No idea if the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign is responsible for this, but whoever made it, they did it lazily. This looks like an AI generated image, thanks to the anatomical weirdness: lion has two tails, rat has a tail where a leg should be, a backwards leg, and another tail emerging from behind the flag.
Well spotted Holms! It’s all over the internet, along with a ton of other Palestinian/Arab lion imagery. It’s deeply unsettling to see how many people, including westerners are recycling the image and lauding it. Mind you, some of those are self-describing as ‘Viking’ and ‘Celtic’ and there’s a bit of that goes on in people with very unpleasant views.
Wow, I did not need to wake up to this. I wasn’t planning to make aliyah any time soon (I’d like to keep my professional job, and don’t speak more than very basic Hebrew), but am really rethinking this decision.
It’s because, as a group, they are unsuccessful. It’s as simple as that.
Woke ideology is all about group-level equality of outcome, where the only allowable explanation for inequality is “oppression”. Hence they elevate a lack of success to a saintly victimhood, and denigrate any successful groups.
What they utterly fail to realise is that much of the time these days the lack of success owes to a group’s own attitudes! The plight of Gaza’s Palestinians owes mostly to Hamas’s radical Islam.
And they really, really hate Israel, because Israel shows that groups can be successful and have a functional, prosperous economy through their own efforts, even in an arid semi-desert with no natural resources, if only they adopt values of individual liberties, personal responsibility, valuing education, a market economy, and hard work.
Israel is thus an affront to their whole world view.
Over history, Israel’s Jews have been oppressed more than most groups (both the Askhenazi Jews fleeing Europe and the Mizrahi Jews escaping second-class citizenship in surrounding Arab/Muslim lands) and yet given half a chance they make a success of themselves (where the agency in that last phrase is crucial).
“When talking about the Gaza assault Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines by invoking the biblical nation of Amalek, whose people God instructed the Israelites to commit total genocide against. The first book of Samuel contains the instructions, ‘Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
I do get mildly annoyed by the whole “Jews are the most persecuted group ever” narrative… Why is that true? All the other “most persecuted groups ever” didn’t survive. Their eternal persecution owes a lot to Jewish (Ashkenazi) resilience and I think it may well be one of the few human populations where natural selection has had a role over several millennia. Surviving in a Christian dominated Europe and Asia would definitely favor individuals that got along with and were useful to their neighbors (and being clever enough to know when to leave).
European Jews are a success story as much as they are a tragedy.
Yes, the cartoon is indeed a threat and grossly offensive, but pretty mild compared with the verses from I Samuel 15, 2-3 that Me referred to, which I quote a little more fully, to make it explicit that the instruction came from God:
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
I find that far more horrifying than the tasteless cartoon. When I used to go to church a good many years ago, that was not a passage that was ever quoted in church, as far as I remember, and I imagine that most decent Christians would be embarrassed by it. Yet it was referred to with glee by Benjamin Netanyahu, and is quoted with even more glee by right-wing Israelis try to justify their efforts to eliminate Palestinians from Palestine.
I think that part of the whole problem in the region is Netanyahu. What he’s basically doing is trying to exploit Israeli anger to keep people from noticing that a big chunk of this mess is his fault.
Hamas probably wouldn’t still be in control of Gaza, without Netanyahu purposely working to undermine their opposition and support their government. He does this, because the Gazans are in a sweet spot for his style of politics – enough of a threat that he can point to them, and say “These people want to kill your kids”, while not being quite enough of a threat to actually pull all that much off.
And of course, there is 8/10. The protests and celebrations that erupted after the attack, idiot students with no real idea of anything chanting “from the river to the sea” and not even realizing they were calling for a genocide. The endless stream of demonization of Israelis, without any real solutions being proposed.
That is all extremely helpful to guys like Netanyahu, because it all feeds into this quite just anger being felt by Israelis, so when he says something extreme like that, his numbers go up because his critics are seen as, well, “exhilarated” by the murder of children.
The Israelis, end up feeling isolated, and like the constant targets of a global propaganda campaign, where everyone saying there is a real problem with Netanyahu feels like the enemy. This is why fascists aren’t necessarily good for national security – it pays them to have enemies. Having enemies, is better than having conversations.
Hamas has to go, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think pricks like Netanyahu are the way to do it.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to come off as disagreeing. Normally I am pro-Israel, but honestly, there has got to be a better way of dealing with the situation between Israel and Gaza than what’s going on now, and part of what is getting in the way of finding better ways is Likud.
idiot students with no real idea of anything chanting “from the river to the sea” and not even realizing they were calling for a genocide.
Yes, I’ve been worried about the idiot students. Back in1968, not long after the six-days war there was an Israeli post-doc in the lab at Berkeley where I was, who I got on well with. He told me once that he appreciated talking to me as I wasn’t totally ignorant about his country, whereas most of the American students that he knew knew nothing about it.
No idea if the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign is responsible for this, but whoever made it, they did it lazily. This looks like an AI generated image, thanks to the anatomical weirdness: lion has two tails, rat has a tail where a leg should be, a backwards leg, and another tail emerging from behind the flag.
