Deborah Tyler’s Post

"Long live October 7... Long live the Intifada." Brazenly open support for genocide against Jews chanted in front of Canada's Parliament. This is not an isolated incident. Across Canada and the US, there are violent demonstrations targeting Jews. NOT Israel. Jews. Many videos now circulating of people who look identifiably Jewish being harassed & assaulted in chaotic & violent demonstrations in formerly prestigious institutions like Columbia. Jews are advised to not attend campus because it's unsafe. There is open support for terrorism & the murder of Jews in NYC, Toronto, Ottawa, & other cities. Jewish institutions & synagogues are targeted, blocked, vandalized, & threatened daily. You are watching the dehumanization of Jews & the normalization of anti-Semitism in real-time. If passive observers, civil society and government tolerate these calls to violence, then the continuous abhorrent rhetoric with sporadic violence will become continuous abhorrent violence with sporadic rhetoric. But I am not worried for the Jewish people. Why? Because of Passover, starting tonight. The main activity is the retelling of the exodus from slavery in Egypt. For thousands of years, parents have been passing along this story generation to generation. No matter the challenge faced, we read the story: While wandering the desert in Egypt. While settling the land of Israel ~3,300 years ago. While being exiled by the Assyrians. While under the tyrannical rule of the Achaemenid Persians. While rebuilding the nation after exile ~2,400 years ago. While fighting a +50 year guerilla war against the Greeks. While under active rebellion against Roman rule (~2 million Jews were murdered). While facing every imaginable type of blood libel, pogrom, persecution & holocaust throughout the 2,000 year exile. While we returned to rebuild a nation in our historic homeland & throughout every struggle & war since. The Seder accomplishes 3 things: - imbues in us the core Jewish value of being free from oppression to pursue good - the important of educating the next generation - the importance of tradition in turning these timeless ideals into practice Jewish history is replete with tragedy stemming from unimaginable & seemingly irrational hatred of the Jews. But I know the Jews will be fine so long as we continue with the Passover Seder. We will find places to live that are more friendly if needed. And we will continue telling our story, as we have for thousands of years. The question for broader society: will you continue tolerating this unvarnished hate? Will you allow your society to deteriorate to the point where open calls for genocide are ignored? Curious about Passover, read my post from last year linked in the comments.

"Anti-Zionist Ultra-Orthodox Jews have burned Israeli flags at their protests around the world. They believe that the Zionist state is not simply an ‘appropriation’ of their Jewish symbols and identity, but the root cause of a bloody conflict in which innocent Jews and Palestinians suffer. Indeed, Israel is a Zionist state. Calling it Jewish only creates a confusion because it is hard to define it. Israel embodies European ethnic nationalism shaped in late 19th century, rather than Judaism that has developed for millennia. From the start, Zionists despised Jews and Judaism as they aimed at breeding a new species: the intrepid Hebrew warrior farmer. They have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. Israel has built a mobilized society and a formidable high-tech war machine. As Israeli society has moved steadily to the right, it has consolidated the support of right-wing extremists and racists, including antisemites, around the world, such as white supremacists in the United States. Many Jews deplore this practice because it contradicts all that Judaism teaches, particularly the core values of humility, compassion, and kindness. They realize that those Jews – in truth, the vast majority of them – who rejected Zionism over a century ago, may have been right. Other Jews also find themselves in an emotional bind. Deeply saddened by Hamas’ attack on Israel and likewise devasted by Israel’s implacable response, they are also worried about the surge in anti-Jewish sentiment all around them." Antisemitism worldwide continues to increase because of Benjamin Netanyahu, and the current state of Israel. Exponentially now, since Israel's disproportionate response to the October 7th attacks. One can not act with such maliciousness to Muslims and Arabs the way Israel has, while also claiming to be representative of the Jewish nation. Innocent Jews are singularly punished, as a result of Israel's inhumane policies. Enough is enough. The systematic Genocide against a people, is no answer for two disagreeing nations. In as simple as terms that can be said, "Let my people go." #freepalestine #ceasefirenow https://lnkd.in/gKgnmQTB

