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Safir Ahmed's avatar

Great reporting, Lee and Jack! A couple of thoughts to share:

1) For someone dealing with media and social media, Ms. Cohen doesn't have a clue about what "off the record" means, since she blathered on about TikTok telling her that. Love to see how TikTok reacts to this "outing" of their off-the-record conversation with her (assuming it did happen)....

2) My experience as a journalist going back decades has always been that the American Jewish community was a bedrock of the civil rights movement, and the ACLU, and other orgs in providing both funding and active lawyers who defended even the KKK's right to free speech, even on Adopt-a-Highway" signs (you can google that).

We need more American Jewish civil rights defenders today who will speak up -- especially against these non-American, Israeli censorship hacks like Ms. Cohen.

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Roger Hoffmann's avatar

It seems to me that ACLU isn't as interested today in freedom of speech or a free press - the very bedrock upon which civil rights is based. Sadly, they appear to be now far more interested in social identitarian (and maybe partisan) politics. We need to find or found an organization that will reject fascism regardless of the banner under which it is appearing.

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Pdxjim's avatar

FIRE: The foundation for individual rights and expression.

See the fire.org

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Jack Poulson's avatar

FWIW, two data scientists from FIRE co-authored a dubious paper with ISGAP and NCRI which was central to the Congressional interrogation of Claudine Gay et al.

https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/The-corruption-of-the-american-mind.pdf

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Pdxjim's avatar

thefire.org one word

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Roger Hoffmann's avatar

Thanks for the reference. I checked it out. Unfortunately, it seems to be primarily concerned with college campus issues and in particular those of concern to religious groups. No mention of the kinds of problems such as raised in prior comments- having to do with censorship of any publishing that contradicts Washington's propaganda about wars in Ukraine, Palestine, etc. There are so many journalists and journals increasingly suppressed via social media platforms, coincident with government pressures. That is my main concern... the effective elimination of a free press via the threats and actions of government officials and agencies.

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David's avatar

“ We need to find or found an organization that will reject fascism regardless of the banner under which it is appearing.”

Sorry to say this but the battle has been lost long time ago. Maybe woke justice warrior like you should face the real world rather than living on social media lol

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Roger Hoffmann's avatar

I doubt that you're sorry for flaming me and completely misunderstanding, as from your remark I will assume that is your usual style and limit of communication. At any rate, how you can infer from my comment that i'm a 'woke justice warrior' is beyond comprehension; as is the irony of your suggestion that I live on social media. Good luck, friend, for I feel that you're going to need it.

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David's avatar

Because you sound like one lol

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Bebe Schroer's avatar

The United States of Israel, where we genuflect and grovel at His Excellency Mileikowsky's appearance. Must we also clean his filty laundry?

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BookWench's avatar

United States of Israel is right!

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Sera's avatar

It’s been said before, but it can’t be said enough: The most antisemitic influence on Earth is the IDF, and Zionism, as a political movement. Do not be intimidated.

This is the unironic conclusion that anyone must arrive at if they condemn violent colonialism and genocide. Israel is the cauldron of hatred which must be dealt with before the distractions of war and victimhood once again allow this hateful nation to hijack justice and betray truth. I say this as a child of Holocaust survivors, with two of my Grandparents laid to rest in Jerusalem.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

What dreadful and evil words. Your Holocaust surviving late family members do not give credibility to your naive hatred.

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BookWench's avatar

There was no hatred in Sera's words.

Calling out the hate behind Israel's policies is not "hatred."

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

My heart breaks for Israel. None of my dozens of Israeli relatives would have been born if my maternal grandmother's brother's wife, a Russian Israeli doctor, had NOT MISSED the bus of hospital workers who were blown up by a Palestinian bomb in 1948.

The Palestinian Mufti begged Hitler face to face to march into Palestine and kill all the Jews.

The blood and guilt of the killing of Palestinians since 10/7/23 is on Iran and Hamas and all the Islamist religious extremists who use the stress of displaced Palestinians to inflate the fires of hell.

The nomadic peoples in the hills and the Jews in the desert lived in peace if not friendship under the Ottoman rule of Palestine. By WWI, Jews had already been pouring in due to the Russian pogroms of the late 1800's. But unlike colonists in America from the developing British Empire, the Jews in Palestine did not have a continent to appropriate by gun powder from native peoples. They had a spit of desert "authorized" by the U.N.. Six million had to be murdered for the U.N. to create itself under threat of nuclear holocausts, and then authorize the Balfour Declaration of 1917, 30 harrowing years late. The people who had been murdered and impoverished in eastern Europe and Russia for the Crucifixion of Christ and/or for not being part of the church/states of Europe, the easy scapegoats for every plague, were to have their own modern nation.

But they were not given a continent. Biblical histories and lands were interpreted to mean legitmacy to acknowledgement of the piece of desert as the modern state. Unlike in America where the natives had only bow and arrows, the surrounding anti-Israel forces had access to bombs.

As the U.S. did after 9/11, Israel has tried to defend itself by war that kills many thousands of civilians. The U.S. could walk away from Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan with blood on our hands, but Israel can not walk away. WHERE WOULD YOU SUGGEST ISRAEL GO? Israel will fracture but it will not cease to exist.

