Going back to an article from a year ago, namely this one:
We see the following:
Amnesty International is now calling Israel’s mass atrocity in Gaza “a live-streamed genocide” due to the way this nightmare is unfolding right in front of us on the screens of our devices around the world, and public support for Israel is plummeting in the United States.
Zionists are losing control of the narrative, and they know it. And they are not taking it well.
During a speech at a summit hosted by the Jewish News Syndicate earlier this week, former U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman said that Jews are “the masters of the universe” and should use their power in Silicon Valley to control online information in order to win a “digital war.”
Coleman, who is Jewish, made the following remarks on Monday:
"A majority of Gen Z have an unfavorable impression of Israel. And, my friends, I think the reason for that is that we’re losing the digital war. They’re getting their information from TikTok… and we’re losing that war.
"And when you think about it, the masters of the universe are Jews! We’ve got Altman at OpenAI, we’ve got [Facebook founder Mark] Zuckerberg, we’ve got [Google founder] Sergey Brin, we’ve got a group across the board. Jan Koum, y’know, founded WhatsApp. It’s us.
“And we have to figure out a way to win the digital battle. We’ve got to get our digital sneakers on, so that the truth can prevail over the lies. And when we do that, the future of Israel will be stronger because a majority of all Americans will support Israel. We’ll make that happen, we have to make it happen.”
If any anti-Zionist with a public profile had said Jews control Silicon Valley and use it to influence public opinion for the benefit of Israel, they’d be forcefully denounced by the entire Western political-media class as a rabid antiSemite. But a Jewish politician saying Jews must use their control over…
And it’s got me wondering if thinking of one’s own cultural/religious identity as being that of, say, a “master of the universe,” might that encourage or justify horrible acts of genocide - like that currently being committed against the people of Palestine?
Zionism is an imperialist mindset in that it promotes that members of its in-group (Notably other Zionists, not all Jews, you can see this socially in the Zionist attitudes towards Diaspora and anti-Zionist Jews and institutionally in Israeli treatment of Beta Israel) have this “master of the universe” status. This isn’t inherent to Judaism, but Zionism hides behind the skirt of Judaism to justify, legitimize and protect itself from criticism unduly.
Thankfully, attitudes among the American Diaspora are shifting. A recent AP poll indicates that 30% of American Jewish adults agree that Israel is committing genocide while 49% do not. The poll wasn’t about support for Israel, but I would like to think people who think Israel is committing genocide do not support Israel and I would hazard that not all of the remaining 70% support Israel, though it is likely that at least 49% or around there do.
While Israel’s actions have been extremely polarizing in the past, let me tell you that attitudes among the Jewish kitchen table and the tone and topics regarding Israel have changed drastically over the past thirty years. More and more, I hear other Jews vehemently denounce Israel during holidays, to the extent of changing traditions and rituals to not include its name. It’s difficult to communicate just how large of an indicator that is, culturally. I’ve even seen people who do support Israel bite their tongue instead of bringing up a conflicting opinion. This is also a large cultural indicator of change in a cultural where spirited debate is common over even frivolous things.
Attitudes are changing. And it’s because of responses like Coleman’s that the American Diaspora is rejecting imperialism falsely done in their name. Or perhaps attitudes like Coleman’s are a sign of desperation as support wanes.
“30% US Jews do not support genocide” is not the epic statistic that indicates much change.
