They make hardware with defects looking at you RROD and YLOD , they expect you to rebuy everything again every time there is a new console ( Nintendo). They remove your content that you have paid for from your library (Amazon, Sony, music from games), they alter the deal after purchase by instering DRM and shitty launchers and turn off servers (Ubisoft and EA). They lock you out of accessing stuff on devices you own with DRM (eg Netflix 4k on linux ).
Then we have regional releases, changes to privacy policies which we didn’t agree to when we signed up.
Add to the fact we’re being fucked over at every turn. The price of everything is increasing, housing is a mess, they’re fucking up the environment while record profits have been pouring in year on year.
They can go suck a lemon 🍋
I will only support FOSS and those who help further that goal such as valve. Otherwise it the high seas everyday.
So genocidal slaughter then, sounds about what one would expect.
An invasion would bring heavy casualties on both sides and questions about whether Israel can devise an exit strategy for the conflict
I found this a bit amusing in a grim way, in what universe has Israel ever indicated that they have or want an exit plan from Gaza or apartheid occupation? They want to own Gaza/Palestine, theynow have an excuse to rampage and slaughter on a new level so they’re taking it.
If being attacked entitles one to retaliate with violence, then Israel has earned the attack that happened by miles.
There has been none of this kind of outrage when Israeli MPs and soldiers brutalize Palestinians, kill international reporters, bomb news stations and residential centers, indiscrimnately kill women and children.
If you don’t believe that violence warrants violent and wanton reprisal, then you should be against the Israelis laying siege to Gaza.
Here we go again, This is one of those justification posts. To which I always respond that there is no justification for the various atrocities committed by Hamas. To which you respond with something about Israeli oppression. To which I respond that it still doesn’t justify the vile and nasty nature of Hamas action and if your moral compass says it does I feel sorry for you. Then I slowly get bored with your inane ideology. Good. So that’s it.
Absolutely, all those dead Palestinian children, totally justified. It’s Israel that has the right to exist, if only someone would tell Palestinians that their kids come second maybe they’d finally shut up about them dying, huh? Getting so uppity about some collateral damage, about being blockaded without food, electricity or water, about being routinely bombed with no recourse.
No, I’m agreeing with you, these Palestinian children got what they deserved. Israel is justified in using their overwhelming power and control of the situation to punish all of Gaza. You convinced me.
Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Olmert was working on a plan to withdraw from West Bank next.
If militant Palestinian leadership were willing to live in peace with Israel there would be peace. They’ve refused so many opportunities to become their own independent state because it requires allowing Israel to also exist in peace.
Palestine is effectively an open air prison, it is occupied for all intents and purposes and Israelis have colonized progressively more and more land, regardless of any kind of empty political gestures.
Israel has a right to exist, not a right to run an apartheid state.
We’ve all seen what happens when Hamas breaches the border now. That’s why the border and checkpoints are there.
Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 wasn’t an “empty political gesture”. Far from it. So far from it.
It was met by violence. It was met by the rise of Hamas.
And now that Hamas have told you very clearly exactly who they are, believe them. I know you won’t listen to Jews, so look at the utter barbarity and scale of the atrocities Hamas carried out. Look at that honestly and listen to what Hamas is telling all of us about who they are.
Can you do that and still maintain they should have free run of Israel? They slaughtered 260 kids at a music festival for peace. Their charter calls for the slaughter of Jews OUTSIDE of Israel as well as within. And you want Israel to give them open access so they can fulfill it?
It would be so lovely if it were possible to open up Gaza whilst still containing Hamas. Do you have a proposal for how to do that? Don’t forget the containing Hamas part. You might not want to accept it but you’ve seen what Hamas will do if they have free access to Israel.
And we’ve seen the over 500k Palestinians that have been killed by Israel since 2010 due to Israeli occupation. You may not want to accept it, but you’re just justifying ethnic cleansing of a land this is very successfully being ethnically cleansed. And now the 2.4 million who remain are going to pay in blood for crimes they didn’t commit. Is this what you want? Is this what you believe is deserved?
Wherever you got that 500k number from, get rid of that as a source. It is wrong by several orders of magnitude. Since 2010 it’s 4,882.
Which of course is still 4,882 too many.
The only ethnic cleansing in Gaza was when all Jews were removed in 2005. It is not being ethnically cleansed of Gazans. I am not “justifying ethnic cleansing” in talking about the role Palestinian militants play in these deaths.
What I am trying to get through here is that Palestinian militants are complicit in and exploit these deaths because - until the barbaric rampage last Saturday - these deaths have the militants’ most effective weapon against Israel. They provoke Israel, Israel responds, civilians die, militants continue. When they take a break from provoking, Israel stops too. This is consistent. It’s observable over and over and over again, except it doesn’t become news until Israel responds.
Hamas’ provocation last weekend was so extreme the world sat up and noticed. Israel is responding. It’s the same pattern. You’ve now seen it yourself. It is still true that if Palestine lays down their weapons, there will be no more war; but if Israel lays down theirs, there will be no more Israel.
