Zionists want you to conflate Judaism and Zionism. Zionists want you to believe that Judaism cannot exist without Zionism and that all Jews are Zionists. Zionism would have Jews believe that a Jewish state is the only way that they can be safe from antisemitism and will point to any instance of antisemitism as proof that Zionism is the solution- so Zionism wants gentiles to be antisemitic in their support of Palestine. They want you to conflate all Jews with Zionism and the state of Israel, and they want you to treat all Jews regardless of political affiliation as the face of Israel. Antizionist Jews exist, and incidences of antisemitism ostensibly acting against Zionism will not help dismantle the forces propping Zionism up.

Don't do their work for them.

Rant

honestly...I'm SO tired of being stuck between other jews who genuinely think there's nothing wrong with what the israeli government is doing, and pro palestine american leftists who act like absolute ghouls to random jews in the name of their cause & spread literal antisemitism and misinformation constantly. why can't anyone be fucking NORMAL about this or anything else! where is the nuance? why can't we come to an agreement even on the most basic shit, like "hm maybe civilians don't deserve to die for their governments actions?" but no, apparently that makes you a genocidal fascist even if the whole point is being AGAINST genocide no matter what.

my uncle gets kicked out of his synagogue he's been a member of for 3 decades for criticizing the IDF. I get called a nazi by fellow jews for saying we need a ceasefire, then called a nazi by fellow leftists for saying hamas & the houthi are also awful (for palestinians too). the israeli govt says death to all palestinians, they're all terrorists, there's no Innocent civilians even the children. Hamas says death to all jews, they're a scourge on the planet, and leftists clap along, say there's no innocent civilians in israel. the power division is of course hugely skewed in favor of israel, and the death toll is massively disproportionate, so I spend a lot of time talking about that-but seeing other people who believe in this cause being straight up antisemitic is so depressing.

everyone seems to have forgotten that most people are the same. no matter where they're born they just want to live their lives and feel like their loved ones are safe. if you're incapable of having empathy without seeing yourself in their position, try to imagine if people started attacking random americans for the actions of our demented leaders. we /voted/, after all, so that means it's totally fine if someone bombs a city or start stabbing and shooting people who have nothing to do with the conflict! it's fine to rape women and it's fine to blow up babies and alls fair in war and and and.

It's really for me to see just how easily people get radicalized into justifying atrocities. i see how islamic jihad organizations use the bombing of their people to recruit young men into committing acts of terror, and it's easy to see how the israeli government uses the holocaust and the very real spectre of rising antisemitism in the world to make their people think the only way for them to survive is to create a highly militarized state and defend it at all costs, even if that cost is tens of thousands of innocent human lives.

like it's not as if I didn't realize all this before but it's just particularly bleak at the moment. it's insane. it's demented. I hate humanity so much rn in particular the war mongering men who drive every single one of these conflicts (you didn't think I was going to overlook the fact that it's men doing this, did you?) they're so fucking bloodthirsty. every war on earth has involved the mass rape, torture and slaughter of women and girls from the "enemy" population. and then men tell us they're the only ones suffering in war because they're the soldiers, totally ignoring how civilians pay the price of conflicts they didn't even participate in.

all of it is just weighing on me particularly hard today. I hate living in a man's world. all they're good at is destruction. I don't want to keep seeing the planet be torn up for the sake of their greed and I don't want to be forced to suffer the consequences of their lack of humanity. even female separation isn't enough while we have to share our world with them.

do you know any neutral post that sums up the Israeli–Palestinian conflict because I don't know what to think. I don't want to dislike jews or Israel but it all sounds so bad? Send help

Hi! I super appreciate you asking because I know exactly how hard it is to even find one reliable source.

Of course it all sounds super bad, because Hamas is a well-oiled and functioning propaganda machine with a lot of money and children and parents willing to throw themselves in front of the camera to make Israel bad, and for some reason their pictures are always what get picked up by the media. Plus, there are super loud antisemitic voices everywhere chanting against Israel at every mention. And the BDS is lobbying pretty hard too, so it's very hard to not find a super negative picture.

It's a super tricky conflict. I'm not saying everything went well and Israel is a country with a pristine history. But here's some points to consider that are usually the biggest issues in any ''''controversy'''' around Israel- Jewish people have always lived and practiced Judaism for over 5000 years in Israel. They have been victims of pogroms and hatred and chased in the desert, but they have literally always been there and to say that Israel was a state installed by foreigners for foreigners coming to these lands is a blatant lie.

