Phigs posted:

I think a bunch of people just inserted "Jew = victim" into their brains and are completely incapable of updating their views or developing nuance.

Combine that with "Muslim = terrorist" and you get the current reaction.

Dokapon Findom posted:

I support Diversity, Tolerance, and Inclusion

mcmagic posted:

https://twitter.com/SanaSaeed/status/1713306912005976330

jesus christ

Zoeb posted:

You know, gonna put this out there. Not in reference to anything. But for all of the accusations of China being heavy handed and paranoid and maybe a bit overreaching when it comes to censoring and regulating play time of my vidya games. I don't think even the most aggressive accusations against them when it came to ethnically cleansing the Uighur Muslims accused them of systematically murdering the entire region.

Lpzie posted:

Al-Saqr posted:

Ok the situation is as follows:-


Whatever hopes Israel and their local arab zionists had to make normalization Palatable is gone for good. I have not seen this level of public outrage and anger since the second Intifada.

For years now, the state had gone through alot of effort to make the prospect of normalization with israel look less bad, they tried to create a fear of showing public solidarity with Palestinian online by (a) jailing prominent figures during the qatar feud (b) putting hamas on a terrorism list (muslim brotherhood) to make people afraid of posting online. and (c) employing quisling article writers and twitter trolls who would victim-blame the palestinians and spread lies about them to try and generate enough disinformation that there would be some sort of split in public opinion.


All of those have failed spectacularly and backfired, and now with the hospital bombing there will NEVER be a public opening for any sort of normalization. There is a real air of absolute anger and hatred against Israel that I have not experienced since the second Intifada.

The biggest signs of this was when everyone online (including myself which I never do politics with my real name until now) have publicly come out big-time against israel and standing unequivocally with Hamas and Palestine, and then last friday every imam in every mosque gave an extremely pro-gaza pro-palestine anti-israel speech (which I havent heard in a while because the government was handing out orders) that was genuine and the imam at my place was crying for palestine as if he let out pent-up emotions he wasnt allowed to express in years.

The other sign was the complete and utter obliteration of all of the online trolls and quisling writers, the sheer amount of abuse and death threats they are recieving from people with their real names has been unreal, there was even one especially repugnant pro-zionist quisling who when he tried to threaten them with legal action everyone just hailed on him abuse and told him to gently caress right off. Arab Zionist everywhere are getting obliterated by people and even UAE officials and writers (who are the big dogs of arab zionists) have all been getting ratioed, insulted and death threated by people accross the gulf using their real names.

There is a definite fear barrier that has been shattered for good, even in places that have made protesting illegal like in Bahrain and Egypt people have started to mobilize and protest in a way they were not able to in a decade after the crackdown of the arab spring.

The biggest shock in public opinion was the way america intervened on Israels side, they know america backs israel and how flagrant and childlike cartoonish their propaganda has been, but the fact that they're actively and directly participating in the genocide with actuall boots on the ground and carries and such have rocked people out of any illusion that america can be negotiated with, people with their real names have been praying to god that those carrier groups get set ablaze, it's astounding how deep america has destroyed their reputation.

Officially, while a part of me thinks saudi government is gonna try again in a few years, I am actually starting to think they're realizing that unlike the emirates they might actually get in trouble if they dont back away from normalization for good this time, the way they are communicating is becoming harder and harder on israel and their phone call with the iranians was really interesting, and all of those arab zionists who worked so hard and wrote their lovely posts and articles are gonna be sleeping with both eyes open for the rest of their lives.

Across the arab world there is a level of mobilization and anger and pushback against their governments that is putting them in 'oh poo poo I gotta do something or else I'm dead' survival mode, which is why we're seeing egypt and saudi and jordan take harder and harder stances.

The spell has been broken, there will be no take backs from this, america and israel have drawn the line in the sand permanently. they have reminded the arab world as a whole why israel must be destroyed and have permanently re-ignited the palestinian cause in everyones hearts.


Ok gotta go I'll post more about the general strategic situation when I'm back and fully high on anaesthetics and opoioids lol.

