It has been 151 days since the deadly Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel, which unleashed a crushing response from the Israeli military and a multi-layered destabilization of the region thanks mainly to the Islamic Republic of Iran, significant political consequences in the United States and Europe, and a torrent of bigotry not only online but in real life.
I communicate with hundreds of people daily, whether they're government officials, elected officials, reporters, or people who follow me on Instagram. The people I speak with are diverse in every facet, from their ethnicity, religious identity, race, socioeconomic status, and political ideology. This group of people have contributed significantly to my understanding of a post-October 7 world.
But I also want to hear from all of you, and I have set up this thread to get a sense of how you're feeling in every respect about a post-October 7 world (which I acknowledge includes many years of history before it).
Just a fair warning: for me to understand how people are feeling, this may mean that the comments below might contain offensive language and rhetoric. That reflects the reality of the world we live in. Deleting these comments will do nothing to contain these feelings; it will just mean they don't exist on this platform.
However, I will not tolerate bigotry directed at individuals commenting on this post.
Now, how are you feeling? Please use the comment feature on this post to let me know.
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Ali, sorry to say, my comments are largely nationalistic. I am not happy that this conflict has spread itself onto Canadian soil. I am not pleased that so many Canadian are supporting Hamas, without actually knowing that the leaders of Hamas are living in Qatar, and are reportedly worth over US$10 billion. To me, it is clear that Hamas leaders are a despicable group, who have used Gaza as a criminal enterprise, extorting 16% in a so called tax from everything that moves in Gaza. Yet they do not have to actually spend this money. Instead, the money is collected for the leaders - not for services to the people of Gaza. The international community is funding the people of Gaza - and Hamas is siphoning off from this for their leaders and terrorist activities. I wish this story was better told to Canadians by the media. If you have any ability of actually telling the truth about Hamas - I think that would be great to do. Regards
I as a Canadian I do not support Hamas but that does not give Israel the right to starve children. Netanyahu has stated his desire to take over Gaza. He is committing a genocide and Israel has become the terrorist. Our country has always been about keeping the peace not bombing innocent civilians.
I am really disgusted and frustrated by the anti Jewish bigotry that seems to be everywhere from college campuses to social media. The “by any means necessary” crowd makes me fearful for our future. When I have posted in support of the women who have been sexually assaulted by Hamas, I’ve had women I thought were well adjusted & educated replying to me justifying it saying “they are military aged women who if they don’t serve in the IDF are old enough to” I’m baffled by so called feminists willing to disregard the horrific crimes and turn the other cheek to Hamas because the victims are Jewish. It feels like it’s trendy to be anti semitic and I’m baffled that I am living in the same communities as people who are calling for the extermination of a group of people.
I am feeling very strongly that people refuse to hold Hamas accountable to their actions. They refuse to treat Palestinians as adults who have agency into the decisions that were made on October 7th and beforehand. I am frustrated beyond belief that Netanyahu is still prime minister, for a multitude of other reasons in addition to this. I am frustrated that people think the only solution to this problem is to give the Palestinians a country, as if that were so easy or not something that has been tried several times. And as if we should reward terrorism?
I am irritated that people try to erase the history of the land. And suggest that Jews are not indigenous to the land.
I’m unbelievably sad to hear of dead or hungry Palestinian children. And I am painfully aware of how those children are taught in a landscape that is not open to peace or compromise.
I am confused at the indifference people show towards the hostages. Having had met a few of their family members, it’s heartbreaking to see them beg people to care or notice. Especially for the male hostages.
I am frustrated by Jewish Americans that do not see how they are being manipulated by the “pro Palestinian” crowd. That would happily cast off their heritage to be accepted. That buy into the white settler colonialism nonsense at the heart of this argument, as if half of Israelis aren’t brown. As if nearly all aren’t the refugees of some place that didn’t want them anymore.
I am sad. I wish this would end. I don’t know how it does. I feel like people don’t care or notice the impact it has on me. But it consumes my thoughts on a daily basis.
Yes. I've been thinking this, too.Palestianians also have agency.--they are not helpless children. (Though their children are!) I so agree with what you say here!
Absolutely their children are and need to be protected. But the adults are perpetuating generations of conflict by teaching their children to hate Jews. Gaza needs severe reeducation programs like what was put in place post ww2 in Germany.
They have agency? How? They have no rights. To this day Israel settlers go into the West Bank and take generational homes from the Palestinian people. What agency do the people of Gaza have while they are being bombed and starved to death.
I was agreeing with the post above me in viewing Palestinians "as adults who had agency into decisions made on October 7 & before." I'll stand by that.
I'm feeling extremely disappointed in the progressives who use an abject horror as a pretext to attack the victims and make incredibly dishonest claims about them; e.g., they're perpetrating a genocide (a claim that just indicates the person making it doesn't know the definition of the word), colonizers, apartheid, and so on. They're the first to decry islamaphobia, shout Black Lives Matter and stop asian hate, but they're more than just silent when it comes to antisemitism, they're promulgators of it.
I feel scared to be Jewish for the first time in my 42 years of life. I feel worried for the future of the West, as uneducated or misinformed younger generations now have the platforms to spread and misuse words and information at an alarming rate (on all sides). I feel sadness that the same groups I've stood behind my whole life would throw me to the wolves. I feel moved to tears anytime a non Jewish friend offers support. I feel enormous sadness for the destruction and the immeasurable loss of life in Gaza and the West Bank. I feel horrified by Hamas and their charter to wipe out all Jews and the West, and for how little they seem to care about human life in general. I feel anger at Bibi for his "crushing response" and self serving, power hungry administration. I also feel glad I am not the one that had to call the shots after the horrors of 10/7. I feel ashamed of members of the Jewish community and even my own family who seemingly feel no compassion for "the other", or worse. I feel heartbroken that we continue to dehumanize one another with no end in sight.
Beautifully said and really representative of my feelings, too. Thanks for articulating this. So many painful truths to hold at once. I’ll just add that my 3 year old goes to a Jewish daycare. There is now an armed guard out front - I get a lump in my throat every morning when I see him - out of sadness and relief.
Thank you & I'm so sorry. I don't have kids but so many of my cousins are having the same experience with their families. Yesterday there were protests outside of one of the elementary schools. It's truly terrifying. This would not be tolerated in any other community and yet... sending love.
As a Jew in NYC, I’ve never felt so hated before, in a place where I’ve always felt so safe. I’ve lost friends because they’re unable to even listen to my perspective and I hate that it feels like no one believes us. Or believes facts for that matter. We’ve been asked to make disclaimers about our feelings, when it shouldn’t be a second thought that we want both Israelis and Palestinians to have self-determination and peace. Never in my life did I think I would experience antisemitism on this level. I have been privileged. It’s hard to see a positive end in sight. Hatred seems to be winning at every turn. I’m doing my best to hold space for all but it’s challenging to do when it feels like we can’t even take the space to properly grieve for our people.
Israel isn't starving people deliberately. Until Oct 7th the Gaza strip could receieve supplies, they were provided electricty and water by Israel, even though they claim independence.
Since Oct 7th they are still receiving millions of dollars worth of aid.
But yes, it is a war zone, and that is shit. War is shit.
I wish there weren't any wars.
But you can't blame a military force for coming to stop a terrorist network, that did what Hamas did on Oct 7th. That is holding civilian hostages hidden in underground labyrinth.
When the US claimed a war on terror, they were heroes. When the Israeli Defense Forces are protecting (or trying to) innocent civilians (mostly on Israel side, but also Gaza), Israel is called a monster?
Absolutely hung out to dry by friends and acquaintances. Totally isolated by the left and right. Lost trust and faith in all leadership. Can’t understand how the rhetoric of “sides” came about, why outsiders feel the need to wedge the divide even further instead of trying to help reconcile and rebuild and understand each other. Someone is either “a terrorist supporter” or “a genocidal maniac”. Where are the rational and critical thinkers who take nuance into account, and where are the peace builders?!?! People are unable to acknowledge anyone’s pain but their own. It’s been a competition of who has suffered the most. Despite being directly affected and having lived experience, those with none - who have maybe read a handful of books in the last few months - are speaking over us. Everything is broken.
Could not agree more. This sports team mentality that has taken over is one of the more dangerous parts of this war and is the way more and more people think in general. It gets us nowhere, ever. Actual change only happens in the middle, and it feels like no one wants to meet there.
Yashar, I feel betrayed by my lefty and academic community. My therapist and I feel I have PTSD, and I just doubt that many of the people I considered my friends would take it seriously. Oct 7 was a tragedy in which I watched horrible violence happen to people I might know, and it was weeks to find out they were alive - and I was by told they deserved it, they were colonisers. I teach decolonisation, and this is not decolonisation. When I told friends I was experiencing antisemitism and gaslighting, I was gaslit even more. I presented an instance of hate to a close friend who also does anti-racist work and he said "can I push back just a little? This seems political, not racist."
I don't know who to trust. I can't work in my field. I can't perform on stage - when I said that "the drag scene feels exclusive against Jews because of the rhetoric" (that phrase only), someone told me "you're excluding yourself because of your Zionist views."
I can't even think about geopolitics - my daily life is a mental health nightmare.
Every day I wake up shaking. I think about how Jews in concentration camps heard the shema coming from the gas chambers, and the videos of people fleeing from Nova and saying the shema as they feared for their lives, and when I say it in shul I start to cry. But because I dare express grief for Jews anywhere online, and I express the need for nuance and trauma-informed behaviour, I've received death threats.
I can't believe how many people who are in the "trauma-informed practice" community have told me I'm wrong for grieving my Jewish family, or call me an oppressor, a baby-killer, a fascist, and a genocide supporter. Again, all quotes from comments on posts and in person when I say how distraught I am. I don't even say my actual political beliefs in public, ever.
I was in the shaking phase for months. (Have worked with trauma patients for decades--doesn't make it any easier). What helped? If you can, unsubscribe from performative listservs. You can always rejoin when folx have moved on to the next thing.
I feel deeply for the innocent victims on both sides. I also see this fundamentally as another chapter in the story of antisemitism. Three of my great-grandparents and countless other relatives were murdered in the Holocaust, and it was during the last Israel-Hamas war in 2021 (a picnic by comparison to this one) that I realized how wrong I was, as an American, to think that Jew-hatred was a thing of the past.
Virtually everything about this war -- the existence of Israel itself, the wars which led to the occupation, the ideology which gave rise to Hamas, the orgy of abuse and bullying directed at Jews worldwide, Hamas' knowledge that sacrificing thousands of Palestinians will only increase hatred of Jews, and the double standards which lead Western nations (which would respond exactly as Israel is if the shoe were on the other foot) to tell Israel it needs to stop fighting the people who want to kill it -- is a consequence of antisemitism.
I have been overcome with constant, unending grief. Every single family member and friend I have in Israel knows someone who was murdered, maimed, had their homes destroyed by rocketfire, or kidnapped. I watched my childhood friends final moments running away from hamas at the nova festival play out on his Instagram stories. Many of the hostages are friends of family and I am constantly seeing their families desperation to get their family back. I saw a Jewish doctor, not much older than me, get slaughtered at his place of work last week and no one outside of our community said a word. I am never not on the verge of tears. There are near daily terrorist attacks in Israel now. I fear for my family and friends lives and their safety every day. I’ve broken down crying at work more times than I can count. I don’t feel safe in New York anymore. This has been the most agonizing 5 months ever.
