Reply To: Humanitarian pause , Zionist style

[Siderite]

I was going to do a thread making this comment, but felt it would be too vainglorious. I debated whether to make it at all, because it seemed a bit too twee. However, I had a think and decided I should, even if it is not actually about the topic that much. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be more snark,

At the weekend I attended the march against anti-Semitism in London. It was honestly a humbling experience to join in the biggest march against anti-Semitism since Cable Street and gave me a chance to think about it all. The actual march was peaceful, with ‘bring them home’ the most common chant. No chants of jihad, intifadas or of the destruction of a nation and no disgraceful placards or the sort. Only two arrests, one being an anti-Semite yelling abuse at the marchers, the other being Tommy Robinson for hijacking for his own agenda of making it about hating Muslims (more on that soon). I was actually very close to where he was arrested and saw him being escorted away by the police and laughed before shouting “f**k off, Tommy”. Oh well, but it was made better when I found out his arrest was caused by the march organisers telling the police he is not welcome (and told him beforehand). Which is what should happen with such people. You can’t control them trying to latch on, but you can make an effort to do something to stop it. It is possible.

The speeches however did humble me. They were all good, from the MPs of Labour or Conservative to the chief rabbi and others. What stood out to me from the speeches was besides the messages against anti-Semitism, was the reminder to be aware of not dehumanising others like Muslims ourselves. Eddie Marsan highlighted the rocketing rise of anti-Semitic incidents reported, but also said similar was true for anti-Muslim bigotry, urging us to combat both. The chief rabbi urged us to remember the losses in Gaza and that we should understand that others will see that and deserve understanding, even if we see the need to remove Hamas.

It was also good to see the Iranians, Kurds and Ukrainians out in support. The British Hindu Council, Kurdish, Iranian and Christian groups had all given support to the organisers.

It all did get me thinking and made me realise, alongside my own reflections anyway, that I understand that I haven’t done enough to make that clear here. I still stand by a lot of my own opinions and disagreements over objections to a lot of Israeli standpoints. I still cannot see how conflict from Israel is avoidable, especially as today Hamas have attacked civilians in Jerusalem during a ceasefire and said they would do October 7th again once more. However, I do realise upon reflection, that this doesn’t mean the exact way Israel has conducted the war is necessarily the best and that I haven’t done enough to make it clear that I understand that some of the criticism is of that, and maybe created a conflation between that and the need for war itself. Even if I am more supportive of Israel, it doesn’t mean that I couldn’t have been clearer in how the civilian casualties is horrible and can be worked upon. I am pleased to see Anthony Blinken stress that any support of action in south Gaza must have a clear plan for civilians to make sure casualties are minimised.

I realise that I have been perturbed by what is an increasing trend of unreasonable opinion and, yes, antisemitism on social media, on university campuses and the like. Some of it has been sick and some of the what was fringe views being expressed by academics and others of supposed high reputation. However, I have let that bleed on to others too much in objections on here. Just because there is a lot of problems elsewhere, it doesn’t mean it’s fair to treat others like they are the same as the Michael Walkers, Rivkah Browns and Owen Jones, who is making himself look like a deranged loon with his recent Irving-esque doubt sowing over October 7th.

For these things, and probably other examples I am struggling to think of off the top of my head, I do apologise. I stand by my disagreements over many things on this issue, but will strive to do better. Less snide responses, bettering of clarity in response on what is a sensitive issue and differentiation between the unreasonable comments (at least in my opinion) and the more reasonable.

One thing I have seen with people online, on so many issues, is that they have been consumed and lost their self-awareness and minds, in some cases. Including with those I mostly agree on some topics. Graham Linehan, Owen Jones, Frances Weetman, James Melville, Maajid Nawaz and AC Grayling are just some of these I can think of. I would hate to let any issue do similar to me. So, yes I do apologise for some of my tone in discussions over the past few weeks on this and hope it can be less tense in any future discussion.