#refugees from antisemitism rising in their home country

[gxlden-angels]

jewish americans support ceasefire

I'm aware! Free Palestine!

[studiodaydream]

genuinely, genuinely, in the most neutral way possible: zionism in no way claims that jews control the world. idk where you got that from. all zionism is is the belief that jews should be able to live in their ancestral homeland freely. it's not white supremacy, because not all jews are white. please stop spreading hate ❤️

There is no hate for Jews here, only for White Supremacist ideologylies like Zionism.

I have proof that Israel mutilates, and guns down African Jews, who are not the so called "Evil Muslims" that Zionist love to kill and murder for their land and resources.

Most of this is about Ethiopian Jews but the treatment of Refugees from African Countries is even more so appalling.

You cannot tell me to do my research and all I've found is Racism, Islamophobia, Genocide, Mutilation and Murder.

Talks about a Chosen Race, and Superior Bloodlines and not see the White Supremacy that has plagued America and Europe for hundreds of years.

You can not tell me to do my research about Zionism and tell me I don't know anything only to see that your so called "Jewish Nationalist Independence" came from an Antisemitic British man

So no im not spreading hate, I'm spreading facts about the White Supremacist ideology of Zionism. That believes that it shouldn't be criticized because it's Jewish White Nationalism and it's different from regular White Nationalism and if you compare the two and criticize Israel you're antisemitic and you hate Jews.

Judaism is a non violent religion. Jewish Culture is non violent. What is Violent is Zionism and its settler colonialist aggression towards its neighbors, relentlessly bombing them out of "self defense" well the world is watching what youre so called "self defense" looks like.

It looks like dead babies left in hospitals that have been bombed

Isreal's "self defense" looks like a father asking for help with his child, as his dead child's REMAINS are stuffed in bags and yet he begs for help

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Joudie Kalla - جودي القلا 🧿 (@palestineonaplate)

Israel's self defense looks like White Phosphorus being dropped on innocent civilians

https://youtu.be/geqdxdNEToU?si=js5ZGZC4eajY7uO2

These links show that Israel is not only a White Supremacist Nation like its parents The US and UK but also that Zionism is a White Supremacist Ideology.

I am not spreading hate Anon, I am spreading facts. To deny these facts is to spread hate. To deny that Israel is not a criminal empire and is simply "defending its right to exist" is to spread hate.

Antisemitism is on the rise and it's not because of people like me Anon is it because of Israel and Zionist Settler Colonialist Aggression towards the Palestinians and towards its Arab Neighbors. Israel denies the Nakba and that it stole land at all claiming that "no one lived here before we came" a "empty land with no people". Well there were people and those people had neighbors who saw what Zionist did to their defenseless neighbor with the backing of terrorist countries like the US and the UK. Terrorist Nations that destabilized and murdered millions in 3 separate nations in their "War on Terror".

White Supremacy has no ally on this blog, including Zionism.

If you want to unfollow me go ahead. I will not be swayed by Zionist Propaganda that this is all in "defense" of Jewish Nationhood, and how the only way to "defend" Jewish Nationhood is to invade other countries and murder other people who look different from them because they are the "Chosen People".

We've heard it all before, when the Europeans said they were bringing "civilization" to Africa and the Americas by enslaving our people and stealing our land and resources. When America had its "Manifest Destiny" which led to the genocide of countless Native Americans and the stealing of their land and resources. To Nazi Germany and the "Superior Ayan Race" which killed millions and invaded other nations killing millions of more.

You might be familiar with that last one, the Holocaust. Where millions of Jews were brutally and systematically murdered. But not only Jews but Black Europeans, Romanian Immigrants and LGBTQ Europeans.

But it seems like Israel has forgotten history because it does not treat African Jews equally to its European Jews and is actively Hostile to Refugees from African countries. While committing Genocide against the Palestinians as I type this out.

So if you're reading this I implore you to donate if you can or spread awareness of what's happening in Gaza

https://buildpalestine.com/2021/05/15/trusted-organizations-to-donate-to-palestine/

And your daily clicks

https://arab.org/click-to-help/

Do not allow Zionist to call you antisemitic for calling them out on their lies.

Palestine will be Free, From the River to the Sea

[confusedlamp]

Okay, quick point, if you wish to engage with American zionists who abhor Israel's bombing of Gaza, but who still agree with statements like "Israel has a right to exist" or that "Israel needs to exist for Jewish safety."** In my experience, this is where a lot of american jews stand, but much of the current rhetoric conflates those who fall in this category and unconditional support of Israel.

A lot of the fear of expulsion or killing, if a one state solution in Palestine were to come to fruition, is based in a bit more than the typical settler-colonial fear of loss of power. I don't deny this as a factor, I just don't believe it as the only factor influencing jewish support for modern zionism. Jews have suffered an extremely recent genocide and we have a long history of being expelled from one place or another. When this happens, like with a lot of refugees, other countries turn them away and there's no place to go. The idea of an area where jews would be safe to go when there's yet another wave of antisemitism somewhere, appeals to a lot of people, especially those whose parents or grandparents fled or survived the holocaust.

Why does this place need to be an explicitly Jewish state? Because they don't trust others not to turn on us. Large communities of jews lived beside non-jewish neighbors peacefully for generations before joining calls for their expulsion. So yeah, for a lot of jews, even outside of upticks in antisemitism, there's this feeling that nowhere is completely safe except amongst other jews.

How do you deal with this sort of fear when talking to people? I would start with acknowledging where it comes from and not dismissing it as completely irrational. Don't deny or downplay antisemitism. Try and clear up any misconceptions they have about what Palestinian liberation would mean. Provide resources to actual Palestinians talking about their vision of liberation, so they know this isn't simply idealist. I would then bring up how everytime Israel is in the news, antisemitism rises right with it. Israel is making jews outside of it less safe when it continues to place itself as the home for all jews. Importantly, bring up how Israel's existance as a jewish state conflicts with goals like overall equality in Israel/Palestine and palestinian refugees returning to their homeland. Talk to them about how fear, even when valid, does not justify the lack of justice.

**Before anyone misinterprets this: I am speaking to those who want to talk to people who have this kind of stance. Obviously, I don't think all discussions of Palestine need to be aimed at this audience or have some sort of disclaimer. However, I do see a lot of people who fall in this opinion category, and it is valuable to engage with their concerns.

[girlactionfigure]

Separated from his family, he searched for his two daughters.

He was like many others, after Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945 - He had hopes that his family might have survived . . .

Under Adolf Hitler's leadership, the Nazi regime had killed an estimated 6 million Jewish people and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen ("sub-humans") and socially undesirable, including 2 million Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men.

He was hoping he would find his wife and two daughters. Five years earlier, when he and his family had realized Hitler's racially motivated ideology was promoting hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, he tried to get his family out of Germany, but he had run afoul of restrictive American immigration policies designed to protect national security and guard against an influx of foreigners.

He had written his American friend, "I am forced to look out for emigration and as far as I can see U.S.A. is the only country we could go to. Perhaps you remember that we have two girls. It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."

America had, however, changed its attitude toward immigrants, especially refugees, who were fleeing war torn countries.

He would eventually find out that his wife was dead. She had died of starvation in one of the concentration camps. He still had hopes that his daughters may have survived, but those hopes were soon shattered as well.

He returned to the hiding place, in which he and his family hid for two years, now empty, only filled with sad memories. A trusted friend of the family met him and gave him some papers, which turned out to be the diaries of his daughter. She had died at the age of 15 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

He remembered that his daughter was so full of hope, she had wanted to be a writer, she wanted her diaries to be published after the war. At first he was hesitant, but his daughter always dreamed of improving the world, and he realized that his daughter's words could help.

She had written in that diary, "It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

Otto Frank would publish his daughter's diary so others would never forget. The title of the publication became known as "The Diary of a Young Girl" or Anne Frank's Diary.

~~~~~

Friday, January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Peace Page has shared many stories of Anne Frank, her family, and life during that terrible time. This is an updated story with new insights. The Jon S. Randal Peace Page focuses on past and present stories seldom told of lives forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. The stories are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding. You can find more stories in the Peace Page archives. We encourage you to learn more about the individuals mentioned here and to support the writers, educators, and historians whose words we present.

