The hate needs to stop
There are no solutions in hate. No empathy in hate. Hate begets violence, intolerance and extremism.
I’ve never felt comfortable with extremes. Very little in life is black and white. Humanity is soaked in nuance and shades of grey. So I never bought in to the whole ‘man-hating’ thing. I get it sure, women have had to fight for rights that men take for granted, and I am all for supporting women, ending gender apartheid, and pushing hard against male violence against women – but the whole legitimacy of the arguments falls flat in my mind when activists like Ford come out with statements like ‘Kill all men’ – which she tweeted in 2015. Hate is ugly. It rarely solves anything. There are no solutions in hate. No empathy in hate. Hate begets more hate, violence, intolerance and extremism. And when the world seems teetering on the edge of chaos, hate is the absolute last thing that we need.
Since the brutal invasion of Israel on October 7, Clementine Ford, and a host of other influencers, have taken a staunch Pro Palestinian stance. Which is of course their right. Unlike Gazans, we live in a free country with free speech. We in Australia are living in a privileged first world democratic country, with free press, human rights, voting rights and an independent judicial system. But with great reach, comes great responsibility. And over the last nine months I have watched influencers like Clementine Ford, Constance Hall and Lauren Dubois’ support of the Palestinian cause mutate into outright support of terrorism and hate speech against Jews, with a blatant disregard for the consequences of such a venomous out pouring
You see hate speech not only affects the dignity and human rights of the individual directly targeted, but also of those who belonging to the same minority or group as the people directly targeted. We have witnessed this in Australia and all around the world with an unprecedented rise in antisemitism. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry reported that its data for this year indicated a 591 per cent increase in reported incidents of anti-Semitism in Australia. Hate speech leads to dangerous divisions in society, it affects the participation and inclusion of all those targeted by it and threatens our democracy. Ford, Hall and Dubois have a huge combined social media following. And due to their being very little regulation on social media, anyone can say anything, regardless of whether it is factual or has been independently fact checked, and hoards of gullible people will believe it. What bothers me so much about these particular women is that they claim to champion women’s rights, yet are unwilling to enter into any meaningful discourse will anyone with opposing views. Many people challenged Fords rape denial of October 7, to which she responded by calling them ‘cry babies’, ‘fuckwits’ and ‘baby killers’. If you disagree with Ford, you will be abused with a viciousness that is concerning, or blocked. Get on the wrong side of Fords’ zealous followers, and your inbox will be inundated with abuse and hate.
So supporting women is conditional for activists like Ford. There seems to be an ever growing culture of ‘agree with everything that I believe in, or you will be mocked, shamed and cancelled.’ Rigid and ungenerous perspectives of the world are unhelpful. If you are only able to see your own tiny slice of the world without attempting to learn and understand other peoples’ perspective, your focus will always be rooted in the problem rather than the solution. Stating that ‘Israel does not have a right to exist’, doxing Jewish Australians, falsely accusing Israel of ‘genocide’, or praising Hamas as ‘freedom fighters’ does nothing to harbour peace or unity into an already fractured society. Blockading streets, vandalising Jewish buildings, terrorising Jews in the streets has done absolutely nothing to free Palestine. And lumping all Palestinians with the actions of jihadist extremists is equally as damaging.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is longstanding. The hurt and the history remain unresolved, and the lacerating impacts today manifests in a tumultuous fury of emotion, hurt, religion, anger, tribalism, occupation, terrorism, geopolitics, contestation of rights to defence and self-determination, international law, humanitarianism, and so on. Not to mention, just being Muslim or Jewish in this debate itself can trigger all sorts of biases and unforgiving judgements.
But justice and the possibility of peace requires objective and unconditional recognition of the rights and wrongs of a matter. It requires empathy, understanding, forgiveness and a focus on the future, not the past. Jews today are not personally responsible for decisions made generations ago, just as Palestinians cannot be held responsible for acts of terrorism perpetrated against Israelis by extremist terrorist jihadists. This conflict is not about Israeli people versus Palestinian people, the real issue is extremism on both sides.
We have at the current moment, an opportunity to make positive change across the Middle East and enter into a new era of peace agreements with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries as ways to counteract the influence of the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance, which includes Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organisations.
What we cannot do is conflate our concern with the Palestinians with the supporting of terrorist regimes. We cannot confuse rape with resistance. And we need to be able to be critical of the Netanyahu government, without expecting every Jew worldwide to suffer as a consequence of a war thousands of miles away. We can be for innocent Palestinians and mourn for the death of innocent Israelis. Humans are not so basic that we cannot hold multiple truths at the same time. We cannot invoke collective punishment upon people based on their nationality, religious belief or ancestry.
Acknowledging the Palestinian people’s pain does not weaken the Israeli argument. We need to do better. We have to stop the hate. The stakes could not be higher.
Imagine being an Australian, living on the stolen lands of indigenous people, and marching up and down the streets, protesting against Israel.
These morons are protesting that the ancient natives of Israel have gone back home. Imagine taking the side of brutal savages (also named Palestinians), who began life as Arab colonisers.
I’m Australian but not for much longer if it stays like this.
You can’t legislate morality. The Palestinians are a hate group. They have a grievance that they use for public support - land was lost in a series of wars they started or participated in on the losing side, but internally in theirsociety it’s all about hating and killing the Jews, which they are constantly doing. No attempt, and there have been many, to come to a peaceful resolution has ever been successful. Because they will only accept the eradication of Israel and the removal of the Jews from the region as the only desirable outcome. So they have turned into a terror society. They are the Silicon Valley of terror. That’s their industry. People tend to get tired of being murdered by Islamic Nazis. So they fight back or run away. Israelis aren’t running. Palestinians think Israel is doomed, but the Palestinians have doomed themselves to a life of violence and hatred, misery and failure. The other Arabs don’t want them around. And they don’t focus on anything constructive. Israel is going to continue to fight and win because it has no choice. The Arabs in these territories will have less autonomy two years from now than they’ve had for twenty years. They will be the ones forced to change, leave, or die. They are already getting killed in the thousands. Their leaders are cowards and psychopaths. These are just facts.
As far as Western influencers like the ones you describe, they use conflict to make money, feel morally superior, push luxury ideology, and pose in relative safety while others fight and die. They are abhorrent opportunistic phonies. If you don’t know right from wrong, which seems to be an increasing challenge for many people in the postmodern anything goes West, you can get sucked in to stupid positions.
Life is a struggle. Always has been. Wishing it away unfortunately won’t make it change. Islam is a supremacist ideology predicated on conflict. It is a religion of war against the nonbeliever. Always has been. Pretending it’s ok and it’s just as entitled to equal consideration as any other idea is suicide. No, not all Muslims are homicidal maniacs, but enough are that it’s a constant problem around the world. It’s in the news everywhere and has been for decades. The best policy is being an adult and dealing with reality as it comes at you. Everything else will result in even greater suffering. Yes, it’s sad and yes love is preferable to hate. But to fix the current problem, more people will die. Because that’s what they want. Only the Muslims can stop what they have started without more bloodshed and they won’t. 🇺🇸🇮🇱