Israel/Palestine

[Mjl]

Bye bye Bi Bi?

You realize I posted that like 2 posts above this?

[ousdahl]

Yeah my bad.

btw I mostly just get my Israeli info from roniponi

[Mjl]

Is the guy replacing him any better?

For the moment, yes, probably. He needs to go.

Unless we end up with endless suicide bombings and the world still blames it all on the "zionists" (their word for Jews when they want to sound informed when they're not or trying to hide their antisemitism), like we had before Bibi.

But when Bibi cosied up to Trump and criticized Obama, he was making short term political moves at the cost of Israel's long-term best interests by turning the American left against him. No Israeli PM has ever shown that kind of mentality. I used to be a huge fan of Bibi, but at this point, good riddance.

[TDub]

I thought they had negotiated a truce?

New leader, no agreement?

Israel launched more strikes tonight

[jhawks99]

Crap. Seems hamas was provoking them to see what they can get away with. Hopefully, it settles down.

And WTF is this (from CNN)

The IDF says the balloons were launched as a protest to the provocative flag march in Jerusalem, where thousands of Israelis marched through the Old City. Far-right Jewish extremists taking part in the parade chanted "Death to Arabs" and "This is our home."

Sounds suspiciously close the chants from neo-nazis in Chancellorsville.

[Mjl]

I thought they had negotiated a truce?

New leader, no agreement?

Israel launched more strikes tonight

Wait, what? Hamas broke the ceasefire with fucking fire balloons.

[TDub]

I thought they had negotiated a truce?

New leader, no agreement?

Israel launched more strikes tonight

Wait, what? Hamas broke the ceasefire with fucking fire balloons.

Could be. I only know what I read and it said Israel started it "afyer being provoked". It didnt clarify what the provocation entailed.

[Mjl]

Several terrorist attacks in Israel this week. Latest is very close to where I'll be living this summer

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/middleea ... index.html

[KUTradition]

Several terrorist attacks in Israel this week. Latest is very close to where I'll be living this summer

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/29/middleea ... index.html

but didn’t you hear about what went down at the Oscars?!?!

[Mjl]

3 more killed by a Palestinian axe murderer in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Starting to get nervous about this summer... Which I suppose is the entire point of terrorism

[KUTradition]

my brother was recently there with a school group. i’ll have to ask him how the trip was compared to others (i think this was his 3rd trip to Israel)

[Mjl]

Last time I was there we had a guy with an assault rifle with us at all times. Not going to have that this time

[KUTradition]

Last time I was there we had a guy with an assault rifle with us at all times. Not going to have that this time

damn

i had a similar experience doing biological surveys where Abu Sayef were active

really puts a different perspective on things

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Last time I was there we had a guy with an assault rifle with us at all times. Not going to have that this time

I wish you the best. Not too sure how I would feel about going but if you live your life in fear, the terrorists "win".

Two guys with sunglasses were our security. No "assault rifles" but they were armed - and very much respected. To the point where they were known by both the police and IDF personnel.

2nd guy was Leonardo DiCaprio and Bar Refaeli's personal security guard when they were dating.

[Mjl]

Oh, those aren't considered ARs? I don't know guns. It was those.

My wife has said she's concerned. I've tried to comfort her by telling her it's more likely we'll die in a car crash there, especially considering how aggressively Israelis drive. For some reason that didn't seem to comfort her.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Two guys in the green are IDF. Crazy to me that they basically carry those guns with them everywhere they go - Including when they sit down at a dinner table in a public restaurant. But of course they do have to be "on alert" 24/7/365.
I would have felt more confident (in terms of feeling secure) if our security guys had those guns.
Only time I truly felt unsafe is when we stopped in a remote roadside restaurant. Some really unsavory looking characters walking around. PERFECT place for us to have been terrorist victims. Was right after we went to Sderot - one mile from Gaza.

This was how close we were to Gaza/Palestine - where they launch the "rockets" from.




Your wife isn't wrong for feeling concerned but the truth of the matter for me is, I would probably be safer in Israel than I am walking the city streets in Chicago these days.

[ousdahl]

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

I'm not saying the Israeli's didn't kill her but from the article.......

The Israeli military said that its forces came under attack and returned fire while conducting "counterterrorism activity to apprehend terrorist suspects in the Jenin Refugee Camp.” It said it was investigating “and looking into the possibility that journalists were hit by the Palestinian gunmen.”

Israel has carried out near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks amid a series of deadly attacks inside Israel, many of them carried out by Palestinians from in and around Jenin.

In a statement published on Twitter, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that "it appears likely that armed Palestinians — who were firing indiscriminately at the time — were responsible for the unfortunate death of the journalist."

His office said Israel offered Palestinians a "joint pathological analysis and investigation, which would be based on all of the existing documentation and findings, in order to get to the truth." It said that so far, that offer had been refused.

[ousdahl]

yeah, it's a lot of he-said she-said. I'm not sure who actually did the shooting either.

more than anything, I posted cuz it's rare to see a western media headline worded so strongly - against the Israelis, at least. Every other western headline about this story is like "Palestinian-American journalist killed in Israel under disputed circumstances"

(if Russian forces killed a journalist, but Russian forces insist it was actually the Ukranian militants who fired, do you think western media would afford the Russian authorities the "disputed" benefit of the doubt?)

and while I hesitate to just plain believe the other journalist who was there, and was also shot, and insists it was Israeli forces who did the shooting; I also think the news of an Israeli pledge to investigate smells like "cop investigation clears cops of wrongdoing in killing of unarmed black man" vibes.

[RainbowsandUnicorns]

Here is what is NOT funny. Usually I don't believe either "side".