What is pride in being Jewish? What is shame when one is Jewish? How do those two qualities impact on headline events since 10/7? Jews have members born to their race who are happier to deny their origins. They prefer to shuck names, practices, affiliation; in order to be accepted in the world at large. If it involves turning on fellow Jews, so be it. If it depends on silence when Jews are attacked, slaughtered, marginalized in fact and physicality, so be it. Then there is Jewish support in theory. 10/7 was horrendous and the sex'l depravity leading to death, burning, decapitation and kidnapping of both dead and live persons- could be something to decry. UP TO A POINT. If Israel behaved itself, and turned the other cheek, AGAIN; Jewish conditional support could result. A remote type of support for Jewish brothers and sisters. There is the argument based on denial of history, old and recent. 1948 going forward would qualify as recent. The U.N. partitioned a tiny sliver of land, which is now the modern state of Israel. 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, plus countless suicide missions should support the defensive position Israel has taken; with deliberation and respect for human life and peace. It's not enough for the ambivalent or disinterested Jew. When it's popular to call out one's ethnicity- many in Congress and the media will allow publicization of their Holocaust surviving relatives; proof of their Jewishness. It permits them to pontificate as experts on what is righteous and what is evil about Israel, its P.M., I.D.F. and ridiculous notion of how Israel needs to survive. Not one step further. You hear. Blinken, Schumer, Schiff, Nadler, Bash, Tapper, Sanders, Soros, Streisand, say so! And they know. Because they stand with their Jewish roots and identities, when it suits them. They know a Hitler when they see one, even if he authored the Abraham Accords. Which suits the Obama-Biden Administrations JUST FINE.

Friends, please open your hearts and welcome constructive discussion. Stand for something, not against something. Be smart about the algorithms of hate, ask questions, and work to identify the source of information. Skip the slogans, the groupthink, and the popularity contests from the equally repressive fringes of the Progressive or Far Right. And perhaps, try substituting "Intifada, Israel, Zionist, and 'River to Sea'" with another group’s identity—you will see what so many of us see. The Bible calls such things an abomination. I am disappointed, but not broken. My values are clear: I am a staunch Zionist, without apology. Israel is an integral part of the Jewish identity—and anyone placed in front of a camera to say otherwise is offering a tokenized fringe view. Our parents, grandparents, and great-great-grandparents fled from places where we were murdered because we are Jews. These are the places we are now being told to "go back" to—places where we are forbidden not just to practice our beliefs but to live our lives in peace. And in all such places we were never considered equals. I am proud and have obligations to my family. I do not simply ask you to agree with the hashtag "#NeverAgain"—rather, I WILL EXERCISE MY FREEDOM OF SPEECH to protect my rights —without the cowardice of anonymity behind a mask. I do not change course in the face of the consequences of standing tall. I should not need to show statistics to prove that many Israelis are “not white.” I should not need to explain that our oldest prayers are of Jerusalem, that the very word “Jewish” comes from the ancient tribe of Israel. I should not need to justify that we are some of the world’s oldest indigenous people. I should not need to explain my hopes for a two-state solution. One can be highly critical of Israel's government without seeking the nation's destruction. One can be critical while supporting your Jewish friends, who are likely Zionists. One can recognize that Jewish lives—when it comes to rape and murder—matter. “BRING THEM HOME” cannot be selectively applied when it comes to civilians, innocents. One can remember that our children deserve no part in any of this. We can mourn human suffering while demanding decisive action against terrorism without moral compromise. Israel and the Jewish people embody an imperfect triumph. For millennials we are one of the most frequently, senselessly hated groups on earth solely because of what we believe and where we are from. We have survived unimaginable hardships and thrived, only to be uncritically, recklessly labelled an "oppressor people." It is profoundly disappointing to witness a different response from people I know when it comes to supporting their particular cause. I will be there for you, but I will not forget. Please, remember who your friends are—especially when we disagree. An early 'Shabbat Shalom' to you all.

These are the Jewish voices for Peace that everyone should hear : For me, this is actual war. Not a war of bullets and bombs that I don't have, don't want to ever have and hate with all my being, but a war of words, a cultural war, an existential battle for my humanity, and humanity's humanity. For me this is war not only because my name, my heritage, the history of my family and me people, everything that I ever came to view as beautiful and sweet in my childhood, my humanity, my Judaism, all of that has been hijacked for a message of brutality, violence and hatred I could never accept in a billion trillion years. For me, as a living, thinking, writing human, this is a war of huge, cataclysmic consequence: if I lose - if we lose - then all is lost. Then no child, no mother, no father, no brother, no sister, will ever be safe. Ever. I will not betray all those people by not showing up for this war of ideas, even though they will never know me. I love them and I care for them just the same (I don't need any god for this. This is me). For me this is war because I could not live with myself in a world where this is legitimate, lawful, acceptable. could you? Could you live with yourself in a nice comfortable home when a few streets away, or thousands of miles away, children are being killed in their hundreds every day? Could you? Then what are you? I am not doing Twitter, or X. For me, and for you, too, whether you get it or not, this is an actual, real, existential struggle. Don't get ever distracted or confused. Don't ask "what can I do?". Find what to do. Connect with other people. Join a movement (there is one close to you that never heard of, because the system was designed to separate. There is one. I promise you. Find it. Join it). Shout louder. Go protest and take other people to protest who may never have gone without you. Be stronger and more resolute every single day. This is not a far-off, one-off war. This is home for all of us. This is our future and what it will look like. For me, and I don't really care how anybody else sees it, this is a war of values, of culture, or philosophy, a war that will have unimaginable consequences for the rest of our lives. We all need to be brave and show up. No one is allowed to turn their gaze from a dying child, no matter how much pressure is applied to them. If you do this, if you look away, you will not be owner of your own gaze ever again. You will not own your own eyes. You will spend the rest of your days looking at the world through the eyes of a robot, or a slave, and you will know it. For me this is what this is about. @Alon_mizrahi on X We must all speak up for #Peace #Justice #Peacenow equal rights for all in Palestine

