Dang I hate feeling like I need a PhD in jewish history just to exist. Like people will come up with and say the wildest most inaccurate things, so I have to be well-learned and have sources on deck to defend myself...

x

I'm sorry, people made posts calling for WHAT NOW????

And these people pretend they give a FUCK about innocent lives???

the account that went viral and had tens of thousands of likes for saying this got suspended, but I do have the receipts

I just think being Jewish shouldn’t be scary.

My rabbi shouldn’t cry because they’re so afraid that something will happen to the congregation while they’re away on leave and they won’t be there to help keep us safe.

We shouldn’t be afraid to leave the safety doors in the sanctuary after services end.

We shouldn’t need multiple armed security personnel at every service.

We shouldn’t be this afraid.

I’m so tired.

one of the (many) things that bothers me about people claiming that there are no israeli civilians because they're all forced to serve in the idf (implying that anything that happens to israelis is deserved) is that it's a take that so obviously comes from people who don't live in a country that has/had mandatory military service

these same people would (rightfully) think it'd be insane to justify burning my dad and uncles alive for committing the crime of doing military service in the 80s-90s. they would think it would be inhumane to shoot and brutally murder my grandfathers for doing the same thing even if they served the military under a literal fascist dictator in a colonial country

why are israelis the exception. why is everyone else in the entire world granted humanity and compassion besides them. (hint: it's because of antisemitism)

Source and credit:

Be on the side that values accurate information and combats the spread of misinformation, regardless of whether you agree with the people who are being discussed.

WJC study: https://wjc-org-website.s3.amazonaws.com/horizon/assets/4eQd1wRR/the_bias_against_israel_in_english_wikipedia_240314_5-1.pdf

tldr of above: https://www.worldjewishcongress.org/en/news/wikipedia-entries-show-anti-israel-bias-says-wjc

I'm not Jewish. I was raised a very boring type of protestant, and now I don't really connect to any religion.

I have observed, and been told, and believe, that it is not safe, is scary and dangerous for Jewish people to say out loud such 'controversial' things as Israel is a country that exists and we need to work within that basic reality if we actually hope to make any change or progress.

So I will say it. And more people who have a basic grasp on reality should say it too so it isn't only Jewish people making this very obvious statement.

Jewish people aren't talking about Israel anymore because they're being harassed off the internet in droves. Gentiles aren't talking about Israel because we're trying to stay in our own lane (and failing). So the only people talking about Israel left of center are a small group of Israel deniers pushing each other farther and farther into unreality.

From another non-Jew:

I try to talk about Israel - specifically Israeli government and military policies and diplomacy, though some history and societal trends as well - but every time I try, I find it nigh impossible to add all the disclaimers and context I feel I need to add so that I don't get set on by randos who decided to take what I say as far out of context as possible. I feel like all I can do is briefly, vaguely criticize Netanyahu and that's it. And also, because the few people still talking about Israel are so radicalized, no one knows what I'm talking about anyway. Radicalized people, for all their "eyes on Rafah," don't actually pay attention to what's happening in the political and diplomatic realms. They have zero idea what's going on. And there's just too much for me to talk about so I end up saying little to none of it because how do I even start?

I'm not sure if what I'm saying makes sense (a constant problem for me) and I'm frequently afraid people will jump to the worst conclusion instead of just asking me to clarify. Because no conversation about Israel can be a neutral or sincere conversation- all conversations about Israel MUST center around passing a strong moral judgment and anything else is suspect. All conversations involving Israel must be emotional, moral denouncements or declarations of support and it is impossible to talk about Israel in any regard otherwise. Every conversation is a persuasive essay.

Also, frankly, I don't want to scare my Jewish followers and mutuals. When every non-Jew talking about Israel is a radical antisemite, and when Jews are facing the worst antisemitism they've ever faced coming from strangers and lifelong friends alike, *seemingly at the drop of a hat* (!!!), then I have serious concerns that, if I am not VERY careful, I may look like yet another former ally radicalized by the constant, CONSTANT Jew-hatred on this site. And I'm not sure I'm even articulate enough to do that, honestly. I feel like I need Obama-level eloquence just to be understood. And that's extremely daunting, and it's something I rarely have the energy for.

