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Hamas/Israel conflict: news and discussion

One of the many reasons I detest the 'do you condemn?' line of questioning is that it's exhausting. Having to constantly expose your moral compass to people who assume you have none (else they woudln't ask) is tiring emotional labour. Frankly I'm running out of sympathy for the state of Israel. Don't misunderstand, those people who got murdered by Hamas and kidnapped are victims etc ("I condemn...") but Israel chose it's response. What happens now is on them and they are, as you say, committing wanton mass murder with no discernible endgame. I mean, what does defeating Hamas even look like? Is it dliebrately amorphous, so they can keep using it as an excuse to, as they put it, 'mow the lawn' periodically?
mass murder with no discernible endgame unless,that is,completion of the project of 1948.So depressing that this is what Starmer is advocating for and so reminiscent of the stunned astonishment we felt when Blair threw us into war with Iraq.
 
yeh but you're not seeing things entirely as they are. your rationality is not shared by eg the christian zionists in the united states, who see the existence of the state of israel in terms of eschatology and there are a lot of nutty christian zionists: have a look at david s katz & richard h popkin's messianic revolution. you'll never look at eg ronald reagan in the same way again
I will ALWAYS look at Reagan in the light of Gil Scott-Heron's B Movie. Sorry, but that can't be shifted now.
 
Looked up Andy McDonald and he comes across as a decent hard working MP

He fell foul of Starmer due to this:
September 2021, McDonald resigned as Shadow Secretary, citing lack of support from Starmer for an increase in the minimum wage to £15 per hour. He said he had been instructed by Starmer's office to argue at the Labour Party Conference "against a national minimum wage of £15 an hour and against statutory sick pay at the living wage".[18]


This might help explain why he's been targeted.

Starmer is quite vindictive.

He's also got "form" on supporting Palestinian rights. Which makes him a marked man as well.
 
Piece on the Ch4 news tonight about Palestinians being forced out of their homes in the west bank. What have Sunak, Cruella, Starmer, Biden, etc got to say about this?

 
Piece on the Ch4 news tonight about Palestinians being forced out of their homes in the west bank. What have Sunak, Cruella, Starmer, Biden, etc got to say about this?

Matt Frei's interview with a family on eviction watch quite moving i thought.Earlier i had been watching an interview with a Palestinian academic dreaming aloud of a lasting peace and political settlement which would follow upon the return of the Palestinian diaspora to their abandoned villages( in modern day Israel).Seemed a distant prospect i must say.
 
There is a lot of shaping of Palestinian solidarity marchers going on. Shaping them up for a good kicking and nicking.

If they are minded to, I speculate that they will send in snatch squads into future crowds to arrest whoever (they said Jihad) knowing this will cause alarm and disarray and pushback and a big row. It’s the same old playbook
 
There is a lot of shaping of Palestinian solidarity marchers going on. Shaping them up for a good kicking and nicking.

If they are minded to, I speculate that they will send in snatch squads into future crowds to arrest whoever (they said Jihad) knowing this will cause alarm and disarray and pushback and a big row. It’s the same old playbook

aye that the road i see coming from Braverman and the Tories

amazed after one arrest as of saturday they not started planning

that or cause a situation to unfold to put a stop to it
 
Piece on the Ch4 news tonight about Palestinians being forced out of their homes in the west bank. What have Sunak, Cruella, Starmer, Biden, etc got to say about this?


Thanks for this. Just watched it.

The on the ground report of Palestinian villagers in fear and leaving due to settler violence was very good. As was the questioning by the reporter on the roof top in Ramallah of two leading Palestinians. Plus the surreal interview with the Israeli Knesset member. Who lived in a parallel universe where everything would be ok on West Bank if it wasn't for Hamas "cells" and that he objected to term extremist settlers.

Ive following Al Jazeera on this until now.

It was when it went back to C4 studio I saw the difference. The head of PSC being repeatedly asked if he supported Israel right to exist. Was chanting to the river to the sea anti semitic.

Head of PSC response, which I thought was a good one, was that Israel did not have right to exist as an Apartheid State. That to be free meant in that context Palestinians no longer having to live under military rule / second class citizens/ or in open prison of Gaza. He still got asked the same question despite giving a cogent answer. Get the feeling that saying State of Israel is an Apartheid state is not supposed to be part of the answer.

