Eh, the Hanukkah story is window dressing to put a Jewish spin on “it’s really cold and dark out there. Let’s gather with family and friends and light a rack of candles and eat rich food.” At least, i was told it wasn’t much of a holiday until American Jews needed something to compete with Christmas.
And Christmas is a Christian spin on traditional solstice celebrations. The Puritans outlawed it, both when they were in power in England and in Massachusetts. (Puritans - Wikipedia, the section on "behavioral regulations.)
Felix Mendelssohn converted to Christianity, composed the Reformation Symphony in honor of Martin fucking Luther, and that still wasn’t good enough for the Nazis, who banned his music. Just goes to show.
Reminds me of To Kill a Mockingbird:
“Yes ma’am,” he said. “Old Adolf Hitler has been prosecutin’ the-”
Well, this is huge - Haaretz reports that a week and a half before 10/7, the emir of Abu Dhabi called Netenyahu directly and informed him that Hamas was preparing to launch a major offensive out of Gaza, and Netenyahu dismissed the warning and didn’t inform the heads of the security bureaus.
And may it take Likud down with him. This makes “Bush blew off a vague security briefing about Osama wanting to attack the US” look like a tan suit. Either Bibi was so confidently incorrect about Hamas that he blew off a credible warning from a source who would know, or it implies he wanted an attack to happen so he could have the war he wanted.
Bibi definitely seems to be in deep shit. Hebrew source but Google translate should work decently:
One thing it won’t translate well is the banner, which it translates as “Default Oct 7” (like, in the financial sense) but what the word means in this context is something like ‘scandalous inaction’.
In things continuing to not look good for Bibi, the head of Shin Bet also warned him on 10/1/2023 that Hamas was on the brink of a major offensive and recommended taking out Sinwar, and Netenyahu declined.
It is important to know what the UAE may or may not have told Israel, but it was reported that Israel’s own intelligence agencies had already warned the government of specific and general threats related to the attack. Has anything really changed concerning Netanyahu? Has his government lost any bit of support? He is denying everything, as usual.
In the past 24-48 hours, reports by CNN and BBC (among many others) are that the E1 settlement expansion by Israel will effectively divide the contiguous West Bank territory in half, thereby eliminating the possibility of a future Palestinian state in the West Bank.
BBC: The development would in effect divide the West Bank in two and isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the territory. Opponents of the project have warned that it would effectively block the establishment of a Palestinian state because it would cut off the north of the West Bank from the south, and prevent the development in the centre of a contiguous Palestinian urban area connecting Ramallah, East Jerusalem and Bethlehem.
Now, before heads explode, I’m not arguing that E1 is remotely justified. It’s a fucking travesty of justice and anyone arguing for its legitimacy can and should fuck right back under the rock from which they crawled.
HOWEVER, this is my issue with various media and organizational claims which undermine their own legitimacy when anyone so much as reads a map. Getting from Ramallah to Bethlehem is already a googlemaps navigation nightmare. E1 will not make it any easier. But if one zooms in, it doesn’t seem to make it markedly worse as the area is largely inside existing roads. And it doesn’t geographically split the West Bank into two halves, as is being misleadingly reported.
And again, doesn’t remotely justify anything being done by Netanyahu and his ethno-fascist minion. I just need for media to be fucking honest, or at least to look at a fucking map before filing a story.
This is very good but also just barely a first step. This Israeli is very much responsible for expanding and supporting the settlements as well as much of the brutal violence and violations of rights of Palestinians in the WB. Why not sanction the country of Israel until these policies change?
I thought that West-Bank Settlements were already sanctioned by the EU and have been for a while. As in, let us say they get a shipment of oranges. They will check on the map where it comes from and if it is an illegal settlement, customs will not let it in. Was I mistaken?
There are moments, not many, in which my faith in humanity is momentarily lifted. None of it will come to pass because the parties of god won’t have it. But if you are inclined and have 45min to spare, this is a conversation worth hearing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHd8lpi7Hs0
). France is having to impose its trade ban