Table
of Contents
1. What Happened
2. Why the Shooter Did What He Did
3. The
Politics Behind the Shooter's Motivations
4. My Inward Reaction to the Shooting, Part 1: White-on-Black
Violence, and Guns in Church
5. My Inward Reaction to the Shooting, Part 2: Christian-on-Muslim
Violence
6. My Inward Reaction to the Shooting, Part 3: Israeli-on-Arab
Violence
7. My Outward Reaction to the Shooting
8. Explanation of My Outward
Reaction
9. People's Reactions to My Statements,
and My Response
10. Insensitive Israeli Reactions to the Shooting
11. Post-Script
Content
1. What Happened
On
the morning of Saturday, October 27th,
2018, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, a gunman's fire interrupted
Shabbat morning services at Tree of Life, a Jewish synagogue also
known as l'Simcha
(Hebrew for “gladness” or “joy”). The gunman shot 18 people,
killing 11 of them, and injuring seven, including a police officer.
Three handguns and a rifle were found at the scene of the shooting.
The
gunman was later identified as Robert Bowers, a 46-year-old white
man. Bowers was subsequently charged with 11 counts of using a
firearm to commit murder, and multiple counts of hate crimes based on
religion; a total of 29 charges.
2.
Why the Shooter Did What He Did
Bowers's
posts on his account with the social media site GAB.ai show
complaints about supposed Jewish infiltration of the United States
and its government. His posts indicate that he believes that Donald
Trump's devotion to nationalism, and to keeping immigrants out, has
been compromised by “kikes” (an ethnic slur used against Jewish
people).
One
of Bowers's targets was H.I.A.S., the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
(pronounced “HEE-yuss”).
H.I.A.S. was founded in 1881 to aid Jewish refugees fleeing Russian
pogroms. H.I.A.S. now aids refugees of all backgrounds. Bowers posted
“HIAS likes to bring invaders that kill our people. I can't sit by
and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going
in.”
Bowers
apparently chose Tree of Life as his target because it belongs to a
group of synagogues which coordinates with H.I.A.S.. Bowers has
described H.I.A.S. as bringing in “hostile invaders to dwell among
us”. He also complained on social media, “It's the filthy EVIL
Jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!!”
Bowers
evidently carried out his crime because he believes that Tree of
Life, H.I.A.S., one of H.I.A.S.'s projects called National Refugee
Shabbat, and other groups, are part of an extensive conspiracy
between Jewish-Americans and refugees, to assist en
masse
illegal entry into the United States.
I
hope that what I have stated above accurately and sufficiently
reflects Bowers's set of reasons and motivations for committing the
29 crimes with which he has been charged. I do not intend this list
of reasons to be anything other than an M.O. (modus
operandi);
an explanation – not
an excuse, nor a rationalization – of why the shooter did what he
did.
3. The Politics Behind the
Shooter's Motivations
The
Tree of Life shooting came
after months of reports, especially by Fox News, about the “migrant
caravan”; a group of people mostly from Honduras, whom are
attempting to migrate to the United States. Many American
conservatives believe that billionaire financier and Hungarian Jewish
immigrant to the United States George Soros, and other wealthy
liberals, are funding the caravan.
Conservative
and nationalist media pundits across the board have labeled members
of this caravan as “hordes” of “invaders”, mostly made up of
military-age men, with few women or children. I personally believe
this to be nothing but fear-mongering, and that the right is doing
this because it desperately needs an excuse to use military force
within our borders. Some of them even want to see undocumented
immigrants get shot for the mere crimes of illegal entry and
rock-throwing, and their president is promising them that show.
Due
to the 1878 Posse Comitatus Act, there is a limit on the president's
ability to use U.S. military troops within the borders of the United
States; that is, unless there is a military-level threat to our
country and our borders. It seems that Trump's supporters are willing
to cast any
group or nationality they don't like, as providing aid and comfort to
America's enemies, and as providing substantial support to terrorist
groups, in order to boost their claim that such a military-level
threat really exists.
Right-wingers
seem to want people to think that al-Qaeda and I.S.I.S. are hiding
behind every immigrant in that caravan, because they want to see a
bloodbath at the border, performed legally
by
our boys in blue, with Donald Trump at lead command. Some seem to
suspect that every single undocumented immigrant is potentially
violent, and/or a foreign spy.
I
find it shameful to see such an obvious resurgence of
ultra-nationalism and aversion to people not born here, and just as
shameful to see people deny it and make excuses for it.
4.
My Inward Reaction to the Shooting, Part 1: White-on-Black Violence,
and Guns in Church
I
cannot say that I was shocked to hear that 11 Jewish people
had been shot at a synagogue. Appalled and horrified, yes; but not
shocked, not surprised.
My
inner immediate reaction to the shooting was, first, “This is just
like the black church in Charleston that got shot up three summers
ago”. For those who don't remember, white racist Dylann Roof shot
nine African-American church attendees to death in June 2015 at
Charleston's Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
My
second thought after the shooting was, “This kind of violence
happens in the Middle East every day.” I apologize if this seems
insensitive, but I live near Chicago, which sees some 500 murders a
year. Eleven murders is a Fourth of July weekend for someone in
Chicago. I say this not to trivialize or normalize the violence; I am
merely stating a cold, hard fact: America's major cities are violent
places, and pretending that they are not will only lull us into a
false sense of security. I do not mean to be opportunistic by using
this shooting to bash gun control, and I know it is ironic to call
for more guns when people have just been shot, but I believe that the
best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.
