if all you are is anti Zionist you wouldn’t keep using reference to a publication that is not simply anti Zionist but also revisionist in its accounts of the holocaust
i read this morning an article about Mengele that made me feel sick to the stomach. I happen to know someone who was one of Mengeles twins. She was the lucky one — “comparatively “ To dismiss, as the article does, her experience and that of her twin as poor memory is shameful.
I read a couple of other articles on historical topics before I decided that I wasn’t much interested. I’d observe that they are well written - well constructed and apparently researched. But it stops there for me because the references are selective, the interpretations pre determined and the narratives reconstructed for what appears to be a particular goal.
I accept that we all process information according to our own internal narrative but those narratives develop as much from our experiences and from collective and multi generational experiences. These shape the way we perceive our place in society and, because things are always two way, they shape the response we get. There are historical facts about the treatment of Jews in Europe that no amount of rewriting history will change and this is no place to expound on it and I believe it would be pointless to make any attempt here.
fir your information I am no Zionist either. I think it is a foolish and destructive way of thinking that harks back to some historical mythology and land ownership that is unhelpful in this modern world. It also, unfortunately, feeds anti Semitism. It is however part of that cycle of action and reaction that goes on. Zionism took hold strongly in the late 19th century coinciding with jews exodus from Russia. That was also confronting for Jews already in the west. Writings from those times show the dual emotions of compassion and anxiety. For the Russian Jews were not particularly well educated, maintained their style of dress and made little effort to integrate (at least at that time). I think by then Jews were getting tired of the constant upheavals that they experienced as a group. It’s not that individuals didn’t benefit and they particularly benefits from migration to colonial settings where ingrained prejudice had less impact and was far less prevalent. My own family did well out of it and were really not particularly strident as they were able to actively integrate
maybe though that is the point. Treat anyone group as a pariah for any length of time and you get what you get.
I think it’s a bit of a long bow to suggest that Islam enables a peaceful society. But I’m also happy to accept utterly that meddling of the west in the Middle East has made it impossible to find peace. Now we have three sides in the puzzle and it doesn’t look good. It is not helped by people who take sides (whichever side) and assume that is all there is to it
