Washington Views

Hard to be on social media and avoid all the references to the "Nakba" - ignoring the Arab efforts to destroy the new Jewish State. From the State Department Office of the Historian @HistoryAtState re "The Arab-Israeli War of 1948" history.state.gov/milestones/194… #Israel #Nakba

@MosheELavi @NewSamawal And presumably using New York City resources/finances for this…

Historical revisionism and selective omission fuel much of today’s anti Zionist discourse. This post from the Mayor of New York City is a textbook example, made more troubling by the fact that it comes from an elected official with a national platform. The tweet presents 1948 as though Arab Palestinians were uniquely and inexplicably expelled in a vacuum, while omitting the most essential context: the Arab rejection of the UN partition plan, the civil war launched by the Arab community of the British Mandate - fighting primarily to become part of Greater Syria and not as an independent nation state - the invasion by surrounding Arab states after Israel declared independence, and the reality that wars launched with the explicit aim of destroying a state often produce displacement. That is not a defence of every action taken during the war by one side or another. Some atrocities take place throughout the war, including partial forced expulsion. However, it is the minimum historical context required to discuss it honestly rather than polemically. Nobody applies this framework to other major 20th century displacements. Around 12 million Germans were expelled from Eastern Europe following Nazi Germany's defeat in WWII (yes, there are consequences of losing genocidal wars). Millions of Hindus and Muslims were displaced during Partition. Greeks and Turks were exchanged across borders in the 1920s. None of those refugee crises became a permanent argument against the legitimacy of the modern states that emerged afterward. Yet in the Israeli case, a refugee crisis born out of a war initiated by the local Arab leadership and surrounding Arab states is continuously reframed as evidence that Jewish self determination itself is illegitimate, while the nearly one million Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries, and the Jewish communities destroyed during the war and subsequent Egyptian and Jordanian occupation, largely erased from the story. The language here is also deliberate. Calling someone a “Nakba survivor” imports the moral vocabulary of genocide into a history of wartime displacement. The use of the “Visit Palestine” poster, originally designed by Franz Kraus within the Jewish cultural milieu of the Mandate period and later appropriated into Palestinian nationalist iconography, serves a similar purpose. Performative tweets like Mamdani's matter because they come from elected officials who shape public discourse at scale. His framing consistently strips away the context of war and rejectionism to recast the existence of Israel itself as uniquely illegitimate and morally suspect. Commentators must keep calling him and his dangerous coalition out for it, no matter how futile it may sometimes feel.

How many times can the same inane comment be made? No one says (just any) "Criticism of Israel" is antisemitic.

@mehdirhasan Many of those marching are to advocate the delegitimization and destruction of the Jewish State.

There are actual far right fascists marching through London today and some UK liberal media types’ response is to equate them to people - including Jews - marching to oppose the killing of innocents abroad. Shameful stuff.

@Telegraph Sound like true believers in democracy...!

🔴 Pro-Palestine protesters have gathered in central London and vowed to “stop the far-Right” in opposition to Tommy Robinson’s rival march on Saturday 🖇️ telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/05/1…

@AmnestyUK Ah yes the "Famed" Stephen Kapos. @AmnestyUK chooses to ignore all the Holocaust Survivors who are ardent Zionists...

Right now, Holocaust survivor Stephen Kapos is at the Nakba Day demonstration in London. The 88-year-old has attended almost every demonstration in the last two year’s protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Stephen stands and sits with family and members of his group the ‘Holocaust Survivors & Descendants Against the Genocide in Gaza’. He told us: "Today, we commemorate not only the 1948 violent displacement and dispossession of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs during the creation of the State of Israel. But the unlawful occupation of Palestinian land and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” “Justice for the Palestinians must be demanded and fought for by peoples of the world to force their own governments to act to end Israel's genocide, occupation and apartheid.” “That is why these marches have been attacked so much – it is the threat we pose to injustice. And the symbol of solidarity and hope we represent.” Photo by: @misanharriman

