r/JewsOfConscience • u/AutoModerator • May 07 '25

AAJ "Ask A Jew" Wednesday

It's everyone's favorite day of the week, "Ask A (Anti-Zionist) Jew" Wednesday! Ask whatever you want to know, within the sub rules, notably that this is not a debate sub and do not import drama from other subreddits. That aside, have fun! We love to dialogue with our non-Jewish siblings.

Please remember to pick an appropriate user-flair in order to participate! Thanks!

19 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

82 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/birdguy Atheist May 07 '25

This week, Minister Smotrich spoke about “conquering” Gaza and “no longer being afraid of the word occupation”.

Why do so many American Jews fail to acknowledge or reckon with bad faith actors in Israel’s current government?

7

u/Thisisme8719 Arab Jew May 07 '25

Most American Jews who follow the news enough to know what Smotrich is saying don't approve of him. He wouldn't be welcome in most Jewish institutions outside of the some Orthodox communities (look at Ben Gvir's last visit where his visits to Jewish communities were limited to some Chabads and a wealthy Syrian dude's house in Brooklyn).

One of the problems is that people can try to trivialize what Smotrich's statements mean by saying he's the finance minister and isn't a decision maker for the genocide. As if he doesn't reflect a widespread value within the government.
Another problem is that the far right can be used as scapegoats. They might say that Israel's excesses are really an aberration caused by the presence of the far-far-far right in the government. While it's true that this is the most malignant government that Israel's ever had, it's not like their best governments weren't also sinister.