I’m terrified and raising Jewish children. No one wants to raise daughters at a time where rape and brutality against women is rationalized or ignored because of who the victims are - this should horrify everyone but it doesn’t.
The golden age for Jews in the diaspora is quickly coming to an end and I hope we as Jews have learned from the mistakes of our grandparents and get out before it’s too late.
I’m not saying this type of violence is exclusive to Jews - however, the global patriarchy was and is held to account during movements like #metoo, and #bringbackourgirls - right now in this moment no movement is championing us or holding anyone to account. In fact, progressive women’s movements are acting regressively because of who the victim are. And none of this in any way minimizes the violence in black and other indigenous communities (Jews are an indigenous people, btw) but the fact that anti Jewish hate and actions are always met with “what aboutisms” is exactly why it’s time for Jews to leave the Diaspora. Would you ever look a rape victim in the eye and say something to the effect of : oh, that’s too bad but what about what happened to that other rape victim? It’s a weird trip the world is on - and it’s scary raising Jewish children in this type of environment.
I think it’s your reaction that’s the most revealing and your immediate use of insults. The prompt asked about how we are feeling post 10/7 and I answered how I was feeling.
Your immediate reaction was to “what about” what I said and then in some weird way expected me to show you the empathy and consideration you yourself can’t display.
I will not resort to insults like you did - but I will say that because I care about my community and my family does not mean I lack care or empathy for others. My children still have a friend being held hostage in Gaza while also having to exist in a world that’s no longer safe for them - these are my real day to day realities - I’m sorry if it doesn’t rank high enough on your arbitrary scale of victimhood to rank -
I think you need to check your own biases and wonder why your initial reaction to someone expressing concern for their children based on the reality of what’s happening is to “what about” them and then insult them - I think you have some biases and uncomfortable truths you need to attend to and confront in yourself.
You don’t know anything about me and you definitely don’t know what I look like or what my children look like.
You have zero idea about my safety and security because you don’t live my life.
So many assumptions about me because you’re 50% Jewish?!
I don’t weaponize my trauma (I don’t know like living through the second intafada) and the things me and my family experience dont need to be shared just to validate my existence or my right to respond to my own thread - or my actual feelings.
Again, you insult, you accuse and you assume a lot about someone you don’t know AND yet you still expect me to show you the consideration you yourself cannot show.
Now onto audacity - I never called you callous I called you out for “what about-ing” rape and you weaponized your mother’s experience to try and prove your point. In fact you have the audacity to make assumptions and general statements about me - a total stranger because I shared that I fear for my children? A fear you have the audacity to write off as “you are safe and secure” how do you know that? You know what our day to day is like?
I don’t know what your hang up is - I don’t pretend to know you and I will not assume anything about you - but I will reiterate that I think you have some uncomfortable biases towards people like me that you assume to know all about - that you need to confront.
And so we are clear it is exactly your type of response and reactions that have me fearing for my kids futures.
Alex Jones, really? For someone who claims to be part of a “civil rights couple” you are incredibly uncivilized, hateful and full of AUDACITY.
My parents were teens in the Netherlands when the Germans invaded and occupied their town, so the reality of WWII was very real when I was growing up. It's astounding to me that we all claim to have learned lessons from the Holocaust and we all say "Never again" yet there are legions of useful idiots actively calling for the destruction of Jews, of Israel, who are SO confident that everyone shares their antisemitism that they don't bat an eyelash when spewing their hate. I have never been so discouraged and despondent. Just when I think something can't get worse, it does. "Comparing Jews to Nazis" wasn't something I ever thought would be -- or seem to be -- the norm.
There is no excuse for antisemitism. That being said, Israel is committing atrocities the likes of which have scarcely been seen since Nazi Germany, hence the comparison. Your outrage should be directed at the Israeli government and the IOF. They are the ones perpetuating antisemitism by pretending like they are acting on behalf of the entire Jewish community.
I'll reserve my contempt for Hamas. None of this would be happening if not for them. As for the "atrocities the likes of which we haven't seen since WWII, you may want to look into Cambodia, Rwanda, ISIS, Darfur, the Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, the Uyghurs, Mao Tse-tung and about a dozen more ACTUAL, post-WWII "atrocities". Why people pretend there was a Holocaust and then nothing nothing nothing till October 8th is either staggering historical ignorance or it's that flat-out antisemitism you say there's no excuse for.
Every last lost Gazan would be alive today if Hamas had not attacked Israel -- or if, say, Hamas didn't hide amongst the civilians who they never deigned to allow into the miles and miles of underground tunnels. As Moussa Abu Marzouk so eloquently said, the tunnels with electricity, water and food are for Hamas ONLY; it's the UN that can deal with those pesky Gazan civilians.
both of you need to look at the statistics. yes there are other horrible things happening around the world. that doesn’t excuse israel’s genocide of palestine, sorry!
The difference is that if Hamas stopped attacking Israel there would be peace. If Hamas had used the billions of dollars in aid to build a thriving city in Gaza rather than build a terror haven, there would be peace and a path to 2 states. But they chose evil and murder and rape instead. The death of innocents on both sides is a tragedy and I hope it ends soon. If Hamas releases the hostages, it would have ended already.
I'm afraid that I have no solution. I am convinced that there are "white hats" and "black hats" on both sides. And I'm afraid the "white hats" are not calling the shots on either side.
It's difficult for me not to envision some kind of just solution, one in which neither side would become total winners, or total losers. But the percentage of people on both sides who would violently object to any such solution, while perhaps not constituting a majority, likely constitute a minority sizeable enough to ensure continued violence, which would likely make any agreement unworkable, if not even unreachable.
The distances between the parties here seem much greater than the distances between, say, Ireland's Catholics and Ulster's Protestants. And even that peace could be merely an interregnum, not a permanent change of hearts.
I genuinely wish I could *unsee* the hate and vitriol spewed out by acquaintances, friends, and even close friends of mine on the absolutest Pro-Palestine and absolutest Pro-Israel camps on Instagram and social media. Statements and posts ranging from concluding that zionists are the new nazis, to weekly posts articulating death wishes for civilians in Gaza, with a thirst for collective punishment from both sides. The statements shared by some acquaintances and friends are so disheartening and disturbing it honestly makes me not want to associate with some of them.
The innocent civilians murdered in the Kibbutzes on 10/7 did not deserve to be brutally murdered, and I can't get on the train of that attack being that of an armed resistance - it was pure terror, and the fact that this is celebrated sickens me. The level of destruction we're seeing happening in Gaza and the way we're seeing some (note, I'm saying some) Israelis and folks in the pro-Israel camp cheer on the civilian annihilation and the destruction, also sickens me. I find the opinions of collective punishment shared by friends, acquaintances, and random people I come across online to be totalitarian and disturbing. Do we look back on the bombing of Dresden or Hiroshima & Nagasaki in WWII and think "those civilians deserved what they got", or that this level of destruction and atrocity was necessary?
Yesterday I listened to one of my good friends confide in me over Facetime for an hour his genuine fear for his safety as a Jew in the United States, as some of us on the left are clearly having trouble directing their frustration at atrocities committed by the state of Israel (the government), and are instead once again using our Jewish friends as a collective punching bag. Why are we allowing this to happen again? On the other side of the coin, a Palestinian friend of mine found humiliating Anti-Palestinian propoganda leaflets on the floor of his place of work (an Israeli company). I'm hearing from my Palestinian friends (all of whom like myself are queer) that they feel silenced on a daily basis as they watch their people get massacred in Gaza while essentially being told "well, this is what happens when your government is a jihadist terrorist state".
No compassion. No nuance. No understanding. Black and white blanket statements, this or that, and no listening. Having grown up in a very jewish community feeling embraced by jews all my life, and having good friendships among folks all across the Arab diaspora from Lebanon, the West Bank, Morocco, etc, I feel upset and enraged for them and for the world every day. Seeing the images, videos, and stories coming out of Gaza every day break my heart - these people don't deserve this. Hearing people sympathize with Hamas or worship the IDF on instagram, irritates me.
People. We are all fighting against the same systems. We're treated like pawns by our respective governments. We all deserve better.
Every day I see posts on social media that are on opposite sides of the conflict but I feel most for the innocent people trapped within this war. I am married into a Jewish family that is automatically aligned with Israel and does not see the plight of the Palestinian people the same way as I do. I wish that more can be done on the humanitarian end of things and let the politics go for now. Children and elderly are starving in Gaza and they have all seen atrocities and experienced trauma that will go on for generations. As a mother, it’s gut wrenching to see from here, I could not imagine the mothers in Gaza trying to survive this nightmare. I pray for the people daily. 🙏🏻
I’m distraught that hundreds of Israelis were slaughtered. I’m shocked that people believe the propaganda put out by Hamas. I’m dumbfounded how the left wing are promoting an Islamic fundamentalist narrative. I’m depressed that antisemitism has risen to scary levels. I’m heartbroken that innocent Palestinians are losing their lives. I’m saddened that so many Palestinians support Hamas. Ultimately, I believe that as long as terrorist organisations exist in this region, there will never be peace. Hamas/Iran will never stop fighting for Jews to die and Israel will never stop defending itself.
So I guess what I’m feeling/thinking about is this:
1. Real concern about the rise in anti-semitism, both in word and in deed
2. People who are making anti-Semitic comments from an unknowing place - they don’t realize what they are saying and are almost more concerning to me than the people who know they hate Jews
3. Real fatigue about being called a colonialist oppressor. If you want to blame a colonial power for the origins of this modern mess, yell at the Romans, the Ottomans, the Turks, and the British. Take your pick.
4. Continued anger and horror about what happened on the 7th
5. Continued anger and horror about the loss of life in Gaza, but also angry about people who cast the word genocide out as if it is fact. I do not believe there is that intent, and it weaponizes a word against a people who were in fact victims of one (and just because I don’t think it is genocide doesn’t mean I don’t think what’s happening is tragic, I do.)
6. Bibi and the extremist members of his cabinet can all go suck it - they helped create the circumstances where Hamas could seize the opportunity and ignored intelligence.
7. Despair for the hostages and the Israeli psyche
8. Disappointed in public figures and leaders who refuse to recognize the complexity. It’s very easy to chant slogans. Much harder to dig into the details and the grey areas.
9. Worried about what will happen in Rafah. Hamas knows Israel will not stop, and is looking to take advantage of the optics.
I’m feeling like I died on October 7, too. I was visiting family and got woken up to actual war, then a good friend was killed at the festival he invited me to but I didn’t go, and another friend is being tortured underground for 151 days. I too feel tortured for 151 days. I feel sexually violated in the way the girls still being held captive are, the same way comments online simultaneously deny and wish the same for me. I feel hunted down by a mob of crazed bloodthirsty madmen like my friends and entire nation were. And I feel just as hunted in America with the “protests”, as exemplified by the murder of Ben Harouni. I feel it’s 15 million of us against the world. And if only they would read our history and see our view they would understand. And the situation today would be different. Not just Jewish history in WWII, but mizrahi sefardi beta Israel history, from our perspectives.
And then I think about innocent people in Gaza losing loved ones, living in chaos, breathing in the dust and debris, shell shocked frequently, and the trauma that will never leave them. I mourn the lives lost and the sheer pain of every person. But when people say “ceasefire now” I think - Where were they on October 7? Why they didn’t want the ceasefire from October 6 to continue? I wanted the ceasefire then, and demanding it now is too late. I think it shows they never truly cared about our lives. They only care when we’re dead.
