What Jews Want

We cannot talk about "what Jews want" any more than we can talk about what Palestinians want, or what "white people" want, or any other imaginary collective. Some Jews want all the land of Palestine for the exclusive use of jews. Some Jews want to create two states. Some Jews want to give it all back to Palestinians. Most Jews want to have nothing to do with any of this nonsense.

It's an obvious kind of lesson, and it is hopefully easy to see - as long as we are talking about Jews.

When we are talking about muslims, we have been encouraged to forget these obvious lessons. On an almost daily basis, on Flickr and in other forums in which I am active, Zionists and their right-wing Christian allies screech at me about what "the Arabs" want. What "The Arab" inevitably wants, in their estimation, is to kill Jews or destroy America.

One Flickrite, who continues to insist I am Palestinian, writes: "Next time you want to say your people are peaceful, remember this quote from the 6-days-war era: "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight." That's all Arabs like to do... so like the wasp that keeps buzzing near my ear, we will elimiate the pest to restore civilized order...... ", warns one regular Zionist stalker of mine, who added in response: "In Palestine... the people are too concerned with hate, guile, and religion... Plus they have devolved into humans that no longer know how to have fun."

"They want what all the other Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel. They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course - -that's where the real fun is -- but mostly they want Israel." explains Truth in America

There is an implacable hatred in the heart of my enemy. My enemy wants nothing more than to kill me and steal everything I have. My enemy wants to drive me into the sea, and build a mountain of corpses where everyone I love once lived. Nothing can change my enemy: no logic or reason, no argument, because my enemy is incapable of compassion. My enemy is hatred itself, is death itself, the enemy of life.

This conviction is the flower of genocide. It is on display here on Flickr, and everywhere else, day in and day out. Images like (image subsequently removed by LHC1) or the flogs of people like Krishna109 are just the tip of the iceberg. It is easy to see, out there, if you look.

It is not so easy to see when it is inside yourself.

The next time you hear people telling you what "Arabs" want, ask yourself how they know what they know. This absolutely applies to everything you read from me here on Flickr. But also ask yourself how you have come to "know" what you think you know. We need to make generalizations to understand the world we live in. It is NECESSARY to make generalizations about things like Zionism, or Capitalism, or racism. But we also need to remember that our generalizations are concepts, fictions, tools, snapshots. They cannot possibly tell the whole story. Just as in this portrait, the "content" of the image changes depending on where we are standing and how closely we look. When it comes to seeing into the hearts of other people, and when we superimpose our fantasies about groups over the reality of individuals, a sense of certainty - a kind of fundamentalism - can be a very dangerous thing.

The particular Jews above are members of a huge ultra-orthodox group in New York City known as the Neturei Karta. In this photo, they are standing alongside thousands of Palestinians protesting at NYC's annual Salute to Israel Parade.

(Unfortunately super-condensed version of a lost original photo, taken at NYC's Salute to Israel Parade, May 2004)