People get real mad when you point out that they don't actually have morals or core beliefs they follow in spite of current social opinion.

"You've abandoned the ideals of leftism if you say Israel is 'occupying' Palestine."

Ok. Hey, what do you call it when a country sends military forces outside of its border to remove, with deadly force, the people who have lived in this region for millennia? What do you call it when they send military forces who massacre civilians, burn villages to the ground, and depopulate cities to make room for new colonial settlers? What's the word for it when you go to a land, violently remove the people living there, and then say it's your land and only your people can live there? What do you call it when that country puts any remaining indigenous people behind a fence and have armed soldiers patrol their neighborhoods? When they detain those people without trial for years on end with no legal representation? Hmmm what's the word for that?

How do YOU define a military occupation? How do YOU define colonial violence and ethnic cleansing?

"You're anti-semitic and just hate Israel!"

Ok. I mean, I believe that everyone on this planet, every person of any ethnicity and any religion, has the right to exist in peace and safety, has the right to be governed through representation, has the right to observe their faith without harm or persecution. This applies to any and all people.

I also believe that making laws that discriminate against anyone for their religion or ethnicity is wholly and entirely wrong. I believe states who privilege certain religions and ethnicities above others, who enshrine this privilege into the law of the land, are wrong. I believe that states who deny a group of people the right to be governed through representation are wrong. Wholly and entirely wrong.

Jewish people have every right to exist and practice their faith in peace and safety. NO ONE has the right to say "hey guys I'm going to take this already populated land away from the people already living there and make a new state where all the people who look and think like me have all the rights and anyone else doesn't belong here."

Like IDK what you want me to say. Should I make exceptions to my morals? Say that it's ok because it's supposedly "gods chosen" or something? Claiming divine right to anything just tells me you're going to commit some huge sins against other humans and use God as a justification for it. I think that's obscene in multiple ways.

Being an American is wild. You'll see people cry about "kids in cages" and say "what about the children!!" but turn a blind eye to the decades in which Israel has casually slaughtered children.

You'll see people clutch their pearls about Ukraine, then cheer and say "glass Gaza!"

You'll see people proudly claim "liberty and justice for all" and then be absolute bloodthirsty ghouls calling for the extermination of Palestinian people.

Have you ever considered gaining some fucking morals?

Wild.