~~~~~

“In his message for the International Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres notes that the Holocaust was the culmination of thousands of years of antisemitic hate, aided by the decision of so many to do nothing to stop the Nazis.”

“It was the deafening silence – both at home and abroad – that emboldened them”.

“This, he continues, was despite Nazi Germany’s hate speech and disinformation campaigns, contempt for human rights and the rule of law, the glorification of violence and tales of racial supremacy, and disdain for democracy and diversity.

“In the face of growing economic discontent and political instability, escalating white supremacist terrorism, and surging hate and religious bigotry – we must be more outspoken than ever,” added the UN chief, drawing a parallel between the Holocaust and the present day.”

One of the exhibitions on displacement illustrates the stereotyping, misinformation, and conspiracy theories used by the Nazis, to vilify Jews, Roma, migrants, LGBTQIA+, or other groups.

~~~~~

In an NBC News report:

"The story of teenage diarist Anne Frank is known across the world. But a new survey suggests a “disturbing” lack of awareness about the Holocaust in the Netherlands, where she and her family hid for years before being discovered and deported to a Nazi concentration camp.

A Dutch Holocaust survivor and Jewish cultural leaders have expressed dismay at the survey, which was released Wednesday and suggests that more than half of the residents were not aware of the deportation and murder of Jews from the country during World War II.

The survey, conducted and released by the New York-based nonprofit Claims Conference ahead of International Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday, found that 53% of the respondents couldn’t identify the Netherlands as a country where the events of the Holocaust happened — rising to 60% among millennial and Gen Z respondents, meaning those under 40.

Historians estimate more than 70% of the Netherlands’ prewar Jewish population was killed during the Holocaust, more than 100,000 in total. Frank hid in a secret room in Amsterdam with her family from 1942 to 1944 before she died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp weeks before its liberation.

Despite widely available evidence of the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews, 12% of those surveyed told the researchers either that the Holocaust was a myth or that the number of deaths was greatly exaggerated — the highest figure for any of the six nations surveyed in recent years. For the Netherlands, this rises to 23% of people under 40.

~~~~~

In an article by Melinda Houston of The Sydney Morning Herald, she asks, “How many US citizens know their country refused a visa to the family of Anne Frank – a refusal that forced them into hiding in Amsterdam and ultimately resulted in their deaths?”

Writing about Ken Burns documentary, “The US and the Holocaust”, Houston states, “That’s the shocking fact that opens this typically sober, lyrical and exquisitely balanced documentary from Ken Burns.”

In the documentary, Burns presents information which Houston presents, saying, “In the 1890s, the US was indeed the promised land and its doors were wide open to immigrants. It was also a time of genocide of Native Americans. And the flourishing of slavery.”

~~~~~

In the new book, “After The Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond”, author Bas von Benda-Beckmann “pieces together the chilling final months of the Jewish teenager and her family,” according to Chris Dean For Mailonline.

“He reveals harrowing stories about a friend’s attempts to throw food parcels over a barbed-wire fence to a starving and freezing Anne, as well as the punishing work she was given splitting open old batteries with a chisel and hammer.”

Anne, who would be 93 if she was alive today, and her family hid from Nazi persecution in the annex behind a bookcase in their Amsterdam home for two years before being caught.

~~~~~

According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Antisemitic hate crimes have been rising in recent years, and could surpass 2021 numbers — a possible record year.

