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Many hundreds of days have now passed since the cycle of violence between the Israelis and Palestinians—nearly quotidian after so many decades of hostility—resumed with a brutality that has dwarfed all that came before.
Collectively, America seems to be watching these events with more curiosity than concern, as though Israel, our nation’s pariah-client, were only a troubled child burning ants with a magnifying glass. Americans rarely rebuke a war sold to them under false pretenses even when they are the ones dying in it, and less so when they are only being asked to foot the cost. Then we are as indifferent as when we’re asked to round up our grocery bill for Foodlink.
Against this cynicism stands a small but persistent national movement of Palestine sympathizers that began their mission shortly after October 7th, 2023. These people are keeping the flame of hope alive, holding out as long as they can until America’s conscience finally catches fire.
There are many factions of this Palestinian solidarity movement in Rochester. One of the most committed is Speak Up for Palestine, a group of several dozen demonstrators whose regular, roving protests pop up weekly at intersections, in front of L3 Harris, inside Trader Joe’s and at the just-wrapped Lilac Festival.
Speak Up spent both Saturdays of the festival lining South Avenue, holding signs and Palestinian flags and wearing paper poppies (the poppy is the national flower of Palestine, its colors being represented in their flag). For this event Speak Up also debuted a new totem: a roll of paper, many yards long, on which were written (in smallest print) the names of the thousands of children known to have died in the 19 months of Israel’s onslaught. The list was held aloft by some 85 participants, who also carried photographs of many of the deceased children, their faces as bright and charming as the faces that the evening news displays after a school shooting.
Kim Nelson is one of Speak Up’s organizers, the group having begun with just her and fellow organizer Robert McFarlane. She tells me: “Speak Up for Palestine grew out of weekly protests that a small group of local loyal activists worked on together, beginning with two of us going out to the streets with signs to protest against the United States’ Security Council ‘NO’ vote on Ceasefire in the United Nations in November, 2023.”
Kim’s group has grown much larger since then. The demonstrators at the Lilac Festival are young and healthy, elderly or in wheelchairs, native born, Middle Eastern immigrants and first-generation Palestinian Americans. They collect favorable car honks and the occasional curse, but after close to two years of activism, some feel that the tide is turning in their favor.
Dan, tall and long-haired, has been with Speak Up for a year now. He was motivated to join the cause when he noticed the disparity between how major media was covering Gaza and what he was seeing on TikTok. Dan has mounted a large TV on the back of his truck that displays pro-Palestinian messaging which can be seen when he drives around town or leads a protest caravan on the highway.
“With the way that the movement has been locally, I’ve noticed a difference between a year ago,” he tells me. “When I’m driving around, I’d get a lot more hate yelled back at me. Now when I drive around there’s a lot more ‘Free Palestine!’ and ‘Thanks for doing this.’”
Adam, a “true Palestinian and an American,” was born in Jerusalem (“the Holy City”) in 1947 and came to America in 1970, having lived in both Buffalo and Rochester. “I was born in Palestine and believe in human rights and peace and justice for everybody; we have to speak out to the good people of this country, and honestly they have been supporting us left and right because they see the truth.”
He speaks about the starvation and depravations that have come from Israel’s blockade of Gaza, an extension of the generation-long blockade that was the impetus for this war.
“These people in Gaza, most of them, they were refugees from 1948 and they have been kicked out to Gaza… now they want to kick them again…why? We have bigger than October 7th happen to the Palestinian people since 1947… 73 years… why is nobody saying anything about these people?”
Many of those holding up the list of names are wearing headscarves or kafiyahs (the latter is often worn in solidarity by non-Palestinians). Muna Najib is a young woman, a first-generation Palestinian American, or as she puts it, “Palestinian-not-so-proud-to-be-an-American-right-now.” She is wearing a necklace which I at first think is shaped like the Gaza Strip, but is actually “the whole of Palestine, from the river to the sea.”
Muna sees the movement’s message finally sinking into the public’s consciousness. “I think that the propaganda war is now being lost. We’re finally seeing that Zionist media and propaganda is not working. When [Americans] see on their phones or on social media the people who are being targeted, the journalists who were targeted, all of the hospitals, every single university that was targeted…? The math isn’t adding up and I think that the average person, the average Rochesterian can see that for themselves clear as day now.”
Seeing is not always believing, however. But until more Americans begin to believe that the utter annihilation of a population is what constitutes a genocide, those that woke up first, like Speak Up for Palestine, will be trying to make sure that they weren’t the last.
Jason Yungbluth
The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
Sad that to this day there are people who cannot bring themselves to condemn the slaughter of October 7, the taking and subsequent torture, sexual assault, and cold blooded murder of civilian hostages, the domestic terrorist who kill randomly, or the use of civilians as human shields.
To start a war and then cry victim is hypocrisy at its worst.
To defend such depraved actions is inexcusable.
Mandela, Martin Luther King, and Ghandi all suffered as great as anyone, and none resorted to the cruel and evil violence of Hamas. Perhaps it was that they followed a path of peace and tolerance, whereas others follow a cult of violence and intolerance.
Not sure who the mythical “people” are you are referring to who cannot bring themselves to condemn the killing of civilians on Oct 7. Perhaps you could be more specific?
“To start a war and then cry victim is hypocrisy at its worst.” Israel started the war in 1948 and it has essentially never stopped — there have been periods of relative quiet punctuated by escalations for 75 years now. And they constantly claim to be victims.
Mandela was not a pacifist, not sure where you got that idea. He was a trained guerilla fighter and knew non-violent protest would only take a movement so far. King was “non-violent” but was never a pacifist and always recognized force was at times necessary. He was also not the only one fighting for civil rights but part of a wider struggle that did contain more militant groups. Nor was there nearly as much admiration for him in the 1960’s as there is 60 years later, with plenty of press dismissing him as an instigator.
Ghandi was perhaps the only strict pacifist of the bunch, but he also was not the only figure fighting for independence. The British finally gave up India when the cost (in terms of personnel and money) became more than the benefit (in terms of what they could extract from the colony).
Not sure what your view on the founding fathers of Israel would be — Ben Gurion led a paramilitary force, Ze’ev Jabotinsky, Menechem Begin, and Avraham Stern were all members of Irgun and participated in political violence and assassinations.
You would do well to review the Wikipedia article on Zionist political violence. Not suggesting you take any one source as “truth” but it would give you a starting point for verifying and researching the different incidents given there.
I also do not think “peace and tolerance” would have worked against the Nazi regime.
I have heard numerous Arab and Palestinian politicians condemn the killing of civilians on October 7, 2023. I have not heard any Israeli politicians, other than Olmert, condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza.
In response to a July 17 post which does not have a reply option, in which you assert:
“The difference is intent and accountability. When IDF members break rules they are held accountable, tried and disciplined.”
You might be interested in this assessment from B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights organization, published way back in 2017, on the lack of accountability for military violations of Palestinian human rights.
https://www.btselem.org/accountability
Gary, when have you ever “condemned” (except in the most passive tones —“ I disagree with much of how Netanyahu is handling this”) any of Israel’s crimes? While the entire world is now turning against Israel for what even our allies can no longer resist calling a genocide, when IDF officers are writing NYT op-eds stating unambiguously that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide, when Israel is nakedly following through on its Final Solution to round up millions of Gazans into a Rafah concentration camp with the explicitly stated objective of ejecting them from their own land, and when Israel is supplementing its genocide with war after war against its neighbors (wars it cannot fight without endless American largesse, Ukraine style), how can you, in good conscience, not speak out against this abject villainy, even while also condemning Hamas?
