Meme's the Word

Onward, into the virtual gutter.

Being too old to gear-up for battle (though I did what I could during the first few days when terrorists seemed to be popping up everywhere), my circle of friends and I considered the ways in which we could contribute to the cause. As one they told me: take your writing to battle on the social networks. Feeling that it was the least I could do, I jumped in.

What a swamp. The most depressing thing was that I had the understanding that the worst of the worst was being blocked and filtered. What I was seeing was protected free speech. I did not have the proper tool kit for this kind of confrontation. Very early on I considered abandoning the field of battle for the simple reason that no-one was there to be convinced of the rightness of the other side’s arguments. In that environment, where it quickly became apparent that my side was outnumbered by something like a billion to one, it seemed that we quickly became part of a “like” factory for like-thinking people. I stayed in the fray in solidarity with my Jewish brothers and sisters.

It is a world of tidbit messaging. Short, angry accusing sentences, many times improperly composed. But the essential ingredient remains a visual one. Not video. A picture, with super-imposed text. For fast-scrolling fingers and eyes, a way of getting a message across in next to no time at all.

The Hamas supporters threw away all the rules when they entered the battle. Before my very eyes I saw that whenever some Israeli would present video footage of terrorist atrocities—filmed and uploaded by the terrorists themselves in real time—it would be immediately and massively denied. Fake. Zionist colonialist propaganda. This was such a ridiculous situation that again I considered abandoning the field. Before doing so, I thought that I might try my hand at the meme game. Here are some examples.

The one that led this post is my favorite. The word “Zionism” has become a dirty word to the extent that even some Jews make huge efforts to disassociate themselves from it, calling themselves “post-Zionists” or the like. I happen to think that Zionism is beautiful, and that the story of Zionism is one of the great stories of the past century, that can be a great story for others too, not just the Jews.

The style of confrontation is low-down in-your-face. It is not for weak stomachs. At the end of some days I am drained and depressed. In general I broke the rules by “bombarding” with the memes. Meaning, when I encountered a post that bad-mouthed the Zionists or Zionism, I threw this meme back at the original poster and any commentators to that post that showed Jew-hate enthusiasm. This type of posting ruins your ranking on these sites, but it was worth it because the reactions to our beautiful flag and that simple true statement were revealing. Oh the hate! I would tell you to check out my feed on X, but it is almost unreadable because of the memes that repeatedly appear. If you have the stomach and the patience: @neorehud, The Universal Zionist. Follows are appreciated.

Some more examples:

This was the saddest one. His death was reported widely by the press as “man’s head encounters hard object and he dies.” I really believe that he was a hero. He went out alone with his wife and the flag in his hand to confront Hamas supporters. They killed him.

This one, recalling a Bible verse, was thrown out to lovers of Israel, to help them keep the faith. It is based on Gen. 12:3. Again, thrown back in the face of anyone who curses Israel, or attacks supporters of Israel.

Now at two million Muslim Arab Israeli citizens with full civil rights, and growing.

This little factoid just kills the thread. :)

My call for Jews of the Diaspora to come home.

I’ve had not a few Muslim Arabs give a like to this one.

This text was used with the permission of its creator, who allowed me to freely use it without attribution. My first post with it was to his feed so with some detective work he can be found. I post this as a reaction to posts calling for a cease-fire.

This type of meme, slightly off-kilter logic wise, is my favorite. That finger scrolling through hits the brakes and you can almost hear: “Wait. What?”

This belongs to the previous type. How many well-meaning people felt the duty to define “Islamophobe” for me! I just let this float in the sea of virtuality and enjoy the life-buoys being thrown at it with such gusto.

This is my stock reply to “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.” I like this one. You just take one step out of the sea and you find yourself in Tel Aviv, a modern miracle city. In the foreground is the “Arab Tel Aviv,” Yafo. It shows a living example of what could be between the Jews and the Arabs. And they are both nice places to have a cup of tea.

This one tells you what you need to know about the united Israeli mind-set.

I say, hit them where it hurts.