our people from all over the country are protesting. I can hear gunshots and motorcycle sounds. some of my friends say that their eyes are burning from tear gas and they can even feel it from inside their homes. numerous protesters have been killed, shot and kidnapped.
Protesters who take to the streets may come under fire from rubber bullets, projectiles, tear gas, pepper spray or paintball guns. Here is w
I am continuing to advocate for you as I can. You may not be able to see these right now, but these are links to share for tear gas, eye injuries, stopping serious wounds from bleeding. I'll write/copy important info below.
Stopping blood loss (paraphrased from stop the bleed video):
Expose wound to see where bleeding is coming from
Use a t-shirt, cloth, or gauze to cover the wound
Use TWO HANDS, one pressed over the other, and apply DIRECT PRESSURE to the wound
Use your body weight if you need to!
If the wound is large, you can pack the wound with your cloth/gauze, then apply direct pressure as stated above.
What to do if your eye is injured by a rubber bullet or other projectile:
Donât touch your eye.
Donât rub your eye.
Stay upright and keep your head up.
Place a hard shield around your eye. Holding or taping a temporary eye shield, such as a paper cup or Styrofoam cup, may work in an emergency.
Do not let the shield touch the surface of the eye.
If the eye ruptures or breaks open, the eyeâs contents must be saved. Keep the shield on your eye and get to an emergency room or call your ophthalmologist immediately.
If you are exposed to tear gas, take the following steps right away:
Get away from the tear-gassed area as quickly and safely as possible.
Flush your eyes with lots of clean water or eyewash (available at most pharmacies).
Remove any clothing near your face.
Seek fresh air.
Seek higher ground (tear gas is heavier than air).
Blink frequently to promote tearing.
Do not rub your eyes (rubbing might spread crystals of the chemical on the eyeâs surface).
Remove your contact lenses.
Get medical help right away.
If you are exposed to pepper spray:
Donât touch the eye area. Pepper spray is oil-based, so touching the area will spread the oil.
Blink frequently to help flush your eyes.
Flush your eyes with lots of clean water or eyewash (available at most pharmacies). Contrary to what you may have heard, milk is not recommended for flushing the eyes because itâs not sterile. A small study compared five treatments (Maalox, 2% lidocaine gel, baby shampoo, milk, water) and found no difference in pain relief.
Wash the skin around your eyes with baby shampoo. This will break down the pepper oil without irritating the eyes.
The Islamic Republic of Iran attacked Jordan today, marking the 4th attack by Iran on the Hashemite-ruled kingdom this week, resulting in several killed and injured.
I checked out of the hotel at noon. Fridays have left me without a bed several times, so I'm trying to make sure that doesn't happen again by starting early today.
I save quite a bit if I can book several nights at a time. So that's my goal to sell enough to book through the weekend. To get me to Monday will cost $550 including taxes and incidentals. I can check back in at three. That translates to selling one 12"x 16" wood panel.
I could check in again at 3pm. So if I could make that sale around 3pm mst it would be fantastic!!! If I did make that sale.
I don't have enough money to leave for a room tonight or food of any kind.
PayPal has frozen my payouts. So I can't receive any of it. All I've had is a bottle of water!
I need money for a hotel room tonight. Call me manipulative, I'm not okay right now and every second I'm not sleeping I'm building a logical case for ending my life. I need to make sure I sleep every night.
Room is going to be $200 with $50 deposit included in that. If I had an extra $100 I'd get food and more art supplies.
I am probably the angriest I've ever been. Let me tell you why:
America wrote and signed a treaty with Iran and during this "ceasefire" IRGC threw a big mourning party for their supreme leader, but before he was put in the grave they started shooting missiles at navies. I repeat, they ignored the ceasefire BEFORE they actually put the fucker underground.
The south of Iran is attacked everyday, places I've been to, and grown up in. Do you hear a single sound coming out of the "no war" crowd? The people who were so worried about the "infrastructure"? No you don't. But every single day we hear these fuckers + the IRGC executives talk about Lebanon. Lebanon will be fine if you freaks stop sending monetary and military support to Hezbollah. Lebanon will be fine the moment you stop your shitty proxy islamist groups from razing it to the ground. What will happen to the country you're occupying tho? You destroy it, because if you can't have it no one else can? Fuck off.
And the proverbial nail on the coffin was JD Vance talking shit about things he has no idea about. "94 million Iranians are gonna flood into our countries as refugees". Motherfucker 94 million Iranians are struggling to make ends meet. 94 million Iranians have not left Iran because it's their fucking home. 94 million Iranians are held HOSTAGE in the home that's occupied by a terrorist regime you'll be aiding by unfreezing their assets and giving them breathing room. Do I even need to talk about how fucking hard it is for us to get Visas?
The moment this war started every country came out with regulations and statements of not taking "Iranian refugees", which funnily enough was not the case for Syria, for Afghanistan, for Ukraine, for any other country but when it came to Iran, they just couldn't let it happen, which is whatever I don't give a shit but what pisses me off is the way they talk about us, as if we were waiting for this moment just to flee to other places. Y'all forget how people died because they wanted to have life in their own country.
Finishing on a heavy note, IRGC has started a new wave executions. Aref Khoshkar, Mohammad Amini Dahaghani to name two. Prisoners are going on hunger strike to protest this and I hear nothing about it on the media. Be their voice.