And though liberal Zionism is always pleased to tut-tut Bibi Netanyahu while demanding that a Palestinian Ghandi rise from the rubble of Gaza, where, after all this time, is *Israel’s* Ghandi?
Gary, you are a mensch for engaging more or less politely with me and other members of Speak Up for Palestine in this comments section, but now I am ending our back and forth. I never believed I would change your mind, but this conversation has reached the end of its productivity.
If you truly, TRULY want to understand the situation in Gaza, then I invite you join Speak Up for Palestine at one of our meetings. If you are not entirely incorrigible, if you could bear to hear from actual Palestinians about what is happening to their families, you might learn a thing or two that your current worldview has not accounted for.
(And I cannot emphasize this enough: People bring really good food. The other night we had a charcuterie board and mozzarella, tomato and basil bruschetta. This is the most well-catered movement I have ever been a part of!)
As far as our low-key flame war goes, however, I am drawing it to a close.
Ciao!
What Israel does not want the world to know: in 1948 750,000 Palestinians were violently driven from their homes to make room for Israel! The Zionist army moved Palestinians to refugee camps where many still live as Israel controls the issue of building permits and frequently and arbitrarily refuses to grant permits. Going back to 1948, when Palestinians tried to return to their homes they found out that the Zionists had passed land laws that made it illegal for Palestinians to return to their homes! The Palestinian homes had been looted. Their land was gone and their possessions were stolen! Also, since 1948, much of the land that was set aside for Palestinians was gradually stolen by Israel! The Zionists justified this by claiming that because they are the chosen people they had the right steal the land as it was promised to them by G*d. Orthodox Rabbis dispute this; there is no mandate in the Torah for a “country Israel! Also, Israel is not a Jewish country, it is a secular country that does not operate under Jewish law! Orthodox rabbis believe strongly that Israel should not exist! Since 1948 136,000 Palestinians have been murdered by Israel, with 4,000 Israelis losing their life in the same time frame! The aggressor has always been Israel as they consider Palestinians vermin and subhuman! Recently a poll revealed that 80% of Israelis want the Palestinians exterminated and are fine with the genocide! As soon as the ceasefire was signed, Israel shifted the war to the West Bank and started rounding up young males, helping settlers attack women and children, shooting a nine year old in the head and abusing and killing Palestinian owned animals. The government voted to steal more Palestinian land in the West Bank and Young settler boys with clubs are attacking women and children. The army is destroying homes and are uprooting century old olive trees! I won’t even get into the torture methods that had been documented by doctors and human right lawyers where Palestinian hostages are sexually assaulted by Israeli defense forces and then executed without trial or even charges! This abuse has been going on for decades, long before October 7, 3023! So, if you are ok with what Israel has done and is doing, you are complicit in the genocide! I don’t condone what Hamas did in October 7, but if you humiliate people long enough, if you destroy homes and belongings, attack women, mothers and use babies for target practice and shoot young boys testicles off, so they can never have children – what do you expect? Really!
Yes, Israel is imperfect in its existential struggle to keep from being driven out of yet another land, and in this case their ancestral homeland.
So, here is the question.
You are compelled to choose to live in one of two places. One is a western liberal representative democracy. The other is a draconian despotic theocracy.
You choose which?
Let’s make it easier. You don’t actually have to live there. Yet, You must choose between defending one or the other. There is no option as the Charter of the theocracy demands a final solution for the democracy.
Your choice?
Someone who is subject to being convinced that Israel is a colonial power, that “news” from a theocratic terrorist organization is accurate, that the man placing a rifle barrel into a woman who has been gang raped and then discharging is the “justified victim”, that a people forced in a diaspora are no longer indigenous, that evil can be negotiated with…can be convinced of anything.
They tend to cherry-pick their sources from TikTok or as Paul Simon said, “Still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
I wouldn’t be surprised these kinds of people would blame Kristallnacht on Jewish merchants and bankers.
“… the man placing a rifle barrel into a woman who has been gang raped and then discharging is the “justified victim”.”
We’ve all heard allegations of this kind– things so absurd and grotesque they would be considered over-the-top in a zombie movie.
It cannot have escaped your attention that all the claims of the most horrifying acts of violence (the ones not already debunked) are second and third hand accounts, and that not a single victim has been named.
Yes Jason, the terrorist conducted themselves as perfect gentlemen, what could I have been thinking?
Clearly reports of sexual violence are concocted propaganda. Just like Sandy Hook was a false flag using crisis actors.
You’re funny, You remind me of the MAGA types who say “the media isn’t reporting this” because it wasn’t in the media they read.
You really need to get the word out, those Hamas fighters were really nice guys just trying to make a point.
As much as I try it’s hard to take your argument seriously.
The people who were forced into a diaspora would do well to blame those who forced them. It was the European Crusaders who expelled the Jews from Jerusalem in 1099.
People who have not lived somewhere in 500 years are not really indigenous to that place anymore, are they? There is a reason Ashkenazi genetics are different than Mizrahi.
Your constant accusations that other people who don’t agree with you are getting their information from places like TikTok is childish. And your prejudices — evident in the contention “they”[who are obviously TikTok scholars] think “evil can be negotiated with” — are just a way to try and negate arguments without responding to the content, as well as painting a whole nation of people as “evil.”
You posted a report put out by the Israeli government this week and I responded with a report put out by the UN. That’s hardly TikTok material, but apparently does not fit your narrative.
I look forward to the International Conference on the Two State Solution starting at the UN July 28. Perhaps you should also watch. I’m sure most of it will be televised.
I guess you didn’t read Jason’s letter. It was he who stated he gets his information from TikTok. You may agree it’s childish for him to admit such laziness but I’m not here to defend him.
So, how long do you say someone has to be forced from their homes before they are no longer indigenous?
The Cherokees, Osage and a few others have an interest in your timeline and how you arrived at it.
PS: I never painted a whole people as evil, that’s your big paintbrush gig. I’m sure there are Arabs who would release the hostages, both dead and those tortured to death and not be human shields if they could.
Oh… and thanks for your history of the Crusades, too bad it’s both moot and incorrect.While the Romans expelled the majority of Jews in 70 CE, the Jewish people have always been present in the land of Israel. A portion of the Jewish population remained in Israel throughout the years of Jewish exile while the rest settled around the world and became the Jewish diaspora. In particular, Jewish communities existed throughout much of this period in what is known as the Four Holy Cities: Jerusalem, Hebron, Safed (Tzfat), and Tiberias. Jerusalem is the most sacred, known for the Western Wall. Hebron is associated with the Cave of the Patriarchs, the traditional burial site of several important Biblical figures. Safed became the center of Jewish mysticism in the sixteenth century. Tiberias is notable for the Jerusalem Talmud during the Byzantine Period.
That should clear up your confusion regarding DNA.
Since my initial reply to your allegations does not seem to have made it through the process, I’ll try again.
You posted a document released by the Israeli government and I posted a document released by the UN more than a year earlier, but you accuse me of “cherry picking sources from TikTok.”
Demeaning people who disagree with you does not help your case. Nor does a blanket statement claiming some think “evil can be negotiated with,” which smacks of racism and prejudice. I reiterate — unless you can provide a secondary source beside the Israeli government, the claims are suspect.
This is exactly the point of excluding any objective or impartial persons (journalists or international investigators) from entering the territory. It sets up the classic Catch 22 — whenever an Israeli claim is disputed, it can be denied, blaming anti-Semitism and terrorist propaganda.
Despite this on-going campaign, a number of reputable sites have been able to disprove some of the Israeli claims — most notably the story of the World Central Kitchen massacre and the targeting and cover up of the killing of 15 medics on March 23, 2025 and the subsequent creation of a mass grave to bury the evidence.
