It’s not antisemitism to criticize the actions of the Israeli government, which has been mistreating the people of Gaza for generations, and now appears to have decided to just blow them all up.
Agreed that it's not anti-Semitic to criticize the Israeli government and its horrid policies against Palestinians. Especially Netanyahu and the rest of his right-wing cabal seem to view every Palestinian as a possible Hamas agent or Hamas-adjacent, and it's not fair and it's not right.
I do, however, hear in my Jewish friends a growing concern that the world is turning on them, and a recent rise in anti-Jewish violence around the globe would indicate that their sentiments aren't ill-founded. While it's true that most leftists reject Hamas and terrorism on any level, the ones in the "fringe of the fringe," as Oliver writes, are the loudest and the most visible--and I can understand why many of my Jewish friends are fearful.
To be completely fair, Jewish people aren't the only ones who experience anti-Semitic bigotry. Islamophobia is another form of anti-Semitism that, too, is seeing an uptick--and people who are Muslim are also fearful and worried. The little boy who was murdered by his parents' Islamophobic landlord is one heartbreaking example of this form of ugly bigotry.
I'm equally disgusted by supporters of Palestine who call Hamas "freedom fighters" and by supporters of Israel who call for "flattening Gaza" and for the continuing so-called "collateral damage" of thousands of innocent Palestinians losing their lives. Both are wrong, and the violence must end *completely* before any hope of a lasting peace can begin.
What the hell is Kinzinger doing? Why the mudslinging at progressive Democrats? I thought he retired from politics, but he seems to think he should be making public comments that are pure bullshit and will help the GOP, the party that not only threw him under the bus but inspired many actual death threats against him. And so he should know that the actual Party of Extremism, Vileness and Hypocrisy is the Republican party.
Criticizing Israel is not antisemitism. Advocating for the liberation of the Palestinians and for human rights isn't, either.
A common distinct mental illness they have. (Own the libs-itis). Seems you can take guy out of the Republicans but you can’t take the Republican out of the guy.
The j6 Committee did awesome work! I must be the biggest Canadian fan of Raskin and Schiff. I like Kinzinger for his work on Syria, and on Ukraine, and now when he's a GOP dork, I just want to flatten him.
First, I don't accept the designation of 'far left' for many who claim that mantle. Most wouldn't recognize the radical aspects, for instance, of civil rights and environmental advocacy, as a critique of socioeconomic arrangements. The myopia and 'True Scotsman' nonsense that permeates the self-described 'far-left' is a wonder to behold (looking at the scions of privileged, comfortable radicals over at Jacobin as a prime example).
Second, the anti-Semitism of brogressives is on par with their inability to discern racism, misogyny and homophobia in the world. It really is a thing, and it really is a problem:
"Like many American Jews, Jonah Goldman sides politically with the left, including its push for the rights of Palestinians.
During college, he was active in J Street, the liberal Jewish advocacy group that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and lobbies for a two-state solution.
But in the aftermath of Hamas’ gruesome raid on Israel this month, Goldman has never felt so isolated from people he long considered his allies...
Good people he never considered antisemitic suddenly seemed “supportive of Jewish genocide,” he said...
“The left in America has really let us down,” said Goldman, 31, who lives in the Washington area and considers himself a Democrat and a socialist...
Rabbi Sharon Brous, a progressive leader of the IKAR congregation in Los Angeles who is known for her public criticism of the Israeli government, summed up the views of many.
“The clear message from many in the world, especially from our world — those who claim to care the most about justice and human dignity — is that these Israeli victims somehow deserved this terrible fate,” she said during a recent sermon that was posted online and went viral.
Antisemitism is so “embedded” in society, she said, that “people cannot even see it.”
I wish I could, because I don't recall the website for the Revolutionary Communist Party, but I vividly remember their representatives shoving flyers in my face which denounced capitalists, and Zionists for the Middle East mess, the last time I was in Union Square in Manhattan.
The most astonishing section of them was how they denounced Joe Biden for supporting Ukraine in their war with Russia. All I could think was, "Wow, the Revolutionary Communist Party is siding with Donald Trump." I didn't tell the young lady that.
