Israel: The World's Most 'Moral' Army Pt. 2

Freedom of speech is the ultimate freedom worth defending

May 08, 2024

People love free speech until someone says something they disagree with. I made this point two years ago when writing about Kanye West.

Kanye is wrong about a lot of things.

Shit, the guy is putting out a porn company after professing to be a Christian.

But he has a right to his opinion — no matter how ignorant and fucked up that opinion might be. Contrary to what television and Hollywood might tell you, you do not need to be qualified to have an opinion.

When I wrote that in a now-viral article on Medium, someone in the comments said, “This is all good and dandy, but let’s see your thoughts on Israel.”

One week after October 7, I gave that opinion.

The tl;dr is when it comes to war, egging on war, and whipping up people into a state of "you're either with Israel, or you're with Hamas,” like what Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, Dennis Prager and US politicians on the left, right, and center (all pocketing money from AIPAC) you can go fuck right off.

Extreme? No. And I only say no because months into this war, several actually extreme events have happened:

Criticism of Israel is conflated with antisemitism… I have many Jewish friends and don’t hate groups of people. This logic that criticizing Israel is antisemitic is really, really dumb especially since many Jews aren’t Zionists.
Parts of the bible have been labeled antisemitic, which led to conservative pundit Candace Owen’s being fired from the Daily Wire.
The House just passed an antisemitism bill.
College protestors (many Jewish) are being called terrorists and aren’t
And with the recent invasion into Rafah, Joe Biden has written Israel a blank check to do whatever they want.

I want to give you a few quick empirical reasons why this war is destroying American academia, free speech, and, eventually, America.

As the founder of World Kitchen Jose Andres said after losing several of his aid were blown up by Israel: “This is not a war against terrorism anymore, it is a war against humanity itself.”

College Protestors Aren’t Terrorists

Duh. Duh? Many people dunking on protestors haven’t been to a college campus in 20 years, if not ever.

I live next to City College in NYC where pro-palestine protests lasted two weeks. I saw everything. The gunshots, the tanks, the Jew-beating skinheads. Kidding. None of that happened of course.

In 1969, the University of Chicago blew up during a protest when students took over a faculty building. What did University President Ed Levi do? He didn’t call the police and the protestors disbanded after a few days.

In that decade, similar colleges like Columbia, Harvard, and we all know Kent State did get the cops involved. Things got violent like what’s happening now.

Here’s the simple point… I’m going to do this for all these sections.

Simple point: When BLM started to take hold in 2019, my small NJ college WELCOMED protests. Hell, I wasn’t even there when George Floyd was killed… but we all watched the US and parts of Europe burn down with a smaller police presence than now.

These kids are not terrorists. Hell, the George Floyd protest could much more easily be compared to terrorism. Why weren’t police called then, but now?

Israel is Not America’s Greatest Ally, They’re a Liability

This is an apt time for a quote from a former US President.

The only thing wrong here is that the Israel lobby is more powerful today than they were then. Saying so isn’t antisemitic. The US has given Israel more aid than any other nation since World War II, granting it more than $260 billion.

Anyway, a quote from President Nixon:

“Let me let me explain something about what is called the Jewish Lobby in this country. In the first place, Jews, understandably in the United States because of what happened in World War II because of the Holocaust, are going to put first priority on the survival of Israel. Now, as good Americans as they are, they believe that America's survival and security are directly related to Israel.
In other words, their belief is that being for Israel first does not mean you're putting America second. An American president, however, has to approach it differently. In my opinion, he's got to always think first of what is best for America, and that's true whether it has to do with the Israelis, the Irish, the Germans, or the Poles.
Usually, what is best for America is also best for Israel and vice versa, but on occasions, an American President must make a decision that does not, in effect, give the Israelis a blank check.”

Israel Privatizes American Money, Socializes Their Own Problems Back to Us

You don’t get to wage war in the Middle East, displace tons of Palestinians, and have no consequences. Actually, you do—if you’re Israel.

The point here is that Nixon was right in a deeper sense: a blank check for Israel— while it seems beneficial for Israel—isn’t even the best policy for Israel itself.

Simpler Point: Because we’ve given Israel carte blanche, they act recklessly— as they are with Rafah—and displace millions of Palestinians, they create worse terrorism (similar to us with ISIS) and piss off their neighbors Egypt and Iran.

Israel is the Greatest Enemy Against Freedom of Speech

Right now, Google the IHRA laws. Do it. Go. These rules are implemented in over 40 different countries and consider anti-semitism a federal crime.

While the IHRA laws contain many stupid, pointless items, the most asinine is: “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, i.e., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.’

As John F. Kennedy once said, “Those who make peaceful protest impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”

Simple Point: Not being able to criticize Israel or forcing self-censorship around Jews will lead to real hate. It’ll lead to actual antisemitism.

Christians Are So Freaking Delusional For Israel

Foreign policy expert John Mearsheimer has pointed out that many Christian Zionists love Israel and support the Israel lobby more than many US Jews who want a fair deal between Israel and the US.

Simple Point: Martyring yourself for a country without critical thought is not Christian, it’s stupid. Paul warns believers not rooted in the Word will be deceived.

Final Point: Legalize Hate Speech

We shouldn’t be calling for more censorship — solutions that CNN, AIPAC and this new bill argue for. We should, instead, be fighting for the US to prioritize the best thing for the US. A blank check for Israel isn’t good for anyone.

Hate speech only protects overly sensitive victims like Ben Shapiro and Dave Rubin.

It shouldn’t be that 51% of Americans think the First Amendment is outdated and should be rewritten. I imagine people arguing for it to end have no clue what a world without the First Amendment would look like.

I’ve heard some like Dennis Prager argue that civilians die in war and good people die. Here’s the problem with that:

Israel has tremendous power and resources over Hamas. The onus is on them not to slaughter civilians—shit, aren’t they the “Most Moral Army.”
Further, the US fought as counter-terrorists during Iraq because we did our best to protect civilians. Make that your mission. Get the bad guys.
Lastly, Hamas is a problem Israel funded.

As I said at the top, I’m not against Jews because stereotyping en masse is stupid unless we’re doing a comedy skit. But the weird part in all of this is that our government and media are more sold out than the Knesset and Israeli media.

How is it that Haaretz (Israel NYT) is more critical of Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu than our own press, which is more excited than a catnip-stoned kitten to demonize college protestors (the same they supported during BLM)? Fuck that. Fuck this war. Long live free speech!

“If we do not believe in freedom of speech for our enemies, we do not believe in it at all” -Noam Chomsky, Linguist Socialist

Thanks for reading; I hope I didn’t just lose half of my subscribers again. If you’re around New York City let’s get a coffee sometime. ☕