I would say that the International Criminal Court warrants, had they been carried out, would have resolved some cases during the judicial process.
You don’t seem to hear the irony in your words “a people forced in a diaspora are no longer indigenous” as Israel has relentlessly forced Palestinians out for 75 years.
Nor do you seem to understand that no one disputes that Jews lived in the Levant 2,500 years ago. The problem is that Israel insists the descendants of those Jews are the only ones who have the right to land that Jews never exclusively controlled. Temples to Dan, El, Asherah and Baal all co-existed with the Jewish temple. Why do you think the prophets were constantly exhorting the children of Israel to stop worshipping the other gods they were surrounded by?
No one cares if Jews have a homeland (as theocratic as the terrorist organizations it fights). What people do oppose is Jews expelling and killing people to create that homeland. It was never “a land without people” despite the Israeli narrative.
You have become uninteresting.
Israel is a colonial power? Israel is a theocracy the same as say Iran or Syria?
MAGA and Trump do the same thing, exaggerate beyond reason. Same coin, different sides.
I wish you the best and hope as you gain life experience you take seriously the goal of at least trying to be objective.
BTW, We still haven’t heard condemnation of the domestic Free Palestine terrorists. We’ll take that as tacit approval.
And that is the difference between you and I. I have no problem condemning the actions of terrorists, be they Hamas or West Bank settlers, you on the other hand can’t bring yourself to condemn the horror of October 7 as indefensible.
It’s not demeaning to point out TikTok is not a reliable source of information. Perhaps you haven’t heard, social media is a concern as more younger adults and children turn to it for their primary source of information. It’s a thing serious people are worried about. You may want to encourage Jason and your peeps to never, ever trust anything on TikTok as Jason said he did in his letter.
If someone is making a connection between evil and racism it isn’t me.
Your assumption is telling.
Didn’t Neanderthals live in the Levant before anyone? Perhaps we should give Israel to those with the most Neanderthal DNA, as long as blood=land title.
Now would also be a good time to remember that we, as Americans, DO play an active role in all of our client Israel’s crimes whether we like it or not, via the politicians we elect.
Joe Morelle is a confirmed AIPAC simp and a full-throated defender of the genocide, as well as a supporter of the merely paused Israel/American/Iran war (perhaps we should call this the “Greater Israel War”). It is time for Democrats to primary this toad.
[Once again, I see no “reply” button to your direct response to my last comment, Gary, so I must attach my response to your comment of 7/15 to an earlier message from you. I really wish the Beacon would fix this.]
“Yes Jason, the terrorist conducted themselves as perfect gentlemen, what could I have been thinking?”
Well, I *know* what you were thinking. You were thinking “Hamas committed terrorism, so no misdeed is too vile to lay at their feet.” In the same manner, you portray the Israelis as helpless little angels, and grant them the benefit of the doubt no matter how vile their documented crimes are.
“Clearly reports of sexual violence are concocted propaganda. Just like Sandy Hook was a false flag using crisis actors.”
I didn’t say there was no sexual violence, only that none has been proven in any credible way. Who were the victims? Why don’t we know a single name? The ones you say were raped and then murdered surely could be identified without shaming them, and Israel would not hesitate to turn them into poster children for the war… if they existed.
“You’re funny, You remind me of the MAGA types who say “the media isn’t reporting this” because it wasn’t in the media they read. “
You can’t even tell me where you found you evidence of the barbarity you described. That is why there is no reason for me to believe you.
“You really need to get the word out, those Hamas fighters were really nice guys just trying to make a point. As much as I try it’s hard to take your argument seriously.”
I’ve never seen Hamas film TikToks of their soldiers dressed up in the bras they have plundered from destroyed family residences. That’s all IDF, baby!
“Well, I *know* what you were thinking. You were thinking “Hamas committed terrorism, so no misdeed is too vile to lay at their feet.” In the same manner, you portray the Israelis as helpless little angels, and grant them the benefit of the doubt no matter how vile their documented crimes are.”
This is where you are stuck.
None of that is accurate. I have repeatedly condemned criminal acts on Israel’s part and disagree with much of how Netanyahu is handling this. Never have I said Israel is helpless, its military prowess denies that for better or worse.
The difference is intent and accountability. When IDF members break rules they are held accountable, tried and disciplined. No such thing happens to the outright intentional murders committed by members of Hamas. In Israel one is allowed to dissent, not so in Hamas’s Gaza.
These differences are worth defending.
The intentional murder of innocents is not.
Israel does not target innocents, Hamas specially targets innocents.
To this day we hear no condemnation of the targeting of innocents by Hamas either for October 7 or the terrorism here in America from you or SU.
You’re right again.
There is no difference between IDF soldiers wearing bras, who will be held accountable and Hamas terrorists slaughtering innocents and being praised.
Same thing.
Good for you.
This is in response to your July 14 post, which does not currently have a “reply” option under it:
“My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.”
From: I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.
published in the NY Times, July 15, 2025
By Dr. Omer Bartov, who is a professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Brown University.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/opinion/israel-gaza-holocaust-genocide-palestinians.html
As far as genetics goes, apparently you are the one that is confused. As I pointed out, the genetics of European Jews have changes from those who stayed in the Middle East because the two populations separated long enough ago for those to evolve. The same way that different populations of sapiens who left Africa have genetic changes not present in those that remained. It is just another indicator that the Europeans who claim the right to return to the Levant left it millennia ago. The genetics of Moroccan Jews probably have more in common with Ashkenazi Jews than any other Middle Eastern Group, which makes sense, since they would have accompanied the Berbers and North African Arabs to Spain, and lived there until they were expelled by the Christians in the late 1400’s, at which point, many were welcomed in Istanbul by Sultan Bayezid II.
We can certainly talk about the justification of returning land to indigenous people. It occurred to me when reading your assertion that “Jews are the only ones who aren’t allowed to have a homeland.” Kurds, Uyghurs, Rohingya, Haudenosaunee, and many others would all dispute that.
If we return to borders of 2,500 years ago in the Levant, however, I think we need to do it all over the world. To only give the right of return and reparations to one people would be discriminatory.
As far as your assertion that being Palestinian is a recent phenomenon, I refer you to Histories by Herodotus for one ancient source.
No matter what the people living there are called, and no matter what the intruders who assert they have a right to the land are called – taking land from those living on it and expelling or exiling them from it is an act of aggression. You can claim historical right, moral right, or any other rationalization, but the act is the act, and is unlawful.
No one cares about your irrelevant rants on about the Levant 2,500 years ago, or the Crusades, DNA streams, or whatever else tact you use to excuse what happened on October 7.
It was shear barbarity and is being dealt with.
Here’s a thought experiment for you, go to Israel, tell people you’re a homosexual, color you hair pink and green, wear scanty clothing and stand on a street corner with a sign ‘F**K Netanyahu and his policies”.
The following day do the same thing in Hamas controlled Gaza with a sign that says, “F**K Hamas and their policies”.
See what happens. My guess is that you never seen people shot, mutilated, or raped.
Just a guess…
“…but the act is the act, and is unlawful.”
You may disagree with the “act”, but by your own earlier account it was not unlawful. You may not like it, but it was lawful.
You know what’s unlawful?
Attacking a music festival with the intent to kill and rape as many people as possible, shooting fleeing civilians in the back as they run away, tossing grenades into shelters filled with men, women and children, gang raping women, using civilians as human shields, shooting a random young couple, throwing firebombs at innocents in Colorado.
These are acts of a death cult.
None of which you have condemned.
