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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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Wishing everyone a meaningful Yom Kippur. May we all be inscribed in the books of life, prosperity, and forgiveness.

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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Hila Rotem (age 13) was another recently released Hamas hostage, but unlike Emily and Ohad, was not able to reunite with her parents in Israel. Her mother Raya is still being held captive by Hamas, in violation of the hostage agreement not to separate mothers and children. She was instead greeted by her uncle in Israel. Hila says she and her mother were being held together but were separated by Hamas a few days before her release.

Hila embracing her uncle in an Israeli hospital after her return from Hamas captivity.

benkap, to Israel
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This is a very moving video of Eitan Yahalomi (12) reuniting with his mother after being released from captivity. Eitan's entire family was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, but his mother and two siblings managed to escape before being taken into . His father, Ohad, is still being held hostage.

A young boy steps off a helicopter and is embraced by his mother

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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@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,
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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, to Israel
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Two hostages held by who are less talked about are Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed. Avera is an Ethiopian Jew and Hisham is a Bedouin Arab. Both are Israeli citizens with histories of mental illness. They are believe to have been held by Hamas since 2014 and 2015 respectively. As with all captives held by Hamas, no third party such as the International Red Cross has been allowed to see them, so their condition is unknown.

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.

benkap, to Israel
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Hanna Katzir was one of the hostages taken into during the Oct. 7th attacks. Subsequently, the PIJ terrorist group claimed she had died in Gaza, which was revealed to be a lie after she was returned as part of the hostage deal between and . However, her health deteriorated significantly while she was a captive and her family now says she's in serious condition. Her husband was killed when she was taken captive and her son is still held hostage. Today is her 78th birthday.

benkap, to Israel
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has launched over 100 rockets from designated humanitarian zones in . Hamas has openly said that they don't see protection of Gazan civilians as their responsibility but rather that of and the UN. It is very difficult to fight a terrorist organization in such circumstances without high civilian casualties.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/idf-says-hamas-has-fired-116-rockets-from-designated-humanitarian-zone-in-gaza/

benkap, to Israel
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Notably not among the Israeli hostages released thus far is the Bibas family. The family of 4 was kidnapped by from their kibbutz in the Oct. 7th attacks. Kfir Bibas is the youngest of the hostages who were kidnapped at just 10 months old.

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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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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"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
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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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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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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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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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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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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,
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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, 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/

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