And the regime has not announced a state of war in the south yet. They are forcing kids to go to school in person for the exams despite the bombs. Some kids even had their exam locations moved to IRGC bases!
The islamic regime wants to get Iranian kids killed to buy pity for themselves. Remember this before tragedy happens again
Fuck the islamic republic and free Iran đđŚâ¤ď¸
i donât care how much they try to distance themselves from platner now, because i will never forget that the nazi tattoo wasnât enough. that changed my worldview forever and i am NEVER getting over that
jsyk the op of the post about jewish music you reblogged is a zionist
Okay, sure, let's have it out. I imagine I'll pretty much piss off everyone with this.
First: the only confidence I have in my understanding of the political situation of the Middle East is that I have no fucking understanding whatsoever of the political situation in the Middle East. Sure, I've read plenty. I have friends of many many stripes. But I'm not a victim of the Dunning-Kruger effect here, folks: I know enough to know how much I don't know, and how much I know is tons.
Second, you say that person is a "zionist." There are three things I find pretty annoying about this as a defense attorney. One is that the term is not defined, and the other is that there is a complete lack of evidence. The third is the implicit assumption that being a "zionist" is enough to wholeheartedly condemn anyone.
Let's tackle these one by one. And, once again, I am neither a scholar of Jewish history nor Middle Eastern history nor anything except American criminal law.
First: definition. There are many possible meanings of zionist that I see people use. One potential meaning of "zionist" seems to be "is Jewish, but fails to disavow Israel as fast and loud as I personally want them to." Sometimes the meaning of "zionist" is just "is Jewish." Sometimes it's "a Jewish person who wishes for a return to a very distant ancestral homeland." Sometimes it's "wholehearted supporter of Israel's war crimes." A lot of pointless arguing, it seems to me, is centered around someone saying they are zionist, i.e., they would like Jewish people to someday have a nice homeland where they don't feel like a strange political chunk in another country, and another person hears that they are zionist, i.e. they enjoy wholesale slaughter of civilians.
Second: No evidence. Self-explanatory. You are an anon. I don't know why I'm supposed to trust your word. I read police reports for a living and I am supposed to be able to trust them, and let me tell you how many lies they contain.
Third: the assumption of condemnation. I literally defend the human rights of sex criminals in court. I defend murderers. What we are talking about, right now, at best, is a human person expressing an opinion, however potentially damaging and offensive (depending on definition of zionism and truth of accusation). Do you think I'm gonna say that Jewish people who express an opinion are inhuman and deserve segregation from the rest of us?
Do you think I'm ever going to stop reaching out my hand to people who use violence? Do you think I'm ever going to lose the hope that someday they will lose the fear that makes them resort to violence?
Finally, now that I've spent some time listing my problems with your case, so what.
Let's use an example closer to home. I'm an American, and I do in fact believe that America is a nation and will continue to be so, and that tearing down all government to give it back to indigenous people (something that is, to be clear, to my understanding, not comparable with any kind of political situation in Israel) is not possible as things stand. And yet nobody's here interrogating me about Donald Trump and his bombing of Iran or whether I support ICE's jackbooted thuggery.
A little further from home? If I met a Russian person, my first ask would not be "Tell me in detail your thoughts on Ukraine and Putin."
And in those two examples, I myself and this hypothetical Russian person are actually members of the country in question that is doing the thing. A Jewish person who is not Israeli isn't even that.
Listen. I think there's a lot to be unpacked about how the insularity of Jewish culture and the separateness of it from the countries where it lives is both in the interest of continuing the Jewish ethnicity and in the interest of the people who want Jewish people exterminated, and how the double-pull of those two interests maintain a tension that otherwise might dissipate. I think there's something real to be analyzed about how modern anti-semitism isn't a recurrence of medieval anti-semitism but a different thing, a sign of fascist thinking.
I think there is a horrific tragedy for everyone involved that the group who was decimated beyond belief in the blackest events in human history now has a very loud and visible nation channeling their survival into rage and violence.
I think that there are lots of Arab nations around Israel that would gladly see every person in it subject to that same rage and violence, and I'm not down with that shit either.
I think the history of who colonized who and when and what pogroms did what and how violence and why are all too fucking complicated to untangle.
I think the only way truly forward for Israel and Palestine is some kind of truth and reconciliation type thing and that Israel as it stands is too scared to see all their atrocities come to light.
I was raised atheist with college professor parents, so you can bet Jewish people in academia were part of my life from an early age. I don't understand antisemitism literally at all. It's completely incomprehensible to me. I also think Arab culture is gorgeous and studied Arabic in college. I don't discount the idea that I have subconscious biases; I've done my best to unpick them, but it's lifelong work.
The whole goddamn clusterfuck is a great example of why violence begets violence begets violence. I reject the idea that One Final Ass-Kicking on anyone's part will solve any one of these problems. The only thing that ends violence is not choosing violence. And that can't happen until enough people in and out of power want the violence to stop. There. Not here. There. It can't be imposed from outside. It has to come from within.
And that's a decision -- I must add -- that I seriously could not have less to do with. White Americans should not be making any of the related decisions.
Here endeth the essay, with one final note.
My Jewish friends are safe on this blog. My Arab friends are safe on this blog. That's all.
Okay you might not be a scholar on the conflict, but this is unironically the best take that someone not a party to the conflict itself can take right now. To call for peace and stability and not be an accelerant to the conflict.