Zudgemud posted:

Nope, I just can't see how staying in a hospital and hoping to not get murdered by IDF who explicitly said they will murder you and all your patients if you stay there is a better outcome than evacuate as much as possible. I get that it is probably literally impossible to evacuate most patients and staff to other less bombed areas of Gaza under the circumstances because Gaza is not safe anywhere. But that does not really change the premise of stay and get murdered or try to evacuate somewhere else where you can at least help with basic first aid to prevent even more death.

Coolness Averted posted:

This guy needs to go do some on the ground fact finding in Palestine, ASAP

mags posted:

brown moses is goebbels 2…

Nichael posted:

This is an absurd amount of engagement.

gradenko_2000 posted:

https://twitter.com/normfinkelstein/status/1715490005903167560?t=fqTglwnvHDxscAvCHkxWXQ&s=19

gradenko_2000 posted:

FirstnameLastname posted:

Palestine has no problem with Jews, only Israelis, get out lol

RadiRoot posted:

stuffed octopus toys are bad huh. cool

Puppy Burner posted:

Thanks friend

Al-Saqr posted:

this right here is why you dont nitpick and heehaw against people who are on your side on an issue even if you know hes an empty head piece of poo poo, sometimes a grifter is a reallt powerful weapon to have and love him or hate him Jackson is doing incredible work even though its for self-centered reasons

think of it as having your own rush limbaugh. you hate the man but cant argue against the numbers.

Hefty Leftist posted:

raverrn posted:

https://twitter.com/jonnysocialism/status/1738259329516736964?s=20

RedSky posted:

Death to Israel.

mcmagic posted:

It's fake. But i believed it for a second lol.

Coolness Averted posted:

Well, I'm glad that's put to bed

Weka posted:

It's because US government spending is incredibly inefficient, it spends many times more per capita on healthcare than states with universal socialized healthcare. I wonder if this applies to its military spending.

RoboBoogie posted:

they were really saved by Hamas. explains why IDF killed a lot of civilians at the music festival.

Pener Kropoopkin posted:

https://twitter.com/chowdahhill/status/1745764487121023428?s=46&t=UyfxoSAUKW7QZlR_GhkuYA

https://twitter.com/chowdahhill/status/1745813497961709600?s=46&t=UyfxoSAUKW7QZlR_GhkuYA

Ramrod Hotshot posted:

where do you all see this war going from here?

even as we’re bombing Yemen it seems like things in the levant itself are kind of de escalating. the problem with that is it could just fall off the news, leaving Gaza destroyed and its people in tent cities and dying of starvation, while Israel remains at a sustainable level of low-intensity perpetual war. this sort of works to the benefit of both Biden and Netanyahu.

of course, if this happens, things will come to a head again inevitably, either in further action by hamas or mounting economic and political problems in Israel. but it could be a while until then.

Al! posted:

the most careful tugs youve ever seen since stephen hawking flew on the lolita express

apatheticman posted:

Empathy? From a zionist?

Orange Devil posted:

And what do you think these responses will achieve?

Will they look *dumb* while they continue with their genocide? Oh no!

BARONS CYBER SKULL posted:

i direct everyone who felt sorry for Major Blanket yesterday to look at the poo poo eating grins on the faces of the nazis blowing up houses

Al! posted:

give yemen a nuclear submarine

hadji murad posted:

just read a thing in Al Jazeera that China is pressuring Iran to get the Houthis to stop their actions

quote:

China presses Iran to rein in Houthi attacks in Red Sea: Report

Chinese officials are putting pressure on their Iranian counterparts to assist in getting the Houthis to stop their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, Reuters news agency reports.

Beijing has threatened to limit trade between China and Iran if Tehran doesn’t comply, according to the report, which quotes four anonymous Iranian sources and a diplomat close to the issue.

“Basically, China says: ‘If our interests are harmed in any way, it will impact our business with Tehran. So tell the Houthis to show restraint’,” one Iranian official said.

The Financial Times also reported this week that the US has repeatedly asked China to leverage its position to help stop attacks in the vital waterway, through which about 13 percent of global shipping moves.

