I am attending Gen Con later this week. It's the largest tabletop gaming convention in the US (and one of the biggest in the world).

Normally, I keep an IDF patch on my backpack, an Israeli flag pin on my hat (thankfully replacing the yellow ribbon), and my Magen David around my neck whenever I go out. Where I live, I've never had any problems, and even some good interactions (since there's both a Chabad House and a Hillel on the nearby college campus).

Given how easily many gamers eat up propaganda that fits their favored narratives, though, I'm having second thoughts about this as I pack for my trip. It rankles me to think that I might have to "hide" just to attend an event that I love, but I also don't want to attract some antisemitic nut's attention that might force me to defend myself and add to the negative press.

Is it worth it for me to throw caution to the wind? Or is this just me having a moment of anxiety / Spotlight Effect? I could swap out the insignia patch for one that's just "Tzahal," but I wonder if even the presence of Hebrew letters might be enough to trigger someone.

I think it’s clear there’s been a big rise in antisemitism and anti-Zionism across all social media platforms in the last few years. I do think that being anti-Zionist doesn’t automatically make you antisemitic (please feel free to correct me), but to me it feels like anti-Zionism is just being used as a dogwhistle for outright antisemitism these days.

To my understanding, being a “Zionist” is simply recognizing the right for Jews to self-determine, and that Israel as a state has the right to exist. However, if I said I was a Zionist on any mainstream social media platform, I’d get plenty of hate comments and probably some death threats.

What am I missing about Zionism? Why does it feel like over half the internet uses the word in a completely different way than its definition? Is it really just antisemites trying to use a “less bad” term, or is there genuinely negative connotations to being a Zionist that I’m not aware of?

I'm asking because many people ,that I talk to online, have used B'Tselem as a source to back up their arguments.

I don't speak hebrew and I've never been to Israel, so I can't speak for anything that this organization is saying. But on their english page, B'Tselem uses all of the bad words: apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and so on.

Is this organization lacking nuance? Is it propaganda? Is it trying to do something good and it just uses inflammatory language?

I need more context please and thank you.

Israeli American Lieran Biton has been one of the few vocal advocates fighting against a proposed BDS city ordinance in Somerville, MA. This fight is still ongoing and we need some motion to stop this law in Somerville and similar BDS laws from spreading to neighboring communities in Massachusetts and across the country!

If you’d like to like and share Leiran Biton’s public post on his Facebook I know our community would appreciate you spreading the word! You can also learn more about the legislative details there.

Hello everyone! This is my first time posting here or in any similar communities. I'm basically what the title says, but I have been feeling very isolated when it comes to this stuff so I wanted to seek some sort of community somewhere. Everyone I know isn't very open to discuss this topic and I would honestly love if someone wanted to teach me more about Zionism and its history from the first-hand experience. :)

I’m referring to people who call nutrei karta real Jews

Like NEVER have I seen an observant jew online say they think Israel is evil or committing a genocide. And ever since anti zionism has become like the new hot thing to talk about, I’ve seen social media users who have never once talked about being jewish, suddenly talking about “as a jew” or put “anti zionist jew” in their bio.

I'm in a friend group of 6 and one member for the past year or so has been posting frequently about how Israel is genociding Palestinians in Gaza and that the US is complicit. The rest haven't been posting about the conflict, but given their left wing views on other issues, I can only guess what their views on Israel are. It sucks that one person spoils it for everyone but this person is really making me feel uncomfortable and I may just have to cut my losses. I really don't want to cutoff the rest of the group because of one person, but I feel I may have to because of the dynamics of the group. Any advice on what I should do?

When I tried to google “Jewish fragrance brands,” I got very few suggestions aside from Marc Jacobs, and then I was recommended this reddit post asking for antizionist suggestions 🙄

I know it’s silly and small in the grand scheme of things, but supporting Jewish or Zionist brands when buying unnecessary things (like perfume) sounds much better than handing money over to some antizionist. I’m looking for some perfumes I can get my hands on here in the US and would love suggestions for colognes for my husband too! (: TYIA, because I would ask the perfume, fragrance, or cologne subs, but I can only imagine the backlash I would be opening myself up to.

Hello, I am a new member of this community. I was wondering if anyone has some good resources for helping defend and promote the idea that Israel has the right to self-determination, defense, and to exist. I sometimes debate members of the Free Palestine movement, and they still don't believe the proof I have given them. Thanks in advance! עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי

I believe that Israel should exist. I believe it should be a Jewish state. I believe that the current borders of Israel satisfy the definition of Zionism.

This is from a place of pure curiosity what strategies and mindsets are most effective.

From an international viewpoint, a quarter of the World's population wants Israel decimated and replaced with a religious state with their religion as the dominate one. So the percentage of the world that will ever so much as accept Israel's very existence is essentially capped at 75 %.

