Thanks for this, Avigail. I always appreciate your perspective and insights.
"A ‘war’ with Iran was necessary to Israel because the world’s opinion was starting to shift because of the obvious genocide in Gaza. Israel is hoping to restore the ‘poor little Israel only defending itself from the terrible Iranians’ story, while distracting from the wider genocide of the Palestinian people.
And this isn’t war. This is wholesale carnage perpetrated by a rogue, settler-colonial state determined to have its exclusively, ‘racially-pure’, Jewish state no matter who gets hurt, including its own (mainly economically deprived) people.
Israel must be stopped. There has never been any justification for anyone in the world to support Israel and enable it, and yet we are watching our own countries doing just that."
The script for the "poor little Israel" or rather "Israel is doing our dirty work" was distributed at the G7 meeting. The G7 and in particular Mr Napoleon were even more eager than the Zionists to find a distraction from Gaza. The political elite of the West are blurting out the drivel word for word back in their respective countries - including the settler colony in sunny Australia!!
The political elite are so out of touch with the majority of their populations. It's showing that we don't really live in democracies when our leaders violate our morality for all to see.
They aren’t actually out of touch - they are fully aware, but choose to ignore simply because they can. Particularly so, when the major parties collude and thereby prevent citizens from voting on certain issues. This is yet another challenge with Westminster style democracy.
Hence, in many Western nations, citizens were unable to vote on the Palestine genocide because both major parties simply said “Israel has a right to defend itself”! Therefore, although both parties knew there was strong support for the Palestinians, the political class could act with impunity.
Well, democracy comes in many forms and the only country where I see a democratic government really work for it's people is China - try peeling apart the Western propaganda and look at the results. In the West the members of the government work for themselves.
Show me a Western, so called democracy where the government reflect the peoples view on the matter of the Palestinian genocide!
In countries such as the US and Canada, much of the public is ignorant of Palestinian affairs and merely laps up whatever it gets from television and other sources of state propaganda. Relatively few people are informed enough to offer a meaningful opinion. Of those who do, many just go in for tribalism.
I think the Palestinian genocide shows a class divide in the west so clearly, and how the ruling class and its allies do not represent the majority of people being governed.
Hitler also claimed he was doing the West’s dirty work, defending “Western Civilisation” (oxymoron) against the enemy within - the Jews. Now Netanyahu and ‘“The West” most shockingly German Chancellor Merz who seems to have forgotten his country’s history, echoing Hitler’s language to justify an illegal and perfidious attack on Iran, which is not at war with any country(apart from its legitimate self defence against Israel’s war of aggression), where numerous authorities have affirmed that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons (US intelligence, the IAEA).
I'm glad that Avigail pointed out that Zionism has *always* been indefensible. She is quite right. The Jews of Europe overwhelmingly opposed Zionism until Germany and other fascist states began open oppression of Jews on a genocidal scale, at which point Britain, the US, and many other states had closed their doors to Jewish immigration, leaving Palestine under British imperial control to look like the best option for many who would have stayed where they were if they could have.
It's hard to know what to say at such a time. If we survive, we need to figure out a way to exist, going forward, that doesn't depend on putting the psychopaths in charge of our societies.
A brilliant article from someone who appears to represent humanity. Much needed information for outsiders who are starved of true facts on this subject.
However, the question remains, how would someone who represents your views and values end up in a barbaric genocidal settler colony living on land stolen from Palestinians - how does that even happen?
I don't have a god, but I hope yours keeps you and yours safe and well.
I was born, raised and educated (indoctrinated) in Israel. I left that country in 1991 when I was 27 and ten years after moving to Australia I renounced my Israeli citizenship in protest. I lived in Australian for 18 years before moving to Scotland 15 years ago, and this is where I work and live. I haven’t been an Israeli citizens for 24 years now. I couldn’t possibly live in that country. Some who are truly anti-Zionist and have the ability to leave Israel, already have. I think everyone should leave if they can and let the Palestinians get back to the land they have been ethnically cleansed from and are currently being eliminated from. I write about my history extensively in many of my articles so feel free to browse my page and read around. My personal story of how I ‘recovered’ from the Zionist cult is in my edited book, Beyond Tribal Loyalties (2nd edition) which includes 24 other stories of people from five countries who have made a similar transition. Thanks for reading, but I can assure you, I am not in Israel and am not an Israeli any longer. I couldn’t live with myself and am so grateful to my 27 y/o self who had the courage to just leave Israel with practically nothing and build a good life outside of it.
As a fluent Hebrew speaker, a part of my activism has always been ‘airing Israel’s dirty laundry’. Look up two of my articles here with those words in the title. 🙏🏼
Yes, you must. I read it years ago. I am very pleased that Avigail compiled those interviews with various anti-Zionist Jews from different backgrounds. There were some with whom I did not feel very sympathetic, but I was most interested to see how different people from a Jewish background turned against Jewish and Zionist tribalism despite heavy pressure to conform.
"Good on ya" - having lived in Australia you would understand that!
The one comment I would make is that the indoctrination in Israel is only mildly different to the rest of the West - the so called "like minded". The Islamophobia and crusader mentality is deeply ingrained in their DNA and they do not even realise it.
Thanks and you made me smile. There is indoctrination everywhere but Israel is a cult-state and is much more insistent and effective than other countries. Israel does not punish its people for dissent, not in any serious way. It manages to create what I call oppression by consensus. the more primitive the psychology of a group is, the more cult-like it becomes. Israel is at the extreme end of that continuum. Have a look at my old article on oppression by consensus on Mondoweiss. (https://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/oppression-consensus-israeli-democracy/).
Much love & gratitude to you Avigail for your extensive efforts documenting all this information. Your views and openness are so very much appropriated, when their goal is to cloak and deceive objective reality. I am grateful that I am allowed to participate on your site freely.
