Israeli forces storm and fire on Al Aqsa mosque

[GALeftist]

Detestable.

https://twitter.com/_waleedshahid/status/1392233800478990337

Among other things, the circumstances which led to many Jewish people leaving Europe and other parts of the Middle East were, obviously, absolutely horrific. They ought not to have faced the discrimination and horrible crimes that caused many of them to leave. Stunning to see it be seemingly referenced as a positive here.

[GALeftist]

I don't think we should be using vocabulary such as apartheid. I don't remember members of the Xhosa or Zulu being potential kingmakers in the coalition in South Africa. But just because it isn't apartheid doesn't mean there is blatant evidence of racism and mistreatment of Arabs in Israel.

I suggest you to read the arguments used by human rights organizations, including that of Anat Biletzki, to say that Israel is an apartheid state.  While apartheid in Israel is not based on skin colour, but rather on ethnic and religious grounds, the essence is similar. Israel foundations are grounded on disenfranchisement and segregation.

In what concerns Arab Israelis, certainly they are not disenfranchised and submitted to a military dictatorship like the Arabs in the West Bank, nor suffer the ordeals of the unlucky Gazans.  But please don't make the mistake to treat Arab Israelis and Palestinians like different peoples, nor Israel and Palestine as separate realities. While blacks in South Africa were completeley disenfranchised over the years,  coloureds and indians were granted limited rights by the end of SouthAfrican apartheid. Arab Israelis are in much better better condition than people in Gaza and the West Bank, but they are still second-class citizens in a state which fundamental laws explicitly say that country is not for them.

Besides, the definition of Israel as an apartheid state is neccessary. Especially in what concerns the West Bank and Gaza, but also considering everything between the Jordan and the Sea as a single entity. Putting an end to the fiction that Israel is a democratic state is part of the paradigm shift needed to change things.

Are you saying that Israel doesn't have a right to exist?

This isn't necessarily targeted at you, but I feel like the whole "Israel has a right to exist" thing is often part of a motte-and-bailey fallacy, with the bailey being the argument that "Israel has a right to exist as a nation primarily of and exclusively for Jewish people." I don't think anyone (sane) would argue that Israel doesn't have the right to exist as in it ought to be annexed by Palestine, which I feel is what is implied by the argument over Israel's right to exist. However, I think that it's odd that Israel's right to exist is conflated with its nature as a state wherein exclusively Jewish people have the right to national self-determination. I mean, we don't apply the same standard here in the United States. I think most people would agree that we don't need separate nations for Black Americans and White Americans, or Christian Americans and non-Christian Americans; we assume that the United States protects all their rights (although, of course, it often fails to live up to that promise, and we must keep working to bring the USA closer to that goal). Anyway, the way I see it, there were only ever three options: a true two-state solution, with a Palestinian nation and an Israeli Jewish one, a unified, pluralistic democratic state from the Jordan to the Mediterranean, or an undemocratic but still Jewish state again from the Jordan to the Mediterranean. Frankly, I think the situation in the West Bank is now so fraught as to make a two state solution untenable, so given the latter two options I know which one I'd pick.

[GALeftist]

Gaza Rocket Inventory and Distance Map for those watching at home.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Rockets_from_gaza_%28en%29.png

It appears that some of the poorest people in the world have access to 8 different types of surface to surface missiles to pepper their neighbours with.

Why and how did the impoverished Palestinian citizens of Gaza come up with 2,000 "Qassam-3" missiles?

Qassam rockets are specifically engineered to be extremely cheap to build (at the cost of reliability and accuracy, of course, which is the heart of the matter in many ways; these rockets don't have the technology to be guided to strike specific targets, although I suspect Hamas and the PIJ care little about whether it hits a civilian or military target to begin with). They cost like $800 per rocket to build iirc.

[GALeftist]

Don't focus on property destruction guys(in all seriousness it is quite bad that non combatants are losing their livelihoods and I genuinely do feel bad for Gaza civilians. Not so much for AP though.

You are an utterly vacuous presence on this website. If you'll excuse war crimes, what else do you believe in?

*potential war crime . The IDF which i dont trust either obviously  has stated it was a hamas intel area. I would like some independent confirmation if that is true or not. So far the AP has complained but they haven't actually denied the IDFs statement.

However overall after what the AP said about how property destruction doesn't matter, i have little sympathy towards them even if its still bad what happened to them.

Not necessarily directed at you, lfromnj, but if this was a building with lots of press offices in eastern Ukraine or something and Russia leveled it and said afterwards that it was because there were far-right Ukrainian insurgents hiding out there or something and I decided to take Russia at its word (or frankly even entertain the notion that that was their sole motivation) I would (rightly) be roundly mocked. It seems odd to me that we afford Israel so much more latitude.

[GALeftist]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1394260581201371146

Hmm

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1394290575822757888

Also, very bad decision from the State Department. A ceasefire desperately needs to be reached, innocent people are dying needlessly.