100%. I'd mention Qatar by name particularly, but the essential case makes total sense - nothing diverts world opinion like raw antisemitism, to the point where existential concerns like climate change take a back seat to the desire to indulge in selective outrage.
What I find surprising is that this narrative has yet to get any traction outside of our small group when it's so blindingly obvious, not even among people who are challenging the Palestinianist takeover of global public discourse.
At the same time, those people who are pushing this Palestinianist narrative seemingly have no short term - or long term - desire for the current situation to end. Paradoxically, they seem to need Israel as their punching bag as much as they need to continue the punching.
Russia also vastly benefits from the continuation Israel-Hamas conflict because it diverts attention from Ukraine and turns Israel into the world's pariah state instead of Russia.
They are looking for a bad guy. A sort of "heart of darkness", to all bad things like racism, sexism and climate. Ah yes, we have a pill for you. Swallow it nicely and say after me. "The Jew among nations is the source of all this badness".
Hey Ariel- great (and disturbing) piece. Sorry for missing this- but can you explain what you mean with the verb “Palestined”? Do you mean eclipsed by the Free Palestine movement?
Thank you, Rachael - you didn’t miss it, I didn’t include it on purpose because I believe it is multifaceted and didn’t want to be tied down to a single definition. Because there are definitely elements of eclipse, but there are also elements of being undermined, distracted from, sabotaged.
For example, Greta, who I believe is a good-hearted woman has been distracted from her quest to save the climate without recognizing that the cause she was recruited to head is paid and funded by the same parties she previously protested.
Thank you for reading! I very much hope we won’t be stuck screaming into the void — I believe by raising the issues we can raise awareness that our current strategy is failing and we need to change.
Greta isn’t good hearted. She’s a narcissistic genocide supporting troll, who ironically is definitely not troll-sized. Don’t mistake self-promoting shrill narcissists for good people. People are measured in action, not empty grandstanding.
This is an excellent expression of how Palestine has sucked the air out of the human rights movement, but what do you mean exactly by “our civil war in our twice promised land?” I think that phrase is open to too many different interpretations given the many conflicting factions struggling against one another within Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
Thank you, Jeff - I mean that the more than century long war between Jews and Arabs is a civil war, since both groups feel deeply connected to the land and are not intending to go anywhere. I wrote about it here: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/on-civil-wars-and-genocides
Thanks for the link. In that article you made a strong case against the term “genocide,” but didn’t really defend the use of the term “civil war.”
Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, defines civil war as “a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).” To use the term for the continuing Arab-Israeli war could be construed to mean that Gaza, Israel, and the occupied territories are the same country. I wonder if that helps us understand what’s going on.
Thank you, Jeff - apologies, it seems I'm very poor at clarifying the terms I use! I define civil war similarly, although I believe the proper framing is within the same geographic territory seeking to control the mechanisms of government.
If we look at the historical rhetoric since the 1919, after the breakdown of the Arab-Zionist Pact, the Jews and Arabs have been engaged in a civil war over control of the land between the river and the sea. That civil war continues until today, with Hamas seeking to control the whole land, and the PA essentially hoping to secede from Israel much as the Confederation in America sought to secede from the Union. The Jews have been taking the same approach as the Union -- unity at all costs -- without providing the equality of representation to all of the Arabs in the land which the Union did during Reconstruction.
Makes sense. I was seeking to really understand your position so that I can convey it to others. So much in this situation is misunderstood and caricatured opinions arguing with one another.
I think the paragraphs you wrote above are key to the original essay. I’m probably pedantic.
While I and others in Israel hold the government largely responsible for the impact of its failed strategy in Gaza, and I and other Israelis continue to protest to pressure the government to make a deal to end the war, no one with a moral and objective brain should ignore that Hamas could
What exact do you think you are accomplishing by doing these protests, displays of sanctimony? Righteous indignation over self-imposed immoral morality?
Hard to get traction with nonsensical premises that are irrelevant
We hope for the government to end the war. It's pretty simple. We are getting nowhere fast by remaining in Gaza. Only losing further loved ones, without riding Gaza of Hamas.
