Vrubel

Obviously still an accident, Israel took responsibility for it. Saying it was intentional is a lie on your part. Israel doesn't have to lie as much as you think. Israel routinely takes responsibility for mistakes. Israelis explaining their perspective is legitimate and not lying. Your bias distorts your view. You can be biased but still be more truthful and less dogmatic. That's what I am trying to be. I have my worldview and opinions but I try to look at "facts" or "raw Information" as they are and not to mush them into a pre-made narrative. My worldview is strong and wise enough to handle integrating "raw information" scrutinizing Israel. Still, I have unapologetic support for Israel in this war. I truly feel sorry for the innocent people caught up in this war. And ultimately there are no winners in war. But there is also an ugly hardcore survival element to this all. The bottom line is that Hamas must be removed. Mass appeal is no measurement for truth, especially considering this topic attracts a very specific loud minority. Having said that you're free to have any opinions and worldview you want but know I'll be able to look through any perversions and lies with absolute ease.

Trans people are human beings like the rest of us nobody should harass them, that seems obvious. But his issue is so overblown and there is a lot of bullshit around it, against which J.K. Rowling speaks out. Personally, if I was her I wouldn't pick that fight, just doesn't seem that important, but it's her right to have her say on this issue. J.K. Rowling is most definitely a reasonable and intelligent woman.

Argentina and Tasmania seem like dope places.

@LSD-Rumi I am biased because if I don't stand for the pureness of my truth and deep insight that I received through my experience, nobody will. My first loyalty is standing against all the lies and demonization. If you're an intelligent and reasonable person critical of Israel. That can be fair, I have no beef with you. But you see, this issue often goes hand in hand with lies, twisting and stretching, blatant hypocrisy and all kinds of ugliness for which I will not stand.

I have a healthy bias. I don't cover it, I am proud to stand where I stand. But on this issue, I am also reasonable and have deep insight that you might not have.

I appreciate the tone though also forgive me for being a little skeptical as well. When I properly explain myself and maybe short-circuit your narrative I’ll still get lashed out at because your worldview (or the hivemind you part take in) seems to have a particular “evangelical” and pushy nature to it. You can be nice now but how are you when your narrative is most tested. Will the mask come off? There Is a monster in this equation called Hamas. Because Hamas is morally Incapable of holding responsibility or even caring about the lives of their own people does not mean this absolute irresponsibility should be projected upon Israel. I understand seeing children getting caught up in this war is hard and painful but this does not dissolve one from critical thinking and empathizing with Israel's POV. And yes, you must empathize with Israel and I am not saying this as some petty or needy plea for love for my side (I don't care about that.) but because understanding and empathy seem to be part of your core values. Deeply understanding Israel's side will make you more mature, less whiny and less prone to lashouts. It's untenable to divide the world into simplistic victim/perpetrator and strong(bad) vs weak(good) paradigms. Because again don't let your bias overlook the monster lurking in plain sight. The same way you don't want me to overlook the occupation and empathize with the Palestinian side. While Hamas being a monster, it's also nothing unique. Islamic extremism is also a wider Issue in Muslim societies in the region. Most victims are fellow Muslims or different minorities in the region. Can you see how Israel has no choice but to defend itself against these fanatics with great potential for barbarity. Yes, Israel definitely holds some responsibility including for the upholding of certain standards. But also war is war. Israel needs to do what it has to, to secure itself and achieve its goals. Israel must be smart and steadfast but war is nonetheless an inevitably ugly thing. The bottom line is that Hamas cannot hold power. This is for the sake of everyone involved. Personally, I do believe it’s possible for Hamas to be removed from power. But if that will be impossible due to for example persistent organizing by Hamas and effectively intimidating the moderate alternatives. Then by the end of this war, Israel will still have control over the Gaza-Egypt border to avoid weapon smuggling, a larger buffer zone and some checkpoints/operating bases from where they can operate and break up terrorist organizing. A Gaza without Hamas can also be genuinely included in a future Palestinian state if both sides get mature enough and make peace.

The immaturity here and people not standing different worldviews and opinions is absolutely apparent. The hivemind lashing out, what’s new.

That's your projection and vilinization of me (and Zionism). My post was sincere and not judgemental, I find those "medieval" houses beautiful. I always admire historical and cultural beauty regardless of culture. I routinely step inside churches and sometimes mosques to admire their beauty and history. In other posts, I criticize Arab culture, which I also have the right to do. Maybe you don't like that but all you do is rip into and demonize Israelis. And yeah I don't hold all cultures as equal. some have more problematic stuff in them than others. Riff-raff behavior, treatment of women and lack of "chill" are just some examples of what turns me off from Arab culture. Personally, I have most affiliation with Russian, Ukrainian and Belarussian culture, Western cultures and Latino culture. Indulging in those cultures and aspects of my life brings me great satisfaction. Of course, being Jewish by nationality brings me also great satisfaction and pride.