But they only advocate for terms that will lead to a result that will keep my people hostage and lead to us being hunted again and again, like they did to us on Oct 7 and trying to continue now, like they did before Israel was a state in Hebron and Jerusalem and Peki’in and Safed and Moza and so on. Like we were in Iraq and Egypt and Iran and so on. And just simply ignore the fact that demanding Hamas to let my people go is the ONLY way to prevent a single death. What they’re asking for is putting a bandaid on a weaping wound which will turn necrotic. It feels the lack of accountability by the world for Hamas and in general Palestinians is extremely infantilizing. They’ve been ushering in this type of extremism which will be the end of middle eastern civilization and modernity. It feels like keeping Gazans within the war zone is attributing to their deaths and doesn’t care about their life. Not everyone is nationalistic some just want to live. The Gazans are a pawn in the muslim world’s extremist game, and Hamas has led their people into the biggest suicide mission known to humankind.
I now feel that Jews and Palestinians have something in common - that the world doesn’t care about us living, they only care when we are dead. The most tragic part is I think the same way about Palestinians, that many don’t care about their own living, the is care only when they’re dead. And the problem we’re in herein lies that the world is expecting Israel to care more about Palestinians than Palestinians care about Palestinians. I said before that everything the Palestinian media has accused us of doing will eventually actually happen if they continue with the way things are going. Now I fear everything will remain the same, maybe Netanyahu will go to jail, but the lives of Palestinians will not improve - but they are the only ones who have control over that. I think “solving the Middle East conflict” requires the Middle East to solve their antisemitism first. When they for the most part stop hating Jews, we will have peace.
So for now I feel anxious and hopeless with every day seeming worse, after I lost my life in Israel 151 days ago.
I feel angry all the time. All the time. It would be great to get a full night's sleep again.
The virtue signaling by people who just learned of this conflict a few months ago, who misuse words to evoke emotional, histrionic responses, and who fundamentally don't understand anything about the region and the history and parrot what they read on the internet without any rational thought, is absolutely infuriating. The media's narrative and selective reporting is equally infuriating.
My grandfather was killed by Palestinian terrorists while on vacation in Israel. I understand that when Hamas says they'll do this again and again until we're all dead, they mean it. So many gloss over this fact like it doesn't exist. And I don't know where they get the nerve.
We as Jews are expected to (and most of us do) feel empathy for the situation on the ground in Gaza, but that empathy is never extended back to us. We're told we deserve it, we're making it up, we're genocidal maniacs.
I'm hopeful for the day that the war is over and the loud progressives move on to their next cause. This has kept their attention for longer than I anticipated.
Thanks for this forum Yashar -- it's been nice to see a message board that isn't consumed by hate and vitriol toward Israel and Jews. <3
lol sure thing Lisa. Tell me, how many outlets covered the fact that Hamas rejected the umpteenth ceasefire offer this week? How many issued corrections after they salivated to report Hamas' claims on the aid convoy incident last week, then Israel released video footage of what actually happened? If you think the narrative is pro-Israel, then you're just seeing what you want to see to continue your own narrative.
And if that's your one takeaway from my post, then I feel sad for you.
Every single MSM outlet is using dehumanizing language to report on Palestinians and largely defending israel’s actions. you must be blind or in denial i’m not sure which but you really should open your eyes.
I feel fucking desperate. I am in Wisconsin and feel just beside myself with the lack of ANYTHING being done to stop a genocide. I am angry that this is the world I live in and will continue to live in. I am filled with dread thinking about the atrocities happening while I am privileged enough to be safe in my bed. The US response overall, and continued funding to Israel is completely deplorable.
Wow not one comment even acknowledging the evil action of Hamas, nor the massacre of October 7th rather the vilification of the US and by extension Isreal. You are only safe in your bed frankly because Hamas has not targeted you.
Dude don’t start with me. Comments like this is not how change happens. Hamas is just as big of a problem. Notice when I said I wasn’t able to string together a thought? Do better before you assume I’m validating the atrocities Hamas has committed.
It is exactly this response that is frustrating. A terrorist organization effectively kills the equivalent of 30,000 people as compared per capita to the WTC bombing and then takes hostages. This is all not even considering the manner in which Hamas did this. The most brutal sadistic attack on women and children we have seen in decades. Yes let’s vilify the US for supporting our best ally in the region and the only true democracy.
"Hamas is just as big of a problem" - its hard to believe people like you truly feel this way. Are you demanding Qatar turn over Hamas leadership less the US sever diplomatic ties with them? Are you promoting any other solution than leaving Hamas in power with additional chances to get their avowed genocide (the real kind, where you're trying to eradicate the population, not callous indifference to civilian casualties) right? Send international peacekeepers to Gaza to prevent Hamas from further attacks? Reverting to a 10/6 ceasfire isn't change.
Maybe because Gaza has had its own set of massacres since Oct 7. 30k Palestinians dead and 151 days later, people don’t really have to mention it anymore.
so, question here from an Israeli (opposed to what my army and government is doing in Gaza, btw) - just to confirm, I should just wait for the next Oct 7 type massacre to hit us, maybe it'll be me this time or my daughter, for people to mention my humanity again? and if we are abducted and left in captivity, like 134 of us still are including a baby and a child, there's an expiration date on when we're remembered (until the next massacre, of course)? just making sure I have the rules down
I don’t want this to come across at all like I am all for a war. I do not consider all war to be a genocide. I think what is happening currently in Gaza and to the Palestinians is the dictionary definition of a genocide.
If the definitions of genocide and crimes against humanity are needed I suggest reading Phillip Sands East/West Street as it is historically accurate and correct in retelling the origins of the phrases.
That’s okay, I have access to a dictionary. And I do not believe that the actions in Gaza qualify as a genocide. It’s a terrible tragedy. But 30k, even if you say okay 10k of that is Hamas/other militants. 20k people of 2m is 1%. There are no genocides based on 1% of a population dying. It is a very rarely used word, it has significant meaning. Events that have been caused a genocide are for a million people or more being killed. Was 9/11 a genocide? Was the Iraq war a genocide? Was Vietnam a genocide? Was WW1 a genocide? Have you compared casualties with other wars? If this were a genocide, then there wouldn’t be deals on the table. There wouldn’t be air dropped aid. There wouldn’t be Israeli soldiers dying in combat. If you have the option to stop a war with a surrender, it’s not a genocide. The Rwandan genocide was a million people in 3 months. 66% percent of European Jews died in the Holocaust, that is a genocide. I’m sorry to see innocent people suffer, but if we change the definitions of words to suit our agenda, it’s a pretty slippery slope from there.
Sorry I was really directing my comment about the origins and meaning of genocide to the DUDE in Wisconsin who claims he can't put a sentence together. Of course there is no genocide and your reasoning while blunt is correct. Sadly as others have commented in this thread the woke left ignoring both reason and history and have adopted chant like herd mentality. That anyone can respond to Yashar's request for comment by answering Free Palestine is hardly inspiring and that also forecloses debate.
Excellent analysis - those weaponizing the term against Israel have redefined it to include any ethnic conflict involving large numbers of civilian casualties. As it's actually defined, it's rare - not even "ethnic cleansing" is genocide (those may involve a lot of deaths, but the goal is to inhabit the territory). My only disagreement is that it's not the raw numbers that makes something a "genocide" per se, but the intent (wipe out the Jews, wipe out the Tutsis, etc.) Israel simply is not trying to eradicate Palestinians from Gaza. Several members of Bibi's government have, however, called for ethnic cleansing, but they've been properly marginalized and condemned.
The definition of genocide is simple and you are incorrect so let me give it to you
"The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group." I do think it is hysteria to suggest Israel is involved in the extermination of a group. Hitler was actively involved in genocide and built gas chambers to speed up the process of eliminating Jewry from the planet. I don't want you to misunderstand me or think for a nanosecond that I am in favor without question of all the IDF acts but to be clear killing and raping all the while chanting alaju akbar and singing from the river to see etc suggests that the genocide is a desire of Hamas. They exist with a charter and within that charter is this intention
"The charter defines the struggle to be against the Jews and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in all of former Mandatory Palestine, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel" Now I s'pose that doesn't seem like a genocidal desire but it sure the f is
It's so frustrating to keep on explaining that as horrible as this is, it is NOT a genocide. Israel & IDF has no intention to eliminate the Palestinian people. They are REALLY trying to save innocent civilians lives, while Hamas is doing everything within its power to put them in harms way. It is so fucking exhausting to explain to people who have never actually been in a war zone, under real fire and existential threat for their lives, that it's not simple to eradicate a terror organization made of thousands of terrorists who will put their own children in the cross fire in the name of their twisted cause. There has never been in the history of wars, a war where the attacked country was blamed for not providing food & humanitarian aid to their aggressors who barbarically started the attack. The double standard against Israel is just echos and unfortunately, this is antisemitism plain and simple. We've known it was always here, but it still hurts to witness it unfolds Infront of our eyes.
I find myself unable to piece together any thoughts about this tragedy because it’s completely and utterly despicable from every angle. Free Palestine.
The attack on Oct 7 was gut wrenching. But I live here in America, and seeing my peers rip down posters of Kfir Bibas and draw swastikas and hitler staches on his beautiful face made me realize that I dont know my neighbors at all. That they were rotten on the inside and every call they ever made for justice and peace was just an image, a mask. Deep down they were waiting for permission to hate.
I once read a quote that said: non jews think the lesson of the holocaust is that people can do evil things. But jews know that it's really 'trust no bitch'.
I’m unwell. I feel like we are being gaslit by our leaders. When we can plainly see the destruction in Gaza and the West Bank. Not just with the enormous loss of life, but the terror being inflicted on innocent Palestinian men, women and children. Aid being blocked. Intentionally starving 2.2 million people, as a means to collectively punish them, for Hamas’ actions. It’s not right. It’s not fair. It’s genocide. I feel like I can’t exist in a world, where people allow this. Where they aid and abet this. Where the cruelty knows no bounds. I have images seared in my mind. I feel helpless. I hate our options for President. I feel as though, Democracy continues to be squeezed out of every facet of our government. I feel helpless, and it’s hard just to go about my days as if the world isn’t just crumbling around us.
I am disgusted by people who protest Israel, but don't acknowledge that Hamas is at least as evil-doing as the IDF, and who won't acknowledge that for Israel, this is an existential struggle. If Hamas were to lay down its weapons, peace would ensure. If Israel were to lay down its weapons, it would be annihilated, immediately.
A hopelessness, sadness and fear I’’m not eloquent enough to be able describe with words. Desperately trying to hold on to my humanity, which is getting tested throughout the day, every day, for the past five months. In an extreme way. The world feels like it’s caving in, being taken over by division, hatred, bigotry and misinformation, with no end in sight.
