‘Nobody’s hands are clean’: Obama urges reflection amid Israel-Hamas conflict

Salamendacious@lemmy.world to politics @lemmy.world – 681 points –
‘Nobody’s hands are clean’: Obama urges reflection amid Israel-Hamas conflict
politico.com

Former President Barack Obama cautioned against ignoring the complexities of the Israel-Hamas war, warning that “all of us are complicit.”

“If you want to solve the problem, then you have to take in the whole truth. And you then have to admit nobody’s hands are clean, that all of us are complicit to some degree,” he said in an excerpted interview with Pod Save America released Saturday.

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Neither is Israel

Israel is a white supremacist settler-colonialist state. End of story.

multi-millennia

Seventy years doesn't qualify as "multi-millenia," okay?

Israel is a white supremacist settler-colonialist state. End of story.

You can keep saying that but they aren't white, and they are the original settlers of the area... Soooo not end of story, not even part of the story.

Seventy years doesn't qualify as "multi-millenia," okay?

Yeah but 3000 years is so....

Maybe watch the video? Or read up on history? Like maybe look at the buildings Jewish people built there thousands of years ago that are still standing? And there's the fact that they've been there the whole time? Sure there was a migration of Jewish people coming back after WW2, but the population didn't go from 0. They were always there.

In fact the Jewish population was the reason the white colonizers (the British ) left Israel in the late 40's.

but they aren’t white

Say it louder. Bellow it from the rooftops so that every Jewish person in occupied Palestine can hear you - they aren’t “white” enough for you… just like your European ancestors insisted when they massacred Jewish people and drove them from their homes due to their rabid antisemitism. Show them that they are nothing but kapos to you, right-winger - show them that you will only support them as long as they are repressing brown people for you in the middle-east.

Show them what true antisemitism looks like in the way that only you and your ilk can.

Yeah but 3000 years is so

Pulling 2930 years out of your arrse is not the magic trick you assume it to be.

they’ve been there the whole time?

Did you only figure out now that there have always been Jewish Palestinians in Palestine? Wait till you find out that the earth isn't flat...

I'm fucking Jewish you raging asshole. My ancestors are the ones that were massacred you absolute fucking disgrace of a human.

Pulling 2930 years out of your arrse is not the magic trick you assume it to be.

It's not out my ass, it's out of history.

Did you only figure out now that there have always been Jewish Palestinians in Palestine? Wait till you find out that the earth isn't flat...

Okay so you understand that that proves you're wrong right?

But just fuck you. Stop trying to white wash me and my family you complete tool.

I’m fucking Jewish you raging asshole.

Good... now I can ask you directly - what does it feel like to play kapo for the very people that invented antisemitism?

There's something I need you to explain for me... have you or have you not noticed that all of Israel's enablers - all the countries that have proven so fond of the idea of Israel including England, where antisemitic Christians invented Zionism - are literally countries with deep histories of white supremacism, colonialism and... drumroll, please... antisemitism?

It’s not out my ass,

Which part of...

Pulling 2930 years out of your arrse is not the magic trick you assume it to be.

...didn't you understand the first time around?

Stop trying to white wash

Still not getting this, are you? Those white supremacists that are cheering Israel on with you? They will only see you as "white enough" as long as it suits them. When they inevitably abandon Israel because their favorite little white supremacist colonialist project has become a costly dead-end, you will witness them turn straight back into the overt antisemites they were before WW2 made overt antisemitism unfashionable.

That's who you share an ideological bed with.

Just admit you're anti semitic and you don't want to have to go through that self realization.

You've actively refused to admit it's a complicated multi millennia situation, but then admitted that Israelites were there all along so the original colonizers were not them.

Also

They will only see you as "white enough" as long as it suits them.

I don't fuck with their racist ass shit either. I'm not white, it doesn't matter if you or they are trying to white wash me and my fucking family. You racist piece of shit.

Not answering the question, huh? The people who created Israel and runs it to this very day learned their white supremacist colonialism from the best in the game - France, Germany, Britain and, of course, the US - I guess it's just a pure coincidence that these countries, historical and traditional hotbeds of fundamentalist white supremacism and antisemitism, are also Israel's most generous backers, eh?

You don't have to answer - it's a question more and more people will be asking - and answering - no matter what you or your glorified Crusader state does.

