by achrilock
united nations
So, this morning, in response to a write-up about Israelis denying the genocide being committed in Gaza, and trying to place that into context with regard to the so-called “Jewish state,” someone in the comments said, to paraphrase, that they didn’t understand why it was happening. I replied with the following: “they’re doing it because they’re sad, angry, and afraid. Same reason anybody does it. Our job is to build a world where nobody has to feel that way ever again.”
Some folks had some thoughts about this statement (which is perfectly fine, you all can lay into my hot takes any time you wish and no hard feelings). Anyway, I thought I would elaborate a bit, for you. Because it’s important. I’ll do so here so as not to muck up their rather important thread on serious matters with any more back and forth. So, here we go.
The rebuttals centered around a few main points. That Israelis are colonizers (which, they are), that Israelis are not pursuing altruistic or proportionate goals and that they were behaving in a dehumanizing way toward Palestinians (which is true) and people found this hard to square with my rather charitable statements and with the history of Jewish people. Fair enough, for sure.
Believe me, I see what’s going on. I see the depravity, the disregard for life, the dishonesty, the duplicity, the attitudes of superiority, the appetites for harm and destruction, the refusal to renounce what is a fascist, colonial enterprise integrated deeply into the fabric of the Israeli state. I’m not a stranger to the darker hearts of men (or women). I know what people are capable of, and I’ve been watching this particular situation closely, not just since Oct. 7th but for decades.
I’m no fan of Zionism, nor the fascist mechanisms used to achieve its goals, goals which are anathema to both international law and basic human decency. But most of the participants on the Israeli side are still participating due to the reasons I stated earlier. Most of them do not have the information that we have, and many of those who do who continue to participate are doing so because they’ve been drilled since birth that this is the only way to ‘protect’ themselves and their families.
That Jewish history, mentioned both in the replies and in the original piece itself, has been twisted by the unscrupulous for self-serving purposes. And the population, and now much of the western world, have been brought along into the big lie, both that a genocide against Palestinians is necessary and that it also, paradoxically, does not exist. Even the American president has climbed aboard that nonsense train to Hell, and he smiles out the window at us all every day about it.
But the point here is that calling them ‘colonizers’ or ‘fascists’ or ‘inhuman’ for their actions might make a lot of people feel better. It might channel some of that pain and rage that we are all feeling for the Palestinians, and that people felt for the Jewish community during their times of tribulation before, but it won’t move the needle because it is a misunderstanding of how the process of fascism, dating back to the first instances of colonialism, works.
People aren’t born with a gene that makes them hate another group of people, that makes them want to steal land or resources, that makes them want to ethnically cleanse, to lie as a matter of course, to themselves and to others. They are formed into this by their societies, local and national, and by what the world will accept in terms of rhetoric and behavior. We all owe much more to these factors with regard to our morals than we do to some intrinsic nobility.
People are made into fascists by other people, usually a very small subset of the community, for very specific and self-serving reasons. But that subset needs two things to survive and persist in their goals. They need mass anger, fear, and suffering, and they need to systematize the mechanisms of radicalization that turn people into dehumanizing fascist monsters. This is why antifa is so hellbent on attacking fascism while it is small. Once it is systematized, it metastasizes.
And what has Israeli leadership done for nearly a century? Raised generations to believe that they are under constant attack from every place, that they live in a fortress nation against it, that they are chosen above others, that what others have is for them to take and that those they would take it from seek only their destruction. And Israeli leadership has worked hard to ensure that the surroundings of the Israeli state reflect this twisted version of reality. Then they controlled the press.
So you’re left with an entire nation of people who are internalizing what they have been taught and what they are seeing before their eyes, and coming to certain dark conclusions, which are being fed by the theocratic fascist apparatus at the heart of the Israeli state, and so you get Gaza, the West Bank, the attempts to expand that suffering further and farther, and a narrative about the whole thing that only makes any sort of sense from inside that bubble of twisted reality.
Israel’s genocide, its colonial project, and I would also argue its project of theocratic supremacy should be addressed and curtailed by the world. Absolutely. But we won’t save them by simply reprimanding them with our words or sanctions or even military actions. We must wake them up. Nobody will be safe until they see what they have become. And the best way to do this is with information, with truth, and with firm boundaries to prevent them slipping further into darkness and doing more harm.
Anyway, word on the street is that Israel got caught murdering too many fancy whites (not sure what their skin color was, nor does it matter, now, because everyone turns gray when dead and race is a sociopolitical construct). Anyway, people who had visible connections, who ‘mattered.’ The world’s recrimination is welcome, but it is also hypocritical and self-deprecating, The problem for all of you isn’t the killing. It’s that the victims weren’t sufficiently branded as disposable people first.
Also, well-wishes and good vibes to the people of Palestine suffering at the hands of Palestine’s US-backed breakaway province of Israel, whose fascist gang of militants, led by the man who calls himself ‘Yahu,’ have spread lawlessness and extrajudicial murders across the land. The UN resolution is welcome but will likely be ignored. Airstrikes on the breakaway region likely required. Civilians can move to the south, or, if they wish, relocate to Europe, or perhaps New York State.
| https://theintercept.com/2024/03/23/biden-israel-gaza-aid-ethnic-cleansing/ | Organizing Aid to Gaza Led Me to a Harsh Truth: Biden Is on Board for Ethnic Cleansing |
[…] “It is incompatible to claim concern for Palestinian lives while actively participating in their extermination.”
You cannot broker a truce between two diametrically opposed sides while practically and ideologically supporting one while calling for the destruction of the other as an absolute imperative. I would suggest that US executive actors remember which country they represent, as you cannot represent two countries at once under the present state model.
Strong, influential states must avoid alliances and entanglements if they are to set agendas rather than become disenfranchised participants of circumstance and unintended consequences. Israel is supposedly not a US colony, except when it needs weapons, money, legal support, propagandized media validation, or international political support. You cannot continue to treat it like a 51st US state while at the same time assuming a posture of impartiality.
I would suggest an immediate freeze on all weapons and aid to Israel, and a coherent and demonstrative, conspicuous downgrade of diplomatic relations and security cooperation. I would also suggest that negotiations be carried out in good faith with the people who the Palestinians actually trust and support. If the political future of one party cannot be determined by a third party, then that is also true of the other. “Terrorist” is simply another word for someone power doesn’t like.
I would also suggest that future peace efforts go through the United Nations, bundled together with a broad legal accountability regime to investigate and prosecute the crimes of both parties in the conflict. No more back room stuff. If you want this resolved with finality, with a sustainable one or two state solution moving forward, it requires, as I said at the beginning, an even-handed and transparent approach based upon objective justice.
Recognize both parties for what they are, problematic centers of power with a long, complex, adversarial history. And most importantly, recognize them as independent, outside factors and not internal antagonists or allies. The word “superpower” means that a state is above the nonsense of others. If a state chooses to ally itself in colonial projects or the resulting disputes, that state is simply another empire on its way to destruction. Don’t be that guy.
If you wish to be recognized as benevolent peacemakers and saviors of those in need you have to earn that, which means making difficult choices and looking beyond ideological, economic, or self-serving political factors. It means using your power to create justice, rather than hoping that others or happenstance will create it for you. It means taking action, not waiting for others to do so. It means creating an environment where justice and peace can actually take shape. Can’t have it both ways.