Here Are All the Democrats Who Voted for the “Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism” Bill
newrepublic.com
“The resolution suggests that all anti-Zionism—it states—is antisemitism. That’s either intellectually disingenuous or just factually wrong,” said New York Representative Jerry Nadler, who voted present. “The authors if they were at all familiar with Jewish history & culture should know about Jewish anti-Zionism that was and is expressly not antisemitic. This resolution ignores the fact that even today, certain Orthodox Hasidic Jewish communities … have held views that are at odds with the modern Zionist conception.”
Anti-Zionism is not antisemitic.
Lumping in all Jewish people with the genocidal apartheid ethnostate absolutely is.
Holy shit that's poignant
Hey Congress, the Israeli Government sucks and not all Palestinians are bad people.
Congress 🤯
I wish.
This is ridiculous, the first anti zionists were all Jewish. Some were even assassinated for their views. Zionism should not be conflated with Jewishness at all.
Unfortunately, that's too nuanced a presentation of facts for most people to digest. No one actually knows anything about history anymore.
I am so tired of this bullshit and of Isreal's bullshit. I don't care if people think I am antisemitic because technically I am. I am in the same way I'm anti Christian, Muslim, Buddhism, Odinism and every other religion. Can we please stop using superstition as a reason to kill and hate eachother when there are plenty of good reasons to already do that or better yet just stop doing it all together.
Then you're anti-judaism, not antisemitic
Hey thanks for teaching me something new! I appreciate it.
given that almost all jews support zionism, I don't really get why people stress making this huge distinction.
Evidence, please.
Well you see, if they don’t support Zionism they’re not real Jews!
— That guy, probably
I'm guessing the opposite. I'm guessing it's "Jews are evil and they all support genocide."
And considering, as Nadler pointed out, that there are Orthodox communities in the U.S. which are and always have been staunchly anti-Zionist, that's not even true from Israel's inception.
Not only that, but a huge contingent of Zionists are not Jewish, and are pretty damn anti-semetic. There's a strain of it that wanted to kick Jews out of all other countries.
Religion isnt the reason, it's just the excuse.
The reason is money and power. It always has been.
I think the best term is "anti theocracy" and while Israel is in theory a democracy they are first and foremost a theocracy because the democracy is a right only reserved for those inside the theocratic construct.
No they are a secular democracy. Their laws are not based on Judaism. Judaism prohibits most things they do.
Israelis hate black black Jews as well. It's just a racist white ethno-state.
If they are an apartheid state with tiers of citizens, they aren't a democracy.
What are their tiers of citizens?
The Anti Jeremy Corbyn playbook is still in use I see.
That was used as a stick to hit Labour before Corbyn as well. There's always been a handful of low level councillors that fail to draw a line between opposing apartheid in Gaza, and sharing comics of big nosed Jews eating babies on Twitter. And I acknowledge that this is mostly because Labour councillors are more likely to be Muslims with family ties to the Middle East in general. It was all overblown by the right wing media to make it seem like the entire Labour cabinet wanted to bring back the gas chambers.
But in fairness you also can't go and lay a wreath for a Munich massacre terrorist and then expect to go on to be PM of the UK. If that picture was doing the rounds during the Labour leadership contest, I doubt they'd have made him their leader.
Even without all that, I doubt he'd have beaten Boris in that election. His Brexit bluster had unified the former UKIP voters under him and that was enough to ensure victory against anyone.
The real reason to hate Corbyn is that he's such a toxic idiot that he hurt Lib Dems getting elected, and they're a totally different party.
The problem with this sort of language is that there are a few different things that people call "anti-Zionism". One is saying Israel does not have a holy right to the entirety of the land of Israel. Another is saying Israel has no right to exist at all. A third is any criticism of Israel or the Israeli leadership.
Only the second is antisemitism, as it implies that Jewish people and their nation should not exist.