Even more frustrating is that I have a lot of criticism for Israel's government (and a little bit for Israeli society as well). I want to treat Israel the same way I treat other countries, and I feel like I'm almost not allowed to because the prevailing opinion on this site is that Israel ISN'T like other countries but is somehow far worse and fake, so talking about it like just a country is the same as being a diehard Kahanist. It's just so frustrating.

Another goy here just saying the reason I won't shut the fuck up about Israel is because antisemites are hoping we will. They want us to burn out and wear out and stop trying to present Israel fairly and to stop trying to protect Jews having a right to exist peacefully, and they want that so that they can continue to spout either quotes from terrorist organizations as though they are trustworthy facts or just spit out some very long-standing antisemitic bullshit they never unlearned and then chose not to unlearn when someone said, "Hey, it's gross and fucked up you think all Jews should have to answer for Israel, and it's gross and fucked up you're reporting information on Israel based only on shit Hamas is saying."

I focus specifically on calling out any antisemitism I can, no matter how big or small the opposition wants to make it because it's a fucking problem to assume an entire group of people are terrible because someone does not agree with the military strategy of a country. Or thinks that country shouldn't exist because they've learned no actual history, only regurgitated horseshit antisemitic tropes about how Israel became a country.

Jewish people, unshockingly, are fucking tired and scared. Because all around them they're seeing people they trusted, people they thought wouldn't do this shit, doing this shit. They are being told "It's not that bad" when it IS. A lot of fucking people who think they don't have a single thought about Jews or Jewish culture had a switch flipped, and that switch flipped to "antisemite and refusing to acknowledge that could possibly be true."

If my loud, pissed off, anon-anger inducing voice can help carry the load, I'll fucking carry it. There's Nazi shit happening all over the fucking place, and the people shouting loudest that it's not Nazi shit are the ones doing Nazi shit. I will not shut up about it.

The double standard is so obvious to anyone who's been following the war in Ukraine that it's simply infuriating. Everything that Israel is being accused of doing, rightly or wrongly, has been done by Russia. It had been happening—on a full scale!—for almost 2 years before October 7. The discourse surrounding the two wars is so incomprehensibly different my jaw is still on the floor.

- The insistence even by foreign-affairs experts that what Russia is doing is a regular old war and not a genocidally-motivated colonialist, imperialist conquest. As opposed to what Israel is doing, obviously, even though Israel was attacked first, Russia wasn't. Also, have you seen the two countries on the map?

- The denial or understatement of insane war crimes, even ones as well documented as what happened in Bucha or the stealing of Ukrainian children. Rape, torture, purposeful striking of aid workers. Imprisoning and killing of journalists. Actual, well-documented conspiracies to influence other countries' politics. All of these things Russia is doing right now but I can only see people screaming about Israel, often without nearly as much evidence as there is for Russia right there.

- The insistence that Israel is the most racist country on earth when, again, Russia is right there. Do you know what's happening to brown people in Russia right now? Have you heard how Russia is literally tricking foreigners into signing up for the military en masse? Do you know how big of a neo-nazi problem Russia has? Do you know how much land Russia has stolen, how many cultures it has decimated? Just look at the fucking map.

- The narrative that Russia is not islamophobic. LOL. Google Chechnya why don't you. The idea that ISIS would never attack Russia because it's pro-Palestine?! What is this Pravda-level propaganda shit?

- I and many Russian nationals I know have never been made to feel responsible for what Putin is doing by random westerners. We've been treated with sympathy and understanding—but also often with doubt as to whether Russia was really as bad as the western media was making it out to be. Surely some of it is just propaganda and exaggeration? Oh man, it's a shame that we can no longer work together with Russian scientists. But a Russian national who's also an Israeli national? Oh boy, guess how she's been treated. It's fucking insane. It's completely batshit insane.