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BookWench's avatar

The US “response” to 9/11, with its endless wars & utter destruction of the Middle East was wrong.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

I agree. But we had a right to defend ourselves though we were culpable in part for 9/11 and all our covert actions since WWII have broken the boundaries of a just interpretation of our Constitution. However we have a natural right to defend ourselves, however badly, and

Israel has a natural right to itself. Israelis are very angry at Netanyahu. Turkey and Egypt should step up to help with the Palestinian peoples. To correct evil, we need truth commissions, not lies fostered by social media.

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Sera's avatar

Palestinian “Mufti”? They had face to face access to Hitler in…what year was that? 1948? 1938? “Adolph! It’s the Mufti again. They’re pissed off that you have marched into Jerusalem yet!”

Zionism would not have been achievable without ethnic cleansing. Nearly a million Arabs were driven out to make room for the chosen ones. The phrase “A land without a people for a people without a land” can only make sense to those who do not consider Arabs to be people. Those people believe that the land inhabited by a million Arabs had no one in it, because they were only Arabs. In 1968 I worked for a short time on a settlement outside of Jerusalem. The foreman, hoping to impress me, cast his arm across the surrounding desert and said: “Look! The Arabs had this land for a thousand years, and did nothing with it. The Jews have come now and we’re building, building, building!” They knew exactly what they were doing, and what settler colonialism meant.

Anyway, I liked the part in your note about Palestinians inflating the tires of hell. Were those the tires on that bus your grandmother missed? The rest of your post is less humorous, and a bit dreary, if I’m being honest.

I think you made this up while you were waiting for a bus. C’mon, tell me you made this up while waiting for a bus?

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

We are all primates with a common ancestor with the chimps. Human animals take land from other human animals. Some believe Jesus, Son of Mary was perfect. Other than mythology, truth telling is better than pointing the finger with lies and distortions. I see no justification for Arab attacks on Zionist settlers - not at the level of bombs and missiles. Israelis say stupid shit too. What would you and your comrades like? For all Israeli Jews to return to the nations of their ancestors? If not that, then Israel will defend itself against Iran's proxies.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

700,000 were driven out. So bombing Israel and the WTC ad nauseum is a solution? Apparently it's the Ayatollah that's the last one standing who still wants a holy war and he fans the flames of rage. I think the U.S. should give North America back to the natives, re-settle white people in the European nations of their ancestors, amd give all leftover cash to black people who will be sorry to see us white people and our institutions go.

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BAG's avatar

The Holocaust occurred before the IDF and before a Zionist state — how can you possibly say this? Jew hatred has existed for centuries — and each generation of Jew haters like you thinks they are unique in their reasons but they are common, like you, in their hatred. A hundred years ago Jew haters hated because Jews were “stateless”. Now you say Israel is the source of antisemitism. No.: you are the Nazi, you are the pogromist, you are the peasant burning Jews for the plague.

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BookWench's avatar

It is true that Jew hatred has existed for centuries -- most likely because the Jewish minority in any European village was readily identifiable, often limited in where they could live, & whether or not they could own land, etc. It was irrational, dehumanizing, & evil.

Nowadays, many are angry with Israel for slaughtering civilians & repeatedly committing war crimes (while claiming to have no obligations under international human rights laws).

Calling out Israeli war crimes does not equal hatred of Jews, & there is no reason to call anyone doing so a "Nazi."

Grow up. Your traditional slurs of "Nazi" & "antisemite" have no power now among those who are informed. Palestinians are also Semitic, anyway, so y'all really need to come up with some new devil words.

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Andy's avatar

You do realize that the Zionist movement did not begin when Israel became a state, right? It began long before the Holocaust was underway.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

Dig into the historical records and keep digging. Don't stop digging when you think you know it all

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

My heart breaks for Israel. None of my dozens of Israeli relatives would have been born if my maternal grandmother's brother's wife, a Russian Israeli doctor, had NOT MISSED the bus of hospital workers who were blown up by a Palestinian bomb in 1948.

The Palestinian Mufti begged Hitler face to face to march into Palestine and kill all the Jews.

The blood and guilt of the killing of Palestinians since 10/7/23 is on Iran and Hamas and all the Islamist religious extremists who use the stress of displaced Palestinians to inflate the fires of hell.

The nomadic peoples in the hills and the Jews in the desert lived in peace if not friendship under the Ottoman rule of Palestine. By WWI, Jews had already been pouring in due to the Russian pogroms of the late 1800's. But unlike colonists in America from the developing British Empire, the Jews in Palestine did not have a continent to appropriate by gun powder from native peoples. They had a spit of desert "authorized" by the U.N.. Six million had to be murdered for the U.N. to create itself under threat of nuclear holocausts, and then authorize the Balfour Declaration of 1917, 30 harrowing years late. The people who had been murdered and impoverished in eastern Europe and Russia for the Crucifixion of Christ and/or for not being part of the church/states of Europe, the easy scapegoats for every plague, were to have their own modern nation.