The Mesha Stele "The Moabite Stone ", ca. 850 - 840 BCE I am Mesha, son of Chemosh-gad, king of Moab, the Dibonite. My father reigned over Moab thirty years, and I have reigned after my father. And I have built this sanctuary for Chemosh in Karchah, a sanctuary of salvation, for he saved me from all aggressors, and made me look upon all mine enemies with contempt. Omri was king of Israel, and oppressed Moab during many days, and Chemosh was angry with his aggressions. His son succeeded him, and he also said, I will oppress Moab. In my days he said, Let us go, and I will see my desire upon him and his house, and Israel said, I shall destroy it for ever. Now Omri took the land of Madeba, and occupied it in his day, and in the days of his son, forty years. And Chemosh had mercy on it in my time. And I built Baal-meon and made therein the ditch, and I built Kiriathaim. And the men of Gad dwelled in the country of Ataroth from ancient times, and the king of Israel fortified Ataroth. I assaulted the wall and captured it, and killed all the warriors of the city for the well-pleasing of Chemosh and Moab, and I removed from it all the spoil, and offered it before Chemosh in Kirjath; and I placed therein the men of Siran, and the men of Mochrath. And Chemosh said to me, Go take Nebo against Israel, and I went in the night and I fought against it from the break of day till noon, and I took it: and I killed in all seven thousand men, but I did not kill the women and maidens, for I devoted them to Ashtar-Chemosh; and I took from it the vessels of Jehovah, and offered them before Chemosh. And the king of Israel fortified Jahaz, and occupied it, when he made war against me, and Chemosh drove him out before me, and I took from Moab two hundred men in all, and placed them in Jahaz, and took it to annex it to Dibon. I built Karchah the wall of the forest, and the wall of the Hill. I have built its gates and I have built its towers. I have built the palace of the king, and I made the prisons for the criminals within the wall. And there were no wells in the interior of the wall in Karchah. And I said to all the people, ‘Make you every man a well in his house.’ And I dug the ditch for Karchah with the chosen men of Israel. I built Aroer, and I made the road across the Arnon. I took Beth-Bamoth for it was destroyed. I built Bezer for it was cut down by the armed men of Daybon, for all Daybon was now loyal; and I reigned from Bikran, which I added to my land. And I built Beth-Gamul, and Beth-Diblathaim, and Beth Baal-Meon, and I placed there the poor people of the land. And as to Horonaim, the men of Edom dwelt therein, on the descent from old. And Chemosh said to me, Go down, make war against Horonaim, and take it. And I assaulted it, And I took it, for Chemosh restored it in my days. Wherefore I made.... ...year...and I.... How Moab was oppressed by Omri King of Israel and his son as the result of the anger of the god Chemosh Mesha's victories over Omri's son (not named) and the men of Gad at Ataroth, Nebo and Jehaz; His building projects, restoring the fortifications of his strong places and building a palace and reservoirs for water; His wars against the Horonaim; and A now-lost conclusion in the destroyed final lines. There is no authoritative full edition of the Moabite inscription.[18] The translation used here is that published by James King (1878), based on translations by M. Ganneau and Dr. Ginsberg.[19] Line numbers added to the published version have been removed. 1. אנכ. משע. בנ. כמש.. . מלכ. מאב. הד 2. יבני | אבי. מלכ. על. מאב. שלשנ. שת. ואנכ. מלכ 3. תי. אחר. אבי | ואעש. הבמת. זאת. לכמש. בקרחה | ב[נס. י] 4. שע. כי. השעני. מכל. המלכנ. וכי. הראני. בכל. שנאי | עמר 5. י. מלכ. ישראל. ויענו. את. מאב. ימנ. רבן. כי. יאנפ. כמש. באר 6. צה | ויחלפה. בנה. ויאמר. גמ. הא. אענו. את. מאב | בימי. אמר. כ[…] 7. וארא. בה. ובבתה | וישראל. אבד. אבד. עלמ. וירש. עמרי. את א[ר] 8. צ. מהדבא | וישב. בה. ימה. וחצי. ימי. בנה. ארבענ. שת. ויש 9. בה. כמש. בימי | ואבנ. את. בעלמענ. ואעש. בה. האשוח. ואבנ 10. את. קריתנ | ואש. גד. ישב. בארצ. עטרת. מעלמ. ויבנ. לה. מלכ. י 11. שראל. את. עטרת | ואלתחמ. בקר. ואחזה | ואהרג. את. כל. העמ. [מ] 12. הקר. רית. לכמש. ולמאב | ואשב. משמ. את. אראל. דודה. ואס 13. חבה. לפני. כמש. בקרית | ואשב. בה. את. אש. שרנ. ואת. אש 14. מחרת | ויאמר. לי. כמש. לכ. אחז. את. נבה. על. ישראל | וא 15. הלכ. הללה. ואלתחמ. בה. מבקע. השחרת. עד. הצהרמ | ואח 16. זה. ואהרג. כלה. שבעת. אלפנ. גברנ. ו[גר]נ | וגברת. וגר 17. ת. ורחמת | כי. לעשתר. כמש. החרמתה | ואקח. משמ. א[ת. כ] 18. לי. יהוה. ואסחב. המ. לפני. כמש | ומלכ. ישראל. בנה. את 19. יהצ. וישב. בה. בהלתחמה. בי | ויגרשה. כמש. מפני | ו 20. אקח. ממאב. מאתנ. אש. כל. רשה | ואשאה. ביהצ. ואחזה. 