ISRAELI CONFLATION

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It all started with this tweet where a tweeter included me in a list which they recommended to their followers.

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I couldn't figure out if it was a straight Jewish or a militant Zionist account. I'd be happy in the company of the former but would feel very much out of place in the latter, so I decided to ask, and for information included my views on this area.

That evoked this fairly pointed and ignorant tweet addressed to me from one of the people the initial tweeter was recommending.

I thought it a very cheeky response, given the Israeli bombing of hospitals, women, and children in Gaza and the destruction of the livelihood of Palestinians on the West Bank.

So my reply was rather curt.

The original tweeter then asked which of their recommended tweeters considered Israel a rogue state, realising at this point that they had made a horrible mistake.

I immediately identified myself.

So the original tweeter announced that they had deleted me from their list of recommendations.

And one of the list again took me to task, this time for being a coward and not responding to their accusations, themselves having failed to respond to my own stated views and instead taking potshots at the Palestinians.

Not forgetting an anti-Irish racist exchange between one of the list and the original tweeter.

And there I'll leave the twitter stream.

What does all this tell me? I suppose that the Zionists do not have a rational defence for their current behaviour and that they just cannot comprehend or allow any support of the Palestinians who are being oppressed in their own land.

Just a word about this whole conflation thing. In attempting to defend itself from attacks, many of which are legitimate, the Israeli state, which is in effect a Jewish state, accuses all those attacking it of anti-semitism. It is conflating the state with the Jewish people (worldwide?).

Now to be accused of anti-semitism these days can put paid to a career, attract opprobium from your community and from others, and even get you arrested. All reinforced by the Israeli propaganda machine (hasbara) peppering you with abuse through every conceivable media channel and beyond.

You are treated like a Holocaust denier and the Holocaust, unspeakable as it was, is now a major weapon in the Israeli armoury. Needless to say this abuse of the Holocaust is actually dishonouring the victims. But,there you are.

The Holocaust definition of anti-semitism is also guilty of this conflation so it's no surprise the Israeli state is pulling out all the stops to have it adopted as widely as possible. I was appalled a few years ago to see the UK Labour Party adopt it, and I wonder to what extent it is the cause of much of the "anti-semitism" leading to the recent expulsion of members from that party.

If you've got this far you might be interested in my visit to Dachau many years ago or my more recent in-person visit to "Fallen" a striking interactive exhibit in the Jewish museum in Berlin.

And as for the Zionists above, I have no intention of spending the little time left to me on this earth treading water in a sea of racist bile.