Discussion for the Israel-Hamas War: A thread in the Pit

Not just India - I mean, there are plenty of Western Islamophobics in exactly the same space. You just have to look at this thread, where Palestinian kids are counted as terrorists by some.

There’s similar narrative in Islam.

Many Jews in Medina refused to accept Mohamed as a prophet. The hostility of Muslims towards Jews started then, and it precedes the founding of Israel by centuries.

Indeed, those who disbelieve from the People of the Book and the polytheists will be in the Fire of Hell, to stay there forever. They are the worst of all beings. (Quran [98:6])

Is it? My parents were areligious and didn’t give me any kind of religious education, and my only formative experiences with Christianity were when I’d spend the weekends with my grandma and she’d take us to Salvation Army services with her. It seemed pretty simple to me; Jesus died so that we could go to heaven, so while it’s sad that Jesus died it was a good thing overall. The first time I was ever exposed to the “The Jews killed Jesus and that’s bad” meme was reading Stephen King’s It when I was 17, and thinking to myself “I’m an atheist and even I know that’s wrong, so these characters must be absolute morons”.

It utterly bewilders me that this is a thing that a considerable percentage of Americans actually believed not that long ago, because I somehow paid more attention in Sunday school than they did even though I didn’t believe a word of it.

If I’m reading this right, the IDF is actively supporting and funding militias formed by settlers in the West Bank:

“West Bank settlers are recruiting reservists to protect farm outposts and even help establish them, with military positions already set up for reservists as part of the army’s so-called regional defense battalions…

These reservists in the West Bank are being mobilized by Order 8, the army’s order for calling up reservists in general, making the reservists in the West Bank eligible for compensation from the state.”

These people, and their supporters and enablers in the Israeli government, are as much enemies of long-term peace and security for Israel as Hamas and Hezbollah fighters.

Bullshit.

I don’t agree with these people or what they do in the settlements, but pretending that they are as much the preventers of peace as Hamas and Hezbollah is simply delusional.

The fact of the matter is that Israel has again and again offered to withdraw from both the West Bank and Gaza and to recognize a Palestinian state; and Israel has had this offer rejected, again and again, by people who absolutely refuse the very concept of a Jewish state in that land.

If I snapped my fingers and every settler was gone from the West Bank, do you really think we’d have peace? That Hamas would lose popularity and the PA would suddenly grow a pair of balls and do what Palestinians actually need to get a state of their own?

Until Israelis and their allies see the settlers and their enablers as much enemies of peace as Hamas and Hezbollah, there’s no chance of long-term peace and security. Getting rid of one probably wouldn’t get rid of the other necessarily. But there’s no chance of peace as long as both have so much support from wealthy and powerful parties (i.e. the Israeli government, the Iranian government, etc.).

In Ta-Nehisi Coates interview on CBS Mornings in which he was promoting his book The Message, host Tony Dokoupil said that Coates’ book would be in the backpack of an extremist for its stance against the oppression of the Palestinian people at the hands of the ethnocratic state of Israel. According to Dokoupil and other Zionists, being against the oppressive ethoncratic state of Israel is extremist.

Oy vey!

I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to culturally appropriate the language of my ancestors.

Duly noted.

Dokoupil is an idiot; your mindless broad brushing of all Zionists as if they all have the exact same beliefs is equally idiotic.

You’re going scare away everyone’s favorite incomprehensible Tankie. He might leave for another six months :frowning:

Where did I broad brush all Zionists, exactly?

Heh, “tankie.”

Calling Israel an “oppressive ethnocratic state” IS an extremist position.

I call for the oppressive ethnocentric state to accept an immediate ceasefire, release all illegally held detainees, and implement a two state solution at once.

Free Kurdistan!

When you said “according to Dokoupil and other Zionists”. Many Zionists disagree with Dokoupil.

No, it isn’t.

A two state solution for kurdistan where, exactly?

I didn’t say, nor imply that many Zionists don’t disagree with Dokoupil.

Yes, it is.