+972 Magazine is run by a joint effort between Palestinian and Israeli journalists. They have been covering this conflict for years, so if you want to know more, it is highly advisable to check them out.
Thank you. I try, I really do. All this reading and posting is exhausting, but I know it is nothing to what these journalists go through as they spread their truth to this world.
I am really happy to hear this feedback because it let’s me know that what little I do is not in vain. I usually use the megathread to keep my compilations up to date if you’re interested.
Interesting but it makes me apprehensive about the way liberals will cope with these events.
Someone pointed out to me they will just act like Netanyahu was Israeli Trump and this is an aberration of democracy (not to say that is The Take about Trump either lol)
It’s probably a mix. To my knowledge, there are three broad categories we can place Israeli citizens in regarding Netanyahu and Zionism:
Pro-Netanyahu / Right Wing Zionists
Anti-Netanyahu / Any wing Zionists
Anti-Netanyahu Anti-Zionists
To be clear for anyone else reading this: Zionism is the idea that there needs to be an ethno-state in the occupied territories with Jewish supremacy. Anyone that believes in a single state where everyone has equal rights even if it means that Palestinians become a majority is not a Zionist. If this was not the case, Zionists would not have been systematically expelling Palestinians to ensure a Jewish majority and supremacy.
Group #1 and group #2 make up the majority of Israeli citizens. Group #3 is a minority that is often branded traitorous. Just because Netanyahu killed democracy in some aspects, it does not mean that he is going against what the majority of Israeli citizens want with regards to Palestinians because they are either Zionists or indifferent. They might not want the Palestinians to be violently bombed and instead might opt for control or slow silent deaths through starvation or occupation. What they definitely do not want is for 5 million Palestinians to join them and become citizens with equal rights.
I'm a left wing zionist and I don't agree with Israel controlling the occupied territories. Zionism is the idea that the jewish people have (as every other nationality has) the right to self-determine in their homeland.
Well, first I think it's wise to point out that the answer by @Dreamer was already talking about "any wing zionists" therefore leftwing zionists would fall under that (I disagree on the consideration that was done afterwards, but I think we agree on the existence of these people). Zionism is a liberation movement of the Jewish people, I think it's important to understand this, jews are a people before being the followers of a religion (I'm myself an agnostic jew). The view that judaism is only a religion is originally a Christian/Western perspective.
Peoplehoods have a right to self determine, the problem arises when a peoplehood doesn't have a specific land to selfdetermine in. Most Jews didn't inhabit the land that they considered their homeland, (not everybody considered it their homeland in the same way), but the only place that would resonate with the jewish people enough to band togheter in order to achieve a self determination that could make us capable of avoiding persecutions, was Israel. Reality proved this to be right, when mass emigrations started to happen, to escape persecutions in Europe (before the Shoa), one of the main destinations for jews, in search of a better future, was Israel.
I don't think jewish liberation needs to come at the cost of the palestinian people, but that doesn't make me want less to have a self determination for my people. I think there is space in that land for two peoples.
Does that mean that democratic countries like America and Ireland are Zionist in principle because everyone has equal rights and an equal say in the government, including Jews?
What do you mean by homeland? Are you referring to any general location on the planet or are you specifically referring to Israel which was formed by ethnically cleansing the local indigenous population into a minority?
Ireland is the self-determination of the Irish people, it doesn't make it less democratic, but it still is a cultural product of Irish people. The same question regarding the United States is more complex, as it was a mix of immigrants from differents parts of Europe in the beginning, that rebelled against England, which I think can be seen as a self-determination for them, and in some ways an act of creation of a new peoplehood. But quite different from traditional peoplehood, because it's a peoplehood founded by new immigrants which have less in common, probably making it more volatile and/or open to change?
Therefore no to the first question, as these selfdeterminations are of other peoplehoods, and they aren't cultural products of the jewish people.
By homeland I refer to the land where the jewish people was born and is attached to, so yes I'm referring to Israel. Some zionists in the beginning were willing to forgo Israel and make a "temporary" state/autonomous region in some other place, in order to create a safe heaven for jews that were escapign persecutions (as this at the time was an impelling need), and that would politically fight for them at the geopolitical level. But forgoing Israel was never really accepted by the majority of the zionist movement, because it was the only place for which the jewish people would band togheter, and actually manage to self-determine.
I think that the way that the state of Israel was born was also (and not only) due to the Arab and Palestinian unwillingness to accept the jewish population, which in the beginning didn't even want a state. Actually the zionist current of Netanyauh comes from here and it's called Revisionist Zionism, it was a minority of the zionist movement. It was founded by Jabotinsky (not an admirable individual by many metrics, but some statments are worringly moderate if compared to Netanyauh), they wanted the creation of the state to be a main focus of zionism and for the state to be on both banks of Jordan, later expansionism became less of a focus. The idea of a state later did became more central to zionism because of growing tensions with the Arab populations and the inability of jewish and palestinian leaderships to find a way to coexist.
They might not want the Palestinians to be violently bombed and instead might opt for control or slow silent deaths through starvation or occupation. What they definitely do not want is for 5 million Palestinians to join them and become citizens with equal rights.
At this point some of the cooler heads in intelligence or ex spooks who retired to commentariat understand their actions are self-destructive, too noisy. One guy said they should never have drawn attention to the hostages, just killed them.
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