Just admit you’re anti semitic

Don't project your (pretty typical) right-wing self-hatred onto me... I'm not the one apologizing for oppressors and mass-murderers. You are.

it’s a complicated

There's nothing complicated about white supremacist settler-colonialism - not for those who aren't willing collaborators, anyway.

that Israelites were there

Yes, the Palestinians have been there for a very long time. You know... in Palestine.

I don’t fuck with their racist ass shit either.

Which part of...

That’s who you share an ideological bed with.

...didn't you get the first time around?

You literally share the same ideological bed as the kind of people who perpetrated the Holocaust (who, incidentally, also considered forcefully displacing European Jewish people to Palestine - perfectly in-line with the beliefs of the antisemitic originators of the ideology of Zionism).

So yes... you are fully onboard with their "racist ass shit" white supremacism - their "racist ass shit" white supremacism is literally the only reason modern-day Israel can exist in the way that it does today. You didn't think that Israel funds it's vast murder-toy collection by selling the water it steals from Palestinians, did you?

I've already answered your "question" and it's based on a racist false premise you're continuing to perpetuate because you can't reconcile your own racist beliefs being racist. So you pin up this big strawman that I never said so your gymnastics can suit yourself.

Also

Yes, the Palestinians have been there for a very long time. You know... in Palestine.

You seem to bitch a lot about "white supremacist colonizers", but calling it Palestine is literally the white supremacist colonizer name for it. That's what the Roman empire decided to rename it after they took it over.

I’ve already answered your “question”

No, you haven't. Here... I'll repost it to shake up your memory.

Good… now I can ask you directly - what does it feel like to play kapo for the very people that invented antisemitism?

There’s something I need you to explain for me… have you or have you not noticed that all of Israel’s enablers - all the countries that have proven so fond of the idea of Israel including England, where antisemitic Christians invented Zionism - are literally countries with deep histories of white supremacism, colonialism and… drumroll, please… antisemitism?

racist beliefs being racist.

Accusing everyone that's pointing out your white supremacist beliefs of "reverse racism" hasn't worked out that well for any of your other right-wing brethren... but maybe you'll be the exception, right?

the Roman empire decided

White supremacist ideology didn't exist back when the Roman empire was a thing - I guess we can also tack "doesn't understand what white supremacism is" to your PragerU-level lack of historical understanding, eh?

Good… now I can ask you directly - what does it feel like to play kapo for the very people that invented antisemitism?

I wouldn't know. Because I'm not.

There’s something I need you to explain for me… have you or have you not noticed that all of Israel’s enablers - all the countries that have proven so fond of the idea of Israel including England, where antisemitic Christians invented Zionism - are literally countries with deep histories of white supremacism, colonialism and… drumroll, please… antisemitism?

That's actually a subset of Israel's supporters. And by the fucking way I've never voiced support of what the current government is doing, I stated it was a complicated situation. And you decided that meant I gargle Netanyahu's balls.

Accusing everyone that's pointing out your white supremacist beliefs of "reverse racism" hasn't worked out that well for any of your other right-wing brethren... but maybe you'll be the exception, right?

  1. You're literally white washing an entire group of people and ignoring thousands of years of history just so you can claim actual racism as reverse racism. That's God tier racism, congrats.

  2. I'm sick of you calling me right wing. You don't know me, and it couldn't be farther from the truth. I do know however, that your entire spiel has been rife with racism, so you're likely the right winger here larping as liberal and you're not arguing in good faith.

  3. I'm not accusing everyone, I'm accusing you. For your racist overtones.

White supremacist ideology didn't exist back when the Roman empire was a thing

Bruh are you fucking kidding me? Us vs then supremacy has existed since the dawn of man. It existed back when the neanderthal were around, so it definitely existed back then

Roman empire was the first real go at White supremacy. Their whole thing was "you know, we're better than everyone else at things, let's take them over", moreover the reason the Romans renamed it was because they didn't like Jewish people. Tell me how that's different from your proud boy ass.

I wouldn’t know. Because I’m not.

Yes - you fucking are. The modern-day state of Israel is a creation of western colonialism - you know... the exact same western colonialism that resulted in the Nazis looking for their precious "lebensraum" in the (so-called) "Jewish-Bolshevist" east? You know... the exact same (so-called) "western civilization" that invented antisemitism? Israel is a kapo state, doing the bidding of and being enabled by the same white supremacist and antisemitic powers that made Jewish life so damn difficult and next-to impossible in the west in the first place.

