and done automatically make him an evil right winger, but I've seen the videos. Why would the people who post them make all of that up and why would my friends lie to me anyways?

I'm sorry. I know it's a lot, I just wanted to get it off my chest and right now I feel like have no one to talk to irl.

I really didn't want to get too deep into this, but, as a counselor, how can I ignore such a plea.

First off, forget anything anyone has told you about good or evil. Those are social constructs designed to idealize and dehumanize, respectively. Everyone is capable of actions that we would consider to be such things. However, people tend to pigeonhole anyone who is considered "other" into the evil category, while holding up their own group as good. This is not something exclusive to any culture, really. Humans, in general, are tribal. The only thing that's changed over the years is how we've defined our tribes.

Palestinians are not evil. Israelis are not evil. However, both sides have done awful things to the other despite there being numerous people on both sides who simply want peace. This leads to propaganda on both sides where actions are cherry picked in order to demonize the other side in the public mind. Why has Hamas been able to hold power despite people not wanting war? They promise to protect against the "evil" Israelis. Why do right-wing war mongers hold on to power in Israel? They promise to protect against the Hamas terrorists. It's a cycle that leaders on both sides use to prop up their own power at the cost of innocent lives.

Zionism is not, in and of itself, an evil thing. I'm not going to make or endorse any calls for the destruction of Israel, even if I think some major changes need to be made in order to guarantee a peaceful future. However, I do feel like this ardent defense of Israel's existence is often used as an excuse to engage in horrible actions against the Palestinian people. Zionism only becomes a problem when it's used as an excuse to subjugate and persecute Palestinians. Similarly, on the other side, the Palestinians who support groups like Hamas are willing to do anything and everything to destroy Israel. This is not ok, either, as the only difference in the two mentalities is that one side currently has a lot more power than the other.

The only way through this is for the two sides to stop seeing each other as a faceless, less-than-human "other." These are two groups of people who have become so desensitized to acts of hate and systematic extermination that they're willing to commit such things against each other. It doesn't help that their supporters around the world also see anyone who disagrees with them or supports the other side as horrible monsters. I personally see all the recent vitriol and bile being spewed, whether is be against Noah or anyone else, as performative outrage. People want to be seen as taking a side, but it's more for their own sense of self-satisfaction than anything else. It does neither side any good to attack someone who doesn't have any real power in the matter.

I don't personally agree with what Noah has done, even if I understand where he's coming from. He's a man who has recently undergone deep engagement in his cultural and religious identity, making a trip to Israel among that, so it's not hard to see why he'd be defensive of his culture after the Hamas invasion. In such a delicate situation, though, it's not a good idea to lose sense of humanity. I don't think he hates the Palestinian people or their plight, but he just wasn't considering that point of view when defending his own culture.

It's honestly not unlike how many people who support Palestine have ignored the fact that Hamas killed and kidnapped a lot of Israeli civilians in the initial attacks. Yes, the disregard for safety of Palestinian civilians in the Israeli counterattack is deplorable, but invoking one without the other is discounting the humanity of the other side. I don't think Palestinian protestors support the deaths and kidnapping of Israeli civilians (or I hope not, at least), but, like Noah and others on the other side, they aren't considering that aspect of the conflict when arguing for the rights of their own side.

This is why I say that perspective and nuance are important to consider in this situation. Both sides are so hyper-focused on their own, that confirmation bias is easy to fall into. Every atrocity by the "enemy" only proves your point, meanwhile any atrocity by your own is conveniently ignored. This doesn't make the regular people on either side "evil" or "bad." We're human; we fall into bias on the regular. We're also easily manipulated by those who need our support to stay in power. Make no mistake, both the Israeli government and Hamas are engaging in propaganda to influence people.

I don't think you're a bad person. I don't think your mom is a bad person. I don't even think that the people attack Noah or others are bad people (even if I have no desire to read the hate and vitriol). Even the people I've seen who have said things about how Israel shouldn't exist are not bad people. They've all just become so immersed in their own side that they no longer see the other side as thinking, feeling people anymore. That's what needs to change here. It's just not what the leaders on either side want since seeing enemies as people tends to make us not want to hurt them anymore.

tl;dr: Nobody is a bad person for supporting one side or another in this. It's not like either side has clean hands. However, we all need to take a step back to think about why this is happening and to see that the "other side" is made up of human beings, too.

