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The pro-Israel information war

jackpoulson.substack.com

341–350 of 1001 posts

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#341
post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

he tweeted a while back the number of palestinian vs israeli children who have died since october 7 there were way more palestinian children who had died, and some didn't like that being broadcast

It's almost as if Israel has defensive technology (Iron Dome) to protect their citizens from Palestine's rocket attacks that target civilian areas (which is a war crime)

[deleted]

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#342
post #7

Pro-Palestinian views outrank Pro-Israeli online by around 36 to 1 on TikTok and 8 to 1 on other online platforms. https://twitter.com/antgoldbloom/status/1721561226151612602 If anything the skew within the platforms is to prioritize pro-palestinian views https://twitter.com/committeeonccp/status/173279243496103143... It also seems like these platforms create (rather than support) anti-Israeli views: https://twitter.…

Well, that’s not a fair comparison. Palestinians may have a lot of muslims on their side, but the whole western world—-or more precisely: their media and people in power—-fully support anything Israel does. No consequences. Au contraire:

Looking at Germany for instance, anyone remotely criticising Israel for even gross violations of international human rights or Geneva Conventions (for instance for withholding water, food, medicines, and electricity for 2.2mil civilians in Gaza) will be attacked, silenced, stigmatised, smeared by the majority of media, politician, police, attorneys, etc. Many artists, intellectuals, activists, thinkers, academics have been cancelled, smeared (for instance Greta Thunberg, Ai Wei Wei, Candice Brice, Ilan Pappe, and many many more). And even more people are afraid to speak about Israel critically, fearing to lose their job or called antisemite, when in fact Zionism is not Judaism and the state of Israel does not represent all jews around the world, and cannot be sacrosanct.

In the US the support is even larger. Just today the US vetoed a Security Council decision for a ceasefire in Gaza. And this inspite of many people in the state department internally rebelling against this blind support for Israels retaliatory move in Gaza.

Disclosure: I have family in Israel, some of them went to the streets in Tel Aviv every week for months to protest against the judicial overhaul. And who are in panic mode seeing the right wing coalition partners of Netanyahu getting stronger and stronger. And I have family members in the military who after 7/10 want to „kill arabs now“. I just do not think flattening Gaza and/or dehumanising Palestinians will make Israel any safer.

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#343
post #57

"That’s where the efforts of J-Ventures’ hasbara WhatsApp group come in. The group, which also includes attorneys and individuals affiliated with the influential American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), has tirelessly worked to fire employees and punish activists for expressing pro-Palestinian views." Is that even legal under US law? Apparently it is in some states. Federal law does not, apparently, prohibit…

You should watch this documentary:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15721106

The documentary "Boycott" explores the legislation passed in several U.S. states, including Arkansas, Arizona, and Texas, that requires individuals to pledge not to boycott Israel as a condition for receiving government funds. This legislation emerged in response to the Palestinian-led BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel. The film follows individuals who challenged these laws, including a publisher in Arkansas, an attorney in Arizona, and a speech pathologist in Texas, highlighting their legal battles and the implications for free speech

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an ocean of injustice in the world and this one issue causes more anger than many that are equally abhorrent.

Right now, there is nowhere else in the world where so many civilians are being killed. Nothing else even comes close. 20k deaths in just two months is a massive death toll for such a short conflict. For comparison, it's more than the civilian death toll in the nearly 2-year-old war in Ukraine. The other thing is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been going on for decades, and many people have formed strong o…

That's just untrue. Sudan, Yemen and (earlier) Ethiopia had much much more, without even going into Ukraine (nobody should accept the Russian figures) or Syria (death toll exceeding all Israeli-Arab wars combined). Doing a death toll per month analysis is misleading because high intensity can't last very long due to geography alone.

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Criticizing the actions of Israel is not anti-semitic, and many Israelis and Jews are critical of the Israeli government and its actions (even more than usual during the ongoing political crisis). Many of the critics I see lack nuance (basically, "rooting for the underdog"), but that's a different problem. The problem is complicated, and there is no simple solution (some kind of two-state may work after many years).…

> chants like "from the river to the sea" (meaning destroying Jewish country) What is the truth of that? I've seen Israeli advocates make that claim and many repeat it. I've also seen an explainer in legitimate source (maybe the NY Times?) say that it means both Palestinians and Jews should be free. Does anyone have some actual, authoritative information? Something from before October 7th might be good. > saying Isra…

For example, 2017 Hamas charter [1], page 6:

The establishment of “Israel” is entirely illegal and contravenes the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people and goes against their will and the will of the Ummah ... There shall be no recognition of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity. ... Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967.

Again, people may use it trying to say something else, but slogans do not exist in a vacuum. Saying "from the river to the sea" means that all people should be free is akin to saying "arbeit macht frei" is a call for the financial independence of working people.

As for your second question, calls for ceasefire appeared while Hamas terrorists weree still in Israel, by no less than U.S. representatives [2].

[1] https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/hamas-2017.pdf

[2] https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ceasefire-in-gaza-mirage-is...