Love the Jewish voices for peace ☮️ 🕎 It might come as a surprise that Neo-Nazis and the far right, who have a long record of stoking antisemitism, are joining anti-Palestinian demonstrations, but for those familiar with the long-standing alliance between Zionists and antisemites, this is disturbingly predictable. Remember, Zionism is the ideology that the Israeli government rests upon. It claims Jewish safety requires a Jewish-only nation-state. Zionists use the strategy of violent ethnic cleansing to ensure their goal of “maximum land, minimum Palestinians.” Antisemitic Zionists, or people who both hate Jews and love Israel, are common in right-wing movements, and are the sources of the most tangible threats to Jewish people. Depending on their ideology, white nationalists may admire Israel as a model ethnic supremacist state, share its Islamophobic and anti-Arab views, and/or want Jews to be corralled in their own state far away from the US. This worldview is gravely dangerous to Palestinians, Jews, Muslims, and people of color. Members of the far-right are often anti-Palestinian because Zionism’s core principle—the inherent right of one group to subjugate another—is in line with white supremacist beliefs of racial superiority. Neo-Nazi groups such as the Proud Boys and individuals carrying hate symbols like the Confederate and Gadsden flags have been spotted repeatedly at the violent pro-genocide protests harassing peaceful student protestors. The agenda of white nationalists, war profiteers, and anti-Palestinian individuals and organizations has nothing to do with protecting Jewish people, and all to do with harming our intersectional movements for justice. Antisemitic, Zionist white nationalists support the exact injustices the movement for Palestinian freedom opposes. Unlike Zionist organizations, we’re consistent in our condemnation of EVERY plank of their platforms as we fight for safety and freedom for all people targeted by white supremacist violence. White supremacy anywhere is a threat to us all. That’s why we stand in solidarity with Palestinians and all people struggling for liberation. Jewish Voice for Peace ✌️☮️🕎🙏🙏🙏

https://lnkd.in/eh-uWQyn An important article. "Well-meaning people supporting the Palestinian cause are actually empowering Islamo-Nazis--It’s routinely claimed that the violence & intimidation perpetrated by mobs in the name of “Palestine” ever since the October 7 Palestinian Arab pogrom is anti-Israel rather than anti-Jew. This is a demonstrable fiction.--At the annual meeting of the British Medical Association, a female doctor was heckled with repeated shouts of “shame” after she said she was Jewish.--The BMA was accused of becoming a “vehicle for Jew-hatred”. Such is the scale of this bigotry among doctors that some British Jews are now hiding their Jewish identity when admitted to hospital.--What’s been unleashed in the west since the October 7 atrocities is an insurrection against the Jews that isn’t marginal to these “pro-Palestine” demonstrations & antisemitic incidents. It’s fundamental.--- This venomously distorted & paranoid characterisation of the Jews makes “intersectionality” itself a prime source of antisemitic bigotry. However, the Palestinian cause that’s promoted not just by these extremist culture warriors but also by the entire “progressive” world is innately anti-Jew. This is not confined to Hamas. The Palestinian cause itself is based on the aim of exterminating Israel & falsely appropriating historic Jewish identity in the land of Israel as its own. The Palestinian cause writes the Jewish people out of their own history. That program of cultural extermination is what all who support the Palestinian cause are actually signed up to. They may heatedly deny it. They may believe they are supporting 2 states existing in harmony side by side. They may claim that most Palestinians merely want to live peacefully alongside their Israeli neighbors. They may tell themselves there would be peace in the Middle East if only it wasn’t for Israel’s “right-wing” prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They are delusional. They have not merely contributed to the madness that is now sweeping the western world. They have sanitised and legitimised it. They have enabled the world to claim that Palestinianism is respectable because it is anti-Israel and not anti-Jew. This was never true. --- The never-ending war between the Palestinian Arabs & Israel has been created and perpetuated by the west’s behaviour in sanitising, excusing, legitimising, funding & incentivising the Islamo-Nazis and their preposterous, mendacious, brain-frying “Palestinian” cause.--The Palestinian cause has been manipulated by Iran into a wedge issue. It has turned America against Israel, lined up liberals with Islamo-Nazis and set Jew against Jew. And after Iran finishes with Israel, the west is next. Palestinianism hasn’t just been used to give a veneer of respectability to Jew-hatred. It is being weaponised against civilisation."

