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I got back online after Simchat Torah and started catching up with the news. I checked some of my friendsā Twitter accounts to see if they knew anything not in mainstream media articles and some of the likes Iāve seen areā¦ I donāt know how to feel. One of my trusted friends liked a Tweet saying āthis is what decolonization of Palestine looks likeā. But why does that have to mean Jewish deaths? Another tweet said āif ur on the other side of this, fuck you.ā Another friend liked a Tweet saying it was silly to care about violence against Israeli civilians when Palestinians have had their electricity cut off and all such things. Hamas has taken women, children, they even paraded around a corpse of a woman from the music festival in the south. Those were CIVILIANS. Not soldiers. Another tweet liked by the first friend said āEuropean Zionists violently colonized Palestineā but what about the Ashkenazim fleeing the Holocaust? What about the Mizrahim expelled from Arab countries? Iāve told my friends about these things. Iāve done my best to help them learn alongside me. Yet here we are. The second friend I saw one of my friends like a post that said āas far as i know no zionists follow me at allā¦ if youāre pro-israel go fuck yourself iām seriousā. Said friend also liked a post that said "this page does not support israel nor israeli supporters." What does that mean????????
I thought I could trust my friends when it came to opening up about antisemitism. But to see them blatantly disregard the loss of Jewish lives has me questioning everything about our friendships. I remember someone once said āJewkilling does not exist in a vacuumā and Iām thinking about that now. What if it had been me? Could I trust my friends to protect me if someone said violence against me was done in the name of Palestine? Iām scared. I want to cry. I donāt wish for civilian casualties on either side but I donāt feel safe around the people Iāve trusted with things like my name, my social media and my deepest secrets. Iāve been friends with these people since we were kids. We supported each other through thick and thin. I would take a bullet for some of them, but now I have to wonder if they would take a bullet for me if the bullet was fired by a Hamas combatant. Would the slaughter of me, their friend, be justified if I lived in Israel? I feel selfish thinking such things but I donāt think Iām safe around my friends anymore.Ā
Iām not sure if betrayal is the right word for how I feel right now. I donāt even know how to process this. I just want to curl into a ball and unread what my friends agree with. I donāt know how to continue being friends knowing they support Hamas killing Jews. I need to disentangle myself but I don't know how.
Edit to clarify since this blew up: When I meant my friends I meant these two specific people. The rest of my friends (thankfully) do not support Hamas and those I've privately talked to about the matter support me here. I'm extremely lucky to have them. I blocked the first friend outright but since the second friend and I share ownership of something in a niche community together I'm going to send a DM explaining why I don't want to be around her anymore and then just be done with the matter entirely. I'll edit again after.
Edit #3: Hi. I was originally going to send a message to the second friend but decided to just block her. I posted on my Instagram story that if you condone killing civilians on either side weāre not friends anymore. I know sheās smart and can put two and two together. Maybe itās immature of me but I donāt have the time or energy to explain to someone why Iām blocking them, and sheās not an exception at the end of the day. I hope everyone whoās opened up about their stress and losing loved ones in the responses is doing alright right now.
This is so hard to deal with, and it's definitely a true colors thing based on what you're seeing them say. It's also really hard for the Goyim to understand how conflicted and complex this situation is for Jewish people.
So much of what they are referencing: - The fact that modern Israel was created by Britain, France, and the US specifically to destabilize the middle east and cause conflict. - The fact that a LOT of the reason why Russia, the UK and the US supported Israel was specifically so they didn't have to take in Jewish refugees and (in much of eastern Europe) that they could forcibly deport their Jewish population to Israel with guns and weapons to start a war there. - The fact that there was a very militant subset of the population expatriated to Israel that was incredibly violent and cruel to the Palestinians. - The fact that the leadership of the Israeli state and especially the Netanyahu family actively carried out and continues to carry out a campaign of genocide against the Palestinians, and the mandatory conscription laws in Israel mean that everyone who grows up there is pressed into taking violent action to support that campaign.
Of course, being rightly angered by those things is absolutely no excuse for the hostility they're expressing and their support of Hamas, which is almost certainly carrying out this war not for the Palestinians (who are also being oppressed and cruelly and tyrannically ruled by Hamas) but for Iran and Russia as a way of retaliating against the US and Israel for supporting Ukraine. Also they likely are doing this to try and force the US and Israel to commit less materiel to the Ukraine effort by starting a massive war in the middle east.
The fact that Hamas is doing this in the cruelest and most war-crime filled way possible is even a greater indication of that. It's a heinous action by a tyrannical terrorist organization that is funded and supported by the most cruel and inhumane regimes on the planet. It's also not even really about Israel which makes it even worse.
At the same time, no western news network is running the headline "Russian and Iranian funded campaign of Rape and Child Murder starts war in Israel." Without the full history and context, and the knowledge that most Israelis don't support what the Netanyahu family has done the the Palestinians and have tried to fight against it in various ways, it's going to really skew their perspective to the point of vile and contemptuous hatred.
It's going to be a hard time for us all, and unfortunately I think we're going to see a lot more of this. Especially since a LOT of westerners (especially American Evangelical - doubly so Adventist and Baptist - Christians) don't support a Jewish Israel, but are hoping that the war between the Islamic and Jewish groups in the region will destroy both groups so they can come in and make it a Christian Imperial holding and they'll sow as much discord around Israel and the conversation around it to facilitate that as they can.
Add the fact that this is all a bunch of leaders and that 90% of the people they lead don't have the time, capacity, or context to even begin to understand it and it's even hard to blame them effectively; it's just bastards all around killing thousands of people and making everything awful just to try and get even more power and wealth for themselves.
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