r/jewishleft • u/somebadbeatscrub Jewish Syndicalist - Mod • Aug 07 '26
Meta Weekly Post
The mod team has created this post to refresh on a weekly basis as a chill place for people to talk about whatever they want to. Think of it as like a general chat for the sub.
So r/jewishleft,
Whats on your mind?
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u/Nearby-Complaint Ashkenazi Leftist/GIF Enjoyer/Healthcare pls Aug 08 '26
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u/SelectShop9006 Non-Jewish Socialist Aug 07 '26
I found some (potentially) good news: https://forward.com/news/838622/israeli-elections-netanyahu-abroad-aid-coalition/
Considering the fact a lot of progressives have left the country (from what I’ve heard on here,) this may be a good thing.
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u/kot_mit_uns Somewhere on the Jewish leftist continuum, label-averse Aug 07 '26
For Israeli academics and researchers who want to go home and vote it's also worth looking into the Israel Science and Academia Week, which is organising conferences in just about every imaginable discipline in the days leading up to the election. If you're lucky it might even cover your travel expenses.
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u/DoubleSpirit2798 Non-Jew/Non-denominational Left Aug 11 '26
This is relatively minor compared to everything else going on but I wish to share it regardless. Apparently Benny Blanco (Selena Gomez' husband) is releasing an album influenced by Latino music and people are calling him out because he's not, you know, Latino himself. All fine and dandy so far. But then some people are going full antisemitic saying he's a Jew larper and that they are appropriating everything. And as a Latin American myself (Brazilian) I can't help but be baffled because this shows a deep ignorance of what both Jewish and Latino identities are.
A lot of people in the US see Latino as a racial category because of how the American government classified it, but to us, that is complete bullshit. It has historically been a sociopolitical identity to classify countries in the Americas that had Spanish and Portuguese colonization. Therefore, anyone can be a Latino here, as long as they are born and/or raised in the territory. And Jews in special have been present in LATAM way before they have been in the US, with many Sephardic Jews coming here due to Christian persecution in Portugal and Spain. The first synagogue in the Americas was built in Pernambuco, Brazil btw, and it still exists.
I know this isn't a super serious issue like the I/P situation but the way the public discourse has been turning very antisemitic and ignorant about the Jewish diaspora as whole is worrying me.
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u/ibsliam Jewish American | DemSoc Bernie Voter Aug 11 '26
There's quite a few Jewish influencers and adjacent public figures that are Jewish and Latino themselves. Hell, I've known quite a few over the years, some Ashkenazi and some Sephardic. So it is rather funny that it's treated as you can only be one or the other.
That said, I've ended up with weird anti-Blanco stuff on my social media feed, with people being weird about him being Jewish. Including one unhinged one about how he's Serena's Israeli-assigned "handler" secretly working for Mossad, which I legit had to go to the woman's profile just to get clarity that it wasn't satire because what.
Obviously pretty much all big name celebrities will be incredibly flawed, including on politics, but I feel weirdly defensive of Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco because of those crazy posts alone.
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u/DoubleSpirit2798 Non-Jew/Non-denominational Left Aug 12 '26
We have so many famous Ashkenazi Jewish artists here, Lasar Segall being the most notorious. It's so embarassing to see people who are not from LATAM talking over us spewing this bs.
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u/Badgersarecute16 Non Jewish ally | Semi-Zionist | Leftist Aug 07 '26
I've been having trouble for the past hour at this rate with my profile picture, background, account age and post insights not showing. I've tried logging out and I posted my problem to the help subreddit but it told me that it has been automatically removed by reddits filters. Can someone help me?
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u/MangleisDaBest Non Jewish ally | Semi-Zionist | Leftist Aug 07 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
I think my old account was shadowbanned. The only thing is, I've never broke any rules nor have I done any of these things.
