How To Maybe Criticize Israel? - SOME MORE NEWS

[Music] Hey so we've got about uh 20 minutes let's solve israel-palestine the conflict between Israel and Palestine is a multi-faceted issue after World War two Jewish people were understandably looking for a homeland in the wake of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust and while this is true what's often overlooked is that Israel wasn't formed in response to the Holocaust its beginnings were in the late 1800s and in fact Christian Zionism specifically regarding Israel in Jerusalem preceded the Jewish movement Israeli historian Anita Shapiro writes the idea of the Jews returning to their ancient homeland as the first step to world Redemption seems to have originated among a specific group of evangelical English Protestants that flourished in England in the 1840s they passed this notion onto Jewish circles this concept of Christian Zionism remains strong in the 20th century in 1917 British general Edmund Allenby conquered Jerusalem from the Ottomans newspapers at the time hailed this victory they titled general Allenby Richard the lion-hearted and praised him for saving the Holy Land from the infidels they even called it the Last Crusade because the Crusades were good anyways in the early 1900's Zionism became popular amongst Jews due to the horrific pogroms in Russia it was also widely supported amongst Christians who believe in the literal translation of the Bible that declared after Jerusalem is safe from the infidels that God will return the Holy Land to the chosen people the Jews this will eventually herald the Apocalypse CIA arianna Christians will be raptured and spent eternity in heaven listening to Kid Rock if that's not a second coming I don't know what is yeah so Christians want to Jews to settle in the Holy Land because of biblical prophecies and Jews wanted to settle in the Holy Land because they were sick and tired of being persecuted and killed and stuff the only problem was that there were already people living there the Palestinian Arabs they considered Zionism to be a threat which came to a head in 1918 after the mandate for Palestine a League of Nations mandate and was Britain assumed control and established borders using the old British tradition of splitting territory by tying a pen to the tail of an excited badger and lettin her rip Palestinian Arabs were also alarmed by the Balfour Declaration a statement by the British government in 1917 which supported creating a national home for the Jews in Palestine also the Hebrew labor movement solidified their fears which was a campaign to hire Jewish workers over Arab labour excluding the native Arab population from economic activity as you can see the history of Israel and Palestine has always been fraught you have the Jewish population who understandably wanted to set up a territory for themselves to evade persecution then you had the Zionist Christian British colonialists interests who had little interest in being conscientious and humanitarian and importantly you had the Arab Palestinians who understandably saw Zionist settlement and forced economic isolation as a threat to their livelihoods this history is important in understanding some of the bizarre US politics surrounding Israel and Palestine in a new segment we like to call don't look in the youtube comment section folks this is gonna be a rough one so let's talk about the semi recent controversy surrounding Elon Omar's tweets Elon omar once tweeted in 2012 Israel has hypnotized the world and more recently in reference to why the GOP is threatening to punish those in Congress who criticized Israel she wrote it's about the Benjamins baby followed by a musical note emoji and the accusation is that Omar is making reference to the anti-semitic tropes of Jews being manipulative and using money to control politics but this accusation brings up a larger question of whether you can criticize Israel and pro-israel lobbying groups without being anti-semitic with her all about the Benjamins maybe tweet Alon Omar was if you believe her statements explaining your tweet criticizing pro-israel lobbying groups not Jews as a whole and the whole point of a lobbying group is to use money to influence politics so it's hard to say if this is actually intentional anti-semitism and in terms of the Israel has hypnotized the world tweet the language could be interpreted as playing into Jewish puppet master tropes but it's also the same language we use to criticize governments all the time terms like hypnotized mesmerize puppeteered or manipulated have been used to describe various governments and administrations so it's not a term that's exclusively used as a dog whistle but given the history of Jewish people being stereotyped as being manipulative and be more sensitive to use other language something she's admitted to so could she have worded it better yes absolutely is she secretly anti-semitic we can't read her mind and no but she's explicitly said she was referring to Israel and AIPAC not Jews as a whole despite very honest people claiming she said quote the Jews hypnotized the world which she has not said you absolute [ __ ] liars and she spoken to Jewish community leaders apologize for her statement saying anti-semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-semitic tropes my intention is never to offend my constituents or Jewish Americans as a whole but you know maybe this is all just disingenuous backpedaling in reaction to the flesh she's getting if only if only we had a video recording clearly stating her opinions about the Jewish community in Israel from before the controversy that was quick apparently in February of 2017 when we still used video tapes she spoke out about a bill that would ban Minnesota from contracting with vendors participating in BDS boycott divest sanction the boycotts companies that profit from occupy territories she praised the bills stated purpose to combat anti-jewish discrimination but opposed the part of the bill that would ban vendors participating in BDS saying it was their right to participate in the protest quote I certainly never advocate for any type of discrimination I