It is best for the civilians caught in the middle to not encourage the continuatiin of violence. And it is best for those of us drowning in the splash effect as the whole world (minus you and a few others) have gleefully turned on Jews.
You are also giving a sign of hope, which has been rapidly disapearing, about the possibility of being able to safely live in the US.
As a Jewish American, and a Jewish woman I can't emphasize enough how reassuring this response was and how grateful I am to see it.
My attitude is definitely not unique. Always remember: idiots who have the certainty of being right are always the loudest, and those whose first response is curiosity and grace are much harder to hear. In fact, mostly the people who are genuinely kind don't feel the need to display that at all unless asked.
Unless they have chronic can't-shut-the-fuck-up disease, like me.
I hope that... helps? A little? It seems to me there's generations of pain yet to go in this conflict, one way or another, even if healing started right now. No one can carry all that. I think all we can do is bring what light we can.
Your attitude is not unique but it is the very small minority of who we see.
The US Golden Age of Jewry is over. It is something us American Jews are acutely aware of.
In a time where we have to worry about attacks on our synagogues, being beaten in the streets, being gunned down at our festivals, and our homes and schools being burned down, someone speaking aloud that the mentality that leads that violence is wrong is both a rare and valuable thing.
Someday Iâll write a deeply allegorical B-horror movie about a pernicious rot turning people into horrific monsters. And everyone one will laud it as great queer horror cinema completely ignoring my Judaism (and that the experiences portrayed work much better as representations of Jew-hatred) like they do with Kafka and X-men. Then when I make a clarification about my motivations they will call me an evil Zionist and Philosophy Tube will make feature length video on me death if the author and it will get 1k upvotes on the Breadtube subreddit and self righteous lefty assholes will host screenings of my movie âin support of Palestineâ where they talk about âreclaiming itâ and how I donât get the point of my own movie.
And I will sit back and laugh at the irony of it all
#sorry it just pisses me off when someone goes on and on about the queer subtext of something clearly about being Jewish created by straight#Jewish men#and then they turn around and act all queers for Palestine#I feel like an authors or creators Jewishness only matters to these people when weâre completely helpless victims or evil Zios (via greco-roman-jewess)
i wonder if my goyish friends would understand the sheer dread in the pit of my stomach when i saw this.
how many jews have been killed now?
who else wants me dead?
how will people (who i once thought would be friends, who i marched alongside, who i trusted) justify my death?
when will i need to flee?
i wonder if i should explain it to them. i think they would trust me. (i hope they would trust me.) maybe i could help them not fall into the pit of hatred of jews (are they already in the pit? would they want me dead? my cousin who goes to camp in israel every year? my great aunt who made aliyah?) but i don't want to do that. it's tiring. it's exhausting. and it's even harder when it's not faceless icons on a screen, but people i care about, who i value.
i wonder if i knew any of the dead. if i knew someone who knew any of the dead. i wonder if there are any dead. i wonder if it's just someone saying there should be dead. i wonder when that became a "just". i wonder if i'll need to flee to israel. i wonder when i'll need to flee to israel. i wonder if i will flee to israel. i wonder how they'll go about killing us. i wonder if they'll use all the inventions of modernity, i wonder if there will be parking lots like there were at auschwitz. i wonder if there will be death camps or just pogroms. i wonder if we'll be allowed to call them pogroms, or if we'll be accused of exaggerating, of lying for secret jew purposes.
i wonder what those secret jew purposes would even be. survival? being able to pray in peace? what is our secret nefarious goal, our hidden aim?
having goyish friends understand the dread in the pit of our stomachs when we see that jumblr is trending?
Ah, the "greater Israel" conspiracy. Otherwise known as the paranoid conviction that the Jews are itching to take over the very places many Jews had to flee to Israel from due to the level of severe, violent antisemitism present there.
Itâs hilarious watching these people be like âthe Jews are trying to colonize the entire Middle East and make it all into a Jewish ethnostate!â My guy even if Israel wanted to do that do you understand there are literally not enough Jews on earth for that to be even remotely feasible? Like can you even do basic math?
(Also you gotta love how this is just âJews will not replace usâ but leftistly lmao)
WHEN social media influencer Chris Caresnone made his first trip to Israel just over a year ago, he knew very little about the country â including nothing about the events of October 7.
But he is a fast learner and has embraced all aspects of Israeli society, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze, on his quest for good food.
âAbout a year ago, I was invited by a group called Reality to go to Israel,â the Chicago-based food blogger told me. âA lady named Debra Feinberg reached out and was like, âChris, Iâve been following you for a while, and I think youâd be great for this organisation that gets people to Israelâ, because my Jewish audience was starting to grow.
âI was thinking that I need to get to Israel because it would be good for the energy, ethos, brand, and content.â
Chris, who has hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, continued: âIâll be honest, I had heard stuff about Israel and Palestine, but I was ignorant. I didnât know much about anything until I was in Israel. I was wet behind the ears. I didnât know about the bombs or October 7. All I knew was, Iâve got to get to Israel.â
Chris, whose real surname is Campbell, said the first thing that struck him about Israel was that it wasnât all Ashkenazim.
âWe ignorantly think that all the Jewish people on Earth are eastern European,â he told me.
âItâs not from a place of hate, just that we donât know. But then when I went to Israel, Iâm like, man, thereâs people my colour who are Jewish and Israeli.
âAs far as food, I would say excellent. It all felt fresh, even the fried food.â
Chris, who is known as the Babka King, was a little surprised about the lack of babka in Israel.
