Oh, I figured there were would be a cease-fire eventually. I think Egypt had as much if not more to do with the agreement than the Biden administration -- but either way it doesn't matter much. While the cease-fire is a good thing, it does nothing to end the situation which caused the increase in hostilities in the first place.

Mr. Tact wrote on May 19, 2021, 14:04:
More seriously... I've been watching this conflict from afar since the 80s. The 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords are approaching and if we/they are any closer to a resolution, I certainly can't see it. I'd like to think a resolution can be found, but frankly there are factions on both sides which will probably prevent it. It is a complete and utter mess and it isn't going to get cleaned up anytime soon...

Team Biden has single-handedly negotiated a cease fire.
Which was made a lot easier because Israel had hit all the targets they wanted to strike and Hamas had no more rockets to fire.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/biden-israel-gaza-ceasefire-shorter-war-490017
https://theweek.com/articles/983224/what-left-gets-wrong-about-israelpalestine-conflict

More seriously... I've been watching this conflict from afar since the 80s. The 30th anniversary of the Oslo Accords are approaching and if we/they are any closer to a resolution, I certainly can't see it. I'd like to think a resolution can be found, but frankly there are factions on both sides which will probably prevent it. It is a complete and utter mess and it isn't going to get cleaned up anytime soon...

Evangelical's want this to happen. They want this war. Cause in their book of ancient words it says it will bring about rapture or some such typical none sense. Yeah they go to bat for Israel to act like it does. Two groups of ideologies kill each other, while those to gain pull their strings. Or think they will gain. I mean the whole idea of Rapture is astoundingly absurd... But doesn't sound too bad to me. All the Certain Religious devout can leave and we can finally start moving forward as a species. If that happens I'm ok with that. BYE! ya know?

Personally, I know very few non-hasidic Jewish people in America that support the Israeli government.
And while this is anecdotal, it's also a well documented trend.

Israel's government is terrible. This does not mean Palestine is without fault, but... you frequently see people (like here) act as if Israel's government isn't aggressors doing terrible things, as well.

And, again, it's worth noting that US support of the Israeli government is driven largely by Evangelical Christians. Which is partially why I frequently feel that those most in support of Israel are most likely to be anti-semitic. You rarely see someone accused of anti-Semitism for being against the Israeli government accused of any other anti-Semitism, but you do see the people that put things on Twitter like "(((they)))" entirely in support of the Israeli government.

I'm so glad Jared solved this problem for the world. (Sorry, couldn't resist)

So I am anti semitic now? Wow. I can say there are some folks in my family that will be REALLY surprised. Anyhoo...

It is not anti semitic to hold Israel accountable for bombing news agency buildings.

It is not anti semitic to hold Israel accountable for bombing civilians.

You can write posts that try to draw those conclusions until you are blue in the face or make Hitler comparisons in an effort to guilt people into seeing things differently. It's lame and offensive but you can do it I suppose. Israel isn't the bad guy here because they are Jewish, they are the bad guys because they could stop but they won't until someone makes it worth their while. They are the bad guys because it was their military forcefully evicting muslims during a pandemic that started this round of aggressions. As I said, old Benny Net does a great job of making sure there is a hornet's nest to kick every time is grip on power is threatened.

In the future, I would appreciate not being called a bigot....indirectly or not. It's not helpful for any reasonable discussion. Have a different opinion if you want, but resorting to the whole "No children allowed? Why do you hate children?" line of discussion takes you to that place where you basically call everyone that disagrees with you anti-semitic....and that is just straight up bullshit.

ZeroPike1 wrote on May 18, 2021, 12:16:
Have you just done a stupid hot take or have to some knowledge of the situation? Israel has been shitting on the Palestinians for years. Instead of even trying to live side by side. They have Apartheid going on, its so well documented. When they fight back with even sticks and stones, let alone out dated rocket's its because they got pushed into that corner. Just like with BLM folks It was based around people being or feeling like they are getting pushed into a corner. Of course they will fight back.

The problem with Israel is anytime you speak out against what they are doing you are instantly labelled Antisemitic. Despite how the evidence here is showing that Israel is definitely being ultra aggressive. I disagree with their government actions. Not their existence.

Historically all Israel has been trying to do is to leave peacefully along with their neighbors. The neighbors consistently keep violating agreements, lying, and resuming to kill Israeli families, while Israel keeps giving them electricity, food and water.