As a non-Jew, there's simply no other explanation I can find for this than blatant, unrepentant antisemitism. I can't stop thinking about it because I thought you guys (westerners) were better. Not inherently better, no, of course not, but just a bit ahead of us (post-soviets) on social justice issues. I was so, so wrong. You have lost the plot so completely.

I'm genuinely trying to piece together a better understanding of the Palestine/Israel conflict so I can be a more effective activist. I'm trying to support Palestinian self determination and rights to safety in their own state AND Jewish/Israeli self determination and rights to safety in their own state without stepping on anyone's toes or speaking over marginalised voices (and they're BOTH marginalised). I don't want to ignore or shut down conversation about what Palestinians face at the hands of extremists in the Israeli military and government, but I also want to ensure I'm not supporting Hamas' terrorism against Israeli civillians and even their own.

I want to be able to learn the facts of what the ruling class of both have actually done over the past several decades and it would be great if everyone could stop playing the nasty never-ending game of "Because you did these bad things to us, the bad things we did to you are automatically justified and not necessary to face repercussions for or try to reach reconciliation over and there are people on your side who'll say the same thing so we certainly can't be the first ones to say the bad things we did were bad because then you'll say your bad things were all completely justified and not necessary to face repercussions for or try to reach reconciliation over and-"

But also us non-Jewish people in the West don't know and won't learn about our history of causing most of this shit and then keep jumping in going "only one side is right here and it's the side opposing those icky Jews we tossed into their country to begin with so we wouldn't have them in ours and the way we excuse our behaviour is to call upon a social justice theory that doesn't fucking apply when both sides involved contain a substantial percentage of people who are indigenous. There are no white peopleTM here and while there are absolutely systems of bigotry that need deconstructing, slapping Western-specific models designed around White Colonists vs Everyone Else doesn't fucking work actually. But no. Excuse to lash out at Jewish people and turn them into the modern bogeyman more important."

Nevermind the fact we end up appropriating entire legitimate movements by using them as smokescreens to excuse our raging antisemitism and then turning people against those movements because humans have this infuriating habit of assuming that bad faith actors = entire movement and anything it was built on is inherently evil and must be stopped! Thereby undermining the work of activists in those movements they've been chipping away at for over a fucking century, minimum.

Our Jew hatred is so goddamn rampant, it's more important to us than centuries of activism we're flushing down the drain because we're giving bad faith actors so much to point to to deligitimise everything ever done under Leftist practice to enfranchise marginalised people, because we saw Jewish people at odds with Palestinians and saw a prime opportunity to get away with open antisemitism by forcing our specific way of handling problems onto a system that needs a very different approach ours just isn't designed for and would need a lot of adapting and actual education in history and both cultures at minimum to be remotely helpfully applied to.

I support Palestnian rights to self determination in their own state and right to not be wiped out or tortured or oppressed. I also do not consider myself anti-Zionist because I've learned that's a way more complex term than we've been taught and most people genuinely do just mean Jewish rights to self determination in their own state and right to not be wiped out or tortured or oppressed which I also support.

How to enact that support?

I'm still trying to figure that out with hopefully as little damage done to either side in my ignorance as possible while trying to educate myself and others.

Israel is a country. Palestine is a country. They both deserve to exist and everyone in them deserves equal human rights. They both deserve reconciliation for actions taken by the other that have caused horrific harm. And most importantly, they both deserve reconciliation and whatever else ends up being needed from Western countries for the huge part we've played in both historic and modern times to have driven so much of their suffering pitting them against each other and then eating popcorn while we watch them kill each other off.

And then acting like we give a damn while doing practically nothing but the same things all over again, just with a social justice smokescreen over it to excuse ourselves of either islamophobia or antisemitism so we can acceptable target somebody instead of actually working to fix things.