I
saw it reported that the synagogue was a gun-free zone. It may seem
paradoxical, but as a private security guard who works unarmed in a
gun-free zone, I find gun bans quite difficult to enforce without the
use of guns. Fortunately, people have begun to understand that. In
response to a shooting at a black church on November 12th –
at First Baptist Church of Jeffersontown in Kentucky – the church
has begun to allow select people to be armed, and they have made this
fact known to the public. I for one am glad that the church has
undertaken this step to attempt to protect their parishioners, and I
hope to see more of this.
I
hope there will be no gun accidents at churches as a result of this,
wherein people lose control of their guns. I would hate to see such
an event used to justify prohibiting
churches from deciding who can have guns on their property and when.
As unlikely that that may seem, the pro-gun-control lobby is very
powerful, and the N.R.A. doesn't protect gun rights as much as we'd
like to think (especially
not the gun rights of minorities). I hope that more pro-gun
African-Americans understand what it means that Martin Luther King
was denied a concealed carry permit by his racist government before
he was shot to death.
5.
My Inward Reaction to the Shooting, Part 2: Christian-on-Muslim
Violence
Another
one of my initial reactions to the synagogue shooting was that I
recalled an incident from several years ago, in which someone
vandalized an Islamic mosque by leaving bacon or pork on its doorstep
or door handles. Upon further investigation, I found that there were
several incidents
wherein white Americans vandalized mosques with pork; one in 2016 and
the other in 2017. In January 2016, Michael Wolfe broke into the
Islamic Society of Florida Masjid al-Munin Mosque in Titusville, and
left a slab of raw bacon behind. On January 22nd,
2017, Laurel Kirk-Coehlo wrapped pork around the door handle of the
Davis Islamic Center in Davis, California. Both Wolfe and Kirk-Coehlo
caused additional property damage to the mosques, and were
subsequently charged with hate crimes.
The
reason why the synagogue shooting made me remember the use of pork in
vandalism against mosques, is that I know that both Jewish and
Islamic dietary laws forbid the eating of pork. I knew people
vandalized mosques with pork because they want to offend Muslims'
religious ideals, and horrify them by damaging their property with
the body of a dead animal.
The
only thing I didn't understand was “When is someone going to
vandalize a synagogue with
pork?” I say this out of concern; I suspected that somewhere, maybe
there is somebody out there who hates both Jewish people
and Muslims, who would want to
offend and horrify both of them
by defacing their places of worship with pork.
A
while after hearing of the bacon attacks, my mindset about race in
America went like this: “It seems perfectly acceptable in this
country right now to hate all Muslims, Hispanics, and immigrants. I
can't believe there is not more violence against Jewish people.” To
be perfectly honest, I saw those acts of vandalism against the
mosques, and I thought that if someone did
eventually decide to leave pork out in front of a synagogue, at least
people would remember that there are dangerous people out there who
hate Jewish people for no reason, without anybody getting shot to
death.
This
was a fleeting thought, which I at no point took seriously, nor made
any plans to carry out. All I ask is that my readers ask themselves
this: If earlier this year, someone had broken into a synagogue,
smashed its windows, killed nobody, and left a pile of bacon behind,
wouldn't fewer Jewish-Americans be calling for increased restrictions
against the arrival of new immigrants? I believe that lives are on
the line when it comes to immigration; the U.S. is rigging elections
and sponsoring coups overseas, they are coming here, and we are
drastically under-filling
our immigration quotas from dangerous countries. I would like to see
thousand-fold
increases in the number of immigrants coming to America from Syria,
for example.
Robert
Bowers hates both Jewish people and Muslims. He believes that “filthy
evil Jews are bringing filthy evil Muslims into the country”. But
he chose to kill Jewish people at a synagogue, instead of defacing a
synagogue with pork, or defacing a mosque with pork, or killing
Muslims at a mosque. That is why we should ask why Bowers chose to
harm Jewish people instead of Muslims.
Some
might suggest that he is an “equal-opportunity racist” who “hates
everybody equally”, a thoughtless sentiment echoed by comedians
such as Carlos Mencia, and parroted by their fans. Bowers certainly
believes that both Muslims and Jews are “filthy” and “evil”.
But it would be foolish to say he's not a white supremacist, so we
can only conclude that he believes white people to be superior to
Muslims and Jews. To call this man anything less than a domestic
terrorist who thinks himself a warrior in a fight against all things
white and non-Christian – and perhaps even a fascist or Nazi
sympathizer - would be an outright lie.
6.
My Inward Reaction to the Shooting, Part 3: Israeli-on-Arab Violence
Aside
from thinking about Charleston, the amount of violence elsewhere, the
issue of whether to allow guns in church, and the bacon vandalism
incidents, the last thought I remember having after the Pittsburgh
synagogue shooting was “The State of Israel just bombed the Gaza
Strip a week ago, and I didn't share it on Facebook because I thought
it would be perceived as anti-Jewish because it's critical of
Israel.”
On
October 17th –
ten days before the synagogue shooting -
the I.D.F. (Israeli Defense Forces) bombed the Gaza Strip, six days
after Israelis shot six Gaza residents in response to 14,000 Gazan
protesters in coming to the heavily fortified Israel-Gaza border. On
October 20th,
I found out that there had been some clashes in Gaza. The State of
Israel was looking aggressive and in-the-wrong in the news.
At
the time, I believed that there existed a realistic possibility that
Jewish people would be targeted for violence somewhere in the world,
as a response to those actions in Gaza, by someone who believes all
Jewish people are citizens and agents of the State of Israel, and
wants to use that idea to justify killing Jewish people. I suspected
that attacks on Jewish people would increase because in mid-2018, I
found out about Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro.