21. לספת. על. דיבנ | אנכ. בנתי. קרחה. חמת. היערנ. וחמת 22. העפל | ואנכ. בנתי. שעריה. ואנכ. בנתי. מגדלתה | וא 23. נכ. בנתי. בת. מלכ. ואנכ. עשתי. כלאי. האש[וח למי]נ. בקרב 24. הקר | ובר. אנ. בקרב. הקר. בקרחה. ואמר. לכל. העמ. עשו. ל 25. כמ. אש. בר. בביתה | ואנכ. כרתי. המכרתת. לקרחה. באסר 26. [י]. ישראל | אנכ. בנתי. ערער. ואנכ. עשתי. המסלת. בארננ. 27. אנכ. בנתי. בת. במת. כי. הרס. הא | אנכ. בנתי. בצר. כי. עינ 28. ----- ש. דיבנ. חמשנ. כי. כל. דיבנ. משמעת | ואנכ. מלכ 29. ת[י] ----- מאת. בקרנ. אשר. יספתי. על. הארצ | ואנכ. בנת 30. [י. את. מה]דבא. ובת. דבלתנ | ובת. בעלמענ. ואשא. שמ. את. […] 31. --------- צאנ. הארצ | וחורננ. ישב. בה. ב 32. --------- אמר. לי. כמש. רד. הלתחמ. בחורננ | וארד 33. -[ויש]בה. כמש. בימי. ועל[…]. משמ. עש 34. -------------- שת. שדק | וא ....................................................................................................... Object typestela term detailscast term details Museum numberC.204.A Title (object)The Moabite StoneThe Mesha Stele DescriptionPlaster cast of the so-called "Moabite stone" of Mesha, king of Moab; rounded top; flat inscribed face; broken in antiquity. FindspotExcavated/Findspot: Dhiban(Asia,Levant,Jordan,Dhiban) Materialsplaster Techniquemould-made term details DimensionsHeight: 125 centimetresWidth: 72 centimetresDepth: 36 centimetres Curator's commentsThe original stela is in the Louvre (inv. no. AO 5066). BibliographyDussaud R 1912a bibliographic detailsGibson J C L 1971a pp.71-83 bibliographic detailsLidzbarski M 1898 vol. II, pl. I bibliographic details LocationNot on display Exhibition history Exhibited:Room of Writing, north-east corner (1980) Associated namesRepresentation of: Mesha, King of Moab biography Acquisition nameDonated by: Musée du Louvre, Paris biography Acquisition date1883 Acquisition notesReport to Trustees, 8 December 1883; described in BM Return for 1884 (p.26) as "Cast of the Moabite Stone. Presented by the Louvre, Paris" and it also reports that it was mounted soon after acquisition. DepartmentMiddle East Registration numberC.204.A Additional IDs262 (exhibition number)AO 5066 (Louvre number for the original stela) ................................................................................................................ Description and discovery The stele is a smoothed block of basalt approximately one meter tall, 60 cm wide and 60 cm thick, bearing a surviving inscription of 34 lines.[10] On 8 February 1870, George Grove of the Palestine Exploration Fund announced the find of the stele in a letter to The Times, attributing the discovery to Charles Warren. On 17 February 1870, the 24-year-old Clermont-Ganneau published the first detailed announcement of the stele in the Revue de l’Instruction Publique.[11] This was followed a month later by a letter from Frederick Augustus Klein published in the Pall Mall Gazette, describing his discovery of the stele in August 1868: Excerpts from Klein's description of the discovery of the Stele ... I afterwards ascertained that [Ganneau's] assertion as to no European having, before me, seen the stone was perfectly true. ... I am sorry to find that I was also the last European who had the privilege of seeing this monument of Hebrew antiquity in its perfect state of preservation. ... ... The stone was lying among the ruins of Dhiban perfectly free and exposed to view, the inscription uppermost. ... ... The stone is, as appears from the accompanying sketch, rounded on both sides, and not only at the upper end as mentioned by Monsieur Ganneau. In the lower corner sides there are not as many words of the inscription missing as would be the case if it were square at the bottom, as M. Ganneau was wrongly informed by his authority; for, as in the upper part, so also in the lower, in exactly the same way the lines become smaller by degrees.... ...according to my calculation, had thirty-four lines, for the two or three upper lines were very much obliterated. The stone itself was in a most perfect state of preservation not one single piece being broken off, and it was only from great age and exposure to the rain and sun, that certain parts, especially the upper and lower lines, had somewhat suffered. F. A. Klein. to George Grove (of the Palestine Exploration Fund), Jerusalem, March 23, 1870, as published in the Pall Mall Gazette of April 19th, 1870.[12] Interpretation Analysis The Mesha stele is the longest Iron Age inscription ever found in the region, the major evidence for the Moabite language, and a unique record of military campaigns. The occasion was the erection of a sanctuary for Kemosh in Qarho, the acropolis (citadel) of Dibon, Mesha's capital, in thanks for his aid against Mesha's enemies. Kemosh is credited with an important role in the victories of Mesha, but is not mentioned in connection with his building activities, reflecting the crucial need to give recognition to the nation's god in the life and death national struggle. The fact that the numerous building projects would have taken years to complete suggests that the inscription was made long after the military campaigns, or at least most of them, and the account of those campaigns reflects a royal ideology which wishes to present the king as the obedient servant of the god. The king also claims to be acting in the national interest by removing Israelite oppression and restoring lost lands, but a close reading of the narrative leaves it unclear whether all the conquered territories were previously Moabite – in three campaign stories there is no explicit reference to prior Moabite control.