Something changed this past fall weekend.
asserted
Something → change → ?
The temperature dropped.
asserted
temperature → drop → ?
The air turned crisp.
asserted
air → turn → ?
And, for a fleeting moment, something shifted in the way people talked about Israel.
asserted
people → shift → Israel
Flydubai Flight 1073 was traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv when its co-pilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar with an onboard crash axe and attempted to seize control of the aircraft.
asserted
pilot → travel → aircraft
The plane plunged thousands of feet towards certain doom in what increasingly appears to have been a murderous act.
asserted
what → plunge → doom
Machchhar, grievously wounded, managed to open the cockpit door.
asserted
Machchhar → wound → door
Passengers and crew rushed forward, subdued the attacker, and helped regain control of the aircraft.
asserted
Passengers → rush → aircraft
Somehow, miraculously, roughly 180 people made it safely to the ground.
asserted
people → make → ground
The story invites a thousand questions.
asserted
story → invite → questions
How did a man reportedly known to have expressed extremist views end up in that cockpit?
uncertain
man → know → cockpit
What failures of screening, intelligence, and communication made the attack possible?
asserted
attack → make → screening
What more needs to be done to protect planes flying to Israel?
asserted
What → need → Israel
Those questions must be answered.
asserted
questions → answer → ?
But something else happened in the aftermath: The memes started.
asserted
memes → happen → aftermath
Airline seating charts appeared online, inviting travelers to choose a seat not by window or aisle, but by proximity to an Israeli!
asserted
charts → appear → Israeli
TikTok influencers joked the first step in an airline emergency should be: to locate the nearest Israeli.
asserted
step → joke → Israeli
After years in which Israelis have so often appeared in the world’s imagination as genocidal soldiers, colonial occupiers, or political villains, suddenly they were the guys you wanted sitting next to you in Row 12.
asserted
you → appear → Row
For once, people weren’t talking about Israel.
asserted
people → talk → Israel
They were talking about Israelis.
asserted
They → talk → Israelis
They were talking about Yaniv Hayun, the plumber who raced toward the cockpit, helped wrestle the attacker down, and pulled the plane out of its fatal dive.
asserted
who → talk → dive
About the passengers who moved toward danger rather than away from it.
asserted
who → move → it
About human beings whose politics, religious practice, and voting records suddenly didn’t matter.
asserted
politics → matter → beings
Did they favor settlements or oppose them?
asserted
they → favor → them
What did they think about Gaza, judicial reform, or the coming Israeli election?
asserted
they → think → Gaza
Nobody asked.
asserted
Nobody → ask → ?
That should not feel revolutionary, yet after the past three years, it does.
asserted
it → feel → years
One of the most toxic habits in the discourse surrounding Israel is the steady disappearance of Israelis themselves.
asserted
One → surround → Israelis
Israel becomes its government.
asserted
Israel → become → ?
Its government becomes its prime minister.
asserted
government → become → ?
Its prime minister becomes every Israeli — and every Jew.
asserted
minister → become → ?
The actions of extremist settlers come to define the moral character of an entire society.
asserted
actions → come → society
Government, country, people and ideology collapse into one undifferentiated accusation.
asserted
Government → collapse → accusation
It is how prejudice works.
asserted
prejudice → work → ?
To collapse a people into a monolith, to take the feature of one and assign it to all, is the essential building block of hatred and prejudice.
asserted
take → collapse → hatred
We know that no president, mayor, rabbi, or political party fully represents us.
asserted
president → know → us
But when looking at a group we dislike, differences disappear — we imagine those on the other side as uniform and interchangeable.
asserted
we → look → side
The act of a hardliner becomes the character of a nation.
asserted
act → become → nation
First the individual disappears.
asserted
individual → disappear → ?
Then the category becomes the accusation.
asserted
category → become → ?
…and 20 more, not listed.
The Aporia