Yaakov
Shapiro is a Hasidic rabbi, an author, and a contributor to the
YouTube channel “True Torah Jews”. In one lecture, entitled “Has
Zionism Hijacked Judaism?”, Rabbi Shapiro stated that it is a
statistically proven fact that when the State of Israel is having
conflicts with other nations, on average, attacks on Jewish people
increase around the world. He did not cite his source for that fact
during that lecture, but he did say that several years ago in Mexico,
Jewish people were attacked following an uptick in Israeli violence.
Those
claims would certainly make sense if they turned out to be true; I
was unfortunately unable to corroborate them. But I believe that if
Jewish people worldwide do get
attacked more on average when Israel is at war, then it is because
many people believe that all
Jewish people condone the actions of the State of Israel, even the
occupation of the West Bank (in violation of a United Nations
resolution).
The
State of Israel's founding document, the Basic Law, defines itself as
“a Jewish and democratic state”. Precisely what
constitutes a “Jewish
state” was left up to the citizens of the State of Israel to
decide. Shapiro has explained that the State of Israel works very
hard to convince the people of the world that the State of Israel is
a representative – or even the
representative – of all Jewish people. In his videos for True Torah
Jews, he has stated that “Israel gets Jews into hot water all over
the world”.
It
is regrettable to admit this, but I fear that Israel is trying too
hard to present a unified face
for all 15 million of the world's Jews. I understand that it would
make no sense to show a divided Israel to the world, or to show the
world that the Jewish people are fragmented, because that would make
Israel and Jewish people look weak to the world.
But
I also believe that there are many peace-loving Jewish people, many
of them on the political left, who want to criticize the occupation
of the West Bank and the bombings of the Gaza Strip, but are afraid
to do so because they are afraid to be shouted-down as “Israel-hating
Jews”, “self-hating Jews”, or even “anti-Semitic Jews” who
don't want a strong Israel, and are careless about the safety of
Jewish people. For the State of Israel to pretend to speak with one
voice, seemingly on behalf of all Jewish people, offends Rabbi
Shapiro as a Jew, and personally, it frightens me as a person who
values individual rights and doubts the value of having too strong or
domineering a government.
I
am not trying to imply that Robert Bowers saw some news that made the
State of Israel look bad, and immediately used that, and solely that,
to justify killing Jewish people. But more and more Americans are
waking up to the fact that the occupation of Palestine is wrong. Many
people wrongly blame Jewish people and Judaism for the occupation of
Palestine, and do not differentiate between a Jew and an Israeli.
Some people out there want to punish all Jews for Israel's crimes.
I
know that what I have just described might seem like it better fits
the profile of a Muslim
who hates Jewish people and opposes the occupation, but a white
supremacist does not have to love Muslims or oppose the occupation to
see Israel getting away with war crimes, and conclude from that fact
that “the Jews are getting special treatment”, and then decide to
go out and kill Jews, with that as one of the many
reasons why he hates Jewish people.
On
the other hand, though, it's entirely possible that Bowers would look
at Israeli actions in Gaza and support it,
because his enemies “the filthy evil Jews” and “the filthy evil
Muslims” are destroying each other. It's also possible that he sees
Israel bombing Gaza, and cheers it on for ruining its own reputation,
while also killing a few “evil Muslims” in the process. I believe
that this is roughly the position of “alt-Right” Nazi sympathizer
Richard Spencer, the white American who promotes
the occupation of Palestine as part of his ideal vision for a Jewish
ultra-nationalist society.
I
apologize for conjecturing as to what Robert Bowers's opinion of the
Israel-Palestine conflict is; I know it may seem like an
opportunistic attempt to blame Israel for the shootings, and bring
Israel into the discussion when nothing in the reporting of the
shooting indicated a hatred for the State of Israel or an opposition
to its actions. But it is a fact that some people who commit acts of
violence against Jewish people do commit
those crimes out of a desire to get revenge for acts of violence
Israel has committed, and even make their motivation known to their
victims.
A
survey taken in spring 2016, among undergraduate students at 50 U.S.
university campuses, revealed that “the high rates of anti-Semitic
harassment and hostility at these campuses 'are largely driven by
hostility toward Israel”. That same Brandeis University survey –
titled “Hotspots of Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Sentiment on US
Campuses” – also revealed that 20% of students reported “being
blamed for Israel's actions because they are Jewish”, and that
one-third of respondents reported witnessing “some form of
anti-Semitic harassment, often Israel related.”
It
would be careless to fail to ask whether, if the Israel-Palestine
conflict had been solved years ago, there would be as much hatred of
Jewish people and anti-Jewish violence (based on the idea that the
State of Israel represents all Jewish people). It would also
be careless to fail to ask whether, if the State of Israel did not
draft half of its citizens into its armed forces, fewer people would
suspect every person who had ever lived in Israel of being an agent
of its government.
I
would never accuse the State of Israel of welcoming acts of violence
against Israelis, nor of provoking acts of violence against Jewish
people around the world, nor of putting Jewish people at risk by
staging fake so-called “false flag” attacks. And there is nothing
I would say about the State of Israel that I would not also say about
my own government, that of the United States of America.
But
in my opinion, the State of Israel is sowing the seeds of its own
destruction, by making its own reputation worse, when it lashes out
against its enemies with disproportionate force. Jewish scholars who
criticize Israel's violent and illegal actions, such as Dr. Noam
Chomsky and former University of Chicago professor Norman
Finkelstein, have identified the State of Israel's actions as
tantamount to what Nazis did to Jewish people during the Holocaust,
have attempted to make their voices heard on the matter, to very
vocal criticism, and their careers have greatly suffered because of
it. And
understandably so; it would be easy to confuse cautioning
people about the Holocaust with
trivializing the
Holocaust by comparing a less deadly event to it (before it
becomes that deadly).
