Latest news as Democratic presidential contender selects Minnesota Governor Tim Walz to help her take on Donald Trump and JD Vance, with his Pennsylvania counterpart Josh Shapiro narrowly missing out
Palestinians will not coexist peacefully. They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.
That’s what he said and didn’t distance himself from until decades later when it might cost him a prestigious gig not to. Not buying it.
Doesn’t help that he used to volunteer at an IDF base and then worked at the Israeli embassy as a paid Hasbarist.
He’s also recently spread the “protests against genocide is antisemitic and threatens Jewish students” disinformation, going so far as to equate the currents anti-genocide protesters with the KKK harassing black people.
He also falsely claimed that Jewish people are being banned from campuses, which there’s absolutely no evidence for.
Basically he’s an awful Hasbarist. Always has been, always will be.
And his supporters in Washington and the media are already declaring all criticism of the above antisemitism because of course they are 🤦🤬
Palestinians will not coexist peacefully. They do not have the capabilities to establish their own homeland and make it successful even with the aid of Israel and the United States. They are too battle-minded to be able to establish a peaceful homeland of their own.
Yikes okay I hadn’t heard about this, that’s really bad. The only way I’d be surprised if a Republican said something like this would be that it’s above a fifth grade level of grammar, this is unacceptable for a Democrat. Do you have a source for where he said this?
wow viking_hippie did a way better job than i ever could have expressing the things i wanted to communicate in lieu of any ability on my part to streamline and organize my thoughts in a concise but thorough manner…
but even though i’m very much NOT a fan of shapiro and i mostly agree with everything viking just said, that one bit about “Palestinians are too battle-minded”, iirc, was from an editorial he wrote in college back in the 90s, and while it IS a vile position to hold… not everyone was gifted with foreknowledge that it was baseless propaganda.
I learned better since the 90s myself that, no, the middle east has NOT in fact ‘always been at war throughout all of history’, ACTUALLY. If i sound somewhat salty right now it’s out of shame for my past. I myself didn’t learn until over a decade later that the middle east’s history had a shit ton more nuance.
None of us are immune to propaganda. As much as I dislike shapiro’s present positions I actually want to give him the benefit of a doubt that MAYBE he no longer actually espouses this position to this day, and I couldn’t find evidence (perhaps just skill issue??) either way.
So, TL;DR: it’s healthy to pump the brakes and ask ourselves how legitimate some of the criticisms of someone are, EVEN IF the rest of the criticisms are unfortunately accurate.
I’m not out here to demonize someone. I only set out to qualify exactly why I prefer Walz over Shapiro. Thank you both for being good sports about it!
[It] was from an editorial he wrote in college back in the 90s, and while it IS a vile position to hold… not everyone was gifted with foreknowledge that it was baseless propaganda.
True. However, as I pointed out in another comment, he’s had 30 years to correct the record and didn’t until doing so became advantageous to his career prospects.
Coupled with his much more recent statements about the protesters, I don’t buy that he’s actually evolved on Israel at all since the 90s when, as you so rightly point out, the vast majority of people in the West didn’t know better than to believe the Hasbara.
… oh dear gods, now that you mention it, he literally fucking WORKED FOR Hasbara, in 1996.
I was gonna say “If I was embarrassed about something I did in the past I wouldn’t want to bring it up either” but Shapiro literally CREATED some of the rhetoric that tried to brainwash me when I was a kid. What the FUCK man… D:
Before you say “but that was ages ago! He’s evolved since then!”, I’d like to point out that at no time during the intervening 30 years has he distanced himself from it, until the moment it might be a hindrance to getting a prestigious gig as VP.
Call me a cynic, but I find it extremely unlikely that he’s being sincere rather than just doing disingenuous damage control in order to become the designated White House Hasbarist after Biden vacates that position.
That’s the thing he wrote like 30 years ago right? What are his views now? I’m not judging someone based on what they wrote the year before I was born if they don’t feel that way anymore.