PBS Newshour also reports that The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks anti-Semitic behavior nationwide, found 2,717 incidents in 2021. That's a 34 percent rise from the year before and averages out to more than seven anti-Semitic incidents per day.

~~~~~

According to The Post and Courier, “we should remember that too many ordinary people did little or nothing to try to stop the Holocaust at the time. Yes, there were heroes such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler, but far too many others were aware of what was happening and remained bystanders.”

“We cannot rely on heroic individuals to be the difference,” says Doyle Stevick, University of South Carolina education professor and director of the school’s Anne Frank Center. “We need to build communities of upstanders.”

“To remember is not a passive, intellectual activity. It’s an active commitment to live the values that would have allowed every Anne Frank to live to her full potential. That’s the summons that we all should heed when we remember January 27.”

“Lessons about the Holocaust go beyond a significant chapter of World War II, beyond the 6 million victims killed by a totalitarian regime. They extend to the vital and ongoing importance of our coming together and understanding one another, wherever we happen to be.”

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

[beardedmrbean]

German Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck has vowed a tough political response to increasing antisemitism.

In a video seen eight million times, he criticised antisemitism from Islamists, the far right and "parts of the political left".

Germany has seen a recent surge in antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents.

They began after the 7 October attacks in Israel during which Palestinian Hamas militants killed 1,400 Israelis and took more than 230 hostages.

Israel then launched a war it says is aimed at destroying Hamas. The Hamas-run health ministry says more than 9,000 people have since been killed.

Mr Habeck's lengthy and emotive video has had a big impact in Germany. He pointed out that almost 80 years after the Holocaust, Jewish communities were having to tell their members to steer clear of certain places.

Some political figures praised him for giving what sounded like a state of the nation address. Antisemitism commissioner Felix Klein said he had made a clear and prudent appeal to the responsibility of everyone in Germany to stand up for the safety of Jewish women and men.

Germany has outlawed the burning of other countries' flags and the vice-chancellor reminded Germans that burning the Israeli flag or praising Hamas's actions were crimes.

"Anyone who is German will have to answer for this in court," Mr Habeck said in his message. "Anyone who isn't German also risks losing their residence status. Anyone who doesn't yet have a residence permit is giving grounds for deportation."

Mr Habeck said some Muslim groups had been "too hesitant" in distancing themselves from Hamas or antisemitism, and he spoke of his concern about young activists on the left talking of "anti-colonialism".

Not everyone was impressed. One former party colleague said she was disgusted he had implied that Muslim migrants and refugees had brought antisemitism into Europe.

The head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims, Aiman Mazyek, had earlier condemned antisemitism as a sin, stressing that Germany's five million Muslims should not all be lumped together. He went on to condemn Israel's bombing of Gaza as a war crime.

When Hamas gunmen attacked Israeli communities on 7 October, activists celebrated on the streets of the Berlin district of Neukölln, handing out pastries to passers-by, sparking outrage in much of Germany.

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced on Thursday that all activities linked to Hamas in Germany would be banned, along with a pro-Palestinian network called Samidoun that handed out the pastries.

She said "terror organisation Hamas pursues the goal of destroying the state of Israel", while Samidoun was spreading propaganda against Israel and Jews under the pretence of acting as a "solidarity organisation" for the release of prisoners in various countries.

Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist group in the EU, US and UK, so it was already banned in Germany. But Ms Faeser said outlawing its activities enabled authorities to broaden the ban and would make it easier to intervene in gatherings of supporters.

Intelligence officials estimate Hamas has 450 members in Germany, many of them German citizens.

A week after the Hamas attacks, antisemitic incidents in Germany soared by 240%, compared with the same period in 2022.

Petrol bombs were thrown at a Berlin Jewish community centre and Jewish-owned homes have been daubed with slogans.

The head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Josef Schuster, welcomed the bans and called for action against "other hate organisations".

[eretzyisrael]

How the international community sought to create an endless Israel-Palestinian war

By SETH J. FRANTZMAN

One of the remarkable outcomes of the recent Hamas war on Israel was the use of terminology that illustrates a larger goal designed to create conditions that justify Hamas “resistance” and claim Israel is a “settler” state. These terms, similar to the chants of “from the river to the sea” that span the far-left and far-right Hamas supporters are designed to assert that Israel should be destroyed as a country. They have origins in the international community’s attempt to undermine Israel from the first days of the state.

In no other place in the world has the international community worked so hard to try to erode the foundations of an internationally recognized state. It’s worth looking at the broader context of this. For instance when Israel was created in 1948 it was immediately attacked by several other countries. This was an illegal invasion and attack on a state whose creation had been backed by the United Nations. When Israel succeeded in defeating these countries the immediate response from the international community was not to help broker peace and aid the refugees that fled, but rather to create a situation in which Israel’s borders were called into question so as to create the conditions of excusing war against Israel.

There would be “cease fire agreements” which by their nature meant the war was not over, just waiting for the next round. At the same time the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who had fled the fighting were housed in refugee camps and a narrative created telling them they would soon return to their homes. This “right of return” which does not apply to other refugees everywhere, of which there have been hundreds of millions in the last century, was created to force Israel to take back refugees. If Israel didn’t, international organizations would create numerous groups to support the refugees until such time this took place.

Next began the terrorism against Israel, no condemnation by the UN or others for countries hosting “armed struggle” against Israel which provoked wars in 1956, 1982 and at other times. Israel was subjected to an illegal military blockade at this time to and non-recognition by most states in the region. 

When that had largely failed to destroy Israel the next step was arming of Egypt, Syria and other countries to fight Israel. The same countries arming these states also claimed that the “conflict” and solving it would solve all the region’s problems, but pouring arms into the region for endless wars against Israel was not seen as a problem. Israel’s defensive actions were condemned, including the raid on the Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, a reactor supplied by France. Instead of preventing countries like Iraq from pursuing existential threats to Israel, it was encouraged. 

At the same time the Palestinian “liberation” organizations that vowed to reconquer all of Israel were given praise at the UN even as Israel was routinely subjected to one sided critique and barred from various regional bodies, isolated and then its national movement called “racist.” Countries in the region were encouraged to use the excuse of fighting Israel to roll back democracy, crush dissidents and minorities, develop and import weapons and start various wars. At each turn whichever extremist regime, from Iran to Nasser’s Egypt, was able to use the Israel excuse as a crutch. The most outlandish comments from Saddam’s regime, firing Scuds illegally at Israel in 1991, to Iran’s comments about Israel go uncondemned in the international community. 

What is extraordinary is how at each juncture the international community did not play a positive role trying to foster peace. Instead when there were peace talks there were. Purposeful roadblocks put up to derail them. Talks always said that the “refugees” and “right of return” would be the last issue on the agenda, guaranteeing failure. Also Jerusalem would need to be divided. Meanwhile everything that came to Israel always was removed from international norms. Countries like Iran could target Jews in South America, terrorists targeted Israelis at the Olympics, Hamas was permitted to produce and stockpile missiles illegally and so was Hezbollah. At each turn it was always an excuse that so long as these groups targeted Israel their illegal arsenals could increase. The Palestinian Authority wasn’t even expected to have elections. Israel was kept out of CENTCOM and regional bodies to appease the regional states up until recently. 

Ridiculous obsession with Israel at the UN led everything to be warped just to attack Israel from the WHO to Women and Human Rights groups, to UNESCO. Every rule that applies to every country in the world was shifted regarding Israel being singled out. And now human rights groups have done the same regarding accusations of “apartheid.” There is no commonality between Israel’s system and apartheid, but the term had to be changed just to attack Israel. The term “settler state” was shifted from its original meaning relating to the New World states to apply to Israel, a country that is not made up of “settlers.” The supposed “two state” solution has now been tossed aside in favor of what the anti-Israel voices call “one state” and “from the river to the sea.” The accusations that all of Israel is “apartheid” is designed to cater to this alliance of Hamas and the progressive left against Israel. It doesn’t matter what Israel does, just defending itself with Iron Dome is now considered a reason to attack it. Similarly the use of the term “settler” to describe Israel, asserting that this gives it less rights, when numerous other states in North America and other places were created by “settlers.” Only in Israel’s case are migrants and refugees called “settlers.” 