Since
2006, I have been aware of a group of Hasidic Jewish activists called
Neturei Karta, which criticizes both the occupation of Palestine, and
the very idea of a Jewish political sovereignty. I have tried, for
the last twelve years, to make it known that not all Jewish people
support the State of Israel and the occupation of Palestine. My hope
in doing so has been to help non-Jewish people understand that not
only are most Jewish people peace-loving, and horrified by the
occupation and by Israel's wars, but also that many of the core
ideals of the Jewish religion itself are
profoundly antithetical
to many of the things that the Israeli government, armed forces, and
police are currently doing.
I
know that it may seem anti-Semitic to list the crimes of Israel, but
the State of Israel has undeclared nuclear weapons, it drafts into
its army young people who want to study the Torah, and racial
discrimination and harassment are prevalent in Israel's immigration,
security, and travel practices. Arabs, white Christians, peace-loving
Jewish people, and secular atheists alike, all see these practices,
and are horrified to see them being done in the name of the Jewish
religion. With the symbol of the Jewish religion, the Star of David,
emblazoned on the flags and war planes of the people raining fire
down onto people.
I
can only imagine how it must feel to be Jewish while Israel is at
war. Imagine this: Israel - a country across an entire ocean - attacks someone, and all of a sudden Jewish people around the world are liable to be asked whether they know why Israel did that, and whether they know anyone who was
involved, and whether they condone it.
I would hate
to find out that most Jewish people feel pressured or obligated to make
excuses for Israel's actions. But I also have to admit that Israel is
doing very little to make Jewish people feel comfortable criticizing
the state without being labeled “self-hating Jews”. Some staunch supporters of Israel even stoop to saying "All criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic." I believe that to repeat such a thing is to intentionally confuse the difference between Israeli nationalism in Palestine, and the Jewish religion which is termed Judaism. The effect is that peace-loving, Judaism-loving critics of the occupation of Palestine can be more effectively and efficiently silenced as anti-Semites. In my opinion, generally, the Jewish religion is peaceful, while the current administration governing the nation of Israel is not.
I would like to see all Jewish people around the world feel free to
criticize whichever of Israel's actions they personally morally
object to. I do not want any Jewish person to feel like they either
have to excuse or disown Israel's crimes, and I think it would not
hurt Israel or its image one bit to allow people to criticize its
violent and illegal actions, and even demand answers and
accountability for those crimes.
Some
may claim that by saying this, I am promulgating the idea that all
Jewish people think alike and support Israel, or that I am saying
“the Jews need to keep their own people in line”; but I am not. I
am simply expressing my hope that all Jewish people - of all
political, religious, and ethnic backgrounds – feel comfortable
speaking their minds on the subjects of Judaism, the State of Israel
and its policies, the occupation of Palestine, and the safety of the
Jewish people.
I am genuinely concerned that the State of Israel will not admit that
it has nuclear weapons, and it concerns me that Israel won't sign a
treaty to promise not to sell nuclear weapons to other countries. I
am concerned about its draft; its racist security and travel
policies; and the occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and
the Golan Heights in defiance of a United Nations resolution.
Israel's recent “nation state law” makes me concerned that Israel
is planning to make moves to completely ban all Arabs and Muslims
from the country.
I
hope that my readers will understand that if my criticism of the
State of Israel is harsh, it is not directed at Jewish people, nor
the Jewish religion. I also hope that these thoughts will help
explain my reaction to the Tree of Life shooting on social media.
7.
My Outward Reaction to the Shooting
The
day after the Tree of Life shooting - on October 28th,
2018 – I posted the following on my Facebook wall:
“I
guess the Zionists' plan to put Palestinians and undocumented
immigrants into internment camps before too many people start hating
the Jews[,] and demanding that they
be killed too[,] isn't working out so well, is it[?]”
Needless
to say, many of my Facebook friends were upset by the callousness and
insensitivity of this statement, as well as the timing. Although I
did not mean it as a joke, I did mean it sarcastically,
and I understand why my statement upset people.
At
the time when I said this, I was sick of seeing white people attack
religious communities – black churches, mosques, synagogues – and
I could barely mask my total lack of shock that someone had murdered
11 Jewish people at a synagogue. It's not that I didn't have the
sympathy to mourn the
dead at that time; I simply didn't have the energy to
do so.
I
have seen friends die recently, and many young people in this country
are seeing a lot of their friends die of opiate overdoses. That, and
news of celebrities dying, and our childhood heroes getting accused
of heinous acts, have all served to completely drain me of the
ability to feel any more sadness this year. This country is slowly
turning into a war-zone, the war might be a race war, and I do not
have time to mourn the dead in the middle of what I see to be a
battlefield.
I
want people to understand that we are in a race war zone, and that
Jews, Muslims, immigrants, homeless people, non-whites, and the
L.G.B.T.Q. community, should all consider
arming themselves; because their police and governments have been
overtaken by fascist sympathizers, want to restrict vulnerable
people's abilities to use guns to defend themselves, and maybe even
want many of them dead.
I
admit that I said what I said in order to deliberately arouse anger.
Unfortunately that backfired, and people got angry at me,
instead of getting angry at
those who normalize hatred of foreigners because they are foreigners,
even if the people doing the race-baiting are Jewish.
I
don't even feel comfortable calling Jewish racists “Jewish”,
because I believe that people who commit violent acts, and promote
hatred on the basis of race or religion or national origin, have
no religion. But if the few
Jewish people who are
racist want to call themselves Jewish while espousing racist and
fascist viewpoints, I also have no right to try to infringe on their
freedom of speech. That's why I state my open disagreement with them,
and that's why I use it to explain how their open espousal of racist
viewpoints is making racists feel comfortable to espouse their
racist ideas about Jewish
people, and act on it.