[firefly-sky]

I totally agree with your post on censorship of Israel and Palestine. Obviously what is happening between them right now and tragic and disgusting. Lately people have been grouping all Jewish people into being zionists which is so harmful, I’m Jewish and my father was beaten in the city to the point where he was hospitalised just because he was wearing the Star of David. I was with him when it happened, he didn’t do anything aside from being Jewish, my family isn’t even from Israel, we are in full support of Palestine but people want to label us Zionist for a culture we were born into. Jewish and Israeli people can’t control their heritage and calling all of them zionists for it is insane, real zionists are terrifying and to throw the term Zionist around waters down the impact of them. They want to erase history of Jewish people and make us collectively look bad, comparing current tragedies to the holocaust, no violence should ever be compared like it’s a competition. Of course there are Jewish people who are bad and hold radical beliefs but that also goes for every other culture, ethnicity, and religion. I do not condone Israel’s actions in any way but I strongly disagree with showing prejudice towards Jewish and Israeli people who have nothing to do with the war and do not support it.

Tw Antisemitism, politics mentions of the Israel/Palestine conflict, read at your own risk. Come after me all you want. I don’t care. But I need to talk about this because it’s important.

First off, I’m so sorry that that happened to your family. Nobody deserves that at all. I send my deepest condolences and I hope that your father (and the rest of your family) is okay. It is absolutely disgusting that that happened. I’m assuming by ‘the city’ you mean NYC, and I know that antisemitic hate crimes have risen 200%, and it’s just vile, especially because Jews in places nowhere even near Israel are hiding blamed. It’s not their fault.Its not even the Israelites’ faults. It’s the Israeli government’s fault.

Secondly, I agree whole heartedly. There are good Jewish people in Israel. Good, innocent Jewish people who haven’t done anything wrong and absolutely do not deserve to be censored. Although I do not condone what is going on there right now, I absolutely do not condone October 7th either. You could argue that none of this would have happened if October 7th never happened. If you’re gonna talk politics, you have to look at both sides, not just the one you support. That goes for any politics, be it this, your position on the left/right spectrum, whatever. You have to look at both sides.

Words can’t even describe just how awful it is that Jewish people in places that have nothing to do with Israel are being blamed and harassed mot just on the internet, but in r3al life too. Watching it just makes me feel sick. Again, while I do not and will not ignore the fact that what the Israeli government has decided to do is absolutely disgusting and tragic, I also cannot and will not ignore the fact that innocent people are being labeled such harmful terms and their voices aren’t being heard. That’s like saying every American ever is anti immigrant or that every American in the world supports what’s going on in the government there, albeit on a much less extreme scale.

But yes. I absolutely don’t think that Israel should be censored while Palestine isn’t. If you want to censor one you gotta censor the other. What happened with me was that the person said they n didn’t want pro Israel people finding my post’. The thing is I don’t care who sees my posts. People aren’t always going to agree with me and my opinions and that’s fine. People aren’t always going to enjoy what I say. But I can take it. I don’t need a group of people to be censored for the sole sake of ‘protecting me from “the bad guys”’ (putting that in HEAVY quotes).

Again. I’m so sorry that that’s happening to you and other people on the internet. I’ve seen it happen. One blog I like in particular had been labeled a Zionist when they aren’t. And I feel awful for them because it isn’t fair. They’ve never even indicated that they are. In fact they’ve heavily denied it and I feel awful that so many people get this sort of traction on the internet. Everyone deserves to feel safe online, including Jewish people.

I don’t expect anyone to really listen to me though. I myself am not Jewish so take what I say with that in mind. I’m also a technical minor and nobody listens to minors so you know. People are probably not gonna care about what I say. But I’ll still say it because I wanna raise awareness

(Sorry for the rant)

[statementlou]

I’m Jewish and Anti-Zionist as well and I respect your opinion but does it not bother you that people only act this way with Israelis? There is literally no other country where fans would be getting called ugly and racist and people would be demanding violence just because they showed up with a flag. Random citizens of a country aren’t responsible for the actions of their government and no one ever assumes they are except for in the only Jewish country in the world. Harry wrote a whole song about his love for England and no one has ever called that a ‘disgusting display of nationalist allegiance to a racist apartheid state’. You say you wouldn’t wave a US flag but people do or wear it on their clothes or whatever else and literally no one cares. As Jews maybe we shouldn’t condone hatred towards 40% of Jewish people in the world under the guise of social activism?