Even when Israel tried to do what the international community has asked, withdraw from Gaza, the same community that made sure that failed chaotic Palestinian Authority elections would enable Hamas to take over Gaza. Then they say that Israel still “occupies” Gaza, when Israel left. Hamas is said to have a “right” to “resist occupation” and attack Israel with rockets, and if Israel blockades Hamas then it is said to be evidence of “occupation.” Similarly even though Israel left Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah is permitted to claim it must keep a massive arsenal to “resist” Israel because Israel “occupies” Lebanon, even though it doesn’t. This shows no matter how much Israel withdraws from the “occupation” will never end and the need for “resistance” will never end. The doctrine is “one state” and a “binational” state. Under no circumstance to international organizations say they won’t fund Palestinian groups that use maps showing all of historic Palestine as theirs, and no Israel. Even terms like “’48 Arabs” or “48 lands” are used. To deny the existence of Israel. No other country is subjected to this. No one says that India is “48 lands”. 

Only Israel is subjected to non-recognition by numerous countries, based often on religious hatred. Even as the Cold War ended and other disputes ended there was no push by the international community to recognize Israel. It is a conflict that began in 1948 and which many in the international community will use forever. Iran’s regime uses the conflict to excuse spreading chaos in the region and arming illegal extrajudicial groups. Why does Iran threaten Israel? That question is never asked. Why does the regime get to continually use the Palestinian issue to threaten? No other country randomly adopts a cause far away to threaten to destroy some other other country. For instance Burma may be accused of suppressing Rohingya, but Iran or Turkey don’t threaten the country’s destruction. Only with Israel. 

The international community has done nothing to try to create peace in the Middle East and prevent the stockpiling of rockets by Hezbollah, Iran’s brazen nuclear program and other issues. As long as these countries say they will “destroy” Israel, they get a pass. If they threaten any other country they are held to account. Even Jewish history is neatly removed, UNESCO declaring Hebron a heritage site but purposely focusing on the Mamluk and Ottoman period to remove any need to mention Jewish heritage in Hebron. The whole of world history changed just to ignore Jewish rights and role in historic Israel. 

This is not about Palestinian rights and a state. Because the nature of the argument, the “river to the sea” talk now said at western Universities, it all about ethnic cleansing of Israel. It is the only state in the world the western left leaning progressive will seek to ethnically-cleanse of its diverse population. It’s the only state they say that it has to provide full and equal rights to “all its citizens” and change its flag and anthem, but no other state in the Middle East must do so. It’s the only state where 4,000 rockets can be fired at it without condemnation or even mention of Hamas. It’s the only state where when there is a war there is a huge rise in attacks on Jews all around the world by the same people who claim “anti-Zionism” is not antisemitism. This is the reality in the wake of the Hamas war. 

Regardless of Israel’s mistakes, the international community’s failure to rein in extremist groups and to continue to enable the excuses about why there is a war is one of the root problems. Had the international community done more to say that groups like Hamas and Hezbollah shouldn’t have a de facto “right to resist” there might have been more peace long ago. 

[laryna6]

There’s a post going around about the situation with Israel and Palastine, and like, the information it contains is valid, but there’s such a thing as lying by omission, or goddamn Holocaust Erasure by omission.

The Holocaust left a generation of Jewish people, and Jewish people as a culture, really fucking traumatized and scared as hell. Germany was one of the places that was nicest to Jewish people! A ton of Jewish patriots contributed to Germany in WWI! If even a decent, less-anti-semetic-than-usual country will start slaughtering babies, who can you trust?? And the world sat back and went ‘nah, go back to Germany so they can murder you’ to Jewish refugees?

So you have a bunch of really traumatized survivors with what’s left of their families and nowhere is fucking safe. There is no one they can trust not to murder their children except each other. 

If they want what’s left of their families to not be slaughtered, the only way to be safe is to have their own country, since every country in the world just backstabbed them, and an army of their own. 

The post going around ignores that Israel was their ancestral homeland, that Jewish people are the descendants of a diaspora driven out of their homeland, so when they needed to found a country, where were they going to go? Sure, if the UN was less anti-semetic, they might have gone ‘Germany was exterminating people to make more Lebensraum for German people to live in, it’s fair for them to lose some of their country for living space for some of the people they tried to exterminate,’ but if I was Jewish and someone suggested I take my loved ones and settle down in GERMANY? After Germans turned out to be crazed baby-murderers?? Hahaha, no. Especially since the world would absolutely turn on that new country next generation and support the Germans getting ‘their’ land back.

Also! The real reason the US backs Israel is that our religious nut jobs want to bring about the end of the world and believe that the Jewish people being restored to their ancestral homeland was a prerequisite of that. So aid from the US hasn’t exactly convinced Jewish people that the US is a friend and they aren’t all alone in the world because they know that the entire reason the US is supporting them is so that the world will end and all Jews will burn in hell.

And Israel was also where the Jewish people lived when God wasn’t pissed at them, so yeah, psychological association of safety. Yes, atrocities were committed to found Israel, but these were Holocaust survivors, who aren’t to blame for having internalized that atrocities are how the world works. This doesn’t make it okay obviously, but you have to understand why things are happening if you want to stop them, not completely ignore historical context the way that post does.

What’s being done to Palastinians is a crime, I’m not saying it isn’t. However, it’s vital to understand that the people involved are committing those crimes because they are scared to death and think they have no alternative, and can you blame them? When the world is undergoing a massive rise in Nazis and Anti-Semitism? When the reason Israel is making all those settlements is that Jewish people are having to flee their home countries to escape right wing nut jobs and the only place they can go is Israel? We’re in a rise of fascism! Of course they’re in ‘this is Nazis all over again!’ mode!

Anti-Semetic, Holocaust-Erasing posts like that one going around? When Jewish people see that, what are they going to think but that the whole world, even liberals on Tumblr, are against them and their only hope of their families’ survival is Israel? 

If we want to stop the persecution of Palastinians, what we need is for Israel to be less militant. If we want Israel to be less militant, we need to fight Nazis and antisemitism so they see they aren’t alone in the world and people don’t all want them to be murdered. Anti-semetic posts like that one are just going to make things worse for Palastinians by making Israel’s cultural and generational trauma worse. When the problem is that the twitchy traumatized survivors with guns are shooting people, don’t fucking retraumatize them.

So yes, be furious on behalf of Palastinians, but go after the goddamn Nazis who caused all this, not the victims of a genocide, goddamn.

[historicalfightingguide]

Shared by Красный Рассвет with the message: “Сегодня Международный день борьбы против фашизма, расизма и антисемитизма’‘ meaning “Today is the International Day against Fascism, Racism and Anti-Semitism”

The image itself “ Рисунок К. Латуффа, посвящённый 70-летию Сталинградского сражения “ meaning “ Drawing by K. Latuff , dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad” as per this wikipedia article named ‘Battle of Stalingrad in popular culture’

In case you’re unfamiliar with what it’s about:

“This year, on the 9th of November, we mark the International Day Against Fascism and Antisemitism, in commemoration of the Kristallnacht pogrom that took place in 1938. We commemorate 80 years of the beginning of World War II as we continue mourning the millions of people killed in Nazi persecution and genocide – those targeted for being Jews, Roma, people with disabilities, sexual minorities, or prison inmates, as well as many ethnic and religious minorities, civilians, prisoners of war, and political opponents. 81 years have passed since, but it is clear that hate is not gone. It merely keeps changing its many faces and forms. Today, there are no signs saying “No Jews allowed”, but there is desecration of synagogues and tombs, and stereotypes of Jews continue to fuel conspiracy theories. Today, mainstream society has come to tolerate hateful views of Muslims and migrants from Africa and the Middle East. The Romani, historically the most marginalized group in Europe, still face large-scale discrimination and poverty, excluded from a society they entered 700 years ago. People are still being assaulted and killed for their characteristics or group memberships. “ from this link 

Another overview:

“9 November 1938, the ‘Kristallnacht’ pogrom was the first step towards the extermination of the Jewish Europeans by the nazis. SA Storm Troopers and civilians destroyed more than 8000 Jewish homes and shops, set synagogues on fire, imprisoned, injured and killed Jews all across the country. Pieces of broken windows covering the streets in many German cities gave rise to the name ‘Kristallnacht’ which freely translated means the Night of Broken Glass.Today this pogrom is seen as the symbolic beginning of the Holocaust, the systematic eradication of Jewish people which started with the discrimination and exclusion of the German Jews since 1933 and which eventually led to the murder of 6 million Jewish people and 5,5 million ‘enemies of the German state’: homosexuals, criminals and ‘asocial’ people, members of diverse religious communities, people with mental disabilities, political ‘offenders’ such as communists and socialists, Spanish republican refugees and minorities like Roma and Sinti and others. The ‘Kristallnacht’ reminds us that such terrible things did not start with deportations and concentration camps, but were developed step by step. Nazi propaganda and hate speech against Jews and laws depriving Jewish citizens of their rights (the ‘Nuremberg Laws’ i.a. stripped German Jews of their citizenship) were the first steps, eventually culminating in violence and pogroms.

...

