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Conor

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This is an absolutely mind-boggling take on the US-Israel relationship.
Diplomatically, there are countless times when the US veto, and the US veto alone, has saved Israel at the UN SC (as opposed from the General Assembly, where it routinely loses meaningless votes because there is no veto).

Financially and militarily, while US aid is a small dollar amount in some ways...it's not in many other ways. Financially, the amount of ammunition and materiel that Israel has burnt through in a month, with an insanely high rate of fire of complex weapons, is sustainable because of the bipartisan eternal iron guarantee of US resupply. The additional aid for this year (beyond the routine) is $14 billion. In context, Israel's annual military budget is $24 bn, and the cost of the war is estimated at $48bn. I think "funding a third of the war directly" is a much clearer way of portraying the impact of US aid than expressing it as percentage of total Israeli GDP(?). And militarily, Israel can sustain multi-front battles because of the military deterrence of the US rushing in its navy.

Politically, it is not like previous US presidents are unaware of the power of their office, no matter the type of Israeli PM in office.
Here is noted softy Ronald Reagan stopping a bombing with a phone call:

Here is another lefty snowflake HW playing and winning a game of brinkmanship with AIPAC by tying aid to settlement commitments:
https://www.ettingermentum.news/p/the-president-who-stood-up-to-israel

You might argue that Biden has less leverage (I'm not sure how), but, it's important to note here, his position in the 80s was to the right of Reagan AND TO THE RIGHT OF MENACHIM BEGIN HIMSELF, on the topic of killing Palestinian refugees:


I'm going to repeat that. Biden's personal stance on civilians killed by the Israeli military is more bloodthirsty than one of Israel's most famous right-wing PMs.
Hence, Occam's razor is that he is fine with what has happened in Gaza. Reflected in his admin's stance - from "no red lines" to "they should shoot straight" to "their numbers are fake" to"concerned that the ceasefire will expose the conditions in Gaza."
Good post.
 

The Corinthian

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:lol:
:lol:
This is an absolutely mind-boggling take on the US-Israel relationship.
Diplomatically, there are countless times when the US veto, and the US veto alone, has saved Israel at the UN SC (as opposed from the General Assembly, where it routinely loses meaningless votes because there is no veto).

Financially and militarily, while US aid is a small dollar amount in some ways...it's not in many other ways. Financially, the amount of ammunition and materiel that Israel has burnt through in a month, with an insanely high rate of fire of complex weapons, is sustainable because of the bipartisan eternal iron guarantee of US resupply. The additional aid for this year (beyond the routine) is $14 billion. In context, Israel's annual military budget is $24 bn, and the cost of the war is estimated at $48bn. I think "funding a third of the war directly" is a much clearer way of portraying the impact of US aid than expressing it as percentage of total Israeli GDP(?). And militarily, Israel can sustain multi-front battles because of the military deterrence of the US rushing in its navy.

Politically, it is not like previous US presidents are unaware of the power of their office, no matter the type of Israeli PM in office.
Here is noted softy Ronald Reagan stopping a bombing with a phone call:

Here is another lefty snowflake HW playing and winning a game of brinkmanship with AIPAC by tying aid to settlement commitments:
https://www.ettingermentum.news/p/the-president-who-stood-up-to-israel

You might argue that Biden has less leverage (I'm not sure how), but, it's important to note here, his position in the 80s was to the right of Reagan AND TO THE RIGHT OF MENACHIM BEGIN HIMSELF, on the topic of killing Palestinian refugees:


I'm going to repeat that. Biden's personal stance on civilians killed by the Israeli military is more bloodthirsty than one of Israel's most famous right-wing PMs.
Hence, Occam's razor is that he is fine with what has happened in Gaza. Reflected in his admin's stance - from "no red lines" to "they should shoot straight" to "their numbers are fake" to"concerned that the ceasefire will expose the conditions in Gaza."
What a post.
 

