Check out the article below. It outlines few current issues Jews face, when #IHRA definition of antisemitism, the most profound one, is applied. Critics bring straw arguments like “it doesn’t allow to criticize Israel without being called antisemitic” which is simply not true. 1/
Jews are told they cannot define hate against them, because, you know, modern activists claim modern Jews do not have any empirical experience in surviving antisemitism, xenophobia, or racism since those are matters of the past and today Jews live privileged lives. Ridiculous? 2/
Yes, it is. The other reason why we cannot define the hate against us, because Israel is considered a huge obstacle to Jewish oppression. It simply doesn’t allow Jews to be oppressed as they used to be before in MENA, Europe, USSR, Africa & Asia. So Jews were reappointed to be 3/
oppressors. We are constantly told there is no huge danger to Jews as it used to be (statistics say otherwise). Additionally we are told more and more that only danger antisemitism has, is coming strictly from white supremacists and extreme right wing activists (Neo-Nazis). 4/
Jews are also reassigned in a different coordinate system that is unique to USA: white/non white binary choice is suddenly applied to Jews who never lived in USA or even stepped foot on its soil - Jews from Europe or USSR are suddenly reassigned the role of “white” which means 5/
American societal rules somehow should be applied to all Jews globally, including those across the ocean. I see it more and more among young activists, including also Jews. They feel entitled to define how other Jews shall live and how they should be treated. Amazing audacity. 6/
I also reject the notion that American Jews should be somehow put in simplistic boxes of “privileged/not privileged” in USA, primarily because each and every Jew in USA has own history of arrival, struggles, antisemitism, racism and hatred, even if they are what those college 7/
activists call “white passing”. Do people have privileges in USA? Privilege isn’t a static phenomenon, it’s quite dynamic. The same person can have privilege in some matters and no privileges in others. Within one day person can get it on both ends. Brushing Jews as people who 8/
live with flying colors in USA without fear of bullying, hatred, attacks and hate crimes is distortion of the reality. Not once or twice I heard stories Jews had to hide their Jewishness and not only from right wing bigots, but also from left wing progressives. Does it sound 9/
like a story of privilege? Few success stories like Jews who started large companies, succeeded in business, movie industry or politics are not an indicator of the community in whole. USA has millions of Jews and super successful make only a tiny fraction of our population. 10/
Anyway, back to dangers of antisemitism of white supremacists vs left wing antisemitism. While former pose a great danger, they are definitely not the only one who does it. Antisemitism is completely normalized under the guise of antizionism in Academia among professors and 11/
students, among activists (examples are too numerical here), journalists (Twitter is swamped with it) and now politicians (sadly, the UK and US are showing us a negative trend). I am a Soviet Jew. I know what antizionism did to my grandparents, parents and in part to my life. 12/
Learning history of USSR, its law and state system as my university degree I had to learn a lot about things the country did, and even though I and my family experienced the magnitude of antizionism firsthand, even I couldn’t comprehend the scale of hateful politics that USSR 13/
was applying to Jews - basically USSR broadcasted a new form of institutional racism and placed it into minds of radical activists all over the world. Modern antizionists are neither unique nor modern. We saw that in 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s. USSR was exporting the same 14/
very ideas which perpetuated hate against Jews, took many lives and put even more lives of Jews in diaspora in danger. Jews who chose to be antizionist today are either ignorant of the history that Soviet Jews have already learned the hard way, or willfully vile and selective 15/
in what they want antizionism (and Zionism) to mean. Either way, if you are an antizionist, no wonder Zionist Jews oppose you. Those who came before modern antizionists sided with those who were oppressing us, who wanted all Jews in Israel dead (but dead under a progressive 16/
label, to sweeten the end). Supporting antizionism is supporting a process of normalizing antisemitism. What pains me more is to see a number of Jews here who willfully joined antizionism. As popular phrase goes: they are trying to feed a crocodile in a hope to be eaten last. 17/
So, if you are an antizionist Jew who thinks you are leading a cool brand new youth movement that never happened before, and you will be liked and lauded by non-Jewish antizionists forever... look at these 3 faces. Then google Yefim Tsetlin, Oscar Ryvkin and Lazar Shatskin. 18/18
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A Soviet and Russian’s most famous satirist and performer of Jewish origin has died today in Moscow. Mikhail Zhvanetsky (86) was known in Russia for his sharp aphorisms and satire always directed at powerful ones.