When Substack came along; there were a lot of us “oldies”, who were already donating to independent journalists and various causes. Giving was easy when overtime was always available; but when you retire blue collar your abilities dry up to be overly generous.
In a time when the country I come from is now, has been, and unfortunately probably always will be; the cause of resource war’s suffering; I feel somewhat responsible. I’ve spent a lifetime since the days of Vietnam trying to throw a wrench into the mechanisms of this machine. Unfortunately I’ve known nothing but failure; and the losses far outweigh the victories. Fortunately I grew up in the Windy City and our baseball team taught how to go a century enduring losses... it became an acquired taste; but it helped me to learn to do my utmost to succeed, yet alway remaining in a state of non-attachment...you learn emotional control but savor the sweetness of small victories.
So anything extra, I have been donating to the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. I’m even down to one small vegetarian meal a day... some days, in times of weakness, I include a snack. There’s a Palestinian author who tells a story from the early days of getting caught in Gaza before he was able to exit back to the West Bank that I relate to....
Of course they were barely eating while in Gaza; but when they got back to the West Bank he noticed his son could no longer eat meat. He rarely came out of his room. Traumatized by picking up body parts after the evening carnage in Gaza.
At this point in time, everything’s changed. I cannot envision life ever being whatever used to be “normal”. But, it’s painfully good to know that Iran is actively standing up to the neighborhood bully and exacting some revenge for the people of Palestine (although it makes me sad to see the bully schooled this way...there is innocence in every township of creation). Here’s hoping that this all ends soon and there’s a reckoning that turns the powerful into a state of heartfelt regret for ever being so unjustly cruel.
Thank you for this beautiful comment 🙏🏼 On my income I couldn’t possibly pay to read all the people I want to read. I make my living out of my psychotherapy work. Writing and other things are really my form of activism and I want whatever I have to offer, whatever value it might have to be offered freely to all. I have just started a podcast series sharing everything I know in my field and letting people know what psychotherapy really is, how it works, what it can do, etc. There is so much ignorance and misinformation perpetuated sadly, by my own field. I don’t have a PR machine behind me and do hope that people will find their way to the podcast somehow. Either way it is completely free too.
What happened with Substack is that a few writers have turned it into their main source of income and are now writing full time for a living. When I decided to do the podcast—and I have no prior experience or the tech knowledge to do this I looked things up and found podcasting platforms and software or guidance for people who wanted to start a podcast. All of them without exception had an item on ‘monetising’ podcasts. This neoliberalist economics/or ‘religion’ we all languish under considers giving anything for free (unless it’s part of a sampling marketing strategy) not just stupid, but almost a heresy…
I have no choice but to charge for my psychotherapy work and for my books because I have to earn some kind of living to live in this world, but everything else I offer will always be free of charge. It’s my small way of avoiding collusion with a system that I see as an insult to our potential and our humanity.
I particularly get annoyed with people who really have something useful to offer that can make people’s lives/the world better, but only those who can pay can access it. One of the problems with monetising everything is that it perpetuates the tiered model we have in humanity, of haves and have-nots and of worthy and unworthy which is not based on merit but on how predatory a person is able to be. Material success to a great extent is directly proportionate to how predatory a person is.
I reject the jungle economics we have that the Dutch began and the US perpetuated and inflicted upon the world. It’s been so successful, that people cannot imagine another way to be except a life of competition, selfishness and survivalism. I do write (complain) about this a lot.
I admire you and people like you who can see so clearly right inside your own society. It’s really brilliant and suggests maturity and an ability to remain really grounded in your values no matter what. Few people can do this. Not surprised about the vegetarianism story that emerged after seeing unimaginable horrors in Gaza. When you witness this you can’t help but realise our bodies are meat. I am mostly vegetarian, but not pure, although I am definitely moving more and more into a 100% plant-based diet. If we do not reform, we have to conceded we are a failed species. I do love my work because I know it is not just about individual psychology but it has the potential to transform us as a species.
Thank you so much and go well. (No one lives well when they betray their own values or turn a blind eye to what’s wrong in the world—so I have no doubt you are going very well indeed). 🙏🏼🌻
I too charge for my work and for the books that I publish (though I shall happily send Avigail a free copy if she wants one), but give everything else away without requesting or accepting a brass farthing. It's all for the public welfare. I don't feel that I have to be paid for everything I do. Maybe I'm losing chances to make money. So what?
People like Avigail and me are not rare: many computer programmers contribute to the development of free software, just to do a service to the world. I use a lot of free software myself and generally find it superior to commercial offerings.
What a beautifully generous response. I’m letting you know you are loved and that your heartfelt expressions are helping bring comfort and a dose of good cheer to everyone who is empathetically linked to the success of all existence. Nothing like this has ever been forced upon our awareness; so your Heart-❤️ -Art is shelter from the storm. So necessary and altruistic. You’re a rare gem in the crown of resistance Miss Avigail...be safe, be happy ✌🏼❤️🙏🕉
I didn't know that this site was used as a money-making instrument for writers. There must be much more to be made from Western propaganda than from anything worth reading. Thoreau wrote that one cannot expect to make one's living as a writer except by being popular, which is to go perpendicularly downward.
It's interesting that you write that everything in Israel's media has to be approved by a military censor. How would the reporting of people like Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, and the late Uri Avneri get through? I believe the late Robert Fisk wrote that some of the best journalism on the Middle East is done by Israeli journalist, whom, he said, put both Western and Arab journalists to shame.
The reality that all of Israel’s media are subject to the military censor is decades old. Everyone there knows it, but not everyone outside Israel knows it. I have written in a number of my articles that Ha’aretz is a Zionist paper that the Israeli government allows to continue because it serves the image that Israel is a ‘self-reflective’ country that can critique and question itself (see the second last article I posted here, where I translated and commented on an article that is very important).
