In yet another reality-denying ritual of fealty to the pro-Israel lobby, members of Congress absurdly voted to say Israel was neither an apartheid state nor racist. Only a few progressives, including members of the Squad, stood firm in opposing the measure.

  • flossdaily@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    31
    ·
    1 year ago

    By definition Israel isn’t apartheid. A huge portion of Israeli citizens are Arab and Muslim, and they have all the same rights and privileges as any other Israeli citizen, including serving in the government.

    I know that anti-Israel folks LOVE this line of attack, but it’s incredibly counterproductive, because all it does is signal that you haven’t studied even basic Israeli law, demographics, or history. Or maybe you just don’t know what apartheid means.

    Whatever the case may be, it’s a surefire way to make sure that your argument isn’t taken seriously.

      • flossdaily@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        13
        ·
        1 year ago

        When the US occupied Iraq, we didn’t give Iraqis the right to vote in US elections. By your definition that made the US an apartheid state.

        • TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          19
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          The United States was an invader and an occupier of Iraq. You’re delusional if you think Muslims have the same rights and opportunities as Jews in Israel.

          • flossdaily@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            9
            ·
            1 year ago

            I studied US/Israel comparative law in law school. So unless my professor was delusional, and the authors of all the books about it were delusional, and the original sources were hallucinats … I’d say the more likely situation is that you simply don’t know what you’re talking about.

            • TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              1 year ago

              Next you’re gonna say America is the land of opportunity and minorities only have a hard time because they’re lazy.

              • flossdaily@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                4
                ·
                1 year ago

                Not at all. I’m extremely liberal, and very upset by income and wealth inequality in the US, and the lack of meritocracy.

                • TrismegistusMx@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  5
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Then I’ll give you a hint, America and Israel are part of the same military-industrial-economic complex. They both only serve to empower those at the top of the hierarchy of violence, and they use minorities as a scapegoat. BTW: Meritocracies are still hierarchies of inequality. They STILL grind the disabled and impoverished into dust.

            • Eikichi@jlai.lu
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              go make you an real life. I trust u studied only if u paid 16k year in an private school for liberals nazists fascists like you

              • flossdaily@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                3
                ·
                1 year ago

                Liberal Nazist fascist? That’s an oxymoron.

                You might want to Google some basic political fundamentals.

                • Eikichi@jlai.lu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  Thats like 1984. Becauses people like you liberal seems shit when its heard. At reading you, u proclaiming yourself economic liberal I guess principally, and you may think you are too in social.

                  Spoiler you are nowhere liberal. When its crisis where are your fundamentals values.

                  So i don’t give a shit about your words, right wing’s troll. Yeahh you are liberal, fascist and an racist, to defend your fake state with poor arguments with no weight on it.

                  Bye pig

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          23
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          Hmm, you seem to be on to something here. So what you are saying is that if you conquer a place, and then take away the citizens of that place right to self-determination and start genociding them, that by definition that is an apartheid state… But how can that be if another state also does the same thing?

          • flossdaily@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            10
            ·
            1 year ago

            Genocide, too, huh?

            Listen, when your hatred for Israel is so blind that you are just slapping on whatever evil label you can think of, you’re just hurting your own case.

              • flossdaily@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                6
                ·
                1 year ago

                So do I. But if you’ll notice, this isn’t Israel policy, and when individual soldiers step out of line they are immediately investigated and punished.

                • Eikichi@jlai.lu
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  3
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Israel policy… what you dont have to read. This country doesnt even have an consitution stop your bullshit and propagand here. You will fake no one You Fascit, Racist.

                  • flossdaily@lemmy.world
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    arrow-down
                    6
                    ·
                    1 year ago

                    Correct, instead they have “Basic Laws” which uphold human rights, civil Rights, and equal justice. Everything you’d want from a constitution.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      arrow-down
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      Apartheid state claims they aren’t apartheid, obviously you would know this if you studied their founding mythology where they say they aren’t an apartheid.

    • Smallletter@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      You’re getting downvoted but you’re not wrong. I lived in Israel for 4 years and I was in an Arab neighborhood. They were mostly christian, but they were all pre-israel descendants and they had all the same rights as anyone else.

      I’m super against what the government of Israel does, but apartheid just doesn’t fit.

      I have also lived in south Africa, post apartheid but close enough that I’m very familiar with what it really was.

      I see why apartheid is used, in some ways it is descriptive and useful but it ignores a lot and is ultimately inaccurate like you say.

      • flossdaily@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, the issue is that Israel lost the the global public relations war decades ago. Law makers in the US generally understand the facts, which is why they almost universally support Israel, but trying to get the public to understand an issue this nuanced is impossible.

        Meanwhile, all the unwaivering, mindless, ignorant hatred of Israel has made it so that Israel perpetually in a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” situation.

        If they ignore rocket attacks, no one gives them credit for restraint. If they do surgical attacks, they get vilified for collateral damage.

        It’s there any other county other than Israel that CALLS THEIR ENEMY ON THE PHONE AND GIVES THEM TIME TO EXIT A BUILDING BEFORE BLOWING IT UP? Israel literally does this when they find terrorist headquarters. No casualties, just blowing up a building… And yet they are accused of genocide.

        Remember when they built a fence along their border to keep out suicide bombers? They were vilified them, too.

        Truly, it doesn’t matter how passive or defensive their actions are… a ANYTHING they do is met by accusations of apartheid and genocide.

        If the international community won’t reward or even ACKNOWLEDGE Israel’s restraint, is it any wonder that their government is becoming more right-wing and hardline?

        These ignorant attacks on Israel are having the opposite effect. Accusing Israel of evils they aren’t guilty of means that we aren’t having honest and productive conversations about what behaviors they are engaged in that really do have the potential to be changed by international pressure.

        • Smallletter@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah I’m gonna distance myself from you here. I’m not pro Israel. They have done and continue to do some horrible shit and I’ve seen first hand the effects of that. The unfiltered hatred some people there possess shocked me. They did not lose the public relations war, their actions alone have made their public relations what it is.

          I was just advocating for nuance and honesty.

          • Smallletter@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I’m gonna distance myself from you here… What Israel has been doing is wrong. They haven’t "list the

          • 133arc585@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            “One of, if not the most, powerful international issue lobby is that of the pro-Israel crowd.”. More background is available here.

            Some of the top recipients 2021-2022:

            Candidate Office Amount
            Brown, Shontel (D-OH) House $1,018,786
            Stevens, Haley (D-MI) House $797,226
            Ivey, Glenn (D-MD) House $756,695
            Luria, Elaine (D-VA) House $723,458
            Irwin, Steven (D-PA) $689,487

            The top recipient of pro-Israel funds in the 2018 midterms was Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) with $546,507. Menendez is the ranking member on the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) received the second-most with $349,437.

            When looking at the overall numbers for all Pro-Israel bribe money to congress, there are 16 members of congress who have received over $1M USD. Here are the top 10:

            Candidate Amount
            Biden, Joe (D) $4,226,604
            Clinton, Hillary (D) $2,357,112
            Kirk, Mark (R-IL) $2,294,469
            Lieberman, Joe (D-CT) $1,996,274
            McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) $1,953,160
            Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) $1,725,324
            McCain, John (R-AZ) $1,492,616
            Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) $1,397,195
            Wyden, Ron (D-OR) $1,284,376
            Levin, Carl (D-MI) $1,245,913