âThereâs some, donât get me wrong, but itâs not really Sephardic, Mizrahi,â he said.
There was another aspect of Israeli life which surprised him â the driving.
âItâs a little hectic,â he laughed. âI donât know if I want to drive over there. I personally thought the vibe of Israel was super cool, and I plan on going back as often as I can.â
Despite being a six-foot two-inch black man with a beard, Chris said he has never encountered any problems getting into Israel, apart from being stopped constantly by people who recognise him.
âThe reach is getting so big now, so many people notice me in the airport, and itâs not even just Israel, itâs back home too, New York, Chicago,â he smiled.
âI have to stop and take pictures every few minutes, so thatâs not really a problem, but itâs something thatâs a slight disruption.â
Although it was never his original intention, Chrisâ social media feed is now heavily Jewish, leading to many Jewish dinner invitations, including from rabbis for Friday night dinner.
âIâm kind of Jewish now,â he joked, âIâm embedded and I see whatâs going on, but my first time in Israel? I heard that this is apartheid, but I see all kinds of people there walking freely. Iâm a black America dude, clearly not Israeli, clearly not Jewish and not only do I walk perfectly fine, people come up to me and show me love.â
Chris, who says he grew up Christian but is not very religious, had his babka obsession started by a Muslim.
âAnd that turned into this movement, so to speak, of humanity, which I think is the most beautiful thing ever,â he explained.
âI started making culture content, showing love to different cultures. I did like 50 cultures. I didnât even make any Jewish or Israeli content for seven or eight months.
âI feel like I get so much love within the community, and Iâm just treating yâall normal like how I treat everyone else.
âI was told the way you have to look at it is, imagine if someone gives you a glass of water every single day.
âEventually, itâs just another glass of water. But imagine youâre walking through the desert for four months, and then someone gives you a glass of water, itâs a bigger deal. And itâs not because the glass of water is any different, itâs because the context of the situation.
âItâs so big and powerful, yet itâs a matter of just being human and showing humanity.
âAnd the whole food, the babka was really just lifeâs way of Hashem, the universe, God, whatever we wanna call it, it was the Trojan horse to get my energy amplified.
âItâs more than food. I donât feel like a food guy at all. I feel more like a bridge builder.â
During his trips to Israel, he has also spent time with Ethiopian and Druze communities.
He described Ethiopian food as âridiculously goodâ, adding: âI have tried other cultures that are mixed within Israel. Thatâs what makes Israelâs food scene so unique. Itâs almost like the opposite of what people are trying to say.â
The 42-year-old was raised around the North Shore of Chicago, which, he said, has one of the largest Jewish populations in America.
âI didnât really have a lot of Jewish cuisine outside of matzo ball soup,â he explained. âWhen I got a little older, I started working in restaurants in different areas, and sometimes affluent areas.
âI started trying things that I probably would not have tried had I not worked in a restaurant. So my horizons got expanded because of that.â
He said what he realised about kosher food was that the food was still good despite the restrictions (apart from gefilte fish, which he has never been fond of).
As expected, his videos from Israel, while garnering mainly positive comments, do receive a number of hateful comments.
He had changed his name to Caresnone to reflect the fact that he wasnât letting hate get to him, but it is a situation that has provoked a lot of thought.
âHereâs something Iâve been asking myself a lot recently,â he said. âAm I trying to be right or am I trying to solve the problem? I have learned that a lot of times I was trying to be right, not trying to generally solve the problem.
âOn my birthday, February 2, I went out with some people and I had a buddy bring a girl he had met like once or twice.
âHe should not have invited some girl he had just met to my intimate personal birthday dinner, but it is what it is. So weâre all sitting there at this restaurant and itâs a good 10 of us. We were talking about food and Iâm like one of my new favourite cuisines is Israeli food. Iâve been going to a lot of Israeli restaurants.
âAnd this girl whoâs sitting next to me, she goes, âoh, excuse me, what did you say?â
And Iâm like, âI like Israeli cuisine, itâs fire, I love itâ. And she says, âthereâs no such thing as Israeli cuisine, itâs all stolen, they steal everythingâ.
âShe invited this new energy when we were just talking about food.
âIâm with my buddy Kareem KWOE Wells, whoâs considered King of the Mitzvahs, a black Christian in Chicago whoâs known for doing the most epic and powerful mitzvahs in the country. Me and Kareem went at her. We werenât rude or ignorant, but I was starting to feel myself losing composure, because Iâm part of the humanity tribe, but Iâm also very entrenched in the Jewish community and Israel.
âThen she made a comment along the lines of âI should be able to say whatever I want to sayâ and then I matched her with that.
âIâm a pretty intimidating figure. And I looked at her, and Iâm like, âwell, I can say what I want to say, tooâ. I was giving her energy that wasnât welcoming. I didnât cuss her out or anything. And everyone else at the table thought I handled it well.
âBut I was trying to be right. I wasnât trying to solve the problem. So much so that she said, âmaybe I should get out of hereâ. And I looked at her and go, âyeah, maybe you shouldâ.â
He continued: âFast forward. Iâm on the way to Israel, on a 10-hour flight. I get a DM: âF*** Israel, f*** you, you black monkeyâ.
âI was immediately reminded of my birthday. I thought about that moment and I asked myself, do I want to be right or do I want to solve the problem?
