Israel/Palestine Thread

dmcdona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123981410#Comment_123981410

Learning about inclusivity from Israel? Sweet Jesus…

He certainly has the Hasbara down to a tee.

I wonder if an opposition politician, criticised for visiting the West Bank, would get away with "our right to engage with the wider world"

More likely they'd just be called a Hamas supporter.

dmcdona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123981392#Comment_123981392

They just can't help themselves. Brazen land grabbing, two fingers to International Law and constant belligerence and warmongering.

It won't end well.

dePeatrick

https://youtu.be/gEo813rYm8g?si=-pqk45sBbMwfLetf

Worth a look

wildgreen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123981431#Comment_123981431

I've often thought that there must be compulsory online Hasbara training before being accepted by Israel.

Ardillaun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123978854#Comment_123978854

It doesn't matter nearly as much as it should do but programs like this are shifting the conversation in America in both parties.

Grayson

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123981396#Comment_123981396

I believe it's because Sri Lanka wasn't available for a trip. :)

dmcdona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123981478#Comment_123981478

Stuff in there that I didn't know about. And I wish I didn't know.

The levels of Israeli depravity - and not just in the IDF - are as astonishing as they are disgusting.

dmcdona

Israel is continuing to demolish homes and agricultural land in Gaza

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mxylxw48yo

Spudmonkey

Ah lads give it a break. This place has gotten so toxic...

I mean of you truly attempt to, you can find examples of any country in the world:

• Commiting a genocide on a captive people
• Ethnically cleansing and murdering non-combantants
• Snipers executing children
• Legalising the death penalty for prisoners from courts with a 99.9% conviction rate
• Harvesting body parts of people they've taken
• Providing safe haven for known paedophiles from their greatest ally
• Openly and proudly, buying and manipulating the media
• Etc etc etc

I mean seriously, this place has become so extreme.…

Spudmonkey

"Hezbollah now controls most weapons and drug trafficking routes in Latin America... Iran controls Venezuela..."

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sharren Haskel, spews some insane propaganda bullshit in a recent interview by podcaster Raz Sauber.

I thought Hezbollah had been destroyed, now they're controlling things in South America? Looks like Mamdani was right, the intifada has been globalised...

Watch out Mexican Narcos, Hamas are coming for you....

dmcdona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123981802#Comment_123981802

You're right - very common occurrences

• Building concentration camps
• Detaining innocent people without charge indefinitely
• Raping and torturing detainees
• Starving detainees to death
• Executing their own citizens
• Pillaging and stealing land and possessions
• Employing, resourcing and arming criminal gangs
• Executing the disabled and elderly
• Executing journalists, medics and aid workers
• Constantly breaking International Law
• Appointing alleged and convicted criminals at the highest level of Government
• Lying and doubling down on lies in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary
• Etc, etc, etc.

dmcdona

Settlers at it again - but notably, Herzog condemns it (without using the word "Palestinian" of course). I find that particularly interesting - something drastic has changed…

In a post on X, Israeli President Isaac Herzog called the latest events "shocking and serious", blaming "a handful of violent and dangerous individuals".

He went on: "Such violence against civilians and against IDF soldiers crosses a red line and I condemn it severely."

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78zygz4xg9o

brickster69

Trump formally requests the President of Israel to grant a pardon to Netanyahu. Presumably for his ongoing corruption charges that are ongoing.

wildgreen

Middle East Monitor website article reflecting on meaning of Israeli denial of its soldiers raping bound prisoners

Tomer-Yerushalmi’s arrest didn’t emerge from nowhere. It is the outcome of years of slow corrosion: the weakening of the Supreme Court, the vilification of dissent, the systematic silencing of those who defend civil rights. Her detention is simply the visible tip of a much deeper moral decay.

Yet there was another path. Israel could have treated the leak as an invitation to reflect rather than a betrayal to punish. It could have said, Yes, we have erred—but we can still choose decency. That could have been a moment of renewal. Instead, it chose fear over courage, silence over reckoning.

And fear is the surest mark of decline. Fear of accountability, of losing control, of admitting that the myth of moral purity can no longer hold. That fear spreads quietly—like rot beneath the surface—until even the strongest structures begin to crumble.

The implications reach beyond Israel’s borders. For decades, the world has seen Israel as a paradox: a modern democracy ruling millions without rights. But now the contradiction can no longer hide behind rhetoric. When even insiders are punished for telling the truth, the moral façade collapses. Allies grow uneasy, supporters disillusioned, and opponents feel vindicated.

In the end, Israel’s greatest danger is not the hostility outside its borders, but the erosion within—the slow decay of empathy, trust, and conscience. Nations can survive war, isolation, and turmoil. But no society can survive the death of its own moral heart. When truth becomes a crime, collapse doesn’t come with a bang. It comes quietly—through silence, through fear, through the dimming of those who once believed.

Tomer-Yerushalmi’s story is not just a scandal—it is a warning. It shows what happens when a nation fears its own reflection more than the world’s judgment. It reminds us that the gravest threat to power is not rebellion, but awakening.

wildgreen

Israel reopened the Zikim Crossing in northern Gaza to allow humanitarian aid trucks into the enclave on Wednesday, COGAT,

The UN humanitarian office (OCHA) said that the crossing was shut on September 12 and no aid groups have been able to import supplies since. Israel’s military has not responded to a request for comment on its reasons for the closure.

dmcdona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123983149#Comment_123983149

How can you pardon someone who hasn't been convicted?

And if it is possible, presumably Trump will also send a letter to the ICC ask them to "pardon" and alleged War Criminal?