I disagree with Netanyahu’s methods, can you condemn Hamas?
Interesting reading, but there is a lot of revisionist history in here.
For instance, many people seem to think the founding of modern day Israel was based on WWII. It was not. The European Zionist party was active in Europe all during the 1800’s, with discussions surrounding a Jewish homeland. Mordecai Noah purchased much of Grand Island, NY in the 1830s and renamed it Ararat, but most of the Zionist party rejected a homeland anywhere other than the historical site in the Levant.
During WWI Britain, attempting to occupy the area, promised Arab leaders some of the land if they would join them in fighting the Ottomans. Letters of those exchanges remain archived in Great Britain. Simultaneously, they promised the same land to a young Jewish chemist in England if he would help them develop better explosives — the basis for the Balfour Declaration.
Word limits preclude discussion of the history between 1918 and 1947 so I’ll skip to the UN vote. Fifty member countries, the larger ones in control at the time all of which had colonies some of which were the smaller members, voted to take a piece of land, divide it in unequal pieces and distribute it as they saw fit. The very definition of colonialism.
A plan of partition was written, which clearly laid out the process (none of which included consulting the residents) of establishing 2 areas under the control of UN boards to monitor and assist in the establishment of governing bodies, movement of populations to the appropriate sides of the lines with recompense for their expulsions, instituting bilateral civil and military departments with policies/procedures/laws, etc.
The day before the British left and the plan was to initiate, paramilitary Zionist groups began a widespread attack, killing and expelling Palestinians — the Nakba. Arabs from surrounding states (most themselves only 2 years free of French or English troops) stepped in. When the dust settled, the Zionists had entrenched themselves on one side and the Arabs on the other. The UN appointed a mediator to try and reimplement negotiations over borders and legal issues, Folke Bernadotte. But he was assassinated by a Zionist paramilitary group.
In the end, after several failed attempts, the aforementioned 50 countries voted to admit Israel into the UN as a state contingent upon Israel agreeing to recognize and comply with UN Resolutions 181 and 194. The world is still waiting for that.
I assume there were numerous reasons for this outcome: scarce resources post WWII leading Europe/US to not want a huge influx of refugees, rampant anti-Semitism in Christian countries at the time, guilt over not doing more to prevent the Holocaust. That does not change the fact the Palestinian people were the sacrifice for the failings of others. None of it changes the fact that a colonial mindset enabled the decimation of an indigenous population in Palestine, as it has done in so many other places.
Agreed, a lot of revisionism.
Can you imagine there are folks who want to revise the definition of what a colony is?
A self governing state comprised of indigenous people is a colony? Where do people get such notions? TikTok perhaps?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colony
Can you imagine “advocates” saying absurd things such as the UN or Jews colonized Israel? Apparently these revisionist have little understanding of history or colonization. They remind me of MAGA revisionist with their alternative facts.
And then there’s denial that Jews are the far more ancient indigenous people to the land? Being a “Palestinian” is a recent phenomena comparatively speaking.
What shall we do with these confused folks?
Israel is a colony of the Jews? Too much TikTok not enough study.
There is no place in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, now or since 1948, that is self-governing. Since you appear not to know, Israel, the occupying power, collects taxes from residents of the West Bank and doles them back out to the local authorities after keeping a percentage for their administration. Israel retains and often uses the right to enter any place in the West Bank at any time and detain any resident, without charge, under “administrative detention.”
Residents of the West Bank are charged and tried by an Israeli military tribunal while Israeli citizens living in illegal settlements in the West Bank (over 500,000 of them at this time) are charged and tried in civil court. Israel builds and maintains separate facilities (roads, electricity, water lines) for the use of Israeli citizens, and has checkpoints throughout the West Bank, located conveniently so all towns can be individually shut down and isolated.
You might want to read the documents related to the case brought before the International Court of Justice case in 2020, and heard in February 2024, and the decision issued on July 19, 2025.
More than 50 countries presented, and it makes fascinating watching or reading. The final decision can be read in full, along with the numerous declarations, assents and dissents written by the individual judges. The 15 judges, all elected through the UNGA and the UNSC, represented Slovakia, France, Somalia, Uganda, India, Lebanon, Japan, Germany, Australia, Brazil, USA, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, and China.
As far as ancient history, the patriarch of Judaism, Abraham, would have left Mesopotamia maybe around 2000 BCE. The Levant has been continuously occupied since about 1 million BCE, where fossils from Homo erectus, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens can all be found. Whatever you call them, the Western Semites were various tribes, one of which called themselves Israel, which all occupied the Levant. Those small tribes were usually under the control of whatever empire was in ascendancy during the period of 3000 BCE to the current.
What you refer to as Israel only existed as a free entity, according to their myths and records, during the reigns of David and Solomon, a period of somewhere between 50 and 80 years. Archeology does not support all the claims made by texts written by the rulers of that ancient kingdom, just as it does not support all the claims made by texts written by rulers of other ancient kingdoms.
The actuality is always a bit different than emperors and kings like to claim in their efforts to portray themselves as victors.
This is who you’re defending,
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c1mz8gxzg82o
Unfortunately, since Israel did not fully cooperate with the UN investigation early on in the conflict, and does not allow outside investigators or journalists in, the UN report started in Jan 2024 and issued publicly in March 2024 was by its own admission incomplete. They were not given access to any of the survivors to interview, etc.
The report found sexual violence did indeed occur (as it pretty much occurs in all conflicts with men with guns) but could find no evidence that it was systematic or used as a weapon of war as part of a military strategy.
Now, more than a year later, Israel has managed to manufacture and create evidence it declares contrary to that finding — with no input from any objective party. Using for-profit-companies such as Palantir rather than investigators versed in international law, who have documented other 21st century genocides, is not at all what I would consider conclusive.
In fact, unless Israel allows second opinions from international or objective sources, I find it necessary to discount anything the government puts out at this point. Had we accepted the official Israeli stories of how & why the World Central Kitchen workers were killed or how & why the 15 Red Crescent medics were killed and all evidence buried, we would have accepted lies. This is no different.
The official UN Report can be accessed — a synopsis is here:
https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/israel-west-bank-mission/
You can also access the B’tselem Report, Welcome to Hell, completed by the Israeli humanitarian group, https://www.btselem.org/publications/202408_welcome_to_hell
This report documents some of the abuses and use of torture in Israeli prisons between Oct 7, 2023 and July 2024.
“This is who you’re defending”
And here is who YOU are defending, Gary:
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/08/israels-escalating-use-torture-against-palestinians-custody-preventable
AND:
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2024/8/13/israeli-protesters-rally-for-the-right-to-rape-prisoners
I have to laugh, you don’t see the difference?
Oh Jason,
It’s so easy to blame Israel. But let’s go through some history. Israel has fought a number of conflicts with various Arab forces, most notably in 1948–49, 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006, and 2023–present. Speaking of which, why aren’t people complaining about Egypt? Egypt closed its border with Gaza in 1978. Palestinians are allowed to work in Israel but not in Egypt. https://www.newarab.com/features/no-recognition-no-rights-palestinians-egypt Israel (under previous administrations) has always been willing to come to the table for peace. Palestinians generally have opposed or thrown up roadblocks. Don’t get me wrong. Israel is not without blame. Do I support the settlers in the West Bank? No.
What should Egypt do, then? Comply with Israel’s plan to push the entire population of Gaza over their borders? Aren’t WE the country that is the most paranoid about immigrants coming across OUR border?
I agree, Israel has never met a negotiating table it wasn’t happy to sit at for a publicity stunt. But if you have ever been acquainted with those parts of their “negotiations” that have become public, you will know that the most Israel has ever been willing to offer the Palestinians to settle this conflict are crumbs. You don’t have to offer more than that when you can snap your fingers and get a bunker buster dropped on the other team.