The Iran-backed Houthis have been launching attacks on vessels in the Red Sea since November in retaliation for Israel’s war on Gaza.

quote:

US-China meetings fail to produce breakthrough on Red Sea shipping attacks

Lack of progress in addressing two key international crisis points underscores the limitations in the Biden administration’s diplomatic outreach to Beijing.

By Phelim Kine

01/27/2024 02:43 PM EST

The U.S. failed in two days of talks to prod China into pressuring Iran to stop Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, an administration official said Saturday.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan raised U.S. concerns about the ongoing attacks in the meetings with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Bangkok, Thailand, on Friday and Saturday. But the talks ended with no sign that China is willing to take decisive steps to use its economic influence on Iran — which funds and equips Yemen’s Houthi militia — to stem the threat to global supply chains.

Those attacks, which began two months ago, have prompted multiple U.S. and British air strikes on Houthi positions in Yemen in recent weeks.

“Beijing says they are raising this with the Iranians … but we’re certainly going to wait before we comment further on how effectively we think they’re actually raising it,” a senior administration official told reporters during a call on Sullivan’s meeting on Saturday.

The Biden administration has been making the case to Beijing that it should help “in terms of quieting some of those attacks, but whether it chooses to use that leverage in that way I think that remains to be seen,” the official said.

The Biden administration is also hitting a brick wall in trying to prod Beijing to convince close ally North Korea to scale back its nuclear weapons program, curtail support for Russia’s war on Ukraine and ease up on its increasingly hostile rhetoric toward South Korea.

“I wouldn’t characterize anything recently as constructive” in terms of Beijing’s influence on Pyongyang, the officials said.

Sullivan had better luck engaging with Wang on the ongoing civil conflict in Burma, where a military offensive by an alliance of ethnic militias launched in October has inflicted a series of defeats of government forces.

Much of the fighting, which has fueled a humanitarian crisis by displacing large numbers of civilians, has occurred along Burma’s border with China, which has close ties to Burma’s military dictatorship. Sullivan and Wang “discussed the ongoing crisis and we hope to have follow up discussions at lower levels in the coming weeks and months,” the official said.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry readout of the meeting published Saturday called the Sullivan-Wang talks “frank, substantive and fruitful,” but didn’t make any specific mention of the Red Sea shipping crisis.

The readout instead described the perceived threat of Taiwan independence as “the biggest challenge to China-U.S. relations.”

The statement also reiterated Beijing’s concerns that the U.S. is using export restrictions “to contain and suppress the development of other countries” and said that the two countries will discuss “the boundary between national security and economic activities” in future meetings.

China’s reluctance to use its diplomatic and economic heft to support U.S. moves to address the Red Sea disruptions or temper North Korea’s provocations underscores the limitations of the Biden administration’s diplomatic outreach efforts to Beijing over the past eight months.

That has included a series of cabinet officials’ trips to Beijing that climaxed with President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s meeting in San Francisco in November.

Biden and Xi will follow up that meeting with a phone call “this spring at some point in the coming months,” the official said. But Beijing’s deaf ear to U.S. calls for Chinese assistance in the Red Sea and on the Korean Peninsula suggests that China sees greater value in sitting by the sidelines of two ongoing international crises rather than actively siding with the U.S. against two key allies.

The two-day meeting was a follow-up to Wang’s visit to Washington in October in the run-up to the Biden-Xi encounter in San Francisco in November. That meeting ended with agreements to resume military-to-military contacts, bolster bilateral counter-narcotics cooperation and to begin discussions on the use of artificial intelligence.

Bilateral efforts to deliver on those agreements are bearing fruit. A U.S.-China Counternarcotics Working Group will have an inaugural meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, the official said. And a series of military-to-military contacts that Beijing suspended in 2022 in reprisal for then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan trip — including “communication between theater commanders and at the Minister-Secretary level” — will resume in the coming months, the official said.

A U.S.-China initiative to address “safety and risks posed by advanced forms of AI” will culminate in a joint meeting “sometime in the spring,” the official added.

Frosted Flake posted:

I have a hard time with the credulity of western reporting on that, and my Globe and Mail reading colleagues, because why on earth would Israel not invade as soon as they have the hostages? It doesn't matter if they get them all (or enough of them) back during the 2 months or on the very last day, we already played this game. Without leverage over Israel, which is why the hostages are so horrifying for them, we know what they are going to do.