So back to my question to you, how do you propose to contain Hamas without harming civilians?
If you don’t have an answer, don’t fall back on your old IsraelBad tropes or attacks on me. Recognise that it is an impossible line for anyone to walk. Hamas, who very intentionally embed themselves in civilian centres for the precise reason that attacking them means killing civilians, cannot be contained without harming civilians. That’s not justifying or excusing their deaths at all. I am recognising the reality on the ground which must be dealt with.
Wherever you got that 500k number from, get rid of that as a source. It is wrong by several orders of magnitude. Since 2010 it’s 4,882.
My mistake, I was listing numbers off the top of my head and was admittedly overzealous, as happens in online discourse, and yes it was by multiple orders of magnitude. I will concede on this. The human toll for Palestine from 2008 through 2020 was 5,600 and 115,000 injured, while for Israel the death toll was 250 with 5,600 injured.^[statista.com/…/israeli-palestinian-casualties-by-…]
The only ethnic cleansing in Gaza was when all Jews were removed in 2005. It is not being ethnically cleansed of Gazans. I am not “justifying ethnic cleansing” in talking about the role Palestinian militants play in these deaths.
Israel has for years refused to honor their obligations to respect the human rights of Palestinians, including their right to freedom of movement through occupied territory and their right to enter and leave their own country.^[www.hrw.org/…/gaza-israels-open-air-prison-15] The Gaza strip is the world’s largest open-air prison, due to Israel’s blockade. It’s one of the most densely populated areas of the world, low life expectency with a median age of 18 years, and abysmal living standards. There’s a lack of access to education and medical treatment due to years of Israel bombing schools and hospitals. Israel has now cut off this nation from access to water, food, fuel and electricity, which due to aforementioned blockade, largely comes from Israel.^[aljazeera.com/…/what-is-gaza-strip-the-besieged-p…]
It is still true that if Palestine lays down their weapons, there will be no more war
History shows otherwise. Perhaps there will be no more soldiers on the ground, but Palestine will continue to be denied their basic human rights, freedom of movement, sovereignty, education, and medical access. This is known because it was true before Hamas existed, and it is the reason Hamas has the power they do.
So back to my question to you, how do you propose to contain Hamas without harming civilians?
There are no easy solutions. Palestinians have been fighting oppression by killing civilians. Israel has been countering by killing civilians and further worsening conditions in occupied territories, which in turn makes Palestinians fight the increased oppression by killing more civilians.
Now, Hamas managed to break through the border, and kill several hundred Israeli civilians and take hostage of several hundred more. These are also real lives that matter, and I’m not going to downplay that at all.
But we’re currently on a path towards completely destroying every life that’s held on in occupied Palestinian territory. The solutions Netanyahu’s far-right government will come to is poised to be “The Final Solution”. There will be diplomacy. I’m not sure there’s even room for diplomacy. But there needs to be another way.
So tell me, if you’re not justifying the complete slaughter of all Palestinians in the region, what are you arguing for? If you’re not advocating ethnic cleansing, what is it you’re advocating for?
I’m not arguing that I have all the answers, I’m arguing that the answer the world’s agreed upon is the wrong one.
That’s not justifying or excusing their deaths at all. I am recognising the reality on the ground which must be dealt with.
If you’re defending those committing ethnic cleansing in front of you, you are justifying and excusing those deaths. If not to justify, what purpose is there to defend? Why wouldn’t you at least keep quiet so you can play the role of a complicit bystander, rather than speak up and become an avid advocate?
My mistake, I was listing numbers off the top of my head and was admittedly overzealous, as happens in online discourse, and yes it was by multiple orders of magnitude. I will concede on this.<
That was an straightforward bit of overzealotry to demonstrate. You’re far from the only one who does it, it’s VERY common and abetted by a significant disinformation system. You get caught up in emotions, exaggerate - here by 495,000!!! - and use that as if it were justification and substantiation of your arguments. Other people do it too, and you’ll have been persuaded by those exaggerations. The internet makes it worse but it’s been going for longer than Israel has existed as a modern state.
The Gaza strip is the world’s largest open-air prison, due to Israel’s blockade<
How many times do I have to write this before it gets through? The blockade is entirely due to militants (Hamas and all of the other groups, with a collective history going back to the Ottoman Empire) and the terrorism they bring to rid the entire land of infidels/Jews and enact sharia law. Yes, the blockade sucks. Yes, it hurts civilians. Perhaps you haven’t heard or seen what Hamas actually did - a level of barbarism Israel has NEVER done - beheading babies, raping dozens of women, parading their bodies through the streets, do I have to go on with this sickening list for you to recognise the depth of atrocities committed? They fucking beheaded babies. But the information is out there now. Trying to prevent this is why there is a blockade.