When Israel counterattacks and wins, no matter all the leaflet warnings and surgical strike tactics they use to minimize civilian casualties, these crybullies get the press on their side by putting their women and children in the path of return rocket fire. A very old tactic that increasingly massive amounts of Coddled Western Idiots fall for.

Israel gets attacked, Israel counterattacks, sometimes takes land, eventually it gets bullied by the anti-semitic trash around the world and gives land back, only for their hospitals to be converted into rocket launch sites.

And so it goes. It's fascinating how Hitler was popular around the world in the 1930s, and such is the widespread popularity of anti-semitic sentiment today.

While it seems it is the Palestinians fighting Israel, it is much more a power struggle of Fatah vs. Hamas in Palestine itself. President Abbas (Fatah) is coming under huge pressure by Hamas' attacks on Israel. Hamas is afraid of losing power because of some Arab countries making peace treaties with Israel in the last few years and Hamas therefore needs the terror attacks to stir things up. Meanwhile, of course President Netanyahu in Israel is also a winner because he was under huge pressure and even criminal investigation because of corruption and not being able to form a new government after the latest election. So playing the strong man in this will protect him from the prosecution and might make the people of Israel back him in these times of terror despite not liking him. Also, Hamas and Netanyahu need each other - they base their power on terror and fear. If the terror and counterattacks would stop and people would actually start talking to each other, the danger is that the hardliners would lose their power once people would start believing in peace and a two countries solution.
In the end, it is the people of Israel and Palestine that will lose in this struggle for power. Hamas firing rockets from crowded city areas and by this using their own people as a sort of protection against counterstrikes by the Israeli airforce is outrageous, though. And journalists saying that they did not know that they were part of this "human shield" because they did not know that Hamas had an office in the same building they had their offices is either not true or very, VERY bad investigation by professional journalists. But again: in the end, the people of Israel and Palestine will be the victims while some politicians, warlords, and family clans will be the only "winners".
This war will NEVER end. It will go on for centuries.

This comment was edited on May 18, 2021, 14:41.

Uh...yeah the US gives money to Israel, far better than sending it to BurnLootMurder or some other wretched organization. But ignore the fact that the rest of the Arab world gives money (and weapons also) to the Palestinians. I guess all those rockets just...sprouted from some magic rocket tree.
And ignore the fact that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab WORLD want Israel exterminated off the map. But hey, Israel is the meanie, how dare they fight back and even win.
If Hamas and the rest of the world gave a damn about Palestinian civilians, they'd ask Hamas to stop using civilian centers as launch points. But that's not going to happen, let's just pretend that isn't a thing. Let's just do the typical dumb leftist thing and blame Israel.

Ohh F' off. Have you just done a stupid hot take or have to some knowledge of the situation? Israel has been shitting on the Palestinians for years. Instead of even trying to live side by side. They have Apartheid going on, its so well documented. When they fight back with even sticks and stones, let alone out dated rocket's its because they got pushed into that corner. Just like with BLM folks It was based around people being or feeling like they are getting pushed into a corner. Of course they will fight back.

The problem with Israel is anytime you speak out against what they are doing you are instantly labelled Antisemitic. Despite how the evidence here is showing that Israel is definitely being ultra aggressive. I disagree with their government actions. Not their existence.

Israel ain't even pretending to be the good guys here. They knocked out foreign press buildings, civilian housing, and their military spokesman is such an incredibly bad liar. I mean, he couldn't even keep a straight face when explaining the very little he did attempt to explain. They are going to make a movie about this, and I am calling it now....he is going to be played by some comedian as a drunk friend of the prime minister's and a parody Bond villain. I am just saying.

Anyway, I don't know much about their current (as in last week) politics but given the world's distraction with C19 and Prime Minister YesIamaYahoo's knack for starting up the guns every time he nears having to give up political power....I am gonna say those Palestinians are dying so conservative nationalist Israeli political folks can drum up the "patriotic" support to stay in power.

GamerGoat wrote on May 17, 2021, 17:37:
Uh...yeah the US gives money to Israel, far better than sending it to BurnLootMurder or some other wretched organization. But ignore the fact that the rest of the Arab world gives money (and weapons also) to the Palestinians. I guess all those rockets just...sprouted from some magic rocket tree.
And ignore the fact that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab WORLD want Israel exterminated off the map. But hey, Israel is the meanie, how dare they fight back and even win.
If Hamas and the rest of the world gave a damn about Palestinian civilians, they'd ask Hamas to stop using civilian centers as launch points. But that's not going to happen, let's just pretend that isn't a thing. Let's just do the typical dumb leftist thing and blame Israel.