Al-Saqr posted:

I've always wondered years ago how china were going to beat the white west at the 'pretending to be morally superior' marketing game when all they had to do is sit back and watch the whites shoot themselves in the dick and go full hitler.

lumpentroll posted:

quote:

I have written an open letter in my defence

I am writing to address the suspension of my posting privileges and to set the record straight regarding the context and content of my recent comments. My intention was to contribute to an informed discussion by drawing on historical and contemporary analyses, not to propagate harmful stereotypes.

My intention now that I stand accused of antisemitism, is to clarify and emphasize that the statements made are grounded in the most recent scholarship and firmly supported by historical context. I am confident in the accuracy of the information I have provided and am ready to defend the position with the strength of the literature.

Historical Accusations Against Jewish Communities:

It is a well-documented historical fact that Jewish communities, along with other minorities, were falsely accused of poisoning wells in medieval and early modern Europe. These baseless claims were part of a broader pattern of persecution and scapegoating. My reference to this history was intended to highlight the tragic irony of such accusations, not to perpetuate them.

The artificial division between Jewish history and the broader narrative of European history has often obscured the true dynamics underpinning the well-poisoning accusations of the late medieval period. A conventional reading might frame these accusations within the continuum of medieval anti-Judaism, drawing parallels with ritual murder or host desecration allegations (Barzilay 2022). However, a materialist historiographical approach reveals that the genesis of well-poisoning charges lies not in anti-Jewish sentiment but in the efforts to justify the persecution of lepers, a fact that significantly shaped the trajectory and nature of these accusations (Barzilay 2022). This insight prompts a reevaluation of the categories traditionally employed in historical analysis, suggesting that in this instance, they may obfuscate more than they elucidate (Barzilay 2022).

Moreover, the historiographical neglect of well-poisoning accusations as a distinct subject of study reflects a broader oversight of the materialist dimensions of historical phenomena (Barzilay 2022). While previous scholarship has often framed such persecutions within the context of religious and cultural antipathies, recent work by Barzilay advocates for a reassessment that foregrounds the material conditions and socio-economic interests shaping these episodes (Barzilay 2022). By weaving together the strands of economic hardship, demographic challenges, and the strategic manipulation of public anxieties, Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422 offers a materialist reinterpretation of well-poisoning accusations, situating them within the larger currents of late medieval European history.

Therefore, I believe that referring to the act of well poisoning as among "the worst stereotypes about Jewish people" and akin to "blood libel" is was correct in the context in which it was used. After reading Barzilay, it seems my mistake was believing such accusations had an enduring legacy. For Barzilay argues, there was a steep decline in well-poisoning accusations as a catalyst for anti-Jewish violence, in part due to the comparative lack of ritualistic and mnemonic resonance (Barzilay 2022). While well-poisoning narratives lingered in the cultural undercurrent, they ceased to function as a significant trigger for organized persecution, overshadowed by accusations that offered a more direct conduit to religious and communal identity formation (Barzilay 2022).

Having read the most recent monograph on well poisoning, I can only conclude that my error was rating well posing among the "worst" of these antisemitic narratives, when in reality it had far less impact than accusations of drinking Christian blood, for example.

Conflation of Israeli and Jewish Identities:

Scholarly research has extensively discussed how the State of Israel and some of its supporters conflate Israeli policies with Jewish identity, as well as anti-Zionism with antisemitism. This conflation can obscure the distinction between legitimate criticism of state policies and prejudiced attacks on a religious or ethnic group.

Michael Lerner's evolving stance on Israel, recorded in Israel and the Diaspora: Jewish Connectivity in a Changing World, reflects broader socio-political dynamics within the Jewish diaspora, particularly in the United States (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). His shifts from a neutral position to a critical post-Zionist perspective were marked at every turn by an association made between the Jewish community worldwide and the state of Israel. Lerner's initial defense of Israel against radical Leftist critique in the United States, grounded in the context of Middle Eastern geopolitics and historical conflicts, underscores the complex interplay between Jewish diasporic identity and the political realities of the State of Israel (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). His critique of the Left's condemnation of Israel reflected diasporic Jewish attitudes toward Israel, weaving together threads of historical memory, contemporary geopolitical analysis, and internal Jewish discourse (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022).