I'm trying not to stop talking about Israel and the increasing violence against Jewish people masquerading as activism for Palestine, and I'm genuinely trying to do it without leaving my lane but fuck me, it's a goddamn minefield. Had a neighbour of mine state very firmly to me the other day all the usual things about settler-colonial rhetoric around Israel and Zionism is inherently about genociding Palestinians and I feel like she's leery of me now just for stating very gently that Zionism is more complicated than that/we need to make sure we support Palestinians without supporting antisemitic language and behaviour even as I also said I'm absolutely open to seeing whatever info she's gathered about Palestinian oppression. Trying to actually walk the middle ground of learning about everything properly means everyone in the polarised camps assumes your entire position once you stop joining in with the unthinking rage. I'm lucky I'm not Jewish as well. Less likely to get attacked in the street for saying 'hey, don't call for a second holocaust, thanks.'

And yeah, in the meantime Russia is getting to actually colonise an entire country after a history of doing the same to so many others and somehow that just gets swept under the rug or outright excused and I don't get it. Support Palestine, sure (without calling for the destruction of Israel because that's not necessary, reasonable or fair and is always driven by antisemitism because if you were only criticising the people doing the actual fucked up shit you wouldn't be targeting anyone past the specific leaders and military people doing the actual fucked up shit) but there are in fact other places in the world that need support too so at least make sure you make time for that as well?

I started actively looking for the Ukraine tag recently because I realised I was sitting on my hands waiting for it to come to me like anyone here I was already following was going to be talking about it and most of them aren't so of course I won't see it. I'm trying to learn about and start posting more actively about that now too so I'm not adding to the no one is talking about Ukraine anymore problem on top of everything else.

Another Goy jumping in here. What @sweaterkittensahoy said earlier in this thread sums up a lot of my feelings with incredible accuracy. Additionally, I came to the realization at the beginning of this year that if I wanted to live up to my principles and the type of person I wish to be, then there was no other possible option. what devastates me is that so few others who have said they share the same values have come to this same conclusion. When I began that process I decided I needed to know what I was talking about. Over the course of my dive into research, and talking to Jewish friends mutuals and acquaintances (love you all btw), I came to understand just how enormous it all is. Thousands of years of history. Thousands of years of persecution and exile, thousands of years of hatred, thousands of years of longing to return home, thousands of years of resilience, and thousands of years of pain and hurt. It’s like a tidal wave.

And the huge force that is antisemitism wants Jews to be alone in their fight against it. It wants the only people who stand up for Jews to be other Jews. It wants that isolation and othering and lack of compassion from goyim. S as And I refuse to be a part of that. I refuse to allow my lack of vocal support and defense and love and care to be used to further that history of persecution. I also know from talking to people, that alongside standing up for them, just being there for Jewish folks, and talking to them and holding space and sharing compassion and supporting them can mean a lot, especially right now. And so I do what I can and will continue to. I keep learning and listening and mourning and standing up for what’s right providing what support and compassion I can, and I don’t plan on stopping. I’m never going to shut up about these things because, at least during my lifetime, they’re never not going to need saying. I would be remiss not to mention how lucky I have been to be part of/adjacent to absolutely incredible, wonderful Jewish communities both online and in person. I am so grateful, and if I’m being honest, the Jewish community holds a piece of my heart. I love yall so so so so much, and you deserve so much more.

Today is October 7, 2024 and I am thinking about Anne Frank.

I am thinking about, “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.”

I am thinking about ideals.

I am thinking of everything she endured in her life that I can scarcely imagine, and everything I know today that she did not.

Was she able to hold on to her ideals, in the months of slavery and starvation, as her family was torn from her and she choked and vomited through her final, painful days? Did she still believe, even then?

Would she be able to hold on to her ideals, if she could see the way her words and her memory would be twisted and desecrated and used as libel and a weapon against the Jews Hitler was not able to kill, against the people she was so proud to be a part of? Would she still believe, even now?

I don’t know if she did, if she would.

We will never know.

But I do.

“We're much too young to deal with these problems,” Anne wrote.

I am twice her age, and I still feel much too young.

Or perhaps I am much too small.

“Ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality,” she wrote.

I have spent a year watching my ideals, dreams, hopes, and beliefs that people are capable of putting their values above their hatred for Jews be crushed by grim reality.

But I still cling to those ideals, dreams, hopes, and beliefs. I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

Do not think that this is absolution.