Ha’aretz is a very Zionist paper and when you read people like Gideon Levy, you’re seeing only a fraction of what they publish. I don’t trust Levy that much myself for a number of reasons. He has made a good living for himself being the ‘face of Israel’s democracy’, tolerating a bit of a backlash from Israeli society but otherwise, living a very comfortable life there. The reason he is publishing what he does—and I’ve never heard him name ‘settler-colonialism’ as such, ever—is because he is allowed to. He serves an important image-making purpose for Israel. Israel has never fought on one front and psychological manipulation and PR have been huge in Israel’s arsenal of methods to enable its completion of the settler-colonial project.
Things are not always what they seem, Matt. Israel is not a democracy, and it has engaged with layers of complex deceit from its early beginnings. A lot of people have difficulty giving up on the idea that Israel might be a decent country underneath, that was just hijacked by corrupt, extremist politicians. But that’s not the case at all.
With the exception of a tiny minority, that society is massively problematic. Almost everyone there wants to see all the Palestinians gone. I wish you were fluent in Hebrew and could see and read what I do. But I also come from there and the process to recover from the massive indoctrination inflicted on people is complex and also very educational. I am grateful I managed it. It also gives me the ability to see what is a lot of the time invisible to others, or that is reconstructed in people’s minds based on people’s own Western way of thinking, and logic, and also on Israeli propaganda and image-making that people don’t even know affected them…
I know you’re just curious about what’s going on, and that’s fair because it’s not obvious why Levy is allowed to continue in a country like that. Israel does not use force against its own citizens—not like the old USSR or East Germany or other police states. Israel is a unique case of a cult-like state rather than a typical police state I don’t know if you remember my old article on Mondoweiss, ‘oppression by consensus in Israeli ‘democracy’’. You might find it interesting.
One thing that helps in analysing Israel is that it has never changed at all. It’s completely stuck. The economic prosperity they enjoyed thanks to the US only puts some glitz over the top and the appearance of modernity and progress. But right underneath the veneer that neoliberalism enables, it’s always the same. Nothing there has ever changed in any way. Ilan Pappé talks about this too.
This commentary about Haaretz and the Israeli media is so insightful. Having subscribed to Haaretz for a bit I can readily relate to what you mentioned. What about some other independent media like 972mag?
+972 is not an official media outlet. It’s basically like a blog and at the moment it’s allowed to operate without restrictions. I do understand that there has been some harassment of their journalists, but nothing too serious. Israel keeping things like this and Gideon Levy for exactly the same reason. Whatever ‘damage’ they do with their criticism of Israel, they are still hugely helpful in making Israel look like a decent ‘democracy’ that allows freedom of speech and self-criticism. It means nothing. +972 is not a bad news outlet although I have not ever read the words ‘settler-colonialism’ there in the same way that I have never heard Levy utter them either. I could of course be wrong, but this is what I have observed.
Gideon Levy lives on a short leash, and he knows it. Avigail is right: he serves as the «critical» element in the Zionist entity. He helps to create the illusion of a free press. The settler-colonial public in occupied Palestine is almost wholly Zionist, yet Levy gives the impression of strong currents against the prevailing régime. What is not widely understood is that hardly anyone in occupied Palestine reads his writing: it is meant for foreign consumption and is thus propaganda.
Yes, he needs to be arrested, but even if he disappears suddenly, his successor is already waiting in the wings. Netanyahu is very very bad. He is a corrupt, psychopathic narcissist, but if you can believe it there are people far worse than him trying to take over Israel. I can’t give you an exact reference now, but Ilan Pappé makes a prediction about where Israel is going, which is worth considering. Pappé talks about the ‘Kingdom of Judah’ version of Israel run by those who want Israel to exist only by Jewish religious law.
Netanyahu is the last barrier before this happens. If/when he goes, watch Israel become a religious state. It’s extremely dangerous, even worse than the attack on Iran. Those religious lunatics plan to blow up the Al Aqsa mosque for example, among other things. Can you imagine the shockwaves from that? To those who would be his successors, Netanyahu is not moving fast enough, and they hate the fact that he is not religious. Israel must be stopped. It’s going to get even worse before the Israel implodes.
Yes, but let's not treat this situation as the work of Nazi Yahoo alone. The overwhelming majority of the settler-colonial public occupying Palestine supports Zionism wholeheartedly. If Nazi Yahoo were not there, someone equivalent would continue his fascist practices.
I see a large false flag event coming very soon. When they stopped allowing Israelis to leave Israel, it made me think a small nuclear bomb could possibly be used there and blamed on Iran, but I think that it will happen in the US, with the full knowledge of our government. It will happen soon, whatever it is will be a large one, with many American deaths. I hope people realize it was Israel and the US that did it, and not Iran.
I hope you are wrong but I wouldn’t put it past them, especially as Israel is getting worried and desperate about US getting more openly involved. It is involved, just not as much or as openly as Israel would like it to be.
Without the US, there would be no Zionist entity. (Without Britain, there never would have been one.) Of course the US is deeply involved in the proxy wars conducted through its Zionist cat's-paw. The US and its flunkeys are also _de facto_ at war with Russia, through their neo-Nazi Ukrainian cat's-paw.
Thanks! Many of Tel Aviv’s older poorer areas have already been gentrified and the place is littered with luxury apartment high-rises.
I know you’re being a bit sarcastic, or tongue in cheek, but to answer the question seriously: in a crowded and densely populated space like centre of Israel, any piece of land can be prime real estate. So, if they get to rebuild, we’ll see what happens. Either way, in the capitalist world we live in the poor are the first to suffer, whether it is because of the impact of climate change or war. It’s a stupidly and wickedly organised world we have. It’s time to change it
There's people claiming (with very sound reasoning imo) that the whole thing is choreographed by both sides.
