I’m furious!! Netanyahu is a devil in Israel, and HE should be put to death!! He has been committing genocide on INNOCENT Palestinians!! I pray that President Biden cuts him off from ALL assistance! President Biden should pull our military back, and let Iran (or Lebanon) take Netanyahu down within Israel!! I pray that Netanyahu gets his karma soon!!!!!
I have always said Trump is not the problem. The people who support him, and especially McConnell, are the problem.
Likewise, Netanyahu is not the problem. People like Biden, whatever is his motive, are the problem. peggy lambert is completely correct, as is Qasim's response.
Mr Bergtun, "war crimes" is an example of offense when they are conveniently attributed to Hamas. What if Hamas is being defensive?
Mr Levin, please carefully read Qasim's first response to you.
I am defending Hamas. Absent Israeli crimes and manipulation, there would be no Hamas (funded by Netanyahu), nor any need for one. Dan is right. What should populations of entirely innocent Palestinians, who got along well with many Israelis, do when they come under attack? I regret that Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, and gave Netanyhu the best "Christmas present" anyone could have given him, but they had to do something. They were acting to protect the Palestinian people. They were the only people on earth extending themselves to protect Palestinians. And anyone who thinks that if no one wanted to protect Palestinians means there must be something wrong with Palestinians, I will tell you from personal experience that Jews never ask the question of what's wrong with Jews if "everyone's always pickin' on [them]." That was one of the reasons I resigned from the club.
And Mr Levin, if you think the purpose of humanitarian law is to confront violence, especially violence against civilians, I will tell you that essentially no one, and certainly not the world community at the end of WWII, confronts violence against civilians, including dropping atomic bombs on them when the war was essentially over already.
What is the pull for Biden to continue supporting Israel? Biden seems to have empathy for human suffering in many instances, but in the Israeli context, it seems he is numb to the unconscionable and blatant disregard for the war crimes the US is supporting. Who is pulling the strings??
We have heard Hamas doesn't care about civilian Palestinians and they themselves use civilians as human shield. So if that is true I don't understand why Israel using Palestinian civilians as shields is effective. If these Palestinians were Hamas, I doubt they would be effective shields. Because they are a liabillity in captivity. Don't get me wrong I believe Hamas is cynical in their goals and willing to sacrifice. And they have committed warcrimes. I just think they genuinely consider the common good. And they lost too many citizens already.
Does the DNC mechanisms reign in individuals in the DNC organization? Are you at risk questioning policy dictate? Optics seem to support the idea, there is controlled messaging.
I am grateful, you have taught me so many aspects of politics. I still can't fathom the gamesmanship envolved, as I sift through headlines and deep dives in the motivation Empire has in store for humanity.
Another BlackRock Veteran Will Join the Biden Administration
BY DAVID JANUARY 6, 2021
Michael Pyle is set to become Kamala Harris’s chief economist. Pyle is not an economist.
During the holiday break, the Biden transition tried to bury some uncomfortable disclosures about their Cabinet nominees with a New Year’s Eve news dump. This didn’t work, as it was a slow news day, and now much of the political world is aware that Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen earned $7 million (politico news/2021/01/01/yellen-made-millions-in-wall-street-speeches-453223) in speaking fees mostly from Wall Street financial firms, and secretary of state nominee Antony Blinken received $1.2 million (nytimes.com/2021/01/01) from strategic consultant WestExec Advisors, counseling companies like Facebook, Microsoft, FedEx, AT&T, and Boeing.
In this environment, with the transition thrown slightly off course through the relationship between powerful appointees and corporate interests, you’d think it wouldn’t be a time to double down on those connections. But you would be wrong.
The Prospect has learned that Michael Pyle, currently the global chief investment strategist (https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/biographies/mike-pyle)at leading asset management firm BlackRock, will become part of the Biden-Harris administration in the coming days. Pyle, an Obama administration veteran who also worked on economic policy in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, will become the chief economist to Vice President–elect Kamala Harris, according to sources familiar with the transition.