Well spotted Holms! It’s all over the internet, along with a ton of other Palestinian/Arab lion imagery. It’s deeply unsettling to see how many people, including westerners are recycling the image and lauding it. Mind you, some of those are self-describing as ‘Viking’ and ‘Celtic’ and there’s a bit of that goes on in people with very unpleasant views.
I don’t understand the love for Hamas by lefties
Wow, I did not need to wake up to this. I wasn’t planning to make aliyah any time soon (I’d like to keep my professional job, and don’t speak more than very basic Hebrew), but am really rethinking this decision.
@3 here’s a great explanation:
https://archive.ph/fqYos
@Brian M:
It’s because, as a group, they are unsuccessful. It’s as simple as that.
Woke ideology is all about group-level equality of outcome, where the only allowable explanation for inequality is “oppression”. Hence they elevate a lack of success to a saintly victimhood, and denigrate any successful groups.
What they utterly fail to realise is that much of the time these days the lack of success owes to a group’s own attitudes! The plight of Gaza’s Palestinians owes mostly to Hamas’s radical Islam.
And they really, really hate Israel, because Israel shows that groups can be successful and have a functional, prosperous economy through their own efforts, even in an arid semi-desert with no natural resources, if only they adopt values of individual liberties, personal responsibility, valuing education, a market economy, and hard work.
Israel is thus an affront to their whole world view.
Over history, Israel’s Jews have been oppressed more than most groups (both the Askhenazi Jews fleeing Europe and the Mizrahi Jews escaping second-class citizenship in surrounding Arab/Muslim lands) and yet given half a chance they make a success of themselves (where the agency in that last phrase is crucial).
guest @4: That piece was a great read, thanks!
I think it’s good practice to give a bit more information to help readers decide whether to click the link, so here it is:
Yascha Mounk: Obsession with identity has left too many blind towards Hamas
I can recommend his recent book The identity trap too. I learned about it right here on Butterflies and Wheels.
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/11/14/israelis-keep-hurting-their-own-pr-interests-by-talking/
“When talking about the Gaza assault Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headlines by invoking the biblical nation of Amalek, whose people God instructed the Israelites to commit total genocide against. The first book of Samuel contains the instructions, ‘Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.’”
I do get mildly annoyed by the whole “Jews are the most persecuted group ever” narrative… Why is that true? All the other “most persecuted groups ever” didn’t survive. Their eternal persecution owes a lot to Jewish (Ashkenazi) resilience and I think it may well be one of the few human populations where natural selection has had a role over several millennia. Surviving in a Christian dominated Europe and Asia would definitely favor individuals that got along with and were useful to their neighbors (and being clever enough to know when to leave).
European Jews are a success story as much as they are a tragedy.
I didn’t notice the surplus tails until they were pointed out! AI 1, Me 0.
Yes, the cartoon is indeed a threat and grossly offensive, but pretty mild compared with the verses from I Samuel 15, 2-3 that Me referred to, which I quote a little more fully, to make it explicit that the instruction came from God:
I find that far more horrifying than the tasteless cartoon. When I used to go to church a good many years ago, that was not a passage that was ever quoted in church, as far as I remember, and I imagine that most decent Christians would be embarrassed by it. Yet it was referred to with glee by Benjamin Netanyahu, and is quoted with even more glee by right-wing Israelis try to justify their efforts to eliminate Palestinians from Palestine.
Athel
I think that part of the whole problem in the region is Netanyahu. What he’s basically doing is trying to exploit Israeli anger to keep people from noticing that a big chunk of this mess is his fault.
Hamas probably wouldn’t still be in control of Gaza, without Netanyahu purposely working to undermine their opposition and support their government. He does this, because the Gazans are in a sweet spot for his style of politics – enough of a threat that he can point to them, and say “These people want to kill your kids”, while not being quite enough of a threat to actually pull all that much off.
And of course, there is 8/10. The protests and celebrations that erupted after the attack, idiot students with no real idea of anything chanting “from the river to the sea” and not even realizing they were calling for a genocide. The endless stream of demonization of Israelis, without any real solutions being proposed.
That is all extremely helpful to guys like Netanyahu, because it all feeds into this quite just anger being felt by Israelis, so when he says something extreme like that, his numbers go up because his critics are seen as, well, “exhilarated” by the murder of children.
The Israelis, end up feeling isolated, and like the constant targets of a global propaganda campaign, where everyone saying there is a real problem with Netanyahu feels like the enemy. This is why fascists aren’t necessarily good for national security – it pays them to have enemies. Having enemies, is better than having conversations.
Hamas has to go, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t think pricks like Netanyahu are the way to do it.
Although the slogan “from the river to the sea” has mainly been used by Palestinians, it was also used by Likud in 1977.
I don’t disagree with most of what you say.
Athel
Genocide either way.
Sorry, I didn’t mean to come off as disagreeing. Normally I am pro-Israel, but honestly, there has got to be a better way of dealing with the situation between Israel and Gaza than what’s going on now, and part of what is getting in the way of finding better ways is Likud.
Yes, I’ve been worried about the idiot students. Back in1968, not long after the six-days war there was an Israeli post-doc in the lab at Berkeley where I was, who I got on well with. He told me once that he appreciated talking to me as I wasn’t totally ignorant about his country, whereas most of the American students that he knew knew nothing about it.