“But even in this dark moment we should understand that settler colonial projects that disintegrate are always using the worst kind of means to try and save their project….I am not saying this as a wishful thinking, and I am not saying this as a political activist; I am saying this as a scholar of Israel and Palestine with all the confidence of my scholarly qualifications. On the basis of sober professional examination, I am stating that we are witnessing the end of the Zionist project; there’s no doubt about it.
This historical project has come to an end, and it is a violent end – such projects usually collapse violently, and thus, it is a very dangerous moment for the victims of this project, and the victims are always the Palestinians, along with Jews, because Jews are also victims of the Zionism. Thus, the process of collapse is not just a moment of hope, it is also the dawn that will break after the darkness, and it is the light at the end of the tunnel.”
You cannot sustain this level of full spectrum state violence indefinitely without eventually collapsing in some way. Even the vast economic and military spending by the US and, more importantly, their actions in propping up the Israeli economy, cannot save them. They truly are Pariahs and it’s ever decreasing circles for these ghastly butchers
Israeli society display a deeply sick mindset — a fusion of vengeance, supremacy, and moral anesthesia. Years of occupation have normalized cruelty, turning Palestinian suffering into background static. a public taught to cheer destruction, dismiss empathy as weakness, and treat war crimes as routine. A society that cannot look in the mirror because it fears what it has become.
From your lips to God’s ears. What blows my mind is that Zuckerberg and others (it even happens on Telegram, as I’ve seen in the ONLY time I’ve been censored there) is that “the Z-word” (not Zuckerberg), which REALLY is an equivalent to “NeoCon” becomes a term that you are not able to use to distinguish between them and the many people without such an extreme viewpoint.
Even as the descriptions of the various alliances in Israeli politics use the word in distinguishing between them. Even to the point of different kinds of Zionism.
The truth of the matter is that at its worst, which seems to be just literally how they operationally function these days, it is the highest levels of supremacist thought and action. The misery spread is nearly beyond measure. So Godspeed as to your prediction.
Also, for what it is worth, though I’m new at much activity on substack, I too am vehement with my opposition to their lies and misery-spreading, though it is manifested in my podcast. Probably stuff you know, but at least it might serve as gaslight-extinction for you.
Powerful piece of writing I will share in many groups, not least the anti Zionist Jewish groups here in the UK. The impact on the minds of people so heavily indoctrinated can be seen in the countless holiday spots around the world acting with entitled arrogance and distain for locals. It is the wealthier people who are leaving and colonising spaces across the world taking the same mindset with them. You managed to decolonise your mind will they?
Thank you for pulling all these threads together. The question is all too often ‘Does Israel have a right to exist?’ with no regard for the cost and not only the cost to Palestinians. I wonder what can reset the mindset of Zionist diaspora communities when a genocide has not. While some have turned their backs on Zionism, others are creating havoc with coercion and harassment, and pressure on institutions to suppress speech and foster indoctrination. It is a great pity that those who need to read your articles most do not. They need to be republished in the diaspora Jewish press.
Thank you Mary. My writings are in the public domain, so hopefully they’ll reach where they need to. You can put material right in front of people’s noses but they won’t approach it until they’re ready…
Everything I have ever said has been said before. But like the old lightbulb joke goes:
How many therapists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one, but the lightbulb needs to want to change…
Haven’t been in Israel for almost 50 years but back then during the rise of the Kibbutz, women were seen as equals.
It appears as if Israel has gone the same way that Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran have, bring the religious fanatics into government, let them become the ruling voice on everything and go backwards over 1000 years in time.
That’s what’s known as a theocracy NOT a democracy!
Israel was never a democracy and the status of women there, whilst on the surface relatively progressive, was always precarious. That’s because the central Rabbinate was always in charge of marriages and divorces (also death and burial). There is no civil marriage in Israel. If people want it they go to Cyprus. That’s what my brother and his wife did.
