Ulf Samuelsson's answer to If Palestine is not occupied, as Israel states, why can Palestine not receive food and water from their coastal border, or for that matter, escape that way? I'm not trying to start a political argument here, I'm genuinely just wanting to understand. - Quora - "Israel is at war with Gaza since soon after it evacuated Gaza. As part of the war, Israel is blockading Gaza. This is a legal act of war and it is done to stop Hamas from importing military equipment. To be legal, Israel has to publish a list of contraband. They did not have a list in the beginning of the blockade and when they did publish a list, it was too extensive. They have since then corrected the list. They have to maintain the blockade. By this it is meant that all ships with a Gaza destination must be inspected. The inspection can be done at sea, or the ship can be redirected to an Israeli harbour, typically Ashdod, where the goods is inspected and unless it is contraband itnis shipped by lorry to Gaza. There is a way to ship food to a Gaza harbour, and that is for a neutral navy to escort any ship with supplies to a Gaza harbour. The navy have to guarantee that the supply ships do not contain any contraband. Israel then has no right to inspect the ships nor stop them. No nation has chosen to help Gaza this way. Right now, Israel is in a hot war with Gaza and has closed its borders to Gaza. As Israel does not control the border between Gaza and Egypt, aid can come in this way. Egypt have their own bone to pick with Palestinians and is somewhat limited by the peace agreement."
Of course, all the West haters would be very upset if you said that the Soviets occupied West Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, when what the USSR did was much worse than what Israel is doing. Plus it's not like West Berlin kept attacking East Germany, unlike Gaza continuously attacking Israel
Michael Jacobs's answer to If there is a blockade of Gaza, how do they get rockets in, but not food? - Quora - "Congratulations! You have cogently identified the logical flaw in the anti-Israel propaganda regarding the Gaza blockade. Yes, there is a blockade of Gaza. But it is more of a “quarantine” than a “siege.” In a “quarantine,” the blockading power intercepts and inspects any shipments that are headed toward the quarantined area, then allows the shipments to continue to their destination if they do not contain forbidden contraband. Who decides what is “contraband”? Why, the blockading party, of course. For a blockade to be a LEGAL tactic of war, the “rules” of what is allowed and what isn’t allowed have to be PUBLISHED by the blockading party, so that shippers intending to travel to that destination will know what they can bring with them. A “siege” is a different, and more brutal, type of blockade, that seeks to starve a territory to death by depriving it of ANY incoming materials — food, clothing, medicine, medical personnel, fuel, building material, etc. What Syrian leader Assad is still doing to the “rebel” communities in Syria is a “siege,” augmented by non-precision “barrel bombing” — rather than precisely targeting an actual military target, he is simply dropping explosives at random on a civilian community. Another example of a “siege” is what Jordan attempted to do to Jewish Jerusalem during the 1948–49 War of Independence. Israel successfully ran that blockade, at great cost in Israeli lives and material, to keep Jewish Jerusalem alive and in place — though they were unable to hold onto the Old City and much of the eastern environs of that city, which fell into Jordanian hands for 19 years. So: rockets (and the materials to make them) get into Hamas because, DESPITE Israel’s best efforts to restrict such contraband, Hamas has found ways to “run the blockade” and bring contraband into the territory they control. But food, etc. gets into Gaza because somebody ships it there, and Israel gladly lets it in. Every day. By the tons! All that the Israeli border officials do is check it for hidden contraband, first. Shipments by truck enter through one of several monitored border crossings overland. But shipments by sea directly to Gaza are completely forbidden by the blockade; instead, any material destined for Gaza which arrives by sea must be unloaded at an Israeli port, thoroughly checked for contraband, then trans-shipped overland to one of the border crossings. Easy-peasy. And anyone who says Israel is “starving” Gaza has not actually looked at the statistics on the obesity epidemic in Gaza. If anything, they have TOO MUCH food."
One terrorism supporter claimed that the reason Gaza had so many weapons despite Israel controlling most of its borders was that Israel was smuggling them in. He also claimed that Israel built the tunnels between Gaza and Egypt with his proof being the claim that Israel built the tunnel under Al-Shifa, so that gives you an idea of his reasoning capabilities
Richard Hanania on X - "Many know about how in 1948 Palestinians rejected partition. But did you know that in 1939, the British offered Arabs all of Palestine and they rejected it because it required getting along with Jews? The Palestinian slogan was “The English to the sea and Jews to the grave.”"
