Israel - Palestine Discussion | Post Respectfully | Discuss more, tweet less

R'hllor

Full Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2013
Messages
15,419
There’s no way the US, UK, NATO can defend this….surely. What Israel is doing to Gaza is the same as what Russia is doing to the Ukraine.
Why should they defend it when they supporting it and having their backs
 

4bars

Full Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2016
Messages
4,961
Supports
Barcelona
It was always present and that's the fecked up thing with the Occupation. But indeed not in these proportions. Hamas managed to get Israel's retaliation down to the level of what they did on 7/10 and are going to beat them with experience.

I'd also wish that posters wouldn't gang up on @Amir like that, especially since the overwhelming majority never experienced war, or a civil or colonial war. He's made his point clear, like it or hate it (obviously not directed at you). The mindsets there are unfathomable for anyone looking at a conflict from thousands of kilometers away.

I mightily disagree with some of his points but he's one of the few valuable and balanced sources about what's happening there and I'd hate to see him disappear from this thread because of this.
Someone that says:

" I want security and I don't care what it takes. "

Is difficult to gang up.

If you consider gang up opposing his justifications of one of the worst war crimes of this century. What do you pretend? "Carry on, lad, we support you just because you have a dissonant voice"? To me is like asking not to "gang up" to someone that justifies gangrape because someone raped first because they want the former rapist to stop (That assuming that history starts October 7th)
 

africanspur

Full Member
Joined
Sep 1, 2010
Messages
9,154
Supports
Tottenham Hotspur
It was always present and that's the fecked up thing with the Occupation. But indeed not in these proportions. Hamas managed to get Israel's retaliation down to the level of what they did on 7/10 and are going to beat them with experience.

I'd also wish that posters wouldn't gang up on @Amir like that, especially since the overwhelming majority never experienced war, or a civil or colonial war. He's made his point clear, like it or hate it (obviously not directed at you). The mindsets there are unfathomable for anyone looking at a conflict from thousands of kilometers away.

I mightily disagree with some of his points but he's one of the few valuable and balanced sources about what's happening there and I'd hate to see him disappear from this thread because of this.
Totally agree with this. I disagree with @Amir on this topic but they are at least providing a different view point on this thread (and a local one) and is honest about their views.

It's concerning and sad that someone as liberal as they are has their headspace where it is now but it is what it is I guess.

I prefer their posts infinitely, which actually add context, to the idiots who come on here and post barely concealed islamophobic/ anti Arab bile.
 

Dr. StrangeHate

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2013
Messages
5,504
I can’t think of examples of foreign policy influencing voting opinion except where the country itself was directly involved (e.g. LBJ and Nixon with Vietnam, Thatcher with the Falklands, Blair in 2005). Voters decide on domestic issues unless it‘s their own sons, brothers and husbands coming home in body bags.
I understand that. In my personal example, I always vote Labour as I am a lefty. However with them also taking the position to not call for a ceasefire and in fact advocate for collective punishment of civilians I will not vote for them. The Whatsapp groups I am in will also not vote for them now with Keir in charge. Everyone has a redline and for some people that line was crossed here. But you are right, most people wouldn't factor foreign policy in their voting.
 

Roane

Full Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
2,351
A set of surveys were conducted in Gaza, finalised on the 6th October 2023. The surveys showed majority of Gazans had grown weary of Hamas and had also lost faith in the PA.

44% said they had no trust in Hamas whilst 29% said they had very little trust in Hamas.
 

2cents

Historiographer, and obtainer of rare antiquities
Scout
Joined
Mar 19, 2008
Messages
16,290
I stand corrected then. Thank you.

Is the rest of my post off the mark as well? Genuine question.
I don’t think your post was off the mark at all, and I should have added that I didn’t actually watch the Abbey Martin video, so can’t really comment on the intent of those using “the Arabs” in those particular cases.

There’s much I could add about my own experiences of living in Israel in the past, but given that the discussion has moved on and been overtaken by tonight’s news, it’s probably best left for another time.
 

owlo

Full Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Messages
3,252
Apologies for not replying to you all lately. Needed to take a few days to step back as I felt it was all getting very personal and hateful. @africanspur I always love reading your posts. Very thoughtful balanced and insightful. I'll try to get round to replying eventually.

Finding it rather difficult to weave the nuanced line between Israels right to defend itself and the unspeakable casualties in Gaza. Also in being able to explain that line to others coherently. And you end up feeling attacked from all sides. Unpleasant emails/messages from the IDF for not coming, and the feeling that half the Muslim world feel that Israel is a legitimate target to wipe out, and that isn't shared by the vast majority of Jews, and that any support for the Israeli states makes you personally a valid target of hatred. I feel a strong undercurrent of what I consider antisemitism from some posters, and still hold my main positions on the subject. Seems if you are an Israeli/Jew (and like it or not, most jews want this, despite the gaslighting) who wants Israel to exist and defend itself, but not to expand and kill all the arabs, you're a target on all sides.