Yes, most Iranians are very chill, educated and level-headed people. Their country got hijacked and held hostage by extremists. Similarly how Gaza got Hijacked by Hamas. However, there are clear differences of course. Arabs often shoot themselves in the foot with brainless riffraff behavior based on pettiness and dogmatic pride. Iranians are more brainy and calculating which also makes their regime more dangerous. They can definitely play their enemies but most of all they play the Arabs. The Palestinians as disposable pawns and the Lebanese Shia/Hezbollah as an extension of their armed forces putting the country of Lebanon at great peril. They also plot and scheme against other Arab countries that have moderate and decent leadership Like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi. It's so Ironic that the people who love Palestinians so much are so defensive of the Iranian government.

Iranian people are the BEST. Iranian government is the worst.

Most Palestinians live in spacious houses sprawling all over the landscape. The media is so overly focused on Palestinian oppression that they overlook the apparent. In the past Palestinians lived indeed in dark thick stone-walled buildings with tiny windows, those are medieval conditions you might still see in Afghanistan for example. I know because I am from a mixed Jewish-Arab town where indeed many of these "medieval" buildings still can be found although most are empty or heavily renovated. Yes, there is also wisdom and happiness to be found in a simple and raw life. Most Palestinians live happy lives. So do Israelis. When people grow up in a conflict zone they become less fragile and more simple and uninhibited which can feed happiness. Israelis consistently rank as some of the world's happiest people. What brianless bullshit.

Israel is already great In all seriousness, I don't see Jews becoming a majority in the West Bank any time soon so a two-state solution will remain viable for a long time.

@Danioover9000 Because they keep starting and losing wars. Settlement building is in tango with Palestinian terror. In reality settlement building just means that a future Palestinian state will be with a Jewish minority when a center-left government will propose deals. If they wanted a Judenrein state they could have agreed on the many decent peace settlements offered to them in earlier times. Like with Ehud Barak relatively recently. Having a Jewish minority is not a bad thing for your state, quite the opposite. Legitimate Palestinian grievances about rights and sovereignty can only be addressed from a state of (relative) calm and Israelis feeling trust and secure with the idea of a Palestinian state. The latest terror is a perfect example of how Israelis feel the need to defend themselves against a greater malice and don't at all feel like trusting the Palestinians with a state or giving rewards for terror, what kind of message will that send.

Oke, I am just the B-word and don’t at all have legitimate points and (deep) insights that are reasonable, fair and within my integrity. It’s so obvious you’re just agenda-pushing. To the extent I can have a reasonable discussion without repeating myself, I can engage you but at some point, this back-and-forth becomes useless and leads to lashouts.

My flight got cancelled due to the Iran tensions but I'll go a little later as soon as possible.

Just to to add (I know I am a bit late to the discussion) haha: You cannot be objective on the issue without taking into account the uniqueness of Jewish history and respecting the Jewish connection to the land as a native people. Palestinians too are native to the land. The question of nativity goes deeper because both Jews and Arabs are native to a wider region of the Middle East than Just Israel/Palestine. Though for reality reasons we are just limited to that smaller land precisely because it's untenable for Jews to live in that wider region or elsewhere for that matter.

Truths to not overlook in this discussion: Israel saved millions of lives and secured a future for Jews. Israel was established on undefined land. And the Jews have a damn good claim to it as well as stark necessity for their own state, which ultimately constitutes the bottom line. Most early Zionists were secular and socialist idealists who were desperate for peace, that spirit still lives on to a large degree in Israeli society. Israel has no inherent problem with Arabs, just look at Arab Israelis. Israel’s enemies are total savages in their potential for barbarity ( even compared with reasonable Arab governments which routinely make peace.)Israel must defend itself from that, there is no compromising on that. There is a vicious cycle and both sides are responsible for that. Israel deserves criticism (any Israeli will agree) but holding it up to some fairy tale standard and being intensely biased in the demonization of Israel is wrong. Ultimately the people that are engaged in the smear campaign totally dismiss the Israeli POV and practically don't respect their right for survival. Conveniently overlooking the history you don’t like and arbitrarily choosing from what position you want to start to best serve your agenda. (For both sides). The whole attitude of just blame-shifting on Israel instead of being constructive and deeply understanding. There are clear limits of how much you can blame on Israel. Hyperbolism is not truth but perversion and is just part of the demonization campaign. To avoid hyperbolism one must be true to (historical) context and similarities.

Nice lash out. A bit inappropriate as a reaction to an apolitical post with just informed insights on Jewish demographic with somebody who had a genuine question.