I'm trying to keep my faith in humanity but it's very very hard. I'm a Jewish Israeli women, my family members survived the massacre in their Kibutz, and seeing the everyday spewing hate against my country and against my people is unphathomable. I knew on October 7th that we are heading a massive wave of antisemitism however, this is a tzunami. Seeing in my own lifetime how people are calling me, my children and all of us demons and wishing us the worst is frightening. Knowing how much hate is around us and seeing people celebrating our death and the death of IDF soldiers, who are literally 20 years old kids who were forced into this horrific war, is just beyond my understanding. I know the sights from Gaza are horrifying, I'm sorry for all the innocent lives of the children there, who did nothing wrong to be born into this world but I truly have no hope for peace any more. I used to believe in peace, I believed there are people from the other side, Palestinians, who really just want to live their lives, raise their children, go to work, make love, enjoy life. To me, October 7th leashed an evil darkness into the world and it's saddens me to know, that no matter how much time will pass and what will happen in the world, antisemitism will stay. No logic to it. It's pure evil hate and we need to raise our children in this hateful world. I'm sad and and not optimistic but Im also strong, because we have no choice but Fighting it and keep on defending ourselves as people. For the sake of our past and for our future. Thank you for allowing this space to share our thoughts.
Yes yaya. You cannot explain or understand hate that each of us sees as Jews on a daily basis. The ignorant speak about genocide and they don’t even understand he definition of the word. How can Israel drop leaflets warning people about impending bombing and be accused of genocide? This is just silly. There is no genocide here unless you gave the Palestinian leadership (Hamas) a weapon of mass destruction and you know they would use it. They you would see what genocide really is.
I’m supposed to be working on a novel right now with the #1000words project, but I’d rather put my words here. I had no idea how much I needed someone to ask how I was feeling about October 7 and the ensuing conflict—and death—until you did. I’m so grateful for the invitation and the unexpected opportunity to put my thoughts/feelings in writing. I hope you don’t regret having issued it! I’m guessing that a lot of people need to talk, but don’t have a place.
It’s hard to sort out where to start. I’m a Jew, a woman, a mom, a lesbian, a lifelong lefty pushing seventy. I identify as a Zionist; that is, a person who thinks the State of Israel should exist. Six months ago or so, I was with a large group of Israeli and American activists in Dag Hammerskold Plaza, protesting Netanyahu’s visit to the UN. Like so many Israelis and Jews around the world, I blame him and his leadership of the Israeli right for many of the ongoing problems between Israelis and Palestinians. He is vile. The Donald Trump of Israel. But enough about him. I have many other feelings.
And then, October 7.
I still feel horror at the attack on civilians, and, in particular, the sexualized violence. It’s of a piece with the Bosnian rape camps; what the Iraqis did to the Yazidis; an entire roiling, disgusting history of conflict played out on women’s bodies. Still, in the 21st century. And I feel anger and disgust, at humans—men—who could do that to other humans, and at people—my former friends on the left, where I no longer have a home—who won’t believe it. Is it just, we don’t believe Jewish women; is it just, we won’t accuse Hamas of crimes; is it, we are so ahistorical that we don’t even realize that this rape and torture isn’t even new? If we refuse to recognize it, to call it out, will it ever end?
The body count is terrible. At the same time, though, every time I hear a figure—30,000, now—I want that figure broken down. How many dead are Hamas fighters? But no, when I hear the number, it’s as if all the Palestinians are civilians. Hamas dragged the Gazans into this. I can’t help but wonder if this is what they want—if they are willing to sacrifice people for the long game; for making it harder for Israel to make a peace deal with Saudi Arabia, as seemed in the offing; for using the death count to shift public opinion against Israel? While their leadership lives large.
It seems to be working--the rise of anti-Semitism is certainly visible. And here's a feeling I don't have--shock. I knew it was still there.
I have feelings ranging from rage to annoyance to laughter at some of the rhetoric. The question of who is “indigenous,” decided by people, here in the US, living on stolen indigenous land? The idea that Israel is practicing “genocide,” practices “apartheid,” that they are “settler colonialists,” all language from the academic world that good lefties adopt without thinking. These are people that seem never to have heard of the Ottoman Empire, to be aware of its huge colonial sweep, to have any sense of how their territory was divided up after World War I. They seem to have no idea that the UN designed a two-state solution in 1948, after which the surrounding Arab countries invaded Israel. All of that infuriates me. I know I don't know everything, but I know a thing or two. The loudest voices seem the most incurious.
Is knowing the history important to generating a solution? I think it is. And here, I feel a huge sense of frustration. If we don’t talk to each other, how can we move forward? I think, for only one example, that an awareness of what the Nakhba means to Palestinians needs to be more widely acknowledged in the pursuit of any peace, AND, the fact that the Nakhba occurred during the 1948-49 war needs to be acknowledged, too. There’s lot of past pain to go around.
I am also one angry Jew. I know a lot of them these days. I wear a Star of David now every day, and an infinity loop with the Sh’ma (the basic Jewish declaration of faith) on it. I feel more Jewish than before, somehow, and that it is important to declare myself. I feel guilty for any time I walked away from “Zionist” trashing—e.g., at a women’s march—and I freely use that word to define myself. I feel insulted any time that opens me up to accusations that I must believe in genocide or hate Palestinians. I read a lot and find comfort in knowledgeable people who are pushing back against the antisemitism, Jews and non-Jews. It is consoling how many there are.
I also feel helpless. I send money—it feels like one tiny thing to do—to groups that feed and support people who are hungry and displaced.
And, finally, I have the tiniest, tiniest bit of hope. This paroxysm of violence and death may have, finally, conceivably, taken us to a place where we realize we can’t go on like this. By “we,” I guess I mean, Jews, Palestinians, the wider Arab world, the US, the world. I see an occasional thoughtful piece about what things might look like after the military action; I know there are organizations trying to get into place to maybe, really, find a solution.
So. Many. Feelings. It’s like my head will explode. And I am grateful that I am not, myself, in the line of fire, and I know that to feel all my feelings in a safe place is an incredible luxury. But I have them. And thank you for asking about them. And I'm sorry this is such a incoherent blast.
I’ll be curious to see what you will make of all the responses I imagine you will get—and I trust you to make something thoughtful if you do. I'd look forward to that.
I feel awful a lot of the time and despair at the global outrage from day one directed not only at Israel but Jews worldwide as though we are a monolith which we aren't and certainly within Israel there is enormous opposition to the current government. But as a left wing Jew I am heartened that part of the debate is now focused on Palestinian statehood. The complexities of the 75 years of this conflict are too great for me to fully comprehend but for sure the status quo is untenable for the region. There is little doubt in my mind that Iran and its partners Hamas and Hezbollah knew what would come of their attacks and still they saw the risks and loss of life as worthwhile in propagating their hatred of Israel and Jews . Equally, I feel that Netanyahu sees his response as warranted despite the risks and loss of life as worthwhile especially as his entire career has been about denying a Palestinian state.
I remain guardedly optimistic that Israel will have a change of leadership and that some organization and or statesmen will emerge from within the West Bank and Gaza to help build an independent and viable Palestinian state.
Only then is there any chance of moving away from the ongoing cycles of violence and hatred that is tilting the region into further chaos. Surely that has to be the hope as opposed to the absurd attacks back and forth some of which are being echoed and amplified in this response to Yashar's request
You seem well meaning but you are missing many historical facts. The Palestinians had a state offered to them by Bill Clinton which even included a portion of Jerusalem. The Palestinian leadership l, Arafat, turned it down. I believe for money and power. When Ghandi died or Martin Luther king were they rich? Arafat was and so is Hamas leadership. Don’t deceive yourself that he his is due to Netanyahu. His government is a result of the Palestinian leadership that constantly instigates war and hatred by denying the right of Israel to exist and perpetuating the lie of the River to the sea as a potential result of poor people to give over their entire lives to hatred. The solution will not be a statesman but rather someone like MBS who has no interest in fighting a battle that started in 1947. He wants a new Dubai and there is no place for war and crazy Houthis and religious zealots like the Mullahs in his new vision of great Saudi. He has offered billions to build a Palestinian state. My personal feeling is this will still take great leadership within the Palestinian people to even accept this gift and surrender their hatred that has been taught for so many generations.
I know that history and agree with you that Arafat was not a good actor but again here we are a quarter of a century later. We cant keep talking about 1947 and forwards without moving away from recitations of the past failures. At some point the history of the region was set in place in 1917 by Lord Balfour and of course the ensuing Balfour doctrine.
I also agree that the Palestinian leadership has failed the citizenry but again that does not prohibit a brighter future. This either occurs or Israel too will never be the nation we all seemingly hope it will be. Instead the cycles of violence continues and Israel is worse for it.
I don't deceive myself that Netanyahu while not at fault is keen to maintain the status quo of keeping the Palestinians stateless and without power. I maintain that the status quo is the enemy of a rational Israel and this is view supported by many Israelis but of course not all. Bill C - I enjoy your posts and I thank you for the openness that Yashar I believe wanted in these exchanges. I am keen that we acknowledge that hatred is not the sole province of the Palestinians. If we don't see them as people and people who are suffering hugely then our humanity is at risk
Mark. Have you been to Israel? Jews don’t hate Palestinian's the way you think. Jews are certainly not monolithic of thought in Israel as it relates to the Palestinian situation. I can tell you first hand though that most Jews live along side Arab Israelis and they treat them as fellow citizens regardless of what you have been told. No question that have different rights within a Jewish state otherwise it would no longer be a Jewish state but they don’t feel hatred.
Several times. I don’t state that Jews hate Palestinians specifically. I state that there is sadly hatred on both sides and not helped by the lack of leadership. Think I will leave the different rights issue alone as to enter that fray seems to digress from the original question Yashas asked.
Jewish Israeli living in NYC. I've never felt so isolated from the rest of the world. I have always advocated for a two state solution and have never celebrated the war or said a single bad word about Palestinians, and yet the current discourse is such that simply calling out Hamas or calling for a release of hostages has caused strangers to tell me I support genocide and close friends to cut ties with me. It's been 5 months and I still can't imagine a return to normalcy. On the other hand, I have discovered that in spite of my anxiety and insecurity, I know very well who I am and what I believe in, and I have in me an ancient and incredibly powerful Jewish soul. Thank you for your work and humanity.
At mass last Sunday, I purchased an olive wood cross made by Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank. The woman who sold me the cross looked tired. She told me that we don't know how many Christians are left alive in the Gaza Strip. The prospect of a Holy Land without any Christians seemed like a real possibility to her. I won't forget the despair in her eyes. Now, when I look at the cross on my desk, I say a prayer for the Palestinian Christians, and all innocents caught up in this horrible situation.
Ali, sorry to say, my comments are largely nationalistic. I am not happy that this conflict has spread itself onto Canadian soil. I am not pleased that so many Canadian are supporting Hamas, without actually knowing that the leaders of Hamas are living in Qatar, and are reportedly worth over US$10 billion. To me, it is clear that Hamas leaders are a despicable group, who have used Gaza as a criminal enterprise, extorting 16% in a so called tax from everything that moves in Gaza. Yet they do not have to actually spend this money. Instead, the money is collected for the leaders - not for services to the people of Gaza. The international community is funding the people of Gaza - and Hamas is siphoning off from this for their leaders and terrorist activities. I wish this story was better told to Canadians by the media. If you have any ability of actually telling the truth about Hamas - I think that would be great to do. Regards
Fellow Canuck here. I don't recognize our country at all anymore. At all.
I as a Canadian I do not support Hamas but that does not give Israel the right to starve children. Netanyahu has stated his desire to take over Gaza. He is committing a genocide and Israel has become the terrorist. Our country has always been about keeping the peace not bombing innocent civilians.
