• Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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    3 days ago

    So you’re saying the Jews need their own space as a matter of survival? I think the Germans had a word for that: lebensraum.

    The reality of the situation is that zionists have spent the last four years systematically exterminating the population of Palestine through a combination of direct violence, terror, and apparently a coordinated effort to cause mass starvation.

    In the last year, they’ve moved on to Lebanon and Syria.

    Conflating Zionism and semitism won’t make me think the atrocities being carried out right now are okay. I will remain an anti-zionist. You might convince me to become an anti-semite, though.

    Edit: to clarify, this isnt a Jewish problem. The problem is being caused by the political entity we know as Israel, not the ethnic group we call Jews. Now both the political entity we call Israel, and actual anti-semites, have a vested interest in conflating the two.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      The problem is you’re only thinking about what’s happening on the other side of the world. I’m thinking about what’s happening where I live. You’re ignoring what is happening to Jewish people because you don’t want to upset your allies in your movement.

      You’re not the first person to look the other way when antisemitism was happening. You’re not the first person to be in a movement that will ostracize you if you show any empathy for Jews. You have to continuously go back to the well and talk about what’s happening elsewhere in the world while Jews in your own country are victims of racist violence.

      There are very strong parallels between your behavior and the behavior of groups in the past. You’re in a hate group. You don’t want to see yourself as a member of a hate group, so you won’t look at the violence perpetrated against Jews that have never even been to Israel. You can’t consider that this violence is being done by the members of the same group you’re in.

      It’s the same with white supremacists you know. If exposed to something that is clearly hateful towards black people they will go back to the warm comfort of a stream of information showing black people committing crimes.

      Did you do that after the Bondi massacre? After you catch a glimpse of a news article about synagogue being shot at? Just go back to a stream of data depicting Jews doing terrible things to cleanse the doubt from your mind so you can stay loyal to your hate group?

      • Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        As I said, there is a clear distinction between the actions of Israel the political entity and Jews the ethnic group. I absolutely condemn the actions of Israel. Unfortunately, other people who I am not in a group with use this to justify violence against Jews.

        Israel the political entity also encourages those violent actions against Jews, to create a rally around the flag effect.

        As long as both right wing neo-nazis and right wing Israeli leadership continue to draw an equivalence between Israel the political entity and Jews the ethnic group, people will feel justified attacking Jews in the name of harming Israel.

        Me? I don’t attack Jews. But I am quite comfortable calling out Israel as a fascist state run by genocidal maniacs. If you can’t make that distinction, then once again: I will not stop being anti-zionist.

        This is the downside of mixing religion and politics. Want to prevent anti-Semitic attacks that claim to defend Palestine? Work to make it very fucking clear that Israel the political entity does not speak for Jews the ethnic group. Or accept that you might become collateral damage.

        Edit: much like how I have accepted that me being an American citizen makes me a target for anti-trump foreign entities, regardless of my support for trump. And much like how I have accepted that my Russian heritage will likely mean I never visit Ukraine ever again, even though I think the Russian invasion was completely unjustified.