Experiences I have had as an Ashkenazi, but Soviet, Jew in the so-called "Ashkenormative" American Jewish institutions, a quick thread. 1) Hostility towards the customs of my Ashkenazi (Soviet) community.

e.g., Any Soviet Jew who has been subjected to American Jewish institutions has faced pressure to abandon things like the Novi God yolka. Because they associate it with Christmas.

I'm happy to answer this one. I am a refugee from the Soviet Union, which was "anti-Zionist." I believe this politics represents a threat to my personal well being, not that of the state of Israel. A quick thread.

https://twitter.com/shaabiranks/status/1780188762879770852

1) In the name of fighting "counterrevolutionary force" the Soviet Union systematically killed our communal leadership and dismantled our communal institutions.

Rabbis, Yiddish poets, intellectuals, bundists, and Zionists, all were persecuted and killed.

Some thoughts on the chatter about coming Iranian attacks against Israel and possibly American forces, a thread. 1) The Iranian regime's security strategy has been defined by using proxies abroad to carry out its foreign policy. There's a number of benefits to this. You can control a polity without directly occupying it. You can attack your enemies with less risk to the homeland and regime.

On Biden's new Israel posture and the Jewish vote, a thread. 1) ICYMI: In a 1:1 conversation with Netanyahu, Biden called for a ceasefire and did not explicitly tie it to the release of hostages, though he does speak of them.

Foreseeable outcomes of a ceasefire that leaves Hamas intact and hostages in their dungeons, a thread 1) Hamas will be the only game in town in Gaza. Its fighting forces, severely depleted in head-to-head combat with the IDF, will begin to be replenished from people who need jobs and income and have nothing but Hamas to turn to.

A (hopefully) quick rant on "should Jews have a state" 1) The state of Israel has enjoyed sovereignty since 1948. Many of its institutions precede international recognition by decades. 168 sovereign states recognize its legitimacy. Many of those states have been around for less time than Israel.

A half-baked thread on Rafah, Hamas, Netanyahu, and the Biden admin. 1) There is no war one can directly draw parallels from. A non-state actor invaded a sovereign state, massacred its civilians, kidnapped more, and then fled back to territory the non-state actor controlled. They hide in bunkers under dense civilian populations.

Impressive political thinking here. Don't feed Palestinians because Israel may continue on its military-political objectives. This is a leader at an NGO who is capable of seeing the wider political reality... and choosing to advocate for the same position as Hamas. What conclusion can one reach about such groups? A couple of basic points:

1) If your assessment of the war in Gaza cannot even mention the existence of Hamas and the role it plays in this conflict (starting the war! Holding hostages! Fighting in civilian dress/locations!), you are in the tank for Hamas, whether you understand it or not.

I grew up in America with Soviet parents and Soviet community. I have studied Eastern Europe in academic settings, but much of my outlook is shaped from that cultural milieu.

I never believed anything there could change. The pain, the ethnic hatred, the poverty.

A thread In my native Belarus, very little has changed. A boar named Lukashenko has been dictator since 1994. The KGB is still called the KGB. Secret police round up political dissidents for torture. People are still forced into unpaid work in fields.

If you know Russian history you know there have been many Navalnys, recently and historically.

People who believed a better Russia was possible.

But one tyrant after another breaks them. Breaks Russians. Breaks Russia's neighbors.

I don't believe it has to be this way. Hope is not an idea that comes easily to anyone from Eastern Europe. It is the land of heartbreak.

My mother has recounted to me how while growing up in Soviet Belarus she was told by elders and authority figures not to dream of things. To not have hopes.

It was safer not to.

Alright I'm talking about the supposed Jewish left and the actual Jewish left 1) When we talk about the "left" it is always so poorly defined. It can mean people who vote for Democrats, it can mean socialists, it can mean tankies.

The American Jewish community is, taken as a whole, far more liberal than Americans as a whole. So we need precision.

There are not going to be new settlements in Gaza. Westerners panicking and sharing videos of right wing dopes dancing around are demonstrating how little they understand Israeli politics and Israeli security needs. Does this government in Israel need to go? Absolutely. They failed to stop the worst massacre of Jews in Israeli history and the worst for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Poll after poll shows most Israelis have lost confidence in this government.

The lessons I learned from the Bush administration generally, the American invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan, and how that colors my thinking on Biden, Israel, and the war against Hamas, a thread. 1) I was a kid on 9/11 in the New York area. My parents both worked in the city. Most people I knew had parents working in the city.

It consumed the national imagination, but it was a much more specific tragedy locally.

Some thoughts on the anti-Zionism = antisemitism event in Congress, a thread 1) For those unfamiliar with me, I was born in the Soviet Union. My father was a dissident against the regime, persecuted for engaging in Jewish activity. We fled as stateless refugees.

The Soviet Union was an anti-Zionist regime that persecuted 2 million Soviet Jews.

Some basic facts and considerations when reading arguments from people advocating for 1 state for Israelis and Palestinians, a thread 1) The policy position of everyone who matters in Palestinian politics from the Palestinian Authority to Hamas is that any Palestinian state, be it alongside of or as a replacement for Israel, be a state where Jews do not live.

Read that again.

"Can't make any criticism of Israel without being called antisemitic"

Oh, did you call for Netanyahu and his far right cabinet to resign?

"No, the other thing"

1/ Did you criticize Netanyahu for years of sidelining the Palestinian Authority and facilitating cash payments to Hamas?

"No, the other thing"

2/

Some thoughts on Israel and Jewish politics in Israel and abroad, a thread 1) In non-Jewish media and life, October 7 has largely been forgotten and moved past.

That's not the case for many Jews, especially in Israel, where the families of hostages and murder victims are speaking in traditional & social media daily.

Some basic information about Jews from the former Soviet Union, Orthodox Jewish law, and the challenges of integrating former Soviet Jewry in Israel

https://twitter.com/JewishWonk/status/1724792309202714721

1) The Soviet Union was a very different place than the context most westerners are accustomed to. It was not simply a difference in economic systems. It was a revolution in the true sense of the word. An upending of the political, economic, and social lives of the inhabitants.

My wife watched the #MarchForIsrael with automated close captions.

This is the thread of the most ridiculous ones Fair question

"Go back to Poland" is among the most demented slogans/ideas held by antisemites opposed to Israel. A) Majority of the 3 million Jews who fled to Israel are not from Poland
B) Partly that is because Polish Jewry had among the highest death rates in the Holocaust
C) When the few Jews who survived tried to return to Poland after the Holocaust, they faced pogroms and expulsions

Things I believe about Israel and Palestine, in no particular order and representing no Jews other than me 1) I believe this is a conflict not over real estate or religion, though both play a prominent role, but ultimately over narrative.