never will but what I do advocate for is for all of us to work towards furthering peace in the world and I do believe that you never get to having peace without justice we know and I'm certainly saddened by the rise of anti-semitism and I have been part of a community that has been raising funds to support the Jewish community in this time of need because as my community is struggling with a particular band that the president wants to put on us the Jewish community has been side-by-side fighting with us making sure that we have the resources that we need because I think there is a particular connection and Brotherhood and sisterhood that Muslims and Jews have one that is fundamentally based in our shared space in history our shared land and one that we will never forget but what governments do and what is based in systems are very different due to Ilhan Omar's statements like this and the fact that Jewish Americans have become increasingly critical of Israel there are many Jewish groups that support Ilhan Omar such as Jewish Voice for Peace if not now and Jews for racial and economic justice Jewish activist and member of Jews of color and the Sephardi Mizrahi caucus Rebecca Pearce said if our definition of anti-semitism is reduced to are you criticizing Israel you have no ability to grapple with someone like Richard Spencer this is a particularly significant statement given that Richard Spencer is actually a vocal supporter of Israel we have a clip of Richard Spencer become kind of assembly that's right the white supremacist with a haircut known as the greased up possum calls himself a white Zionist praising Israel's white ethno state model he's especially fond of Netanyahu's nation state law that officially defines Israel as a Jewish state and reserves the right to self-determination exclusively for Jewish people a move that has upset Israel's 21% Arab population and other people Spencer has said this move has showed a path for Europeans and that he wants a similar nation exclusively for whites saying I want us to have a secure homeland for us and ourselves just like you want a secure homeland in Israel so does this mean that Richard Spencer isn't a reprehensible anti-semite who probably smells like chicken grease and wet wipes No oh he is still one of those things saying Jews are vastly over-represented in what you could call the establishment and that they're responsible for the fact that white people are being dispossessed from this country cool cool cool do we have that clip of become kind of assembly yeah that's the stuff right there so some white supremacist support Israel but it's honestly not fair to use guilt by association there are a bunch of lunatics whose rantings and ravings deserve as much attention as a negative review scrawled in feces in the bathroom of a Denny's it's important to note that just as supporters of Israel can be anti-semitic critics of Israel are not necessarily anti-semitic 2013 Pew study found that 48% of Jewish Americans polled did not think Israel was trying to make peace with Palestine of course some might try to erase Jewish critics of Israel by calling them self-hating Jews a term which the Jewish person who wrote this episode would like me to say is quote actually pretty anti-semitic also I do hate myself but it has nothing to do with being Jewish it's because I stole this joke from Curb Your Enthusiasm why are many American Jews and others in opposition to Israel's policies according to a Jewish Voice for Peace their humanitarian issues such as the over 250 Palestinian civilian protesters 41 of whom were children killed by Israeli forces during the great march of return mostly unarmed peaceful protests there's also the charge that Gaza is an open-air prison where the Palestinian inhabitants are denied basic necessities such as medication and water that isn't 98 percent undrinkable as well as being denied the same rights as Israeli citizens there are claims that the reason Israel must fire on protesters bomb Gaza and cut off supplies is due to the actions of Hamas Hamas is a violent militant fundamentalist group that has had de facto authority over Gaza since 2007 Hamas is responsible for firing rockets at Israel and has killed 27 Israeli civilians between 2004 and 2014 one of the reasons the casualty rate is so low is due to Israel's massive amount of bomb shelters the Iron Dome an air defense system that blows up rockets aimed at Israel it's important to note that while Hamas has fired thousands of rockets in Israel since 2001 a March 2013 public opinion poll found that the majority of Palestinian civilians do not support the attacks only 38% accept their use and over 80% support nonviolent protest so while Hamas is violent actions can't be excused there's a clear mismatch and the power of Hamas is forces and Israel's forces the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has been tracking deaths due to the israel-palestine conflict and has found that 23 out of 24 conflict deaths have been Palestinian this isn't to discount Israeli casualties every death is a tragedy but the power imbalance is very clear and it demonstrates how you can think Hamas is a good with dick swinging [ __ ] but still condemn Israel's aggressive military actions towards Palestine especially when the IDF attacks peaceful protesters and this isn't just a humanitarian concern it's practical as well it seems that support for Hamas only increases following violent conflicts 2014 poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research found that support for Hamas as leader spiked from 53 percent 62 percent following a massive Israeli military operation and 50-day war that left thousands of Palestinians and dozens of Israelis dead before this in 2008 support for Hamas had actually started to decline this seems to indicate that aggressive military operations undermines more peaceful grassroots movements in Palestine and only strengthens Hamas is hold on Gaza it's weird that like people would support the people seemingly protecting them from death via other people so maybe we shouldn't encourage brash drastic policies that only exacerbate an already volatile situation