Vanity Fair reported that Pyle was looking for a job (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/biden-has-kept-the-bankers-and-traders-at-bay-but-will-it-last) on the Biden team, perhaps something high-level at Treasury, and that the Biden transition team was determined to give him a big job. In that context, the post of chief economist to Harris could be seen as something of a fallback position. But that spot did carry some importance back when the last Democratic vice president was in the White House, a guy named Joe Biden.
His chief economist was Jared Bernstein, probably the most progressive and labor-focused member of Obama’s first-term economic advisers. Bernstein was at the table in many economic-policy discussions during that period; with Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Chair Christina Romer, Bernstein put together the famed analysis (https://www.epi.org/publication/recovery_plan_creates_millions_of_jobs_by_any_estimate/) justifying the 2009 economic-stimulus program as a job creation engine. (Bernstein will be a member of the CEA in the Biden White House.)
The evolution from Bernstein to Pyle is notable for a number of reasons. First, Bernstein has been working as an economist at think tanks for years, which would seem to be a prerequisite for a position with the title “chief economist.” Pyle has an economics degree from Dartmouth, but he went on to Yale Law, and afterward clerked for Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pyle has certainly spent his policymaking career focused on economics, for what it’s worth.
The bigger issue is that Bernstein was brought aboard with Vice President Biden as a counterweight to the centrist neoliberal economic team Obama had put together. With Pyle, the situation is reversed, and spending six years on Wall Street after leaving government has probably not pushed his policy outlook leftward.
Then there’s the added problem of BlackRock’s ongoing influence in the government. In White House policymaking, Pyle would be working closely with Deese, another expat of the same firm. BlackRock’s lobbying has already saved the firm from being designated as a systemically important financial institution, something that Biden’s regulators could reverse. But the continuing presence of company veterans in key policy positions makes that option remote.
Both Deese and Adeyemo plan to recuse themselves for an “appropriate period” from anything crossing their desk that’s related to BlackRock. As Pyle has not been formally announced, he has yet to make such a pledge. His deeper involvement with BlackRock would make his recusal far more crucial. The Biden transition did not return a request for comment.
, has been chief of staff to Bill Clinton since 2013. Placing a former Clinton adviser in the economic-policy slot was a natural choice for Harris.
How much of a player Pyle will be remains to be seen. As noted, the chief economist for the vice president was an important role in the Obama-Biden administration; that doesn’t automatically confer power to that slot in the Biden-Harris years. But the optics of yet another BlackRock executive getting admittance inside the Biden team sure don’t look great.
Pyle’s selection to run economic policy for the vice president–elect also shows the influence of the Clinton policy team in Kamala Harris’s orbit. Her sister Maya was a
, has been chief of staff to Bill Clinton since 2013. Placing a former Clinton adviser in the economic-policy slot was a natural choice for Harris.
How much of a player Pyle will be remains to be seen. As noted, the chief economist for the vice president was an important role in the Obama-Biden administration; that doesn’t automatically confer power to that slot in the Biden-Harris years. But the optics of yet another BlackRock executive getting admittance inside the Biden team sure don’t look great.
No different than Hitler. Sanctified human abuse by one nasty human justified through politics against others. This isn’t new. This has played out before in other countries. I don’t think too much of humans. I’m sure this statement will offend many. I stand by it.
I don't comment to justify the conduct of Israeli's military, but merely to point out a comparison with Hamas. You said, "any attack on an Israeli hospital, school, or residence under the ‘justification’ that Israel hides behind human shields would be categorically condemned." Actually, Hamas attacks Israeli hospitals, schools, and residences constantly and routinely- it has fired tens of thousands of unguided rockets at Israel's population centers for exactly this purpose. As far as I am aware, the only justification given is that it feels somehow entitled to do so, and even though this is an obvious war crime Hamas seems to believe that humanitarian law applies only to Israel, but not to it. How else can we understand a group that seized hundreds of civilian hostages on Oct. 7th to use as bargaining chips and human shields complaining so bitterly about humanitarian violations by its enemy? One would think this would lead to global condemnation and revulsion of Hamas, but somehow people who claim to champion human rights still view Hamas in a positive light. Why?
