Why did I do that yesterday?

Was there a particular reason why I decided to use the word "genocide", despite the knowledge that it makes Jews crazy? Maybe there is, and maybe I'm not alone.

So yesterday I did that thing. And wow has it unleashed a torrent. I knew it would. And it makes me sad. But I do not regret it.

What did I do? I used the word "genocide". I did. I used the word myself. I said it even though I have been reluctant to say it out loud until now. Sure, I sit with many Palestinians who have been calling this war a genocide. I listen and hold space and share their voices across all my channels. But I haven't said the word myself. I explained on my podcast and on substack and elsewhere that I don't want to use the word myself because it just makes Jews crazy and does not advance the conversation. Using the word is often a distraction. Debate about the word itself becomes the thing, instead of Israel's actions in Gaza. The word debate becomes an opportunity for Jews to claim victimhood, to say that nothing is as bad as the Holocaust, and that the world is just full of antisemites. It's difficult and painful and loses the point. So I have tried to avoid all that.

Until yesterday. Until yesterday, I held firm on that, on allowing space for Palestinian narratives that use the word while not going there myself.

Yesterday I changed my mind.

I called it out.

I said, "Yes, This is Genocide. We are doing this." I wrote it on Substack and FB and on my other channels. I did that.

I did that, and got so much hate that I ended up blocking a few people, including former students and other acquaintances. Blocking is a painful thing, but I have some boundaries. I will not have people effectively calling me a terrorist or a traitor or claim that I don't know anything about October 7. I get things like that all the time. I got told last year, "Remember you're a Jew" by someone in New Jersey. Last week I got called a "Self-hating Zionist" -- as opposed to a "self-hating Jew", which I get all the time.

So anyway, that all happened. I woke up this morning to all that stuff, and I'm just taking a breath and reminding myself that this is what it is. It's not surprising. It's the world. And I can't let it deter me.

To be fair, I also got many supportive comments, grateful comments, and a few DMs from people wanting to know how to navigate the hate. I don't know. But it's good to know that there are people out there who are seeing that and speaking out. Courageous people. Courageous Jews saying, STOP.

In fact, there was a very powerful protest yesterday of Israelis at the Gaza border calling for an end to this, holding signs that use words like "Genocide" and "ethnic cleansing". Many were arrested, including Alon-Lee Green of Standing Together. (Being arrested is far worse than being called a self-hating Jew on FB, just to be fair....) I wrote about this in last night's substack, too, in case you haven't seen it.

So, why? Why did I do this yesterday? What changed for me? Why did I finally burst out of my ambivalence and fear and seemingly join one team about this?

First of all, again, to be clear, I'm not alone. Like at last night's protest, I've noticed more and more signs are using words like "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide" and also call for an end to the occupation (another word that gets many Jews crazy.) I think a lot of people in Israel I think have had enough of trying to be kind of "fair to all sides" or something like that, and are just screaming and screaming and screaming for our government to stop all this. Screaming and screaming for our leaders to not be so evil. I think a lot of people have gotten to some kind of breaking point.

I mean, "a lot" is vague. I have no idea how many people feel this way. But I know for sure that I'm not alone here. Just judging by the signs. Literally signs being held at protests. As well as zillions of conversations. Interviews on my podcast. Just talking to people. I'm hearing this.

So why now? Why did I do this now? Did something in particular happen yesterday? Besides, you know, 300 Gazans being killed over the weekend, including yet ANOTHER hospital bombing and yet MORE images of dead babies and children and parents crying hysterically? Or one image of a little girl screaming for her mother, who is already dead? Did anything ELSE in particular happen over the weekend that set me over the edge? Besides all that?

No, actually. I don't think it was one thing. It was just ALL the things. It was just endless, day after day, hearing the stories, seeing the images.

A young woman I know named Yara who I interviewed on my podcast who lives in Gaza keeps sharing with me her story. It's just getting worse and worse. "There is no food, there is no food, there is no food".

We are doing this. We, the Jewish people, led by the leaders of the Jewish state, are purposely starving 2 million Gazans. We are doing this. We just need to face our own actions and stop doing it.

That's all.

And before you give me the clapback, I've already heard it.