I did read her flyer for content and style...their program for revolution was essentially to form extremely larger book clubs that would read and discuss the works of their leader, Bob Avakian, who had fled the United States for that noted Communist nation, France, a number of years ago. Nothing in there about actually seizing power.
I pointed out to her that there was no action step in the Big Plan.
"Well, you have to start somewhere," she said. I'm 60. She looked 21. She had a long way to go.
Having read Avakain's oeuvre in his newspaper, his work proves to me that there is writer's block and writer's cramp. Avakian is "writer's diarrhea."
The British Labour Party's far left wing was (under Ernest Bevin) and more recently (under the man whose name escapes me who lost his job as their boss in the last election) greatly anti-Semitic. Bevin used to taunt Jews at official events, and as Foreign Secretary, he didn't want Britain to recognize Israel after it gained independence. He wanted the Arabs to conquer the Israelis. After the Arabs failed and the UN imposed a cease-fire that placed Israel in her 1948 borders, Bevin gloomily told Prime Minister Clement Attlee that Israel was a reality and the two nations had to have diplomatic relations. However, despite allying in the 1956 Suez Crisis -- mostly through the French -- Britain and Israel were not good friends for nearly four decades. That was mostly because of Britain's economic interests in the Persian Gulf. Despite that, the British found the Israelis ready customers for their Centurion tanks.
That has changed in the last four decades, with the coming of peace treaties between Israel and some of her neighbors, and the two nations enjoy better reltaions.
I have not seen that much "anti-Semitism" among leftists, but there is an intense hatred of Israel among them, and there is a difference, of course. However, a great many Jews don't see much of a difference. Sadly, to many Jews, Israel is seen as the escape hatch when neo-Nazis take over in whatever country they live in. That's why Israel has the "Law of the Return." By virtue of being Jewish, I can become an Israeli citizen. I prefer the fact that my daughter has dual US-New Zealand citizenship.
The Holocaust has created a visceral terror in every Jew...eventually they come for us. Ask the members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. "Screw the optics, I'm going in."
The leftists have been around for decades. I used to know quite a few back when I was an activist for Palestine. They adored Hugo Chavez. One of the reasons I stopped the activism was because the Palestinian cause is tainted by antisemitism, some of which is real and some is simply the mainstream idea that Israel should never, ever be criticized despite its many war crimes against the people who have been oppressed under an illegal occupation for decades.
I believe Truman pushed for Israel to be created because he did not want to give asylum to Jews after the war. Yet nobody calls him an antisemite.
I'm an atheist an an ex-Catholic and ex-Muslim. Violence against Muslims since 9/11 makes the Muslim community fearful, yet there isn't the widespread condemnation for Islamophobia that there is for antisemitism. "Eventually they come for us" isn't only applicable to Jews. If Israel had stayed within the 1948 borders, it would be a much better reality today.
One of the stranger things about the Arab nations in their war on Israel was that they allied with the Soviet Union, while teaching their people -- especially children -- the anti-Semitic works of right-wingers. "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," 'Mein Kampf," "The International Jew," "The Myth of the 20th Century," have all been popular and even required reading in the Arab world.
The Iranians hosted an anti-Israel event whose top speakers included convicted federal felon, Louisiana state Senator, sex manual author,and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who denounced Jews.
As for Truman...he actually supported the creation of the State of Israel for a number of reasons. A big one was that being a Bible reader, he seriously believed that the Jewish State needed to be restored, particularly after the horrors the Nazis inflicted on the Jews. Another one was the lobbying of a major chunk of his base, the Jewish voters. That included his old business partner, Eddie Jacobson, from Kansas City.
At that time, there was a great deal of political pressure on Truman to act in the opposite direction. Secretary of State George Marshall believed that recognizing Israel would damage US relations with the Arab world. He also feared that Israel, being founded by socialists, would quickly ally with the Soviet Union.