There are countries with way more questionable borders in existence, yet Israel is the only country to continuously has to defend its very existence.

The United Nations have two organisations for refugees. One is the UNHCR which deals with refugee questions for all over the world, except for one group. And the other is the UNRWA which is an organisation only for the Palestine/Gaza refugees. The differences between these organisations are more than in structure and beaurucracy, they have two different tasks: UNHCR aims to give refugees a home, UNRWA doesn't. When in 1951 the director of UNRWA proposed to give 250.000 refugees a home in different arabic countries, these governments were angry and strictly refused, leading to the director John Blanford to lose his job. Since then, no further attempts have been made.

Furthermore, the UNHCR only defines refugees as people who have actually fled from their homes. Meanwhile, the UNRWA broadens that definition to "people who lost their homes in 1948 and their descendants".

- Israel is the only country that won all their wars for their survival and in self-defense yet had to have the coniditions for peace dictated by the defeated enemies. Even more paradox, this was supported by countries which all defined their borders after winning wars over these territories -- like, look at an old map of Europe and you will see what I mean. Btw Europe, Germany and Poland drew their finite borders in 1990 but I guess Israel is the only ''''artificial'''' state

- One of Hamas' conditions was that no jewish people were allowed to live in Gaza, so for the first time in centuries if not more, there are no Jewish people living in Gaza. Weirdly, it doesn't seem enough because these people are still living somewhere else and not all dead, I guess.

- Hamas literally uses children and families as a shield, regularly raises palestine flags with swastikas and calls protests of throwing rocks, burning tires and attacking soldiers 'peaceful'. It's a terrorist organisation and literally has the destruction of Israel as a defining goal, yet we always expect Israel to work with them. Hamas wants to build a state based on ethnic purity and cleansing of the territory, but somehow everyone thinks it's okay.

- By the way, when the two state solution was on the table, it was refused because they didn't want Israel to even have a bit of Jerusalem, the capital city with which the jewish people has been connected for over 3000 years. Even weirder, this connection is widely known (famously written into the most read world book in the world, the Bible) and yet every country refuses to acknowledge it as the official capital city because they're afraid that terrorists will riot

- Israel is the only country which is continuously attacked by three organisations in the UN which only exist to represent the Palestine agenda and to defame Israel (they're three comitees and I can't remember their exact names even in German, but they're about realising Palestinian rights, researching the Israeli actions in regard to palestinian rights and there's something in the UN-department for politic agendas or somth)

- Every year. Every year, Israel is targeted by more UN-resolutions than all of the other 192 member countries together. No-one can tell me that this number is justifiable in the least, but it is a reality and it paints the picture of Israel in the media.

- Israel is also the only country in the UN that continuously has to defend its existence against other UN-members and that suffers threats from other members all the damn time. And not just any threats, Iran for example continuously threatens to wipe out Israel and supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, both of which are terrorist organisations with the goal of destroying Israel. And destroying Israel means killing all their Jewish citizens.

And we continuously forget that Israel is the only liberal democracy in that area, they're currently conducting investigations into Netanyahu and his regime and it's a country with a rich and vivid discourse nature. They just refuse to let their existence be up to debate, and frankly, neither should any of us.

So, does this mean no-one is allowed to criticise Israel? Absolutely not. It is a functioning democracy and like any country, it is not a moral entity and there is a lot of room for debate. But when looking into the arguments, you should keep in mind that there's a lot of antisemitism hidden as 'Israel critic' when it's just the same old shit. There's a test called "the 3 Ds" (in German) that can function as a broad test to see if you're reading legitimate critics or antisemitic shit:

- Demonisation (are they demonising Israel, for example by comparing Israel to the Nazis or the palestine refugee camp with Auschwitz)

- Double standards (are they criticising Israel for a behaviour or an act that they ignore or belittle when it's different state, for example how is it that Israel suffers resolutions for hurting human rights but China, Iran, Kuba and Syria don't)

- Delegitimisation (when they're arguing against Israel to exist; it's also a double standard bc it's refusing to allow Jewish people to have a state in which they can live a safe life)

I realise this won't directly answer your question and I easily get side tracked, but I feel like knowing about these difficulties and critically reading your sources will help you more than just drawing a timeline of events. Because there's a lot of anti-Israel propaganda even on Wikipedia, on seemingly normal internet platforms and even our big Western media liberally use Hamas material while refusing to show the Nazi swastikas blowing on burning kites they shoot over to Israel ground. And it's hard to be neutral about this topic, because it is a democracy which is never flawless against a terrorist organisation which demonstrates great finesse in painting the picture the way they want it. I don't think we should all be neutral about it. I am firmly pro Israel because I need my Jewish friends who are currently worrying about anti-judaic sentiments on the uprise everywhere in Europe to have a safe haven. I am pro Israel because it is a country with huge efforts and contributions to our world and advancing medicines etc every day. It's a LGBTQ friendly country (contrary to Hamas policy in which gay sex means 10 years of prison). It is the only liberal democracy in the Middle East and deserves our support more than a terrorist organisation using their children as human shields. Yknow. Maybe that's not actually a topic to be neutral about.

