As Palestinians pushes for statehood, Israel finds itself more isolated
POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Monday, May 25, 2026 02:10
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Wednesday, March 13, 2024
EU chief accuses Israel of using ‘starvation as a war arm’ in Gaza
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/eu-chief-accuses-israel-o
f-using-starvation-as-a-war-arm-in-gaza/
Philippe Lazzarini @UNLazzarini
The number of children reported killed in just over 4 months in #Gaza is higher than the number of children killed in 4 years of wars around the world combined.
1:29 PM · Mar 12, 2024
https://twitter.com/UNLazzarini/status/1767618985397272831
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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The Earthquake That Could Shatter Netanyahu’s Coalition
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox don’t serve in its armed forces. That’s getting harder than ever to justify.
By Yair Rosenberg | March 15, 2024
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2024/03/orthodox-mil
itary-israel-netanyahu/677758/
The most controversial Israeli comedy sketch of the current war is just 88 seconds long. Aired in February on Eretz Nehederet, Israel’s equivalent of Saturday Night Live, it opens with two ashen-faced officers knocking on the door of a nondescript apartment, ready to deliver devastating news to the inhabitants. The officers are greeted by an ultra-Orthodox Jewish man who is similarly stricken when he sees them.
“I’ve been terrified of this knock,” he says. “Ever since the war began, I knew it would eventually come for me.” But before the pained officers can continue, he interjects: “Listen, there is no situation in which I will enlist—forget about it.”
It turns out that the officers have the wrong address. This is not the home of a fallen soldier, but of one of the many thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who do not serve in Israel’s army, thanks to a special exemption. As the officers depart to find the right family, the man calls after them, “Tell them that we prayed for him! We did everything we could.”
The gag struck a nerve. Channel 14, Israel’s pro-Netanyahu equivalent of Fox News, ran multiple segments denouncing the satire. Commentators for right-wing media outlets called it “incitement,” a term typically applied to pro-terrorist speech in Israeli discourse. Why did a short sketch warrant such an overwhelming response? Because it took aim at the most vulnerable pressure point of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition—one with the potential to cause the current government’s collapse.
Since Israel was founded in 1948, it has fielded a citizens’ army with mandatory Jewish conscription—and one very notable exception: Ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, yeshiva students do not serve. This dispensation dates back to David Ben-Gurion, the country’s first prime minister. A secular Jewish socialist, he saw Israel’s ultra-Orthodox as the dying remnant of an old world, and when the community’s leadership requested an exemption from the draft, Ben-Gurion calculated that it was a small price to pay for their support. At the time, the ultra-Orthodox constituted about 1 percent of Israel’s population, and the exemption applied to just 400 young men in religious seminaries.
That was then. Today the Haredi community numbers some 1.2 million, more than 13 percent of Israel’s total population. And because this community has the highest birth rate in the country, its ranks will only swell. In other words, the fastest-growing group in Israeli society does not serve in its armed forces. Since October 7, the divide has been thrown into stark relief. After Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped hundreds more, the country initiated one of the largest mobilizations in its history. Children and spouses departed their families for the front, leaving fear and uncertainty in their absence. Nearly 250 soldiers have since been killed, and thousands more injured. Many Israelis spend their evenings at home fretting about that ominous knock on the door.
Meanwhile, Haredi life has largely continued as usual, untouched by the war and its toll. Yeshiva students have even been photographed enjoying ski vacations abroad while their same-age peers are on the battlefield. Some ultra-Orthodox individuals do voluntarily serve in the army, and others act as first responders, but their numbers are small enough to be a rounding error. In February, a record-high 66,000 military-age Haredi men received exemptions; just 540 had enlisted since the war began. Put another way, more Arab Israelis serve in the Israel Defense Forces than ultra-Orthodox Jews.
The Haredi carve-out has long rankled Israel’s secular citizens. Yair Lapid, the center-left opposition leader and past prime minister, rose to prominence in 2012 on a campaign that promised “equality of th
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Trump’s son-in-law would evict the desert hobos!
Palestinians should be moved to the Negev desert to ‘clean up’ Gaza’s ‘valuable’ waterfront
Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has offered his own solution to the mass bloodshed and displacement in Gaza: some good, old-fashioned real estate development.
During an interview with Tarek Masoud, the faculty chair of Harvard’s Middle East Initiative, Kushner proposed moving Palestinians to Israel’s arid desert region to “clean up” Gaza’s “valuable” waterfront.
“Gaza’s waterfront property could be very valuable to—if people would focus on building up livelihoods,” Kushner said, without clarifying who exactly would profit off such a project. He added that the area could’ve had great potential if “all the money” in Gaza had gone into “education and innovation,” instead of its tunnel network and munitions.
Kushner’s statement comes on the heels of warnings from the United Nations that the people of Gaza are facing an “imminent famine” as Israel continues its offensive.
