settrans

4 ms·

1.
by settrans 1y ago
Let's ask the world's leading expert in urban warfare, then: https://www.newsweek.com/israel-has-created-new-standard-urb... https://www.linkedin.com/posts/johnwspencer2018_israel-has-d... No
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by settrans 1y ago
Save The Children estimates 50,000 births in Gaza in the first 9 months of the war, when the fighting was the most intense: https://www.savethechildren.net/news/women-self-inducing-lab... Unless there have been zero bi
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by settrans 1y ago
A) It's hard to argue that the war in Gaza was indiscriminate when the IDF achieved the highest combatant-to-civilian casualty ratio in the history of urban combat, despite Hamas hiding in tunnels underneath population centers. B) When
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by settrans 1y ago
Zionism to me means that the Jews are entitled to self-determination, and that the modern state of Israel is the fulfillment of that promise. Anti-Zionism is the negation of that idea; namely that Jews are not entitled to self-determination
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by settrans 1y ago
Well I obviously don't believe they are committing genocide. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, why are there more Gazans alive today than this time two years ago? Israel could turn Gaza into a parking lot overnight; why didn't
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by settrans 1y ago
> Israel has a right to annihilate Hamas How should they go about this? What rules should they follow? And when other countries violate these rules, are you commensurately outraged?
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by settrans 1y ago
If the Palestinians are risking their lives to protest against Hamas in Gaza, why can't the alleged pro-Palestinian protesters demonstrate in support of this viewpoint?
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by settrans 1y ago
Yes, they are called Neturei Karta, and there are maybe 100 of them out there. But it doesn't matter who is espousing the idea: just because a Jew says something doesn't make it _not_ antisemitic. I have yet to hear an argument th
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by settrans 1y ago
1. OK, great: this is a legitimate argument against the existence of Israel. So we can then expect Israel to be the focus of 0.5% of anti-nationalist protests, since it is one of ~200 countries. 2. What is the "correct" number of
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by settrans 1y ago
> If anything negative you can say about Israel is equated to antisemitism then Israel gets a free pass. I am not arguing this. Everyone is free to criticize Israel; when it becomes antisemitic is when you hold Jews to a different standa
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by settrans 1y ago
But surely they count as genocide for you, because hitting a hospital with an airstrike is the test, right?
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by settrans 1y ago
The US led airstrikes on hospitals in Afghanistan and Iraq. NATO forces struck hospitals in Yugoslavia. Were those genocides too?
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by settrans 1y ago
I could link-dump on you too, but that doesn't make for a very interesting discussion. Why do you think it constitutes a genocide? What argument do you find convincing among those articles?
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by settrans 1y ago
Declaring something a "fact" without presenting evidence doesn't make it true. If we're talking about genocide, a clear, deliberate mass extermination campaign is usually what's meant, something akin to what the Jew
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by settrans 1y ago
You and I must be operating with different sets of facts if this merits a one syllable response for you. With all due humility and intellectual curiosity, why is it obviously never an antisemitic slur for you?
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by settrans 1y ago
Well, partial good news, then: we have a secular, pluralistic state that covers at least most of that territory, namely the State of Israel, and the Jews, Christians Muslims and Druze living there assent to peaceful coexistence. And entirel
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by settrans 1y ago
Accusing Israel of genocide is very often antisemitic, though, since it typically involves holding Jews to a different standard than everyone else. Why do you presume that it is obviously not a bigoted assertion?
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by settrans 1y ago
Criticizing Israel is not antisemitism, and nobody is arguing that. Holding Israel to a double standard or denying Jews the right to self-determination is however broadly considered antisemitism[0][1]. "Today, it is used by over 1,000
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by settrans 1y ago
If the protests about Israel were largely about their treatment of Palestinians, why did the world erupt in protest against Israel, largely in unison, mere hours after they were invaded by Hamas terrorists on October 7th? On October 8th, 20
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by settrans 1y ago
Great, so we're in agreement: Gaza has forfeited its right to statehood after committing the October 7th massacre, literally aimed at destroying Israel. Quoting the Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad: "Hamas is prepared to repeat the Oct
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by settrans 1y ago
There are many legitimate possible criticisms of the state of Israel, and protesting around those criticisms is a frequent occurrence within Israel. But how many protests have you seen outside of Israel that were debating a narrow Israel do
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by settrans 1y ago
Well, it depends on why you're protesting against Israel. If you're supporting the dismantlement of the only Jewish state, like Hamas is, then you are in a precarious situation: why do you argue uniquely against Jewish self-determ
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by settrans 1y ago
The Columbia protests were plainly and unabashedly pro-Hamas, e.g. the chant "يا حماس يا حبيب اضرب اضرب تل ابيب" (Oh Hamas, oh beloved, strike strike Tel Aviv), or the protestors exclaiming "We are Hamas", or any of the
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by settrans 1y ago
Let me just summarize your position: European Jews, facing extermination, should have tried harder to stop Hitler, trusted the same governments that sold them out, stayed put in countries that were turning into slaughterhouses and politely
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by settrans 1y ago
No, you're dodging the point. You're basically saying Jews deserved self-determination only if they could pull off the impossible: either magically prevent fascism, or create a homeland without upsetting anyone. That's not ho
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by settrans 1y ago
Got it, so you only specifically object to the Jews settling in their ancestral homeland which they immigrated to legally and was 98% less populated than today, because the Nazi-aligned mufti of Jerusalem objected to their presence. Care to
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by settrans 1y ago
This isn't a serious argument. You want the Jews to have self determination if and only if they can conjure into existence a magical fairy land free of compromise or can will into existence powers like militarily defeating the Nazis de
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by settrans 1y ago
Set aside the 2000 year old history for a moment. Given that the Jews were a persecuted minority across Europe - and indeed faced the a campaign of extermination far worse than early Zionists feared - one can see the moral necessity for the
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by settrans 1y ago
It sounds like you're against the idea of national self determination altogether. Can you think of an example of a successful assertion of the right to self determinism which didn't involve a national entity asserting sovereignty
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by settrans 1y ago
That depends on your vantage point. If you accept the mainstream Palestinian viewpoint, i.e. the one that endorses Hamas and the Simchat Torah massacre, there is no such thing as too many, because every Palestinian death furthers the jihadi

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