You justify one crime with another. This is egregious. At the same time you consider the state of Israel to be morally superior to Hamas. Your state is much worse! Just count the tens of thousands of killed, maimed, tortured and orphaned kids in the last ten months.
"As far as I am aware, the only justification given [by Hamas] is that it feels somehow entitled to do so."
This sentence only makes sense if you completely ignore the following:
- Israel's decades long illegal military occupation of Palestine
- Israel's illegal indefinite detention of thousands of Palestinians without charge, trial, conviction, or access to counsel
- Israel's illegal indefinite detention of hundreds of Palestinian children without charge, trial, conviction, access to counsel, or access to parents, where even as B'TSelem confirms, they suffer physical and sexual abuse
- Israel killing hundreds of Palestinians annually in the West Bank
- Israel building hundreds of thousands of illegal settlements on Palestinian land
- Israel's decade long use of Palestinians as human shields
- Israel's systemic rape of Palestinian prisoners
- Israel's systemic bombing of Palestinians in designated safe zones
I can go on. But the above snapshot should suffice. I don't view Hamas in a positive light. I have no reason to defend them. It's not hard to call their attacks on civilians war crimes, and also recognize they are a *reaction*, not "entitled." One would think the above atrocities by Israel would lead to global condemnation and revulsion, but somehow people who claim to champion human rights still view these actions in a positive light. Why?
Here’s my point. The purpose of humanitarian law is to set an absolute limit on violence, no matter the cause. So no matter how many grievances a group may have, no matter how serious or well founded that group believes them to be, some things are off limits. No targetting civilians, no taking hostages, and so forth. But Hamas seems to feel that its list of grievances is somehow so extraordinary that it should be okay for it to flaunt humanitarian law freely. Similar to what you (and others) just posted, the response when asked why they are doing things like holding civilians hostage and firing rockets indiscriminately seems to usually be a list of grievances against Israel. That is what I mean by they feel somehow entitled to violate humanitarian law.
You skipped 1) no one here is defending Hamas 2) the fact that Hamas is a reaction (and one funded by Netanyahu)
If you’re outraged about Hamas, how are you silent on Israel’s much longer history of human rights violations. You’re defending Israel. I’m not defending Hamas.
Good, so I guess we agree much more than I realized. I had the misimpression that you were defending Hamas, I'm glad to hear that you aren't. I do believe that your list of complaints against Israel is sometimes exaggerated and there are parts of it I don't agree with, but I certainly do agree Israel is responsible for many horrible violations of Palestinian rights that should be condemned and rectified. In general I tend to be more partial to Israel's view of the conflict, but I would never defend Israel categorically or deny that Israel bears much responsibility for the current tragic situation and has done much wrong.
It's important to note that Israel has ALWAYS killed much more innocent civilians and children than Hamas. This is true for every single year since Hamas was founded (and before that). Seeing Hamas as worse than Israel is insane double standards. Israel is literally worse in every way: more destruction, more hostages, more rapes, more tortures and less respect for human lives. Israeli soldiers actually use people as human shields and mass murder children. Israel also holds the world record in murdering of journalists.
questioning the rage Palestinians have for 1948 Western Colonization of sovereign land, culture, society? How can on ignore Western Empire's move to wish an entire people fade in to the new Israel State?
I was reading about Western Jews arriving to the Middle East and looked down on indigenous Jews, Christians, and Muslim of the Region. These refugees of German atrocities attempted to erase a society that accepted all people. A society and culture offering free movement throughout the middle East. The Illusion of divide between peoples was made real in 1948. Hate was made real.
Comparing Atrocities doesn't fare well for Israel. Comparing unguided missiles, that get intercepted 99%, fired by a militant resistance group of an opressed population that is occupied and or besieged, and regularly bombed... doesn't really fare well either.
While unguided missiles are to condemn, the idea that this somehow compares in any way to whatever the holy crap Israel does to Civilian infrastructure and UN institutions... not only in the process of bombing indiscriminately, but DIRECTLY. attacking, raiding, blowing up and burning to the ground...