Whatever ‘democracy’ Israel has had it’s been reserved for Jews only. It is as much of a democracy as South Africa was during Apartheid.
Curious rabbinical ruling that "religious women who serve in the military become ‘crazy’ and lose their religious values and Jewishness."
The corollary would be that Jewish men are subject to the same pressures and outcomes but are better equipped to suppress them (presumably because they have the rape and taking selfies dressed up in Palestinan women's underwear as their safety valve to express them)
The truth is that Jewish religion barely thinks of women as human at all, let alone as resilient or capable. Women are there for bearing children, providing sexual relief for men, cleaning homes, cooking, and looking after families.
In response to critics, Rabbis typically say that this is a very important role because the family — not the individual — is the centre of Jewish society. Since women are entrusted with looking after the family unit, it’s supposedly a really important role.
I studied Jewish religious law, and excuse me if I’m not buying any of it. The idea that women have choice, that they can decide what they want to do with their lives is preposterous in Jewish religion. If a woman is properly Jewish, why would she want anything other than having lots of babies and looking after the family? If a woman wants anything other than this, she is considered ‘crazy’.
What this Rabbi said about women becoming crazy and losing their Jewishness is not meant as a literal assessment. It is meant in a derogatory way to shame and intimidate women, and to frighten and discourage men from giving women too many ‘rights’.
These people are so primitive and psychopathic, they are a menace to civilisation.
And those women who think that they’re treated equally because they’ve been recruited into combat roles in the military are going to be disappointed to discover that it won’t last. And either way there is no honour in fighting for a settler colonial criminal regime. These women are misguided and are duped into colluding with a crime against humanity.
What you won’t hear in these highly propagandist reports is that these young women are promised that through military service they will find a nice, good, handsome Jewish Israeli husband to marry. They’re all single as you can tell from the fact they don’t wear a head covering. Either way, no married woman would be serving in the military. Once they did their stint and found a husband, they can replace their uniform with maternity clothes on a permanent basis. This is a win-win for everyone. Those who recruit these woman from the US and other Western countries hope they’d stay in Israel.
They fight for a while, believing they’re helping the ‘Jewish people’, then they populate the state of Israel with plenty of Jewish babies. That’s the plan anyway. How many of them will actually stay remains to be seen. Once they realise what Israel is like they might flee right back to LA, NY and NJ.
In case you don’t know, religious Jews are prohibited from using contraception. Every sexual intercourse is supposed to produce a child. In Jewish law a man can divorce a woman after ten years without her consent, if she has not ‘given him’ a male child. Very enlightened. I recommend the really great film ‘Kadosh’. It’s old now but really good and it’s based on a true story where two sisters from the religious orthodox community committed suicide. The whole thing is primitive beyond belief.
I taught an Orthodox girl from one untypical Orthodox family: only two children, father was a Rabbi, they had a pet parrot! Animal pets are usually hated by Orthodox Jews. The girl was so talented musically, she had great interest in sociology, philosophy, social sciences, had a sharp observing mind and drew very well, made beautiful decorations and ornaments. When she turned 16, they stopped the lessons and I am afraid now the girl is already married and all is gone. She did not have any choice or advocacy. She was destined to marry, shave her head, wear a wig and manufacture children. That's it.
That is why some Jewish women leave the Orthodoxy and become rabbis at Reform Judaic synagogues. But if a girl has a close relationship with the father, it won't happen.
And don't talk to me about Jewish mothers-in-law! Sorry, not meaning to be flippant but there's so much of Jewishness that seems remote from true mystical spirituality (though other religions are not much better in this respect) and brings out the worst of human behaviour, basically as a means of social control, the exercise of power and supremacism as an ideological banner of oppression and hatred. Not nice qualities at all :(
What is the name of the the man who is currently the IDF’s Chief Military Rabbi who issued religious rulings permitting soldiers to rape non-Jewish women during wartime ‘out of consideration for the difficulties faced by soldiers.’?