I doubt that would go anywhere and he'll still be listed by the ICC as "at large".

brickster69

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123983255#Comment_123983255

Trump is King of the world, did you not know ? He can do anything he wants. They must have something on him i reckon and plenty of others also.

blackcard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123983149#Comment_123983149

In fairness, Herzog has stated that Bibi has to request a pardon. To get a pardon, one has to admit guilt and express remorse for their crimes. I won't be holding my breath

dmcdona

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123983391#Comment_123983391

ah - that makes sense. But you're right, he'll admit nothing.

He professes his absolute innocence of War Crimes but won't attend The Hague to clear his name. Very telling….

dmcdona

Interesting developments - certainly seems now that the US is calling all the shots - especially regarding the establishment of a Palestinian State. I'd say Israel will be apoplectic if it passes.

The U.S. sent a revised resolution to the UN Security Council on Monday, outlining additional provisions for the deployment of the International Stabilization Force in Gaza. The main additions are a reference to the Saudi-French initiative for establishing a Palestinian state, a demand that Israel withdraw to a security perimeter in the Strip, and that the UN Security Council receive reports on the stabilization force's operations.

• The revised draft seen by Haaretz envisions the transfer of Gaza's governance to the Palestinian Authority once it has "satisfactorily" completed its reform program as outlined in various proposals and until it can "securely and effectively" regain control over the Gaza Strip.

The draft also states that Israeli forces will withdraw from Gaza "based on standards, milestones and timeframes linked to demilitarization that will be agreed between the IDF, ISF, the guarantors and the United States, save for a security perimeter presence." This demand was included in Trump's initial 20-point plan, but was not in the previous draft of the resolution.

dmcdona

Per the Trump request to Herzog, seems Lapid is pushing back.

Elections are due within the next 12 months - if alleged War Criminal #1 (at large) is pardoned, Likud is toast. They'll probably be toast anyway but the pardon will be the last straw for the majority of voters who despise Netanyahu.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid commented with a "reminder" that "Israeli law stipulates that the first condition for receiving a pardon is an admission of guilt and an expression of remorse."

Speaking at the Knesset later on Wednesday, Lapid said that "We are a sovereign country; there's a limit to interference."

dmcdona

Seems the majority of Israelis are sane people and do not want Israel to annex the West Bank.

Most Israelis believe that the U.S. has greater influence on Israel's security decisions than the country's own government, a survey published by the Israel Democracy Institute on Tuesday found.

A majority of respondents said they think Israel's security is one of Trump's central considerations, and the poll also found that most Israelis do not believe that Israel should annex the West Bank.

dmcdona

It's not just the Settlers…

• Dozens of far-right activists gathered outside a private home in central Israel on Tuesday evening to violently disrupt a house meeting attended by Arab Israeli MK Ayman Odeh. Police estimated that about 70 far-right activists were present, and Odeh's departure was secured by officers together with members of his security detail.
  
• Following the incident, Odeh wrote on X that he and his supporters "will continue to stand firm, Jews and Arabs together, against the raging fascism in the country under government protection."

dmcdona

The State of Palestine moves forward:

French President Emmanuel Macron met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Tuesday and announced the creation of a Joint Committee for the Consolidation of the State of Palestine, saying it will "work on all legal, constitutional, institutional and organizational aspects" needed to establish a Palestinian state.

dmcdona

Seems Israel will lose the land it grabbed from Syria:

Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa told the Washington Post that Israel must withdraw from the territories it invaded in southern Syria after the fall of the Assad regime last year before any agreement can be signed between the two countries, saying that "at the end of the day, this is Syrian territory, and Syria should have the freedom of dealing with their own territory."

Al-Sharaa added that "Trump supports our point of view, and he will push as quickly as possible to reach a solution on the issue."

Tony EH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123983149#Comment_123983149

Criminals looking out for each other.

Ardillaun

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123983149#Comment_123983149

And yet Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has the cheek to condemn an anti-tariff ad run by Premier Doug Ford on US TV as foreign interference in American affairs!

dmcdona

If this was a synagogue, the Israelis would have a good old whinge about "existential threat, blood libel, pogrom and antisemitism" then drop a few hundred tons of high explosive ordnance on the Palestinians.

Settlers set fire to the Haja Hamida Mosque, located between the villages of Deir Istiya and Qal Hars in the West Bank and sprayed racist graffiti on its walls on Thursday morning, the Palestinian Wafa news agency said.

When asked by reporters if escalating violence in the West Bank could endanger the cease-fire in Gaza, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio said, "I hope not. We don't expect it to. We'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen."

dmcdona

Good opinion piece warning that Settler violence could spillover and derail everything.

"The U.S. Administration's focus on the Middle East is mostly devoted to preserving the Gaza cease-fire and expanding the Abraham Accords – with brief detours into interfering in a democratic ally's judicial system.

But one issue that is not at the front of Trump's mind stands to unravel his grand scheme of regional peace: Israeli settler violence, which is nearing its greatest crisis point in decades.

While violence targeting Palestinian civilians and their property has long been a fact of daily life, its frequency and severity is approaching a spillover point that will have long-lasting ramifications across the Middle East"

Ben Samuels

dmcdona

So, what do you do if you don't like your soldiers being charged with sodomy/buggery?

Simple - change the charges! Perhaps shoplifting?

A military court halted proceedings in the case of the alleged abuse of a Palestinian in the Sde Teiman detention facility, after defense lawyers asked the prosecution to reconsider the charges. The military prosecutor said the requests will be passed to the incoming Military Advocate General, who is set to take office in the coming days.