Tae Phoenix

We all have to make sacrifices, and none of us are free until we all are. Blessings on you all until we meet again. 💖🇮🇱🕊️🇵🇸🎗️

We have a right to our country in our ancestral homeland AND they have a right to theirs. The hostages need to come home AND we must end the war in Gaza. Jews must let go of Judea and Samaria AND Palestinians must give up the obsession with right of relocation.

Bottom line: the freedom and sovereignty of Jews and Palestinians are bound up together.

I’m not sure what all this means for my future on this platform, so for now I’ll leave you with a few photos of the antisemitism popping up daily on the streets of supposedly bleeding heart, liberal, intersectional, lovey-dovey Seattle.

Palestinians have faced intolerable disrespect from the entire region and they deserve so much better. From now on, I’ll be discussing this with my fellow Zionists in person.

I also need a break from online arguments about the human and national rights of Palestinians with my fellow Zionists.

I get why folks are angry but that doesn’t excuse the dehumanization I’ve heard from some of you.

I need to focus on the ongoing, block-by-block fight against antisemitic posters, stickers, and graffiti alongside my fellow progressive Jews.

I’ve had too many arguments that require me to re-educate well-meaning people who cannot see the antisemitism in the decades of propaganda they’ve consumed, and it’s exacerbating my depression.

A few years ago, a friend of mine (who is Black) told me that, for her mental health, she would no longer discuss race with white people.

I’m taking a page from her book and stepping back from discussing Israel with gentiles and antizionist Jews.

We should be working towards a permanent partition plan and stable peace.

To do that, we have to stop supporting extremists and focus on uplifting the voices of Israelis and Palestinians who acknowledge one another’s indigeneity and right to sovereignty in the land we all come from.

This is why I reject claims of genocide in Gaza - specifically because:

- Human rights advocates were accusing Israel of genocide before the war began.
- Amnesty International had to redefine genocide to accuse Israel.

This is antisemitic determination to smear Israel as uniquely bloodthirsty.

Furthermore, human rights advocates often speak of the 1948 displacement of 750k Palestinians (the Nakba) without speaking of the simultaneous displacement of nearly 1M Jews from across the region.

This hyperfocus on Israel’s wrongdoings is rightly met with skepticism by Jews around the world.

I'll be the first to admit that Israel violates Palestinian human rights. We should all condemn that.

But since 2006, 63% of human rights censures have been directed at Israel. It's impossible for a country the size of NJ with a population of 9M to commit 63% of global human rights violations.

Antisemites have been weaponizing the language of humanitarian concern for millennia.

This includes:
- Allegations that we killed Jesus.
- Claims that we consume the blood of non-Jewish babies.
- Disproportionate censure of Israel, the “global Jew,” for human rights abuses.

Love you guys!

What on earth have you been reading?

Every time I see a white person in a keffiyeh, I put an Iron Front Zionist sticker up in the vicinity.

The three downward arrows signify opposition to tyranny and extremism across the political spectrum, which is exactly how we must approach our support for Israel.

OMG I love this!

This is the kind of wholesome Jewish content I want to see more of.

This tinkering with refugee status and right of return is an intentional effort to undermine Israel as a Jewish-majority state.

It’s yet another way in which antisemitism has co-opted the language of humanitarian concern.

This dynamic is something we have to be especially vigilant about right now.

But for their 5 million descendants - people who were born and raised in Ramallah and Gaza City and Khan Yunis by people who were born and raised there as well - there can be no right of return.

Especially since they still live in our shared ancestral homeland between the river and the sea.

Here’s the part that’s left out:

There is no other population on earth apart from the Palestinian people for whom refugee status is conferred intergenerationally.

Around 750,000 Arab Palestinians were displaced from what is now Israel in 1948. Their right of return should not be questioned.

If the answer is yes, then Israel ceases to be a Jewish majority country, which is a necessity in the region and globally.

If the answer is no, we are *told* we are violating one of the most basic human rights - the right of a refugee to return home.

So… what are we *not* being told?

Right of Return is among the thorniest issues we have to settle before we can build a lasting peace.

Do the 5 million Palestinians currently recognized as refugees have the right to return to the olive groves their grandmothers and great grandmothers once tended in places now part of Israel?

A few years ago, I shared a cup of tea with a Palestinian man who spoke of childhood afternoons in his Sitti’s olive grove - trees he could see from his apartment in Gaza before he came here.

He spoke of his wish to see his grandchildren play there. How can I as a human being not want that for him?

You are not obligated to engage in endless, circular arguments about Gaza, Iran, or any other topic with people who will not listen to your lived experience - especially if they show no concern for your well being.

G-d and Am Yisrael need your light at full strength. Don’t let anyone dim it.

I don’t know who needs to hear this, but you are actually commanded to protect your peace and well being. (Sh’mirat haguf.)

It’s really validating to know that she has always been this way.

I’m not making it up.

I’m not overdramatic.

I’m not splitting or vilifying her. (She did a lot of things right.)

I’m just being honest and protecting myself.

So there.

The last straw came a few years ago when I repeatedly asked her to stop commenting on my weight and she wouldn’t.

After she sent me a classic non-apology, told her that I don’t want any further contact with her until she can apologize properly.

Her response was to tell me that I am too demanding.

My biological mother - who was abusive and is no longer in my life - sent me a bunch of my old stuff.

One box contained an apology letter from me to her for snapping at her. Her response was stapled to the letter. In it, she said that I was so demanding that there was no point in her even trying.