The postwar US immigration policies had to deal with vast numbers of "Displaced Persons," who had lost their homes, cities, and families to Hitler's war. The administrators of those policies were people like Breckinridge Long, a descendant of John Cabell Breckinridge, the Confederate general and their last Secretary of War, who were anti-Semitic. Their attitude did not play well after V-E Day, of course. A great many of the Jews liberated in 1945 wanted to go to Palestine and set up Israel, because of the anti-Semitic attitudes of nations that had denied them entry before the war.
There's some irony that the Arab nations wound up becoming staunch allies of the USSR (except Jordan) in the conflict with Israel and the latter nation was backed by the United States. At some levels, they became proxies in the two superpowers' struggle for control of the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf oilfields.
As for Truman, you're talking about my second-favorite American after Ulysses S. Grant. Truman was wrong on the small decisions (nationalizing the steel companies, insulting the Washington Post music critic, saying that the A-bomb was "just one of our weapons"), but right on the big ones: the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Airlift, vetoing the McCarran Act (which got passed over his veto), supporting Israel, the A-bomb, and, most of all, firing Douglas MacArthur. The man was openly defying the orders of the President of the United States and seeking to start a Third World War on his own.
I also forgot how back in the early 1960s, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X invited the leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, to speak to their followers about the Jewish menace. That was a bizarre pairing -- Black Muslims and Nazis, but it happened.
Malcolm, of course, lost a great deal of his bitterness to white people when he made his hajj, and he and Elijah Muhammad split over that. Then Malcolm was shot, and we'll never know what he would have done next...but I think he would have been a little less harsh in his rhetoric.
Whether or not Elijah Muhammad and/or Malcolm X were on the far left, I do not consider myself expert enough to say. I do know that "The Final Call," which I see sold every week here in Newark, is very harsh on Israel and Jews.
I'm always amused that "The Final Call" appears every week. I guess it isn't "final" enough.
Oliver, all those things you cited -- the professors, the protesters, etc -- those are all evidence you say doesn't exist. I can't tell how you how many people I've stopped following who are perfectly happy to say Israel deserved it, etc, and who have all the sympathy in the world for Palestinian children -- as they should -- and none, but NONE, for Israeli children.
It's out there, and it's bad. And we're going to be in big trouble if we pretend like this is just all made up. It's turning off A LOT of people, just like Joe Biden is turning off a lot of youngs and Rashida Tlaib. We're in a real bad spot.
And as I wrote, I remember when college professors like Ward Churchill said very stupid things about 9/11. Would it have been fair back then to ascribe his views to the entire left? Of course not. And I think the standards remain the same.
I think you're "fighting the last war," to coin a very original phrase. First, they did ascribe his views to the entire Left, and second, I'm literally seeing people *I know* justifying the attack. Others I don't personally know, but I'd call it more in the line of "celebrating" than justifying. And they're not one guy.
We are in a really bad spot, genopotically. This has further polarized us. However, I'm really glad that Biden is running the show in the US and not Trump. Even though Biden has made two really huge gaffs this week during his speeches. :/
There is a segment of the Far-Left that's become very anti-Israel and pro-Hamas. I see it here in Portland as the protests wind their way past my office downtown. They're mostly college-age kids and their posters and rhetoric are, frankly, pretty reprehensible. I'd wager most of them know little of the history of the region. They only seem to understand "Jews bad, Palestinians good."
While most of them seem genuine if somewhat misguided, there are some who are also distressingly anti-Semitic. I'm sorry, but the murder of 1400 innocents in an act of terrorism is NOT OK. There's no way to justify what Hamas did. Not that I'm justifying Israel's response, either.
I agree with Israel's stated mission of obliterating Hamas, but going through Palestinian civilians seems a barbaric and seriously disproportionate way to do it.
War doesn't determine who's right or wrong, only who's left...and there may not be many left in Gaza when all is said and done.
Political violence against anyone or any group is NEVER justifiable. I think it's important to understand WHY this attack happened, even though there's still a lot of speculation. I also think it's important to remember that terrorism is also about the propaganda of the deed. We're still in the process of finding people and identifying remains, the deed is still fresh in our minds because of what the forensic people keep discovering. The propaganda of the deed is fuel for anti-Semites, jihadis can ride that wave for a really long time. My guess is that this event will become part of the mythos of Israel, like 9/11 is for the US.
