It looks to me that Israel’s invasion of Gaza has driven a whole lot of people to hate Israel, and that is not anti-semitism - it is hate of a country that murders another county’s civilians. Alas, the same people do not seem to hate Hamas, which purposefully provoked Israel on October 7, 2023 to do precisely what it has done and will do in Gaza for the unforeseeable future.
For example:
There's Nothing You Can Say To Make Me Accept The Murder Of Thousands Of Children
CAITLIN JOHNSTONE Substack NewsleterDEC 5, 2023
Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative MatrixI promise there is nothing you can say to me that will cause me to cease opposing the murder of thousands of children in Gaza. There is no name you can call me, no accusation you can scream at me, no talking point you can regurgitate at me that will ever make me shut up and accept this.The unexamined premise behind the frenetic push to reignite outrage over October 7 using rape allegations is that if Hamas fighters did sexually assault any Israeli women during the attack, then everyone has to shut up and let Israel keep murdering children by the thousands. This is self-evidently stupid.Western and Israeli propagandists are going to keep trying to find new reasons for you to reignite your outrage over October 7, because October 7 is their side’s only justification for a months-long mass atrocity that is far, far worse than anything that happened on October 7.The US House of Representatives just passed a resolution saying that Judaism is synonymous with a colonialist ideology which routinely murders children.https://twitter.com/codepink/status/1732150533190824433I personally do not believe it’s anti-semitic to criticize Israel’s murderous actions in Gaza. See I have this wild idea that murdering children is not an aspect of the Jewish faith, and that saying otherwise actually has a very ugly history in our society.The only way to have more sympathy for the 1200 Israelis killed on October 7 than the 16,000+ Palestinians who’ve been killed in Gaza since is to believe Palestinians are subhumans whose lives are worth a tiny fraction of what Israeli lives are worth. That’s the one and only way.A recent poll found that 57.5 percent of Israelis believe the IDF is using too littlefirepower in Gaza, while 36.6 percent said it’s using just the right amount, with 4.2 percent saying they’re unsure and just 1.8 percent saying the IDF is using too much firepower.One reason Israeli officials keep saying shockingly genocidal and fascistic things is because the kind of talk you have to use to win the support of Israelis is completely different from the talk you have to use to win the support of western liberals.https://twitter.com/MarkJamesonArt/status/1731348764684628448Israel is like, “We’re not killing children in Gaza, those are dolls. Okay maybe they’re not dolls, but Hamas is lying about death tolls. Okay maybe they’re not lying about death tolls, but they’re using human shields and they did 10/7, so every child we’re killing was actually killed by Hamas.”The “Israel lobby” is really just a part of the western empire lobby — it’s a specialized arm of the nonstop influence operation geared toward keeping member states of the empire moving in alignment with a globe-spanning power structure centralized around the United States instead of acting like sovereign nations and taking care of their people in accordance with the will of the electorate.
Governments like the US and UK have legal tools in place that they use to stop foreign governments from influencing their national politics, but they generally only use them when the influence would be coming from governments which aren’t aligned with the western empire like Russia, China and Iran. If backing Israel militarily and diplomatically didn’t serve the interests of the empire, those legal tools would long ago have been used to shut the lobbying down. But because lobbying activities actually benefit the interests of the empire by keeping US-aligned war machinery targeted at all non-US-aligned groups in the geostrategically crucial middle east, they not only allow but actively encourage such lobbying.
It’s just one of the many types of adhesives necessary for keeping the disparate parts of an unacknowledged empire always moving in the same directions. The Israel lobby lets groups like Israelis, western Zionists and American fundamentalist Christians fund the influence operations of the western empire out of their own personal coffers. Why would the empire managers stop that from happening? It’s a great deal.Sloan BashinskyAgreed, nor the murder of as many adult men and women in Gaza.In my Apple newsfeed today was a Guardian article taking President Biden hard to task for dragging his feet instead of leaning hard on Benjamin Netanyahu and cutting off US financial and military aid to Israel.
Biden now regrets the strength of his support for Netanyahu – he must act before it’s too late — Guardian US.The onslaught on Gaza risks further destabilising the entire Middle East, says foreign affairs commentator Simon... https://apple.news/Ay5sSgb2rQmKgy0KaWRuegw
My problem with your approach, Caitlin, and with your readers, who have engaged me here since you subscribed to my Substack newsletter and invited me to subscribe to yours, is you and they do not blame Hamas for provoking Israel to do what it is doing.For a long time, Hamas and the world have known Israel operates on the Doctrine of Disproportional Response to attacks. Meaning, Hamas knew Israel would respond disproportionally to the October 7 atrocities. Meaning, that was what Hamns wanted Israel to do. Meaning, in my option, the people running Hamas and Negtanyahu and other people running Israel, and President Biden, and the US Congress, who have not stopped money and arms going to Israel, all should burn in hell together. Nobody can talk me into giving any of them a free pass.
hierochloe
"they do not blame Hamas for provoking Israel to do what it is doing" take it easy with that paint sprayerIt's probably worth mentioning there's a potentially strong case being made that Israel is behind Hamas and it's actions in a number of ways. Seems like who provoked who is largely a game of chicken and egg, where to start the clock, and not so much a problem of approach here.Sloan BashinskyPBS article
Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (“Islamic Resistance Movement”), was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who became an activist in local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza, both of which Israel occupied following the 1967 Six-Day War.