Okay well I appreciate you, and that the balancing act of being a Jew-- being at risk of anti-semetic violence and prejudice but also benefiting from white privilege-- is a tricky one and there ARE gray areas, for sure! Unfortunately, I disagree with pretty much everything you’ve said here, I am sorry to say. It is true that anti-semites glom onto anti-Israel talk to try to further their agenda, but that is because they are fucking nazis and that is not my responsibility- nothing I say condones their garbage and we can't just not talk about real issues because someone might twist our words. I also disagree that there is no other country regarded with such venom and think that is a narrative perpetuated by zionists and racists: I think the difference is that Israel is talked about that way by WHITE PEOPLE (and yeah lots of times it is because they're just fucking racist, but so is the 'only Israel is treated this way' narrative). As far as I know the powers that be in Iran still refer to the United States as The Great Satan and burn US flags for propaganda purposes, for example, and I think if you ask people in Africa or LATAM how they feel about various colonial powers you will find similarly hostile reactions to flag waving. You say that people wave or wear US flags and no one cares- but that’s literally just not true. A lot of people in a lot of places care plenty, and in fact US tourists wearing Canadian flags to try to avoid the worldwide hatred of USAmericans is huge thing that very much happens. But by all means, go get barricade in LATAM and wave a US flag in everyone’s face and let me know how that goes! And I completely disagree that random citizens of a country bear no responsibility for their governments actions as well. Our taxes and our silence are what make atrocities possible! Here in the US it can be hard to feel like we are complicit in the actions of a government that we ourselves are also fighting tooth and nail to survive, that also attacks and starves and victimizes us, but unfortunately we still do have a responsibility to resist what is being done in our names (in this case, $158 BILLION US tax dollars to Israel to date and that doesn't even include all the military equipment), or at the bare minimum to speak out against it. And in Israel this is even less theoretical: when they turn 18 every Israeli Jew has to choose to either actively resist and refuse military service or to literally join the army and personally participate in the genocide of the Palestinian people. These fans, who according to another anon have told people at shows that “you don’t understand we were just reclaiming our land” and have said they take pride in their flag, have picked a side, and it is the side of murder and colonization. I don’t hate every citizen of Israel simply for where they were born any more than I hate every US citizen; but I do judge and personally do not want anything to do with those who choose to support their government, in both places. This is not ‘the guise of social activism’: it is choosing to be actively anti-racist rather than silent and therefore complicit. As for the rest, I don’t think anyone has considered LOML a nationalistic anthem, but while its true that most people don’t care some people most certainly DO complain about Harry waving flags of any countries, and most especially the UK flag (as opposed to the England one); that in particular because, like the Israeli flag, it touches on colonization that is happening and actively being resisted RIGHT NOW (Scotland and Wales' struggles for independence.)

[inqilabi]

The anon talking about Islamic terrorism was rather clearly implying groups such as Hamas. You then respond “what terrorism?” and bring up Nelson Mandela. Please understand some of us agree with you about Israeli war crimes, about wanting freedom for Palestinian civilians, etc. But we feel we can’t engage with you because you are coy about what you mean — do you think groups such as Hamas, who have called just a few weeks ago for the beheading of Jewish civilians, will be remembered years from now as freedom fighters, and that for you would be the morally correct position to take? I have seen you call their rockets ‘resistance rockets’, those same rockets whose intent, if not impact, is specifically to target and kill Jewish civilians — you think those are the ‘resistance’? It’s not that many of us disagree with you on the Israeli gov, or Israel as a state. We are concerned you’re not consistent in your views when you seem to excuse groups like Hamas’s terrorism or else play coy about any terrorist or antisemitic intent in the first place (“what terrorism? Nelson Mandela was classed as a terrorist”, etc). Which way is it? Can’t all bad things, all targeting of innocent civilians based on hatred, be bad?