Lerner initially conflated the two, Israel and the Jewish people writ large, without hesitation, in a way that I believe mirrors the present media narrative, and, forgive me, the moderation decision made in this case: “Equally disturbing was that Jews from all over the country reported to us a disturbing amount of anti-Semitism and Israel bashing in the anti-war movement” (Tikkun, 1991, April: 7)

Lerner's transition to a post-Zionist critique of Israeli policy by the State's fiftieth anniversary signifies a deeper engagement with the moral and ethical implications of the State's actions, reflecting a broader trend within certain segments of the Jewish diaspora toward critical self-reflection (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). This shift can be understood within a materialist framework as a response to the evolving political landscape of Israel and its perceived deviation from the foundational values and aspirations that once galvanized widespread Jewish support for the Zionist project (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). Lerner's use of terms like "false messianism" to describe Israeli state policy points to a disillusionment with the state's trajectory, suggesting a reevaluation of the Zionist narrative in light of contemporary realities (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022):

“The state of Israel that was created to preserve Jews may be at the center of the process that leads Jews away from their Jewishness” (Lerner, 1998: 33).

It is on these grounds that I am prepared to defend that it is widely believed among diaspora Jews that the actions of the state of Israel reflect on them. I did not create this association, and I do not perpetuate it. Like Lerner, I believe the actions of Israel harm the Jewish people, as he says "lead Jews away from their Jewishness” (Lerner, 1998: 33). It is precisely the dire consequences of these actions that I wish to draw attention to, because I believe that the poisoning of wells in 1948, which I will get to shortly, knowingly hurt the Jewish community in light of the association between them and the state of Israel.

Israeli Government's Awareness of this Association:

There is evidence to suggest that the Israeli government is aware of how its actions and policies might be perceived in the context of historical Jewish experiences. This awareness has been used strategically in international forums to counter criticism, sometimes by invoking the specter of historical antisemitism.

Chapo favourite John Podhoretz, Editor-in-Chief of The Forward is the perfect subject to demonstrate this association. The Forward's engagement with Israeli politics, offering advice and urging coalition formations, illustrates the diaspora's active participation in Israeli statecraft, embodying a transnational Jewish political consciousness (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). This dynamic suggests that the Israeli government is aware that its policies and actions reverberate far beyond its territorial confines, impacting the global Jewish community's sentiment and moral standing (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022).

Moreover, the Israeli government's awareness of its role in representing the Jewish people worldwide is further highlighted by its responsiveness to diaspora perspectives, as evidenced by the diaspora media's influence on Israeli political discourse (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). The Forward's call for the Labor Party to join Sharon's government, aiming to temper aggressive policies, signifies the diaspora's vested interest in Israel's political direction and its implications for global Jewry (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022). (Note: "Jewry" was their term in the passage I am paraphrasing) This interaction between the Israeli state and diaspora voices underscores a reciprocal relationship where the diaspora's concerns and aspirations inform the state's policy-making process, reinforcing the notion that Israel's actions are perceived as reflecting the collective will and identity of the Jewish people (Kenedy, Rebhun, and Ehrlich 2022).

My statement, "I do wonder if Israel feels a pang of guilt about 'confirming' the worst stereotypes about Jewish people in their actions, while shouting blood libel at every turn," is grounded in the understanding that the Israeli government's actions are undertaken with the knowledge that they could be associated with the Jewish people as a whole. It does not constitute an attack on the Jewish people or rely on prejudiced stereotypes; instead, it highlights the consequences of the Israeli government's actions on the perception of Jews worldwide.

Theoretical Framework for Israeli-Diaspora Relations

The Israeli government's deliberate blending of national (Israeli) and religious/cultural (Jewish) identities is not an incidental byproduct of the state's formation but a calculated effort to harness the global Jewish community's economic, political, and cultural capital (Ben-Rafael, Liwerant, and Gorny 2014).

