I've seen a lot of posts on this site that are leaning into anti semetic tropes while criticizing Israel. I want to point it out so that folks can recognize it.

First, because I have to say it:

Israel is a colonial outpost of the United States. It was created by Britain and inherited by the US. The US gives Israel ~3,000,000,000 USD in aid every year. As a colony, it should be the goal of every socialist to destroy it, just as we seek the destruction of the US, Northern Ireland, South Korea, Canada, the Phillipine state, etc.

But! Israel is also a safe haven for Jews. This is seperable from the colonial nature of the state. Israel could have been created in Germany or Siberia or frankly Florida for that matter (in fact, annexing Florida to create a new state of Israel is what I mean when i refer to "the one state solution"). In many ways, the US with its civil rights act serves the same purpose, and in fact, most Jews live in the US.

Many of us had ancestors in Germany or Poland during the holocaust who did not stick around after the war. They saw Israel as their best shot at safety in the wake of the holocaust. Many Israelis are liberals, hoping to vote out Likud, stop supporting settlements, and negotiate palestinian statehood. These people are advocating half measures, sure, but they are not our enemies.

So I wanted to point out some anti-semetic tropes I've seen on this website and call them out so you can recognize them.

Conflating Jews in Israel with Zionists.

This can be done through omission. If you aren't clear whether you're talking about jews or a specific institution (for example, the I"D"F or the settlements or Likud), many people will read your statement as being about Jews. Be careful with the word "they"

erasing the ambivalent position of jews within colonialism / conflating jewishness with whiteness

The zionist entity is not a Jewish colonial project, but an Anglo colonial project. It was created by the British and now is funded by the US Americans. Jews are an oppressed minority whose oppression is leveraged against other oppressed peoples. Similarly to how the US uses Kurds to Balkanize Iraq or The Hmong to wage counterinsurgency in Laos, it's uses Jews to destabilize the Levant.

Outside of the US, jews are largely understood as a racial group and oppressed on that basis. Especially in the Arab world where the Islamic hyper nationalism has gained ground in response to colonialism and been funded further by colonialists to their own ends (google "the safari club" or "Israel funds Hamas")

Blood Libel

This one is the assertion that Jews are uniquely bloodthirsty / murder non Jewish children. The classic example of this myth that people are familiar with is Runplestiltskin.

It is true that the IDF under the direction of Likud and the US state is murdering many Gazans, the majority of whom are children. but! be careful to specify. When people talk about "jews" or "israelis" generally as perpetuating the murder of children, they are engaging in the blood libel trope. Again, be careful with the word "they" and specify which entities you're talking about.

calling for ethnic cleansing

Okay, wtf ya'll. It's not jews as an ethnicity that are oppressing Palestinians, it is US imperial power. Jews have always lived in Palestine and the occupation only began in the 40s as part of a British initiative.

Jews will always be part of a palestinian state, and frankly need protections as ethnic and religious minorities. We do not seek the expulsion of Jews from Palestine, but their integration into it as citizens.

Jews are safe in the US not because its a colonial state but because of civil rights protections and generational wealth. If we can create civil rights protections in Palestine and a social safety net (ideally communism but I'll settle for social democracy), then jews will be safe in Palestine.

Jewish control of America / protocols of the elders of zion

America controls Israel and not vice versa. APEC is not a cabal brainwashing otherwise Nobel Christian politicians. US politicians support Israel because they're colonial politicians and Israel is our colony. APEC exists because lobbying is how power is exercised in the US, but if we had patronage instead, APEC' functions would be carried our by a governor or an ambassador or whatever.

conclusion

Recognize the role of the US empire in Palestinian oppression. Recognize that jews are in an ambivalent racial category and are an oppressed people. Be specific when criticizing Israeli colonialism. Name who you're criticizing, is it the settlements? The IDF? Likud? The US military Industrial Complex? Stop calling for ethnic cleansing of jews if you've been doing that. Don't equate jewishness with whiteness / the Nazis. White people are white people, the US is the Nazis.

        • Catradora_Stalinism [she/her, comrade/them]
          ·
          1 year ago

          incorporation will be the same as de-radicalization, but that can only happen when the state of Israel is dismantled and the source of zionism crushed. But in the meantime the state of israel will be mobilizing settlers against the state of palestine, meaning on every side everyone is an enemy.

          this is a total war, colonialism vs de-colonialism. Either Israel dies or Palestine.

              • a_blanqui_slate [none/use name, any]
                ·
                1 year ago

                Yeah well it's too bad ANC and the various orgs on the ground didn't have you around to make all the right calls for them and to commit them to several more years of warfare.

                • Catradora_Stalinism [she/her, comrade/them]
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  This is a sad and silly response. I can critique without implying I know better somehow. I know that gorby fucked up and killed the soviets, but I sure as hell wouldn't have been able to fix shit in his position.

                  It is a fact that SAF still has much of the problems it used to. Its changed to be barely good enough not to be an apartheid regime. It needs to be fully deconstructed and rebuilt, like the Soviets, Chinese, Cuba, and so forth.

                  • a_blanqui_slate [none/use name, any]
                    ·
                    edit-2
                    1 year ago

                    You're playing sleight of hand though; conflating the settler-colonial struggle and the left wing classed based struggle; ANC may have been Marxist Leninist itself but the coalition that brought an end to apartheid regime in SAF was more than just them, they apparently felt there were not in a position to wage a protracted war for socialist liberation, and so they took the negotiated compromise.

                    Not leveraging that success into a second effort to achieve socialist reform was a failure, but it's a bit cheeky to insist that indigenous people wait to achieve liberation until they can also achieve socialist revolution.

                    Besides, Hamas in this case isn't even Marxist. What would we want them to even hold out for if they were able to negotiate a settlement that granted the right of return and equal protection under the law in a joint Israeli-Palestine state, which is something they were previously willing to do.