@benkap@kiddush.social avatar

benkap

@benkap@kiddush.social

Founder and admin of Kiddush.social. American-Israeli, Modern Orthodox Jew. Nerdy, but like, in a cool way.

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.

benkap, to random
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It's pretty bonkers when white Americans lecture Jewish Israelis about living on "stolen land". Ashkenazi Jews have a far more reasonable claim of indigenousness to Israel than white Americans do to America.

littlemiao, to random
@littlemiao@babka.social avatar

I’m sharing this because it is some of the most vile Mein Kampf level #Antisemitism I have seen on Mastodon. Isn’t this place supposed to be better than that?

It is astounding to me how people who espouse Nazi beliefs can actually consider themselves anti-Nazi.

This is indistinguishable from Hitler’s (yimakh shemo) perspective. If you lament that we “didn’t learn our lesson” from the Holocaust or if you, like this poster, consider the Holocaust to be some kind of preemptive justice against us, you are part of the “Hitler was right” crowd even as you delude yourself that you’re anti-Nazi. We see through you. All you’re missing is a swastika armband.

benkap,
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@littlemiao Yes, they were suspended by .social

benkap, to random
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The entire time Jews lived in Europe they were considered foreigners native to the Middle East and not true Europeans. It was taken for granted that they were part of the same people as Mizrachi Jews. Now that their descendants live in Israel, people are like: "No, don't live there, you're Europeans, come back to Europe, we won't genocide you this time, we promise."

benkap,
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Basically, wherever Jews live, we are told we don't belong. This even happens on a micro scale in the U.S. where Jews were historically accused of invading classically white, Christian neighborhoods and today when Jews are accused of "gentrifying" neighborhoods inhabited by other minority groups, even when the Jews moving into these neighborhoods are often quite poor themselves.

benkap,
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@emmaaum It is very ironic that many of the same people who say Jews don't belong in Israel are also the ones who are making diasporic Jews feel so unsafe in the countries that they are living in.

benkap, to random
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"Criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitic: Jews are now required to recite this humiliatingly obvious sentence, over and over, as the price of admission to public discourse about their own demonization, in “debates” with people who are often unable to name the relevant river or sea."

Excellent article, it is worth reading the whole thing. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/jewish-anti-semitism-harvard-claudine-gay-zionism/677454/

benkap, to random
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A friendly reminder that just because criticism of Israel isn't necessarily antisemitic, that doesn't mean you magically get a free pass when you use antisemitism to criticize Israel.

benkap, to random
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The right-wing antisemite generally embraces the antisemitism of past generations, seeing themselves as a continuation of a grand tradition of truthseekers who have successfully identified "the Jew" as the pernicious force seeking to underhandedly oppose their chosen values (nowadays, generally the values of white nationalism). (1/X)

benkap,
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The left-wing antisemite meanwhile, eschews the antisemitism of past generations. They instead believe that while the Jew hatred of the past was based on lies, their hatred of Jews, excuse me, of Zionists, is entirely justified and based on truth and fact. The antisemites of the past were ignorant and based their beliefs on superstition and hatred. But their anti-Zionism is based on objective truths they know because they have seen their ideological allies post them on social media. (2/X)

benkap,
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Of course the way the Jews were treated in generations past as minorities in Western countries was wrong, they say. Luckily, Western civilization has since enlightened, and Jews will encounter no such persecution today (globalize the intifada, by the way) so the motivation for a Jewish state is as baffling as it is wrong. The irony it seems, is lost on them. (3/X)

benkap, to random
@benkap@kiddush.social avatar

One of Hamas' greatest propoganda victories is that they refuse to differentiate between combatants and civilians when they release the number of Gazan casualties. I've seen multiple respected publications list the figure as a civilian death toll, despite the fact that it includes Hamas terrorists. Meanwhile, I've seen Israeli estimates range between 1/3 and 1/2 of those dead being combatants. Of course, Hamas provides no counter-figure to these because that would give away the game.

benkap, to random
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This is amazing news!