Reposting a response from Adrian Panckhurst to Randa Abdel Fattah’s article on Zionist Feelings (linked here: https://lnkd.in/g93dmd7Y) with permission: “I am sorry, but I cannot agree with views put forward in this article. Whilst I can understand and empathize with much of the author’s points, re: the minimization of the Palestinian Voice, I Cannot condone the repeated minimization of Jewish connection to the Levant. While I vehemently disagree with the Netenyahu government, and the policies of Israeli governments towards Gaza and the West Bank over many years since 2007 - as well as the way that the majority of Jewish ‘community organizations’ seek to push their views and claim to speak for all Australian Jews - this article is abhorrent and totally one-sided and without nuance. I am sick of this ‘settlers’ and ‘colonizers’ language. Was not the Muslim conquest of the Levant, under the Rashidun Caliphate, a form of colonization? Was not the Ottoman–Mamluk War of 1516–1517 a form of colonization? Honestly, I am just so tired of the continual ways in which Jewish connection to the Levant is being denied constantly (either at protests or on social media). And to be blunt, as an Australian Jew (who has very recently faced both verbal and physical antisemitic attacks), it seems to be because of the continued narrative that Jews are ‘white’ and European, and therefore ‘oppressors’, that this denial continues to be exacerbated. Yes, Israel has since its inception prioritized Ashkenazi expressions of Judiaism, to the detriment of those Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews that had to flee Arab countries either before or after 1948. And there is also cultural (if not necessarily explicit, then implicit) discrimination against Israel Arabs. But that doesn’t make ‘all’ Jewish people or Israelis white. Nor does the fact that many in the American and Australian Jewish communities have successfully downplayed or minimized their overt Judaism in public (I.e. ‘passing’ - which causes its own psychological toll over time), mean that all Jews are ‘white’ and ‘privileged’. Especially as many Jews cannot ‘pass’. I weep for every Palestinian death, and wish more than anything for a permanent ceasefire and negotiation. I have also supported several peace-building organizations over the years, and continue to do so. But I cannot endorse a narrative that furiously and continually denies Jewish connection to the region. And that seems to be most of what this article does, along with so many extremist pro-Palestinian voices online.” We’ve known that different pieces get read very differently based on experience and perspective. There are a range of Jewish Australian responses and it’s good to hear them.

As a Jewish American, I was raised to value all life indiscriminately. I have no words to describe my horror of the ongoing suffering and loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives. I have no words to describe how terrified I am watching a war in the Middle East ignite mobs worldwide calling for Jewish genocide. I have no words to describe how harrowing it has been seeing every social justice organization I ever supported contextualize Jewish murder, or stay silent against antisemitism. I have no words to express my utter disappointment in my non-Jewish friends whose selective activism has proven to have no space for Jews. I remember as a little kid in Hebrew school, our teacher showed us cartoons of Jews with horns and fangs from newspapers out of Nazi-Germany. We laughed at how silly they were; we couldn't wrap our tiny brains around 6 millions Jews being slaughtered over what started as some caricatures and fictitious headlines about Jews sucking blood from children. It felt like something out of a bad movie in a different universe. Watching the systemic dehumanization of Jews across academic institutions, mainstream media, social media, social justice organizations, political groups, and everywhere in between; I feel sick to my stomach. I feel like I’m back in Hebrew school, sifting through Nazi propoganda; only this time, the threat is existential. There are more people mindlessly consuming anti-Jewish propoganda than there are Jews in the world. You’ve probably heard the slogan “Never again”, coined by liberated Holocaust survivors as a vow to never fall victim to another genocide. I would like to humbly ask my friends and colleagues to use your voices to stand up against antisemitism when you see it. For non-Jews, this might call for an uncomfortable social media post or conversation. For Jews, this is a fight for our right to exist. Never again is now.