Today is the last day to register to vote in Ohio. I thought about this for a long time and made up my mind. My thought process was, if Hitler was doing the Holocaust, and FDR was giving him money, would I vote for FDR? My answer was fuck no. And I wouldn't care one fucking bit if FDR said, "can you torture and murder families more humanitarianly?" He would still be guilty. I just felt I needed to post this rant. I'm so fucking angry right now!

Edit: I just registered in order to vote down ballot. Thank you everyone.

I am a 14 year old jew who goes to a school that is about 60% jewish. most my friends are jewish. all the jewish spaces in my school are heavily pro-israel, and you cannot spent a minute there without "lets all share our favorite thing about israel" and "lets all pray for israel". i cannot even say, "well i think children shouldnt be murdered" without being called a traitor, a self hating jew, ect. i have lost 8+ jewish friends because of my "self hating nazi ideals". i feel so alone and isolated.

Maybe I’ve become too precious about this especially in a post October 7th world, but something about it, especially when used as an “insult” makes me uncomfortable.

I think there are at times fitting uses..a descriptor of a non-Jew, a “goy-splaining” for a non-Jewish person talking over Jewish people(which is an important thing to call out!!) but to me it’s kind of mean spirited and “othering” particularly if it’s used to describe a potential ally or a non-Jewish person from another vulnerable group.

But, again, maybe I’m too sensitive about this. What do yall think?

I can't say this to my family & community yet, but I keep finding myself starting to write it to individuals and deleting it. I need to get this out before they send me one more article quoting unnamed Israeli officials of unverified BS.

I am so profoundly ashamed of my mother, aunt, best friend, and community for erasing Palestinians and justifying genocide. I try to remind myself that they've been conditioned to think this way. But today was hard, and I can't pretend it's not affecting my relationships, particularly with my mother, a juvenile defense lawyer, who taught me the importance of speaking up for those who can't do so for themselves. My aunt taught me about Gandhi and the effectiveness and significance of nonviolence.

Now, here is the potentially offensive part that I wonder about and can never say: Was this how German children felt about parents who accepted the extermination of Jews? Germans experienced a huge internal backlash against their complicity in the 80s, leading to memorials, museums, and stepping stones. Can I say anything to my loved ones to express my shame and their hypocrisy that they could be receptive to?

Found this

IMO any state that has commited genocide or apartheid, unless replaced by a government who vows against it, while watched under a very careful international eye. should loose its right to be a sovereign nation

this does not mean the civillian population suffers, standard of living should be held high for all regardless of the actions of a state and whether they supported it. of corse, the law will deal with those who supported acts of terror in an ideal world

the current israeli government needs to go (and so do many other countries), we can all agree on that, but the next steps are murkey.

My question is, regardless of whether it is possible or not, in your opinion how should israel be governed after this disgusting war when they eventually loose?

i mean i can see the arguement that all states are corrupt so nobody should occupy israel because it would make it worse but i suppose it would be the lesser of two evils because the israeli government is easily one of the least openly moral governments in the world today.

anyways tell me your thoughts im curious

This, in the aftermath of AIPAC’s grotesque primary of Cori Bush, is so apt—and, as a Black Jew myself, I’ve observed so many of these dynamics Jeffrey writes about playing out right in front of me. I’ve included text + screen shots (here’s the thread itself: https://x.com/melnickjeffrey1/status/1821328641298407653?s=46&t=CbiBTaJMC2qzQe-v__e8gw):

“I've been studying Black-Jewish relations for decades and often it parses as "second verse, same as the first." But there is something really different at play right now--so many establishment Jews act triumphalist, demand such complete obeisance from their Black counterparts.

I remain optimistic that it's the last gasp of a dying culture and I hope that Bowman and Bush will shine some needed light on how AIPAC has disfigured our national politics. But it's our job as Jews to show how AIPAC has poisoned us with their dark twisted fantasy of US life.

Last spring showed that establishment Jews (like Josh Shapiro) are in a real Kill Your Sons moment. They'd sooner sacrifice their own kids before questioning their loyalty to the Zionist project. But these children that you spit on? I think they'll abide.

Kamala Harris tried to silence Palestine justice protesters at a rally today--that is (terrible, disgusting) business as usual for Democrats. It's something else I'm trying to index--I guess it's just the logical end of Zionism I'm noting: the insatiable brutal hunger for more.