His name is Eyal Karim. Thank you for asking, because it made me realise that for some reason through all the editing I seem to have left out both Rabbis’ names although I did have them originally. I have now added them back in. The second Rabbi is Shmuel Eliyahu.
$8,000,000 every 24 hours. That is what a single U.S. Carrier Strike Group costs the American taxpayer to sit in a theater where we just achieved zero out of three strategic objectives. We aren't securing shipping lanes; we are burning the equivalent of 266,000 ounces of silver—or 20 American homes—every single day to fund a D.C. fantasy. The unforgiving math is live in the newest Trigg Ledger.https://triggledger.substack.com/p/american-israeli-alliance-daily-audit?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8gc1qf
Thing is its always been this way and the myth that was always sold to the people in the US is the ‘trickle down’ economy: if the rich elites are allowed to continue to expand, plunder, destroy, and extract it benefits everyone. Every ‘ordinary’ American who is doing OK financially and living reasonably comfortably — and for that matter, every one of us anywhere in the capitalist West — needs to ask ourselves whether we really enjoy the comforts we have when it costs so much. Only 20% — maybe even less — of the world population live like we do. The gap between rich and poor isn’t just inside our societies, it is between them too.
Hello Avigail. Just want to bring your attention to two pieces on Substack:
Might be worthy of your comments.
Interesting Zionist alternative view on Israel: paints Hamas as a genocidal threat to Israel etc. etc. says he ‘knows’ their religious beliefs demand martyrdom and destruction of the Jewish race etc.
says the focus on Israel is antisemitic.
Agrees the occupation is ‘wrong’ but Israel society is ‘free’.
I’m familiar with this stuff. The Israeli media are full of it and everyone there thinks Hamas is an existential threat. It’s old bullshit that all colonialist and setter-colonialist regimes peddled against those they were annihilating and erasing. And the reply? Not so sure about it either. First, I couldn’t possible ‘respect’ anyone who supports Israel, because they are effectively admitting to support settler-colonialism. Something has to be very badly wrong with a person’s psychology to support a genocidal project. And they do not deserve ‘respect’.
Also, ‘conflict’?? This isn’t a ‘conflict’ — this is a settler-colonial project. It’s quite straightforward really. Conflict implies two equal sides. This is as equal or symmetric as domestic abuse or child abuse. In situation where there is a gross imbalance of power, it’s not a ‘conflict’ — it’s abuse. Thank you for asking me but honestly, I don’t waste my time on such drivel. People are being annihilated and the world is aiding and abetting the perpetrator not the victim. We should focus on the crime being perpetrated, stop it and help the victims… These two — yes, both of them — really need to stop bothering people with their nonsense. They are irrelevant.
Brilliant, Avigail. It is an essential read, to put things into perspective instead of angry emoting which I mostly see on social media.
Ending Israel is an absolute necessity for humanity. Israel and Israel-loyal Jews all over the world have done a lot of destruction and damage worldwide, to benefit Jewish supremacy. No group of people should be permitted to wage such supremacist ideology by means of constant war and economic-political terrorism.
There are still not enough voices and there is not enough understanding that "Israel" and Zionism should be done with, no matter what narratives they put on the table.
A quote from a recent article by Ilan Pappe:
“But even in this dark moment we should understand that settler colonial projects that disintegrate are always using the worst kind of means to try and save their project….I am not saying this as a wishful thinking, and I am not saying this as a political activist; I am saying this as a scholar of Israel and Palestine with all the confidence of my scholarly qualifications. On the basis of sober professional examination, I am stating that we are witnessing the end of the Zionist project; there’s no doubt about it.
This historical project has come to an end, and it is a violent end – such projects usually collapse violently, and thus, it is a very dangerous moment for the victims of this project, and the victims are always the Palestinians, along with Jews, because Jews are also victims of the Zionism. Thus, the process of collapse is not just a moment of hope, it is also the dawn that will break after the darkness, and it is the light at the end of the tunnel.”