That's an argument I can't disagree with. I'd hope that Israel can learn from the mistakes we made after 9/11. Reacting out of blind rage is never a good look when it comes to obtaining justice, because you invariably overreact and take innocent people down in the process. Unfortunately, I think Netanyahu wants to turn Gaza into a parking lot, which will benefit no one. When all is said and done, I think it will create far more terrorists than it kills.
Have you noticed what the media...whiny white rePUGliCONs who are mentally ill, I mean very rich... are talking about...hmmm not abortion, not a bad economy (which the economy is awesome btw), not critical race theory...but about terrorism...I love your articles Oliver! I am also a liberal...I like to say flaming liberal...lol but shithole america has so many stupid ppl who listen and believe these idiot right wing nut jobs! Fox News...ha ha ha NOT. God I could go on but why, these idiots like the chaos! Happy Halloween!
I really hate that some people are either #TeamGaza or #TeamIsreal and think you're incredibly bonkers to condemn the violence on both sides or call you a "fence-sitter." However, I'm really angry that people online are asking Jewish people questions that they themselves can find information for, they should do the work themselves to be an ally in this geopolitical event.
I just read that the FBI has advised that there might be blowback to deal with on US soil, and yeah, it's pretty evident. I wish I could put pics here, because there's currently two chickadees (or chickasquees) depending upon your local dialect, hanging upside down on my burdfeeder and they both look like they just figured out how to do it and are proud of themselves for being so smart.
Are we supposed to believe that a significant number of leftists attend Kinzinger’s book signings?
🤣
Oh dear. Would he even know that information? I wonder how many questions he gets about Ukraine?
It’s not antisemitism to criticize the actions of the Israeli government, which has been mistreating the people of Gaza for generations, and now appears to have decided to just blow them all up.
Agreed that it's not anti-Semitic to criticize the Israeli government and its horrid policies against Palestinians. Especially Netanyahu and the rest of his right-wing cabal seem to view every Palestinian as a possible Hamas agent or Hamas-adjacent, and it's not fair and it's not right.
I do, however, hear in my Jewish friends a growing concern that the world is turning on them, and a recent rise in anti-Jewish violence around the globe would indicate that their sentiments aren't ill-founded. While it's true that most leftists reject Hamas and terrorism on any level, the ones in the "fringe of the fringe," as Oliver writes, are the loudest and the most visible--and I can understand why many of my Jewish friends are fearful.
To be completely fair, Jewish people aren't the only ones who experience anti-Semitic bigotry. Islamophobia is another form of anti-Semitism that, too, is seeing an uptick--and people who are Muslim are also fearful and worried. The little boy who was murdered by his parents' Islamophobic landlord is one heartbreaking example of this form of ugly bigotry.
I'm equally disgusted by supporters of Palestine who call Hamas "freedom fighters" and by supporters of Israel who call for "flattening Gaza" and for the continuing so-called "collateral damage" of thousands of innocent Palestinians losing their lives. Both are wrong, and the violence must end *completely* before any hope of a lasting peace can begin.
What the hell is Kinzinger doing? Why the mudslinging at progressive Democrats? I thought he retired from politics, but he seems to think he should be making public comments that are pure bullshit and will help the GOP, the party that not only threw him under the bus but inspired many actual death threats against him. And so he should know that the actual Party of Extremism, Vileness and Hypocrisy is the Republican party.
Criticizing Israel is not antisemitism. Advocating for the liberation of the Palestinians and for human rights isn't, either.
Even though Kinzinger was on the J6 committee, he’s still a Republican. That means always blaming the Democrats for everything that is wrong.
A common distinct mental illness they have. (Own the libs-itis). Seems you can take guy out of the Republicans but you can’t take the Republican out of the guy.
True. And I think Kinzinger's trying to stay relevant because he wrote a book (surprise, surprise).
The j6 Committee did awesome work! I must be the biggest Canadian fan of Raskin and Schiff. I like Kinzinger for his work on Syria, and on Ukraine, and now when he's a GOP dork, I just want to flatten him.
