Where do you think Jewish people come from?

@Newbutoldfather may I please add some information about why many people are now using the term Jew hate instead of antisemitism and why many of them don't fit into your the extreme right wing list?

The term antisemitism was coined & popularized in the late 1870s by German journalist Wilhelm Marr. He was an agitator who whipped up hatred against Jews and used the term antisemitism (then spelled with a hyphen) to give credibility to the concept of Jew hatred, as it implied the existence of 'semitic' (to him that meant Jewish) inborn characteristics that conversion to e.g. Christianity could not erase.

So quite a few people now do not like to use the term 'antisemitism' because:
A) they feel it is irreparably tainted by its origins
B) it invites the erroneous argument that antisemitism includes hatred of other peoples of middle Eastern heritage (it doesn't - these hatreds are distinct from each other and take different forms. The term was coined to be used against Jews. Semitic describes a family of languages - it is not a racial category)

Hope this is useful 🙂

@BlessedIsTheFruit ,

1948 is nearly 80 years ago, and the West Bank is the area’s officially recognised name outside of Netanyahu’s Israel. if Netanyahu has the right to rename somewhere, does Trump?

London was only London since medieval times, a blink of the eye historically.

‘Any other labels you want to give truth seekers and truth tellers?’

How do you seek the truth? What are your sources?

@BlessedIsTheFruit ,

I am quite an extreme free speech believer. I don’t even care about outright racism. I would far prefer to see people’s prejudices out front, so that they can be be exposed to examination and ridicule.

I only ever report personal attacks. I haven’t reported any posts on this thread.

I haven't reported anything. Not even the antisemitic posts. Chill.

However, I'm not surprised it was deleted. It was a very unpleasant post.

But I do agree that calling it Judea and Samaria is fine as long as people still insist on calling Israel Palestine. Only allowing one of those would be intensely hypocritical.

The Anglo-Saxons tried damn hard to expel all the Romano-British. The Romano-British ended up north of the mountains in Scotland, West of the Mountains in Wales and some crossed to Ireland, and over the moors in the SW of Cornwall where some crossed over to Britanny and Scilly. It’s written in the DNA of British people even today.

The Cromwellian colonisation where the Irish were pushed westwards inn Ireland or transported to the Americas as forced labour.

@BlessedIsTheFruit ,

‘Why do Jew haters call Israel Palestine then?’

For the same wrong reason as Israeli call The West Bank Judea and Samaria. Because they want the name to become the reality.

I don’t think either are OK.

So if they are not going to have the country of Israel, where can they have which will be a safe haven?

The irony is that Israel is not safe, it’s a war zone. Irrespective of whether the land ‘belongs’ to the Jews or not (and after so many years that’s irrelevant), the whole point of setting up a Jewish state was to provide a safe homeland for.

Who in their right mind ever thought there would be peace there?? Naive in the extreme.

I believe Jews should have a safe homeland. But not there where there has been fighting for years and sadly always will.

Well apparently there was a plan for us to have Madagascar, Uganda or some desolate part of Siberia at one point or another. Am sure none of those options would be drama free. Jews can’t live in Melbourne or Manchester or Pittsburgh in peace so not sure they’d be able to live in Uganda without some crazy person trying to kill us. Way too late now regardless but interesting to think about.

My mother always says she feels safest in Israel as at least she knows where the enemy is.

@PurpleThistle7 ,

I don’t think it was Uganda! I think it was an area between Kenya and Tanzania.

My grandparents on one side went to help found the Jewish state there. It clearly didn’t go to well, though.

@BlessedIsTheFruit ,

It is interesting that you are linking to Gil Schuster videos as his views are actually antithetical to yours. He actually studies conflict resolution. Here are some quotes:

‘Gil-Shuster: The Israelis assume they‘re always going to have power, meaning they have to retain control over the situation. When Palestinians answer, I think they are considering what their families would think is the right way to answer – what is socially acceptable. They feel they have to come across as very tough. They know they have no power. All they have is their ego, the confidence to say this is mine, because otherwise they would lose their identity.’

‘Gil-Shuster: If the politicians: there‘s your problem. You need leaders with vision. And at the moment, none of them – whatever their allegiance – has any idea of how to proceed. I can’t see any solution right now, but personally I would accept any solution that the majority on both sides were prepared to accept. I regard the two-state solution as the best one, because it is the solution everybody understands, though ultimately, a confederation might make more sense.’

Obviously, this is all pre 07/10.

He is using these videos to try and understand why views are what they are and understand both sides, which is laudable.

@BlessedIsTheFruit ,

‘What is your opinion of my using Palestinian sources in my assessment of Palestinians btw?’

It’s just very vague. Which Palestinian sources?

As I think I said upthread (and certainly have on many other threads), the population has been radicalised, as have the Israeli population to some extent.

The question is how to deradicalise both sides and make them realise that living side by side and trading will get them a lot further in the long run than hating each other. I don’t believe that one type of person is intrinsically different to another (because I am not a racist).

We need more initiatives like this one:

west-eastern-divan.org/divan-orchestra

Honestly? I haven't read most of your posts.

Super interesting. I didn’t realise it actually went anywhere, thought it was just a random idea like shipping the Jews to a Madagascar ghetto. Any stories from them?

@PurpleThistle7 ,

They are long dead, sadly, and I never even met them before they died. We have very long generations (they went there in about 1917 I think).

I am not sure it ever went anywhere, to be honest. I think they, and quite a few other Jews went out to start it and then they just got on with their lives and forgot about it.

There is still a tiny Jewish community in Kenya and an orthodox synagogue in Nairobi.