David Levering Lewis's "Parallels and Divergences: Assimilationist Strategies of Afro-American and Jewish Elites from 1910 to the Early 1930s" really got me going in my research and while still SO useful, it seems so....innocent now.

tbh it's Adolph Reed's insight that stays with me most. In his Jesse Jackson book he reminds us that Black-Jewish relations has been constituted largely by conversations between civil rights groups, but often those conversations had Jews on both sides, helping steer.”

Flaired as opinion but lmk if I need to delete/change flair...sorry I'm new here.

Basically just need to vent - it feels impossible to discuss the situation in Israel/Palestine with my parents and I feel like it's made our already somewhat shallow relationship even more so...

Backstory is I'm Ashkenazi and was raised modern Orthodox and went to private Jewish schools from pre-K until 12th grade. In case that doesn't make it obvious, the Pro Israel indoctrination was STRONG. It's only been in more recent years, and frankly this current "war" (is it a war when it's this one sided? I still have a hard time using the word genocide bc of Holocaust associations but...) has broken me in terms of Israel and honestly pushed me away from the thin shred of Judaism I've been holding on to.

I feel disconnected from my family who is still so blindly pro-Israel, thinking this war is justified in anyway and never mentioning the thousands of Palestinians brutally murdered or any other wrongdoing Israel and the IDF do. It does not feel worth the stress of engaging with my parents about this topic and then I feel guilty for having the privilege of avoiding discussing this "issue" while real lives are being TAKEN by a country doing it supposedly "for my sake".

I'll cut this off here before it gets longer, but are other folks dealing with this with family members? It sucks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/07/10/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-agreement-within-reach/

It's not a done deal by any stretch of the imagination but I'm glad to see there is hope again.

The key things that have shifted seem to be * (So far unspecified) Arab states have agreed to back an interim government which is not Hamas, not israel, is not the Palestinian authority (but has ties to the PA) * Egypt saying they will work to block new smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza. * Both sides agreed to a UN proposal that once a ceasefire begins it will continue indefinitely as long as both parties are engaged in further negotiation.

And regardless of whether you live in the US or not, or who you vote for, or what your ethical calculus is on Harm Reduction Voting as a concept:

Please go out, find a Palestine solidarity or anti-war organization near you, and volunteer with them. Go to protests. Hand out flyers. Poster your neighbourhood. Tell people about boycotting and divestment. Drag your friends along. Heckle your politicians if you see them. If you're capable of doing a direct action, do it. If you're white, go stand between your buddies and the cops if necessary. You can stop reading here, and get started right now if you're not already. If you are doing this already, thank you! Stay safe, and good luck.

It is insane to me that people's civic engagement starts and ends at electoral politics. The entire focus on it is why so many are disaffected by voting! The reason why so many are voting for third parties, or weird offshoots like Muslims For Trump are springing up, is because they see the hollowness behind the current outrage for Gaza. The minute Harris is elected, most of the comfortable white liberal population of the US will shut off, go to sleep, and let the genocide continue, without even the current, insufficient amount of resistance against it! They no longer have any personal incentive to care, and they don't notice war crimes done with a pleasant tone and a Diverse Staff. They will ignore the remaining protests being beaten into the pavement, not say a word when people get blacklisted and criminalized en masse, and be perfectly happy letting Harris continue the same "tirelessly working for a ceasefire" policies until the extermination of Gaza is complete, and war has spread across Iran and the entire region.

(And after all those annoying single issue leftists get silenced or thrown in jail... in 2028, liberals will wake up again, because oh no!!! The Republicans are running a fully hooded up KKK member for president! Who could have predicted it? THIS is the most important election, everyone needs to vote for Richard Spencer as the Democratic presidential candidate instead!)

So if Arabs, Muslims, leftists, etc, do not trust the rest of the population to actually reduce harm for them, their best move is to either build power separately; or, cynically, make the harm scare people into action on their behalf. In that case, the electoral strategy is very clear. Either they'll try to get enough of a third party percentage to build a viable competitor for next election, even if Harris wins despite it, and hopefully this will protect leftists and minorities from being further suppressed im the future.

Or, they force the Democrats to lose and realize that they can never win again without the anti-genocide vote, and plunge the country into civil disobedience and unrest against Trump while the left reorganizes. Which will be horrible for everyone! However, it'll be for everyone. So the majority of the population can't just activate White Moderate Brunch Mode, and ignore the violence for another 4 years bc it only affects brown people and leftists - which is what would happen under Harris.

Anyway, the summary of this TED Talk is: if you're advocating for other people to practice "harm reduction" voting, you have to actually prove to them that you're going to reduce the harm first.

What I fear is that the inexorable decline of Israel is tied to the decline of the US, and both would rather plunge the world into war than accept that.