Being a Jewish person on the Left who is also part of a traditional Jewish community this week reminds me of much of my life as an #ActuallyAutistic person.
I’m trying to make myself clear, that I value all life. All lives are divine and valuable. It doesn’t excuse people for their violent behavior. It doesn’t excuse us to wish the other to be obliterated.
I’m screaming. Begging. Pleading. Crying.
From my comrades on the Left I beg you to see that Jewish people are being attacked all over the world now. We are scared to go outside. Not only in Israel. See our humanity.
From my Jewish brothers & sisters I beg that we can see the humanity of the Palestinian people and the desires of so many around the world for their wellbeing and freedom from oppression.
No one hears. No one wants to listen. Me and others like me are doubted. Gaslit. People tell us we are exaggerating. That we are wrong. That it’s all fake.
Just like trying to explain to neurotypicals the experience of being autistic.
I'm not Jewish, nor am I even religious of any kind but I share the exact same feelings.
Everyone seems to have lost their collective minds. They do this every time when atrocities happen that they can take a side in. Tribal instincts take over and groupthink becomes the only mode of discourse.
It's frustrating, maddening and painful, clearly seeing how World Wars not only could but obviously very easily have happened.
It's very easy to not only imagine, but observe in real time, how ordinary people in one's social circle revert to some kind to basic mode of existence where the lines are solidly drawn, both compassion and survival instinct go out of the window in a show of thirst for the other's blood...
It's done in a covert way, interestingly. No one openly mentions these, to us very obvious, intent behind their stances and words. But the logical conclusion of the rhetoric is very obvious.
I honestly will not be surprised if this conflict sparks a chain of others around the world, leading us into the third, and probably the final World War.
Everyone seems to be very keen on moving in that direction.
My moral code absolutely compels me to value all life, individually and in groups. I will defend all Jews and all Palestinians, yes all neuro-divergent, all LBGTQ+, all POC of all religions. I believe in redemption. George Wallace repented. I actively oppose Fascists and all others who seek to divide and destroy. We must come together or die alone. Please, people, tear the veils from your eyes and see. There are enough religious icons said same.
@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic@mazeldon I hear you…remain calm and keep focused on peace. We never know, in mind, how our peaceful thoughts are being transmitted out to the rest of the world. 🙏❤️🕊
Just because the people who are rooting for massacres like they're sports teams are just a noisy minority.
Most people are just dumbfounded by the overwhelming tragedy of it all, and are tired of being shouted at for "equivocating" or "downplaying" by saying that both butchering 1300+ Israelis is bad and decades of apartheid occupation is bad.
@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic@mazeldon Conflating Zionism and Judaism is anti-Semitism. What you're doing is the equivalent of saying "As a German I feel very unsafe when the prisoners attack Nazi prison guards"
You are using your white tears to silence actual victims of genocide.
You are not alone, for what that's worth. I've come to believe that neurotypicals are (almost) always more focused on power and their personal agenda than facts, and current events are like catnip to them: they can't resist falling into their phalanxes of ideological solidarity and marching blindly at the Other.
Those phalanxes represent their fundamental values, which often turn out to not include compassion for all :-(
@emilyk@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic@mazeldon No it fucking isn't. Nothing about Zionism has anything to do with Judaism. Jesus fucking Christ I am getting so put up with this fucking libshit website.
@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic@mazeldon I don't know how to say "I hear you" in a good, meaningful way. The best I've come up with is: I liked your toot so much I retooted it and am writing you now. Thank you for working for peace.
@omegahaxors@actuallyautistic@mazeldon ...Zionism is literally a movement for the self-determination of the Jewish people. "Zion" refers to "Jerusalem" or "the land of Israel," metaphorically.
@omegahaxors@emilyk@actuallyautistic@mazeldon
Zionists break at least 5 of the 10 commandments of God, especially the coveting, murder, theft...while claiming their 'divine' right. They cannot be said to uphold Judaism in their Zionism. They should never be equated with Judaism, though Zionists are Jewish.
They should not be conflated. Zionism has been controversial and opposed by Jews from the get go and many Jews have always been horrified by it.
@JoBlakely@omegahaxors@actuallyautistic@mazeldon Tell me more about Judaism that I live and breathe every day of my life. Unless you're not Jewish and just have some superior knowledge of Judaism that all gentiles get from some secret book somewhere.
@emilyk@actuallyautistic@mazeldon I'm Jewish, worked
as assistant to a rabbi & director of ed. for 4 years, interested in what goes on in Israel, read up on history, after I went there in 1980, before the wall, after peace made with Egypt & was horrified by the different coloured license plates to single out Arab population. Months later, I saw a beautiful Arab community I visited, get bombed & taken by Zionists to build their own development. I refer to no secret book. Just 10 commandments.
@theautisticcoach@actuallyautistic@mazeldon 🫂 It's hard times for those who haven't lost their compass for humanity and decency in the midst of this mess. Stay safe, take care.
@JoBlakely@Christo@actuallyautistic@omegahaxors@mazeldon wow, next you’ll tell me Christians have been appropriating various cultural innovations of ours for a thousand years. I mean it’s not like they took our own scriptures and also twisted them into meaning something they absolutely don’t.
Tell me more about my own Jewish knowledge and experience.
As many of you here, and as all of you who have met or worked with me, know, I am an Israeli.
I’m also a life long peace activist for Israel-Palestine.
Unfortunately, MANY of you have taken the last few days to attack me, call me a murderer, lecture me about the world I grew up and lived in for 35+ years of my life, dare to speak down to me and over me, erase my history and lifelong dedication for Palestinian rights, and even wished me to die.
Others of you have taken the opportunity to call me an antisemite, a race traitor, a horrible person, a hypocrite, a terrorist, and erase my history and lifelong dedication to Jewish life and making Israel a better place to live.
Yet, VERY FEW of you have asked how I am. How is my family? How are my friends? How are YOU?
Well, no. I have my family & friends in deep crisis. Many have lost their own other family and friends, parents, siblings, kids and lovers - some by bullets, others by fire, others by kidnapping. A comrade of mine lost his parents. An other had their 16 year old son taken into Gaza. Too many people I know or am connected to have been murdered or taken. And I use the word murder, not killed, because sleeping civilians in their home or at a party are not military combattants. Babies aren’t targets.
I also have Palestinian friends who have lost families in Gaza from the bombs currently falling from IDF planes. My heart aches for them too as theirs does for me.
But many of you only care about death when one side fits your own narrative and unformed and ignorant beliefs.