Who Even Knows Because I Sure Don't

"hey do you want to sing the national anthem next week"

"sure."

"the sponsor is McDonald's"

First of all, thank you so much for saying that you find my takes reasonable. It's always a challenge to talk about such complex, emotionally charged, and nuanced issues, especially in this format. I'm really glad that you've gotten something out of reading my thoughts, even if you may not agree with everything I have to say.

A couple of thoughts here. First off, war is always awful and always a tragedy. No matter the circumstances. Full stop. End of story. It's something no one should have to live through or experience.

I don't know if you're American, but I will say that a lot of Americans who grew up their whole life in the USA are really sheltered from the reality of war and imagine it as something far away that happens to other people. And that isn't the reality for most people who have to experience war. It's just that the US is so insanely powerful that no one dares to attack it directly and instead it deals with all its enemies far away, using its military which is a very small percentage of its population. Furthermore, historically the US was so far away from everyone that it was difficult to reach. During World War II Japanese and German planes could not fly far enough to reach the US homeland, so while many Americans fought bravely overseas, the US never got bombed. That wasn't true for other people. And it wasn't just victims of Axis aggression who were bombed either.

Although there were incidents of war crimes committed by the democratic countries that were members of the Allies, there were not government policies that condoned such behavior and so the incidence was far, FAR lower than the huge number of war crimes committed by Nazi and Soviet forces because both represented ideologies that not only condoned but actively encouraged war crimes. And even so, even with the Allies overwhelmingly following the rules of war, a lot of civilians died. They generally didn't intentionally go out of their way to kill civilians. But. It was still a war. They targeted cities and infrastructure.

In Germany alone millions of civilians were killed. Some died in bombings. Some died because of the shortages of things like food and medicine. I read a book once about the few Berlin Jews who survived the Nazi period in hiding in Berlin. At one point one of them had a child with his non-Jewish German lover (who was in the resistance) who was hiding him. They concocted an elaborate ruse to convince the authorities the baby was the product of an affair she was having with a friend of hers (who was actually secretly gay and hiding his sexuality from the Nazi police). It worked. They were so excited to bring this new life into the world. The pregnancy was difficult. The baby needed an incubator. Unfortunately just then Allied bombings targeting electrical infrastructure caused a blackout. The baby died. The half Jewish child of an anti-Nazi resistance fighter was one of the casualties of the war - a victim not of Nazi violence but of Allied bombings.

That is the horrible reality of war. Even though it doesn't mean it was wrong to fight the Nazis. And what happened there was not even a warcrime. Military action that causes civilian deaths is not a warcrime unless civilians are being intentionally targeted. But war is tragic and ugly and awful. And I think sometimes sheltered Americans who have never really endured conflict or lived under bombing don't understand that and see any bad thing that happens in war as a war crime. Which is untrue. War is just like that. Even in the "best" of circumstances. It's awful and good people who don't deserve it get hurt.

So similarly I don't think every civilian death in Gaza automatically is a warcrime or evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the Israeli military. But that doesn't mean it's ok or that we shouldn't be trying to build peace. And peace can only happen if we recognize the concerns and feelings of BOTH SIDES, regardless of whether we agree with them. The Palestinian people are there. The Israelis are there. We need to accept both those facts and proceed towards finding a way for those two peoples to coexist together. Needlessly inflaming tensions by disregarding the perspective of either side is not helpful. (And by the way, learning to understand does not mean we have to agree).

I also think it's important not to reduce these groups to a monolith. There are many different factions of Palestinian people. They aren't all Hamas or Hamas supporters or the PLO or PLO supporters. Similarly Israel has many different political parties and Israelis are not all their government and do not all hold the same opinions.

So yes. Hamas are the bad guys. Israel withdrew from Gaza completely in 2005 and was still withdrawn at the time of the October 7 attack. If you haven't, I suggest watching the #Nova documentary which features footage of the attack. It will help you understand the emotional state and perspective of Israelis post October 7 (compounded by the fact that a lot of the world reacted with condemnation rather than sympathy even though they were the ones who were attacked and were not even engaged in any operations in Gaza at the time).