Every year, hundreds of organisations and informal groups in over 45 countries take an active part in the campaigns. People oppose hate in their communities and promote inclusion in these activities. It is time for you, too! The campaign is pluralist and open: there is place and space for all.We use different approaches but we have one shared vision of a society without hatred and discrimination, based on equality and human rights.“ from here

And a bit more from the wikipedia page on related subjects: “ Since 1995, UNITED coordinates an annual pan-European campaign on occasion of the 9 November, called International Day against Fascism and Antisemitism. Hereby, the approach is two-fold: while one part of the campaign aims to commemorate victims of the "Kristallnacht" pogrom and, more broadly, victims of the Holocaust and of fascism throughout history; another part focuses mostly on contemporary issues of racism, antisemitism, right-wing extremism and neo-fascism. The campaign is joined by many different groups with independent actions which are collected by UNITED in an online map available at www.dayagainstfascism.eu “

The wikipedia article says the following about the weapon pictured in the image above:

“The PPSh-41 (Russian: Пистоле́т-пулемёт Шпа́гина, tr. Pistolét-pulemyót Shpágina, lit. 'Shpagin's machine pistol') is a Soviet submachine gun designed by Georgy Shpagin as a cheap, reliable, and simplified alternative to the PPD-40. A common Russian nickname for the weapon is "papasha" (папа́ша), meaning "daddy",[19] and it was sometimes called the "burp gun" because of its high fire rate.[20]The PPSh is a magazine-fed selective fire submachine gun using an open bolt, blowback action. Made largely of stamped steel, it can be loaded with either a box or drum magazine and fires the 7.62×25mm Tokarev pistol round.The PPSh saw extensive combat use during World War II and the Korean War, and it is common for monuments in Eastern Bloc countries celebrating the actions of the Red Army to have a PPSh-41.[21] It was one of the major infantry weapons of the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II, with about six million PPSh-41s manufactured in this period. In the form of the Chinese Type 50 (licensed copy), it was still being used by the Viet Cong as late as 1970. According to the 2002 edition of the Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II the PPSh was still in use with irregular militaries.“

Here’s a 1942 memo on its use showing basics on weapon description, functionality and disassembly.

And here’s “ a 1956 edition of the Soviet armorer’s manual for the PPSh-41 and PPS-43″ carrying even more detail.

Related also is the 1938 soviet military handbook on weapons, shooting techniques and training methods by P. D. Ponomarev or originally ‘Револьвер и пистолет-П. Д. ПОНОМАРЕВ’.

There is also the work of Kaplunov Y. - ‘Three secrets :Conversations about pistol shooting practice’ or originally ‘Каплунов Я. Три секрета. Беседы о практике пистолетной стрельбы’

While some of the information in all these may be considered outdated today all of them would have been relevant to how this weapon was used historically.

[antisemitism-eu]

Germany: Syrian refugees bring their own anti-Semitism to Germany

Via The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (Rawan Osman):

With this year’s International Holocaust Remembrance Day recognizing the 75th anniversary of the freeing of Auschwitz, it is also important for the German public to address the potential implications of a new wave of anti-Semitism within its borders. Germany’s notable acceptance of over one million refugees from Syria, where anti-Semitic propaganda has been a key feature of the Assad family’s overall messaging, has both triggered both a rise in Germany’s far-right and brought Germany’s Jewish populations into contact with a new type of anti-Semitism developed as one method of control in the Assad dictatorship. The uncritically anti-Israel and anti-Semitic tropes that have been taught, promoted, or tolerated in Syria pose a new set of challenges to German authorities who are still wrestling with their country’s past. Germany, because of its history, has accepted upon itself a greater responsibility than other European countries to take in refugees. Now it must take on another major responsibility: effectively educating these communities about the Holocaust and the insidious nature of anti-Semitism. I am particularly conscious of this issue as a Syrian who now calls Germany home. Before the start of the Syrian civil war, I traveled to Europe with the intention of learning the skills I would need to open a wine bar in the old city of Damascus. But my sojourn to the German countryside opened my eyes to much more than the intricacies of the wine industry. There, I confronted the root of my own prejudices towards Jews while in the process coming to a realization about the role anti-Semitism plays in own country’s deception of its people. […] Many of these refugees fled from Syria—one of the most anti-Semitic countries on earth—to Germany, which is still repairing its complex and fraught relationship with the Jewish people. Now, Germany must recognize and seek understand the embedded nature of anti-Semitism in Syria to better help its newest residents to live lives free of state-sponsored prejudice. 

read more The New Antisemite: https://ift.tt/2ueIAcg

[diamondorloj]

You are so smart and well educated, especially regarding Israel and Jewish history, so I hope you don't mind if I ask you to help me, an uneducated (and to be honest mostly ignorant towards politics because of personal issues) person, to graps what the fuss is about all the political statements during ESC this year? I'm really confused and used google but I understand like maybe half of what's going on. Sorry to bother you.

Hey, thank you for coming to me. First off, I have studied and learned a lot abut the topics, but they’re very complex and full of details beyond my grasp. I’ll try to make this short, but your ask was a little broad and calls for a couple of explanations.

First off, there are rules against political statements and activism in every Eurovision song contest. For example, the only flags allowed in the arenas are the flags of UN states and of the EU, as well as unpolitical flags like the rainbow or the trans flag. In 2016, there was a conflict because the Armenian delegation held up a flag of Bergkarabach, which is debatable territory between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Now, here’s the EBU statement: “In the live broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest Grand Final, Hatari, the Icelandic act, briefly displayed small Palestinian banners whilst sat in the Green Room. The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political event and this directly contradicts the contest’s rules. The banners were quickly removed and the consequences of this action will be discussed by the Reference Group (the contest’s executive board) after the contest.”

Determining a course of action on legal grounds based on the flag rule is going to be a little difficult because as of 29th November 2012, Palestine was granted the status of an observer state in the UN. However, showing the Palestine flag in Israel, on an Israelian stage, is considered political activism (and just generally…bad).

To briefly touch on the history of the Palestinian and Israelian conflict is almost impossible. The area of today’s Israel and Palestine used to belong to the Osmanian Empire, which shattered in 1922 officially and for a huge number of reasons. Great Britain took over mandate control for the area they then called Palestine, until it was possible to establish its own state. This was a common idea of the time for colonies that were supposed to be supported on their way to independency. Jews had fled to this area for centuries, but especially so during the 19th century because of rising antisemitism in Europe. While it wasn’t exactly pleasant to live as dimmi, people of the books and second-class citizens, it was relatively safe and peaceful, and Arab people happily sold their land to Jewish immigrants.

The idea of safety for the Jewish people led to the idea of a Jewish state, which is zionism. However, there were many options discussed as to where this Jewish state should be installed – among them were Uganda and Argentina. In the end, it probably was a mixture of many factors, like the Jewish connection to the land of Israel and Jerusalem, the fact that many Jewish people had bought land in Palestine for a relatively good price and that a lot of Jewish communities already lived there. Great Britain agreed to install a Jewish state, however they also installed the Great Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, and he incited violence and pogroms against the Jewish people. He vehemently opposed the existence of any Jewish state and also collaborated with the Nazis, organised a Muslim garnison in the SS, and is responsible for many people dying in the Holocaust because he prevented them from fleeing to Palestine.

So, after the Holocaust, the calls for a Jewish state for the Jewish people got louder because it had been made abundantly clear that no other state would guarantee their safety and survival. The UN was very newly installed and kinda improvised a new solution for the territorial conflict: There should be both a Jewish state, called Israel, and an Arab state, called Palestine. Jerusalem should stay under UN control. It was a hasty, imperfect plan, however the Jews accepted while the Arabs declined and the Arab nations surrounding Israel declared war on the same day Israel was founded. Against all odds, Israel won the wars and exists to this day. During the war, there were many refugees on both sides. Israel advertised for Arab people to stay and granted them full citizen rights. The Arab states called for Arabs to leave the places of war and conflict and were promised they could return to their homes when the war was over aka Israel destroyed. Well, guess what. Many refugees of these days and their decendants fled to Syria, Jordan, Egypt but were not taken in and instead were used against Israel. To this day, there are refugee camps in Jordan which does not grant any of their decendents who were born there city rights. Jewish people were dispelled from their homes and found a new home in Israel.

So, Israel as a state is the only guarantee in the world for safety and survival for the Jewish people. If you know any Jewish people in Europe, you will often hear their discussions and plans of going to Israel. The state exists, and it will continue to exist and thrive. To debate its right to an existence is politically pointless because it was granted by the UN and other leading political organisations, and antisemitic because it’s a direct call against the safety of Jews everywhere. Palestine wasn’t a state in the beginning at first and to this day has a special political status. In the 1940-1960s, a lot of Palestinians didn’t even want to be called Palestinians and the leading politicians in fact called for Palestine to be reunited with Syria, calling them Syrians. In 2005, Israel granted Gaza’s wishes and completely unrooted all Jewish life in the Gaza strip, making it free of living Jews for the first time in millenias. Unsurprisingly, peace did not follow.