So tell me, if you’re not justifying the complete slaughter of all Palestinians in the region, what are you arguing for? If you’re not advocating ethnic cleansing, what is it you’re advocating for?<
Recognition of Hamas’ agency in this. Recognition of militants’ agency in this. Recognition of non-combatant Palestinian extremists’ agency in this. Recognition of other Muslim agency in this. Recognition that every de-escalation by Israel has been used by militants, not to build Palestine but to regroup and rearm. Recognition that Israel cannot fix this unilaterally and that there is no one for Israel to negotiate peace with.
Why wouldn’t you at least keep quiet so you can play the role of a complicit bystander, rather than speak up and become an avid advocate?<
And we come full circle in your post, where you start by recognising your overzealousness in getting the number of Palestinian deaths you’re accusing off so enormously, egregiously wrong, to you overzealously accusing me of this enormously, egregiously wrong sort of crap.
Your emotions have run away with you. However justified in those emotions you might feel, they’re leading you to thoroughly unjustifiable errors.
No. You’ve been wrong on so many points, including your assessments of me.
Your blockade comment above shows your lack of understanding of what I’ve written. This week’s atrocities from Hamas are the undeniable evidence of what the blockade had previously prevented. Very different. The blockade only exists because it is necessary to reduce Palestinian militants’ ability to slaughter Israelis. Some of those militants have shown you in undeniable terms how barbarously far they will go. That you were unaware of their intentions before Saturday doesn’t mean they sprang into being recently.
Yeah, you’re continuing to be clouded by emotion. I’ll stand by that.
Yes, the killing of civilians is never acceptable, which is why we should stand with Israel while they bomb kids.
Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 wasn’t an “empty political gesture”. Far from it. So far from it.
Gaza is blockaded, the people cannot leave. It is a prison.
Don’t believe me, take it from the Israeli Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant:
“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we will act accordingly.” (Source)
Is it any wonder the median age in Gaza is 18 years old when this is the attitude of Israeli’s towards the whole strip? Israel has the power in this situation, this is clear from the fact that they can literally cut off these critical supplies to the entire region at will. And this is how they use that power; to indiscriminately punish the people of Gaza.
So you don’t grasp WHY the blockades are in place then? How graphic do I need to get in explaining that they are there to reduce terrorist incursions into Israel and to reduce militants’ missile capability. You have seen what militants do when they breach that border, and yet you want that border open?!?!?
Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza in 2005 wasn’t an empty gesture. It was a unilateral move towards peace which was violently rejected by Gazans. That part of it doesn’t fit your IsraelBad narrative but it’s vital to understanding the full picture. You have the luxury of ignoring it. You will still be safe. Israelis don’t have that luxury. Palestinian terrorists make sure they can’t forget.
Do you honestly think Hamas and the other militant groups have no power in this at all? Ok, so maybe you aren’t aware of how shitty Hamas is in running Gaza, how much aid money Hamas’ leadership skims off for their own wealth, how they keep some Gazans in poverty so they can be exploited in anti-Israel PR, their whole cult of martyrdom and jihad.
But now you’ve seen how little Hamas cares for human lives. You cannot deny the immense ruthless barbarity of their actions Saturday. They will sacrifice Gazan lives too, because, until the slaughtering rampage last weekend, that is and always has been their most effective weapon against Israel. Hamas, PIJ, Muslim Brotherhood, they will sacrifice civilian Gazans, celebrate them as martyrs and keep on doing it.
How the eff do you counter that peacefully? Please tell me, cause I would love to know.
So Israel is justified in punishing civilians indiscriminately, en mass, but the same brutality from Hamas is unacceptable to you. Think that over to yourself.
If what you’re arguing for Israel is true, that they have a right to starve and kill children because of an attack, then why have Palestinians no earned that right? What makes them lesser of human rights in your mind?
Perhaps Hamas should call all their brutality “unintentional” and that will make it ok in your eyes? “Whoopsie, precisely headshot a kid. It’s the terrorists fault.” If you’re willing to hold all of Gaza accountable for Hamas, why would all Israeli’s not be held accountable for their own brutal military? Israel is even supposedly a democracy.
These examples are from the last year, but this is not some new phenomenon. Israel has a long history of brutalizing the Palestinian people and assassinating any leaders that appear.
Imagine if Hamas went into a Jewish synagogue and treated people like this: [1], [2], [3], [4] But these are Israeli police heros fighting a brave battle against unarmed women and old men human animals, right?
How quickly was the murder of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh swept under the rug? An unarmed journalist, shot in the back of the head by IDF. No one gives a shit.
So as Gazans and Palestinians get starved and bombed out of existence over the course of decades, tell me why they have less human rights than what you afford Israelis? You cannot argue from a humanitarian perspective for Israel and then completely flip your script when it comes to the human rights of Palestinians. You cannot hold Palestinian children to account for the actions of Hamas and then not do the same for Israeli civilians and the IDF. And if that’s unpalatable to you, perhaps consider revising your blind support for Israel’s brutal apartheid tactics.
I don’t know why this topic breaks people’s brains so hard, people will just give Israel a complete blank check to literally do whatever they want for 60 years but as soon as their chickens come home to roost it’s the Palestinian civilians fault. Suddenly they simply won’t draw any kind of distinction between Hamas and literal children when it comes to who is justifiable to punish.
