Guarding your Humanity
“They perpetuate the fiction so many Americans want to believe – that no real people die in war, that it’s just an exciting video game.” — Ira Chernus [0]
Dehumanization has long been a tool of war, Nazis believed Jews & Slavs were “Untermenschen” (sub-human)[1] . In the US, following 9/11 we were told “they hate us for our freedom”. Still caught up in the post 9/11 fervor it was much easier to sell ‘hate’ to the American public than to explain how decades of foreign policy decisions created blowback. The israeli government pushes this same ‘hate’ onto its own people dehumanizing Palestinians at every chance since its ‘founding’. Seeing so much suffering being caused by the zionists can wear down on our own humanity even as it is their lack of humanity that causes these feelings. It might be justifiable to hate the soldiers committing these crimes, it is certainly justifiable to hate the state/government that is facilitating it. Too often, once we give over to hating our enemies we strip them of their humanity, it is at that point, the most vile aspects of human nature come out.
Hate
When Osama Bin Laden was killed, a fellow Marine and I went out to celebrate. We got drinks, we went downtown and joined the crowds to cheer the death of an evil man. Bin Laden was responsible for the the death of thousands of Americans, his actions led America into wars it would ultimately sacrifice money, freedoms and lives for. If ever a person was deserving of death for their crimes, Bin Laden was it. Yet when I now reflect back on it, I feel a bit uncomfortable. Not because I have new found sympathy for Bin Laden, but because of how it reflects upon me. I do not want to be a person that celebrates the death of another person.
I didn’t reflect too much on this until I saw more cheering of death by my fellow Americans. This time it was dead Russians. Not evil masterminds of massive attacks, mostly (I think) just conscripts. There are seemingly endless videos of Ukrainian bombs dropped via drones. I found this by the Daily Mail, complete with some rock music to really ‘get you pumped’ for murder and death. The comments near universally cheer this. Commenters didn’t see the son, the brother, the father, the human. They only saw a dehumanized invader, ‘Orc’ has been the “acceptable” term. Facebook(Meta), even loosened its rules to allow for ‘war posts’ against Russians[2]. Al Jazeera quoted a clerk in Kyiv: “They’re orcs because we don’t consider them human”[3].
Hate and dehumanization led to the Nakba and it led to the imprisonment of 2 million people in Gaza. It led to blockades and brutality. After over a decade it led to a violent escape & attack on October 7th. It led some Palestinians fighting for their freedom to lose sight of their own humanity as they killed civilians alongside military occupiers. As if to highlight the utter wrongness of this kind of violence, Vivian Silver, a 74 year old peace activist and founding member of ‘Israeli-Palestinian Women Wage Peace Movement’[4] was among those killed.
Zionists have since declared all Palestinians ‘sub-human’. I see Zionists proudly state ‘there are no innocents’ in Gaza. I see Zionists commenting how children, literally babies ‘deserve’ to be murdered by Israel. I saw a video of a father and his maybe 2 year old daughter being gunned down by the IDF in the middle of the street. I see him weakly reach towards her as he dies. This is one of many, many horrific videos. I see this and I wonder how do Israelis, and other Zionists not see it? What had become of Herzl’s dream of “an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism”?
Anti-Semitism
“Anti-Semitism begat Herzl, Herzl begat the Jewish state begat ‘Zionism’.”—Ahad Ha-Am
Zionism as an idea began in the late 1800s in the face of growing Anti-Semitism including brutal pogroms. In 1914, Jews made up ~7.5% the population of Palestine. By 1931 it was 16.7%, 1932 17.7%, 1933 20%, 1934 23%, 1935 26.7%. We saw roughly 3x the Jewish immigration to Palestine starting in 1933. This surge coincides with the year Hitler came to power in Germany. Jews fled to Palestine, perhaps not due to love of Zionism, but for fear of what they (rightfully) thought might be coming.
