“You Really Are up Your Own Arse Aren’t You?”
Said a rude Medium author who has written no essays but responds about a complex, difficult geopolitical situation with false, uncorroborated statements.
Is it necessary to insult other authors, Mr. Freeman? And do you have any evidence for any of your attacks? Your response is not visible on my page because I block and delete all obnoxious name-calling, and any political writing that isn’t backed by facts. *You might note that I provide links to established research centers, with only one link to a newspaper.
Quote from Mr. Freeman in response to my essay on The Iconic Rebranding of Words: Genocide, Occupation, and Apartheid:
“You really are up your own arse (sic) aren’t you? The ethnic cleansing of Palestine has been going on for a Hundred years, It started under the British occupation in the 1920’s and accelerated after 1948. It was happening all summer during 2023 with attacks on Palestinian villages throughout the west bank. Israel had plenty of warning about the Oct 7 attacks and let it happen anyway as an excuse to murder as many Palestinians in Gaza as possible. Israel is loosing (sic) the public relations war despite media censorship of it’s worst atrocities. It is seen to be the monster it is.”
Let’s unpack some of your comments, Mr. Freeman, and imagine why they sound straight out of Iran’s “How to spread hatred of Israel” and “money/sympathy for jihad” playbook.
1. “The ethnic cleansing of Palestine has been going on for a Hundred years, It started under the British occupation in the 1920’s and accelerated after 1948.”
ANSWER: There were Muslims, Druze, Beduins, Christians, Jews and other peoples living on that land (called Palestine by the British). It had been ruled for centuries by the Ottoman Empire (and except during times when they were exiled, by Jews). The British, during their mandate, ruled over everyone. Arab factions were already attacking Jewish communities (you can read about it), and Jewish factions fought back and against the British. The British might have been terrible, but there is no historical evidence that there was ethnic cleansing. Words matter, Mr. Freeman.
2. “It was happening all summer during 2023 with attacks on Palestinian villages throughout the west bank.”
ANSWER: I am dismayed and disappointed at anyone who takes the law into his own hands and causes harm to others, including those you call “West Bank Settlers.” I think those people should be prosecuted under the law (there are laws against murder in Israel) because there is no justification for those attacks. Israel has a right, like any country, to respond to rocket fire, stone throwing at drivers, and homicide bombers who cross in and randomly kill civilians. Every single instance of Israel attacking was a response to terror of some kind. It’s sad that Palestinians have refused so many offers of peace and statehood, including 95% or the West Bank, all of Gaza, and East Jerusalem as capital. We might have had peace. (P.S. Hamas does not consider Jews to be human, so Sharia laws against murder do not necessarily apply).
3. Israel had plenty of warning about the Oct 7 attacks and let it happen anyway as an excuse to murder as many Palestinians in Gaza as possible.
ANSWER: The world now knows that there was some intelligence about a build-up of Hamas, and leadership refused to believe that Hamas was able to perform such an extreme operation. Shame on those who didn’t listen (just between you and me, I’m also appalled because those who shared the intelligence were women). But you are out of your mind to think that Israel wanted 1200 innocent civilians murdered, babies beheaded, women raped, families burned alive, or 240 hostages of all ages kidnapped. In Judaism, we raise our children to value their lives and the lives of others — we don’t teach them hatred, as do Islamic extremists like Hamas. We’re forbidden to rejoice at the death of others. We had to grapple with that question in light of the Holocaust, and now we are grappling with it again. Most people are horrified at the violence and barbaric murders of October 7th and we should also be horrified that so many innocent Gazans are suffering. Perhaps you might want to consider how easy it would have been for Hamas to return the hostages and stop sending rockets into Israel. That could have led to a longstanding ceasefire. Hamas also has a network of tunnels and vast resources underground — food, water, fuel. If only they wanted to help their people. (source: NYT, but just about every newspaper has an article about this)
4. “Israel is loosing the public relations war despite media censorship of it’s worst atrocities. It is seen to be the monster it is.”
ANSWER: You might be correct about Israel losing the Public Relations war, Mr. Freeman, but that could be partially because Hamas and Islamic terrorist around the globe are backed with billions of dollars from some of the world’s least likeable, least democratic, most violent countries. For many years, those countries (I’ll leave it to you to guess, although you might be a bot, or you could be receiving a salary to propagate the hate as you tried to do here) have given billions to American universities that include departments in which the story of Palestinian suffering is about blaming Israel for all wrongs.
It’s sad and disheartening to see people cheering for a terror organization (see previously mentioned antisemitic PR campaign), but antisemitism is centuries old, and few of us are surprised that it is going through another resurgence.
The hatred never ends with Jews though, does it. Those who are calling for the destruction of Israel and death to Jews will certainly turn their attention to everyone else that gets on their nerves. It’s happened many times in history. I wonder who’s next?
