Anyway I'll put this info here cause it's pretty important:
Donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (pcrf.net)
Or doctors without borders.
Both of these organizations just provide relief and nothing else. Israel has a ton if support and the Palestinians have none. In the event of a humanitarian corridor opening the Palestinians need organizations donating medical supplies.
It's a great way of supporting the Palestinians without supporting Hamas.
Jeez. These are the things I'm too cowardly to say online (but not in real life, to real people that I know). Kudos to you.
The whole thing is sickening.
As I said when I poked my head up in another discussion, this didn't start nor will it end with Hamas. I feel quite angry at the high rotation focus on Hamas being the problem. Ha! If only it was so simple. Look back over a few thousand years. Look back over the last 75 years. Sheesh.
Btw - prior to October, 200 people in the West Bank were killed by Israel attacks. Does anyone know this, or care?
It doesn't help that the US media is so biased toward Israel. I saw that a NYT op-ed admitted that Israel is also partially to blame for this violence, and it got the online version of a standing ovation. Sad that the bar is so low.
As much as I detest the opinions we are subject to on da Net, I reflect back on the pre-Internet days and they were worse. Hard to believe, I know. But they were. And doubly so if you were in a deep red state. You were positively fucking alone. Many ways of life simply were not open to you. Like they didn't exist.
Anyway, you've written something rather thoughtful and I've drilled down into an inane offhanded reflection on a minor detail. But what you've written is well said.
Another tangent: that was an interesting time because of the 'support our troops' refrain going on everywhere. I think Viet Nam still existed, somewhat, in the collective awareness, and folks were determined to not repeat the spitting on soldiers play from that time. And also many of our ground forces were backdoor drafted from the reserves, which was a new thing then, and rather horrific. But it's never been an easy thing for me to wrap my head around, supporting our troops while denouncing the war they're fighting. The rhetoric goes it's the politicians who are to blame, and certainly that is true. But you can't fight a war if no one will wage it. And it was an invasion, not a for-our-homeland war— which is how it was sold, of course. Anyway, I'm rambling now. Tim O'Brien has said all of this better than I ever could.
I recently saw a flagpole with the Ukrainian flag and the Israeli flag right below it. We have waded into a disturbing dissonance that cannot be ignored. What funny to me is the Israeli response has always outpaced any attacks. *I will strike down upon this with furious anger* type of response. We are seeing it scaled up to a level we haven’t witnessed, but this does not surprise me. Someone told me about Israeli soldiers pouring cement into well to cut off irrigation and it’s news from JULY. This is what people are standing with.
It’s the libs who we’re all “I stand with Ukraine” who will uncritically defend Israel that really gets me. It removes the facade of allyship, as they’ve shown time and time again that they will buckle on their social justice principles the minute it becomes slightly inconvenient for them.
I think people want an uncomplicated enemy. Nuance can be confusing and upend certain lies you tell yourself. When the enemy is clear and conservatives are wrong about who that is, fantastic. But if we have to look at situations through lenses of white supremacy, sexism, classism, etc, it stymies people who do not want to do the work to understand that nuance. People keep saying this is complicated, but it’s really not.
Im happy you are writing about this. Your a smart guy and I think your view is the sane one. I read Freddies as well... he got roasted... few could really get what he was trying to communicate.
It's a simple parallel to 9/11. It was a horrible thing to happen to America and 2900 American civilians. It is also true that American foreign policy created the conditions that would make something like that more likely to happen. It is also possible to think 9/11 was a tragedy AND the War in Iraq was completely unjustifiable.
The idiot communist cosplayers cheering on Hamas are also braindead. If they really believe that "Israeli civilians are settlers," then I would ask them if they would be ok with Native Americans killing unarmed American citizens as a part of "justified resistance."
The internet has seriously brain-poisoned millions of people.
Well put. It’s wild how far back our shrug-and-smile record goes for regional allies (Papa Doc is good for a colorful example), and how short our memory for it is. I’d almost respect it if we were all proud John Bolton types, but the dual consciousness is insane.
For sure. At least John Bolton is forthcoming. I'd respect them more if they just said "What Israel is doing is in line with what settler nation-states have done for the last few hundred years. As citizens of the US, we support the displacement of native populations as is our tradition." At least that is a more intellectually honest argument than, "Israel has a right to defend itself and opposing a Zionist government is an opposition to Judaism."
This is amazing
Anyway I'll put this info here cause it's pretty important:
Donate to the Palestinian Children's Relief Fund (pcrf.net)
Or doctors without borders.
Both of these organizations just provide relief and nothing else. Israel has a ton if support and the Palestinians have none. In the event of a humanitarian corridor opening the Palestinians need organizations donating medical supplies.