[21] Parallel to 2 Kings 3[edit] The inscription seems to parallel an episode in 2 Kings 3: Jehoram of Israel makes an alliance with Jehoshaphat king of Judah and an unnamed king of Edom (south of Judah) to put down his rebellious vassal Mesha; the three kings have the best of the campaign until Mesha, in desperation, sacrifices to his god Kemosh either his eldest son or the eldest son of the king of Edom; the sacrifice turns the tide, "there came great wrath against Israel", and Mesha apparently achieves victory. This apparent correspondence is the basis of the usual dating of the inscription to about 840 BCE, but André Lemaire has cautioned that the identification is not certain and the stele may be as late as 810 BCE.[22] Proposed references to David and "House of David"[edit] The discovery of the Tel Dan Stele led to a reevaluation of the Mesha Stele by some scholars. In 1994, André Lemaire reconstructed BT[D]WD as "House of David", meaning Judah,[2] in line 31. This section is badly damaged, but appears to tell of Mesha's reconquest of the southern lands of Moab, just as the earlier part dealt with victories in the north. Line 31 says that he captured Horonen from someone who was occupying it. Just who the occupants were is unclear. The legible letters are BT[*]WD, with the square brackets representing a damaged space that probably contained just one letter. This is not universally accepted—Nadav Na'aman, for instance, reads it as BT[D]WD[H], "House of Daodoh", a local ruling family;[23] but if Lemaire is correct, then this is the earliest evidence of the existence of the Judean kingdom and its Davidic dynasty. In 2001 Anson Rainey proposed that a two-word phrase in line 12—'R'L DWDH—should be read as a reference an "altar hearth of David" at Ataroth, one of the towns captured by Mesha. [24] The sentence reads: "I (i.e., Mesha) carried from there (Atartoth) the 'R'L of its DWD (or: its 'R'L of DVD) and I dragged it before Kemosh in Qeriot". The meaning of both words is unclear. One line of thought sees 'R'L as the name of a man (literally "El is my light") and translates DWD as "defender", so that the sense of the passage is that Mesha, having conquered Ataroth, dragged its "defender", whose name was "El is my light", to the altar of Kemosh, where he was presumably sacrificed.[25] It seems more likely that some kind of cult-vessel is meant, and other suggestions have included "the lion-statue of its beloved", meaning the city god.[26] Authenticity[edit] The stele is regarded as genuine by the vast majority of biblical archaeologists today, on the basis that there were no other inscriptions of comparable age known to scholars at the time.[27] Back then, the Assyrian lion weights were the oldest Phoenician-style inscription that had been discovered.[28] In the years following the discovery of the stele, a number of scholars questioned its authenticity, including Leopold Zunz,[29] Moritz Steinschneider,[29] Moses Gaster,[30] F.W. Schulz,[31] Gustav Jahn,[32] Rupert Storr,[33] and particularly Albert Löwy, who wrote two monographs disputing the authenticity of the stele in 1887[34] and 1903.[34] Its authenticity was also challenged in detail by Abraham Yahuda in 1944 in his article, "The Story of a Forgery and the Mēša Inscription".[35] Minimalist views[edit] Thomas L. Thompson believes that the inscription on the Mesha stele is not historical, but an allegory. In 2000 he wrote: "Rather than an historical text, the Mesha inscription belongs to a substantial literary tradition of stories about kings of the past... The phrase "Omri, king of Israel," eponym of the highland patronate Bit Humri, belongs to a theological world of Narnia. +Adriana Barcajova +Shermanator Osborn +Shawn Hendricks +Brett Hawkes +Samantha Pearl +David Lazarus +ARTSAVA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesha_Stele http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1489847&partId=1 #MeshaStele #Moab #Sinai #KingofMoab #IronAge #Omri #KingofIsrael #ProphetJackob #ProphetMoses #Jahaz #MoabiteInscriptions #VictorySteles #El-KerakInscription #Merneptah Stele #Siloam inscription #TelDanStele #Chemosh #Siran #Archaeology #Anthropology #RuinsofDhiban #Dhiban #Asia #Levant #Jordan #Dhiban #Edomite #AncientKingdom #Nebo #Edom