Morning Comrades. Initially, this was going to be an email for the paying subscribers of this newsletter but I feel this needs to be read by everyone, so consider this one an important freebie.
Yes, we are going to talk about this today. Whilst this has been a topic of “lively” and by that I mean anything from mellowed talks to 100 people strong street brawls in my life, this has remained offline for the time being. No longer. I am going to try to write about linguistic nuances, ideas, opinions, realities, anti-semitism as a political tool, the news and information world we exist in, political theory vs reality and share some ideas of mine. To be extremely clear here, this is not a black and white issue to me and I will present a few sources in that regard later in this text.
Yesterday, I broke down some of the clearer facts behind the violence in Jerusalem in this newsletter. In that, I forgot to mention that in addition to Ramadan ending, it was also Yom Yerushalayim or Jerusalem day from May 9-10th. This certainly added a significant element of violence to the last few days. That needed correcting, or rather adding to yesterdays information.
Opinions, including personal identification within and through political ideas are, firstly, not facts, and secondly hugely depending on your own political socialization, however, whenever and wherever these may take place. In an ideal world these continue to grow throughout ones life but let’s not be that naive. What you are reading here are my opinions, they are not facts and are my constructs. In the context of this email, I was initially politicized in the far left corners of the squatting scene in Hamburg, starting from 1990 onwards. The Israel & Palestine war at the time was the ultimate, dividing and polarizing subject for anyone active and involved in left wing politics. At the time, and those factions still exist but without the impact they had on the movement in the 80s and 90s, you had anti-imperialists ( anti-imps ) and anti-Germans ( antideutsche ). The first faction I don’t have to explain, the second one is very specific to the German Left - wherein their entire existence is based on not only the total destruction of the German idea and state but unwavering ideological and real time support of Israel. Rest assured, I was in the former camp ( still am ) but it’s incredibly important to note that the discussion about this subject was the kick off point for every leftist in Germany at the time, and to some degree it still is. To be sure, this did not make me an expert on the subject, I still am not, and not surprisingly it is limited and essentially stopped the majority of German leftist discourse on the matter to infighting and little relevant contribution, especially within the male, white leftists corners. Nevertheless, my anti-imperialist stance some 30 years ago laid the direction of my so called “radicalization”. When you read this, this is an important nuance in understanding where I am coming from. I am not going to bore you with endless lists of quotes, books, thinkers and writers that have from then onwards formed my headspace, the way I process input and then pass this on to you. To be sure, yes it is heavily influenced by an anti-racist, anti-fascist, marxist, anarchistic, globalist anti-capitalist framework and again, these are important notes to keep in mind when you are reading these emails. For every argument I have I can source a counter argument from the pro-capitalist, imperialist side but no one needs to read that drivel.
We live, and arguably, have always lived in a post-fact and non-factual world. This applies to this context as well. There are some historical facts, but even those can be challenged through revisionism, even if the peer reviews for those are a little shaky at times. Now, the majority of people reading this newsletter are from the Global North West and before any of us get loud about what our opinions are on the subject we need to ask ourselves several, important questions. Assuming our opinions are formed through political socialization, the news we are given, the spins we are given and our own bias’s I find it vital to critically analyze those before shoving our opinions down anyone’s throat. Again, I am not going to start a history lesson but we can all agree that the state of Israel as well as much of the countries in the “modern” Middle East were drawn up after the fall of Ottoman Empire by Western Imperialists Countries, such as England, solely to serve their geo-political and financial interests. Anyone can see the powder keg waiting to explode solely based on that fact and that fact remains. For anyone interested in the possibly the best history book on this subject, this is your book:
What I am getting at are several points. The “reality” we experience is manufactured and thus our opinions on this subject are also, especially given the historical context as well as the geo-political and financial. Add to this the element of anti-semitism, the reality of its existence as well as the weaponization of being called an anti-semite, the reality that “news” is a business and not a peer-reviewed public service and you get the clusterfuck of manufactured opinions that generally do more harm than good. Again, coming from a marxist, anti-imperialistic background, this alone is a manufactured, desired reality by the holders of capital. Whilst we go off and literally kill each other over manufactured realities, the 1% can continue to protect and increase their profits.
