CarwilBJ's Twitter Archive—№ 34,845

Hamas' October 7 attack aligned with generations of Jewish trauma, especially the pogrom. Dara Horn @DaraHorn unpacks why. Why Jews Cannot Stop Shaking Right Now nytimes.com/2023/10/22/opinion/hamas-israel-jews-massacre.html?unlocked_article_code=1.40w.Ukl4.VdtYUmRTmIkb&smid=nytcore-android-share #Hamas #Trauma #Antisemitism #Pogrom
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood -8 🙁

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
I read Dara Horn's recent book "People Love Dead Jews" this past month and it is the kind of essay collection that brings new facts to your attention in a compelling and ardent voice. Highly recommend it.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood +5 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Besides being morally deplorable, the form of violence Hamas exercised on civilian communities on October 7 tends to push the conflict into a kind of intercommunal butchery reminiscent of the Balkans or Indian Partition.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood -3 🙁

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Pogroms weren't this exactly, but only because Jews were perpetually minoritized and stateless in Europe. One view is that ending this status is the only possible protection for Jews.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood 0

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
In this reading, certainly one broadly circulating in the global Jewish community, having a Jewish state is the only possible defense against communal slaughter. The form of violence Hamas deployed strengthens the Zionist commitment of people who read history this way.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood +1 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Many non-Jews don't read the history of Jewish persecution at all, or do so w/o any combination of outrage and analysis. To not acknowledge and analyze antisemitism is to fail to understand, e.g., Europe, early Christianity, Spanish colonial race categories, and modern racism.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood -8 🙁

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
On the other hand, to read hatred and persecution of Jews as an ahistorical given also misses the mark, and possible solutions beyond a Jewish garrison state.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Countless Jews took another political, intellectual, and ethical path. They contributed to secularism, to antifascism, to anarchism and socialism, to multiracial alliances, to rights-based democracies as aspirations but also as defense strategies.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood +2 🙂

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
With these come different theories of history, that understand the motivations of Roman imperial soldiers, the SS, and Martin Luther as more different than identical. That confront each on their own ground. Sometimes, they became major theorists of such power.
Permalink On twitter.com ❤️ 1 Favorite 2023 Oct 23 Mood 0

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
Peace, safety, and justice all require taking the time to distinguish among even mortal threats. To distinguish, in this case, from a refugee army of those forced to live under unbearable conditions and a fascist imperial power.
Permalink On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood -2 🙁

…in reply to @CarwilBJ
To see what is illuminated by a traumatic history and what is obscured by traumatized reactions.
On twitter.com 2023 Oct 23 Mood -3 🙁