Oh please. The West Bank is a literal ghetto. And those rockets they use are antiques. Not to mention Israel's Iron Dome defense system nullifies over 90% of said rockets. I worked for an Israeli multinational on the proprietary CRM software and hardware side of things, but they also made military stuff - spectral listening systems and all kinds of crazy crap. Most of the engineers were all ex-Mossad guys. We'd talk after trade shows while having drinks. As progressive intellectuals they were very much opposed to hard line against Palestinians by Bibi and Co., the same as all all progressive Jews. Bibi and Co. want conflict. It's the only thing keeping him out of prison where he belongs. You think Trump was bad? Pfft.

Uh...yeah the US gives money to Israel, far better than sending it to BurnLootMurder or some other wretched organization. But ignore the fact that the rest of the Arab world gives money (and weapons also) to the Palestinians. I guess all those rockets just...sprouted from some magic rocket tree.
And ignore the fact that the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab WORLD want Israel exterminated off the map. But hey, Israel is the meanie, how dare they fight back and even win.
If Hamas and the rest of the world gave a damn about Palestinian civilians, they'd ask Hamas to stop using civilian centers as launch points. But that's not going to happen, let's just pretend that isn't a thing. Let's just do the typical dumb leftist thing and blame Israel.

Prez wrote on May 17, 2021, 16:26:
I've always had a simple policy - my support for your cause goes to basically zero when you resort to terrorism/barbarism. To me, regardless of which side gets US support, and which side is right or wrong, both sides are equivalent enough in that. I am tired of innocent people dying.

But what about all the people suffering, overwhelmingly Palestinian, who don't resort to terrorism?

It's my opinion that the Israeli government are deliberately provoking violent responses in order to justify their slaughter. Make people live in shit, and then when people fight back against having to live and die in shit use this as justification for making people live in shit. Any "both sides" argument is exactly what they want because it makes it sound like it's not a massive military exterminating people (some of whom are) fighting for survival.

It's pretty much standard operating procedure to provoke violence from peaceful protestors exactly to achieve what you're giving them. I think the Israeli government have been doing this for years, US cops did it last year (and many other times), British cops do it regularly, basically "law" enforcement everywhere. Giving them what they want only encourages them to keep doing it.

Fuck the people who resort to violence, but separate them from the cause.

This comment was edited on May 17, 2021, 17:23.

I wonder if the Israelis have figured out how many Palestinians they need to cull every few years given their birthrate to continually shrink their territory.

Cutter wrote on May 17, 2021, 13:54:

Prez wrote on May 17, 2021, 12:53:
"IGN, Game Informer express, retract support for Palestinian civilians"

Wow. So reiterating that they support all civilian populations mean they are "retracting support for Palestinian civilians"? Fucking morons.
In truth I found their response quite reasonable. How about we just agree that bombing civilians (both sides do it) is ALWAYS bad. Can we do that?

They're not equivalent. Palestine doesn't get 4 billion a year in military aid from the US. And the US unwavering support and aid to Israel is as immoral as it gets. Israel in how it treats Palestinians is a de facto apartheid state. If they were black instead of Arab the Dems would never permit it instead of supporting it as they do. Right-wing extremism in Israel is at a fever pitch and zero different from Germany circa 1930s. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

I've always had a simple policy - my support for your cause goes to basically zero when you resort to terrorism/barbarism. To me, regardless of which side gets US support, and which side is right or wrong, both sides are equivalent enough in that. I am tired of innocent people dying.

Prez wrote on May 17, 2021, 12:53:
"IGN, Game Informer express, retract support for Palestinian civilians"

Wow. So reiterating that they support all civilian populations mean they are "retracting support for Palestinian civilians"? Fucking morons.
In truth I found their response quite reasonable. How about we just agree that bombing civilians (both sides do it) is ALWAYS bad. Can we do that?

They're not equivalent. Palestine doesn't get 4 billion a year in military aid from the US. And the US unwavering support and aid to Israel is as immoral as it gets. Israel in how it treats Palestinians is a de facto apartheid state. If they were black instead of Arab the Dems would never permit it instead of supporting it as they do. Right-wing extremism in Israel is at a fever pitch and zero different from Germany circa 1930s. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

"IGN, Game Informer express, retract support for Palestinian civilians"

Wow. So reiterating that they support all civilian populations mean they are "retracting support for Palestinian civilians"? Fucking morons.
In truth I found their response quite reasonable. How about we just agree that bombing civilians (both sides do it) is ALWAYS bad. Can we do that?