fck 
#Israel is in all likelyhood about to push a new offensive into #Gaza.
And this will, among a lot of other things, blow up the already rampant #antisemitism of the #left.
We might as well prepare for that.
Even though I'm not really qualified for this, someone has to start the #discussion. And WHAT I AM really qualified for, is provoking people by (metaphorically) spitting in their faces.
So, prepare for a rocky ride. (although this rant will be very slow)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cwy04km1zk0o
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Let's start with "#TheLeft" because thats the easy part.
It's called so for the seating order of the post-revolutionary parliament in France [ the ol headchoppers ]. As opposed to "#TheRight" which was (obviously) sitting on the other side.
As you can see, even the name doesn't make any sense but, like with so many other historical stuff, you can't get rid of that.
One cool thing about being part of the left is, that you have the inbuildt superpower of the moral high ground.
Above critique.
The left is (traditionally) pretty splintered.
Far out in the very "left" (hard to still call it that) spectrum are the #Anarchists who see themself as not aligned with traditional politics.
Then comes the #CriticalLeft which is the least antisemitic sub-scene, because they critizize all & everything including themself. That helps somewhat.
Next #OrganizedLeft (unions & stuff).
Followed by #BourgeoisLeft.
And on the far right is the #AuthoritarianLeft (who see themself as being far left).
Traditionally all this directions have their own topics & playgrounds.
But something is starting to slip a little here, and not in a good way.
If, for instance, you're looking at the anarchists today, some (a lot?) seem to be against all nation states (exept #Palestine) and want to overcome all religion (exept radical Islamism).
Of course that doesn't make any sense at all. But people have somewhat stopped using their heads and are running with the flow nowadays.
It's sad & strange.
Let's be clear at this point:
The #war in #Gaza is a fucking tragedy.
#Innocent people are suffering, and they shouldn't. #WarCrimes are committed by #Israel, and they shouldn't. There are #atrocities at a massive scale, and there shouldn't be.
#TheLeft should very much thematize that.
At best together with atrocities that were committed by #Hamas on October 7th. Because the smaller scale doesn't make it any less horror.
NO ONE should be de-humanized & suffer like people did on both sides.
But what is #TheLeft doing instead of holding up the high standards of UNIVERSAL #HumanRights ??
They are obessed with a concept called "#Zionism".
And that is actually pretty much all bullshit. Zionism WAS a historical movement before #Israel was established. It was a child of the nationalist time back then, & if you are a historian you can very well criticize its origins & thought leaders.
But Israel is a fucking reality now. Since long ago. Since most of you where even born.
Deal with it.
The "pretty" thing about using #Zionism for ones critique is, that it's so bendable. It's a container you can put all sorts of stuff into.
For some its just a way of showing unease about certain forms of Nationalism within the Israeli society. (Yes, nationalism isn't a good thing and yes it exists anywhere) But others can put "all #Jews" into that container, and no one will notice.
People aren't discussing "what do you really mean by that". They are outraged together & getting little obessed.
As speaking of "obcessed" - have you asked yourself why the horrible #war in #Gaza is getting so under your skin?
What about the horrible war in #Sudan ? #Tigray (one of the bloodiest recent #genocide) ? #Kongo ? #Myanmar ?
Have you even ever heard of these places? Do you know whats going on there? If not - why is that? Did you ever ask yourself these question?
I guess most don't. And they don't even know why.
Thing is, that the combination of the moral high ground & #outrage is dangerous.
I see the first counter - points coming in & starting to get a little distracted. Can't think about other input & rant @ the same time.
So, let me just close this here:
I am urging all who consider themself to be part of a whatever #Left to let the #Jews do their thing. Internally. I trust this vibrant community to come to the right choices, and so should you.
Stop calling them #Nazis just because you're outraged & hurt.
If you want to help - hold up the principle of universal human rights.
As speaking of “obsessed” - have you asked yourself why the horrible war in Gaza is getting so under your skin?
Yes, I have, for three seconds because an obvious and huge answer pops out readily:
Because Israel is our supposed “ally” in many ways. It’s a regime whose actions a lot of our local politicians and pundits are defending. That local companies build weapons for. Our Swedish gov’t wanted to send warships down there (not to help Gaza. To “fight Houthis”).
It gets under our skin because we are getting gaslit on a massive scale.
What about the horrible war in Sudan? Tigray (one of the bloodiest recent genocide)? Kongo? Myanmar?
I do follow the reports on these wars. Myanmar has been especially brought up since that, too, was exacerbated by Western complicity (Facebook’s algorithm).
Out of these five conflicts, the Gaza war has already seen the second-highest destruction of civilians, women, children, and homes. It has been bloodier and more brutal than three of these five conflicts. That’s right, the Gaza genocide has already seen a higher casualty rate than even the horrific Myanmar genocide, and those numbers are staggering.
Tigray is the biggest and most brutal war of these. We need to stop it; and we need to stop the Gaza war until it gets to that level.
That is not to make excuses for any of these wars in any way.
The one of these five wars that I do hear people make excuses for all the time is the Gaza war.
From the US senate, Lindsey Graham called for Gaza to be flattened, Tom Cotton said “Israel can bounce the rubble in Gaza”, and Marco Rubio said Israel should “respond disproportionately”.
America kept sending bombs.
That makes the Gaza war unique among these five wars.
Tigray comes close because Germany and a handful of other European countries were selling weapons to the Ethiopian regime… Which is appalling and was wrong, and it’d be a pretty minor of me to point out that was before the war. America and the west has kept propping up Israel even throughout all of this.
But minor nitpick or no, that’s why we on the left are protesting the Gaza war. We are protesting the Western world’s complicity.
Which has also been the focus for our protests in these other conflicts, how the tech industry benefits from slave labor in Congo or how the “maximize engagement” Facebook algorithm exacerbated Myanmar’s genocide.
That is what the left is—the “conscience” of the West. The ones who say “what we’re doing is a problem”.
And that is actually pretty much all bullshit. Zionism WAS a historical movement before Israel was established. It was a child of the nationalist time back then, & if you are a historian you can very well criticize its origins & thought leaders.
[…]
For some its just a way of showing unease about certain forms of Nationalism within the Israeli society. (Yes, nationalism isn’t a good thing and yes it exists anywhere) But others can put “all Jews” into that container, and no one will notice.
This part, I do agree with you. These are good points.
Yes, zionism, the real zionism, was/is bad and there still are people who advocate for some of Israel’s more messed up things (like the settler movement or some of the atrocities in Gaza) from a Herzl perspective or even shockingly from a Nevi’im perspective, dredging up thousands-year-old hate. So criticizing and countering Zionist ideas is unfortunately still important but it’s reserved for contexts where everyone in the conversation knows what it is and has the full historical and/or nuanced contemporary awareness. Why? Because exactly what you say: just chanting anti “Zionist” slogans has been a way for antisemites to hide antisemitism, to, you put it perfectly, “put all Jews into that container”, and the nazi scum that do that are our enemy.
Like it or not, language changes and words take on new meanings, and @berlinfokus is correct here that a lot of people have been using “Zionist” as a synecdochal codeword for “jew” and hence we can’t just throw the word “Zionist” around anymore (I write “…anymore” even though this shift happened long before I was born and has never been okay).
As I’ve said before, parrotting the Nazi’s hate propaganda is never okay. Thank you for your thread.
Firstly, yes, Israel exists now, deal with it.
Also, Zionism goes back far older than the European movement in the 1800s.
That idea that Zionism is purely an 18th Century European idea is sadly common, and is part of a Eurocentric world view. :(