As I see the evil’s of today’s Zionism, manifested in an Israeli government openly calling for genocide[5]. I wonder if Nathan Birnbaum’s concerns, “A Zionism that has no better foundation than anti-Semitism is doomed to failure”[6], had come true. Did the hatred that Jews fled in the years up to 1948 stick with Israel’s earliest Zionist founders? Did the the crimes, the massacres and the ethnic cleansing that created Israel embed itself in the foundation of Zionism and Israel? It appears so, the oppression and violence that Zionists now perpetrate against Palestinians is eerily similar to that which they fled[7].
Anti-Zionism, not Anti-Semitism
“If thou art able, correct by teaching those who do wrong; but if thou canst not, remember that indulgence is given to thee for this purpose”. — Marcus Aurelius
Israeli officials often claim that ‘Israel is the only safe place for Jews’. Despite this claim Jews can still be found throughout the world. They are friends, neighbors, co-workers, members of our community. This is not to say that all bigotry and hate has been defeated but to refute the concept that Jews are ‘other than’. If you are an American Jew then you are an American, just like any other.
In business, there is the concept of ‘attack the process, not the person’. As we fight against Zionism, i say “attack the idea, not the person”. To those swimming in a sea of despair, frustration and anger caused by the crimes of Israel, I implore you to separate first, the idea, the lie, that Zionism is Judaism[8]. I hate Zionism. I hate the ethno-supremacy it stands for, I hate the Apartheid it enforces, I hate the Genocide it is carrying out. However, I do not hate Jews, many are not even Zionists. I do not hate Israelis, many (at this point) had no choice to be born Israeli. Even Zionists I try to understand. Their belief system is evil, that is unquestionable. However, perhaps many zionists are indoctrinated by state propaganda, perhaps they don’t even know how truly evil zionism is. The organization Breaking the Silence features former IDF members who now speak out against the crimes of zionism. Are those people evil for having once been a part of an evil system? I think no. While some have committed unforgivable evil, some have ‘merely’ been adherents to a hateful ideal they were indoctrinated into. It is for this reason I say attack the idea, not the person.
A large percentage of Israelis get their news from Israeli television(47%) and Israeli news websites(42%). 44% find TV and newspapers “reliable” , 48% radio[9]. I don’t know much about Israeli media institutions, but I remember how propaganda driven our news was after 9/11 and still is today. In this clip Gideon Levy calls out the channel he is on stating “what is happening over there [in Gaza] is not shown on this channel or any other Israeli channel!”[10] In America, only 32% say they trust the mass media[11]. 27% prefer to get news from TV, 6% radio, 5% print and 58% digital media. When we look at American Jew’s attitudes towards Israel based on a 2020 survey conducted by Pew research [12] 54% have never been, 25% feel ‘very emotionally attached to Israel, 32% ‘somewhat’ and 41% ‘not much/not at all’. In this 2020 survey, 54% felt the level of American support was ‘about right’ and 22% said the US was too supportive. 40% of those surveyed had positive ratings for Netanyahu vs 26% ‘fair’ and 28% ‘poor’ ratings (remember, in 2020). 63% of American Jews felt that there is hope for a coexistence with a peaceful Palestinian State yet only a 3rd felt that the Israeli government is sincere in its efforts for peace. In addition to the opinions above, voices like Norman Finkelstein, Gabor Mate, Avi Shlaim, Gideon Levy among others show that Jewish voices can be among the most powerful ones calling for peace. As I was writing this I learned that 650 Israelis supported South Africa’s Genocide case against israel.
I believe most would agree that a function of corporate media has at least now become to push state propaganda, we see that those who escape its grasp are more likely to oppose israel. In the chart below you can see how as age increases so does reliance on corporate media, so does the favorability of israel. For those 18-29, 83% prefer digital devices for news, of that group 56% have an unfavorable view of israel (in 2022). We see this reinforced in a more recent survey on how Biden is handling the current genocide. 46% of those ages 18-29 disapproved, vs 19% approved. For those not informed on the matter, Biden has provided unquestioning support with ‘no red lines’, green lighting genocide and bypassing congress to provide weapons for it[13]. This gives me hope that when spared decades of indoctrination and/or when free of propaganda, people will see the truth.