So you do think Hamas are the resistance. But do you think that makes what they advocate for correct? You are lying if you think their only goal (or even their main one tbf) is the freedom of Palestinians and not the killing of Jews. Genuinely, I think there is a whole aspect of this that you are either deliberately trying not to comment on or else actively pretending is not there. You can’t be so blind to what Hamas leaders have said or encouraged.

I have to say that this was a disappointing ask, because even before the recent heightened ethnic cleansing effort by Israel, I was talking about propaganda. I posted a video where a ruling class agent openly talks about how they literally create stories, feed to the AP etc, get books written on the topic, the authors of which go on to become influential academics & poets and other cultural features so even if we don't absorb this information from political media, we will absorb it from the random fiction book or poetry we read. As well as I mentioned several instances of ridiculously sensational claims we repeat like robots without realizing that the oppressor class is producing them. And everything you've stated in this ask about Hamas is a product of all that, Israel specifically calls it hasbara. So hopefully you're a new follower, read selectively or are young- because otherwise, it's disappointing.

I also just want to inform you that I use to have the 'Hamas is a terrorist' position for a longtime, I had to struggle against my common notions to arrive at my current position. So I am not blind to Hamas, I believe that I am now more informed.

Yes Hamas is resistance. Because it formed in response to oppression. Hamas is armed civilian resistance. I don't how to make that any clearer. It formed in first intifada in 87'. Yes it is resistance rockets in the face of Israeli slaughter. And Hamas targets Israeli military targets, not civilians. Unlike Israel and IOF which only & exclusively targets civilians with their precision rocket technology under the lie of 'Hamas had a base there' because their goal is literally ethnic cleansing. Israel conducts census for this purpose. They know exactly the population of Palestinians: age, how many children in each family, who lives where, their phone numbers! Israel literally can kill no one even if they choose to bomb because they have technology that advanced & the census. And yet, they choose not to. Because the aim is ethnic cleansing. Hamas makes kitchen rocket from Israel's ethnic cleansing wreckage. The contrast between civilian causalities on both side speak to this fact. This will continue to happen regardless of whether Hamas exists or not. Hamas does not exist in the west bank, and yet Israel continues. Hamas did not exist before 87' and yet, Israel continued. Arabs have always been considered terrorist, as I stated already this was beginning to be the perception when the Arab revolts happened to the Zionist terrorism of the 1920s (might I add, terrorism as we associate with middle east was brought to the region by Zionist bombers but I digress).

Abu Obeida is the official spokesperson of Hamas, so I wouldn't believe nypost first of all, nor Fathi Hammad to represent Hamas' position re your 'behead jews' claim or whomever else made that claim. Hamas original charter was antisemitic, written in 87' during a horrible continued onslaught by Israel- nonetheless not justifiable. The original founders were all assassinated by Israel. And Hamas current character is not that of its foundation given the 30 years that have passed & that the leadership is now completely different, plus many other things that happened between other factions of resistance that have driven a new position. The new charter can be found here.

Point in mentioning Mandela was this: one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. Mandela, ANC and the armed resistance uMkhonto we Sizwe was considered terrorist in consciousness of most people at that time. They were considered to be hell bent on destroying the white people, the Afrikaners, targeting civilians. All of this rhetoric was used to uphold the apartheid.

Today, all liberals come to correctly believe that they were not terrorist, and targeted state apparatus- because this became clear after apartheid ended even though this info was availble before too for anyone who cared to understand. But these same people would have believed at the time that they were killing civilians, as the propaganda said so at the time. These same people today believe Hamas targets civilians. How can you have this hindsight and not understand that its the same thing happening today. Make it make sense!!!!

Anyway to summarize, I have my own opinions about Hamas, but I don't mention them as they're irrelevant since a) national liberation is to be supported no matter who is engaging in it b) I am not the Gazan people with my life being a sentence of death by apartheid Israel.

I think position you have comes from a far too narrow of an analysis, focusing only on the IOF and Hamas. Focusing only on right or wrong, focusing on both players as if they are equal and comes from a lack of understanding of the sheer brutality of colonialism. I would suggest you read this: On Violence.

[schraubd]

Should We Retire "Hasbara" From Our Vocabulary?

