My immediate answer to such questions is "There is no genocide, unless you refer to the attempted genocide of Israeli Jews. Is that what you mean? If so, I'm happy Israel has been able to defend itself." If they question further, I go on to say. "Hamas stated their goal was to make everyday an October 7th for Israel, which would have resulted in 1200 dead each day. It isn't for lack of trying that hamas has failed to achieve this genocidal objective. Are you seriously giving credit to hamas because Israel has stopped them? In 2.5 years of war and with massive arsenal and ability to cause massive casualties, there isn't one day that Israel has killed 1200 in one day, or even half that amount."
If the conversation proceeds further along nonsense accusations Israel is committing genocide, I know I'm conversing with a moron or a Jew hater, and either end the conversation or lose entire interest in anything they have to say. And I couldn't give a shit what they think.
I would probably have told Mandy most politely to kiss my Jewish ass. Indian where the Muslims massacre the Hindu and the Hindu massacre the Muslims. Really chutzpah Mandy.
We need to stop playing their game. Better yet, turn the game back on these "progressive" (pseudo-) "intellectuals." So, you see the re-establishment of Israel as an expression of "colonialism?" (In reality - you know, the real reality - not the "theory" they learned from their semiotics professor, Israel is the greatest example of decolonization of the 20th Century. The indigenous people finally threw off the shackles of the Ottoman and British Empires). Very well, here you are in a nice restaurant or cafe in Venice Beach, or Toronto, or Auckland, or Sydney. Unless you are a Native American, or an Australian Aborigine, or a Maori, you need to get on the next plane back to wherever you came from. Or wherever your parents, or grandparents came from. And give up your US, Canadian, Australia or New Zealand passport. Come on, "progressives," live up to the "principles" you so glibly talk about while you sip your sauvignon blanc. (Made from plants introduced from France - another example of colonization! It's everwhere once you start looking).
I am starting to understand that instead of trying to defend, you need to start by agreeing about the principle that was brought up. In this case, no one likes to hear about a genocide occurring and there are so many going on in this world by Iran and Hamas-backed terror groups like in African nations and historically in other parts of the world, and only recently Iran killed more of their own people in just a few weeks than the numbers we heard from Hamas about the Gazans. And the 10 years living in Israel showed that Israelis are an ethical nation that does not commit genocide but has been maligned by a very wealthy and ruthless hate machine, redirecting away from the real genocides in the world. That those 10 years living in Israel showed that Hamas cared more with the destruction of Israel and less about their own people that they actually trained their children to hate and murder while not building shelters for those children to be safe while Israel tried to pinpoint Hamas terrorists to kill, not the general population.
I usually respond with some rendition of: "The enemies of Israel have been accusing it of committing genocide since the 1980s, that must be the world's slowest genocide." And then say that the charge of "genocide" is not a truth or fact claim but a rhetorical weapon meant to smear and delegitimize the world's only Jewish state.
But people can never be reasoned out of positions they weren't reasoned into. Urban post-collegiate liberals throughout the West, especially well-off Californians (I used to live in Venice), are all apostles of the Social Justice faith (whether they know it or not), which is a post-Christian ideology that works mostly as a social marker and signal and that is rooted in guilt (of the white, bourgeois and colonial varieties) and the foundational belief that morality and etiquette demand always taking the side of the supposed "oppressed", regardless of context or history. It is the modern therapeutic version of the White Man's Burden and a shorthand way to display you're "on the right side of history" and believe in universal equality and all the other vague sentimental abstractions that most people claim as their "values".
I bet that 9 out of 10 people who swallow the "genocide" lie after scrolling Instagram between fashion pics have never read a single book about the issue and no zero about anything from Herzl to Arafat to the Peel Commission to the intifadas and the dozens of peace offers Israel has made, all refused.
The only bright side here is that these supposed beliefs are a mile wide but an inch deep, most of these people are just parroting whatever they believe their chosen herd demands, and they get bored very easily. Palestinians are just the updated Trans child or George Floyd, the sacred victim du jour. Hopefully the MSM will soon cook up another mass hysteria and the herd can move on...
