magnkarl

As far as I gather the proposed deal doesn't include the hostages. Again. I know several countries who would not accept a cease fire unless their citizens were safe, including the one you and I live in. I don't even think we'd negotiate with terrorists. It's the same deal that Egypt and Qatar tried earlier in the year, and are now rehashing to try to put pressure on Israel even though Hamas have sent hundreds of rockets out of Rafah in the last days towards aid convoys, civilians and crossings. If Egypt had any mettle in these negotiations they'd stop Hamas from giving Israel's war-crime fellowship a reason to go into Rafah, instead we're at exactly the same place as last time where the so called friends of Palestine in the Middle-East do f-all except for posturing and then feigning outrage when Israel responds to Hamas attacks within another Gaza city. This could have been over months ago if Hamas had escaped the area through one of the hundreds of tunnels they have going out of Gaza to wherever their leadership are. But that would be too easy wouldn't it, have to squeeze that last bit of anger out of people by using the last city in Gaza full of civilians as shields and then wait for the expected Israeli response. Both sides can go ¤#% themselves, the UN and the countries around Gaza can also do one. Civilians are being used as pawns in Iran and Israel's war, with what seems like flagrant disregard for their well-being from their so called leadership in the West Bank and Gaza who could've ended this months ago if they wanted to.

Yes, because what they’re doing at the moment is working out great, isn’t it? Free speech only counts when it is one side speaking. It’s turning into a monster where the people who initially protested have been replaced by racist thugs occupying and vandalising private property, all in the name of human rights of course, not due to some people just liking a good riot.

Considering the 'protests' at some college campuses in the US have now started becoming an America hate-fest where the protesters take down American flags, burn them and hang up Palestinian flags I don't see how long they'll continue. I think it was on Bill Maher the other day where someone went around one of the tent camps outside Colombia and asked people if they were a student, 1/10 of them were. It seems a bit like the new excuse to riot and occupy, and unless something happens in Rafah I don't see how Israel will continue the killing spree they had initially. International pressure has helped for sure. So, to remedy the issue around non-students taking over universities and keeping students out 'frat boys' and normal students who want to celebrate their education finishing soon have taken to counter-protesting and keeping flags and property safe. The people who were 'students for Gaza' quickly disappeared when challenged by other people than police. I wonder how much of this is fueled by social media. Coincidentally the building that was occupied at Columbia was completely trashed by the 'protesters'. Time to look at the funding especially from Qatar to colleges in the US, I don't think it's a coincidence that it's the colleges with the most money received by the same people who support Hamas who have had the worst riots and vandalism. Or here, people using their kids for some lovely protesting at one of the same camps in Sydney (yeah I know Sky Australia). I'm afraid the cause is being marred by what seems to be a rather large minority of idiots who don't understand how they are coming across, or simply don't care.

Kerem Shalom is one of the places where Humanitarian aid is brought in. Linky Three Israeli Soldiers Killed in Rocket Attack Claimed by Hamas Geo-located right inside Rafah. Fired from within the same population which still majorly supports the people that is contributing to this bloodshed and giving Israel cause to shut down humanitarian crossings. I wonder why they're even entertaining Hamas at the negotiations in Egypt.

While the guise for Benny is religious, this war is obviously not about religion. It's about land and two ways of living (Arab vs Western) crashing with one another. Israel is the West's outpost, while Palestine is the Arab and Iranian world's answer. It was likely about religion totally in the start, but that has moved more over to a geo-political war for the last 50 or so years, or else Sunni Hamas would not be supported by Shia Iran.

Coincidentally AH, JS and Pol Pot were all rabid atheists. In fact most civilian deaths committed in the last 100 years were done by regimes who had denounced religion. It's not about religion, it's about people being people, extremes come in all shapes and colours and have a particular tendency of flourishing in societies where the moral grounding that religion can have is totally severed.

No, just the eegits outside the Jewish school my granddaughter attends. I don’t think confronting a mob like that is a good idea.

I think it's been far worse in London than Cardiff, and I also probably feel that there's less of the type of person in Cardiff who'd behave like that. Here's a photo from London, right at the front of the protest. I'm sure a lot of these people took these posters from the SWP who are often at booths right at the start of protests, but I wonder if these people think? There's at least 10 people here, right at the front of the protest holding posters advocating another intifada - two periods of this conflict with widespread suicide bombing. And a bit further back: I mean, if I ever spotted someone protesting for Ukraine calling for wiping out or widescale terror against Russia I'd confront them. Same protest, different place: Just calling it 'resistance', sounds like George Galloway tbh.