And then the only way anyone can address me raising these criticisms is to assert that I’m arguing Israel doesn’t have a right to exist. But who is actually at more of risk of being wiped off the face of the earth? The Israelis with their unlimited global support, wealth and Iron Dome? Or the Gazans who are trapped in Gaza and can literally have their vital resources cut off at a moments notice?
You’ve made up a whole hell of a lot that I DIDN’T SAY.
So you’re way to counter an impossible situation peacefully is to make up crap about me, list things Israel’s done and hasn’t done (cause some of what you’re citing is jihadi propaganda and make up complete shite about genocide. Yes Israel could wipe Gaza out entirely. They haven’t.
They haven’t.
Israel is in an impossible situation. They contribute to it, but they didn’t create it. ISRAEL CANNOT SOLVE IT ALONE. Any attempt to do so is considered by Palestinian militants a sign of weakness to be exploited. That’s the reality. Deal with it.
But oh no, put all the fucking blame on Israel for not managing to walk an impossible line in an impossible situation.
I’m simply asking you to apply the same standards you apply to Palestine to Israel. You talk about an “impossible line” for Israel, how much more impossible is the situation for Palestinians? Israel has been demolishing homes, bombing entire apartment blocks and news stations, destroying crops, shooting women, children and unarmed reporters, raiding holy sites etc. they have been doing for decades exactly what Hamas has done but on an even larger scale with more money, support and military options and with far less humanitarian cost. And yet because it’s done under the “respectable” flag of a nation state it’s all excusable, all “bad apples”.
These stories I linked, how many have you honestly even heard of from the past year? They’re a blip on the radar. By contrast, every morning for the past week the attack in Israel has been the headline from NPR to Fox, all of them reporting western governments vowing support for Israel’s campaign to cut off aid and supplies to Gazans and invade to wipe the “human animals” out. There’s been a mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Israeli military personnel, Israeli airstrikes have killed 1,200 Gazans this week. That’s NPR this morning, not “jihadist propaganda”. You can’t just handwave away the reality of profound suffering in Gaza at the hands of the Israeli regime because it’s inconvenient when it comes to trying to justify Israel’s actions.
Israel has ten times the power here, and yet you’re willing to justify their brutality and apartheid as them having no choice, instead you act like Palestine has the power to resolve this while having no assumed right to retaliate themselves or even ability to move, negotiate or govern autonomously. It’s been close to a decade since Israel refused to negotiate with even the legitimate Palestinian leadership itself. How are you suppose to believe Israel has a genuine interest in peace?
Netanyahu is the one who funded Hamas, so Israel is literally the one that created this situation. And now as they bomb the already-bombed-out rubble of Gaza, how do you see that changing the hearts and minds of Palestinians? Peace has never been the goal for Israel, it’s about colonization and genocide. They have no interest in ever living alongside Palestinians (who have just as much a right to their homeland as anyone) or creating a unified state in which Palestinians and Israelis have equal rights. They’re never going to draw any distinction between Hamas and the people of Palestine, these recent events have proved that beyond any doubt.
Do they have the power to pursue peace? Yep. Will they ever? Nope. Israel either needs to leave occupied territory and remove all their settlers from Gaza and Palestine, or agree to grant Palestinians a true seat at the table as equals, not as a subclass relegated to an open air prison, not as “Hamas collaboraters” and collateral damage. This is Israel’s responsibility because, as we see, they have all the true territorial and military power here. Palestinians have none.
I’d challenge you to honestly ask yourself how would see this situation if the tables were turned, if it were a Hamas government oppressing a blockaded, starving Israeli population.
Peace has never been the goal for Israel, it’s about colonization and genocide. They have no interest in ever living alongside Palestinians<
WRONG.
They’re never going to draw any distinction between Hamas and the people of Palestine<
WRONG.
Israel either needs to leave occupied territory and remove all their settlers from Gaza<
ALL Israeli settlers WERE removed from Gaza in 2005. That’s a really big mistake to make. Can’t say I’m surprised though given how many other errors you’re making here.
This is Israel’s responsibility because, as we see, they have all the true territorial and military power here. Palestinians have none.<
WRONG. Palestinian extremists hold the most important card. And before them Arab extremists and the armies of Arab nations which refused to recognise the state of Israel. Unilateral withdrawal from Gaza didn’t bring peace. Nothing has. This crap that it’s entirely within Israel’s power ignores this reality. You have the luxury and safety to remain in that ignorance. Israelis don’t.
“Withdrawal” can be really misleading, here, because it was very much not disengagement aka leaving Gaza alone: The moved the prison guards from inside the strip to the wall surrounding it and then closed the gate and enacted a blockade, for 16 years straight now. About 50% of Gazans are 18 or under, growing up under those conditions, 80% are reliant on humanitarian aid.
You can certainly make arguments that an arms blockade is warranted. But concrete? Starving the city of water? Yeah that’s very much not leaving people alone.