Trouble is, it all gets lumped together. Any criticism of the Israeli leadership is fodder for the anti-semites who would wipe out the Jewish people given the opportunity. Any defense of the nation of Israel or the Jewish people is taken as tacit endorsement of the atrocities they are commiting.
This is an unsustainable level of intransigence that leaves no path forward resolving in peace.
No.
Saying the state of Israel has no right to exist is not antisemitic either.
You're continuing the deliberate mistake of conflating Israel (a political entity) with Judaism (a religion). Not every Israeli is Jewish, nor is every Jew Israeli. Likewise Israel is not Jewish peoples nation, Jewish people live all over the world and call many nations their home.
Also why do you believe people should have an ethno-state of their own?
How do you eliminate the state of Israel without killing a bunch of Jewish people?
I don't believe there should be any ethno-states, but that's not the world we got.
It's very easy to replace Israel with another state in the same place without killing or moving everyone.
Israel is an ethnostate. Ethnostates are bad. Ethnostates that are religiously motivated are doubly bad.
Israel could be a secular state that treated all ethnicities equally with zero loss in life or need for anyone to leave the area.
They chose not to.
It's not antisemitism to acknowledge this.
Oh nation building. The US is pretty good at that. I mean, isn't that how we got here in the first place? Moving a bunch of religious fanatics out of their holy land to make room for the displaced victims of a genocide?
Deflecting, are we?
Not at all, I just don't think your solution is feasible. The Israeli leadership will not step down peacefully, and Hamas will not accept anything less than total victory. You're suggesting a third party take control? Or do you think suddenly everyone involved will just forget all the murder and start singing "kumbaya"?
That's not how it started at all, the Brits have a lot more to do with this one.
Naturally, but do we expect to be better at it?
I think I may have misunderstood you, I thought you were saying that America was responsible for Israel.
No that's my fault, I see why that's what it sounded like. It was intended as two different points.
The US has a bad record of nation building.
Israel exists because of failed nation building, specifically how the UK controlled Palestine and started encouraging Jewish migration to the holy land, displacing Palestinians.
Lol. Really bad attempt at pivoting.
What pivot? That's the argument presented. "The end of Israel does not require violence because Western nations can build a better nation for the Jewish and Palestinian peoples to live in harmony." Does that actually deserve a full rebuttal?
Buddhists doesn't have a state. They seem to be doing ok.
I'm not trying to argue against you here, I was just curious about the info and wanted to share it.
So, it turns out that Buddhism is actually the official religion for 4 countries: Bhutan, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. It's also the majority religion for 3 more states: Thailand, Mongolia, and Laos. Total population of Buddhists exceeds 500 mil, about 7-8% of the world's population according to 2010s data.
How does this relate to Israel? Precisely fuck all. I just thought it was interesting to share how widespread Buddhism is.
None of those states claim to be "the Buddhist state" or that an attack on them is an attack on Buddhism.
Indeed. It has nothing to do with the current situation. I mentioned that.
Ask the Dalai Llama how Buddhists are doing in Tibet, and whether they'd like to have their country back.
That works both ways. At different times in history both Arabs and Jews have lived in the areas now called Israel and Palestine.
The problem is snatching land from the present to punish deeds of the past just creates more sorrow.
I agree completely.
Destroying a state is not genocidal - no matter how much you want to pretend it to be.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negotiations_to_end_apartheid_in_South_Africa
One of the most popular arguments against the end of apartheid in South Africa was that the previously-ruling white minority would face violence and persecution. While South Africa has not come all its way in ending the disparity of apartheid since its transition to democracy, those claims that white people would be killed by the nonwhite majority have certainly not panned out
You're gonna compare Nelson Mandela to Ismail Haniyeh?
bestie when did i ever compare nelson mandela to ismail haniyeh
You brought up South Africa as an example of a nonviolent end of apartheid. Do the Palestinians have a leader who believes in a nonviolent end to the conflict in Israel?
Do you think South African apartheid was brought to an end by one guy?