But they were not given a continent. Biblical histories and lands were interpreted to mean legitmacy to acknowledgement of the piece of desert as the modern state. Unlike in America where the natives had only bow and arrows, the surrounding anti-Israel forces had access to bombs.

As the U.S. did after 9/11, Israel has tried to defend itself by war that kills many thousands of civilians. The U.S. could walk away from Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan with blood on our hands, but Israel can not walk away. WHERE WOULD YOU SUGGEST ISRAEL GO? Israel will fracture but it will not cease to exist. Never again will true Christians and wise Jewish peoples allow the Jew to be the scapegoat of the ignorant and the deceived for the evil that is in man. Not as long as Israel stands and America has Israel's back

There was one Lamb that was slain for man's sins. Rhetoric attempts to replace THE escape goat - the goat slain in Isaac's place after Abraham placed his son on a funeral pyre - with a new victim to atone for evil. The intention of Satan is to distract from the Atonement accomplished at Calvary. It is written that at His Second Coming, the eyes of the Chosen People will be opened and the Last Days will be like the days of Noah. "Seek and ye shall find" Jesus said. I hope that will happen, that people will seek the truth, not from the opinions of others but from ongoing multitudes of historical records

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Mike Rube's avatar

They can’t figure out that Zionism is inherently racist?

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

The foundation of Judaism itself is racist. A pillar of Judaism is a myth about the "seed" of its mythical founder and the "gift" to "Israel", one of his descendants, the right to commit genocide on various ethnic groups to acquire land for Israel and his descendants. In the Torah, Israel is given the right to enslave non-Israelites. While conversion was a substantial part of the history of Judaism, and Jews are in no rational way a race, Judaism still promotes racialist mythology that underlies the racism of Zionism. Atheistic Judaism, which comprises most of Judaism today, could only be so prevalent because Judaism itself promotes a racial tribalism that is the glue of atheistic Judaism. Ben Gurion and other atheistic Jews had no interest in the myths about deities, but they really liked the racial stuff and the justifications for genocide and ethnic cleansing. Ben Gurion even explicitly stated that the Book of Joshua, and its genocide, was an inspiration for the 1948 ethnic cleansing he led:

"None of the commentators of the Bible—Jewish or non-Jewish—in the Middle Ages or today—could have been able to interpret the chapters of Joshua as the IDF did last year. "

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23 SKIDOO!'s avatar

Anyone who thinks that God is a real estate agent is an idolater.

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Andy's avatar

Can you say this again for the people in the back? Lol

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Mike Rube's avatar

If people have religious beliefs that are racist that’s their problem. It’s creating a racist system of government, regardless of its mythic, economic, or racial roots, that it becomes an international issue. Founding Israel as Jewish only state has always been hugely problematic. It’s a poison pill.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

I agree that founding Israel as a "Jewish only state" was always bad, but blaming it strictly on Zionism but not recognizing that the theocratic-ethno nationalism of modern Israel is present in the Torah is missing a very important element. Its not as if Zionism just popped out of nowhere. It is largely a product of Judaism. Israel is founded as a "Jewish only state" in the Torah itself, particularly a "Israelite only state." The Torah encourages a "racist system of government." When millions of people collectively hold an attachment to a religion whose foundational text promotes ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide there could be a significant chance there isn't going to be just individual problems, it could become international, like it has. It could produce something like Zionism. It could lead to ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide.

Religious beliefs often have political impact and are themselves political. That is one reason why many of the framers of the constitution insisted on the first amendment. If it wasn't for the first amendment, congress would have already passed blasphemy laws criminalizing any disparagement of Israel. They are still trying their damndest though.

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Joy in HK fiFP's avatar

Thanks for showing yet another example of how America's freedom of speech is further eroding, and fast. I am sure that Tik Tok is not their last target.

For now there are still some things we can say, and steps we can take. There must be an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Pope Francis has said what is needed, now he must do what is needed by going to Gaza and standing for peace, justice and freedom.

Please sign the petition and share widely.

https://chng.it/CRQ7qw4Gzn

Let us also support UNRWA. If our governments won’t act in accordance with humanity, then we will. https://www.unrwausa.org/donate

Here's a way to support some of the brave doctors who have gone to, and will be going to Gaza: https://palestinian-ama.networkforgood.com/projects/206145-gaza-medical-supplies-oct-2023

or

https://fajr.org/donate/

Let us make our donations to honor Aaron Bushnell, or in memory of Hind Rajab.

Here’s a petition to excommunicate Joe Biden: https://www.change.org/p/excommunicate-president-joe-biden-bf979783-ac08-4576-a53f-c786ea23dc9c

These are a few small things we can do. If we can do more, let us do more.

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Shane H's avatar

The comments section is, as usual when it comes to discussions of either Israel or Zionism, indistinguishable from something one would read on the Goyim Defense League.

Some of the choicest below:

"Israel is the cauldron of hatred which must be dealt with"

"The foundation of Judaism itself is racist."

"Jews aren’t even a race; that is an erroneous mythology of Zionism and Nazism."

Revolting.