sadly now is the part of the episode where we have to talk about you see the Trump administration is using claims of anti-semitism to try to suppress criticism of their far-right wing Israel policy under my administration the unbreakable alliance between the United States and Israel has never been stronger so before I sign the presidential proclamation recognizing Israel sovereignty over the Golan Heights I'd like to ask Prime Minister Netanyahu to say a few words so what does go on heights is it a biopic of a guy named Golan who tries to win the Olympic high jump no of course not you [ __ ] idiot it's actually this occupied territory between Syria and Israel here's a brief overly simplified history lesson Golan Heights was militarily seized by Israel in 1967 during the six-day war with Syria in 1981 Israel passed the Golan Heights law effectively annexing the territory the problem this is not done in accordance with international law the UN still considers it Syrian territory and declares the Golan Heights law null and void and without international legal effect Trump's unilateral move in recognizing Golan Heights as belonging to Israel flies in the face of the UN resolution and international law although this is mostly a symbolic gesture it does have very real and serious implications it undermines the validity of international law a potentially dangerous precedent it also tanks any peace deals between Palestine and Israel instead the u.s. declaring that the Golan Heights belongs to Israel shows Palestinians that the u.s. is not acting in good faith and will unilaterally and unconditionally support Israel as you can imagine I totally support the other side no matter what they do is not the best position for a broker of peace to take if anything this move only increases tensions between Israel and Palestine gives propaganda to Hamas and emboldened Netanyahu and the far right-wing Israeli government to allow more aggressive settlements or even to a next part of the West Bank something he literally said he would do am that would at least create more conflict and death if not an outright war wait to us carelessly does things that could end up sparking civil war in the Middle East wowie and holy heck aru so Trump's decision is at best highly risky and at worst a cynical political calculation to rile up his base and bolster support for Netanyahu it could also be an attempt to turn Israel into a partisan issue which it actually hasn't been mainstream Democrats and Republicans have both supported Israel either unconditionally or with soft conditions neither party really imposes any consequences should Israel continue with settlements or shoot unarmed protesters although Democrats have started to critique Israel on these issues the new emerging left including Ilhan Omar is becoming even more critical and Americans in general have also seen a shift in attitude in 2015 47% of Americans described Israel as an ally in 2019 that number dropped to 37% and in 2018 38 percent of Liberal Democrats sympathized more with Palestinians than with Israel so in order to both quash dissent on Israel and to attack the left moderate Democrats and Republicans who have always used claims of anti-semitism to attack sympathy towards Palestinians have gone from subliminal to liminal to super liminal anti-zionism is anti-semitism superluminal I'll show you hey you join the Navy yeah all right I'm an it's not just the right that employs the tactic of ik waiting criticism of Israel or AIPAC as being anti-semitic Chuck Schumer said when someone looks at a neo-nazi rally and sees some very fine people among its company we must call it out when someone suggests money drives support for Israel we must call it out not only is it a bit melodramatic to equate neo-nazis to critics of Israel it's also ironic given the fact that Schumer made this statement at AIPAC the largest pro-israel lobbying group in the US a pack itself spends roughly three and a half million dollars a year promoting pro-israel special interests and though that may not seem like a lot the real is what's contributed by its pool of wealthy pro-israel donors APEC functions not only as a lobbying group but as an organization that helps donors connect with politicians while AIPAC doesn't directly donate to political campaigns its donors and the PACs that it helps organize do and it's estimated that in 2018 these donors spent over 22 million dollars in contributions and lobbying like a lobbying group so pro-israel lobbying groups do literally spend money to influence politics and this is not nor should be an attack on Jewish people who may or may not support Israel and most of whom have nothing to do with AIPAC but maybe Schumer and those who call this anti-semitic are acting in good faith after all there really are anti-semitic tropes regarding Jewish people and money I mean there's even bigoted terms like like shekels Hebrew term for currency that's been co-opted by white nationalists to be a racist dog whistle hinting at the influence of Jewish money although I suppose nobody in politics would be stupid and hateful enough to actually say it'll mean you sell three extra books you make three extra shekels hey at least Chuck Schumer condemn this anti-semitic statement and House Democrats issued a resolution denouncing air Trump's what they did they didn't uh yeah of course of course of course they didn't well this is this is just one isolated incident you know maybe they just missed it I'm sure there aren't any other examples of conservatives using anti-semitic tropes like referencing the conspiracy theory that Jewish George Soros's puppeteering forced multiculturalism the conspiracy theory that motivated the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter I wouldn't be surprised I wouldn't I don't know who but I would be surprised a lot of people say yes okay well at least he didn't call neo-nazis and their associates very fine people no yep wait he did do that he definitely definitely did do that well at least he didn't imply that Jewish Americans aren't Americans you see Ilan Omar has been accused of using the dual loyalty trope of implying that