âBeing right would be to either call that person a racist or antisemite, or to ignore the person, or to call them an idiot, that youâre wrong, you donât know anything about nothing. Or am I trying to solve the problem genuinely?
âSo I typed to that person âI love you, brotherâ. Then weâre going back and forth, but Iâm always bringing it back to humanity. Iâm trying to solve the problem.
âAnd instead of looking at this person as a racist and antisemite, which heâs showing himself to be, I saw him as this person whoâs hurt, who believes a narrative, who thinks he understands something, he obviously doesnât know me, and thatâs what I saw now.
âSo I was able to not take it personally because I want to solve the problem. I donât care about being right. I donât care that he thinks Iâm this. Iâm trying to solve this.â
He added: âThat guy who called me a black monkey. He equated me being aligned with Israel as equal to hating Muslims.
âI know Jewish people for a fact do not hate Muslims. But this person believed that all Jews and all Israel, or anyone who stands for that, hates Muslims. Iâm like, brother, a Muslim sent me my first babka.
âA Muslim has created a lot of this, you know what Iâm saying? He was the one who sent me the babka.â
The guy eventually apologised for his âblack monkeyâ comment.
Chris has also received death threats because of his Israel content.
He joked: âHow you gonna hate me because Iâm eating the babka? Iâve never once come out and said Iâm pro-Israel or pro-Jewish. I said Iâm pro-humanity, which includes Israel.
âI donât think thatâs controversial. Iâm looking at a Jewish person, you got arms, you got a head, you got feet, youâre one of us. If the aliens come down, I donât care if youâre Jewish, Muslim, green, yellow, itâs us versus the aliens?
âLike I said, people coming at me crazy for eating the food, which is interesting, because whoeverâs throwing out that slur or that energy, Iâve probably done their culture too.â
Chris describes his job as to move âin a light, which is very Jewish! Very tikkun olam, from what Iâve been learning. And I feel like before I even knew what tikkun olam was, and before I even knew what being chosen people was, and before I knew any of the core premises of Judaism, I align with a lot of this stuff.â
Chris is hoping to spread his wings more. He is keen to âget my butt out to Europe, I know thereâs a lot of people telling me I need to go to Australia and Mexico City, where thereâs a big Jewish population.â
One of his favourite restaurants in Israel is called Pitmaster.
âI have learned that the Israeli community loves to dance,â he said. âPitmaster is an experience. Everyoneâs dancing. They stop between the meals and they dance and itâs like a vibe. They are gonna bring two more to the United States. And in America, youâre gonna have to make alcohol more of a thing, because these people werenât dancing because they were drunk, they were dancing because they were joyful. In the States, youâve got to get people drinking.â
He added: âSo when you ask me, am I aware of how what I do affects the Jewish community and the people of Israel specifically. I want to be clear and say Iâm not a Jewish content creator. I am not an Israeli content creator.
âIâm a humanitarian creator who happens to also include Jewish and Israel on the humanitarianism, and also, I just happen to be really cool with them like anyone else.â
In one of his newer videos, Chris talks about volunteering in Jerusalem with Colel Chabad.
âIt reminded me that sometimes the best part of travelling isnât just what you experience. Itâs what you can give back. If youâre visiting Israel, I genuinely recommend adding this to your itinerary.â
You can follow Chris on all social media platforms @chriscaresnone
WHEN social media influencer Chris Caresnone made his first trip to Israel just over a year ago, he knew very little about the country â including nothing about the events of October 7.
But he is a fast learner and has embraced all aspects of Israeli society, including Jewish, Muslim, Christian and Druze, on his quest for good food.
âAbout a year ago, I was invited by a group called Reality to go to Israel,â the Chicago-based food blogger told me. âA lady named Debra Feinberg reached out and was like, âChris, Iâve been following you for a while, and I think youâd be great for this organisation that gets people to Israelâ, because my Jewish audience was starting to grow.
âI was thinking that I need to get to Israel because it would be good for the energy, ethos, brand, and content.â
Chris, who has hundreds of thousands of followers across social media, continued: âIâll be honest, I had heard stuff about Israel and Palestine, but I was ignorant. I didnât know much about anything until I was in Israel. I was wet behind the ears. I didnât know about the bombs or October 7. All I knew was, Iâve got to get to Israel.â
Chris, whose real surname is Campbell, said the first thing that struck him about Israel was that it wasnât all Ashkenazim.
âWe ignorantly think that all the Jewish people on Earth are eastern European,â he told me.
âItâs not from a place of hate, just that we donât know. But then when I went to Israel, Iâm like, man, thereâs people my colour who are Jewish and Israeli.
âAs far as food, I would say excellent. It all felt fresh, even the fried food.â
Chris, who is known as the Babka King, was a little surprised about the lack of babka in Israel.
âThereâs some, donât get me wrong, but itâs not really Sephardic, Mizrahi,â he said.
There was another aspect of Israeli life which surprised him â the driving.
âItâs a little hectic,â he laughed. âI donât know if I want to drive over there. I personally thought the vibe of Israel was super cool, and I plan on going back as often as I can.â
Despite being a six-foot two-inch black man with a beard, Chris said he has never encountered any problems getting into Israel, apart from being stopped constantly by people who recognise him.
âThe reach is getting so big now, so many people notice me in the airport, and itâs not even just Israel, itâs back home too, New York, Chicago,â he smiled.