@Adrian_Hilton 5 Years ago today..."Fuck the Jews...." x.com/SussexFriends/…

Remember this convoy of cars driving through London, part of a pro-Palestine protest, declaring through a loudspeaker: “F__k the Jews! Rape their daughters!”? The CPS took the decision not to prosecute and dropped all charges against four men. There have been no arrests or prosecutions of the hundreds or thousands who have called weekly for jihad, global intifada, the genocide of Jews, or celebrated Hamas, Hezbollah or ISIS; no arrests of those who chanted ‘Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa yaʿoud!’ I look forward to seeing what banners, slogans, chants and symbols used in the ‘Unite the Kingdom’ rally meet their threshold for spreading hate or causing fear and intimidation.

Mamdani's tweet is propaganda, not history. It's hard to know where to begin. Perhaps by noting (again) that the "Visit Palestine" poster so beloved of Mamdani's Dismantle-Israel crowd was created by Franz Kraus, an Austrian-Jewish refugee from Hitler, in 1936. Here In Tel Aviv.

Supreme Court unanimously, 9-0, forbade racial segregation in public schools, May 17, 1954:

It's fascinating how all these ostensibly liberal/progressive politicians, activists and social media people LOVE @RepThomasMassie (and @mtgreenee). Hatred of Israel seems to be the priority of their activism.

@mehdirhasan Deir Yassin was not an event most Jews are proud of? Now you want to also discuss Arab massacres of Jews (and find the condemnations) @Mehdirhasan?

Deir Yassin.

#OnThisDay May 16 1943: Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Crushed 1916: Sykes-Picot Treaty 1948: Chaim Weizmann elected President Council of Government of #Israel 1988: @AIPAC Policy Conference (Benjamin @Netanyahu returning to Israel to get into politics!) open.substack.com/pub/onthisdayi…

From "Director of video for @NYCMayor" Olivia Becker @oliviaLbecker (Is this how New York City resources get spent @NYCMayor @ZohranKMamdani? Any Videos of greetings for celebrating Israeli Independence Day? #Nakba

@AmnestyUK Of course when haters of Israel march through London; @AmnestyUK is silent (or more accurately defends and participates?)

Today is the "Unite the Kingdom" rally. Here are three reasons why it's worse than you think...

Mayor Mamdani: the refugees you post about exist because 22 Arab states launched a war to destroy Israel on May 15, 1948—rejecting the UN plan that also called for a Palestinian state. In its aftermath, 800,000 Jews were expelled from Arab lands. Your post mentions none of this.

A reminder of what was going on in London 5 years ago today - Before "October 7th" ..before Israel's response...Pure, visceral hatred.... twitter.com/SussexFriends/…

@mehdirhasan Were there any Arab massacres of Israelis during this pre-Statehood period, @mehdirhasan? Were there any attacks by Arab "irregular" forces on Jews in the area of the Palestine Mandate?

This is a lie. One in three Palestinian refugees, or 250,000 men, women and children, were made refugees by Zionist forces and militias *prior* to May 15th 1948. The Deir Yassin massacre happened more than a month before May 15th 1948.

From the Mayor of New York @NYCMayor @ZohranKMamdani re Nakba… #AmYisraelChai 🇮🇱

SCOOP @jewishinsider via @WillBredderman: "Jewish Voice for Peace activist to serve as Mamdani ‘faith liaison’" "The NYC mayor has tapped an anti-Zionist Brooklyn rabbi who backed his campaign for the newly created role" jewishinsider.com/2026/05/mamdan…

@cenkuygur Give us some names of people who are in your words “Israel’s thuggish supporters in US” @cenkuygur

What’s amazing is that the Israeli press reports freely about Israeli government’s genocidal plans, which they don’t hide at all! But the American media is so scared of Israel’s thuggish supporters in US that they won’t tell you Israel is planning to steal all this land.

😳 EXCLUSIVE: Congressman Jared Moskowitz receives hateful, alarming antisemitic voicemails. Trigger warning.