Israel frees hostage in Gaza, battles Hamas, as displaced families seek safety by Reuters
negotiating won’t work bc it hasn’t and asking PM doesn’t work bc of who PM & Hamas are , PM is far right govt etc.
more people are dying
2 more articles
“For years Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it’s blown up in our faces.” 12/10/23
“How Benjamin Netanyahu embowered Hamas and broke Israel telegraph” 10/16/23
I’m furious!! Netanyahu is a devil in Israel, and HE should be put to death!! He has been committing genocide on INNOCENT Palestinians!! I pray that President Biden cuts him off from ALL assistance! President Biden should pull our military back, and let Iran (or Lebanon) take Netanyahu down within Israel!! I pray that Netanyahu gets his karma soon!!!!!
I have always said Trump is not the problem. The people who support him, and especially McConnell, are the problem.
Likewise, Netanyahu is not the problem. People like Biden, whatever is his motive, are the problem. peggy lambert is completely correct, as is Qasim's response.
Mr Bergtun, "war crimes" is an example of offense when they are conveniently attributed to Hamas. What if Hamas is being defensive?
Mr Levin, please carefully read Qasim's first response to you.
I am defending Hamas. Absent Israeli crimes and manipulation, there would be no Hamas (funded by Netanyahu), nor any need for one. Dan is right. What should populations of entirely innocent Palestinians, who got along well with many Israelis, do when they come under attack? I regret that Hamas attacked Israeli civilians, and gave Netanyhu the best "Christmas present" anyone could have given him, but they had to do something. They were acting to protect the Palestinian people. They were the only people on earth extending themselves to protect Palestinians. And anyone who thinks that if no one wanted to protect Palestinians means there must be something wrong with Palestinians, I will tell you from personal experience that Jews never ask the question of what's wrong with Jews if "everyone's always pickin' on [them]." That was one of the reasons I resigned from the club.
And Mr Levin, if you think the purpose of humanitarian law is to confront violence, especially violence against civilians, I will tell you that essentially no one, and certainly not the world community at the end of WWII, confronts violence against civilians, including dropping atomic bombs on them when the war was essentially over already.
What is the pull for Biden to continue supporting Israel? Biden seems to have empathy for human suffering in many instances, but in the Israeli context, it seems he is numb to the unconscionable and blatant disregard for the war crimes the US is supporting. Who is pulling the strings??
Completely agree, Peggy. It's mind boggling and makes no sense.
This is because Netanyahu wants to stay in power.
Take the egos out and there are no wars.
We have heard Hamas doesn't care about civilian Palestinians and they themselves use civilians as human shield. So if that is true I don't understand why Israel using Palestinian civilians as shields is effective. If these Palestinians were Hamas, I doubt they would be effective shields. Because they are a liabillity in captivity. Don't get me wrong I believe Hamas is cynical in their goals and willing to sacrifice. And they have committed warcrimes. I just think they genuinely consider the common good. And they lost too many citizens already.
Qasim,
Does the DNC mechanisms reign in individuals in the DNC organization? Are you at risk questioning policy dictate? Optics seem to support the idea, there is controlled messaging.
I am grateful, you have taught me so many aspects of politics. I still can't fathom the gamesmanship envolved, as I sift through headlines and deep dives in the motivation Empire has in store for humanity.
Keep up the great work
Something I found
I am sharing here
I don’t know if this is appropriate
Another BlackRock Veteran Will Join the Biden Administration
BY DAVID JANUARY 6, 2021
Michael Pyle is set to become Kamala Harris’s chief economist. Pyle is not an economist.
During the holiday break, the Biden transition tried to bury some uncomfortable disclosures about their Cabinet nominees with a New Year’s Eve news dump. This didn’t work, as it was a slow news day, and now much of the political world is aware that Treasury secretary nominee Janet Yellen earned $7 million (politico news/2021/01/01/yellen-made-millions-in-wall-street-speeches-453223) in speaking fees mostly from Wall Street financial firms, and secretary of state nominee Antony Blinken received $1.2 million (nytimes.com/2021/01/01) from strategic consultant WestExec Advisors, counseling companies like Facebook, Microsoft, FedEx, AT&T, and Boeing.