It is generous of you to acknowledged that Israel is not faultless. You may not “support” the colonizing of the West Bank, but then again, it is no skin off your nose if it happens. The people being squeezed out are the ones who cannot afford to wait for America’s heart to grow three sizes.
It is a fallacy to say Israel fought a number of conflicts. It is more accurate to say Israel with the military, financial and intelligence backing of the US, UK, France and Germany fought a number of conflicts. In none of those did Israel fight on its own.
The US began paying Egypt an annual fee in agreement for signing the treaty. Egypt’s treaty with Israel includes the stipulation that the Philadelphi Corridor be maintained on one side by Egypt and on the other by the Palestinian Authority. Whether it is Hamas or Israel controlling the opposite side, the border will likely not be reopened until that condition is re-established.
The US also pays Jordan and offered quite a lot to Saudi Arabia if they would normalize relations with Israel — including nuclear capability for “civilian” use.
The amount of money we pay to maintain and arm dictatorships and monarchies in the region, in addition to the Apartheid regime of Israel, is part of the reason we can’t have nice things — such as universal health care or government-subsidized low cost universities, such as Israel has.
Wow, no one thought of this before! Israel has allies defending its right to exist.
How did people keep this a secret for so long?
You better start letting others know there are countries out there willing to support a liberal democracy against religious autocratic theocracies that do funny things like make women wear modest clothing and throwing gays off rooftops.
(You sound like Trump…”Who knew”)
I support a Palestinian state. I support their cause. Netanyahu has not been the most cooperative partner in peace negotiations. Without getting into the politics of the current war, this is clearly a case of “who did it first”. I would hope we can all agree the October 7 massacre is something to be condemned. I would also hope we can all agree Israel’s response has been disproportionate and cruel. And we can all agree that it’s time to send the hostages home ( 50 people are still being held hostage)
What bothers me is the hidden message in much of the Palestinian propaganda. When I see “Free Palestine” it’s something I can support. The problem is that it’s generally followed by “From the River to the Sea”. The undertone of that statement is the elimination of Israel. And that I can not support.
We must condemn ALL the massacres across the entire range of the conflict, not simply start our history on 10/7/23. We must condemn Sabra and Shatilla, Cast Lead and Protective Edge, 10/7, suicide bombings during the Second Intifada, the Nakba, the Apartheid… we must condemn every act of violence committed in the name of hate, but remember that a deep injustice is at the core of this entire conflict.
And we must condemn the United States government, which has funded and encouraged this conflict. We are the secret villains behind much of this tragedy.
(“From the River to the Sea” was originally a Likud slogan. We cannot now condemn that chant from the Palestinians when the Israelis are no longer disguising their agenda to kill or dispossess every Palestinian in the name of Greater Israel.)
If one believes that the aim of Israel is to kill or dispossess every Palestinian they are confused, misinformed or siloed on TikTok. It doubtful Israel is intent on killing off a fifth of their own population and members of their own Knesset. It takes all of a few seconds to see through the absurdity of such an idea, for if that were true it would have been done long ago.
Remy, Well stated and agreed…except for one point, that being proportionality. According to the Hamas Charter it is clear the end game is the elimination of Israel. After centuries of brutal oppression, forced displacement, the Inquisition, and the Holocaust, when someone tells me their aim is my destruction, I take them seriously. In this case, after not only October 7, but generations of terrorism, bus bombings, rocket attacks, random killings, what is proportional?
It is interesting that you can so easily see the oppression over generations of the Jewish people (by Europeans, BTW, not Arabs), yet are completely immune to recognizing it when it is visited on the Palestinians.
I am curious if you ever passed a thought for their plight before 10/7. Most Americans seem to have fantasized that the problem had solved itself.
Jason, consider the fact that some are capable of seeing both the millennial long oppression of the Jews and the tragedy of the situation in Gaza. Yet they are not morally equivalent. The difference being the current situation in Gaza is of their own making. All the Palestinians need to do is return the hostages and turn over the criminal leaders of Hamas. The ball is in their court. You may question past tactics of Israel, but when one party openly declares its intent to exterminate another we should take that threat seriously. We can debate the ethical soundness of Israel’s response but one should recognize the instant causation of the situation.
Lastly, I am pleased you find me interesting, and I learned something today, I hadn’t heard before that Israeli’s committed suicide bombings during the second Intifada.
[Unfortuantely, the Beacon site is glitchy and sometimes does not create a “reply” button for a new posted comment, so I must reply to your latest comment by attaching it to an old comment].
…
“The difference being the current situation in Gaza is of their own making. All the Palestinians need to do is return the hostages and turn over the criminal leaders of Hamas. The ball is in their court.”
This goes right to my point: You don’t care at all, apparently, about what Israel has done to inspire events like 10/7. For you and people like you, history began on that date. Generations of Israeli violence against Palestinians, their status as occupied victims of an apartheid state, just doesn’t matter to you. You think it is Israel’s world and the Arabs are just dying in it.
All Israel has to do is end their genocide. If Israel had stuck to the ceasefire *they* signed on to earlier this year, all the hostages would now be home. Do you understand that? This time, ISRAEL broke the ceasefire. Every hostage was to have been freed right now, and the war would be over.
Instead, Israel has kept the war going, and launched NEW wars which have turned parts of their own country into pieces of Gaza. So really, the ball is in Israel’s court. But time and again, they choose hateful war.
Remy, unfortunately there are those who no matter how many facts you state they will rely on what they saw on TikTok. They don’t understand nuance, complexity, and obsess in whataboutisms as if every event has an equal counterbalance. They throw about terms such as genocide with no perception of world history, variations of degree, or intent. They argue something said a years ago in a different context excuses its use today. They argue that if you don’t agree with them 100% you must be a terrible person in favor of terrible things. They cannot comprehend that favoring a party does not mean you believe every action that party takes is acceptable. They tend to be siloed, confused, with limited understanding of the nature of such conflicts. They exhibit a lack of sophistication when they say all Israel has to do is end the genocide and the fighting will be over. Hamas and their ilk count on their naivety. They don’t understand when someone’s generational end game is the elimination of you and your family, you do what you must do to keep your family alive. They don’t understand why some say, “Never again”.
Many of the traits they exhibit we also see coming from MAGA. Two sides of the same coin. Myopic simpleness, self-righteousness and zealotry. We should always be cautious of these people no matter which side they come from.
After a while they become uninteresting.
Yet, there is hope, Sometimes they grow up when they have experienced life beyond TikTok.
Remy,
This is a good example of the nonsensical rhetoric you’re dealing with,
“It is interesting that you can so easily see the oppression over generations of the Jewish people (by Europeans, BTW, not Arabs), yet are completely immune to recognizing it when it is visited on the Palestinians.”
I am curious if you ever passed a thought for their plight before 10/7. Most Americans seem to have fantasized that the problem had solved itself.”
Trite self-righteousness is not an argument.
That anyone believes you or most Americans fantasize that the problems of the Middle East are solved exemplifies an unsophisticated approach to the argument. It make one wonder where they get their information. Did they get it from unbiased surveys showing Americans think the problems of the Middle East have been solved, or perhaps by influencers and bots on TokTok?
Remy, do you fantasize that the problems of the Middle East are solved? Are you immune from the suffering in Gaza? I won’t have guessed that from what you’ve written, but when you’re being judged by the self-righteous extremists all the possible.