Yeah, it’s pretty shitty inside Gaza for some people. (There are also luxury shopping malls and much wealth. Vloggers share that part of it on Arabic-language social media, quite different from the idea of universal poverty presented on European-language social media.)
Israel can’t force the PA or Hamas to distribute aid money evenly. They can’t force Hamas to run the Gazan economy better. Israel does not have all the power here.
Militants use the concrete to build underground bunkers for themselves and tunnels into Israel. If they didn’t do that, there wouldn’t be a restriction on the amount of concrete allowed in. Israel isn’t limiting it to be cruel or pissy. Every restriction is an attempt to reduce violence and terrorism.
When militants destroy infrastructure for bringing electricity, water and other supplies in, Israel rebuilds it. The siege is horrible. I do not deny that at all. But Hamas only listens to force. Signs of perceived weakness (including Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in 2005) are taken as a signal to increase attacks, that the infidel opponent is weak and can be destroyed. Hamas is so emboldened by what they “achieved” Saturday, of how weak they made Israel, they’re not going to stop until they are forced to. Why is this aspect of their militancy so hard for westerners to see?
Israel has to show itself as stronger than Hamas. Absorbing the losses without offensive reaction will lead to more and more and more death and violence. If only this weren’t the case, but Israel has to deal with the reality of militant thinking. They don’t have the luxury of internet sophistry like we do. I don’t know how anyone could possibly handle this in terms Hamas, PIJ, Muslim Brotherhood, Iran et al will understand which also keeps civilian Gazans safe.
That, and it is an absolute tragedy, is part of how the militants work. They will sacrifice civilians, celebrate them as martyrs and exploit their deaths and suffering as part of their war to eradicate Israel and bring the entirety of the land - river to sea, not just Gaza, not just West Bank - under sharia law.
Every restriction is an attempt to reduce violence and terrorism.
Every restriction also breeds resentment and thus increases violence and terrorism.
There’s one question I want to ask here, and it’s not an easy one, and Israel will take a long time to come to a national consensus on it: Was it just money that Israel funnelled to Hamas to weaken the PLO, or also fighters?
Once you understand how you created that monster you’ll also understand how to starve it. Minds can be changed, the mechanics of conflict and conflict resolution can’t.
Yep. It’s a double edged sword. It sucks. Absolutely sucks.
It also feeds militant goals for war and chaos and hampers everyone’s efforts towards peace. It’s an impossible line for Israel to walk. But you all would rather blame Israel than the militants 🤦
Oh fucking hell. Anything to hang Arab militancy - which has existed since before Israel re-emerged as a modern state - on Israel, eh?
So PRECISELY how does Israel starve Hamas, PIJ, Muslim Brotherhood, and that long history of anti-Jewish militancy? Stop existing? Jump into the sea? That would do it, if the land were finally Judenrein 🙄. Gazans in general might be open to a real resolution to the conflict which accepts the existence of Israel as a Jewish state but their leadership isn’t. How do we remove dictators like Hamas from power? They’re not going to go of their own accord. Israel showing perceived weakness emboldens them. Israel taking steps to reduce terrorism is condemned. It’s an impossible situation and Palestinian militancy thrives on it.
Don’t give me meaningless platitudes that are nothing more than substance-free word play. Deal with the complexity of the reality.
But you all would rather blame Israel than the militants
Israel is militarily, technologically, and economically far superior. That means you have options that Palestinians who want to de-escalate don’t have, thus the ball is in your court. Or, well, practically all of the balls that can be played towards de-escalation are in your court. That’s not a special yardstick we carved just for you, it’s not about “who started it” or “who did worst” but “who is in a better position to end this”.
Also y’all speak English and are on the internet. I could rant to you about Fatah corruption but what good would that do.
How do we remove dictators like Hamas from power?
Hamas has more than one wing, all dependent on each other, and one of them you can right-out supplant. Heck it even meshes with security concerns: Instead of saying “Gaza can’t have concrete because Hamas” say “We’re going to donate concrete but because of Hamas we’re going to do the pouring, tell us where you want those houses”
More generally speaking: You will need to be able to take a punch while showing that you can be an asset to your region of the world meaning internally, you’ll have to make sure that forces who right-out enjoy having an external enemy to fuel their eternal war have absolutely no influence. Doesn’t even need much, all the civil society needs to do is to be receptive enough to understand that Kahanites and Nazis are the same shit with a different coat of paint so that the Israeli Antifa will come back out of exile – Berlin, I know, of all places. It’s an excuse for a city they could’ve at least chosen Hamburg but I digress.
It won’t be easy and it won’t be quick, trust isn’t built in a fortnight. There’s no quick solutions, there’s only approaches which breed resentment and those who don’t, and one kind is perpetuating hatred, the other isn’t. I know this kind of stuff can sound like platitudes but it really isn’t. Being disciplined in that regard is the only way.