8.
Explanation of My Outward Reaction
I
apologize to anyone whose feelings I hurt by making this statement. I
see creeping Nazism in this country, and I am trying to call it like
I see it. I know that it will be difficult to do so without inciting
a sort of stampede. But a focused
stampede, with a clear and direct target (racists), is what I intend
to incite.
I
would also like to add that I did not use the term “concentration
camps” simply for comic effect; I know that mentioning Jews being
put in concentration camps is an upsetting thought, but it is not
impossible to imagine, and the possibility of it concerns me, so I
mentioned it.
I
used the term “concentration camps” because I agree with Dr. Noam
Chomsky's characterization of the conditions in the West Bank and
Gaza as that of an “open-air concentration camp”. Also, because I
believe that President Trump's “family detention centers” for
undocumented immigrants are the closest thing we have in America to
concentration camps. Especially if there are any such sites that are
secret, or are working people to death.
I
also apologize for not making my statement clear enough.
The
essence of my statement was that 1) fervent supporters of the State
of Israel (which I termed “Zionists”) have put the people of
Palestine into an open-air concentration camp, 2) that there exist
Jewish supremacists in America who want to encourage people to hate
and fear Hispanics and undocumented immigrants, and 3) that those
Jewish supremacists were incorrect to predict that they could bash
Arabs forever, and that it would never make any racist think “It's
OK to be racist now”, and shoot some Jewish people.
As
I stated above, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting did not shock me.
It upset and horrified me, but all I wondered was why it didn't
happen sooner, when it's perfectly acceptable to be racist against
everyone besides
Jewish people. It's even acceptable to be racist to Jewish
people, though, if you promote a Jewish stereotype in the context of
a comedy show, such as Family
Guy or South
Park.
We
should ask ourselves, why is it more acceptable in so many places in
America to openly make a joke about “Jews having all the money”,
than it is to speak critically about the occupation of Palestine?
Could you even imagine a TV show trying to get away with making a
joke about the occupation? Even if the joke avoided criticizing
Jewish people and the Jewish religion, some people who strongly
support Israel would likely try to find a way to try to describe the
joke as anti-Semitic, and claim that a hate crime has occurred.
Discouraging
people to talk about the State of Israel might seem like a great way
to quiet criticism of Jewish people, but in my opinion, what it does,
is make Jewish people
afraid to talk about the State of Israel, in addition to everybody
else. If Jewish people do not talk about Israel, and feel free to
criticize it, then the State of Israel will remain the belligerent
nation it is today, on the brink of nativism and racial supremacy,
and peace-loving Jews around the world will not be believed when they
say “that nation does not represent my interest, and does not speak
for all Jews.”
9.
People's Reactions to My Statements, and My Response
I
understand why people were upset by what I said. I was told by one
friend that I was “conflating people of Jewish ancestry with
Zionism”, and “implying that Jewish people all think alike and
think about their tribe to the exclusion and detriment of others is
EXACTLY what anti-Semitism has always consisted of.”
However,
I hope that my previous comments have made it perfectly clear that I
have known for twelve years
that not all Jewish people support Israel's actions, which should go
to show that I am very aware that not all Jewish people agree on
everything. I know there are various sects and movements within
Judaism, and political parties in the State of Israel, and that the
State of Israel is an extremely diverse place, in terms of politics,
religion, and race. I hope it stays that way.
Another
friend of mine who saw my post said “The congregation were victims
of a terrible tragedy and your first thought is about how they had it
coming... this is simply a tragedy to which the only response is
empathy”.
I
never intended to suggest that the 11 Jewish people who got shot to
death at their morning prayers had it coming. What I said was that
Jewish racists – not the victims – are among those trying to make
people feel comfortable to express their racism, and that this is one
of the consequences.
My
friend was correct to point out that empathy is an appropriate
response to the shooting, and that I was not thinking about whether
what I said was in good taste, nor whether the timing was
appropriate. But as I explained earlier, I do not have any more
energy this year to spend expressing sadness and empathy.
I
live in a culture that has profoundly
desensitized its people to violence. I find it a waste of time to
grieve the dead, or post condolences to families of victims who will
never see my social media account. The best think I could think of
doing at the time was to make people aware that it's not only white
Americans who are calling for
Arabs and Hispanics to be rounded up, put in camps, and deported;
it's fervent supporters of the State of Israel, who support the
occupation and its racist nation-state law too.
I
apologize that my focus was on Israel supporters, rather than all
racists, but I cannot see war planes with the Star of David on them
attacking Gaza one week, then a guy shooting Jewish people in a
synagogue the next week, and get away with steadfastly maintaining
that there is absolutely no connection or relationship between these
two events whatsoever.
I
am not saying that correlation equals causality, but there is much
that Israel and its supporters could do to de-escalate tensions
between the I.D.F. and Israel's prisoners of war (the Palestinians),
and to improve the reputation of Israel (and, as a result, of Jews)
as one which promotes peace
and immigration, instead of demonizing them.
To
the suggestion that I meant the victims had it coming, I say the
following: they did not have it coming, and I commend what Tree of
Life and H.I.A.S. were doing (helping refugees settle in America).
Many
white racists in America believe that African-Americans and
Jewish-Americans are engaging in “false flag” attacks against
themselves, or members of their own community, in order to portray
themselves as under attack, and to inspire sympathy.