Every bit of news, which are mostly engineered opinion pieces to suit profit margins and geopolitical realities ( thus, profit margins ) we receive and play through our own bias has been created to serve a purpose. Usually, these aren’t even our own but again, I digress. In the case of this ongoing war, there is a mountain of money and geopolitical interest at play and it is a significantly one-sided conflict.
To give a small example, Facebook ( including IG and Whatsapp ) is the most powerful “opinion” creator in the Global North West, as well as parts of the Global South. To believe in a benevolent Zuckerberg and a non-biased algorithm is beyond naive. On the contrary, FB is deeply connected with the US imperialistic Needs and Wants and this conflict plays a huge role in this.
Below are some articles on this subject written by people smarter than me and infinitely more resources ( I still have to do the laundry today ).
Of course, manufacturing opinions is always about money, and I may suggest this piece here to give you an insight into that as well.
The point being, is that our superficial understanding of this conflict is largely manufactured. Once you understand that reality, the questions of whom gets to profit and how, become relatively easy to answer and here lies one of the problems. Considering the fact that the majority of platforms are short term profit based, with the US Imperialists & Capitalists being the biggest spenders, you get their version of whatever reality they want you to rally behind. In a perverse way it’s a smart thing to ignore the news and look at the corners that are not spoken about. Then, add to this the weaponization of anti-semitism. If you want to write a critical piece, let alone pieces on the realities of this war you will most likely not find a home in any of the major “news” outlets in the west, if you use FB, the algorithm will suppress your reach ( the sheer mention of the word Palestine on my IG Stories yesterday resulted in a throttle of around 800% - usually, each story, gets around10-12K views in 24hrs, yesterday’s top story got 600 views ) and if you do get to publish a piece, be assured that the IDF will send its acknowledged troll farm after you. Now, obviously, I don’t have the state the obvious here who pays for the IDF infrastructure, which is impressive and who doesn’t have one. Again, just some snippets to take into consideration when talking about this.
Now, to the important part. Our opinions about this are our, extremely skewed and biased own. What about what’s being said on the ground, what’s actually going on, what source can you, should you, want to trust?
I don’t have the be-all-end-all answer to this. What I do know comes from a multitude of sources that all share a similar anti-imperialistic, anti-racist and anti-fascist mindset. On both sides, Palestinian and Israeli. This is where linguistic nuances are important, this is where language is important: There is no one Palestinian or one Israeli side.
There is the reality of a corrupt, factually and morally, far-right, proto-fascist, militarized government in charge of Israel that utilizes and plays into ultra-nationalistic, zionist FACTIONS within Israel to retain power. There is also a VAST left wing coalition of Israeli’s ranging from Anti-Zionists, Anti-Imps to Anti-Fascists that work together with a VAST majority of Palestinians of the same ilk and they, for the last few centuries have been saying the same thing: the government of Israel is guilty of nationalistic occupation and guilty of war crimes, sources to follow.
There are factions within the Palestinian community that are equally as violent and nationalistic, Hamas being one of the most prominent ones and both sides are not only engaged in a continuous war against one another but also against their own people. To retain power, to get more money from the bigger players who rely on conflict in the region ( that’s predominantly us, as well as Saudi Arabia and Iran ).
To be sure, the attacks from last week were started by radical, Israeli nationalists, whose march on Yom Yerushalayim in East Jerusalem was not only recommended by the IDF to be forbidden due to its extremism, but exists solely to celebrate the 1967 war and thus the annexation of Jerusalem by Israel, which to many is the kick off point for it’s illegal annexation of much of today’s land. Furthermore, it is clear that this current wave is engineered and wished for, by the extremists on both sides.
I ultimately condemn the Israeli government, its masters and puppets. Do I have friends both in Israel and Palestine (West Bank, I have never been allowed into Gaza, legally anyway), absolutely! Are they generally of the same political and social irk as myself, and I would wager most of you, yes, most definitely. Nuances are important here. Listening is. Being aware of your own bias, inherent and manufactured. Solely getting your info from Social Media is precarious at best. Asking questions about who and why you are getting information is recommended. Pictures are powerful, Pictures without context even more so, precisely why I chose not to share any here. The dogmatic identification with one side to fit your biased identity neurosis helps no one.
Concluding, these are some, and I mean just SOME, sources from the ground that I have found valuable. Thank you for your time and attention, I will be back tomorrow.