#where is the protection for palestinian jews?

[tikkunolamresistance]

Rarely have I seen a more anti-Jewish account than this. Really, incredible effort. Keep up the good work!

> Is Jewish, calling for the end of a genocide and of the settler-state, wanting the protection of every Jew around the world without the need for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians and the occupation of an entire country, absolutely despising the harmful conflation of Judaism with Right-Wing sepratist, bigoted, racist ideology, and actively promoting ideas of a future where every religion coexists in a borderless planet in which every person is fed, educated, housed and protected.

> “anti-Jewish”

?

[matan4il]

To the Nonnie who wrote me about screenshots of two Palestinians talking, where one mentioned an exchange between his Palestinian American father and an IDF (implied Jewish) soldier from the US.

You rightly pointed out the duplicity in that exchange -

Why did he phrase it 'we had American citizenship', but the presumably Jewish idf soldier was just straight up American? As if to put distance between he and his father's American identity while framing the Jewish man as solely American and there fore undeserving of being in Israel.

I'll add to this, but first I wanna tell you that by chance, I saw the post you were talking about, and I have to raise the question of context. Because that's not just screenshots from any old conversation between two random Palestinians. That was taken from an anti-Zionist documentary. I've heard about it, I didn't watch it, I did see the trailer for it, which was pretty blatant in how one-sided it generally is. Any Jew who is pro-Israel is presented as a brainwashed, violent mad person, while only Jews who are anti-Zionists are presented as humane, and capable of showing concern for the Palestinians. Who cares if there are Jews, including Israeli ones, who are both? That docu is clearly not interested in letting the nuanced facts get in the way of its simplistic, one-sided conclusions.

That's incredibly antisemitic. To treat Jews who are aware of their history, of the Zionist nature of Judaism, of their native rights in Israel or their connection to Jewish communities everywhere, including in our ancestral land, as if they're motivated by nothing other than brainwashing and inhumane blindness, is at the very least to rob us of our agency, dignity and rights as Jews and as human beings.

I can also say that some of their more high profile interviewees are, in addition to being notorious anti-Zionists, quite unreliable in the way that they refer to the facts of this conflict. Oh, and one more thing about that docu is that it's guilty of spreading the libel that Jews only speak about antisemitism as a form of weaponizing it to protect Israel from criticism. This is such a dangerous form of delegitimizing the voices of a majority of Jews (including on this hellsite) which have spoken up about antisemitism of the anti-Zionist type because IT DOES ENDANGER JEWS. We speak up about it, not to protect Israel, but to protect our people (especially those of us who recognize that the intention to harm Israel has more to do with wanting to harm Jews than with any facts in this conflict, see this post as an example). It is gaslighting and antisemitic to undermine the voices of Jews when 90% of us raise them to speak up against antisemitism, just because we speak out against how anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic and is so often used to harm us.

So I wouldn't be quick to take ANY material from such a biased, antisemitic documentary at face value, including the accusations against the Jewish soldier and his behavior. Is it possible that the Palestinian man talking about his dad and the soldier, was telling the whole truth about the exchange, and nothing but? Yes. But I recognize that, knowing this is filmed for a propaganda piece, some or maybe even all parts of the story might be distorted, exaggerated or even downright made up. I have no way of knowing, and I do not trust that the makers of such a propaganda piece (only pretending to be a documentary) did their journalistic duty, and verified the truthfulness of all anti-Israel sources. More than that, I've seen how easily anti-Zionists lie about Israelis when they think their story can't be verified, or they trust that they're talking to clueless foreigners (kinda like how they'll have pics with Palestinians dressed up as IDF soldiers committing atrocities, and Israelis would be able to tell immediately that the uniforms are fake, but foreigners wouldn't), so...

Back to the exchange you mentioned. I fully agree with what you said about the duplicity. I'd even add to it.

According to historical research, there is an 80% chance that this Palestinian man's father most likely chose to leave Israel when this country's Independence War was started by the Arab leadership (unlike around 150,000 Arabs who didn't leave, nor attacked the Jews. They became Israeli Arabs, as this man's father could have been, too). Then the speaker's father further chose to go the US (rather than Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, etc) and get citizenship there. Good on him, but that means that as an idea, there's less of a distance between that man and his American identity, which he chose to pursue, and the Jewish soldier who was born having one, and chose to make the difficult decision of relinquishing the safe and comfortable life he had in the US, come to Israel (a country where financially he would struggle more), enlist in the army (which is mandatory for any Jew moving here), and put his own life at risk, all because Israel is his ancestral land. It IS two-faced to act like the Jew's American identity deprives him of a connection to his ancestral land, while the Palestinian dad's doesn't subvert his connection and claim to this place, but it's even worse when you remember the Palestinian man chose to walk away and move specifically to the US, while the Jewish guy did not, and it's even further a reversal tactic, when you remember that while Israel IS the ancestral homeland of all Jews, Palestinians (as Arabs) can are not native to this land. They came from Arabia and COLONIZED the Land of Israel (many doing so as recently as the 19th or 20th century). This is just pure and antisemitic historic revisionism, choosing to replace Jews as the natives of Israel, much like many other forms of antisemitism have chosen one form or another of replacement theory when it comes to our people.

I also found the way the Palestinian man framed the motivation of the Jewish soldier to be very antisemitic, degrading and reductive. "He just wanted to play Cowboys and Indians." And apparently, this American Jew couldn't find a good enough paintball team, so he HAD to make his life much harder, not to mention put it at actual risk, because he just HAD to play pretend with guns. It's not that this Jewish guy feels a strong connection to Israel, it's not that maybe he experienced antisemitism in the US to the point where he realized he had no place anywhere other than in the Jewish ancestral land, it's not that he felt deep kinship with his siblings in Israel defending our native rights here, no... The Jewish soldier MUST have just had a complex where mommy didn't let him play enough with space robots or something, so he decided to play out such fights in real life. Tell me that's not an incredibly patronizing, dismissive, reductive view of Jewish people and why we come here, even when it can be so much easier to stay elsewhere. It's an inherent racism, of seeing Jews as brainless puppets of "someone who told them this is home..."

Like, I'm a gentile but this wording is so frustrating to me. It plays into the untrue idea that the majority of Israelis are European or American when that is false and that jews are not from Israel. It's such an underhanded tactic imo. It's like they don't think the bad things some idf do or the Israeli government does is bad enough unless they add something else to it. It can't be war, it has to be genocide. It can't be soldiers abusing their power (something every army has trouble with) it has to be evil foreign, colonizers that don't belong bullying the pure, innocent native population.