I
would be lying through omission if I failed to note that there have
been incidents wherein black and Jewish people have left racist
graffiti, but I also believe that white racists, and conservatives in
general, drastically
overstate the frequency with which such acts of racist vandalism are
attributable to the people who first reported them to the police. I
do not believe that
the Tree of Life shooting was a false flag by Jewish people or
Israelis, intended to inspire sympathy for them.
It
is an unfortunate fact that in 2007, Sarah Marshak, a freshman at
George Washington University, admitted to drawing swastikas on her
own dormitory door. However, in Marshak's defense, she stated that
she drew swastikas on her door in order to draw people's attention to
a previous incident,
wherein the same dorm had been vandalized with swastikas. Marshak
believed that the previous vandalism incident was not taken
seriously, and that's why she decided to draw more swastikas.
While
it would not be unreasonable to describe Marshak's actions as an act
of staged vandalism, or even to ask whether she did
not draw all the
swastikas in the first place, I will
not say those things. Another student, a male, was arrested for
drawing swastikas around the same time, and was subsequently banned
from campus. It's entirely possible that he drew
the first swastika (or the first two or three), and I believe Marshak
did what she did to get people to realize how serious the problem of
hatred against Jewish people is. I resent people pointing to that
incident and using it to conclude that most or many
anti-Semitic attacks are done by
Jewish people.
I
believe that the reason why my friend thought I was saying the
synagogue's congregants had it coming, is because I was blaming
“Zionists” for 11 Jewish people getting murdered. In response to
this, I will repeat the words of Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro: “Israel gets
Jews into hot water all over the world.” It's not that Israel
directly provokes
violence against Jewish people intentionally, it's that the State of
Israel has nothing to lose
when Jewish people are in danger.
That's
because, when Jewish people are in danger, whether or not they get
saved, Israel looks good. If Israel helps save the Jewish people who
are being threatened, then it's done something good, and the I.D.F.
gets more money. If the State of Israel fails
to protect Jewish people, and they die, then Benjamin Netanyahu holds
a press conference, appears very somber, and makes a statement saying
“we stand with the victims”.
And
that is a totally appropriate way to show empathy. However, all that
really accomplishes,
in my opinion, is make it look like the Israeli army
is standing by the Jewish people, saying “We are doing what we do
in Palestine because people do this sort of thing to Jews.” It
makes all Jewish people look bad, and only a very undiscerning person
would claim that I'm trying
to make all Jewish people look bad by pointing out that Israel
is making them look bad, by claiming it represents all Jews.
I
would never claim that Zionists intentionally put Jewish people at
risk. I would also
never claim that the people at Tree of Life welcomed acts of violence
against them for helping Muslims settle in America. I do not believe
in the white supremacist idea that Jewish people are trying to flood
the nations of the world with immigrants in order to undermine their
sovereignty, racial purity, and moral values. I do not believe that
all Muslims are terrorists, and I hope that all non-violent
immigrants to America are safe (whether legal or
undocumented).
I
was told by a friend that my statement showed that I was “refusing
to differentiate between Nazi ideological antisemitism... and leftist
antisemitism.” Nazi
antisemitism, my friend explained, “hates Jews IN SPITE of the
Israeli genocide of the Palestinians” because they “view that
conflict as being a net positive no matter who actually wins”,
while leftist
antisemitism “carries some of the same nonsensical racist roots but
is heightened by a lack of differentiation between Judaism and
Zionism.”
Before
continuing, I must note that I feel it inaccurate to reduce all
hatred of Jewish people to the phrase “anti-Semitism” -
especially considering that at least 2/3 of Jewish people worldwide
do not have Semitic
heritage, and are thus non-Semitic Jewish people – but I will use
the term “anti-Semitism” here to mean “hatred of Jews” for
the sake of brevity.
I
agree with my friend's distinctions between these two types of hatred
of Jewish people. However, I don't want to be too careful
differentiating between various types of anti-Semites, because if I
spend too much time talking about how and why they're different,
people might assume that I think one is less bad, or maybe even
better, than the other.
I
oppose anti-Semitism whether it comes from the right or the left, and
I understand each camp's motivations for their hatred of Jewish
people. That is why I try to get right-wing anti-Semites to soften
their hatred of Jewish people, with the ideas that all religions
should get along, and that Judaism is a religion that anybody can
join regardless of race or nation. Obviously, few racists change
their mind.
Additionally,
I try to inform left-wingers who might hate Jewish people, that not
all Jewish people support Israel. I believe that the more people know
this, the less people will associate Jewish people and Judaism with
Israeli violence, and the less they will believe that all Jewish
people think the same.
I
do not mean to sound anti-Semitic by listing all the reasons people
hate Jewish people. I am not excusing, nor condoning, hatred of
Jewish people, when I explain what the most common historical reasons
have been for mistreatment of the Jews. This may be offensive to some
people, but it is necessary to explain history, and avoid the same
kind of thing happening in the future.
But
my friend is right; leftist and Nazi anti-Semitism share “some of
the same nonsensical racist roots”. Among them, the ideas that all
Jewish people are wealthy, or are engaging in discriminatory hiring
practices by hiring only other Jewish people, or control the banking
industry, or are hoarding the world's money supply, or are even
keeping gold on them at all times.
These
stereotypes are disgusting, they are motivated by a desire to see
Jewish people in poverty, and they often neglect the fact that there
are many more
non-Jewish people who
are greedy and power-hungry, than there are Jewish people altogether.
But
more concerns about
Jewish people which the left and right share, are their apparent
control over American foreign policy, and their religion. White
nationalist America-firsters don't want Jewish people deciding what
America's military does, and left-wing pacifists don't want the State
of Israel to get away with the occupation of Palestine, or see
America imitate Israel by reinstating the draft. At the same time,
secular atheists on the left and the Christian right both
have an aversion to the Jewish religion, ranging from a slight
distaste, to wanton misunderstanding, to outright hatred.
