Non-Jews: Please Reach Out To Your Jewish Friends Tomorrow. They Will Need It.

I keep toying with writing this, because words are hard and I'm not sure how to fully articulate this thought.

However, it's something I've sensed very deeply and I think it's important to start trying to talk about.

Much has been said about how traumatic Oct. 7th was for Israelis and really Jews the world over, and lots has been said about why that was - from the fact that it happened on what was supposed to be a joyous holiday, the fact that this violence was as barbarous and sadistic as it was, the fact that it drew on deep historical wells of intergenerational trauma, to the fact that it was met with immediate denial, betrayal, and even celebration from supposedly progressive goyim - but something I have not seen much discussion on is how that ongoing denialism and even celebration of the carnage made sure that the trauma stuck.

See the thing is that one of the best predictors of favorable recovery outcomes from trauma is the support the victim receives, especially in the immediate aftermath. Victims with strong support networks, who are believed and whose grievances are taken seriously, recover much faster and much more holistically even from objectively worse traumas than victims who lack support and/or whose traumatic experiences are denied or dismissed. Seems obvious enough, right? That's why advocates for survivors exhort communities to listen to survivors and victims, and to hold space for them. We know what happens when that support is denied.

In some ways, the Jewish people is like a horrible case study in what happens when that denial of support happens - not just on a large scale, but over the course of time through numerous generations. In every generation they come for us, and every generation has the opportunity to step up. And so far, every generation has failed the task. (There are of course, some wonderful individuals who do step up; however they are the exception that proves the rule.)

The sadistic celebration of atrocities committed against Israelis and the denialism were not just unpleasant side concerns - these were active components of the violence.

The bottom line is this: if you deny the atrocities of Oct. 7th and the ongoing hostage crisis or try to excuse or downplay them, you are actively participating in violence against us.

And yes, of course these atrocities do not justify atrocities in return. Yes, of course confirming facts is important. But I think a big part of why we can't "just move on" to talk about other atrocities is because you people have never acknowledged our pain or let us grieve or be human. Not once. And the longer that goes on, the deeper the wound and the longer the road to healing from this trauma gets.

Reblog to give the person you reblogged it from motivation to work on their fics.

Magneto was a Zionist, you fucking pinecones.

Coping 101 - a masterpost of down to earth resources

This post doesn’t contain links to many professional resources - it’s a list of coping tips from people who are mentally ill/disabled themselves and who all decided to share what has worked for them here on tumblr. In the last 7 months I have been sharing content created for and by mentally ill/disabled people on this blog - and to celebrate reaching 5000 followers, I have decided to collect all the best coping tips I’ve come across in one easily accessible place. Enjoy!

Managing emotions:

Letting go of emotional suffering via mindfulness.

DBT strengthening statements

Handling negative emotions

The “emotions are signals” method

The “mindfully recognizing emotions” method

Healthy perspectives on emotions

The “emotions are like hiccups” method

The “healthy outlets” method

Managing anxiety:

Coping statements for anxiety.

Breathing exercise gif

Breathing exercise gif 2

Things to remember when having an anxiety attack

The “just show up” method

The “panicky friend” method

Grounding techniques 

The “I can survive the next 10 seconds” method

The “distract your brain” method

The “you will be able to cope” method

Managing depression:

7 depression tips and why they work

Depression tips

21 tips to keeping your shit together when you’re depressed

Managing executive dysfunction:

The “might as well” method.

The “one step access” method.

Why self-discipline isn’t always the answer. 

The “use whatever works” method.

The “taking care of someone else” method.

The “june-bugging” method.

Tricks for pushing through executive dysfunction

The “do several things at once” method

The “accept your limits” methods

The “turn it into a game” method

The “anything worth doing is worth doing poorly” method

The “tricking your brain” method

The “untangling the spaghetti” method.

The “smaller steps” method

The “emergency cleaning” method

The “letting go of should” method.

The “my body is an animal I need to care about” method

The “fork theory” method

The “remove the barriers” method

The “half-ass things” method

Managing negative thinking:

Challenging cognitive distortions.

Finding alternative thoughts.