You're absolutely right. War is always bad, horrible things will always happen, no army can control 100% of its soldiers 100% of the time (and that doesn't negate that the overall purpose of said army can be a good, worthy one, like how the atrocities some allied soldiers committed during WWII do not cancel the fact that the allies WERE the good guys in defeating the Nazis), every government can be criticized. But the need to turn the Jewish army into THE WORST, the Jewish implementation of our right to self defense into no less than a genocide (so what if none of the facts support that), the Jewish state into the greatest perpetrator of humanitarian rights crimes (again, with little proof, and while ignoring actual atrocities taking place on much greater scale around the globe) is just another form of antisemitism, of taking Jewish collectives and vilifying them to the point where Jews just no longer have their rights, including at the end of the line, the right to exist.

All of it is antisemitic and infuriating. I guess I'm just grateful that, even as a non-Jew, you can see right through most of that. Thank you for the ask, and I hope you're doing well! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[jewreallythinkthat]

You know I actually don't think we talk enough about the notions of irredeemability and mortification of the flesh which is so intrinsic to a lot of the left wing, especially (and I know people won't like this but it's true), ex-christian atheists, generally younger Millennials and Gen Z.

I first noticed it in fandom spaces, and it's become even more apparent since October 7th.

In fandom spaces, there is a belief that a character is either fully justified in their actions or completely irredeemable. Murder, assault, abuse is OK if it is directed at the deserving character. I've watched people justify characters being assaulted into heir own home and then accuse those calling out the abuse of being racist because the perpetrators was not white. The victim was not allowed any sympathy (objectively, also this person literally followed a request from their sister to not tell people where the sister was. That was the crime...) and the assault was justified by progressive members of the left because their personally had decided the crime was punishable by violence.

More recently, they have turned against queer characters, belittled the queer experience because nothing could ever make up for the behaviour of people decades ago in a much more homophobic world. It really is so very recent that people could be openly queer safely - laws protecting people's rights do not mean the people are safe and I think a lot of leftists seem to forget this. I, a queer man, made plenty of "gay jokes" at school to avoid being outed (like a lot of people who have come out since we left school) as an act of self preservation. I'm not proud of it but it was something that happened when I was a young teenager and I acknowledge that. According to a huge swathe of the left, I can never be forgiven for this, and I must spend the rest of my life repenting.

The revertion to these puritanical, medieval beliefs on sin - that we are never able to atone for mistakes of the past is a very, very, Christian notion which has permeated the left and is actively spread by a lot of people will push it in one breath and then decry everything Christianity has ever done in the next.

Since October 7ths, the Jews (they often say "Israelis" but it's so clear that they mean "Jews" - as shown by the number of times people accidentally say "Jew" and then try and correct themselves to "Zionists" or "Israelis") have become the ones who embody irredeemability. Nothing we do will be enough to make up for the sin of being Jewish. The left has become a whirlwind of conspiracy and (((they))) are at the centre of every single one.

I mentioned the mortification of the flesh before. There is an obsession in the left of self-flagellation. That because there is suffering in part of the world, then those in others parts must suffer as penitence. Israeli peace activists are only peaceful if they die in the pursuit of the destruction of Israel; peace activists fighting in Israel for Palestinian rights and the establishment of Palestine alongside Israel are not doing enough because committed the crime of being born in Israel and they must suffer to make up for it; people in "The West" are not allowed to have any enjoyment of anything until the suffering deemed most important by the Left has ceased.

Physical suffering, self-immolation, death in pursuit of The Cause has become the most pure one can be. This is identical to early Christians, it's just that The Cause is no longer Jesus but is Palestine (at the moment). Forgoing your own needs will not help end the war but people will do it to demonstrate their commitment rather than putting in the effort to push for sustainable and feesable solutions.

The strands of puritan Christianity that are twisted into the social justice of The Left are many, and people do not like to think or acknowledge them because that would imply Christianity has affected them, but heres the thing. If you live in any country which has been around a significant time and was, literally at ANY point a theocracy, then the beliefs of the religion that ruled the country will be infused into the culture there. That's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just how society evolves. Turning a blind eye to the influence of Christianity on countries like the US, UK, Canada, lot of Europe is willful ignorance and historical revisionism. The Left should be better than this but instead, it has decided that we are born into the sin of the crimes of the country we were born in and must atone for them for the rest of time, but anything other than physical suffering and death will never be enough.

[sesshomarou]

i have a sickening feeling that once israel ceases to be politically beneficial to western countries the governments will try to use it as a way to once again scapegoat Jewish people

[screamingfromuz]

Hi there! I am reaching out because someone sent me a question about how to help Gazan civilians without accidentally helping Hamas or spreading more hate against Israelis. I honestly feel lost on this myself, but as far as I can tell you are someone who has done real activism in Israel. Do you have suggestions for diaspora Jews who want to help fight for peace?

So a small disclaimer to the Gaza problem. We have 2 main problems with getting aid into Gaza, the first is the limited amount of aid that is allowed in, sending more money cannot make it go in faster. Problem number 2 is that much of the physical aid ends in Hamas's hands or in the black market and there is nothing we can do with that. I have heard recommendations to wait and see who opens a field hospital on the Rafah border crossing, and donate to them. Despite that, here are some charities to help Palestinians both in and out of Gaza.

I will admit, most of my activism is focused on deradicalization on the Israeli side and solidarity work, so I had to ask around for some of those charities. Some of the groups I know of do not currently have an international donation link, so if I get more good ones, I'll make another post.

Gaza:

Medical aid for Palestinians-

Anera-

Doctors without borders-

Palestinians outside of Gaza and Peace movements:

Palestinian red Crescent- they also work in Gaza, but as the main source for Palestinian ambulances in the WB, I put them here.

mistaclim (Looking the occupation the the eye)- this group is helping to protect Palestinians from the illegal settlers

Keshet- this is a big one. they support Bedouin communities in normal times, and now they are working on getting bomb shelters to the unrecognized villages, and providing a mental health first aid line.

standing together- totally biased, as I am a member of this organization.

Women wage peace- a feminist based solidarity group

Haqel- they represents Palestinians in cases related to land ownership and access. there work is still ongoing even during the war

Center for Jewish non Violence - a diaspora org that also does a lot of work in the South Hebron Hills.

