Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Be a Pal, Will Ya?


Happening now on 6th Avenue and 48th Street. I'm told it's a "pro" Palestinian protest, which I'm assuming means they're protesting the way their elected government subjugates Palestinian women and routinely terrorizes and murders Palestinian LGBTQ people for existing. Am I close? 

UPDATE: Based on some of the thoughtful messages I have received, I'd like to amend this.

Now I realize these people are simply requesting that the biggest genocidal attack on Jews since the Holocaust be overlooked. Thank you for clearing this up for me, guys!

10 comments:

Will said...

Two wrongs don't make a right. Israel and Palestine are both doing awful things to each other.

david said...

You know they haven't been able to have elections in 15 years?

Jack said...

Are you close? Not even.

GC said...

Thanks for posting, and it is a difficult issue. However, while they may both be doing horrible things to each other, it is ridiculous to think that makes it ok to blindly support Palestine when they will just go right on killing and torturing marginalized communities. Should this all stop? YES. But that also includes the ability for Palestine to kill/harm people they do not agree with. Which they are want to do. And that is not ok.

Will said...

Since 2005, 23 out of 24 deaths in the Israeli - Palestinian conflict have been Palestinian. This is a lop-sided conflict. No one is blindly supporting Palestine. I do not support Hamas nor Muslim violence against women or gays. However, it's impossible to continue to ignore the genocide happening to the Palestinians (and now Lebanese). You can't kill 23 Palestinians to avenge 1 Israeli. Indeed a terrible conflict and both sides are horribly in the wrong.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@Will: This "lop-sided" argument is absurd. Just because Israel is better at stopping the continuation of the genocide Palestine perpetrated against them on Oct. 7 than Palestinians are at committing more of it doesn't make the latter the victims here. (I'm curious: Is there an app to explain how many deaths Israel is "entitled" to for having 1,200 people slaughtered for being Jewish?)

You say you're not blindly supporting Palestine, yet you don't seem to recognize that its government has one stated goal, which it made clear on Oct. 7 that it was hellbent on accomplishing: Wiping Israel off the planet. What exactly is a "reasonable" way to respond to that?

Adam said...

Calling the Israeli response "genocide" would be like saying the U.S. committed genocide when it went after Al-Qaeda for the Sept. 11 attacks.

Stephen said...

I've followed your blog for years. But your one-sided approach to this conflict is deeply troubling. Many of the protesters are protesting what they see as a genocide and also the war crimes (bombing of hospitals, schools, mosques, refugee camps - all of which are prohibited by international standards of war crime and every international human rights group) and our government's providing the bombs and weapons that are doing this. To call every protester a Hamas supporter or ignorant is very simplistic and not based on any serious inquiry as to what they are protesting and why. Weigh in on tennis, media, etc but don't act like an expert on international affairs. These are just your opinions.

Kenneth M. Walsh said...

@Stephen: I don't have any interest in arguing with strangers on the internet -- I swore that off years ago.

But I will say that I'm not sure why you and every other person in the world who isn't "an expert on international affairs" -- including a protester who said "Zionists don't deserve to live" -- are entitled to an opinion but I'm not.

I don't hear anyone calling the murder of 1,200 Jews *for being Jewish* genocide, so I am speaking out. (That's the definition of the term, not retaliating against people who committed the mass murder.)

I don't hear anyone offering a solution for how Israel is "supposed" to respond to being under a constant existential threat of obliteration -- which I don't hear anyone even acknowledge -- so I am shining a light on that. (It goes without saying that I, like any sane person, wish innocent people weren't being killed -- and if you think otherwise, it says more about you than it does me.)

I'm happy that people visit my blog -- but no one is under any obligation to do so.

For you or anyone else to instruct me on what I should and shouldn't "weigh in on" -- on my *personal* site -- is eyebrow-raising to say the least.

Adam said...

ken, don't know why you're acting surprised about these types. it's fine for everyone and their brother to have an opinion so long as it's exactly the same as theirs. the second you point out anything that they don't want to hear about they treat you like a Palestinian woman.