A tough read; thank you for pulling it all together. I'm glad you quoted Seth Abrahamson, who I follow with the free subscription so haven't been as privy to the detail. I just got off of a long call discussing these very issues. I am not a prepper, and can barely keep plants alive. I believe most people don't want to live like this. I think we need to keep working to elect Harris AND build lifeboats, really experiment with new ways of being from a place of inspiration and not just desperation. I am 50 and arguably lived through a heyday of society (from a privileged position, at that) and I ALWAYS felt that society made very little sense. Now it's becoming pretty self-evident that maybe that's because it didn't really make sense. More of the same vision isn't going to work.
There's the Trump side that is looking to control everything in the ways that you've outlined; there's the Davos crowd (for shorthand) that many of these people we've been discussing (Brand, Eisenstein, etc) are fighting against, who are also looking to control society, if more slowly.
My emerging theory is that our desire for control (even in our own lives, where it all starts) has created the conditions whereby we took our eyes off the ball of what the fuck a good life is even about. Gathering, food, good music, laughing. We (community-minded people) want these things to be available to everyone, and to get all of the shit out of the way that prevents all people from enjoying these things: abusive labor, impossible working conditions, unaffordability of good/real food, medicine, clear-cut forests, etc. Globalism has been destroying these things. Wanting cheaper and cheaper stuff — fake shit from Home Goods to make it look like we have a polished style — have made us easy prey for the corporations who have been exploiting our need to feel "as good as" (if not "better than") others, in our clothing, homes, cars, (politics) etc. Waht's the expression? Status anxiety.
The whole idea of Edward Bernays, weaponizing psychology against us and creating a definitionally unsatisfiable hunger for quick consumption to replace slow wholenness (and destroy the knowledge of how to fix anything), and then the utter dependence on fossil fuels to satisfy that itch the way that milk satisfies a baby's hunger.
It's all a complete disaster., but my main point is aligned with an earlier comment on your posts: build from what is good. We need to start building towards a new vision, and I think that vision is not one that can be articulated in a sweeping blueprint for all the world to follow. That's where decentralization comes in, where we create mechanisms for small communties to reclaim their own agency and directionality. The "how" is the thing.
Many excellent points but one glaring error which is refering to Netanyahu as in a "unilateral" war. First, Hamas violated an existing cease fire with a terrorist action that killed what would be for the USA, proportional to our population, a 9-11 with 35,000 casualties. According to the OED, unilateral means: (of an action or decision) performed by or affecting only one person, group, or country involved in a situation, without the agreement of another or the others: unilateral nuclear disarmament. The Israeli's have the agreement (however strained) of the USA and the tacit agreement of other countries like Germany, and the strong , but carefully non public support of Gulf Arab states. The awfulness of Netanyahu has apparently caused you, in recent articles, to skew from a sufficiently complex view of the conflict to a decidely anti-Israeli one.
I still have a complex view, still hate Islamic fanaticism but also see more clearly Israel has expansionist designs and seems to be doing ethnic cleansing / genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza
For me, Israeli actions, some of which are certainly brutal are not "more clear" than the horrors of the mainstream of historic Islam (not merely fanatics as if that were a small minority) EG, by 70 years from the death of the prophet Islam had conquered a land mass seven time that of the USA and 3X that of the Roman Empire at the point of the sword, perhaps the most clear expansionism in human history. Similarly, many anti-Zionists are ignorant of the fact that Muslim slave traders had 10X the volume of slave sales as white Europeans and are today the largest source of slavery. The present Israeli government does have expansionist designs on the West Bank certainly (but let's remember they relinquished Gaza around 20 years ago and quickly received many missile and other attacks after). My sister married a Palestinian so I have Christian Palestinian relatives in the West Bank and my closest living blood relatives are half Palestinian. The Israelis are not colonists or invaders of the West Bank but actually the indigenous people of that area having lived there continuously for several thousands years. For example, most people are familiar with the holiday of Christmas which celebrates the birth of a Jewish baby who was part of large Jewish community in Bethlehem which is in the West Bank. I think, as in most wars, individual soldiers and commanders commit atrocities on their own initiative that may not be coincide with policy, but I am certainly opposed to Nentayahu and many of the fanatics in his government and some of them are clearly racists. People are understandably horrified by the