Comment by Aeolun
18 hours ago
I think this is true to some extent. On the other hand, the Jewish community in the US and the (unconditional) support it leadership gives Israel is a large reason any of this is possible.
Saying you weren’t directly involved is only an excuse up to a point.
This kind of generalization is exactly the issue though. There is no singular “Jewish community” in the us. Every single temple or congregation is independent, there is no central authority. You saying that there is unconditional support is just a different degree of yelling at random Jews in the street. Every one of my Jewish family members and friends is horrified by Gaza and the AIPAC/GOP collaboration and speaks against it. So the support is not “unconditional” as you posit.
Why aren’t we anti-war Jews the “Jewish community”? Lumping us all together as “unconditional” supporters of Israel and any supporter of Zionism as a supporter of the apartheid state is exactly the problem. It is definitionally racism to say that my behavior or viewpoint is a function of my heritage. So please stop.
What exactly am I supposed to do? Of course I’m not involved. I’ve never been to Israel. I don’t support their war aims. I don’t associate with any Jews or Jewish organizations who really do. Your last sentence is akin to saying that random Muslims can only claim not to be responsible for 9/11 up to a point. It’s reductive, stupid and racist.
Thanks for writing this. It's frustrating to see political-based bigotry be condoned and platformed by mainstream political and media figures. Like seeing the criminal Eric Adams, Kathy Hochul, and Chuck Schumer marching with Bezalel Smotrich and Amichay Eliyahu in the "Israel Day" NYC parade... it reminds me of the 1939 Nazi rally @ MSG or the 1925 KKK DC march. Every ethno-religious supremacist organization and national regime is inherently repugnant to human decency and desecrates the trauma and cost paid by and memories of previous generations to free us from tyrannical oppression by terrible ideologies where one group believes they are superior and another group are animals.