Pound of Flesh: Shaiel Ben-Ephraim The “pound of flesh” concept is one begun or popularized by the eminent Einat Wilf, which holds that no matter how much Jews cater to antisemites – agreeing with their points, disavowing other Jews –…

"Many Jews have direct experience with this pound-of-fleshing....[they] have had to constantly encounter the ignorant or malicious views of the majority and evaluate how they want to internalize, ignore, or confront those views."

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Look or Act Jewish? Expect Harassment, Naturally Omar, with an upside-down red triangle next to his name and a masked keffiyeh-wearer as an icon, is so proud of this tweet that he pinned it.

"To sum up: if you look Jewish, expect to be inquisitioned by any upright moral citizen at any time unless you wear the loyalty garb. If you don’t look Jewish, feel free to hide and hope not to be found out."

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Musings: If Jews Vowed Revenge Every Time We Were Persecuted, Where Would We Be? In some ways, Jews have a special perspective on Palestinian anti-Zionist ideology, and not because it’s targeting us.

"These sorts of scoffs don’t come from a place of power. They come from a 2000-year legacy of persecution. A very lengthy school of hard knocks.

From this perspective, the Palestinian strategies and concerns seem odd, quaint, or downright stupid."

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Video Edition: Two Ladies Saying Jews Did 9/11, Part 2 We’re back with another white-shirt-wearing, Jews-did-9/11 Tiktok conspiracy theorist.

"'That’s me, Huda! You’re probably wondering how I got into this situation. Namely, claiming that Israel, which didn’t exist until 1948, started the two world wars. What could I have meant?'"

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Video Edition: Two Ladies Saying Jews Did 9/11, Part 1 Ah, the Tiktok Professor.

"Ah, the Tiktok Professor....One person talking very authoritatively, very Assured in their Speech....it’s certainly a format that can lull one into a false sense of security, that surely because they are speaking so firmly, they must be knowledgeable."

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Musings: How Easy It Is To Be Pro-Life How many people do you think are both pro-life and pro-Palestinian?

"How many people do you think are both pro-life and pro-Palestinian?

I would posit very little overlap. But these ideologies have something crucial in common: the perfect victim."

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Our Utopia Without Jews (Er, Israel) Is Just Around The Corner Let's Make JFK A Live Again

"But since he used 'Israel' instead of 'the Jews,' guess that’s fair game. Jeez, can’t we criticize Israel without being accused of antisemitism??"

Not Twitter This Time! A Dispatch from the NYT Looking Glass It's really subtle, you see - oh, look, Jihad.

"Don’t let odd omissions or slants wash over you unnoticed. Otherwise you might read the opening paragraphs of this NYT article and not realize how much they are normalwashing this insanity."

Musings: Yes, Netanyahu Sucks. No, the War Wouldn’t Have Been That Different with Someone Else in Charge A common compromise of not-anti-Zionists-but-critical-of-Israel folks is to shift all of their outrage and condemnations from Israel as a state to Netanyahu.

"It’s like hating on Kevin Spacey for his movies. Like, he’s done a lot worse, my guy, and if you knew that you’d hate him even more. But right now, it’s kind of weird that you rail on him just for this."

Why Cheer Prolonging a “Genocide”? It's almost as if....

"Could it be possible that the people claiming genocide are using the term cynically and self-servingly to hide the fact that they are simply losing a war? And hiding that fact not just from the world, but from themselves?"

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Depressed? Please Don't Take It Out On Israel Ever wonder about the correlation between your sense of self and your politics?

"Maybe if you don’t believe you have a right to exist, you wouldn’t support a nation’s right to exist either.

Conversely, if you have a well of self-worth...you might support nations when they defend themselves as well."

Musings: You Should Care More About Gazans Than Gaza "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I'm willing to make, so that I can feel good about myself."

"You can, for sure, force them to stay in a warzone against their will for your esoteric ideals. But I think saving lives just barely edges out as the right thing to do."

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An Extreme Case of “Everything I Learned Was A Lie”-itis Let’s raise a glass to nuance.

"Nuance, which would say that some things you learned as a child were right, some things you learned as an adult are wrong, and there’s lots more to learn that can add complexity to most narratives, has no place in this mindset."

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Hurr Durr Jews White Gazans Brown And white bad brown good, of course.

"Another day at the Factoid Call Center, another day responding to hundreds of the same customer complaints.

Let’s see, hrrrrrm.

Are all Israelis white? No.

Are most Israelis white? No."

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Musings: Despair About The World Weakens Your Immunity To Antisemitism There’s something I’ve noticed about anti-Zionism: its frequent comorbidity with general pessimism.

"The plight of the Palestinians is the perfect thing to obsess about if you want to feel the worst about the world....

But can I let anti-Zionists in on a little secret?