In this environment, with the transition thrown slightly off course through the relationship between powerful appointees and corporate interests, you’d think it wouldn’t be a time to double down on those connections. But you would be wrong.
The Prospect has learned that Michael Pyle, currently the global chief investment strategist (https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/biographies/mike-pyle)at leading asset management firm BlackRock, will become part of the Biden-Harris administration in the coming days. Pyle, an Obama administration veteran who also worked on economic policy in Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, will become the chief economist to Vice President–elect Kamala Harris, according to sources familiar with the transition.
Pyle would be the third former BlackRock official to join the administration. Brian Deese (https://prospect.org/cabinet-watch/blackrock-executive-brian-deese-could-get-major-white-house-position/), who was global head of sustainable investing at the firm, has been named as Biden’s national economic director. And Wally Adeyemo (https://prospect.org/cabinet-watch/trouble-at-treasury/), former chief of staff to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, is the nominee for deputy Treasury secretary. Neither Deese nor Pyle would require confirmation by the Senate.
If anything, Pyle has a deeper relationship to BlackRock than his colleagues. He’s been there longer, since at least 2014. And his role as chief investment strategist is more central to BlackRock’s operations; he frequently comments (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2020-07-07/blackrock-s-case-for-downgrading-u-s-equities-video)on behalf of the firm in the media. BlackRock has drawn criticism for its contributions to climate change and its ability to use its influence inside governments (https://prospect.org/economy/blackrock-rules-world/) to win favorable policies for its bottom line. It has been accused of self-enrichment (https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-blackrock-buyer-and-seller-federal-reserve-bailout/) while managing the Federal Reserve’s corporate-debt buying during the pandemic.
Pyle was seen as a likely candidate to re-enter the government four years ago. BlackRock recruited him (https://theintercept.com/2016/03/02/larry-fink-and-his-blackrock-team-poised-to-take-over-hillary-clintons-treasury-department/) from the Obama administration, where he served as a senior adviser (http://dartmouth.edu/events/event?event=38257#.Vs9Wf1YycpE) to Undersecretary of the Treasury for International Affairs Lael Brainard. Pyle also worked at the National Economic Council and the Office of Management and Budget. He was an unpaid adviser to the Clinton campaign (https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-clinton-gensler-284ca4a0-33a8-11e6-ab9d-1da2b0f24f93-20160616-story.html) on financial policy, and seemed destined for a spot if Clinton won the election.
Vanity Fair reported that Pyle was looking for a job (https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/biden-has-kept-the-bankers-and-traders-at-bay-but-will-it-last) on the Biden team, perhaps something high-level at Treasury, and that the Biden transition team was determined to give him a big job. In that context, the post of chief economist to Harris could be seen as something of a fallback position. But that spot did carry some importance back when the last Democratic vice president was in the White House, a guy named Joe Biden.
His chief economist was Jared Bernstein, probably the most progressive and labor-focused member of Obama’s first-term economic advisers. Bernstein was at the table in many economic-policy discussions during that period; with Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) Chair Christina Romer, Bernstein put together the famed analysis (https://www.epi.org/publication/recovery_plan_creates_millions_of_jobs_by_any_estimate/) justifying the 2009 economic-stimulus program as a job creation engine. (Bernstein will be a member of the CEA in the Biden White House.)
The evolution from Bernstein to Pyle is notable for a number of reasons. First, Bernstein has been working as an economist at think tanks for years, which would seem to be a prerequisite for a position with the title “chief economist.” Pyle has an economics degree from Dartmouth, but he went on to Yale Law, and afterward clerked for Merrick Garland on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Pyle has certainly spent his policymaking career focused on economics, for what it’s worth.
The bigger issue is that Bernstein was brought aboard with Vice President Biden as a counterweight to the centrist neoliberal economic team Obama had put together. With Pyle, the situation is reversed, and spending six years on Wall Street after leaving government has probably not pushed his policy outlook leftward.
