Political Memes

It was a superficial judgment based on the appearance which they consciously chose to represent themselves with. They could be a number of other political ideologies, but it was a lazy lean on the customs of people I know and have known.

Genocide is the intentional, orchestrated elimination of a people based upon their ethnic identity or genetic makeup. If Israel wanted what the nazis wanted, or actually, let's use a more recent and much older example: What the Turks wanted to happen to the Kurds, there would be no "ceasefires," no "accords," no "settlements." Because if it were actually genocide, Palestinians would not be able to name their children with Palestinian names, they would have no division of land to live on, they would not be permitted to call themselves Palestinians, and, most importantly, they'd all be dead.

The use of the word "genocide" in this issue reinforces my belief that there is a subtle uninterrogated form of anti-Semitism that revolves around this issue. It feeds the current attacks on Jewish students at liberal arts schools in the United States. The word is chosen consciously to compare "what happened to them (the Jews)" with what "they are now doing (to Palestinians)." It is equivocation, and dishonest, and weird.

Weirder still, where are the protests concerning ethnocides and genocides of, say, the Uyghurs? There are one million of them currently residing in concentration camps without being accused of anything (as if it mattered). They are not permitted to grow their beards or express their culture freely. There is a network of cameras across China that can recognize people based upon their ethnic characteristics, which are used to oppress the various minority groups that have not been thoroughly Sinicized.

I sometimes feel like the political ideologies of my country are influenced mainly by determining what you aren't. As I said, hatred of Israel in the 1960s was a KKK thing. Overall the Left appreciated their liberal policies (they are the only nation in the Middle East/N. African region that permits a Pride Parade, even still) and saw Palestine as fueled by the petroleum monarchs and a horribly backwards form of religion. I read somewhat recently of a Conservative Party minister railing about the injustices of the Chinese against the Uyghurs, ostensibly as part of a wider anti-China platform.

I do not trust in the majority of progressive interest in the Israel-Palestine issue. I think there's only one solution, which is a one state solution. I am blown away that people on my side of the spectrum consider this "monsterish."