Thanks.
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Man this sucks so bad. I keep missing Israel. I see photos that people post of it and I think about maybe trying to move back. Then they go and do this crap and I guess Iām happy to be in Florida. I wonder if Iāll ever feel safe to live there again.
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I think they need to get these right wingers out of office (and marginalize them to the fullest) and find a path forward for either a Palestinian state or giving Palestinians full citizenship within Israel. I donāt know if any of the current political parties have any interest in pursuing that, other than the most marginal leftists and the one Arab partyā¦ Even the centrists seem on board with some aspect of these wars and even going along with the Greater Israel project.
Until the government and Israel people look the occupation square in the face, acknowledge it, and find a path forward with the Palestinians, I donāt think thereāll be peace for the long term, no. The Peace of the graveyard is not what will make Israelis safe.
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Itās the same thing that is happening here. There are 3 parties in power, and the group with the swing votes is super far right. So, even though the majority of the people donāt want this, the government keeps going forward with it because a tiny group of people have a stranglehold on the decisions.
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I donāt know about the make up of the Israeli electorate, but I have seen polls that do support the war - although, you know how misleading polls can be and I find polling in general to be deeply problematic.
Itās been good to see the protests against the war (and previously before the war, the protests against Bibiās power grab). But Likud and the far right are pretty much intent on completing this genocidal war and completely cleaning out Gaza and the West Bank (and apparently establishing a larger toe hold in Syria and southern Lebanon, too). So, yeah, any Israeli upset with this has very little power right now, same to us here. Or at least, not enough of them are using what power they have to bring this government down and chart a new path forward (and I donāt think the centrist parties are helping that, either).
I donāt know if the Serbian protests are a model for any of the rest of us, but they do seem to be doing somethingā¦ I think about 350,000 people were out in Belgrade last weekend? Israel is larger than Serbia by about 3 million or so folks, but if similar numbers came out, specifically against the war and against the Greater Israel plan, that could have some real impact. But I suspect, like here, lots of people are just complacent with some minority in favor of just flat out annexing those areas.
Either way, I do know that continuing the war and the occupation will mean continued violence, both from people tired of living under occupation and from the government there. Iāve never thought that the project of Israel can be undone at this point. I do wish it had been done in concert with the local Palestinian population from the start, because imagine what they could have been like. We canāt change the past, though, only try and imagine a better future for everyone thereā¦
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I donĀ“t think it is even an original idea. I am pretty sure someone tried this kind of things somewhere before.
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Are they going to make them work for the rations? Maybe under the slogan that āwork will free youā?
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Oh no. I think they will give it for free. If some ungrateful people want more, the authorities will probably make clear they just have to leave the country and donāt come back no more.
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Psstā¦ā¦
Look up Arbeit Macht Frei.
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Work makes one free [labor for us].
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I knew the motto. I didnāt feel comfortable talking about it. I already found the idea of āācomparing these humanitarian environments so terribly similar to the ghettos of occupied Poland that it made me a little sad, but I had to say it, as it was very obvious, with no room for any kind of apology. Hamas terrorists are inhumane and cruel. But if this idea were to be put forward, it would end up looking very much like what was done in Europe 80 years ago. I hope theyāre not so cynical as to use such as awlful idea. I think that would be the point of no return for the whole country.
I think that in order to realize their expansion plans, they will even give up this labor advantage.
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M. Gessen has already argued that Gaza is a Ghetto, and that the war is the liquidation of said Ghettoā¦ itās what got them in trouble in Germany last year when they went to receive the Hannah Arendt prize.
As a historian, Iām not of the mind that we should never compare atrocities. Of course, sometimes itās inappropriate as a comparision, but pretty much every single act of ethnic, racial, or genocidal violence is inevitably going to be compared to the most shocking one of all. I donāt think comparing them has to be us saying āwell, thatās just worse, or not as bad, so we should not be concerned with it.ā We should be able to chart the events of the holocaust and see where other acts against others could end up there.
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While speaking at the Human Rights Campaign, Jewish-American actress Hannah Einbinder, daughter of SNLās Larainne Newman and co-star of Hacks, said:
I know that my condemnation of Israelās bombardment of Gaza is not despite what I learned in Hebrew school but because of it. And I am so proud of my tradition. I was taught that central to being a Jew is asking questions, being inquisitive, arguing, wrestling with opposing points of view, and questioning my own beliefs in order to keep learning and growing into a better human being, a better citizen of the world. I see it as antithetical to our deepest Jewish traditions to fall in line and not question the actions of a state enacting atrocities in our name. Israelās actions are not in the name of Jewish safety, and it is the very conflation of Israelās actions with the Jewish people that continues to endanger Jews around the worldā¦Mahmoud Khalil standing alongside both Palestinians and many Jewish students and calling for the Israeli army to stop dropping bombs on his homeland does not make me feel unsafe. Elon Musk and Steve Bannon siegg-heiling Hitler doesā¦Our struggle for liberation will be won by loudly opposing the corporations who fuel the destruction of our planet and the institutions that fuel mass death of our fellow human beings. Visibility is a responsibility. Those of us who have a platform must use our voices to ensure that speaking out is not outlawed altogether.
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