A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To Jerusalem: Gaza/Israel conflict

[Moliere]

I agree with every one that there is no solution.

[Northwestcoug]

i keep hearing the term open air prison and the comment above that their living conditions are antithetical to the human condition. so wouldn't a forced eviction be a good thing? maybe they just give them a longer time frame to get out? if it's so bad, what's the problem with being evicted?

You've seen where Israel is telling them to evacuate, right? Southern Gaza, already one of the most densely populated areas on earth.

On it's face, giving a million people one day to evacuate is bad. Telling them to move just further south in Gaza makes it worse. Now throw in the blockade of essential services and you have a humanitarian disaster in the making.

[Non Sequitur]

Sorry, but I am tiring of statements like this and others in this thread. Oh, you don't like people dying? Good for you. Glad we cleared that up.

The author admits at the end that he doesn't have any solutions. Then what is the point of that word salad? Virtue signaling, probably.

What's your fucking solution, Solomon? I'm tiring of your idiotic positing that unless you have a solution you shouldn't have an opinion. No one has been able to solve the Middle East problem for half a century, and no one on this board, except maybe you, thinks they can solve it either. That doesn't mean it's not valid to point out things that we don't want to see happen in the name of solving the problem.

[old_gregg]

presumption goes against baby decapitators and those who elect and support them. not complicated, smooth brains inventing false equivalencies in defense of barbarism aside.

[Northwestcoug]

presumption goes against baby decapitators and those who elect and support them. not complicated, smooth brains inventing false equivalencies in defense of barbarism aside.

Point to one person who is making the false equivalence of 'defense of barbarism' here.

From where I'm sitting, it looks like destroying Gaza and all the resultant collateral damage is being casually thrown around as a just retribution for the brutal Hamas campaign. That might be a false equivalence there.

[Moliere]

Embedded Tweet

[Donuthole]

Bump

[Jeff Lebowski]

What's your fucking solution, Solomon? I'm tiring of your idiotic positing that unless you have a solution you shouldn't have an opinion. No one has been able to solve the Middle East problem for half a century, and no one on this board, except maybe you, thinks they can solve it either. That doesn't mean it's not valid to point out things that we don't want to see happen in the name of solving the problem.

I have never asked anyone to solve the entire Middle East problem. I am only suggesting that if you are going to condemn Israel for responding forcefully when their people are slaughtered, their women are raped, and their babies are beheaded, you should at least have the integrity to offer up an alternative course of action. Seems like a pretty reasonable expectation to me.

[USUC]

What's your fucking solution, Solomon? I'm tiring of your idiotic positing that unless you have a solution you shouldn't have an opinion. No one has been able to solve the Middle East problem for half a century, and no one on this board, except maybe you, thinks they can solve it either. That doesn't mean it's not valid to point out things that we don't want to see happen in the name of solving the problem.

Extinguishing Hamas like the western world did with ISIS is the most prominent solution.

[myboynoah]

Is annihilating Gaza the solution?

I left Israel in 2018. I arrived in 2015 after significant Hamas rocket attacks had died down. I left just as Trump's Israel policies started to drive a wedge between the U.S. and the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah. Prior to that I traveled to the West Bank at least monthly to do capacity building and facilitate commercial development (I always stopped by KFC in Ramallah to get a taste of home; KFC failed in Israel). After Trump, our movements were significantly restricted. The Palestinians I knew were awesome and lived under difficult restrictions. The Israelis I knew were awesome and focused on securing the amazing slice of development they occupied in the Eastern Med.

Sadly, many of my youngest's classmates are being called up to serve, and one was killed on the first day of the Hamas attack.

We lived in Herzliya north of Tel Aviv. Herzliya had several homes and care facilities for the elderly. We often saw them strolling the streets accompanied by their caregivers, many of the caregivers being foreign workers (many Filipinas; a quarter of our Branch was from the Philippines). That's when it hit me that Israel will do whatever it needs to do to allow elderly Israelis to live to old age, enjoy world class health care, take strolls along leafing streets, and pass away among loved ones having lived a productive life.

Israeli import restrictions on the West Bank and Gaza are harsh. We were once unsuccessful in getting a shipment of hamburger buns released because one ingredient appeared on Israel's restricted list due to its potential use in explosives or chemical weapons. The Israelis were unbending. Watching that video of Hamas digging up and repurposing water pipes in Gaza to make more rockets makes one understand the caution.

[myboynoah]

Extinguishing Hamas like the western world did with ISIS is the most prominent solution.

Bingo

[Moliere]

Bump

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[old_gregg]

Point to one person who is making the false equivalence of 'defense of barbarism' here.

From where I'm sitting, it looks like destroying Gaza and all the resultant collateral damage is being casually thrown around as a just retribution for the brutal Hamas campaign. That might be a false equivalence there.

that your reading comprehension is handicapped by your bias is a problem. any mention of the living conditions in gaza, israel's historical security efforts in gaza (which, as it turned out, were completely justified), etc. in the same context as the facially terroristic action by hamas is a false equivalence and an attempt to justify the unjustifiable (or what normal people thought was unjustifiable until radical islam and the american political left became the strange bedfellows they are today). destroying gaza is not a product of an israeli intention to destroy gaza: it is a product of hamas colocating military targets in areas of civilian concentration specifically because its goal is to maximize the collateral damage of military action. all this paternalization on behalf of palestinians, who not only elected hamas to govern but continue to overwhelmingly support its ideology and actions

this handwringing is tiresome. you either support israel's right to self defense or you support terrorism.

[Non Sequitur]

I have never asked anyone to solve the entire Middle East problem. I am only suggesting that if you are going to condemn Israel for responding forcefully when their people are slaughtered, their women are raped, and their babies are beheaded, you should at least have the integrity to offer up an alternative course of action. Seems like a pretty reasonable expectation to me.

I have never condemned Israel for responding forcefully. I have expressed caution on how Israel continues to respond. I also do not assume that Israel is entirely benevolent and might use this crisis as pretext to permanently solve its "Palestinian" problem, that it might raze the building to get rid of the rat problem.

[Northwestcoug]

you either support israel's right to self defense or you support terrorism.

Where have I heard this before???