If you ask someone on the street "What does 'hasbara' mean?", they will stare at you blankly. That's because, contrary to what the internet might have you believe, random people on the street do not know the ends and outs of rhetorical tropes involving Israel or Israeli society. But if you ask someone somewhat more engaged "What does 'hasbara' mean?", they'll probably give an answer that is something like "propaganda". Hasbara is Israeli propaganda. Of course, that's not actually accurate. The Hebrew word "Hasbara" translates to "explanation", not propaganda. Now to be sure, it's a particular type of explanation -- a justificatory explanation. Explaining to someone the physical processes by which the moon revolves around the Earth is not hasbara. Explaining to your skeptical spouse why your cable bill is so much higher this month (you bought a big boxing pay-per-view), that would be hasbara. But right from the get go, this mistranslation should alarm us. There's something very revealing, after all, about a world where Jewish "explanations" are literally heard as "propaganda". All this time we've talking about antisemitic tropes where Jews deceive, manipulate, or hypnotize the world -- and "hasbara" fits right into that. When people talk about how this argument is "hasbara" or how back in the day they had been subjected to a ton of "hasbara", they're saying more than that they disagree with an argument or that their views have evolved. They're saying that the argument was dishonest or manipulative, that they've learned to recognize the string-pulling. Even when it's Jews doing it, the rhetorical power of dismissing something as hasbara stems almost entirely from antisemitic roots: these Jews are the bad Jews, the manipulators and spin-doctors; I'm an honest Jew who not only sees through the lies, but recognizes the Jewish pattern when I see it. Ultimately, the way "hasbara" is used is almost always an effort to degrade Jewish claim-making. It relies on tropes of Jewish manipulation and insincerity; it literally collapses, in the Jewish case, the distinction between explanation and propaganda. For those reasons, I don't really use "hasbara" much myself (at least not unironically), even when speaking of right-wing arguments defending various Israeli actions that I find utterly ridiculous. I've made an effort (not wholly successful) to remove it from my vocabulary. And so if you go through my archives, I mostly use it either (a) ironically, to refer to people dismissing Jews as "hasbara shills" or (b) in literal reference to Hasbara Fellows on campus. The existence of Hasbara Fellows offers up a new dimension on this discussion. Most obviously, Israel is not the Empire from Star Wars; it does not give its own actors self-consciously evil names like "Death Star" or "Avarice". So the fact that it uses the term "Hasbara Fellow" is a pretty strong hint that the word itself does not have an intrinsically malicious meaning. It'd be like sending off "Deception Fellows" to campus -- who would do that? On the other side, promoters of calling out "hasbara" might contend that they are referring to something specific -- official Israeli governmental efforts to cast Israel in a good light and foment positive dispositions towards the country. That's hasbara (and that's, literally, what Hasbara Fellows are for). So it can't be wrong to call it by its name. One problem with this is that the term hasbara is not limited in application only to Israeli government speakers. Pretty much any Jew who speaks in a remotely apologetic tone for Israel -- no matter their capacity or connection to Israeli governmental actors -- can and will be accused of engaging in hasbara at one point or another. If anything, the government linkage serves more to expand the scope than to limit it: Jews who sound "hasbara-ish" will typically be accused of being outright Israeli governmental agents -- because who else would spout hasbara other than someone on the Israeli payroll? But the larger problem is that we already have a term for states seeking to present themselves in a good life and make people feel positively towards the country: public diplomacy. Now, to be sure, public diplomacy is motivated -- the "explanations" it will give regarding questionable state conduct are in service of a diplomatic end; they aren't the pure dispassionate appraisal one might get from a wholly disinterested scholar. Obviously, anyone who is listening to acts of public diplomacy should listen with a critical ear. But there's nothing wrong with public diplomacy per se, it's an unremarkable fact of everyday statecraft. And so the real function of "hasbara", as its used in public discourse, is to take something normal and mundane and delegitimate it by slapping a scary-sounding foreign word onto it. Public diplomacy is a fact of life, you handle it by not shutting down your critical facilities. Hasbara is something undefineably more nefarious -- we don't know exactly what it is (the fact that the average person probably has no idea what the words means helps, rather than hurts), but it sure sounds scary. Any country can engage in public diplomacy (hell, any country can engage in propaganda), but only Israel can do hasbara. It's another way of exceptionalizing Israel and suggesting that nothing it does can be analyzed through "normal" processes -- we need new and special words, new and special concepts, new and special standards to accurately assess anything it does. And, I'd suggest, it's implicitly orientalist as well. It is the foreignness, the mysterious impenetrability of the word hasbara, that gives it such power. Is it fair to say that there are arguments made by Israeli government defenders which strike me as ludicrous, bad-faith, or just impossible to take seriously? Of course -- I can think of a half-dozen examples instantaneously. And so I can understand the desire to have a pithy word which just puts those arguments in their place. "Hasbara" can fill that niche nicely. But really, what we do get by keeping "hasbara" in our vocabulary that we wouldn't otherwise have? When Rep. Ilhan Omar apologized for her "hypnotize" tweet -- and I give her credit for that -- it was striking to see how many people rushed in to condemn her for the apology. They were insistent that Israel really does "hypnotize" the world, that hypnosis is the best way to describe how it is that Israel ever persuades anyone of anything. In effect, they really do believe that all Jewish "explanations" for Israel are naught but propaganda. In this way, the main utility of "hasbara", as a term, isn't to enable us to call out bad-faith arguments when they appear. The main function is to suggest that the entire sweep of the discourse is bad-faith, manipulative or hypnotic. It's not that this argument is a bad argument; the entire discursive sphere about Israel (or more specifically, the Jewish and non-explicitly anti-Zionist contribution to it) is defined by manipulation and deceit. Hasbara, we might say, is a structure, not an event -- it's not a discrete set of bad arguments we reject as failing the smell test, it's the entire state of the world where Jews endeavor to bend reality into unreality. That sort of outlook just can't be sustained -- at least, not in a way that is compatible with the fair inclusion of Jewish voices in deliberative arenas. The fact is that there are certain words and terms which have genuine usefulness but which do far more damage than good, and whose use is consequently not justified. For me, "self-hating Jew" is one such term -- I understand the desire to put down Jews whose public persona seems entirely dedicated to slamming other Jews, but the degrading, marginalizing character of "self-hating Jews" is just too harmful to justify its usage -- and so I don't use the term. The more I think about it, the more I think "hasbara" falls into the same boat. And so I think it's time that it gets retired as well. via The Debate Link http://bit.ly/2UjsR2G