By positioning itself as the singular representative and homeland of all Jews, Israel strengthens its geopolitical stance, attracting investment, immigration, and political support that bolster its economy and international standing (Ben-Rafael, Liwerant, and Gorny 2014). This conflation is instrumental in the mobilization of diaspora resources, aligning the interests of Jews worldwide with the state's national agenda, thereby transforming global Jewish solidarity into a strategic asset for the Israeli economy and its geopolitical aspirations (Ben-Rafael, Liwerant, and Gorny 2014).

Moreover, the equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism is a tactical extension of this identity conflation, serving to deflect criticism and mobilize international support (Ben-Rafael, Liwerant, and Gorny 2014). By framing political opposition to Zionism or Israeli state policies as inherently antisemitic, the Israeli government effectively shields itself from legitimate scrutiny and sanctions, casting such critiques as attacks on the Jewish people at large rather than on specific state actions or policies (Ben-Rafael, Liwerant, and Gorny 2014). This rhetorical strategy not only stifles debate but also consolidates internal support by invoking a sense of collective threat and solidarity, further intertwining Jewish identity with Israeli statehood (Ben-Rafael, Liwerant, and Gorny 2014).

I am not guilty of observing that, conflating Israeli state actions with Jewish identity, and anti-Zionism with antisemitism, the Israeli government strategically positioned itself within a historical continuum of Jewish persecution. This conflation served to shield the state from international scrutiny and criticism, framing any accusations against it as a continuation of age-old antisemitic prejudices. It is precisely for these reasons that the actions of the Israeli government in 1948 are so heinous.

The 1948 Well-Poisoning Incident:

The specific incident I mentioned, documented by historians like Benny Morris, involved accusations against Israeli forces for poisoning wells during the 1948 conflict. When these accusations were brought to the UN, the Israeli representative responded by framing them as a continuation of historical antisemitic libels, thus leveraging the painful history of Jewish persecution to deflect the criticism.

In the aftermath of the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, allegations emerged suggesting that the typhoid outbreak in the Arab town of Acre, preceding its capitulation on May 18, was the result of deliberate contamination by Haganah operatives (Morris and Kedar 2023). Concurrently, Egypt reported the apprehension of two individuals purportedly attempting to taint water sources near Gaza (Morris and Kedar 2023). These incidents, documented in various scholarly works, have been scrutinized by researchers such as Sara Leibowitz-Dar, Avner Cohen, and Salman Abu Sitta, relying chiefly on interviews conducted approximately two decades ago (Morris and Kedar 2023). Despite these discussions, access to contemporaneous Israeli records detailing covert biological warfare activities during this period remained restricted, with governmental efforts to obfuscate such information (Morris and Kedar 2023). Notably, edits were made to Ben-Gurion's 1948 diary when published in 1982, eliminating key phrases (Morris and Kedar 2023).



The operation, cryptically titled "Cast Thy Bread", was partially disclosed in a memoir by Arieh Aharoni, a Palmah officer in 1948, who stated its objective was to poison water intended for the Egyptian forces (Morris and Kedar 2023). The operation's full designation came to light in a 2003 article by Abu Sitta, based on information from military historian Uri Milstein (Morris and Kedar 2023). This revelation enabled a thorough examination of numerous documents within the Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry Archives, leading to the uncovering of pivotal documents and interviews that elucidated the broader strategy behind the Acre and Gaza incidents, part of a more extensive campaign to disrupt Palestinian Arab militias and the invading Arab armies (Morris and Kedar 2023).



I have attached the entire pdf of Cast thy Bread: Israeli Biological Warfare During the 1948 War. Middle Eastern Studies 59, no. 5 (2023) so that you can see how substantial the evidence is. I believe, without a shadow of a doubt, that the Israeli government poisoned wells. I believe that, in light of the history of well poisoning allegations, and the state of Israel's claims to stewardship of Jewish memory, and representing the Jewish people, they knew their actions "confirmed" the allegations. How could they not? If Israel represents the continuation of the history of the Jewish people (their claim), their actions create a historical continuity with the past (as they have constructed it).

In fact, this is best seen in how Israel faced evidence of these crimes.