âI have to stop and take pictures every few minutes, so thatâs not really a problem, but itâs something thatâs a slight disruption.â
Although it was never his original intention, Chrisâ social media feed is now heavily Jewish, leading to many Jewish dinner invitations, including from rabbis for Friday night dinner.
âIâm kind of Jewish now,â he joked, âIâm embedded and I see whatâs going on, but my first time in Israel? I heard that this is apartheid, but I see all kinds of people there walking freely. Iâm a black America dude, clearly not Israeli, clearly not Jewish and not only do I walk perfectly fine, people come up to me and show me love.â
Chris, who says he grew up Christian but is not very religious, had his babka obsession started by a Muslim.
âAnd that turned into this movement, so to speak, of humanity, which I think is the most beautiful thing ever,â he explained.
âI started making culture content, showing love to different cultures. I did like 50 cultures. I didnât even make any Jewish or Israeli content for seven or eight months.
âI feel like I get so much love within the community, and Iâm just treating yâall normal like how I treat everyone else.
âI was told the way you have to look at it is, imagine if someone gives you a glass of water every single day.
âEventually, itâs just another glass of water. But imagine youâre walking through the desert for four months, and then someone gives you a glass of water, itâs a bigger deal. And itâs not because the glass of water is any different, itâs because the context of the situation.
âItâs so big and powerful, yet itâs a matter of just being human and showing humanity.
âAnd the whole food, the babka was really just lifeâs way of Hashem, the universe, God, whatever we wanna call it, it was the Trojan horse to get my energy amplified.
âItâs more than food. I donât feel like a food guy at all. I feel more like a bridge builder.â
During his trips to Israel, he has also spent time with Ethiopian and Druze communities.
He described Ethiopian food as âridiculously goodâ, adding: âI have tried other cultures that are mixed within Israel. Thatâs what makes Israelâs food scene so unique. Itâs almost like the opposite of what people are trying to say.â
The 42-year-old was raised around the North Shore of Chicago, which, he said, has one of the largest Jewish populations in America.
âI didnât really have a lot of Jewish cuisine outside of matzo ball soup,â he explained. âWhen I got a little older, I started working in restaurants in different areas, and sometimes affluent areas.
âI started trying things that I probably would not have tried had I not worked in a restaurant. So my horizons got expanded because of that.â
He said what he realised about kosher food was that the food was still good despite the restrictions (apart from gefilte fish, which he has never been fond of).
As expected, his videos from Israel, while garnering mainly positive comments, do receive a number of hateful comments.
He had changed his name to Caresnone to reflect the fact that he wasnât letting hate get to him, but it is a situation that has provoked a lot of thought.
âHereâs something Iâve been asking myself a lot recently,â he said. âAm I trying to be right or am I trying to solve the problem? I have learned that a lot of times I was trying to be right, not trying to generally solve the problem.
âOn my birthday, February 2, I went out with some people and I had a buddy bring a girl he had met like once or twice.
âHe should not have invited some girl he had just met to my intimate personal birthday dinner, but it is what it is. So weâre all sitting there at this restaurant and itâs a good 10 of us. We were talking about food and Iâm like one of my new favourite cuisines is Israeli food. Iâve been going to a lot of Israeli restaurants.
âAnd this girl whoâs sitting next to me, she goes, âoh, excuse me, what did you say?â
And Iâm like, âI like Israeli cuisine, itâs fire, I love itâ. And she says, âthereâs no such thing as Israeli cuisine, itâs all stolen, they steal everythingâ.
âShe invited this new energy when we were just talking about food.
âIâm with my buddy Kareem KWOE Wells, whoâs considered King of the Mitzvahs, a black Christian in Chicago whoâs known for doing the most epic and powerful mitzvahs in the country. Me and Kareem went at her. We werenât rude or ignorant, but I was starting to feel myself losing composure, because Iâm part of the humanity tribe, but Iâm also very entrenched in the Jewish community and Israel.
âThen she made a comment along the lines of âI should be able to say whatever I want to sayâ and then I matched her with that.
âIâm a pretty intimidating figure. And I looked at her, and Iâm like, âwell, I can say what I want to say, tooâ. I was giving her energy that wasnât welcoming. I didnât cuss her out or anything. And everyone else at the table thought I handled it well.
âBut I was trying to be right. I wasnât trying to solve the problem. So much so that she said, âmaybe I should get out of hereâ. And I looked at her and go, âyeah, maybe you shouldâ.â
He continued: âFast forward. Iâm on the way to Israel, on a 10-hour flight. I get a DM: âF*** Israel, f*** you, you black monkeyâ.
âI was immediately reminded of my birthday. I thought about that moment and I asked myself, do I want to be right or do I want to solve the problem?
âBeing right would be to either call that person a racist or antisemite, or to ignore the person, or to call them an idiot, that youâre wrong, you donât know anything about nothing. Or am I trying to solve the problem genuinely?
âSo I typed to that person âI love you, brotherâ. Then weâre going back and forth, but Iâm always bringing it back to humanity. Iâm trying to solve the problem.
âAnd instead of looking at this person as a racist and antisemite, which heâs showing himself to be, I saw him as this person whoâs hurt, who believes a narrative, who thinks he understands something, he obviously doesnât know me, and thatâs what I saw now.
âSo I was able to not take it personally because I want to solve the problem. I donât care about being right. I donât care that he thinks Iâm this. Iâm trying to solve this.â
He added: âThat guy who called me a black monkey. He equated me being aligned with Israel as equal to hating Muslims.