And here you are... running interference against the people that is pointing out this inconvenient truth out to you and everybody else.

So, again... what does it feel like to play kapo for the very people that invented antisemitism?

That’s actually a subset of Israel’s supporters.

Yeah, you're right - I left out quite a few. Canada, Australia, Apartheid-South Africa - man, the white supremacist rabbit-hole just gets deeper and deeper, doesn't it?

claim actual racism as reverse racism.

Sooo... you still don't understand squat about white supremacism. Nothing about that has changed.

I’m sick of you calling me right wing.

You can stop being a right-winger any time you damn well feel like it - it is a choice, you know.

I’m not accusing everyone, I’m accusing you

Clyde, you accusing people who are pointing out your investment in white supremacist propaganda doesn't make you unique. It's one of the go-to strategies of every white supremacist that learned their ideology watching Ben Shapiro videos.

Bruh are you fucking kidding me?

White supremacism didn't exist back when the Roman empire was a thing because white supremacism hadn't been invented yet. You know... the same reason the Romans didn't have M16 rifles? The "scientific racism" which underpins the modern-day ideology of white supremacism is a purely European invention that arose during the colonialist era starting with the (so-called) "Reconquista" in Spain. I hope this is not too difficult for you to understand.

That's a lot of text just to show you don't know what you're talking about.

Okay, I'm sorry that you can't understand that white supremacy is still white supremacy even if the phrase didn't exist.

The concept still did ... Like, what do you call someone that enslaves other races for being lesser than them, takes over their land, changes shit because fuck them etc etc?

White supremacists, or ancient Romans.

They laid the ground work for all of it, and that's why you're so vehemently defending them, you alt right people love you some white supremacy that isn't called it.

Greeks and Romans did the racism: https://www.jstor.org/stable/40023593

Clyde, you accusing people who are pointing out your investment in white supremacist propaganda doesn't make you unique. It's one of the go-to strategies of every white supremacist that learned their ideology watching Ben Shapiro videos.

But you're literally the racist POS here. You've done Jack shit to deny it other than try to play the uno reverse card, while I've pointed out your white supremacist bullshit.

All you've done is throw up a strawman and call that racism, the problem with a strawman is, I never said it or claim to agree with it.

Sorry you don't like people of color getting their ancestral land back. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on native Americans and African Americans 🙄 I bet you don't want them to get reparations.

that white supremacy

You didn't have the foggiest clue how white supremacism works a while ago... you don't have the foggiest clue how white supremacism works now. Nothing has changed.

The concept still did

Clyde, read this part again, and read it carefully.

White supremacism didn’t exist back when the Roman empire was a thing because white supremacism hadn’t been invented yet. You know… the same reason the Romans didn’t have M16 rifles? The “scientific racism” which underpins the modern-day ideology of white supremacism is a purely European invention that arose during the colonialist era starting with the (so-called) “Reconquista” in Spain.

But you’re literally the racist POS here.

Again... you accusing people who are pointing out your investment in white supremacist propaganda of "reverse racism" doesn’t make you unique. It just makes you a run-of-the-mill, made-in-a-mold white supremacism apologist.

All you’ve done is throw up a strawman

Clyde, you apologizing for a white supremacist settler-colonialist state is not a strawman - it's you apologizing for a white supremacist settler-colonialist state. That's you... no amount of deflection changes that.

Sorry you don’t like people of color getting their ancestral land back.

The Palestinians will get their land back eventually - white supremacist settler-colonialist projects are as unsustainable in the middle-east as they proved to be in Africa. Your hoped-for genocide will fail.

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There’s something I need you to explain for me… have you or have you not noticed that all of Israel’s enablers - all the countries that have proven so fond of the idea of Israel including England, where antisemitic Christians invented Zionism - are literally countries with deep histories of white supremacism, colonialism and… drumroll, please… antisemitism?

Arabs were against Israel and also against having Britain & France controlling colonial assets in their countries. The USSR saw them as valuable allies in dismantling colonial empires to make way for expanding Soviet influence. Western alignment with Israel didn't fully materialize except with the context of the Cold War. It really doesn't have a whole lot to do with ideological concerns beyond the surface level. It's realpolitik. The USSR was even pro-Zionist for a hot minute when they thought the kibbutzim were going to take off.