I am not hinting at anything, and I am not saying that you are wrong, but we told ourselves the same thing in 2009, and in 2014, and in other years when terrorists from Gaza attacked Israel.
How did this help us not to lose loved ones after October 7?
Why can we think that by leaving Gaza now and stopping the war (and this automatically means preserving Hamas, the return of UNRWA, the UN, Islamist activists and Qatari money) we will not create the preconditions for a new war in which Hamas will learn from and correct its mistakes?
Thank you - I should be absolutely clear: ending the current war on Hamas will ONLY make sense if we fight the long war against Islamic Imperialism. Until now Netanyahu's governments have been passive, reactive. We need to take the fight to them. To cut off their funding, change the web of international relationships, step up secret police actions.
I understand. To be honest, if I knew that our policy would have a mechanism to counteract those phenomena that have broken our security, that new laws would be developed that would secure the priority of security over imaginary illusions (which some call "the fight for democracy," but that's nonsense), and that a course would emerge to unite society rather than divide it (this would also strengthen security), I would fully support your opinion. But we are not there yet. We are not on the way there yet and we do not yet know whether we will go there.
The emergence of politicians of a new format is a distant fantasy and years of hard work, and leaving Gaza now?
Understand that I am a realist and I understand that what the current government is doing is ineffective, can have negative consequences and is unpopular, but the alternative is an even greater loss of the country's security level.
While I can't speak to this specific tragedy, I can say that the Gaza office is a Hamas tool and that despite multiple headlines there is no starvation in Gaza.
100%. I'd mention Qatar by name particularly, but the essential case makes total sense - nothing diverts world opinion like raw antisemitism, to the point where existential concerns like climate change take a back seat to the desire to indulge in selective outrage.
What I find surprising is that this narrative has yet to get any traction outside of our small group when it's so blindingly obvious, not even among people who are challenging the Palestinianist takeover of global public discourse.
At the same time, those people who are pushing this Palestinianist narrative seemingly have no short term - or long term - desire for the current situation to end. Paradoxically, they seem to need Israel as their punching bag as much as they need to continue the punching.
Agreed - it is surprising and fascinating.
Russia also vastly benefits from the continuation Israel-Hamas conflict because it diverts attention from Ukraine and turns Israel into the world's pariah state instead of Russia.
That is very true. From what I am reading, Russia is now considered a client state by China, so their interest would definitely be taken into account
Great piece. Thx.
They are looking for a bad guy. A sort of "heart of darkness", to all bad things like racism, sexism and climate. Ah yes, we have a pill for you. Swallow it nicely and say after me. "The Jew among nations is the source of all this badness".
Hey Ariel- great (and disturbing) piece. Sorry for missing this- but can you explain what you mean with the verb “Palestined”? Do you mean eclipsed by the Free Palestine movement?
Thank you, Rachael - you didn’t miss it, I didn’t include it on purpose because I believe it is multifaceted and didn’t want to be tied down to a single definition. Because there are definitely elements of eclipse, but there are also elements of being undermined, distracted from, sabotaged.
For example, Greta, who I believe is a good-hearted woman has been distracted from her quest to save the climate without recognizing that the cause she was recruited to head is paid and funded by the same parties she previously protested.
Right, thanks that makes sense.
It definitely feels like a big game of mind control that oil states and china (as you say) are winning winning winning.
So are we now just screaming into the void? Time and history will tell I guess.
Thank you!
Thank you for reading! I very much hope we won’t be stuck screaming into the void — I believe by raising the issues we can raise awareness that our current strategy is failing and we need to change.
Greta isn’t good hearted. She’s a narcissistic genocide supporting troll, who ironically is definitely not troll-sized. Don’t mistake self-promoting shrill narcissists for good people. People are measured in action, not empty grandstanding.
This is an excellent expression of how Palestine has sucked the air out of the human rights movement, but what do you mean exactly by “our civil war in our twice promised land?” I think that phrase is open to too many different interpretations given the many conflicting factions struggling against one another within Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.
