This blog stands against and rejects antisemitism in all of its insidious forms, stands with the Jewish people, and with the Jewish right to self determination in their ancestral homeland of Israel 🇮🇱
I second this entirely, and if I may piggyback off it for the purposes of my own blog, I personally feel the same way about Palestinians. I wholeheartedly support a 2-state solution that preserves the dignity and sovereignty of both Israelis and Palestinians. I will not call for the demolition of either country, and I work hard not to fall into age-old blood libels that have been repackaged and peddled by the overzealous or uneducated.
From what I have learned from Jewish and Israeli bloggers, educators, and citizens, in its truest form Zionism is the belief that Israel has the right to exist. Since I support a 2-state solution, I guess that makes me a Zionist. I don't believe Jews are superior. I don't believe the Israeli government is right about everything–far from it, in fact, a sentiment I'm pretty sure is shared by MANY Israelis–I just believe the country itself, one where all ethnicities and religions in its population have the same rights and are represented at almost every level of government, should be allowed to exist. I wish I didn't feel afraid to claim that label, since it has become so hated by so many of my fellow leftists and liberals.
Palestinians deserve better. Israelis and Jews deserve better. Neither people are their government or their leaders, and both have a right to peace, health, self-determination, and belonging. To my understanding, a 2-state solution with Hamas removed from power and more moderate government in Israel is the most viable path to this. The hostages must be returned. The fighting must stop. The dead must be laid to rest. The healing must begin.
Palestine has the right to exist and self-determine. So does Israel. So do all of us.
If you disagree with me on that, and plan to attack me for it, I invite you to unfollow me and take your energy elsewhere– hopefully inward, where it may help you grow, as all of us must.
it really doesn’t matter where someone is from, as we’ve seen/heard similar comments from people of varying races and nationalities all over the world - if someone’s reaction to meeting Jewish people is to say that “Hitler should have finished the job,” they shouldn’t pretend to be concerned about humanitarian issues anywhere. they are the Nazi. they are the one with genocidal desires. they might as well own it.
the thing about leftist antisemitism is, leftism has had a hatred problem at least as long as i've been alive to observe it. i am saying this as a socialist. the ideals of leftism have always called to me, but growing up i have always seen the cracks in leftist culture. and not just in terms of ingrained systemic antisemitism.
there is this kind of... sanctification of hatred, let's call it, so long as it's in the right direction. it seems to be counted as a mark of authenticity. it really, really depresses me that most people-- jew and goy alike, leftist and rightist alike-- don't seem to be able to be passionate about justice without hating certain people. call me a bleeding heart. i'm not saying we all have to be in some kind of inhuman state where we love everyone indiscriminately.
but what i notice about a lot of otherwise well-meaning leftists is that slowly the motivation can unconsciously shift from wanting to change the world for the better to wanting to experience the rush that comes with really indulging in hatred. for leftists hatred is supposed to be the ultimate taboo, but put it like this: most religions have a taboo against sexual freedom. and yet under a specific circumstance, marriage, this taboo is changed into something sacred and even necessary... as long as you're heterosexual and intending to have children, anyway. a married heterosexual couple physically capable of having children would be taken to task for refusing to have sex for procreation by certain traditionalists. a lot of us have probably seen that happen, even been at the receiving end of such admonitions.
so too with hatred in the mainstream left. there are specific circumstances where it is changed from something taboo to something sacred and required. and no, i am not talking about mere anger, i am talking about hatred. on this very blog i once saw someone venting that they felt like they felt like a bad leftist because they couldn't hate all cops because they relied on four of them to keep them safe on shabbat. they felt bad for not being able to hate. they felt like leftism required a certain purity of hate.
that is, in two words, fucked up. not that person, g-d forbid. but that they were made to feel that way. they didn't deserve it. and they're far from the only person forced into a situation like that.
one of many (many, many) hard things about being a jew is that even if we WERE totally uncaring about other people as antisemites claim and history repeatedly disproves, we would still have to fight hatred everywhere we see it because in the end all hatred leads to hatred of jews. a lot of us are feeling betrayed by the modern left, but we already knew these people were capable of intense hatred. it was just directed in ways we, too, thought were acceptable as leftists. we didn't think we'd be on the receiving end of that hatred just because we didn't deserve it. but hatred isn't about who deserves what.
fighting injustice without indulging in hated is actually kind of hard. nobody wants to tell someone else to dial back on the hatred when it's directed at a particularly odious source. hate can feel like such a relief, it can keep you going. it can feel holy. it can drive you to truly virtuous acts, it really can. but once someone is used to hatred, is used to feeling like it's a good thing, they'll get addicted to the feeling and stop questioning whether or not it's actually appropriate. they will hate more easily, more unthinkingly. the feeling becomes associated with virtue in itself. everything collapses from there.