First, I don't accept the designation of 'far left' for many who claim that mantle. Most wouldn't recognize the radical aspects, for instance, of civil rights and environmental advocacy, as a critique of socioeconomic arrangements. The myopia and 'True Scotsman' nonsense that permeates the self-described 'far-left' is a wonder to behold (looking at the scions of privileged, comfortable radicals over at Jacobin as a prime example).
Second, the anti-Semitism of brogressives is on par with their inability to discern racism, misogyny and homophobia in the world. It really is a thing, and it really is a problem:
"Like many American Jews, Jonah Goldman sides politically with the left, including its push for the rights of Palestinians.
During college, he was active in J Street, the liberal Jewish advocacy group that opposes the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and lobbies for a two-state solution.
But in the aftermath of Hamas’ gruesome raid on Israel this month, Goldman has never felt so isolated from people he long considered his allies...
Good people he never considered antisemitic suddenly seemed “supportive of Jewish genocide,” he said...
“The left in America has really let us down,” said Goldman, 31, who lives in the Washington area and considers himself a Democrat and a socialist...
Rabbi Sharon Brous, a progressive leader of the IKAR congregation in Los Angeles who is known for her public criticism of the Israeli government, summed up the views of many.
“The clear message from many in the world, especially from our world — those who claim to care the most about justice and human dignity — is that these Israeli victims somehow deserved this terrible fate,” she said during a recent sermon that was posted online and went viral.
Antisemitism is so “embedded” in society, she said, that “people cannot even see it.”
Dagnabbit!
Forgot the link:
‘The left has really let us down.’ Why many American Jews feel abandoned. (Oct. 23, 2023)
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2023-10-23/israel-hamas-war-american-jewish-left
Anti-Semitism is one of the few things that the Far Left has in common with the Far Right.
Why?
Because both are conspiracy theories in nature, and if you scratch a conspiracy theory hard enough, you expose anti-Semitism.
Can you share a link to show this anti-semitism being expressed by leftists?
I wish I could, because I don't recall the website for the Revolutionary Communist Party, but I vividly remember their representatives shoving flyers in my face which denounced capitalists, and Zionists for the Middle East mess, the last time I was in Union Square in Manhattan.
The most astonishing section of them was how they denounced Joe Biden for supporting Ukraine in their war with Russia. All I could think was, "Wow, the Revolutionary Communist Party is siding with Donald Trump." I didn't tell the young lady that.
I did read her flyer for content and style...their program for revolution was essentially to form extremely larger book clubs that would read and discuss the works of their leader, Bob Avakian, who had fled the United States for that noted Communist nation, France, a number of years ago. Nothing in there about actually seizing power.
I pointed out to her that there was no action step in the Big Plan.
"Well, you have to start somewhere," she said. I'm 60. She looked 21. She had a long way to go.
Having read Avakain's oeuvre in his newspaper, his work proves to me that there is writer's block and writer's cramp. Avakian is "writer's diarrhea."
The British Labour Party's far left wing was (under Ernest Bevin) and more recently (under the man whose name escapes me who lost his job as their boss in the last election) greatly anti-Semitic. Bevin used to taunt Jews at official events, and as Foreign Secretary, he didn't want Britain to recognize Israel after it gained independence. He wanted the Arabs to conquer the Israelis. After the Arabs failed and the UN imposed a cease-fire that placed Israel in her 1948 borders, Bevin gloomily told Prime Minister Clement Attlee that Israel was a reality and the two nations had to have diplomatic relations. However, despite allying in the 1956 Suez Crisis -- mostly through the French -- Britain and Israel were not good friends for nearly four decades. That was mostly because of Britain's economic interests in the Persian Gulf. Despite that, the British found the Israelis ready customers for their Centurion tanks.
That has changed in the last four decades, with the coming of peace treaties between Israel and some of her neighbors, and the two nations enjoy better reltaions.
I have not seen that much "anti-Semitism" among leftists, but there is an intense hatred of Israel among them, and there is a difference, of course. However, a great many Jews don't see much of a difference. Sadly, to many Jews, Israel is seen as the escape hatch when neo-Nazis take over in whatever country they live in. That's why Israel has the "Law of the Return." By virtue of being Jewish, I can become an Israeli citizen. I prefer the fact that my daughter has dual US-New Zealand citizenship.
