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Andy

@ andrewrgross @slrpnk.net

Posts
90
Comments
779
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause

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  • I'm not sure if you're trolling me, but I don't know what part of what I said led you to any of that.

    What part of my comment is about there being more than one way to protest?

    For what it's worth, I don't endorse the use of violence in any context other than defense. That said, I think it's largely pointless to debate what kind of protest is "OK". It's usually not a practical approach to fixing a problem, and is usually just employed to debate who deserves blame for something rather than examining how to fix something.

  • Message From a Gazan to Campus Protesters: You're Hurting the Palestinian Cause

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  • Reading that line, I chuckled. That has to be satire.

    This article makes no sense. The protests have been explicit in their demands for their schools to disclose investments in Israeli war and divest. Whenever someone says, 'Why don't the protesters protest against Putin/Hamas/China/etc.??' they're clearly just saying, 'Stop making demands of people you have leverage over! I demand symbolic, ignorable activism only!'

    This article is... Bizarre.

    Edit: I went looking for some context to try to understand who this guy is. Apparently Hamza Howidy left Gaza after he protested against Hamas and was beaten and tortured, and it seems that a lot of his online engagement is now directed solely at the need to remove Hamas from power. I must say that I feel sympathetic. That must be an awful position to be in. I think it's sad that he seems to be suffering from the common misconception that one can only pick one side to oppose in a war. I wish him healing, and hope his family back in Gaza survives this war.

  • Israel Tied With Iran Among Top Jailers of Journalists in 2023, Report Finds

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  • Well the Confederate states didn't want to end slavery, and South Africa's ruling elites didn't want to get rid of apartheid.

    This is what I want, and I'm going to keep saying that the world should compel them to accept it.

  • Israel Tied With Iran Among Top Jailers of Journalists in 2023, Report Finds

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  • It's sad, but I realized a few weeks ago that if you map out the direction of Israel, the hard right vision is essentially Iran.

    Setting aside the treatment of the Palestinians, Israel was once known for its cosmopolitan night life and high quality universities. Now, its seen a takeover by the militant, backwards, misogynistic theocrats. And as more and more people get angry about losing their rights, the theocrats get more and more heavy-handed in militarizing their society, both inwardly and outwardly. And as the rest of the world becomes more and more disgusted, the country is becoming more and more isolated.

    I still believe in a better way: I want to see a one state solution.

    People don't say this often but I actually appreciate what there is to like about Israel. There's a lot of cool people and great culture and natural splendor. Same for Palestine too. If we can just apply enough pressure and stop saying "tWo sTaTE soLuTiON! tWO sTAte SoLUtION!!" and just say "Enough. It's time you recognized that it's been one country oppressing half its population this whole time, so stop oppressing people and give everyone the same rights."

    I say this because the status quo is already over. I think that it can either become modern South Africa, or Iran. Those are the two most likely paths, and I really want the first one.

  • Netanyahu's outraged response after report of pending US sanctions on IDF

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  • This article is missing some very notable context.

    First, this battalion is a Haredi battalion. The Haredi are Orthodox Jews: they're very far right, and also highly unpopular within Israel because they're exempt from the draft. Every other Israeli is required to serve, but the Haredi get exempted and supported by government incomes to just study torah full-time. They are not even allowed to work.

    Anyway, the court just ruled that IDF can't keep exempting them from military service, and they are pissed. They are threatening to collapse the governing coalition over this, and Netanyahu cannot stay in power without their support. Against this backdrop, there is this battalion in the West Bank that is set up to accommodate Haredi volunteers' ultraconservative lifestyle which is supposed to be the model for integrating them into the army. However guess what? It turns out that a military regiment staffed entirely with far right religious zealots who volunteered to "secure" occupied territory is liable to do exactly what their religious education dictates, and the old testament does NOT conform to modern rules of war. Back then, rape and genocide was de rigueur.

    However unlike sanctions against random settlers, this means something: Antony Blinken has been bending over backwards to bury any requests for investigations into war crimes by the IDF, because it's actually against the law for him to supply them with weapons if he knows about atrocities.