AMEN! I support your free speech, but I hope in the future you do not engage.. No matter what you say, you are going to be wrong in the eyes of progressives who are no friends to Jews or
My immediate answer to such questions is "There is no genocide, unless you refer to the attempted genocide of Israeli Jews. Is that what you mean? If so, I'm happy Israel has been able to defend itself." If they question further, I go on to say. "Hamas stated their goal was to make everyday an October 7th for Israel, which would have resulted in 1200 dead each day. It isn't for lack of trying that hamas has failed to achieve this genocidal objective. Are you seriously giving credit to hamas because Israel has stopped them? In 2.5 years of war and with massive arsenal and ability to cause massive casualties, there isn't one day that Israel has killed 1200 in one day, or even half that amount."
If the conversation proceeds further along nonsense accusations Israel is committing genocide, I know I'm conversing with a moron or a Jew hater, and either end the conversation or lose entire interest in anything they have to say. And I couldn't give a shit what they think.
While I've never been asked this type of question I think it's a good idea to have a response ready.
E.g. And how do you feel about what's happening in the Sudan?
This pivots from the obsession about Israel.
I really wish you could’ve responded the way you wrote it.
I would probably have told Mandy most politely to kiss my Jewish ass. Indian where the Muslims massacre the Hindu and the Hindu massacre the Muslims. Really chutzpah Mandy.
One of my best friends had to ask me what I thought of Netanyahu. Why?
We need to stop playing their game. Better yet, turn the game back on these "progressive" (pseudo-) "intellectuals." So, you see the re-establishment of Israel as an expression of "colonialism?" (In reality - you know, the real reality - not the "theory" they learned from their semiotics professor, Israel is the greatest example of decolonization of the 20th Century. The indigenous people finally threw off the shackles of the Ottoman and British Empires). Very well, here you are in a nice restaurant or cafe in Venice Beach, or Toronto, or Auckland, or Sydney. Unless you are a Native American, or an Australian Aborigine, or a Maori, you need to get on the next plane back to wherever you came from. Or wherever your parents, or grandparents came from. And give up your US, Canadian, Australia or New Zealand passport. Come on, "progressives," live up to the "principles" you so glibly talk about while you sip your sauvignon blanc. (Made from plants introduced from France - another example of colonization! It's everwhere once you start looking).
I am starting to understand that instead of trying to defend, you need to start by agreeing about the principle that was brought up. In this case, no one likes to hear about a genocide occurring and there are so many going on in this world by Iran and Hamas-backed terror groups like in African nations and historically in other parts of the world, and only recently Iran killed more of their own people in just a few weeks than the numbers we heard from Hamas about the Gazans. And the 10 years living in Israel showed that Israelis are an ethical nation that does not commit genocide but has been maligned by a very wealthy and ruthless hate machine, redirecting away from the real genocides in the world. That those 10 years living in Israel showed that Hamas cared more with the destruction of Israel and less about their own people that they actually trained their children to hate and murder while not building shelters for those children to be safe while Israel tried to pinpoint Hamas terrorists to kill, not the general population.
I usually respond with some rendition of: "The enemies of Israel have been accusing it of committing genocide since the 1980s, that must be the world's slowest genocide." And then say that the charge of "genocide" is not a truth or fact claim but a rhetorical weapon meant to smear and delegitimize the world's only Jewish state.
But people can never be reasoned out of positions they weren't reasoned into. Urban post-collegiate liberals throughout the West, especially well-off Californians (I used to live in Venice), are all apostles of the Social Justice faith (whether they know it or not), which is a post-Christian ideology that works mostly as a social marker and signal and that is rooted in guilt (of the white, bourgeois and colonial varieties) and the foundational belief that morality and etiquette demand always taking the side of the supposed "oppressed", regardless of context or history. It is the modern therapeutic version of the White Man's Burden and a shorthand way to display you're "on the right side of history" and believe in universal equality and all the other vague sentimental abstractions that most people claim as their "values".
I bet that 9 out of 10 people who swallow the "genocide" lie after scrolling Instagram between fashion pics have never read a single book about the issue and no zero about anything from Herzl to Arafat to the Peel Commission to the intifadas and the dozens of peace offers Israel has made, all refused.
The only bright side here is that these supposed beliefs are a mile wide but an inch deep, most of these people are just parroting whatever they believe their chosen herd demands, and they get bored very easily. Palestinians are just the updated Trans child or George Floyd, the sacred victim du jour. Hopefully the MSM will soon cook up another mass hysteria and the herd can move on...
What was the actual response then?
AMEN! I support your free speech, but I hope in the future you do not engage.. No matter what you say, you are going to be wrong in the eyes of progressives who are no friends to Jews or
democracy.
Outstanding essay!!