Even completely ignoring all the history of the region and how the current State of Israel came to be and only focusing on the present in a vacuum, there is still is a glaring contradiction that I have never heard any sort of coherent answer from people who support Israel’s actions: If you truly believe that simply having a negative opinion of Israel’s actions against Palestinians is antisemitic (or simply being a Palestinian that’s still alive is antisemitic according to too many people), then surely it also holds that both Israel’s outright killing of Palestinians and their ongoing apartheid policies preventing Palestinians from existing in the same areas as Israelis is anti-Arab right? Is being anti-Arabic somehow preferable to being antisemitic? Are Arabs not human beings and do they not deserve the same rights and protection as Jews or literally any other human? What makes it okay for Israel to be anti-Arab then?
One of the half baked arguments I have heard is that Israel is "justified" in being anti-Arabic because "it's in self defense against Palestinians that want to kill them," but if you make that assertion, then what makes the other side different? Israel is certainly not just attacking the Hamas and there have been more Palestinian civilian victims than Israeli civilian victims so wouldn't you saying that also automatically imply the inverse and equally justify the Hamas' actions against Israel? You can't attack someone while claiming self defense and then cry foul when they defend themselves against you.
Israel is committing a genocide. - At best, one would have to concede they're killing thousands of children to get at a handful of Hamas members. If you call it antisemitic to point that out, you're saying genocidal kid-killing is inherent to Israelis - which is about as antisemitic as it gets, and a damn good justification for wiping Israel off the map. It's a moronic,monstrous line to push.
(Not disagreeing, but offering a bit more insight)
To be fair, what the IDF is doing is hard. Fighting irregular forces in dense urban environments is hard, especially with their opponents having hundreds of underground bunkers and using civilian shields. Even if they were operating under best practice, there would be a lot of civilian casualties.
However, they aren't operating under best practices. I don't know how the average IDF soldier feels, but the top brass at best doesn't give a shit if they kill a hundred palestinian civilians per one Hamas member; At worst, they see this conflict as an excuse to actively target them.
Fun fact; something like 60 percent of all Israelis are Mizrahi Jews from across the Middle East. Both in terms of their physical appearance and their material culture they have far more in common with Arabs than they do with white Europeans. Calling them "white" really doesn't hold much water.
It is interesting how split opinions are here. Young democrats are more pro Palestine, older Dems are more pro Israel (although a little harsh). Republicans think Israel is doing the right thing.
You really need to understand that there is a waaay bigger political spectrum than "Democrats" and "Republicans". Especially when it comes to foreign policy.
Young democrats are more pro-dont-commit-war-crimes whatever the history, older dems are disensitized by war-crimes and obsessed with anti-terrorism.
Republicans love the war machine and think that genocide/wiping out the opposing side is the only way to resolve anything.
Biden is trying to put on his best dem face while attempting to also maintain control over nuclear proliferation in the middle east. There's only 1 party when it comes to global control, and this exposed it clearly. Democratic or Republican presidents, they all answer to the Generals in the end.
Not American, but there is a shift lately that makes me feel a little hopeful. Like for the first time my parents and in-laws are starting to see how not all criticism of Israel has to be antisemitic.
Yes that does mean we're having to be more vigilant for actual antisemitism (especially online), but it's still progress of a sort.
You know, when neo-nazis align themselves with anti israel leftists, I would say that's not good, but apparently western "communists" kniw better then anyone, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", enjoy being on the same side with neo nazis, must feel great isnt it?
So? Israel is on the same side as white supremacists and far right Christian extremists. Your logical faculties are garbage.
Besides literally no one on the left is looking at Neo Nazis and saying "the enemy of the enemy is my friend". You're just making shit up because that's easier than trying to defend what the IDF is actually doing right now. It's always games and misdirection with the pro-Israel crowd.
Think of Jordan Peterson. There was a time where he was riled up against “ideologies who would kill people in the name of a higher good.” And he named examples, Stalin and Mao most prominently.
For all the abstract criticisms of ideologies, he rarely distances himself from Fascism, named Hitler only very occasionally as an example.
Now he is forethinker for the Republican Fascist party which is now normalizing the exact dehumanizing language that the Nazis used to prepared and justify their concentration camps.
Antifascists caught his thought patterns early on and warned of him using fascist arguments much more sensitive than most people, the missing distancing from Hitler along his other prominent examples being one of them.
Now, dear leftists, the mirror of this arguments wants to ask you if you are really only motivated by reducing human suffering and wanting peace. And if so, you cannot ignore the role of Hamas in this longtime ongoing conflict nor in this war. If you skip that, if that’s not in your mirror, it’s big time necessary to go outside your bubble. Because then chances are you are a puppet playing the propaganda trumpet for the Hamas, or otherwise playing in their hands.
Tedious as it may be, missing distance to a terrorist group like that in a conflict like that is a big red flag.
And just as a tedious albeit necessary disclaimer, I believe Netanyahu and quite a bunch of other Israeli actors belong in a courtroom and then in jail for their atrocities, and certainly not in power.
And if so, you cannot ignore the role of Hamas in this longtime ongoing conflict nor in this war.
Israel created Hamas, because they wanted to destabilize the PLO and Fatah. They continue to recruit more people for Hamas by killing fathers, wives, and children indiscriminately. Israel's only path forward is genocide--either literal, or through the absolute destruction of Palestinian identity--much like we did in the US to the Native Americans.
That is at best a totally skewed version. Yea we know Netanyahu for a few years let the Hamas grow, and we have records of him with vaguely the reasoning you have there.
But to make Israel entirely responsible for the existence for the Hamas, and for what the Hamas does and wants, demands a world view of an all powerful Jewish government that plans and executes for immense time frames that span generations. Don’t we have that thought pattern in widely spread antisemitic conspiracy theories?
Every sane person just reading the news of what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank can make their own conclusions. If you really value human life no matter the religion, ethnicity or skin colour you can see a clear pattern.