From their statement, it sounds less like genocide isn't a red line for them, and more like they just straight up support genocide.
this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2024
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Yeah no wonder conservatives are winning victories all across the democratic world. It seems the left wing has suffered a collective lobotomy. We live in a world where the left is fragmented in purpose, condoning the unacceptable, and ineffective in climate action. It would be cool if the left was, you know, actually the left, instead of trying to be more like the cool right wing because they think that's what would win them more votes. Have some dignity, guys. Nobody is going to vote for the second, third or fourth best party at being right wing.
I mean, whether people want to admit it or not, the mixing of some pretty uncomfortable anti-zionist language with the legitimate criticism of human rights atrocities in Gaza, as well as the extreme purity testing which accompanies it, is seriously harming the peace movement.
Anti-Zionism is anti-fascism, it should be a baseline on the left. That's not "purity testing"
Not so simple. France has a radical leftwing party (The France Unbowed) that has been denouncing the genocide in Gaza for months. They got 70 deputies in the last snap elections, far from giving them any mandate to govern the country... Their activism is indeed a way to get votes from French people of Maghreb origins. Still, people label them as antisemitic because they won't accept the self-defense narrative that is being pushed by Israel.
I get that, i really do, but sometimes you just gotta take the loss for being unpopular if the cause is right. Israel is less popular today than it was yesterday. Sometimes you can't help that your core principles are not valued by the majority at the moment, for whatever reason. If events change the minds of people, there's a steady alternative to go to. To debase one's principles to appeal to the right wing voters will only make their constituency not vote. People who are right wing won't vote left because they are more anti immigration or more pro Israel. But people who vote left won't probably vote at all if the alternatives are right wing or right wing light. They just won't see themselves represented at all. Then you get low voter turnout.
Things ARE complicated! I surely didn't offer any way out of the issue!
The entire problem here is that there is a huge rhetorical gap between thinking the Netanyahu government is evil and needs to be held accountable for Gaza atrocities, and the idea that Israel needs to be violently dismantled and the people fed to dogs (yes i have literally seen people on here say "fed to dogs").
Conversations which start with anti-zionism are unhelpful, but this seems to have become a weird purity test on the left which is creating huge cracks in what would otherwise be a unified voice regarding Gaza.
It's easy for France to condemn Israel because they do not carry such a certain heavy historical baggage unlike Germany.
It's very obvious why Germany won't do the same as France.
Yes and no. On the one hand, France actively helped the Nazis hunt French Jews during the occupation. Moreover, Germany should understand that you don't get the absolution for one genocide by enabeling another.
It’s very obvious why Germany won’t do the same as France.
It sure is, but probably not for the reason you're thinking
“It wasn’t his stance on Palestine, it was his stance on Palestine.” Wow, brilliant.
Also pretty funny to talk about someone’s “selective criticism” while supporting Israel’s genocide.
the only other mainstream leftist party in the country, the Greens
That particular mainstream "left" party is so left they should rename themselves "Browns"