r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • Oct 02 '24

AAJ "Ask A Jew" Wednesday

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday! Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

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u/bearoscuro Non-Jewish Ally Oct 02 '24

I was wondering how people felt about these two articles + twitter thread? They're from a Canadian news outlet I follow. The second is a rebuttal to the first, and the third is a counter-rebuttal. A lot to read haha, but I'm curious about people's opinions.

https://www.readthemaple.com/are-canadian-jews-complicit-in-israels-genocide-in-gaza/

https://www.readthemaple.com/moral-complicity-and-the-bigger-picture-of-canadian-support-for-israel/

https://x.com/DavideMastracci/status/1841517917281616332

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u/ApplesauceFuckface Ashkenazi Oct 03 '24

Nice to see another reader of The Maple and The Breach on here.

One thing I would note about the Mastracci article and Appel's response is that these are two Canadians commenting on the Jewish community in Canada. While there are Canadian Jews who oppose Israel on a more fundamental level than "oh, Bibi is bad but Israel has a right to exist and defend itself", I think Mastracci is correct to point out that we're very much in the minority. And we do not have the same pull economically, politically or socially as the Zionist bloc. I can also empathize to a degree with Appel, I had to go through a difficult period of cognitive dissonance as I shook off the Zionist indoctrination I grew up with, and I was blessedly able to do that more or less in private.

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u/bearoscuro Non-Jewish Ally Oct 03 '24

Yeah! Those two and the Grind have been putting out consistently decent coverage, I drop them a few dollars when I can. I felt like I was going insane whenever I saw the CBC passive voice war crime apologia otherwise... every time Israel bombs something they'll be writing a stream of consciousness free verse poem in the headline to avoid saying who did it. It's good the Maple can have slightly conflicting opinion pieces like this, it's a sign of integrity I think.

I think there is a degree of unease I felt about Mastracci's phrasing, because there are genuine antisemitic goons who use similar stuff as a way to segue into their ideology, but it's pretty factually backed up and he does make it clear that he's discussing their material actions of support, not identity. And it is unfortunately an issue... I think if there were statistics floating around like "60% of Canadian Muslims think it's bigoted to criticize the idea of a caliphate" or "Russian Canadians raise 100 million for Russia as support after it invades Ukraine" people would be rightfully unsettled, but Zionism is more socially acceptable to support.