NoneOfUrBusiness

They’re both fascist colonial states run by ridiculously evil people, but I’d definitely rather live in Crimea than the West Bank.

Why would they need to afford them? The whole point of territorial expansion is to gain land, resources and other forms of wealth. I think you’re referring to the occupations, in which case Israel is a wealthy developed country with a strong tech sector that also gets billions upon billions of US aid money annually. They also don’t overextend themselves, and many empires past and present have occupied many more people and much more land compared to their core population/area. I mean their only active military operations are on and off bombings in Gaza, more intense bombings in Iran and an actual invasion in Lebanon. This isn’t that much in the grand scheme of things, assuming they can control the fallout (which they’ve been somewhat failing at recently).

Political assassinations and kidnappings aren’t any more normal than they were two years ago; Trump is just more blatant about it. I mean when Western countries overthrow this or that regime, they don’t exactly give the old regime flowers. Not that they didn’t deserve it, but Saddam Hussein for example was executed after a show trial by American-appointed judges and Gaddafi was killed as a direct consequence of NATO bombings after his Western-backed overthrow.

Guys I think EU countries might be growing a teensy tiny bit of spine. Someone call the lobbyists ASAP.

War crime moment + leopards eating faces moment + death to America.

Hell, it’s the only reason Israel even exists.

This is an understandably common view, but it’s not true. The only fundamental change WWII brought to Palestine was weakening the British Empire; Zionists, partially due to British support, were by far the ascendant group in Palestine as early as 1939, so Israel was going to appear as soon as the British left Palestine. Zionist wealth and diplomacy, Arab weakness and division, Western colonial ambitions and British colonial policy made something resembling the current situation inevitable with or without WWII.

And EU will be stronger than ever.

I doubt it. The EU faces the same fundamental problem as the US: Powerful, greedy and unresponsive elites unwilling to compromise with their subjects. I think we’re more likely to see an overall weaker and somehow even more dysfunctional EU with Ukraine as a counterbalance to its traditional Western and Northern European power base (assuming the EU doesn’t drop the ball on Ukrainian recovery like it repeatedly did on the war).

How?

Because of Cuban exiles. Obama’s attempt at rapprochement with Cuba pretty much turned Florida permanently red and was immediately overturned by Trump. Not to say it’s impossible, but you’d need a committed progressive president, a popular mandate and a cooperstive legislature, three things the Democratic party has been doing its damnedest to avoid over the past two decades.

Not really. You basically have to be either a superpower or a pariah state to do something like this and not be immediately pummeled into oblivion.

True in general (see the India sanctions debacle), but why in this specific case? This war is giving Russia tons of extra oil revenue to fuel their war machine.

I guess if even Trump can do good things occasionally, so can Russia. Infinitesimally rare Putin W.

Afaik there was a drone launched “in the direction of” Cyprus that never actually hit the island or the UK base. That was the UK’s excuse to help the US, and it was a whole nothingburger.

Destroying America’s democracy and welfare state was a collaborative project; something can be both Obama’s fault and Reagan’s fault.

And do… what, exactly? Europeans don’t want to touch this mess with a 10ft pole (they might, but it won’t be because of this), the Gulf is already on America’s side, Russia only stands to gain from this, China is already getting free passage and neutral countries for the most part have no way of pressuring Iran here. That’s the thing about being a pariah state: They already have nothing to lose.

I mean 99% of the time it is, but on this specific topic Obama actually did a good job.

That’s the image they like to project (the first half, anyway), but Israel traces surprisingly little of its descent to Holocaust survivors. Most of its Jewish inhabitants are either Middle Eastern or East European (neither group immigrated to Israel en masse during the Holocaust), and its founders were all already in Israel by 1939.

You seem to have no concrete idea for what should be (or even have been) done. You should have one if you want to have a conversation about this. And no, “vote for peace” (the fuck does that even mean) and “keep pushing for human rights” (see before) don’t count. Your current position is basically “if Palestinians are nice they’ll get a happy ending through the power of friendship.”

so I honestly don’t know

Then, no offense, everything you just said is worthless. You can’t condemn violent resistance without having a realistic proposal for peaceful resistance.

But if the chance comes up where Isreal looks for a peaceful solution, I would hope that Hamas stops firing rockets at them.

That’s the whole point of the rockets. Hamas pretty much accepts a two-state solution (though in different terms, because Hamas considers Israel illegitimate and refuses to recognize it).

No I expect the Irish to keep fighting to this day and bomb people in London next week. Never stop fighting!!! /s?

Are you fucking kidding me? The Irish got an acceptable settlement in Good Friday, so they’re not bombing London anymore. They bombed the shit out of Brits and Loyalists before Good Friday, which is what Palestinians are doing. The Irish didn’t get their freedom by fucking magic.

there have been plenty of peace talks scuppered by the Palestinians extremists (just as there have been by the Israeli extremists).

Example? If there are many, give what you consider the best example.

But unless we find a way to realize violence on BOTH SIDES is bad, it’s not going to be possible to find a solution.

Then what are Palestinians supposed to do? Pray? When peaceful resistance fails, violent resistance becomes the only solution. Violence is only bad if there’s another option available; no such thing is available to Palestinians. Again, have you seen the state of the West Bank? That’s what the peace you’re asking for looks like. Your refusal acknowledge this means your position is built on magical thinking divorced from reality.

You’re a terrible human being and I hope a fascist throws you into a concentration camp. Goodbye.