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Sera's avatar

Perhaps you would prefer a historical perspective: "Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the Freedom Party" (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.”—Albert Einstein, 1948

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23 SKIDOO!'s avatar

Quotes with no counterarguments.

There is more than a fair amount of truth to any of these statements. Israel is indeed born of hate: any state that requires the decades-long slaughter and displacement of ultimately millions of innocent people is a cauldron of hatred. You could have a million holocausts and there still would be no excuse for what that state has done, and the emotion out of which those atrocities are justified. You want to talk about hatred?

Maybe stop investing your mind in comforting lies and get off the pacifier of Israeli propaganda, grow up, and have your own opinion.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

Um. Given that the Goyim Defense League is a neo Nazi gig, I’d find it very unlikely that they would say something like “Jews aren’t a race.” Jews being a race is a central tenet of anti-Semitism. It wouldnt exist without it. It’s impossible to hate Jews as a race if you don’t think Jews are a race. If you think Jews are a race, actually Shane, you might find better company with the Goyim Defense League than me. Unless they modified the Nazi philosophy. Nazis had a whole system of racial classification and Jews were part of it. I don’t believe Jews are a race, thus I’m in contradiction with a main tenet of its philosophy. It’s unfortunate you find that revolting.

And the fact that the Goyim Defense League might agree with an idea that is right or factual, such as the idea that the foundation of Judaism is racist, doesn’t negate those views. That is a basic logical fallacy—guilt by association. It’s like pointing out the fact that Nazis didn’t like Soviet Communism as a defense of Soviet Communism. Or pointing out Soviet Communists didn’t like Nazism as a defense of Nazism.

If the best argument you have against my arguments is that some bad people also would agree with some of my arguments your argument is idiotic.

So you must think that the foundation of Judaism is humanistic or something? Like you think the character Yahweh giving a genocidal ethnic cleansing mission to Moses and granting Israelites the right to enslave all non Israelites isn’t racist? What would you call that exactly? Because that is how Israel was established in the Torah. Maybe you should read it someday, rather than simply regurgitating whatever AIPAC wants.

Curious — what are your thoughts on Islam? Think it is a “religion of peace”? Do you feel the same urgency to defend that religion when people disparage it and do you suggest the people who disparage it are Neo Nazis as well?

Lemme guess, no?

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

It is perverse that these self identifying “anti-hate” groups that are so concerned about “hate” attempt to systematically destroy and silence people and groups that they themselves hate.

Should there be any surprise when the most powerful Jewish organizations in the world are advocating censorship and punishment for criticizing their religious ideology that people might develop some antipathy toward Judaism?

It’s as if powerful leaders of Scientology conquered Mexico, ethnically cleansed it, setup an apartheid state and then began a genocide against the people who were originally living there out of “self defense” since some of the prisoners in the apartheid carried out atrocities against Scientologists. And then when the world was like, wtf is up with Scientology, Tom Cruise came out and started saying anyone who criticized Scientology or didn’t like the Scientologists committing a genocide was committing hate speech and expressing racism toward the people of Scientology.

But of course that would be absurd, because Scientology doesn’t have a book in which the main character commands exactly that nor does it receive the kind of mindless deference that the world gives to Judaism out of a sense guilt cultivated by Zionists who marketed what happened to Jews as the oppression Olympics most greatest tragedy such that any other horrific event, and even genocides occurring during world war 2 by the same people, like the genocide of Roma, simply don’t matter in comparison. And somehow because of that tragic event to some Jews, Jews had the right to ethnically cleanse an innocent population and now have the right to commit a genocide against that population and its decedents — out of, get this, self defense!

Somehow much of the world has been convinced that genocide is a valid form of self-defense. Somehow the hatred exemplified by supporting a genocide is totally okay but the hatred exemplified by using words that offend the people committing genocide “NEEDS TO BE STOPPED NOW” and is a threat to civilization.

Absolute madness. If people don’t hate the genocide that is being funded by our government, they are ignorant or morally defective. Accusing people of racial hatred of Jews for condemning a genocide or hating the ideology responsible for it is abominable slander. Jews aren’t even a race; that is an erroneous mythology of Zionism and Nazism. And the Zionist roots of that mythology, much to the chagrin of Jews, comes from the foundation of Judaism itself, as is the conquest of Canaan(aka Palestine) through ethnic cleansing and genocide. Jews can leave Judaism and not be a Jew just like Scientologists can leave Scientology and not be a Scientologist.

What does Ben Shapiro, who supports the genocide, like to say? Facts don’t care about feelings. It sounds like the hate Zionists have is leading them to squash facts because it hurts their feelings, and of course the facts threaten their plans to fulfill the commandment of the character Yahweh in the Torah, their revered book slavery and slaughter, to carry out a genocide of Palestine and make it a fully “Jewish State.”

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SW's avatar

I’m not saying you’re right or wrong. To me, the issue is far bigger than ethnicity, religion or political dogma. Do we treat each other like human beings or objects to be eliminated or exploited to get whatever we want — power, wealth, land, a false sense of superiority? Many people of Jewish ancestry understand this and are every bit as opposed to this atrocity as I am and as you are.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

People don't have "Jewish ancestry" anymore than I have "Christian ancestry" or someone might have "Nazi ancestry." I am not a Christian, as I reject the religious tribe of Christianity regardless of what my ancestors believed. Its simple. A person with ancestors who were Jews have the same freedom with Judaism. They simply do not embrace that tribe. And then they aren't Jews. Denying them that is Nazi shit.

