I am finally realizing that thinking America was a democracy was an illusion. Or at least I don’t feel represented. Biden, without checking in with any other American leaders, pledged unwavering support for Israel. My patience is waning with Biden, not Israel. I have Jewish friends, my grandpa fought Nazis in World War Two (which I continue to be proud of). But I am starting to see the maniacal nature of Israel, and to see with clarity that we must separate Jews and the idea of Jews and their faith, race, and heritage, from the nation of Israel.
Israel has Jews, I love Jewish people I know, and I hold all faiths and all peoples, be they have faith or not, as sacred. But Jews are not a monolith–anti-Zionist Jews have called for the overthrow of the Israeli state for decades. Jews are all over the world. The United States should be helping Jews and fighting genocide, but Israel, an oppressive government, is genocidal, and we should not be helping Israel.
Israel is not Judaism itself. It is a political state. Such types of political states didn’t exist during biblical times. It is anachronistic to think that they did.
Furthermore, Jews were nomadic people.
The American Press
I am also disgusted with the American press, which is so partisan and yet also utterly lacking in moral clarity.
Children are dying, people are dying. Palestine is trapped. I could get into the history, but at this point it doesn’t matter. Yes, there have been problems and violence on both sides, and, while there is ample misinformation everywhere, one thing remains: disproportionailty.
And it happens every time. Any time anyone from Palestine tries to fight back, it is meager. This past Saturday was the first time that it was not meager. Hamas wreaked havoc. And predictably, as always, Israel fights back harder, longer, with more devastating consequences, even for those who had committed no crime, the innocent civilians of Gaza. It is a totalitarian regime to a people not its own.
Yes, it was atrocious what happened in Israel last Saturday, and yes, it impacted civilians. There is no excuse for it. Why does that having happened give Israel unrestrained power to unleash hell on Palestine?
And given the prolonged and merciless siege that has ensued and that continues to unfold, one has to ask: to what extent has the modern nation of Israel, not the symbolic nation in the Bible that is inherently sacred, and not the people living in it or who are racially, culturally, or religiously Jews, but the current political reality that is a vampire to the Palestinian people, not an idol of the Israeli (and not Jewish) imagination?
They have lost their way. And Americans with them. We are codependentl and evil.
There are so many ways that this could have gone…
There are so many ways that this could have gone. Israel could have counted its losses, it could have reinforced the wall, manning it 24/7. But as the drama continues to unfold, the reality of the Israeli government’s greed and unchecked self-interest shows even more moral corruption than was previously imaginable. Sure, Hamas has terrorists who are unscrupulous, but how is Israel any better? Is it just because they have depersonalized the killing with bombs rather than hand to hand combat?
Zionism, in Israel at least, I’m realizing, is a form of white, cultural supremacy. Even more disturbing to me is that it is actually micromanaging people of color–Arabs. It is no different than the apartheid state in South Africa or Jim Crow. And yet Palestinians don’t even have the statehood to advocate for themselves at the international table.
I am committing myself to this full-time.
It is religion meets nationalism meets racial superiority. In other words, it is America abroad. I am so done with the connection between Israel and America. Jews and America, yes, amazing–I love Jews living here. And Jews in Israel, fine. Let them stay. Just let them stay without our help.
Americans supporting military crimes perpetrated by the Israeli people? Not just Netanyahu but the unity government? That is outrageous.
People have said that liberals are politically correct, but conservatives have shown their PC stripes since Israel was attacked. The silencing of legitimate protest is commonplace in America. Both the right and the left do it. So it begs to be asked: are we even a democracy anymore? And if not, what are we? To the world, we are Israel, perpetrator of Gazan genocide. If they repent and change their ways, then I will delete this post. Truth and justice are a moving target. But as of right now, what I am writing needs to be said. So I’m publishing it.
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