[ Some continue to minimize massacres of Israeli civilians - this
only fuels militant Zionism. What could lessen its power, drain it of
some of that fuel? True solidarity. Humanism that unites people across
ethnic and religious lines.]
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IN GAZA AND ISRAEL, SIDE WITH THE CHILD OVER THE GUN  
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Naomi Klein
October 11, 2023
The Guardian
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_ Some continue to minimize massacres of Israeli civilians - this
only fuels militant Zionism. What could lessen its power, drain it of
some of that fuel? True solidarity. Humanism that unites people across
ethnic and religious lines. _

‘For Zionist believers (I’m not one of them), Jew-hatred is the
central rationale for why Israel must exist as a nuclear-armed
fortress.’, Photograph: Agence France-Presse (AFP) // The Guardian

 

I spent the evening in candlelight and tears with a dear friend who
just learned that a close family member was among those massacred
in Israel [[link removed]]. I won’t name
the kibbutz to protect her privacy but yes, it was unequivocally a
massacre.

We tried to explain the killing of this family member – a civilian
with two kids – to our kids. We tried to do it in a way that would
not fill their young hearts with fear and hatred for the people who
committed the crime. That was hard enough, but possible. Harder for us
adults is the fact that, in their desire to celebrate the powerful
symbolism of Palestinians escaping the open air prison that is Gaza
— which occupied people have every right to do — some of our
supposed comrades on the left continue to minimize massacres of
Israeli civilians, and in some extreme cases, even seem to celebrate
them.

In fact these callous displays are a gift to militant Zionism, since
they neatly shore up and reconfirm its core and governing belief: that
the non-Jewish world hates Jews and always will – look, even the
bleeding-heart left is making excuses for our killers and thinks that
Jewish kids and old ladies deserved death merely by living in Israel.

For Zionist believers (I’m not one of them), Jew-hatred is the
central rationale for why Israel must exist as a nuclear-armed
fortress. Within this worldview, antisemitism is cast as a primordial
force that cannot be weakened or confronted. The world will always
turn away from us in our hour of need, Zionism tells us, just as it
did during the Holocaust, which is why force alone is presented as the
only conceivable response to any and all threats.

The Israeli state’s current murderous leveling of Gaza is the
latest, unspeakably horrific manifestation of this ideology, and there
will be more in the coming days. The responsibility for these crimes
of collective punishment rests solely with their perpetrators and
their financial and military backers abroad. But we all have to figure
out how to make it stop.

So how do we confront this violent ideology? For one thing, we can
recognize that when Israeli Jews are killed in their homes and it is
celebrated by people who claim to be anti-racists and anti-fascists,
that is experienced as antisemitism by a great many Jews. And
antisemitism (besides being hateful) is the rocket fuel of militant
Zionism.

What could lessen its power, drain it of some of that fuel? True
solidarity. Humanism that unites people across ethnic and religious
lines. Fierce opposition to all forms of identity-based hatred,
including antisemitism. An international left rooted in values that
side with the child over the gun every single time, no matter whose
gun and no matter whose child. A left that is unshakably morally
consistent, and does not mistake that consistency with moral
equivalency between occupier and occupied. Love.

It’s certainly worth a try. In these difficult times, I’d like to
be part of a left like that.

_[NAOMI KLEIN is a Guardian US columnist and contributing writer. She
is the professor of climate justice and co-director of the Centre for
Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. Her latest book
Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World
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published in September.]_

_This article was edited at the request of the author to reflect the
fact that celebrations of the deaths were rare, and many leading
figures on the anti-colonial left, in Palestine and outside of it,
clearly denounced the targeting of civilians._

* Israel
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* Palestine
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* Palestinians
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* Gaza
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* Hamas
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* Jewish community
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* terror
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* Terrorists
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* Terrorism
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* Israel-Gaza War
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* Holocaust
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* The Holocaust
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* Genocide
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* war crimes
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* Human Rights
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* Nabka
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* apartheid
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* zionism
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* anti-Semitism
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* pogroms
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* kibbutz
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