Conservative social democrat in the Blue Labour tradition. Ally of Jews, enemy of antisemites. Interests in psychology, theology, and literature.
It’s a very good morning. Nice to have a little bit of hope that things can get better.
The president can personally violate any law without legal consequences.
This isn't true.
They ruled that the President has criminal immunity for official acts in line with the constitutional rights and duties of the POTUS.
They also ruled that non-official acts, or acts taken in a personal capacity as a private citizen, are not immune to criminal prosecution, and that there's a large gray area in between the two where it needs to be decided on a case-by-case basis.
One problem I have is that the core design problem of Reddit is the use of user upvotes/downvotes to sort (and either highlight or hide) based on the number. But not only does an opinion unpopular not mean that it's wrong, it's vitally important for any democratic society that we are regularly exposed to viewpoints that differ from our own.
Lemmy doesn't challenge that, and I wish it did.
Tbh I suppose I just want old-school vBulletin forum boards back, but I don't know any general-purpose ones...
Unnfortunately Lemmy, regardless of the server, is a complete echo-chamber of left-wing politics, at least in my experience.
State Dept. pauses funding for UN agency amid allegations employees involved in Israel attack: Any UNRWA employee involved will be prosecuted, the agency warned.
The State Department is temporarily pausing funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel’s legal team has challenged the charge by providing the court with secret orders made by Israel’s civilian and military leaders.
># Israel Tries to Rebut Genocide Charge by Declassifying Cabinet Decisions > South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel’s legal team has challenged the charge by providing the court with secret orders made by Israel’s civilian and military leaders. > >Israel has declassified more than 30 secret orders made by government and military leaders, which it says rebut the charge that it committed genocide in Gaza, and instead show Israeli efforts to diminish deaths among Palestinian civilians. > >The release of the documents, copies of which were reviewed by The New York Times, follows a petition to the International Court of Justice by South Africa, which has accused Israel of genocide. Much of South Africa’s case hinges on inflammatory public statements made by Israeli leaders that it says are proof of intent to commit genocide. > >Part of Israel’s defense is to prove that whatever politicians may have said in public was overruled by executive decisions and official orders from Israel’s war cabinet and its military’s high command. > >The court, the U.N.’s highest judicial body, began hearing arguments in the case this month, and is expected to provide an initial response to South Africa’s petition — in which it could call for a provisional cease-fire — as soon as Friday. > >Since October, Israel has pounded Gaza in a campaign that has killed more than 25,000 Gazans, or roughly one in 100 residents of the territory, according to Gazan health officials; displaced nearly two million people; and damaged the majority of the buildings, according to the U.N. The campaign is a response to a Hamas-led assault that led to the deaths and abductions of roughly 1,400 people in Israel, according to Israeli officials. > >The Genocide Convention of 1948, which South Africa has accused Israel of violating, does not define genocide solely as killing members of a particular ethnic or national group. Crucially, it says the killings must be committed “with intent to destroy” that group. > >“Everything hinges on intent,” said Janina Dill, a professor at Oxford University and co-director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. > >To that end, both South Africa and Israel are focused not only on what leaders and soldiers have done, but also what they have said. The roughly 400-page defense includes what Israel says is evidence that it sought a legal war with Hamas and not a campaign of genocide against the Palestinians. > >Among the declassified Israeli documents are summaries of cabinet discussions from late October, in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered supplies of aid, fuel and water to be sent to Gaza. He also instructed the government to examine how “external actors” might set up field hospitals to treat Gazans, as well as consider mooring a hospital ship off the coast of the territory. > >Mr. Netanyahu’s most declarative statements were made in November, according to the released documents. > >“The prime minister stressed time and again the need to increase significantly the humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip,” reads one declassified document that Israel’s lawyers said was taken from the minutes of a cabinet meeting on Nov. 14. > >“It is recommended to respond favorably to the request of the U.S.A. to enable the entry of fuel,” another document said. > >On Nov. 18, according to the declassified minutes of another meeting, Mr. Netanyahu emphasized “the absolute necessity” of allowing basic humanitarian aid to continue. > >But the dossier is also highly curated and omits most wartime instructions given by the cabinet and the military. The available documents do not include orders from the first 10 days of the war, when Israel blocked aid to Gaza and shut off access to the electricity and water it normally provides to the territory. > >While the court could take years to reach a verdict, it may seek to impose “provisional measures” as soon as this week. Those measures could include a symbolic — and largely