Something I desperately need leftists online to understand is that when conservatives talk about "elites", they aren't talking about billionaires or politicians or CEOs or whatever. They are talking about Jews. When you try to connect with conservatives by complaining about how the "elites" are controlling and ruining society, you are talking about Jews. You may not realize that (or maybe you do, leftists are also antisemitic as fuck), but that is what the racist conservative you're talking to is hearing. It ends up being a conversation about how Jews control the world and are ruining our lives for their own benefit, an extremely common and dangerous antisemitic conspiracy theory, all without ever saying the word Jew.
Sometimes using conservative language to connect with people helps build bridges and foster more understanding between communities. Sometimes it just means that you're picking up dogwhistles that become a normalized part of your vocabulary and can help radicalize you to bigoted extremism through the people and conversations that those dogwhistles attract.
If you have posts on your blog about "Zionists" controlling the media and ruining people's careers for criticizing Israel, then this post is also about you. You are not immune to falling for antisemitic conspiracy theories just because they say "Zionists" instead of "Jews" or "elites."
I will never get over how fucking stupid and cruel such a huge number of people revealed themselves to be on 10/8/2023. Were they like that before and I never noticed? I don't know, but seeing people I formerly respected and even liked start bleating "rape is resistance" was sure... a thing.
We need to bully Tumblr users more. Yes radqueer with a German username, please enlighten us on “Jewish exceptionalism”. Calling things bad things “Spiritually Israeli” is racist because believe it or not, Israel didn’t invent everything wrong with the world. Saying this does not make me a Zionist, it makes me someone who is engaged with reality. I wouldn’t be surprised if OP was motivated to make this post because they saw anti-Zionist Jew say antisemitism exists or literally a Jew expressing pride in their identity and threw a tantrum about it.
In the summer of 1940, Paris fell under Nazi occupation. German soldiers marched through the boulevards, and swastika flags replaced the vibrant café illuminations that had defined the City of Light.
Yet, the beautiful Josephine Baker continued to captivate the French capital.
Born Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1906, she was an African American dancer and singer who had risen to stardom in Europe during the 1920s.
To the Nazis, she appeared as little more than an entertaining celebrity, fixated on glamour, performances, and luxury.
This was a grave error on their part.
Baker deeply opposed the Nazis’ ideology of racial superiority, brutality, and discrimination, views shaped by her own experiences of racism in the United States.
When France declared war on Germany in September 1939, she was recruited by the Deuxième Bureau, France’s military intelligence agency, as an “honourable correspondent”. She agreed without hesitation, driven by loyalty to the country that had embraced her.
As part of the French Resistance, Baker operated openly rather than in secrecy. She frequented high-society gatherings at embassies and salons, mingling with Italian diplomats, Japanese officials, and German officers.
These figures spoke candidly in her presence, sharing details of military strategies, troop positions, and alliances.
Baker committed this intelligence to memory, then relayed it to her contacts.
Smuggling the information posed significant risks, with borders tightly controlled and luggage routinely inspected. However, her status as an international star allowed her to travel extensively with trunks of costumes and stacks of sheet music.
She concealed sensitive data by writing it in invisible ink on her sheet music, which appeared innocuous to inspectors.
Her fame often spared her thorough searches; border guards frequently requested autographs instead. In this way, she transported crucial intelligence across Europe and into North Africa, where she also entertained Allied troops, sometimes performing atop military vehicles in the desert while clad in elegant attire.
During the war, Baker suffered a severe illness, likely peritonitis, which hospitalised her in Casablanca from 1941 to 1942. Even then, she persisted, using her recovery period to host Resistance meetings.
After the war’s conclusion in 1945, France recognised her contributions. She was awarded the Croix de Guerre and the Médaille de la Résistance, and General Charles de Gaulle named her a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur, the nation’s highest civilian honour.
Baker passed away on 12 April 1975, at the age of 68, following a cerebral haemorrhage. Her funeral at L’Église de la Madeleine in Paris drew over 20,000 mourners, and she received full French military honours, including a 21-gun salute.
She was the first American-born woman to be accorded such a tribute.
Josephine Baker’s story illustrates a profound truth: underestimation can prove to be a formidable adversary’s undoing.
the way The Jews™️ are apparently responsible for every death of a famous public figure that has ever happened in history is astonishing
this is what I mean when I say that it’s a modern manifestation of deicide. whether they’re talking about JFK or Princess Diana or MJ or John Lennon or whomever else has gotten posthumously pulled into this whirlpool (there are a lot), it all boils down to the same thing underneath. the famous person becomes symbolically elevated and granted extraordinary goodness and powers of insight - they’re ascribed special knowledge (you might even call it a type of gospel) about the evil of the world, and when they threatened the status quo and were going to reveal the truth, the (((cabal))) (whether this is named as “Jews,” or coded as “Zionists”) took them out. they become anointed, and granted immunity from concrete reality in favor of perceived martyrdom.
it’s a comforting, seductive lie because it reinforces something so old that most people don’t even know how to recognize it.
