Gaza and the West Bank: Dispatches from Catastrophe (I)
https://world-outlook.com/2026/04/30/gaza-and-the-west-bank-dispatches-from-catastrophe-i/

[1 of 2 parts of a dispatch from #JewishCurrents, with an intro by #WorldOutlook]
April 30, 2026

In Nov.-Dec.2025, Jewish Currents reached out to some two dozen Palestinians from #Gaza and the #WestBank — all of whom the magazine had previously interviewed after October 7 — to ask them how their lives had changed since they last shared their stories.

The resulting testimonies are difficult to read. They show the effects of years of industrialized, live-broadcast massacres and colonization, particularly in Gaza, where more than 10% of the population is estimated to have been killed or injured in the last two years.

“What all the voices share is disillusionment: with the political parties #Hamas and #Fatah; with supposed allies like #Arab countries; with international systems such as the #UN; and with notions of international law and justice writ large..."

#news #politics #Palestine #Israel

“AA: There is also a way to argue, on the flipside, that the project of Israel is essentially a project of assimilation into the Western world order—that there’s nothing inherently Jewish about what Israel is doing, and that it actually represents assimilation into a colonial framework. But then, of course, there’s a way to read this that’s very direct: This is what Jews are doing in the world. Secular Jews, religious Jews, cultural Jews, all kinds of Jews.

EL: You’re absolutely right. That was the strategy we on the Jewish left used for a long time, to say Judaism was colonized and the Zionists are Jewish antisemites, in that they reject what the antisemites reject—the diasporic, exilic, “parasite” Jew—and want instead to become real Europeans. But when so many people who call themselves Jewish are doing things that we have a problem with and calling it “Jewish,” we cannot just dismiss it, or claim that it’s not real Judaism. If you look at statistics, at least in Israel, the support for Netanyahu and the Gaza war, including the most racist genocidal statements, is correlated to how religious people are—the more religious, the more supportive. There were times when you could expect the Haredi communities not to go to the army, not to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut, Independence Day, not even to speak Hebrew. And that’s changed.”

https://jewishcurrents.org/when-jewishness-means-genocide

#jewishness #zionism #israel #genocide #philosophy #EladLapidot #conversation #JewishCurrents

Arielle Angel, 41, is editor-in-chief of Jewish Currents magazine. Her mother's family were Arab Jews from Haifa while her father's family were Ladino-speaking Holocaust survivors from Salonika; her grandmother survived 20 months in Auschwitz. She grew up in Miami in a "very Zionist" home, Israel flag at school, March of the Living in Poland, summer camps, where she learned to speak about Israel in first person: "We did."

Since becoming editor in 2018 at age33, she has transformed the dormant magazine into a platform for American Jews seeking alternatives to Zionism. For many of its 10,000 print subscribers (and approximately 2.5 million annual visitors to its digital version), it represents a community center and critical space for discussion of American-Jewish-leftist identity that is trying to reinvent itself.

She now defines herself as anti-Zionist and says she may never return to Israel despite family there. She draws on doikayt - "here-ness" in Yiddish - the Bundist concept of building Jewish life where you are rather than orienting toward Israel.

On separation from Israel:

"Something happened that cannot be simply rationalized or turned back. Israelis committed genocide. That needs to be accepted. Truth and reconciliation are needed. And until then, I feel my work is to encourage separation. I think it's also good for Israel. If we agree that the conditions for internal change don't exist, we must believe in some form of public pressure. And public pressure from world Jewry can have an impact."

On Zionism emptying Judaism:

"It's so strange to claim that Israel is still the heart of our Judaism only in negative. In the Judaism of American Zionists there is nothing but Zionism. Zionism itself is what emptied Judaism of content. Not alone, of course—there was a whole history here. The truth is that for most non-observant Israelis it's the same thing. So the problem of the American Jewish left is not exceptional."

On the need for new institutions:

"If we aspire to weaken Zionism within Jewish communities, we'll need to develop a robust vision for contemporary Judaism; to meet those who want to extricate themselves from the rot with something beautiful and true in our hands," she wrote. "We cannot ask them to jump and refuse to catch them."

On whether Jews bear responsibility for consequences of Israel's actions:

"Israel changed the status of Jews in the entire world. We are experiencing more violence because of Israel's claim that we are its agents... When foreign governments console Netanyahu for Jews murdered in Sydney, that endangers us."

Hebrew https://www.haaretz.co.il/magazine/2026-03-25/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/0000019d-24f4-d7c1-a59f-eeffb4490000 or https://archive.ph/Xj17q

#zionism #israel #warcrimes #gazagenocide #JewishCurrents #antizionism

#JewishCurrents welcomes Narges Bajoghli and Manijeh Moradian for an excellent discussion of how the #IranianDiaspora is interpreting and reacting to the US-Israel #warOnIran.

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-fault-lines-shattering-the-iranian-diaspora
#Iran #MiddleEast #USpol #IranProtests #régimeChangeWars #campism

Fighting the #ICEoccupation of #Minnesota

#JewishCurrents talks w/ 3 organizers on the ground in #Minneapolis - Lily Cooper, Kandace Montgomery & Jesse Meisenhelter

"They discuss the legacies of local organizing since George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the opportunities for the left-liberal coalition in this moment, and navigating the steep risks involved in this resistance work."

https://jewishcurrents.org/fighting-the-ice-occupation-of-minnesota
#ICE #ICEoutOfMN #MinneapolisResists #FuckICE #USpol #stateRepression #activism

Germany grovels to Trump

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/david-cronin/germany-grovels-trump

what to notice about Epstein and Israel — Jewish Currents podcast convo hosted by Arielle Angel with Noah Kulwin & @dropsitenews.com’s Ryan Grim
https://pdbowman.studio/briefs/2-dec-2025-jeffrey-epstein-ruling-class-social-reproduction-arielle-angel-noah-kulwin/

#JewishCurrents #DropSiteNews #JeffreyEpstein #Davos #DavosClass #rulingClass #Israel

The Myth of Israeli Innovation: #Israel has long relied on Western patrons for arms and backing—even as it has cast itself as a security “innovator” the West can’t afford to do without.

Rhys Machold in #JewishCurrents

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-myth-of-israeli-innovation

An important and needed discussion on #JewishCurrents pod about the trafficking of #antisemitism by #farRight influencers under the guise of "antizionism." Focus is on #TuckerCarlson's talk w/ #NickFuentes and #NormanFinkelstein's surreal decision to go on #CandaceOwens's show while providing hardly any pushback to her BS #conspiracism.

Worth a listen for any ppl who think going on fash podcasts can "advance" the cause of Palestine.

https://jewishcurrents.org/confronting-the-anti-zionist-right
#USpol #USpolitics