AuDHD (with a fuckton of the H). also mentally ill so heads up.
genderfluid. women enjoyer.
Israeli secular Jew. pro-peace. if you expect me (or anyone) to prove myself as one of the Good Jewsâ˘, you can kindly fuck off my blog. am I a Zionist? depends on your definition (I'm in favor of a two state solution or whichever other solution in which everyone's humanity is respected and I believe in Jewish indigeneity to the Levant).
my g/t sideblog is @littlesbitty
shoutout to @transcaptainleviathan for the pfpâźď¸
again i'm telling y'all however bad gen z is rn gen alpha is going to be worse because they are impressionable children being raised on internet memes and internet memes currently are "israel is a fascist dictatorship full of cartoonishly and mindlessly evil people trying to take over the world. saying this is funny."
it astounds me that some of us are still trying to pass this off as just a "phase" the world is having. like y'all said it'd pass with the ceasefire but it sure didn't did it? it arguably only got worse once iran came into the picture, and don't you dare tell me that was just the internet either. what we're seeing is more akin to the post-WWI european rise in antisemitism rather than some stupid trend. we're at an average of at least one antisemitic incident per week at this point, not to mention all the minor aggressions in an individual jew's day-to-day life. don't you dare tell me i'm being paranoid you know it's true. in the coming years this is only going to snowball into something far worse and we'll be seeing major antisemitic societal changes. a lot of jews are going to have to make aliyah but we've seen how people like mamdani can get into major positions of power and immediately use said power to pass antisemitic reforms, i won't be surprised if aliyah will be limited as well as other anti-jewish laws being passed. don't you dare fucking tell me i'm just spiraling again because you know it's true. sure israel can defend itself against actual physical threats but in regards to prejudice the situation could not be more fucking bleak. it's only going to get worse. don't get your hopes up.
it astounds me that some of us are still trying to pass this off as just a "phase" the world is having. like y'all said it'd pass with the ceasefire but it sure didn't did it? it arguably only got worse once iran came into the picture, and don't you dare tell me that was just the internet either. what we're seeing is more akin to the post-WWI european rise in antisemitism rather than some stupid trend. we're at an average of at least one antisemitic incident per week at this point, not to mention all the minor aggressions in an individual jew's day-to-day life. don't you dare tell me i'm being paranoid you know it's true. in the coming years this is only going to snowball into something far worse and we'll be seeing major antisemitic societal changes. a lot of jews are going to have to make aliyah but we've seen how people like mamdani can get into major positions of power and immediately use said power to pass antisemitic reforms, i won't be surprised if aliyah will be limited as well as other anti-jewish laws being passed. don't you dare fucking tell me i'm just spiraling again because you know it's true. sure israel can defend itself against actual physical threats but in regards to prejudice the situation could not be more fucking bleak. it's only going to get worse. don't get your hopes up.
again i'm telling y'all however bad gen z is rn gen alpha is going to be worse because they are impressionable children being raised on internet memes and internet memes currently are "israel is a fascist dictatorship full of cartoonishly and mindlessly evil people trying to take over the world. saying this is funny."
I donât have the fortitude to check out the comments today, but the post is here.
Eliya Cohen thought his girlfriend, Ziv Abud, was dead when he was kidnapped at the Nova festival. Now they are looking forward to getting m
Eliya
I met Ziv in 2011 while growing up near Tel Aviv. We were both 14 and I saw her crying because her boyfriend had left her. Trying to help, I said, âDonât cry. You are young, pretty and you will have a good life ahead of you.â She eventually messaged me on Instagram and we started hanging out together. I learnt quickly that she has the most beautiful soul and her love for me was like nothing I had ever experienced. Later we moved in together and we were together every day until October 7, 2023.
Part of my job was organising festivals and we spent many weekends with our friends, listening to music, drinking and having fun. The Nova festival, held in the Negev desert in southern Israel, was something we were all looking forward to. Even after we saw the missiles in the sky that day, we thought, âAh, this is Israel. It is a normal day.â So we carried on dancing. It was only when I got a call from my aunt, who was also at the festival, that we realised something was not right. She was screaming, saying that someone in her car had been shot. I said to Ziv, âWe should get out of here.â
We drove with Zivâs nephew and his girlfriend, heading for the main road, but there was a police roadblock. We turned the car around and drove maybe five minutes until we saw a bomb shelter â a common sight near the border. More people joined us in the shelter, but we were all talking and joking. Although it was scary, we had seen it before.
