Today’s one great thing is required viewing if you really want to understand what’s going on today in the Middle East.
To my Jewish readers, I want you to do a thought experiment.
Over the past year, I’ve made no secret about my support for Palestinian freedom and against Israel’s genocide in Gaza, not to mention the apartheid regime, in general.
Many people, especially Israel supporters, have asked me this question:
Marc, why are you so obsessed with Palestine?
When the people you love most,
And who love you the most,
In the whole world
In his celebrated dystopian novel 1984, George Orwell introduced the concept of Newspeak, which illustated how language can be used to control thought and behavior.
Many people assert that answering this question in the affirmative is antisemitic. Let’s take a closer look…
Let’s start with a definition:
Zionism. / (ˈzaɪəˌnɪzəm) / noun. a political movement for the establishment and support of a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, now concerned chiefly with the development of the modern state of Israel. a policy or movement for Jews to return to Palestine from the Diaspora.
In the darkness of night
When the world feels askew
I scroll through the news
And I’m outraged anew
I was a young child during the US War in Vietnam. I wasn’t old enough to fully understand what was going on. But something amazing was happening then. And it’s happening again today.
Here’s a list of things that some people consider antisemitic, but actually are not (according to me):
The phrase “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” has been declared antisemitic by supporters of Israel. It’s been claimed that the phrase calls for the eradication of the state of Israel.
Soldiers on tiktok,
Dancing on death
With glee celebrate
A baby’s last breath
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
Those are the words they taught me to sing.