civilian casualties, but maybe they can remind me of which were the humane wars that wars didn't have those? That's why the saying is "War is hell." And not, "War is hell, but, of course, not for civilians, that would be barbaric!" and any evaluation of civilian casualties has to reflect that Hamas leaders have called them "necessary sacrifices" and have intentionally used civilians as both shields and to intentionally maximize civilian casualties of Palestinians to turn world opinion against Israel (very effectively). Few on the left express any similar horror about civilian casualties in other contemporaneous wars such as Assad causing half a million of those in recent years in Syria. I am also not familiar with other wars where one side (as the Israelis in Gaza did, however imperfectly) sacrificed military surprise by informing civilians via texts, robocalls, etc. that they should evacuate due to an upcoming attack. Not you, but many anti-zionists, are naive about how ancestral psychology works. They presume that they emerged, without ancestral conditioning freshly incarnated with the birth of Tik-Tok. They never stop to consider that most of them come from ancestral lines that were rabidly Semitic for a couple of millennia or so, and never reflect on their obsession with Jews/Israel and their ignorance or total disinterest in other contemporary wars that have far, far higher body counts. https://zaporacle.com/projection-the-enemy-of-peace-and-justice-part-i/
Hmm, might be a word count limited i exceed but last comment got truncated but here's some of the rest: to turn world opinion against Israel (quite effectively). Not referring to you, Daniel, but many anti-Zionist are psychologically naive folks who believes themselves to be free of the influence of their ancestral lineage as if they were born, tabula rasa with the birth of Tik Tok so they never stop to wonder if their ancestries-- many of them descended from groups that were rabidly antisemitic for a couple of millennia--might not influence them to be obsessed with Israeli wars but not other contemporaneous wars that have far higher body counts, wars that don't involve Jews and are therefore not subject to moral outrage, wars that they barely notice or comment on--Syria, Sudan, etc.
"Hamas violated an existing cease fire with a terrorist action that killed what would be for the USA, proportional to our population, a 9-11 with 35,000 casualties."
Hamas breaking the "ceasefire"? The Palestinians live and have lived under apartheid, and they have been killed relentlessly by Israel, long before October 7th.
"According to the UN, between 2006 and October 7, 2023, 5,365 Palestinians were killed and nearly 63,000 injured, and 170 Israelis were killed with more than 4,000 injured".
Considering the Israeli population of 9,500.000, and Gaza's population of 2,142,000.
If Hamas should kill the same amount of Israelis, proportionally to their population, as how many Palestinians Israel has killed up until now in Gaza (and not taking into account that the number is more likely already over a 100,000 as has been argued in The Lancet), then the number would be 186,000 Israelis killed.
If you think about it the other way around, if Israel should have killed the same proportion of Palestinians relative to the population in Gaza as the Hamas attack on Israel, Israel should have killed 271 Palestinians in Gaza.
But instead of looking at the relative percentage of the populations killed (which I have to admit that I find to be a very stupid comparison. What matters in terms of human lives lost, is how many people are actually killed, no? It does not change anything - or make it better or worse - if there live more, or less, people somewhere. The number of lives lost are the same. Except of course when we are talking about genocide and ethnic cleansing, but I guess you are not into talking about that).
What I would find much more interesting to talk about is the proportionality of the Israel response to the 1,200 killed by Hamas, the killing as of now of 42,000 Palestinians. If Hamas should give the same "proportional" response, from 1,200 to 42,000, then they should kill 1,470,000 Israelis... That would follow the proportionality set by Israel.
Sorry for the macabre numbers above, but there is a genocide happening right now. Some people obviously don’t seem to get that all people are worth the same.
Oh, and as far as apartheid goes, a label that very imperfectly applies where you're using it to a country that has Arab citizens who hold government office, voluntarily serve in the military etc, and has Jews of multiple races including substantial numbers of Ethiopian Jews, do you have much to say about the worst apartheid on the planet--the gender apartheid affecting more than half a billion Muslim women?
Very imperfectly? Sure... It is not believable that you are acting honestly in any way. Here is a pretty damn big Wikipedia page for you to dig through if you think it is a "very imperfect" description (what does that even mean, but not much, relative to the allegation):
"...the gender apartheid affecting more than half a billion Muslim women?" You over and over try to justify Israels atrocities by other peoples wrong doings, that is not how things work... If you would genuinely care about the Muslim women you would not support and argue for that blowing them to pieces is going to fix their situation.
