A Godsdamn Mess

[citrakayah]

As everyone knows, unless they're living under a rock, Hamas attacked a bunch of largely civilian targets early this month. Israel for its part has decided that "never again" means "never again to us" and has killed way more civilians than Hamas as part of its continual effort to look worse than fundamentalist anti-Semites. Just recently they've bombed a hospital and tried to deny it, and the USA--which hardly knows restraint--had to intervene to get the water back on.

I don't know anyone in either region. Frankly I'm glad about that. Gaza is undergoing genocide by inches; I can't look at what Israel is doing and call it anything else. Especially when I read about how even "moderate" Israelis are often pro-ethnic cleansing. This is genocide, and so many of us condone it.

My synagogue growing up was very pro-Israel. I was not, or at least can't remember being. But I remember seeing CAMERA propaganda rags out, seeing books saying you can't be Jewish while being anti-Zionist (or that if you're both you're self-hating), and getting told that we needed it because we were always at risk. Israel government policy could be lightly criticized... but never very substantially. We have been content to tie ourselves to an abomination.

This makes it rage-inducing to see so many in the Diaspora who continue, after Israel starts throwing around genocidal language like "children of darkness" and "human animals" (does the state think Israelis are plants) and holds Gazans collectively responsible, to tie ourselves to it. They give Israel reflexive support, they say "I am Israel." Israel does not deserve support; at this point the state of Israel should be spoken in the same light as Hamas and we are dirtying ourselves by pretending otherwise. We should sever relations entirely.

Never again means never again, ever. I owe no loyalty or sympathy to any other Jews who'd perform genocide, and we should be their most fanatic enemies. There is no enemy greater than one who does an abomination and says it is in your name.

We should rip the state apart brick by brick.

Comments

[the_broken_tower]

Humans find so many stupid reasons to kill each other. :/

- Ryou (he/him)

[siliconshaman]

It is sometimes the case that those who have suffered abuse become abusers themselves, especially when they have a position of power and/or strength. Collective generational abusive trauma more or less defines being Jewish. So it's hardly surprising that Israel produces monsters for politicians, and as is also often the case, people support them beyond reason, Stockholm syndrome and abusive control being other traits.

However, Palestinian society isn't any better, and for very similar reasons.

It's basically all horrible people doing terrible things to each other, and everyone else that isn't a monster is too scared not to go along.

[citrakayah]

I don't believe this is why Israel does it anymore. Perhaps it was once, but Israel has not faced an existential threat that recently and is pretty happy to buddy up to anti-Semitic right-wingers. If it were just traumatized people in a cycle of violence, I don't believe they'd do that. Certainly that's part of it, and part of why there is so much apologia for Israel among the Diaspora. But I think most if it is simply that many Israelis are bog-standard ethnonationalists.

[siliconshaman]

Agreed, it's entirely possible it started that way but got hijacked by the ethnonationists as you say.

Either way, it's all horrible people doing terrible things.

[dinogrrl]

Yeah...all this.