# Smapti is Pitted **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 21, 2014, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907 "2014-05-21T08:14:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 98
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1941 "2025-12-20T11:50:47Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Yes, they were. …no they weren’t LOL. > [@Smapti](#): > > Support for Israel is a _human_ duty. I don’t even think support for my own country is a “human duty.” > [@Smapti](#): > > You would deny them this respite. Because you are an antisemite. Good lord. Where did that come from? ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1942 "2025-12-20T11:57:00Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The people of Israel have been a role model for human civilization for 3,000 years. Was this before or after they were (allegedly) committing genocide on the inhabitants of Canaan? _Plus ça change_ indeed… ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1943 "2025-12-20T12:23:37Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > I don’t even think support for my own country is a “human duty.” That’s your problem. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Where did that come from? From your incessant campaign against Israel’s right to exist over the last two years. > [@MrDibble](#): > > Was this before or after they were (allegedly) committing genocide on the inhabitants of Canaan? The book of Joshua isn’t a historical account. It’s mythology composed about 600 years after the fact during the reign of King Josiah as part of a campaign by the Levitical priesthood to centralize the worship of YHVH in Jerusalem at a time when sacrifices were being conducted at “high places” all around Eretz Yisrael by local priests. It shares common traits with the stories of other cultures that existed in that area around the same time - such as an Egyptian stele which records that the Pharaoh’s armies had completely eradicated the nation of David, which is demonstrably untrue. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1944 "2025-12-20T12:25:36Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > That’s your problem. …it isn’t a problem. > [@Smapti](#): > > From your incessant campaign against Israel’s right to exist over the last two years. But I’ve never suggested that Israel didn’t have a right to exist. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1945 "2025-12-20T12:29:27Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > But I’ve never suggested that Israel didn’t have a right to exist. No, you just insist that every single action they take to defend their existence is wrong, and refuse to descibe any practical alternatives except to appeal to some vague and illegitimate notion of international law maintained by organizations beholden to Vladimir Putin. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1946 "2025-12-20T12:32:56Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > From your incessant campaign against Israel’s right to exist over the last two years. Israel is not the Jews. ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1947 "2025-12-20T13:12:48Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > No, you just insist that every single action they take to defend their existence is wrong …atrocities are atrocities no matter who commits them. I don’t know why you don’t seem to understand that. > [@Smapti](#): > > and refuse to descibe any practical alternatives I have. They can do anything they want. As long as it doesn’t breach the Geneva conventions and international humanitarian law. > [@Smapti](#): > > except to appeal to some vague and illegitimate notion of international law The Geneva conventions and international humanitarian law are not vague or illegitimate. You can literally google them and read them for yourself. > [@Smapti](#): > > maintained by organizations beholden to Vladimir Putin. What complete and utter bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1948 "2025-12-20T14:02:55Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The book of Joshua isn’t a historical account. _Quelle surprise_. Tell me something I _don’t_ know. But that _other_ 3000 years, _that’s_ all straight up gospel truth and should _definitely_ be adopted as a model for human civilization … \s I’ll start taking Jewish “national hagiography” as a civilizational model the day after the “mostly exiles” diaspora myth stops getting peddled as truth, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1949 "2025-12-20T14:42:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Putin hijacks Israel-Gaza war to fuel tensions in the West – POLITICO](https://www.politico.eu/article/russia-vladimir-putin-hijacks-israel-gaza-war-to-fuel-tension-in-the-west/) I just looked at the last article in your barrage. Here’s the money quote: > The lies spread by Moscow’s digital propagandists now include claims that Hamas terrorists[are using NATO weapons](https://pravda-fr.com/world/2023/10/09/32474.html) to attack Israel and that British instructors[trained Hamas attackers](https://sputnik.by/20231009/khazin-podgotovkoy-boevikov-khamas-zanimalis-angliyskie-instruktory-1080101140.html). Very important note: the lies are designed to implicate the West in Hamas’s terrorism. They are not designed to condone Hamas’s actions or to blame Israel. The point of these lies is to sow division between Israel’s supporters and the US and UK. I’m guessing that you didn’t read your articles, but instead just did a search for some keywords and did a link-dump. I’ll remember that, going forward. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1950 "2025-12-20T14:47:32Z")
And just for fun, I also checked the penultimate link you offered, to NPR. I read the whole article looking for any evidence that Russia was creating a “psyop” to convince people that “Israel is committing genocide in Gaza” in order to “split the American Left,” as you claimed. There was nothing. I also searched the article for “Palest”, “Israel”, “Jew”, “Gaza”, and “Left”. Only “Israel” and “Gaza” appear. Here are all the mentions of any of those terms. > Pro-Russia social media accounts amplifying stories about divisive political topics such as [immigration](https://apnews.com/article/russia-election-trump-immigration-disinformation-tiktok-youtube-ce518c6cd101048f896025179ef19997) and campus protests over the war in **Gaza**. > > In addition to operating fake accounts and phony websites, the operation purchased Facebook ads targeting French and German audiences with messages about aid to Ukraine, farmers’ protests and the war in **Gaza** , according to the European nonprofit [AI Forensics](https://cmsbackend.aiforensics.org/uploads/No_Embargo_In_Sight_Press_Release_fa4eee5487.pdf). > > Covert influence campaigns based in Russia, as well as in China, Iran and **Israel** , have begun using AI in their attempts to manipulate public opinion and shape politics, [according to recent reports from OpenAI, Meta and Microsoft](https://www.npr.org/2024/05/30/g-s1-1670/openai-influence-operations-china-russia-israel). (emphasis added) Nothing remotely like what you claimed. Read your cites before you post them, and be willing to change your mind if your cites indicate you’re wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1951 "2025-12-20T14:50:30Z")