Your posts are clearly hasbara. I am done wasting my time on you. Please break your bubble and spend proper time reading about the conflict from outside of the Israeli perspective that you have been taught. A hell of a lot of innocent people are being murdered and are suffering under the Israeli apartheid system... It's pure fucking horror :(
Btw, my concern about Muslim women also involved my working for years for a non-profit that funded organizations run by oppressed Muslim women such as RAWA the Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association and a burn center in Islamabad Pakistan for the--according to a UN study---the thousand or more women who monthly, in that one large city, were victims of "stove burnings" who had their faces burnt off by husbands who had dreams that their wife had cheated on them, or who laughed aloud in public, etc. but couldn't be admitted to a hospital without the permission of the husbands who were the perpetrators. And, Pascal, you were the one who chose to make comments, you were wasting my time, and I will be happy to have you go away. Perhaps you can educate yourself better before you embarrass yourself again in a public forum.
One more comment full of nothing! You were the one saying that my claim of Israel committing apartheid was bullshit, and then, after I post you a massive Wikipedia article going though it all, you choose to not confront those (pretty important) allegations at all!
Instead you focus on my “If you would genuinely care about the Muslim women you would not support and argue for that blowing them to pieces is going to fix their situation.”, telling me that you have worked for an NGO helping to donate money to woman charities in Pakistan, as if that would somehow change anything about what I said about your arguments? Once again you are just trying to point our attention somewhere else. (And while it would not change anything about the atrocities that Israel is committing, I cannot even prove that you are telling me the truth about that you have actually done that. And judging by your other posts under this essay, you have given me no reason to believe you.) This is just the same tactic you and have been using to deflect in your other posts, where you are trying to justify Israels atrocities by talking about other horrors and other peoples wrong doings.
And what in the world does this have to do with my level of education or understanding of the situation? I guess this is what Daniel calls the mirror technique, plus a hell of lot of fluff/deflection.
This is hasbara 1.0.
You have actually not responded to ANY of my main points in any of my posts that I have written in response to your pro-Israel hasbara. Yes, that is a whole lot of waist of time for me, and when you consider the tactics of internet manipulation or the Russian Political Technology, like Daniel choose to call it, it is just mind blowing to see you spewing it out here. Your nice and friendly tone does not hide what you are actually doing for anyone capable of critical thinking.
There is a lot for you to read in the Wikipedia article if you would be genuinely interested in understanding Israel's apartheid system and some of the horrendous crimes to humanity that is being committed by Israel:
I thought I was wasting your time, and your promised to go away, but it looks like you have a lot of time and irrational emotional charge on this subject, which has me wondering how much time and emotion you have for Syria and Sudan wars with much higher body counts-- or is your moral outrage only for situations involving Jews? I actually gave a balanced perspective--I've despised Netanyahu from the first moment I became acquainted wiht him decades ago, and I have Palestinian relatives in the West Bank and my closest blood relatives are half Palestinian. If you are not holding Hamas as largely responsible for this appalling situation, then your irrational bias speaks for itself.
You missed my point which was that this was not a "unilateral" war but one, without the vast context, that in the immediate time frame was set off by an Hammas atrocity with explicit genocidal intentions (official Hammas policy).
My point was not about comparing relative tragedies ,but that this is not a unilateral war, but a multilateral with multiple nations including Lebanon and Iran.
You were the one making arguments around proportionality in your post, trying to inflate the numbers in an absurd, manipulative and very biased way, as I illustrated in my post.
How was the proportionality argument and your 9/11 comparison relating to what you claim was important to you, the "unilateral" war??
I can't say that the word "unilateral wars" in Daniel's quoted text stands out like something to even start talking about either. When I asked ChatGPT just now to give me an explanation, it does at least not sound like it's way off to me:
ME: What does "unilateral" mean in the following text (here I inserted the paragraph from Daniel's quote), especially focusing on Netanyahu:
ChatGPT: "In the given context, the term "unilateral" refers to actions or policies taken by a leader or a country without the approval, cooperation, or consensus of other nations, organizations, or international bodies. It implies that the decisions are made and carried out independently, often disregarding multilateral discussions or global norms.
Regarding Netanyahu, it suggests that he is engaged in a significant military or political conflict where decisions are made predominantly by his government without seeking or adhering to broader international agreement. This likely refers to Israeli policies or military actions, particularly those in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or regional military engagements, where Netanyahu's government has been accused of acting unilaterally, often bypassing diplomatic efforts or ignoring global criticism.