[popolitiko]

Republican lawmakers like Rep. Lee Zeldin were criticized, deservedly, for distorting Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s comments about the Holocaust by suggesting she said that she gets a “calming feeling” when she thinks about the genocide.

If you read or listen to the Michigan Democrat’s comments, it is crystal clear that she said no such thing. The Republican pile-on, joined by President Donald Trump, is a further weaponization of anti-anti-Semitism, this time based on a comment that the target never made. But it’s not just Republicans who appeared to distort Tlaib’s now notorious remarks. It was the ostensibly nonpartisan Jewish commentariat and media as well, in which I will include our own site, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and take full responsibility.

Our headline on Monday read “Rashida Tlaib says her Palestinian ancestors made a ‘safe haven’ for Jews after Holocaust.” We quoted the remarks she gave to the podcast Skullduggery in which Tlaib asserted that she gets a “calming feeling” when she considers that the Palestinians “created a ‘safe haven’ for Jews during the Holocaust.” That was the take amplified around the Jewish world and the Israeli press, in which historians of the era pointedly refuted her purported version of history.

They noted that far from welcoming Jewish refugees during the Nazi era, the Palestinian leadership actively worked against their immigration to British-controlled Palestine and collaborated with the Nazis in their war against the Allies. “Rashida Tlaib is either completely ignorant of the history or is a deliberate liar,” Benny Morris, the Israeli historian, told Haaretz. Palestinians “did nothing to alleviate the suffering of the Jews at Nazi hands. Rather, the opposite: The Arabs of [British Mandatory] Palestine, during the whole period — and supported by the neighboring Arab states — did all they could to prevent Jews trying to escape Nazi hands from reaching the (relatively safe) shores of Palestine.” That is an important assertion of the historical record, and one made repeatedly in the press and on Twitter in the wake of her remarks. But it assumes that Tlaib was crediting Palestinians with welcoming refugees and “creating” a safe haven for Jews, when the transcript of her remarks suggest she was saying something else. Here are the relevant quotes, which I transcribed from the video.