âI know Jewish people for a fact do not hate Muslims. But this person believed that all Jews and all Israel, or anyone who stands for that, hates Muslims. Iâm like, brother, a Muslim sent me my first babka.
âA Muslim has created a lot of this, you know what Iâm saying? He was the one who sent me the babka.â
The guy eventually apologised for his âblack monkeyâ comment.
Chris has also received death threats because of his Israel content.
He joked: âHow you gonna hate me because Iâm eating the babka? Iâve never once come out and said Iâm pro-Israel or pro-Jewish. I said Iâm pro-humanity, which includes Israel.
âI donât think thatâs controversial. Iâm looking at a Jewish person, you got arms, you got a head, you got feet, youâre one of us. If the aliens come down, I donât care if youâre Jewish, Muslim, green, yellow, itâs us versus the aliens?
âLike I said, people coming at me crazy for eating the food, which is interesting, because whoeverâs throwing out that slur or that energy, Iâve probably done their culture too.â
Chris describes his job as to move âin a light, which is very Jewish! Very tikkun olam, from what Iâve been learning. And I feel like before I even knew what tikkun olam was, and before I even knew what being chosen people was, and before I knew any of the core premises of Judaism, I align with a lot of this stuff.â
Chris is hoping to spread his wings more. He is keen to âget my butt out to Europe, I know thereâs a lot of people telling me I need to go to Australia and Mexico City, where thereâs a big Jewish population.â
One of his favourite restaurants in Israel is called Pitmaster.
âI have learned that the Israeli community loves to dance,â he said. âPitmaster is an experience. Everyoneâs dancing. They stop between the meals and they dance and itâs like a vibe. They are gonna bring two more to the United States. And in America, youâre gonna have to make alcohol more of a thing, because these people werenât dancing because they were drunk, they were dancing because they were joyful. In the States, youâve got to get people drinking.â
He added: âSo when you ask me, am I aware of how what I do affects the Jewish community and the people of Israel specifically. I want to be clear and say Iâm not a Jewish content creator. I am not an Israeli content creator.
âIâm a humanitarian creator who happens to also include Jewish and Israel on the humanitarianism, and also, I just happen to be really cool with them like anyone else.â
In one of his newer videos, Chris talks about volunteering in Jerusalem with Colel Chabad.
âIt reminded me that sometimes the best part of travelling isnât just what you experience. Itâs what you can give back. If youâre visiting Israel, I genuinely recommend adding this to your itinerary.â
You can follow Chris on all social media platforms @chriscaresnone
The fact that 150K Mainers enthusiastically voted for a man they knew had a Nazi tattoo should haunt them like the legacy of voting for Klansmen haunts the South. Maybe the crackers up in New England are overdue for some national shaming.
It wasnât long after Hamas carried out its attack on Israel in Oct 7, 2023, that Taryn Thomas found herself swept up in the chorus of pro-Palestine activists mobilising against the Jewish state.
Even before Israelâs ground invasion of Gaza following the Oct 7 massacre,âI was scrolling through social media, and I only saw support for Palestine,â she recalls. âPeople I know, whether it was activists or people I look up to, were already posting their thoughts.â
Then aged 19 and studying biomedical science at the elite Stanford University in northern California, Thomas, an African American, was first introduced to the anti-Israel movement at Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, where Palestinian flags were flown by some activists. âI never really understood why, but we were told that in order for us to be free, Palestine has to be free,â she says.
She subsequently helped lead large protests against Israel and, within two weeks of Oct 7 2023, had joined an encampment of activists on campus protesting against Israelâs invasion of Gaza. Like many others, she donned a keffiyeh, the headscarf worn to demonstrate solidarity with Palestinians. âI really loved it because of the sense of belonging and the sense of purpose,â she says of the encampment. âIt was like an instant community.â
Besides fellow students, Thomas was encouraged by âfaculty members like history professorsâ who âvalidated the movementâ. âIt seemed like everyone was a lot more educated than me and very certain and sure of themselves that this is a genocide,â says Thomas, who is now 21. âThe only safe position was the more radical one in the encampment.â
âI was confused by what our mission wasâ
Thomas grew up in Riverside County, one of the few Republican counties in the otherwise âvery liberal Californiaâ. That, together with racist abuse at school, influenced her political outlook. âI thought going further to the Left would be the solution to the extremism I was seeing from the Right,â she says.
Huge demonstrations took place at universities across the US in the months that followed Oct 7, with protesters confronting the educational institutions with their demands â including to divest from Israel and cut ties with counterpart Israeli institutions.
While the movement was largely peaceful, some demonstrations turned violent and led to clashes with police. âOne of our protests got out of hand, and that kind of made me take a step back,â says Thomas.
This was in June 2024, when several militant students broke into the office of Stanfordâs president, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage. âThey spray-painted disgusting things, such as âPigs taste best when deadâ, âDeath to Americaâ, âDeath to Israelâ, and âKill copsâ,â Thomas recalls.
âI was confused by what our mission was. At what point did the pro-Palestine movement turn into this anti-Israel, anti-America movement? We completely lost sight of the victims we were claiming to be supporting and fighting for.â
Yet those behind the vandalism âdoubled downâ, she says, and justified their actions, âeven though Jewish students said they felt unsafeâ. She explains: âThey felt like they couldnât go to their classes, they were getting harassed and doxxed [having personal information published online] and things like that. Essentially, we completely lost our minds.â
A drastic change of heart
Then, in October 2024, Thomas was one of many students who received an open invitation to the Nova Music Festival Exhibition in Los Angeles. Recently opened in London, the exhibition aims to recreate the festival site where 413 people were murdered by Hamas, and many more were injured or taken hostage.
