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Allan Stratton's avatar

Terrific article. Here are three other memory-holed contexts:

1) Hamas is an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood whose founders were allies of the Nazis.

2) Israel was founded primarily by indigenous Jews who had lived in the Middle East for millennia and whose thriving communities were ethnically cleansed and pogromed by all the Arab nations in the area. It is not a "white, settler, colonial construct." (When people raise *only* displaced Palestinians, ask them what happened to the Jews in Egypt, Syria, Iran, and etcetera.)

3) "Genocide" exists within the context of race essentialists like Hamas, not Israel: It doesn't describe a major loss of life, but rather the attempt to liquidate an entire people. "Apartheid" exists within the context of countries like China and the old South Africa, not within the context of countries like Israel which provides civil rights to its 2 million Arab citizens, as well as their ability to have political parties, elect members of parliament, and in government, as the Arab line was in the last coalition. "Open air prisons" exist in the context of places like Alcatraz, not Gaza where the wall was only erected after Hamas suicide bombers literally blew up the Oslo Accord's two-state solution by detonating themselves in crowded restaurants, markets and public transportation.

4) There is also the context of a long history of gaslighting and what-about-ism in which Jews are blamed no matter what they do. (Currently, if Israel bombs Hamas targets and civilians die, it is accused of "genocide." But if it escorts them to safety, it is accused of ethnic cleansing.)

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Joel Freeman's avatar

This was written with the assumption that the bombardment of Gaza isn't an atrocity or at least won't be considered one in the future. I'm am hoping this Israel action will end in a peace that will have needed this horrific stage. As a Jew, we've been taught how toxic a concoction of equal parts fury, incompetence and confidence can be in a leader...I'm not so sure we aren't the ones rationalizing atrocities now.

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