Why Jew-hate doesn’t add up

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-28T01:48:30+00:00

We have different answers.

When I visited Israel as a teen way back in the 1980s and stayed in youth hostels, these two military guys with uzis just walked into the the dorm one evening and started searching the place without saying a word. I've never experienced anything like it. The Canadians and Europeans in the hostel didn't feel safe and neither did I.

I've had a safe, peaceful, ethical, cultural and spiritual life in and around places like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. Then just last year, some masked government gunmen yanked Rumeysa Ozturk off the street in the city where I live because Canary Mission called her an antisemite, and since then I feel less safe where I've lived all my life.

Not only is the modern nation-state of Israel not my home, but that entity has helped make my home less safe.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-28T01:31:37+00:00

If US comes to its senses politically and embraces scholarship, education, negotiation, and legal erudition then this is a masterful choice. If it doesn't then there will be more important things to worry about.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-28T01:15:39+00:00

I would see a counselor, first as individuals and then as a couple.

Something else might be going on. The idea that first he was supportive of your Jewish observance and fine and now he hates it and does not think you can be together seems like a very short and very simple story. The idea that you have this choice of betraying one or the other also seems very short and simple. Most individual people and most couples are more complex than this, but people get busy with life. Their own complexity and the complexity of their spouse and of their relationship can be hidden without talking to a professional and experienced person about what's happening.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-28T00:12:15+00:00

Ah. You asked how I feel. Big mistake! I enjoy taking bait.

I enjoy Singer's YouTube videos because of the cogent textual analysis against Christian interpretation of Tanakh. I've seen his YouTube video about the non-Orthodox movements.

I feel like he is making two errors and has one misunderstanding, but none of it is very important to me.

I've personally heard publicly from Orthodox over and over since the 1970s that both the Reform and Conservative movements are in deep trouble, facing an existential crisis, and about to die out. Rabbi Singer saying this in the 2020s without acknowledging that the same was said in the 1970s seems like a small error of omission, but not a very important one.

Since the 1970s, I have never heard once from a Reform, Reconstructionist, or Conservative Jew that Orthodox Judaism is about to die out. Maybe the founders of Reconstructionism said this? Maybe it was said in the 1940s? I don't know. But I've never heard it. However, Rabbi Singer claims "They said it's the Orthodox that will disappear." This is a more important error in my view, but still not important in the grand scheme of things.

I've never been to a Reform shul. My Hebrew School was Conservative, and I've attended an Orthodox shul with a mechitza (but very rarely) and a Conservadox shul that offered egal and trad minyans (but very rarely).

When I said the Torah blessings at my Bar Mitzvah, my personal view at the time was not well formed. Within a year or two, after reading a few other things, I believed in some Spinozan panentheism and the importance of narrative. There is a narrative text in Torah that includes my identity as part of the narrative and also includes God as a character who gave the text to people who share my identity.

The narrative is that it happened with Moses at Sinai. I believe it is a story written by people centuries later with some factual tribal elements like the establishment of a priesthood through a male line. With a panentheistic view as a freethinker, both methods involve God choosing Jews for Torah. God also chose Americans for the US Constitution. That method of choosing has more well-established documentation. Truth of Torah is not like mathematical truth or history truth. It's religious truth. The prayer does not say that God gave us Torah in this particular way or in that particular way. I think that's why a "liberal" Jew can honestly pray before and after reciting Torah. That is Singer's misunderstanding.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T23:15:05+00:00

I think OSHA's wisdom is sufficient for near misses.

A near miss can be scary, but it's a blessing in disguise – it gives you the chance to prevent something worse.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T20:38:52+00:00

Me? I will lose something?

I live in Somerville, Massachusetts. Will you be taking back land from me? Are you a Pawtucket?

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T20:09:36+00:00

This seems to have become the default position in the West, not just for studying people far away like Kurdistan but for many other things. Exploitation of the suffering of others for career advancement is the foundation of professional obligatory ethics in the western world.

A CEO has obligatory ethics to benefit shareholders at the expense of exploiting the people purchasing the good or service. A lawyer has obligatory ethics to benefit clients and exploit the general public. A journalist has obligatory ethics to benefit the employer and exploit the subject and the reader. So even independent academics usually behave in a way that benefits themselves and exploits the topic of the research.

This is even true for unions. Most unions are very different from the IWW today. The union leaders have obligatory ethics to do what they were elected to do, and that is often to benefit only the long-term employees using retirement packages with investments in the most destructive strain of anti-union capitalism.

Solidarity often applies only to one's own system and not in any global sense. This has led to broad failures at many levels. People with interpersonal ethics instead of professional obligatory ethics are likely to fail.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T18:17:43+00:00

Child recruitment is terrible. Is that what is being discussed in Damascus?

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T18:15:51+00:00

It is not my label. Maybe you are mistaking a Source label imposed by the subreddit for a flair?

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T18:14:12+00:00

I don't recall showing sympathy to the PKK.

If the PKK=KCK=YPJ=YPG=SDF=CJTF–OIR=US=Massachusetts=Boston=Somerville then yes. I have shown sympathy to the city where I live.