The journalist in Ramallah was interviewing two mainstream Palestinians. The journalist said as he went around West Bank he felt that Hamas had a lot of support. They agreed. The disappointment of peace process had led to increase of view amongst ordinary Palestinians that Israel only understands the language of force. And its Hamas who are doing this. Which correlates with previous article I posted up about why Hamas gets support. They reckoned if elections were held Hamas would get a lot of seats. It would be even with Fatah/ PLO

Excellent reporters on the ground in C4.
 
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There is a lot of shaping of Palestinian solidarity marchers going on. Shaping them up for a good kicking and nicking.

If they are minded to, I speculate that they will send in snatch squads into future crowds to arrest whoever (they said Jihad) knowing this will cause alarm and disarray and pushback and a big row. It’s the same old playbook
Be very surprised if they don't kick something off to try to undermine the support the Palestinians are receiving.
 
There is a lot of shaping of Palestinian solidarity marchers going on. Shaping them up for a good kicking and nicking.

If they are minded to, I speculate that they will send in snatch squads into future crowds to arrest whoever (they said Jihad) knowing this will cause alarm and disarray and pushback and a big row. It’s the same old playbook

That is certainly the language the Home Secretary (and the wider government) is trying to use, but all I would say there is that she / they've done nothing legislatively or in policy terms to bring any of that about. They've not even rescinded their directives around the recording of non hate crime incidents which could be very relevant here.
 
Re the marches.

As they are big and PSC are doing a great job in organizing frequent marches the pushback I think is on the propaganda front.

Keep bringing up the minority of placards etc which are problematic/ keep saying they are Hate marches/ Go on and on about the From the River to the Sea chant, keep asking people whether they think Israel has a right to exist.

Its the drip drip accusations and painting of the marches as people screaming hate. Fuelling division.

Do this enough and some of it sticks.
 
i recall hearing of Paris summer 68, where le flic were kept in their suffocating vans for hours with only cases of police supplied cheeky red vin de table to keep them company until it was time to let them loose. The met are probably putting in a big order for red bull and vodka in anticipation of the big days ahead
 
i recall hearing of Paris summer 68, where le flic were kept in their suffocating vans for hours with only cases of police supplied cheeky red vin de table to keep them company until it was time to let them loose. The met are probably putting in a big order for red bull and vodka in anticipation of the big days ahead
There's a lot of bull coming out from the cops as ever
 
i recall hearing of Paris summer 68, where le flic were kept in their suffocating vans for hours with only cases of police supplied cheeky red vin de table to keep them company until it was time to let them loose. The met are probably putting in a big order for red bull and vodka in anticipation of the big days ahead

not likely, they rarely go much beyond bottled tap water
 
Must be very frustrating for Home secretary and Met that these demonstrators are so peaceful. Include a lot of families. Keep on the route and generally behave themselves.

So the Met and Home Secretary have to resort to post demo arrests by scouring footage for the miniscule number of problematic placards and chants.
 
Must be very frustrating for Home secretary and Met that these demonstrators are so peaceful. Include a lot of families. Keep on the route and generally behave themselves.

So the Met and Home Secretary have to resort to post demo arrests by scouring footage for the miniscule number of problematic placards and chants.

These have been the most peaceful and well behaved marches I've ever been on.

People who have every right to be angry and unreasonable being good natured and reasonable.
 



Saw this on Novara Media.

An elected politician and minister in government calling for Israel to have sanctions, arms embargo and Netanyahu to put up for war crimes.

How refreshing and how unlikely to happen here.

Ione Belarra leader of Podemos and Minister of Social Rights.

Bastini puts forward that a major reason for getting rid of Corbyn and Starmers push to get rid of anyone remotely sharing same politics is that the establishment didn't want someone like that near foreign policy. Starmer has brought it back to we will wait to see what Biden decides and then follow.

So in UK end up with two main parties basically agreeing with each other and any other voices pushed into the wilderness. Except on this Joe Public are making themselves heard.

Really cheered me up listening to her.
 
Well-worded statement of the obvious: Collective Punishment in Gaza Will Not Bring Israel Security
The current bombardment of villages, towns, hospitals, telecommunications and other pillars of civilian life in Gaza is the “Dahiyah Doctrine” intensified to a previously unimaginable degree. Fueled by a strategic culture that invokes moralistic justifications for extreme, undifferentiated military force as an end in itself, Israel’s current punitive campaign is of dubious security utility. Israel has carried out four devastating wars against Gaza, in 2009, 2012, 2014 and 2021, with the aim of deterring or defeating Hamas. But during these years Hamas has only grown more sophisticated in its capacities and more brazen in its efforts, as the Oct. 7 attack demonstrated.
Short piece that traces the development of the doctrine and its failures.
 
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