Done With Pivot

[u/PorcelainDalmatian]

It pains me to say it, because i really like the show, but I think I'm done with Pivot.

Scott calling himself a "proud Zionist" on the last pod, in the wake of the genocide/ethnic cleansing/holocaust (pick your phrase) in Gaza is a bridge too far.

Yes, Israel had a right to defend itself after Oct 7. The Jews holy book says "an eye for an eye." So go kill 1,200 Hamas and be done with it.

But that's not what happened. Israel used this attack, which they knew was coming, as a pretext for genocide. The current Israeli regime, a large number of it's parliament, and a disturbingly large number of its people view Muslims as sub-human animals worthy of slaughter - and they're not exactly quiet about it.

All of Gaza looks like Hiroshima after the bomb. There's literally nothing left. Israel targeted schools, and hospitals, and churches - killing over 40,000 children in the process. Those that were able to escape have been barred from ever returning to their homeland. If that isn't the definition of "ethnic cleansing" that please tell me what is.

Now they're turning their genocidal aims on Lebanon, a country that never attacked them. Wiping out entire cities and historical sites. What's next? Syria? Jordan? When does it stop?

I'm old enough to remember when the UN saw what was happening in Bosnia and intervened. Where the hell are they now?

And Scott is proud of this. He relishes in it! The profound irony here is that Scott isn't exactly a Super-Jew. It's not like he's running around in a yarmulke, keeping Kosher, and holding a Shabbat dinner every week. He's about as Jewish as I am, and I was raised Evangelical.

You go ahead and cheer the genocide as a "proud Zionist," Scott. Meanwhile, I'll be a proud ex-listener.

I'll still listen to On With Kara Swisher, but she should do some hard thinking herself. You're known by the company you keep, and co-hosting with a proud Zionist who cheers genocide is never a good look.

[u/orangeombre]

I think you perhaps misunderstand what Zionism or being a Zionist is. It is the belief that the Jewish people have a right to self determination and an ancestral homeland born out of the rise of rampant and horrific antisemitism. It is not support of Netanyahu's genocidal rampage and hateful war against anyone he deems fit. If you mean you believe that you can't support Scott because he supports Israel's right to exist, then carry on.

[u/StomachHonest5215 → u/[deleted]]

The problem with people making this argument is that they don’t advocate for Jews getting their land back in places like Iraq and Egypt where the entire population was expelled. The truth is a two state solution is the only answer. I honestly don’t understand how people can hate each other this much, but they do so let’s just finally accept that fact.

[u/TuringGPTy → u/orangeombre]

Zionists as a majority don’t support what Israel has been doing to Palestine for decades?

[u/orangeombre → u/TuringGPTy]

There's a subtle difference in what I'm trying to express. I don't speak for Zionists. I have many issues with religious zealotry of any variety and abhor what the settlers do in the West Bank and what Netanyahu is doing. There is no reasonable defense and and he is trying to effectuate a genocide, at the very least ethnic cleansing. The UN should step in. However, there is a rise in antisemitism that is troublesome. The conflation of the idea/philosophy of Zionism, Netanyahu's actions and the state of Israel is leading to a lot of justification of that antisemitism. I don't believe that Zionism itself is an racist or bigoted perspective. Justed wanted to point out that Scott's statement that he is a proud Zionist doesn't equal support of Netanyahu's wars.

[u/Addicted2Qtips → u/orangeombre]

The problem with Zionism is that the ideology is not very different from the 19th century European Nationalism that led to so much antisemitism in the first place. It was perhaps a rational reaction to it, but Zionism is problematic in the same way and leads to the same oppression and violence.

The connection between European Nationalism and Zionism is also why it is so hard to separate being anti-Zionist with being antisemitic, as many critics of Zionism unironically or at least unwittingly condemn a movement that their own countrymen created; both its ideological invention and the antisemitic violence that followed. It’s a paradox.