How the Media Cracks Down on Critics of Israel

I always thought the question of Zionist legitimacy came more out out the fact that what became Israel was administered by the British after WWI and over the next 20 years, was so embroiled in tension between the Zionists and the ex-ottoman's as to what the final fate of the area should be? The Arab's had a civil war there around '39 but the Jewish population hit highest tensions about a decade later following WWII and a wave of sympathy for the survivors of the Holocaust. Palestine was thought to be the inevitable outcome by the Arabs of the region, but the atrocities levied upon the Jewish people galvanized the Jewish population of the state sufficiently they were able to hold the territory against those that challenged them. An outcome of that was the Palestinian exodus in light of Israel's successful defense of it's claimed Soverignty on the Day following the end of the British Mandate. Sovereignty, and the status quo has been... Eh... Tumultuous as usual ever since. Most of that tension arising out of the dissonant expectation that Israel should lawfully have been co-part of the overall State of Palestine by it's previous residents.

Just talking in terms of following the paper trail. I know both sides have their own feelings on the matter, but in terms of what the International community agreed on, Zionist legitimacy officially is defined within the terms of the U.N. Partition plan. De facto state notwithstanding.

Not passing any judgement either way. I just follow the paper trail.

Yep came in here to see if this was flagged and it was. Reinforces the author's point, and of course HN is part of the problem.

<also-descendant-of-escapees>

Censorship here is part of exactly the same greater pattern of suppressing dissent, where dissent includes the discussion of actual levers of power. This is done on various grounds but frankly the technological apparatus created by HN members collectively is deeply responsible for the rapid growth of authoritarianism that these sorts of discussions would draw in to question if they were not so aggressively muted.

It's why I originally left HN and why I owe it to myself to leave again. FYI the reply I was writing before refreshing the post before posting was this:

So the allegation, likely well founded, is that state-affiliated apparatus actually bothered to dedicate resources to monitor twitter, pull him up, and execute such a maneuver. Personally I wonder what the forebears of Israelis who experienced the Stasi would think if they woke up in modern Israel.

On the question of the moral position of Israel, who do you believe: Jewish intellectual greats such as Einstein + Chomsky, the latter who as early as 1992 summarized that he was subject to the endless lies of the Anti-Defamation League and its friends, or a chilling silence still being actively promoted murky behind-the-scenes power structures of centralist media owners in 2021? You be the judge.

... now of course, that silence has reached HN.

</also-descendant-of-escapees>

Bye, HN.

PS. Here is a recent quality article by the same author https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/01/lets-remember-how-aut...

I think it was flagged because it breaks the HN guidelines, specifically that political/inflammatory stories are (mostly) off-topic.

It's unfortunate because I liked the article and the author's writing style.

Israel identifies itself as the Nation State of the Jewish People and have carved out special rights in their constitution for Jewish citizens.

Any criticism of Israel is therefore seen by some a criticism of Judaism itself. This is a power that the Israeli government knows it has and they deploy it as needed.

It's not an unprecedented situation, but I think it's important to keep ourselves aware of all the specific things which news outlets won't print. Otherwise you'll get a systematically biased view of the world. (And I don't want to get into the actual debate here, but I feel I could be misinterpreted if I don't note that I'm saying this as someone who's generally pretty friendly to Israel.)

Should we not criticize that this is taking place? Two bad things are happening, so let’s ignore them both?

This is all fine; I'm OK with the events that are unfolding currently.

"But they are private companies and free speech doesn't apply to them, they can ban any kind of speech they don't like!"

— typical Hackernews in any other thread about speech being suppressed.

This is exactly what the article is talking about. Any criticism of israel immediately gets shut down. Whenever someone tries to open a valid dialogue I typically see either:

* Claims its antisemetic

* Shifting blame (other countries do it too)

* They are forced to do _x_ cause of their neighbors

* Only democracy in the middle east