This Week Within Our Colleges: Part 5

A University of Chicago student organization was pressured into changing the topic for an upcoming debate because some considered it to be “colonialism apologia.” The debate, hosted by the elite school’s “Political Union,” was initially set to ask if “the British Empire was a force for good,” but student outcry merely over the title of the debate eventually resulted in the name-change. “What is wrong with you people?” one student wrote on the group’s Facebook page, with another questioning why “you motherfuckers needed plenty of critical messages to see that ‘was the British Empire a force for good’ is deeply problematic? How many white people are in this RSO?” The organization changed the question of the debate to whether Britain should be forced to “pay reparations to its former colonies,” and apologizing for the way it had initially framed the conversation.

A black University of Pennsylvania student recently declared that his semester at the Ivy League institution was “traumatic” because he had three white professors who refused to acknowledge their white privilege. “Last semester was honestly the worst semester I’ve had at Penn so far. And all because of one thing: the white professors I’ve had at Penn. It appears that the term ‘privilege’ does not apply to them. Nor do they care to learn what it is.” Student James Fisher wrote. "My professor wanted to protect the voices of the white students who benefit from black oppression, the oppression unfortunately continued. It even led to me mentally breaking down in the classroom. With different emotions going through my head from not only this class but from the Trump election, I did not want to step foot into another white space until I made sure that my mental health was restored. The truth is, you as a single person cannot make up for the horrific things that white people have done to us throughout human history. But that does not mean that you do not have the power to stop yourself from oppressing the students that you teach every day.

American University is blocking whites from a cafe designated as a ‘sanctuary’ for nonwhites. As reported in my earlier posts, after black student activists issued a demand list to American University, the administration caved in and agreed to obey. One of the demands was a ban on white students using a new student lounge for the rest of the spring semester. The activists said they would take over the space as their own “sanctuary” and also demanded that all nonwhite students received extensions. They also asked incoming President Sylvia Burwell, to show how she will enforce “no tolerance for anyone creating a hostile environment for students of color” and punish such people.

A shocking new video shows a Western Washington University student screaming for at least two-minutes straight after seeing a Donald Trump sign on campus. The unknown student reacted to a street preacher’s pro-Trump sign by spiraling into a bizarre frenzy, at some points even splattering paint on the ground. Whether it was an attempt at an artistic protest or not, the fact remains: the bitch is bonkers. 

The University of California, Irvine’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter once again disrupted and shut down a pro-Israel event, shouting “fuck you” at attendees. The SJP overtook a Students Supporting Israel event featuring Israeli veterans who are touring college campuses to share their firsthand experiences from on the ground. “You people are colonizers or occupiers and you should not be allowed on this fucking campus” they screamed and called Israelis “genocidal.” This is the same group that shut down a film-screening hosted by a Jewish student group on campus last year and as reported earlier, they have also been drinking cups of saltwater to show their solidarity with Palestine terrorists currently being detained in Israel. Nobody ever dares to question the vicious antisemitism inflicted by these students on campuses across the U.S and no one bats an eye when they refuse to condemn Hamas, because they are being funded by this terrorist organization who are hellbent on wiping out every last Jew. No one cares because they’re Muslim and saying anything would be Islamophobia. 

A University of Hawaii professor recently claimed that universities should “stop hiring white cis men” until “the problem goes away.” Mathematics professor Piper Harron never gets around to specifying which "problem" would be solved by culling cis white males from academia, but insists that "real solutions require women of color and trans women." Piper Harron suggests, members of the “white cis” demographic should, “as a first step,” resign from their “hiring committee, their curriculum committee, and make sure they’re replaced by a woman of color or trans person.” “Having white cis women run the world is no kind of solution either,” she declares, pointing to the fact 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump. “Stop hiring white cis men (except as needed to get/retain people who are not white cis men) until the problem goes away,” she instructs university officials, adding accusatorially that “if you think this is a bad or un-serious idea, your sexism/racism/transphobia is showing.”

