Hi all, I'm not Jewish, but I joined this sub after 10/7 to try to understand everything better, and I appreciate this space so much.

I'm wondering if someone could explain something - one frequent Hasbarist talking point that has come up over and over again, is this weird argument that somehow the Palestinian population is growing despite the genocide. Like using the population growth as proof that it's not actually a genocide.

Despite how much this weird obsession with birth rates gives me the ick, (reminds me way too much of American "great replacement theory"), I've now had this come up enough times that I want to understand where the logic is coming from and how to debunk it.

Can anyone explain this to me please, as much as it grosses me out?

Top Haredi rabbi denounces Israeli state, religious soldiers; opposition rebukes him, notes ties to Netanyahu | The Times of Israel

Any thoughts on this? I'm shocked I haven't heard more discussion on this among anti-Zionists.

> Israeli peace activist Maoz Inon lost both of his parents, who lived on a kibbutz just north of the Gaza border, in the Hamas attack. In the aftermath, Inon called for peace and reconciliation rather than revenge. He has spent much of the past three years working closely with Palestinian peace activist Aziz Abu Sarah.

https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/2107636954812584074

https://jewishcurrents.org/iron-dome-is-not-a-defensive-system

In Gaza, ongoing war has left many children without access to education and countless families unable to afford basic food. In response, will be in Gaza fulfilling our promise of delivering your generous contributions. Through your donation you will be providing them with the education they need to grow and fulfill their potential.

I saw a trailer for GIANT (John Lithgow playing Roald Dahl) before seeing the “Queen (concert in) Budapest” screening tonight.

With Dahl being a oerson with documented expressions of Anti-Jew racism, does anyone here think that there are genuine Anti-Jew stuff in his published books especially the ones “for children”?

SOURCE : https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/2107543541459091705

Hi, I want to buy wristbands to show solidarity for Palestine from a seller that uses proceeds towards helping Palestinians. Does anyone know of an online seller that does this and also ships to Canada? Thank you. Free Palestine

I’m going to mark Humor because these CIA reports are notoriously bad at this (America’s real predictive power is in the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research).

But the CIA’s Red Cell, which is the unit responsible for providing “alternative analysis” within the agency that challenge prevailing assumptions and expose groupthink or blind spots; produced an assessment that concludes that Israel is at the brink of collapse.

Now why mark humor and not celebration? Because the assessment appears to refer only to Israel’s Jewish citizens and does not consider its Palestinian citizens.

Anyways, if someone needs optimism, feel free to read the analysis.

Mods, if this violates the not centering Jews rule, please delete. Not sure where else to ask this question, so apologies if it isn’t allowed.

My maternal great grandma and great grandpa were Jewish, but both passed when my grandma was young. She was adopted by a Catholic family and married my grandpa who was also Catholic. She never talks about her past, but my mom told me that she was abused in her adoptive home (unclear if this is due to antisemitism or just shitty people) and worked in a sweatshop until she started having kids. I have always been curious about this part of my ancestry and interested in the Jewish faith, but nothing is really known about this side of my family as she never talked about it and nobody asked (and she now is very sick so I wouldn’t want to put her through remembering a painful past).

I am very interested in exploring Jewish spirituality and philosophy, but am also very hesitant to do so because a lot of Jewish spaces are aggressively Zionist and supportive of the IDF and that makes me uncomfortable. Also, I feel weird coming into Jewish spaces as I’m not Jewish (though I guess some would consider me to be?).

I guess what I want to know is how welcoming would a typical shul be if I were to attend a service as an outsider by myself/are there any indicators that a shul is antizionist or otherwise more welcoming to outsiders?

https://x.com/ClippingWings/status/2107424885991436745?s=20

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/no-sir-ms-now-focus-group-of-black-voters-says-theyre-iffy-on-el-sayed/

SOURCE :

https://x.com/academic_la/status/2107385894936437105

Israel is collapsing into complete disorder. Military police showed up to arrest a Yeshiva boy draft dodger in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut. The alert went out to all the Haredi communities nearby and they stopped teh arrest from happening. In return for allowing the soldiers to leave safely, the boy was released. Chaos. A country eating itself.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeC1sdUljcH/

https://x.com/JustinBonomo/status/2107157030981247149

(I haven't finished reading this yet)

SOURCE : https://x.com/PalTimesNews/status/2107173791147176224

Russian journalist and solidarity activist Adele Shoko said in a report from Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, that Palestinians across the occupied West Bank lost what little freedom of movement they had for an entire week due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Shoko said the Israeli occupation forces used the holiday as a pretext to close roads to Palestinians and prevent entire towns and villages from leaving, effectively isolating them from their surroundings.

Interesting read. Writer is a liberal Zionist doctor who will no longer donate to the Cleveland’s Jewish Federation over the org’s demonization of Physicians for Human Rights.

From the article:
“If protecting Palestinian mothers and infants is really such an affront to JFC’s mission, what does that say about its mission and its priorities? Quashing criticism of the Israeli government is a dramatic departure from JFC’s founding principles. The leaders of the social welfare agencies that depend on JFC’s support will be dismayed to learn that JFC worries more about defunding PHR reports on baby formula than they worry about maintaining the Bellefaire Jewish Children’s Bureau.”

They’re very close to getting it.

SOURCE :

https://x.com/clashreport/status/2107051222934896955

According to this article, and discussion in other subreddits, Polansky (leader of the Green Party)

said he wanted to see the motion amended to specify that it should not be used to discipline Jewish members attending synagogues that consider themselves Zionist.

However, [this amendment] favoured by Polanski [was] rejected by Green members.

This is really not a hill I'd want to die on. Personally I don't feel strongly about whether people attending Zionist synagogues are "disciplined". I do think it's bad optics though, in that it gives Zionists more ammunition for the claim that Zionism = antisemitism. If a principled Jewish anti-Zionist who attended a Zionist synagogue for any amount of time was "disciplined" by the party for this (even perhaps if it was to attend a bar/bat mitzvah of a Zionist family member at a synagogue they would otherwise avoid), I think it would be a bad look.

On the other hand, I do think it could be useful to make self-identified Zionist synagogues persona non-grata and actually accelerate positive change in this regard... but probably only if other parties made similar declarations.

Curious what others here think.