Thank you, Jeff - I mean that the more than century long war between Jews and Arabs is a civil war, since both groups feel deeply connected to the land and are not intending to go anywhere. I wrote about it here: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/on-civil-wars-and-genocides
Thanks for the link. In that article you made a strong case against the term “genocide,” but didn’t really defend the use of the term “civil war.”
Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge, defines civil war as “a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).” To use the term for the continuing Arab-Israeli war could be construed to mean that Gaza, Israel, and the occupied territories are the same country. I wonder if that helps us understand what’s going on.
Thank you, Jeff - apologies, it seems I'm very poor at clarifying the terms I use! I define civil war similarly, although I believe the proper framing is within the same geographic territory seeking to control the mechanisms of government.
If we look at the historical rhetoric since the 1919, after the breakdown of the Arab-Zionist Pact, the Jews and Arabs have been engaged in a civil war over control of the land between the river and the sea. That civil war continues until today, with Hamas seeking to control the whole land, and the PA essentially hoping to secede from Israel much as the Confederation in America sought to secede from the Union. The Jews have been taking the same approach as the Union -- unity at all costs -- without providing the equality of representation to all of the Arabs in the land which the Union did during Reconstruction.
Let me know if that remains unclear.
Makes sense. I was seeking to really understand your position so that I can convey it to others. So much in this situation is misunderstood and caricatured opinions arguing with one another.
I think the paragraphs you wrote above are key to the original essay. I’m probably pedantic.
Inspired by you Ariel!
https://substack.com/@khaledsalih/p-168139553
Very good piece!
While I and others in Israel hold the government largely responsible for the impact of its failed strategy in Gaza, and I and other Israelis continue to protest to pressure the government to make a deal to end the war, no one with a moral and objective brain should ignore that Hamas could
What exact do you think you are accomplishing by doing these protests, displays of sanctimony? Righteous indignation over self-imposed immoral morality?
Hard to get traction with nonsensical premises that are irrelevant
We hope for the government to end the war. It's pretty simple. We are getting nowhere fast by remaining in Gaza. Only losing further loved ones, without riding Gaza of Hamas.
I am not hinting at anything, and I am not saying that you are wrong, but we told ourselves the same thing in 2009, and in 2014, and in other years when terrorists from Gaza attacked Israel.
How did this help us not to lose loved ones after October 7?
Why can we think that by leaving Gaza now and stopping the war (and this automatically means preserving Hamas, the return of UNRWA, the UN, Islamist activists and Qatari money) we will not create the preconditions for a new war in which Hamas will learn from and correct its mistakes?
Do we have a mechanism to prevent this?
Good article. Thank you.
Thank you - I should be absolutely clear: ending the current war on Hamas will ONLY make sense if we fight the long war against Islamic Imperialism. Until now Netanyahu's governments have been passive, reactive. We need to take the fight to them. To cut off their funding, change the web of international relationships, step up secret police actions.
I've written about it again and again over the years: https://alighthouse.substack.com/p/weve-been-fighting-the-wrong-war -- we're simply fighting the wrong war if we want to win.
I understand. To be honest, if I knew that our policy would have a mechanism to counteract those phenomena that have broken our security, that new laws would be developed that would secure the priority of security over imaginary illusions (which some call "the fight for democracy," but that's nonsense), and that a course would emerge to unite society rather than divide it (this would also strengthen security), I would fully support your opinion. But we are not there yet. We are not on the way there yet and we do not yet know whether we will go there.
The emergence of politicians of a new format is a distant fantasy and years of hard work, and leaving Gaza now?
Understand that I am a realist and I understand that what the current government is doing is ineffective, can have negative consequences and is unpopular, but the alternative is an even greater loss of the country's security level.
https://substack.com/@reeceashdown/note/c-133896040?r=5qrbeg&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action
While I can't speak to this specific tragedy, I can say that the Gaza office is a Hamas tool and that despite multiple headlines there is no starvation in Gaza.