I appreciate those who try to thread a similar position to me like @Amir and possibly a few others. It also feels like we're homeless politically somewhat now. (perhaps less in Israel itself)
 

Iker Quesadillas

Full Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2021
Messages
4,020
Supports
Real Madrid
Seems if you are an Israeli/Jew (and like it or not, most jews want this, despite the gaslighting) who wants Israel to exist and defend itself, but not to expand and kill all the arabs, you're a target on all sides.
What would you do if Israel did expand and killed the Arabs?
 

owlo

Full Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2015
Messages
3,252
What would you do if Israel did expand and killed the Arabs?
What can I do? I'd obviously be disgusted like I am with their actions in the west bank, and I wouldn't fight for them unless it was truly existential (I wont anyway so its the same) but I can't exactly call up Ben Gvir and explain to him how to jump off a building. I'd possibly post on bluesky about how much I hated it, and how my country had been turned evil.

I can do the same as just about anybody else regarding any atrocity in the world, absolutely nothing.
 

Roane

Full Member
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
2,351
On 9 August 2023, hundreds of Israeli and American academics published a statement claiming that the ultimate purpose of the judicial overhaul was to "annex more land, and ethnically cleanse all territories under Israeli rule of their Palestinian population".
 

iKnowNothing

Full Member
Joined
Jul 2, 2014
Messages
2,844
Location
hangin in there
Seeing some videos on Twitter about IDF bombing a camp in Jabalya (sp?) and I can’t but think about the loss of human lives. I’m wondering if this relentless attack is going to create even further resentment towards Israel and the US among the more moderates in this world.

Has Netanyahu lost it for Israel?
 

2mufc0

Everything is fair game in capitalism!
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
17,018
Supports
Dragon of Dojima
They want a security agreement with the US in exchange, that Houthi rocket really made them shit their pants. They are so inept, all they have is money.
 

Frosty

Logical and sensible but turns women gay
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
17,251
Location
Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango!
Seeing some videos on Twitter about IDF bombing a camp in Jabalya (sp?) and I can’t but think about the loss of human lives. I’m wondering if this relentless attack is going to create even further resentment towards Israel and the US among the more moderates in this world.

Has Netanyahu lost it for Israel?
I doubt that very much.

If Saudi and other countries still want to normalise relations, there is only one way this ends.
 

Raoul

Admin
Staff
Joined
Aug 14, 1999
Messages
130,290
Location
Hollywood CA
They want a security agreement with the US in exchange, that Houthi rocket really made them shit their pants. They are so inept, all they have is money.
I doubt the Saudis are scared of the Houthis. MBS only cares about his project, which now includes the World Cup, so the Saudis won’t be rocking the boat anytime soon.
 

Frosty

Logical and sensible but turns women gay
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
17,251
Location
Yes I can hear you Clem Fandango!
The United Kingdom’s national funding agency today suspended operations of its newly formed diversity advisory panel “with immediate effect” after science minister Michelle Donelan expressed “disgust and outrage” that members of the panel had publicly posted opinions about the Israel-Hamas conflict that she viewed as “extremist.”

https://www.science.org/content/art...ity-panel-following-pressure-science-minister

Michelle Donelan championed legislation promoting academic freedom last year

For context:

The posts that originally drew Donelan’s ire are no longer publicly available because both researchers subsequently set their X accounts to private. But according to Donelan’s letter, University College London social scientist Kamna Patel “amplified” a post that condemned violence on both sides of the conflict, but “[made] reference to Israel’s ‘genocide and apartheid.’” Public bodies “cannot be seen to take political positions or promote extremist ideologies,” Donelan wrote.

In the second post, which has been seen by Science, Heriot-Watt University gender studies professor Kate Sang posted a link to a news story in The Guardian with the headline “Suella Braverman urges police to crack down on Hamas support in UK.” Sang added the comment: “This is disturbing.” Donelan writes that “Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization. It is completely unacceptable for anyone to be expressing sympathy or support for them.” Sang and Patel did not respond to requests for comment.
 

RedDevilQuebecois

Full Member
Joined
May 27, 2021
Messages
8,157
It’s very tricky.

I think most people would agree peace is not possible with hamas in power in Gaza.

They also don’t play by the conventional rules of war. They will hide in hospitals, they will deliberately place refugee camps on top of their critical infrastructure.

Can somebody explain how hamas is removed without war, and if it does require war, how do you minimise civilians when they literally use them as human shields?