I am really disgusted and frustrated by the anti Jewish bigotry that seems to be everywhere from college campuses to social media. The “by any means necessary” crowd makes me fearful for our future. When I have posted in support of the women who have been sexually assaulted by Hamas, I’ve had women I thought were well adjusted & educated replying to me justifying it saying “they are military aged women who if they don’t serve in the IDF are old enough to” I’m baffled by so called feminists willing to disregard the horrific crimes and turn the other cheek to Hamas because the victims are Jewish. It feels like it’s trendy to be anti semitic and I’m baffled that I am living in the same communities as people who are calling for the extermination of a group of people.
I feel so badly for all the innocent people from both sides who lost family, friends, and their homes. I keep all in prayer and pray for peace.
I am feeling very strongly that people refuse to hold Hamas accountable to their actions. They refuse to treat Palestinians as adults who have agency into the decisions that were made on October 7th and beforehand. I am frustrated beyond belief that Netanyahu is still prime minister, for a multitude of other reasons in addition to this. I am frustrated that people think the only solution to this problem is to give the Palestinians a country, as if that were so easy or not something that has been tried several times. And as if we should reward terrorism?
I am irritated that people try to erase the history of the land. And suggest that Jews are not indigenous to the land.
I’m unbelievably sad to hear of dead or hungry Palestinian children. And I am painfully aware of how those children are taught in a landscape that is not open to peace or compromise.
I am confused at the indifference people show towards the hostages. Having had met a few of their family members, it’s heartbreaking to see them beg people to care or notice. Especially for the male hostages.
I am frustrated by Jewish Americans that do not see how they are being manipulated by the “pro Palestinian” crowd. That would happily cast off their heritage to be accepted. That buy into the white settler colonialism nonsense at the heart of this argument, as if half of Israelis aren’t brown. As if nearly all aren’t the refugees of some place that didn’t want them anymore.
I am sad. I wish this would end. I don’t know how it does. I feel like people don’t care or notice the impact it has on me. But it consumes my thoughts on a daily basis.
Yes. I've been thinking this, too.Palestianians also have agency.--they are not helpless children. (Though their children are!) I so agree with what you say here!
Absolutely their children are and need to be protected. But the adults are perpetuating generations of conflict by teaching their children to hate Jews. Gaza needs severe reeducation programs like what was put in place post ww2 in Germany.
They have agency? How? They have no rights. To this day Israel settlers go into the West Bank and take generational homes from the Palestinian people. What agency do the people of Gaza have while they are being bombed and starved to death.
I was agreeing with the post above me in viewing Palestinians "as adults who had agency into decisions made on October 7 & before." I'll stand by that.
It consumes my thoughts too.
I'm feeling extremely disappointed in the progressives who use an abject horror as a pretext to attack the victims and make incredibly dishonest claims about them; e.g., they're perpetrating a genocide (a claim that just indicates the person making it doesn't know the definition of the word), colonizers, apartheid, and so on. They're the first to decry islamaphobia, shout Black Lives Matter and stop asian hate, but they're more than just silent when it comes to antisemitism, they're promulgators of it.
I mean, the victims of October 7th (mostly) aren't killing civilians by the thousands and tens of thousands. Israel is. Deliberately.
The victims of October 7th (mostly) aren't destroying infrastructure and starving civilians en masse. Israel is. Deliberately.
Wow, Brett. Your comment is actually gross, in my opinion. Did anyone say this about the victims of 9/11?
I feel scared to be Jewish for the first time in my 42 years of life. I feel worried for the future of the West, as uneducated or misinformed younger generations now have the platforms to spread and misuse words and information at an alarming rate (on all sides). I feel sadness that the same groups I've stood behind my whole life would throw me to the wolves. I feel moved to tears anytime a non Jewish friend offers support. I feel enormous sadness for the destruction and the immeasurable loss of life in Gaza and the West Bank. I feel horrified by Hamas and their charter to wipe out all Jews and the West, and for how little they seem to care about human life in general. I feel anger at Bibi for his "crushing response" and self serving, power hungry administration. I also feel glad I am not the one that had to call the shots after the horrors of 10/7. I feel ashamed of members of the Jewish community and even my own family who seemingly feel no compassion for "the other", or worse. I feel heartbroken that we continue to dehumanize one another with no end in sight.
Beautifully said and really representative of my feelings, too. Thanks for articulating this. So many painful truths to hold at once. I’ll just add that my 3 year old goes to a Jewish daycare. There is now an armed guard out front - I get a lump in my throat every morning when I see him - out of sadness and relief.
Thank you & I'm so sorry. I don't have kids but so many of my cousins are having the same experience with their families. Yesterday there were protests outside of one of the elementary schools. It's truly terrifying. This would not be tolerated in any other community and yet... sending love.
Thank you for articulating exactly what I am also feeling. Sending love to you and to all of us.
Ditto Xo
As a Jew in NYC, I’ve never felt so hated before, in a place where I’ve always felt so safe. I’ve lost friends because they’re unable to even listen to my perspective and I hate that it feels like no one believes us. Or believes facts for that matter. We’ve been asked to make disclaimers about our feelings, when it shouldn’t be a second thought that we want both Israelis and Palestinians to have self-determination and peace. Never in my life did I think I would experience antisemitism on this level. I have been privileged. It’s hard to see a positive end in sight. Hatred seems to be winning at every turn. I’m doing my best to hold space for all but it’s challenging to do when it feels like we can’t even take the space to properly grieve for our people.
Israel isn't starving people deliberately. Until Oct 7th the Gaza strip could receieve supplies, they were provided electricty and water by Israel, even though they claim independence.
Since Oct 7th they are still receiving millions of dollars worth of aid.
But yes, it is a war zone, and that is shit. War is shit.
I wish there weren't any wars.
But you can't blame a military force for coming to stop a terrorist network, that did what Hamas did on Oct 7th. That is holding civilian hostages hidden in underground labyrinth.
When the US claimed a war on terror, they were heroes. When the Israeli Defense Forces are protecting (or trying to) innocent civilians (mostly on Israel side, but also Gaza), Israel is called a monster?
Absolutely hung out to dry by friends and acquaintances. Totally isolated by the left and right. Lost trust and faith in all leadership. Can’t understand how the rhetoric of “sides” came about, why outsiders feel the need to wedge the divide even further instead of trying to help reconcile and rebuild and understand each other. Someone is either “a terrorist supporter” or “a genocidal maniac”. Where are the rational and critical thinkers who take nuance into account, and where are the peace builders?!?! People are unable to acknowledge anyone’s pain but their own. It’s been a competition of who has suffered the most. Despite being directly affected and having lived experience, those with none - who have maybe read a handful of books in the last few months - are speaking over us. Everything is broken.
Could not agree more. This sports team mentality that has taken over is one of the more dangerous parts of this war and is the way more and more people think in general. It gets us nowhere, ever. Actual change only happens in the middle, and it feels like no one wants to meet there.
Yashar, I feel betrayed by my lefty and academic community. My therapist and I feel I have PTSD, and I just doubt that many of the people I considered my friends would take it seriously. Oct 7 was a tragedy in which I watched horrible violence happen to people I might know, and it was weeks to find out they were alive - and I was by told they deserved it, they were colonisers. I teach decolonisation, and this is not decolonisation. When I told friends I was experiencing antisemitism and gaslighting, I was gaslit even more. I presented an instance of hate to a close friend who also does anti-racist work and he said "can I push back just a little? This seems political, not racist."
I don't know who to trust. I can't work in my field. I can't perform on stage - when I said that "the drag scene feels exclusive against Jews because of the rhetoric" (that phrase only), someone told me "you're excluding yourself because of your Zionist views."
I can't even think about geopolitics - my daily life is a mental health nightmare.
Every day I wake up shaking. I think about how Jews in concentration camps heard the shema coming from the gas chambers, and the videos of people fleeing from Nova and saying the shema as they feared for their lives, and when I say it in shul I start to cry. But because I dare express grief for Jews anywhere online, and I express the need for nuance and trauma-informed behaviour, I've received death threats.
I can't believe how many people who are in the "trauma-informed practice" community have told me I'm wrong for grieving my Jewish family, or call me an oppressor, a baby-killer, a fascist, and a genocide supporter. Again, all quotes from comments on posts and in person when I say how distraught I am. I don't even say my actual political beliefs in public, ever.
I'm so very sorry. You deserve empathy, gentleness, and grace. I wish I could help. Sending you love.
I was in the shaking phase for months. (Have worked with trauma patients for decades--doesn't make it any easier). What helped? If you can, unsubscribe from performative listservs. You can always rejoin when folx have moved on to the next thing.
I feel deeply for the innocent victims on both sides. I also see this fundamentally as another chapter in the story of antisemitism. Three of my great-grandparents and countless other relatives were murdered in the Holocaust, and it was during the last Israel-Hamas war in 2021 (a picnic by comparison to this one) that I realized how wrong I was, as an American, to think that Jew-hatred was a thing of the past.
Virtually everything about this war -- the existence of Israel itself, the wars which led to the occupation, the ideology which gave rise to Hamas, the orgy of abuse and bullying directed at Jews worldwide, Hamas' knowledge that sacrificing thousands of Palestinians will only increase hatred of Jews, and the double standards which lead Western nations (which would respond exactly as Israel is if the shoe were on the other foot) to tell Israel it needs to stop fighting the people who want to kill it -- is a consequence of antisemitism.
I have been overcome with constant, unending grief. Every single family member and friend I have in Israel knows someone who was murdered, maimed, had their homes destroyed by rocketfire, or kidnapped. I watched my childhood friends final moments running away from hamas at the nova festival play out on his Instagram stories. Many of the hostages are friends of family and I am constantly seeing their families desperation to get their family back. I saw a Jewish doctor, not much older than me, get slaughtered at his place of work last week and no one outside of our community said a word. I am never not on the verge of tears. There are near daily terrorist attacks in Israel now. I fear for my family and friends lives and their safety every day. I’ve broken down crying at work more times than I can count. I don’t feel safe in New York anymore. This has been the most agonizing 5 months ever.
Sending love to you. This grief is unimaginable.
I’m terrified and raising Jewish children. No one wants to raise daughters at a time where rape and brutality against women is rationalized or ignored because of who the victims are - this should horrify everyone but it doesn’t.
The golden age for Jews in the diaspora is quickly coming to an end and I hope we as Jews have learned from the mistakes of our grandparents and get out before it’s too late.
Sadly fascinating article in the Atlantic Magazine along this exact line
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/04/us-anti-semitism-jewish-american-safety/677469/
Yup, read this.
Get out of where and go where? There is nowhere to go!
Maybe Utah? We're pretty nice here.
Israel - 🇮🇱
I’m not saying this type of violence is exclusive to Jews - however, the global patriarchy was and is held to account during movements like #metoo, and #bringbackourgirls - right now in this moment no movement is championing us or holding anyone to account. In fact, progressive women’s movements are acting regressively because of who the victim are. And none of this in any way minimizes the violence in black and other indigenous communities (Jews are an indigenous people, btw) but the fact that anti Jewish hate and actions are always met with “what aboutisms” is exactly why it’s time for Jews to leave the Diaspora. Would you ever look a rape victim in the eye and say something to the effect of : oh, that’s too bad but what about what happened to that other rape victim? It’s a weird trip the world is on - and it’s scary raising Jewish children in this type of environment.
I think it’s your reaction that’s the most revealing and your immediate use of insults. The prompt asked about how we are feeling post 10/7 and I answered how I was feeling.