More concretely, right now, don’t fucking blow the Saudi Arabia deal. If you need to stop the offensive to do that, do it.
practically all of the balls that can be played towards de-escalation are in your court… “who is in a better position to end this”<
Hamas and all of the other extremist militant groups have the crucial ball though. They’re the ones who are in the only position to end this. No country alone can make peace when their enemy refuses to. That refusal is the ball that Hamas holds, the ball that Palestinian militants held before Israel existed as a modern state, the ball that Arab militants held when the word “Palestinian” most often referred to Jews.
This crap about Israel holding “all the power”, it’s just not true.
I could rant to you about Fatah corruption but what good would that do.<
It’s something we could agree on, you know. Not sure why you wrote this? Do you think I’m unaware of it or how it contributed to the election of Hamas in 2006? I lose count of how many years into his four year term Abbas is, working on 19 years now I think. We could talk about how much current violence in the West Bank is Hamas trying to undermine Fatah there and gain power for themselves.
“We’re going to donate concrete but because of Hamas we’re going to do the pouring, tell us where you want those houses<
If only it were that simple. Hey, let’s present Hamas with official Israeli workers to kidnap and kill. What could possibly go wrong? 🤦
If only it were that simple holds for the rest of your propositions. If only.
If only it were that simple. Hey, let’s present Hamas with official Israeli workers to kidnap and kill.
Who the fuck said anything about neglecting security and being naive?
Hamas and all of the other extremist militant groups have the crucial ball though. They’re the ones who are in the only position to end this.
No. That’s an excuse to avoid being creative and if you’d reflect about it you’d see it. It’s social conditioning saying “we’re the victims, always”.
What’s your plan for the future? Continue the Otzma Yehudit way of “antagonising until they give up”? That’s what got you into this position in the first place. It’s the reason the IDF wasn’t near Gaza and Hamas saw an opening because the IDF was busy in the west bank backing settlers harassing Palestinians. Realise that there’s portions of the Israeli society who want this to continue, whether they admit it or not, because it is convenient for them, because a scared populace can be way more easily convinced to vote for them. Don’t be complicit in that.
Who the fuck said anything about neglecting security and being naive?<
Of course precautions would be taken. Short of going in with significant military protection, it wouldn’t be enough. Hell, going in WITH significant military protection still wouldn’t be enough amongst people who believe in martyrdom and jihad. Israel going in with military protection wouldn’t be seen as a safety measure, it would be seen as provocation. Folks like you would be ranting against Israel for doing so and claiming that the deaths of the construction workers was justified cause, you know, Israel.
You’re the one who’s naive if you hadn’t thought that through.
No. That’s an excuse to avoid being creative and if you’d reflect about it you’d see it. It’s social conditioning saying “we’re the victims, always”.<
I have reflected on this a great deal. My position is considered, informed and grounded in a very unfortunate reality I wish was different. I’ve not said that Israelis are the victims, always. You’ve not understood if you think that. Recognising the agency of Hamas, other militant groups and the infrastructure which supports them in and outside of Gaza is very different.
Don’t be complicit in that.
How little you’ve comprehended if you think that I am.
I don’t have a plan for the future. Hamas and the other militant groups aren’t going to recede any time soon. Quite the opposite now, they will be emboldened by their ‘success’ in brutalising Israelis. Israel can’t attack Gaza hard enough to eliminate the militants. If Israel does less, it will be perceived by militants as a sign of weakness in Israel and continued evidence, not of Israel being strong or any other good quality, but of what the militants forced them to do. If Israel does less, the militants will do more.
It’s an impossible situation. I don’t have an answer. I do know that continuing to blame the entirety of blame and responsibility of Israel doesn’t move us closer to any sort of resolution.
You’re the one who’s naive if you hadn’t thought that through.
What about handing the cement over to Palestinians you can trust (and you know very well they do exist), or international aid organisations, and watching the whole thing with drones?
You seem to be keen on using your creativity and imagination to show how things can’t work. That’s not bad, that’s providing security. Where it becomes a problem is when it replaces thinking of ways how it can work.
Indulge me, suspend your disbelief for a couple of minutes and apply yourself to coming up with something that can be done. Hamas is using pipe sections to build rockets? Fine, tank trucks and canisters exist. Logistically inefficient? Yes. Unviable? Hell no. Then you can say “because of Hamas you now have to carry your water”, not “because Hamas you now have no water”. In one of those two you come across as guarded, but friendly, in the other as heartless.
If Israel does less, it will be perceived by militants
Who the fuck cares about the perception of militants. Worry about the perception of the rest. Worry about Palestinians seeing Israel as the bigger problem than Hamas, worse, as a fucking ally of Hamas.
I do know that continuing to blame the entirety of blame and responsibility of Israel doesn’t move us closer to any sort of resolution.
And blaming everything on Hamas and demanding the impossible – that fascists magically deradicalise – is moving us closer to resolution? That’s the absolutely least likely scenario, yet you declare it to be the only possibility when you say “the ball is in Hamas court”.