The Holocaust has created a visceral terror in every Jew...eventually they come for us. Ask the members of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. "Screw the optics, I'm going in."
The leftists have been around for decades. I used to know quite a few back when I was an activist for Palestine. They adored Hugo Chavez. One of the reasons I stopped the activism was because the Palestinian cause is tainted by antisemitism, some of which is real and some is simply the mainstream idea that Israel should never, ever be criticized despite its many war crimes against the people who have been oppressed under an illegal occupation for decades.
I believe Truman pushed for Israel to be created because he did not want to give asylum to Jews after the war. Yet nobody calls him an antisemite.
I'm an atheist an an ex-Catholic and ex-Muslim. Violence against Muslims since 9/11 makes the Muslim community fearful, yet there isn't the widespread condemnation for Islamophobia that there is for antisemitism. "Eventually they come for us" isn't only applicable to Jews. If Israel had stayed within the 1948 borders, it would be a much better reality today.
One of the stranger things about the Arab nations in their war on Israel was that they allied with the Soviet Union, while teaching their people -- especially children -- the anti-Semitic works of right-wingers. "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion," 'Mein Kampf," "The International Jew," "The Myth of the 20th Century," have all been popular and even required reading in the Arab world.
The Iranians hosted an anti-Israel event whose top speakers included convicted federal felon, Louisiana state Senator, sex manual author,and Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, who denounced Jews.
As for Truman...he actually supported the creation of the State of Israel for a number of reasons. A big one was that being a Bible reader, he seriously believed that the Jewish State needed to be restored, particularly after the horrors the Nazis inflicted on the Jews. Another one was the lobbying of a major chunk of his base, the Jewish voters. That included his old business partner, Eddie Jacobson, from Kansas City.
At that time, there was a great deal of political pressure on Truman to act in the opposite direction. Secretary of State George Marshall believed that recognizing Israel would damage US relations with the Arab world. He also feared that Israel, being founded by socialists, would quickly ally with the Soviet Union.
The postwar US immigration policies had to deal with vast numbers of "Displaced Persons," who had lost their homes, cities, and families to Hitler's war. The administrators of those policies were people like Breckinridge Long, a descendant of John Cabell Breckinridge, the Confederate general and their last Secretary of War, who were anti-Semitic. Their attitude did not play well after V-E Day, of course. A great many of the Jews liberated in 1945 wanted to go to Palestine and set up Israel, because of the anti-Semitic attitudes of nations that had denied them entry before the war.
There's some irony that the Arab nations wound up becoming staunch allies of the USSR (except Jordan) in the conflict with Israel and the latter nation was backed by the United States. At some levels, they became proxies in the two superpowers' struggle for control of the Suez Canal and the Persian Gulf oilfields.
As for Truman, you're talking about my second-favorite American after Ulysses S. Grant. Truman was wrong on the small decisions (nationalizing the steel companies, insulting the Washington Post music critic, saying that the A-bomb was "just one of our weapons"), but right on the big ones: the Truman Doctrine, the Berlin Airlift, vetoing the McCarran Act (which got passed over his veto), supporting Israel, the A-bomb, and, most of all, firing Douglas MacArthur. The man was openly defying the orders of the President of the United States and seeking to start a Third World War on his own.
I also forgot how back in the early 1960s, Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X invited the leader of the American Nazi Party, George Lincoln Rockwell, to speak to their followers about the Jewish menace. That was a bizarre pairing -- Black Muslims and Nazis, but it happened.
Malcolm, of course, lost a great deal of his bitterness to white people when he made his hajj, and he and Elijah Muhammad split over that. Then Malcolm was shot, and we'll never know what he would have done next...but I think he would have been a little less harsh in his rhetoric.
Whether or not Elijah Muhammad and/or Malcolm X were on the far left, I do not consider myself expert enough to say. I do know that "The Final Call," which I see sold every week here in Newark, is very harsh on Israel and Jews.
I'm always amused that "The Final Call" appears every week. I guess it isn't "final" enough.