Do not think that my faith in your capacity for goodness means that I grant you forgiveness for the evil you have done, even if it were my place to grant that forgiveness.

On the contrary, it is because I believe in the goodness of humanity that I can condemn those who choose evil.

If humankind were nothing but an animal, slaves to our instincts and our tribalism and our hatred of the other, then I would act to protect myself from you, but how could I blame you for what you cannot help but be?

I have seen the kindness of innocence. I have seen a child too young to speak who sees a friend crying and gives that friend a soft toy to bring them comfort.

I have seen the kindness of experience. I have seen those who were raised in hate and have worked to learn how to love.

I believe that people are truly good at heart. But who we are at heart is not always the same as who we choose to be.

I believe that who we are is the sum of our actions and our choices, and I agree with Anne on one other point: “Ultimately, people shape their own characters.”

Today is October 7, 2024.

It has been a year, now, since over a thousand of my people, Anne’s people, were slaughtered and brutalized, and hundreds were kidnapped, and people around the world cheered.

It has been a year of the horrors of that day being denied and celebrated in equal measure, of people who claim to fight for a more equal world making it clear, in word and deed, that their dreamed of world does not include the Jews.

And yet I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

I still believe that cruelty is a choice.

And, in memory of everyone who was murdered on that day, or kidnapped and murdered later, or dealt wounds that they would not survive, I will continue to believe.

In honor of every one of us who will never again be who we were, a year and a day ago, of the version of myself I have lost, I will cling to my ideals and my values and my hopes.

I will continue to believe that people can choose to do good.

I will not stop seeing when they choose not to.

This phenomenon of so called Leftists throwing up their hands at the tiniest pushback, or criticism, or suggestions on how to not actively be antisemitic needs to be studied. Because what do you mean instead of just accepting that an antisemitic troll claiming to be on your side said "Zionist Occupied Government" and denouncing this and moving on with your life... you double down, defend, and deflect. It's classic DARVO, but like, when people are very patiently and slowly explaining how this is a literal KKK Nazi white supremacist fascist phrase, it's not enough? You don't care?

It's clear that the "pro Palestinian" left have been fully infiltrated by fascists, both Western fascists who have always been nakedly antisemitic and are finding the perfect avenue to mainstream their Jew hatred... and Islamist fascists who simply never cared that Jews are a global minority group that has faced oppression and violence in multiple different continents, they don't care about social justice or fundamental human rights. It's not part of their intellectual tradition.

The "pro" Palestine movement has been captured by people who have decided that a) Palestine is emblematic of all of the problems of the world, and that b) every Jew is worth sacrificing to correct these problems, because c) if Palestine is emblematic, aren't Zionists responsible for everything then?

Now the prevailing thought is that someone should be able to call for violence against Jews, someone should be able to harass or even assault Jewish Americans, because bringing it up, complaining, taking a stand, that's the equivalent of telling them you like children blowing up, you like hundreds of thousands of people being homeless and food insecure, you like prisoners being detained in Guantanamo conditions without due process, where anyone can torture them as revenge even if there's no proof they're an actual Hamas member.

Is there a reason they argue like Republican Fox News addicts? I guess that kind of explains how easily the "movement" is falling apart to literal fascists.

They say "nobody cares about your hurt feelings ZIONIST!" if you mention literal stabbings and firebombs. They say "but we should talk about how pervasively synagogues indoctrinate the vast majority of Jewish people with Zionist ideology." They roll their eyes because "don't you know Palestinians are suffering 200x what these cushy American Jews could even imagine?" Facts don't care about your feelings uwu~

But at the end of the day, they care a lot about their own feelings, much more so than the facts. They feel entitled to hate all Jews all over the planet, to secretly revel in antisemitic rhetoric and acts, to want to take out their impotent frustration and despair on any and all Jews they'd like. This is very much about their feelings and not any Jewish people's feelings.

They've been waiting for this, or many of them never cared at all. Now it's finally Leftist to quote Nazis and openly make fun of Jews who are getting stabbed. Now it's finally Leftist to call for incinerating all of Israel and maybe we should consider a lot of Diaspora Jews too, you know they can't be trusted! Oh but don't forget to honor the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, innocent civilians should never have been targeted by America's vicious imperial violence!