[odinsblog]

I’m old enough to remember way back in 2018 when the NYPD got busted spying on Muslims, and how they illegally infiltrated Muslim communities + mosques, and that their actions were unethical, unlawful and ultimately found to be unconstitutional.

And now that same NYPD is suppressing pro-Palestinian protests and using unreasonable force against college students whose demands are for peace, a ceasefire and an end to the war crimes + genocide being inflicted on Palestinians by Israel.

Never forget that under the guise of fighting “terrorism,” police forces around the country have always been deeply Islamophobic, but especially the NYPD.

And now they’re doing this against college students.

The protesters are American taxpayers, citizens (you don’t have to be a citizen to be a taxpayer) activists, and college students. And cowardly university presidents, mayors, governors and the police are treating them like armed insurrections—except on January 6th law enforcement actually treated armed insurrectionists much better than unarmed college protesters.

America, where armed white nationalists—literally fomenting an insurrection—get treated with more equity, dignity and respect than peaceful college students who are exercising their constitutionally protected right to protest against war and genocide.

America, where white guys doing the Nazi salute while chanting “Jews will not replace us” is considered protected free speech, but college students saying “from the river to the sea Palestine will be free” is somehow violent antisemitic hate speech. Completely backwards.

[fuck-hamas-go-israel]

Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Apartheid?

Throwing around these buzzwords to describe the Israel-Hamas war because you’ve seen them on social media doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you an activist.

It makes you ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and lazy for parroting biased talking points with no concept about what these terms actually mean.

What is apartheid?

Well, it was first used to describe the political system in South Africa and today’s Namibia whereby racism was institutionalised. This manner of governance meant that clear racial segregation would occur, in a manner that benefited the white race and would actively oppress those who had darker skin.

This meant that there were white-only spaces, white people would get prioritised when it came to education and jobs, and relationships/marriages between white peoples and coloured people were illegal.

Is Israel objectively an apartheid state? There are no laws that actively favour one group over the other. There is a sizeable population of Israeli Arabs that can thrive in the same way as the Israeli Jews can. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to work in Israel through a work permit system. There are about 150,000 Palestinians working in Israel, most of which live in Israel and some come from Gaza/the West Bank. They aren’t denied rights institutionally.

Is it harder to get a job or education in Israel if you’re a Palestinian from Gaza? Sure, because of different governments. It’s like how it’s a lot easier for you to find a job in your own country (in terms of paperwork and bureaucracy) than overseas. But you’re not denied the right to apply.

Of course, if you have a history of violence, a criminal record, or your family has ties to terrorists, then it’ll be a lot harder to get an approved work permit. But that’s not apartheid. That’s common sense, and a regulation practiced by all countries that minimally desire to protect their own population from danger.

Ethnic cleansing and genocide

These two concepts can go hand-in-hand. Ethnic cleansing refers to the mass expulsion or killing of a group of people based on their ethnicity. Similarly, genocide is the purposeful killing of a group of people solely with the intention of annihilating them.

Famous examples? The Holocaust, of course, where the Nazi regime believed in the superiority of the Aryan race and decided to declare genocide on the Jews, Romanis, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, people with “Asian features”, and many many other groups. Anyone who they didn’t think was “pure”.

Their aim was to ensure that the Aryan race propagated without having “impure” blood affecting the bloodlines. They even started a eugenics programme called Lebensborn to ensure that more pure Aryan babies were born.

More recent examples? The Rwandan genocide where the Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis on the basis of ethnicity. They mandated that Tutsis mention their ethnicity on state-issued ID cards in order for the Hutus in power to be able to identify them and then kill them.

Or the Yazidi genocide which happened so recently, in which ISIL killed, raped, and sent thousands of Yazidis into conversion camps on the basis of their ethnicity. They also took Yazidi women as sex slaves and raped and tortured them.

Or the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State in Myanmar, and how there was a mass killing and expulsion of them from the country, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh to take refuge, crating the world’s largest refugee camp.

Or how ISIS killed thousands of people from Christian groups in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya because of their faith, leading the US, EU, and UK to label this as religious genocide and condemned their actions.

Has Israel been practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on Palestinians all these years?

Well, the birth rate of the Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel has been steadily increasing all these years.

So, no. No ethnic cleansing, no genocide. They are free to have as many children as they desire.

The UN Genocide Convention

The United Nations has 5 actions that constitute genocide.

1. Killing members of a target group

Israel is targeting Hamas officials with the aim of wiping out the terrorist group and ensuring that such a deadly attack on Israeli soil doesn’t happen again. I suppose you could call it genocide against Hamas, but they’re killing Hamas because they’re terrorists, not because they’re Palestinian. Shouldn’t everyone believe in genocide against terrorists?

But look at Black Saturday. Look at Hamas’ rhetoric. They repeatedly call for the annihilation of Israel and genocide of Jews. When will the media start believing what they say, word for word, instead of trying to spin it into “hmm maybe they want to kill all the Jews because they’re freedom fighters!”

War has collateral damage. Of course the innocent civilians don’t deserve to suffer just because of the actions of their government, but there have been warnings given to the Palestinian civilians prior to Israel striking the areas. There are consequences of attacking a country first, and then having that country attack you back.

2. Causing people of the group serious bodily or mental harm

The UN refers to sexual violence as the prime example of non-fatal harm.

Sexual violence has occurred. Hamas have kidnapped and raped women and even paraded the bodies of half-naked women around. But I f Israel had done the same, it’ll be the first thing appearing on everyone’s BBC push notifications (without even being confirmed as true).

3. Imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group

Many people refer to the blockade that Israel imposed around the Gaza Strip as an example of this.

This blockade was imposed by both Israel and Egypt in 2005. Its aim was to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and isolate the reign of Hamas to the region. This was to ensure the safety of Israel and Egypt.

Did this blockade pose serious challenges to the Gazan civilians? Of course. But that’s a consequence of having a terrorist government. If you have a terrorist group running your country, don’t be surprised if neighbouring countries are extra careful about who or what they allow in or out of the borders.

Many authorities from other Arab nations have also expressed approval of Egypt’s border restrictions, and even encouraged Egypt to flood the terror tunnels that Hamas has dug under the city. As a side note, other Arab nations have not historically been very kind or welcoming to Palestinians. Syria has killed over 4000 Palestinians, and many Arab countries are now refusing any refuge for Palestinians. But no one cares about that because it doesn’t make Israel look bad. All they do now is use the images of dead Palestinians under the hands of Syria and reuse them to propagate fake news.