Jewish people are loyal to Israel why is she been accused of this because she's criticized American pro-israel lobbying groups which which somehow means she thinks all Jewish people are loyal to Israel that seems like a bit of a stretch sometimes so stretchy in fact the people will claim that she accused all Jews of having dual loyalty putting dual loyalty in quotes implying that she said those words ever despite her literally never saying those words ever so yeah bit of a stretch I mean but it's not like she implied that Jewish citizens are actually Israeli citizens you'd have to be an incredibly stupid politician to do that and let me guess you're about to show me a clip of Donald Trump telling the American Republican Jewish coalition that Netanyahu is their prime minister implying that they're not real US citizens the very sort of dual loyalty anti-semitism that Republicans have been without evidence accusing yellin omar of but I stood with you prime minister at the White House there it is and we get a stinger of Fox News very bluntly and literally accusing Elon omar of dual loyalty omar and Rasheeda Talib who you referred to they it's almost as though they think they're representing another country yeah that's the stuff so Trump and Fox News are a collective of racist maggots parading around in human flesh vehicles but what's new Trump's got a trump it's not like there are examples of blatant anti-semitism actually coming from Israel's leaders like Netanyahu or his family that would be that would be that would be completely absurd we're we're gonna we're gonna find out that it's actually the case yeah yeah yeah Netanyahu's son yeah you're Netanyahu posted a meme of George Soros his head superimposed over happy merchant image verily anti-semitic image depicting a Jewish person rubbing his hands together usually used by white nationalist forms such as storm front and 4chan the image seems to imply that Soros was part of some kind of Jewish reptilian global conspiracy which I'm sorry right like we're still accusing people of being reptilians that is ridiculous all right don't you know that it's the bohr people who are pulling all of the strings do your research people anyways Yair took the meme down after heavy criticism but he was defended by a David dude cool well you can't help who jumps to your defense all right but you can't help who you have dinner with yeah you're Netanyahu broke bread with Sebastian Gorka gorko is known for his impossibly large head and for a support for the Hungarian guard neo-fascist anti-semitic paramilitary group maybe Netanyahu's son is just going through that that rebellious making friends with probable Nazis phase unfortunately Netanyahu himself seems rather Machiavellian we don't need a pack anymore Benjamin Netanyahu mused to one of his advisors a few months ago we have enough support in the United States from the evangelicals I'd happily give up on AIPAC if we didn't need to counteract J Street Netanyahu's also given up Hitler sort of mulligan on that whole Holocaust thing in a speech for the World Zionist Congress Netanyahu claimed that 1941 the mufti of Jerusalem was the real architect behind the Holocaust Hitler didn't want to exterminate the Jews at the time he wanted to expel the Jew and Haj Amin al-husseini went to Hitler and said if you expel them they'll all come here to Palestine according to Netanyahu Hitler then asked what should I do with them and the mufti replied burn them and it's important to note that the vast majority of historical scholars do not think Hussein he had anything to do with Hitler's Final Solution and there has been no corroboration of this dialogue between them ever taking place this whole Hitler didn't even want to kill Jews is is a pretty weird flex on Netanyahu's part but okay so is this to say Netanyahu and his son or anti-semitic no more realistically he's acting in the way that politicians do making cold strategic calculations to promote their far-right wing agenda even if it means having odd bedfellows with anti-semites like like Hitler kind of and that means that we should be wary when critics of Israel are labeled as anti-semites because it's a term that has been abused or ignored depending on which side of supporting the Israeli government you land on this is a problem not only because it silences dissent because anti-semitism is a very real issue reducing the meaning of it to simply indicate whether you're pro or anti Israeli policy while ignoring the actual vitriolic cases of anti-semitism is a deeply cynical and dangerous political philosophy as a final note about the motivation for this video the writer of this episode wanted me to say this I'm gonna pretend it's written down here I remember going to the family cabin with my dad and family a neighbor once came up and knocked on our door not knowing we were Jewish my dad answered and listened as this neighbor went on a rant about how Jews were ruining the community my dad was terrified here he was Jewish with two young children and his wife miles and miles from any potential help he was afraid of what this man our neighbor might do if he found out my dad was Jewish I remember the times I received comments for being Jewish high school friends claiming Jews started most of the wars the Jews killed Jesus and that's why people don't like them the idea that someone could hate me just because of my ancestry has always been a frightening sobering reality and having that terrible specter of hatred used as a palace political tool to silence dissent regarding Israel's policy makes me feel used dehumanized and angry I realized that burying my feelings here is is pretty heavy so to lighten the mood I'm going to write some funny words in this script for Kody to say poop butt cheek Weiner farts turd dangle nipples and finally Deez Nuts thanks everybody I've been news time to check out that comment section I bet it's real nice down there [Music] hey everybody thanks for watching make sure to LIKE and subscribe don't leave a comment and let's do our podcast even more news check out our patreon comm slash some more news if you'd like to support us and don't read the comments