So I was wondering whether the Iranians are helping the Israelis eliminate the Orthodox Jews who don't serve and are a potential liability, while reclaiming the prime property they sit on. I'm trying to connect the dots.
No, that is ridiculous with people going way too far. I am far from trusting, but honestly… Sometimes there are no dots to connect.
Israel is being hit everywhere. B’nei Brak is just one location, and I mentioned it because the bomb shelters were locked due to local authority incompetence.
Since its early days, the Zionist movement has demanded not only Palestine but also everything «from the Nile to the Euphrates». You can imagine, then, that the land in Palestine itself is considered prime real estate by the settler-colonial occupiers.
Thank you Avigail. Am I allowed to feel somewhat heartened by what you've told us? I don't believe I harbour any malice for ordinary Israelis (who are themselves victims of their indoctrination), but I definitely felt a little relief to read that things are not going all Israel's way, whatever "Truth" they report.
There's a typo in Para 7 ..."shock waves caused by kinetic energy which can [???] entire streets"...
Thanks Tony and it’s completely normal that you feel the way you do. Ilan Pappé has been saying that Israeli society is crumbling but he also says that when settler colonial societies collapse it is also a very dangerous time. Thanks for spotting the typo/error. I think I fixed everything but if you find anything else, let me know.
Your English is beautiful, and superior to that of many native speakers (which isn't saying much). Now and then I notice a slight infelicity, but I don't bother to point it out.
Thanks for giving us a deeper perspective on what's going on inside the country. Media coverage in the US usually ends dramatic videos of missile strikes, your observations on their own provide better insight into what's happening within Israel then all of the news coverage I've seen put together
Your final paragraph is the key to everything I feel. Israel depends enormously on support from Jews in the Western diaspora who are thereby contributing indirectly to all the horrors inflicted directly by Israel. So while most everyone seems to be concentrating their attention on the actions of Israel few - as far as I can see - are commenting on the political, financial, commercial, legal, moral, social, familial support that underpins it. Without change here nothing will change in Israel unless it collapses from within.
The horror of the mass murder and mass terror and starvation has been unending and now Gaza is dark with the killing off of mobile reception. The same horrors will only increase and intensify. And under the full fog of war insane attacks on Iran will the West Bank is being stolen.
Israel is fully actively fed, supported, enabled, subsidised, protected and defended by us in the West. There does not seem to any more ways to enable this genocide and insane attacks on all neighbours. Other than our troops on the ground being shot, maimed and murdered for the Zionist cause. That will be the true sign of success, of domination of the west, when we gentiles are dying for their gain.
And yes, thanks big time for the reporting and most importantly context and observations.
Killing is killing.
Terror is terror.
No matter who experiences it.
Any war any time is terrible.
I was at an intersection waiting to turn right thinking, gods, imaging being somewhere where a missile could slam into the ground in front of me at any moment.
I totally agree and thank you. As I always say, a crime is a crime and that’s what we need to focus on. It doesn’t matter who the perpetrator or the victim are. I have empathy for everyone, but I am also able to call out the roles that different characters play. I often make an analogy to relationship therapy and the rules we apply in that context. I have no problem recognising that everyone has their psychology, but I focus on the crime. If someone is abusive because they suffer from trauma, I can empathise with their suffering but will not tolerate the abuse and will do everything I can to dismantle the power structure that allows them to abuse their victim. Israeli society is psychologically very primitive, pathetic, anxious and weak, but it’s also very dangerous. So, yes, Israel must be stopped, and all I am seeing is our own countries enabling it even more.
They say the worst thing that can happen to a person is that they get what they want. Israel thinks it is getting what it wants, but its only accelerating their path to self-destruction. They can never come back from their crimes. They will never be a healthy society living on the corpses of babies they let die in incubators in Gaza and much more. Israel must be stopped.
I am reading “Why does he do that?” by Lundy Bancroft at the moment and I can see parallels of abusing men in intimate relationships and the way Israel is acting as a country. Enforced abuse, killing and destruction.
It’s quite disturbing the similarities.
Lundy is quite a guy and the little I have read of the book so far is impressive. Such a tough job working with absusive men.
There certainly seems to be links to psychopathy that Bibi and his gang all display in endlessly escalating depravity.
Your statement that Israeli society is harsh unkind and ruthless is confirmation enough to explain the propensity of Israeli society to project hate violence inferiority onto others. It’s exploitive fundamentalism religious and social is driven to affirm an innate right to mastery over the weak poor and disenfranchised which has been the subject of its violence since it’s very inception. The capitalist logic of Israel combined with a messianic religious zeal has created the most ruthless purveyor of the expansionist US Empire and its billionaire elites.
It is absolute insanity to me that Israel continues to bomb Gaza while missiles rain down on it from Iran. What sort of country is this, that even a threat to its very existence won’t turn it from genocide?
It’s a cult-society that has one goal in mind, eliminating all Palestinian presence from all of historic Palestine at *any* cost to secure an exclusively Jewish state. Since Israel defines Jewishness by race, it means a ‘racially pure’ state. They are insane and the world should have stopped them a long time ago. But we live in a wild and unjust world ruled by bullies.
Thanks for this, Avigail. I always appreciate your perspective and insights.
"A ‘war’ with Iran was necessary to Israel because the world’s opinion was starting to shift because of the obvious genocide in Gaza. Israel is hoping to restore the ‘poor little Israel only defending itself from the terrible Iranians’ story, while distracting from the wider genocide of the Palestinian people.
And this isn’t war. This is wholesale carnage perpetrated by a rogue, settler-colonial state determined to have its exclusively, ‘racially-pure’, Jewish state no matter who gets hurt, including its own (mainly economically deprived) people.
Israel must be stopped. There has never been any justification for anyone in the world to support Israel and enable it, and yet we are watching our own countries doing just that."