Clearly, the Palestinians were only "anti-Zionist" because Israel had been formed
Evidence of the terrorist organizations' use of civilian facilities in the Gaza Strip - The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center - "Hamas, Hezbollah and many other terrorist organizations use civilian facilities and populations as shields to hide their military-terrorist activities. The use of civilian facilities and the civilian population was exposed and documented many times during the Second Lebanon War and in various IDF operations against the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip, and in a very extensive way during the most recent war in the Gaza Strip...
Mosques
Educational Institutions
Schools and kindergartens
Universities
Homes of Civilians
Clinics and Infirmaries
Exploiting the Facilities of International Humanitarian Aid Organizations"
Unironically, the meme saying that the Hebrew translation of "mosque", "school", "hospital", "building", "police station" and "shop" being "Hamas base" is right
Thread by @daniela127 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "This, from a DSA organizer I follow. Top priority for DSA is changing the US's position on Israel. Not improving conditions for working people in the US, or student debt relief, or immigration reform, or any of the other domestic issues that face our country. Instead, Israel. DSA is comprised of mostly white, overprivileged, and overeducated people who have found their ubercause in a topic that has almost nothing to do with their day to day lives or the day to day lives of most working class Americans. Half the country bans all abortion 2 weeks after you can first know you're pregnant and the biggest issue facing our country is Palestine? Remember when the most important issue was systemic racism? Say what you will about that, at least it was happening in the US. But anyway glad DSA solved systemic racism as was able to move on to the next pressing issue, I'm sure they'll do just as good a job solving Palestine."
Richard Hanania on X - "In the years leading up to the 1948 war, King Abdullah of Jordan was in talks with the Jews to partition Palestine. The war would see Jordan and Egypt focusing on grabbing land for themselves instead of liberating the Palestinians."
Meme - Chaim Levin @chaim89: "We have reached the point in the discourse where Jews are being told that we aren’t allowed to use the Star of David to identify ourselves."
"*Star of David*?! Are you a Zionist?"
"The Star of David is a Jewish symbol and has been for millennia. But to your question, if you are asking whether I believe the state of Israel should exist, yes I do. I think that all peoples living there should be able to do so equally and freely. Does that sufficiently answer your question or do you need more"
"It does answer my question. I'm aware of what the Star of David is. I was curious if you were. It seems you are not, or you're operating with an astronomical degree cognitive dissonance. You do know when and how it became part of the so called nation of isntreal's national flag no?"
"Thanks for the your history lesson. It's the same Star of David that my grandparents' families wore when they were herded into a ghetto in Poland and then murdered."
Of course, if you denounce the shahada because it is used on ISIS's flag, you are ignorant and Islamophobic
Thread by @estherzelda0514 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Palestine is all of these issues, but not the way the activists want it to be. Here's a 🧵 Starting at the top, racism. Palestinian advocacy has embraced racism as a trolling tactic. They argue Jews are not a race or alternatively white when it suits their needs. They divide Jews by race as if we Jews recognize such divides or believe they will spare some of us. They deny the extreme racial animus for anyone who is not Arab in most of the Middle East and pretend destroying Israel will solve racism in the region. When they targeted Black Americans who supported Jews, they used racist symbolism. When asked by Black people to stop being racist, they doubled down and provided cover for racist memes in their midst, such as accusing Black people of being thralls to Jews and spreading historical lies such as accusing Jews of masterminding the slave trade. While, of course, denying the historical reality of the Arab slave trade and how many racial minorities are current held in quasi indentured servitude in Arab majority countries to this day. Now let's do capitalism. Advocates for Palestine have pretended that they are destroying capitalism by wanting to destroy Israel. They are not. Israel has a robust welfare state while the Arab nations around it hold people in shackles and Egypt exploits Palestinian refugees. They buy keffiyehs on Amazon from Chinese companies and expensive tents, discarding them on college campuses for lesser classes to clean up after them. At Columbia, they took a janitor hostage while rallying behind a trust fund nepobaby with a long rap sheet. Okay, now environmental terrorism. Palestinian advocates provide cover for Hamas's horrible records on the environment. Hamas has burned fields and tires, sending incendiary balloons into Israel to