benignuman.bsky.social
Jewish; Centrist; Legalist; I love sports.
123 posts
30 followers
38 following
Active Commenter
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I--and most Jews for the last 1000+ plus years--end the Passover seder with "Next year in a Jerusalem."
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It isn't. But now that I've shown you his clear statements against Israel, will you concede that it made sense for him to be asked about this?
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1. I hope Israel exists forever. (I'm not sure what you mean by "its current state")
2. A lot of New Yorkers love Israel as a country and have family there. People falsely claiming, like Mamdani, that Israel is committing genocide have been attacking Jews in NYC and elsewhere in the country.
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I don't expect him to. I expect the reporters to ask the follow-up question to test his claim.
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I'm Jewish. I have no issue with there being Islamic countries or Christian countries or Hindu countries. I will choose not to live in those countries. Does that make me a religious fundamentalist?
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He was asked about Israel because of his past statements against Israel and his support of anti-Israel organizations.
I wanted a follow-up to see whether his claimed reason for being against Israel as a Jewish state applies to other countries, or only Israel.
PS the genocide claim is false.
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Which treatment specifically? I support some and not others.
Killing Hamas and other terrorist group members is good. Giving out aid is good.
Checkpoints are necessary.
Settlers burning villages is abhorrent and Israel is not doing enough to stop them.
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I don't think that question follows from anything I wrote.
I denounce any IDF soldier that targets children. I believe that such occurrences are very rare and certainly not an objective of the IDF--in sharp contrast with Palestinian terrorist organizations.
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The US was founded on Freedom of Religion and separation of church and state. I am very happy to live in a country with that value but it is not a universal value among humans.
Many people want to live in country with a state religion. So let them.
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Are you serious? He accused Israel of committing genocide.
x.com/ZohranKMamda...
In 2020 he accused Israel of White Supremacy(!!): x.com/ZohranKMamda...
He criticized Hakeem Jeffries for saying Israel should exist forever and Cornell for partnering with the Technion
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Where did you get that idea?
The UN and International law generally is built on the idea of States having rights.
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The USA was specifically founded on the principle of freedom of religion (among other freedoms). It has made the USA an attractive place for immigrants of every faith. The melting pot of the USA is one of the factors that made the US the richest country in the world.
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He doesn't just criticize the current Israeli government (I do that too!). He was against Israel in 2020. He co-founded the SJP chapter at his college and has openly supported BDS--both of which call for the destruction of Israel altogether. SJP supports Hamas. newtolerance.org/hate-map/stu...
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Yes. Having a state religion or state preferences for immigration does not mean that citizens are unequal. All citizens of Israel should (and do) have equal rights before the law.
As in the US, there is certainly discrimination in daily life that needs to be stopped.
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First rule of NYC politics: you don't single out the only Jewish state for criticism when the same criticism would apply to a dozens of other countries.
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Lol. We fund the military of many Islamic countries (Saudia Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Kuwait, etc.). We used to fund Pakistan.
And he should be asked about them because he has singled out the only Jewish state. I think he's a bigot.
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That's just not true. He's been making negative statements about Israel and associating with Israel-haters before he rose in the polls.
On 2), absolutely I think we should ask them that question.
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He's asked about Israel because 1) he speaks out against Israel; 2) He's been endorsed by rabid anti-Israel orgs and people.
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To see whether he is ideological consistent even when it is not politically convenient.
To see whether this criticism is one he level consistently or just against the sole Jewish state.
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You don't need to be a religious fundamentalist to support Pakistan as an Islamic country. I have no issue with Iran or Pakistan having a state religion of Islam. Or Costa Rica having a state religion of Christianity.
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It wasn't meant as a gotcha. It was meant as a test of whether he is willing to stand by this conviction even when it applies to countries he doesn't already hate.
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Then he shouldn't have any issue answering the follow-up question.
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I apologize for using a little critical thinking when commenting on your hero.
It's very easy to make a broad, universal statement. The question is whether he is willing to apply it consistently to specific examples. I suspect he isn't.
I've never heard him say anything negative about Iran/Pakistan.
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They didn't criticize them for having a state religion. The separation of church and state in the USA is wonderful. But it doesn't mean that state religion in every other country is evil or illegitimate.
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It got stuck on my skepticism of people that only criticize Israel for something that applies to many other countries as well.
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Then it shouldn't be hard for him to make a similar statement against Islamic countries.
See, I've only ever heard him criticize Israel on this basis. Not Iran or Pakistan. When people only criticize the Jews for something that many others do, I become skeptical of the basis of their criticism.
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No. I think state religions are fine. I wouldn't want that in the USA but it is quite common around the world and certainly not an inherently evil thing.
If Mamdani is going to criticize Israel for being Jewish, he should criticize Iran & Pakistan for being Islamic.
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Because I've heard him say plenty of negative things about Israel and I've never heard him say anything negative about Iran or Pakistan.
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You wrote that being a Centrist "requires an explicit attempt by the adherent to calibrate according to the other's so-called extreme positions."
That's incorrect. No such explicit attempt is necessary. It's not really an "ism" because there's no ideology. Even one of finding the middle ground.
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They should have followed up with the question: "Do you support Iran's right to exist as an Islamic Republic? What the Islamic Republic of Pakistan? or Mauritania?"
What about states like Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Brunei, etc.? Does Mamdani support their existence as Islamic countries?
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I have this with writing legal briefs.
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I'm 75% a moderate liberal. I have, roughly, 15% conservative views and 10% libertarian views.
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Palestinian Arabs have been killing Jews since the 1920s.
You can look at the most immediate cause or you can look at the full historical timeline. Take your pick.
On Oct. 6, 2023 there was a ceasefire--i.e. exactly what Hamas is asking for now.
Hamas broke that ceasefire on Oct. 7.
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"Centrism" is not an ideological position. We happen not to fall into any ideological camp. We may have right-wing views on some issues and left-wing views on some issues and we might be in the middle on others. We approach each issue individually, not as a part of a team.
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None of the items listed require any additional expense to me or any other taxpayer. They have nothing to do with child labor or cheap imports.
It's like you jumped to talking points without reading the list.
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This is a reverse "No True Scotsman" fallacy.
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Most centrists I know are in favor of all or almost all of those things.
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What are issues for which scores of people die on a daily basis, where the solutions the ideological extremes are advocating for won't result in even more people dying?
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Centrist is a description, not an ideology. I am a "centrist" because I don't fit in any ideological camp--not because I try to position myself in the center of all issues.
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It's not that centrists don't care about things. If anything we care about more things than rightists and leftists. We just (a) arrive and different conclusions about how to achieve those things; and (b) realize that you can't achieve all things to the nth degree, there are tradeoffs.
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I'm a centrist.
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That's gross.
Also, the murderer probably did not know they worked for the Israeli embassy.
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Israel wouldn't be attacking Gaza, if Gaza had not invaded Israel, murdered a ton of civilians, and kidnapped hundreds more.
So by your logic the murder is Hamas' fault.
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Why do you think this is a false flag?
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Palestinian nationalism started as a response to Zionism.
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Probably because he knows that isn't what is happening.
You can be against what the Trump Admin is doing to Khalil without mischaraterizing it as "kidnapping people for political speech."
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I think your last sentence might be doing a lot of work here.
Copernicus' helocentric model already existed in Brahe's time. And Brahe developed his own model.
And the Ptoelmaic system remained dominant until Galileo.
The standard model is winning because there isn't a good candidate to replace it.