unenforceable — request for Israel to cease its attacks while the court deliberates. > >To do so, the court’s 17 judges must find it plausible that Israel has killed residents of Gaza with the deliberate goal of destroying Palestinians as a group, according to international legal experts. > >Actions that can constitute genocide can “be features of a war without being genocide,” Professor Dill said. “So it is really imperative to show this intent.” > >Israel’s cabinet decisions could prove more relevant in several months, when the court begins to assess the merits of the case. The judges will need to decide whether Israel had no other motive to kill Palestinians aside from genocide, the experts said. > >But at the current “provisional measures” stage, the experts said, the judges need only be convinced of the plausibility of South Africa’s claim in order to instruct Israel to suspend its campaign. > >South Africa has tried to prove genocidal intent by citing more than 50 comments and statements made since October by Israeli leaders, lawmakers, soldiers and commentators. > >Those cited include Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defense minister, who said Israel was fighting “human animals”; Amichay Eliyahu, the minister for heritage, who suggested dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza; the country’s mainly ceremonial president, Isaac Herzog, who described Palestinians as “an entire nation out there that is responsible”; and Ghassan Alian, the Israeli general who oversees the distribution of aid to Gaza. > >Israel has also submitted to the court a handful of emails between military officers and aid workers that it says shows its efforts to supply Gaza with food, medicine and vaccinations. Were Israel intent on the wholesale destruction of Gaza’s Palestinian population, the Israelis argue, it would not be working with the U.N. to distribute lifesaving aid. > >One email, from a senior U.N. official to an Israeli officer overseeing aid distribution to Gaza, detailed an approved request to deliver solar-powered refrigerators to the territory to store vaccines and lab tests. A U.N. official confirmed the messages were authentic. > >International legal experts said that the secret orders and emails provided important context, but that the court would regard them as one part of a wider picture. > >Israel’s submission contained only a few of the decisions made by its cabinet and military leadership since October. The judges will need to assess whether or not the dossier tells the whole story of Israel’s plans, said William A. Schabas, an international law professor at Middlesex University, London, and the author of “Genocide in International Law.” > >“When you’re trying to prove that you didn’t give an order to do something, obviously you’re going to show orders that indicate something else,” Professor Schabas said. “And if there is an order to do something or a plan to do it, you’re not going to provide that.” > >Orders to provide sufficient humanitarian aid to Gaza would also need to be assessed against what Israel has actually allowed to happen on the ground, Professor Schabas said. > >“Things that appear to be directed at sustaining life don’t necessarily disprove the opposite,” he said. > >The United Nations, for example, recently accused Israel of blocking aid to north Gaza, a charge Israel denied. The U.N. has also warned of a looming famine amid food shortages and the collapse of Gaza’s health system. > >Patrick Kingsley is the Jerusalem bureau chief, covering Israel and the occupied territories. He has reported from more than 40 countries, written two books and previously covered migration and the Middle East for The Guardian. More about Patrick Kingsley
NR spoke with military and foreign-policy pros about the renowned paper’s credulous treatment of Hamas.
I'm not really sure what that adds.
When you declare war, as Hamas did on October 7th, you don't get to set the terms of your own surrender.
The more Palestinian civilians Hamas throw into the meat-grinder, the more upset Westerners, who no longer understand war nor believe in anything worth fighting for, become.
The more upset they become, the more they pressure their governments to put pressure on Israel.
Eventually, Israel is forced to let Hamas live.
Hamas recover, then unleash even more violence a few years down the line.
Rinse. Repeat.
Hamas rejects Israel’s offer of two-month pause in Gaza fighting — Egyptian official
A senior Egyptian who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity says terror group Hamas has rejected Israel’s proposal for a two-month ceasefire in which Hamas would release Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian security prisoners.
The official says Hamas leaders have also refused to leave Gaza and are demanding that Israel fully withdraw from the territory and allow Palestinians to return to their homes.
Under Israel’s proposal, Yahya Sinwar and other top Hamas leaders in Gaza would be allowed to relocate to other countries.
The official says Egypt and Qatar, which have brokered past agreements between Israel and Hamas, are developing a multi-stage proposal to try to bridge the gaps. The proposal would include ending the war, releasing the hostages and putting forth a vision for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The shadow home secretary says confidence is waning in the police following recent failings.
The only sane comment in this entire thead.
First They Came for My People, Then They Came for the Jews: A South Sudanese former slave recognized the Palestinian pogrom on Oct. 7
A South Sudanese former slave recognized the Palestinian pogrom on Oct. 7
I wasn't aware of that link.
Very grim...