decimate agricultural lands. When Israel pulled out of Gaza in the mid-2000s, it burned the greenhouses they turned over to them to the ground. It refuses to use land to grow food for its people and subjects them to the instability of reliance on international aid behind a blockade. Israel, on the other hand, is a world leader in green technology. It holds a lot of its land in trust, encouraging density instead of sprawl. It has brought back so many native flora and fauna to the area that have not been seen there for centuries. It has breathed life into a region that was decimated by endless Arab and Ottoman warfare, neglected for eons. Now it is one of the most important places in the world for migratory birds and protects them with strong criminal penalties. Now on to settler colonialism. Other people have posted at length about this, but Gaza and the WB are functionally Egyptian and Jordanian colonies. Israel itself was once colonized by the British and the Ottomans. Israel has proved refuge to hundreds of thousands of Jews wrongfully expelled from where they lived for generations. It tasks its military with daring rescue operations for those refugees, when others turned them away because of their religion or race. It is a multicultural country with protections for minorities that may be flawed, but are totally absent from the surrounding countries in the same region. Last and certainly not least, patriarchy. Israel is one of only three countries with some reproductive rights for women in the Middle East. Women have equal rights to men and can hold property and walk freely in public in ways they cannot elsewhere in the region. Everywhere else you travel in the Middle East women are held to high modesty standards while women sun themselves in bikinis on Israeli beaches. Israel has had a female head of state, even America hasn't. Israel is one of the most abortion friendly countries in the world, with no known prosecutions from it. You can obtain one by requesting it online from a health clinic. There are no waiting periods. Israel has had a fully integrated military since foundation, it has conscripted women even before independence and military service for women as is mandatory as it is for men, only 5 countries in the world do the same. Women are not prohibited from serving in combat roles. Gender representation in the Knesset is generally on par or better than even the US Congress. Women were able to vote in Israel prior to its independence. There is no record of female genital mutilation or any of the horrid conditions plaguing the surrounding area in Israel. So yes, Palestine is not a single issue. Advocates for Palestine have lied about every single one of those areas, demonizing a fairly progressive country and making excuses for some of the most brutal regimes in the world. They have distracted and detailed advocacy in all five areas by demanding people like women's rights advocated pledge allegiance to Muslim Brotherhood propaganda and fund Palestine over reproductive rights. Advocacy for Gazans is important. But if it is premised on lies and the hijacking of every other cause, it will achieve nothing for its stated goals and tear down everything else it touches."
Thread by @eigenrobot on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - " while it would be very sad if the jewish people of israel were driven from their land i would view the aftermath in the region with a certain kind of amusement as aid dollars cratered and the palestinians quickly realize they have no ability whatsoever to run a normal society within ten years as they starved and bled and died at their own hands they might even come to look back fondly on their time in an "open air prison" when they could blame other people for the problems that, fundamentally, had always been their own three quarters of a century since they lost a stupid war and they've wasted every moment of it... do you think the gazans are in any way likely, if they suddenly came into possession of the whole of israel, to flourish. theyve had control of gaza for nearly two decades and all theyve done with it is leech aid from developed countries and cannibalize their existing infrastructure while firing shitty rockets at a neighbor that could wipe them from existence in an instant... while some are quote tweeting me angrily and accusing me of wicked thoughts no one has provided any evidence of palestinian competence in any civilized avocation if they ever catch the car theyve been chasing theyre screwed. fin"
Just as everything wrong with formerly colonized countries is still and forever will be the fault of the white man, everything wrong with Palestine is and forever will be the fault of "Zionists"
Meme - "He finally gets to meet his 72 virgins *Butcher of Tehran in hell with devilish women with black hijabs*"
Rachel Moiselle on X - "Reminder: the UN adopted a resolution condemning Israel for transferring Eichmann from Argentina to Israel. For years Eichmann managed the logistics that led to the murder of millions of Jews with impunity. Israel’s logistical measures to bring him to account were condemned."
Meme - Mark Zlochin - מארק זלוצ'ין༝ @MarkZlochin: "From Pyrenees to the sea
Al-Andalus will be free.