Hamas is also the bad guy from a Palestinian perspective. Yes it's true that Hamas was elected in Gaza in 2005 but they then seized power and became an absolutely horrific dictatorship. They have committed, and continue to commit, appalling atrocities against the Palestinian people. Here you can read the account of a Palestinian dissident who was tortured by Hamas for standing up for the rights of his people. Support for Hamas is anti-peace and anti-Palestinian. While they are in power and continue to support the annihilation of Israel and of all Jews and keep murdering and torturing and oppressing people in Gaza there is not going to be peace for Israelis or Palestinians. And anyone who supports them is just plain evil.

And yes. The Palestinian people don't deserve to be bombed. No one deserves to live through that. There's a great interview that I really, really recommend you watch here with Lucy Aharish. She is an Arab Muslim Israeli news anchor who is a fierce critic of Netanyahu and his far right party. She has sued the Israeli government multiple times and has spoken out against racism and bigotry on the Israeli far right. The interviewer is really annoying but Lucy is great. In the interview she speaks about her experiences growing up as an Arab Muslim in Israel and about her experiences with racism and with standing up to Netanyahu and the Israeli far right. She also talks about October 7, about how frightening and awful it was, and how she felt so angry afterwards that at first she lost her ability to empathize with Palestinian people and how she reclaimed her kindness and empathy and how no one deserves to live through bombings like those in Gaza and how a path forward to peace must be found. She's the sort of liberal, anti-Netanyahu voice that is needed to help resolve Israel's internal and external problems.

Now, just because Israel was attacked and has a right to respond and just because civilians unfortunately always die in war doesn't mean that Netanyahu and his rightwing party are acting in the best interests of Palestinian people or Israeli people or peace. Before October 7 there were MASSIVE protests in Israel against Netanyahu because of his corrupt and antidemocratic actions (kind of like many rightwing parties in Europe and the US) and he knows once the war is done and he loses power he's probably going to jail. So that doesn't exactly incentivize him to wrap things up. Also because his party is far right they're not doing their best to crack down on incidents of war crimes or misconduct. (And that's not even getting into the way they often turn a blind eye to appalling incidents carried out be extremist individuals in the West Bank).

Still, given that fact that Israel is bombing dense urban areas, the number of civilian deaths is actually amazingly low. Partly because they warn where they are going to bomb. (That's why you see all those images of people being displaced...which is also something terrible to go through; but those people are moving because they've been alerted in advance of a bombing, even though that means Hamas fighters can escape and even though most militaries don't do this). If Israel truly wanted to destroy the Palestinian people they could. They have very powerful weapons and Gaza is tiny. But they haven't. So I don't think right now that is their goal. But it doesn't make Netanyahu a good person or someone interested in building peace or not a corrupt criminal. And it doesn't make his party not far right, with all the problematic aspects that entails. Israel has problems. Like every country. Israel has bigots and bad people. Like every country. And like every country Israel deserves to keep existing and keep growing towards something better. And Palestinians deserve the same thing.

It's also important context regarding whether Israel is seeking to destroy the Palestinian people. For all that Netanyahu is an awful rightwing corrupt criminal, he didn't start this war. Hamas attacked Israel, slaughtered thousands, and took hostages. Israel eventually retaliated and demanded the return of the hostages in exchange for a ceasefire. They finally got the hostages back and the war ended. Israel's actions show that their goal was to stop the attacks and get their people back. If Hamas returned the hostages earlier (or didn't attack) there wouldn't have been a war.

The Holocaust didn't happen because the Germans offered ceasefire conditions that Jewish people turned down or because Jewish people murdered and kidnapped a bunch of Germans. It happened because the Germans wanted to eradicate the Jewish people. And there was no compromise solution or conditions they were offering.

Also, people in the West openly supporting Hamas and making the pro-Palestine movement about eradicating Israel (and ofter about speaking over actual Palestinians) inflames tensions and distrust and makes peace harder. Here are a last few videos that are good to see.

I think it's important to note that while the peoples in the videos on this post have different backgrounds and views and beliefs and don't all agree with each other, and might not even all like each other, what they have in common is a desire to act in good faith and build on peace. That's what is needed. And these are the voices that are being purposely talked over and silenced.

Because this isn't about Muslims vs Jews or Israelis vs Palestinians. It's about rationalism, nuance, peace and love vs ignorance, hate and extremism. A lot of people in the West have picked the side of extremism and ignorance. That must end.

Here are a last few videos I think are worth watching.