Then suddenly the terrorists were outside the shelter and they were going to kill us. A grenade rolled into the shelter and exploded. Another grenade and we are fighting, picking up the grenades and throwing them out of the door. It was like this for 40 minutes until the terrorists fired a rocket-propelled grenade.
I donât know how, but my mind was still working. Ziv fainted and I knew the only chance to save her was to bury her underneath the dead bodies. Two of those bodies were her nephew and his girlfriend.
The bullets were still coming into the shelter and I was shot in the leg, but then I was dragged out and loaded onto a truck. The last thing I saw was a terrorist pointing his gun into the shelter and firing a hundred bullets. I was sure Ziv was dead.
I was driven to Gaza and thousands of people were on the streets celebrating. I was more scared of these people than I was of the terrorists. The terrorists wanted to keep me alive, a hostage for negotiation. Those ordinary people wanted to kill me. They wanted the respect that would come from killing a Jew.
I was held for 505 days. In the tunnels was the worst â no light, no sleep, beatings, being stripped naked so they could laugh at us, no food, no water. There was a wonderful day when we realised we were so far underground that there was damp on the walls. We would lick the walls. At least we had a drop of water. I put my trust in God. I knew they would not break me.
The days blurred into one, but when we heard a rumour that Donald Trump had been elected it made my group of four hostages very excited. Two weeks later our captors told us three of us would be released. Just three, not four. I was lucky enough to be one of them but knowing one of us was still in captivity filled me with guilt. Alon Ohel was freed eight months later.
Then I saw my family. And Ziv. She was alive. It wasnât real, but it was. Of course then I found out what had been happening in the world. The marches celebrating the murders and rapes, babies being slaughtered. The only reason people can mock is because we are Jewish. If it happened to other people they wouldnât.
Even after I was released I didnât allow myself to continue with life. How could I see a doctor or start my therapy when the other hostages werenât free? The 20 remaining living hostages were released last October.
It has taken a long time but Ziv and I now try to think about the future. I bought an engagement ring before October 7 and have now had the chance to propose. We will marry this summer and build a family with many children in Israel, in the land where they tried to kill us. For me, thatâs the biggest victory of all.
Ziv
The bomb shelter we were in on that day in 2023 â on Route 232 near the Kibbutz Reâim â is now known as the shelter of death. The first grenade exploded and the sound, the smell, the dead bodies⌠not even bodies, arms and legs and blood. I was scared like I have never been scared before. I peed myself three or four times.
The last thing I remember is holding Eliyaâs hand and him covering me with dead bodies. I think I heard him scream, saying heâd been shot. Then one of the terrorists began shooting into the shelter â a machinegun. So many bullets. I could feel them hitting the bodies on top of me â thum-thum-thum â making the bodies shudder and move. And then nothing.
I woke up at 11am and the attack had started at eight. There was me and six other survivors in the shelter, and we had no idea what was going to happen. Would the terrorists come back? We sat with our dead friends for seven hours until we were rescued and taken to a hospital. I tried to call my sisters and they said they had seen a picture of Eliya. I thought they were lying, trying to make me happy, but then I saw the picture on the news. He was alive but he was in Gaza â a hostage.
I cried myself to sleep every night but each morning I would tell myself that I would make sure Eliya came home. I was part of the delegations travelling around the world, telling people about October 7. When he was finally released and I saw him again, after 16 months, he was so thin, my Eliya, and like a ghost.
When I was a child I heard people talk about the Holocaust and how much people hated Jews, but I thought that people had changed. Then I saw marches all over Europe, defending what had happened. People would stop me in the street and say Hamas is not a terrorist group, they are fighting for human rights.
Of the people who were murdered, we knew 48 of them. [Official figures put the death toll of the October 7 attacks at 1,200.] My nephew and his girlfriend are gone. I suffer from PTSD and still have nightmares. When I tried on my wedding dress, there was nothing, no happy tears. October 7 changed us, it changed everything, but we have hope. Our wedding is going to be our moment. It is our present from God.
The Nova Exhibition London is open in Shoreditch until July 5. Tickets and information at novaexhibition.com. Proceeds will go towards supporting Nova Music Festival survivors and bereaved families
What I think a lot of people don't grasp is that much of the Jewish community, perhaps even the vast majority, would rather it be democrats who support Israel. However, on account of us *not* controlling the government, we are stuck with most of our support coming from the questionably motivated GOP. We aren't like, happy about this.
They revel in their hatred. You can see by OP in this thread in their response to me.
They don't care about peace, they don't care about stability, they don't even care about the civilians caught in the middle. They only care about who they get to hate with impugnity.