Challenging negative thoughts

How to get over past mistakes

Toxic positivity vs hope and validation

How to improve your self-esteem

Negative and positive cognitions

The “self neutrality” method

The “separate your negative qualities from your identity” method

Self talk to help end obsessions

Ten forms of twisted thinking + ten ways to untwist your thinking

Managing self care:

How to practice balanced self care.

Why hands-on hobbies are important

Ways to self-soothe

A list of mental illness workbooks 

Ways to start feeling again

How to get back on track after a breakdown

How to self-soothe and treat yourself

Types of healthy coping skills

The “parenting yourself” method

An interactive self care guide

The “don’t ignore your needs” method

Online self care

Making the most of therapy

Free worksheets for people who can’t access therapy

The “add good things to your life” method

Showering for spoonies

The “do what you can” method

The “it isn’t a waste of time just because it won’t cure you” method.

Self care cheat sheet

The “create something” method

Managing school:

Studying with anxiety and depression

Studying with mental illness

Coping with dissociation in school

Managing exam periods when you’re mentally ill

The “done is better than none” method

How to survive college

Managing urges to harm yourself:

What to do to when you’re suicidal

Questions to ask before giving up

Alternatives to self harm

Coping with suicidal thoughts

Out of curiosity, what does the UN actually gain from keeping the terrorists in power? Obviously antisemitism but way do they materially gain?

Anon, don't be so quick to dismiss antisemitism. It's a really powerful motivator, for some people even more than money, because it is often to connected to a person's views of themselves, their society and the world. As such, antisemitism can be linked to issues of self-worth or hope for the future. And the place where someone's self-worth depends on demonizing Jews, or their future hopes depends on the notion that their society will be so much better, if only a Jewish collective (whether the Jewish religion, race or state) will be dismantled, they are emotionally invested in ways that can be far more crucial to them than money.

So I personally do think that antisemitism played a big role in how the UN has acted regarding Israel for decades.

For example, the UN sets up a special agency to help Koreans in Dec 1950 (UNKRA). By Jul 1958, less than 8 years later and 5 years after a ceasefire was achieved between the two Koreas, the agency was seen as having served its purpose, and was dismantled. Since then, if there are ever Korean refugees still in need of help, it goes through the general UNHCR (established 1951. It replaced the UN's temporary agency IRO, established Dec 1946, which itself took over from UNRRA, established Nov 1943), the UN refugee agency that takes care of ALL refugees in the world... except the Palestinian ones. Their agency (UNPRP) was established by UN resolution 212 in Nov 1948, and later became UNRWA in Dec 1949.

Now, take a second to consider how there was NEVER any UN agency dedicated specifically to help about 1.5 million Jewish Holocaust survivors at the end of WWII, which is May 1945 (with many of them still being murdered after the end of the war, in places like Poland in Jul 1946 or Libya in the Nov 1945 and Jun 1948 pogroms). No special agency for them, no intervention to protect people who had literally been through and somehow survived the worst genocide in human history, and were still being targeted and killed after it was done, even though the UN had a talent for establishing plenty of refugee agencies just fine during those years. But there was a special agency set up for the Arabs in the Land of Israel, even though they were the aggressors in the 1947-1949 Independence War, and it still operates to this day, unlike UNKRA, which was set up later than UNRWA. Why? What reason is there for treating Holocaust victims worse than the Arabs who declared a war of extermination against Jews in Israel? Or for treating Palestinians better than any other group of refugees in the world, even though other groups often need the help much more?

I can only see one thing in common when it comes to all of these illogical, counterintuitive decisions, and that is antisemitism. Dislike the Jews? Deprive them of getting their own agency, even while others get one. Hate the Jews? Dedicate special resources to the refugees who can be used as a political pawn against the Jewish state, while still counting them as refugees even after being resettled with citizenship elsewhere, unlike every other refugees group.