There have been lots of nonviolent protest movements in Palestine and there are prominent Palestinian and Israeli advocates for one democratic state
Do you think the end of South Africa apartheid would have been nonviolent without nonviolent leaders?
A one-state secular democracy sounds great. How do you get there from where we are now? There are prominent advocates for a lot of things, but none of those people are in power on either side. As long as Israel is indiscriminately bombing Gaza and Hamas is using their blood to "awaken the revolutionary spirit," we can't reasonably expect anyone to compromise without being forced.
There are nonviolent Palestinian leaders, in the West Bank, in the diaspora, and probably in Gaza outside of Hamas. And the movement for Palestinian rights is finally being heard on the global stage.
Israel and Hamas will need to be forced. Nonviolent protest, boycotts, sanctions, are ways of exerting force without fueling the flames of war.
I know it's hard to believe in the goodness of people and their power to change things for the better, but it is essential when the alternative is brutality
I know it's worth trying, but I don't believe it will work, and I don't believe that everyone calling for an end to Israel thinks that it can be achieved without brutality. That's my whole point.
No. No theocracy or ethno state has a right to exist. Brutal apartheid is baked into these concepts. For some reason most of the world can get on board when it comes to oppressive governments like Iran or even China spreading Han culture. If the myth of "a people without a land to a land without a people" were true there might be a case, but there is no such land, and certainly not in Palestine.
This is wildly incorrect. The only inherent implication of saying the state of Israel has no right to exist is that the state of Israel has no right to exist. That is, a state foundationally for and only for a certain ethno-religion, forcibly and violently founded in a land already full of people who aren't a part of that ethno-religion. Such a state is oppressive by its nature, given that the majority of people within its borders of control (and especially people within those borders and displaced from within those borders) are disenfranchised and do not have equal rights under the law or under the enforcement of law.
Completely disagree. It's a nation like any other. It has as much right to exist as the USA or Constantinople.
I'm not entirely on board with the idea of nations having rights at all. The people living in them do, but I don't see how an abstract entity should have rights that the people it represents don't have on their own.
To give a concrete example: the people of Iraq have a right to exist. But it's a country composed of ethnic groups that don't especially like each other, so having them all live in a single country isn't necessarily great. I don't think Iraq has a right to be a country, especially if it's interfering with the right to self-determination of the people living there. Maybe as a practical matter it's better for the country to exist, but rights aren't supposed to be contingent on practical concerns.
Well... they did make corporations "people" - so there is that kind of lunacy around.
Constantinople was a city, not a nation.
But other than that, I agree that Israel has as much right to exist as any other nation. Saying Israel should not exist is implicitly antisemitic because you can't get rid of the nation of Israel without wiping out the Jewish people living there.
Bullshit. Jewish people have a right to exist - Israel doesn't.
How do you get rid of Israel without killing a lot of Jewish people?
Did the US commit genocide by toppling the Taliban, Clyde?
You wanna try something else to prop up your bullshit apologetics or are we done here?
The fuck are you talking about? Did the US topple the Taliban? Last I checked, Afghanistan is still a country, and it's still run by the Taliban. How is that in any way analogous to Israel? Also, not for nothing, but the US has indiscriminately killed a lot of people in the Middle East, but nothing I would categorize as a genocide.
And Palestine will still exist when the white supremacist settler-colonialist state squatting on it is dismantled. You know... Palestine? That place that has been home to Jewish people since before Jesus?
So, again, Clyde - do have something other than white supremacism apologetics to offer?
You've lost me. How is Palestine analogous to Palestine? The Israeli leadership will literally die before they cede control of the nation to the Palestinian Authority.
I don't know who the fuck Clyde is, or why you seem to think anything I've said is white supremacy, but it makes me doubt your grasp on reality and wonder if I'm wasting my time on you.
No, Clyde - I didn't. You were lost a long time ago, and it has nothing to do with me.
It's really simple - if you engage in apologetics for a white supremacist settler-colonialist state that makes you a... what?
It's about as simple as political math gets, Clyde.