But yes, there are many self-identifying Jews, such as Norm Finkelstein and Glenn Greenwald, who are opposed to the genocide. And I honor that. But there has been a catastrophic dearth of "ex-Jews" that would be helpful just as ex-Christians have been helpful to weaken Christianity and its excesses and awaken more of the world to its bullshit.

Judaism is a religion with a book that explicitly and graphically encourages its followers to carry out a genocide of Palestinians. You don't think it is a big issue that there is a genocide being carried out by a sect of Judaism today against Palestinians when the Torah has a myth about it? Shouldn't the clear parallels between the Torah and the last 80 years of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide be simply, like, acknowledged by more people? We have Jews and Christians, like Bill Maher or Sam Harris, or John Hagee who routinely talk about how atrocities are fueled by the fundamentals of Islam; and they are welcomed in the most grand and prestigious places of society. But I know of no one that speaks of the relationship between the ethnic cleansing, apartheid, the genocide, and Judaism like that and has been welcomed to speak anywhere; and when in fact the relationship is probably much stronger than the former. There are people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Islam and Christianity -- apostates, and fiercely critical of the religion they were raised in and their books are widely marketed in the U.S. But genuine apostates of Judaism critical of their old religion, ex-Jews, whose books are widely marketed in the U.S... ?

Where do you think Zionists get their false sense of superiority? Maybe its from the Torah? After all, it tells Israelites that they have the special right to enslave people from all the other nations. Rabbi Kook, one of the leaders of modern theistic Zionism had this to say about the souls of non-Jews:

"The difference between the Israeli [Jewish] soul - its essence, its inner desires, its aspirations, its nature and its position - and the soul of all the gentiles, on all their levels, is greater and deeper than the difference between the human soul and the animal soul. Between the latter, only a quantitative difference is found, but between the former, an intrinsic, qualitative difference prevails." - Orot Yisrael (Lights of Israel), Chapter 5, Passage 10

Religion is what guides our moral sensibilities. What is bigger than religion? It is what told Joshua that slaughtering babies was right when conquering the "promised land." It is what told Ben Gurion terrorizing villages and wantonly murdering families was justified to acquire his "ancestral" land for his "people." Its what Netanyahu is led by while he carries out a genocide against "Amalek." It is what leads lots of Jews to consider others who they believe simply shares their mythological ancestry their "people."

I speak my religion when I say I think all that is wrong.

I realize that this is not something most people want to hear. But it is the truth. If a lot more people aren't willing to confront the root of these catastrophes, they will continue to repeat -- because a religion assures some people it is right.

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Jgb's avatar

“Jews can leave Judaism and not be a Jew.” Yes, you can stop being a Jew if you stop practicing your faith, disassociate from anyone in your past who knows you are a Jew, leave your spouse and children, stop contact with parents and all other blood relatives (if anyone learns your parents are Jewish, guess what, they’ll figure out you are too) and if you have a DNA test, disappear it. Because it shows up loud and clear that you are a Jew.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

Huh? There is no DNA test that would demonstrate a person is a Jew. Judaism is a religion. The most a DNA test would demonstrate is that a person's ancestors probably adhered to Judaism. Just like mine demonstrates that my ancestors probably adhered to Christianity or some form of animism. The notion you can know a Jew by their ancestry is Nazi garbage. From Mein Kampf:

"From time immemorial, however, the Jews have known better than any others how falsehood and calumny can be exploited. Is not their very existence founded on one great lie, namely, that they are a religious community, where as in reality they are a race? "

A person is no more of a Jew because some of their ancestors were Jews than a person is a Christian because some of their ancestors were Christians. People leave religions all the time. And yes, often times it means social ostracization follows. That's certainly a understandable obstacle from a psychological perspective, but not from a moral perspective. Yes, renouncing the religion of our ancestors certainly takes moral courage.

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Jgb's avatar

No, you’re wrong. After my family found out, long after his death, that our father was adopted my brother did an Ancestry Y-chromosome DNA test. The results showed that he was 100% Ashkenazi Jew. Ancestry could probably answer any questions you might have or I can post the results for you in a reply.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

lol 100% Ashkenazi Jew. Thats like getting a result back “100% Italian Catholic”. Not all “Ashkenazis” are Jews and not all Jews are Ashkenazis. Any Ashkenazi can become a Muslim. Their “race” would not then change to “Ashkenazi Muslim” — nor would a DNA test be able to pick that up. And “Ashkenazis” have been shown to have substantial amounts of European ancestry. The racial mythology surrounding Jews pushed by Zionism and Nazism is deeply engrained in much of society unfortunately. An “Ashkenazi Jew” designation by a DNA testing company is like Japanese anime fan service. A study from nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3543

“Our results, primarily from the detailed analysis of the four major haplogroup K and N1b founders, but corroborated with the remaining Ashkenazi mtDNAs, suggest that most Ashkenazi maternal lineages trace their ancestry to prehistoric Europe… Overall, it seems that at least 80% of Ashkenazi maternal ancestry is due to the assimilation of mtDNAs indigenous to Europe, most likely through conversion.”