The script for the "poor little Israel" or rather "Israel is doing our dirty work" was distributed at the G7 meeting. The G7 and in particular Mr Napoleon were even more eager than the Zionists to find a distraction from Gaza. The political elite of the West are blurting out the drivel word for word back in their respective countries - including the settler colony in sunny Australia!!
The political elite are so out of touch with the majority of their populations. It's showing that we don't really live in democracies when our leaders violate our morality for all to see.
They aren’t actually out of touch - they are fully aware, but choose to ignore simply because they can. Particularly so, when the major parties collude and thereby prevent citizens from voting on certain issues. This is yet another challenge with Westminster style democracy.
Hence, in many Western nations, citizens were unable to vote on the Palestine genocide because both major parties simply said “Israel has a right to defend itself”! Therefore, although both parties knew there was strong support for the Palestinians, the political class could act with impunity.
And, imo, this is not democracy.
Well, democracy comes in many forms and the only country where I see a democratic government really work for it's people is China - try peeling apart the Western propaganda and look at the results. In the West the members of the government work for themselves.
Show me a Western, so called democracy where the government reflect the peoples view on the matter of the Palestinian genocide!
In countries such as the US and Canada, much of the public is ignorant of Palestinian affairs and merely laps up whatever it gets from television and other sources of state propaganda. Relatively few people are informed enough to offer a meaningful opinion. Of those who do, many just go in for tribalism.
I think the Palestinian genocide shows a class divide in the west so clearly, and how the ruling class and its allies do not represent the majority of people being governed.
Hitler also claimed he was doing the West’s dirty work, defending “Western Civilisation” (oxymoron) against the enemy within - the Jews. Now Netanyahu and ‘“The West” most shockingly German Chancellor Merz who seems to have forgotten his country’s history, echoing Hitler’s language to justify an illegal and perfidious attack on Iran, which is not at war with any country(apart from its legitimate self defence against Israel’s war of aggression), where numerous authorities have affirmed that Iran is not developing nuclear weapons (US intelligence, the IAEA).
Germany has never really reformed. It’s just avoided… It’s psychology has not changed.
I'm glad that Avigail pointed out that Zionism has *always* been indefensible. She is quite right. The Jews of Europe overwhelmingly opposed Zionism until Germany and other fascist states began open oppression of Jews on a genocidal scale, at which point Britain, the US, and many other states had closed their doors to Jewish immigration, leaving Palestine under British imperial control to look like the best option for many who would have stayed where they were if they could have.
Thank you for a detailed article on the truth about Israel!
It's hard to know what to say at such a time. If we survive, we need to figure out a way to exist, going forward, that doesn't depend on putting the psychopaths in charge of our societies.
Thank you.
A brilliant article from someone who appears to represent humanity. Much needed information for outsiders who are starved of true facts on this subject.
However, the question remains, how would someone who represents your views and values end up in a barbaric genocidal settler colony living on land stolen from Palestinians - how does that even happen?
I don't have a god, but I hope yours keeps you and yours safe and well.
I was born, raised and educated (indoctrinated) in Israel. I left that country in 1991 when I was 27 and ten years after moving to Australia I renounced my Israeli citizenship in protest. I lived in Australian for 18 years before moving to Scotland 15 years ago, and this is where I work and live. I haven’t been an Israeli citizens for 24 years now. I couldn’t possibly live in that country. Some who are truly anti-Zionist and have the ability to leave Israel, already have. I think everyone should leave if they can and let the Palestinians get back to the land they have been ethnically cleansed from and are currently being eliminated from. I write about my history extensively in many of my articles so feel free to browse my page and read around. My personal story of how I ‘recovered’ from the Zionist cult is in my edited book, Beyond Tribal Loyalties (2nd edition) which includes 24 other stories of people from five countries who have made a similar transition. Thanks for reading, but I can assure you, I am not in Israel and am not an Israeli any longer. I couldn’t live with myself and am so grateful to my 27 y/o self who had the courage to just leave Israel with practically nothing and build a good life outside of it.
As a fluent Hebrew speaker, a part of my activism has always been ‘airing Israel’s dirty laundry’. Look up two of my articles here with those words in the title. 🙏🏼
I was once a dispensational Zionist. Breaking the mind control was difficult but necessary.
Thank you Avigail for writing about your life experience and sharing valuable insight on the Israeli mentality.
I must read your book !
Yes, you must. I read it years ago. I am very pleased that Avigail compiled those interviews with various anti-Zionist Jews from different backgrounds. There were some with whom I did not feel very sympathetic, but I was most interested to see how different people from a Jewish background turned against Jewish and Zionist tribalism despite heavy pressure to conform.
"Good on ya" - having lived in Australia you would understand that!
The one comment I would make is that the indoctrination in Israel is only mildly different to the rest of the West - the so called "like minded". The Islamophobia and crusader mentality is deeply ingrained in their DNA and they do not even realise it.
Thanks and you made me smile. There is indoctrination everywhere but Israel is a cult-state and is much more insistent and effective than other countries. Israel does not punish its people for dissent, not in any serious way. It manages to create what I call oppression by consensus. the more primitive the psychology of a group is, the more cult-like it becomes. Israel is at the extreme end of that continuum. Have a look at my old article on oppression by consensus on Mondoweiss. (https://mondoweiss.net/2014/02/oppression-consensus-israeli-democracy/).
Much love & gratitude to you Avigail for your extensive efforts documenting all this information. Your views and openness are so very much appropriated, when their goal is to cloak and deceive objective reality. I am grateful that I am allowed to participate on your site freely.
When Substack came along; there were a lot of us “oldies”, who were already donating to independent journalists and various causes. Giving was easy when overtime was always available; but when you retire blue collar your abilities dry up to be overly generous.
