Steve QJ
2 min readNov 11, 2024

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I'm sorry, this is pure propaganda. And I know why you believe it, because I've heard from dozens of Jews who have been kept in the same bubble and fed the same propaganda. I've heard several ex-Zionist Jews talking about how hard it was to eventually see through it.

The clearest evidence of this is the testimony of people like Michael Bar-Zohar, David Ben-Gurion’s official biographer, who spoke honestly at a point where our sensibilities about colonialism were different:

“Whatever became of the slogan: A people without a land returns to land without a people? The simple truth was that Palestine was not an empty land, and the Jews were only a small minority of its population. In the days of the empire-building, the Western powers had dismissed natives as an inconsequential factor in determining whether or not to settle a territory with immigrants. Even after the [first] World War, the concept of self-determination…was still reserved exclusively for the developed world.

As to the rest of your reply, the point is that, originally, Arabs didn't want to keep Jews out. Again, Jews, Arabs and Christians had been living together in Palestine for centuries. It was actually Muslims who were the majority for at least the last ~1500 or so years. And they lived together almost entirely in peace. So the arrival of Jews was welcomed at first. But as the numbers increased, and as the intent to displace non-Jews became clear, yes, things soured and became violent on both sides.

The point I’m making is that the inciting incident here is very obviously Zionism, not antisemitism.

Arabs opposed the partition plan and instead called for a single democratic state where Jews and Muslims and everybody else lived together. Zionists refused. And they refused because they saw the partition plan as a jumping off point to achieve their real ambition of taking over all of Palestine.

Here it is in David Ben-Gurion's own words: "I favour partition of the country because when we become a strong power after the establishment of the state, we will abolish partition and spread throughout all of Palestine."

Which is exactly what happened and is still happening.

So yes, we can talk about the terror attacks since then. As I've said clearly all along, my support for the Palestinian cause is not support for the methods employed by terrorists. It is the recognition that neither Israelis nor Palestinians will be safe until the injustice and avarice of Zionism is acknowledged and addressed.

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Steve QJ
Steve QJ

Written by Steve QJ

Race. Politics. Culture. Sometimes other things. Almost always polite. Find more at https://steveqj.substack.com

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