• Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    “They” in this context clearly means “Jews”.

    Can we please stop with this shit? This is why the pro-Palestine side of this conflict keeps being branded as antisemites. Because you can’t seem to help yourself but to make arguments where “Israel” and “Jews” are interchangeable terms.

    They aren’t. Jews were victims of the Holocaust. Israel was not. If you can’t tell the difference, leave the activism to the people who can.

    • samus12345@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      “They” in this context clearly means “the government of Israel”, which is made up of Jews. It’s not “all Jews” it’s “these specific people in power who are also Jews”. You could use this same bullshit claim to say that criticizing the US government is anti-Christian. No, it’s not.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        I’m sorry, the Israeli government was a victim of genocide? When? From whom?

        EDIT: Let’s try that on for size, quoting the words I’m criticizing.

        [The Israeli government] have become the very genocidal monster that [the Israeli government] was once the victim of.

        Makes no fucking sense. Nobody has ever genocided Israelis.

        You know that though, because you said:

        which is made up of Jews.

        Then you have made the target of your hatred quite clear. It’s Jews that you hate.

        • RockyC@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Instead of countering my argument, you are engaging in pedantry. You know exactly what I meant.

          But for the pedants, I’ll rephrase my original statement:

          FUCK ISRAEL RIGHT IN THE ASS WITH A 2x4.

          The Israeli government, themselves descendants of survivors of one of the most horrific genocidal events in human history, have chosen to become perpetrators of genocide.

          FUCK ISRAEL.

        • samus12345@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Sigh. The first “they” is the Israeli government, the second is Jews in general. The first “they” refers to who is committing atrocities, the second is referring to who has been the victim of atrocities historically. It’s either bad faith or obtuse of you to try to interpret it any other way.

          I hate the people in the Israeli government who are committing genocide. They happen to be Jews, which means that you would think they’d try to be better based on the history of atrocities being committed against them.

          • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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            7 months ago

            Look, this sentence only makes sense if both “theys” are the same group of people.

            It’s really not that hard to avoid blaming Jews for Israel’s war crimes.

            You can either acknowledge that this is a bad argument, or you can double down on blaming Jews. What’s it going to be?

            • samus12345@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              Look, this sentence only makes sense if both “theys” are the same group of people.

              I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt, against my better judgement.

              “The Israeli government has become the very genocidal monster that Jews were once the victims of.”

              What about this sentence doesn’t make sense to you? And why do you insist on seeing antisemitism in it?

              • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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                7 months ago

                Because the statement, as you present it, is more nuanced that what I usually hear people say. It isn’t the statement I originally responded to either, it’s the rewritten version you’re demanding I respond to, only after you redefined the “theys” to something that isn’t so obvious antisementic. It’s also kinda meaningless to say “The Israeli government has become the very genocidal monster that Jews were once the victims of.” written as it is, it it only serves as an attempt to compare Israel to Nazis, which isn’t off-base, but is also better communicated than this.

                My issue is with what people typically mean whey they say this. 99.9% of the time, people are saying “Jews were genocided by Nazis, and now they’re genociding Palestinians”. I understand the sentiment, and why people would jump to this “the oppressed has become the oppressor” rhetoric, but this isn’t an appropriate statement. Jews aren’t attacking Gaza and its people - Israel is.

                Sure, the majority of Israel’s leadership is ethnically Jewish, but that’s not a reason to blame Jews for what Israel is doing. There are countless Jews that are not Israeli, do not work for the Israeli state, and do not support what Israel is doing. Directing blame at an entire ethnic group because of what a foreign military is doing is overtly bigoted.

                My issue isn’t about you, it is about the consistent anti-Israel rhetoric that fails to separate Israel from the Jewish people. You may consider your criticisms of Israel to be logical and rational, with clarity of target, so it’s probably pretty easy for you to handwaved these things away. But Jews know when people are talking about them, and the original comment I responded to was blaming Jews for what Israel is doing to Gaza.

                Just because I’m anti-Israel doesn’t mean I’m turning a blind eye to Jew-hate. Downvote me all you want, downvotes aren’t anonymous here, and Antisemites deserve to be on a list when they make clear what they stand for.

    • RockyC@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      I know exactly what I said. I said Israel, as in the state of.

      As a state is composed of the members of its government, I used the plural pronoun “they.”

      Get off of your horse.

      • Todd Bonzalez@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Okay, so what group committed genocide against Israel? If that’s what the “they” means, who was it?

        Because the Holocaust ended 3 years before Israel existed, so unless the “they” is “Jews”, I wanna know what genocide you were referring to.