It's also fascinating (and terrifying) how deep these conspiracy theories can suck people in before the antisemitism comes out.
It starts with "I don't believe the official narrative, there might be something else going on." Hey, skepticism regarding governments is not unreasonable.
Then we move to, "There MUST be something else going on." OK, now we're drifting away from reality.
"The lack of evidence is proof that the coverup is massive."
"Somebody must be coordinating all of it!"
And only then, when the conspiracist is so far from consensus reality that he can barely function in non-conspiracist communities, only then does he realize who (((they))) are.
Then two thousand years of cultural conditioning pop out. Of course! That explains everything!
so this phenomenon of lunacy has been gaining popularity online all year (around John and the other famous figures I mentioned above, though with the most traction and fervent belief centered on Michael Jackson, where as recently as yesterday I saw podcast interview clips with Paris, his Jewish daughter, getting horrible antisemitism in the comments), and what it essentially does is cast the featured person as a savior who was (((silenced))). they think they were going to reveal to the world the truth™️ about the (((cabal))) controlling us all, murdering and preying upon children, stealing other nations, subverting democracy, etc.
because the exalted person traveled in (((elite))) circles, the idea is that they uncovered privileged information and were trying desperately to expose it all, and thus they had to be eliminated. it’s not really about what they feasibly would have “done,” it’s about the conspiracy itself, which is self-sustaining. people find their own clues and use it as “evidence.” they use the deaths of notable figures to bolster the narrative they already believe.
the real circumstances or perpetrators get dismissed or defined as patsies working for the real villains (who are Jews). it doesn’t have to make sense, it just has to strengthen their built-in ideology.
I’ve talked about this a lot, but it’s why I’d define this as modern day deicide. the person being defined as illuminated and ready to take the the evil cabal out is killed for desiring to speak the truth and serve the real good of humanity. (John and Michael both get compared to Jesus, star seeds/star children, and other mystical descriptors often). they’re no longer mere mortals who happened to possess great talent or fame - they become a martyr, sacrificed for the whims of “Zionist” power. the belief itself bolsters their surety and their attachment to the person who is no longer here to refute their claims, or to speak about anything at all. they project what they want onto them. the hypothetical, the belief, is paramount. it’s all in the imagination of what they could have done, how the world would be so much better if only they had done this unknowable, nebulous reveal, which of course is preposterous if you possess any logic whatsoever, but logic isn’t necessary for the structure of antisemitic conspiracies, and it never has been. that can shift and morph to fit any line of thought, and people will wholeheartedly embrace it because it’s comforting.
it’s reassuring to think that one group has ultimate control and responsibility, and that you, the observer, the one “noticing,” are not a part of it. it’s comforting to believe that acts of violence or medical malpractice or struggles with addiction or random accident don’t just happen to notable figures, that a sinister plot is responsible for taking their lives. it absolves all mistakes, all responsibility, all liability, polishes the legacy and memory being held, and provides a sense of safety and righteousness, along with perpetuating suspicion and bigotry - like: “if (((they))) could get to this remarkable person, can (((they))) get to you too? but you have the “truth” and actual goodness on your side, so at least you can go to sleep at night knowing you’re a part of humanity, unlike those subhuman killers puppeteering us.”
My entire world collapsed when I publicly spoke against Hamas' terrorism on October 7. My Egyptian, Arab, and Muslim people, who are so blinded by Jew-hatred and so proud of supporting Hamas terrorism, tried to kill or imprison me for doing so. But my Jewish friends miraculously saved me.
Every single day since then, God shows me that I made the right decision.
Many thanks to @TsipiBen and @Or_Shaked for this great profile in the @IsraelHayomEng newspaper.
A petition is making the rounds demanding Israel release Marwan Barghouti, former head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and the signatures keep coming: Benedict Cumberbatch, Cate Blanchett, Mark Ruffalo, Don Cheadle, Ian McKellen, Tilda Swinton, Sting, Annie Lennox, Richard Branson, Margaret Atwood, Javier Bardem, Gary Lineker.
None of them mention what he was convicted of. I do, in the video.
I’ve spent years calling out Ben Gvir and Smotrich for their hateful rhetoric. I don’t give my own side a discount, so I’m not giving one to a man convicted of five murders, including at a bat mitzvah.