Black professors congratulate graduates who heckled Ed. Secretary Betsy DeVos at commencement. Over 200 black professors have signed a “love letter” to the Bethune-Cookman University graduates who booed DeVos during her commencement speech at the school last week. As mentioned in the last post, one professor alleged DeVos is representative of “white power.” The letter reads: “The world watched you protest the speaker you never should have had. We cheered as we saw so many of you refuse to acquiesce in the face of threats. Your actions fit within a long tradition of Black people fighting back against those who attack our very lives with their anti-Black policies and anglo-normative practices.” 

At least DeVos got to talk even though she was still booed and heckled. Texas Southern University withdrew an invitation to Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas to address its graduating students. The university disinvited Cornyn because it wanted students to remember their commencement “positively for years to come,” and that couldn’t happen if a white conservative politician was their speaker. The petition to have Cornyn banned from talking cites his vote in favor of requiring photo ID in federal elections and against continuing federal funding for sanctuary cities who refuse to carry out the law against illegal immigrants. Oddly, it also cites Cornyn’s 2006 vote for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, at a time when same-sex marriage was far more popular with whites than blacks. Then-Sen. Barack Obama opposed same-sex marriage in 2006 as well, and didn’t officially change his position for another six years but hey, only white people can do bad things.

Minority students at the University of Michigan have expressed feeling intimidated by the interior wood paneling found throughout the historic Michigan Union building. Anna Wibbelman, former president of an organization that voices student concerns about university development, stated that “minority students felt marginalized by quiet, imposing masculine paneling” found throughout the 100-year-old building that is set to undergo a massive, $85.2 million renovation project.

A student group at the University of Washington held a teach-in Tuesday to promulgate the notion that America’s “food system is built on racism.” “It is a fact that today inmates, predominantly black Americans, harvest a lot of the food that we eat for less than $.50/hr,” the group explains. Let me get this straight, they want their rapists, pedophiles, wife beaters and murderers inside of prison, but once they’re there, they also want them to be paid and treated under the same conditions as law abiding citizens and if we don’t, it’s racism? 

A Bethel University student issued an apology for wearing a Chicago Blackhawks sweatshirt to class after he was told the clothing was “offensive and hurtful.” The controversy unfolded during a class called “Social Perspectives, Human Worth and Social Action,” which delves into themes of culture, power and oppression in America, according to its online description. Student Cody Albrecht, who is from Chicago, came to the class wearing his home team’s apparel, then offered to turn it inside out “after becoming aware of the unease in his classroom because of his sweatshirt.” A week after he wore the sports apparel and after a “reconciliation” with the head of the Social Work department, his teacher and the whole class, Albrecht issued a formal apology.

Black students at the University of California, Los Angeles are demanding $40 million and their own “safe spaces” on campus as compensation for racially insensitive incidents. “Black students at UCLA are consistently made the targets of racist attacks by fellow students, faculty, and administration,” the Afrikan Student Union (ASU) begins. The first item on the list calls for “a physical location on campus to house the Afrikan Student Union Projects,” which would include “meeting/gathering/safe spaces” and be staffed by a director and an office manager who would be responsible for distributing funds allocated to the ASU. In addition, the ASU ultimatum demands a $40 million “endowment” to fund “a comprehensive effort to address the underrepresentation of African-American students, faculty, and staff at our university,” adding that the endowment should also provide financial aid to “dismissed black students.” The list goes on to ask that UCLA “deliver an anti-discrimination policy that assuages discriminatory and offensive behavior,” specifically “culturally insensitive” behavior, in conjunction with implementing mandatory “Cultural Awareness training” for all incoming students, faculty and staff members, and campus police officers. Finally, the ASU is insisting that UCLA provide “guaranteed housing for black students for 4 years, including on- and off-campus housing,” arguing that securing housing is especially difficult for black students due to factors such as “low socio-economic status and difficulties remaining financially stable amidst the rising living costs in Westwood.”