Then there’s the added problem of BlackRock’s ongoing influence in the government. In White House policymaking, Pyle would be working closely with Deese, another expat of the same firm. BlackRock’s lobbying has already saved the firm from being designated as a systemically important financial institution, something that Biden’s regulators could reverse. But the continuing presence of company veterans in key policy positions makes that option remote.
Both Deese and Adeyemo plan to recuse themselves for an “appropriate period” from anything crossing their desk that’s related to BlackRock. As Pyle has not been formally announced, he has yet to make such a pledge. His deeper involvement with BlackRock would make his recusal far more crucial. The Biden transition did not return a request for comment.
Pyle’s selection to run economic policy for the vice president–elect also shows the influence of the Clinton policy team in Kamala Harris’s orbit. Her sister Maya was a senior policy adviser to Clinton (https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a32094/maya-harris-senior-policy-advisor-hillary/), and her presidential campaign staff had several Clinton veterans (https://ballotpedia.org/Kamala_Harris_presidential_campaign_staff,_2020)
on it. Harris’s vice-presidential chief of staff,
Tina Flournoy (https://www.click2houston.com/news/politics/2020/12/03/vp-elect-harris-picks-tina-flournoy-to-be-her-chief-of-staff/)
, has been chief of staff to Bill Clinton since 2013. Placing a former Clinton adviser in the economic-policy slot was a natural choice for Harris.
How much of a player Pyle will be remains to be seen. As noted, the chief economist for the vice president was an important role in the Obama-Biden administration; that doesn’t automatically confer power to that slot in the Biden-Harris years. But the optics of yet another BlackRock executive getting admittance inside the Biden team sure don’t look great.
Pyle’s selection to run economic policy for the vice president–elect also shows the influence of the Clinton policy team in Kamala Harris’s orbit. Her sister Maya was a
senior policy adviser to Clinton (https://www.elle.com/culture/career-politics/news/a32094/maya-harris-senior-policy-advisor-hillary/)
, and her presidential campaign staff had
several Clinton veterans (https://ballotpedia.org/Kamala_Harris_presidential_campaign_staff,_2020)
on it. Harris’s vice-presidential chief of staff,
Tina Flournoy (https://www.click2houston.com/news/politics/2020/12/03/vp-elect-harris-picks-tina-flournoy-to-be-her-chief-of-staff/)
, has been chief of staff to Bill Clinton since 2013. Placing a former Clinton adviser in the economic-policy slot was a natural choice for Harris.
How much of a player Pyle will be remains to be seen. As noted, the chief economist for the vice president was an important role in the Obama-Biden administration; that doesn’t automatically confer power to that slot in the Biden-Harris years. But the optics of yet another BlackRock executive getting admittance inside the Biden team sure don’t look great.
No different than Hitler. Sanctified human abuse by one nasty human justified through politics against others. This isn’t new. This has played out before in other countries. I don’t think too much of humans. I’m sure this statement will offend many. I stand by it.
I don't comment to justify the conduct of Israeli's military, but merely to point out a comparison with Hamas. You said, "any attack on an Israeli hospital, school, or residence under the ‘justification’ that Israel hides behind human shields would be categorically condemned." Actually, Hamas attacks Israeli hospitals, schools, and residences constantly and routinely- it has fired tens of thousands of unguided rockets at Israel's population centers for exactly this purpose. As far as I am aware, the only justification given is that it feels somehow entitled to do so, and even though this is an obvious war crime Hamas seems to believe that humanitarian law applies only to Israel, but not to it. How else can we understand a group that seized hundreds of civilian hostages on Oct. 7th to use as bargaining chips and human shields complaining so bitterly about humanitarian violations by its enemy? One would think this would lead to global condemnation and revulsion of Hamas, but somehow people who claim to champion human rights still view Hamas in a positive light. Why?
You justify one crime with another. This is egregious. At the same time you consider the state of Israel to be morally superior to Hamas. Your state is much worse! Just count the tens of thousands of killed, maimed, tortured and orphaned kids in the last ten months.
