It’s Monday morning.

Time for another 🧵 – this one on how the current situation between Israel and Iran has come about.

It's very obviously not just the nuclear issue. 2) You may have seen various commentators over the last few days spin the following line: “Israel attacked Gaza, then it attacked Lebanon, now it’s attacking Iran. It’s a mad state, out of control, which must be stopped.”

Such commentators are, at best, pitifully stupid.

Well, Saturday night. Time for an Iran 🧵, with some stuff I haven’t really seen much elsewhere… 2) The Iranian regime is almost clownishly obsessive in its desire to wipe out Israel. There’s a countdown clock in Tehran supposedly counting down to Israel’s destruction. One of the funniest moments in recent years is when electric blackouts caused it to turn off.

There’s a simple, conspiracy theory free reason why Israel got such a large public vote.

Lots of people wanted to express support for Israel & its representative, an October 7th survivor.

And Israel-haters didn’t create a comprehensive, concerted vote-splitting strategy.

A 🧵 2) Firstly, a bunch of people here who REALLY hate Israel forget that social media doesn’t always reflect attitudes in reality. Despite Israel’s strong public showing last year, I think there was an assumption from some that it would be different this year (surprise! It wasn’t)

I suffered through the “Jewish Voice for Peace” Haggadah so that you didn’t have to.

A 🧵 2) I guess I’ll start with a TL;DR, for those who want it.

Anti-Zionist Jews often accuse Zionist Jews of supplanting their Judaism with Zionism (as they see it, mindless devotion to Israel).

For JVP, “Anti-Zionism” has become their Judaism. That is where it begins and it ends)

Whether the Guardian realises it or not, what they've actually done here is publish a piece which suggests that it is not "just" Zionism but Judaism itself which is innately bloodthirsty and sociopathic.

https://twitter.com/daverich1/status/1899479122637664468

A key argument in Beinart's latest book is that "Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation" (referring to Gaza).

ie. *Zionism conflates itself with Judaism & so makes things worse for Jews, I'm merely pointing it out*

But...

I want to do a thread on this.

I understand why the Mail are going after the BBC on this issue - their lack of due diligence was deeply problematic. But this goes far, far deeper than one documentary.

🧵 2) Hamas is far more than a terrorist organisation - having won an election in Gaza some 19 years ago, they subsequently murdered a bunch of their political opponents and since then have run Gaza as a dictatorship.

And they've controlled *everything* in the Gaza Strip.

Owen Jones is a prime example of someone who has been completely and totally radicalised. "I don't have any doubts", he told the News Agents recently. about his stance on Israel-Gaza.

Many people who become radicalised are far from stupid. And Owen is not stupid (1)

https://twitter.com/DannyMMorris/status/1884358808543105083

(2) Owen will - and does - deride people who have doubts about Israel-Gaza. Because Owen is absolutely certain. There is good & there is evil. He is on the side of the good, and if you do not agree with him, you are irredeemably aligned with evil.

There's a side effect to that.

The return of the hostages from Hamas captivity is of the utmost importance to Israel.

I thought it might be helpful for some of you to hear just a bit more about certain individuals that Israel is releasing in order for that to happen. The sacrifice being made.

A thread: 1) Mohammad Abu Warda, responsible for 2 bus bombings in the 90s which murdered 46 people.

He made it clear at his trial that he would never stop murdering until Israel was destroyed. He was given multiple life sentences.

Now he'll be freed.

Just thinking of that time in 2018 when Quincy Jones gave a couple of remarkable interviews with eye-popping details. RIP to a real one.

Here's the Vulture interview (1/2)

vulture.com/2018/02/quincy…


(2/2) And here's the GQ one. Unbelievable stuff. What a life.

gq.com/story/quincy-j…

For many years, more UN resolutions have been passed against Israel than every single other nation *combined*.

Either you’re an idiot & truly believe Israel is more evil than Russia, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar & every other nation. Or you can accept the UN has an Israel problem. The Assad regime has carried out unimaginable atrocities against the Syrian people.

Number of UN resolutions passed against Syria since 2011: 49
Number of UN resolutions passed against Israel in the same period: 261

If you think the UN is a clear moral arbiter you are unhinged.

