I just listened to your URMedia Spotlight on the wicked plans for Gaza. Your analysis was clear and unflinching in exposing the horrors and criminality of Israel and the Zionist project. I agree with you—it’s worse than what the Nazis did, not even in abstract cruelty but in the fact that it’s unfolding in real time, in full view of the world, and with open support from powerful states.
That said, during the discussion on this podcast, it sometimes sounded like you were conflating all Jews—both Israelis and Jews in the diaspora—with Zionists.
My family is Jewish, though we stopped practicing the religion after moving from New York/New Jersey to Orange County, California, in 1954. Still, cultural and ancestral identity aren’t easily shed. You mentioned that Israelis see gentiles as “treif,” and while I don’t disagree that Zionism has weaponized such beliefs into something more fascist than spiritual, you also seemed to attribute this mindset to American Jews at a New York dinner party.
Do you really believe that 98% of Jews—everywhere—are Zionists and share a belief in their superiority? Or were you specifically referring to Zionist Israelis?
As someone born into Ashkenazi Jewish culture, with grandparents from Poland, Russia, and Germany, and as a human being, I feel a deep anguish being linked—by culture, history, or religion—to a state committing genocide. These terms—religion, race, culture—are all contested, but the pain of association is real.
as for do i believe 98% of jews globally believe in zionism? NO.....98% of zionists, of Israelis, believe in the genocide however. But i do wonder what percent of US secular jews support Israel?
that dinner party, as i should have made clear, was in retrospect mostly ardent zionists. I didnt know it at the time. BUT...there were very secular Jews there who were weirdly patronizing, too, and this is something I have found a lot with jews over the last 30 years and something that didnt exist (for me anyway) before that. That dinner party was the front edges of Israeli influence in the US. I think the mythology of Israel has infected a lot of secular jews even if they dont consciously believe in zionism per se. My son is jewish (the eldest) and im pretty sure most of my girlfriends over the last forty years have been jews, whatever that means. Im aware all you say, believe me. But, its also changed quite a bit, sadly.
Thanks for clarifying. Your final comment resonates with me. I often wonder how many diaspora Jews reflexively back Israel today. While no Jew I know on the left supports Israel, I also wonder what’s left of the left.
To remain blind to the suffering of Palestinians in 2024 is an outright refusal of empathy and an investment in a world, or at least an America, that never existed.
Some of my friends still parrot lies that Hamas treated the prisoners from October 7 badly, mentioning rape and more. I can explain all evidence suggests otherwise—that Israeli hostages described being treated with care and humanity, but they double down with the claim that Hamas is withholding humanitarian aid, letting it sit in warehouses while the people of Gaza starve.
That claim was also used in Iraq and conveniently absolves the oppressor of responsibility, because the reality is that Israel has blockaded Gaza, bombed the border crossings, and now controls aid entry, yet Hamas gets blamed for starvation.
But these friends are not in touch with reality. One such friend who argues with me about Gaza lives by the seat of her pants economically hoping Trump will make everything alright.
What psychological structures can get people to resist seeing what’s right in front of them? I suppose we all do that, to some degree. But the work is to notice when we’re doing it and be brave enough to stop and speak out. I need to be with those who do.
Moreover, I do not think any apartheid state has a “right to exist.” I believe the only path forward for Israel is a one-state solution that gives up the idea of Jewish rule—if it is ever to be remembered as anything other than a genocidal state founded on exclusion and violence—and become a true democracy that grants equal rights to all people in its borders. This echoes the position of Shahid Bolsen, who recently made a heartfelt appeal to Jews everywhere to reclaim their humanity and reject the ideologies that have led to such immense suffering.
I just listened to your URMedia Spotlight on the wicked plans for Gaza. Your analysis was clear and unflinching in exposing the horrors and criminality of Israel and the Zionist project. I agree with you—it’s worse than what the Nazis did, not even in abstract cruelty but in the fact that it’s unfolding in real time, in full view of the world, and with open support from powerful states.
That said, during the discussion on this podcast, it sometimes sounded like you were conflating all Jews—both Israelis and Jews in the diaspora—with Zionists.
My family is Jewish, though we stopped practicing the religion after moving from New York/New Jersey to Orange County, California, in 1954. Still, cultural and ancestral identity aren’t easily shed. You mentioned that Israelis see gentiles as “treif,” and while I don’t disagree that Zionism has weaponized such beliefs into something more fascist than spiritual, you also seemed to attribute this mindset to American Jews at a New York dinner party.
Do you really believe that 98% of Jews—everywhere—are Zionists and share a belief in their superiority? Or were you specifically referring to Zionist Israelis?
As someone born into Ashkenazi Jewish culture, with grandparents from Poland, Russia, and Germany, and as a human being, I feel a deep anguish being linked—by culture, history, or religion—to a state committing genocide. These terms—religion, race, culture—are all contested, but the pain of association is real.
as for do i believe 98% of jews globally believe in zionism? NO.....98% of zionists, of Israelis, believe in the genocide however. But i do wonder what percent of US secular jews support Israel?
that dinner party, as i should have made clear, was in retrospect mostly ardent zionists. I didnt know it at the time. BUT...there were very secular Jews there who were weirdly patronizing, too, and this is something I have found a lot with jews over the last 30 years and something that didnt exist (for me anyway) before that. That dinner party was the front edges of Israeli influence in the US. I think the mythology of Israel has infected a lot of secular jews even if they dont consciously believe in zionism per se. My son is jewish (the eldest) and im pretty sure most of my girlfriends over the last forty years have been jews, whatever that means. Im aware all you say, believe me. But, its also changed quite a bit, sadly.
Thanks for clarifying. Your final comment resonates with me. I often wonder how many diaspora Jews reflexively back Israel today. While no Jew I know on the left supports Israel, I also wonder what’s left of the left.
To remain blind to the suffering of Palestinians in 2024 is an outright refusal of empathy and an investment in a world, or at least an America, that never existed.
Some of my friends still parrot lies that Hamas treated the prisoners from October 7 badly, mentioning rape and more. I can explain all evidence suggests otherwise—that Israeli hostages described being treated with care and humanity, but they double down with the claim that Hamas is withholding humanitarian aid, letting it sit in warehouses while the people of Gaza starve.
That claim was also used in Iraq and conveniently absolves the oppressor of responsibility, because the reality is that Israel has blockaded Gaza, bombed the border crossings, and now controls aid entry, yet Hamas gets blamed for starvation.
But these friends are not in touch with reality. One such friend who argues with me about Gaza lives by the seat of her pants economically hoping Trump will make everything alright.
What psychological structures can get people to resist seeing what’s right in front of them? I suppose we all do that, to some degree. But the work is to notice when we’re doing it and be brave enough to stop and speak out. I need to be with those who do.
Moreover, I do not think any apartheid state has a “right to exist.” I believe the only path forward for Israel is a one-state solution that gives up the idea of Jewish rule—if it is ever to be remembered as anything other than a genocidal state founded on exclusion and violence—and become a true democracy that grants equal rights to all people in its borders. This echoes the position of Shahid Bolsen, who recently made a heartfelt appeal to Jews everywhere to reclaim their humanity and reject the ideologies that have led to such immense suffering.
I’ll just leave a picture on my Substack. 😅
Thankyou for the link to Ann Carson. We were good friends of her older brother’s in University. Michael was a He was ‘exiled’ and