It's a great way of supporting the Palestinians without supporting Hamas.
Thanks for sharing! Will donate.
Jeez. These are the things I'm too cowardly to say online (but not in real life, to real people that I know). Kudos to you.
The whole thing is sickening.
As I said when I poked my head up in another discussion, this didn't start nor will it end with Hamas. I feel quite angry at the high rotation focus on Hamas being the problem. Ha! If only it was so simple. Look back over a few thousand years. Look back over the last 75 years. Sheesh.
Btw - prior to October, 200 people in the West Bank were killed by Israel attacks. Does anyone know this, or care?
It doesn't help that the US media is so biased toward Israel. I saw that a NYT op-ed admitted that Israel is also partially to blame for this violence, and it got the online version of a standing ovation. Sad that the bar is so low.
The bias is pretty global. We have the same in Australia.
Oh, and that damned 9/11analogy is irksome. Apart from the inaccuracy, a complete failure of imagination. Who was the idiot that kicked that off?
As much as I detest the opinions we are subject to on da Net, I reflect back on the pre-Internet days and they were worse. Hard to believe, I know. But they were. And doubly so if you were in a deep red state. You were positively fucking alone. Many ways of life simply were not open to you. Like they didn't exist.
Anyway, you've written something rather thoughtful and I've drilled down into an inane offhanded reflection on a minor detail. But what you've written is well said.
That is definitely true. Even the post-9/11 days pre-social media, if you were even remotely critical of the Iraq War, you were a political pariah.
Another tangent: that was an interesting time because of the 'support our troops' refrain going on everywhere. I think Viet Nam still existed, somewhat, in the collective awareness, and folks were determined to not repeat the spitting on soldiers play from that time. And also many of our ground forces were backdoor drafted from the reserves, which was a new thing then, and rather horrific. But it's never been an easy thing for me to wrap my head around, supporting our troops while denouncing the war they're fighting. The rhetoric goes it's the politicians who are to blame, and certainly that is true. But you can't fight a war if no one will wage it. And it was an invasion, not a for-our-homeland war— which is how it was sold, of course. Anyway, I'm rambling now. Tim O'Brien has said all of this better than I ever could.
I recently saw a flagpole with the Ukrainian flag and the Israeli flag right below it. We have waded into a disturbing dissonance that cannot be ignored. What funny to me is the Israeli response has always outpaced any attacks. *I will strike down upon this with furious anger* type of response. We are seeing it scaled up to a level we haven’t witnessed, but this does not surprise me. Someone told me about Israeli soldiers pouring cement into well to cut off irrigation and it’s news from JULY. This is what people are standing with.
It’s the libs who we’re all “I stand with Ukraine” who will uncritically defend Israel that really gets me. It removes the facade of allyship, as they’ve shown time and time again that they will buckle on their social justice principles the minute it becomes slightly inconvenient for them.
I think people want an uncomplicated enemy. Nuance can be confusing and upend certain lies you tell yourself. When the enemy is clear and conservatives are wrong about who that is, fantastic. But if we have to look at situations through lenses of white supremacy, sexism, classism, etc, it stymies people who do not want to do the work to understand that nuance. People keep saying this is complicated, but it’s really not.
Yeah there’s a difference between nuance and complexity. Some moral questions should be simple to answer.
Im happy you are writing about this. Your a smart guy and I think your view is the sane one. I read Freddies as well... he got roasted... few could really get what he was trying to communicate.
It's a simple parallel to 9/11. It was a horrible thing to happen to America and 2900 American civilians. It is also true that American foreign policy created the conditions that would make something like that more likely to happen. It is also possible to think 9/11 was a tragedy AND the War in Iraq was completely unjustifiable.
The idiot communist cosplayers cheering on Hamas are also braindead. If they really believe that "Israeli civilians are settlers," then I would ask them if they would be ok with Native Americans killing unarmed American citizens as a part of "justified resistance."
The internet has seriously brain-poisoned millions of people.
Facts. Im only on substack. No internets for me... to nuts.
Well put. It’s wild how far back our shrug-and-smile record goes for regional allies (Papa Doc is good for a colorful example), and how short our memory for it is. I’d almost respect it if we were all proud John Bolton types, but the dual consciousness is insane.
For sure. At least John Bolton is forthcoming. I'd respect them more if they just said "What Israel is doing is in line with what settler nation-states have done for the last few hundred years. As citizens of the US, we support the displacement of native populations as is our tradition." At least that is a more intellectually honest argument than, "Israel has a right to defend itself and opposing a Zionist government is an opposition to Judaism."