I'm all for true dialogue and bridge building between Israel and the Arab world. I have dedicated my life to it. However, such films (I have not watched it yet) and this speech, which as you can see by the fact it won an award (again - maybe it was a great film, but my sense it was a pure political motivation) plays to the clueless and spineless Hollywood moral vacuousness masquerading as human rights activism. 1. We need to end, once and for all, this blood libel that there is an "Israeli genocide". There are people who die in war. most /half are militants, some are civilians. This is not a genocide. Genocide is what H@mas tried to do on Oct 7. Worst genocide I've ever seen when the "genocided" side started a war and can end it immediately by returning the hostages, but chose to start it and chooses to continue it. 2. There is no Israeli ethnic cleansing. This is a blood libel. There was mutual ethnic cleansing in 1948, in a war the Arabs (not yet called Palestinians) started. Muslim Arabs were ethnically cleansed by Jews, Jews were ethnically cleansed by Arabs - in Israel and around the entire Middle East. This sucks.. Wars have consequences. (btw, my family in Iraq.. along with some 750k Jews in Arab lands, had nothing to do with Israel's war of independence). 3. Home demolition is by and large a response and attempt to deter terrorists. These are terrorist family homes. Smart policy ? We can debate, but these are not random home demolitions by a wicked occupation force. Don't be fooled. 4. I have yet to see Palestinians, as a movement (not a few brave and sober individuals) recognize that much of their suffering and lack of freedom is a direct result of their choices. Choose peace and choose to end the occupation by negotiations - or choose violence, terror and "intifada". Israel cannot sit by and accept terrorism. The "wall" was a direct result of the 2nd Intifada which murdered over 1000 Israeli civilians on buses, in cafes and malls. Your "Gaza blockade" was a direct result of H@mas' takeover of Gaza after Israel totally withdrew in 2005 - turning it into a mega terror base and launching countless attacks, and smuggling weapons into it. BTW Gaza has an ind. border w Egypt. 5. Not all Palestinians are terrorists. In fact, statistically speaking, the majority are not. But as a society, they must own, take responsibility and stop the terrorists from within their midst, rather than pretending they are hapless victims and Israeli "aggression" and "occupation" are something that occurs out of the blue. 6. Can we stop it with this "settler colonialism" garbage already? Wake up - your grandfathers knew full well that Jews were indigenous to "Jew-dea", ie. Israel. Your narrative was imported by Soviet KGB Marxist agents in the 1960's and 1970's as part of its war on the west. Jews are no more "settler colonialists" than you are - yes, that you speak Arabic and practice Islam... is because you...were...colonized in the 7th and 8th centuries. 7. When you can acknowledge reality and history, learn to listen to Israeli society just as you wish to be listened to (and you have legitimate grievances for sure), and take agency and responsibility for the actions of your society.... we can move forward. And have a better future together. 8. Every time Hollywood or western elites play along with these narratives, mostly out of sheer and utter ignorance and cosplaying as moral people, and try to build western pressure on Israel...and not H@mas which started and perpetuated this stupid war, a solution gets further and not closer. Thanks for the award!
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