Israel / Palestine

[Mori Chu]

What a mess. I hope this doesn't escalate with Russia / Iran / US / others getting involved and becoming a WW3-esque situation.

[bajanguy008]

[Nodack]

Iran / Hamas attacking Israel at brutally as they did makes them look like inhuman savages to me. Yelling “god is great” as you fire bullets into women and children? All over the world many have been celebrating the attack. What kind of god glorifies massacring women and children? Sickening.

Then Israel responds by bombing the crap out of Gaza and killing hundreds of Palestinian citizens. That’s pretty F U too. Hamas responds by saying for every bomb you drop hostages will die. Remember this? “Iran Hostage Crisis day 444”. Hamas/Iran has hundreds of hostages to use as bargaining chips.

Every time one of these violent events happens between Israel and the various Arab countries / groups the Palestinian people suffer the consequences. Israel keeps commandeering more and more land every time pissing of their neighbors more and more. I suppose this time won’t be any different and maybe even be the biggest expansion yet.

[Nodack]

I don’t believe there will be a Gaza after Israel gets done making it into a parking lot. They have ordered everyone out of Gaza before it gets flattened. 300,000 Israeli soldiers have massed at the border. There are reports that the exits have all been blocked and there is no way out of Gaza so there’s that.

Was reading about how Hamas attacked a day care and murdered all the children and even beheaded many of the babies as they yell “God is great!”

I don’t have a lot of faith in humans anymore. Time for Skynet.

[JeremyG]

[JeremyG]

What I don’t understand is how Israel could have been completely caught off guard when they supposedly have the world’s most sophisticated defense systems and intelligence. It seems like they had to have known something beforehand.

[Superbone]

The whole thing is absolutely horrible. We are so lucky to live in America where war on our land is very rare. Humans have learned nothing! How can there be so much hate and killing in this world? It is despicable.

[Superbone]

X is flooded with Israel–Hamas war misinformation

There’s fog around the Israel-Hamas war, and X has been acting like a giant smoke machine.

Researchers and professional fact-checkers are lamenting that the social platform—once the go-to source for live news updates—is now a hotbed of misinformation and disinformation. While some misleading content is getting marked as such, dozens of videos falsely attributed to the current conflict have been widely circulating without a disclaimer.

Footage of an urban landscape illuminated by red flashes described as an Israeli bombardment of Gaza turned out to be fireworks in Algeria.
A video with hundreds of thousands of views billed as an Israeli helicopter getting shot down by Hamas was really a clip from the hyperrealistic video game Arma 3.
Meanwhile, X owner Elon Musk has not been very helpful in steering users toward credible sources. In a now-deleted post from this weekend, he recommended two accounts “for following the war in real-time.” Both profiles have spread disinfo in the past (like news of an explosion near the White House that never happened), and one has previously made antisemitic comments.

Why did X become so dubious?
Experts say the app’s transformation after Musk took over has made it easier for unverified info to spread. Paying users now receive the blue checkmark previously reserved for news organizations and verified individuals, and get their content amplified. This could explain why a now-suspended account posing as the Jerusalem Post was able to get over 700k views on its false claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hospitalized.

Others aren’t surprised that misinformation has festered, since X fired most of the employees responsible for weeding it out.

If you want fact-checked Israel–Hamas war developments…media orgs like the BBC, the Associated Press, and the Israeli newspaper Haaretz have verified updates, while trusted journalists like Trey Yingst, Nic Robertson, and Rushdi Abualouf are reporting from Israel and Gaza.

[Nodack]

What I don’t understand is how Israel could have been completely caught off guard when they supposedly have the world’s most sophisticated defense systems and intelligence. It seems like they had to have known something beforehand.

Israel was right in the middle of their own Jan 6 event where Netanyahu was attempting to end Democracy in Israel by eliminating all checks and balances on his power. Massive protests showed a divided Israel. I’m pretty sure that had an effect on the Hamas timing. The US is severely divided. Russia picked that time to invade Ukraine hoping we would ignore him because we had our own issues. I think in both instances Russia and Hamas chose wrong. Nothing unites a nation like being attacked by a foreign nation. Israel will fight as one. The US hasn’t been attacked yet so we are still just as divided as before. If Russia dropped a nuke on a US city you would see a lot more United States.

[Cap]

If Russia dropped a nuke on a US city you would see a lot more United States.

If alpha male Putin dropped a bomb on a woke US city, I imagine the response would be more divided than you anticipate.

[Kryptonic]

If Russia dropped a nuke on a US city you would see a lot more United States.

If alpha male Putin dropped a bomb on a woke US city, I imagine the response would be more divided than you anticipate.

In fairness... NYC is pretty woke and 9/11 unified the country pretty well if I'm recalling correctly.

[Cap]

If Russia dropped a nuke on a US city you would see a lot more United States.

If alpha male Putin dropped a bomb on a woke US city, I imagine the response would be more divided than you anticipate.

In fairness... NYC is pretty woke and 9/11 unified the country pretty well if I'm recalling correctly.

Different attacker.

[Mori Chu]

It seems like the Israel / Hamas / Palestine stuff is getting really bad. Israel is counter-attacking and people are dying. Folks out there seem to get bloodthirsty quickly. It's almost like they're just waiting for a provocation to justify the bad things they want to do on either side. I feel for the people of Israel and Palestine who probably just want to live in peace and don't want to have bombs dropped on them.

[Nodack]

I have gone back and forth over the years about how I feel about the situation there. I have felt bad for the Palestinian and Israeli people many times and angry at both of them many times. The bottom line? A square peg in a round hole. Arabs are never going to accept Israel as a nation. The Palestinians are incapable of leading themselves and rely on Hamas whose only goal is to own the Jews. Hamas is funded by Iran. Iran and Israel hate each other. When Hamas attacks it’s the Palestinians who get hurt by Israel. Israel has continued to slowly take more and more land from the Palestians over the years. After this Hamas attack I think Gaza is gone. It will be razed to the ground and any Palestinians had better leave or be turned into mulch.