Maybe, in this all, we’re looking too far ahead. Would you oppose a Smolanim government that would not giving up on passive security, but stop all the antagonising? The settlements, the turning of PLO territory into Swiss cheese, the “fund Hamas because Fatah is too reasonable” approach? Because if anything should come out of this then it’s wide understanding that the right’s approach to security failed even more than the left’s. Yes maybe Rabin was too naive, people were too hopeful back then (I certainly was), that doesn’t mean that moving to annex the west bank will bring security.
Lots of people are. Real Debrid is the shit! It’s about $2.80 per month for the ability to stream pretty much everything. But ads? Nah, man. There are ads on the torrent sites, but none on streaming. Pirates are pretty ad-adverse.
Huh, never heard of that, it sounds pretty cool since it covers not just streaming movies, but downloads of games as well. I can definitely see the appeal.
Check out Stremio+Real-Debrid+Torrentio. It’s honestly better than any paid subscription you can get from the studios. Install it on something like a Chromecast 4k, or a Shield TV device, hook it up to your home entertainment system, and you’ve got yourself a bonafide real solution.
If you’re paying for it, then you could argue that you aren’t “stealing” it. How are you (or at least the average person) suppose to know that the steaming service you used got their content illegally? This way, all of the liability falls on the streamer rather than the consumer.
I don’t have time to fuck with managing a seedbox to make ratios and community participation bullshit (looking at you, abt). I don’t even have time to fight incompletes on a usenet block. Let me drop a Benjamin in your “donation” box every couple of years and I’ll cover part of the server as long as I can find what I need, when I want it, in the quality I’m looking for.
I have subscriptions to a few of the big boys through legal cross-marketing deals; it’s still better to know that my shows will be waiting for me on my server if and when I ever get around to watching them.
Ideally our LEDs should emit a safe dose of UV-B and infrared too, because they are vital for vit D and melatonin production, both of which are extremely important for general health. As more and more of us become basement dwellers and winter depression enjoyers, this would help out a lot with public health.
That’s not true. We’ve evolved while being irradiated by the sun for literally billions of years. Your body has mechanisms to repair damaged DNA and kill+replace cells that are too damaged. Issues arise when the damage grows fast enough for your body to keep up repairs. E.g. you get a sun burn because you don’t have an adequate tan or you hug a reactor meltdown.
Supplements are an inadequate solution for many reasons.
Vit D supplements barely get absorbed by the stommach. The only way to get adequate vitamin D levels with supplements is to take huge doses for like a month while testing your blood to see if levels are adequate.
Most available Vit D supplements take a week to be metabolized into the active form.
Vit D supplements can give you an overdose of Vitamin D and have severe negative health consequences.
Meanwhile half an hour of sunlight gives you healthy levels of Vit D without risk of overdose.
I’m not advocating for 1000W/m^2 UVB radiation blasting you 24/7, I’m talking about levels that are low enough that you can constantly be exposed to without a increase in risk.
And btw a lack of vitamin D causes severely bad health outcomes, even if it would cause a minor increase in skin cancer (which it doesn’t), the benefits of adequate vitamin D levels would vastly outweigh that risk.
Same with melatonin, supplements can’t replace the effect of exposure to infrared light. But at least with infrared people won’t spread misinformation about how there’s no safe levels.
We’ve evolved while being irradiated by the sun for literally billions of years. Your body has mechanisms to repair damaged DNA and kill+replace cells that are too damaged
We evolved for lots of things that are harmful overall. Unless there is evidence that sun exposure gives some non vitamin d advantage the fact it literally causes cancer means you should avoid it in general.
I like how your rebuttals both say that supplements are both not able to give you vitamin D but also simultaneously a risk of overdose.
Avoid the cancer causing radiation. Just take a pill every day and get your blood work done to see how much you should take.
But at least with infrared people won’t spread misinformation about how there’s no safe levels.
That's because infrared light doesn't cause cancer. Although your support for infrared light exposure does identify you as a bit of a quack.
Yeah, if you take like 15 pills on one day or something stupid like that.
But unlike the risk of taking 15 vitamin d pills, literally all the potential of giving you skin cancer.
This doesn't mean you have to be stupid and never go outside at all because "oh my goodness it's going to give me cancer". It just means that installing UVB emitters in our fucking light bulbs is a bad idea, and if you have vitamin d deficiency you can take a pill every day.
that’s why you’d make the level of UVB radiation low enough that people could safely spend 24/7 under it, but high enough that it provides a health benefit
You might not get 100% of your vit D levels this way, but perhaps just a fraction of it. Depends on how the risk benefit calculation works out.
and of course infrared is generally harmless as long as it’s not strong enough to cook you.
Given that the great big energy efficiency gains from LED lights comes from using just two emission bandgaps, one in the red part of the spectrum and another (the most efficient) in the blue - then surrounded by a phosporous layer to smooth the emission to cover more wavelengths than just those 2 - I doubt your suggestion would be possible without pretty much throwing away most of the energy efficiency of LEDs.
