A very interesting piece here , albeit a couple of years old , from former US Ambassador to Lebanon , Jeffrey Feltman , dealing with the genesis of Hezbollah in that country , and how Iran was able to mould the current political situation.
As posted above, I have actually been involved with cases where allegations of antisemitism are simply thrown at anything and everything in order to win the argument.
It is insidious, and to be honest, I am not sure how one overcomes it in today’s climate.
You don’t. Today is all about extreme opinions. All Black and white , no grey areas. Both the sides aren’t willing to give an inch and meet in the middle.
99 times out of 100 I think it’s really unfair to put the responsibility on a community to police their own because it normally comes from a place of the person saying it wanting an excuse to continue their bigotry - in response to a cop murdering an unarmed black man, saying “when are black leaders going to condemn their young men for making cops be scared of them.”
In this case, I don’t see how you do it without prominent Jews leading the charge. To be fair, there are plenty who have long been doing it, but it gets drowned out of the discourse with the preferred institutional line of argument. It always comes across as just some person saying their opinion and it cannot stand up to organizations like the Israeli government, AIPAC, or the NYT as an institution claiming that criticism = anti-semitism
No militaristic regime ever considers the burden of the military spending. USSR spent its way to bankruptcy. That’s why I feel the US’s prompt commitment for military aid is just inciteful. It’s not that Israel was at a disadvantage or weren’t prepared for such an extensive military campaign. Now with billions more flowing in, Bibi and his cronies will be awash with arms they are itching to use.
Yeah, it’s difficult. I don’t know the response either, apart from getting out of that fucking binary thinking. We aren’t computers and can think beyond 0 and 1, but it gets lost on a lot of people it seems…
What strikes me in that article, is that even Jewish people who dare dream of a common future between Jews and Arabs in the Middle East, now get targeted as well, alongside with peaceful Arab Israeli citizen. It’s extremely concerning. As @peterroberts pointed out, it’s nothing new, but the recent events have now allowed the extremists on both sides to gain pace. I’m sure btw. that in these dark times, if you are in Gaza and dare suggesting that Jews and Palestinians should and could leave in peace, you’ll be executed by a Hamas rep without further notice.
Saw a few videos with him, it’s an interesting angle seeing though he was in that life, and not only left/spied, but converted to another religion. He must surely have a massive price on his head. Living in the US I believe.
there’s no need for a football club to devolve into political debates. The fans can do so on their own time, say their piece outside the stadium. But the club can and should block flags/banners trying to draw political attention inside the stadium and on camera. Allow them for kids fighting cancer, community support and other socially worthy causes but not politics.
I fully expect the Palestinian death toll to rise at least to ten for every killed Jew. That has been the usual tariff in the past decades. So, going by this rate, we are looking at 15k minimum.
And Israel said yesterday that their ‘military action’ (read: butchering) could still go on for months.
I actually think the ratio is much higher than that. Seeing as we’re already approaching 5:1 even before a land invasion. I expect many , many more , unless sense prevails and the US can somehow turn this delay into a cancellation. The hostages might still hold the key.