*Map of Spain*"
Meme - "70 years of construction
Israel: "Hi Tech" *skyscraper with man working at computer*
Gaza: "TERROR" *2 masked terrorists with rifle and suicide belt digging hole to attack Israel*
Despite Spain, Ireland, and Norway, most of Europe supports Israel at a record level - "According to Dr. López, Spain, Ireland, and Norway are also leveraging the increasing pro-Palestinian sentiment in universities and public demonstrations. “Right now, they are not defending any clear position apart from the idea of a Palestinian state with a legal capacity to negotiate a ceasefire or peace agreement with international validity. Mostly, they are capitalizing on the increasing pro-Palestinian movement at universities, with demonstrations and encampments.” Spain, Norway, and Ireland are also ignoring the situation of the hostages kidnapped by Hamas into Gaza on October 7. “We can see that political declarations in support of the hostages are much softer than those ones in favor of a Palestinian state,” says Dr. Lopez. “To many leftist movements who support the Palestinian cause, it’s problematic to recognize openly that part of the Palestinian leadership has kidnapped and holds more than 130 hostages, who have been moved from one place to the other all along the Strip since October, involving sexual abuses, tortures, and murder.”"
Recognition of Palestinian state about politics, not law - "The recent recognition by Ireland, Norway and Spain of a Palestinian state raises the question: what exactly is a “state”?... The characteristics of a state as an “international person” were originally described in an often-quoted provision of the 1933 Montevideo Convention: “The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications: (a) a permanent population; (b) a defined territory; (c) government; and (d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states.” Palestine’s claim to statehood is dubious. It has a flag, an anthem (not to be confused with the chant “from river to sea”) and diplomats who appear to enjoy United Nations meetings and New York’s food and entertainment every bit as much as most diplomats seem to. Moreover, there are strategic reasons for statehood to eventually be granted. As Spain’s prime minister put it: “Recognition of the state of Palestine is not only a matter of historic justice,” it is also “an essential requirement if we are all to achieve peace.” Still, even disinterested observers (if any could be found) would be hard pressed to argue that a Palestinian state exists today. To begin with, its population is unstable. Is a Palestinian state limited to the five-million Arab residents in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, or does it also include all the Palestinian refugees living in Lebanon, Jordan and other countries? The Palestinian leadership has not given up on the idea that Palestinian refugees have a right to return to Israel, where they would join the two-million Israeli Arabs already living in peace in Israel. For Israelis, that could spell the end of the Jewish right to self-determination. Second, what is Palestine’s defined territory? The Gaza Strip is clearly marked but the boundaries of the West Bank are disputed and would need to be negotiated with Israel. In 2000, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered upwards of 92 per cent of the West Bank to a Palestinian state if Palestinians gave up the “right of return.” The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, who favoured keeping the original pre-1967 boundaries and the right of return, declined the offer. The Camp David negotiation mediated by U.S. President Bill Clinton failed, leading instead to 1,000 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinian deaths in the Second Intefadeh. Third, what constitutes the Palestinian government? Countries that have recognized a Palestinian state are accepting ambassadors from the Palestinian Authority. But the PA only exerts control over the West Bank, not Gaza. Hamas — which is branded a terrorist organization by the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and many other countries — was the only effective government in Gaza before the latest war. Would countries recognizing a Palestinian state be willing to trade ambassadors with Hamas? Fourth, many countries now recognize Palestine as independent, but is it truly a state? The UN General Assembly voted to give Palestine new “rights and privileges” and recommended it for full admission in May, and over 140 countries have declared that Palestine is a state, even though it is not independent. The Palestinian Authority’s interim constitution, the 2002 Basic Law, spells out the authority’s responsibilities, including security but not military powers, which are left to Israel under the Oslo Accords. Israel collects Palestinian taxes for the PA and restricts movement within the territories... Palestine does not yet exhibit the four characteristics of a state. Statehood is therefore still largely aspirational, as Irish Taoiseach Simon Harris conceded while announcing his country’s new policy: “Recognition of Palestine is not the end of a process, it is the beginning.”... If a deal can be reached with Saudi Arabia, perhaps a Middle East peace will become a realistic counter to Iran’s machinations. But it is hard to imagine a two-state solution if Palestinians hold out for “the river to the sea” and Israelis are overwhelmingly concerned about the security after the brutal Hamas attack of October 7. The recent recognitions of a Palestinian state should be seen for what they are: a political act. When I studied international law in university, it was taught in the political science department, not the law school. I remember our distinguished professor often saying that international law is more about politics than law. Given the willingness of so many countries to recognize a state that is not yet a state, he was clearly right."