Kushner suggested displacing the remaining Palestinians from the “valuable” waterfront, and dropping them in the Negev desert.
“I would just bulldoze something in the Negev, I would try to move people in there, I know that that won’t be the popular thing to do, but I think that that’s a better option to do, so that you can go in and finish the job,” he said. The Jewish Virtual Library describes the Negev as “oppressively hot” and “filled more with dirt, rocks and canyons, which are no less forbidding” than sand dunes.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/jared-kushner-pitches-moving-palestinian
s-out-of-gazas-valuable-waterfront
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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Israel: spoiling for war to distract from its Gaza genocide
Russia Voices Outrage As Death Toll Rises To 11 After Israeli Attack On Iran's Damascus Embassy
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/iranian-embassy-syria-targeted-
large-israeli-airstrikes-major-escalation
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
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This old satire from The Onion was made newly relevant by recent events ( https://www.vox.com/world-politics/2024/4/2/24119339/world-central-kit
chen-israel-gaza-idf-killed-andres-wck )
TEL AVIV—Addressing observers concerned about the toll of the nation’s ongoing incursion into Gaza, Israeli officials assured critics Friday that it was doing everything possible to minimize civilians. “To those expressing apprehension about this war, just know that our troops are taking every effort to mitigate civilian life,” said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, explaining that he remained laser-focused on taking the necessary precautions to reduce civilians in Gaza or prevent them entirely. “Let me be clear: Our war is against Hamas. We have explicitly instructed our commanders that they should take pains so there are as few innocent men, women, and children in Gaza as humanly possible.” Netanyahu then added that because of the unfortunate realities of war, it was always sadly possible that a few Gazans might survive.
https://www.theonion.com/israel-assures-it-doing-everything-possible-t
o-minimize-1851085308
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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In Gaza, Israel unleashed a rogue army in which ‘every commander makes his own rules’
April 3, 2024 | The Times of Israel reports:
On Tuesday evening, the Haaretz daily spoke to unnamed military sources who revealed that the cause of the strike killing seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) staffers was undisciplined, rogue commanders, not a lack of coordination between the IDF and the WCK.
A source in the intelligence branch told Haaretz that the IDF’s Southern Command “knows exactly what the cause of the attack was: in Gaza, everyone does as they please.”
Army regulations require final approvals from division commanders or those above them before strikes can be carried out on sensitive targets such as aid convoys.
But in Gaza, “every commander makes his own rules” and his own interpretation of the rules of engagement, the source told Haaretz, which said it wasn’t clear whether the strikes on the convoy ever received final approval.
The intelligence source noted the IDF decision to establish a new coordination hub between COGAT — which facilitates aid delivery for Israel — and Southern Command but insisted that this wouldn’t solve the problem, as similar centers already exist.
“It has no connection to coordination… You can set up another 20 administrations or war rooms, but if someone doesn’t decide to put an end to the conduct of some of the troops inside Gaza, we’ll see more incidents like this,” the source told Haaretz.
More at https://attentiontotheunseen.com/2024/04/03/in-gaza-israel-unleashed-a
-rogue-army-in-which-every-commander-makes-his-own-rules/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at
https://www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly
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To continue the story in one coherent thread...
The IDF is apparently partially withdrawing from Gaza. They haven't met their objective of destroying Hamas, altho they did kill 30,000+ people and cause tremendous suffering and destruction.
*****
And in a deliberate act of war, the IDF bombed the Iranian consulate in Syria. Legally, embassies and consulates are bits of national territory in foreign land. If someone were to attack an American embassy or consulate, that would be the same as attacking America itself, and could be responded to as a cause for war.
Why did Israel do this? What do they get out of randomly attacking Iran which had NOTHING to do with the Hamas attack Oct 7?
Well, they want to provoke an Iranian response, and then drag us into war with Iran.
Yeah, with friends like that, who need enemies???
Well, Israel got it's response. Iran sent 100-200 drones and missiles at military targets in Israel, and Israel vows a tremendous response.
Will we get involved in yest another Mideast war?
Wll this spin out of control and affect oil shipping too?
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
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I think these idiots should all pretty much stop what they're doing before they all get wrecked. Nobody's wondered yet if the damage done has surpassed the original transgression? Or are we just treating this like a competitive sport and keeping track of the score with the dead bodies that pile up on both sides?
At this point, my advice to anybody would be not to support either side, financially, morally or otherwise. Everybody else should let them know that whatever they do they do now as long as that shit doesn't spill out beyond their own borders. Larger powers could, and probably should, try to talk some sense in the situation, but beyond that no carrots and no sticks dealt anywhere as long as everyone keeps it internal and doesn't try dragging any other parties into it.
