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• #1328
Thank you, now I have a better understanding.
Thought Google was a do no evil...
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• #1329
US army engineers are to build an "emergency pier" on the coast of Gaza for the delivery of aid. I hope we will see Israelis taking potshots at them. It could make for an interesting quandary for jewish American voters. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/mar/07/biden-us-port-gaza-aid-delivery
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• #1330
I hope the Israelis don't shoot at the Americans, but instead allowed the aid to be delivered without precipitating yet more conflict and death
I mean, I know you're not being entirely serious, but fuck the American voters at this stage, surely?
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• #1331
US Jewish voters and donors are what's stopping Biden doing anything that could be seen as pro-Hamas, e.g. cutting off arms to Israel unless there's a ceasefire.
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• #1332
The enquiry into this affair will be like disinfecting a slaughterhouse. Sadly, it will likely further reinforce the conclusion that ‘dead men tell no tales’, and the last thing war criminals on either side want is 1st hand witnesses.
If it turns out that the claim was materially bogus, Israel would find it difficult to recover trust from the rest of the world. How many thousands of innocent adults and children will have died or been affected by the UNRWA’s sudden budget cuts?
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• #1333
The UNRWA comments made by Israel, had no proof.
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• #1334
The US Army has provided details of the temporary pier. It'll take 60 days to build and provide up to 2m meals per day. https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3702071/dod-to-construct-pier-to-deliver-humanitarian-aid-to-gaza/
No word on how the meals will be distributed. There are no trucks or drivers to do it.
How are people supposed to survive in the meantime? Israel is turning away 4 out of 5 aid trucks. The air drops provide 100,000 meals per week.
The drop which killed people was done by a UAE plane using the wrong type of parachute https://taskandpurpose.com/news/uae-c17-deadly-airdrop/?utm_term=Task%26Purpose_Today_03.09.24&utm_campaign=Task%20%26%20Purpose_TPToday_Actives_Dynamic&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email
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• #1335
The video I watched of the airdrop had them falling stupidly fast over an urban area, makes more sense if it was the wrong parachute
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• #1336
It's intended for combat areas. It drops at 60 mph, more than double the speed of the 'humanitarian' chute. Well done to the twats in the UAE air force. Perhaps this is the video you saw? https://twitter.com/ismail_gh2/status/1766056215103107553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1766056215103107553%7Ctwgr%5E9365552bd12c2d48509ba973cd3e8a90d9faba5b%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftaskandpurpose.com%2Fnews%2Fuae-c17-deadly-airdrop%2F
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• #1337
Yes that's the one
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• #1338
No word on how the meals will be distributed. There are no trucks or drivers to do it.
How are people supposed to survive in the meantime?
According to one Humanitarian Law expert and UN official, airdrops and an eventual pier to deliver food aid are known to be ineffective in these situations: there’s no way to ship in enough food to stave off famine without a ceasefire and mass influx of support, there’s no infrastructure to distribute the food properly, it’s all a literal war zone, tens of thousands of people with medical conditions and advanced stages of starvation have special dietary needs… Basically, this chap interviewed by Reuters says it’s a “cynical” ploy by Biden to win over the concerned US electorate, because they’re not even reducing the much more plentiful military support given to Israel at this time.
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• #1339
The last sentence says it all.
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• #1340
Trigger: Very depressing.
.
.
.Trigger specifics: pictures of famine, children.
.
Yazan Kafarneh. 10 years old, with cerebral palsy, died of starvation last Monday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/world/middleeast/yazan-kafarneh-gaza-starvation.html
Half of all infants in Gaza are fed with formula, which requires two things Gaza doesn’t have in supply: actual formula and clean drinking water.
Pregnant women who are undernourished give birth to vulnerable babies with additional nutritional needs, and to make things worse the malnourished mother’s breast milk lacks the nutrients to sustain the baby.
Massively contrasting literal and figurative picture from the photographs of dusty, stressed, slightly pudgy looking children queueing up for food that the major outlets have been using in their stories about worsening hunger in Palestine.
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• #1341
I don't want to be overly fatalist, but given that Hamas has resolved to attack Israel indefinitely, I don't see how a ceasefire can achieve much.
I can just about imagine 10 days of peace. Hamas would then feel obliged to resume the war and the flow of martyrs. A number of children could be saved from starvation during those 10 days. But that number would be eclipsed by the children killed in subsequent Israeli retaliations.
The Hamas strategy is for children to carry on being martyred until the final victory. Which won't happen. No nation or militia is going to invade Israel and save the Palestinians, even if 50 million people around the world go on demos. And there is no plan B for peaceful Palestinian leaders to replace Hamas and negotiate with Israel.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy recently tried to get a Hamas leader to discuss his
strategy. It was very dispiriting. https://www.channel4.com/news/israel-is-not-ready-to-pay-the-tax-of-a-peace-deal-says-hamas-representative-in-iran -
• #1342
Have you overlooked that Israel is the illegal invader in that area. The English promised that land back to the Arabs for the support of attacking the ottoman empire. The Arab revolt greatly helped the allies win the first world war. These are facts that I and others have mentioned before.
Are we overlooking the terrorist acts committed by David Gruen led group against the English and Arabs in what is seen as the fight for independent Jewish state in Palestine. Once again mentioned before.