“100% Ashkenazi Jew” is a ridiculous classification. You should ask for your money back.

Maybe keep trying until you get just “100% Jew.” Then Abraham will be proud.

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Jgb's avatar

Now I’m going to look more ignorant than you already assume I am. I couldn’t figure out how to post the photos from Ancestry. If Ancestry sends fictional reports that include information about one’s Judaic heritage, so be it. We were just looking for our family. Luckily, we matched with first cousins who are indeed Ashkenazim and whose ancestors emigrated to the US Poland (Prussia at the time). You know, it’s possible to give an opinion or make a point without being rude and condescending.

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BAG's avatar

This is the Middle East: show me all the other Middle Eastern countries that do not “privilege” certain ethnic groups or religious groups over others. Israeli Arabs vote, attend university, hold governmental office — show me similar stories about other ethnic groups in the Middle East countries. Is Syria this paradise of equality? Maybe Jordan? Does Saudi Arabia privilege all ethnic groups equally?

You need to stop creating double standards for Jews.

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BookWench's avatar

The treatment of ethnic groups within any foreign nation is irrelevant. The only reason I care about Israel repeatedly committing war crimes is because I am helping finance it, & because Israel is pushing social media platforms & US Congress Critters to censor free speech on its behalf.

If Israel could ever stop taking US tax dollars to finance its bombing of refugee camps & aid workers, there would be much less talk about Israel on social media.

Let Israel pay for its own damn wars!

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Boris Petrov's avatar

BTW -- the truly odious Bary Weiss adores the notorious racist Natan Sharansky -- repeatedly sings odes to this minister of Interior Israeli Nazi. {"kill all Arabs")

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dorothy slater's avatar

B a r r i has been avidly pro-israel ever since her College days at Columbia University when she attempted to get all of the Middle Eastern Department canceled. She had absolutely no use for Edward said who was the chairman of that department until his too early death. It is one reason why I will never sign up for her Free Press because iti is only free if you are pro Israel but not free at all if you are propalestinian. Of course if you happen to be Pro Palestinian, you must also be Pro Hamas. The two seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly.

and not free at all if you happen to be Pro Palestinian

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BAG's avatar

Calling out war crimes would be much more defensible if the people who call them out called out ALL war crimes : in the last ten years millions of civilians have been killed in Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. And go a little further east to Myanmar and China where true ethnic cleansing of Rohingya and Ughyar is occurring. One of the favorite words of the anti-Israel comrades is “disproportionate”. Why is the calling out of Israel so disproportionate? Because of Jew-hatred (which everyone, except people with hollow arguments, knows is anti-semitism). You don’t get a pass unless you marched to protest the Syrian, Sudanese, and Yemenite slaughters.

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Watchlight Media's avatar

Great information. Thank you. These policies and the anti-BDS legislation are basically blasphemy laws where you can criticize the doctrine, dogmas, or behaviors of entities claiming divine favor or religious significance. These protect Israel, which claims to represent "God's people" and to enjoy divine favor because God gave them all the land, from any exposure of their hypocrisy and misconduct.

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BookWench's avatar

Well, duh!

Why wouldn't TikTok do absolutely everything "our greatest ally in the Middle East" demands of it?

Who cares about the First Amendment? It's much more important to continue to hand Israel all the money & weapons it "needs," as it continues to "defend itself" by bombing civilians.

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Gogs's avatar

If sufficient numbers boycotted those platforms... but that won't happen, will it? "We" are in thrall to these people, and their platforms are "essential" to our daily lives. Meanwhile actual antisemites in Ukraine get support from the US and their useful idiot European minions so they can eventuality, kill Zelensky, take over the country and, in the meantime, do diabolical things to Jews at every opportunity.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

The displacement of 700,000 Palestinians in the Nakba was not tantamount to ethinic cleansing. That is an absurd ignorant exaggeration. No Israeli or Jew or U.S. supporter of Israel would say that the Nakba was a good thing. I am, and reasonable people say the punishment of ongoing suicide bombings and terrorist acts since 1948 against Israel and its supporters, and the terrorist acts of Islamists in Paris and NYC DOES NOT FIT THE CRIME. And it does not fit because the hatred and desire to anniliate the Zionists PRECEDED the U.N. Balfour Declaration.

Whatever it would take to give the Palestinians a State would be do-able if the desire to destroy Israel - out of a religious fanaticism based in Islamism and Old Testament jealousies and envies - were not a never ending goal. It was the Arab world then it was the PLO and then and now Iran. The characters change - the wish to annihilate Israel is always present - just as the anti-semites who hate the Jews will always be around the corner, among your friends - surprise surprise.

The stupid shit I have heard from Jamaican friends who knew I was a Christian and Jewish by birth about how "they have all the money" tells all. The Jews have worldly success in nations like the U.S. where they've been protected by law if not from hatred is because they believe in and promote education among themselves thousands of years - even in poor shtetls the otherwise ignorant Jews learned the Holy Scriptures.

