NoJoMo 23:14 in NoJoMo 2023

Try it Tuesday - What is something you’ve always wanted to try?

At the moment, I’d like to have a book published. I’ve been working on one since January, when I took a class called Writing a Book as my last English credit towards my degree. I think I’m about ready to start the second draft, so we’ll see. I’m absolutely the type of writer who starts a story, writes 10,000 words in a day, then doesn’t touch it again for weeks.

(No, I’m not doing NaNoWriMo this year. I’ve done it before, and failed miserably each time. More power to the people who can do it, because that is some superhero-level shit to me.)

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I was going to write about Israel and Palestine and how shitty it is that day-in, day-out Jews are being blamed for the actions and behaviors of Zionists (and as someone of Jewish descent, fuck Zionism in all its holes)…

And then John Oliver came in and said literally everything that needs to be said.

I also want to share two of the comments on that video, because I truly believe they reflect the feelings of a majority of Israelis and Palestinians.

From @stoomaberamot:
I am almost in tears (of relief) because of what I watched. As an Israeli, I cannot thank you enough for the way you’ve embraced this difficult and complex subject. These are truly scary days for my people and for my neighbours. I see them not only as neighbours, but cousins. I am sorry for what Netanyahu is doing. Nobody condones what he is doing to innocent civilians. As you mentioned, we were on a 40-week protest right until October 7. We really thought we were about to enter a civil war because of Netanyahu’s semi-fascist government who turned this country into a hellhole. I can talk for days about his coalition and ideologies, but what I can say for sure is that he is a strategist. Do not let him fool you. He wouldn’t be interviewed in Israel during the protests prior to October 7, but whenever he’d give a speech (in Hebrew, not English) in the Knesset, he’d use Torah versicles as analogies and to put us against each other. He is a manipulator, a robber, who will do anything, no matter the cost, to save himself while the nation rots. We all want peace and coexistence with the Palestinians. We all fear for what’s coming next, but we mantain our hopes that soon this war will be over, and that in the future, we can all move on and achieve an agreement. We want our hostages back, and we want to stop this nonsense, but unfortunately our government won’t listen. Netanyahu’s coalition prefers power over peace. People are dying, and mass media wants users to take one side and put the blame on the other, feeding into this never ending cycle of violence and hatred.

And from @dimaawad1070, replying to @stoomaberamot:
Your comment brought me to tears. John Oliver did an incredible job bringing humanity back into the forefront of this conversation where you can clearly see that both sides just want peace and coexistence which is an incredible feat to achieve considering what both sides have had to endure, and like Oliver said, with Palestinians usually on the receiving end. Watching what he said has given me hope that if it were up to the people of both Israel and Palestine, we would come together and go against what our leaders would prefer which is an endless cycle of violence, hate and racism. I do have to say, as a Palestinian, our tools towards a path of freedom and especially our rights to return to our lands before the Nakba 1948, are for a lack of a better word, limited. In other words, our options to fight for equality and freedom include violent and non-violent tactics and after 75 years we can clearly see where both has gotten us, absolutely nowhere.

The ball is in Israel’s court, fighting for Palestinians freedom means freeing themselves as well. It mustn’t be easy to grow up in Israel knowing that someday your kids will be forced to join the army, forced to fight wars and inflict so much pain on another group of innocent people. Never again for anyone. Never give up towards a path of safety and security for both, but those two will always be under threat if one side is treated as subhuman, we are a people of honor and refuse to be treated as anything but equal, that stubbornness, that level of honor and dignity can be traced back to before 1948 and it seems like there’s no end to this, no end to our constant struggle for freedom and equality because we refuse any other scenario that doesn’t explicitly and unequivocally state our rights as human beings, to Palestinians that is as essential to life itself.

Palestinians, and maybe this is because of our higher number in death tolls, our crippled economy, infrastructure, lack of adequate water (refer to the occupation of water from Amnesty International), high unemployment rates, constant attacks on Palestinian lands and villages in order to expel them and ethnically cleanse both the West Bank (done by settlers backed by the IDF) and Gaza (plans to push millions into the Sinai), the destruction of our agriculture cutting off Palestinians ways of survival for centuries (planting olive trees and replacing them by non-native trees that are ultimately hostile to the environment), because of all these reasons and so much more, we are faced with either death or forced to live under a system that systemically discriminates against us with apartheid walls separating and dividing us both figuratively and literally, forcings millions to become refugees scattered all over the world, never allowed to return and others forced to be refugees in their own country living a mere distance from their ancestorial homes, lands and villages. Some can smell the sea from their windows and are never allowed to go.

So it’s not surprising to see that instead of revenge for everything we have been through for the last 75 years, compassion, forgiveness and empathy runs deep, in recognition that what is happening to us shouldn’t happen to anyone and living in coexistence with equal rights and freedom for all, is a every human’s cause. We just want our loved ones to stop dying and I’m sure Israelis do as well.

Ultimately, I think we’re forgetting that there are human beings in both Israel and Palestine. Human beings who are intelligent, compassionate, empathetic, and above all, want the fighting to stop. As John said, “Any conversation around this, has to begin with empathy or we are just fucked.”

What Hamas did to 1200 Israelis, and what I’m sure they’re doing to the 196 hostages still in their custody, is horrific. What the Israeli government is doing to Gaza is horrific. And neither is the fault of everyday Israelis or everyday Palestinians. Palestinians are living in a concentration camp; Israelis are being led by a monstrously toxic and malignant narcissist who has been stripping them of their rights for thirty years. There is incredible pain being felt in both communities; if we don’t start there, we will never progress far enough to even think about peace.

Before anyone harangues me about any of this: I don’t know how to solve this problem. All I am is an American of Jewish descent who doesn’t support the Israeli government, doesn’t understand the necessity for the country of Israel to exist in 2023 and most European countries having strict laws about antisemitism, but still loves my people and is hurt by the antisemitism that’s running rampant, especially in leftist circles. I can be both pro-Palestine and against antisemitism, and I am, because at the end of the day, all systems of oppression feed into and support one another.

Also: Service in the IDF is mandatory. No one is there because they’re “willing” to fight; they’re there because they live in a dictatorship and refusing military service in Israel means up to 15 years in prison. Unless IDF soldiers are genuinely committing war crimes, as opposed to just fighting because they’re being forced to, I refuse to hold them responsible for fighting or “supporting” their country, because there’s an incredibly high chance they hate Bibi more than any of us do.

Finally: Bibi does not speak for all Israelis. He does not speak for all Jews. He doesn’t speak for me, that’s fer damn sure; given half an opportunity, I’d kick him right in the dick, with relish and laughing the whole time. “All Jews” and “all Israelis” is not true, just like “all Americans” is not true. Israelis, Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians are human beings, first and foremost, and if you won’t recognize that just because you’re angry at Bibi or Zionists¹ or Hamas or any other terrorists, go fuck yourself. I do not tolerate any type of antisemitism or Islamophobia or xenophobia here, and you can just fuckin’ deal with that.

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¹Zionists are, at best, very misguided Jews who have never read The Jewish State -the foundational text of political Zionism- and probably have no clue who Theodor Herzl was. At worst, they’re deeply hateful and antisemitic, because they know Herzl considered Jews inherently weak and agree with him. Fuck Zionism; as far as I’m concerned, it’s a terrorist organization, just as much as Hamas and Hezbollah.

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Last updated November 14, 2023