Jacqui, your headline gives Moten more credit as a call for solidarity with Jews than his words merit. I'm reading this...
"But second of all, it’s important to actually have some solidarity with the Jewish people insofar as they can and must be separated from the Israeli state, because ultimately, the fate of the Jewish people, if it is tied to the nation state of Israel, will be more brutal than anything that has yet been done or can be imagined. I mean everything that you think I mean when I say that."
....and hearing a very similar sentiment to the Harvard student groups' statements last week (and many others')...., something akin to.."anything bad that happens to the Jews is their fault."
I don't think he's saying that. I think he's saying that we cannot depend on a genocidal nation-state that has _funded_ the terrorist group that attacked and killed 1300 of its citizens. None of that keeps Jews safe. We don't have to pretend Hamas isn't anti-Semitic, but we don't have to pretend Israel protects Jews, either.
As a Jew I don't. Israel does not protect Jews, as I think those deaths makes very clear. They deserved real safety—not life in a country where their own government funded Hamas. We all do.
Excerpt: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s regular allowing of Qatari funds to be transferred into Gaza, saying it is part of a broader strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separate, a source in Monday’s Likud faction meeting said.
Netanyahu explained that, in the past, the PA transferred the millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza. He argued that it was better for Israel to serve as the pipeline to ensure the funds don’t go to terrorism.
“Now that we are supervising, we know it’s going to humanitarian causes,” the source said, paraphrasing Netanyahu."
EXCERPT: Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.
Meanwhile, Israel has allowed suitcases holding millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza through its crossings since 2018, in order to maintain its fragile ceasefire with the Hamas rulers of the Strip.
Most of the time, Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.
From 2018: "Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”)
Jacqui, your headline gives Moten more credit as a call for solidarity with Jews than his words merit. I'm reading this...
"But second of all, it’s important to actually have some solidarity with the Jewish people insofar as they can and must be separated from the Israeli state, because ultimately, the fate of the Jewish people, if it is tied to the nation state of Israel, will be more brutal than anything that has yet been done or can be imagined. I mean everything that you think I mean when I say that."
....and hearing a very similar sentiment to the Harvard student groups' statements last week (and many others')...., something akin to.."anything bad that happens to the Jews is their fault."
I don't think he's saying that. I think he's saying that we cannot depend on a genocidal nation-state that has _funded_ the terrorist group that attacked and killed 1300 of its citizens. None of that keeps Jews safe. We don't have to pretend Hamas isn't anti-Semitic, but we don't have to pretend Israel protects Jews, either.
As a Jew I find it a very anemic and provisional kind of solidarity in the face of the house to house massacre of Jews last Saturday.
As a Jew I don't. Israel does not protect Jews, as I think those deaths makes very clear. They deserved real safety—not life in a country where their own government funded Hamas. We all do.
Can you recommend a source for "Israel funded Hamas" ?
Hope these Israeli sources help!
Jerusalem Post: https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/netanyahu-money-to-hamas-part-of-strategy-to-keep-palestinians-divided-583082
Excerpt: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s regular allowing of Qatari funds to be transferred into Gaza, saying it is part of a broader strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separate, a source in Monday’s Likud faction meeting said.
Netanyahu explained that, in the past, the PA transferred the millions of dollars to Hamas in Gaza. He argued that it was better for Israel to serve as the pipeline to ensure the funds don’t go to terrorism.
“Now that we are supervising, we know it’s going to humanitarian causes,” the source said, paraphrasing Netanyahu."
Times of Israel
https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-years-netanyahu-propped-up-hamas-now-its-blown-up-in-our-faces/
EXCERPT: Thus, amid this bid to impair Abbas, Hamas was upgraded from a mere terror group to an organization with which Israel held indirect negotiations via Egypt, and one that was allowed to receive infusions of cash from abroad.
Meanwhile, Israel has allowed suitcases holding millions in Qatari cash to enter Gaza through its crossings since 2018, in order to maintain its fragile ceasefire with the Hamas rulers of the Strip.
Most of the time, Israeli policy was to treat the Palestinian Authority as a burden and Hamas as an asset. Far-right MK Bezalel Smotrich, now the finance minister in the hardline government and leader of the Religious Zionism party, said so himself in 2015.
Haaretz: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-11/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-needed-a-strong-hamas/0000018b-1e9f-d47b-a7fb-bfdfd8f30000
There are many others:
From 2018: "Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a “counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as “a creature of Israel.”)
https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict/
From 2014, about politically enabling the rise of Hamas: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/30/how-israel-helped-create-hamas/
2009: https://archive.ph/bEpHM
Loved this article, thank you ❤️👏🏼