The money owned by Jewish shopkeepers in Harlem in the 50's and 60's did not create the Welfare State in Harlem. What BS. Yet you don't stop to wonder at the enduring legacy of hating the Jews, no matter the century, no matter the culture, no matter the language. Stop and think for a minute.

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Run Freedom Run's avatar

The displacement of 700,000 Palestinians in the Nakba was not tantamount to ethinic cleansing. That is an absurd ignorant exaggeration. No Israeli or Jew or U.S. supporter of Israel would say that the Nakba was a good thing. I am, and reasonable people say the punishment of ongoing suicide bombings and terrorist acts since 1948 against Israel and their supporters, and the terrorist acts of Islamists in Paris and NYC DOES NOT FIT THE CRIME. And it does not fit because the hatred and desire to anniliate the Zionists PRECEDED the U.N. Balfour Declaration.

Whatever it would take to give the Palestinians a State would be do-able if the desire to destroy Israel - out of a religious fanaticism based in Islamism and Old Testament jealousies and envies - was not the goal. It was the Arab world then it was the PLO and then and now Iran. The characters change - the wish to annihilate Israel is always present - just as the anti-semites who hate the Jews will always be around the corner, among your friends - surprise surprise. The stupid shit I have heard from Jamaican friends who knew I was a Christian and Jewish by birth about how "they have all the money" tells all. The Jews have worldly success in nations like the U.S. where they've been protected by law if not from hatred is because they believe in and promote education among themselves for the past thousands of years. The money owned by Jewish shopkeepers in Harlem in the 50's and 60's did not create the Welfare State in Harlem. What BS. Yet you don't stop to wonder at the enduring legacy of hating the Jews, no matter the century, no matter the culture, no matter the language. Stop and think for a minute

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Antoinette Janssen's avatar

Factually the Old Testament's book of Joshua is ruling the world of today. The Jewish Bible is the Christians' Old Testament. Christians, the word unveils it already, acknowledge the one who was born as Jew, and an inspiration for those Jews who were named Apostles. Some of these started to write letters after Jesus Christ was murdered with the agreement of all other Jews: someone from Rome, if I remember it well, with much power in that area, named Palestine, asked the crowds: "Who shall live: Jesus or Barabbas?" They wanted Barabbas to live, and for Jesus Christ all these Jews were shouting: Crucify him! And so it happened. All those who started to listen to the Apostles, and started to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, are named Christians. Till today These Christians also read the Old Testament. They acknowledge the same God in that Bible as Jews do. They have never realized who that God is. That that "God", is an entity with human characteristics. Not a God. That God allows even genocides. Murder. All is okay when his chosen people kills, murders, commits genocide. That God in that Old Testament's book of Joshua is a tyrant, and the Bible in total has created many mental illnesses world wide. Zealotry is a mental illness, is psychopathy. Israel suffers from Zealotry. So-called but fake "Christians" suffer from Zealotry, and IF Christians would really have understood the words of Jesus Christ, they would not support a genocide, not support Israel. Zealotry can only be healed by Truth, by analysing what exactly it is, and who Jesus Christ really was. Opening eyes for that "god" in the book of Joshua. That part of the bible should be ripped off the Bible. The pope should do that. I have asked him, via a comment on a Vatican tweet on Twitter, but he did not react. He is afraid of that "God" also, or of the consequences of the revenge of those who use their tyrant to legalize their despicable, evil, satanic acts. If Tiktok is afraid of that "god" and his revenge as well, or the revenge of the almighty state of Israel, it is obvious that people who do have sense for Right and Justice, have to leave that platform. So simple it is. There is a video published about what Israelis did in Palestine (I do not acknowledge Israel, already for almost 50 years) with olive trees. Politicizing olive trees. So deep black dark their soul is. https://www.instagram.com/p/CzRki_FL7Cy/?hl=en

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

According to the New Testament, Jesus worshiped the same god that commanded Joshua to commit genocide. Jesus threatened people with torture if they didn't become willing slaves of that god. And the theological story of the new testament was that that god, Yahweh, was so angry at humanity that if it wasnt for a human sacrifice, Jesus, he was going to torture and possibly exterminate them all. Paul taught that all people ought to feel like they deserved to be tortured or killed for their sins, and that as a reward for obedience to Yahweh they would be given eternal life.

Unfortunately, the god of Jesus is the same god of Joshua. His sadism has not changed. He has just acquired a very perverse obsession with "love", which he demands everyone to give unconditionally at threat of torture.

I do appreciate you see the problem with Joshua though.

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Antoinette Janssen's avatar

It is striking that you, Jeffrey, put Jesus Christ the same words in the mouth as the American Christian Zionists do. Watch the documentary I recommended and listen to what these so called Christians say that Jesus Christ said. According to the American Christian Zionists Jesus Christ did not want peace, but war. This is hard-core Satanism.