Yassin established Hamas as the Brotherhood’s political arm in Gaza in Dec. 1987, following the outbreak of the first intifada, a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem.
At the time, Hamas’s purpose was to counter Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), another organization whose commitment to violently resisting Israel threatened to draw Palestinians’ support away from the Brotherhood.
In 1988, Hamas published its charter, calling for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine. In what observers called an attempt to moderate its image, Hamas presented a new document [PDF] in 2017 that accepted an interim Palestinian state along the “Green Line” border established before the Six-Day War but that still refused to recognize Israel.
From the day before at Catlin’s Newsletter, which perhaps explains the title of her newsletter today?
Sloan BashisnkyI have wished President Biden would tell Israel to stand down, or get no more financial or military help from America, over which he has control.
I imagine he has considered doing it, and he has considered doing it will get Donald Trump back in the White House in 2024, and before that the Republicans in Congress will file another impeachment action against Biden, and he and his family will start receiving a lot of death threats.
I imagine Biden also worries, if he abandons Israel, Israel will use its nuclear weapons, because for quite a while, Israel has made it well known that it applies the disproportion force doctrine when it is attacked. Hamas and other Islamic militant groups in Gaza, Lebanon, etc, learned that first hand in the past.
So when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, and committed atrocities and took hostages back to Gaza, Hamas knew Israel would respond with disproportionate force. Ergo, that is what Hamas wanted to happen.
That is not a popular viewpoint, but it is the awful reality. As is, if Trump gets elected again, he will support Israel against Hamas, because his political base demands it. That, also, is not a popular perspective, but it is the awful reality.
So, what’s the solution? I don’t see a solution, for so long as the state of Israel exists, because I don’t see America ever abandoning Israel, regardless of who is president and in Congress. If that seems unreasonable, look at this history of the state of Israel. What’s happening now is the next phase of that history.
I proposed several times that America offer Israel sanctuary in America, or America will abandon Israel. I was blasted for making that suggestion. “We don’t want those genocidists in America!” I was blasted for proposing America abandon Christendom’s Holy Land to Islam.When Caitlin subscribed to my Substack Newsletter and invited me to subscribe to hers, she knew I’m ornery and totally out of the box. If she wants me to go away, all she has to do is tell me.Feral FinsterAssumes numerous facts not in evidence, along with a heaping spoonful of wishful thinking.
Oh well, before you were telling us that Biden really really wanted to stop the bloodshed but couldn't, because "religious fanatics", which you redefined to mean "anyone who has strong beliefs". Oh, and MAGA.Of course, how Biden got Israel to stop in 2021 without being assassinated, and why Trump hasn't given his zombie MAGA legions the order already is left unsaid.Sloan Bashinsky todayBiden can't get Israel to stand down, because Israel is being run by enraged religious fanatics. Israel will do whatever it wants to do, therefore, for the unforeseeable future.The religious fanatics in America won’t stand for Biden abandoning Israel. I wish he would abandon Israel, but I don’t see him doing it. His own religious beliefs scream against him abandoning Israel. I imagine he thinks abandoning Israel will give the White House and both sides of Congress to the Republicans in 2024, and if he abandons Israel, he and his family will receive death threats. None of that is a good excuse in the eyes of God, but it is what is in play.Feral Finster
Again you assume facts not in evidence.
Biden got Israel to stand down in 2021 without the hysterical consequences you describe.
You're just making excuses.Sloan Bashinsky
Nope. America is very different today, and Israel has gone insane. Have you ever tried to reason with an insane people? I do it all the time. There is no way to reach them. I’m not taking Biden’s side. He fucked up something terrible. A lot of Americans who supported him have turned against him over how he dealt with Israel invading Gaza. Donald Trump and his legions and the Republicans are delighted with that. I live in America and I live in a deep red state and I dread seeing a red America after the 2024 elections. I don’t care for the Democrats, but they don’t remind me of Nazi Germany leading into World War II, and the reds do. The reds are fully behind Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which I think is insane, because I deal all the time with religious fanatics, and I know the people running Israel will use their nukes, if they think they need to.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
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