1/ A thread on Israel/Gaza, from the perspective of an Anti-Zionist Jew. And no, that doesn’t mean self-hating. Self-hate is what shandas like Alan Dershowitz are guilty of, being such cheap dates they’ll sell out their values for an embassy switch to Jerusalem. Please read on...
2/ To defend Israel's latest actions you must do better than 'Hamas is bad.' First, the moral propriety of one side's actions can't be determined by the actions of another, esp. when the actions of the 1st are harming persons who are not to blame for the actions of the second...
3/ By the standard being argued here, the Nazis could have said "Stalin is bad," and thus "we must kill all the communists"...likewise, Stalin could say, "Nazis are bad" and thus "we must kill all opponents of communism." It's a never-ending cycle of amoral rationalization...
4/ Second, it's not enough to say 'But Hamas doesn't accept Israel's right to exist!' Look, Israel doesn't accept the right of a free, independent Palestine to exist unless it is disallowed from having a military, and unless Israel controls access to water, the airspace, etc...
5/ And of course, if Palestinians choose Hamas, or frankly the PA or anyone else who critiques the principle of political Zionism, Israel says that is illegitimate, so Israel basically is saying no Palestine if the people choose leaders we don't like...
6/ But if Hamas said, "OK we'll accept Israel's existence" but then said they can't have a military and can't be governed by certain parties, no one would accept that as valid...
7/ Third, the idea that nations have "rights" to exist is, itself, sort of bizarre. People have rights. Thus, the people of Israel (and elsewhere) have the right not to be attacked, killed, bombed, oppressed, etc. No argument there (the same applies to Palestinians btw)
8/ But how does the state have rights separate from those of its people not to be harmed? Borders are often contested. Names & makeup of nations change through history. And when they do, the rights of the prior nation aren't violated unless the change was bc of unjust conquest...
9/ But for the sake of argument let's accept that nations (including Israel) have a right to exist. Fine, but that doesn't mean they have a right to exist as currently constituted--in the case of Israel as a specifically Jewish state w/privileges & special advantages for Jews...
10/ An analogy to illustrate: In 1957 & 1962 (high-water marks for the Cold War), the US had a right not to be nuked by the USSR (a right to exist). But we didn't have a moral right to exist as we were at that time: a racist state w/segregation & embedded white supremacy...
11/ Likewise, the USSR had a right not to be nuked by the US, but not a moral right to exist as the totalitarian hellscape they were for most of their existence. A nation's existential rights do not portend a right to exist in whatever form the nation's leaders deem proper...
12/ National rights cannot possibly trump the rights of actual human beings in a given space to life, liberty, etc. That was true in the U.S. and USSR during the cold war, and it is true in Israel/Palestine today...
13/ So Hamas's original charter can't justify Israel's actions. Israel is DOING to Palestinians what Hamas's 1st charter said it wanted to do to Jews. Both are fucked up, but only one side has the power to deprive the others' people of liberties (and, disproportionately, life)...
14/ Which means the disproportionate burden to do justice falls on the stronger party, Israel. And whatever they're doing now isn't that...
15/ As for what triggered recent events, the idea that I (a Jew from TN) or any Jew from anywhere, should have priority to land & property in Sheikh Jarrah or anywhere else in Israel, over Palestinians who've been there for generations (and are being purged) is perverse...
16/ But the law says we do. And why? If you probe far enough the only answer possible comes back to, "Because God said so," which is always a bullshit answer for anything, but especially coming from irreligious, secular American Jews who are often the most militant Zionists...
17/ See, if the only time you darken the door of the shul is High Holy Days, you need to shut up about what God said. And if you ARE religious and use the "God said" excuse, reflect on how it feels when Christians say the U.S. is a Christian nation or should be...
18/ And how unacceptable you'd find it if they said the US should have special rights and privileges (land ownership, etc) for Christians bc America was God-ordained and meant to be a Christian nation (as many evangelicals believe)...
19/ And if your answer is, 'that's different,' bc 'Christians didn't experience the Holocaust so they don't need their own state' note, a) you just justified Israel based on modern history, so God is no longer relevant, and b) what part of Germany is Palestine in, please?...
20/ Bottom line, if you wish to defend Israel you need to do better than critique Hamas, reference God, or bring up Hitler. Those are moral non-sequiturs deployed by charlatans when they know they have no moral leg to stand on.
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