funeralxempire wrote:
This and your previous video demonstrate why religion is and always has been central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This is something most in the west avoid or downplay in favor of explanations such as nationalism, settler colonialism, racism, a land dispute. etc. Yes those are factors, not all Israelis are Jews, not all Palestinians are Muslims and so on. Religion is why this dispute has been so intractable. It explains why the Palestinians have withstood in what in normal circumstances would be considered total defeat after total defeat.
Towards the end of the video it mentioned the settlers involved in the ongoing pogrom and IDF soldiers are often one and the same. Well yes, the IDF is a citizens army. This is by necessity because Israel is such a small country. This is foreign concept in the west where our militaries are often sort of mercenaries.
Another way the west differs from Israel is that Jews here vary between fundamentalist and secular with a lot of degrees of in-between. Not so much in Israel. Both the western and Israeli media often describe the internal divide in Israeli politics as between left and right. While not totally wrong the fundamental differences are between secular and fundamentalist Israelis. There is a large conflation between fundamentalist and right and left and secular. In the west Jews are a small minority. Often the most secular and non religious Jews in the west feel a need to not see their identity eliminated by the majority gentile ways. This takes forms of attending synagogue only during the high holidays, putting an electric Menorah in the window during Hanukkah, wearing a star of david neckless. This is a non factor in Israel.
The internal divisions thread depicts a country on the verge of civil war. This is far from the first time the country has been on the verge of civil war. This begs a number of questions. Why has Israel not gone over the edge? Why has secular Israel which despite what was implied in the video presumably does not want to ethnically cleanse or rule Palestinians and does not want to live in a theocratic state try to physically stop the fundamentalists?
The answer is fear. Civil wars are brutal, wrenching affairs, pitting neighbor against neighbor against neighbor, family member against family member. That is true of all countries. What is unique to Israeli Jews is the not unreasonable belief that a Jewish Civil war will be successfully exploited by people who want to kill them all. A civil war between members of small hated minority does not end well for said minority. Since October 7 Kahane was right posters have popped up all over Israel. As much as secular/left Israelis think he was wrong they have no viable alternative. The two state solution is only believed by a few hangers on. The one state solution with democratic and human rights for all is at this point mostly a western left theory. The most peacenik Israeli Jews view it as suicide.
While Israel and America are not exactly the same there are legitimate comparisons. Progressives do fear taking on the MAGA’s a movement that fundamentalism is an important part of in part because they are still trying figure out how to deal with Trump winning twice and his subsequent shock and awe second administration.
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