Israel/Palestine Thread

Seems Orban of Hungary was a major obstacle in passing votes to take action against Israel. Now he's gone, perhaps we will see a change…

It's "othering". It would be impossible for Israel to commit atrocities and brutality on the scale it does if it regarded Palestinians as fellow human beings with the same needs and aspirations. The history of colonialism is rife with it, using religious beliefs, culture, race and so on to justify what was in reality international thuggery.

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-othering-5084425

Normally I assume that when people here criticise Israel, they are aiming to criticise the Israeli government, not everyone in Israel. That it's just essentially shorthand notation. Sometimes I do wonder if I'm being too optimistic in my interpretation. Am I?

You yourself frequently post articles written by Israelis in an Israeli publication (Haaretz), which are extremely critical of the Israeli government. (FWIW, I think Haaretz is an excellent publication, and its journalism is more vital than ever)

And in the case being discussed here, it is an Israeli human rights organisation which is publishing this report. An Israeli organisation whose entire existence is to ensure everyone in the entire area has equal human rights.

There are a lot of Israelis who will be voting to get the current Israeli government out of office in the upcoming election. I hope for everyone's sake, including Israel's, that they turn out to be the majority. At worst, they're going to be a substantial minority.

So my plea here is not to forget that there are hell of a lot of Israelis who are doing an awful lot to try to oust the current Israeli government, and to ask posters to target the right people - The Israeli government, not everyone in Israel.

(And yes, the same applies in the other direction. Target Hamas, not the Palestinian people. Target Hizbollah, not the Lebanese. Target the Iranian regime, not the Iranians)

You'd think somebody who is greatly vilified themselves would perhaps be a bit more careful before throwing labels about the shop.

There was a Haaretz opinion piece a few months back that I posted here.

The general thrust was that Israel is and will continue to be in a perpetual state of war.

And to copper-fasten the notion that Israeli v Israeli (and Jew v Jew) can get very ugly too, plus @Enduro 's post about elections - here's a piece on the ultra-orthodox commencing the dissolution of the Govt. because the Haredim refuse to enlist:

Haaretz:

PM Netanyahu's coalition is facing perhaps the most concrete threat to its stability in years, after the spiritual leader of one of its ultra-Orthodox factions ordered the lawmakers from his party to begin the process of dissolving the Knesset on Tuesday.

Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of Degel Hatorah, a faction within the United Torah Judaism party, was responding to the premier's refusal to promote a bill that would exempt most draft-age ultra-Orthodox men from mandatory military service before the election set to take place by October.

Amid growing dissent within Netanyahu's own Likud party against a law that would allow many Haredim to avoid serving in the IDF, the PM recently summoned ultra-Orthodox leaders to warn them that passing such legislation ahead of the election would be a political mistake.

Rabbi Lando said "we no longer trust Netanyahu" and that "the concept of a 'bloc' no longer exists for us."

Recent election polls have shown that even with Israel's ultra-Orthodox parties, Netanyahu's political bloc would lack the necessary 61 out of 120 Knesset seats to establish a government.

And yet when someone does something, they get criticised here for it, as in the post I was replying to. If that attitude was more prevalent, then doing nothing would be the optimal thing for anyone who wanted to avoid criticism. An excellent illustration of Perfect being the enemy of good.

Some other people need to get real before they start hurting the cause they think they are supporting.

Exactly what Haaretz reported - let them tear each other apart from within.

And calling all Jews an "abhorrent Tribe" is named anti-semitism.

Iran doesn't care what government is in charge in Tel-Aviv. They want the country wiped out. Full stop. Not negotiable. Same for its proxies.

That "defence" has been made a gazillion times - it's one of the few remaining go-to defences left that's still as rubbish as when it was first brought up.

Reminds me of all the times "from the river to the sea" was brought up about the Palestinians - when it's also been a cornerstone of Likud policy for decades.

Also similar to the "Iran will have nukes within two months" - that's been trotted out for decades too.

The reason for using it as a defence though is that it's all they have left to justify warmongering, genocide and death and destruction whilst. They also conveniently ignore the US threat to wipe Iran off the map.

And for all the decades this bogeyman argument has been made, precisely how close has Iran got to "wiping Israel off the map"?

Hint: never.

Yep - same old canard trotted out yet again.

Perpetually clutching at straws.