Since Some of Y'all Seem Confused

Alert the presses, the Americans are confused again.  This time it's about the difference between Jews and Israel.  If I had a nickel for every post I saw on social media conflating the two, I'd have... a shit-ton of nickels.  Whether well-meaning or intentional and in bad faith, this confusion needs to end.  Let me try & clear it up for you:

Jews = Human beings of any ethnicity who follow the religion of Judaism.  

Israel = a state in the Middle East established in 1948.  Home to Jews from a variety of political and religious orientations (conservative, liberal, Ultra-Orthodox, secular, Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi) as well as Arab Muslims & Christians and a growing number of migrant workers from places like Romania, Africa and Thailand.  

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See the difference?  One refers to a people, the other refers to a nation-state & its governing body.

Likewise, folks stay confused about what constitutes "antisemitism".  Unlike the confusion mentioned above though, this variety of befuddlement is a result of intentional ongoing efforts on the part of Zionists (we'll get to them later!) to conflate a hatred of Jewish people with criticism of the state of Israel.  Let me clear THAT up:

Antisemitism = hating Jewish people for their race/religion alone regardless of where they reside on the planet.  Often involves generalizing Jews as a monolithic group or sharing undesirable features, such as being "greedy," "disloyal to the nations they reside in" or "controlling the media".  Drawing caricatures of Jews with exaggerated features like a large nose & bulging eyes like Hitler's propaganda is antisemitic.  Kanye West's recent manic outburst was antisemitic.  Mel Gibson's rant, err, rants in the 2000s & beyond was were antisemitic.

Anti-Zionism = Opposition to the existence or behavior of the nation-state of Israel.  Anti-Zionism comes in several degrees of intensity, the mildest being merely disagreeing with the actions of the Israeli government and military (i.e. endlessly expanding & removing Palestinians from their homes).  Believing that the state of Israel in its current location/iteration should not exist is another variation while the most extreme form is opposition to the existence of a homeland for ANY race/religion of people, as such a place requires the forcible removal of the native population.  Not all Jews support Israel, with some strongly criticizing the Netanyahu government's policies & military actions & others--such as many Ultra-Orthodox groups--not recognizing the state of Israel as legitimate at all. 

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Again, see the distinction?  

Indeed, conflating "antisemitism" with anti-Zionism is a dirty trick propagated by Zionists for a very well-defined purpose:  bullying people into supporting Israel no matter how many war crimes and crimes against humanity it commits while shutting down any criticism of its leaders.  Nobody wants to be called the equivalent of a racist or bigot, and once you do that the debate suddenly becomes about something else entirely.  Visions of the Holocaust are summoned to mind and a shouting match ensues.  Somehow Israel's atrocities never get the attention they deserve because everyone's too busy arguing about the definition of antisemitism & other such terms.

But what do actual Holocaust survivors have to say about what's going on in Gaza?  Like any group, I'm sure they're divided but here's what one brave precious lady had to say:

She's not the only one to draw the comparison.  Children of Holocaust victims like Norman Finkelstein have been vocally outspoken against Israel's actions over the years as well, often to the detriment of their career and livelihood (and sometimes even their safety).  Dr. Cornel West, Independent candidate for president in 2024, stepped down from his position at Harvard that spanned 5 decades in 2021 because they refused to offer him tenure due in large part to his support of Palestine.  Now those same Ivy League institutions are siccing cops on students who dare to protest Israel's actions on their campuses in what feels like a throwback to the Vietnam War protests of the '60s.  Hopefully it doesn't reach the level of Kent State this time, but I put nothing past our militarized police force.  

President Biden, who has stated on numerous occasions that he is a Zionist or would be one if he were Jewish, has just sent a multi-billion dollar aid package to Israel to help them bomb Palestinian civilians back into the Stone Age when our own nation is falling apart at the seams--a "gift" we simply can't afford.  Israel is not a developing country that needs our charity, yet year upon year we send them aid as if they were starving Ethiopians with no indoor plumbing & a looming AIDS crisis.  Our presidents have a long history of doing this whether conservative or liberal.  RFK, presumptive Democratic presidential candidate in 1968, was assassinated by a Palestinian Christian whose family was driven out of Palestine by Israel's military brutality.  The assassin originally supported RFK, who billed himself as the candidate who stood for the downtrodden and oppressed, until he heard him give a speech promising to send 50 fighter jets to Israel which he could not wrap his mind around.  The rest is history.  Incredibly tragic history.

This begs the uncomfortable question: how many terrorists are being created by America and Israel's unholy alliance?  By decades of displacing, land grabbing, bombing, starving, exiling, illegal occupation & genocide against native Palestinians?  Would terrorism exist if not for our own actions in the Middle East as a whole?  Why do we remain involved in these faraway conflicts to the tune of trillions when we have starving homeless people under every bridge right here at home?   Who profits?  Certainly not us, and absolutely not Arabs or Palestinians, who make up a majority in the Israeli/Palestinian region.  Aside from Halliburton, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Honeywell & other military weapons manufacturers, I'm drawing a blank. 

I don't claim to be a fountain of knowledge on this issue; I have no loved ones in Gaza and have never been there myself.  However I do think it's important to clarify the definitions of these terms to combat the spread of misinformation which exists on all sides of all wars.  If you happen to live in the U.S., the propaganda is mostly pro-Israel as they're our allies (just as it was anti-Vietcong during the Vietnam war, anti-Taliban in Iraq/Afghanistan & pro-Contra in the Nicaragua conflict).  In case you couldn't tell, I'm firmly on the side of peaceful coexistence.  

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