Twitter vs. Quora on Israel-Palestine
Different discussion groups can develop different patterns of thought. Twitter has allowed itself to become highly polarized on Israel-Palestine, leading to the development of mutually incompatible Israeli and Palestinian narratives and talking points that are stereotypically oversimplifying, abusive, and repellent of the other. Especially with Twitter’s popularity, this is contributing to the conflict. However, on Quora Spaces, we have implemented still-largely-manual algorithms that have allowed the larger discussion to become depolarized on Israel-Palestine. Here is a comparison of Twitter vs. Quora.
Twitter, Israeli-side
Yet when Waffles (matchtoresearch) cited the many examples of anti-Zionists taking a stand against anti-Semitism on Quora’s forum Unity is Strength and elsewhere, the primary consensus was that (1) what was Waffles doing bending the English language to defend a Jew-hater, (2) if they are willing to accept any form at all of Israel’s Jewish democratic mandate, they are not actually anti-Zionists. However, Waffles succeeded in allying with IVforchange by taking a position on Israel criticism that was otherwise (12/13) in alignment with theirs and also succeeded in sending JewessTi into softer-line arguments.
Twitter, Israeli-side, two-state
Here, notarussianjew takes a mainstream liberal-Zionist party line and receives praise and criticism from the Israeli side, mostly insults from the Palestinian. This was similar to some of the earlier dynamics in and around Quora’s forum Unity is Strength, before we built a stronger community.
Twitter, Palestinian-side
Rather than even attempting common ground, siinjiim calls Zionism predatory.
Quora
On Quora, we broach similar topics — defining Zionism, defining anti-Zionism, and discussing when both cross lines into racism and anti-Semitism. The discussions tend to include more parties and take a very different tone.
Our community’s reputation precedes us. TheAngrySemite is Dani Ishai Behan, former and highly valued Contributor to Unity is Strength.
What we did on Quora
First, we stood up to the trolls and the haters, whatever political faction they represented. The community of Quora Spaces, or collaborative blogs, is small enough that a few writers can do this.
Next, we created Quora Space Unity is Strength and modeled cooperative dialogue. We regularly faced challenges and made mistakes, but we built a growing and cohesive community representative of both the Israeli and Palestinian sides. Our community has spread to Spaces such as Israel/Palestine debate, Depolarizing America, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
In peace discussions, my talking points are also different from typical liberal pro-Israel ones. I am not as radical as I sometimes seem — for example, I consider Oslo-style two-state the best solution. It keeps both parties at least somewhat comfortable and is the likeliest solution in the near future. A treaty would end Israeli military control of the Palestinian territories and, even if Palestinians had to compromise on land over the short term, would at least empower them to focus on nation-building in the territories they had. Other solutions may become more appropriate in the farther future, especially if Oslo’s fundamental assumptions about the demographic picture of the region, the risks to Jews worldwide, and the general relationship between Israelis and Palestinians no longer hold.
It is difficult for me to tell Israelis and Palestinians what to do, especially since I think change can and should begin wherever we consider home. I am American Jewish and strongly affiliated with the liberal branch of Judaism. My upbringing was Conservative Jewish, considered one of the most conservative liberal movements, and I currently belong to a Reconstructionist Jewish synagogue. While typical two-state rhetoric has become familiar and comforting or annoying — depending on who you ask — to liberal Jews of my community, the comfort of familiarity is almost the opposite of my goal. Rather, my goal is to make Jews and Israelis just uncomfortable enough to ask the difficult questions about Judaism and about their own party lines, and Palestinians and their allies comfortable enough to feel that reasonable criticism of their own side — the level that would be routine for center or center-left Zionists — is safe.
Given my goals and my own cultural background, what seems to work the best for such a dynamic is an approach I haven’t seen before. My recipe is to raise Arab Peace Initiative-type demands, which are also similar to the Palestinian-side demands as represented by the Palestinian-led BDS movement, to try and knock liberal Jewish movements’ proactive outreach and Israel engagement into high gear. This would represent the opposite approach to the BDS movement’s divestment from Israel, and can also afford to be less critical of Israel than much of liberal Zionism. It is an attempt to pull for the Israeli-Palestinian dynamic and demographic picture that would make Palestinian-side demands maximally compatible with Zionism. Although it includes advocating for large-scale Palestinian return to within Israel’s 1967 borders, historically off the negotiating table, the premise is that the Jewish Diaspora could theoretically become powerful enough for the Oslo peace process’ fundamental premises to no longer apply.
The underpinning of any grassroots peace effort needs to be a strong desire to engage with the other side. Typical two-state rhetoric, especially from U.S. Jews, is less effective for several reasons:
- Messaging to Palestinians. It’s very hard to say to Palestinians, “We want to be your friend,” when you’re also saying, “We don’t want you in our state.” The second message makes the first feel disingenuous.
- Foreign interference. It’s better to make demands on oneself, one’s own culture, and one’s own community than on someone else’s.
- Empowerment. It’s best to make demands on a group that would empower it and the individuals involved. My proposal is intended to empower the liberal Jewish community.
After a few months of seeing what kinds of things got thrown at us, we discussed and wrote up our algorithm. Currently, we implement this manually. Responses to infractions range from leaving comments, to rejecting submissions, to removing comments and posts, to demotions and Space blocks in a few extreme cases. It is time-consuming but often straightforward. I am a technologist, and because of this, I notice that much of Unity is Strength just might be able to automate and scale.
From my discussions with members of the various parties, I’ve learned a lot. And I can’t take on Twitter users one by one, the way I did with Quora. Now that I’ve gathered the information and built the community, I’ll need to start automating things.
I’ve created a new Quora forum, Clean Up Twitter, to discuss this. If you’re interested in joining the Quora Spaces community, here’s a tutorial about how to begin.