The allegations brought forth at the UN Security Council by representatives from Syria and Egypt regarding the poisoning of wells near Gaza by Israeli operatives were met with a calculated response from Israeli representative Abba Eban (Morris and Kedar 2023). Eban's retort dismissed the accusations as reminiscent of "the most depraved tradition of medieval anti-Semitic incitement," thereby invoking the historical persecution of Jews as a rhetorical shield against the charges (Morris and Kedar 2023). This defense not only sought to discredit the specific allegations but also to reinforce the narrative that criticism of Israeli state actions was inherently rooted in antisemitism (Morris and Kedar 2023).

I did not idly say that serious accusations of real crimes were compared to blood label. Israeli officials made those comparisons, entered into the record of the United Nations.

In Summation

- Historical accusations of well poisoning were made against diaspora Jewish and other minority communities in medieval and early modern Europe.

- Israel deliberately conflates Israeli and Jewish identities, as well as anti-Zionism and antisemitism.

- The Israeli government is aware of how its actions can be associated with Jewish people worldwide and strategically encourages this perception.

- There is evidence that the Israeli government carried out well poisoning policies in 1948, and when questioned by the UN, they invoked historical accusations as a defense, knowingly playing on this association.

I have provided the two most important texts supporting this in pdf form here, Cast thy bread’: Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War accounts for the present history of the Israeli state committing these acts, and Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422 demonstrates a history of the Jewish people being accused of them.

My intention was to illustrate how the actions of the Israeli government in 1948, and the subsequent framing of those actions, echo the very stereotypes that have historically been used against Jewish people (Morris and Kedar 2023). This observation is not an indictment of the Jewish community or an endorsement of antisemitic tropes but a critique of the political use of such historical narratives by the Israeli state (Morris and Kedar 2023). I resent this being treated as a "thought experiment" and not something that can actually be studied, with two excellent, and recent, publications demonstrating that the subject is worthy of inquiry, and that investigation of it is not inherently antisemitic. If the accusation is that I identified the Jewish people with the state of Israel, the fault lies with that state, which is also well documented. I only pointed out the possibility for harm given those associations, when the state of Israel carried out actions in 1948 that closely mirrored medieval accusations.

I believe it is possible to engage in critical discussions about state actions and policies without descending into prejudice. My comments were based on a careful reading of historical and political scholarship, not on unfounded accusations or stereotypes. I hope this clarification demonstrates my commitment to thoughtful and respectful discourse and warrants the reinstatement of my posting privileges.

Yours truly,

(Rank) F. F., RCHA (Retired), (Post-nominals), Late of RCAS

P.S

Bibliography

Barzilay, Tzafrir. "Poisoned Wells: Accusations, Persecution, and Minorities in Medieval Europe, 1321-1422." University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022.

Ben-Rafael, Eliezer, Judit Bokser Liwerant, and Yosef Gorny, eds. "Reconsidering Israel-Diaspora Relations." BRILL, 2014.

Gorny, Yosef. "Ethnicity and State Policy: The State of Israel in the Intellectual and Political Discourse of the US Jewish Press." In "Reconsidering Israel-Diaspora Relations," edited by Eliezer Ben-Rafael, Judit Bokser Liwerant, and Yosef Gorny. BRILL, 2014.

Kenedy, Robert A., Uzi Rebhun, and Carl S. Ehrlich, eds. "Israel and the Diaspora: Jewish Connectivity in a Changing World." Springer, 2022.

Landy, David. "Jewish Identity and Palestinian Rights: Diaspora Jewish Opposition to Israel." Zed Books Ltd, 2011.

Morris, Benny, and Benjamin Z. Kedar. "‘Cast thy bread’: Israeli biological warfare during the 1948 War." Middle Eastern Studies 59, no. 5 (2023): 752-776. DOI: 10.1080/00263206.2022.2122448.

Sicher, Efraim. "Re-envisioning Jewish Identities: Reflections on Contemporary Culture in Israel and the Diaspora." BRILL, 2021.

DAD LOST MY IPOD posted:

I too think we should ship a lot of 2000 pound bombs to israel but not the same way Joe Biden does it

Justin Tyme posted:

Iran has a right to defend itself