As a final plea, if you cannot, for your own humanity’s sake, stifle your hatred, then do it for practical purposes. Know that alienating and causing fear in your innocent Jewish neighbors helps Zionism. When Hitler came to power, the rampant Anti-Semitism tripled Jewish migration to Palestine. Anti-Semitism hurts the cause for Palestinian Freedom, it poisons the cause’s message with hate, it gives politicians cover to hide behind and it helps israel get new conscripts. There is no place for Anti-Semitism in the cause for Palestinian Freedom.
The fight against Humanity
“Indeed, the study of killing by military scientists, historians, and psychologists gives us good reason to feel optimistic about human nature, for it reveals that almost all of us are overwhelmingly reluctant to kill a member of our own species, under just about any circumstance.” [17]
In WW2, US Brigadier General Marshall studied the behavior of men on the front lines. He found that only 15-20 percent of soldiers would fire their weapons[17]. It should be noted that his methods have been criticized though his findings are generally still accepted. The US military took action upon learning of this and integrated steps to glorify killing, I’m sure my fellow Marines, especially fellow grunts can give some examples but author Gwynne Dyer stated that “the language used in Parris Island to desensitize Marines to the suffering of an ‘enemy’ and at the same time they are being indoctrinated in the most explicit fashion (as previous generations were not) with the notion that their purpose is not just to be brave or to fight well; it is to kill people”. [17]. Unsurprisingly, an American took this lesson to the IDF..
“I made the targets as human as possible. I changed the standard firing targets to full- size, anatomically correct figures because no Syrian runs around with a big white square on his chest with numbers on it. I put clothes on these targets and polyurethane heads. I cut up a cabbage and poured catsup into it and put it back together. I said, ‘When you look through that scope, I want you to see a head blowing up.’ Everybody was satisfied.”[18]
I feel like this can be an article on its own, instead I’ll ask that you think on just how accustomed to seeing death, murder and violence you have become. How often do we enjoy watching violent movies or shows, or playing violent games? I never really thought of it before but now, I can’t help but wonder what impact this has had on us. Have these seemingly benign media actually eroded our capability to empathize with those killed in the real world?
Conclusion
Judaism is not what we are fighting against, Zionism is. We see most clearly in our Jewish allies for Palestinian Freedom that Anti-Semitism has no place in the cause for Palestinian Freedom. I mention above that we should ‘attack the idea, not the person’. I showed that free of their government’s propaganda, there is hope that zionists can see the truth. That they can see the evil of their ways and turn away from Zionism.
I recognize the absolute evil of what the zionist forces are doing but I must ‘take no pleasure’ in their death. It’s not for them, it’s for me. It’s a small conscious step I take to guard my own humanity. I want Palestinian victory, but I want to do all I can to ensure that the mistakes of the zionists are not repeated. I want to ensure that in fighting against inhumanity Palestinians do not internalize it, that we do not let it into the foundation of a Free Palestine.
“And those who come after them will pray, “Our Lord! Forgive us and our fellow believers who preceded us in faith, and do not allow bitterness into our hearts towards those who believe. Our Lord! Indeed, You are Ever Gracious, Most Merciful.”.
“Say to them, ‘As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, people of Israel?’”
Resources
Note: you might notice the links in resources look a bit different, I started using an archiving website where i could so that if the original links are deprecated the info is still there
https://www.corteidh.or.cr/tablas/a21893.pdf
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lebensraum
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/11/18/drowning-in-own-blood-kin-of-israeli-victims-of-hamas-still-want-peace
https://eomar.substack.com/p/zionism-an-obstacle-to-peace#%C2%A7statements-of-genocide
Shapira, Anita. “Anti-Semitism and Zionism.” Modern Judaism, vol. 15, no. 3, 1995, pp. 215–32. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396227. Accessed 5 Jan. 2024.
*translated via google translate
Haaretz Journalist Gideon Levy accuses Israeli army of indiscriminate killings in Gaza
https://news.gallup.com/poll/512861/media-confidence-matches-2016-record-low.aspx
https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/12/08/americans-views-of-the-israel-hamas-war/
Wow - really thorough sources, really thoughtful. I hope what you pray comes true.