- Oct 20, 2022
- 4,972
I agree with everything you said in your earlier post but on this point, I feel that we need to be careful of generalising too much about those who have ‘strong connections to Israel’ even when using the word ‘largely’ to allow for exceptions - I doubt anyone is too interested in this point and I know I am a minority Jewish POV here but having ‘strong connections to Israel’ shouldn’t be seen by anyone to be mutually exclusive of criticising Netanyahu’s response to 10/7 imo.
20% of of Israeli citizens are Palestinian/arab so they certainly wouldn’t hold that view despite having strong ties which obviously goes without saying, I know, but I think clarification on who we mean by having ‘strong connections’ is helpful as is getting a feel for how supportive of Netanyahu those with ‘strong ties to Israel’ actually are:
Suggesting that those with such strong ties’ are supportive of the way Netanyahu is responding to 10/7 is unfair to possibly millions of Jews worldwide, who may now think, 3 weeks after the Hamas attack, Netanyahu has gone too far and are saying to themselves at least, ‘This can’t be right’! I don’t know how many members of the public that is any more than I know how many believe Netanyahu has it right, that is impossibly unverifiable but I do know that people with strong ties to Israel are very diverse in their thinking (apart from governments and businesses whose ties are a separate issue) and they don’t just live in Israel.
There are 15 million Jews in the world (with less than half of those living in Israel) who have a strong physical or emotional connection with Israel as being ‘home’ for the Jews
7. U.S. Jews’ connections with and attitudes toward Israel
Eight-in-ten U.S. Jews say caring about Israel is an essential or important part of what being Jewish means to them. Nearly six-in-ten say they personally
www.pewresearch.org
I and my family, for example, have a strong connection to Israel, not just through familial ties to people living in Israel but with many relatives in the States too who have a strong emotional connection to Israel who are actually quietly horrified and ashamed at what Netanyahu is doing in their name as am I and other Jews, including a significant part of the Jewish public in Israel - but they are still trying to deal with the initial trauma too and it is very difficult for most people to be very outwardly magnanimous and compassionate towards those they perceive to have wounded and terrorised them deeply - at least in the immediate aftermath.
I am hoping therefore, that there is not an a priori suggestion here that being Jewish (which often gives rise to that strong connection for Jews living outside Israel too) or even just being an Israeli citizen, is enough to presume a blind support of Netanyahu’s policies and renders one unable see what is happening in Gaza as inhumane, disproportionate or unnecessary or, if that is not the case, then it must mean that a Jewish person’s or other familial ‘ties’ to Israel are thus not very deep? That accusation was already unfairly directed at me by two NSCers who are no longer ‘here’ - I care for Israel as a State and her all her people but I also care passionately that the Government that professes to represent Israelis is committing what I can only describe as ‘genocide’ on a vulnerable people already subjected to 7 decades of inhumane Occupation.
- Netanyahu is highly unpopular in Israel (partly because of his theocratic reforms to the Judiciary but partly because if his failure to ‘protect Israel’ and more latterly, his disastrous war on Hamas - it is largely his government and the extremist Religious Zionists that is driving the agenda in Gaza and publicly claiming that the ends justify the means but I tend not to watch the news so maybe others see it differently … groups of Jews in Israel and all over the world are slowly beginning to protest against this war and they are even being arrested for it but they can not be blamed for coming to that point later than others:
Jewish activists arrested at US Congress sit-in calling for Gaza ceasefire
Demonstrators from anti-war group Jewish Voice for Peace rallied against ‘Israel’s ongoing oppression of Palestinians’.
Thousands protest in Israel calling for an end to the bombing of Gaza
The protests are small and reflect a Zionist opposition to the Netanyahu government, but are indicative of growing concerns about the purpose and direction of a war that threatens to escalate across the region, putting the survival of the state of Israel at risk.
www.wsws.org
I personally don’t think anyone should confuse the expression of trauma by Jewish people, especially living in Israel, but as a whole too and still reeling from the attack on 7/10, as being conflated with support for Netanyahu’s continued bombardment of Gazan civilians - not anyway at least just because they often are seen to be resisting a growing non-Jewish support for Palestinians in Gaza on social media. Pro-Palestinian support on social media and in demonstrations has been at times seen by some Jews in the media as hurtful in that it often does not also at the same time articulate and affirm the heinous nature of Hamas’s attacks on them - pro-Palestinian support has not articulated very well an empathy with the renewed sense of vulnerability felt by Jewish people everywhere as a consequence of Hamas’ attack on Israeli soil so there is a sense of betrayal too.
Likewise, I believe it would be naive to underestimate the depth of antagonism and hatred of Palestinians among far right extremist Zionists in Israel, especially those in positions of power, nor should we underestimate the hatred of Palestinians towards Jews after years of living under Occupation. We certainly shouldn’t be incognisant to the Palestinian authorities in Gaza now referring to civilians being killed as ‘martyrs’ on MSM - If Hamas began a programme in 2007 with the intention of radicalising the population of Gaza, Netanyhau will certainly finish the job for them if he hasn’t already.
This article probably highlights better than most what I am trying so say and does it far better …
Jewish response to Hamas war criticism comes from deep sense of trauma, active grief and fear
Many people who aren’t Jewish are responding as if what’s been taking place is just another episode of Israeli-Palestinian violence. But it’s different for many Jews.
theconversation.com
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) are very much from the moderate area of the discussion. We will still have disagreements, (sometimes vehemently in my case) but I think we are all on the same side and looking to achieve the same thing - a long lasting peace 
- the implicit suggestion in bozza’s post that you quoted was that I did because of my strong ties to Israel 
