Scapegoats

[eumelia]

I had lots of links open up to share with you but in the end figured they weren't actually all that interesting (except for me).

Tense times friends, tense times.
Not that there are any other kinds of times, but the pressure and tension I'm feeling around because of the up coming elections are not kind.

I envy you actual democracies.
You know for how long your heads of government are in for and you know when they're going to be replaced.
*sigh*

So... today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day and Antisemitism raises it's multi-faceted head.
Summit on Holocaust: Gaza war legitimized equating Jews with Nazis
Yeah...

The problem comes from two places I think;
First, that much of Anti-Zionist critique is brought upon by an Antisemitic agenda cannot be denied. It is unfortunate because it disables pretty much any kind of discourse that comes to criticize Israel and the policies it enacts.
And second, that Israel itself (and other Diaspora/Non-Israeli Jewish leaders and groups) encourages this conflation. Israel is the homeland of all Jews wherever they are. An attack on Israel is an attack on Body Judaic - to borrow a phrase.
The fact that an Israel under attack is an attack on certain Jewish people is important, it's also important to acknowledge that 20% of the citizens in Israel are non-Jewish.

The connection between Israel and Antisemitism can't nor should it be denied.

I think a narrative of paranoia fuels the fire of perceived (and not so perceived) persecution even more in Israel - not to mention the disproportional coverage that the Occupation and the Conflict get in the News compared to other humanitarian disasters elsewhere in the world - though the disproportional aid that Israel receives from the Uncle Sam may also be a factor.
Just sayin'.

Fact is.
Israel is used as a Scapegoat by much of the world so that Their problems don't need to be dealt with, or at least denied.
Fact is.
Israel does a whole lot of Scapegoating itself by telling itself stories of persecution, victimisation and "lack of choices" and then bombs the hell out of a population that is effectively in a cage.

Antisemitism is an Issue.
The fact that the categories of Jew and Zionist are conflated both in Right and Left wing discourse is disturbing.
The fact that Anti-Zionist graffiti is sprayed on Synagogue walls, that Jewish businesses are burned down through cases of arson and that Jews and Israelis are harassed, simply because they are Jewish and/or Israeli, due to enactment of policies and acts of military aggression they very likely have little to do with, is a problem.

But fuck it right?