Nova exhibition
The recently opened Nova exhibition in London commemorates the 413 young people murdered by Hamas at the festival Credit: Jeff Gilbert
âInitially, I laughed, thinking, âWhatâs this propaganda?ââ Something piqued her interest, however, so she decided to go. âIâd heard about the festival and was curious, but Iâd only really heard the reasoning, âWell, why would you have a festival next to a contested border? Essentially, they were asking for it.â
âI was hoping it was going to reaffirm my position, that I would find Zionist lies and whatever. I went with a very closed mind.â Three hours later, Thomas emerged feeling âso lostâ.
âI experienced a lot of cognitive dissonance â what I was seeing versus what Iâd been told. It was like I arrived a year too late to a funeral. I had so many questions, but I really had no one I could talk to about this. All of my friends were from the encampment. Iâd never met an Israeli or talked to them about their experiences â I was fluent in the stateâs sins, but I was illiterate in its people.â
Seeing pictures and footage of the young festival-goers hit home for Thomas. âThey were kids my age, just dancing, and then fleeing for their lives the next moment. I could see myself in them. I could have been sending a last âI love youâ message to my mum. I felt so much empathy and sadness.â
One element in particular changed everything â an audio clip of a jubilant Hamas fighter phoning his father to let him know heâd killed 10 Jews. âMy heart sank because these [were meant to be] our martyrs. [This was] the resistance we were claiming we wanted. When we called for any means necessary, I didnât realise thatâs what it meant.â
Months later, Thomas was invited on a trip to Israel organised by a group combatting anti-Semitism on campus. âI knew if I was going to continue to speak on this, I needed to see it for myself,â she says.
During the 10-day trip last March, she met with Israelis, Ethiopian Jews, Palestinians, Druze and Bedouin. âI was shocked at how much diversity I saw â I didnât even know Israel had black people,â she said.
On the fourth day, the group had to take cover during a missile attack. âOur guide told us to get on the ground, and I put my hands over my neck and prayed. âI thought about the irony of how Iâd called for the divestment of the very system I was praying for,â she says. âIt [the missile] didnât care about my politics or what I posted or any of that. I was a target, a body on the ground, and I felt utterly useless.â
Fortunately the missile was intercepted and the trip continued, but the experience left Thomas shaken. She says it made her realise âhow cushy and comfortable a lifeâ she had in America, and that sheâd not realised the âreal consequencesâ of what sheâd been calling for.
âIt felt like being stoned publiclyâ
Back home, she posted a picture of her trip online â a decision that cost her dearly. âMy best friend of three years asked, âIs this in Israel?â I said, âYeah, do you want to talk about it?â She immediately blocked me. I hadnât even expressed anything. I literally said I went. Period.â
Her post opened the floodgates. âI lost every single friendâ, while her classmates âposted really disgusting thingsâ, including labelling her a âgenocidal apologistâ. Thomas says she was doxxed, and received death threats and racist abuse â and that her family was also targeted. âIt was like a crusade and felt like being stoned publicly.â
She now takes a dim view of the encampment atmosphere. âIt completely insulates you in this echo chamber and indoctrinates you. If you had any questions, youâd lose your social belonging â the last thing you wanted to be called was a Zionist.â
She adds that the protestersâ âattention turned into this hatredâ and there were constant calls for the ânormalisation of violenceâ. Some activists, for example, celebrated the assassinations of Charlie Kirk, the Right-wing political activist, and Brian Thompson, the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, she says.
The mental toll had become so heavy on Thomas that she stepped away from her studies late last year. What helped get her through this tough period is the new friendships she has formed, including some with Jewish students.
âThey knew I came from the encampments and they engaged with me, intellectually argued with me, disagreed with me, but we still broke bread on Shabbat,â she says. âI learned from my [now] best friend that she was doxxed because of people within our movement. I know I have to repair some of those damages.â
âOpen your heart and put down those megaphonesâ
Thomas says her family are not politically engaged in the issue of Israel and Gaza and she has faced questions from her mother about her involvement. âShe was just like, âWhy are you doing this? It isnât your burden to shoulder.â She just wants her family to be safe and protected.â
But Thomas hopes that by sharing her story it will encourage others to experience the Nova exhibition. âI hope the people who are protesting will come â I just want them to go inside,â she says. âNone of this is political. Just look and learn the stories â you donât have to agree. Come in with an open heart and an open mind and put down those megaphones.â
As for Thomas, she hopes to return to university in September, but in the meantime, she is determined to do what she can to increase cross-community understanding. âA lot of us on the pro-Palestine side were recruited through empathy, so I think we can be reached through it too. Because of this unique perspective I have of what changed my heart, I think I can hopefully change other peopleâs.
âIâm not Jewish. Iâm an African American woman. But a lot of our struggles are parallel,â she says. âWeâre seeing an increase in anti-Semitism, weâre seeing an increase in extremism and political violence. Thereâs just no way that I can now sit back, kick my feet up and call it a day.â
Where's the "holocaust was about gay people first" when it comes to nazi tattoos? Fucking nowhere, because it was never about defending gays, it was about dehumanizing jews.
