The Palestinian cause, martyrdom, and Aaron Bushnell (self-immolation protester)
Aaron Bushnell, an American Air Force veteran, self-immolated himself screaming “free Palestine” before he screamed in agony and melted.
Islamists and Palestinian groups called him a martyr for the cause. Leftist groups called him honorable. Moderates and conservatives called him mentally ill.
His Reddit account that was shared this morning indicates he was a leftist and an anarchist. Not American virtues, unless you are an American that wants to topple the American government.
A few points:
Self immolation, religious or not, is a disturbing act. I don’t think society should encourage people to take their own lives as an act of protest. Because by extension suicidal behavior can also encourage homicidal behavior. So this should be a concern even to people who agree with voluntary euthanasia.
The biggest issue with the pro-Palestinian movement is that it utterly ignores how identical Palestinian warfare is to very dangerous Islamic terrorist organizations. The type that severely threatens western civilization. Al qaeda, Isis, and other Muslim brotherhood types of organizations. Hamas is identical to these groups, but pro-Palestine people in the west feel the need to provide cover to Hamas out of sympathy of Palestinian civilians. It also ignores the level of support Palestinians have for their Islamic terrorist government.
This is a major problem. The natural consequence of Hamas being successful is the creation of a Sunni Islamist state. The resistance in Ireland, South Africa and other countries had democratic goals. The Palestinian people do not.
As such, Americans are witnessing an interpretation of Bushnell’s suicide that is not different than what Jews experience from anti Zionists and Palestinians.
Why? Because Bushnell wore an American uniform, is being interpreted as America support for the Palestinian people. I don’t believe that Bushnell had American values. I think he exploited his history of being in the American military to perpetuate an anti American message. And naturally Islamists are arguing that he represents America. That America supports Martyrdom.It’s another example of a radical leftist being used for an Islamist purpose.
Jews mostly feel that accusing israel of being genocidal is not only a lie, but also hypocritical and offensive, considering that the enemy Israel faces has genocidal goals towards the Jews. This is where the anti semitism charge comes from. So in response, pro Palestinian people find woke Jews who support their cause to argue that anti Zionism has nothing to do with anti semitism. They’ll parade a Jewish voice for peace activist, or the Naturei Karta to make that argument. Then they scream at Zionist Jews (most Jews by a long shot) that there are many Jews that support the Palestinians. The average Jewish anti Zionist uses their heritage or even history of Jewish upbringing to perpetuate an anti-Jewish message (ie “as a Jew, here’s how I feel…) we saw this in Nazi Germany, the Association of German National Jews. This isn’t unique to Jews either. We’ve all heard of “Uncle Tom”. Every demographic has outliers that go against the desires of the group.
And that’s what they’re doing with Bushnell. “See? This American died for Palestine! SO many Americans support the Palestinians”. The guy was a leftist anarchist. He does not represent the views of the majority of Americans.
There is no substance to the Palestinian movement. It’s all about “destroying the occupiers”. They don’t talk about what “freedom” means to them. Why? Because they know that it’s not the same as what a westerner wants when they call for freedom. It’s sharia law.
Leftists, pro Palestinian activists, and Palestinian people should be grilled on what type of government they want. Their ideologies. That’s part of the debate and integral to the conversation. If they’re not forced to reconcile the fact that this conflict exists largely because of their ideology, it does two very bad things:
1) Naive western people incorrectly assume that the Palestinian cause is ideologically in line with westernism and cover as well as in some cases shower praise on Islamic terrorist organizations.
2) the Palestinian people aren’t encouraged to look in the mirror and understand why their ideology is harming their people.