Oliver, all those things you cited -- the professors, the protesters, etc -- those are all evidence you say doesn't exist. I can't tell how you how many people I've stopped following who are perfectly happy to say Israel deserved it, etc, and who have all the sympathy in the world for Palestinian children -- as they should -- and none, but NONE, for Israeli children.
It's out there, and it's bad. And we're going to be in big trouble if we pretend like this is just all made up. It's turning off A LOT of people, just like Joe Biden is turning off a lot of youngs and Rashida Tlaib. We're in a real bad spot.
And as I wrote, I remember when college professors like Ward Churchill said very stupid things about 9/11. Would it have been fair back then to ascribe his views to the entire left? Of course not. And I think the standards remain the same.
I think you're "fighting the last war," to coin a very original phrase. First, they did ascribe his views to the entire Left, and second, I'm literally seeing people *I know* justifying the attack. Others I don't personally know, but I'd call it more in the line of "celebrating" than justifying. And they're not one guy.
We are in a really bad spot, genopotically. This has further polarized us. However, I'm really glad that Biden is running the show in the US and not Trump. Even though Biden has made two really huge gaffs this week during his speeches. :/
There is a segment of the Far-Left that's become very anti-Israel and pro-Hamas. I see it here in Portland as the protests wind their way past my office downtown. They're mostly college-age kids and their posters and rhetoric are, frankly, pretty reprehensible. I'd wager most of them know little of the history of the region. They only seem to understand "Jews bad, Palestinians good."
While most of them seem genuine if somewhat misguided, there are some who are also distressingly anti-Semitic. I'm sorry, but the murder of 1400 innocents in an act of terrorism is NOT OK. There's no way to justify what Hamas did. Not that I'm justifying Israel's response, either.
I agree with Israel's stated mission of obliterating Hamas, but going through Palestinian civilians seems a barbaric and seriously disproportionate way to do it.
War doesn't determine who's right or wrong, only who's left...and there may not be many left in Gaza when all is said and done.
Political violence against anyone or any group is NEVER justifiable. I think it's important to understand WHY this attack happened, even though there's still a lot of speculation. I also think it's important to remember that terrorism is also about the propaganda of the deed. We're still in the process of finding people and identifying remains, the deed is still fresh in our minds because of what the forensic people keep discovering. The propaganda of the deed is fuel for anti-Semites, jihadis can ride that wave for a really long time. My guess is that this event will become part of the mythos of Israel, like 9/11 is for the US.
That's an argument I can't disagree with. I'd hope that Israel can learn from the mistakes we made after 9/11. Reacting out of blind rage is never a good look when it comes to obtaining justice, because you invariably overreact and take innocent people down in the process. Unfortunately, I think Netanyahu wants to turn Gaza into a parking lot, which will benefit no one. When all is said and done, I think it will create far more terrorists than it kills.
Have you noticed what the media...whiny white rePUGliCONs who are mentally ill, I mean very rich... are talking about...hmmm not abortion, not a bad economy (which the economy is awesome btw), not critical race theory...but about terrorism...I love your articles Oliver! I am also a liberal...I like to say flaming liberal...lol but shithole america has so many stupid ppl who listen and believe these idiot right wing nut jobs! Fox News...ha ha ha NOT. God I could go on but why, these idiots like the chaos! Happy Halloween!
Thank you for being one of the few normie liberals who seems to get this, Oliver.
I really hate that some people are either #TeamGaza or #TeamIsreal and think you're incredibly bonkers to condemn the violence on both sides or call you a "fence-sitter." However, I'm really angry that people online are asking Jewish people questions that they themselves can find information for, they should do the work themselves to be an ally in this geopolitical event.
I just read that the FBI has advised that there might be blowback to deal with on US soil, and yeah, it's pretty evident. I wish I could put pics here, because there's currently two chickadees (or chickasquees) depending upon your local dialect, hanging upside down on my burdfeeder and they both look like they just figured out how to do it and are proud of themselves for being so smart.
Also, Hezbollah better stray in their lane.
BRAVO.
It is always time to punch a Hippie!
Why is this crap in my feed. No thanks