"As far as I am aware, the only justification given [by Hamas] is that it feels somehow entitled to do so."
This sentence only makes sense if you completely ignore the following:
- Israel's decades long illegal military occupation of Palestine
- Israel's illegal indefinite detention of thousands of Palestinians without charge, trial, conviction, or access to counsel
- Israel's illegal indefinite detention of hundreds of Palestinian children without charge, trial, conviction, access to counsel, or access to parents, where even as B'TSelem confirms, they suffer physical and sexual abuse
- Israel killing hundreds of Palestinians annually in the West Bank
- Israel building hundreds of thousands of illegal settlements on Palestinian land
- Israel's decade long use of Palestinians as human shields
- Israel's systemic rape of Palestinian prisoners
- Israel's systemic bombing of Palestinians in designated safe zones
I can go on. But the above snapshot should suffice. I don't view Hamas in a positive light. I have no reason to defend them. It's not hard to call their attacks on civilians war crimes, and also recognize they are a *reaction*, not "entitled." One would think the above atrocities by Israel would lead to global condemnation and revulsion, but somehow people who claim to champion human rights still view these actions in a positive light. Why?
Here’s my point. The purpose of humanitarian law is to set an absolute limit on violence, no matter the cause. So no matter how many grievances a group may have, no matter how serious or well founded that group believes them to be, some things are off limits. No targetting civilians, no taking hostages, and so forth. But Hamas seems to feel that its list of grievances is somehow so extraordinary that it should be okay for it to flaunt humanitarian law freely. Similar to what you (and others) just posted, the response when asked why they are doing things like holding civilians hostage and firing rockets indiscriminately seems to usually be a list of grievances against Israel. That is what I mean by they feel somehow entitled to violate humanitarian law.
You skipped 1) no one here is defending Hamas 2) the fact that Hamas is a reaction (and one funded by Netanyahu)
If you’re outraged about Hamas, how are you silent on Israel’s much longer history of human rights violations. You’re defending Israel. I’m not defending Hamas.
Good, so I guess we agree much more than I realized. I had the misimpression that you were defending Hamas, I'm glad to hear that you aren't. I do believe that your list of complaints against Israel is sometimes exaggerated and there are parts of it I don't agree with, but I certainly do agree Israel is responsible for many horrible violations of Palestinian rights that should be condemned and rectified. In general I tend to be more partial to Israel's view of the conflict, but I would never defend Israel categorically or deny that Israel bears much responsibility for the current tragic situation and has done much wrong.
It's important to note that Israel has ALWAYS killed much more innocent civilians and children than Hamas. This is true for every single year since Hamas was founded (and before that). Seeing Hamas as worse than Israel is insane double standards. Israel is literally worse in every way: more destruction, more hostages, more rapes, more tortures and less respect for human lives. Israeli soldiers actually use people as human shields and mass murder children. Israel also holds the world record in murdering of journalists.
My list is documented, not my opinions.
How can one respond
questioning the rage Palestinians have for 1948 Western Colonization of sovereign land, culture, society? How can on ignore Western Empire's move to wish an entire people fade in to the new Israel State?
I was reading about Western Jews arriving to the Middle East and looked down on indigenous Jews, Christians, and Muslim of the Region. These refugees of German atrocities attempted to erase a society that accepted all people. A society and culture offering free movement throughout the middle East. The Illusion of divide between peoples was made real in 1948. Hate was made real.
Comparing Atrocities doesn't fare well for Israel. Comparing unguided missiles, that get intercepted 99%, fired by a militant resistance group of an opressed population that is occupied and or besieged, and regularly bombed... doesn't really fare well either.
While unguided missiles are to condemn, the idea that this somehow compares in any way to whatever the holy crap Israel does to Civilian infrastructure and UN institutions... not only in the process of bombing indiscriminately, but DIRECTLY. attacking, raiding, blowing up and burning to the ground...
is laughable.
Take your Hasbara elsewhere.
Well said. One would literally need to ignore history altogether to arrive at the conclusion he arrived at.