Virginia Delegate Sam Rasoul, whose family was displaced by Israel, wrote about the ‘evils’ of Zionism, prompting a flurry of attacks from Tim Kaine, Abigail Spanberger, and other party colleagues.

  • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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    2 days ago

    I think what Rasoul wrote was pretty measured and accurate, apart from calling the present actions the most evil cleansing in human history.

    The objection from Kaine at least seems to hinge on Rasoul’s use of “Zionism.” You can see where there is miscommunication in Kaine’s quote:

    Tim Kaine, one of Virginia’s two Democratic senators, declared: “I forcefully reject any claim that Zionism — the desire of Jewish people to have a state of Israel — is inherently racist or evil.”

    So if Kaine thinks the desire to have an Israeli state is Zionism, then Rasoul lambasting Zionism is going to feel like an attack on the existence of Israel.

    • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      The one-ethnicity, one-state idea is intellectually and morally bankrupt. It only works if all out-group members are either oppressed, expelled or exterminated.

    • overthere@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      So White Christian Nationalists wanting to have their own ethnostate and exterminate non-whites is bad, but Jewish Nationalists (Zionists) wanting to have their own ethnostate and exterminate non-Jews is ok?

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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        2 days ago

        Almost every state is built around a dominant ethnicity. Israel is not 100% Jewish. And as long as they treat minorities fairly, it’s not inherently bad.

        Exterminating other races is unequivocally bad in all cases, but you only included that to appeal to emotion.

          • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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            1 day ago

            Then the US is already an ethnostate. And so are Norway, Germany, and Italy to different degrees.

            China and Japan are arguably better examples of ethnostates than Israel.

        • overthere@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          An ethnostate does not simply imply a that a majority of one ethnic group exists. Apartheid is not normal for most states.

          An ethnocracy is a type of political structure in which the state apparatus is controlled by a dominant ethnic group (or groups) to further that group’s perceived interests, power, dominance, and resources.

    • PhilipTheBucket@piefed.social
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      2 days ago

      Yeah. It’s also notable that Rasoul is a Democratic committee chair, and he’s been railing against Israel’s “war” for years now, and all of that has always been fine. It became an issue with this particular post, for the reasons you specified, and now people are trying to use it as a way to spin up this whole thing where the Democrats hate the Palestinians and want to silence his criticism of Israel, and this is just more proof.