“But he’s the only alternative to Hamas,” a movement offering a choice between a mass murderer and a murderer of five is telling you something. So is every celebrity who signed without reading the verdict.
I’m just so sick of these people.
the argument about the Jewish roots of superheroes and comic books doesn’t even matter anymore except as insult to injury. they don’t care about that, and perhaps they’re not obligated to, but they should be responsible and informed when utilizing their platforms and wealth.
if someone puts a petition in front of you to sign, do your research and due diligence before putting your name on it. either they’re incapable of reading for five minutes, or they tacitly agree with murdering Israeli civilians. the choices are ignorance or malice.
They should have to answer at least one question: which of these five life sentences do they believe he should no longer have to serve?
The “Palestinian Nelson Mandela” (Associated Press). A “political prisoner” (Times of London). The man most likely to serve “as a credible n
ccfpeace:
Several Hollywood stars, including Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Ruffalo, Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchett, and Tilda Swinton, have joined a campaign calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a convicted Palestinian terrorist serving multiple life sentences in Israel.
Barghouti was a senior Fatah leader linked to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, the terrorist organization responsible for numerous suicide bombings and shooting attacks during the Second Intifada.
Hollywood is being irresponsible and are turning a convicted terrorist into a human rights icon while erasing the victims of the attacks that led to his imprisonment.
More than 20 stars from Marvel's cinematic film productions have signed a petition calling on the UN and world governments to work toward the release of Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti.
Among the stars are Hollywood actors Cate Blanchett ("Thor: Ragnarok"), Benedict Cumberbatch ("Dr. Strange"), Don Cheadle ("Iron Man"), and Mark Ruffalo ("Spider-Man: Brand New Day," "The Hulk"), who have joined a list of roughly 200 artists supporting the campaign to free the convicted murderer held in an Israeli prison, an initiative founded by his family.
67-year-old Barghouti, perceived by some, including in Hollywood, as "Palestinian Mandela," was convicted by Israel of terrorist organization membership and dozens of murder counts for ordering deadly attacks, with courts convicting him of five charges in 2004 and imposing five life sentences plus 40 years for his involvement in the Fatah terrorist organization.
The court found Barghouti accountable for a June 2001 attack in Ma'ale Adumim that resulted in the death of Greek monk Tsibouktsakis Germanus, a January 2002 kidnapping and murder of American citizen Yoela Hen, a March 2002 attack at Tel Aviv's Seafood Market restaurant that killed three individuals, Eli Dahan, Yosef Habi, and Salim Barakat, and a car bombing in Jerusalem.
In their statement, the Marvel actors wrote that they are calling for Barghouti's release out of concern for "violent mistreatment and denial of legal rights while imprisoned."
This statement comes after Ruffalo, known for his anti-Israel views, sharply attacked Paramount over the company's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.
The 58-year-old Oscar-nominated actor posted on Instagram that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is bankrolling his son David Ellison's bid to acquire Warner Bros, and in the same post, tied that funding directly to Oracle's military technology contracts with Israel.
Ruffalo posted a years-old clip of an Oracle executive addressing technology the company supplied to the Israeli military. The actor has been a vocal critic both of Paramount's pending Warner Bros takeover and of Israel's Gaza war against Hamas, launched after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre.
"These 'really profoundly scary technologies' will most likely be merged into one of the largest media conglomerates in the world and one day used on you," he wrote. "Look how she revels in what we now have come to see as a genocide, which was built on an apartheid system of oppression powered by Oracle."
Ruffalo’s use of "genocide" and "apartheid" to characterize the corporate transaction drew a sharp rebuke from Paramount, which said the words amounted to antisemitism and insisted it tolerates no form of prejudice.
"We are, as always, troubled when antisemitic tropes are invoked in purported service of a business dispute," Paramount said in a statement. "Words like 'genocide' and 'apartheid,' applied to a corporate transaction, aren't just wrong—they're a bridge too far, and they cheapen the very real suffering those words are meant to describe."
Ruffalo dismissed the antisemitism charge as "appalling and fundamentally dishonest.
I said this the last time this same group pushed this petition: allegations of mistreatment and human rights violations in prison are serious and should be addressed. that does not, however mean that a convicted murderer and terrorist should be released, and it doesn’t justify erasing his crimes and the lives of his victims.
The Nation of Islam has spent 30+ years pushing the claim that Jews ran the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Historians debunked it so completely that the American Historical Association passed a formal resolution against it in 1995.
What’s telling is what the Nation of Islam leaves out. The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade ran roughly 1,300 years — about 1,000 years longer than the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade.
The Arab region still has the highest per-capita rate of modern slaves on earth: roughly 1.7 million people, largely under the Kafala system. If the concern was truly African enslavement, that would be the story.