21 notable aphorisms down below:
1. We are smarter than those we choose. 2. Human life is a moment, but how many troubles. 3. If you argue with an idiot, then he probably does the same. 4. Alcohol in small doses is harmless in any quantities. 5. The history of Russia is a struggle between ignorance and injustice
6. An optimist believes that we live in the best of all worlds. The pessimist is afraid that it is so. 7. You want everything at once, but you get nothing and gradually. 8. Wisdom does not always come with age. It happens that age comes alone. 9. Born to crawl - crawl everywhere.
Amazingly crazy developing story of how you will be attacked by a extreme pro-Palestinian activists if you step one millimeter away from their worldview. You can start it by yourself from this tweet, or I will share screenshots of how it went to get to this in a thread below. 1/
Basically, it shows why there is a fallacy in logic (namely, an argument to moderation) of those who say, that Israel and Jews can negotiate with organizations and/or people who support the BDS. It is practically impossible and let me explain you why. If one supports BDS, one 2/
basically calls Jewish right to exist in MENA in question, and there is no middle ground to it. You cannot negotiate with extremists on peace. You cannot meet them half way here: like part of Jews will be exterminated, part expelled or may stay as minority. It’s genocidal view 3/
Lately everyone is talking about #JewishPrivilege and how “white Ashkenazi Jews” benefited from such privilege. I have decided to take a step back and to look closely at those “white Ashkenazi Jews”. Since majority of Jews who are talking about such privilege are US Jews, 1/
I want to share with them something, that they may not know about their own ancestors. Of course you all heard about numerous atrocities that Jews had to endure throughout centuries, inquisition, expulsions, genocides, raping, libels and many others. You name it. 2/
Then we had the Holocaust and actrocities that are unparalleled. But what if I tell you there was a gigantic industry of oppression that specifically abused Jews and Jewish children 1 century before it? Sounds weird, how can we not know about it, right? Something that killed 3/
My #JewishPrivilege... oh, where do I begin? It’s a history of a Pale of Settlement privilege.
1) Members of my family (some will never get their names back) were killed in pogrom in Malin in April 1919. All my grandpa remembers is that his great-grandparents were killed in it.
Who else? He doesn’t know. His parents remember, but we will get to their privilege later. My grandma vaguely remembered her relatives were killed in another pogrom in Proskurov in 1919. But who, how, when, and where they were buried? We don’t know already.
2) Another chapter of privilege was famine in USSR known as Holodomor. My grandfather had 2 younger brothers. His first brother named Jan (but family called hin Janek) died of malnutrition in 1933. Grandpa and his other brother managed to survive, eating anything they could find.
Director of Information and Press Department of Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova on her press conference 2 days ago about #MH17 (airplane, downed by proRussian militia with a help of Russian Buk) has mentioned a new book, written about this tragedy in Malaysia.
Zakharova has also mentioned that “Russian experts contributed in making it”. So another Russian researcher Vadim Lukashevich managed to find this book to find out which version was used there. And he was in total awe. Please look at the very bottom of it. [next tweet]
It says “Angkara Yahudi Dajjal Illuminati” which means “Jewish crimes of Antichirist’s Illiminati”. I mean who is surprised that Jews are blamed for this as well? We get everything. Fabulous. Now we just need to find out how Russian experts exactly contributed. Any ideas? 😳😳😳
I want to make a short thread on a story that shows how Jews were degraded and made inferior to Muslims after the conquest of MENA by Islamic conquerors. It’s a story of Keffiyehs.
You will tell me: but wait, Michael, aren’t keffiyehs Arabic garments worn by them as part of their national attire? There is also one named Palestinian keffiyeh and popularized by Yassir Arafat. That is correct. And yet its origin is not that straightforward.
Why it became official garment of Arab people and through them of all Muslims? Because Hadiths made turban (& keffiyeh as its variation) a crown of Muslims. The Hadiths were written around early/mid 8 century after Muhammad. In coins minted earlier Muslim rulers didn’t wear them.