“That anyone believes you or most Americans fantasize that the problems of the Middle East are solved exemplifies an unsophisticated approach to the argument. ”
No less a sage than Anthony Blinken declared “all quiet on the Western Front” regarding the Middle East mere days before 10/7/. Heck, Israel was so cocky that they left the Barn door to Gaza wide open!
(And oh yes… “Tik Tok”. Sigh. You guys really need to find new ways to identify yourselves as Old Men Yelling At Clouds. What is going to annoy you next… the Beatles’ haircuts?)
One thing that keeps getting lost in the wash is that folks like you support absolutely no positive agenda for the Palestinians. Sure, you were happy to see them living under occupation forever before 10/7, and you are happy enough with the Genocide going on right now… but you refuse to actually answer the question about what you would support as a fair settlement of the issue. All you want is for either the topic to leave the news entirely, or else to grudgingly allow Israel to push every last Palestinian off their land and into Egypt, Jordan or the sea.
Do you think the Palestinians don’t know that that is the fate that Israel and America always had in store for them? Of course they are waging war to prevent it.
K,
I could ask the same of you.
At the end of the article it is clear there are many variations. Moot point. It’s how it’s used today by extremists. And the Palestinian extremist use it to mean the replacement of Israel with an Islamic state. It matters little what you or I think, it’s the common understanding. Where is the statement that Israel wanted to “exterminate” the Palestinian people. Again, keep in mind there probably some extremists spouting that, but to say Israel wanted to, or wants to exterminate Palestinians is a stretch.
The term bothsideism is applied to media presenting both sides of a issue. That’s a good thing, otherwise you’d have people believing whatever was fed to them, that’s what algorithms on TikTok and social media do. They tell you what you want to hear. They do not challenge you to think critically.
If it were not for bothsideism no one would know anything about the suffering in Gaza. Wasn’t was the point about the “Zionist media”. That most were getting only one side of the story. I doubt we want that.
Please don’t confuse understanding both sides of an issue as meaning agreement with both or any side of an issue. Sometimes both sides are wrong, sometimes both sides have a point. One can read Mein Kampf to get an understanding of Nazism is not that same as justifying Nazism. It simply means understanding the perspective of both sides.
In this case both sides have blood on their hands. Degree and intent matter, whether one is greater than another may be subjective, yet there is no justification for the random slaughter of innocents on October 7 as is made in the whataboutism in the letter.
Whether Israel is committing a genocide is the subject of scholarly debate. The problem comes when someone says it’s a genocide and it simply does not meet the common and certain legal definitions.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/genocide
This is not to deny, and certainly not endorse, or justify the excesses if Israel.
This issue is far more complicated to flippantly believe one side is totally right while the other is totally wrong. That’s the stuff of Trumpian logic.
Jason, Jason,
The answer to your question is no. There is no reason to assume this if your argument has merit. I would suggest you want people to see both sides of this issue.
I am curious, what was the intent of your letter? To congratulate yourself, or to convince people to take action?
You may want to refrain from insulting readers of the Rochester Beacon. They tend to seek in-depth reasoned arguments. People here tend to get their news from sources such as NPR, PBS, the BBC and other objective media. Implying readers are dupes of the Zionist media is counterproductive. Admonishing someone as a willing idiot rarely wins anyone over.
If your intent was to bring light to the humanitarian crisis, try using sources such as Doctors without Borders, Project HOPE, or UN reports. Refer readers to their web-sites, not to TikTok.
Jason, whataboutism is a losing tactic. Both sides have blood on their hands, yet October 7 was especially evil. Nothing could justify it. Try and avoid positions of moral superiority, condensation is also a loser. Then there is this, questioning your position is not tantamount to supporting genocide. Many, including many Jewish-Americans, question and condemn the tactics of the Netanyahu government. It’s not that easy. It’s messy.
I might cringe at what Netanyahu is doing, but I’m fairly sure he isn’t Hitler, nor is this a “Holocaust”. The Holocaust was a unique industrialized slaughter of a race of people intended as a Final Solution. What is happening in Gaza may be awful, but it is not the Holocaust. Such a comparison does not make a point; it only makes one doubt what the writer knows of the Holocaust.
Suggestion, scrap that line of argument, stick to the facts, and make an ask. You left us with nothing. Tell the reader what they should do. Contribute to relief organizations? Email their elected representatives in Congress? Talk to friends about the situation and convince them? What?
Self-congratulatory letters are fun, but rarely productive. Listen to others, be humble, remind yourself that no one has a lock on the truth. No one.
Best wishes, and “Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster.” ~Friedrich Nietzsche
“You may want to refrain from insulting readers of the Rochester Beacon. They tend to seek in-depth reasoned arguments. People here tend to get their news from sources such as NPR, PBS, the BBC and other objective media. Implying readers are dupes of the Zionist media is counterproductive. Admonishing someone as a willing idiot rarely wins anyone over.”
The Beacon seems to know what their readers can handle, and I appreciate their allowing my letter to run. I am also glad for the dialogue it has inspired. (You should consider joining Speak Up for Palestine, Gary. You seem to have time to spare.)
“Jason, whataboutism is a losing tactic. Both sides have blood on their hands, yet October 7 was especially evil. Nothing could justify it.”
Well, if there were anything that COULD justify it, I would cite the Sabra and Shatila massacres (1300 to 3500 innocents killed by Israel), Operation Cast Lead (1400 civilians killed) Operation Protective Edge (1462 civilians killed) and the March of Return Massacres (223 unarmed civilians killed, thousands more shot and injured, many having their knees shot out. One Israeli soldier slightly wounded.)
Jason,
It isn’t a matter of whether RB readers can “handle” a story or letter. My guess is most are not offended by differing opinions. The point is you did yourself and your cause a disservice by insulting the reader. You wasted the opportunity RB gave you. Not everyone who is insulted is triggered into trauma.
Instead of painting the readers as dupes of the Zionist media and gullible willing fools of government fictitious justifications for war, imagine this opening,
“Speak Up for Palestine is a local organization addressing the concerns of the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. As readers of the RB understand, there are times when the scope of such crisis’s are hard to imagine. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish fact from fiction. We believe the crisis is far worse than some media sources are reporting. etc, etc.”
Then cite the sources I mentioned detailing what you argue is tantamount to genocide. Again, there was one Holocaust, avoid the mistake of calling it a Holocaust. Make a reasoned argument using credible sources that can be fact checked.
Then make an ask. Gloating gets you nothing, ask the reader to consider your opinion and if they agree act upon it in some way.
Time? As someone who was an executive director of the local chapter of a national civil liberties organization, and board member of a local social justice non-profit, I know how much time organizing takes. Between teaching, two volunteer gigs, and training Therapy Dogs to be used in hospitals I have just enough time to study, read, and write. I’m only able to do this as I don’t watch much TV and certainly don’t waste time on social media.
But thanks for the invite.
BTW, Are you comparing Israel’s actions with October 7? We could look at each one of your examples but that would take too much time. Suffice it to say intent and context matter. And for better or worse, proportionality has nothing to do with the morality, righteousness, or justification of an action.
Poke the tiger, expect to get eaten.
Jason, I’m curious. I’m curious as to the position of Speak Up, is Speak Up planning to address the recent attacks against Jews in the US, specifically the murder of the young couple and firebombing and incineration of Jews in Colorado? The incineration had particular relevance to the Holocaust, the burning of Jews. I’m wondering whether SU will remain silent. Will Speak Up speak up about the actions of these particular Free Palestine advocates?
Liberal Zionists (I’m not sure if you identify this way, but you certainly argue like one), are in my opinion far worse than right wing Zionists. They are more pious, more deluded, quick to tut-tut the enormities of Benjamin Netanyahu before letting him off the hook entirely, and always want to cloud any discussion of the brutalization of the Palestinians (in any era) with lamentations about how “complicated” the situation is.