Also note here that Gaza was not an "open air prison"before the war. Even this Turkish propaganda channel (last video below) admits it. (That makes it all the more tragic that Hamas started this awful, ruinous war rather than building on what they had). Also Israel is the most diverse country in the middle east, despite what you may see in news reports. It's a good idea to take a look at these places.

"How is claiming they drowned a Hilux possibly underselling it" GREAT question.

To start with a little disclaimer, Top Gear's Hilux did not start off, as in the video above, in pristine condition. It started off with nigh-on 300k kms (for you yankees, that's about 8.4 million Boeing 737 wingspans) and a condition to match.

And it's only once careless driving around town yielded zilch in given shits...

(look, I found a local newspaper picturing it being driven around!)

...that they decided to drown it. Now, the underselling part: if you told me that they drowned a pickup the first place my mind would go to would be "driving it through a river a bit too deep for it, perhaps as deep as its height, until it stalls and then tugging it back out. You will concede that's rather different from tying it down on the seashore with the second highest tide in the world...

...and leaving it there until it engulfs the whole truck...

...only for the ropes to snap...

...and for the truck to be lost to the tides for FIVE HOURS.

(and for those wondering, yes, just as promised, well within an hour and the mandatory limits of basic tools and no spare parts, up the mechanic made the thing fire and away the presenter drove it - I must imagine doing a number on his clothes in the process.)

Oh also I would have mentioned the caravan.

Or at least the wrecking ball.

But hey, at least the fire was mentioned.

Still, I feel it's criminal to leave out how they celebrated it surviving all it did: by parking it at the top of a 23 story building for all to see! :)

Wait NO-

Well, that was uncalled for. Given what it survived, it deserved to rest in a museum instead of being unceremoniously cleared out with the other chunks of public housing that buried it.

Or at least, given that buried it wasn't...

...to be tumbled down from the rubble utop which it sat...

...and be fueled up.

"be fueled up", pfft, what for?, I hear you say. And you are right.

Look at that thing, you say.

Let's be serious now, however pretty of a story it would be that's not a truck that will do anything remotely in the ballpark of firing up, let alone running.

And again, you are right.

The battery was disconnected.

Sorted that, tho

"You can't be serious." Oh darling I sure can! "Well the presenters can't then" no no, I assure you, it lived. Go see it for yourself! It's at the National Motor Museum in Beaulieau, England!

[last screenshot is of asthedeathoflight's tags, their url didnt fit in a screenshot]

we are not either above, below or separate from the natural world. we did not just appear out of nowhere completely outside of the natural order, we are the product of the natural order, just like everything else.

Anyway, we've moved house a bunch of times and I lost track of the book and haven't seen it for probably two decades now. But I think about it now and again, and had struggled to find it over the years, but I finally, finally got my hands on a copy of my own and i want to cry haha

I was afraid that maybe the art isn't as good as I remembered, being just a kid and all, but I cracked it open and nope, it hits me just the way it used to. Maybe even more now. It's so fucking pretty. Have some random pages:

It’s something that you can only do in New York City. At least, that’s my opinion. Explore any culinary scene in the world, and you can do it within the five boroughs. When I lived in the city, I ate my way around the Middle East without once thinking about the politics. It was my way of being in the region from afar.

Miznon or Taim on the way home, Miss Ada or Laser Wolf when someone else was paying, 12 Chairs when I wanted jachnun on a weekend. Not only Israeli places. There was also King of Falafel and Shawarma in Astoria, the most Palestinian establishment I have been to in North America, where I was careful not to talk politics.

Israeli food tells the story of where Jews were forced to leave and where they found new homes. It might be the only cuisine where someone thought to put hummus on an Austrian schnitzel, and it works. Not only does it work, but it’s delicious.

There is also kubbeh in beet soup, which you have to eat with rice, at a spot on Sixth Avenue called Kubeh. Iraqi Jewish food, my family’s food, sold in Manhattan to people who mostly had no idea. It reminded me of my grandmother’s kitchen, though hers was always better.

I was once brave enough to try rolling kubbeh in our apartment on the Upper East Side, but the dumplings came apart in the pot. I wanted to impress my girlfriend (now, my wife) and failed miserably.

That was when I understood I did not have my savta’s technique, and neither does my father. He settles for the occasional omelet and challah French toast.