In a time when the country I come from is now, has been, and unfortunately probably always will be; the cause of resource war’s suffering; I feel somewhat responsible. I’ve spent a lifetime since the days of Vietnam trying to throw a wrench into the mechanisms of this machine. Unfortunately I’ve known nothing but failure; and the losses far outweigh the victories. Fortunately I grew up in the Windy City and our baseball team taught how to go a century enduring losses... it became an acquired taste; but it helped me to learn to do my utmost to succeed, yet alway remaining in a state of non-attachment...you learn emotional control but savor the sweetness of small victories.
So anything extra, I have been donating to the peoples of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. I’m even down to one small vegetarian meal a day... some days, in times of weakness, I include a snack. There’s a Palestinian author who tells a story from the early days of getting caught in Gaza before he was able to exit back to the West Bank that I relate to....
Of course they were barely eating while in Gaza; but when they got back to the West Bank he noticed his son could no longer eat meat. He rarely came out of his room. Traumatized by picking up body parts after the evening carnage in Gaza.
At this point in time, everything’s changed. I cannot envision life ever being whatever used to be “normal”. But, it’s painfully good to know that Iran is actively standing up to the neighborhood bully and exacting some revenge for the people of Palestine (although it makes me sad to see the bully schooled this way...there is innocence in every township of creation). Here’s hoping that this all ends soon and there’s a reckoning that turns the powerful into a state of heartfelt regret for ever being so unjustly cruel.
✌🏼🇵🇸🇱🇧🇸🇾🇮🇷🇮🇶🇾🇪❤️🙏🕉
Thank you for this beautiful comment 🙏🏼 On my income I couldn’t possibly pay to read all the people I want to read. I make my living out of my psychotherapy work. Writing and other things are really my form of activism and I want whatever I have to offer, whatever value it might have to be offered freely to all. I have just started a podcast series sharing everything I know in my field and letting people know what psychotherapy really is, how it works, what it can do, etc. There is so much ignorance and misinformation perpetuated sadly, by my own field. I don’t have a PR machine behind me and do hope that people will find their way to the podcast somehow. Either way it is completely free too.
What happened with Substack is that a few writers have turned it into their main source of income and are now writing full time for a living. When I decided to do the podcast—and I have no prior experience or the tech knowledge to do this I looked things up and found podcasting platforms and software or guidance for people who wanted to start a podcast. All of them without exception had an item on ‘monetising’ podcasts. This neoliberalist economics/or ‘religion’ we all languish under considers giving anything for free (unless it’s part of a sampling marketing strategy) not just stupid, but almost a heresy…
I have no choice but to charge for my psychotherapy work and for my books because I have to earn some kind of living to live in this world, but everything else I offer will always be free of charge. It’s my small way of avoiding collusion with a system that I see as an insult to our potential and our humanity.
I particularly get annoyed with people who really have something useful to offer that can make people’s lives/the world better, but only those who can pay can access it. One of the problems with monetising everything is that it perpetuates the tiered model we have in humanity, of haves and have-nots and of worthy and unworthy which is not based on merit but on how predatory a person is able to be. Material success to a great extent is directly proportionate to how predatory a person is.
I reject the jungle economics we have that the Dutch began and the US perpetuated and inflicted upon the world. It’s been so successful, that people cannot imagine another way to be except a life of competition, selfishness and survivalism. I do write (complain) about this a lot.
I admire you and people like you who can see so clearly right inside your own society. It’s really brilliant and suggests maturity and an ability to remain really grounded in your values no matter what. Few people can do this. Not surprised about the vegetarianism story that emerged after seeing unimaginable horrors in Gaza. When you witness this you can’t help but realise our bodies are meat. I am mostly vegetarian, but not pure, although I am definitely moving more and more into a 100% plant-based diet. If we do not reform, we have to conceded we are a failed species. I do love my work because I know it is not just about individual psychology but it has the potential to transform us as a species.
Thank you so much and go well. (No one lives well when they betray their own values or turn a blind eye to what’s wrong in the world—so I have no doubt you are going very well indeed). 🙏🏼🌻
I too charge for my work and for the books that I publish (though I shall happily send Avigail a free copy if she wants one), but give everything else away without requesting or accepting a brass farthing. It's all for the public welfare. I don't feel that I have to be paid for everything I do. Maybe I'm losing chances to make money. So what?
People like Avigail and me are not rare: many computer programmers contribute to the development of free software, just to do a service to the world. I use a lot of free software myself and generally find it superior to commercial offerings.
What a beautifully generous response. I’m letting you know you are loved and that your heartfelt expressions are helping bring comfort and a dose of good cheer to everyone who is empathetically linked to the success of all existence. Nothing like this has ever been forced upon our awareness; so your Heart-❤️ -Art is shelter from the storm. So necessary and altruistic. You’re a rare gem in the crown of resistance Miss Avigail...be safe, be happy ✌🏼❤️🙏🕉
🙏🏼😌♥️🇵🇸
I didn't know that this site was used as a money-making instrument for writers. There must be much more to be made from Western propaganda than from anything worth reading. Thoreau wrote that one cannot expect to make one's living as a writer except by being popular, which is to go perpendicularly downward.
It's interesting that you write that everything in Israel's media has to be approved by a military censor. How would the reporting of people like Gideon Levy, Amira Hass, and the late Uri Avneri get through? I believe the late Robert Fisk wrote that some of the best journalism on the Middle East is done by Israeli journalist, whom, he said, put both Western and Arab journalists to shame.
The reality that all of Israel’s media are subject to the military censor is decades old. Everyone there knows it, but not everyone outside Israel knows it. I have written in a number of my articles that Ha’aretz is a Zionist paper that the Israeli government allows to continue because it serves the image that Israel is a ‘self-reflective’ country that can critique and question itself (see the second last article I posted here, where I translated and commented on an article that is very important).
