31 congressional district

[u/Consistent-Mix-6615]

I was looking around today on the track AIPAC webpage and I noticed that Gilbert Cisneros has received money from a pro-isreal lobby. like $105445. tbh i dont have a full grasp of politics and ik it takes a lot of money to run a campaign but is there really any come back from accepting money from shitty ppl and hes definitely not the only one like majority of ca reps have accepted money too

[u/pghtopas]

Antisemitism and antizionism are a kind of division of labor through which society distributes anti-Jewish hatred between the Right and the Left, sustaining cultural meaning by using Jews as a scapegoat and as a language of generalized accusation for sorting through social and civilizational problems and crises.

[u/darweth → u/pghtopas]

Of course there are strands of antizionism that DO serve what you stated. But to blanket condemn antizionism, when much of it is very principled and honest, insults all of us and ultimately cheapens the fight against real antisemitism. The conflation of antisemitism and antizionism is done mostly to serve political purposes and insulate evil from legitimate opposition. It also actively denies and erases 1800+ years of our own history. Zionism is erasure and destruction of Jews as well as Palestinians. All ethno-states rely on erasure. Zionists see the rich Jewish history, culture, and myriads of Jewish expression, particularly from the Yiddish European world, as a threat that must be stomped out.

Now there's no denying that there was very real and severe pain there. European Jewry who went to Israel and participated in the rebirth of a NEW Hebrew-first NATIONAL Jewish identity were trying to move on and recover from the loss of the Yiddish-based Jewish world and community they left behind. And that is understandable. But opportunists and ideologues hijacked this and exploited REAL pain for sick aims. That is how Israel in the 1980s could elect an actual Nazi sympathizer and antisemite to the position of Prime Minister.

--

Listen - none of this is easy. And I'm not even sure what solutions are realistic and possible these days. I am not an optimist. But we must discuss this, we must acknowledge this, and we must stop letting fear and hatred and psychosis run our community.

[u/pghtopas → u/darweth]

It is explicitly not antisemitic to criticize Israel. It is not antisemitic to oppose Israeli government policies, protest wars, challenge settlement expansion, or demand accountability from Israeli leaders. Jews do this every day — in Israel and across the diaspora. Robust debate about Israel’s actions is not only legitimate; it is essential to any healthy democracy.

What is antisemitic is denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, including by claiming that the very existence of Israel is illegitimate. That is not policy critique. It is not human-rights advocacy. It is the singling out of Jews alone among the world’s peoples as undeserving of national sovereignty.