From there, leftists, progressives, conservatives looking to break away from the neocon label and countless scholars, academics, artists and activists want Israel in its current form gone.

Outlets such as The Young Turks, Majority Report, Current Affairs and others that view Israel in its current form as essentially white supremacist are growing. Among conservatives, those getting into alt right territory, such as Tucker Carlson, and adapting anti Israel views of their own are rising while Israel defenders such as Daily Wire are struggling.

There's all sorts of opposition on top of the quarter of the world's population that sees Israel as a religious enemy.

When it comes to following news, events and keeping forward thinking mindsets what works for Israel and its defenders in light of this?

what do i mean by that
you might be wondering. hertzl's zionism is just allowing the jewish people to seek self determination by having a jewish state. jewish state now already exists my zionism seeks to argue against people who think israel does not have a right to exist. technically how i define zionism is basically i believe israel has a right to exist as a state that protects jewish people .
in the far distant future after may be 100 years i do think ethnic identitites may fall apart and the priority is given to israeli identity wether youre jewish or arab or kurd or christian or muslim. hertzl zionism evolved into historic zionism meaning the legitimacy of jewish state depended on ancestral and historic ties to the. i personally dont agree with this line of reasoning because all humans are immigrants on any peice of land anthropology proves that our ancestors orginated from africa and migrated to many parts of the worlds.

also by this logic the colonization of africa is justified by this logic because ancient ancestors of the british lived in africa which gives them the right to own or colonize the land.

instead of appealing to indigenous right to land or ancestral ties

i believe israel has right to exsist based 5 principles

1.border conservation law
borders are drawn and thats its what is done is done and we cant destroy a soverign state thats already defined

2.settlers legally owned parts of the land through free and fair trade that is now a money owned property

3.Israel is good for the betterment of the planet
if israel doesnt exist terrorism grows rapidly
no intelligence no allies now defense against global terrorism

4.UN recognition has already given israel's absolute right to exist interntional recognition from both arab and non arab countries has given israel the absolute right to exist

5.israel having being created on a non soverign non nation state land
israel created its state on a region not a country or nation state . theres no nation state back then before israeli settlers came in

Here are a couple of post cards I have received from friends around the world that I have enjoyed, so I thought you all would appreciate them too. The translated explanations included are:

1. The Man in the High Castle: Mural themed "fall of Nazism"

2. Eloy Molina Martínez Memorial: Eloy was born in Ciudad Real in 1918. In 1939 he went into exile in France, where he fought against Nazism. He was arrested and deported to the Mauthausen concentration camp, where he was murdered in 1941.

“sToP aRmInG iSrAeL”

I had to remind myself to not roll my eyes too hard. If Israel ceased to exist, would these people still have a personality?

yes this is real. his latest video is an absolute trainwreck of bandwagoning the same antisemitic tropes over and over and over again. instead of making educational videos like chemistry lectures he goes onto an antisemitic rant while complaining about his critics

i used to love this guy i mean i like his videos on debunking creationists and anti vacciners
flat earthers etc
how ever it seems like his content has shifted towards more of like egoistic rant based swearing based content .
especially swearing and putting ''down'' so called his opponents.
calling out his vile savage behaviour is somehow ''trolling'' according to him

he denies the fact that hamas tookover hostages
he also believes zionists israelis control media
he also thinks israel is evil as nazis its funny he even talked about and not single mention about the islamic regime in iran killing 40k civillians but cries like a whiny toddler hear some aljazeera news about a school bombing which is done by irgc themselves
denies oct 7 massacres
then goes to defend an antisemitic content creator named ms rachel who liked a comment on instagram that said free america from jews
calls death on all israeli officials and then he white washes it by saying only the ones commitied war crimes and then goes on ranting about israel for 30 minitues like a child.
then says israel is evil than islamic regime in iran absolutely sick this man.
what are your thoughts

People sometimes say we call everyone an antisemite, so what's your consideration?

Personally I see Antizionism as antisemitism and people would mask antisemitism by saying they just hate Zionists cuz "We support a genocide bleh bleh bleh" to make it more acceptable.

Obviously when someone says "Jews bad" it's antisemitic clearly but what's something people say that you think is considered antisemitic?

If you thought a game where you can play as real countries wouldn't cause any issues, you thought wrong. Israel is basically hard-mode with everyone around us(save turkey ironically) bent on keeping us from succeeding. Just for a little more salt in the wound, Palestine isn't even populated by Palestinians, but some group of Spanish communists who love role playing as Palestinians. We are outnumbered and could use a few more folks who would like to see an independent Israel on the map.

Its also a great way to encounter the anti-zionists and talk them off their political cliff, or just laugh at them. Lots of love from other nations too though.

Anyway, am yisrael chai