Zionism feels *great*"

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Cultures Have Layers: Iran Edition We sure love our political language steeped in religion, don't we.

"I’m not saying that anyone who has an opinion on Israel must understand Judaism or Islam as well as their adherents – but we should be aware that describing this conflict in only secular terms misses a huge part of the picture."

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The Radical Nature of Distraction Maybe it’s the crotchety uncool soul in me, but there are some words I don’t get and don’t like.

"Powerful algorithms are working to keep you glued to your screens...So, if we agree that (sigh) “radical” means being counterculture, and (sigh) therefore the cool thing to do, then the radical thing is actually to be distracted."

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Anti-Zionist Trans People, Why? Anti-Trans Zionists, Why? I used to not be politically homeless.

"I urge such adherents to stop and think about how opposing one side undercuts your own. Because trans rights and Zionism have a lot in common."

Faux Sympathy for the Jewish Race Oh, you're a fan of Jews without Israel? Name five massacres perpetrated against them.

"Here’s the framing that puts all these pieces together. The mindset that makes these claims coherent.

Life isn’t important. Virtue is.

Virtue is determined by how oppressed you are. The more one is oppressed, the more is he to be praised."

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The Swiss Cheese Holes in the Anti-Zionist “Finders Keepers” Logic A reminder to check how many edges your sword has.

"The real juicy part of Saad’s argument is a concept so theoretically bankrupt on its face that I wonder why anti-Zionists so often adhere to it: that those who have lived somewhere 'for centuries upon centuries' are the only legitimate stewards of that land."

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Musings: 1000 x 0 is 0 When I was in high school, I participated in my synagogue’s “confirmation” class.

"They could show you 10, 100, 1000 examples...since they are all bunk, the quantity doesn’t matter.

As it turns out, I met no Jews for Jesus contingent...but what this woman taught us is now insanely relevant when it comes to Zionism."

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Your Zionist Uncle Will Literally Kill Palestinians Tomorrow And what pro-Pals consider true harm.

"Hamas simps like cometflesh do not think the way we do. They see the greatest Palestinian harm as loss of land – more than injury or death. Israel existing is what inflicts harm on them, and any effort that contributes to Israeli existence is seen as harm."

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How Hatred of Israel Perverts Basic Empathy Liat Kaplan seems to be real (24K followers, upside-down red triangle in bio), and unlike many of these lowercase Hamas simps, has had actual experience riding the roller coaster of online social…

"'Anti-Zionism' does this so often to people. How many otherwise thoughtful, caring, morally sound people do you know who have all too easily devolved into rabid, hypocritical bigots?"

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Musings: Indigeneity is not what you think - nor should it be One of the be-all-end-all arguments for anti-Zionism is that Jews are not indigenous to the land, and Palestinians are.

"One of the be-all-end-all arguments for anti-Zionism is that Jews are not indigenous to the land, and Palestinians are.

We can be quick to point out that this is simply wrong, but beyond that, I’d like to pause on the concept of indigeneity. What is it, exactly?"

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This Time On "I Actually Agree With You": Why Can’t They Leave? An elephant in a very small room.

"So why are we, the world, allowing this? Why are we touting the “they have nowhere else to go” myth? Why are we participating in this farce where the aid must go in but civilians can’t go out?"

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Your Favorite Palestinian is Antisemitic Part 1/?? It can't be!

"You can always find a 'crime' to attack a group you hate. This crime - or libel - doesn’t cause the hate. The hate invents the crime."

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Musings: Mouthy Woman, Uppity Black Person, Zionist Jew Progressives know that there are so-called moderate, independent thinkers who can disparage and denigrate marginalized groups while still claiming they are “not racist” and “support women.”

"The mindset goes like this: We have nothing against the marginalized group in principle. In fact, we have friends and relatives who identify with this group!

But there are some members of that group…well, they go too far."

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A “Shelter Envy” Roundup During the Israel-Iran strike exchange, a fascinating subgenre of reaction emerged that I dub “shelter envy.”

"We could also call it 'democracy envy' or 'competence envy,' for it’s essentially jealousy for a government that cares about its people, mixed in this case with the cognitive dissonance that the country you are envious of is also one you hate."

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Horseshoe Theory: Banks and Taxes Edition Oh, but a *total* coincidence we're associating these with Jews....

"Wow, how disingenuous of Red Pill Media to claim something so false!

Anyway, let’s take a trip over to the other side of the political spectrum (not a long trip at all due to horseshoe theory)"....

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Musings: Making Israel the Single-Issue Progressive Agenda is Destroying All Other Movements I remember the first time I saw a “Queers for Palestine” demonstration.

"Doesn’t it seem pitiful and disturbing to see activists degrade their own experiences and center their whole lives around Gaza? That’s not what solidarity is. Anti-Zionism demands full attention – “all eyes on.” It only takes, never gives."

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