Your immediate reaction was to “what about” what I said and then in some weird way expected me to show you the empathy and consideration you yourself can’t display.
I will not resort to insults like you did - but I will say that because I care about my community and my family does not mean I lack care or empathy for others. My children still have a friend being held hostage in Gaza while also having to exist in a world that’s no longer safe for them - these are my real day to day realities - I’m sorry if it doesn’t rank high enough on your arbitrary scale of victimhood to rank -
I think you need to check your own biases and wonder why your initial reaction to someone expressing concern for their children based on the reality of what’s happening is to “what about” them and then insult them - I think you have some biases and uncomfortable truths you need to attend to and confront in yourself.
You don’t know anything about me and you definitely don’t know what I look like or what my children look like.
You have zero idea about my safety and security because you don’t live my life.
So many assumptions about me because you’re 50% Jewish?!
I don’t weaponize my trauma (I don’t know like living through the second intafada) and the things me and my family experience dont need to be shared just to validate my existence or my right to respond to my own thread - or my actual feelings.
Again, you insult, you accuse and you assume a lot about someone you don’t know AND yet you still expect me to show you the consideration you yourself cannot show.
Now onto audacity - I never called you callous I called you out for “what about-ing” rape and you weaponized your mother’s experience to try and prove your point. In fact you have the audacity to make assumptions and general statements about me - a total stranger because I shared that I fear for my children? A fear you have the audacity to write off as “you are safe and secure” how do you know that? You know what our day to day is like?
I don’t know what your hang up is - I don’t pretend to know you and I will not assume anything about you - but I will reiterate that I think you have some uncomfortable biases towards people like me that you assume to know all about - that you need to confront.
And so we are clear it is exactly your type of response and reactions that have me fearing for my kids futures.
Alex Jones, really? For someone who claims to be part of a “civil rights couple” you are incredibly uncivilized, hateful and full of AUDACITY.
My parents were teens in the Netherlands when the Germans invaded and occupied their town, so the reality of WWII was very real when I was growing up. It's astounding to me that we all claim to have learned lessons from the Holocaust and we all say "Never again" yet there are legions of useful idiots actively calling for the destruction of Jews, of Israel, who are SO confident that everyone shares their antisemitism that they don't bat an eyelash when spewing their hate. I have never been so discouraged and despondent. Just when I think something can't get worse, it does. "Comparing Jews to Nazis" wasn't something I ever thought would be -- or seem to be -- the norm.
There is no excuse for antisemitism. That being said, Israel is committing atrocities the likes of which have scarcely been seen since Nazi Germany, hence the comparison. Your outrage should be directed at the Israeli government and the IOF. They are the ones perpetuating antisemitism by pretending like they are acting on behalf of the entire Jewish community.
I'll reserve my contempt for Hamas. None of this would be happening if not for them. As for the "atrocities the likes of which we haven't seen since WWII, you may want to look into Cambodia, Rwanda, ISIS, Darfur, the Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, the Uyghurs, Mao Tse-tung and about a dozen more ACTUAL, post-WWII "atrocities". Why people pretend there was a Holocaust and then nothing nothing nothing till October 8th is either staggering historical ignorance or it's that flat-out antisemitism you say there's no excuse for.
Every last lost Gazan would be alive today if Hamas had not attacked Israel -- or if, say, Hamas didn't hide amongst the civilians who they never deigned to allow into the miles and miles of underground tunnels. As Moussa Abu Marzouk so eloquently said, the tunnels with electricity, water and food are for Hamas ONLY; it's the UN that can deal with those pesky Gazan civilians.
Hey, you might want to check out Sudan right now.
both of you need to look at the statistics. yes there are other horrible things happening around the world. that doesn’t excuse israel’s genocide of palestine, sorry!
Girl, get yourself a dictionary and learn the meaning of the word genocide. And while you’re at it, look up DARVO.
The humanitarian disaster unleashed on Gaza and the Palestinian people is deliberate, disproportionate, and evil.
The Hamas attack was also evil. May all the evil doers be held to account.
Serious question: Hamas vows to never stop attempting more of the same. What should Israel do?
Serious answer? Stop slaughtering unarmed civilians by the thousands.
Just wondering if you know how many casualties per day are happening right now and how many are combatants and millitants?
More of the same too??
Respectfully, that's not an answer to the question.
If we assume each side perceives an existential threat to its survival, shall we applaud more of the same?
The difference is that if Hamas stopped attacking Israel there would be peace. If Hamas had used the billions of dollars in aid to build a thriving city in Gaza rather than build a terror haven, there would be peace and a path to 2 states. But they chose evil and murder and rape instead. The death of innocents on both sides is a tragedy and I hope it ends soon. If Hamas releases the hostages, it would have ended already.
I'm afraid that I have no solution. I am convinced that there are "white hats" and "black hats" on both sides. And I'm afraid the "white hats" are not calling the shots on either side.
It's difficult for me not to envision some kind of just solution, one in which neither side would become total winners, or total losers. But the percentage of people on both sides who would violently object to any such solution, while perhaps not constituting a majority, likely constitute a minority sizeable enough to ensure continued violence, which would likely make any agreement unworkable, if not even unreachable.
The distances between the parties here seem much greater than the distances between, say, Ireland's Catholics and Ulster's Protestants. And even that peace could be merely an interregnum, not a permanent change of hearts.
So I despair.
Yashar, I appreciate the prompt.
I genuinely wish I could *unsee* the hate and vitriol spewed out by acquaintances, friends, and even close friends of mine on the absolutest Pro-Palestine and absolutest Pro-Israel camps on Instagram and social media. Statements and posts ranging from concluding that zionists are the new nazis, to weekly posts articulating death wishes for civilians in Gaza, with a thirst for collective punishment from both sides. The statements shared by some acquaintances and friends are so disheartening and disturbing it honestly makes me not want to associate with some of them.
The innocent civilians murdered in the Kibbutzes on 10/7 did not deserve to be brutally murdered, and I can't get on the train of that attack being that of an armed resistance - it was pure terror, and the fact that this is celebrated sickens me. The level of destruction we're seeing happening in Gaza and the way we're seeing some (note, I'm saying some) Israelis and folks in the pro-Israel camp cheer on the civilian annihilation and the destruction, also sickens me. I find the opinions of collective punishment shared by friends, acquaintances, and random people I come across online to be totalitarian and disturbing. Do we look back on the bombing of Dresden or Hiroshima & Nagasaki in WWII and think "those civilians deserved what they got", or that this level of destruction and atrocity was necessary?
Yesterday I listened to one of my good friends confide in me over Facetime for an hour his genuine fear for his safety as a Jew in the United States, as some of us on the left are clearly having trouble directing their frustration at atrocities committed by the state of Israel (the government), and are instead once again using our Jewish friends as a collective punching bag. Why are we allowing this to happen again? On the other side of the coin, a Palestinian friend of mine found humiliating Anti-Palestinian propoganda leaflets on the floor of his place of work (an Israeli company). I'm hearing from my Palestinian friends (all of whom like myself are queer) that they feel silenced on a daily basis as they watch their people get massacred in Gaza while essentially being told "well, this is what happens when your government is a jihadist terrorist state".
No compassion. No nuance. No understanding. Black and white blanket statements, this or that, and no listening. Having grown up in a very jewish community feeling embraced by jews all my life, and having good friendships among folks all across the Arab diaspora from Lebanon, the West Bank, Morocco, etc, I feel upset and enraged for them and for the world every day. Seeing the images, videos, and stories coming out of Gaza every day break my heart - these people don't deserve this. Hearing people sympathize with Hamas or worship the IDF on instagram, irritates me.
People. We are all fighting against the same systems. We're treated like pawns by our respective governments. We all deserve better.
the absolutest Pro-Palestine and the absolutest Pro-Israel camps are mirror images of each other, and each is utterly blind to it. It drives me crazy
Every day I see posts on social media that are on opposite sides of the conflict but I feel most for the innocent people trapped within this war. I am married into a Jewish family that is automatically aligned with Israel and does not see the plight of the Palestinian people the same way as I do. I wish that more can be done on the humanitarian end of things and let the politics go for now. Children and elderly are starving in Gaza and they have all seen atrocities and experienced trauma that will go on for generations. As a mother, it’s gut wrenching to see from here, I could not imagine the mothers in Gaza trying to survive this nightmare. I pray for the people daily. 🙏🏻
I’m distraught that hundreds of Israelis were slaughtered. I’m shocked that people believe the propaganda put out by Hamas. I’m dumbfounded how the left wing are promoting an Islamic fundamentalist narrative. I’m depressed that antisemitism has risen to scary levels. I’m heartbroken that innocent Palestinians are losing their lives. I’m saddened that so many Palestinians support Hamas. Ultimately, I believe that as long as terrorist organisations exist in this region, there will never be peace. Hamas/Iran will never stop fighting for Jews to die and Israel will never stop defending itself.
So I guess what I’m feeling/thinking about is this:
1. Real concern about the rise in anti-semitism, both in word and in deed
2. People who are making anti-Semitic comments from an unknowing place - they don’t realize what they are saying and are almost more concerning to me than the people who know they hate Jews
3. Real fatigue about being called a colonialist oppressor. If you want to blame a colonial power for the origins of this modern mess, yell at the Romans, the Ottomans, the Turks, and the British. Take your pick.
4. Continued anger and horror about what happened on the 7th
5. Continued anger and horror about the loss of life in Gaza, but also angry about people who cast the word genocide out as if it is fact. I do not believe there is that intent, and it weaponizes a word against a people who were in fact victims of one (and just because I don’t think it is genocide doesn’t mean I don’t think what’s happening is tragic, I do.)
6. Bibi and the extremist members of his cabinet can all go suck it - they helped create the circumstances where Hamas could seize the opportunity and ignored intelligence.
7. Despair for the hostages and the Israeli psyche
8. Disappointed in public figures and leaders who refuse to recognize the complexity. It’s very easy to chant slogans. Much harder to dig into the details and the grey areas.
9. Worried about what will happen in Rafah. Hamas knows Israel will not stop, and is looking to take advantage of the optics.
10. Zionist is not a four letter word.
I am worried it all is just going to get worse.
Agree to all. 💙
Yes I agree as well.
I’m feeling like I died on October 7, too. I was visiting family and got woken up to actual war, then a good friend was killed at the festival he invited me to but I didn’t go, and another friend is being tortured underground for 151 days. I too feel tortured for 151 days. I feel sexually violated in the way the girls still being held captive are, the same way comments online simultaneously deny and wish the same for me. I feel hunted down by a mob of crazed bloodthirsty madmen like my friends and entire nation were. And I feel just as hunted in America with the “protests”, as exemplified by the murder of Ben Harouni. I feel it’s 15 million of us against the world. And if only they would read our history and see our view they would understand. And the situation today would be different. Not just Jewish history in WWII, but mizrahi sefardi beta Israel history, from our perspectives.
And then I think about innocent people in Gaza losing loved ones, living in chaos, breathing in the dust and debris, shell shocked frequently, and the trauma that will never leave them. I mourn the lives lost and the sheer pain of every person. But when people say “ceasefire now” I think - Where were they on October 7? Why they didn’t want the ceasefire from October 6 to continue? I wanted the ceasefire then, and demanding it now is too late. I think it shows they never truly cared about our lives. They only care when we’re dead.