I am explaining to you why they are locked out from my compassion. It's their stupidity and depraved behavior. Everything in the world is technically understandable but there is a difference between understandable and understandable. I mean... I know some low-brow simple people that are capable of some cringe shit but holy fuck... cheering for such a thing seems to me like such a transgression against God and a layer-cake of brainlessness.

Orthodox Judaism was decimated in the Holocaust. Secular people who have few children, survived at a slightly higher rate because before the war they were more prone to emigrate to America or become Zionists and settle in Palestine. Also many lost their religion, secularized through generations or were forcefully secularized like in the Soviet Union. But high birth rates are exponential, so the few orthodox Jews that survived are now a substantial part of the Jewish population and continue to grow exponentially. In a sense, it does represent a beautiful rebound and victory over the Nazis.

Yes, there are truly innocent people in Gaza who just wanted peace or are too young to understand the situation. I can definitely respect and feel for an individual Palestinian but not for a random one because I don't know whether he rejoiced at seeing young abused girls paraded on pickup trucks. Civilians famously joined in on the attack and held hostages at their homes. Even UN workers! Ukraine is an impoverished place, Russians took Crimea from them. And historically the Holomodor was perpetrated by Stalin to feed Moscow over Ukraine. Azov and Hamas are oceans apart. Sorry, I am not going to be petty about any right-wing views they might hold. Azov is bravely fighting on the front lines demonstrating great virtue. Hamas is the antithesis of virtue. Even as war breeds hate most Ukrainians are sensible people and don't hold random Russians responsible. Palestinians have no choice but not to fight and instead to pursue their agenda in a pragmatic and healthy way. They have enough sovereignty and eminence to do that. Economicly they can benefit themselves greatly in being next to Israel. Their freedom of movement will also increase greatly without terrorism. A strong and wise Palestinian leader is to everybody's benefit. They can definitely get to some resolution with a center-left Israeli government. Gazans are not naive. They knew for what they were cheering. I of course don't know the exact number or percentage that was cheerful on that day. But from what I understand it was a substantial part. The streets were full of cheering people. And these were just random people that happened to be there. Aljazeera was also definitely rejoicing and full of glee on that day. Israelis cheering is a whole different dimension, they are not cheering for raped young women or killed innocent people. Israelis are patriotic and will support the troops who defend them. Israelis have no choice but to be strong and ready for war in contrast to Palestinians who as I mentioned have no choice but to be non-violent. That's just the uncompromisable dynamic at play. The law of nature if you will. Once you have to survive in a remote forest you can't argue or negotiate with nature, you bend to its will. 'Nature' being the dynamic of survival in the Middle East. This dynamic is more harsh to the Israelis than to the Palestinians. A large part of why they committed 7/10 is because they knew they wouldn't get genocided for it. Any standard Israel upholds is in their eyes just another weakness for them to exploit.

@Karmadhi The point is that we don't care. Once in a while there come a report of the situation there by first-hand accounts and international monitors and we all kind of shrug it off. The massive refugee camps filled with women and girls in neighboring Chad are definitely real and where much of the information comes from. Definitely mass rape and murder going on, nobody knows how much.

@DefinitelyNotARobot The Palestinian growth rate is definitely nowhere near zero. Having lots of children is a subconscious reaction to a perilous environment. Even modern secular Israelis have visibly more children than Westerners due to mandatory military service and terrorism. The champions of babymaking are orthodox Jews and Bedouin who have multiple wives.

Because Ukrainians don't commit atrocities, cheer for them and hide behind their women and children. They defend them! Only women and children are allowed to seek refuge abroad but the men must stay as they should. This is the way of any honorable society. Also I have family connections to Ukraine and my family housed our Ukrainian friends for a while. Ukrainians are incredibly “chill” people for the lack of a more sophisticated term. They were demonized by Russia as extreme while in reality they were just chill people caring about bettering their lives and country and having genuine amicable relations with ethnic Russians. Things like cheering on 7/10 had an incredible effect of dehumanisation. It’s a complex issue because dehumanization is wrong but you don't win respect with the brainlessness attacking, acting like total human animals towards peace-loving civilized people and hiding behind your own civilians who you are supposed to protect and hold in reverence. And they still hold hostages including babies and bright young women who are being sexually abused. In the simplest terms, Israel is justified in fighting as long as those hostages are still there and Hamas poses a threat.

@Karmadhi Don't play the extremely redundant numbers game with me. Stuff like mass rape, (sex) slavery and ethnic cleansing happing there. In neighboring countries there are refugee camps of over a million people of mostly only women and girls. An indication that the men have been targeted for extermination. Of course, a lot remains unclear because no journalists can go there and the territory is so massive, remote and underdeveloped that it's not really overseeable, those numbers might not be accurate. Also, the harsh truth is that most people don't really care. Western People don't care but also Muslim and African people don't care. Because again, no Jews. Where is the South Africa genocide case against the Sudan for their fellow Africans?