Israel to World: "Suck It."

A friend of mine shared that Harvard statement yesterday and was pretty enraged.

The only post that's come up that had something like comfort attached to it was from an old professor of mine, who made a simple plea to Israel re: retaliation by remembering the wisdom of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.

But yeah, the anger towards any criticism towards Israel and the way it's be redefined as lack of empathy for those killed, kidnapped or raped or as a sign of propaganda doing its work, brings back all the memories of 9/11 where any hard truth can't be acknowledged much less confronted via criticism - its really the pathway to revenge i.e. further, excessive and conscienceless destruction.

Going back to the how it happened the main two things (other than the far right coalition members wanting military moved more towards West Bank) I could find were

The fasting growing section of Israeli society are orthodox that aren't joining the army, and that this has been a factor for some length of time

IDF rift with Netanyahu (over judicial reforms?), people refusing to either show up or join up, some level of disillusionment.

Hezbollah commenting on the above earlier this year and saying this presented an opportunity in the north but then not really acting on it

Also saw Hamas leader Haniyeh multiple trips to Moscow in recent times (but then Dodik of Srpska ha been going to Moscow seemingly every other week the last year or two so visits from this type of leader not necessarily uncommon)

So who better to handle the current crisis than the guy who caused it in the first place.

The WSJ story claiming Iranian involvement in the attack is getting knocked down in a way you rarely if ever see pic.twitter.com/muc07CbL5K

— Max Fisher (@Max_Fisher) October 9, 2023

The hospitals, because of the seige, are so short of supplies that we had to clean a teenage girl with 70% body surface burns with regular soap because the hospital is out of chlorehexidine (antiseptic).

— Ghassan Abu Sitta (@GhassanAbuSitt1) October 10, 2023

Gabe Winant and I went to high school together— his sister is the leftist photographer/public artist Carmen Winant. I always enjoy seeing him lay down some truth on social media.

Israel celebrates Indigenous people's day by being at war with the indigenous people of the region. Nice.
Red Nation has an interesting take on the current situation.

So who better to handle the current crisis than the guy who caused it in the first place.

― The First Time Ever I Saw Gervais (Tom D.),

I dont think thats necessarily an unusual eventuality. If voters believe they are potentially under attack that can lead to a rallying around the flag situation which can benefit the incumbent. Afaict the last year or so there's been a pretty high level of division with protests, plus the ongoing corruption thing. It might be that he can move that into a "you might not like me but who else are you going to let handle this" type scenario, and consolidate power.

No idea if thats what will happen but could see the rationale

That's the argument he's used consistently to get elected in the past, it's looking pretty threadbare now

That's the argument he's used consistently to get elected in the past, it's looking pretty threadbare now

Oops.

that eerie video shot at the rave, of the innocuous looking hamas paragliders slowly emerging over the horizon is something I want to erase from my memory.

Yeah that rave party is already the terrorist attack of the year. The two-state solution has never looked so far away and blood-thirsty Israel probably could not have wished for a better occasion to dig the knife even deeper. Who knows how far they can go now until the US tells them it's too much. Netanyahu can probably get away by shifting blame - maybe fire a few high-ranked officials - but we're basically back to the late 90s / early 00s and if the last twenty years were grim, the twenty next look grimmer.

just a note, Calz, that the video you are speaking of has been widely debunked.

it's a little US-centric and maybe you're not interested in a meta-media critique right now, but I thought this made a good (and not unfamiliar, but here we are) point about the uselessness of the term "terrorism": https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/retire-the-word-terrorism

xp
oh right, the Graun still haven't twigged on this.

the way the media is referring to the Israelis as having been "killed" whereas those in Gaza just "died" - often within the same headline! - is giving me major 9/11 flashbacks

Good catch.

there's a video showing parachuters up close that's been debunked but the one that calzino is referencing has not been, afaict.

Also reminded me of the Katrina photos that showed black New Orleanians "looting" while white people were "gathering supplies".

the way the media is referring to the Israelis as having been "killed" whereas those in Gaza just "died" - often within the same headline! - is giving me major 9/11 flashbacks

Similarly, Israelis are described as "people in Israel" while Palestinians are only ever described as "Palestinians."

Or "human animals" if you're the Israeli Defence Minister. A phrase I note that was somehow edited out when he was quoted by most of the media.

its been fun watching so many celebrities talk about how the Israel bombings just broke their heart because of all the poor innocent families torn apart, how it's not even about politics or "choosing a side" but purely a humanitarian thing, all of whom are basically silent now that it's Gaza being bombed and threatened with eternal hellfire

can’t believe there are those who would politicise this tragedy

i have a friend who lives somewhere east of Tel Aviv and i'm not sure what's going on with her or her family. just a dreadful situation all around.