But they only advocate for terms that will lead to a result that will keep my people hostage and lead to us being hunted again and again, like they did to us on Oct 7 and trying to continue now, like they did before Israel was a state in Hebron and Jerusalem and Peki’in and Safed and Moza and so on. Like we were in Iraq and Egypt and Iran and so on. And just simply ignore the fact that demanding Hamas to let my people go is the ONLY way to prevent a single death. What they’re asking for is putting a bandaid on a weaping wound which will turn necrotic. It feels the lack of accountability by the world for Hamas and in general Palestinians is extremely infantilizing. They’ve been ushering in this type of extremism which will be the end of middle eastern civilization and modernity. It feels like keeping Gazans within the war zone is attributing to their deaths and doesn’t care about their life. Not everyone is nationalistic some just want to live. The Gazans are a pawn in the muslim world’s extremist game, and Hamas has led their people into the biggest suicide mission known to humankind.
I now feel that Jews and Palestinians have something in common - that the world doesn’t care about us living, they only care when we are dead. The most tragic part is I think the same way about Palestinians, that many don’t care about their own living, the is care only when they’re dead. And the problem we’re in herein lies that the world is expecting Israel to care more about Palestinians than Palestinians care about Palestinians. I said before that everything the Palestinian media has accused us of doing will eventually actually happen if they continue with the way things are going. Now I fear everything will remain the same, maybe Netanyahu will go to jail, but the lives of Palestinians will not improve - but they are the only ones who have control over that. I think “solving the Middle East conflict” requires the Middle East to solve their antisemitism first. When they for the most part stop hating Jews, we will have peace.
So for now I feel anxious and hopeless with every day seeming worse, after I lost my life in Israel 151 days ago.
I’m sorry for all the grammatical mistakes and word vomit. I’m very emotional and scattered brained with limited mental capacity to proofread.
Shely thank you for sharing this--it's really powerful. I'm sorry for the people you have lost. May their memory be a blessing.
Thank you Melanie 💔
I feel angry all the time. All the time. It would be great to get a full night's sleep again.
The virtue signaling by people who just learned of this conflict a few months ago, who misuse words to evoke emotional, histrionic responses, and who fundamentally don't understand anything about the region and the history and parrot what they read on the internet without any rational thought, is absolutely infuriating. The media's narrative and selective reporting is equally infuriating.
My grandfather was killed by Palestinian terrorists while on vacation in Israel. I understand that when Hamas says they'll do this again and again until we're all dead, they mean it. So many gloss over this fact like it doesn't exist. And I don't know where they get the nerve.
We as Jews are expected to (and most of us do) feel empathy for the situation on the ground in Gaza, but that empathy is never extended back to us. We're told we deserve it, we're making it up, we're genocidal maniacs.
I'm hopeful for the day that the war is over and the loud progressives move on to their next cause. This has kept their attention for longer than I anticipated.
Thanks for this forum Yashar -- it's been nice to see a message board that isn't consumed by hate and vitriol toward Israel and Jews. <3
the media narrative is almost exclusively pro-israel.. so not sure what you’re referring to here
lol sure thing Lisa. Tell me, how many outlets covered the fact that Hamas rejected the umpteenth ceasefire offer this week? How many issued corrections after they salivated to report Hamas' claims on the aid convoy incident last week, then Israel released video footage of what actually happened? If you think the narrative is pro-Israel, then you're just seeing what you want to see to continue your own narrative.
And if that's your one takeaway from my post, then I feel sad for you.
Every single MSM outlet is using dehumanizing language to report on Palestinians and largely defending israel’s actions. you must be blind or in denial i’m not sure which but you really should open your eyes.
That is laughable.
I feel fucking desperate. I am in Wisconsin and feel just beside myself with the lack of ANYTHING being done to stop a genocide. I am angry that this is the world I live in and will continue to live in. I am filled with dread thinking about the atrocities happening while I am privileged enough to be safe in my bed. The US response overall, and continued funding to Israel is completely deplorable.
Wow not one comment even acknowledging the evil action of Hamas, nor the massacre of October 7th rather the vilification of the US and by extension Isreal. You are only safe in your bed frankly because Hamas has not targeted you.
Dude don’t start with me. Comments like this is not how change happens. Hamas is just as big of a problem. Notice when I said I wasn’t able to string together a thought? Do better before you assume I’m validating the atrocities Hamas has committed.
It is exactly this response that is frustrating. A terrorist organization effectively kills the equivalent of 30,000 people as compared per capita to the WTC bombing and then takes hostages. This is all not even considering the manner in which Hamas did this. The most brutal sadistic attack on women and children we have seen in decades. Yes let’s vilify the US for supporting our best ally in the region and the only true democracy.
"Hamas is just as big of a problem" - its hard to believe people like you truly feel this way. Are you demanding Qatar turn over Hamas leadership less the US sever diplomatic ties with them? Are you promoting any other solution than leaving Hamas in power with additional chances to get their avowed genocide (the real kind, where you're trying to eradicate the population, not callous indifference to civilian casualties) right? Send international peacekeepers to Gaza to prevent Hamas from further attacks? Reverting to a 10/6 ceasfire isn't change.
Literal "whataboutism" here. Hamas is evil. October 7th happened. There you go.
Now: Is the Palestinian civilian to Israeli civilian death ratio not high enough for you?
Maybe because Gaza has had its own set of massacres since Oct 7. 30k Palestinians dead and 151 days later, people don’t really have to mention it anymore.
so, question here from an Israeli (opposed to what my army and government is doing in Gaza, btw) - just to confirm, I should just wait for the next Oct 7 type massacre to hit us, maybe it'll be me this time or my daughter, for people to mention my humanity again? and if we are abducted and left in captivity, like 134 of us still are including a baby and a child, there's an expiration date on when we're remembered (until the next massacre, of course)? just making sure I have the rules down
I ask a lot of people this question so feel free to ignore if you don’t want to answer. But do you consider all war to be a genocide?
I don’t want this to come across at all like I am all for a war. I do not consider all war to be a genocide. I think what is happening currently in Gaza and to the Palestinians is the dictionary definition of a genocide.
In what way is it the dictionary definition? Compared to another war?
If the definitions of genocide and crimes against humanity are needed I suggest reading Phillip Sands East/West Street as it is historically accurate and correct in retelling the origins of the phrases.
That’s okay, I have access to a dictionary. And I do not believe that the actions in Gaza qualify as a genocide. It’s a terrible tragedy. But 30k, even if you say okay 10k of that is Hamas/other militants. 20k people of 2m is 1%. There are no genocides based on 1% of a population dying. It is a very rarely used word, it has significant meaning. Events that have been caused a genocide are for a million people or more being killed. Was 9/11 a genocide? Was the Iraq war a genocide? Was Vietnam a genocide? Was WW1 a genocide? Have you compared casualties with other wars? If this were a genocide, then there wouldn’t be deals on the table. There wouldn’t be air dropped aid. There wouldn’t be Israeli soldiers dying in combat. If you have the option to stop a war with a surrender, it’s not a genocide. The Rwandan genocide was a million people in 3 months. 66% percent of European Jews died in the Holocaust, that is a genocide. I’m sorry to see innocent people suffer, but if we change the definitions of words to suit our agenda, it’s a pretty slippery slope from there.
Sorry I was really directing my comment about the origins and meaning of genocide to the DUDE in Wisconsin who claims he can't put a sentence together. Of course there is no genocide and your reasoning while blunt is correct. Sadly as others have commented in this thread the woke left ignoring both reason and history and have adopted chant like herd mentality. That anyone can respond to Yashar's request for comment by answering Free Palestine is hardly inspiring and that also forecloses debate.
Excellent analysis - those weaponizing the term against Israel have redefined it to include any ethnic conflict involving large numbers of civilian casualties. As it's actually defined, it's rare - not even "ethnic cleansing" is genocide (those may involve a lot of deaths, but the goal is to inhabit the territory). My only disagreement is that it's not the raw numbers that makes something a "genocide" per se, but the intent (wipe out the Jews, wipe out the Tutsis, etc.) Israel simply is not trying to eradicate Palestinians from Gaza. Several members of Bibi's government have, however, called for ethnic cleansing, but they've been properly marginalized and condemned.
There’s a section in the genocide convention that highlights intent. You should read it, might help you understand your question more.
The definition of genocide is simple and you are incorrect so let me give it to you
"The systematic and widespread extermination or attempted extermination of a national, racial, religious, or ethnic group." I do think it is hysteria to suggest Israel is involved in the extermination of a group. Hitler was actively involved in genocide and built gas chambers to speed up the process of eliminating Jewry from the planet. I don't want you to misunderstand me or think for a nanosecond that I am in favor without question of all the IDF acts but to be clear killing and raping all the while chanting alaju akbar and singing from the river to see etc suggests that the genocide is a desire of Hamas. They exist with a charter and within that charter is this intention
"The charter defines the struggle to be against the Jews and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in all of former Mandatory Palestine, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel" Now I s'pose that doesn't seem like a genocidal desire but it sure the f is
It's so frustrating to keep on explaining that as horrible as this is, it is NOT a genocide. Israel & IDF has no intention to eliminate the Palestinian people. They are REALLY trying to save innocent civilians lives, while Hamas is doing everything within its power to put them in harms way. It is so fucking exhausting to explain to people who have never actually been in a war zone, under real fire and existential threat for their lives, that it's not simple to eradicate a terror organization made of thousands of terrorists who will put their own children in the cross fire in the name of their twisted cause. There has never been in the history of wars, a war where the attacked country was blamed for not providing food & humanitarian aid to their aggressors who barbarically started the attack. The double standard against Israel is just echos and unfortunately, this is antisemitism plain and simple. We've known it was always here, but it still hurts to witness it unfolds Infront of our eyes.
I find myself unable to piece together any thoughts about this tragedy because it’s completely and utterly despicable from every angle. Free Palestine.
Palestinian people should be free from Hamas and the radical Islam. Their children should be free to be educated to love and to want to live!
I will never be the same person again.
The attack on Oct 7 was gut wrenching. But I live here in America, and seeing my peers rip down posters of Kfir Bibas and draw swastikas and hitler staches on his beautiful face made me realize that I dont know my neighbors at all. That they were rotten on the inside and every call they ever made for justice and peace was just an image, a mask. Deep down they were waiting for permission to hate.
I once read a quote that said: non jews think the lesson of the holocaust is that people can do evil things. But jews know that it's really 'trust no bitch'.
I finally understand that.
very true.
I’m unwell. I feel like we are being gaslit by our leaders. When we can plainly see the destruction in Gaza and the West Bank. Not just with the enormous loss of life, but the terror being inflicted on innocent Palestinian men, women and children. Aid being blocked. Intentionally starving 2.2 million people, as a means to collectively punish them, for Hamas’ actions. It’s not right. It’s not fair. It’s genocide. I feel like I can’t exist in a world, where people allow this. Where they aid and abet this. Where the cruelty knows no bounds. I have images seared in my mind. I feel helpless. I hate our options for President. I feel as though, Democracy continues to be squeezed out of every facet of our government. I feel helpless, and it’s hard just to go about my days as if the world isn’t just crumbling around us.
I am disgusted by people who protest Israel, but don't acknowledge that Hamas is at least as evil-doing as the IDF, and who won't acknowledge that for Israel, this is an existential struggle. If Hamas were to lay down its weapons, peace would ensure. If Israel were to lay down its weapons, it would be annihilated, immediately.