I
am not trying to characterize Robert Bowers, the alleged Tree of Life
Synagogue shooter, as a leftist. Nor am I trying to prove Donald
Trump's claim that hatred of religion, or hatred of Judaism,
motivated the attack.
What
I am trying to do is make people aware of why people harm
Jews, who else they might hate,
what other types of racists they might be willing to work with, who
they might try to take out next and how they might do it.
Additionally, whether there is anything that we can do to make it
easier for leftists to understand that the actions of the Israeli
army, and a few rabbis who committed some crimes, should not be used
to justify distrust of Judaism or hatred of Jewish people.
I
do not mean to say that left-wing anti-Semites need to be held more
responsible than right-wing anti-Semites. I am simply saying that
left-wing anti-Semites are probably a lot easier to convince to stop
hating Jews, than literal Nazis are. That is why I spend more time
criticizing left-wing hatred of Jews than right-wing hatred of Jews.
Because it's obvious that fascists will never change, but
peace-loving secularists who dislike Judaism but don't understand it,
might be convinced that the Jewish religion is not out to get them.
My
friend stated that the anti-Semitism described as motivated by
Israel's actions, is “not typically the right-wing kind that
created this attack, but the left-wing kind.” I agree with my
friend completely on this; however, I am still not willing to
rule-out the possibility that Israel getting away with bombing Gaza
could have been just one of
the many negative thoughts about Jewish people that enraged Bowers
that week.
Whether
or not Bowers saw the Gaza bombings and thought negatively of Israel
because of it, I believe that hatred of Jewish people was
not the sole cause of this
shooting. The desire to make it harder for refugees to come here and
settle comfortably, was obviously at least a secondary motivation,
perhaps even the primary
motivation. But we have to look at the whole picture: he killed
Jewish people in order to try to stop a Jewish group from helping
refugees, whether those refugees are Jewish or not.
In
my opinion, it is patently absurd to consider none of these facts,
and simply conclude that the shooter being “crazy”, or the
shooter hating Jews, explains the whole thing. I would never say that
Bowers shot Jewish people because Jewish people are bringing
immigrants into the country. What I am saying is that Bowers shot
Jewish people because he believes that Jewish
people are deliberately
trying to bring in a number of immigrants that they know America
cannot handle.
I
do not believe that such a number exists; especially not when the
United States let eleven refugees
come into America from Syria in 2016, when hundreds of
thousands of Syrians needed help
(after they and their government had undergone years of bombardment
by three or four national militaries and two or three terrorist
groups vying for control of the area).
The
idea that there are Jewish people in America who have forgotten that
their ancestors came here as immigrants – some of them illegally
and without proper documentation, which is perfectly
justifiable when their home
state has collapsed, or succumbed to war or civil war, or has been
overtaken by bloodthirsty racists – and still advocate closing the
door on the immigrants who are trying to come in after them.
In
my opinion, America is a “city of immigrants”, and discrimination
on the basis of national origin is not the American way.
10.
Insensitive Israeli Reactions to the Shooting
I
know that what I am about to say might re-ignite suspicion that I
wrote this piece solely to attack Jewish people, but I have to more
fully explain why I chose to criticize the State of Israel, and the
racists who make excuses for its war crimes and atrocities, in the
wake of the Tree of Life shooting.
On
October 29th, 2018 – two days after the shooting –
Grayzone Project founder and editor Max Blumenthal published an
article entitled “Israel's Far Right Blame 'Leftist' Victims of
Pittsburgh Synagogue Massacre”. The subtitle of the article reads,
“As Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett sets out to
Pittsburgh, prominent members of the governing Likud Party have
blamed the Jewish victims of the neo-Nazi massacre 'for causing
anti-Semitism'.”
According
to Blumenthal, in the hours after the shooting, a listserv for the
Israeli Likud Party (the party of the ruling majority, led by
Benjamin Netanyahu) “pumped out talking points”, addressed to
“Likud Party ambassadors”, claiming that the shooter “drew
inspiration from a left-wing Jewish group that promoted immigration
to the U.S. & worked against Trump.” This is evidently a
reference to H.I.A.S. (the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), which
Bowers openly criticized on social media.
To
suggest that Bowers “drew inspiration” from H.I.A.S., when he
chose his victims specifically because they belonged to a
congregation that was associated with H.I.A.S., is like saying that
Hitler “drew inspiration” from Jews when he used his hatred of
Jews to justify killing them. It's ridiculous and offensive, and it's
the last thing that should be said by someone who wants all Jews to
agree with them and feel well-represented by them.
Blumenthal
continues his article by explaining that a Likud Party member and
so-called “Israeli hate rapper” Shadow (real name Yoav Eliasi)
described Robert Bowers, who killed eleven Jews, as “a man fed up
with subversive progressive Jewish leftists injecting their sick
agendas” into his country. Eliasi also said “HIAS brings in
infiltrators that destroy every country. The murder was fed up with
people like you [presumably referring to the Jewish people at HIAS].
Jews like you brought the holocaust and now you're causing
antisemitism. Stop bringing in hate money from Soros.”
This
echoes, almost exactly, the kind of anti-immigrant sentiments
expressed by right-wing white American racists. Eliasi's views seem
to parrot talking points from Fox News and the Alex Jones Show. I'm
bringing this information to the American public because I want
people to understand that not everyone cheering-on attacks of Jewish
people hate Jewish people. Some of them are Jewish. But I'll say it
again: Those who promote or excuse violence, in the name of religion
or nationality or race or anything, have no
religion.