The fact that it took this substantial contingent of watermelon twitter less than a year to go full mask off like this... is that revealing or troubling?

I think leftists and right wingers both need a boogeyman, and until they sort out why their movements require something Bad and Other to riot against, nothing will change.

There’s deep rooted issues in the movements and if you combine that with “hot button issues” like Palestine and Jewish survival, well. We see what happens.

The fact that at this current moment in time things seem to be lining up for both movements to be champing at the bit on who can blame Jews more is… concerning.

The entitlement OP mentions is just. Like it’s dripping throughout the whole pro-Palestine movement. You’re entitled to Israeli suffering. you’re entitled to Palestinian suffering. You’re little sadists cosplaying as activists, is what you fucking are.

Heads up if you're part of the pro-Palestine movement and looking through my blog, please actually READ what's written here rather than assuming things about me or anyone I'm reblogging from. People shouldn't have to regurgitate specific talking points to be listened to. That's an echo chamber. Don't stay in echo chambers. Please actually think about what's being said. I also consider myself pro-Palestine but when I say it I specifically mean what it was supposed to be and what I thought it would be, which was helping Palestinians impacted by war and oppression, not attacking Jewish people or trying to destroy Israel for the actions of extremists in their government and military or Holocaust denial or bringing back fucking pogroms or all the other vile shit people have been saying, excusing and doing while using the movement as a smokescreen to deflect criticism.

This is important. Actually listen and think. You don't have to stop supporting trying to end Palestinian suffering to widen your understanding and adapt your activism to better reflect reality and make sure you're not ignoring and fucking dogpiling another marginalised group because you think that's suddenly acceptable or necessary now when it never has been and never will be.

tags from @hideandseaking

For every person who, in their pursuit of Palestinian freedom, has become a virulent antisemite, I hope you know that there will be no forgiveness for you when you eventually drop this trend like you did with Ukraine.

You don't get to come up to Jews and go "oops! I'm so super duper sorry I accused you of raping Palestinians and drinking the blood of babies! So like, how about that new season of Good Omens?"

In Judaism, sins are forgiven not through the grace of G-d, but by the affected party.

And we will not forgive you.

i really do wish gentiles understood how utterly decimated the jewish diaspora was by the end of the 20th century in the wake of the wave of pogroms in eastern europe, the shoah and its aftermath, and the expulsions across north africa and south west asia. in the early 1900’s, around 50% of the world’s jewish population lived outside of eretz yisrael or the us. today, that number is 13%. there are countries who had large jewish populations at the turn of the 20th century that now have no jewish presence. there has not been such a large wave of expulsions and fleeing since the spanish inquisition — which is another horrifically traumatizing series of events that gentiles don’t understand the enormity of.

during the spanish inquisition, almost half a million jews were forced on pain of death to convert or flee. thousands were killed, hundreds of thousands fled. until the shoah, it was the single most massive trauma in jewish history since the siege of jerusalem and expulsion from judea. jews made up nearly a quarter of spain’s population and had been there for centuries. some of our most important texts were written there. ladino developed there, sephardic music, culture, and identity. and then it was gone. everywhere the inquisition could reach, from spain to naples to sicily to malta to the americas, the jewish populations were brutalized, genocided, and expelled. it changed the course of jewish history forever.

in the 20th century, within the span of 50ish years, hundreds of thousands of jews were killed in or fled horrific pogroms in eastern europe, a third of the entire jewish population was systematically murdered within the span of a few years, centuries old jewish communities weren’t just expelled but almost entirely wiped out which led to the loss of centuries old diaspora languages and traditions, and nearly a million jews were expelled from places they’d lived for hundreds or even thousands of years.

like. do you understand? do you understand the kind of communal trauma that kind of massive global upheaval has on a people? the expulsion of 300,000+ jews from spanish territories was enough to leave a centuries old mark on the jewish community. do you understand the impact that the murder of over six million and violent displacement of over 2 million jews will have on the jewish psyche and on jewish history? do you have any idea how earth shattering the last century has been for the jewish people? do you have any idea what we’ve lost? what’s been violently stolen from us? can you try?

i posted this less than 20 minutes ago. this post did not mention the state of israel a single time. how rotten does your soul have to be to respond to a post like this with an anonymous message like this?