Phew. I left out about a thousand details around here, so please use these points as a starting point for your research and take it with a grain of salt.

The conflict between Israel and Palestine to this day exists because Palestine does not acknowledge Israel’s right to exist and uses acts of terrorism and war against the state. Beginning of May, Gaza fired way over 600 rockets on Israel, aiming at schools and civilian buildings, killing 4 and injuring over 300 people. Their leading political organisation, Hamas, calls for the complete destruction of Israel and their people. They also refer to Israel as an oppressing state and an occupation of their territory.

One of the organisations that also believes Israel to be an occupator is the BDS organisation, which is a Boycott against Israel. It claims to be peaceful and harmless, but aims to completely isolate Israel in every way, culturally, economically, politically, from the rest of the world. They also want Palestinian refugees in Gaza and Westbank to have a right to return to Israel. However, given that Israel has a population of about 15 million people, and 20% of them are not Jewish, integrating about 8 million people of non-jewish Arabs into Israel would make Jews a minority in Israel and effectively end the existence of the only Jewish state in the world. (also good luck boycotting Israeli technology like the world's most efficient field hospital, the USB stick, and just about every smartphone works with Israeli technology.)

BDS called for a boycott of the ESC in Israel, Roger Waters himself foamed at the mouth when Madonna was announced to perform in Tel Aviv. One band that is at least close to the BDS is Hatari, the Icelandic group. They announced their intentions to use their performance to criticise Israel for the way they treat Palestinians.There was debate in Israel apparently whether they should be allowed to come to Tel Aviv, in the end they were allowed. They returned the favour by showing the flag of their biggest aggressor and threat to safety.

Funnily enough, homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment and death in Gaza. So I can’t help but wonder how well their support was received in Palestine… It’s a typically European knee-jerk reaction. They want to show solidarity with what they think is the underdog in that conflict, and they’re cowardly showing their protest in a democractic, safe country.

Madonna’s performance is problematic because she agreed to do a non-political act and proceeded to slap the flags on their dancers at the very last second, betraying the trust and rules of the hosts. Her act shows a big, scary man dressed like a soldier in a black uniform as Israel and a tiny woman in a white dress as Palestine, and in the beginning she talks about supposedly hidden crimes that ‘we all know of’ wink-wonk. It’s a tired provocatin and villainification of Israel imo. The reactions all over social media show that it was not actually perceived as a message of peace and love, but as a message of pro-Palestinian interests, painting them the victims and only the victims of the conflict.

There was probably more going on with political statements in the ESC, but you referred to Jewish history and Israel, so I hope your questions are covered with this response!

[nerdishnonbinary]

I found it difficult to find clear information on the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so I thought I’d summarize what I’ve found here.

tw for mentions of violence and ethnic cleansing. 

The Ottoman Empire, which originally had control of Palestine, was defeated in WWI. Britain took over the land, which was at the time inhabited by a Jewish minority and an Arab majority. Over the next 20-30 years, as antisemitism in Europe grew, more Jewish people started moving into the area. 

After WWII, Britain tried to create a “national home” for Jewish people in Palestine. Their original proposal would have divided the land into two states--an Arab one and a Jewish one. Arab leaders didn’t agree to this, so it never went through, and in 1948 Britain gave up and left.  

Jewish leaders declared the state of Israel. Palestinians objected, and many of them were forced from their homes or fled in fear of the rising violence. Now, this is referred to as Al Nakba (the catastrophe). At the end of this initial fighting, Israel controlled most of the land, with some of it also occupied by Egypt to the south and Jordan to the east. Israel took most of that land in 1967. 

Today, Palestinian refugees live in the city of Gaza and the West Bank. They have not been allowed to return to their homes. Israel claims doing to would threaten the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Gaza itself is ruled by Hamas, a Palestinian military group. Everywhere else Palestinian refugees are living is either controlled by the Israeli government, or is in a neighboring country like Jordan.  

Peace talks have been going on for years with no success. There is discussion about claims to Jerusalem as the capital city, the existence of Jewish settlements in Palestinian land, and the possible creation of a separate Palestinian state. 

Israel views all of Jerusalem as its united capital. In practice, East Jerusalem is largely Palestinian, and is viewed by Palestinians as the future capital of their own, independent state. Estimates have the number of Palestinians displaced by the creation of Israel at more than 700,000. 

The increase in violence now is due to the impending eviction of several Palestinian families living in East Jerusalem. Israel claims the families’ land belonged to Jewish families in the early 1940s, when Israel was founded. Palestinians say this is unjust, as they have no legal means to reclaim land that was theirs before the formation of Israel.  

This has restarted a debate over claims to Jerusalem and its many holy sites. Jewish extremists marched through the city, calling for the deaths of the Palestinians. Palestinian leaders have called the eviction attempts a form of ethnic cleansing, while the Israeli government views it as a simple real-estate concern.  

While Israel’s efforts to evict Palestinian families has been criticized and condemned internationally, no action has been taken to stop it. 

Israel’s current political instability hasn’t helped, with four inconclusive elections in a row. Muslim religious and Israeli nationalist holidays also occurred around the same time this year, feeding the tensions. Palestinians launched rockets, and the Israeli government ordered airstrikes in Gaza. Attacks, lynchings, and violence has spread in cities across Israel, as Palestinian and Israeli residents turn on each other.  

If there’s anything here I’ve gotten wrong, please let me know. I’m getting most of my information from Western news organizations and Wikipedia, so I can’t guarantee its complete accuracy.  

[incarnationsf]

Time to Testify

By the Rev. Darren Miner

Bible Readings

As we approach the liturgical season of Advent, we begin to hear Bible readings that make us uncomfortable, oracles and predictions about the End Time. Even the Gospel reading, which is supposed to be about Good News, sounds a whole lot like bad news. Well, in the words of Mick Mulvaney, “Get over it!” Human sin has consequences.

The first reading today from the book of the prophet Malachi talks of a great day of judgment, “when all the arrogant and all evil-doers will be stubble; the day that comes shall burn them up.” Fortunately for us, there is an alternative: to revere God and to keep his commandments. For those who do these two things, the dreadful day of judgment will instead bring healing.

But being good is tiring. Being merciful is tiring. Forgiving others is tiring. Being righteous is just plain hard work. And sometimes, we are tempted to sit back and take a rest from following the Lord. Maybe we decide to skip church one Sunday. Maybe we decide to cut our pledge. Maybe we decide to stay home and keep quiet when our country is falling apart right before our very eyes. Well, in the words of St. Paul, “Brothers and sisters, do not weary in doing what is right.”

But is the fight for justice and righteousness worth it? Will good ultimately win out? The answer to both questions is a resounding yes. But to be absolutely honest, it is going to get worse before it gets better—much worse! In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus and his disciples contemplate the Jewish Temple, the center of their world and the portal to their God. And Jesus predicts that it will fall into ruins.

It is hard for us to understand how deeply disturbing Jesus’ prediction would have been for Jews of that day. I will try to give you a taste of what it might have felt like. I will make a prediction of my own:

The day will come when this nation will be nothing but a page in the history books. There will be no United States of America. There will be no Constitution, no Supreme Court. The White House will be rubble, and the Capitol building will be ruins. It will all be thrown down….

Now, maybe you have some idea of the emotional impact of Jesus’ words about the Temple!

So what do we do with my grim prediction? What were Jesus’ original disciples supposed to do with his prediction of the fall of the Jewish Temple? In a word, endure! We are meant to keep going, even in the face of utter disaster. We are meant to continue to follow Jesus, and no one but Jesus, into the valley of the shadow of death. Jesus warns that others will come after him. They will claim that they, and only they, can save you. And they will all be liars! Do not be deceived. Do not be afraid. Follow the way of Jesus, and do not stray from the path.

But, as Jesus warns, we will be sorely tested. I dare say that we are being tested even now. Can we love others when only hate is returned? Will we have the courage to stand up for love in the Name of Jesus Christ, even if it means shame or ridicule or worse?

We are told by Jesus that, if we are willing to take a stand and to speak up for truth and love and mercy, we will be given the words we are to speak by Jesus himself. Well, brothers and sisters, now is the time to speak out. Now is the time to stand up for Christian values, true Christian values. Now is the time to demand that our leaders speak the truth. Now is the time to demand that our nation’s policies show justice and mercy toward the poor, the sick, and the refugee. Now is the time to put a halt to the rise of white nationalism and antisemitism and homophobia and every other kind of hate.