*southeast

Earlier, Cleverly called on supporters of Palestine to stay at home, after protests in London.

The foreign secretary said: “There is no need, there’s no necessity for people to come out. It causes distress. This is a difficult, delicate situation.”

Eat shit Jim

My co-worked showed me photos from her friend in Tel Aviv. She was lying in the street during shelling and a big piece of a shell landed right beside her

Welp, it turns out that the woman whose body was being desecrated after the dance festival in footage that went viral was the girlfriend of the Mexican guy my friend is searching for. Her name was Shani.

jesus, so sorry to hear that

my friends' son keeps ran across beheading videos on tik tok. good times.

keeps ran. great grammar akm.

(there seem to be a fundamental ethical questions that I can't wrap my head around ... whether to continue aid and to which parties ... why a separate state was needed ... whether integration and separatism are signs of strength or weakness ... reconstitution of the left and right in Europe and the Near East in relation to how these align in the U.S. ... I'm reading this thread backwards and realizing others might be thinking some of the same things ... there were some preachers yesterday with a sound system outside my window and they went on for a very long time after they shifted from homophobia and got to talking about resistance with an interactive audience member ...)

I can't rationally comment in this thread other than to simply say: Fuck organized religion, fascism, nationalism, oppression, terrorism, and what it does to innocent people just trying to live life.

I dream of a future where that whole region somehow becomes secular, but I suppose it remains only a dream.

Honestly, fuck America for enabling Israel and legitimizing their bullshit for generations.

Oh no, DeSantis is going to levy sanctions against Iran, that means the Mullahs won't be having their convention in Orlando again this year

Octobeard otm, I find the whole thing too depressing and dehumanizing to think about

Everything about this just sucks

That's more or less how I feel, as simplistic as it sounds. I was saying to my wife that I just feel completely exhausted by the whole situation. One of my earliest contemporary political memories was Jimmy Carter brokering the Camp David Accord, and from there to the Oslo Accord, it felt like there was some kind of hope for progress and lasting peace despite the eruptions of violence. But since Rabin's death and the rise of Netanyahu-Sharon-Netanyahu, that has felt more and more remote. And the last decade in particular has just seemed relentlessly awful. It's not that I don't care about either Palestinian or Israeli lives, but to be honest at this point I also feel deeply angry that such a tiny piece of land with such a tiny number of people on it continues to occupy this outsize space in global affairs, almost always in a bad and destructive way. Again, as simplistic as it sounds and is, a big part of my gut reaction now is just For fuck's sake get your shit sorted out.

One would like to imagine that humanity would someday evolve past the debate being on one hand massacring entire families and concert goers with automatic weapons, and on the other hand bombing entire communities into vaporized oblivion, but it's hard to imagine that will ever occur.

Yeah, it's more likely this situation will be replicated in a lot more places as climate refugees are placed in Gaza-like zones in the future

it all depends on how radicalized people get. having your family killed or driven out of their homes is the no. 1 guaranteed fast track to decades of seeking violent revenge. should palestinian people be infinitely patient over multiple generations of suffering? probably? is that a realistic expectation? probably not?

There was a good twenty years between the Nabka and the start of PLO attacks. Patience does run out.

yep

Honestly, a big part of me wonders why Israel doesn't just kill everyone in Gaza. Just start dropping bombs from one end to the other and don't stop until there's absolutely no one left. They have the weapons, they clearly have no moral compunctions about it, and it seems obvious to me that nobody will stop them beforehand or sanction them afterward. Can anyone explain what's keeping them from doing exactly that?

To torment the population

That's a thread I'd prefer not to pull at

One would like to imagine that humanity would someday evolve past the debate being on one hand massacring entire families and concert goers with automatic weapons, and on the other hand bombing entire communities into vaporized oblivion, but it's hard to imagine that will ever occur.

There is always the nonviolent resistance model, which I've periodically fantasized could be enacted effectively by the right Palestinian leadership. But there's a reason that there are only a couple of successful instances of that, it's extraordinarily difficult to sustain in the face of brutal oppression. And the Palestinians have not been particularly more blessed with extraordinary leadership than the Israelis have.

yeah i mean they've tried that for some time, in a lot of different ways, and gotten bombed and thrown in jail for their troubles. they've gone to the UN and been blocked by the US. they've demonstrated peacefully. they've gone to the international criminal courts.