Channel: Some More News

Views: 569,083

Rating: 4.8935304 out of 5

Keywords: Israel, Palestine, Israel Palestine, conflict, Muslims, Jews, Ilhan Omar, Gaza, Syria, Palestinians, Benjamin Netanyahu, Some More News, More News, news, Cody Johnston, Isrealis, Donald Trump, President, Jared Kushner, Lobbying Groups, aipac

Id: w6YD0n5z-MI

Length: 25min 56sec (1556 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/O_Cuin]

Cody and everyone behind the camera there at Some More News have been doing some great work recently. This is especially good at breaking down the idea that criticism of Israel is antisemitic from all angles.

[u/[deleted]]

The hilarious Curb Your Enthusiasm scene mentioned in the video.

[u/MatthiasvTrigt]

Cody is life <3

[u/krazysh0t]

This is a GREAT video. I'm so tired of AIPAC holding the threat of being labeled an anti-semite over people's heads and I'm REALLY tired of Democrats selling out to them. If the Democrats weren't the lesser of two evils in this two party system, I'd say we delete that party too. BUUUUT unfortunately we have to vote for them because voting for the other side is literally voting for nazis.

[u/williafx]

cody has the best showdy

[u/Wickywire]

Very well balanced and informative.

[u/G-0ff]

The start of the video was particularly interesting for me, since one of my relatives, John Nelson Darby, invented the "dispensationalist" interpretation of the bible that fueled that 1840s wave of Christian Zionism. And that continues to fuel a whole bunch of shitty evangelical behaviour today.

So, uh, on behalf of my family, I'm sorry, the rest of the world.

Other than that, great video. Very fair. very balanced.

[u/sczphanc]

Cody has that weird 2014 "sarcastic" Tumblr delivery a lot but I still love him and that is a testament to how good the show is

[u/klaatu_1981]

I loved Cody's writing and videos from way back when Cracked was actually good. Had no idea he had an youtube channel. Instant subscription.