NoneOfUrBusiness

It’s a half-pun about actual piracy. Not sure if illegal fishing is actually considered piracy, but that’s the idea.

So of course in the end it should come down to what you want to do and where you see yourself living a happier life, and not what people on the internet think you should do. However, purely from a “making the world a better place” perspective, I’d recommend not returning. I get the idea of trying to change society from within, but frankly I think Israel in its current state is beyond saving. The sense of invincibility, among other issues, is too much for simple activism to fix; the country as a whole needs the Nazi Germay treatment (the de-Nazification part, not the war part). At least by not being in Israel you make sure your tax money and children aren’t used in genocide.

I repeat, do what you feel is best for you, but to directly answer your question your absence does more to weaken the Israeli Apartheid apparatus than your presence. Do vote though; definitely vote.

Amazing. Depressing, but amazing.

I mean yes but it’s diminishing returns. The rule kind of falls apart at these numbers.

I mean no, but the people with meteorology degrees are probably not gonna be working a job where the number one requirement is to be hot (and not, y’know, have a meteorology degree).

Yeah. The protests aren’t because Bibi’s actions are too right-wing; they’re because even as a far-right leader he’s doing a shit job. Him being a genocidal far right leader isn’t, as a rule, an issue with the general Israeli public. You can look at this if you wanna lose some faith in humanity.

There are protests against Bibi because of his disregard for the hostages’ lives and attempt to destroy Israeli democracy. His party isn’t losing support AFAIK, and the right wing is actually growing.

If it’s any consolation, my just-barely-maybe neurotypical ass uses proper punctuation and I’ve never had any issues. If anyone asks I just say it’s a thing I do.

I don’t think Likud and IDF leaders care too much about the wellbeing of the hostages, and their behavior pretty clearly reflects that.

They don’t, but the Israeli public does. This will matter if a Gaza remains after the war ends.

So if Hamas wants to maximize their bargaining power they should be seeking to undermine the public narratives around the necessity of the war.

Honestly, nobody who doesn’t already support Palestine will change their position because they released the 30 or so hostages that are still alive. It’ll just be called a move for clout, which won’t be too far from the truth. Also during post-war negotiation what’s important won’t be clout with the international community; that’s more of a long-term thing. What they will need then is negotiating power with Israel. Maybe it’ll be different if the international community actually takes an active role in negotiations, but we both know that’s not happening.

Okay I entered this thinking “ugh, more shilling for proto-fascism” but you know what? I’m convinced. Take my upvote or whatever we call those here.

So this turned into a bit of a rant and while it’s likely nobody cares I’ll post it anyway.

I don’t know about Christianity but at least in Islam this isn’t how it works. So there’s a hadith that says that death is the worst of what comes before it and the easiest of what comes after it, because the day of judgement is just that bad. There’s another that says that in the day of judgement it will be so hard that people will want Allah to start it even if they go to hell. No matter how much you think you’ve been a good person it’s not at all something to look forward to. And that’s not counting how even as a Muslim depending on what you did in your life, you could go to hell, spend a certain time there according to your sins in life and then go to heaven. Again not something most people want to find out, especially because Islam teaches that with the exception of prophets everyone sins and that we all need Allah’s forgiveness and mercy to go to heaven. The kind of arrogance it’d take to actually hope for death because you’re confident you’re going to heaven can in fact be the reason you go to hell. A devout Muslim will never think “oh I’ve been really good in life I can’t wait to die and go to heaven”.

Then we get into how in the day of judgement people will have mountains of good deeds and mountains of bad deeds and people’s (temporary; again all Muslims will eventually go to heaven) fate will be decided over a single good or bad deed. Most people thinking seriously about the afterlife will want to live as long as possible to do good deeds and beg god for forgiveness for their bad deeds. Again, no sane Muslim will think “yep, I’m doing alright, death please”.

Would you say Hamas isn’t attempting to eradicate Israelis when convenient?

Hamas is a much more pragmatic organization than this. They were like that for a while, but stopped somewhere between 2000 and 2006. They also recently came out and said they’d lay down their arms and become a political party if a two-state solution is enforced. Now whether they mean it aside (I think they should be cautiously believed here) that’s not the rhetoric of someone going for an eradication campaign.

I mean they kidnapped civilians and refuse to release them.

This is a textbook case of don’t blame the player, blame the game. Whatever little of Gaza’s dignity Hamas will be able to preserve after the war will depend on the hostages. While it sucks for them it’d suck worse if after this is all over Israel starts “resettling” Gaza or continues their starvation campaign.

I don’t think anyone is trying to imply that all Israelis support what their government is doing, but 80% (including 88% of Israeli Jews, which are the main demographic we’re looking at here) is a very damning number. Related: I don’t have the total number for this one, but the number of Israeli Jews who believe Israel is using too little or an appropriate amount of firepower is 94%. Again not all of them, but these are pretty damning numbers and dispel the idea that there’s real domestic opposition to what’s going on in Gaza.

Considering that most of the casualties were civilian

66%, even including counting crossfire, the involvement of other less trained forces (including random Gazans who happened to enter through the hole Hamas opened) and Israeli friendly fire (the latter is not insignificant; there were multiple proven cases of Israel choosing to kill Hamas fighters along with hostages instead of letting them return to Gaza). Not denying the atrocities that Hamas actually committed, but given these factors 66% isn’t indicative of any deliberate targeting.

It is reqlly hard to believe any Hamas leader in that regard, once you see who was killed and how.

What I’m trying to say is: Hamas’s official stance is that Israeli civilians aren’t valid targets. If they do consider all Israeli civilians targets (which considering how pragmatic Hamas generally is as an organization would make absolutely no sense) they’re definitely not saying it out loud. They said they’ll repeat 7/10 against Israel, the political entity, not that they’d keep killing civilians, is what I’m saying.

Mate, i have seen enough justification for 7/10 by calling every Israeli a legitimate target

That’s why I said nobody important.

Nowadays, that language isnt used on the new manifesto,

Uh yes exactly. Hamas radically changed their approach to the conflict in 2006, and then in 2017 updated their charter to reflect that.

Hamas leaders (who just happened to sit comfortably in Qatar and Iran) have called for repetitions of 7/10,

Yes.

again, considering every israeli a valid target.

No. They’ve actively denied that Hamas fighters were responsible for any civilian casualties, and claimed that any such cases are accidents. Now that’s obviously not true, but they definitely didn’t consider every Israeli a valid target.

people that believe that Israel should be destroyed and Israelis killed, partly because of the damage that they have done to Palestinians

Nobody important seriously believes this. Not even Hamas. Well “Israel should be destroyed” is a popular position, because that’s calling for an end to Israeli Apartheid. “Push them into the sea” rhetoric died in the 90s.

“Israelis completely support what their government is doing”

They do though. Specifically 80% of Israelis and 88% of Israeli Jews.

Uh… He literally does. Fucking Reagan did it before.

Uh… You’re thinking of AIPAC.

Man you (either intentionally or unintentionally) underestimate just how much the POTUS can order Israel around. Reagan did it, Bush did it, hell even Biden did it. It’s not rocket science.