In this context, both Netanyahu and Putin are described as leading wars or conflicts in a manner that prioritizes their national or personal agendas without significant consideration for international consensus."
Do you really think the "unilateral war" is such a wrong description that you had to point it out, while at the same time inserting your propaganda, inflating the Hamas attack in your weird "proportion" argument?
And you never answered anything to the expansion and perspectives around proportionality, that I responded with to your arguments on it either…
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Edit:
"...that in the immediate time frame was set off by an Hammas atrocity with explicit genocidal intentions (official Hammas policy). " This is also just more bullshit hasbara also. Hamas revised their "Charter" in 2017:
In contrast to the 1988 Hamas charter, the 2017 covenant separates the struggle against Zionism from general antisemitism, stating Hamas fights Zionists, not for their Jewishness but because of their "illegal" project:
Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, antisemitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage."
BTW, I am no expert on Middle Eastern conflict and my view has changed enormously over the years and no doubt if I knew more of all the vast complexities it might change right now. But here are some of my perspectives from my limited vantage: https://zaporacle.com/projection-the-enemy-of-peace-and-justice-part-i/
I have watched in shock for the last years how Russian / fascist / MAGA propaganda has taken control of the web and heavily influenced people and the elections in Europe. And I have never understood why there are no counter-measures. Are they all blind or are they part of the game?
Reading your article, all hope leaves me. This is such a wave of evil, bigger than the Nazis, because this time it's global.
The whole "Dark MAGA" thing just reconfirms my belief that Elon is a socially stunted, awkward weirdo who so desperately wants people to think of him as the edgy cool-guy. And the Tesla truck--same thing. It looks like something designed by a teenager who really wishes they could drive the Bat Mobile in real life.
Check out Thunderfoot on YT. His videos expose the many disasters and lies of EM'S companies.
I still don't get why so many intelligent people don't see what is in front of them and continue to pay for Twitter or otherwise support him. He has 100% gone over to the dark side, as he even admits, in a desperate attempt for someone, anyone, to like him.
His grandfather was Canadian but came to SA because he liked apartheid. So we can see the poisoned spring from where he and his dad come.
I didn’t realize that about his grandfather! That’s horrendous. It’s one thing if they always lived there, and that was their ancestral family land, but to specifically choose to live there because you love apartheid so much… Elon has started tweeting in support of “race realism,” too. Here’s an account on X Elon started following:
Daniel are you familiar with the investigative work of David Troy? He’s spent years digging deep into the networks you’re touching on here, I think you’d find it relevant. Some starting places:
Idk, to me Elon Musk appears to be doing great things with his many companies. Teslas are amazing and I own two, love them both, would not buy another car brand now, as Teslas are so superior. Plus X, starlink, reusable rockets, his solar power banks. He’s made so many amazing things. I find him incredibly inspiring and also funny, super brilliant. I actively worry that something bad will happen to him and that would be terrible for earth imo.
With a little luck, you and Liz Cheney will receive the Giraffe Awards. I'd love to see your face as you realize you have far more in common with her than Jill Stein and Cornell West. :) These are strange times and many of us readers admire your courage and determination. And don't worry, assuming Kamala (lotus!) wins I and many others will be on her ass re a multitude of issues., like fracking. THATS HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS.
A tough read; thank you for pulling it all together. I'm glad you quoted Seth Abrahamson, who I follow with the free subscription so haven't been as privy to the detail. I just got off of a long call discussing these very issues. I am not a prepper, and can barely keep plants alive. I believe most people don't want to live like this. I think we need to keep working to elect Harris AND build lifeboats, really experiment with new ways of being from a place of inspiration and not just desperation. I am 50 and arguably lived through a heyday of society (from a privileged position, at that) and I ALWAYS felt that society made very little sense. Now it's becoming pretty self-evident that maybe that's because it didn't really make sense. More of the same vision isn't going to work.
There's the Trump side that is looking to control everything in the ways that you've outlined; there's the Davos crowd (for shorthand) that many of these people we've been discussing (Brand, Eisenstein, etc) are fighting against, who are also looking to control society, if more slowly.