February 18, 2019 Part I

WTF is going on in England? MPs splitting from their party due primarily 2 things: brexit and antisemitism. Now, I’m not the most up on British politics, but my understanding is that labor is the equivalent of the dems in the US. So, if that is correct, to hear that the major party of liberals in a fairly socially liberal country has a problem with antisemitism, well that is quite concerning. I swear I’ve said it every year for at least a decade now, but I will say it again, and keep saying it - how, in 2019 do we still have rampant antisemitism (around the world)?!?!?! How?????? Bringing it back to my own damn country, I see no major problems caused to the US that are the result of anyone being Jewish. So why are people so irrationally blaming them for things? On the other hand, the issue with Israel and Palestine, a lot of people are all-in for Israel. Too many people. But be that as it may, how can you be okay with the political but not okay with the people? And also, saying this as someone who is cool with the people but not okay with the political, Jewish people are not a monolith, so not everyone has the same political beliefs. I don’t know know where I’m going with this right now. Trying to feel nuance, but I can’t right now. It’s been thousands of years with literally no justification. I’m just fucking sick of it. I’ve lived around and gone to school around and worked around Jewish people my entire life. Normal people just like everyone else. Some good, some bad individuals. Some super-religious, some super non-religious. Some with tight family bonds, some with no family bonds. I could go on but I see reason to, since there is no reason for there to need to be a point made. Hating Jews for being Jewish is just wrong. It’s illogical, irrational, unreasonable. I just want to scream.

 I have to laugh. I work in a department that is mostly staffed with Jews. I found myself wondering why they felt a need to bunch up and work together in this day and age. Well funk my stupidity. This shti is why.

Antisemitism, islamophobia, anti-every other religion that isn’t ‘christianity.’ Christians in the aggregate are the most un-christ-like people, I swear.

I don’t even know what I can do in my daily life. I mean, I’m extremely lucky to be in an area that is safe and friendly or at least neutral to Jews, etc....I feel like it’s not safe around me for someone to be blatantly racist or antisemitic or whatever. I have no public incidents to decry. I’m not anywhere near an out and proud nazi, so I have no one to punch. Or pretend that I would punch; I’m not really the physical type.

Anyway, following the jussie thing and it’s a mess. It feels like there was skepticism in the media from the get-go, and I don’t know if it’s b/c there was something fishy in his story from the start, or just racism. I guess I’m just not comfortable believing anything at this point. But the allegations against him just don’t make sense to me.

I was thinking last night about why I’m struggling to make myself apply for jobs. At this point, the only thing I can think of is that I don’t want to be one of those stodgy misses sitting at the front desk in some c-suite. If I can’t be a player, and it seems obvious to me that I can’t, I don’t want to be quiet and conservative and bland and non-threatening, or whatever they call the way they want women to behave. I mean, I walk into the dean’s offices and it’s like a tomb in there it’s so silent. Everyone dressed so formally, sitting erect, no ear buds that I can ever see. And the people I work with, they seem so put-upon, so unseen, lots of relatively-important work, but it’s important scut work. Are they even allowed to weigh in on anything? Basically, a fancier version of most of what I do now. I don’t wanna do that for the rest of my life. There’s nothing wrong with that type of environment per se, but I just don’t feel comfortable. And it’s not that i couldn’t do it, I can and have, but living in that type of environment 40hrs (or more) per week for the rest of my life? I’d have to stifle my personality. I mean, being around my current boss, who rarely smiles or jokes or is casual (around me) has had a huge effect on me. And yes, I know it’s because he didn’t want me and doesn’t like or even respect me, but it’s had pretty much the same effect on me as working in the c-suite. I keep my mouth shut (as much as I can), my head down (as much as I can), and get my work done (as much as I can).

I wouldn’t call myself a loud person in general, or say that I have much of a personality, but in those spaces I definitely come across as a bit much. It’s all good as long as I have meaty work to sink my teeth into - then I come across as intense or whatever - but without meaningful (to me) work, I’m just miserable.

I guess this means I need to temper my expectations and figure out more personality-appropriate jobs to apply to. This will also mean tempering my expectations of salary or job growth. No corporate high-life for me.

I swear I was taught that giving a cat or dog only wet food was bad. I don’t know if I was told, or if I extrapolated that to mean that wet food at all is bad. Or a treat. Since my girl’s gotten older, and she has so many freaking hair balls, I have decided to give her some wet food (I read it somewhere). Knock on wood, I’m doing okay at remembering to give it to her once a week. It’s a treat, but it’s a regular treat.

I’ve been doing dou langua. Turns out you can test out of levels. I’ve been testing super hard. But then I found out that there’s a ceiling to how many you can test out of before you have to pay. So yeah, super boring. I’m not learning a lot, but I’m learning how much I actually know, and how much I actually forgot. What I am learning better is how to ‘hear’. And less so, how to speak. I really want to learn navajo, irish, and klingon, but I figure I should learn how to be fluid in the languages I’ve spent time on already.