I Love you.

I don't want to hear any virtue signaling from anyone who is outraged when Jews in Israel defend themselves against Arab terror and then pretends to be outraged by the attack in Pittsburgh.

Israel is not a cause of anti-Semitism: it's the solution.

I'm so sorry. Words are inadequate here.

The lesson here is that good people can never rest, even on the day of rest.

why can't we all get along? Is it humanly possible? Is that too much to ask?

I disagree with the thesis. The answer isn't to have armed guards at every service, to live an invulnerable life. This was the reaction after 9/11 and many of us thought PATRIOT I and II were bad ideas at the time, that invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan were wrong at the time, and were shown to be correct in that thinking. The hot phrase to throw around on then was "those who trade freedom for security deserve neither" (as America happily traded freedom for security). Anyways, this isn't exactly 9/11, but the principle is the same.

26 people were killed and 20 others wounded during a service at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas in November 2017. Motive unknown.

And how can we forget that 9 African-Americans were killed at a service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC in 2015 by racist lunatic, Dylan Roof?

Just a reminder - The US is an equal opportunity slaughterhouse.

I lived in Manhattan greater metro area for a couple years. Would go into the city about twice or three times a month. Jewish culture is so prominent in the area, and I really learned to appreciate it for the cultural aspects, not just the religious history, etc. I have to say, when I would see those cute little Hasidic jewish boys in their hats and curly sideburns, it gave me great joy. I miss having that diversity here in Seattle. Similarly, I lived in the South for 4 or 5 years, and unlike here where the black population is like 2 or 3%, it's like 35% in the South, so you get a much better feel for black culture. I miss being around so many black folks. I picked up a couple sayings..... 'Lord Jesus' is a very common expression. Said like after taking a bite of a sandwich with too much mustard...'Lord Jesus this sandwich is spicy'. Another saying I really appreciated is that seems if you are a woman and over 40 or so, you are referred to as 'Miss (your first name'. So it would be Miss Helen, or Miss Josephine, Miss Barbara, etc.

Seattle is kind of white.

@2 Israel totally has a right to self-defense. I have a number of hard-left Israel-hating associates that are supposedly mourning this recent synagogue attack.

Palestine wants to be a state, they can earn it by not murdering, and praying for genocide of Jews.

@10: Seattle has the 2nd largest Hasidic community outside of NY (so I've been told - no link). I see Hasidim every Saturday strolling about in Wedgwood, and there's a large group in S. Seattle as well.

Seattle is more diverse than most people realize.

No. 10,. shall all the white people prostrate themselves in shame just for you? Jesus, I'm sick of the racist CRAP. There are TONS of non-whites in Seattle or do you just not get out of Ballard very often?

On 2nd thought, maybe it's just Orthodox.

@2 -- "I don't want to hear any virtue signaling from anyone who is outraged..."
Of course, you don't.

"... when Jews in Israel defend themselves against Arab terror."
And I gotta say, they're REALLY FUCKING GOOD at "defending."

Specially those on the perimeter of their open-air concentration camp, getting shot/murdered by the dozens, daily for being unarmed and too suspiciously close to Isreal's precious Wall.

Has Isreal lifted their Embargo on Palestine?

Speaking of far far far right-wing Terrorism.

@2, 11: I don't know any "Hard-Left" that think Israel doesn't have a right to self-defense.

But, does Israel's right to self-defense extend beyond self-defense to colonization and de-facto annexation of the West Bank? do Palestinians have any right to resist this displacement, or the blockade around Gaza? is the only legitimate method non-violence?

this isn't cut and dried "Israel good/Palestinians bad" or vice-versa among "the Hard-Left", or the Israeli Left (remember them?). the intransigence of the Settlers and Likud bear some responsibility for the current impasse. Yitzak Rabin was trying to find a way through this knot... until the RW assassinated him.

It is Israel's responsibility to keep striving for peace, to keep extending a hand (as it is Palestine's). withdrawing from Gaza was a step towards peace. Turning it into a prison was not.

Seattle is 70% white, 8% black, 6% Hispanic, 14% Asian, 2.5% other, and 5% two or more races.