Ha’aretz is a very Zionist paper and when you read people like Gideon Levy, you’re seeing only a fraction of what they publish. I don’t trust Levy that much myself for a number of reasons. He has made a good living for himself being the ‘face of Israel’s democracy’, tolerating a bit of a backlash from Israeli society but otherwise, living a very comfortable life there. The reason he is publishing what he does—and I’ve never heard him name ‘settler-colonialism’ as such, ever—is because he is allowed to. He serves an important image-making purpose for Israel. Israel has never fought on one front and psychological manipulation and PR have been huge in Israel’s arsenal of methods to enable its completion of the settler-colonial project.
Things are not always what they seem, Matt. Israel is not a democracy, and it has engaged with layers of complex deceit from its early beginnings. A lot of people have difficulty giving up on the idea that Israel might be a decent country underneath, that was just hijacked by corrupt, extremist politicians. But that’s not the case at all.
With the exception of a tiny minority, that society is massively problematic. Almost everyone there wants to see all the Palestinians gone. I wish you were fluent in Hebrew and could see and read what I do. But I also come from there and the process to recover from the massive indoctrination inflicted on people is complex and also very educational. I am grateful I managed it. It also gives me the ability to see what is a lot of the time invisible to others, or that is reconstructed in people’s minds based on people’s own Western way of thinking, and logic, and also on Israeli propaganda and image-making that people don’t even know affected them…
I know you’re just curious about what’s going on, and that’s fair because it’s not obvious why Levy is allowed to continue in a country like that. Israel does not use force against its own citizens—not like the old USSR or East Germany or other police states. Israel is a unique case of a cult-like state rather than a typical police state I don’t know if you remember my old article on Mondoweiss, ‘oppression by consensus in Israeli ‘democracy’’. You might find it interesting.
One thing that helps in analysing Israel is that it has never changed at all. It’s completely stuck. The economic prosperity they enjoyed thanks to the US only puts some glitz over the top and the appearance of modernity and progress. But right underneath the veneer that neoliberalism enables, it’s always the same. Nothing there has ever changed in any way. Ilan Pappé talks about this too.
This commentary about Haaretz and the Israeli media is so insightful. Having subscribed to Haaretz for a bit I can readily relate to what you mentioned. What about some other independent media like 972mag?
+972 is not an official media outlet. It’s basically like a blog and at the moment it’s allowed to operate without restrictions. I do understand that there has been some harassment of their journalists, but nothing too serious. Israel keeping things like this and Gideon Levy for exactly the same reason. Whatever ‘damage’ they do with their criticism of Israel, they are still hugely helpful in making Israel look like a decent ‘democracy’ that allows freedom of speech and self-criticism. It means nothing. +972 is not a bad news outlet although I have not ever read the words ‘settler-colonialism’ there in the same way that I have never heard Levy utter them either. I could of course be wrong, but this is what I have observed.
Gideon Levy lives on a short leash, and he knows it. Avigail is right: he serves as the «critical» element in the Zionist entity. He helps to create the illusion of a free press. The settler-colonial public in occupied Palestine is almost wholly Zionist, yet Levy gives the impression of strong currents against the prevailing régime. What is not widely understood is that hardly anyone in occupied Palestine reads his writing: it is meant for foreign consumption and is thus propaganda.
Netanyahu must be arrested.
Yes, he needs to be arrested, but even if he disappears suddenly, his successor is already waiting in the wings. Netanyahu is very very bad. He is a corrupt, psychopathic narcissist, but if you can believe it there are people far worse than him trying to take over Israel. I can’t give you an exact reference now, but Ilan Pappé makes a prediction about where Israel is going, which is worth considering. Pappé talks about the ‘Kingdom of Judah’ version of Israel run by those who want Israel to exist only by Jewish religious law.
Netanyahu is the last barrier before this happens. If/when he goes, watch Israel become a religious state. It’s extremely dangerous, even worse than the attack on Iran. Those religious lunatics plan to blow up the Al Aqsa mosque for example, among other things. Can you imagine the shockwaves from that? To those who would be his successors, Netanyahu is not moving fast enough, and they hate the fact that he is not religious. Israel must be stopped. It’s going to get even worse before the Israel implodes.
You can just imagine how bad things will be when the US implodes…
Yes, but let's not treat this situation as the work of Nazi Yahoo alone. The overwhelming majority of the settler-colonial public occupying Palestine supports Zionism wholeheartedly. If Nazi Yahoo were not there, someone equivalent would continue his fascist practices.
I see a large false flag event coming very soon. When they stopped allowing Israelis to leave Israel, it made me think a small nuclear bomb could possibly be used there and blamed on Iran, but I think that it will happen in the US, with the full knowledge of our government. It will happen soon, whatever it is will be a large one, with many American deaths. I hope people realize it was Israel and the US that did it, and not Iran.
I hope you are wrong but I wouldn’t put it past them, especially as Israel is getting worried and desperate about US getting more openly involved. It is involved, just not as much or as openly as Israel would like it to be.
Without the US, there would be no Zionist entity. (Without Britain, there never would have been one.) Of course the US is deeply involved in the proxy wars conducted through its Zionist cat's-paw. The US and its flunkeys are also _de facto_ at war with Russia, through their neo-Nazi Ukrainian cat's-paw.
Thanks Avigail, it's very important to have voices like yours giving us insight into the other side.
A quick question: re the area where poor Israelis live that was hit, is it sitting on potentially prime property?
Thanks! Many of Tel Aviv’s older poorer areas have already been gentrified and the place is littered with luxury apartment high-rises.
I know you’re being a bit sarcastic, or tongue in cheek, but to answer the question seriously: in a crowded and densely populated space like centre of Israel, any piece of land can be prime real estate. So, if they get to rebuild, we’ll see what happens. Either way, in the capitalist world we live in the poor are the first to suffer, whether it is because of the impact of climate change or war. It’s a stupidly and wickedly organised world we have. It’s time to change it
I wasn't being sarcastic.