If you are going to say, "This is the only way to get the hostages back", we already know that's a total lie. Again, facts: Only 8 hostages have been returned via military action, while 41 hostages were KILLED by the IDF. By contrast, 150 hostages were returned via CEASE FIRE. Diplomacy. Talking. So, yeah, this is not about hostages, and it never was. The ONLY way to get the hostages back is via negotiation, period.

Read that again: The ONLY way to get the hostages back is via negotiation, period.

If you are going to say, "Well, it's Hamas' fault", the answer BIBI NETANYAHU is the one who has sabotaged hostage negotiations SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR. Over and over again, he is the one who blocked the negotiations that would have ended all this. Follow Rachel Polin Goldberg's harrowing story about this, about how Bibi effectively killed Hersh and all the others. And there have been multiple reports about opportunities for the government to get all the hostages back already in the first weeks. The "all for all" deal was on the table at the very beginning. Our government didn't even look at it. Didn't. Even. Look. So don't delude yourself into thinking that this is about the hostages. This government was never interested in the hostages. Still isn't.

And anyway, we have to stop that terrible habit of blaming other people for our actions. WE ARE THE ONES purposefully starving out Gazans. WE ARE THE ONES dropping bombs everywhere. Knowingly. Knowing who we are killing. You can also watch the 60 minutes interview with the people from Brothers in Arms where one of the interviewees, an Israeli pilot, admits that they knowingly bomb babies. It's awful. Awful. We are the ones doing this.

And if you are going to say anything along the lines of, "Well they all deserve it", or "They are all Hamas supporters" or anything like that, I want to remind you that we have killed 20,000 babies and children. BABIES AND CHILDREN. If you think that babies and children deserve to die, then you have a massive black stain on your heart. Babies and children never deserve to be killed. Ever.

And more than that, if you think that there are conditions under which babies and children deserve to die, then you have no right to complain about October 7.....So, if you want the world to hear you say that October 7 was a massacre because killing of innocent people is wrong, then you need to be able to say that our killing of innocent people in Gaza is wrong. That's it.

And by the way, the IDF, by its own admission, knows that the overwhelming majority of people that we kill are innocent bystanders, not just the babies and children. Many adults, too, who are innocent. The army spokesperson has said this. The army says that, according to the "ethics of war", the IDF will try to kill a maximum of 3 innocent people for every targeted enemy (that is, Hamas terrorist, or someone they claim to be a terrorist, which is a whole other discussion.) They "allow" themselves, by their own self-imposed standard, to kill 3 innocents for every target. So let's say that they are doing this, aiming to kill no more than 3 innocent people for every person they consider a legitimate target, by their own admission, out of the 50,000+ people we have killed, at least 36,000 are innocent. So there's that. The army knows it has killed an overwhelming majority of innocent bystanders. By their own explanations. Sit with that for a moment.

But the bigger question is this: Does the fact that we are KNOWINGLY killing innocent people, including many children, does that DETER us? Do our leaders ever say to themselves, "You know, maybe let's not bomb that hospital because, you know, how many innocent people will be killed?"

It certainly doesn't seem that way. Not by the looks of things. The Israeli army has bombed so much of Gaza that 92% of the housing units have been completely destroyed. There are no hospitals left. There are no schools left. We bomb everything. We are also bombing tent camps -- the places that the army tells people are supposedly "safe". People in Gaza have moved around over and again at the army's instructions in search of safety, only to then be bombed. So we're doing that too.

We tell the world that we are the "most moral army in the world". After all, we tell people that we are about to bomb them before we bomb them...Doesn't that make us moral?

But see how that works? We tell people to leave, then we destroy their homes and their communities and kill their neighbors and their children and their hospitals and kindergartens. And we don't let them leave Gaza. AND, to top it all off, we then go and end up bombing their tent camps.

"Moral army"??? We need to stop perpetuating that myth, too. It is a lie we tell ourselves so that we can look away.

So why did I decide to call this a genocide? Ethnic cleansing?
Because it is.
And I am no longer going to participate in any kind of verbal exercise to try to make it less bad than it is.
It is very bad, and we are doing it. The Jewish State.
that's it.
#STOPtheGENOCIDE
#EndTheOccupation
#CeaseFireNow