Melanie Shurka, who opened Kubeh, did the smart thing. After she looked for that technique in cookbooks and found almost nothing, she flew to Israel to learn it from Kurdish, Iraqi, and Persian women, because their kitchens are the only places it survives. Their expulsion is the reason it does.

New York Magazine has now published an entire issue about that world, and it has a rule about which Jews belong to it.

The issue is called Habibi City, and the cover story is by Zaina Arafat. Partway through, she stops to define the term on which the whole package rests. Belonging to the SWANA community (Southwest Asia and North Africa), she writes, meant holding a set of common beliefs: Palestinian human rights, Gaza as a genocide, social justice over capital, caring as nonnegotiable.

Only one of those beliefs is a test. In the piece, Arafat describes Kimia Zakerin’s Farsi Club, which started after the Woman Life Freedom marches in Washington Square. She also interviews El Atigh Abba, the owner of a Crown Heights café, who cannot return to Mauritania because a fatwa was issued against him for his writing about the Arab Spring.

Neither Kimia nor El Atigh risk their place in the SWANA community by speaking out against their regimes, nor would they lose it by staying silent. Israel is, of course, the only country where that determines membership.

In the essay, every Jew is described as anti-Zionist, an Arab Jew, or as someone’s non-Zionist partner. That label comes first and is what lets them be included. To be a Jew in Habibi City, you have to answer the Israel question the ‘right way.’ Criticizing the Netanyahu government isn’t enough for Arafat; most Israelis I know do that all the time. The real test is about the state itself, whether it should exist at all, and no other group faces that kind of standard.

Arafat knows this. She grants that Israel is geographically part of the region, but that is where it ends: topographic acceptance. Whether Israelis can claim a connection depends on the politics surrounding SWANA, and on a person’s ethnic background. She has just raised the Mizrahi question, and she leaves it where it fell.

About 75,000 Syrian Jews live half an hour from Abba’s café. They came from Aleppo and Damascus in the early 1900s and settled along Ocean Parkway in South Brooklyn. Syrian-American writer Joseph Sutton called what they built Aleppo in Flatbush. Later, the community took in Egyptians, Moroccans, and Persians as each of those countries forced out its Jews. Shaare Zion is a synagogue on Ocean Parkway, with a dome visible from the street.

Many Ocean Parkway families are more religious and keep to themselves, which someone will point out. Tens of thousands of Israelis in New York City do not, many of them Mizrahi, running restaurants, throwing parties, and filling the same rooms Arafat counts as a scene. They are not in the essay either.

My family was forced out of Iraq in 1951, along with almost all of the country’s Jews, a community that had been there for 2,500 years. Their belongings were confiscated on the way out. They moved to Be’er Sheva in the Negev Desert; the city was built mostly by immigrants who arrived the same way

Arafat writes about exile and expulsion throughout the piece. El Atigh Abba, who cannot go home to Mauritania. The Yemenis picked up at the airport and fed on Atlantic Avenue, but not once about the 850,000 Jews displaced from “SWANA.”

Listing what SWANA New Yorkers still face, Arafat names xenophobia, Islamophobia, and Zionism. Two bigotries and a national movement, filed together without comment.

About half of Israeli Jews have roots in the Middle East and North Africa, and they are in Israel because the region threw them out. Netanyahu’s government is a disgrace, and there are things Israel has done in Gaza that are unacceptable, and growing settler violence in the West Bank is a disgrace to Zionism and to Jews. I can hold all of that and still notice exactly what listing Zionism beside Islamophobia is.

The one person I felt a connection to in the piece was El Atigh. He is different. He hosted a Hebrew-Arabic language exchange only to see his comments flooded with people telling him to cancel. He refused.

In July, he hosted a Palestinian singer and an Israeli musician on his stage together. He spends the essay pushing back on his own side. Arafat clearly admires him, but she does not seem to notice they disagree.

So 20 pages celebrating the SWANA diaspora in New York City. The Jews of those countries appear only if they publicly disown the state that took many of them in.

And that brings us back to the Syrian families living on Ocean Parkway in South Brooklyn. They have lived in New York longer than most SWANA countries have existed, and are not mentioned at all. I don’t think it was intentional; they were simply not considered, and most would not have passed Arafat’s test anyway.

Arafat ends her piece on sumud, the Palestinian Arabic word for steadfastness, referring to a quiet refusal to disappear. She should know she has spent thousands of words asking us to do just that.

by Clint Smith