Yup. Israel desperately needs to hold new elections. If necessary, Gantz should threaten to collapse the coalition government if that's what it takes. Israel needs sensible leaders like Benny Gantz, Gadi Eisenkot, Yair Lapid, and Gallant who actually understand that while it's necessary to exterminate Hamas, the only way of ensuring long-term peace and stability in the region is to reach a political solution with a pathway towards Palestinian self-rule.
The majority of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi Jews who fled to Israel after almost all of them, some 850,000 in total, were expelled or pressured out of Muslim-majority Middle Eastern countries from 1948 through the 1950s. About 72% (650,000) settled in Israel.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_exodus_from_the_Muslim_world
The notion that Jewish Israelis are just Europeans is a profoundly racist and ignorant belief.
Blaming Jews for the antisemitism they experience is antisemitism 101, buddy.
That's is a blind ideological position, with a very poor evidence base, that frankly is wearing pretty thin across the entire continent.
Sweden is currently dealing with its capital city turned into the gun-murder capital of Europe by drug-trafficking gangs who are migrants and 'refugees'. France and Germany have both suffered numerous appalling mass terrorist atrocities in recent years. You had an Algerian-born man go into a school in Ireland and stab a bunch of children just last year.
Antisemitism is skyrocketing with appalling hate crimes against Jews, and it's largely coming from Muslim communities who've done nothing to address the frightening levels of antisemitism within their communities.
These are issues that need to be addressed. The levels of extremism among immigrant communities are a threat to many European countries, and there has to be a way to fix the problems that exist in that respect. If you're just going to ignore these problems, other people are going to point them out and begin to address them, and you're going to lose the argument in the real world, not just online.
I think suggesting they're proposing killing is a wild overstatement, but the prospect of mass deportations of German citizens – people born in Germany – is really disturbing.
everybody I don't like is an authoritarian
Democratic Socialists of America in ‘Financial Crisis’ following Brash Support for Hamas
‘The current deficit will force us to make 7-figure budget cuts. This will require us to make painful decisions,’ DSA members said in a proposal.
I'm not interested in either The Grayzone or your own attempts at Holocaust denial. Blocked.
Numerous women who were released have testified that they and many of the other women they met in the tunnels had been brutalised, sexually assaulted and raped, as well as verification by doctors.
At least 10 of the Israeli civilians released by Hamas, both men and women, were sexually assaulted or abused while in captivity, the Associated Press reported Wednesday.
In a report detailing allegations of severe and widespread sexual abuse by Hamas terrorists during their October 7 onslaught and later against hostages, a doctor who treated some of the 110 hostages released from captivity told the AP that at least 10 men and women among those freed were sexually assaulted or abused.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/28/world/middleeast/oct-7-attacks-hamas-israel-sexual-violence.html
Many of the accounts are difficult to bear, and the visual evidence is disturbing to see.
The Times viewed photographs of one woman’s corpse that emergency responders discovered in the rubble of a besieged kibbutz with dozens of nails driven into her thighs and groin.
The Times also viewed a video, provided by the Israeli military, showing two dead Israeli soldiers at a base near Gaza who appeared to have been shot directly in their vaginas.
[...]
The first victim she said she saw was a young woman with copper-color hair, blood running down her back, pants pushed down to her knees. One man pulled her by the hair and made her bend over. Another penetrated her, Sapir said, and every time she flinched, he plunged a knife into her back.
She said she then watched another woman “shredded into pieces.” While one terrorist raped her, she said, another pulled out a box cutter and sliced off her breast.
“One continues to rape her, and the other throws her breast to someone else, and they play with it, throw it, and it falls on the road,” Sapir said.
She said the men sliced her face and then the woman fell out of view. Around the same time, she said, she saw three other women raped and terrorists carrying the severed heads of three more women.
Sapir provided photographs of her hiding place and her wounds, and police officials have stood by her testimony and released a video of her, with her face blurred, recounting some of what she saw.
Jamal Waraki, a volunteer medic with the nonprofit ZAKA emergency response team, said he could not get out of his head a young woman in a rawhide vest found between the main stage and the bar.
“Her hands were tied behind her back,” he said. “She was bent over, half naked, her underwear rolled down below her knees.”
Yinon Rivlin, a member of the rave’s production team who lost two brothers in the attacks, said that after hiding from the killers, he emerged from a ditch and made his way to the parking area, east of the party, along Route 232, looking for survivors.
Near the highway, he said, he found the body of a young woman, on her stomach, no pants or underwear, legs spread apart. He said her vagina area appeared to have been sliced open, “as if someone tore her apart.”