My emerging theory is that our desire for control (even in our own lives, where it all starts) has created the conditions whereby we took our eyes off the ball of what the fuck a good life is even about. Gathering, food, good music, laughing. We (community-minded people) want these things to be available to everyone, and to get all of the shit out of the way that prevents all people from enjoying these things: abusive labor, impossible working conditions, unaffordability of good/real food, medicine, clear-cut forests, etc. Globalism has been destroying these things. Wanting cheaper and cheaper stuff — fake shit from Home Goods to make it look like we have a polished style — have made us easy prey for the corporations who have been exploiting our need to feel "as good as" (if not "better than") others, in our clothing, homes, cars, (politics) etc. Waht's the expression? Status anxiety.
The whole idea of Edward Bernays, weaponizing psychology against us and creating a definitionally unsatisfiable hunger for quick consumption to replace slow wholenness (and destroy the knowledge of how to fix anything), and then the utter dependence on fossil fuels to satisfy that itch the way that milk satisfies a baby's hunger.
It's all a complete disaster., but my main point is aligned with an earlier comment on your posts: build from what is good. We need to start building towards a new vision, and I think that vision is not one that can be articulated in a sweeping blueprint for all the world to follow. That's where decentralization comes in, where we create mechanisms for small communties to reclaim their own agency and directionality. The "how" is the thing.
I love your ongoing participation in these comments. x
oh that makes me so happy! ❤️
Many excellent points but one glaring error which is refering to Netanyahu as in a "unilateral" war. First, Hamas violated an existing cease fire with a terrorist action that killed what would be for the USA, proportional to our population, a 9-11 with 35,000 casualties. According to the OED, unilateral means: (of an action or decision) performed by or affecting only one person, group, or country involved in a situation, without the agreement of another or the others: unilateral nuclear disarmament. The Israeli's have the agreement (however strained) of the USA and the tacit agreement of other countries like Germany, and the strong , but carefully non public support of Gulf Arab states. The awfulness of Netanyahu has apparently caused you, in recent articles, to skew from a sufficiently complex view of the conflict to a decidely anti-Israeli one.
That was from a quote - not my words
I still have a complex view, still hate Islamic fanaticism but also see more clearly Israel has expansionist designs and seems to be doing ethnic cleansing / genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza
For me, Israeli actions, some of which are certainly brutal are not "more clear" than the horrors of the mainstream of historic Islam (not merely fanatics as if that were a small minority) EG, by 70 years from the death of the prophet Islam had conquered a land mass seven time that of the USA and 3X that of the Roman Empire at the point of the sword, perhaps the most clear expansionism in human history. Similarly, many anti-Zionists are ignorant of the fact that Muslim slave traders had 10X the volume of slave sales as white Europeans and are today the largest source of slavery. The present Israeli government does have expansionist designs on the West Bank certainly (but let's remember they relinquished Gaza around 20 years ago and quickly received many missile and other attacks after). My sister married a Palestinian so I have Christian Palestinian relatives in the West Bank and my closest living blood relatives are half Palestinian. The Israelis are not colonists or invaders of the West Bank but actually the indigenous people of that area having lived there continuously for several thousands years. For example, most people are familiar with the holiday of Christmas which celebrates the birth of a Jewish baby who was part of large Jewish community in Bethlehem which is in the West Bank. I think, as in most wars, individual soldiers and commanders commit atrocities on their own initiative that may not be coincide with policy, but I am certainly opposed to Nentayahu and many of the fanatics in his government and some of them are clearly racists. People are understandably horrified by the civilian casualties, but maybe they can remind me of which were the humane wars that wars didn't have those? That's why the saying is "War is hell." And not, "War is hell, but, of course, not for civilians, that would be barbaric!" and any evaluation of civilian casualties has to reflect that Hamas leaders have called them "necessary sacrifices" and have intentionally used civilians as both shields and to intentionally maximize civilian casualties of Palestinians to turn world opinion against Israel (very effectively). Few on the left express any similar horror about civilian casualties in other contemporaneous wars such as Assad causing half a million of those in recent years in Syria. I am also not familiar with other wars where one side (as the Israelis in Gaza did, however imperfectly) sacrificed military surprise by informing civilians via texts, robocalls, etc. that they should evacuate due to an upcoming attack. Not you, but many anti-zionists, are naive about how ancestral psychology works. They presume that they emerged, without ancestral conditioning freshly incarnated with the birth of Tik-Tok. They never stop to consider that most of them come from ancestral lines that were rabidly Semitic for a couple of millennia or so, and never reflect on their obsession with Jews/Israel and their ignorance or total disinterest in other contemporary wars that have far, far higher body counts. https://zaporacle.com/projection-the-enemy-of-peace-and-justice-part-i/
Hmm, might be a word count limited i exceed but last comment got truncated but here's some of the rest: to turn world opinion against Israel (quite effectively). Not referring to you, Daniel, but many anti-Zionist are psychologically naive folks who believes themselves to be free of the influence of their ancestral lineage as if they were born, tabula rasa with the birth of Tik Tok so they never stop to wonder if their ancestries-- many of them descended from groups that were rabidly antisemitic for a couple of millennia--might not influence them to be obsessed with Israeli wars but not other contemporaneous wars that have far higher body counts, wars that don't involve Jews and are therefore not subject to moral outrage, wars that they barely notice or comment on--Syria, Sudan, etc.
