Vacy Vlazna
www.middleeastmonitor.com
...

Israel has begun mobilizing some 60,000 reservists to take part in its planned occupation of Gaza City, the army confirmed Tuesday, signaling a major escalation in the genocidal war now in its 23rd month, Anadolu reports.

The military said the reservists will be issued weapons, personal gear and full tactical equipment, with units undergoing drills in urban and open terrain combat “to boost readiness for upcoming missions.”

Israeli daily Maariv said the mobilization would see reservists undergo three to four days of training before some are reassigned to replace regular troops stationed on the northern front.

The step follows Friday’s declaration of Gaza City as a “dangerous combat zone,” accompanied by heavy bombardment and demolitions that have already caused mass civilian casualties and widespread destruction. Gaza’s Government Media Office has accused the army of deploying explosive-laden robots and adopting a “scorched earth” strategy.

  • FishFace@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    Please explain how Zionism is:

    Prejudiced, discriminatory, hostile or opposed politically or religiously against ethnic or religious Jews or against Judaism

    More information on usage can be found here but even if you want to use the non-standard sense of the word, it is:

    • clearly wrong, because Zionism privileges one group it should be prejudiced against if it were anti-semitic in this sense; and
    • clearly not the anti-semitism of the Nazis - so in no way does this make Zionism a form of Nazism, which is what we were talking about.
    • mrlemmyhimself@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      6 days ago

      Zionism relies on “othering” Jews, making them feel unsafe in their home countries. They literally sterilized African Jews in the pursuit of their colonial vision.

      As for Nazism, I’m not arguing there, it is technically different. But insofar as people think about Nazis as evil, it’s a useful word in these conversations.

      • FishFace@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        6 days ago

        I agree it’s useful to highlight the parallels between what the Israeli government does now and what was done to the Jewish population by the Nazis, but equating the two is not useful, is actively harmful, and extremely offensive. That’s what I objected to above.

        Zionism relies on “othering” Jews, making them feel unsafe in their home countries.

        You can just as well say that all nationalist projects rely on “othering” in the sense of dividing whatever group is deemed “us” from everyone else. But of course, nobody normally calls this “othering”, because it explicitly makes the in-group us not other than us. It would be wholly wrong to say that Zionist Jews characterise Jews as other than us, so I don’t see how this is “othering” in any way that makes sense. They may other particular subgroups, but that is simply not a basis for describing the process as “othering Jews” because Jewishness is not the axis along which the division is being made; rather it is the axis of the subgroup. Scots might other the English, and this would not be a basis on which to accuse Scots of anti-British prejudice.

        Othering alone is in any case not prejudice; it is merely something that often precedes it.

        They literally sterilized African Jews in the pursuit of their colonial vision.

        That would be a subgroup of Jews, not Jews as a whole. You wouldn’t call it homophobia to bully Michael who happens to be gay if you don’t bully other gay people.