Norman Finkelstein talks about this and you wouldn’t claim he is antisemitic. There is an element of Jewish “supremacy” that fuels Zionism is the argument he makes. So it would be wrong to dismiss the wealthy and powerful jews who push the agenda and they’re definitely consciously playing into this anti-Zionism = antisemitism narrative. It benefits them at the expense of everyone else. These people are the last ones to ever suffer any real consequences of the eventual antisemitism wave in the west too.
That said this does not remove any of the imperialist reasons for America’s support of Israel either, its a natural alliance. The only people(close to positions of power) at this point who “oppose” Israel are the ones who envision a “clean” empire i.e do all the killing and conquering but behind close doors so they don’t have to feel guilty for it.
We saw the unified response behind “Israel has the right to defend itself”, that alone is an assumption of innocence, every single liberal supported this message because it is the ultimate proof they’re the good guys they’re only defending “civilization” from barbarianism, literaly Ukraine talking points again.
The only difference is Ukraine’s war crimes can be dismissed as the Ukrainian 2014-2022 stuff is very hard to find for normal people while Palestine is basicaly livestreaming genocide.
Yeah, I’ve heard some of Finklestein’s discussions on that. He’s pretty ungenerous in some of those opinions, but I’m in no position to deny their veracity.
It’s an uncomfortable fact that an abuser disguised as the abused is so much more successful at abuse than one that presents honestly. It’s got to be more than just media conditioning, maybe an instinctive desire for simple things, that plays such a part in conditioning us to think in concepts of good and evil and whoever we meet will just tell us which one they are and take that at face value. As it turns out sympathy is such an easy thing to exploit, but it’s too cynical to believe anyone would.
Norman Finkelstein talks about this and you wouldn’t claim he is antisemitic. There is an element of Jewish “supremacy” that fuels Zionism is the argument he makes. So it would be wrong to dismiss the wealthy and powerful jews who push the agenda and they’re definitely consciously playing into this anti-Zionism = antisemitism narrative. It benefits them at the expense of everyone else. These people are the last ones to ever suffer any real consequences of the eventual antisemitism wave in the west too.
That said this does not remove any of the imperialist reasons for America’s support of Israel either, its a natural alliance. The only people(close to positions of power) at this point who “oppose” Israel are the ones who envision a “clean” empire i.e do all the killing and conquering but behind close doors so they don’t have to feel guilty for it.
We saw the unified response behind “Israel has the right to defend itself”, that alone is an assumption of innocence, every single liberal supported this message because it is the ultimate proof they’re the good guys they’re only defending “civilization” from barbarianism, literaly Ukraine talking points again.
The only difference is Ukraine’s war crimes can be dismissed as the Ukrainian 2014-2022 stuff is very hard to find for normal people while Palestine is basicaly livestreaming genocide.
Yeah, I’ve heard some of Finklestein’s discussions on that. He’s pretty ungenerous in some of those opinions, but I’m in no position to deny their veracity.
It’s an uncomfortable fact that an abuser disguised as the abused is so much more successful at abuse than one that presents honestly. It’s got to be more than just media conditioning, maybe an instinctive desire for simple things, that plays such a part in conditioning us to think in concepts of good and evil and whoever we meet will just tell us which one they are and take that at face value. As it turns out sympathy is such an easy thing to exploit, but it’s too cynical to believe anyone would.