Thank you very much for making this comment which articulates something I have also been feeling.
"Hamas violated an existing cease fire with a terrorist action that killed what would be for the USA, proportional to our population, a 9-11 with 35,000 casualties."
Hamas breaking the "ceasefire"? The Palestinians live and have lived under apartheid, and they have been killed relentlessly by Israel, long before October 7th.
"According to the UN, between 2006 and October 7, 2023, 5,365 Palestinians were killed and nearly 63,000 injured, and 170 Israelis were killed with more than 4,000 injured".
Here is a quick recap to add just a tiny bit of context of how the year looked during 2023 leading up until the Hamas attack. https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/2023/11/24/countdown-to-genocide/
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Now let’s talk about "proportionally".
First we do it your way:
Considering the Israeli population of 9,500.000, and Gaza's population of 2,142,000.
If Hamas should kill the same amount of Israelis, proportionally to their population, as how many Palestinians Israel has killed up until now in Gaza (and not taking into account that the number is more likely already over a 100,000 as has been argued in The Lancet), then the number would be 186,000 Israelis killed.
If you think about it the other way around, if Israel should have killed the same proportion of Palestinians relative to the population in Gaza as the Hamas attack on Israel, Israel should have killed 271 Palestinians in Gaza.
But instead of looking at the relative percentage of the populations killed (which I have to admit that I find to be a very stupid comparison. What matters in terms of human lives lost, is how many people are actually killed, no? It does not change anything - or make it better or worse - if there live more, or less, people somewhere. The number of lives lost are the same. Except of course when we are talking about genocide and ethnic cleansing, but I guess you are not into talking about that).
What I would find much more interesting to talk about is the proportionality of the Israel response to the 1,200 killed by Hamas, the killing as of now of 42,000 Palestinians. If Hamas should give the same "proportional" response, from 1,200 to 42,000, then they should kill 1,470,000 Israelis... That would follow the proportionality set by Israel.
Sorry for the macabre numbers above, but there is a genocide happening right now. Some people obviously don’t seem to get that all people are worth the same.
Oh, and as far as apartheid goes, a label that very imperfectly applies where you're using it to a country that has Arab citizens who hold government office, voluntarily serve in the military etc, and has Jews of multiple races including substantial numbers of Ethiopian Jews, do you have much to say about the worst apartheid on the planet--the gender apartheid affecting more than half a billion Muslim women?
Very imperfectly? Sure... It is not believable that you are acting honestly in any way. Here is a pretty damn big Wikipedia page for you to dig through if you think it is a "very imperfect" description (what does that even mean, but not much, relative to the allegation):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_apartheid
"...the gender apartheid affecting more than half a billion Muslim women?" You over and over try to justify Israels atrocities by other peoples wrong doings, that is not how things work... If you would genuinely care about the Muslim women you would not support and argue for that blowing them to pieces is going to fix their situation.
Your posts are clearly hasbara. I am done wasting my time on you. Please break your bubble and spend proper time reading about the conflict from outside of the Israeli perspective that you have been taught. A hell of a lot of innocent people are being murdered and are suffering under the Israeli apartheid system... It's pure fucking horror :(
Btw, my concern about Muslim women also involved my working for years for a non-profit that funded organizations run by oppressed Muslim women such as RAWA the Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association and a burn center in Islamabad Pakistan for the--according to a UN study---the thousand or more women who monthly, in that one large city, were victims of "stove burnings" who had their faces burnt off by husbands who had dreams that their wife had cheated on them, or who laughed aloud in public, etc. but couldn't be admitted to a hospital without the permission of the husbands who were the perpetrators. And, Pascal, you were the one who chose to make comments, you were wasting my time, and I will be happy to have you go away. Perhaps you can educate yourself better before you embarrass yourself again in a public forum.
