It does to me as well.Matnum PI wrote: ↑Wed Dec 13, 2023 10:34 amNo, of course not. With this said, Israel is a Jewish state, is the homeland for the Jews. So when a post-er repeatedly says the Israelis, it sounds a lot like the Jews. I find the language to be very similar to when someone says, I'm not talking about blacks! I'm talking about blacks who live in black ghettos! It's true. The person isn't talking about all blacks. The person/post-er is talking about specific blacks but... Does it really make a difference? The person who says, I have a problem with *those* blacks, not all blacks. Does that really preclude the person from being a racist? I don't have an issue with gays. I have two friends at work that are gay and I have zero issue with them. The gays in the West Village of NYC, that's different! I definitely have a problem with *those* gays. For me, that's a homophobe. That's a racist. Admittedly, that means people need to tip-toe when they talk about Israelis. And there's a reason why. We tip-toe for the same reason we tip-toe when discussing the West Village, Harlem, Koreatown, etc. And some post-ers for sure are not tip-toe'ing. And, personally, I really don't like it. Not because of political views. But because of bigotry. For me, it smells a lot like straight-up bigotry.
I used to argue with the same poster and some others when they wrote in absolutist terms about Republicans as if monolithic. I don't call that "bigotry" per se, but it's sloppy rhetorical behavior as there's a world of difference between Cheney and Trump, Romney and Tuberville, Hogan and DeSantis...
In this instance, I just don't think it's hard to be specific about "the Netanyahu government" or "the current Israeli government" or "right wing Israelis" etc, rather than speaking generically of "Israel" or "Israelis" when accusing them of supporting apartheid policies, etc.
We all do some shorthand now and again, but IMO, when someone refuses to be specific and is in constant attack mode it sure smacks of bigotry.