The blockade has been labelled as a human rights violation because of collective punishment. Many humanitarian organisations believe that the blockade has caused the Palestinian civilians disproportionate harm.

Contrary to popular belief, Israel isn’t disallowing humanitarian aid from coming through the borders. Fuel, food, hygiene products, clothes, and shoes have been coming through the borders regularly for years. The Gaza Strip also has electricity and internet access and water.

Do all these items reach the Palestinian civilians? Well, there has been evidence that Hamas has been intercepting a lot of the supplies sent by humanitarian groups. This is not surprising since the UNRWA tweeted that Hamas has stole fuel from hospitals in Gaza in order to launch more rockets at Israel (but quickly deleted it after realising that it goes against their agenda to paint Hamas in a bad light.) In addition, the returned hostages have mentioned that there are many aid supplies hidden in the terror tunnels by Hamas. Instead of giving them to the civilians, they are hoarding it for themselves.

There has also been video evidence that some people are reselling these aid items in stores at exorbitant prices in order to turn profits. This has been well-documented for the last 10 years.

Is blockading the region to mitigate terrorism a disproportionate response? Well, it’s like asking if heightened security and stricter border control at airports is a disproportionate response after 9/11. Is being cautious and worrying about the security of your country an irrational reaction to the constant threat of terrorism?

4. Preventing births

Gaza’s population growth rate per annum is about 1.99%, which is the 39th highest in the world! Their population is allowed to propagate freely.

Israel isn’t preventing births of Palestinian babies.

5. Forcibly transferring children out of the group

No, Israel hasn’t been taking Palestinian children and forcing them to convert/keeping young Palestinian girls as sex slaves. Like I said, if this was truly happening, all the news outlets would be so quick to publish the story before verifying it.

Can we trust the UN Genocide standards?

The UN is known for corruption and have been exploiting the Palestinian people by selling them the humanitarian supplies instead of distributing them for free, which they should because these supplies literally are donations.

The UN also has differing standards of what they would label as genocide. For example, they refuse to call what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, even though the situation does fit many of their own criteria.

Hence, to all of you out there overusing these terms without knowing what they mean, make up your own mind about things. No one can force you to believe anything and no one can force you to change your mind.

But at the very least, do your due diligence and educate yourself before spouting tired buzzwords. Repeating misinformation doesn’t help anyone and can be very harmful.

[laineystein]

How do you make peace with the IDF storming into hospitals and UN schools? How do you make peace with the news that the IDF opened fire on Israeli citizens on October 7th? Why do the Palestinians deserve to be chased out of their homes since 1948? Do you know about Rachel Corrie? Do you know that the IDF has killed a record breaking amount of journalists? I don't understand how you can be so close to this tragedy and act like it is anything other than genocide.

You make peace when you understand international law and learn that the only war crimes being committed are being committed by Hamas. We’re not storming hospitals or schools. International law also states that as soon as a faction begins using an area for military purposes, it is no longer protected. It is no longer a “civilian” area, even if civilians still reside there. So many sources (that notably hate Israel and Jews) have come out confirming that Al Shifa is Hamas HQ. Many sources have come out confirming that Hamas is using schools to store weapons and indoctrinate children *and* that NGOs like the UN have turned a blind eye.

You make peace when you learn to educate yourself instead of falling victim to jihadist propaganda. The “Israelis killed their own people on October 7th” lie has been debunked. No sources could be found confirming that and the IDF and the Israel Police both came out saying that was factually inaccurate. If you know reporting out of those groups you know that when we’ve fucked up, we admit it. This was all a fabrication to excuse terrorism and continue to wrongfully demonize Israel.

You make peace when you deal with actual facts. There was a two-state solution planned before 1948 and then four countries attacked Israel and we defeated them all which lead to what y’all refer to as the Nakba. BUT!!! The Jewish population did not want their Arab neighbors to leave. Arab nations encouraged the Nakba. Arab nations have always used the plight of the Palestinian people to further their agenda of demonizing Israel in an attempt to eradicate it and kill Jews. But if we’re going to talk to about being expelled from your homes - Jewish families were expelled from Gaza in 2005 when we gave the land to the Palestinians. Do you care about that? Where are the Jews in Iraq? Yemen? Afghanistan? Syria? Sudan? Morocco? Feel free to talk about how those people were ethnically cleansed from those countries - but if that doesn’t interest you then your activism might be performative and you might just hate Jews.

I know it is not genocide because I’m so close to it. I spent all of last week ensuring the safe passage of Palestinians out of Gaza, into the South. I had Palestinians thank me. I administered aid to Palestinian children and the elderly. I watched them pray to Allah that Hamas would go away. What happened to my people on October 7th was an attempted genocide - something that Hamas has admitted to. What we are doing in Gaza is working to prevent a genocide, one of Hamas’ own doing.

Please read a book. Please get off social media. Please stop regurgitating lies fed to you by influencers and antisemites that did not care about this conflict before October 7th. You clearly need to be educated and messaging an IDF soldier on anon isn’t the way to do it. I have better shit to do. Yalla bye✌🏼

[nicklloydnow]

“May I be permitted to say a few words? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic & Islamic History under William Montgomery Watt & Laurence Elwell Sutton, 2 of Britain ‘s great Middle East experts. I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge & to teach Arabic & Islamic Studies at Newcastle University . Naturally, I am the author of several books & 100s of articles in this field.

I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs & that, for that reason, I am shocked & disheartened for a simple reason: there is not & has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality should anyone choose to visit Israel.

Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that many students are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, & that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby.

Hating Israel

Being anti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I’m not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel . I’m speaking of a hatred that permits itself no boundaries in the lies & myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a “Nazi” state. In what sense is this true, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg Laws?

None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for. It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When?

No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is a way to subvert historical fact. Likewise apartheid.

No Apartheid

For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a day in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous this is.

The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country’s 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha’is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan & elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; or anyone else; the holy places of all religions are protected by Israeli law.

Free Arab Israelis

Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population). In Iran , the Bahai’s (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren’t your members boycotting Iran ?

Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa. They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews — something no blacks were able to do in South Africa.

Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews & Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.

Women’s Rights

In Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men & women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays oftn escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.

