I don't think most of BDS is antisemetic, but it's certainly not completely absent from the movement.

I don't think Israel should exist in its current form. I'm sympathetic to a Jewish homeland and aware of how widespread antisemitism and appreciate that when Donald Trump Jr. tries to throw me in an oven there's a place I can go, but Israel can't do it without making peace with the other people who live there. There have been legit reasons to both-sides this over the years, but Israel has really gone down a bad path* and it's basically on them at this point to make things right or it's just all their fault.

*imo the real turn, aside from the Rabin assassination, was building the wall.

You can probably associate it with the wall as it's more or less the same concept, but IMO rapid settlement expansion is the worst thing that's ever happened.

I tend to think that it's important to always have Israel be a safe place for Jews to go, but that it doesn't necessarily have to be a majority Jewish state controlled only by Jews. I know these are somewhat difficult to reconcile.

I also think the original statement of the declaration of the state of Israel is something the country should actively work to return to, as it was quite nobel.

You should take a step back and look at the scope. Omar is a freshman rep, virtually alone. The vocal critics of Israel in Congress are Bernie, her and maybe a few more. Most are of the don't really care one way or another. The Soros thing was all up and down the Republican party, from the Presidential race to probably some local school board. Leading Dems condemned her and she quickly apologized. Has any Republican apologized? Nah. Are we expecting them to ever apologize? No. Because their base doesn't care.

The history here too was that Republicans are looking for a wedge issue and were gunning for the freshman reps to find those wedge issues, be it AOC or someone else.

AOC is much more adept at dodging the bullets. Omar not so much.

So with all that history I think her answer was sincere and the most politically expedient. With these faux pas scandles it's best to deprive it of oxygen, apologize for bad wording and move on. Why bother trying to litigate about 'when is criticism of Israel truly anti semetic?' when you're just fueling the scandle regardless of what is said?

zzz

he also said

Trump is obviously an anti-semite, though I guess he does have his one Jewish friend (or in this case, in-law).

As you know there's been a lot of conflict among Israeli Jews and the peace camp just seems to have lost. The settlements are terrible and have become something that is almost impossible to undo.

When I was a young man violence was more common in Israel, but Israelis and Palestinians worked an lived with each other as lots of Palestinians commuted across lines. Now a big percentage of the interaction is with Israelis on patrol in the Army. It's not good.

Setting a black-and-white false dichotomy is pretty crappy.

How about:

1a. The apology was legitimate. She accepts what she said was antisemitic and she will learn from it.

1b. The apology was legitimate. She didn't fully appreciate that is was an antisemitic trope, she appreciates being educated about this. She didn't mean it in the same what it has been used in the past, but she apologizes unequivocally for causing offense.

2. The apology was illegitimate. She made it for political expediency but believes she should not have had to apologize.

Since the actual words of her apology were very close to 1b, why do you not allow it as a possibility?

Huehue, you are an A+ poster in my book, sincerely one of the best, but for my sanity I gotta tell you it's "scandal," not "scandle."

It's odd that a lot of antisemitism is expressed in a seemingly complimentary way, but there's always the unspoken backhand progression.

Smart/shrewd/crafty/untrustworthy

good with money/miserly/thieving

Connected/conspiring/cabal

I thought I was spelled wrong but I keep getting interrupted and I haven't reset my spell check in a while.

Amazing how quick people are to bash people for criticizing Israel and Israeli interests no matter how vile they may be.

Omar is not anti-Semitic in this tweet. Inaccurate? Perhaps. But antisemitism requires intent to hurt Jewish people. Without it, it's ignorance.

Watching how quickly Democrats were willing to sell her down the river while simultaneously conflating actual antisemitism with legitimate criticisms of Israel and moneyed interests related to Israel is a huge problem American politicians have.

Another issue is the implication that AIPAC speaks for all Jews when it doesn't. It speaks to the interest of hard-right Jews and the 1%. Anybody else following along is either ignorant or an idiot.

Am excited to see the CTH episode about this that is inevitably coming.

Most Democrats in congress want her (and AOC and Bernie) to fail period.

Israel has good and bad actors on both sides, but the bad actors on the Jewish side fed really well off the post 9/11 hysteria, and US leadership since then has either been too complicit or too abrogate as nwo steward to do anything about it.


The region is so packed with entrenched players and munitions at this point that we need a massive energy revolution to enable significant, stabilizing influence.


GND is a national security & moral priority even without climate change.

Yeah, over last few weeks its started to become clear to me that pretty much every other Presidential candidate is massively flawed, to put it kindly, and the only play is to go hard in the paint for Bernie.

For some reason, probably purely personality, I was drawn to Sherrod Brown for a little while then he comes out hard that the best we can do is Medicare for people 55 and over, and surprise, surprise turns out he gets alot of donations from health insurance companies.... puke.

Of course. People want to keep their jobs.

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Chelsea Clinton's response was like a rehearsal in an upcoming Presidential run. I swear she sounds and acts exactly like Hillary. It was genuinely infuriating to read.

It's the dumbest timeline seeing her respond to the communism kills girl who is one of the dumbest grifters who had been unheard of for a year and Adam Friedland.

I’ve always thought the anti-circumcision movement reeked of anti-semitism but maybe I’m just being dramatic? Probably because problem are oddly fanatical about it the way they are with racism.


Thought this was a pretty good post.

Social chauvinists as they may be, there is a class character to AOC and Bernie's campaigns and the ruling class just cannot stand it.

Full support for Ilhan Omar and full condemnation of Israel and AIPAC. She is right to call them out and I think we all need to be quite firm in our support of Palestine. This is not one of those "complicated" situations. Their land has been stolen and they have been forced to live in an open air prison. AIPAC is openly bribing politicians to support their wicked positions.

Read this thread for more info:

Wow, that sounds awful. Can you explain further what an open air prison is? Can they not leave? Are they tortured?

Sure here is some more info:

https://www.nrc.no/news/2018/april/g...en-air-prison/

Thats a little confusing article to me. I wanted you to answer. Is Israel government or random people torturing muslims? They aren't letting them leave? Are Israelis treated well in Palestine or other Muslim countries in the middle east?

No you have it right. Israel government is not only not letting people leave, they are sniping people in the legs (including children) for protesting peacefully against all this. It's well documented.

You didn't answer the full question. Are Israelis treated well in Palestine or other parts of the Middle East? From what I know, Israelis are treated bad in those places too, some of the countries don't even allow Jews/Israeli passports to enter the country.

Why won't the Israel government let people leave?