You know what they say about opinions...

My thoughts on Gazrael

Picture of tardigrade by Eye of Science/Science Photo Library

Hi friends,

I’m recovering from the flu after getting Covid and am so loopy with asthma meds, I can’t tell what is flu or COVID fatigue or just drugs.

Also, my stomach hurts, and I can’t tell if it’s more flu stuff or because Israel is bombing the last safe place for Gazan children.

Yesterday, my heart was breaking for Gaza, so I sent out a call for pictures of things that made you smile, and you answered the call! My heart was smiling from aorta to aorta. Thank you!!!!

Reader, I am not the kind of person that internet fights. Although I have received my fair share of hate from articles like this and this and this, and I have received it from the right and the left. (I like to consider myself an equal opportunity receiver, although getting it from the left feels like getting slapped by family).

This is to say that I just got into my third Internet fight this week. I even got into an argument with some guy who goes by the name Tesla Marine. 

Why, Reader, why? Is this periomenopause? Have I officially run out of fucks to give?

Or is it, I don’t know, maybe because Israel is bombing a tent city full of refugees? Or because grown-ass men were beating college kids in a peaceful encampment at UCLA, and it took the police two fucking hours to stop them? Or because all the major newspapers I consume seem to be condemning protestors and not the ones instigating most of the violence?

Let me preface by saying what Hamas did in Israel on October 7, 2023, is absolutely horrendously horrifying, and there is NO JUSTIFICATION for that.

But conflating the condemnation of genocide with antisemitism or pro-terrorism is a false equivalence. The “if you support innocent life in Gaza, then you’re pro-terrorist” or “if you’re Jewish, you’re a Zionist” doesn’t hold water. That argument is leakier than a cloth diaper.

If we are to “dismantle the master’s house,” then such binaryism (I just made that term up, don’t quote me) is the imperialist tool that has got to go. 

Second, justifying the murder and starvation of innocent people because of what Hamas did is like justifying child hunger because Mom committed a crime and is in prison.

People will say, well, what would you have Israel do?

Well, for starters, maybe Israel shouldn’t forcibly starve a country of 2.1 million and refuse them life-saving care by blowing up their hospitals and halting the introduction of medical supplies.

What would you have Israel do?

• Maybe not cut down the olive trees in Gaza and obstruct humanitarian aid. 

• Maybe not shutter the Israel-based Al Jazeera network because you don’t like the way they’re covering your war. 

• Maybe not shoot children as they go to food lines to get bread for their families. 

Yes, Israel needs to defend itself, but there are rules, even in war. There are things Israel should not do that they have done, including consider a full-scale assault on a tent city full of refugees, the last “safe place” in Gaza, and the U.S. is finally—finally! drawing a line in the sand by pausing a shipment of bombs to Israel.

Third: Saying college kids don’t know what they’re protesting because they choose not to speak to a reporter is like getting mad at a teacher for passing the mic off to the union rep at a rally.

Fourth: People mocking the student protestors can say what they want. They don’t care what they think. They don’t care what anyone thinks about them because THEY KNOW THIS IS NOT ABOUT THEM. Maybe critics would be so narcissistic as to be dissuaded by petty, vapid personal attacks, but the protestors know in their hearts what they are fighting for, and it ain’t their privilege. Critics of student protestors, stop projecting your narcissism onto others. 

Persecuted people understand what it’s like to be persecuted. That’s why historically marginalized groups - LGBTQ, BIPOC, neurodivergents, and yes, Jewish people - are sticking up for the plight of Gazans. They know what it’s like to be oppressed. 

But I know that’s not you, Reader, because you are compassionate and caring. Like Pema Chodron, you begin with a broken heart, for that is the only way to heal the world.

There’s my unsolicited opinion no one asked for. Now, please continue being awesome today and send me those pictures of things that make you smile.

Love you!

Summer

P.S. For more excellent reading, I suggest the following:

“Yes, But What Do the Half-Baked Think?” by Shalom Auslander

Opposing the War Machine is Cool Again, and the Empire’s Getting Nervous by Caitlyn Johnstone

The Destruction Of Gaza SHOULD Be Radicalizing People by Caitlyn Johnstone

“Hind’s Hall” by Macklemore