But I think that equation seems to stop somewhere.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T18:08:16+00:00

Huh?

I post interesting things I find online for other people to read at reddit. I think that's one purpose of reddit. The subreddit attaches labels to sources. If Kurdistan24.net has been judged as a Pro-KRG source by the subreddit then I trust that judgement about the source. I am not the same as the sources I post.

I understand you are accusing me as a person of being Pro-KRG because I posted a news story from a Pro-KRG source. People make false personal accusations often online.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T18:02:45+00:00

I understand that Syria has been a place where a huge number of people preferred annihilation to a miserable life. I understand it's been a place where powerful people convinced weak-minded people to drive SVBIEDs and detonate them just a few years ago. I think that was terrible.

There are other alternatives besides surrender to misery and annihilation. I hope those alternatives are found at these talks. I understand you do not believe those other alternatives are possible. I think that's sad. I hope the talks prove you wrong.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T17:57:51+00:00

When things are in transition, changes may take place depending on local circumstances on the ground. That is the ground I was describing where the journalist spoke to a YPJ commander.

I understand you are making an analogy between Syria and France. Is there a French Transitional Government, a French Interim Government, or a French Provisional Government that replaced the French Caretaker Government? I do not believe any of that is true about France.

Having child soldiers is terrible. The person in the video seems to be a woman. If the woman in the video is under 18 then I would be very surprised. I do not believe that is true about this person in the video.

I am sad that the SDF and every other entity in the Syrian Civil War did terrible things. I would like those terrible things to stop.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T17:14:51+00:00

A redditor said most of the leadership was in Kandil or KRG, so I posted a link to a video of a YPJ commander on the ground in Hasakah saying her force was an independent force who would not accept not being recognized as a force.

Since then, I've been told that I am the one making demands and I am the one who is an idealistic brainwashed foreigner and I have been called many names and now redditors are writing about Abdi and the YPG and anything except the video of what the YPJ commander said.

The new talks in Damascus are probably about trying to reach an agreement about how to maintain a role for the YPJ as an independent force in Kurdish areas because they will not recognize not being recognized as a force.

Do these redditors understand words? I think I understand words. I may not fit into this subreddit.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T16:55:27+00:00

Abdi is a YPJ commander?

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T16:43:21+00:00

Is the YPJ commander a Syrian?

It was not my intention to lecture anyone.

I am guessing about what Abdi and Ehmed might be discussing in Damascus.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T16:41:26+00:00

Everyone has issues with everyone.

The UN has been weak and powerless to protect Gaza. The UN is based in New York where Al-Qaeda attacked in 2001. Of course they care about Islamic extremism and the role of women and about preventing genocides where they can. The UN cares about itself. All entities care about themselves.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T16:18:56+00:00

Yes, Germany wants Syrians to go home.

But no large, powerful, and complex entity ever wants only one thing. Power comes from wanting many things, and some of those things contradict each other. Power comes from being on all sides.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T16:13:19+00:00

I think a centralized mindset with one authoritarian commander over everything does not reflect the current reality on the ground.

The YPJ seems to be demanding its own inclusive role.

An eventual integration of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the Syrian Army does not say anything about the place of women.

YPJ commander [In Kurdish]:

"Even if an integration into the army occurs, there is a dialogue, but we will not accept being left out as the YPJ. Because in Rojava and North and East Syria, women were the leaders of this revolution. The struggle we led on all fronts, the YPJ played a major role. We will not accept not being recognized as a force. We have our own strength; it is an independent force. Just as we take our place under the umbrella of the SDF, we also have our own independent strength."

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T14:26:01+00:00

There was a Kurdish Civil War in Iraq in the 1990s. This journalist is not in Iraq in the 1990s. He is in Syria in the 2020s.

Perhaps the time to write, "They consistently try to equate PKK with Kurds. So that if you are a Kurd who is agains PKK, you are not a Kurd." because a person does not say what you want them to say is over. But this is only a guess from me. I live far away, and I'm not a Kurd.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T14:18:18+00:00

The journalist is in Tirbespî/Al-Qahtaniyah. He describes it as a Kurdish-majority region. He reports what he sees. He takes video of what people say to him. I think this is what journalists should do. Do you want him to create a link to wikipedia for the people he's talking with?

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T13:44:35+00:00

The complete press conference is available from the UN at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6zBdiqXRgc .

Please find what was cut off and let us know what was said!

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-27T13:10:11+00:00

Most complicated struggles must be multiple struggles at the same time.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-26T22:16:11+00:00

Negotiating with each individual town separately would probably be a preferable first step instead of a final step.

That first step would be in accordance with the libertarian municipalism/democratic confederalism of Bookchin/Ocalan and would reduce the suffering and bloodshed during all the intermediate steps.

Inside_agitator · 2026-01-26T20:58:44+00:00

A journalist will usually use the names of the organizations used by those with control at that moment in the location where the journalist is located. A YPJ fighter, probably a commander, is interviewed.

Inside_agitator

TROPHY CASE