    If the US sanctions a battalion... that opens the door to some big shit. Once you recognize that SOME of the IDF is violating international law, it gets much, much, harder to legally justify arming them. Restricting weapons to a single battalion is not unusual within US military aid, but in this case it's not a small step. It's a potentially seismic shift in US policy.

    I will say something I haven't said in months: this is good news. This is the first time I can think of that Biden is actually doing something that could make a difference. It's not enough. We need far more. But this is actual, serious progress.

  • London police apologize after threatening to arrest ‘openly Jewish’ man near pro-Palestinian protest

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  • I fully agree, but again: that's not illegal.

    I feel bad for cops sometimes, honestly. Trying to de-escalate a confrontation proactively is exactly the alternative to busting heads most of us want to see, but preemptively arresting someone when no crime has been committed isn't legal. Yeah, their hunch was probably correct that the guy was going to go stir shit up, but until he does they have no right to detain him.

    The solution is that they should learn from actual deescalators. A lot of protests I see now have folks in safety vests who cool things off and separate people when someone tries to stir up conflict. But I think it takes an emotional tool kit that isn't currently common within police training.

  • West Bank: Israel investigates after volunteer paramedic killed

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  • I've got a bone to pick with this headline.

    Is the newsworthy event Israel opening an investigation? Is the BBC reporting that the IDF is doing an investigation onto an event (and that the context of the investigation is that they are examining why a soldier murdered a medic)?

    Or is the newsworthy event that medic Mohammed Award Allan was murdered in an act of state violence and state-backed terrorism in an ongoing campaign of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank (and the IDF has investigations open in this matter)?

  • On a mission to make Deus Ex a popular topic on Lemmy.

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  • Okay, but how does that definition not precisely describe a tool?

    It sounds like it very much is a tool, in the exact usual sense of the word.

  • Iranian foreign minister says it will not escalate conflict and mocks Israeli weapons as ‘toys that our children play with’

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  • It's often no reason. The head of domestic security, Itmar Ben-givr was convicted of incitement to violence in 2005, and routinely says that all Arabs are terrorists and should be killed, imprisoned, exiled, and tortured.

    It's pretty brutal. He's advocated for executions without trial and death sentences over social media posts. The man was rejected from compulsory service by the IDF over his extremism, and now he's in charge of the national police.

  • Iranian foreign minister says it will not escalate conflict and mocks Israeli weapons as ‘toys that our children play with’

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  • I disagree, but it would be a waste of words to bicker over it.

    What matters is fostering security and peace in this moment.

    I'm glad Iran says that they're not counter-attacking. I think the US should curtail providing weapons until we've established a shared strategy with Israel. I think we should pursue a strategy with Iran in which we create some incentive for them doing what we want them to do instead of just trying to destabilize a major regional power.

    Overall, I think Biden and co are on the complete wrong track, morally AND strategically when it comes to the middle East, and according to polling, not many people disagree with me.

  • Iranian foreign minister says it will not escalate conflict and mocks Israeli weapons as ‘toys that our children play with’

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  • I don't think anyone in this thread has "cheered for Islamic terrorist groups".

    The factual statements people have made are true: Iran has been the more restrained actor. Israel's aggression has been alarming. The US govt's position has prioritized an alliance far past our national interests. It's any of this incorrect?

    I don't like the Iranian govt. I don't like the current Israeli gov't. I'm not thrilled with America's gov't. I love my country (the US), and I like most Israelis, Palestinians, and Iranians. Is that really hard to reconcile? It seems like the majority opinion.

  • Once a fringe Indian ideology, Hindu nationalism is now mainstream, thanks to Modi's decade in power

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  • Every time I see an article on this prick I think, "Well this fucking sucks."

    Anyway, this fucking sucks.

  • U.S. Intel Warns of Imminent Iranian Strike on Israel: Report

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  • Honestly, I have a bone to pick with legal language.

    I think it puts the cart before the horse. Law as a concept is an incredible invention, but I think we in our present often forget that it IS an invention: it's a technology that was developed to systematize our ability to limit and remedy harm.

    However we frequently ignore the fact that people will always shape their behavior to avoid consequence while looking for ways to serve their interests at the expense of the public good. And then when they do, we often act as if law is itself a kind of natural law, and if we can find no category for the behavior we abhor, that means that we must accept that they have some right to do it, as thought it's out of our hands.