Well if you're just going to make shit up, I think we're done. I'll let Clyde know you're looking to argue with him, if I ever meet him.
Are you going to pretend that your apologetics for a white supremacist settler-colonialist state is (somehow) made up now?
Don't run off, Clyde... your ducking and diving is becoming amusing.
You don't have to kill all the Israeli's to get rid of Israel. Nations are made by people accepting that they exist. Before Israel was Israel it was just a bunch of politically savvy zionists who started telling people to move there. With a lot of wealthy Jewish investors they just started buying land and refusing to let Palestinians work on it. Over time and with enough established countries recognising Israel as its own thing, that's what it became.
If tomorrow the entire world just decided that Israel didn't exist then it would cease to, they may object but they'd be invaders occupying land that doesn't belong to them. It might sound silly but this is how Israel was created.
In theory, sure, but Israelis believe that they have been chosen by God to defend their holy land. They believe they are under attack (which isn't unfounded, given Hamas' horrific attacks October 7th) and they believe that if they are not in power, that the Arab world will begin another Holocaust (also not unfounded, considering the rhetoric used by Islamic leaders in the region).
And Israel has nuclear weapons.
Before Israel was Israel, it was under British control, and the British army defended the Zionists displacing Palestinians. There were several violent revolts, and many people were killed. They didn't just buy property until they owned Tel Aviv. Land was taken by force.
Westerners see Israel as an ally, surrounded by jihadists and terrorists and despots fighting tooth and nail to merely continue to exist. And all of that is true, but it creates the false impression that Israelis are somehow more reasonable than the jihadists. That the Jewish people will listen to a rational argument and act responsibly and with reverence to human life. That, if American support goes away, the Israeli leadership will see the writing on the wall and seek a peaceful solution rather than face oblivion.
There is no peaceful end to Israel. You won't have to kill all the Jewish people living there, but you will have to kill many of them.
I see what you're saying, and perhaps you're right. I am more hopeful, though. Plenty of Israelis support Palestine and in the early days the Palestinians welcomed the Jews. It's not fair to simply dismiss vast groups of people as irrational or terrorists. At one point in time these people got along, and even though a lot has happened since then I don't think it's impossible to get back there.
I think Western support does play a large role, it's the reason why the Israeli military is what it is and probably why Israel feels free to indiscriminately attack Palestine. If our support was more conditional and not so one sided it would encourage cooperation and more peaceful resolutions.
Correct because nobody who has any actual power wants peace. What those with power want is to assert their influence.
The United States is a British/Israeli colony.
Always was.
Congress having a normal one
No wonder it passed
The zionist argument that "anti-zionism is anti-semitism" is a fascist lie. Anyone who spreads this lie is a puppet of Likud.
Zionists have been trying to do this forever.
They don't argue in good faith.
When zionists run your gvt
Like 2 months ago the only time I heard the word Zionist was in my world religions class, now I guess the entire world is suddenly run by them.
Jews don't all agree, nor should they but to the vast majority of them people saying that the Jewish homeland shouldn't exist, with the history of Jews being ethnically cleansed from the dozen countries they have been, is a very Antisemitic position to take.
With the uptick in hate crimes against Jews, with the words of college Presidents making it clear that calling for the death of Jews isn't problematic enough for punishment it's just making Jews feel even more strongly that Israel needs to exist and Zionism is self preservation.
If you have a problem with Israel existing and not with any other country, the question of why should probably be explored. They're not the only country that's been established in the past 100 years nor are they the only one that's the result of the British drawing lines thru historical homelands.
I don't think a religious ethnostate is a good thing. I also don't think running an open air prison inside your ethnostate is a good thing.
So you're also calling for the destruction of the Arab ethnostates as well? If you've got an issue with the country that offers rights to Arabs.... then surely you've got issues with the surrounding countries that don't offer rights to people who aren't Muslim right?
There are over 2 dozen countries that require the head of state to be a certain religion. You're against those countries existing right? Or is it just the Jewish state? BTW, Israel doesn't have laws against Arabs being Prime Minister.