It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel & say nothing about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief.

Intelligent students thinking it’s better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?

(…)

I do not object to well-documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations.

(…)

Israeli citizens, Jews & Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations & call for no boycotts against Libya , Bahrain , Saudi Arabia , Yemen , & Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world’s freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the ME that gives refuge to gay men & women, the only country in the ME that protects the Bahai’s…. Need I go on?

(…)

Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you. Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more.”

[capybaracorn]

Israel’s ‘anti-Zionists’ brave police beatings, smears to demand end to war

Some have been jailed for refusing to serve in the armed forces while others face threats and harassment from right-wing groups.

An antiwar protest in Tel Aviv during municipal elections [Mat Nashed/Al Jazeera]

(9 Mar 2024)

Tel Aviv/West Jerusalem – In 2015, Maya, a Jewish Israeli, travelled to Greece to help Syrian refugees. At the time, she was an exchange student in Germany and she had been deeply moved by the pictures she saw of desperate people arriving there in small boats.

That was where she met Palestinians who had been born in Syria after their parents and grandparents fled there during the founding of her own country in 1948.

They told her about the Nakba – or “catastrophe” – in which 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes to make way for the newly established Israel. Maya, 33, who had been taught that her country was born through “an independence war” against hostile Arab neighbours, decided that she needed to “unlearn” what she had learned.

“I never heard about the right of return, or Palestinian refugees,” she told Al Jazeera.

“I had to get out of Israel to start learning about Israel. It was the only way I could puncture holes in what I was taught.”

Maya, who asked that her full name not be used for fear of reprisals, is one of a small number of Israeli Jewish activists who identify as “anti-Zionists” or “non-Zionists”.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, a pro-Israeli group with a stated mission of fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in the United States, Zionism means supporting a Jewish state established for the protection of Jews worldwide.

However, many anti-Zionists like Maya and the people she works with view Zionism as a Jewish supremacist movement which has ethnically cleansed most of historic Palestine and systematically discriminates against the Palestinians who remain, either as citizens of Israel or residents of the occupied territories.

But since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israeli civilians and military outposts on October 7, in which 1,139 people were killed and nearly 250 taken captive, Israeli anti-Zionists have been accused of treason for speaking about Palestinian human rights.

Many have called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza to stop what they view as collective punishment and genocide of the Palestinian people.

“I think [anti-Zionists] always claim that Jewish supremacy is not the answer and it is not the answer to the [October 7] killings,” Maya said.

“Israelis don’t understand how the Palestinian story is all about the Nakba, refugees and the right of return. If we are not able to deal with that then we are not going anywhere.”

Perceived as ‘traitors’

Since October 7, Israeli anti-Zionists have described living in a hostile political and social environment. Many say the police have violently cracked down on anti-war protests, while others have received threats from far-right-wing Israelis.

Roee, who, like Maya, did not give his last name for fear of reprisals from Israeli society or authorities, is also a Jewish Israeli activist. In October last year, he attended a small demonstration of a couple of dozen people a few days after Israel began bombing Gaza. The demonstrators were calling on Hamas to free all Israeli captives and on Israel to stop the war.

“The police pushed all of us [out] violently in just two minutes,” Roee, 28, told Al Jazeera at a cafe in West Jerusalem.

Weeks later, Roee and his friend, Noa, who also did not want her full name to be revealed, attended another silent demonstration outside a police station in Jerusalem. They put tape over their mouths to denounce the sweeping arrests of Palestinian citizens of Israel who had also called for an end to the war on Gaza.

But again, police chased down the Israeli protesters and beat them with batons.

“I think it is very clear that the police recognise us. It doesn’t matter the signs we hold. They know us. They know we are leftists and that we are ‘traitors’ or whatever they call us,” Noa told Al Jazeera.

Many Israeli antiwar activists have also been smeared or “doxxed” – a term given to people whose identities and addresses are made known on social media by those hoping to intimidate them into silence.

Maya said that a right-wing activist had accused her romantic partner of cooperating with Hamas by informing them of the whereabouts of Israeli positions in Gaza. The activist published photos of her partner on Instagram with captions detailing the fabricated accusations.

“We were afraid that our address would be exposed, but luckily it wasn’t. Even before October 7, [these groups of extreme right-wing people] tried to obtain addresses of people to ‘dox’ them and taunt them. Some of our friends had to leave their apartments. That was our main worry,” Maya said.

Conscientious objectors

While most Israelis are required to enlist in the army after high school, antiwar activists have refused to take part in their country’s continuing occupation of the West Bank, where raids and arrests have been intensified since October, or in the war on Gaza. Two young Israelis who publicly refused to join the army are now serving short sentences in military prison.

Einat Gerlitz, a “non-Zionist” and a member of Mesarvot, a non-profit organisation providing social and legal support to Israeli conscientious objectors, said that more people may have refused military service since the war on Gaza began, because not everyone goes public.

“The army does not release the numbers … because the army’s interest is to make sure [refusing service] is not a topic spoken about in the public sphere. The government and army work really hard to glorify army service, so they want minimal attention on conscientious objectors,” the 20-year-old said.

Einat Gerlitz is a 20-year-old peace activist and a conscientious objector. She spoke about her peace activism in a cafe in Tel Aviv [Al Jazeera/Mat Nashed]

Gerlitz added that the October 7 attack did not make her reconsider her peace activism, but she is very concerned for friends and peers who were quickly deployed to Gaza.

“I was worried for them, but I was also worried about some of the commands that they may need to fulfil,” she told Al Jazeera, referring to her worries that soldiers may be ordered to commit atrocities or violate international law.

Over the past five months, Israeli soldiers have razed entire neighbourhoods in Gaza, bombed universities, hospitals and places of worship, and shot at crowds of starving Palestinians lining up for food aid.

Rights groups say that these attacks amount to war crimes and may collectively amount to a campaign of genocide.

‘We need greater empathy’

Many anti-Zionist Israelis say that their aim is to make fellow Israelis recognise the humanity of the Palestinians.

However, they say it has been difficult to counter the messaging of Israeli politicians, some of whom have called Palestinians in Gaza “animals”, “subhuman” or “barbarians” in order to rally support for the war. Some of these statements were singled out by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which issued an emergency order in January on the genocide case brought against Israel by South Africa.