Feel completely free to have your little religious war if you'd like. But you're going to do it on your own dime with your own resources. If either side doesn't like that and/or couldn't survive long under those conditions, maybe right now is the time to decide how you're going to behave tomorrow.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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You don't understand, SIX.
Iran isn't having a religious war, ISRAEL IS.
Israel is doing what it's doing because many Jews believe that are GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE, and Zionists believe that the land of Palestine was GIVEN TO THEM BY GOD.
They are allowed (by their god) to do ANYTHING. Even commmit genocide. It's in their Torah
Quote:We would call it genocide.
According to the book of Exodus, Amalek is the nation that attacked the weakest among the Israelites as they fled from Egypt. This transgression was not to go unpunished. The Torah has a harsh prescription for Amalek: annihilation.
Quote:
“It shall be that when Hashem, your God, gives you rest from all your enemies all around, in the Land that Hashem, your God, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. Do not forget it!” (Deuteronomy 25: 19; also see Exodus 17:14 and Numbers 24:20)
Blotting out the memory of Amalek was no mere psychological activity. The Israelites were expected to kill every Amalekite–man, woman, and child. But was this just a theoretical imperative or was it meant to be carried out?
The book of Samuel implies that it required actual fulfillment: “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, and sheep, camel and ass,” (Samuel I, 15:3). King Saul struck down Amalek as he was commanded but he then took mercy upon King Agag and upon some of the Amalekite animals. God and the prophet Samuel harshly criticized Saul for not fulfilling God’s word.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/genocide-in-the-torah/
The Torah and the Q'uran each have passages in them that are pretty horrific, and some followers take those passages way too seriously. Zionists and Wahhabists deserve each other bc they're both religious nuts. But other mideast nations and cultures aren't that nutty.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
Why SECOND'S posts are brainless: "I clocked how much time: no more than 10 minutes per day. With cut-and-paste (Ctrl C and Ctrl V) and AI, none of this takes much time."
Or, any verification or thought.
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
You don't understand, SIX.
Iran isn't having a religious war, ISRAEL IS.
Israel is doing what it's doing because many Jews believe that are GOD'S CHOSEN PEOPLE, and Zionists believe that the land of Palestine was GIVEN TO THEM BY GOD.
They are allowed (by their god) to do ANYTHING. Even commmit genocide. It's in their Torah
So we're told.
Quote:Quote:We would call it genocide.
According to the book of Exodus, Amalek is the nation that attacked the weakest among the Israelites as they fled from Egypt. This transgression was not to go unpunished. The Torah has a harsh prescription for Amalek: annihilation.
Maybe. I don't know. We're lied to all the time about literally everything.
I'll honestly say I don't have a single opinion on that topic. Doesn't change anything in my previous post.
Quote:Quote:
“It shall be that when Hashem, your God, gives you rest from all your enemies all around, in the Land that Hashem, your God, gives you as an inheritance to possess it, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. Do not forget it!” (Deuteronomy 25: 19; also see Exodus 17:14 and Numbers 24:20)
Blotting out the memory of Amalek was no mere psychological activity. The Israelites were expected to kill every Amalekite–man, woman, and child. But was this just a theoretical imperative or was it meant to be carried out?
The book of Samuel implies that it required actual fulfillment: “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox, and sheep, camel and ass,” (Samuel I, 15:3). King Saul struck down Amalek as he was commanded but he then took mercy upon King Agag and upon some of the Amalekite animals. God and the prophet Samuel harshly criticized Saul for not fulfilling God’s word.
https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/genocide-in-the-torah/
The Torah and the Q'uran each have passages in them that are pretty horrific, and some followers take those passages way too seriously. Zionists and Wahhabists deserve each other bc they're both religious nuts. But other mideast nations and cultures aren't that nutty.
The Bible has its own share of fun pages in it too.
The way I see it, those two groups are just going to keep at this until the extinction of the human race, whichever way that ultimately ends up coming about.
One of them appears to prefer brainwashing people to do small to large scale atrocities that are usually only possible if the person perpetrating them isn't making it out of the situation alive.
The other appears to allow just enough atrocities to be committed on its citizens to try and justify a STRONG reaction the other way that might ultimately end in genocide, or maybe the geniuses in charge end up turning this into WWIII.
They aren't ever going to stop. This will never end.
And it's no more our job to police this than it is to police any alleged Russian aggression toward Ukraine.
No carrot. No stick. As long as they don't go out of bounds, and as long as they don't go dragging anybody else into it or begging for money or support. They need to hash things out. If they haven't managed to get over all of this after thousands of years, who's to say it won't be another few thousand years before they can all just let it go.
American Citizens should not be financially responsible for international wars that they can't even intelligently explain to one another. When something happens we get two sides of news that will explain the situation differently depending on their audience. And we've got no reason to believe that either of the two sides of news is even close to the truth in the first place.
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Political correctness is just tyranny, with a smiley face.
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