“Dave Chappelle received widespread praise after revealing a ‘code’ in his surprise Netflix special, telling viewers that if he ever says ‘I stand with Israel’, it means he has been ‘co-opted’ and ‘they got me’.”

Middle East Eye

Chappelle ended his Netflix special with the words “I stand with Israel,” and then dropping his mic. The moment sparked global attention and went viral online.

I don’t have Chappelle’s international platform, my humble unmonetized blog has a core of a few thousand faithful readers.

When I identified as an evangelical, I proclaimed “I stand with Israel” with conviction. As a dispensationalist I considered the Israel of the Old Testament and the modern apartheid regime the same entity. My conviction that God blessed Israel, and cursed everyone who didn’t support her, blinded me to her depravity.

The scales fell from my eyes, and I now recognize Israel as a genocidal regime that has been massacring Palestinians even before it was created through the collective efforts of socialist Zionist leaders, the UN, and the formal proclamation by David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948.

Not only do I no longer say, “I stand with Israel,” but my moral conviction compels me to scream “Damn Israel.” This does not make me antisemitic; the Jewish people and the corrupt state of Israel are not synonymous. it is my patriotic duty to rage against the billions my country is giving to a foreign nation to subsidize the extermination of Palestinians.

If I ever write the words “I stand with Israel,” it means that I have dementia, or that Zionists have started co-opting bloggers with a meager outreach.