This and so much more

[drwex]

I've been struggling incoherently for months trying to put together a post on this and I'm failing so just read this op ed and realize it barely scratches the surface of all that's wrong here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/israel-is-driving-jewish-america-farther-and-farther-away/2018/09/21/de2716f8-bdbb-11e8-8792-78719177250f_story.html

I can't let it pass without remarking that once again this op-ed (by a white guy) erases Jews of color and how much more they're being affected by this situation. For them it's not an abstract division of ideas, but being turned into actual refugees again, as well as harsh persistent discrimination within Israel's borders.

Comments

[reedrover]

Interesting op-ed. I am surprised that the writer glossed over so much, but I imagine there was a space requirement.

I like and respect my American Jewish friends, but I really don't like Israel right now. As the author said, it's looking a lot like an apartheid country rather than a democracy. I guess my conscience is fortunate that I have so little contact with anything that would provide direct support to either Israel or BDS.

[drwex]

I like and respect my American Jewish friends, but I really don't like Israel right now

That you (and many others) feel like it's necessary to write that sentence points to one deep core of the problem. Anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, and anti-Israel threads are so tangled up you can't even get to the real notions, such as "I hate that the egalitarian, socialist Zionist movement has been co-opted by this set of religious fascists". And "It's not OK for people to use opposition to Israel's current government as cover for antisemitic speech and actions in America and other countries."

Never mind the terror that many diasporan Jews feel because we used to think "well, if things get too bad here we can at least go to Israel." And now we'd just be facing more intense versions of the same struggles if we did.

I agree the article was very short and as a result merely pointed at a few of the biggest problems.

[reedrover]

I'm sure a lot of people in the rest of the world are saying "I like my American friends but I don't like the USA right now."

Because of the complexity of sentiment, I try very hard to use precise language however damning of me my words may become. "Jewish" and "Israeli" are two separate things in my head. And I admit to stereotyping rather heavily. Jewish is member of a rich rainbow of culture, history, language, and religion. I expect someone who identifies as Jewish to be any color, smart and well-educated, loving, and clean. They may or may not be religious to any degree. That has been my experience both as a child and as an adult.

Unfortunately, as time moves past Rabin and hope, the label "Israeli" is a (forgive my shaded truths here) flat characature of white, mafioso, exclusionist, racist thieves using religion as a substitution for morality. If I hear "made in Israel" I immediately think "military weapon."

Regarding "at least I can move to Israel" - My opinion of Israel is so much lower than that of America, but I am not suffering the same problems, so it is not my place to say you are right or wrong. I can only say that I am sorry that the state of our country today is such that any established group of people could define us as culturally fragmented and - worse in my mind - unwelcoming.

[gale_storm]

All of the anti- threads -- whichever thread someone wants, there is another who wants the other end, and they're willing to pull at it as hard as the first is -- are like a Gordian knot that just gets more and more tangled or bungled as time goes on.

O.o

[drwex]

Israel was established in the ashes of the Holocaust when it became clear that there was no safe country of refuge for Jews, so we had to make one. When actual Nazis are marching in America chanting "Jew will not replace us" - and the President thinks they're fine people and the mass media won't even call them Nazis (alt-right my hairy backside) - then it's time to consider seriously whether heading to the safe room is the sane choice. Realizing that the "safe" room has been taken over by similar nationalist racist fanatics is a deep problem.