Giggsyking

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Although Piers gave him detailed timeline afterwards I see the benefit of doubt here. But to question the nature of atrocities? When there is a video footage, probably for good reason not made public yet. But everybody who saw it (politicians, journalists) couldn't find words how to describe the level of pure evilness. And his distasteful use of contration camps comparisons. I am lost for words there.

I wish somebody else would said it, but Douglas Murray provided absolutely spot on rebuttal, word by word.
Douglas Murray :lol:

You should be banned just for quoting him.

Just to add some context to Norman concertation camp remarks, many western politicians who dare to stand against the brutal cancelation of Israel call Gaza a concentration camp or an open air prison.

In fact David Cameron who is good friend of Israel, said once Israel turned Gaza into a Prison Camp.

But Yes, lets quote Murray.
 
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The Corinthian

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Although Piers gave him detailed timeline afterwards I see the benefit of doubt here. But to question the nature of atrocities? When there is a video footage, probably for good reason not made public yet. But everybody who saw it (politicians, journalists) couldn't find words how to describe the level of pure evilness. And his distasteful use of contration camps comparisons. I am lost for words there.

I wish somebody else would said it, but Douglas Murray provided absolutely spot on rebuttal, word by word.
How is that spot on rebuttal? Douglas Murray could do a word by word rebuttal with Norman, but he’s turned down debating him. He knows his intellect and intellectual capability will get found out by being on the same debate as Norman.
 

The Corinthian

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Some interesting data.
 

2mufc0

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Douglas Murray :lol:

You should be banned just for quoting him.

Just to add some context to Norman concertation camp remarks, many western politicians who dare to stand against the brutal cancelation of Israel call Gaza a concentration camp or an open air prison.

In fact David Cameron who is good friend of Israel, said once Israel turned Gaza into a Prison Camp.

But Yes, lets quote Murray.
He really is an odious scrote, if it were upto him there would be an expulsion of Muslims in the UK.
 

maniak

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I wonder if this is done consciously or is something that just gets into journalists' minds naturally by osmosis. Yesterday in the evening news in portugal the presenter used in the same sentence "israeli children" and "palestinian minors" when talking about the hostage exchange. I doubt anyone is putting any pressure on portuguese journalists who have an almost insignificant audience, so they must absorb this from somewhere.
 
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Although Piers gave him detailed timeline afterwards I see the benefit of doubt here. But to question the nature of atrocities? When there is a video footage, probably for good reason not made public yet. But everybody who saw it (politicians, journalists) couldn't find words how to describe the level of pure evilness. And his distasteful use of contration camps comparisons. I am lost for words there.

I wish somebody else would said it, but Douglas Murray provided absolutely spot on rebuttal, word by word.
Finkelstein is one of the calmest interviewees I’ve seen, especially given the topic he talks about… lays out specific, factual details to explain his responses.

There’s a quite recent interview with him where he quotes the use of “concentration camp” from people previous to him (tried to find it, can’t at moment). Plenty of people with a much better understanding than us have used it.

And Murray wasn’t a rebuttal. That xxxx Morgan asked him after Finkelstein had gone and Murray (another useless xxxx with a long history of clear bias, some would call racism) piled in based on his decades of knowledge and first hand experiences. Oh wait….
 

nickm

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Now that is not to endorse Oct 7th or what Israel is doing, however it highlights the silliness of the stance of people like Piers. Piers knows full well that if he was born in Gaza, living under those conditions, treated like animals then most likely he would have been one of those breaking through into Israel.
Really? Do you think he'd be doing the raping? Or just the baby killing?

Interested in whether you think the conditions explain that too.
 

That_Bloke

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Although Piers gave him detailed timeline afterwards I see the benefit of doubt here. But to question the nature of atrocities? When there is a video footage, probably for good reason not made public yet. But everybody who saw it (politicians, journalists) couldn't find words how to describe the level of pure evilness. And his distasteful use of contration camps comparisons. I am lost for words there.

