Dani

I don't ask for much. #ActuallyAutistic. Scoundrel. He/him. Half-✡️, half-⚪️.

AKA Dreadlocked Guru/Punk Rock Spicoli.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

Originally, I was pro-Palestine. Most of my friends in the punk community were. They probably still are.

I absorbed all of the agitprop about how Israel was allegedly built on stolen land, how Jews are nothing more than a religious faith, how Palestinians are the real Israelites, and how Jews would have been better off immigrating to the United States and serving as goody two shoes "white" allies to "real minorities". I wasn't equipped to challenge any of it at the time, so I didn't.

But after a while, I began to have misgivings. The way people spoke about Israel and obsessed over it was unlike anything I had witnessed before, or since. This zealotry oftentimes bled into hostility against Jews qua Jews, all while they furiously denied any antisemitism on their part. It was disquieting.

In 2011, I met Israelis online who challenged my views. They were very patient with me, although I didn't deserve it. They would have been well within their rights to tell me to go fuck myself with a cordless drill, but they didn't. They were extremely knowledgeable. They had etiquette, erudition, and a wealth of sources to back up everything they said. All I had were rehearsed lines.

I didn't immediately have the courage to call out my friends, but I kept everything in my back pocket. Until one night, I gently pushed back against the settler colonialism charges being bandied about. I said something to the effect of "but don't Jews come from that land too?". The room fell silent. Some of them looked at me as though I had just swallowed a kitten whole, others began chuckling and saying "ooooooook?". I left the room without saying anything else.

When I got home, I began posting about Jewish indigeneity on Facebook. This was long before most Zionists were talking about it, so I was nervous. But I did it because, on some level, I felt like I had to.

I lost more than 100 friends within 3 hours. The comments ranged from "fuck off you Zionist pig" to "are the ZOG paying you" to "I hope Iran builds nukes and evens the score with the Zionist regime" (this was said by a self-professed anti-war activist). One quoted the Protocols and "TrueTorahJews" at me.

I was confused and, increasingly, isolated. I was no longer welcome in my old spaces. I got into a lot of fights, some of which became physical. On a few occasions, I was stalked by people who chucked garbage at me.

I became reclusive from that point on, and largely have been ever since.

13 years later, I still have no community. Out of the large scene I was once part of, I only have contact with 2 people.

But, I have no regrets either way. I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I didn't speak out.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

It's more about tribalism and ego than anything Manichean.

Jews have been called upon by empire after empire to erase themselves and make room for their self-appointed superiors. The Egyptians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans, you name it. We rejected and resisted all of them - and prevailed.

Our survival and prosperity is a humiliating reminder to these cultures that they aren't as great or as mighty as they think they are. So, to save face, they commit themselves to eradicating us and restoring the "proper" hierarchical order - Jews on the bottom and themselves on top.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

It's more about tribalism and ego than anything Manichean.

Jews have been called upon by empire after empire to erase themselves and make room for their self-appointed superiors. The Egyptians, the Romans, the Arabs, the Ottomans, you name it. We rejected and resisted all of them - and prevailed.

Our survival and prosperity is a humiliating reminder to these cultures that they aren't as great or as mighty as they think they are. So, to save face, they commit themselves to eradicating us and restoring the "proper" hierarchical order - Jews on the bottom and themselves on top.

[Brianna Wu @BriannaWu]

The hardest part of post-October 7th has been ending friendships with people I thought were good, decent human beings. It’s emotional carnage.

This one issue comes along I had never really been forced to talk much about and I no longer recognize so many people I know.

Were they always awful people, and I just couldn’t see it? I don’t think so. I think our friendships were real. I think the kindness we had for each other was really. I think the affection was real.

And I just can’t square this contradiction. Why does Israel make so many people lose touch with reality?

The best answer I have is not logical. It’s spiritual.

When you go to Jerusalem, there is an energy there I cannot describe, and I’m not particularly a woo-woo person. You have to go there to understand it. It is entirely unsurprising that three of the world’s major religions are so connected to this one place. It’s not surprising why nation after nation fought to control it.

And I’m sorry to talk about the Bible, but it’s the only way I can understand this. It talks about the Jews being God’s chosen people. I think the Jews are closer to God in some way I don’t understand and I think it makes forces of darkness try to eradicate them.

And I think when the subject of Israel comes up, evil instinctively tries to destroy that light.

Please don’t misunderstand me. My support for Israel is primarily as a national security issue. And my support of Jews in America is because on principle, I think Jews deserve dignity and equality.

But I just have no other answers about why people are so focused on eradicating such a small population. There’s no sane reason for it.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

Venezuelans are being dehumanized and called "sellouts" for wanting basic rights

Reminds me of how the left treats Iranians and Jews

[indie darling🪽 @larosecat]

Los venezolanos están emputados por esto y diciéndome bruta jajajajaja y solo les quiero recordar que el régimen sigue, que nada cambio y nadie los salvó. Vendepatrias insufribles 😂😂😂

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@icarussis Leftists don't care if others suffer under totalitarianism/theocracy so long as their ideological crusade benefits from it

One of the many reasons I'm not a leftist anymore

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@SusanneAydinlik Indigenous rights trump right of conquest.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

Israel Is The Ancestral Homeland of the Jews, Not Palestinians

Addressing common counter-arguments

1. "Palestinians are closer to ancient Israelites than modern Jews" - Incorrect. Ashkenazi Jews alone trace the majority (roughly 80%) of their Y-lineages to the Levant. They are basically indistinguishable from non-Jewish Levantines on the paternal line. About 40-50% of their maternal lineages (contrary to earlier papers which overestimated European input) are also Levantine.