Given that he never in those 30 years recanted any of it before the moment it became inconvenient to his career prospects and given his recent comments demonizing anti-genocide protesters as equivalent to the KKK and spreading debunked smears about them, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that his views haven’t changed much.
That’s what he said and didn’t distance himself from until decades later when it might cost him a prestigious gig not to. Not buying it.
Doesn’t help that he used to volunteer at an IDF base and then worked at the Israeli embassy as a paid Hasbarist.
He’s also recently spread the “protests against genocide is antisemitic and threatens Jewish students” disinformation, going so far as to equate the currents anti-genocide protesters with the KKK harassing black people.
He also falsely claimed that Jewish people are being banned from campuses, which there’s absolutely no evidence for.
Basically he’s an awful Hasbarist. Always has been, always will be.
And his supporters in Washington and the media are already declaring all criticism of the above antisemitism because of course they are 🤦🤬
Yikes okay I hadn’t heard about this, that’s really bad. The only way I’d be surprised if a Republican said something like this would be that it’s above a fifth grade level of grammar, this is unacceptable for a Democrat. Do you have a source for where he said this?
wow viking_hippie did a way better job than i ever could have expressing the things i wanted to communicate in lieu of any ability on my part to streamline and organize my thoughts in a concise but thorough manner…
but even though i’m very much NOT a fan of shapiro and i mostly agree with everything viking just said, that one bit about “Palestinians are too battle-minded”, iirc, was from an editorial he wrote in college back in the 90s, and while it IS a vile position to hold… not everyone was gifted with foreknowledge that it was baseless propaganda.
I learned better since the 90s myself that, no, the middle east has NOT in fact ‘always been at war throughout all of history’, ACTUALLY. If i sound somewhat salty right now it’s out of shame for my past. I myself didn’t learn until over a decade later that the middle east’s history had a shit ton more nuance.
None of us are immune to propaganda. As much as I dislike shapiro’s present positions I actually want to give him the benefit of a doubt that MAYBE he no longer actually espouses this position to this day, and I couldn’t find evidence (perhaps just skill issue??) either way.
So, TL;DR: it’s healthy to pump the brakes and ask ourselves how legitimate some of the criticisms of someone are, EVEN IF the rest of the criticisms are unfortunately accurate.
I’m not out here to demonize someone. I only set out to qualify exactly why I prefer Walz over Shapiro. Thank you both for being good sports about it!
True. However, as I pointed out in another comment, he’s had 30 years to correct the record and didn’t until doing so became advantageous to his career prospects.
Coupled with his much more recent statements about the protesters, I don’t buy that he’s actually evolved on Israel at all since the 90s when, as you so rightly point out, the vast majority of people in the West didn’t know better than to believe the Hasbara.
… oh dear gods, now that you mention it, he literally fucking WORKED FOR Hasbara, in 1996.
I was gonna say “If I was embarrassed about something I did in the past I wouldn’t want to bring it up either” but Shapiro literally CREATED some of the rhetoric that tried to brainwash me when I was a kid. What the FUCK man… D:
It was a 1993 opioin piece in his college newspaper
Before you say “but that was ages ago! He’s evolved since then!”, I’d like to point out that at no time during the intervening 30 years has he distanced himself from it, until the moment it might be a hindrance to getting a prestigious gig as VP.
Call me a cynic, but I find it extremely unlikely that he’s being sincere rather than just doing disingenuous damage control in order to become the designated White House Hasbarist after Biden vacates that position.
Geez, if the Dems are going to again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, she could do now by picking Shapiro. :(
That’s the thing he wrote like 30 years ago right? What are his views now? I’m not judging someone based on what they wrote the year before I was born if they don’t feel that way anymore.
Given that he never in those 30 years recanted any of it before the moment it became inconvenient to his career prospects and given his recent comments demonizing anti-genocide protesters as equivalent to the KKK and spreading debunked smears about them, I think it’s reasonable to conclude that his views haven’t changed much.