Is this going to fix the issue? Of course not. This is just violence in response to violence, which will result in more violence and the never ending loop of violence that has become routine there. As my dad used to say. “It is what it is”.

[Superbone]

As my dad used to say. “It is what it is”.

And it is horrible for all.

[Nodack]

WTF!

Black Lives Matter Chapters Celebrate Terrorist Attack in Israel, Revel in Slaughter at Music Festival
https://www.mediaite.com/news/black-liv ... -festival/
Black Lives Matter chapters across the country are celebrating the terrorist attacks that have claimed hundreds of innocent lives in Israel.

The massacre was commemorated by Black Lives Matter in Chicago, which posted a graphic of a paraglider, the Palestinian flag, and the caption “I stand with Palestine” on X Tuesday.

On Instagram, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles also joined in the celebration, insisting that Hamas’ “resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.”

“We, too, understand what it means to be surveilled, dehumanized, property seized, families separated, our people criminalized and slaughtered with impunity, locked up in droves and when we resist they call us terrorist,” continued the chapter.

Black Lives Matter Washington, D.C., meanwhile, remained silent on the atrocities committed against Jewish civilians before retweeting posts insisting that the Israeli response to the attack will be “a continuation of war against Palestinians” rather than “targeted at Hamas,” and that “Free Palestine with or without anyone trying to make indefensible genocidal oppression a ‘complicated’ both sides matter.”

On Sunday, former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire blasted the larger Black Lives Matter movement and its supporters for its failure to condemn the atrocities committed against Israel over the weekend.

“I woke up this morning with some disturbing news out of Israel—that Hamas kidnapping children, putting them in cages, killing women, killing the elderly. That’s some coward shit,” said Stoudemire on Instagram. “And for all y’all Black Lives Matter ain’t saying nothing, ‘Well let me figure out exactly what’s happening before saying anything,’ Fuck you.

“All you politicians who always have something to say on the contrary — I see you. Fuck you. All you Black Lives Matter people who always have something to say and always supported everything else and you quiet now — fuck you too.”

[Nodack]

I have been supporting of the BLM movement. I have seen the videos of police killing and assaulting black people for what appears to be entertainment and have been sickened by it. I totally support police reform. Cops aren’t bad. Bad people that become cops are. They need to hire police that think all lives matter.

BLM coming out and cheering the Hamas attack is sickening. Whatever support they had from me is gone. I still support police reform and all lives matter but, BLM is now on my list of terrorist sympathizers. You can’t protest the inhumane treatment of your own and then celebrate the totally inhumane treatment of others and expect me to support you.

And if you are Israel I get it that you are really upset, pissed off and want revenge. There must be a response to this. Razing Gaza is expected. If they are going to raze Gaza in response then announce that you are and let the civilians out before making it a parking lot. The response I heard from Israel is that they will cut off all food and water to Gaza and that they were blocking the exits. I am not 100% sure they are blocking the exits. If they are and they are indiscriminately carpet bombing Gaza and not allowing the occupants out then they are just as bad as Hamas.

Bottom line? People suck.

[Mori Chu]

Violence tends to beget more violence.

[Mori Chu]

WTF!

Black Lives Matter Chapters Celebrate Terrorist Attack in Israel, Revel in Slaughter at Music Festival
https://www.mediaite.com/news/black-liv ... -festival/
Black Lives Matter chapters across the country are celebrating the terrorist attacks that have claimed hundreds of innocent lives in Israel.

I have been supporting of the BLM movement. I have seen the videos of police killing and assaulting black people for what appears to be entertainment and have been sickened by it. I totally support police reform. Cops aren’t bad. Bad people that become cops are. They need to hire police that think all lives matter.

BLM coming out and cheering the Hamas attack is sickening. Whatever support they had from me is gone.

I have a couple of notes about this. First, I don't think all of "BLM" supports Palestine nor Hamas. The message of support that you're referring to comes from the BLM Chicago chapter. I don't think it extends beyond that chapter, and even within that chapter, it's unclear exactly who there decided to make that post; did the whole chapter vote on it? Was it the chapter leadership? Also, it sounds like the group has retracted their statement after considerable backlash and criticism. (Their apology / retraction is kind of crappy, saying they "aren't proud of" the post. Whatever.)

https://www.thedailybeast.com/black-liv ... hamas-post

My point is just that I think it's a bit of an overreach to say "screw BLM" because of this (genuinely misguided and wrong) statement that one BLM chapter made. It does sound like that BLM Chicago account/chapter is off base and shitty, I admit, but I don't think they remotely speak for all of BLM. It might seem like I'm splitting hairs here, but I think it is important. The logic of "a small subset of group X did something bad, therefore screw group X" is the same sort of thinking that Israelis and Palestinians often exhibit toward each other.

[Nodack]

The article I posted was BLM in Chicago and Los Angeles. Two of the biggest cities and they posted from the BLM site as BLM, not some random dude posting on their site.

The massacre was commemorated by Black Lives Matter in Chicago, which posted a graphic of a paraglider, the Palestinian flag, and the caption “I stand with Palestine” on X Tuesday.

On Instagram, Black Lives Matter Los Angeles also joined in the celebration, insisting that Hamas’ “resistance must not be condemned, but understood as a desperate act of self-defense.”

Republicans generally detest BLM. They get most of their support from Dems. BLM statements on the Hamas attacks do vast harm to their cause in the Dem world if there are more like me. Amare even condemned their statements. They will have to do some serious damage control to put out this fire or stand by their comments and own it.