Palestinian paternal lineages are predominantly Peninsular Arab with MRCA estimates dating back to the mid-1st millennium CE which corresponds neatly with waves of Arab invasion and settlement. This is why they cluster with Saudis on most sample-based PCAs. The mtDNA side is more diverse, but the majority of it is decidedly non-Levantine. A Levantine component does exist (particularly among the Christians), but there's no way of proving that any of it comes from actual Jews (Arameans are more likely) and, either way, was almost certainly acquired via forced conversions and sexual violence. You cannot October 7th your way into indigeneity.

2. "But this proximity list I have here says Palestinians are closer to ancient Canaanites" - Because proximity lists are based on population aggregates and genotypal similarity, not shared ancestry. For example, someone who is half-Cherokee and half-Nigerian will chart further away from “Cherokee” than will an Indigenous Siberian or Indigenous Amazonian individual with no Cherokee ancestry whatsoever.

To give a more pertinent example: someone who is 75% Arabian and 25% Levantine will chart much closer to “Bronze Age Levantine” than someone who is 75% Levantine and 25% European. Why? Because Arabians and Levantines are neighboring populations. They're genetically much closer to each other than Europeans are to either. Thus, even if a sample is 75% Levantine, that 25% European will strongly pull their plot away from the Levant.

On such lists, Ashkenazi groups (i.e. aggregates, not individual samples) will chart closer to Sicilians and Cretan Greeks than non-Jewish Levantines. Does this mean Ashkenazi Jews originate in Italy? No. All it means is they are a similar genetic average when their base components are mixed together — Ashkenazim are Levantines with a South European component on the maternal line, and Sicilians are a largely Roman and Greek-descended population with a significant MENA pull (Phoenician , plus Southern Europeans have retained much more European Neolithic ancestry than other Europeans). That Ashkenazi aggregates may have stronger affinity (that is, similarity) to Sicilians than, say, Lebanese Christians is meaningless in regards to the origin of Ashkenazim as Jews.

3. "But the grandparents and great-grandparents of modern Jews were born in Europe" - Because that's where their ancestors ended up after being driven out of the Middle East. Recent history in Europe does not cancel out or supplant ancestral origins in the Levant. By this logic, Europeans are "indigenous" to Tennessee and the indigenous tribes they displaced are indigenous to their place of exile.

On that note, a large portion of Palestinian families can't trace their history in the land back more than 100 years. They arrived with the British mandate. Saeb Erekat, for instance, loves to claim that he is a "Canaanite" despite descending from a Saudi Arab clan that arrived in the 20th century.

4. "Netanyahu's REAL last name is Mileikowsky" - Jews in Europe had European surnames forced on them in the 18th-19th centuries. Before that, they used traditional Hebrew patronyms.

Conversely, there is nothing "Israelite" about Palestinian surnames. Nearly all of them pinpoint origins outside of Eretz Yisra'el.

5. "Palestinians are culturally closer to the Israelites than modern Jews" - Jewish language, holidays, folklore, calendar, core cuisine, music, and history all center on the land of Israel.

Palestinians speak Arabic, practice Islam (notwithstanding the Christian minority), and are culturally almost indistinguishable from other Arab populations. Their flag uses pan-Arab colors, each one representing a different caliph.

And no, dabkeh is not a Canaanite dance.

6. "Jews stole Palestinian Arab cuisine" - Most if not all Levantine cuisine is thousands of years old, predating the Arab conquests. Jews were familiar with these dishes in antiquity and are now returning to them after centuries of exile (to say nothing of Jews who were never exiled and never stopped eating these foods).

7. "Modern Jews look like Europeans" - No. https://t.co/LYX46ap4Ug

TL,DR: Jews are indigenous to Israel and arguments to the contrary are invariably based on sophistry, misinformation, and misreading of data.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

Grok isn't remotely reliable. All it does is fart out the most commonly espoused views found online.

Oops...

[bogsavage @bogsavage]

@AngryLevantine https://t.co/ZpL3GIe7rQ

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

You obviously didn't read the post because this point was addressed in number 2. You just saw the headline and gave an emotionally-charged response.

[Ranno⚡️ @RannoSlav14]

Palestinians are closer to ancient Israelites than modern Jews

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@bogsavage Whoops, would you look at that

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@bogsavage Grok simply farts out the most commonly espoused view. It's not a reliable source by any stretch.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@abed_sara14580 @GruessGott2018 Quiet Arab 🐒

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

I can't tell if goyim are actually this stupid or if they're just being recalcitrant.

[MP Arizona☀️🏳️‍🌈💙🌵🐕🐕‍🦺🫂💦🏜🐟🌴🎙🌎🌻♍️🌊 @AzPetrich]

Netanyahu's father was born in Poland and his grandfather was born in Russia.

How the fuck is Palestine his ancestral home?

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

Obama claims he stopped Iran's nuclear program without firing a single missile

All it took was an enormous cash payout that allowed them to fund their terror proxies in exchange for a worthless sunset clause that didn't even stop the centrifuges - merely slowed them down

Obama didn't stop shit

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@Anna_Groningen @AzPetrich Arabs are not indigenous to the Levant.

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@novaace91 @AzPetrich @grok Jews

Palestinians are Arab

[Dani @AngryLevantine]

@surbiton19 @AzPetrich Ashkenazim cluster nowhere near Eastern Europeans.