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#346
post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another possible explanation for this skew is that TikTok and IG are primarily video platforms. The videos of destruction and death in Gaza are far more horrific than corresponding videos in Israel, because the scale of what Israel is doing to Gaza is so much greater than what Gaza has done to Israel. Another way of saying it is, it makes sense that someone who spends hours on apps optimized for empathy-based addicti…

> The videos of destruction and death in Gaza are far more horrific than corresponding videos in Israel Maybe you haven't seen enough of what happened in 10/7 then. I would rather get hit by a bomb then tortured to death in the most horrific way possible.

Would you rather get tortured to death horrifically or have your closest 200 relatives crushed to death in the rubble of everything they own? If we're comparing experiences, this might be a more typical choice.

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Criticizing Israel’s response is not anti-Semitism- it is literally just criticizing the response. Okay - then what should be Israel's response? For me what they are doing is the bare minimum with the minimum casualties from the options they have. Hamas is Gaza's government. Hamas has intertwined the civilian and the military infrastructure. Hamas has made sure that the civilian Palestinians will suffer if you targe…

Their response should be to leave the occupied territories, which aren't theirs to begin with, and to recognize a Palestinian state. Israel has held millions of Palestinians under military occupation for more than half a century, and it's way past time that that ended.

Israel did leave Gaza though. Gaza elected Hamas, and they carried out this attack.

So what should Israel do specifically in Gaza?

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#348
post #7

Pro-Palestinian views outrank Pro-Israeli online by around 36 to 1 on TikTok and 8 to 1 on other online platforms. https://twitter.com/antgoldbloom/status/1721561226151612602 If anything the skew within the platforms is to prioritize pro-palestinian views https://twitter.com/committeeonccp/status/173279243496103143... It also seems like these platforms create (rather than support) anti-Israeli views: https://twitter.…

Anti-semitism in and of itself is unequivocally wrong. But conflating anti-Israeli views with anti-Semitic views does a disservice to Jews and Palestinians alike.

It's dangerous, tricky terrain. Regardless of your beliefs, anti-Semites benefit.

* The anti-Semites are not idiots, mostly; they don't spew anti-Semitism publicly but say what is acceptable, which is to criticize Israel, and obviously anything anti-Israeli helps their cause.

* There's an implication whether people like it or not: Israel defines itself as The Jewish State. Also, many people are unware that Judaism is non-hierarchical overall; there's no pope-equivalent in Israel to which Jewish people have some allegiance (remember the old Papist accusation against Roman Catholics for dual loyalty); though Israel has some special things and history, it has no other role in non-Israeli Jewish people's religion, but people make that association regardless. Also, many are unaware that most Jewish people in the US oppose Netanyahu and the Israeli right, and afaik are sympathetic to the Palestinians. Anti-Semites will benefit from that implication, even though you don't want them to.

* Not everyone will respect that essential division between anti-Israel and anti-Semitic speech, and there's a significant risk that large-scale anti-Semitism could spill over. It was already at the highest levels in recent history (like other prejudices). It's easy to dismiss as as unlikely when you aren't at risk; a small risk of catastrophe is a big issue when it's your life.

People absolutely need to be able to criticize Israel, but I hope they are careful (not silent) and aware that there is no easy answer. You are anti-Israel (in this case, at least) and not anti-Semitic, but you will help the latter to some degree - hopefully a minimized one.

I think the major problem is that we've abandoned and actively attack the former social prohibition against prejudice, stereotypes, intolerance, race/sex/gender/religious discrimination, etc. It used to be verboten, but then we are all familiar with the contemporary reactionary attack on it (however you perceive it, whatever words you use), which seems to have been very successful. A very major loss is that without that high wall between us and the bad guys and bad behavior, without that bright line, there is much more spillover in what we do, and much more risk of them walking right in.

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m very pro-Palestinian. That’s yet another reason why I want Hamas gone. There’s no chance for social justice while terrorists are running the show.

If the conditions in Gaza continue as they have for multiple generations now, the eradication of Hamas will just beget the founding a different group with the same approach, or near to.

The conditions in Gaza are the result of Hamas and similar groups. Israel ended their occupation of Gaza twenty years ago and dragged Israelis out. Israel invested in Gaza infrastructure, but Hamas ripped it out and used it to make weapons. Israel allowed Gazans to work in Israel, who then told Hamas where to attack. Israel tried ceasefire after ceasefire, but Hamas just sent suicide bombers and rockets. And when as a result Israel tightened their border and built the Iron Dome, people say they're in the wrong. Those same people also never think about why Egypt also has a tight border with Gaza.

Re: The pro-Israel information war

#350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Criticizing Israel’s response is not anti-Semitism- it is literally just criticizing the response. Okay - then what should be Israel's response? For me what they are doing is the bare minimum with the minimum casualties from the options they have. Hamas is Gaza's government. Hamas has intertwined the civilian and the military infrastructure. Hamas has made sure that the civilian Palestinians will suffer if you targe…

>Okay - then what should be Israel's response? The same response I have concluded should have been the US' response to 9/11: turn the other cheek, and invest heavily in reconciling with "enemy" forces while rebuilding "enemy" infrastructure and institutions, while dealing with individual bad actors on a case-by-case basis as a matter of legal (rather than martial) procedure. And I'm not joking. I feel bad for Israeli…

It is a shame that this could never, ever happen politically, when from an outside, dispassionate perspective, it just seems obviously and objectively correct.
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