You cannot sustain this level of full spectrum state violence indefinitely without eventually collapsing in some way. Even the vast economic and military spending by the US and, more importantly, their actions in propping up the Israeli economy, cannot save them. They truly are Pariahs and it’s ever decreasing circles for these ghastly butchers
Methastatizing to cyprus, greece, Portugal, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Argentina, morocco
Israeli society display a deeply sick mindset — a fusion of vengeance, supremacy, and moral anesthesia. Years of occupation have normalized cruelty, turning Palestinian suffering into background static. a public taught to cheer destruction, dismiss empathy as weakness, and treat war crimes as routine. A society that cannot look in the mirror because it fears what it has become.
From your lips to God’s ears. What blows my mind is that Zuckerberg and others (it even happens on Telegram, as I’ve seen in the ONLY time I’ve been censored there) is that “the Z-word” (not Zuckerberg), which REALLY is an equivalent to “NeoCon” becomes a term that you are not able to use to distinguish between them and the many people without such an extreme viewpoint.
Even as the descriptions of the various alliances in Israeli politics use the word in distinguishing between them. Even to the point of different kinds of Zionism.
The truth of the matter is that at its worst, which seems to be just literally how they operationally function these days, it is the highest levels of supremacist thought and action. The misery spread is nearly beyond measure. So Godspeed as to your prediction.
Also, for what it is worth, though I’m new at much activity on substack, I too am vehement with my opposition to their lies and misery-spreading, though it is manifested in my podcast. Probably stuff you know, but at least it might serve as gaslight-extinction for you.
Thank you and welcome. I’ll check out your Substack channel.
Powerful piece of writing I will share in many groups, not least the anti Zionist Jewish groups here in the UK. The impact on the minds of people so heavily indoctrinated can be seen in the countless holiday spots around the world acting with entitled arrogance and distain for locals. It is the wealthier people who are leaving and colonising spaces across the world taking the same mindset with them. You managed to decolonise your mind will they?
Thank you.
Thank you for pulling all these threads together. The question is all too often ‘Does Israel have a right to exist?’ with no regard for the cost and not only the cost to Palestinians. I wonder what can reset the mindset of Zionist diaspora communities when a genocide has not. While some have turned their backs on Zionism, others are creating havoc with coercion and harassment, and pressure on institutions to suppress speech and foster indoctrination. It is a great pity that those who need to read your articles most do not. They need to be republished in the diaspora Jewish press.
Thank you Mary. My writings are in the public domain, so hopefully they’ll reach where they need to. You can put material right in front of people’s noses but they won’t approach it until they’re ready…
Everything I have ever said has been said before. But like the old lightbulb joke goes:
How many therapists does it take to change a lightbulb?
Only one, but the lightbulb needs to want to change…
Israel’s ‘pubic’ television ~ Freudian slip, Avigail 😆
Oops…🤭
Haven’t been in Israel for almost 50 years but back then during the rise of the Kibbutz, women were seen as equals.
It appears as if Israel has gone the same way that Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran have, bring the religious fanatics into government, let them become the ruling voice on everything and go backwards over 1000 years in time.
That’s what’s known as a theocracy NOT a democracy!
Israel was never a democracy and the status of women there, whilst on the surface relatively progressive, was always precarious. That’s because the central Rabbinate was always in charge of marriages and divorces (also death and burial). There is no civil marriage in Israel. If people want it they go to Cyprus. That’s what my brother and his wife did.
Whatever ‘democracy’ Israel has had it’s been reserved for Jews only. It is as much of a democracy as South Africa was during Apartheid.
Curious rabbinical ruling that "religious women who serve in the military become ‘crazy’ and lose their religious values and Jewishness."