"factually undergoing a decline"

Israel: 1948

Holocaust: up till 1945 with continuing pogroms and issues through 1948 and beyond

how is that a decline

i think they’re talking abt the past year, which like?? is still not accurate?? antisemitism has been rising since at least 2016 in the us, and in many other countries it’s either not safe to be openly jewish and some you literally cannot go to if you’re jewish????? what fucking planet are these ppl on.

According to Reuters and CNN, antisemitic incidents are up FOUR HUNDRED PERCENT (400%) since October 7th, 2023.

The only people who think antisemitism is on a decline are the people who cannot conceive of antisemitism as a pervasive, consistent thing in the world- they think antisemitism is Nazis marching and saluting and declaring out loud in blunt terms "We hate Jews".

Important tags and well expressed @faggotry-enjoyer

#people acting like this is some kind of unique israeli thing is so wild too#like. that's literally just how countries work.#would you expect literally any other country to prioritize another country's citizens over their own?#hell the idf has prioritized civilian life in gaza far MORE than what's been the norm historically#do you understand how impressive a civilian:combatant death ratio or 1 or 2 to 1 is in that kind of urban warfare environment is?#do you know how many tactical advantages the idf has given up to give gazan civilians the highest chance of survival they could?#and i would be delighted to be proven wrong on this one but i can't think of a single other military who would do that#and yet the idf is the one people love to accuse of doing the exact opposite#couldn't imagine why

It's really sick and sad that a lot of people who claim to be "Pro-Palestinian" are essentially screaming at Israel, "Why aren't you killing more Palestinians so we can hate you for it!?"

There's just really no other way to interpret exaggerated claims of the death toll, to be honest. Bad enough that 40,000 have died, even if Hamas doesn't distinguish between their militants and civilians in their reporting.

But to claim that this number isn't accurate, and that the numbers are actually higher--a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, half a million, or even more than the total population of the Gaza Strip!--goes to show that the people saying these numbers want there to be more dead Palestinians so that they can hate Israel for it.

And how, in any conceivable mindset, is wanting more dead Palestinians somehow "Pro-Palestinian"?

A friend of mine posted the Government Media Office's numbers (Hamas PR numbers) instead of the Ministry of Health's, in January, so they were saying 8,000 more people were dead than actually were. Or 8,000 more children?

They were very upset when I tried to correct them as politely as I could think to. I said something like, "If it helps, it's actually...." and then one of their friends told me off about how I must love genocide and of course it doesn't HELP and there's so much violence and suffering and so forth.

I was like, I genuinely think it's better if fewer people die?? Just me then????

I think that person yelled at me some more, and then the partner gave me a Sorrowful Speech about how As Jews we have a Responsibility to Make Sure Never Again....

And then the friend presented me with repeated terrible things in Gaza for me to say I thought were terrible. Until I figured out that they were attempting to see what it would take before I'd show some kind of emotional reaction to the Terribleness.

I explained that if that was the goal, they were shit outta luck because I was so burnt out on Expressing Horror. And had been since the massive rape denial began, months before. And that it didn't mean I didn't CARE; I cared a lot. It meant that I couldn't Perform Horror for them.

Fortunately, they're autistic too, and I think understood what I was saying. Because they didn't object further or unfriend me.

But man alive. The pressure to prove that Everything Is Horrific by giving disinformation a pass is intense.

I think it's because in Allistic World, i.e. most of the world, the point of outrage porn is to express emotion, not to actually share facts.

Like, you're supposed to believe what it says, but also, to not care whether it's specifically true or not because SOMETHING like that is PROBABLY true ENOUGH.

Which is great for Hamas & Co, because it makes it so fucking easy for them to spread nothing but lies. As long as all the lies are consistent with each other, they'll be perceived as True Enough.