"IDF safely rescues 2 hostages from Rafah in special operation"
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-announces-rescue-of-2-hostages-from-rafah-now-safely-back-in-israel/

benkap, to random
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משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה

May our happiness increase this month and may we all have a good and peaceful Shabbos

benkap, to random
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When people say things like this, they're not being nearly as helpful as they think they're being.

benkap, to random
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Most of the Jews I see on Fedi are extremely critical of the Israeli government and military, advocate for the rights of Palestinian civilians, and express a desire for a peaceful end to the war. Yet, whenever they call out antisemitism in the form of "criticism" of Israel, they are immediately accused of being hasbara bots and Netanyahu shills. The charitable interpretation is that the accusers are blissfully unaware of their own antisemitism. The Fediverse can do better.

benkap,
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If people really cared about the plight of Palestinians, they would likely realize that the people they are falsely accusing of supporting genocide could be some of their staunchest allies in seeking a peaceful end to the conflict. Instead, they're berated and ostracized because they're not willing to nod along with every antisemitic trope used to attack Israel.

benkap, to random
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Sometimes I think that the idea that you can just replace the word "Jew" with "Zionist" in the context of any classic antisemitic trope and get away with it is a strawman. Then I browse @endantisemitism and realize that it actually happens on the Fediverse every day and mods of major instances wring their hands rather than doing anything about it because they're afraid they'll be accused of silencing criticism of Israel.

benkap, to random
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"Criticism of Israel is not antisemitic."

This is true if it means that it is possible to criticize Israel without lapsing into antisemitism. (It is.)

It is not true if it means that criticism of Israel can't be antisemitic. (It can, and often is.)

It seems that a lot of people assume it means the latter, and they're wrong.

benkap, to random
@benkap@kiddush.social avatar

Wishing an easy fast to those fasting and a Shabbat Shalom to all

gavi, to random
@gavi@wandering.shop avatar

why is vanilla mastodon ios client so bad just wondering

benkap,
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@baruch @Bam @gavi If we're talking about someone who thinks Mastodon is just an app, they will almost deficiently be signing up for .social (since it's the default) and will have plenty of activity in their local feed.

benkap,
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@baruch @Bam @gavi That said, the fact that the official Mastodon app doesn't even have a federated feed feature is pretty crazy.

ohiorob, to Jewish
@ohiorob@mastodon.world avatar

Agrarian living in kibbutzim, many of whom for decades lived alongside and were among the most active peace activists in were hit first and hardest on Oct 7th.

And socialists worldwide basically instantly turned their backs and started pouring themselves into the emerging “from the river to the sea” + denial movement.
🎁 link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/world/middleeast/israel-oct-7-left-wing-peace.html?mwgrp=c-mbar&unlocked_article_code=1.HE0.w0q2.9x4B0Db0PMtU&hpgrp=ar-abar&smid=url-share

benkap,
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@ohiorob This is a good article. In general there seems to be this misconception outside of Israel that because Oct. 7th turned the population against Netanyahu even moreso than before the war that they also oppose the war itself. However, that's not the feeling here, pretty much everyone sees the current military operation in Gaza as necessary to one degree or another, however many wish that it was someone other than Netanyahu leading it.

benkap,
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@emmaaum @ohiorob Hard to say, someone older who's lived in Israel longer could probably give a better perspective. But the political left here has certainly been in crisis for a decade or two. Most of Netanyahu's biggest political rivals are either other right-wingers or centrists. People are just very skeptical of the peace process, even though I still think most Israelis would support a two-state solution of they felt it would actually lead to peace.

benkap, to random
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One of the most common and infuriating antisemitic takes on the internet is that Israel proves that Jews did not learn the "lesson" of the Holocaust. As if the largest massacre of Jews in history was meant to teach Jews a moral lesson that the American or European dude posting about it online already knows because they're such a good person (TM).

benkap,
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One thing we did "learn" from the Holocaust is that when people say they want to kill the Jews, we should take them seriously. They'll do it if they have the means to do so.

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