And never forget, the UN's voting "democracy" (where antisemitic abuse is not penalized in votes) IS inherently vulnerable to the tyranny of the majority. There is only one Jewish state at the UN. There is a block of over 20 Arab countries, another of over 50 Muslim ones, and when they're told a lie such as the one invented by Amin al-Husseini in 1929, that the Jews are attacking the al-Aqsa mosque, then it's easy to recruit all of them against Israel without even much effort. Then add countries which have vested interests in keeping the Arab and Muslim countries on their side, or who have issues with the pro-west, pro-democracy countries (and Israel is not only one of them, it is closely allied with the US, which is the leader of that stance) and basically the one Jewish state has close to no chance.

But over the years, in addition to being invested in keeping the issue of the Palestinian refugees going as a tool against Israel, to present the Jewish state as uniquely oppressive, the UN has also become invested in the jobs that the conflict produces for its members. UNRWA alone employees over 30,000 people and is, by the UN's own admission, one of its biggest employers.

On top of that, the UN also has other workers who deal specifically with the conflict (and therefore are employed thanks to it), such as OCHA oPt. OCHA (Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) is the "humanitarian arm" of the UN and oPt is its branch that takes care specifically of the Palestinians. WHY is there even a need for this, if the Palestinians already have (UNIQUELY!) an entire UN agency dedicate just to them? And then on top of that (yes! A redundancy on top of a redundancy!) they also have a Palestinian branch for the OHCHR (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights).

Having so many employees dedicated to this specific conflict does make the UN financially invested in keeping it from being resolved. Also, it's probably easier to get donations for the UN when talking about this falsely over-hyped conflict (here's a recent example, a report shows there's no famine in Gaza, the UN has known this and kept it quiet), especially when the hype is fed by so many antisemites happy to spread libels about the Jewish state. Some of the antisemites are likely very rich and happy to donate to any organization targeting Israel (I can even name some very wealthy governments happy to continuously donate to the UN and UNRWA, when they're also known for their antisemism, like financially sponsoring known antisemitic professors at US universities).

I do think the antisemitism is what enabled the creation of the financial aspect to the UN's anti-Israel bias, and interest in preserving the conflict, but now I'll mention one more factor. It's also one that IMO was preceded by the antisemitism and financial interest, but now it adds its own fuel to the fire. Since 2007, when Hamas violently took over Gaza, in order to keep its programs running there, the UN has been collaborating with Hamas. Because that's what happens in an actual dictatorship, which has absolute power over its people, and doesn't allow for any civilian liberties. If you wanna run a UN agency in North Korea, you will HAVE to collaborate with Kim Jong Un's dictatorial regime. And if you want to run a UN agency in Gaza post Jun 2007, you will HAVE to collaborate with Hamas. So that's exactly what the UN has been doing in Gaza. In doing so, it has been collaborating with a genocidal, antisemitic, radical Islamist, terrorist organization. And as has allowed Israel to enter Gaza and gather evidence, we have more and more proof that the UN is complicit in Hamas' crimes. That is NOT something the UN wants the world to realize. So it's trying its best to stop Israel from fighting in Gaza, to prevent the gathering of further evidence, at the same time that the UN is doing its best to screw over Israel's credibility. If the UN can vilify the best witness against it, who will believe the evidence about its complicity anyway?

I hope that helps answer the question!

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

Baghra: “What are you doing with the Tailor girl?”

Aleksander: “She’s a traitor and a useful lesson for others who might consider crossing me.”

Baghra: “She served you loyally since she was a child, endured years of abuse on your orders, and you reduce her to an example? Oh, Aleksander, where does this stop?”

I’m seriously considering skipping all of Baghra’s parts, because this is getting unbearable.

Baghra never cares about anyone. It’s one of her main traits.

She certainly doesn’t give a fuck about children, unless it helps her send the desired message. She literally kept abandoning her own imperfect children, one after another, so don’t try to tell me she has an ounce of sympathy for Genya.

Genya was the one who decided to stay in Queen’s service in return for revenge. People should stop pitying her, and start respecting her and her decision. Writers included.

Bitch just accused Aleksander of intentionally sending Genya to be raped. Another antis’ fav simplification.

Baghra “Beating, drugging, endangering and abusing her students” Morozova, preaching about abuse is a gem.

This whole season so far looks like a collection of absurdity and anti-Darklings’ tracts.