Israeli society also expresses little empathy for Palestinians in Gaza, several Israeli activists told Al Jazeera. They explained they believe this is partly due to Israeli media rarely reporting on the army’s probable war crimes, nor on the catastrophic humanitarian crisis brought on by Israel’s war.

Maya recalls going to a demonstration in Tel Aviv to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza in late October. About 50 people attended, with many holding up photos of children killed by the Israeli army. But when Israeli children saw the photos, they claimed they were fake.

“[Young Israeli kids] pointed at a photo of a father holding a dead baby in Gaza and said, ‘How can you believe this? It’s not real. He is acting’,” Maya said.

“[Another child] pointed to a different dead baby and said, ‘This is a doll’.”

Addam, an anti-Zionist Israeli and a graffiti artist, who did not disclose his full name, was also at the protest. He said that an Israeli woman called the demonstrators “traitors” and said that her own brother had died fighting for Israel in Gaza.

While Addam was heartbroken to hear about her loss, he said he believes that the government is weaponising Israeli grief to commit atrocities in Gaza. He added that he tries to humanise Palestinians through his art and spoke about one project where he photographed the physical scars that Palestinians and Israelis bore from past conflicts.

“Once there is empathy, it creates an entirely different foundation to begin engaging in reality,” he told Al Jazeera. “It should be a given that people in Gaza are human beings with families, dreams and jobs.

“But, for many factors, there is this ongoing process [in Israel] of dehumanising Palestinians.”

[notaplaceofhonour]

What Does “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free” Mean?

Gentile Americans keep telling me it’s a call for a single state for both peoples, where neither are subjugated or displaced and both have equal protection & representation in government (aka the One State Solution for Two Peoples) but Jews keep telling me it’s a call for the entire region to be ruled by a specifically Palestinian state, i.e. a one state solution for one people, not two (aka the One Palestinian State Solution). So which is it?

Since it’s a Palestinian slogan, I figured I’d ask actual Palestinians what it means: does Palestine, from the River to the Sea refer to One State for Two Peoples or One Palestinian State? Fortunately I don’t have to do the hard work myself, because AWRAD (a Palestinian research group based in the West Bank) already polled Palestinians living in Palestine on their opinions about the war, and what their preferred solution would be:

Table from AWRAD’s Wartime Survey: “WB” is West Bank, “GS” is Gaza Strip

When presented with the One State for Two Peoples solution that Americans keep saying Palestinians want, Palestinians overwhelmingly say they do not want that, and demonstrate that “From the River to the Sea” is most closely associated with one option for them: a Palestinian State, explicitly differentiated from a state for both peoples.

This is a phrase that is also widely used by militants, rooted in the assumption that every inch belongs to Palestinian Arabs, the refusal to recognize Israel, or Israeli’s right to live anywhere between the river and the sea. Most often when militant groups say they want to liberate Palestine from the river to the sea, this is what they mean:

October 7th—a massacre of more than a thousand Jews—is what Hamas means by liberating Palestine from the River to the Sea.

Not all Palestinians want that. Although a minority in Palestine, 25.3% of them say they support other solutions, most notably a Two State Solution. Outside of Palestine, there are Palestinian citizens of Israel who are active members of Jewish-Arab groups advocating for peace, freedom, and democracy for all, who advocate for ending the occupation (#FreePalestine) but understand that pairing that sentiment with the phrase “From the River to the Sea” necessarily implies the claim that the entire land from the river to the sea (including all of Israel) is Palestine, and thus “freeing Palestine” would mean removing Israel entirely.

Elsewhere in the Palestinian diaspora, there are Palestinians who also recognize this:

Far from stemming from anti-Palestinian sentiment or an assumption that Muslims and Arabs are inherently violent, the recognition of what this phrase implies and how it is being used as a dogwhistle to call for the subjugation, removal, or death of Jews stems from the context and how it is being used in practice—and this is an implication most Jews and Palestinians, especially those in Israel and Palestine, recognize.

[rabbitrah]

One of the frustrating things about many political leaders and Jewish organizations pushing this line of thinking that "anti-Zionism = antisemitism," is that many people will believe "Zionism=Judaism" and then make the leap that "more religious = more Zionist." I hadn't realized the extent of this until a family member, who is anti-zionist, said something that made it clear that he thinks that religious fervor/devotion/orthodoxy is the cause of Zionism and the genocide of the Palestinian people. THIS IS DANGEROUS FOR MANY REASONS.

First of all, it's incorrect. Haredim, or strictly orthodox Jews are MUCH LESS LIKELY to be Zionists. No group is a monolith and there are different groups with different stances, but the most outwardly devout religious communities in Israel are not Zionist, and instead are mostly non-Zionists (neutral, pragmatic), with a smaller minority being anti-Zionist (believe that the state of Israel should not exist).

With few exceptions, HAREDI MEN IN ISRAEL DO NOT SERVE IN THE MILITARY. The majority of them never serve in the IDF and unlike other young people in Israel, their right as conscientious objectors is actually protected by law.

I know this is a very small and complicated part of a very large and complicated issue, but this is a clear example of how Judaism does not equal Zionism, especially at the more orthodox end of the spectrum.

We're stuck in this quagmire where

Jewish Zionists suggest that Judaism and Zionism are the same.

Non-jews who are also Zionists believe it

Non-jews who are anti-Zionists believe it

The desired result by Zionists is that anti-Zionism will be considered hate-speech and written into law.

The unintended result is an increase in legitimate antisemitism. Add to this the fact that Orthodox Jews who live outside Israel are more likely to be targets of antisemitism because they are more visibly Jewish, and I want to cry out to God at the unfairness of it all.

I probably didn't do this topic justice and I know there are many people who could say it better than me, but I haven't seen it said at all. I see people saying "anti-Zionism isn't antisemitism" but I didn't see the added explanation that orthodoxy is inversely correlated with Zionism, which I think is really important point.

[eretzyisrael]

Every week we are reading about professions that are pushing out Zionist Jews from their fields.

In the field of international law:

...The professor saw a trend among the topics Israeli and Jewish colleagues were pushed to pursue. Those who continued their academic work in international law either wrote about Palestinians as victims or Israel’s violations of humanitarian international law. “Israelis would either write about IP law or business law, or about how Israel is being awful, violating human rights and all of that.”

This stood out because the professor noticed their colleagues from Latin America and China weren’t expected to work on topics that criticize their home countries as a condition for receiving faculty support. Yet when it came to Israelis, it was “clear to us this is what we need to deliver on.”