A hopelessness, sadness and fear I’’m not eloquent enough to be able describe with words. Desperately trying to hold on to my humanity, which is getting tested throughout the day, every day, for the past five months. In an extreme way. The world feels like it’s caving in, being taken over by division, hatred, bigotry and misinformation, with no end in sight.
Shiri, you are not alone and yes, you are eloquent enough.
I'm trying to keep my faith in humanity but it's very very hard. I'm a Jewish Israeli women, my family members survived the massacre in their Kibutz, and seeing the everyday spewing hate against my country and against my people is unphathomable. I knew on October 7th that we are heading a massive wave of antisemitism however, this is a tzunami. Seeing in my own lifetime how people are calling me, my children and all of us demons and wishing us the worst is frightening. Knowing how much hate is around us and seeing people celebrating our death and the death of IDF soldiers, who are literally 20 years old kids who were forced into this horrific war, is just beyond my understanding. I know the sights from Gaza are horrifying, I'm sorry for all the innocent lives of the children there, who did nothing wrong to be born into this world but I truly have no hope for peace any more. I used to believe in peace, I believed there are people from the other side, Palestinians, who really just want to live their lives, raise their children, go to work, make love, enjoy life. To me, October 7th leashed an evil darkness into the world and it's saddens me to know, that no matter how much time will pass and what will happen in the world, antisemitism will stay. No logic to it. It's pure evil hate and we need to raise our children in this hateful world. I'm sad and and not optimistic but Im also strong, because we have no choice but Fighting it and keep on defending ourselves as people. For the sake of our past and for our future. Thank you for allowing this space to share our thoughts.
Yes yaya. You cannot explain or understand hate that each of us sees as Jews on a daily basis. The ignorant speak about genocide and they don’t even understand he definition of the word. How can Israel drop leaflets warning people about impending bombing and be accused of genocide? This is just silly. There is no genocide here unless you gave the Palestinian leadership (Hamas) a weapon of mass destruction and you know they would use it. They you would see what genocide really is.
I'm just so sorry. So very sorry.
Dear Yashar,
I’m supposed to be working on a novel right now with the #1000words project, but I’d rather put my words here. I had no idea how much I needed someone to ask how I was feeling about October 7 and the ensuing conflict—and death—until you did. I’m so grateful for the invitation and the unexpected opportunity to put my thoughts/feelings in writing. I hope you don’t regret having issued it! I’m guessing that a lot of people need to talk, but don’t have a place.
It’s hard to sort out where to start. I’m a Jew, a woman, a mom, a lesbian, a lifelong lefty pushing seventy. I identify as a Zionist; that is, a person who thinks the State of Israel should exist. Six months ago or so, I was with a large group of Israeli and American activists in Dag Hammerskold Plaza, protesting Netanyahu’s visit to the UN. Like so many Israelis and Jews around the world, I blame him and his leadership of the Israeli right for many of the ongoing problems between Israelis and Palestinians. He is vile. The Donald Trump of Israel. But enough about him. I have many other feelings.
And then, October 7.
I still feel horror at the attack on civilians, and, in particular, the sexualized violence. It’s of a piece with the Bosnian rape camps; what the Iraqis did to the Yazidis; an entire roiling, disgusting history of conflict played out on women’s bodies. Still, in the 21st century. And I feel anger and disgust, at humans—men—who could do that to other humans, and at people—my former friends on the left, where I no longer have a home—who won’t believe it. Is it just, we don’t believe Jewish women; is it just, we won’t accuse Hamas of crimes; is it, we are so ahistorical that we don’t even realize that this rape and torture isn’t even new? If we refuse to recognize it, to call it out, will it ever end?
The body count is terrible. At the same time, though, every time I hear a figure—30,000, now—I want that figure broken down. How many dead are Hamas fighters? But no, when I hear the number, it’s as if all the Palestinians are civilians. Hamas dragged the Gazans into this. I can’t help but wonder if this is what they want—if they are willing to sacrifice people for the long game; for making it harder for Israel to make a peace deal with Saudi Arabia, as seemed in the offing; for using the death count to shift public opinion against Israel? While their leadership lives large.
It seems to be working--the rise of anti-Semitism is certainly visible. And here's a feeling I don't have--shock. I knew it was still there.
I have feelings ranging from rage to annoyance to laughter at some of the rhetoric. The question of who is “indigenous,” decided by people, here in the US, living on stolen indigenous land? The idea that Israel is practicing “genocide,” practices “apartheid,” that they are “settler colonialists,” all language from the academic world that good lefties adopt without thinking. These are people that seem never to have heard of the Ottoman Empire, to be aware of its huge colonial sweep, to have any sense of how their territory was divided up after World War I. They seem to have no idea that the UN designed a two-state solution in 1948, after which the surrounding Arab countries invaded Israel. All of that infuriates me. I know I don't know everything, but I know a thing or two. The loudest voices seem the most incurious.
Is knowing the history important to generating a solution? I think it is. And here, I feel a huge sense of frustration. If we don’t talk to each other, how can we move forward? I think, for only one example, that an awareness of what the Nakhba means to Palestinians needs to be more widely acknowledged in the pursuit of any peace, AND, the fact that the Nakhba occurred during the 1948-49 war needs to be acknowledged, too. There’s lot of past pain to go around.
I am also one angry Jew. I know a lot of them these days. I wear a Star of David now every day, and an infinity loop with the Sh’ma (the basic Jewish declaration of faith) on it. I feel more Jewish than before, somehow, and that it is important to declare myself. I feel guilty for any time I walked away from “Zionist” trashing—e.g., at a women’s march—and I freely use that word to define myself. I feel insulted any time that opens me up to accusations that I must believe in genocide or hate Palestinians. I read a lot and find comfort in knowledgeable people who are pushing back against the antisemitism, Jews and non-Jews. It is consoling how many there are.
I also feel helpless. I send money—it feels like one tiny thing to do—to groups that feed and support people who are hungry and displaced.
And, finally, I have the tiniest, tiniest bit of hope. This paroxysm of violence and death may have, finally, conceivably, taken us to a place where we realize we can’t go on like this. By “we,” I guess I mean, Jews, Palestinians, the wider Arab world, the US, the world. I see an occasional thoughtful piece about what things might look like after the military action; I know there are organizations trying to get into place to maybe, really, find a solution.
So. Many. Feelings. It’s like my head will explode. And I am grateful that I am not, myself, in the line of fire, and I know that to feel all my feelings in a safe place is an incredible luxury. But I have them. And thank you for asking about them. And I'm sorry this is such a incoherent blast.
I’ll be curious to see what you will make of all the responses I imagine you will get—and I trust you to make something thoughtful if you do. I'd look forward to that.
“The loudest voices seem the most incurious” - so much this.
I feel every word. Thank you. Xo
I feel awful a lot of the time and despair at the global outrage from day one directed not only at Israel but Jews worldwide as though we are a monolith which we aren't and certainly within Israel there is enormous opposition to the current government. But as a left wing Jew I am heartened that part of the debate is now focused on Palestinian statehood. The complexities of the 75 years of this conflict are too great for me to fully comprehend but for sure the status quo is untenable for the region. There is little doubt in my mind that Iran and its partners Hamas and Hezbollah knew what would come of their attacks and still they saw the risks and loss of life as worthwhile in propagating their hatred of Israel and Jews . Equally, I feel that Netanyahu sees his response as warranted despite the risks and loss of life as worthwhile especially as his entire career has been about denying a Palestinian state.
I remain guardedly optimistic that Israel will have a change of leadership and that some organization and or statesmen will emerge from within the West Bank and Gaza to help build an independent and viable Palestinian state.
Only then is there any chance of moving away from the ongoing cycles of violence and hatred that is tilting the region into further chaos. Surely that has to be the hope as opposed to the absurd attacks back and forth some of which are being echoed and amplified in this response to Yashar's request
Mark
You seem well meaning but you are missing many historical facts. The Palestinians had a state offered to them by Bill Clinton which even included a portion of Jerusalem. The Palestinian leadership l, Arafat, turned it down. I believe for money and power. When Ghandi died or Martin Luther king were they rich? Arafat was and so is Hamas leadership. Don’t deceive yourself that he his is due to Netanyahu. His government is a result of the Palestinian leadership that constantly instigates war and hatred by denying the right of Israel to exist and perpetuating the lie of the River to the sea as a potential result of poor people to give over their entire lives to hatred. The solution will not be a statesman but rather someone like MBS who has no interest in fighting a battle that started in 1947. He wants a new Dubai and there is no place for war and crazy Houthis and religious zealots like the Mullahs in his new vision of great Saudi. He has offered billions to build a Palestinian state. My personal feeling is this will still take great leadership within the Palestinian people to even accept this gift and surrender their hatred that has been taught for so many generations.
I know that history and agree with you that Arafat was not a good actor but again here we are a quarter of a century later. We cant keep talking about 1947 and forwards without moving away from recitations of the past failures. At some point the history of the region was set in place in 1917 by Lord Balfour and of course the ensuing Balfour doctrine.
I also agree that the Palestinian leadership has failed the citizenry but again that does not prohibit a brighter future. This either occurs or Israel too will never be the nation we all seemingly hope it will be. Instead the cycles of violence continues and Israel is worse for it.
I don't deceive myself that Netanyahu while not at fault is keen to maintain the status quo of keeping the Palestinians stateless and without power. I maintain that the status quo is the enemy of a rational Israel and this is view supported by many Israelis but of course not all. Bill C - I enjoy your posts and I thank you for the openness that Yashar I believe wanted in these exchanges. I am keen that we acknowledge that hatred is not the sole province of the Palestinians. If we don't see them as people and people who are suffering hugely then our humanity is at risk
Mark. Have you been to Israel? Jews don’t hate Palestinian's the way you think. Jews are certainly not monolithic of thought in Israel as it relates to the Palestinian situation. I can tell you first hand though that most Jews live along side Arab Israelis and they treat them as fellow citizens regardless of what you have been told. No question that have different rights within a Jewish state otherwise it would no longer be a Jewish state but they don’t feel hatred.
Several times. I don’t state that Jews hate Palestinians specifically. I state that there is sadly hatred on both sides and not helped by the lack of leadership. Think I will leave the different rights issue alone as to enter that fray seems to digress from the original question Yashas asked.
Jewish Israeli living in NYC. I've never felt so isolated from the rest of the world. I have always advocated for a two state solution and have never celebrated the war or said a single bad word about Palestinians, and yet the current discourse is such that simply calling out Hamas or calling for a release of hostages has caused strangers to tell me I support genocide and close friends to cut ties with me. It's been 5 months and I still can't imagine a return to normalcy. On the other hand, I have discovered that in spite of my anxiety and insecurity, I know very well who I am and what I believe in, and I have in me an ancient and incredibly powerful Jewish soul. Thank you for your work and humanity.
exactly how I feel too. <3
At mass last Sunday, I purchased an olive wood cross made by Palestinian Christians living in the West Bank. The woman who sold me the cross looked tired. She told me that we don't know how many Christians are left alive in the Gaza Strip. The prospect of a Holy Land without any Christians seemed like a real possibility to her. I won't forget the despair in her eyes. Now, when I look at the cross on my desk, I say a prayer for the Palestinian Christians, and all innocents caught up in this horrible situation.