'If we don’t fight Islam, the world is in danger,' says son of Hamas founder at 'Post' Conference - "“Palestine depends on the destruction of Israel. If there is any definition of Palestine, it means the absence of Israel,” Mossab Hassan Yousef, otherwise known as the Green Prince... Yousef is the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. A Palestinian ex-terrorist, he defected to Israel in 1997 and worked as a spy for the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) until he moved to the United States in 2007. Yousef said that you have to ask: “What is Palestine? Is it an ethnic group? A religion? A distinct language? Do you have scripture? Are you a nation? Were you a country? None of that. So what is Palestine? What is the purpose of Palestine?” he rhetorically asked the audience at the conference. He voiced his opposition to a two-state solution with a Palestinian state led by the Palestinian Authority. “For those representing a two-state solution, they either want Israel to cease to exist, or they are not aware of this existential threat,” he declared. In his opinion, the PA is an even greater threat than Hamas. “All this global chaos is managed by the PA – by the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). It’s not Hamas propaganda: It’s the ones who sit in Ramallah, who pay all the advocates worldwide through their embassies – those are the ones fighting against Israel and its legitimacy.” Yousef said that it is too costly to institute a hostile Palestinian state. “You cannot give them Judea, Samaria, the mountains, the valley – this is a defense line,” he resolutely explained. Yousef told the audience that the PA comes from the same terrorism as Hamas or any other group that originated from the Muslim Brotherhood. He brought up Yasser Arafat, former chairman of the PLO, which later became the PA. “I was in his meeting when he gave my father the authority to blow up markets, buses, and beaches during the Second Intifada.” At the beginning of the discussion, Yousef brought up the history of the “slaughter of Jews by the hands of Muslims for approximately 14 centuries.” He criticized the Jewish people for being in denial of that fact. “I understand why: If the Jewish people acknowledge this fact, they will have to confront a majority of Muslims.” He told the audience that Muslims believe that Allah hates the Jewish people... This is why there has been so much propaganda against the Jewish state across social media, he said. When people see it a thousand times a day, they start believing it... He believes that “Arabs [should] rule Arabs.” He told the audience that maybe Arabs should be drafted to the IDF and be responsible for ruling over the West Bank. He also floated an idea of Egyptian and Jordanian intelligence looking over the Palestinians. Yousef also believes that mandatory Holocaust education across the Arab world should be part of the solution, as well as teaching that “to be a victim and stay in victimhood is unacceptable.” However, he believes that allowing the PA to rule over a Palestinian state would be the destruction of Israel. “You give them east Jerusalem tomorrow, and they will want West Jerusalem next. If you give them 1967 [borders], they will say they want the whole thing.”"
Anti-Israel Sentiment Predicts Anti-Semitism in Europe - "In the discourse surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, extreme criticisms of Israel (e.g., Israel is an apartheid state, the Israel Defense Forces deliberately target Palestinian civilians), coupled with extreme policy proposals (e.g., boycott of Israeli academics and institutions, divest from companies doing business with Israel), have sparked counterclaims that such criticisms are anti-Semitic (for only Israel is singled out). The research in this article shines a different, statistical light on this question: based on a survey of 500 citizens in each of 10 European countries, the authors ask whether those individuals with extreme anti-Israel views are more likely to be anti-Semitic. Even after controlling for numerous potentially confounding factors, they find that anti-Israel sentiment consistently predicts the probability that an individual is anti-Semitic, with the likelihood of measured anti-Semitism increasing with the extent of anti-Israel sentiment observed."
Clearly, "anti-Zionism" has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and is totally not a dog whistle
Meme - "83 YEARS OF ARAB INTRANSIGENCE, REJECTION AND MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
1937 THE PEEL COMMISSION
1947 THE UN PARTITION VOTE
1967 THE KHARTOUM SUMMIT
1991 THE MADRID CONFERENCE
2000 THE CAMP DAVID SUMMIT
2001 THE TABA SUMMIT
2007 THE ANNAPOLIS CONFERENCE
2008 THE REALIGNMENT PLAN.
2010 THE JOINT PEACE TALKS
2013 THE JOINT PEACE TALKS
2019 THE BAHRAIN WORKSHOP
2020 ThE TRUMP PEACE PLAN"