Quoting Masha Gessen on why the story of antisemitism needs to be rewritten, starting in New York (apropos Zohran Mamdani):
[…] If there is such a thing as correct answers in politics, Mamdani had them. It ought to be uncontroversial for a mayor to focus on his city and for a politician to assert the value of equal rights. But the exchange fueled accusations of antisemitism.
Masha Gessen shows how the definition of #antisemitism has expanded to silence criticism of Israeli actions. Zohran Mamdani faces anti-Muslim slurs and doctored campaign materials all while being labeled antisemitic for supporting equal rights and focusing on local issues. Gessen argues that this conflation undermines understanding of actual antisemitism and creates fear that politicians exploit.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/24/opinion/antisemitism-new-york-city-mayor.html or https://archive.is/dmpoa
I totally agree with @Naureckas - This is about the #NYT, #WSJ, #BBC and many other Western outlets who historically pushed against any expression of opinion contradicting the established narrative. Is there any other reason why a the BBC never asked Avi Shlaim on any of their shows for commentary? https://kolektiva.social/@oatmeal/114722119250323489
As an Israeli I’m well aware that most liberal mainstream Western media functions as a propaganda mechanism when it uncritically amplifies pro-Israel narratives when it systematically ignores 77 years of occupation. It’s an absurd that some of them exhibit more deference to Israel than Israeli media such as #Haaretz, which, despite its flaws and position within the establishment that resists peace, at least produces some critical analyses that are noticeably absent form some “liberal” press in the West.
Questioning established narratives invites accusations of “antisemitism”, and in turn allows Israel to break every international law, including those defining the terms of the occupation itself, often obscured with a cynical framing as “conflict” or “terrorism.”
To address this legacy, Western media must acknowledge history and facilitate discussions that may indeed question Israel’s right to exist, as that’s the core of the issue. Palestine’s partition fundamentally contradicted the UN charter’s own principle of right to self-determination, and paved the way for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine’s majority population in 1948. This displacement of one population while securing overwhelming international support effectively made the Holocaust the Palestinians’ problem rather than Europeans’.
While we cannot undo all of that, we must allow discussions about solutions that consider reality, not only Israel’s anxieties, often expressed through cynical weaponization of the memory of the #Holocaust and antisemitism.
@palestine
@israel
#GazaGenocide