There's people claiming (with very sound reasoning imo) that the whole thing is choreographed by both sides.
So I was wondering whether the Iranians are helping the Israelis eliminate the Orthodox Jews who don't serve and are a potential liability, while reclaiming the prime property they sit on. I'm trying to connect the dots.
Thanks for your reply
No, that is ridiculous with people going way too far. I am far from trusting, but honestly… Sometimes there are no dots to connect.
Israel is being hit everywhere. B’nei Brak is just one location, and I mentioned it because the bomb shelters were locked due to local authority incompetence.
Ok thanks. I’m open to all interpretations but I don't follow blindly, I try to test the validity as much as I can of course.
I just thought that this area was primarily targeted, and wondered why, didn't realise it wasn't the only one.
Trust was lost a long time ago, and we're scrambling to make sense of what we're watching
Since its early days, the Zionist movement has demanded not only Palestine but also everything «from the Nile to the Euphrates». You can imagine, then, that the land in Palestine itself is considered prime real estate by the settler-colonial occupiers.
Thank you Avigail. Shared with our Community Camp for Palestine group and it was much appreciated.🙏🏽
Thanks so much for sharing it!!
Thank you Avigail. Am I allowed to feel somewhat heartened by what you've told us? I don't believe I harbour any malice for ordinary Israelis (who are themselves victims of their indoctrination), but I definitely felt a little relief to read that things are not going all Israel's way, whatever "Truth" they report.
There's a typo in Para 7 ..."shock waves caused by kinetic energy which can [???] entire streets"...
Thanks Tony and it’s completely normal that you feel the way you do. Ilan Pappé has been saying that Israeli society is crumbling but he also says that when settler colonial societies collapse it is also a very dangerous time. Thanks for spotting the typo/error. I think I fixed everything but if you find anything else, let me know.
Your English is beautiful, and superior to that of many native speakers (which isn't saying much). Now and then I notice a slight infelicity, but I don't bother to point it out.
Thanks for giving us a deeper perspective on what's going on inside the country. Media coverage in the US usually ends dramatic videos of missile strikes, your observations on their own provide better insight into what's happening within Israel then all of the news coverage I've seen put together
Your final paragraph is the key to everything I feel. Israel depends enormously on support from Jews in the Western diaspora who are thereby contributing indirectly to all the horrors inflicted directly by Israel. So while most everyone seems to be concentrating their attention on the actions of Israel few - as far as I can see - are commenting on the political, financial, commercial, legal, moral, social, familial support that underpins it. Without change here nothing will change in Israel unless it collapses from within.
Israel must be stopped!
If only.
The horror of the mass murder and mass terror and starvation has been unending and now Gaza is dark with the killing off of mobile reception. The same horrors will only increase and intensify. And under the full fog of war insane attacks on Iran will the West Bank is being stolen.
Israel is fully actively fed, supported, enabled, subsidised, protected and defended by us in the West. There does not seem to any more ways to enable this genocide and insane attacks on all neighbours. Other than our troops on the ground being shot, maimed and murdered for the Zionist cause. That will be the true sign of success, of domination of the west, when we gentiles are dying for their gain.
And yes, thanks big time for the reporting and most importantly context and observations.
Killing is killing.
Terror is terror.
No matter who experiences it.
Any war any time is terrible.
I was at an intersection waiting to turn right thinking, gods, imaging being somewhere where a missile could slam into the ground in front of me at any moment.
Israel needs to be stopped right now!
I totally agree and thank you. As I always say, a crime is a crime and that’s what we need to focus on. It doesn’t matter who the perpetrator or the victim are. I have empathy for everyone, but I am also able to call out the roles that different characters play. I often make an analogy to relationship therapy and the rules we apply in that context. I have no problem recognising that everyone has their psychology, but I focus on the crime. If someone is abusive because they suffer from trauma, I can empathise with their suffering but will not tolerate the abuse and will do everything I can to dismantle the power structure that allows them to abuse their victim. Israeli society is psychologically very primitive, pathetic, anxious and weak, but it’s also very dangerous. So, yes, Israel must be stopped, and all I am seeing is our own countries enabling it even more.
They say the worst thing that can happen to a person is that they get what they want. Israel thinks it is getting what it wants, but its only accelerating their path to self-destruction. They can never come back from their crimes. They will never be a healthy society living on the corpses of babies they let die in incubators in Gaza and much more. Israel must be stopped.
I am reading “Why does he do that?” by Lundy Bancroft at the moment and I can see parallels of abusing men in intimate relationships and the way Israel is acting as a country. Enforced abuse, killing and destruction.
It’s quite disturbing the similarities.
Lundy is quite a guy and the little I have read of the book so far is impressive. Such a tough job working with absusive men.
There certainly seems to be links to psychopathy that Bibi and his gang all display in endlessly escalating depravity.
Your statement that Israeli society is harsh unkind and ruthless is confirmation enough to explain the propensity of Israeli society to project hate violence inferiority onto others. It’s exploitive fundamentalism religious and social is driven to affirm an innate right to mastery over the weak poor and disenfranchised which has been the subject of its violence since it’s very inception. The capitalist logic of Israel combined with a messianic religious zeal has created the most ruthless purveyor of the expansionist US Empire and its billionaire elites.
It is absolute insanity to me that Israel continues to bomb Gaza while missiles rain down on it from Iran. What sort of country is this, that even a threat to its very existence won’t turn it from genocide?
It’s a cult-society that has one goal in mind, eliminating all Palestinian presence from all of historic Palestine at *any* cost to secure an exclusively Jewish state. Since Israel defines Jewishness by race, it means a ‘racially pure’ state. They are insane and the world should have stopped them a long time ago. But we live in a wild and unjust world ruled by bullies.