In the professor’s discussions with the senior faculty, especially the progressive liberal Jewish faculty, it came through clearly that support for Israeli students was conditioned on being the right type of Israeli, “and there were fellowships and scholarships and grants available to students who are willing to do that. In Hebrew we say that a person knows which side of the bread is buttered, right? So it’s pretty clear what pays off is to distance yourself from a mainstream Israeli kind of discourse.”

Understanding who holds the power and influences decisions is important in any profession, the law included. “You need to have the support and the mentors to advance in your career,” the professor explained, “and for that, you look for cues on what should I do, how do I make these people like me. Why would you bother, why would you take the risk of saying something that is controversial or put yourself in the position of protecting Israel or speaking on behalf of Israel when there is only a price to pay for that?”

“For example, there is an institute that gives out scholarships to doctoral students who are writing dissertations about Israel. I was advised not to take their money because then it’s going to be on my CV and people will interpret that as if I don’t have the right kind of politics. So even when there are economic incentives to write different kinds of scholarship,” under the current academic incentives, the professor concludes, scholarships and point-interventions will not work “because it’s more about selection and authority and networks and connections and less about economic incentives.”

Mental health professionals:

The anti-Zionist blacklist is the most extreme example of an anti-Israel wave that has swept the mental health field since the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks and the resulting war in Gaza, which has seen the deaths of thousands of Palestinian civilians. More than a dozen Jewish therapists from across the country who spoke to Jewish Insider described a profession ostensibly rooted in compassion, understanding and sensitivity that has too often dropped those values when it comes to Jewish and Israeli providers and clients.

At best, these therapists say their field has been willing to turn a blind eye to the antisemitism that they think is too rampant to avoid. At worst, they worry the mental health profession is becoming inhospitable to Jewish practitioners whose support for Israel puts them outside the prevailing progressive views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Authors:

Over the past several months, a litmus test has emerged across wide swaths of the literary world effectively excluding Jews from full participation unless they denounce Israel. This phenomenon has been unfolding in progressive spaces (academia, politics, cultural organizations) for quite some time. That it has now hit the rarefied, highbrow realm of publishing — where Jewish Americans have made enormous contributions and the vitality of which depends on intellectual pluralism and free expression — is particularly alarming.

It feels like history is repeating itself.

Jews founded the Jews' Hospital in New York in 1855, now known as Mount Sinai Hospital, partially as a response to the need for a place that Jews could be treated without feeling like outsiders, as every other hospital at the time was aligned with various Christian groups. It followed the founding in 1850 of the Jewish Hospital in Cincinnati. When Mount Moriah Hospital Mount Moriah Hospital opened in New York in 1908, the Forward reported that Jews "can open the door and enter as if to your own home without a racing heart and without fear."

Brandeis University was founded in 1948 "at a time when Jews and other ethnic and racial minorities, and women, faced discrimination in higher education."

Jews who were facing discrimination formed professional associations and schools in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, for physicians, scientists, and trades, like the Hebrew Technical Institute in New York and the Kehillah which attempted to be an umbrella of professional and educational associations in New York (and that the antisemite Henry Ford railed against.)

It appears that it is time for Jews in the professions where they are being blacklisted must start to form Jewish professional organizations, educational networks and institutions anew, where Jews can network and publish as they want without having to please the "progressive" crowds.

But the arc of history is going backwards, and this is only a Band-Aid. The problem is with America and the world itself, and Jews cannot solve this problem alone - the dangers of the progressive bigots are a threat to the free world and that needs to be addressed at the macro level.

[jewishvitya]

Saw an interview with the Israeli ambassador in the UK where she openly rejects the idea of a Palestinian state at all. Including in a two-states scenario. Which, I knew this is the position of our government, Netanyahu was recently trying to push the "I'm the only one who can prevent a Palestinian state," but she was unusually open and explicit about it for an international interview.

And I didn't realize it at first (because I'm awful with faces... and names) but that's Tzipi Hotoveli. She's so right-wing that she was a popular name in the settlements when I lived there. And this is something I can say about many politicians currently running the government, they are the names that aligned politically with the most extremist community. And this is why she's so bad at being diplomatic about it - the people with that mentality rarely care about watering down their goals.

A mutual of mine on a different platform, an American anti-zionist Jew, talked about a trip they took to the West Bank. It was organized to show the occupation, the checkpoints, etc. Someone asked in response if they visited settlements too, and said that he was glad they enjoyed the trip, but it seems to be all one color.

This was a weird comment. What can you see in the settlements to change your mind, if you care about human rights. What can you see that would erase the suffering of Palestinians there, or give context to justify it. Even if settlers knew to say all the right words, this shouldn't be enough to make you forget what Palestinians are living through.

But they don't say the right words. Especially there, the people openly dehumanize Palestinians. And if you talk to them for a while, they will do it to your face. And they will be open about wanting no Palestinians living on any part of the land. Israeli Arabs are often seen as a different story, as long as they accept Israeli sovereignty. Still not fully trusted, though.

I saw someone confusing the electric fence I mentioned in a few posts, with the separation fence, which is the wall around the West Bank. Not the same thing.

The separation fence is built within the territory of the West Bank, but it's a large wall all around that cuts them off from other areas of the land.

The electric fence is smaller, and it's specific. The one I'm referring to is in Kiryat Arba, near Hebron. That's the settlement I grew up in. It's one of the more established settlements, and it's basically a small town. Right behind the apartment building I lived in, there was the electric fence. And in a distance of maybe a couple of traffic lanes past the fence, were Palestinian homes. They could see us, we could see them.

The fence was there for our sake, not for the Palestinians. But sometimes the settlers would tear it down, forcing the border police and the military to guard that spot and rebuild it. I wondered why, because a hole in the fence near my home scared me. And then I learned they were protesting against the feeling that they're being contained. The settlers, with how they're constantly expanding, felt that they're not given enough. Settlers treat "we can't expand as fast as we'd like" as if that's oppression.

They would regularly get into conflicts with border police and with the military over this. They'd go out to claim another hill, and their temporary homes would get torn down. Individuals from the West Bank settlements would have the Shin Bet keeping track of them in case they'll do something that could provoke an escalation of violence. And this isn't to claim that Israel was being fair to Palestinians or protecting their interests. It just means that Israel tried to be strategic to an extent, and the settlers are inflammatory. Their stated goal, openly talked about, is to establish a presence on the ground, so that any agreement that gives land to Palestinians won't be possible. I kept hearing sentences like "not even a square centimeter." Meaning that they want to leave nothing for Palestinians. They aren't trying to think about what Israel can get away with, they feel entitled to everything.