One more comment full of nothing! You were the one saying that my claim of Israel committing apartheid was bullshit, and then, after I post you a massive Wikipedia article going though it all, you choose to not confront those (pretty important) allegations at all!
Instead you focus on my “If you would genuinely care about the Muslim women you would not support and argue for that blowing them to pieces is going to fix their situation.”, telling me that you have worked for an NGO helping to donate money to woman charities in Pakistan, as if that would somehow change anything about what I said about your arguments? Once again you are just trying to point our attention somewhere else. (And while it would not change anything about the atrocities that Israel is committing, I cannot even prove that you are telling me the truth about that you have actually done that. And judging by your other posts under this essay, you have given me no reason to believe you.) This is just the same tactic you and have been using to deflect in your other posts, where you are trying to justify Israels atrocities by talking about other horrors and other peoples wrong doings.
And what in the world does this have to do with my level of education or understanding of the situation? I guess this is what Daniel calls the mirror technique, plus a hell of lot of fluff/deflection.
This is hasbara 1.0.
You have actually not responded to ANY of my main points in any of my posts that I have written in response to your pro-Israel hasbara. Yes, that is a whole lot of waist of time for me, and when you consider the tactics of internet manipulation or the Russian Political Technology, like Daniel choose to call it, it is just mind blowing to see you spewing it out here. Your nice and friendly tone does not hide what you are actually doing for anyone capable of critical thinking.
There is a lot for you to read in the Wikipedia article if you would be genuinely interested in understanding Israel's apartheid system and some of the horrendous crimes to humanity that is being committed by Israel:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_apartheid
I thought I was wasting your time, and your promised to go away, but it looks like you have a lot of time and irrational emotional charge on this subject, which has me wondering how much time and emotion you have for Syria and Sudan wars with much higher body counts-- or is your moral outrage only for situations involving Jews? I actually gave a balanced perspective--I've despised Netanyahu from the first moment I became acquainted wiht him decades ago, and I have Palestinian relatives in the West Bank and my closest blood relatives are half Palestinian. If you are not holding Hamas as largely responsible for this appalling situation, then your irrational bias speaks for itself.
You missed my point which was that this was not a "unilateral" war but one, without the vast context, that in the immediate time frame was set off by an Hammas atrocity with explicit genocidal intentions (official Hammas policy).
My point was not about comparing relative tragedies ,but that this is not a unilateral war, but a multilateral with multiple nations including Lebanon and Iran.
You were the one making arguments around proportionality in your post, trying to inflate the numbers in an absurd, manipulative and very biased way, as I illustrated in my post.
How was the proportionality argument and your 9/11 comparison relating to what you claim was important to you, the "unilateral" war??
I can't say that the word "unilateral wars" in Daniel's quoted text stands out like something to even start talking about either. When I asked ChatGPT just now to give me an explanation, it does at least not sound like it's way off to me:
ME: What does "unilateral" mean in the following text (here I inserted the paragraph from Daniel's quote), especially focusing on Netanyahu:
ChatGPT: "In the given context, the term "unilateral" refers to actions or policies taken by a leader or a country without the approval, cooperation, or consensus of other nations, organizations, or international bodies. It implies that the decisions are made and carried out independently, often disregarding multilateral discussions or global norms.
Regarding Netanyahu, it suggests that he is engaged in a significant military or political conflict where decisions are made predominantly by his government without seeking or adhering to broader international agreement. This likely refers to Israeli policies or military actions, particularly those in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or regional military engagements, where Netanyahu's government has been accused of acting unilaterally, often bypassing diplomatic efforts or ignoring global criticism.
In this context, both Netanyahu and Putin are described as leading wars or conflicts in a manner that prioritizes their national or personal agendas without significant consideration for international consensus."
Do you really think the "unilateral war" is such a wrong description that you had to point it out, while at the same time inserting your propaganda, inflating the Hamas attack in your weird "proportion" argument?