Rumoured that another TU22 shot down by Ukraine today. Likely with S-200. Hopefully the one that sent that cluster warhead at civilians in Odessa.

When I've tried to have a conversation with them, that seems to be the case for about half of them, yes. 'What does from the ri... mean?' 'Hurr durr, you're trying to catch me out!' 'What does intifada mean in the context of Palestine consider you have it on your poster?' 'I got it from a stall down the road and to be honest with you I don't know but Israel!'. I think a lot of them are whipped up by people like George Galloway, SWP, Chris Williamson, the usual suspects and their underlying anti-semitic tendenies (especially if they're second or third generation from that part of the world). That's not to say that there aren't an awful lot of people with good points, I just think many of them are there because it's popular and the cool thing to do. Or else they'd also be in the protest march for Ukraine. As a population we're getting more and more dumb and divided, the way some of these people act are a byproduct of that. Hard times create strong people, strong people create better times, good times create weak people and weak people create hard times.

I do sometimes wonder - as I walk past the pro-Palestinian thugs in balaclavas wearing a uniquely Bedouin scarf screaming 'from the ri...' outside my granddaughters place of education every Friday afternoon - what would happen if Israel sent a missile with a fragmentation cluster warhead into a peaceful civilian group walking their dogs/jogging/walking/playing with their kids near a beach, when you consider in example that time when everyone was up in arms that Israel hit that parking lot outside a hospital and it then turned out to be Hamas\PIJ misfiring their water pipe rocket. I'll give it to them, they're great at stealing oxygen from conflicts that have far worse breaches of war crimes, genocide and breaches of humanitarian law in them. Everyone looks at Gaza and Israel while Vlad does as he pleases. Meanwhile I'll join the 20 odd people outside the Russian embassy to try to do the little I can to stop Russia trying to exterminate Ukrainians and several different peoples in Sudan\Darfur, and then I'll let the millions of people protest the conflict where one side attacked the other, one side went totally overboard, and the UN is using 90% of its resources on. And then I wonder how much of this is whipped up online by Iranian\Russian bots as literally no one cares about Sudan or Myanmar.

Hamas is the government of Gaza. The Al-Aqsa brigades are their military arm. Their military arm attacked another country. It's a war. Just like Ukraine fighting Wagner is a war. The Syrian civil war is a fight between one state actor and several smaller groups. Do you also not call that a war?

I'm sorry but this line of reasoning doesn't float for me. You don't bomb a theater full of kids because you're fighting a country's military forces, you don't abduct 80k children, you don't mass rape, do what they did in Bucha, use ballistic missiles with fragmentation and cluster warheads on a city 500miles from the front line. Those aren't military actions, even if you think they are. The missiles Russia use to bomb Ukraine can hit a target within 100 meters. Why people keep trotting out the theory that people dying to the same missiles 50.000 meters from the front line in hospitals and schools is somehow a byproduct of military action is beyond me. It isn't, and underlines the feelings I have about standards. Russia gets a 500 mile leeway for their bombs, while Israel is supposed to hit a needle in a haystack in the most densely populated area in the world.

For once I've got to give it to Macron. Sending troops to create safe zones in the big cities is a valid approach. That might actually force the Russians to not shoot at them due to fear of escalation. I don't see how else you're going to save civilian lives except for arming Ukraine to the teeth with every anti-air asset we have available and strangling China's supply to Russia.

For me the big difference between Russia and Israel is that Hamas started this (again), and are (were) the elected government of Gaza. In fact they still hold a majority in support. Ukraine didn't attack Russia, it never did. Yet Russia has been doing in my opinion far worse things than Israel. Flattened cities with 100k+ inahbitants, bombed theaters with KIDS written on the roof, abducted and kidnapped 80k children, backbound, shot and dumped mayors, ex soldiers, policemen and other members they thought were 'pro Ukranian' into mass graves. Raped women by the 10s of thousands. One is an aggressor attacking another country completely unprovoked, while the other is a reaction to a massive terrorist attack. There's a big difference. That said I'd love to see both Benny and Vlad in the Hague, but that won't happen. I'll settle for Benny being put in prison for his corruption so there's peace to investigate, and for Vladimir to keel over once he's completely trashed everything in Russia to keep this stupid war going. Russia's just used fragmentation based cluster munitions on a boardwalk in Russia, for me he's on the same level as AH.

Russia have used cluster warheads on Odessa. Europe 2024 folks. Several people hit, including a dog while jogging with its owner. Time to consider sending in the troops and see if Russia dares attack NATO personnel. This can't go on. Hidden the content in case people don't want to see it. If we haven't already, it's time to restore the tranche 1 and 2 typhoons (if there are any left), fast track training of Ukrainian pilots and get them everything they need. Tired of the drip feed. Translation: Ukraine gets aid, Russia bombs joggers, pregnant women, kids and dogs with ballistic missiles with cluster warheads.

