When was it, which war was it?
Tell me please, when children and women were not used as fodder?
When was it that raping and kidnapping innocents wasn't done to hurt your enemy?
Which time was it that the Jewish People planned to systematically kill, rape, maim, use children as shields and starve them to make it look like they were lying or guilty of genocide?
Let's see, when was it, which war was it? NEVER.
None, it's never been the case, not once when children and women weren't used.
Never ever.
The rape of innocents has been going on since the beginning of our time on this earth, and it isn't just women that get violated.
But which war was it, in what century, that this wasn't true, tell me please?
Now, which time was it that the Jewish people planned a genocide?
Never.
Have children and innocents been hurt in the most recent war against the State of Israel and the Jewish People? Yes, yes they have, but has some IDF cabal of soldiers and leaders planned an attack on children and to kidnap women and rape them and keep them hidden in bunkers or hospitals underground beneath the elderly and the young?
Nope, not been done, never will be done.
Which soldier in a fit of rage and pain and fear hasn't made a mistake or gone berserk?
Not one.
You cannot kill another human being and stay soft or exposed or remain innocent.
In order to pick up a gun or attack another person, army, city, or the men who've got your wife and grandmother in a room raping them--something must be done.
Every person who has to kill someone gets broken, and then more broken. After a while, some folks just cannot come back. The shooting and hurting becomes a pattern, or a habit, or the rule of law. It's an order you follow, because you are one small person in a huge group trying to change something, You aren't in charge, but if you don't fire your gun, your brother, your sister, your friend next to you will die; so you shoot your gun and hope you hit the target that it's meant for.
Does that make it right or excusable, or forgivable? Can you live with yourself afterwards? Not always, can one feel good about killing a man who has or will hurt hundreds more people or even one more person? Maybe not good, but perhaps not quite as terrible as the soldier who has to clear a building to find a terrorist and finds out that children are being used as human shields for that terrorist. How does one feel okay after something like that? Not possible.
Does that make it a genocide?
Nope.
Which soldier doesn't come back from a conflict without PTSD? The answer is NONE.
Which family system isn't impacted by violence in a war, on any side? The answer is NONE.
Which nation or group of people besides the Jewish people has been blamed or accused of being evil, inateley foul, prone to depravity, money grubbing, big nosed, nosy, scheming, climbers, reachers, ugly, secretly planning to take over the entire world, harsh, tribalistic, entitled, deserving of violation due to their ultimate vile nature, secretly plotting to kill all Moslems, Christians, Palestinians, Iraqis, Russians, Poles, Czechs, Bosnians, Syrians, Egyptians, Sumerians, Persians, Africans......?
The answer is NONE.
No other nation, no other group of people has consistently, across thousands of years, been thought of or blamed or seen as the reason for their own suffering and the suffering of the world, besides my people.
When do I reach my breaking point, when does this pacifist, left leaning, two-state supporting, interfaith leader, Earth loving, Humboldt Honey lose her perspective or ability to even go out in public for fear of encountering a sign that says "End the Genocide" in reference to her cousins and friends having to go to war and find themselves bereft of wholeness?
The answer is NOW.
I'm done. I won't abide it any longer. I do not have perspective, range, flexibility or the ability to sit down and have a conversation with you or anyone on this topic unless you acknowledge all of the above and NEVER use the word genocide in reference to the Jewish People as perpetrators.
Which genocide against my people has been denied over and over by people all over the world, over and over, again and again? My people's violation, systemic, planned, enacted and historically verified genocide is an actual genocide, and the most recent one is not the first one or time that folks have tried to kill us for just being Jewish, not for any other reason. That's genocide.
Now, is the current political situation in Israel one I support? Did I vote for another FUCKED UP white male to be in charge of a horrible situation? Nope, I didn't. Let's see did I vote for the crazy rapist, jerk who was President a few years ago here in the U.S. and may be again? Nope, I didn't? Did I vote for or put into power the Russian oligarch who is attacking the Ukraine or Idi Amin or Chairman Mao or Pol Pot or Stalin or Hitler or Reagan or Bush or any of the men who have perpetrated horrors on huge swaths of human beings since the beginning of time?
NOPE.
Are there a bunch of Jewish names in a list of horrible leaders, sure there's some Jewish men and a few women too, who have gone to war and made choices I don't agree with. But, we've never tried to eliminate another entire group of people because they were Muslim, Palestinian, Gazan, Christian or Atheist or.... ????
A few Jews in the kingdom of Shushan did try to wipe out the followers of Haman in Persia, a long time ago, We did that in response to the royal decree granting those people permission to take our land and kill us.Free pass to kill the Jews in your hood and take their stuff too! Rinse, repeat, this has been done across the span of history, different men in power, but the same strategies and sanctioned destruction of us, just for being us.
Some Maccabeans also killed indiscriminately when they recaptured Jerusalem from the Assyrians, but they killed a bunch of Jews too, the ones who had assimilated, or who they thought had, so they weren't really trying to kill a specific brand of human, just the ones they had a problem with. So, I don't count that as a genocide.
So, if you wonder why I'm not out and about or on Social Media, or able to have a conversation about this, perhaps now you'll understand a bit more. And, there's the whole other side of this for me, which is, as a survivor of rape and an empath, I am literally in a state of trauma a great deal of the time right now and having to navigate the waves of pain I am feeling from all over the world and this conflict.
I do know that the Holy One is with every single being who is suffering, who is dying, who has died alone or scared. Each person has their own angel, their own personal angel with them to help them. Each blade of grass has an angel clapping for it to grow. None of us are alone in our suffering. Someday, maybe other people will figure this out and stop trying to hurt people because they themselves are broken. Until we figure out how to love and listen with our whole beings, not just our left brains, but our right brains and our souls, there will be harm on this earth.
May the day come soon and swiftly when we all wake up and feel what it means to be ONE body of beings spinning together on ONE precious Planet in our own particular tiny slice of ONE particular Universe that is just ONE tiny fingernail of a fragment of the HOLY ONE.
Am Yisrael Hai, Life for the people of Israel by Marjorie Feldman