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After the war, those same countries encouraging the mass exodus of Arabs from Israel did not welcome these refugees with
open arms or offer an apology for starting
the war in the first place. Rather, these Arab nations, namely Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan, swept them into refugee camps instead. That refugee status is passed down through the generations, meaning if you are born in these countries to refugee parents, you too are considered a refugee and not a citizen. Which is why you see images of Palestini...
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Even now, Hamas admits to having “successfully” sacrificed Gaza in the name of perpetual war to overthrow Israel.
“This battle was not because we wanted fuel or laborers. It did not seek to improve the situation in Gaza. This battle is to completely overthrow the situation.”
People are not always their government, and a government is not always its people.
when you combine the general population’s lack of understanding about what exactly Zionism is, their uncertainty about how exactly Israel came to be and what it represents for Jewish people, as well as any unconscious biases they might have about the Jews, then you have
a recipe for a new brand of antisemitism: anti-Zionism.
Israel is the only country in the world whose right to exist is being questioned.
BDS is the acronym for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions, meaning the campaign supports all of the above against Israel—divesting
When you dig deeper into the ideas of the BDS leadership, their agenda is clear: Israel should not exist. Take
Just look at the original Hamas charter, which calls for: the complete destruction of Israel and the establishment of a theocratic state based on Islamic (Sharia) law, the need for holy war (jihad) to do that, and the eradication of the Jews.
Sam Harris, the philosopher and neuroscientist, blew my mind with the clarity of his explanation on his Making Sense podcast: We imagine that people everywhere, at bottom, want the same things: They want to live safe and prosperous lives. They want clean drinking water and good schools for their kids. And we imagine that if whole groups of people start behaving in extraordinarily destructive ways, practicing suicidal terrorism against noncombatants, for instance,
they must have been pushed into extremis by others.
What could turn ordinary human beings into suicide bombers, and what could get vast numbers of their neighbors to celebrate them as martyrs, other than their entire society being oppressed and hum...
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Hamas uses the Palestinian people as their bodyguards when they attack Israeli civilians and then embed themselves in the Palestinian civilian population, whether it’s in the tunnels they’ve built directly beneath hospitals and other civilian infrastructure or hiding supplies and weapons in schools.
In January 2024, Israeli intelligence provided the US government with a dossier connecting at least twelve employees of the UN’s Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) with the October 7th attacks, including supplying ammunition and coordinating logistics. The allegations were credible enough for the UN to terminate the contracts of ten of these employees (the remaining two had since died), and for the US—along with the UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, and Finland—to suspend aid from UNRWA. As of March 2024, the investigation is ongoing.
“Our quarrel with the Arabs is not a quarrel for a piece of land; it’s not for territory; it’s not for anything concrete. They just refuse to believe that we have the right to exist at all.”
any time I saw the word racist, I replaced it with racially insensitive or racially ignorant. I
believe racism requires three things: power, privilege, and prejudice,
Denying Israel’s right to exist is antisemitic.
The bottom line is that anti-Zionism is a movement to deny Israel’s right to exist, and Israel is the only country in the world where that’s up for debate.
Israel cannot be the only country that is not allowed to exist.
and this framework was adopted by the US Department of State in 2010. It is called the 3D Test: Demonization, Double Standards, Delegitimization.
Pakistan is the perfect parallel: There’s virtually no difference between the creation stories of these two countries—both were decolonized from the United Kingdom, and both were created as safe havens for persecuted groups—Middle Eastern Jews and South Asian Muslims. Both engaged in land disputes, and both control religious sites of other religions.
The other reason why it’s crucial to talk about all of these issues is because where there is lack of information, there is disinformation.
These students have gotten so swept up in disinformation from both a torrent of unchecked social media exposure and antisemitism-soaked campus activism that they are sitting ducks for alternative realities.
Everything that’s happening right now to the Jews and Israel by proxy is nothing short of a cancer diagnosis for our society.
“The Jewish travail occurred across the sea and America rescued him from the house of bondage. But America is the house of bondage for the Negro, and no country can rescue him.
What happens to the Negro here happens to him because he is an American.”
should just be good versus evil, love versus hate.
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks put it: “The hate that begins with Jews never ends with the Jews.”
we are not asking people to hide us in their attics; we are not those people anymore. We’re asking them to come out of hiding for us.
it does mean that you can’t just be silent.
As allies, we are responsible for educating ourselves about people’s experiences and not the other way around.
requires two kinds of learning: intellectual and experiential. You not only have to do the reading (or listening) to intellectually understand a person’s history or experience but also walk alongside them in that experience.
Dolly Parton. She said that in life one needs
to “find out who you are, then do it on purpose.”
proximity breeds care, and distance breeds fear.
If more people are having uncomfortable—and also respectful, open-minded, and open-hearted—conversations with one another, then they will also be strengthening their relationships.
When we do more listening, and when we keep the volume of our exchanges at a reasonable level, there grows more healing than hurt.
“All is foreseen, and freedom of choice is granted. The world is judged with goodness, but in accordance with the amount of people’s positive deeds.”
“Blessed are the peacemakers.”
You cannot say that you are a person that is supportive of human rights, women’s rights, democracy, freedom of speech, LGBTQ+ rights, minorities, and stand with Hamas.
This!
You don’t have to love the Israeli government. You don’t have to agree with every action of the Israeli government. The only thing is that Israel has the right to exist. That’s literally the line.
Every time there’s been an offer for a Palestinian state, they said no every time.
Absolutely Free Palestine. Free Palestine from Hamas. Absolutely free Palestine. Let me say one more thing, right? Gaza is not occupied by Israel. I’m going to say it again: Israel does not occupy Gaza. When Hamas declared war on Israel on October 7th, they declared war, first of all, on themselves, because there’s not going to be any more Hamas. That’s number one. And number two—and that’s the thing that people need to understand—they declared war on their own people.
Hamas is sacrificing Gaza and sacrificing Gazans.
It’s also possible to be pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, which is what I am.
What do we do in Gaza? That’s what Israel did in Gaza. We’re out. Here you go. The keys, you got the keys. Israel left in Gaza greenhouses, houses, fields. You know what Hamas did to those greenhouses and fields and houses? They burnt them.