If it quacks like a duck. That said, Dresden and Hamburg would be classed as genocide today.

The crime isn't the same. Genocide is different to war crimes. I get the sentiment, and that is why I think so many people are arguing genocide. If you think kidnapping 70k kids and wanting to wipe out a whole nationality and culture in Ukraine doesn't constitute genocide, then killing 35k people in Gaza isn't genocide either. Differing standards.

Claiming that Russia doesn't want to eliminate Ukrainians when they've bombed more schools and hospitals in a week almost every week than Israel has for 6 months and saying that they don't have the intent, while calling what Israel does is a clear cut case of differing standards. Which is exactly what I was pointing at. Read some posts further down and you'll see a follow up as to why said poster only thinks Russia is committing war crimes. Ergo Israel is held to a different standard.

IDF and Israel's right wing leadership deserves demonisation. They've prosecuted war with Hamas and Hezbollah before without the massive civilian loss of life before, they could do it again. That said I understand that it needed a bigger reaction this time after what happened Oct 7th. I just don't think they chose the right action. They could've played this the proper way - go to the UN, present their proof, get backing from the majority to go into Gaza with UN soldiers, apprehend the people in charge, blow up tunnels, bunkers, clean the area of weapons and put a spotlight on Hamas backers. That way they'd get a much bigger 'ok' to actually go hard against Hamas wherever Hamas was hiding. The indiscriminate bombing is just a bit too 1945 or Russia for most people's liking. I just find the whole trampy non-critical support for either side asinine. Both sides here have 70 years of furthering these issues, and whenever there was a deal or agreement presented the extremists from both sides shut it down to make money and further the conflict.

A few weeks ago this exact thing was done when Russia flattening Mariupol was mentioned, in this thread. The argument that was used was that Russia was attacking soldiers and weren't committing genocide.

A good idea. In my humble opinion you'd need to also go after the people who are stealing the aid that is meant for the Palestinian people. The heads of the PA\Fatah\PLO\Hamas are dripping rich and have absolutely no incentive to have Palestine be a proper state, it'd remove their cash cow. We also need to seriously look at how the UN is prolonging this rather than actually helping the people who are suffering by using militants and corrupt officials to hand out aid. It hasn't worked. In example, how is Yassir Arafat's widow so rich? How did Suha Arafat amass all these millions?

I despise Israel as much as anyone else for what they're doing, I'm just a bit fed up of the one sided gang-hysteria coming with the Pro-Palestinian stance at the moment, it's been 7 months of harassment, racism, bad arguments, going around calling for wiping out the only Jewish state in the world and a complete lack of awareness of other things. The oxygen that other issues need is essentially outplayed by a war which Palestinians started themselves, over and over and over. No one talks about how they've got a history as checkered as anyone, they're all talking about Israel. People (like you've seen in this thread) hold Israel to a much higher standard to other warring nations, be that the US, NATO, Russia or whatever. When someone then brashly comes in and lays all the blame on the country that has been invaded by their neighbours umpteen times, terrorised and had the (for some) unreasonable reaction to invasion and terror of striking back, in mostly defensive wars, I'll react. I'm tired of the childish pro-Palestinian stance with no context, no other thought than screaming about intifada and justice for a population which have been massive troublemakers not just to Israel but to everyone else around them, where no one holds anyone on 'their side' to account, while at the same time expecting Israel to behave better than any other warring state in the world. It's beyond me. Go back in this thread to the days after Israel started responding, by the look of some of the posters we were already then at 100.000 civilians killed, hospitals bombed (which turned out to be Hamas) and - when after 8 months, we're still not at 35.000 - including Hamas fighters, they're still banging the same drum. At the same time, a reported triple of that figure has died in Sudan, I don't see anyone at all protesting for helping the Sudanese military stop RSF who are actually committing genocide on the behedst and with the support of Russia\South Africa. The Palestinian cause is popular, popular to the point of people cheering for a people who are doing absolutely nothing in the way of moving forward or stopping the spiral even with billions and billions of aid every year. If you count the issues Egypt had with Gaza, this is the sixth war Gaza's population have brought to other people. Maybe it's time to start asking why, and trying to figure out what it is about Palestinians\Gaza which makes the population so prone to acting like this, even if it is Egypt, Hamas, Israel or whoever who is trying to control it. it's not all Israel's fault, and Palestinians aren't children.