"Ask A Jew" Wednesday

[u/AutoModerator]

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.

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[u/loselyconscious]

I want to push back on the idea that only Jews should engage with questions of a "Jewish state", sure the question "Is it good for the Jews" could probably be left for us, but Israel is not a Jewish state that happens to be implementing apartheid and colonialism, it is that because at its foundations it was created to serve one group of people over another group, that is everyone's concern.

To answer the question the pro-Palestine movement suffers from all the problems of any semi-popular left-wing movement, one thing I have particularly noticed is the romanticization/aestheticization of violence. There is a minority of people who treat it like a video game battle, make memes and jokes about "Chad Hamas, Virgin Israel, and cutesie cartoons of Hamas fighters, Even if you think 10/7 was justified (I do not), violence is still a grave and serious thing, that should be treated as tragedy in all cases.

There is also just the general simplification of valid arguments to the point they become problematic or just not true. For instance, very valid discourse about the Ashkenazi Jewish Israeli attempt to self-orientalize, and appropriate culture from Mizrachim and Arabs, gets turned into "Jews stole hummus from the Palestinians," Information about the existence of Palestinian Jews, i.e Jews whose families have been in Palestine since at least before the New Yishuv (prior to 1880), get turned into the claim I've seen lots of places that there "Indigenous" Jews who identify as, and politically with, Palestinians n the West Bank and Gaza right now,

[u/TurkeyFisher → u/loselyconscious]

Jews whose families have been in Palestine since at least before the New Yishuv (prior to 1880), get turned into the claim I've seen lots of places that there "Indigenous" Jews who identify as, and politically with, Palestinians n the West Bank and Gaza right now,

Are you referring to the Mizrachim here or another group? Because I think it's relevant to note that the Mizrachim actually tend to be more conservative than Askenazi and have been generally very supportive of the war on Gaza. Even a majority Muslim Israelis have supported Israel since the war began.

[u/Thisisme8719 → u/TurkeyFisher]

Even a majority Muslim Israelis have supported Israel since the war began.

What does that mean? In terms of supporting Israel's actions in Gaza? The vast majority of Palestinian Israelis thought Israel was going too far within the first few months of the war. It's now almost the entirety of the Palestinian Israeli population who thinks the war should end according to the recent IDI poll. That's also considering that Palestinian citizens of Israel can't even be forthright with their criticisms because of the Israeli Gestapo. Dozens were arrested within the first couple of weeks of the war, and the persecution is still going on.

[u/TurkeyFisher → u/Thisisme8719]

Yes, I think I was looking at old polling: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israels-arab-minority-feels-closer-country-war-poll-finds-2023-11-10/ I can't seem to find specific polling from IDI that you are referring to, I'd like to see it. But it does look like you are right that that support has dropped significantly.