Oh, what the hell, let’s go for one more: NBC News. Here’s a bit that you maybe shoulda read, Smapti, before citing the article in support of the opposite of what it says: > U.S. officials and experts say it’s important not to overstate the effect of the propaganda effort on the intense debate over Israel’s campaign in Gaza, or to imply that demonstrations in the U.S. on either side of the issue are being orchestrated in any way by Moscow. > > “I think it would be entirely inaccurate to say that the protests that are happening on college campuses, the divisiveness of the debate in Congress and among the public is a result of anything that Russians have done or could do,” Schafer said. “I think it would all be there regardless of whether there were Russian bots and Russian state media messaging.” > > Emerson Brooking, a senior fellow at the Digital Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council, a think tank, said reports on propaganda efforts by foreign actors over protest movements needed to be treated with caution. > > Allegations of foreign influence “can often be used to delegitimize large and authentic democratic movements in the United States,” Brooking said, adding that some critics of the Black Lives Matter protests tried that tactic citing foreign adversaries’ information operations. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1952 "2025-12-20T14:51:25Z")
Smapti, you have deeply regressed both in your decency but also your intellectual honesty. I hope you think long and hard about what’s driving your beliefs and posts on this topic. You wouldn’t remotely accept the rationale and justifications you’re using if they were coming from a Trump supporter defending ICE. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1953 "2025-12-20T15:06:45Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Smapti, you have deeply regressed both in your decency but also your intellectual honesty. Has he regressed, or has he always been there? Last year he described the IDF’s efforts in Gaza as “pest control.” When arguing with him, it’s important to remember that his opinions on how to treat Palestinians are colored by the most disgusting beliefs I’ve seen on this board. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1954 "2025-12-20T15:12:20Z")
Before Oct 7th, Smapti had progressed a lot, IIRC - from someone who blindly trusted police, to the point of saying civil rights protesters were bad and wrong, and even that it was wrong to violate the law to _free slaves_, to someone who clearly recognized the flaws of police and values of peaceful resistance to injustice. Since Oct 7th he’s gone back, essentially to the exact same mindset, except now his blind trust is in the Israeli government and IDF, and thus he’ll brook no criticism at all of them, and certainly no opposition to them. I expect he’ll eventually realize how disgustingly wrong he is, but it may be a while, and it will probably only come from deep and thoughtful soul searching. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1955 "2025-12-20T15:23:04Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Smapti, you have deeply regressed both in your decency but also your intellectual honesty. It’s a wonder, then, that anyone still bothers to read what he writes. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1956 "2025-12-20T15:43:13Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Why, yes, I can! Of course you can, because what Russia is doing is clearly and obviously an actual genocide. I love that **Crowsatemybrains** thought that would be a good thing to challenge you on. If they want to see what a city that’s actually been “destroyed” looks like, they can look at El Fasher. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1957 "2025-12-20T15:45:13Z")
I think if we stop responding to Banquet Buddy, his Iranian handlers might decide that buying some water bottles is a higher priority than continuing to fund his propaganda campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1958 "2025-12-20T15:47:58Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [https://www.jns.org/did-iran-and-qatar-pay-anc-to-prosecute-israel-at-the-icj/](https://www.jns.org/did-iran-and-qatar-pay-anc-to-prosecute-israel-at-the-icj/) Excuse me sir, but that’s a Jew source, Czarcasm and Troutman have told us that these aren’t acceptable ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1959 "2025-12-21T01:25:07Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Hind’s story As promised, I have now reviewed your links. The Guardian article is an editorial with a clear anti-Israel stance and cites al-Jazeera, which is state-owned media operated by a regime that was complicit in 10/7, in its claims that the civilians were deliberately targeted and that Israel was responsible. I do not find it credible. The Haaretz article is paywalled. The other three articles I find to be objective and unbiased, but they do not conclude that the car was deliberately targeted by the IDF except to cite a claim by the Gaza Ministry of Health, which is an arm of Hamas. The evidence provided is insufficient to determine what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2025, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907/1960 "2025-12-21T01:26:26Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > I think if we stop responding to Banquet Buddy, his Iranian handlers might decide that buying some water bottles is a higher priority than continuing to fund his propaganda campaign In a moment of weakness I forgot why I stopped interacting with him. My mistake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907.md?page=97) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/smapti-is-pitted/688907.md?page=99)