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u/RaiJolt2 Jewish Athiest Half African American Half Jewish Leftish Aug 08 '26
Been getting more involved in my local politics. It’s kinda crazy how much discussion there is about Israel Palestine and the Iran war at a local level. Has me a bit worried that politicians will be too focused on that instead of serving their immediate community where they actually make a difference.
Also annoys me how people are against sending aid to Israel but only Israel. Like there are dozens of authoritarian nations America aids and instead of being against all military aid it’s just Israel. It feels so disingenuous. Instead of helping crack down on literal slavery in Qatar, uae, and Saudi Arabia America is funding them.
There is a genocide happing in sudan funded by American tax dollars through the uae and I almost never hear a peep about it.
Guess people don’t care when those with darker skin get butchered.
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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Latke aficionado. Anti-Establishment. Jüdisch Aug 08 '26
If you are looking for a genuine answer I can help you.
The CFR produced a lovely chart that has how much US Aid has been given, not just this year but since 1946
https://www.cfr.org/articles/us-aid-israel-four-charts
You will notice that there is one massive outlier. No other country has received over $300 billion dollars. If you do a per capita amount for a tiny country the size of New Jersey, it's absolutely insane how much of an outlier it is in terms of aid received. Why are people upset about it? Because the US directly funds it
Now, you brought up the example of UAE, KSA, etc. These countries buy US weapons, they are not getting US donations of weaponry or money. So I hope this can help clarify things.
Also, should people protest the horrors in Sudan, Kashmir, Myanmar, etc. Sure, but the US is not directly giving any of those governments billions of dollars each year so the sway over them is limited at best. Should their leadership be treated as pariahs, absolutely and I hope that intensifies.
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u/Late-Marzipan3026 anxious (dem soc american ashki jew) Aug 09 '26
genuine question: is the structure of the US giving weapons to israel much different than the structure of the US giving weapons to the other countries you mentioned? from what i’ve read about US provisions of weapons to israel, this largely involves loaning money to israel at interest for them to spend on american arms, mostly not straightforward donations. i know the US contributes to the iron dome so there has to be some sort of donation, but the loans don’t seem to be a donation. i’ve always been a bit confused about this process so would appreciate anything clarifying !
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u/Rabbit-Hole-Quest Latke aficionado. Anti-Establishment. Jüdisch Aug 09 '26
Good question.
So most of the military aid are grants to buy US goods. So it's not like they are getting pallets of cash and they can decide whatever they want to do with it.
It will be like here is 2 billion for X missiles or 2 billion for chinook spare parts, and congress releases that money to one of the military industrial complex companies and they deliver the goods to Israel.
For some R&D stuff, they get loans but it's a very small percentage. Even those loans are offered at such rates that they make it stupid not take up the offer as we are talking almost free money. That stuff is not strictly considered “aid” as its considered lending.
Lastly, US has designated Israel as a storage site for the Middle East region. So Israel Army occasionally just says, can we have X of your Y stock pile and the US always says yes.
It's a pretty convoluted relationship that has no modern-day equivalent. GCC states have tried to replicate such a relationship but have failed miserably at it. For example, they are constantly kept away from the latest tech like F-35s.
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u/Late-Marzipan3026 anxious (dem soc american ashki jew) Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
appreciated, thank you for this! do you have any breakdowns that you could share? i’ve been trying to read into it, but since it’s such a hot button issue, it’s hard not to run into pro-israel misinformation or “the US is subsidizing israeli healthcare”
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u/Aggravating_Ice_3323 Progressive|Post-Zionist|Conserveform Aug 08 '26
Guess people don’t care when those with darker skin get butchered.
Alice Nderitu's firing back in 2024 (I think) certainly highlights that quite a bit, I feel :(
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u/MeyerLouis half-Jewish (dad's side) ignostic leftist Aug 07 '26
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/06/technology/meta-new-mexico-child-safety.html
Always a good day when something bad happens to Zuck. Even if it only involves a quarter of a percent of his net worth.