And you never answered anything to the expansion and perspectives around proportionality, that I responded with to your arguments on it either…
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Edit:
"...that in the immediate time frame was set off by an Hammas atrocity with explicit genocidal intentions (official Hammas policy). " This is also just more bullshit hasbara also. Hamas revised their "Charter" in 2017:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Hamas_charter
"Rejection of antisemitism
In contrast to the 1988 Hamas charter, the 2017 covenant separates the struggle against Zionism from general antisemitism, stating Hamas fights Zionists, not for their Jewishness but because of their "illegal" project:
Hamas affirms that its conflict is with the Zionist project not with the Jews because of their religion. Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine. Yet, it is the Zionists who constantly identify Judaism and the Jews with their own colonial project and illegal entity.
Hamas rejects the persecution of any human being or the undermining of his or her rights on nationalist, religious or sectarian grounds. Hamas is of the view that the Jewish problem, antisemitism and the persecution of the Jews are phenomena fundamentally linked to European history and not to the history of the Arabs and the Muslims or to their heritage."
BTW, I am no expert on Middle Eastern conflict and my view has changed enormously over the years and no doubt if I knew more of all the vast complexities it might change right now. But here are some of my perspectives from my limited vantage: https://zaporacle.com/projection-the-enemy-of-peace-and-justice-part-i/
You might enjoy this, it directly challenges a number of statements you’ve made in this thread, despite claiming to not be an expert. https://youtu.be/Pt_1k7nSv1M?si=wGpmBQhzZ1gV48jb
I have watched in shock for the last years how Russian / fascist / MAGA propaganda has taken control of the web and heavily influenced people and the elections in Europe. And I have never understood why there are no counter-measures. Are they all blind or are they part of the game?
Reading your article, all hope leaves me. This is such a wave of evil, bigger than the Nazis, because this time it's global.
The whole "Dark MAGA" thing just reconfirms my belief that Elon is a socially stunted, awkward weirdo who so desperately wants people to think of him as the edgy cool-guy. And the Tesla truck--same thing. It looks like something designed by a teenager who really wishes they could drive the Bat Mobile in real life.
Check out Thunderfoot on YT. His videos expose the many disasters and lies of EM'S companies.
I still don't get why so many intelligent people don't see what is in front of them and continue to pay for Twitter or otherwise support him. He has 100% gone over to the dark side, as he even admits, in a desperate attempt for someone, anyone, to like him.
His grandfather was Canadian but came to SA because he liked apartheid. So we can see the poisoned spring from where he and his dad come.
I didn’t realize that about his grandfather! That’s horrendous. It’s one thing if they always lived there, and that was their ancestral family land, but to specifically choose to live there because you love apartheid so much… Elon has started tweeting in support of “race realism,” too. Here’s an account on X Elon started following:
https://x.com/whstancil/status/1689419663300587522?s=20
yes, he thought that apartheid SA was a model for the whole world ffs
Daniel are you familiar with the investigative work of David Troy? He’s spent years digging deep into the networks you’re touching on here, I think you’d find it relevant. Some starting places:
https://washingtonspectator.org/peter-thiel-and-the-american-apocalypse/
https://medium.com/@davetroy
https://about.davetroy.com/
https://x.com/davetroy
Idk, to me Elon Musk appears to be doing great things with his many companies. Teslas are amazing and I own two, love them both, would not buy another car brand now, as Teslas are so superior. Plus X, starlink, reusable rockets, his solar power banks. He’s made so many amazing things. I find him incredibly inspiring and also funny, super brilliant. I actively worry that something bad will happen to him and that would be terrible for earth imo.
have you ever noticed that people can be many things at once? For instance, they could make great cars and rockets while also being ruthless, evil, racist, Fascistic and so on? Spend some time with this if you can: https://medium.com/@da82ir1jaf/elon-musk-king-of-the-dark-enlightenment-9270332c67af
Will read. Thanks.
Grok and XAi also a necessary counter to OpenAi I think.
Yep as a leftist i don't understand the leftist strategy at all right now. My friends largely ignore whats going on in domestic politics and affairs
Public enemies: #1 Trump #2 Putin #3 Musk
Repositories and responsible for every single mess in the World. More conspiracy theories about them than any group in history?
With a little luck, you and Liz Cheney will receive the Giraffe Awards. I'd love to see your face as you realize you have far more in common with her than Jill Stein and Cornell West. :) These are strange times and many of us readers admire your courage and determination. And don't worry, assuming Kamala (lotus!) wins I and many others will be on her ass re a multitude of issues., like fracking. THATS HOW DEMOCRACY WORKS.
Trump is their bait and switch?
It's a complete horror!