I sometimes wonder how so many people believe that Israelis are brutal, murderous monsters, when any trip to Israel or the Palestinian Territories PROVES otherwise. Watch this and understand that the most horrific absurd lies are told over and over thru Arab media. Examples...
~Shimon Peres killed Egyptians with his bare hands, filled his ‘iron helmet’ with their blood, and saved it as a souvenir?
~David Ben Gurion gave the order to assassinate JFK?
~Ariel Sharon wore a necklace made of the limbs of Palestinian children?
Crazy! Wacko! But there’s more
Combine these wacko antisemitic conspiracy theories with a culture of deep misogyny and you get...
...the repeated claim that Tzipi Livni had sex with Arab leaders, taped it, used it to further Israeli policy, then confessed it all in a memoir.
But wait, yes, there’s even more!
A subset of the wacko antisemitic conspiracy genre is the theory that Israelis control nature and use animals as their secret agents. For example, Mossad trains ‘attack sharks,’ spy eagles, supernatural rats that attack only Arabs, as well as dolphins, vultures, lizards, etc...
Do people truly believe these hate-filled delusional lies, or are they more like racist tall-tales that people enjoy, but don’t really believe? And how much of this stuff can you hear, year after year, your whole life, without believing in it?
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Great article on The Roots of Progressive Radicalism by @jonkay. I'm especially intrigued by Musa Al-Gharbi's book on how the “woke” elite use the language of social justice to gain power and status—without helping the marginalized and disadvantaged.🧵 quillette.com/2024/06/25/the…
Al-Gharbi's thesis: Patterns of elite political radicalisation are recurrent in the West esp during times of underemployment among the well-educated. So they substitute what French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu called "symbolic capital" for the real capital they want but lack.
"Symbolic capitalists" find alternative means to advance their social standing, often by presenting themselves as vital (and even heroic) "allies." This works in college, but eventually they have to get real jobs and pay real bills. To resolve the resulting cognitive dissonance
The fanatical attachment of so many in the West to extremist Islam’s jihadi ideology, manifested as "Palestinianism," is one of the confounding dynamics of our age. Yet it is explained clearly by the philosopher Eric Hoffer in his 1951 book The True Believer.🧵
Hoffer posits that fanatical movements (religious, social, or national) arise when large numbers of people believe their own individual lives to be worthless - or worse. So they join movements demanding radical change. But the underlying psychological cause is very different.
The real attraction for this population is not the particular cause but an escape from the self:
“A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation." Genius.
The presidents of @RutgersU, @NorthwesternU & @UCLA are facing a Congressional hearing today regarding their ailure to respond to #antisemitism on campus. They are not acquitting themselves well. My personal dealings with Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway and his testimony: 🧵
@RutgersU Pres. Jonathan Holloway was asked "Do you think Israel's government is genocidal?"
His response "I don't have an opinion on that phrase."
Asked again, he responded "I believe Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself."
Asked again, "Do you think Israel's
government is genocidal?" Holloway again said "I believe Israel has a right to exist and to defend itself."
Either he is afraid to say Israel's government is genocidal or he is afraid to say Israel's government is NOT genocidal. He is afraid to answer directly at all.
Antisemites corrupt everyone. Salma Hamamy, pres of the main pro-Palestinian group at @UMich posted on social-media “Until my last breath I will utter death to every single individual who supports the Zionist state. Death and worse.” So how is such a student treated?🧵1/4
She's among @UMich most honored students.
~Recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Spirit Award for students “who best exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision" of MLK. No joke.
~ State, national and intl media quoted her warning @JoeBiden to change course, citing her as an example of the kind of progressives Democrats must placate.
~ The @nytimes profiled her and a pro-Israel activist in a story, presenting both as "searching for common humanity."
🧵in depth analysis of Gaza tunnels by chair of urban war studies at West Point. Summary:
• Hamas does not have military sites separate from civilian sites
• scope of tunnels far greater than was known
• Hamas strategy is political not military
Hamas has built a tunnel network to gain not just a military advantage, but a political advantage. Hamas weaved its vast tunnel networks into the society on the surface. Destroying the tunnels is virtually impossible without adversely impacting the population living in Gaza.
Hamas does not have military sites separate from civilian sites. Hamas’ strategy is not to hold terrain or defeat an attacking force. Its strategy is about time. It is about creating time for international pressure on Israel to stop its military operation to mount.
Israel journalist @Roi_Yanovsky just published an amazing piece in Hebrew about what Gaza is REALLY like, based on his personal observations there. Here is an English translation that you NEED to read🧵
100 reserve days officially ended yesterday. Some initial insights:
1. Gaza is seen as a backward area, the "most densely populated in the world" which has been under Israeli "siege" for years. There is no bigger lie than this. Gaza is a modern, beautiful, developed city, with large modern houses, wide boulevards, public spaces, a promenade
by the sea and parks. Looks much better than any other Arab city from the Jordan to the sea, much more similar to Tel Aviv than to Kfar Qasim or Umm Al Fahem. And of course it is very far from being "the densest in the world".