1) In 2021, when it was already clear what David Miller believed, hundreds of UK academics signed an open letter in his support alleging he was the victim of "false allegations and the weaponisation of the positive impulses of anti-racism so as to silence anti-racist debate."

https://twitter.com/daverich1/status/1841401203881656584

2) Over the subsequent years, when he continued to air his disgusting views online as well as on Iranian State Television, a small handful of those academics quietly withdrew their names.

Most did not. You can see that list here:

supportmiller.org/educators-and-…

In this thread, I’m going to go into some detail about what the phrase “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free” means to many Jewish people. You may not agree, but I hope that it may enlighten those who simply don't understand the almost visceral reaction to it.

🧵 2) For the benefit of a number of students at some of America’s most expensive higher education institutions, let’s start by clarifying - the river is the River Jordan, the sea is the Mediterranean.

A short thread on the favourite slogan of anti-Zionist Jews - and how it very powerfully expresses a very basic disconnect from the rest of us.

🧵 2) The words you see here feature prominently in the rhetoric deployed by anti-Zionist Jews (those who can actually read Hebrew, unlike 'Jewish Voice for Peace').

It translates as "Righteousness, righteousness, you shall pursue". It's from the book of Devarim (Deuteronomy).

I want to respond to this with a thread, because I don’t feel like a tweet will do it justice. I will share this screen grab in each tweet in the thread, so that people can see what I am responding to.

🧵 2) Paragraph 1 isn’t wrong. There will always be problematic elements of student protest groups: eg. The SNCC was extremely sexist, despite the incredible work by women in that group. Women fought to change that culture from within.

This “anti-Israel” movement is very different.

1) I’m going to explain a few things about Jews and Zionism for the benefit of people on here who might not know or understand.

(This isn't for the watermelon/red triangle-emojis-in-the-bio people, who are beyond rational thought, but everyone else, please do read)

A thread: 2) Zionism, at its most basic level, means *the belief that the Jewish people have a right to a state in their historic homeland*.

That doesn’t automatically mean there’s only room for 1 state. Many Zionists believe in the 2-state solution as the only way to a lasting peace.

A brief 🧵 on some of the companies which have recently been targeted by anti-Israel boycotters and protestors, and the reason behind such protests.

People can make up their own minds as to whether such boycotts/protests seem reasonable based on this background information. 1) Starbucks

The New Yorker has published an interview with someone who has released a paper with their findings of evidence of the sexual assaults carried out by Hamas on October 7th.

The issue is in the choice of the person the New Yorker has decided to speak to - and who they didn't.

A🧵 2) The person the New Yorker writer *should* have spoken to was Dr Cochav Elkayam-Levy, who has been directly involved in the gathering of testimony from survivors of the Hamas attacks.

Instead they spoke to someone from Physicians for Human Rights Israel.

I have to tweet this; I hope you share it.

In the last 8 weeks, you'll have seen reports from first responders who came to places in Southern Israel where massacres were carried out by Hamas.

Some come from an organisation called Zaka. I want to describe what Zaka does.

A 🧵 2) Hamas was founded in 1988.

It's no coincidence that Zaka was founded in 1989, during the 1st Intifada, when terror organisations started bombing Israeli buses.

Under Jewish law, bodies need to be buried.

But what happens when bodies have been torn apart? Eviscerated?

All UK councillors have been contacted demanding they sign a letter calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza & claiming that "antisemitism is being weaponised...to absolve Israel of any accountability".

It says councillors who do not sign will have their names publicised.
A🧵 2) From what I have seen, this initiative has been created by 2 London councillors - 1 Independent, 1 Conservative.

Given the behaviour we saw last week against MPs who did not vote for the SNP ceasefire motion, this reads a lot like a threat to councillors who do not sign.

This is going around the internet again, so let me explain what’s happening here. A 🧵

The Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is the second holiest site in Judaism. It’s where Abraham & Sarah, Isaac & Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah are believed to be buried. 2) Like the Temple Mount, in the wake of the Arab invasion, the Umayyad Caliphate built a mosque on top of the earlier Jewish site.

For many hundreds of years, Jews were refused entry to pray at this holy site.

The current status quo divides the site in two.

1) We are now seeing a narrative emerge in the West which runs as follows:

"Hamas knew Israel would respond by going into Gaza. They knew that international support would swing their way. By going in to Gaza, Israel is playing right into their hands."

Let's look at that closely 2) Israel has no choice about going into Gaza. No nation on earth would experience what Israel did 3 weeks ago and not respond by doing its utmost to take out the terror group responsible.

If you can't see that, I can't help you.