    This situation is a profound demonstration of all of it. South Africa's system of apartheid is a very useful framework for understanding the systems used to maintain Palestinians as a permanent underclass unable to gain meaningful political agency. This fact -- that apartheid is a useful framework for examining the Israeli system and determining what to do about it -- is true regardless of whether the system in question fulfills a definition. The definition is supposed to be useful. If you don't think the term applies, that's just a reflection that the definition apparently needs to be updated, because the thing the definition describes exists regardless of whether our language presently communicates it.

    Language -- like law -- is a man-made tool that is supposed to serve us, not the other way around.

  • “Reprehensible”: Fossil fuel industry infiltrates civil rights convention

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  • This is utterly depressing, but useful to study and know about.

    I don't expect much from Al Sharpton, but Jesus, I feel like any modicum of respect I had for him is now totally gone after reading this.

  • U.S., Not Israel, Shot Down Most Iran Drones and Missiles

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  • That's not conspiratorial thinking at all, that's just geopolitical literacy. Your assessment is correct: Iran planned this carefully to avoid causing any major damage. This was pro wrestling.

    Which honestly makes it sad to consider that Iran has become the more restrained, rational actor here. The US needs to put Netanyahu on a short leash. He is not worth this.

  • Accused rapist who tried to clear his name loses blockbuster defamation trial against TV network | CNN

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  • I'm not saying that you're wrong, but this comment reads like you didn't read the article and have no idea what it's about.

    The guy accused of rape sued a news channel for reporting that a woman claimed she was raped without specifically naming him because it was easy to infer he was the guy who did it. And then a judge ruled that it wasn't defamation because he clearly raped her.

    I'm pretty critical of the media, but in this particular case, they didn't do anything to this guy, this was all on him.

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    Tesla is reportedly laying off ‘more than 10 percent’ of its workforce

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  • It's either because of DEI or work from home. It's not clear how, but it's got to be one of those.

  • U.S. Intel Warns of Imminent Iranian Strike on Israel: Report

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  • I actually think that all makes sense.

    I will acknowledge that when I describe the Israeli system as Apartheid, I'm using it in a colloquial sense, not a legal sense. Which I think is appropriate, because my purpose is to characterize the severity and urgency of the situation rather than prosecute the case in international court. But I can accept that it might fall short based on legal definitions (in part because Israel is familiar enough with international law that they usually take care in developing policy to try to avoid when possible making their violations easy to prosecute).

    I think if that's the framework you're applying, you might be interested in this law review (assuming you haven't already read it): “The Ongoing Nakba: Towards a Legal Framework for Palestine,” by Rabea Eghbariah

    It's a bit long, but the feature I think is useful is summed up here:

    "If the Holocaust is the paradigmatic case for the crime of genocide and South Africa for that of apartheid, then the crime against the Palestinian people must be called the Nakba."

    The thesis, at least in my understanding, is that the situation is unique enough to fit poorly into the major categories we use for describing atrocities, and that it requires that we recognize it as the primary case for a novel form of ethnic oppression that incorporates elements of genocide and apartheid, but operates in a way that is ultimately unique to the specifics of this situation. I'm curious what you might think of that argument.

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    Britain Is Leaving the U.S. Gender-Medicine Debate Behind

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  • Do you think the Atlantic is a lefty mag?

    I think you're confusing it with some other magazine. The Atlantic is for neoliberal centrists. It's modestly liberal in the way The New Yorker is, but it's for old, wealthy New England investors.

  • U.S. Intel Warns of Imminent Iranian Strike on Israel: Report

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  • I think this video does a very good job of laying this out plainly:

    The Video That Got Me Fired: Israel IS An Apartheid State

    It's 12 minutes long, and in it Katie Halper points out that it's been labeled an Apartheid state by Zionists and Afrikanners for decades. Israeli prime ministers and Nelson Mandela, academics, and human rights groups have been saying this for generations.

    If you want to call it something else, feel free. But whatever you call it, it needs to end.

    Also: they don't "rough up" protesters. They disappear them. They throw them in prison and torture them. They take them away from their families indefinitely without charges or kill them for posts on social media. This is not minor ethnic repression. The head of police, as I mentioned, is a convicted terrorist.