The idea that Hamas "treat hostages well" is such a viciously stupid and deceitful claim I don't even know where to start. You should be ashamed of yourself for spreading such vile idiocy, and for accepting at face value the message of a desperate hostage held at gunpoint in a Jihadist terror dungeon.
UK Home Office to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir as terror group
The controversial Islamist group is accused of praising the Hamas attacks on Israel.
Hamas recruit from the age of 13, we've known this for more than two decades.
Isn't really surprising that Palestinian Islamic Jihad do the same, just as we know the Houthis do as well.
Live updates on the Israel-Hamas war.
I'm so sorry. I'm keeping your friend and all the other hostages in my prayers.
the people in it is native.
Some were, some weren't. Depends how far back you want to go, which wave of mass migration you're talking about.
Israel is nonexistent before 1948 and the people were brought from outside
Except, of course, that none of this is correct.
First, there's the ancient Kingdom of Judah. The Jews are the same people.
Second, Jews maintained a continuous presence in the land of Israel-Palestine ever since then. They are, therefore, indigenous to the land.
Third, the majority of Jewish Israelis are Mizrahis – Jews from Arab lands who've lived there since the Second Temple Period (516 BC - 70 AD), who were forced to flee from these neighbouring Muslim states due to violence, pogroms, repression and the theft of their property.
We know from numerous scientific studies of Jewish and Palestinian DNA that they're almost identical, and share a common root, most likely both being descendents of the ancient Canaanites. Here's a very recent one. There's almost no genetic difference with 'European' Ashkenazi Jews either, because they very rarely intermarried with other faith/ethnic groups. Here's another from 2015 in Haaretz.
Palestinians and Jews are basically cousins, genetically speaking, and both are indigenous to the land. Palestinians perceive it as an invasion, and that's understandable despite not being true. To the Jews, they were returning from exile to their homeland only to find that there were squatters who'd let the place fall to ruin while they were gone, which is also understandable though not true.
They'll find a way to live together one day, but it'll require both sides to accept the rights of the other.
Conservatism in Times of War—Dr. Yoram Hazony
Dennis Prager is a conservative thinker, commentator and one of America’s most successful political entrepreneurs; He is most well known for establishing PragerU, one of the largest conservative online platforms. Steven Edginton is joined by Mr Prager to discuss threats to Western civilisation.
Conservatism Rediscovered | Dr. Yoram Hazony
Philosopher, scholar and political theorist Dr. Yoram Hazony joins John for a rich and interweaving conversation about conservatism, nationalism, democracy and modern politics.
Dr. Hazony, author of several books on these matters, provides a compelling critique of the political right - where it has gone wrong, the great benefits it can convey for society and how it diverges from liberalism. John and Yoram touch on many important topics, including multiculturalism, identity politics, globalism and the question of why nationalism seems surrounded by an unearned air of controversy.
John and Yoram touch on many important topics, including multiculturalism, identity politics, globalism and why nationalism seems to be surrounded by an unearned air of controversy.
Yoram Hazony is an Israeli philosopher, Bible scholar and political theorist. He is President of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem and Chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation. He has written several books, including The Virtue of Nationalism (2018) and his latest, Conservatism: A Rediscovery (2022), both of which have met with popular and critical success
Educated at Princeton University (B.A. in East Asian Studies), and Rutgers University (Ph.D in Political Theory), Yoram founded and was the first editor of Princeton’s conservative student journal, The Princeton Tory, while still an undergraduate. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Yael Hazony. They have nine children.
Noa Argamani seen for first time since she was kidnapped by Hamas fighters and taken away on the back of a motorbike on October 7
The undated 37-second video of Noa Argamani, 26, Yossi Sharabi, 53, and Itai Svirsky, 38, released on Sunday night showed them speaking presumably under duress, pleading with Israel’s government to end the war and get them home.
The clip ended with a Hamas caption that on Monday, “we will inform you of their fate”. Israel has blasted such videos as psychological warfare and insists it will not be deflected from its goals in Gaza, after Hamas launched raids into southern Israel on October 7 that claimed 1,200 lives.
Among the targets was a music festival from which Ms Argamani and her boyfriend were seized. An early clip released by Hamas showed her pleading for her life as she was taken away on the back of a motorbike.
After a voter said he found it “astonishing” that Haley hadn’t used the word “slavery” at any point in her answer, she asked, “What do you want me to say about slavery?”
“Wrong Way” Takes the Shine Off the Self-Driving Car: Joanne McNeil’s novel suggests that much of what we think of as technological progress is a new way to obscure human labor.
Joanne McNeil’s novel suggests that much of what we think of as technological progress is a new way to obscure human labor.