Terrorists got what they wanted against the wishes of everyone in that area including the English. Just because a group (less than 200 years ago) decided that someone else's country was theirs. It is comparable to Russia invading other countries such as Crimea and Ukraine whilst claiming the god given right.
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• #1343
If your are bored, go on the the sky news website and look at the photo on the headline of fireworks lit and eggs thrown at opening of holocaust museum in Amsterdam.
Read the article, as no fireworks or eggs are mentioned but what is mentioned is the prime minister of Israel opened the holocaust museum and Jewish (specifically mentioned in the article) Jews against genocide and other groups Jewish groups angry that there is a holocaust in Gaza in their name.
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• #1344
.
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• #1345
Have you overlooked that Israel is the illegal invader in that area.
No. The Balfour declaration is 107 years old, and I did go to a school at which history was taught.
I'm perplexed that so much of the noise on social media and from demonstrators is from people who talk as if any of the crimes heaped upon the Palestinians before Oct 7 are new news. They don't see the big picture.
Israel is a half-baked idea, disastrously executed, and it justifies intense, righteous Palestinian anger and desperation. That's a given. Educated Jews agree.
But we are where we are. How do we solve the problem? Hamas is trying to achieve that. They didn't commit the Oct 7 rape and slaughter just to expiate their anger. They planned and prepared for many years. They're not terrorists, they're an army with a military strategy. That strategy is the controlling factor in current events. It dictates what the Israeli military does. It has to be the logical starting point for how we think about all aspects of the problem, from starving children to a future solution.
The Hamas strategy is what framed Krishan Guru-Murthy's questions. He said "you decided to sacrifice your own women and children for a political gamble". The Hamas guy doesn't disagree. He says Hamas has already won a victory, because public opinion of Israel has suffered around the world. He suggests that eventually the international community will bow to the will of the masses and implement justice for Palestine.
In other words, more women and children will be sacrificed until....what? Can anyone think of a credible scenario, or is the Hamas guy lying or delusional?
What if ten times more women and children die....dead kids on our TV news every day for another year, or two years, or ten years...I'm sure Hamas could and would arrange it. Would there be such a backlash that the US public would rise up and the US would force Israel to implement UN resolution 194?
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• #1346
I don't think public opinion even matters anymore.
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• #1347
They're not terrorists
Yikes.
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• #1348
dead kids on our TV news every day for another year, or two years, or ten years
If famine is allowed to take hold, it won’t take 10 years to leave Palestine child-free.
Hamas is trying to achieve that. They didn't commit the Oct 7 rape and slaughter just to expiate their anger. They planned and prepared for many years. They're not terrorists, they're an army with a military strategy. That strategy is the controlling factor in current events. It dictates what the Israeli military does. It has to be the logical starting point for how we think about all aspects of the problem, from starving children to a future solution.
Last I checked, enemy barbarism wasn’t a defence against war crimes or genocide under the Geneva Conventions. Hamas’ strategy may be to infuriate Israel and hide behind civilians, but that doesn’t justify carte blanche retribution where civilians are likely to be affected (it doesn’t justify carte blanche anyway but let’s focus on the civilians, fuck Hamas). If anything, Hamas’ cynicism should motivate Israel to go to additional lengths to prove to the world that its attacks are, at least, specifically targeting legitimate enemy targets; as it stands, Israel is being deliberately obscure in explaining its actions resulting in civilian deaths, to the point that they aren’t even acknowledging collateral damage. That isn’t forced upon them by Hamas, it’s a strategic choice (imo, mistake) the Israeli govt is freely making.
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• #1349
They're not terrorists
Yikes.
Quite. I know it’s a bike/kitchen forum and not a law school, but sometimes folks don’t seem to realise the meaning of what they’re saying.
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• #1350
That strategy is the controlling factor in current events. It dictates what the Israeli military does
You seem to ascribe a whole lot of agency to Hamas, whereas you depict Israel as simply reacting to what Hamas did on Oct 7th. One side is an agent of history, the other side is a passive actor, doomed to respond to provocation. Why? Why does history apparently start in October? Could we not say that the events of October were shaped by Israeli strategy, that the Israeli miltary strategy of occupation defines the historical scope within which Palestinian actors can respond? Indeed, given that Israel are the overwhelming force here both in terms of military / economic / whatever power you want to think about, doesn't it seem more plausible that they have the greater agency?
A few things:
Might’ve been posted here but at least I wasn’t aware of the £1 billion Nimbus project that Google was building for the Israeli govt., that the dissenting engineer says is empowering a genocide.
I was also unaware of google developing a tech tool that the creators themselves believed could be found to have aided a genocide, which could impact harshly on its valuation, contracts, and future activities if it were proven in court.
I was also surprised at how vociferously the dissenting engineer’s peers told him to shut up and get out, and how quickly he was forcibly removed.
It’s unclear if he was interrupting a big livestream (likely, because it’s Google), but for an internal conference it’s pretty bad not to even listen to what an employee has to say if they’re willing to torch their career over it. People in big tech might disagree and stoically say that any squeaky cogs in a tech company get immediately replaced, which is mildly surprising too.
Finally, projects like those usually need approval from the US Fed. Govt., which is unsurprising but brings in all sorts of perverse incentives for people within the Govt to go to extremes to avoid Israel’s actions being declared genocidal, for risk of being found to have supported them in it.