Again the link to the witness documentary, with Lee Fang: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDsR5P9Lkw3NP7d4CxSLDLOB6fZcNB601

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Sybil's avatar

I just watched both videos and highly recommend them. Fang rocks!

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Antoinette Janssen's avatar

Jesus did not worship that bible, he was frequently confronting those who were named scribes, those who were literally following that what was written in that old testament, with that what it really meant according to his, Jesus' insights, and he was finally murdered because of that. So, Jeffrey, you have not understood because maybe not even read into detail what that one Jew has said. To understand Jesus Christ better than even the new testament is able to explain, are the so-called Nag Hammadi texts. Also Osho wrote about Jesus Christ., comparable with what the Nag Hammadi texts unveil.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

He quotes the Tanakh repeatedly. His primary mission is in his own words, to the lost sheep of Israel. His human sacrifice to destroy Rome idea is based on his interpretation of the Tanakh. He says that one shouldn’t reject any of the Law. Jesus was raised Jew, seemingly though became a heretical Jew. His Jerusalem followers never stopped going to the Jewish temple even after he died. He was an apocalypticist who was executed by Jewish and Roman authorities for blasphemy and sedition. He talked about bringing the sword and not peace. He was arrested following violence he engaged in the temple. He didn’t practice pacifism. At the most he wanted his folllowers to be doormats until after he died and was resurrected and came back with a supernatural army and cruelly punished everyone who didn’t bow down to him. Of course we know that didn’t happen. It was lunacy. Not wisdom or virtue.

The nag Hamadj library doesn’t help at all to substantially change who Jesus likely was. He wasn’t Greek. Anything that turns him into a wandering Pythagorean philosopher is absurd invention. At some level he is just a literary character, whose history we can never know, but simply through the lense of people who had no qualms about making shit up. In the New Testament version he is a moral lunatic. In the non canonical versions he is not much better, but maybe even less comprehensible.

Don’t pretend to know who “Jesus really was” outside the limited stories and historical context we have. He certainly wasn’t some new age guru. Just because his reputation is so grand, doesn’t mean he actually deserves it; so don’t try to turn him into a hero that just reflects and affirms your own values. He threatened people with supernatural torture. You can find that in the non canonical stuff too. You can cherry pick only things you like, but you transform him into a self-serving caricature. There is no rational compelling reason to assume he was anything but the hypocritical superstitious moral mess he is fully presented as. Thats normal for cult leaders.

Do I like Christian Zionist philosophy? No. Do I think it is in alignment with what Jesus taught? Absolutely not. No modern Christianity is. He thought the world was ending in his generation. Everything by his followers is cope after he died and he never came back. Christian Zionism is crap, but so was Jesus’ philosophy.

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Antoinette Janssen's avatar

I do not feel the appetite to read your comment. All I offered takes more time to watch and read, than you took to be able to react on it.

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Jeffrey Peoples's avatar

I’ve already seen the documentary. But I’m also not in the habit of watching random documentaries people link to. It’s an interesting and informative and concerning piece. It’s definitely a good source for Christian Zionism, but not particularly relevant to how I assess the character of Jesus in Christian literature.

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Antoinette Janssen's avatar

Christian literature is directly linked to the evolutionary development of the authors and the most till so far are not enough evolved as a human soul, which means that the most is just fantasy. Also that what the American evangelicals preach is their own interpretation, born out of their zealotic mind. Since you are interested I would like to recommend you to start reading/studying the 27 books, written by the Dutch Joseph Rulof (1898-1952). The books have a special order of reading/studying, have nothing to do with rational analysing theology, but are of the highest level of spiritual science, and therefore, in order to be able to adapt what is written, you must follow the advise on the website in which order the books should be read. These books are incomparable with all what has been written about Jesus Christ. https://rulof.org The books have been translated into several languages.

The most near to what Rulof writes are Rudolf Steiner's books (best known is The Philosophy of Freedom) and could be categorized as a sort of pre-study of Rulof's books. Website: "Rudolf Steiner Archive" https://rsarchive.org/Books/

It is not a must to read all of his writings. Reading one book and understanding it into depth is factually enough.

All is related with the reader's own humanitarian development. Therefore one must be ready for it. The soul searches, and finds. If ready for it, one will discover that. If not, then one just has to ignore them. Maybe then reading about quantum physics is an option. An intro: Dr. Ulrich Warnke: "Quantum Physics" Is The Merging of Natural and Human Sciences. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6Mbv4MdQHY

Also psychologist Carl Gustav Jung's "Red Book" is a study possibility. that shows Jung's own humanitarian development. It was kept hidden till 2013, because the world was not ready for it. Also books about Kundalini energy could be interesting. This is the (r)evolutionary humanitarian energy, that more and more human beings right now are experiencing. And discovering that what Jesus of Nazareth was experiencing and therefore also named the Christ energy.

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Antoinette Janssen's avatar

Shocking documentary about Christian Zionism in the USA and the political role of Christian Zionists in the Middle East:

"Praying for Armageddon" (2023)

Director: Tonje Hessen Schei / Investigative journalist: Lee Fang

Available on YouTube in two parts. Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDsR5P9Lkw3NP7d4CxSLDLOB6fZcNB601

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