updated as of yesterday (July 21): based on a statistical model developed by a prestigious medical journal called The Lancet, Israel has killed roughly 434,800 people in Gaza since the country’s military started to attack the territory on 8 October 2023. That’s 20.7% of Gaza’s entire pre-conflict population dead. Over half are women and children.

    • sodium_nitride [she/her, any]@hexbear.net
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      19 days ago

      I think the logical conclusion from the events of recent years, and from the basic principle that class struggle superscedes identity politics, it was always “easy” to see that no identity group had an inherently revolutionary, or non-reactionary character.

      That goes especially for the followers of abrahamic religions, who dominate large swathes of the globe and whose rulers posses unimaginable wealth.

      Amongst these, the followers of Judaism had an even bigger advantage that there existed an exploitative project explicitly design to extract and spread wealth for them, while their numbers are small. This leading to to the result of them consistently ranking amongst the most well-off demographics, that is, the most bourgeoisfied of the proletariat anywhere in the world.

      So in that sense, talking of a problem of Jewish supremacism is entirely valid. And yet, such a talk entirely understates the horror of the zionist project. It is not something that merely threatens some abstract ideal of racial equality, it is the lynchpin of western colonialism in the 21rst century. The zionist project very much has the potential to kick-start what might be known as the third world war by future historians, if it hasn’t already.

      • CupcakeOfSpice [she/her, fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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        19 days ago

        I dunno. It seems like most of the people I see promoting the Zionist occupation are evangelicals. I guess if Israel is to be considered a Jewish state, then the attempt to eradicate other presence there could be considered Jewish supremacy. It feels like that is less common among Jews than white supremacy is among white people or whatever is going on with evangelicals. Most of the people I personally see supporting Zionism, though, are evangelicals awaiting their promised end of the world scenario.

        • Redbolshevik2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          19 days ago

          There are orders of magnitude more Christians than Jews, but even given that, your experience has not been my own. I’ve come across thousands of Jews (American, Israeli, Dutch, etc) who support and defend Israel. 99% of American synagogues are explicitly Zionist and provide material support to Israel and the IDF. The genocide is being armed primarily by Christians, but it’s being carried out literally exclusively by Jews and with the approval of the majority of Jews.

          If any other demographic had this much embedded Nazism, we would’ve been speaking about their role in empire the way we openly talk about Catholics, Evangelicals, Mormons, etc. Scots were once oppressed by the British Empire before they fully integrated and became valuable foot soldiers.

          Every real Anti-Zionist Jew has my support, but if Judaism is going to survive, some very difficult conversations need to be had.

          • CupcakeOfSpice [she/her, fae/faer]@hexbear.net
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            19 days ago

            I guess that makes sense. My experience is pretty limited. It is important to refrain from antisemitism in combating the Nazi elements, but that certainly shouldn’t stop us from discussing those things.

            • Redbolshevik2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              19 days ago

              Definitely. There is nothing inherent to Judaism that orients people toward this behavior, hence the sharp generational divide. It is all about class. But if we’re going to be honest when we say that Israel doesn’t represent Jews, Jews need to start confronting their relatives the way everyone (correctly) insisted white people do about Trumpism.

              I’m not an expert in religious history, but I really think Judaism could be heading for a schism over this.

              • Salem [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                19 days ago

                Zionism was considered a fringe movement prior to the Holocaust, the prevailing attitude was towards the Labor Bund, socialism, or liberalism. But because there was a sizable population, following, and political, economic support for establishing an “Ulster” in the Levant, Zionism was permitted and sustained by Western capital and empire.

                The war, the genocide, eradicated much of the Jewish socialists and traumatized the survivors into believing the antisemitic beliefs that Jews, despite being native to their European states for centuries, were always strangers - and the strangers should go back to their ancestral homeland: Palestine.

                Zionism, as a living coping mechanism for centuries of abuse during Diaspora, indulged in these twisted fantasies in order to free the Jewish people from their oppressors and threat of annihilation. Zionism professes itself as the agent of Jewish self-determination, but while the Israeli government drives the car, Europe and the US pave and path the road, supply the gasoline, and act as their mechanics.

                There is so much institutional and ideological saturation of Zionism within Jewish institutions that make it very challenging to be liberated from; however the brazen and constant barrage of Israeli politicians, media figures, IDF troops, and the Palestinians crying out for help through their own broadcast of the starvation and genocide is deepening a rejection of Zionism.

                • Redbolshevik2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  19 days ago

                  The one thing I would push back on/add is that “Labour Zionism” and the Kibbutzim were fundamental to the Nakba and the current Israeli Holocaust. Just like all the European chauvinists who dissolved the Second International, calling oneself a Socialist does not prevent anyone from pursuing parasitic class interests.

                  • PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmygrad.ml
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                    19 days ago

                    Bund was at least proto-zionist since the beginning, they wanted to monopolise Jewish workers and regularily wrecked attempts to build join front with non-Jewish socialist orgs.