I wish somebody else would said it, but Douglas Murray provided absolutely spot on rebuttal, word by word.
:lol:
 

Godfather

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This is an absolutely mind-boggling take on the US-Israel relationship.
Diplomatically, there are countless times when the US veto, and the US veto alone, has saved Israel at the UN SC (as opposed from the General Assembly, where it routinely loses meaningless votes because there is no veto).

Financially and militarily, while US aid is a small dollar amount in some ways...it's not in many other ways. Financially, the amount of ammunition and materiel that Israel has burnt through in a month, with an insanely high rate of fire of complex weapons, is sustainable because of the bipartisan eternal iron guarantee of US resupply. The additional aid for this year (beyond the routine) is $14 billion. In context, Israel's annual military budget is $24 bn, and the cost of the war is estimated at $48bn. I think "funding a third of the war directly" is a much clearer way of portraying the impact of US aid than expressing it as percentage of total Israeli GDP(?). And militarily, Israel can sustain multi-front battles because of the military deterrence of the US rushing in its navy.

Politically, it is not like previous US presidents are unaware of the power of their office, no matter the type of Israeli PM in office.
Here is noted softy Ronald Reagan stopping a bombing with a phone call:

Here is another lefty snowflake HW playing and winning a game of brinkmanship with AIPAC by tying aid to settlement commitments:
https://www.ettingermentum.news/p/the-president-who-stood-up-to-israel

You might argue that Biden has less leverage (I'm not sure how), but, it's important to note here, his position in the 80s was to the right of Reagan AND TO THE RIGHT OF MENACHIM BEGIN HIMSELF, on the topic of killing Palestinian refugees:


I'm going to repeat that. Biden's personal stance on civilians killed by the Israeli military is more bloodthirsty than one of Israel's most famous right-wing PMs.
Hence, Occam's razor is that he is fine with what has happened in Gaza. Reflected in his admin's stance - from "no red lines" to "they should shoot straight" to "their numbers are fake" to"concerned that the ceasefire will expose the conditions in Gaza."
Brilliant post. Like Hillary he's a war monger. A senile one at that.
 

That_Bloke

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I wonder if this is done consciously or is something that just gets into journalists' minds naturally by osmosis. Yesterday in the evening news in portugal the presenter used in the same sentence "israeli children" and "palestinian minors" when talking about the hostage exchange. I doubt anyone is putting any pressure on portuguese journalists who have an almost insignificant audience, so they must absorb this from somewhere.
It's very conscious.

While the world is very much fecked up and "might is right" rules, there are still limits. There's a deliberate intent at dehumanizing the Palestinians and attempt to minimize the sheer destruction and blatant disregard for palestinian lives from a big chunk of the western media and governments. As much as they can get away with. Not because of a particular hate towards Palestinians but because of a real fear of displeasing Israel or pass as antisemitic.

We're in a unique situation where every possible excuse is found and used to justify the wife beater's behavior.
 
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Iker Quesadillas

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I wonder if this is done consciously or is something that just gets into journalists' minds naturally by osmosis. Yesterday in the evening news in portugal the presenter used in the same sentence "israeli children" and "palestinian minors" when talking about the hostage exchange. I doubt anyone is putting any pressure on portuguese journalists who have an almost insignificant audience, so they must absorb this from somewhere.
I think the source for a lot of these stories are Israeli government officials, they use this wording and the media uncritically accepts it.

For example, this tweet got massive numbers:


The Guardian quickly changed the text so that both sets are referred to as "children."
 

Halftrack

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Really? Do you think he'd be doing the raping? Or just the baby killing?

Interested in whether you think the conditions explain that too.
Do you use language this emotive when describing Israel's actions? Or does that not suit the narrative you'rr trying to help establish, maybe?
 

Kaos

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Although Piers gave him detailed timeline afterwards I see the benefit of doubt here. But to question the nature of atrocities? When there is a video footage, probably for good reason not made public yet. But everybody who saw it (politicians, journalists) couldn't find words how to describe the level of pure evilness. And his distasteful use of contration camps comparisons. I am lost for words there.