Yes, this nation will fall someday, just as the Jewish Temple fell. But it doesn’t have to fall on our watch. Do not let this country sink further into sin and darkness. Stand up for God’s sake, and testify on behalf of the little ones whom Jesus loved: for the Guatemalan children living in squalid tent-cities just across our southern border; for the 13 million American children who live in poverty; for the children who are being gunned down in our classrooms year after year. Brothers and sisters, lift up your voice, and prophesy to the leaders of this nation with words that they can neither contradict nor withstand. And don’t stop until they take heed. Do it for the children. Do it for Jesus. Do it for yourself. For “by your endurance you will gain your soul.”

 © 2019 by Darren Miner. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

[girlactionfigure]

Trump Gets it Right about Antisemitism (Updated)

Note: since this post was written, the order was issued, and it was not precisely what was expected. Nevertheless, I think the post is still interesting, if not relevant to the same degree. See the update at the end for a full explanation.

***

President Trump is expected to issue an executive order that Jews should be treated as a “nationality*” as well as a religious group. This means that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans the use of federal funds for programs or activities that discriminate on the basis of “race, color, or national origin,” will now apply to antisemitism. And an administration official has said that the government would use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which the State Department adopted in 2016, as a working definition of antisemitism (a previous working definition in use from 2010 is similar in relevant respects).

This is a big deal, because the extreme anti-Zionism (misoziony) that characterizes the discourse on many Western colleges and universities clearly falls under the IHRA definition, which specifically mentions

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis…

which are all the bread and butter of Students for Justice in Palestine, as well as countless other anti-Israel organizations. Of course, antisemitism in the form of assaults, discrimination, and other more subtle forms of harassment in the guise of “free expression” – incidentally, things that would never be tolerated if their object were other minorities – also will be able to trigger a shutoff of federal funds.

Naturally, the usual suspects are outraged. Some of the outrage comes from those who would be outraged if Trump were to issue an order recognizing motherhood and apple pie, because he is Trump. Halie Soifer of the Jewish Democratic Council of America accused Trump of “hypocrisy,” blamed him for “emboldening white nationalism, perpetuating anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and repeating stereotypes that have led to violence targeting Jews.” Even if these accusations were true (I am convinced that they are not), they are irrelevant to the reasonableness of this executive order.

But there are more substantive objections. They either deny that Jews are a nationality, or they object to the IHRA definition, usually saying it limits free speech by conflating “legitimate” anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Let’s take the issue of nationality first.

One group that objects to the idea that Jews are a people or a nationality, of course, is the PLO and the Palestinian Authority, who have always insisted that “Jewish” refers only to a religion, not a nation. They have therefore refused to accept the “two states for two peoples” formula or to recognize that Israel is the state of the Jewish people. This is one of the main reasons that the Palestinians have never accepted any of the generous offers of statehood proffered to them. Interestingly, there is also a strong current of “nationhood denial” among liberal American Jews. Some seem to think that attributing nationhood to the Jewish people would mean that they would somehow be “less American.” But of course nobody believes that granting this status to Italian-Americans would make them less American, or that Title VI doesn’t apply to discrimination against them.

This prejudice in the diaspora against the idea of Jewish nationhood goes back to the late 18th and early 19th century when Jews were first beginning to acquire rights in newly-enlightened Europe. The spectre of their “dual loyalty” to their country of residence and to the Jewish nation quickly arose. In 1789, the French Count of Clermont-Tonnerre, in a speech about the treatment of minorities in the new Republic, said “[w]e must refuse everything to the Jews as a nation, and accord everything to the Jews as individuals.” Let them have their religion and their quaint customs, but their national loyalty can only be to France.

Many Jews were happy to agree. In Germany, the newly-created Reform Movement adopted the idea of being “Germans of the Mosaic Persuasion,” nationally identical to their neighbors of the Lutheran persuasion. In America, the 1885 Pittsburgh Platform of the American Reform Movement included this unequivocal statement: “[w]e consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine, nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state.” By 1999, their platform refers to the Jews as “a people.” But many liberal Jews, uncomfortable about the possibility (and often the actuality) of accusations of dual loyalty, take pains to insist that they do not see themselves as anything other than Americans (or Canadians, or Britons). Their Jewishness is only a matter of religion, ethnicity, or some cultural artifacts.

They have a right to say that if they wish, and to distance themselves from the Jewish nation, but they do not have the right to say that there is no Jewish nation. The Jewish people, in fact, are the paradigm case of a nation: if you want to know what the characteristics of a nation are, look at the Jews. The Jewish people have

A common geographical origin and a connection to their aboriginal home.

A shared genetic heritage.

A unique ancestral language.

A unique religion.

A shared culture.

A shared historical experience.

Self-identification as a nation.

It’s ironic that the Palestinian Arabs, who have multiple origins, a relatively short period of shared history, no unique language or religion, a culture based entirely on opposition to the Jews, and who have only self-identified as a nation since the mid-1960s, have the chutzpah to deny nationhood to the Jewish people!

What about the argument that the IHRA definition conflates antisemitism with anti-Zionism and thus limits speech that is critical of Israel? Despite what some say, it is actually quite easy to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. The criteria were provided by Natan Sharansky, who called it the “3D Test of Antisemitism.” I’ll quote him:

The first “D” is the test of demonization. When the Jewish state is being demonized; when Israel’s actions are blown out of all sensible proportion; when comparisons are made between Israelis and Nazis and between Palestinian refugee camps and Auschwitz – this is anti- Semitism, not legitimate criticism of Israel.

The second “D” is the test of double standards. When criticism of Israel is applied selectively; when Israel is singled out by the United Nations for human rights abuses while the behavior of known and major abusers, such as China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria, is ignored; when Israel’s Magen David Adom, alone among the world’s ambulance services, is denied admission to the International Red Cross – this is anti-Semitism.

The third “D” is the test of delegitimization: when Israel’s fundamental right to exist is denied – alone among all peoples in the world – this too is anti-Semitism.

I call irrational, extreme hatred of Israel misoziony. Misoziony is a form of antisemitism, the traditional Jew-hatred raised to a higher level of abstraction. And there is no better test for misoziony than Sharansky’s 3D criteria, which are implicit in the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. There is no reason to oppose the IHRA definition, except to enable antisemites to disguise their poison as legitimate political speech.

The growing phenomenon of antisemitism in Western universities – where it usually takes the form of misoziony – has given rise to a great deal of consternation and hand-wringing on the part of university administrators, who have in general done nothing practical to reduce it. Yet again, Donald Trump has come along and cut what appeared to be a Gordian Knot, just as he did when he finally fulfilled the promise of the US Congress to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

And just as they did last May, Jewish progressives displayed their remarkable ability to cut off their own noses to spite their faces.

Update [12 Dec]:

This post was written on Wednesday morning in Israel, after news reports indicated that President Trump was going to issue an order that, among other things, would treat Jewishness as a “nationality” as well as a religious group.

It was thought that this would broaden the applicability of Title VI to prohibit discrimination against Jews, as Jews.

Apparently the reports were wrong. The final version of the order says nothing about treating Jews as a nationality, and reemphasizes that Title VI applies only to discrimination on the basis of “Race, color, or national origin.” It does note – something that the Justice Department already recognized back in 2010 – that belonging to a “group sharing religious practices” does not disqualify someone from being protected against discrimination on the basis of the initial three criteria.

This means that the applicability of Title VI has not been broadened.

However, as Prof. Avi Bell has noted (correspondence), the incorporation of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism into the order is important. The examples in the IHRA definition, in which Sharansky’s 3D criteria are implicit, clearly show what kind of “criticism of Israel” constitutes antisemitism. Therefore a university (e.g.) will not be able to excuse its inaction on complaints of antisemitism by groups like SJP on the grounds that they are “just” engaging in “criticism of Israel.”

The official text of the order can be found here.

______________________________________ * It should be understood that “nationality” is used in the older and broader sense of belonging to a people, or nation, and not in the narrow modern sense of citizenship in a country.

Abu Yehuda

[lawfulgoodness]

This is going to sound angery, but I want you to know that I genuinely like your blog [it's helped me as a Christian and been very inspiring] and you [I mean I don't know you but you seem lovely]. How can you compare Trump supporters to Nazis when Antifa set a university on fire to prevent a gay Jew from speaking? When within a week of Trumps election a guy was pulled from his truck and beaten for being "One of those white boys who voted Trump!" [he didn't even have a Trump bumper sticker].

Hey anon -

I’ve tried to figure out which one of your messages to reply to, because I’m only going to go this far off-topic for you once. I’m also going to do it under a cut, so my followers that prefer to avoid political discourse can.