The corollary would be that Jewish men are subject to the same pressures and outcomes but are better equipped to suppress them (presumably because they have the rape and taking selfies dressed up in Palestinan women's underwear as their safety valve to express them)
The truth is that Jewish religion barely thinks of women as human at all, let alone as resilient or capable. Women are there for bearing children, providing sexual relief for men, cleaning homes, cooking, and looking after families.
In response to critics, Rabbis typically say that this is a very important role because the family — not the individual — is the centre of Jewish society. Since women are entrusted with looking after the family unit, it’s supposedly a really important role.
I studied Jewish religious law, and excuse me if I’m not buying any of it. The idea that women have choice, that they can decide what they want to do with their lives is preposterous in Jewish religion. If a woman is properly Jewish, why would she want anything other than having lots of babies and looking after the family? If a woman wants anything other than this, she is considered ‘crazy’.
What this Rabbi said about women becoming crazy and losing their Jewishness is not meant as a literal assessment. It is meant in a derogatory way to shame and intimidate women, and to frighten and discourage men from giving women too many ‘rights’.
These people are so primitive and psychopathic, they are a menace to civilisation.
And those women who think that they’re treated equally because they’ve been recruited into combat roles in the military are going to be disappointed to discover that it won’t last. And either way there is no honour in fighting for a settler colonial criminal regime. These women are misguided and are duped into colluding with a crime against humanity.
What you won’t hear in these highly propagandist reports is that these young women are promised that through military service they will find a nice, good, handsome Jewish Israeli husband to marry. They’re all single as you can tell from the fact they don’t wear a head covering. Either way, no married woman would be serving in the military. Once they did their stint and found a husband, they can replace their uniform with maternity clothes on a permanent basis. This is a win-win for everyone. Those who recruit these woman from the US and other Western countries hope they’d stay in Israel.
They fight for a while, believing they’re helping the ‘Jewish people’, then they populate the state of Israel with plenty of Jewish babies. That’s the plan anyway. How many of them will actually stay remains to be seen. Once they realise what Israel is like they might flee right back to LA, NY and NJ.
In case you don’t know, religious Jews are prohibited from using contraception. Every sexual intercourse is supposed to produce a child. In Jewish law a man can divorce a woman after ten years without her consent, if she has not ‘given him’ a male child. Very enlightened. I recommend the really great film ‘Kadosh’. It’s old now but really good and it’s based on a true story where two sisters from the religious orthodox community committed suicide. The whole thing is primitive beyond belief.
I taught an Orthodox girl from one untypical Orthodox family: only two children, father was a Rabbi, they had a pet parrot! Animal pets are usually hated by Orthodox Jews. The girl was so talented musically, she had great interest in sociology, philosophy, social sciences, had a sharp observing mind and drew very well, made beautiful decorations and ornaments. When she turned 16, they stopped the lessons and I am afraid now the girl is already married and all is gone. She did not have any choice or advocacy. She was destined to marry, shave her head, wear a wig and manufacture children. That's it.
Such a waste!
That is why some Jewish women leave the Orthodoxy and become rabbis at Reform Judaic synagogues. But if a girl has a close relationship with the father, it won't happen.
And they like to brag to the world that they are so enlightened and progressive. Utter bs.
And don't talk to me about Jewish mothers-in-law! Sorry, not meaning to be flippant but there's so much of Jewishness that seems remote from true mystical spirituality (though other religions are not much better in this respect) and brings out the worst of human behaviour, basically as a means of social control, the exercise of power and supremacism as an ideological banner of oppression and hatred. Not nice qualities at all :(
I've been wondering about this, so thanks for confirming that Israel is imploding, Avigail.
What is the name of the the man who is currently the IDF’s Chief Military Rabbi who issued religious rulings permitting soldiers to rape non-Jewish women during wartime ‘out of consideration for the difficulties faced by soldiers.’?
His name is Eyal Karim. Thank you for asking, because it made me realise that for some reason through all the editing I seem to have left out both Rabbis’ names although I did have them originally. I have now added them back in. The second Rabbi is Shmuel Eliyahu.
