That's assuming that they aren't actively trying to radicalize to provide a credible threat to unite "their" people behind - a common tactic in fascistic governments.

I really know very little about the Isreal / Palestine situation at all, but the playbook looks very familiar.

"have we learned nothing?"

Yes, unfortunately. We appear to have learned that international law and norms are toothless and are safe to ignore when inconvenient.

It is madness, indeed.

This is not the way to end the cycle of violence - it only feeds it.

But perhaps that is what some persons in Israel want. Like Trump et al, Netanyahu et al have found that fear & violence are their political friends & provide a path to ongoing power.

how anyone can support both ukraine and israel is beyond me.

can anyone explain the difference between what israel does and what russia is doing?

as a German, I disagree strongly with that. In WW II, in my home town of Stuttgart alone, more than 8500 residents, most of them civilians, perished in the allied bomb raids. While one can debate the strategic value of those, they were legitimate and the only way to break fascism in Germany.

Civilian suffering is a direct consequence of allowing a fascist regime to persist. The people of Gaza once voted in Hamas and have since failed to get rid of the fascist Hamas regime. They now suffer the consequences.

I’d like to know what other country is expected to supply their enemies - who have taken civilians hostage - with supplies during active combat. I respect you greatly, but you’re wrong on this one.

I mourn for the Palestinian civilians caught in the midst of this, but they are not Israel’s problem right now.

Maybe cruelty is the point. It's how our right wing works, why shouldn't it apply to Israeli's right wing which is in charge of military decisions. Just a thought. Getting rid of Netanyahu is a step in the right direction.

@georgetakei #Israel #Gaza #Palestine #Worldpol

This thread has been very helpful at identifying accounts to block.

The number of people who are viciously defending Israel's violence against innocent people is disgusting. You can practically see the blood foaming from their mouths.

Yes, what Hamas did was horrible. No, they didn't force Israel to commit their own atrocities against the Palestinian people. There is no justification for Israel's response.

I think they should look to what happened to end the violence in Northern Ireland. Which is ironic because the British were the root cause of both conflicts.

I'm sure there are people in Israel and US who'd to see an Iraq style invasion and 100% occupation. But they will never end the violence in Palestine by trying to squeeze and crush them out of existence, unless they literally embarked on all out genocide.

Then again some would call this a slow moving genocide...

It is sad, but it is also the law of the jungle out there. I think we all wish that things did not escalate to this. Rarely in a war is any side righteous. It is a pattern of humanity.

Once a situation is "war", it is about WINNING (surviving, objectives) rather than being on the right side of history.

Ethics and morals are put on the shelf until the warring entity determines that it has the luxury of readopting them.

is it genocide yet? because i already stood with the people who called it apartheid, but it was disputed (pretty reasonbly to be fair) that it had reached the point of genocide as some have called it.

this isnt intended rhetorical or pithy, but i do want to know if this is genocide yet. either way its a crime against humanity.

These tactics have a long & horrible history.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodo…

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevau…

nytimes.com/1991/11/09/world/o…

huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sur…

Surrender Or Starve: How Assad Is Using Medieval Siege Tactics To Win The War In Syria

Assad Is Using Medieval Siege Tactics To Win The War In Syria

^{Neil Durkin (HuffPost UK)}

It truly is madness. No, we’ve learned nothing. Yet again, the Powers That Be simply decreed that a land belongs to People X, even though it was already populated by People Y.

Conflict and genocide are inevitable in this situation. Cycles of history repeating over and over like clockwork. “Never forget,” they’ll say, as their minds unlearn all the lessons from the past. Madness.

On an unrelated note, today is Indigenous Peoples Day...

Like clockwork.

not unlike america during bush jr. era, the israeli right conflates not supporting the right wing with being against israel. theres absolutely more to it than that but at times like this, there is no call to reason or international law the right wing will listen to.

and this has not changed since 1948: archive.org/details/AlbertEins…

its not anti-semitism to agree with einstein on israeli politics.

Albert Einstein Letter to The New York Times. December 4, 1948 New Palestine Party. Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed : Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook, et.al. : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Ar

New Palestine Party. Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed. A letter to The New York Times. Saturday December 4, 1948 by Albert...

^{Internet Archive}

Welcome to the world of "total war" in which the side that wins is the side that still has a civilian population that claims to be alive. The civilian population of all of the other participants and the military population of all participants are dead.

The only rule is that there are no rules.

Hi George,

I believe that you, and others concerned about what is happening, will likely be interested in a petition for radical reform of the UN 🇺🇳 / Security Council, which has failed to resolve major conflicts peacefully (over decades!), including the conflict of Israel 🇮🇱 vs the Palestinians 🇵🇸.

If indeed you are interested, the petition is accessible via toot:

toot.community/@Paullima/11068…

Regards
Paul

seige warfare is entirely legal under international law.

As long as Hamas uses water, fuel, and electricity to fire rockets on, murder, rape, kidnap, and execute Israeli civilians, Israel has no business supplying them.

Hamas cannot be radicalized any more than it already is. The only way to end the violence is to end Hamas.

Right above yours in my feed... article is worth your time

hachyderm.io/@evacide/11120717…

evacide

2023-10-09 21:27:07

For those of you looking for a non-paywalled version of the Haaretz op-ed about how much Netanyahu is at fault here, which is A LOT.

archive.ph/20231009201713/haar…