I wish somebody else would said it, but Douglas Murray provided absolutely spot on rebuttal, word by word.
He did say when more events came to light he faced a moral quandry. But yes I do give him the benefit of the doubt, not only because he's the child of two concentration camp survivors, but primarily because he's dedicated his life as a scholar on the issue, and has always offered a raw fact-based, meticulous overview of the conflict and has rightly cemented himself as an expert. He's also one of the few who's asked the inconvenient yet poignant question as to why and how this pressure cooker in Gaza exploded, instead of choosing to pile in on the condemnation without exploring the backdrop or context as to how it happened.

Contrast that to someone like Douglas Murray who you've just referenced. The man is nothing but a bigoted hack who's built his entire career on racist soundbites, perpetuating bigoted tropes like the great replacement theory, and the bulk of his arguments over the years essentially condense down to 'Muslims bad, Islam bad'. The fact he's refused to debate Professor Finkelstein on the issue only further signifies that since it appears a fact-based approach to such a debate would severely expose him as being out of his depth outside the comforts of his bigoted, soundbite-ridden echo chambers.
 

flameinthesun

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Really? Do you think he'd be doing the raping? Or just the baby killing?

Interested in whether you think the conditions explain that too.
Do I think if he was born and raised into those conditions that he would view the Israelis as his enemies and want or take out violence on them? Then yes, there is a chance that he would come out like that, the same as there's a chance he'd not and instead end up dying going to pick up some bread.

Regarding your second point, maybe, if the Israeli army can kill children by the thousands, inflict terror onto innocent civilians and they've come from an idyllic country in comparison to Gaza, then of course there will be people capable of doing the same as the Israelli army and settlers.
 

nickm

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Do you use language this emotive when describing Israel's actions? Or does that not suit the narrative you'rr trying to help establish, maybe?
Its sarcasm. I can't take the idea seriously that "conditions" explain the specifics of what happened. Sorry.

And it's not emotive language, it's the actual facts.
 
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Iker Quesadillas

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New York Times: Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed At Historic Rate

Israel has cast the deaths of civilians in the Gaza Strip as a regrettable but unavoidable part of modern conflict, pointing to the heavy human toll from military campaigns the United States itself once waged in Iraq and Syria. But a review of past conflicts and interviews with casualty and weapons experts suggest that Israel’s assault is different. While wartime death tolls will never be exact, experts say that even a conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century. People are being killed in Gaza more quickly, they say, than in even the deadliest moments of U.S.-led attacks in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, which were themselves widely criticized by human rights groups.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html
 

Raven

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Although Piers gave him detailed timeline afterwards I see the benefit of doubt here. But to question the nature of atrocities? When there is a video footage, probably for good reason not made public yet. But everybody who saw it (politicians, journalists) couldn't find words how to describe the level of pure evilness. And his distasteful use of contration camps comparisons. I am lost for words there.

I wish somebody else would said it, but Douglas Murray provided absolutely spot on rebuttal, word by word.
Douglas Murray is a moron and gets almost nothing right in that segment.
 

ManUtd1999

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The reality is that the next few days will be nervy. But, this is unfortunately what can happen while trying to get hostages out of harm way. Be patient, be mature, show resolve and get these people out. 20 people will soon be out, 13 Israelis and 7 foreign nationals. It would be a good outcome, despite the drama earlier today. On the other side, aid will be sent to Gaza, which is also crucial.
 

Raoul

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The reality is that the next few days will be nervy. But, this is unfortunately what can happen while trying to get hostages out of harm way. Be patient, be mature, show resolve and get these people out. 20 people will soon be out, 13 Israelis and 7 foreign nationals. It would be a good outcome, despite the drama earlier today. On the other side, aid will be sent to Gaza, which is also crucial.
From what I've read, there appear to be no negotiations between both sides to extend the pause in fighting in exchange for more hostages released, so the fighting should resume sometime early next week. Sinwar can't afford to allow too many Israeli hostages to go, otherwise he won't have any leverage to stop them from going after Hamas targets in the south and obliterating the tunnel networks.
 