I also don’t think removing Hamas is worth what we are seeing at the moment. A more humane approach would have been to do nothing after October 7 as hard (impossible?) as that would have been.
If there is one way to reach Hamas directly in those tunnels without actually dropping bombs on the ground (those that kill most civilians right now), it would be by drilling a tunnel with a TBM to thread water from the Mediterranean and towards that network sitting 40 meters below sea level. Ideally, the process should flood the entire tunnel network with enough sea water to trap the majority of Hamas fighters in there. The only problem with that approach is that we don't know how stable/unstable the ground would be in the aftermath. Only engineers and geologists can answer that question for me.

About the bombing on the refugee camp... what the feck are the IDF even thinking? That is shockingly pathetic.

Equally pathetic by Egypt.
 

Pintu

Full Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2015
Messages
4,194
Location
Sweden
Do these subtitles really match what these guys are saying? I assume they are speaking Hebrew?
This is from an israeli documentary film… I believe these to be the official subtitles.


I thought Colombia had broken diplomatic relations last week?
No they haven’t… but the president threatened it and is going further tonight:


“I have decided to call our ambassador in Israel for consultation. If Israel does not stop the massacre of the Palestinian people we cannot be there.”
 

berbatrick

Renaissance Man
Scout
Joined
Oct 22, 2010
Messages
21,699
Do these subtitles really match what these guys are saying? I assume they are speaking Hebrew?
Wikipedia article about the film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantura_massacre#Subsequent_developments
The "Katz controversy" section of the same article is interesting, that student Katz has apparently had mental issues and no longer works after his thesis was rejected. (I got that from some youtube interview of Illan Pappe, an Israeli historian in Britain who supported that student)
 

RedDevil@84

Full Member
Joined
Jun 5, 2014
Messages
21,723
Location
USA
Seeing some videos on Twitter about IDF bombing a camp in Jabalya (sp?) and I can’t but think about the loss of human lives. I’m wondering if this relentless attack is going to create even further resentment towards Israel and the US among the more moderates in this world.

Has Netanyahu lost it for Israel?
Israel has not lost anything. More countries will rush to do trade with Israel.
 

2mufc0

Everything is fair game in capitalism!
Joined
Jan 8, 2014
Messages
17,018
Supports
Dragon of Dojima
I doubt the Saudis are scared of the Houthis. MBS only cares about his project, which now includes the World Cup, so the Saudis won’t be rocking the boat anytime soon.
Oh he really is. That missile that hit so close when they were hosting the F1 really shook him up. It would have been an absolute disaster for his vanity projects if it actually hit the race track. But it's not just the Houthis it's also the various Iranian proxy militias which he's had little success in curbing in the region either.

He won't be normalising for nothing, fully fledged American security and investment into his projects will be the price.
 
Last edited:

NoPace

Full Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2014
Messages
9,422
I just can't see what the strategy here was for Hamas. Yes, they might have wanted to trade a few prisoners. Maybe a bit of revenge. But what political strategic goal were they trying to advance, like troops out, or independence or nationhood, or draw attention to the cause or something? I can't see it. There wasn't one, it was a pogrom for them and a win for their backers.
Best guess I've seen so far is get a few hostages, trade them for prisoners/hostages, and possibly more labor permits (they've been trading for those, though not sure that would have been part of their predictions fort his deal) and maybe the port of Gaza opened somewhat? Maybe someone can link to a good article on this, I've seen more smattering of comments.

The West Bank is becoming more and more Israeli via settlements and Gaza is a permanent prison, so if you're in charge of Gaza, you can either say "we need to scare the Israelis into concessions, or we need to cut our losses and take any deal we can get." Is there a deal on the table? Not really. I guess a good enough offer, the Israelis would be pressured to take, but the people of Gaza and the West Bank wouldn't support it or abide by it. They'd simply start supporting and joining other groups. They don't have real sovereignty.

I'm not sure how long Israel will have that either. If Gantz replaces Netanyahu as the polls suggest, and he has the coalition and desire to stop the settlements and say open up the port of Gaza with inspections done by the U.S or whoever, how long until the settlers/religious Zionists turn to insurrection? Or another Intifida starts? I'm probably guilty of overreacting to the events in a long conflict that have occurred during my early adult life, but I think the 2 state solution is probably dead, and I'm not sure how the hell a 1 state solution would even work. I've met a few Palestinians, but I'm a Jew who's been to Israel and follows Israeli politics and the demographic trends are moving further away from peace, and the appetite for peace just isn't there. There may be an appetite there to end the war if it goes on too long, but that's different than ending the settlement expansion or making peace.

The attack was horrible, but of course there's a strategic reason behind it, just like there is for the Israeli mass bombing campaign. There's almost always a strategic reason when it's not just a mob of people or a lone attacker, and even then there's often sort of one those too, unless they're non-political.