If which, 1% are Jewish

According to wiki.

@12 I can't believe it has a higher number of jewish people of any numerous variety (hasid, orthodox, reformed) than LA does. Or Miami.

19

Or Phoenix/Scottsdale area

@ 2
Israel is not alone in that region and shouldn’t dismissing ANY criticism as anti-Semitism, hence ending the discussion.
The Pittsburgh murderer is indeed an anti-Semitic Jews hater. It is very likely that he was also influenced by an anti-immigrants sentiment coming from the white house.

In regards to the numbers discussion, greater Seattle Jewish population was estimated at around 40,000 people few years ago, about 2% of the general population which is also the national average.
Many local Jews aren’t affiliated with a synagogue, so estimates may vary.
That said, most US Jews reside in New York and California, so Seattle is a relative big deal.

I do not get how Jews aren't considered white by the white supremacists. But then, bigots pride themselves on being irrational and stupid! The sad thing about the evangelicals who support Trump is that they've forgotten that Catholics were one of the main groups on the KKK's hate list.

@13 I'm white, so how about you just prostrate yourself to me. And take a chill pill.

@23 How come we rarely see any real attractive, knocks your boots off kind of sexy, white supremacist men? Am I right? Look at the nazi party leadership. Most of those fuckers were ugly as sin. Goebbels? Nasty. Himmler, my god why would women give him a second look. Hess? I thought he was like the elephant man. Now goering was cute when he was younger, but the fat, drug addicted goering, no thank you. I think that if I had to fuck a nazi, it would have been Speer. The 'good nazi', the one that apologized was also the most attractive. Heydrich was a distant second.

White supremacists are just dumb and ugly.

23

The even sadder thing is that you think Catholics and evangelicals have some commonality....

Pro-tip: they don’t.

@26 my southern, christain-raised ex: "Catholics are a cult, everyone knows that"

This is just plain fucking sad. It's as if we didn't learn shit from Nazi Germany the last eight decades.

@23 Ashkenazi's are generally white; the rest, not white. It depends on if you identify middle eastern people as white. The US Census never has, for example - they consider them white.

Also recognize that whiteness is only tangentially related to skin color. 100 years ago, Irish and Italians were not considered white. Jamaicans consider Bob Marley to be white. What matters is that people can be identified as a member of some outsider/other group for reasons of their biological/genetic heritage.

@2 - Don’t bother answering @4, he just wanted to work in “final solution” regardless if his question makes any sense.

@7 SheaTau: I may have misjudged you in another comment thread earlier. If so, I apologize. Yes--how nice if we could all get along. My sentiments exactly.
@30: I see you've already exceeded your Halloween sugar limits, and it isn't even the witching hour yet, sugarlips. Save some for the trick-or-treaters.

@19: not jewish people in general, but orthodox. it's what i heard when i moved to wedgwood.

of my 9 immediate neighbors, 6 are jewish, but none of them are orthodox. the orthodox and lubavitchers live closer to the temples.

2: Israel has been no solution to antisemitism at all, actually. It did the victims of Pittsburgh no good, and if every Jewish person in the world moved to Israel-which is what the leaders of the major parties in Israel are still calling for-that would leave the rest of the world Judenrein and THAT could only be a permanent victory for the anti-Semites.

Also, nothing that happened in Pittsburgh had anything to do with Israel and nothing that happened there is in any way a justification for the West Bank settlements, the illegal military occupation of the West Bank, an area which has had an Arab majority for 16 centuries, or the siege of Gaza, an area which was essentially always Arab and for some of its existence was part of Egypt.

34: That should begin with "The State of Israel, as currently constituted". If Israel were re-established as a state of all its people, a state in which Jewish, Muslim, Druze, and Christian peoples all lived as equals and with the faiths and rights of all protected, it might help, at least somewhat. At present, under a leadership which has twisted Zionism into an ethno/religious supremacist ideology, something it never needed to be, the State of Israel is not only a great injustice to the Palestinians, it is doing the groups of ethnic and religious communities it was intended to protect little if any good at all. A liberation project is now nothing but taking land for the sake of taking land, and taking land is a morally worthless goal for anyone.