There have always been people like this on the do-nothing side of any morally difficult conversation. They smoked their pipes and swirled their brandy while Indians were dispossessed of their land, while plantation owners beat their slaves… they shook their heads sadly during Jim Crow and Japanese internment and when America turned around refugee boats filled with Jews, and on and on. That they listen to NPR and classical music stations and subscribe to the Atlantic and shop at Whole Foods does not make them morally superior to any beer-belching redneck who says that “the only good Mooslim is a DEAD Mooslim.” Quite the contrary: those people are far more honest and in touch with their bigotry then the liberal is.
This is why a liberal Zionist can, for example, watch friendly Stephen Colbert basically demand proof from Zohran Mamdani that he won’t bomb a synagogue if he is elected mayor of New York and not see one thing wrong with it. (How could someone opposed to a genocide not be a secret terrorist?)
“Jason, I’m curious. I’m curious as to the position of Speak Up, is Speak Up planning to address the recent attacks against Jews in the US, specifically the murder of the young couple and firebombing and incineration of Jews in Colorado? The incineration had particular relevance to the Holocaust, the burning of Jews. I’m wondering whether SU will remain silent. Will Speak Up speak up about the actions of these particular Free Palestine advocates?”
The Sound of Silence
I don’t speak for Speak Up. You could always attend a meeting. (And there’s always a potluck!)
A Trumpian deflection.
Jason, nice try but you did speak when you submitted the letter. Let’s hear you condemn the ruthless murder of innocents. You like to condemn others, we want to read your condemnation of the Free Palestine advocates gunning down innocents and torching random Jews.
I’ll make it easy for you, all you need do is cut and paste,
“I wholeheartedly condemn the ruthless violence against innocent Jews here in the United States. It is abhorrent that Free Palestine advocates murder innocents when the perpetrators have no clue whether their victims support the actions of Prime Minister Netanyahu or find them repulsive and counterproductive. It saddens that Free Palestine adherents conduct themselves in this manner against innocent Jews.”
Neither Remy nor I have stated we fully support Netanyahu’s actions, although you seem stuck on that, can you do the same?
Like I said, you want to talk to Speak Up’s media contact about these sorts of things. You can reach out to them on Instagram.
As for “condemnations”, the more you give, the more you get. You can start by condemning the shooting galleries that are the food distribution point set up in Gaza where dozens of civillians are being murdered by the IDF everyday.
I absolutely recognize that the aid distribution is awful and Israel should allow some other party to conduct the distribution. yet, they are a shooting gallery because Hamas attacks them. That’s on Hamas, but that said Israel should turn it over. In the legal world responsibility is determined in the “but for” test. But for the actions of a party does a situation exist. But for the actions of Hamas would Israel need to be so strict at these stations? No. It’s on Hamas.
Comparing self-defense to randomly fire-bombing innocents in Colorado is a false comparison. Context matters.
Again, you sound like Trump when he’s asked a question and says go ask someone else.
We don’t care what SU has to say, what do you say? Do you condemn the actions of domestic Free Palestine terrorist?
Are you afraid that you might not pass some group purity test?
Will the zealots become suspicious of you and not let you play in their reindeer games?
Or do you tacitly approve of torching innocent people? By the way another victim of the firebombing died today.
Oh…I’m disappointed you stooped to ageism in one of your comments. Ad hominem slights’ only diminish your argument. Something we learn with maturity and experience.
So to be clear, Hamas is responsible for this?
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c62884y1pl5o
And this?
https://truthout.org/articles/israeli-forces-liken-gaza-aid-site-shootings-to-game-of-red-light-green-light/
And this?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-idf-palestinian-prisoner-alleged-rape-sde-teinman-abuse-protest/
Every day brings reports of new and unambiguous Israeli war crimes– crimes so foul they all but justify the terrorism that instigated this current conflict, as they reveal exactly how revolting the far-right government of Israel is and always has been. But even worse, I think, are the Americans who apologize for them.
Who was responsible for the destruction of Germany in World War II?
It was Hitler and his henchmen.
Or of Japan?
It was Tojo and his henchmen.
And of the situation in Gaza?
It’s Hamas.
You seem to be confused about the nature of responsibility.
Your silence on the domestic terrorism by Free Palestine advocates is telling.
Your continued silence deflecting in saying it’s up to the communications people at SU is telling. SU did not write this letter, you did. SU did not submit this letter, you did. You are responsible for not condemning lighting innocent people on fire.
And “to be clear”, I’m certainly not apologizing for Israel’s actions. The use of that term is nonsensical, a party can not apologize for the actions of another. It’s illogical. I’m guessing those who use such terms, and don’t recognize who is responsible haven’t much academic or experiential background in logic.
You may want to point this out to the gruppenfueher.
You should be angry that they have used illogical language to confuse the inexperienced and naive. Although at times they don’t know better themselves and have just gone along with the political silo they find themselves in.
Question the group narrative you find yourself in. Don’t believe anything you see on social media. Keep at it, you’ll understand more as you gain life experience. Some learn, some don’t, I wish you the best in your journey.
[Apologies regarding continuity. Again, because of the Beacon’s phantom “reply” button, I can’t reply directly to your most recent responses of July 2/3, but only to the preceding comment.]
I am struggling at this point to figure out why you have chosen the side you are on. Unlike me, you don’t actually appear to have a “group”, just an overweening love of Israel nurtured in isolation and fed by MSM which, I can only imagine, emerges from a place of post-Holocaust sympathy (as this often is the case for Israel apologists). I cannot imagine any other perspective that would allow you to so easily forgive either Israel’s unambiguous apartheid or their pitiless mass murders.
However, what you lack is any belief in peace, or a desire to see an end to this violence. That would require you to have some historical perspective regarding Israel’s crimes in order to balance them against Palestine’s reactions. You can’t do this because you believe that Israelis are angels, despite them having elected the most belligerent, right-wing government in their history, far more racist and religiously extreme than even Hamas.
Also, your concern about our domestic violence belies your purported respect for “logic”. Stochastic terrorism is nearly an everyday occurrence in our failing nation, and has been for a generation. These acts of violence typically spawn one or two copycats in the following month before losing steam, which is why your paranoia over the attacks by allegedly “pro-Palestine” lone wolf lunatics has already aged like milk. Since those incidents we have had two MAGA terrorist attacks one after the other (the Colorado incident and the firefighters ambushed in Idaho), but you don’t hear me asking you to “denounce” those, do you? That is because I have seen these murder cycles come and go so often that they roll off my back, as they do for most Americans.
If you would like to refer readers to what Doctors Without Borders has to say on the campaign in Gaza, below is their statement on December 19, 2024
“What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” Lockyear said. “While we don’t have legal authority to establish intentionality, the signs of ethnic cleansing and the ongoing devastation—including mass killings, severe physical and mental health injuries, forced displacement, and impossible conditions of life for Palestinians under siege and bombardment—are undeniable.”
Thank you for providing this information, Kathi. It is also important to recognize that America is no less guilty in this matter, as we have encouraged and funded this war across multiple administrations. I hope you will not let our local Zionist congressman Joe Morelle evade blame for his support for the Genocide.
Thank you I have read this. Let’s be clear, we may find the Israeli response unacceptable, but genocide or ethnic cleansing? Irrational hyperbole. And let’s not forget the responsibility for this lies with Hamas and it’s supporters, be they outspoken or tacit.
If you hunt a tiger don’t be shocked when it attacks.