Yes? Did you expect me to say no to that?
Lemme just make sure it's clear, this is not about Israel being Jewish... It's about them running an open air prison, taking a moral high ground and my country's relationship with said ethnostate.
Also that verbage, "destruction" is so interesting to me. I don't remember calling for the destruction of Israel?
I expect you to now start campaigning for the destruction of the Arab world then. Yet it's clear based on your comment history that's never occurred to you. Yet another internet hero who's completely ignorant as to what they're calling for. The removal of the governments of the entire Arab world. That's beyond delusional.
If the only advocacy you do is against the lone Jewish state, my initial point applies. You're only advocating for one here.
Being Anti Zionist is calling for the destruction of the Jewish state. There's no way around this. Zionism by definition is the movement for the right for the Jewish people to have self determination by the formation of a homeland. If you're so ignorant as to call for the dissolution of that State and also attempt to argue that wouldn't lead to the death of Jews in the region then you're either intentionally ignorant or you're trolling.
It's a popular issue being discussed at the top of my feed, of course I have opinions related to it. There aren't a ton of articles with discussion about other Arab ethnostates running open air prisons on Lemmy, if your feed has some I'd love to hear some suggestions.
You're trying really hard to paint this as an antisemitic thing when it really just comes down to them being weird as fuck. No country in the world operates in the way they do with as much political power and influence as they do. I don't even think that's much of a stretch to say, even Israeli officials confirm it. It's ultimately a human rights issue, I'm not calling for the destruction of Israel, I'm asking you to not destroy the people within Israel.
You can use history and semantics all you want, but Gaza is the stain on your argument. What's happening there is awful, period.
Same coin. Both sides.
The frustrating thing is that if you find an "anti-Zionist" online and scratch the surface just a little bit, it's almost 100% of the time an antisemitic white supremacist wearing anti-Zionism as a veneer, so it's kind of an understandable mistake.
But it's still a mistake, and they should know better.
Edit: Wow, I guess this struck a nerve. But it's true, most of the time - not all the time - people who call themselves "anti-Zionists" online also use (((parentheses))) around the word "globalist."
As BraveSirZaphod aptly points out, it's a pointless word these days. Better to use a phrase like, "opposed to the current Israeli government," which would - again, as BraveSirZaphod points out - put you in company with the majority of Israelis.
Hi, anti-Zionist here - feel free to scratch deeply bc that's a pretty terrible take. Israeli people from my experience have been generally nice, and I don't hate anyone based on their race or religion (though I generally do not like organized religion for a wide variety of reasons). Israel has a right to exist, it doesn't have a right to wantonly crush Palestinian people under it's boot and that's all it's doing at this point, along with attempting to hide and/or discredit any criticism of their part in this (had Netanyahu and his cronies not funded even more extremists in Hamas or taken the threat of an attack seriously, this all likely wouldn't have happened). Or do you really accept as accidental that they've killed more journalists per day than almost any major conflict?
Under most definitions of Zionism, you are a Zionist. When the term was coined, it referred to the idea that the Jews should move to Israel and establish some kind of formal community.
Of course, now Israel does exist, so that original frame of reference no longer exists and the term generally means "a perspective towards Israel that matches or opposes what I think".
At the beginning, opposing Zionism would mean that you don't think Jews should move back to the Levant. Of course, that did happen, so now what? Perhaps it means you think that Israel should remain at its current borders and not expand, but is that really anti-Zionism when it's literally the accomplishment of the Zionist mission? Or perhaps anti-Zionism is the belief that Jews should be forcibly removed from Israel or killed. That is unquestionably anti-Zionist, but it's also blatantly genocidal.
Basically, Zionism is a pointless term today and no one should use it. If you oppose Israel's current government - a perspective shared by most Israelis it should be noted - just say that, and consider avoiding a term that some people will plausibly interpret as advocating for their genocide.
Can you name one of these people?
Are you just going around to all my old comments and responding to them? Why?