And these are the people that the current Israeli government aligns with. Which puts a lot of things out in the open, and pushes a lot of other things into further extremes.

[odinsblog]

“First, H.R. 6090 could result in colleges and universities suppressing a wide variety of speech critical of Israel or in support of Palestinian rights in an effort to avoid investigations by the Department and the potential loss of funding, even where such speech is protected and does not qualify as harassment. Even without H.R. 6090, advocacy groups have already filed or threatened to file numerous Title VI complaints and lawsuits, alleging that colleges have violated Title VI merely by condoning Palestinian rights groups, events, and advocacy. For example, in September 2023, the pro-Israel group Santa Fe Middle East Watch claimed that the University of New Mexico's anthropology department would violate the New Mexico Governor's executive order using this same definition of antisemitism if they hosted Mohammed El-Kurd, a Palestinian poet and writer currently serving as the Nation's Palestine correspondent.

Moreover, in February 2020, the David Horowitz Freedom Center sent a letter to Pomona and Pitzer college officials alleging “the colleges’ liability under Title VI” for, among other things, co-sponsoring a Students for Justice in Palestine event featuring a screening of the film ‘Gaza Fights for Freedom,’ and funding a panel on “Perspectives on Colleges and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.”

Additionally, there have been multiple instances of university censorship of pro-Palestinian expression after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel. These include the University of Pennsylvania denying a screening of a documentary which raises concerns some young Jews have about Israel's treatment of Palestinians, and Brandeis University banning the student group Students for Justice in Palestine.* Equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism by law, under a threat of investigation, will only create more fear in schools, prompting administrators to silence this speech regardless of whether it is protected.

Second, even where administrators do not take formal action, students and their organizations, faculty, and university staff may be deterred from speaking and organizing on these issues. Activists would be understandably hesitant to engage in political expression criticizing Israel or advocating for Palestinian rights if they have reason to believe the federal government will actively investigate such expression in connection with harassment complaints and investigations.

Finally, the bill would likely inspire an increasing number of complaints focused on constitutionally protected criticism of Israel. These complaints will not only cause schools to limit speech out of fear, but will also force both the Department and covered universities to devote time and resources to addressing complaints about constitutionally protected speech, instead of meritorious harassment complaints.”

(source) (source)

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

If you remember the Bibas family, they were all kidnapped to Gaza on Oct 7, the father Yarden who left their house first, to protect his family, and then the mother Shiri, 4 years old Ariel, and the baby, 9 months old Kfir.

It is now confirmed that they were not kidnapped by Hamas, but rather by one of 26 terrorist organizations in Gaza, each one so small that they're usually referred to as terrorist factions, rather than terrorist organization. This one specifically has adopted a pattern of always cooperating with one of the bigger terrorist organizations (like Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad), so we can assume that's what they did on Oct 7 as well. The first 45 seconds or so from the following vid is what it looked like when Shiri, Ariel and Kfir were being kidnapped, you can see how terrified she is...

Below is new CCTV footage that the IDF has uncovered from a street in Khan Younis, so now we know which city in Gaza the three (Shiri, Ariel and Kfir) were kidnapped to. Shiri is seen barefoot, Ariel's head is sort of visible, Kfir isn't, but it's assumed he's under the blanket, and Shiri holding him close to her body. Because this footage is from Oct 2023, there's so much we still don't know. Are they still there? What's their current state? Nobody knows, but the IDF spokesman has confirmed that there is grave concern for their lives.

Yesterday, a Hezbollah attack drone crashed into Arbel, the mountain on which Tiberias (one of the 4 holy cities in Judaism) is built. For some reason, the siren didn't go off. The drone crashed not too far from a kindergarten, but thankfully no one was hurt. In response, Israel has struck Hezbollah's weapon warehouses in Lebanon. To the best of my knowledge, they're still checking why the siren warning failed, and which country was the drone launched from, Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.

A French report says that the terror tunnels Hezbollah has been digging for years on Israel's northern border are more complex and dangerous than the system Hamas has dug under Gaza. That's what Israeli soldiers will have to tackle if the northern front goes to a full scale war. The terror tunnels Hamas has dug since 2007 under Gaza are so much more developed, extensive, complex and dangerous than Israel has realized, and the IDF has had to develop new ways of fighting in and around them, which we did not have when the war in Gaza started. Hamas' terror tunnels were estimated to be bigger than the London Tube (underground train system) back in Dec 2023, and there have been more tunnels located since. Just to put things in perspective, London's size is 1572 square kilometers (607 square miles), more than 4 times bigger than Gaza, at 363 square kilometers (140 square miles), and has a smaller underground tunnel system, according to what we knew about Gaza two months ago. But people want Israel to sit back, and let these threats to the lives of Israeli civilians continue to grow freely... Just a reminder, on Oct 7, the way the terrorists got to the border fence, to destroy the cameras there, without being spotted on the way was thanks to their terror tunnels, and those tunnels allow them to hold Israeli hostages captives, and it allows Hamas terrorists a place to hide and strike from, and it's where some Israeli hostages were murdered.

Today in our corner, "Suuuure, it's anti-Zionism, not antisemitism, but somehow it keeps targeting Jews and Jewish identity," we got two stories from the UK. One is of a Jewish family sending their baby girl's birth certificate to issue her a passport got the document back torn and defaced, with the word "Israel" under "father's place of birth" scribbled over.

The second story is of how the Amy Winehouse statue, which has stood in Camden Market for essentially 10 years, has also been defaced, specifically the Star of David was covered with a Palestinian flag sticker.

This is Elyakim Libman.

On Oct 7, he worked at the Nova music festival as a guard. Survivors of the massacre there say he helped save quite a few people. At a certain point, he went back to retrieve the body of a murdered young woman, so it wouldn't be taken hostage by the terrorists, and that's when he ended up being kidnapped himself. He's been in Gaza for over 4 months, including during his birthday. The other day, he became an uncle. He was supposed to be his nephew's godfather, but didn't get to. His family said explicitly they want no terrorists to be released in order to free him, and that if Elyakim could weigh in, he would say the same.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)