VorZakone

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From what I've read, there appear to be no negotiations between both sides to extend the pause in fighting in exchange for more hostages released, so the fighting should resume sometime early next week. Sinwar can't afford to allow too many Israeli hostages to go, otherwise he won't have any leverage to stop them from going after Hamas targets in the south and obliterating the tunnel networks.
What was the point of this negotiated deal then? Breathing room?
 

The Corinthian

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Some of the details of the people Israel have taken hostage are harrowing. Here’s one:



Whole thread is worth a read.
 

That_Bloke

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What was the point of this negotiated deal then? Breathing room?
Thanks to the lovely Israeli "administrative detention" law, there's a feckton of Palestinians in Israeli jails who can be indefinitely detained without any formal charge, Gitmo style, regardless of their age or how flimsy the charges against them are (throwing stones is enough to get you in a lot of trouble for a very long time). It's one of the strongest symbols of injustice and Apartheid rules applied to the Palestinians.

Getting them out is always a "victory". It might sound silly and counter-productive, especially when you look at the price paid, but when you're confronted to so much injustice while the world's willingly turning a blind eye, you just can't understate how significant it is to get them out. It's impossible for about 99.9% of the posters here to understand the mindset of the colonized and how much every single little victory, no matter how costly, represents for them a little step towards freedom.

Breathing room doesn't play any significant role. Any Hamas member still present in the Gaza strip has already forfeited their life. The moment the massacre was carried out, they already knew that they were on borrowed time. It's all about victims and casualties, the more the better. Because without them, no one, absolutely no one, would ever take a look at the suffering of the Palestinians and think "Ah crap, we might really have to do something about it".
 
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berbatrick

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JOE BIDEN MOVES TO LIFT NEARLY EVERY RESTRICTION ON ISRAEL’S ACCESS TO U.S. WEAPONS STOCKPILE
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/25/biden-israel-weapons-stockpile-arms-gaza/
With the WRSA-I, Biden is looking to lift virtually all the meaningful restrictions on the stockpile and the transfer of its arms to Israel, with plans to remove limitations to obsolete or surplus weapons, waive an annual spending cap on replenishing the stockpile, remove weapon-specific restrictions, and curtail congressional oversight. All of the changes in the Biden budget plan would be permanent, except for lifting the spending cap, which is limited to the 2024 fiscal year.
 

adexkola

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JOE BIDEN MOVES TO LIFT NEARLY EVERY RESTRICTION ON ISRAEL’S ACCESS TO U.S. WEAPONS STOCKPILE
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/25/biden-israel-weapons-stockpile-arms-gaza/
With the WRSA-I, Biden is looking to lift virtually all the meaningful restrictions on the stockpile and the transfer of its arms to Israel, with plans to remove limitations to obsolete or surplus weapons, waive an annual spending cap on replenishing the stockpile, remove weapon-specific restrictions, and curtail congressional oversight. All of the changes in the Biden budget plan would be permanent, except for lifting the spending cap, which is limited to the 2024 fiscal year.
Trump will be worse though!
 

RedTiger

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JOE BIDEN MOVES TO LIFT NEARLY EVERY RESTRICTION ON ISRAEL’S ACCESS TO U.S. WEAPONS STOCKPILE
https://theintercept.com/2023/11/25/biden-israel-weapons-stockpile-arms-gaza/
With the WRSA-I, Biden is looking to lift virtually all the meaningful restrictions on the stockpile and the transfer of its arms to Israel, with plans to remove limitations to obsolete or surplus weapons, waive an annual spending cap on replenishing the stockpile, remove weapon-specific restrictions, and curtail congressional oversight. All of the changes in the Biden budget plan would be permanent, except for lifting the spending cap, which is limited to the 2024 fiscal year.
Yes! Exactly what the current situation is asking for.