I'm
not going to say that Yoav Eliasi is not Jewish. I'm not going to say
that the people at Tree of Life or H.I.A.S.
aren't Jewish. I'll leave that
to Israel's Askhenazic chief rabbi David Lau, an Orthodox rabbi who
said in an interview after the shooting, that Tree of Life is “a
place with a profound Jewish flavor” or “profound Jewish mark”.
Rabbi Lau was subsequently criticized for refusing to say that Tree
of Life is a synagogue, especially
considering that the congregants were shot while praying to
the G-d of Abraham. Benjamin
Netanyahu (and others) later corrected him, and confirmed that it is
a synagogue.
While
we're on the topic, Orthodox control over “who is a Jew” in
Israel, is another thing that concerns many Jewish people. This is
because Orthodox rabbis have gotten a reputation of telling other
Jewish people that they're not Jewish, or not Jewish enough. This
“voluntary separatism” is increasingly becoming less
voluntary, and it is a growing source of unease between the various
sects and movements of Judaism.
I
hope that my readers will look into the history of the foundation of
the State of Israel, and of the political movement of Zionism with
emigration to the Holy Land. I believe that if they do this - and
consider the views of Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, Neturei Karta,
the Satmar Rebbes Teitelbaum,
and Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein – then they will eventually
understand that the State of Israel, from the beginning and
at its core, is based on the
idea that a nation-state can effectively determine what is or is not
the Jewish religion, and perhaps even who is and is not a Jew.
I
am not Jewish. But as a student of history, all of this terrifies me.
I do not know how to express my empathy for the victims and their
families, besides to state that they should arm themselves as soon as
possible, and recommend that vulnerable people take up arms to defend
themselves in case the police decide that they're not worth their
time. I apologize if it is self-aggrandizing of me to pretend that I
could ever say anything that could save a Jewish life. But I have to
try.
I
do not wish for Jewish people worldwide to present themselves with a
single face that is divided. Nor do I want to see all Jewish people
represented by an imperialist Jewish supremacist occupier. I would
rather have people see Jewish people as individuals, who have no
obligation to make excuses for any nation, and have the right to be
safe and defend themselves. But I cannot pretend that it is not true
that some Jewish people actually do look
at other Jews being killed, and think to themselves “they weren't
really Jews”, or even “it's OK because they support immigration
and they don't want a strong Israel.”
I
believe that the State of Israel, or at least the Likud Party, is
trying to make Jewish people all over the world, choose between
saving either the State of Israel, the I.D.F., and the occupation of
Palestine on the one hand, or else saving the Jewish religion and
protecting Jews from being lulled into a false sense of security by
Israel and then not protected.
I
hope that the Jewish people in my country are intelligent enough to
see that the State of Israel is embracing a white-nationalist
distortion – a caricature –
of what Jewish culture is supposed to be about, instead of true
Judaism. Based on my study of Judaism, I believe that its central
moral principles are a belief in G-d, peace, mercy, equality, duty,
loyalty, and the idea that oppressing people brings more dishonor and
shame than being oppressed.
I
hope that the rest of the 21st
century does not feature a lot of Jews being oppressed. But I also
hope that we don't see Jewish people doing the oppressing.
Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro says that
his study of traditional Jewish values has led him to conclude that
Jewish people find it more dishonorable
to participate in someone else's oppression, than it is to become
the victim of oppression.
Opportunists
might use this to try to claim that Shapiro and I would rather see
Jews killed than “a strong Israel” (read: “a brutal, warlike
Israel”), but we do not wish to see either scenario
happen. Unfortunately, right
now, we are seeing both. I have recommended herein how I think that
that situation could and should change for the better.
I
apologize again if I have upset anyone with my statements. I do not
intend to upset or offend anyone, but to inspire anger and
dissatisfaction, and to make people aware of the seriousness of the
problems of anti-Jewish violence and threats to the safety of Jewish
people. I regret that I was not more precise; I only meant to say
that Jewish racists thought they could get away with fomenting racial
hatred forever without it coming back to bite Jewish people in the
ass.
I
am not rejoicing that the Tree of Life shooting happened. I am a
doomsayer and I make negative predictions all the time.
I hate being proven
right. I apologize if my post sounded like gloating; I was genuinely
horrified, but without surprise, so I was unable to pretend that I
did not know that Jewish blood would eventually be shed in order to
complete the racists' “perfect” nationalist dream (wherein each
of the world's 193 countries embrace nativism and ultra-nationalism,
and kill or deport everybody who's not exactly like whatever the
racist model of the ideal citizen is, which may take hold in their
countries during the sweeping xenophobic fervors that will shape
their national destinies).
I
am concerned that the Israeli Defense Forces may increase their
activities over the holidays, which seems to have been the pattern
over the last several years. I suspect that some people will try to
use this to justify attacks against Jewish people, as a way to get
revenge. I do not condone the Tree of Life shooting, I do not condone
any potential copycat attacks, I don't condone attacks against
peaceful Jewish people, and I don't condone the use of violence
against Jews in order to make a statement about Israeli violence.
I
will not say I condemn
these attacks, because to say I have the power to condemn people is
to call myself G-d, and I refuse to do that. And that is why I have
been hesitant to condemn the attacks, why I have put more focus on
urging non-violent Jewish people to arm themselves, and why I am
telling people that there are real concentration
camps in America and Israel, and that not all Jewish people want to
help immigrants and refugees get settled.
Written
on November 16th,
2018
Based
on Notes Taken Between October 27th
and November 16th,
2018
Originally
Published on November 16th, 2018
Post-Script Added on July 16th, 2021