It makes more sense to, for those who need such things, have separate lamps with different technologies more suitable to emit in those wavelengths (incandescent is great for IR because it’s quite literally heating a piece of wire until it is so hot it emits light so you can tune it to be mostly IR, whilst various gases used in fluorescent lamps actually emit in the UV range, hence why the “colder” color fluorescent lamps have this white powdery layer inside the glass, as that’s a substance that absorbs the UV light and re-emits it mainly in the upper part of the visible apectrum, hence why it bluer white).
In fact I think you can do so already (get both IR and UV lamps) but their form factors might not be very practical as those are specialist devices for things like heating terrariums or illuminating signs which have elementes painted with fluorescent paint.
It’s not a question of impossible (as there are emission bandgaps in the UV and in IR, used in regular LEDs), it’s a question of it being a complete total waste of efficiency to deploy that as standard to satisfy the perceived need of a small number of people.
I suppose that there being for sale LED lamps clearly marked as, say, “UV and Infrared Enhanced” or something like that would make sense, but adding it to LED lamps in general would be quite the step back when it comes to the gains we’ve had from the higher efficiency of the LEDs (mainly because, as far as I know, those two emission bandgaps in the red and blue part of the spectrum are the most efficient we’ve discovered so far for illumination).
Thinking about it, it’s quite a cool idea to, say, replace one of the LED “filaments” in the more modern LED lamps with one emitting in the UV or IR spectrum (you can actually get lose LED “filaments” with various colors from a place like Aliexpress, though a quick search hasn’t revealed any with colors outside the visible spectrum) and unlike in incandescent and fluorescent lamps the glass bulb itself doesn’t really serve to keep gas inside or outside - it’s mainly decorative and possibly to keep people from damaging the light structure holding the filaments - so can be removed, though, at least in cheap led light bulbs, one should match the voltage characteristics of the filaments already inside because the designs often take shortcuts to save on the cost of the mains adaptor module that sits inside the bottom of the light bulb.
So Hollywood copyright lawyers will target illegal subscription services rather than individual downloaders? Fine by me.
I can understand paying for a legal streaming service where at least a tiny percentage of profits goes into producing new material. I pirate out of convenience and availability, because movies and series aren’t released immediately in my region.
Paying somebody for streaming film and TV shows that they have no hand in producing, and thus not supporting new productions — same as I can download for free myself? — that makes no sense to me.
Paying somebody for streaming film and TV shows that they have no hand in producing, and thus not supporting new productions — same as I can download for free myself? — that makes no sense to me
It makes sense for me. The one i’m using is $20 per year. I just think of it as convenience fee. It has netflix features but for all movies and tv shows.
And like I said, I get convenience/availability. I guess paying for stolen goods is one step too far for me. Like, “Dude, pass it around, but it’s not yours to sell”.
If someone makes it so I can stream all the shows and all the movies and such in one convenient place, without having to find them myself, hunt down the right versions, etc, I’m good with paying them for that.
It’d be better if it was from a legal service, but as long as exclusives are allowed that can’t happen. If the owners of the content were required to allow anyone who wants to distribute it to do so, at the same cost with no special deals for one distributor over another, then every streaming service could have everything, if they choose. They could then compete on quality of service and which content they choose to have, not on what content they can lock down for themselves alone.
I feel that light pollution has dramatically increased. Where I live, it has been linked to navigational issues with the Bogong moth, which drastically reduced the primary food source of the critically endangered Pygmy possum.
I just built a new house, and I followed recommendations from architects and now my living room has 100w of lights and looks like a 7-Eleven from outside. It’s the equivalent of 1000w of incandescent globes, which was unheard of.
yeah. What they’re not talking about so much (but which can also help) is keeping the temperature down while frying. Some of the newer induction stoves and hot plates have temperature sensors so you can reliably keep temperatures just below the point where the oil starts to smoke and produce a lot of particulates.
Not just Induction, I have a (new) gas stove with a frying mode on one of the hobs that lets you set the temp from 160-200 Celsius, and it controls the gas level to keep it at temp.
Right but if one side surrenders here they’ll lose their land and be destroyed. They aren’t similar.
If hamas get Israel the Jewish population is fucked. Look at what’s happening now when they crossed the border. That wasn’t war it was slaughter of civilians.
If Israel get Gaza the Palestinian population is fucked. Look at the westbank. That is isn’t war either.
It’s not the same as any war. It’s 100 years of religious / racial conflict.
The only end is an agreement or genocide. And 100 years have shown an agreement is unlikely.
They came over the border a killed 1000 civilians. In retaliation Israel has killed 1000 civilians in air strikes. It’s not war. It’s slaughter.
I wonder what could have provoked an attack like. Perhaps decades of oppressive occupation. Constantly escalating violence isn’t going to fix this. But Israel is the side that can choose to end it by ending apartheid. All the imprisoned can do to improve their situation is try to fight out of it.
This is one of those justification posts. To which I always respond that there is no justification for the various atrocities committed by Hamas. To which you respond with something about Israeli oppression. To which I respond that it still doesn’t justify the vile and nasty nature of Hamas action and if your moral compass says it does I feel sorry for you. Then I slowly get bored with your inane ideology. Good. So that’s it.
bloomberg.com
Top