Also, this...

England, where antisemitic Christians invented Zionism

... is fucking stupid. Jews have been returning to Zion for as long as there has been a diaspora.

is fucking stupid.

...and here you manage to prove just one thing - that the only thing "complicating" any of this is the batshit fairy tale pro-Israeli propaganda that has been regurgitated for you for decades now. Even Israeli historians demolishes your absurd alt-history.

Want a choice quote from Israeli historian Anita Shapira?

"The idea of the Jews returning to their ancient homeland as the first step to world redemption seems to have originated among a specific group of evangelical English Protestants that flourished in England in the 1840s; they passed this notion on to Jewish circles."

Jews have been returning

Are you talking about Palestine? You know... the place that has always had large Jewish communities all throughout the middle-ages right up to 1949?

Is that the place you are referring to?

Christian Zionism

And where exactly do you think the Christian Zionists got their ideas?

Could it be Maimonides?

The days of the Messiah, however, is the time when rulership will return to Israel and that they will go back to the land of Israel and that this king will be very great, and the seat of his rulership will be in Zion (Jerusalem). His fame will grow and his mention will be among all of the nations, [even] more than King Shlomo. And all of the peoples will make peace with him and all of the lands will serve him, due to his great righteousness and due to the wonders that will come about though him. And anyone that comes against him, God, may He be elevated, will deliver into his hand. And all of the [relevant] verses in Scripture testify to his success and our success with him. And nothing about existence will change from what it is now, except that rulership will return to Israel.

Maimonides advocated that wise men, those who understood the words of the sages, would naturally establish this "rulership" in Israel. Of course he was commenting on the Mishnah which dates back to the second or third century CE. The Christian Zionists' reason for wishing for the Jews to return to Israel is to bring about the end/messianic times. This prophecy first appeared in Judaism.

If you want to get into the specifics of practical & poltical Zionism of the late 19th century, sure it was inspired by European nationalism. But if that's all it takes for something to be white supremacy, then I guess all the various forms of Arab and African nationalism are white supremacy, too. The political, financial, and logistical methods employed by modern Zionists in the establishment of Israel were reflections of the time in which it took place. Had the Holocaust not occurred, the aliyot of the late 19th and early 20th century likely would have fizzled out without significantly effecting the balance of power in the region, like all the aliyot prior.

Are you talking about Palestine? You know… the place that has always had large Jewish communities all throughout the middle-ages right up to 1949?

Yes, lol. Keep up. The Jewish population waxed & waned over the centuries due to waves of expulsion and emigration, and aliyot.

Anyway, modern Zionism doesn't need to be smeared as "white supremacy"; it stands on its own as a terrible idea, that in its full realization requires violence against and the displacement & expulsion of the Palestinian people.

Could it be Maimonides?

No. There is a lot of "return" mythologies you can name that is present in a lot of diaspora communities, but that doesn't mean you see Rastafarians perpetrating settler-colonialism in Ethiopia or the Irish making the case for violently retaking Dublin from... the Irish. You could, if you wanted, make a case for Liberia - but once again, Liberia is a result of a white supremacist urge to get rid of a hated other by displacing said "other" "back where they came from..." which, now that we're talking about it, most certainly does have parallels with Christian Zionism's core antisemitism.

then I guess all the various forms of Arab and African nationalism are white supremacy, too.

And who were Arab and African nationalists supposed to be white supremacist to? Whiteness defines itself by that which it is not... African nationalism is still, to this very day, beset by the racialized politics enforced onto it by white supremacist empires - Rwanda is merely one case of many - but the idea that sub-Saharan Africans have universally embraced the kind of comprehensive racialized caste system that European "race science" has normalized is ludicrous.

Anyway, modern Zionism doesn’t need to be smeared as “white supremacy”

Maybe you need to tell the Israelis that.

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In fact the Jewish population was the reason the white colonizers (the British ) left Israel in the late 40’s.

oh you're such an idiotic bitch

Go watch the video. The Jewish population literally kicked them out. That's literal facts, so I think you're the idiotic bitch.

Y'all really don't want to educate yourselves on this and you just want to say it's a super simple situation that you've already figured out.

Or you're just super racist like the other guy.

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