This example in particular has been sticking with me.
"Maybe if you wanted peace", not even pretending anymore that peace is a desired goal.
I mean, the rest of it is nonsense rewriting of history, but "maybe if you wanted peace" sticks with me.
Maybe if "you", 'you' here positioning anyone who doesn't participate in OP's bigotry as an outsider and on the 'wrong side' according to them.
"Wanted peace", 'wanted', as though peace is no longer possible or desirable as an outcome instead of best for everyone.
That alongside the absolute refusal to view Israelis as people and humans instead of The Enemy is worrisome to a great degree. You can see from the tags the refusal to even contemplate Israelis as people that could possibly be discriminated against or undeserving of harm.
I can't help but see shades of Rwanda in the set up of how Israel/Palestine is talked about and concieved of these days. And that worries me just as much as anything else.
i think that when people call israeli bomb shelters âbunkersâ itâs intentionally to conjure up associations of âwealthy privileged people being cowardly and hiding from the consequences of their harming The Peopleâ (bc that is what they believe) instead of âcivilians taking shelter from warâ
but theyâll call them bomb shelters again when itâs time to spin a different narrative. for example, âthe israelis arenât letting indian migrant workers into bomb shelters, so theyâre sleeping in the train station!! theyâre all white supremacists/jewish supremacists!!â
when, actually:
- anyone is allowed in any public bomb shelter
- the train stations are bomb shelters
- lots of white jewish israelis were sleeping there too
and similarly, i think a lot of people look at october 7th as basically fyre festival (a group of wealthy privileged people getting their just desserts)
Can we talk about the lack of critical thought in these claims?
You have 15-90 seconds to make it to a bomb shelter once you receive an alert. Some people run there in nothing but a towel because they were in the middle of a shower.
What are the logistics of banning certain people? Is there an Israeli bouncer?
Are they at the door like
Bitch please.
What about the vast majority of Jews being Mizrahi (as in, their families have never set foot outside the Middle East?) Do they check IDs on people who are too brown for their liking?
What an amazing feat to filter out hundreds of people in 15-90 seconds!
And they complain about 50K+ Palestinians killed in Israeli strikes, yet never point out that Hamas wonât let civilians into shelters? Theyâd rather complain that *checks notes* Israel does?
It reminds me also of the claims that Israel has a space laser that vaporizes entire human bodies, but that Israel also harvests human organs from killed Palestinians.
So the magical space laser vaporizes everything, but leaves the organs intact?
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
sure are a lot of people who can't bear to ally with a ~zionist~ on actual progressive activism but are willing to ally with an actual white supremacist for a symbolic vote
it's genuinely insane to me. 95% of zionists I know online and irl are the most progressive people I know - in full support of social justice policies, LGBTQIA+ rights, equity and inclusion, cultural freedom and expression, free speech, you name it. and yet we are the ones shunned and targeted by the left, while they gleefully ally with groups that are anti-LGBT, racist, sexist, pro-slavery, etc. it's the biggest con ever accomplished - convincing queers that Israel, the safest place in the Middle East to be queer, is the most evil place in the world, and that queers should have solidarity with Palestinians because their "struggle" is the "same" (which is RIDICULOUS; I'm queer and at this point i think a lot of other queers in the pro-Pal movement just enjoy feeling like victims of the world). and when they're confronted on the homophobia and gay-killings of Hamas and the Arab world in general, they don't care. they just don't care. they truly believe in cultural relativism, or more ludicrously, if Palestine is liberated/destroys Israel that queer culture will finally thrive. they will stand shoulder to shoulder with David Duke and the KKK because Duke hates "zios". i feel like I'm going INSANE.
itâs so weird looking at any media from the 70s-90s. television shows mentioned Israel positively. so and so celebrities went on vacation there. books were set there. oh look, musicians took their tours there! itâs like another world. there was casual Jewish representation and even sometimes Israeli characters. all of this is impossible now. it gets you cancelled as an evil Zio or Zionist sympathizer. Jewish and Israeli authors canât get published. Jewish actors canât mention their heritage, unless itâs to disavow it, and Israelis arenât hired at all. musicians take their music away from Israel. I canât stand it. this is progress? the goyische world hates us so much, they were just waiting for the excuse to cast us out again.
I'm scared about the Israeli elections in october. I have no control as a diaspora jew but whatever happens, it affects me. I feel like I am preparing to have a statement ready so that people don't take their antizionist anger out on me, but whatever I say won't matter anyway. I have zero control.