 In all honesty, I have no idea where you’re coming from, because I have never once compared Trump supporters to Nazis.  Not once.  Never.  Don’t believe me?  Here’s every instance of the word “Trump” on my blog.  

In case you missed it, I’ve only posted one thing about him since the election, and that was the Christmas song “Oi to the World,” a diversity-celebrating punk song meant to encourage folks that might be feeling threatened by the recent rise in xenophobia.  Am I a fan of Trump?  Not by a long shot.  Do I call all Trump supporters Nazi?  Hell no.  Because that would make most of my family Nazis, and I’m aware that they aren’t.  They attempted to pick the lesser of two evils, and while I vehemently disagree with the option they picked, I am perfectly capable of still loving and respecting them as individuals who care about me and care about the state of our country.

You know who I called Nazis?  Nazis.  Antisemitic fascists who openly state “I don’t want a society based on equality“  or that promote so-called “peaceful ethnic cleansing” or that publish articles asking “Is Black Genocide Right?”

And I get it, I do.  You’re on tumblr, and you see this mob-mentality that’s ready to tar & feather anyone that questions HRC’s policies or fitness for the office of president.  You see everyone drawing lines in the sand and phrasing everything as “us” vs. “them,” as though we have to either align ourselves with violent rioters or the hate-filled professional troll & pedophilia apologist they were protesting.  

But I’m not going to do it.  I’m not going to buy into this system that says everyone who voted for Trump is a racist homophobe that wants to leave Syrian refugees to die.  I’m not going to buy into the assertion that anyone who voted for Hillary Clinton is a libtard sheeple that hates free speech brainwashed by the lamestream media.  I’m going to work hard with my local charity to ensure refugees find a place to call home.  I’m going to engage my local senator to reassess his recent rubber-stamping of every proposal the White House sends out; I’m also going to challenge the people around me to be more respectful and engage in a meaningful way with him, rather than just screaming partisan slogans.  And I’m going to do whatever I can to ensure the local and national government is held accountable for ensuring “liberty and justice for all.”

If you want to talk, (and I mean actually talk instead of anonymously dumping your socio-political existential angst in my askbox), please do so.  I have friends and mutuals here on tumblr that I can talk about my faith & my political leanings with; people that challenge me and that, hopefully, I challenge to be better.  You’re welcome to send me an ask or a tumblr message that I can reply to without having to fill my blog with this much off-topic political discourse.  But I’m also not buying into a system that attempts to validate people spewing their political positions into the void of the internet when their followers are really just here for alignment charts and d&d related reactions gifs.

Also, fuck Nazis.

[bountyofbeads]

We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/05/trump-inspired-terrorism-el-paso?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Post_to_Tumblr

We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism: https://t.co/CpQTjcFkjG #WhiteSupremacistInChief

We must call the El Paso shooting what it is: Trump-inspired terrorism

It is staggering to imagine how much more violence this president may motivate if he continues down this deeply disturbing path

By David Schanzer | Published:00:11 Mon August 5, 2019 | The Guardian | Posted August 5, 2019 |

‘Trump’s rhetoric is infused with notions of violence and dehumanization’.

Last year, when a rabid, anti-immigrant antisemite murdered 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, I called it an act of domestic terrorism inspired by the ideology of Trumpism. The shooting took place during the height of the 2018 midterm campaign when Trump was inciting fear of an immigrant “caravan” from Central America. The shooter got the message. Hours before his bloody rampage, he accused a Jewish refugee support agency of bringing “invaders in that kill our people”.

Saturday in El Paso it was deja vu all over again.

Trump has launched his 2020 re-election campaign this summer by doubling down on the theme of racial and ethnic division and anti-immigrant hysteria. And as sure as the sun rises in the east, a mere month into this racially charged atmosphere, an extremist suspect fearful of Hispanics gaining political power in Texas decided to go kill as many Hispanics as possible at an El Paso Walmart. It is Trump-inspired terrorism yet again.

The president’s defenders have taken great offense to the notion that any of his actions or rhetoric have contributed to what happened in El Paso, but this defense is deeply flawed.

First, the assertion that Trump can be absolved of responsibility because he condemns violence by white supremacists reflects a misunderstanding of how homegrown domestic terrorism works.

It doesn’t require an overt appeal to violence to motivate an ideological extremist to engage in violence. Indeed, individuals often move from being a passive supporter of a cause to a mobilized killer when their political grievances are amplified, and their enemies are dehumanized.

So when Trump goes on Twitter and television calling migrants “invaders” and dehumanizes them by suggesting they are “infesting” America, he is motivating aggrieved individuals to take action into their own hands by using violence.

Second, the claim that Trump shares no blame for the shooting because he rejects the white supremacist ideology of the El Paso shooter is blatantly at odds with the facts. Indeed, the central political project of the Trump presidency has been reducing the political power of non-white people in America – a key tenet of white supremacist thinking.

Trump took action to reduce the number of minorities coming to America in the opening days of his administration when he halted immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries and temporarily suspended the refugee program. He has subsequently dramatically reduced the number of refugees admitted to the US each year and is threatening to drop the number to zero in 2020.

Trump’s demand that the census include a question about citizenship is also consistent with a white supremacist agenda. It is firmly established that such a question would suppress census participation by noncitizens and perhaps recent immigrants as well, thereby reducing the political power of the states where they reside.

Of course Trump’s notorious policy of separating children from their parents and detaining them in squalid conditions is part and parcel of the white supremacist desire to deter migration to the United States and dehumanize those who dare attempt to gain legal residency.

And, when Trump suggested last month that four members of Congress of color who were born or naturalized in the United States “came from” other countries, he ratified the core concept of white supremacy that nonwhite people are not truly “Americans”.

The manifesto the El Paso shooter posted online reflects that he understood and endorsed the president’s political program to a T. The attack, the shooter wrote was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas”. Echoing the president’s logic that cruel conditions of confinement will deter migration, the shooter opined that his use of violence would provide a needed “incentive” for Hispanics to return to their home countries. His violent actions were necessary, he wrote, to save America from destruction.

Finally, while Trump does not overtly call for his supporters to use violence to further his agenda, his rhetoric is infused with notions of violence and dehumanization. The “send her back” chant Trump allowed to continue for 13 seconds at a campaign rally was an explicit call for the power of the state to be used to forcibly expatriate a foreign-born immigrant citizen. Last week he called a minority community in Baltimore a “rodent, rat-infested mess” – mixing images of urban minorities with inhuman pests and vermin.

These messages are not lost on people like the El Paso shooter: “Your president shares your view that immigrants and racial minorities are a scourge on America. They are not deserving of the privileges of citizenship and must be denied political power at all costs. They are animals anyway, so the use of violence is permissible.”

We remain 15 months from the 2020 election. It is staggering to imagine how much more violence this president may motivate if he continues down this deeply disturbing path.

David Schanzer is a professor at the Sanford School of Policy at Duke University and the director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security

[alamio]

Hi again, I wrote the other day about Ingolstadt, and now I need moral support haha. I'm from Chile, and my dream since I was little is live in Germany, but I'm really scared about go by myself so far away from home. Also, I'm a young woman, and you know with all the terrible things that have happened to lonely women, be a woman, be a lonely woman is dangerous sometimes, that scares me too. Do you think I'll be fine in Germany by my own? Thank you, it means a lot <3 (sorry for my bad english)

Hallo nochmal. :) I do think you will be fine in Germany, just based on the fact that, compared to most countries, we have very low (serious) crime — despite hysterical media reports about Germany in the last years, especially abroad, facts remain. Have a look at these world statistics, you can also look at just Europe.

https://www.numbeo.com/crime/rankings_by_country.jsp

We are number 35 out of 118 countries in the safety index —UK is 56, Italy 63, France 68, Chile 72, the USA 74 (lower ranks = better). Similar numbers for crime index.

Also read this 2018 article (and scroll all the way down, it has a weird layout).

And this 2018 article on Germany’s crime stats from 2018:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/germany-crime-rate-migration-antisemitism-horst-seehofer-a8343226.html

All this to say, DON‘T BELIEVE THE HYPE.

Some high-crime countries like the USA love to write these articles on Germany about „no-go zones“ and „refugees taking over“ to distract from their own ACTUAL high crime and their actual ghettos and other domestic problems by pointing to others, but again, the facts remain and statistics in Germany are accurate and valid. Compared to elsewhere, not everything is ideal here either, but it is most definitely far from what the media wants you to believe. So, as I see it, it‘s always best to look at sone comparative stats.

That said, as a you g woman alone in Germany, you will be a lot safer than in 90% of the world. Just learn about the culture and what is „proper“ behaviour and what isn‘t, use the usual precautions you would use at home, and you‘ll be fine. Based on those stats, you may actually feel safer in Germany than at home. Any further questions, feel free to send another ask or private message in the chat thingy.