I am perplexed how anyone is okay with genocide and intentional (undebatable characterizations) starvation. There is a plethora of disturbing reports by international doctors of children targeted with precision in their heads and hearts by Occupation snipers.
I’m afraid we’ve lost our humanity when the comments on this story started with “but TikTok” and claiming we are uneducated. The commenter is advised to research the etiology of the phrase “from the river to the sea”
The bullies hurl accusations of “antisemitism” – which is damaging to Jews and cases of actual antisemitism. It waters down and weaponizes a very real phenomenon on the rise. The US and Isræli govts’ actions have irreparably damaging consequences for Palestinians, Jews, and most people across the globe.
How will history view you? Remember the ancestors are watching. And YOUR ancestors are watching.
A useful and coherent take.
I understand you might be perplexed.
Let me help you out. Because someone can see both sides of an argument does not translate into being “okay” with what is happening in Gaza. That’s rhetorical nonsense. Or that everyone not “in the streets” is a “bully(ies)”. That’s the stuff of Trumpian argumentation. It reeks of the purity test rampant on both the extreme right and the extreme left.
“A plague on both your houses.” ~Mercutio. Romeo and Juliet.
No one said anyone is “uneducated’. It was the author who bragged about tall and long haired Dan getting a transformational revelation from TikTok. That was from the opinion letter author. Those were his words. Paul received his revelation from Jesus on the road to Damascus, Dan received his revelation from TikTok as “…he drives around town or leads a protest caravan on the highway.
The author later promotes the same idea that social media is credible when he talks about Muna and implies there are two sources of information, the Zionist propaganda machine and social media. Nonsense.
K, Think of all the people who were educated on TikTok, social media and the internet about the Deep State from QAnon. Muna is no different from QAnon.
The moral arrogance of the argument that, “YOUR ancestors are watching” is akin to a Trumpian rant. Aside from the fact that unless my ancestors have time travelled to today I doubt they are watching me. I don’t believe in the hocus pocus of ancestors sitting in heaven or hell judging me. Superstitions are just that, nothing more.
But…if my ancestors were time travellers, I doubt they would be comfortable with the position of Palestinians regarding Queer, Trans and Gay people, Jews, apostates, and infidels. Palestinians elected Hamas, Hamas promotes the killing of Queers, Trans, gays, and Jews. I hope my ancestors aren’t wishing I’d be killing anyone much less any of these people.
I’m sure your ancestors were all pure of heart, morally superior, strong, above average and good looking. I doubt mine were, so there’s that.
Perhaps you are perplexed because you are stuck in a world view believing your point of view is morally superior. The same argument we hear from “Right-to Lifers”. Moral superiority dictates there must be something immoral about those not perfectly aligned with the cause. We see the same coming from Donald Trump supporters.
BTW, Yes, we know the meaning of from the river to the sea. Here, this is for you, let me know where it’s wrong.
Again, the smugness and arrogance of believing you and only you have a lock on the truth. Again, no different than MAGA.
It’s interesting how much the author and Kim share with Trumpian logic. Wonder how that happens? Two sides of the same coin, and neither thinks they are anything like the other and yet their logic mirrors the other.
I’m hoping it un-perplexes you.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_river_to_the_sea#:~:text=%22From%20the%20river%20to%20the,Mediterranean%20Sea%20%E2%80%93%20an%20area%20historically
Did you actually read the Wikipedia article, or did you skim the first couple lines. Your homework is to go back and actually read the summary and source documents of its historical origins. Originally used by Zionists laying claim to the entire region with the plan of extermination of all the indigenous Palestinians. When that failed, they laid out the plan for Greater Israel.
I’ll also challenge your commitment to bothsidesism (aka False Balance). Please lay out both sides of Milosevic’s war crimes in Serbia, both sides of the Second Sudanese Civil War (surely the Janjaweed must have their side presented), and I’d like to hear your bothsidesism about Hitler and Nazism. Ready, set, go!
I admire your commitment to denying a genocide. You’re #1 !
Interesting that you editorialize information seen (ie. Video footage of live-streamed war crimes on Tik-Tok) to “bragging.” Your twisting of words follows the prescribed method of dehumanization, discrediting the truth of what was witnessed on video – in support of the non-existent or Israel centered biased news reporting that has been practiced since day one of this 600 day holocaust (as if the traditional news has presented the facts.) Your position also suggests that the problem here is whether or not the average Rochestarian is concerned with the tactics of the Israeli military.
The problem is the genocide being perpetrated.
The problem is the idea that the evidence that culminated in the charge of genocide could be deemed “subjective.”
The problem is the US funding and delivery of the bombs, tech and political cover required to conduct this genocide is institutionalized, even right here in Rochester.
Never said you “received your marching orders from TikTok”.
You did brag about a member, who you agreed with as receiving their primary source of reliable information from TikTok.
Your words, not mine, “Dan, tall and long-haired, has been with Speak Up for a year now. He was motivated to join the cause when he noticed the disparity between how major media was covering Gaza and what he was seeing on TikTok.”
It was you who bragged about Dan, a tall and long haired, (as if this was a romance novel), was enlightened by TikTok.
Your quotation speaks volumes.
Kim,
The author’s quote, “Dan, tall and long-haired, has been with Speak Up for a year now. He was motivated to join the cause when he noticed the disparity between how major media was covering Gaza and what he was seeing on TikTok.”
His words.
The author then goes on how this enlightenment was a revelation to Dan. Dan got his education on TikTok and so should you!
The idea that you and your group are the only ones concerned about the conflict is arrogant at best and ignorant at worst.
Usage of the term Holocaust and genocide is simply evidence of ignorance of what the Holocaust was.
Yes, Israel has a right as do you, to defend itself from those who preach about its elimination, from the river to the sea.
Yes, people do care about Israel’s tactics, the idea that you alone are concerned about that is simply nonsense.
That Palestinians are the only indigenous people in the Levant and Jews are not is simply incorrect.
Lest you forget there was peace on October 6, before innocent women and children were raped and murdered simply because of their ethnicity.
Regarding Adam’s claim the Israeli’s have done worse than the Palestinians did on October 7 . Really? Please cite the times Israel did “bigger” than randomly slaughtered people attending a music festival, threw grenades in rooms full of Jews, entered homes and simply gunned down everyone, or raped women with the barrel of an AK47 before discharging a bullet into them. Israel and some Israeli’s have done some questionable things, but the comparison to October 7 is absurd.
Your assumption that no one in Rochester cares about Israel’s tactics is also absurd. What data do you base that on? What surveys? Just how many people outside your orbit have you queried or interviewed that lead you to conclusion you were right and everyone else wrong?
It’s not surprising the source of the news for the group is TikTok.
I’m happy you found it interesting.
Then again I’m not sure its a compliment from those who find TikTok a reliable source of information. We usually hear that from the MAGA crowd.
The problem is people who can’t see both sides of a conflict.
The problem is people assuming no cares about the issue they are fixated on.
The problem is people believing what they see on TikTok as indisputable proof of anything.
These are the same characteristics of QAnon and MAGA.
Two sides of the same coin.
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-a-superiority-complex
Isn’t a demand that people “see both sides of a conflict” in this context just an appeal to ambivalence and fence-sitting, which always redounds to the benefit of the powerful or the aggressor?
Interesting that the writer brags about the group getting information on TikTok.
That may explain the subjectivity of the group that believes Rochestarians aren’t concerned about Israeli tactics, or that there is a problem with “from the river to the sea.”
I am the author. I didn’t “brag” about Speak Up receiving their marching orders from TikTok. I mentioned that one man found TikTok to be more honest than mainstream news sources.