The Advocate

( By Owen Gent) I'm a Jew who believes in the right of Jews to self-determination in our ancestral homeland . I'm also a Jew who believes in the right of Palestinians to self-determination in their ancestral homeland . I don't see either of these two stances as contradictory but rather mutually affirming.  I reject bigoted and extremist definitions of the labels, and increasingly the various movements, surrounding this conflict. I've struggled (from my relatively privileged place in the diaspora) to support peaceful, mutual coexistence, when so many on all sides are deeply invested in a status quo they paradoxically admit is unjust and untenable. I've also struggled to connect with more people who have a shared reality of the conflict and shared values around ending it. But even after a lifetime surviving virulent antisemitism while the world burns, I have hope. A hopeless hope against hope because the only alternative would be to lay down and die. Well, fuck that....

The reason people don't understand me is because my politics are dark and not visible from the outside. I'm not the person you've projected, but someone far, far different.  *** Liberal, Leftist, Progressive. Socialist, Communist, Tankie. Capitalist, Fascist, Nazi. Moderate, Centrist, Shitlib. Democrat, Independent, Republican. Alt-Left, Alt-Right, Fill-in-the-blank. As a Jew, I've always been called whatever was convenient for other people to label me. Hate capitalism? I'm the uber-capitalist. Hate communism? I'm the super communist. Hate liberals? I'm a Democrat party shitlib. Hate conservatives? I'm a moderate Republican. Hate colonizers? Jews are the ultra-colonizers. Hate rootless cosmopolitans? Jews are the biggest globalists of all time. I used to consider myself a leftist. But after October 7, 2023, leftists told me I couldn't be. Because Zionists aren't allowed, which is just another way of saying no Jews allowed. It was on December 4, 2...