Interviewer: Congresswoman, you’ve created something of a stir by coming out in favor of a one-state solution, Israel and Palestine, and I think you may be the only Democrat who’s publicly supported a one-state solution. So what is your vision for a one-state solution that meets both Palestinian and Israeli-Jewish national aspirations? Tlaib: Absolutely. Let me tell you — I mean, for me, I think two weeks ago we celebrated, or took a moment I think in our country to remember, the Holocaust. And there’s a kind of a calming feeling, I always tell folks, when I think of the Holocaust and the tragedy of the Holocaust in the fact that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways had been wiped out, and some people’s passports — I mean, just all of it was in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-the Holocaust, post-the tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that, right?, in many ways. But they did it in a way that took their human dignity away, right, and it was forced on them.

Tlaib does not assert that Palestinians welcomed Jews or worked in any way to create  the “safe haven.” Instead, she says, using the passive voice, that Palestinians were displaced “in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews.” In fact, “it was forced on them” — that is, the Palestinians. And despite the cost to her people in property and dignity, she goes on, she “love[s] the fact that” something good came of it  — a safe haven for Jews who were suffering “horrific persecution” around the world.

She does say that it was her “ancestors that provided that,” but “provided” is different than “created.” And Tlaib qualifies “provided” with “in many ways” — hardly an assertion of open arms — and immediately says that “they did it” (presumably, Jews created the haven) in a way that “took their human dignity” (that is, the Palestinians’ dignity).

Far from claiming that her ancestors worked to bring Jews to Palestine, or welcomed them when they arrived, she is saying that even if the Jews did come and take their land and rights away, at least it was for the alleviation of another people’s suffering. In acknowledging that suffering and noting her own people’s, her remarks are closer in spirit to the anti-Zionist refrain that the Jews escaped the window of a burning house only to land on someone else’s head. There is a lot to disagree with in Tlaib’s remarks. The Holocaust is hardly the sole justification of the existence of Israel. She denies the Jews the right to autonomy in a state of their own. She rejects the idea of two states for two peoples and instead holds out for the impossible idea that Israel will surrender its sovereignty in hopes of creating some sort of United States of Isratine. It’s that kind of wishful, almost messianic thinking that has prevented Palestinian leaders from accepting anything less.

But it’s a tremendous and dangerous distraction to attribute to her words and ideas she didn’t say.

In defending Tlaib, Linda Sarsour, the Palestinian-American activist, tweeted: “It’s not about what we say, it’s who we are. It’s based on orientalist tropes that deem Muslims and Arabs inherently anti-Semitic. It’s racist. It’s bigoted. It’s finally being exposed.” In invoking Islamophobia, Sarsour exactly mirrors critics who are too quick to hear anti-Semitism in everything she and fellow high-profile Muslim women, including Tlaib and Rep. Ilhan Omar, say.

Each has indeed uttered remarks that invoked anti-Semitic tropes. There’s fair criticism and criticism made in bad faith. Sarsour seems to suggest that Muslim Americans like her should take no responsibility for the things they say that Jews and others take as offensive. And she ignores the single biggest factor driving these charges of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia: political expediency. Tlaib and Omar are a gift to the Republican Party, just as they are a headache for the Democrats. By broadcasting their misguided statements and inventing others, the right uses both freshman lawmakers to portray Democrats in ways sure to rile their own base and energize their Jewish voters and givers: as radical, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and, frankly, un-American. It doesn’t hurt that they are Muslim, a handy “other” for political factions that like to invoke America’s “Judeo-Christian” tradition. Democrats often join in attacking these celebrity newcomers in order to separate themselves from the increasingly diverse insurgency on their left — and sometimes they distort comments on the other side to score political points. Tlaib and Omar seem only too happy to provide fodder for these firefights, in which everyone is shooting blanks. But in this instance Tlaib didn’t say what they say she said. Although she is no Zionist, she acknowledged Jewish suffering and offered up a slice of understanding as to why Jews needed a homeland. It’s hardly a path to reconciliation, but it isn’t anti-Semitism either. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

https://www.jpost.com/American-Politics/What-did-Rashida-Tlaib-really-say-about-the-Holocaust-589711