Who Even Knows Because I Sure Don't

Hm. Ok. So let's start on the basics. Jews are a global ethnoreligious minority. There about about 15 million of us left on the planet, at .2% of the global population. About half of us live in Israel, which means that diasporic Jews kind of have to care about what's going on over there. but don't tell any DSA babies; this type of information makes them projectile vomit while spewing excerpts from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in the original Russian and shotgunning beer with Rama Duwaji.

Archaeological, textual, and genetic studies indicate that this ethno-religious group originated in the Central Judean hill country, near present day Jerusalem. Over centuries those early Israelite tribes merged with surrounding Canaanite groups, and slowly developed hegemony over the Southern Levant, as well as--by the 6th century BCE--a form of monotheism.

Now the Levant is a very valuable piece of land as it connects Western Asia to Europe and Northern Africa via the Med, so empires have always wanted it; the Egyptian and Hittite Empires were fighting over it before the Israelites rose as a distinctive group, and the cosmological documents of the Jewish people demonstrate successive empires attempting to capture that piece of land. But when empires do that, they're not like, super enthusiastic about letting the indigenous populations stay, so boom diaspora. this would happen multiple times before Joshua of Nazareth rolled up to yell at the temple Boomers.

So, diaspora. We diasporad out to surrounding empires. Now, ancient governments are a lot like modern governments, in that conformity of ideology and belief are important to maintain official control of the populace. Jews got this memo pretty earlier and many of us preferred not to die, so we assimilated as a means of survival, while maintaining our ethno-religious identity. but, that's never enough. because while maintaining our religion, its laws, its Textual Stuff, we're still believing differently than the majority. Not only that, but we're believing differently in concert with one another over political lines.

So now we're challenging to authority, and untrustworthy. those dynamics showed up VERY early in the game. you know the Purim holiday? That holiday is about a piece of historical fiction written Before Christ about how our insistence in maintaining our culture and beliefs in diaspora WHILE assimilating threatens those in power. and then those in power decide to do a genocide, and sometimes don't if we're hot enough. the enduring ties between far flung diasporic communities, and our insistence upon maintaining our ethnoreligious beliefs, practices, and culture is a threat to any government which relies on ideological homogeneity. which, most governments still do. but, when a ruler says that they are descended from gods, or are a god, or were appointed by god/the grace thereof, or are protected by god, or whatever, our desire to keep doing our own thing is dangerous and unholy. and we keep existing beyond and across political borders while doing it.

Understanding race as pure colorism can’t be applied to Jews. With Jews, it’s old-world style. It’s about blood. In the fifteenth century some Spanish priests spoke about Conversos, implying that they can never be trusted because the betrayal and murder of Christ lives on in our blood. And that’s a really spot-on assessment of anti-Semitism: it’s about a set of inherent characteristics which override and transcend skin color.

If you’ve watched short form vids where a non-Jewish creator of any skin color is discussing Holocaust history or issues regarding contemporary anti-Semitism, you will always see comments along the lines of “how much are they paying you bro?” Because that base sentiment that Jews cannot be trusted transcends time and place. It transcends modernity. It transcends contemporary understandings of monotheism.

To be a Jew is to reveal oneself as an Other, who belongs nowhere, and leaves financial carnage wherever they go; who are loyal to one but each other, and who can never be understood as full citizens of any polity. Except their own. But they will never be allowed to have their own (not a commentary on I/P specifically). The Nazis knew that this was about blood and ancestry. The scary inquisition Catholics did too.

Generally, if you have descent in a country which slaughtered millions of Africans for funsies in the 19th century or had an anti-Nazi resistance that simultaneously hated Jews, or said “no thanks stay there and die we don’t want to import a Jewish Problem” I’m not interested in what you have to say about the Jewish people. Wipe your own ass before spraypainting Swastikas on shit.

Oh, “I’m not responsible for the crimes of my ancestors?” you say? Then why the fuck am I responsible for the actions of a country I don’t live in on the other side of the planet.

SO COLORFUL

Here is an adult :)

The black-backed dwarf kingfisher is also very pretty!

we were just as smart then as we are now

Anyways! HERE'S YOUR HANDY GUIDE TO WHAT CAN COUNT AS EYESTRAIN! I'm pulling this straight from the Artfight rules page about what needs to be labeled and filtered as eyestrain because it's VERY helpful and VERY accurate! I also know not everybody has an AF account and might not always have access to this handy guide, and this is an important resource; That's why I'm sharing it here! (under the cut)

PLEASE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY!!! THIS IS ABOUT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF OTHERS!!!

"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!