Thanks for taking the time effort and pain to bring this to the world. I know of none other
Thank you. It means a lot to me.
Excellent evaluation of what appears to be inevitable. Thanks Avigail for your usual scrupulous attention to detail.
The "Unforgiving Math"
$8,000,000 every 24 hours. That is what a single U.S. Carrier Strike Group costs the American taxpayer to sit in a theater where we just achieved zero out of three strategic objectives. We aren't securing shipping lanes; we are burning the equivalent of 266,000 ounces of silver—or 20 American homes—every single day to fund a D.C. fantasy. The unforgiving math is live in the newest Trigg Ledger.https://triggledger.substack.com/p/american-israeli-alliance-daily-audit?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=8gc1qf
Thing is its always been this way and the myth that was always sold to the people in the US is the ‘trickle down’ economy: if the rich elites are allowed to continue to expand, plunder, destroy, and extract it benefits everyone. Every ‘ordinary’ American who is doing OK financially and living reasonably comfortably — and for that matter, every one of us anywhere in the capitalist West — needs to ask ourselves whether we really enjoy the comforts we have when it costs so much. Only 20% — maybe even less — of the world population live like we do. The gap between rich and poor isn’t just inside our societies, it is between them too.
Exactly! It is the living embodiment of Reaganomics
Hello Avigail. Just want to bring your attention to two pieces on Substack:
Might be worthy of your comments.
Interesting Zionist alternative view on Israel: paints Hamas as a genocidal threat to Israel etc. etc. says he ‘knows’ their religious beliefs demand martyrdom and destruction of the Jewish race etc.
says the focus on Israel is antisemitic.
Agrees the occupation is ‘wrong’ but Israel society is ‘free’.
https://samharris.substack.com/p/why-i-wont-debate-critics-of-israel?r=1v0d0p&utm_medium=ios
And a response :
And one response to Harris’s piece:
https://johanuniverseends.substack.com/p/sam-harris-taught-me-to-spot-motivated?r=1v0d0p&utm_medium=ios
Seems to me a lot hinges on Harris’s belief (not a rational argument) that Hamas is a theocratic death cult and therefore more evil than Zionism.
I’m familiar with this stuff. The Israeli media are full of it and everyone there thinks Hamas is an existential threat. It’s old bullshit that all colonialist and setter-colonialist regimes peddled against those they were annihilating and erasing. And the reply? Not so sure about it either. First, I couldn’t possible ‘respect’ anyone who supports Israel, because they are effectively admitting to support settler-colonialism. Something has to be very badly wrong with a person’s psychology to support a genocidal project. And they do not deserve ‘respect’.
Also, ‘conflict’?? This isn’t a ‘conflict’ — this is a settler-colonial project. It’s quite straightforward really. Conflict implies two equal sides. This is as equal or symmetric as domestic abuse or child abuse. In situation where there is a gross imbalance of power, it’s not a ‘conflict’ — it’s abuse. Thank you for asking me but honestly, I don’t waste my time on such drivel. People are being annihilated and the world is aiding and abetting the perpetrator not the victim. We should focus on the crime being perpetrated, stop it and help the victims… These two — yes, both of them — really need to stop bothering people with their nonsense. They are irrelevant.
Brilliant, Avigail. It is an essential read, to put things into perspective instead of angry emoting which I mostly see on social media.
Ending Israel is an absolute necessity for humanity. Israel and Israel-loyal Jews all over the world have done a lot of destruction and damage worldwide, to benefit Jewish supremacy. No group of people should be permitted to wage such supremacist ideology by means of constant war and economic-political terrorism.
There are still not enough voices and there is not enough understanding that "Israel" and Zionism should be done with, no matter what narratives they put on the table.
Thank you. Sad story about your Orthodox student (in your other comment), but hardly surprising.