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Contrary to what has been said by the genocidal army, there is still a significant number of civilians in Northern Gaza.
 
You have absolutely no right to comment given redcafe is the closest place you've been to in a war zone.

Sociopathic because I didn't consider innocents may have died as I had mortars dropped on my head :lol:
No, I'd say sociopathic because you were part of an organisation which achieves its goals by killing other humans.

I'm sure you had your reasons for joining and being in the role you were in but it's not a particularly bold claim to say people working in/with the military lack empathy in a way most civilians don't.
 
No, I'd say sociopathic because you were part of an organisation which achieves its goals by killing other humans.

I'm sure you had your reasons for joining and being in the role you were in but it's not a particularly bold claim to say people working in/with the military lack empathy in a way most civilians don't.

Its not really an "organization" though is it. When you're in a military you're representing your country and its interests and policies as defined by the people who vote politicians into power. They are all a part of a democratic ecosystem.
 
No, I'd say sociopathic because you were part of an organisation which achieves its goals by killing other humans.

I'm sure you had your reasons for joining and being in the role you were in but it's not a particularly bold claim to say people working in/with the military lack empathy in a way most civilians don't.

This is an insane take.

Most military people I know are more empathetic than most because of the absolute horrors that they've witnessed, endured or had to work in.
 
Its not really an "organization" though is it. When you're in a military you're representing your country and its interests and policies as defined by the people who vote politicians into power. They are all a part of a democratic ecosystem.
That's just semantics. Call it what you will but if you're in a military you know that you work for an employer which will be causing human death. I think you need some degree of sociopathy or lack of empathy to be ok with that.

Most civilians don't have to display that lack of empathy for their dayjob.

This is an insane take.

Most military people I know are more empathetic than most because of the absolute horrors that they've witnessed, endured or had to work in.
Empathy like this?



It's shock factor dark/racist humour and prevalent in just about every Military organization I've seen, nothing out of the ordinary. A discussion could be had on why all militaries have this kind of edginess to them.

But like I said, Houthi's are actually scumbags so whilst it's technically wrong, I could care less.

Also, US Naval Aviators are very highly educated, very intelligent people. They're not your typical USMC brutes.
 
That's just semantics. Call it what you will but if you're in a military you know that you work for an employer which will be causing human death. I think you need some degree of sociopathy or lack of empathy to be ok with that.

Most civilians don't have to display that lack of empathy for their dayjob.


Empathy like this?

I have absolutely no idea what the relevance that is to empathy.

Let's empathize with the guys who are firing missiles at merchant shipping whose my job is to protect!
 
That's just semantics. Call it what you will but if you're in a military you know that you work for an employer which will be causing human death. I think you need some degree of sociopathy or lack of empathy to be ok with that.
It’s not semantic given that it’s all apart of the same process.

A military is a subsidiary of a government, which in a democracy, is an extension of the will of the people. They can’t therefore be randomly separated for the case of debating points.

Also, if you know anything about modern militaries, a vast majority of the jobs are administrative or support jobs, many of which happen in cubicles just as ordinary civilian jobs do.

Therefore if you criticize a job choice of joining a military you are tacitly criticizing the country and its democratic political system. The only caveat would be if you’re an actual pacifist who believes war is never an option irrespective of the circumstances.
 
I have absolutely no idea what the relevance that is to empathy.

Let's empathize with the guys who are firing missiles at merchant shipping whose my job is to protect!

Because you said that sort of racist humour is prevalent in every military organisation you've seen. I don't see how someone with an abundance of empathy would feel comfortable working in that sort of environment.

I get why they do it. You need to dehumanise the enemy if you want to try and kill them. I just fail to see how that sort of thinking is compatible with empathy. Maybe we just have different definitions of empathy.

It’s not semantic given that it’s all apart of the same process.

A military is a subsidiary of a government, which in a democracy, is an extension of the will of the people. They can’t therefore be randomly separated for the case of debating points.

Also, if you know anything about modern militaries, a vast majority of the jobs are administrative or support jobs, many of which happen in cubicles just as ordinary civilian jobs do.

Therefore if you criticize a job choice of joining a military you are tacitly criticizing the country and its democratic political system. The only caveat would be if you’re an actual pacifist who believes war is never an option irrespective of the circumstances.
I'm not criticising it though and I understand why it's necessary. I just think you need a degree of sociopathy or a certain lack of empathy to be part of the military yourself. Even in an administrative or support role, because your role functions to make the military more effective. You're still helping to kill people, sometimes innocents.
 
The alarming losses are more on the Lebanese front, so they seem more willing to pause there.

Unfortunately, looking for Israel internally to stop its atrocities towards Palestinians has always been a bit of a pointless exercise.

I think about 500+ soldiers and a few dozen civilians. It depends on how you count the civilians, as some were killed in terror attacks in Israel and not because of rocket fire.

And no, it doesn't really move the needle, unfortunately.

In recent years, Israeli society became very sensitive when it came to soldiers losing their lives - even more than civilians being killed. It was a big part of why Israel withdrew from Lebanon all these years ago. But in this past year, as more and more soldiers died, it's like people became immnune.

I think it started from the shock of October 7, in which so many civilians were murdered, with the military failing to protect them. The war deemed a neccesity and as someone told me, "soldiers die in war". It's been normalized. Now it's another thing mentioned in the news for a few minutes and then you move on to the next thing.
Thanks!
 
Here's an interview between J. Mearsheimer and a german interviewer pretending to be "agnostic" and quite ignorant on the Israel-Gaza conflict. It was an okay interview until Gaza came on the table.

You'll see the interviewer not only intellectually but also morally completely imploding. Granted she came quite unprepared on this particular topic, the views she holds on the matter are bone chilling. Worst of all, she actually means well, at least in her head. The bit starts around 01:11:05.

 
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Here's an interview between J. Mearsheimer and a german interviewer pretending to be "agnostic" and quite ignorant on the Israel-Gaza conflict. It was an okay interview until Gaza came on the table.

You'll see the interviewer not only intellectually but also morally completely imploding. Granted she came quite unprepared on this particular topic, the views she holds on the matter are bone chilling. Worst of all, she actually means well, at least in her head. The bit starts around 01:11:05.


Seems like she was setting him up for an ambush but underestimated him. I don't think she was ignorant, she knew about certain factual stuff (number of refugees etc) and parroted zionist propoganada points. She didn't press it after getting hit with the facts.
 
Seems like she was setting him up for an ambush but underestimated him. I don't think she was ignorant, she knew about certain factual stuff (number of refugees etc) and parroted zionist propoganada points. She didn't press it after getting hit with the facts.
There's no ambush, nor ill intent from her.

I personally think that she was completely unprepared on this topic, trying to excuse her ignorance behind an "agnostic view" on the conflict, and got utterly outclassed. She's lucky that it was Mearsheimer who's quite chill and very patient with his dialogue partner. A Finkelstein would've mercilessly torn her apart.

What truly distressed me is her genuine "Why don't Arab countries in the region take those two millions refugees in?", "Why don't Palestinian just accept their fate and feck off to other Arab countries? That's the only way the killing would stop".

It never occured to her for one second, that she was opting for and blank checking ethnic cleansing at best, and genocide at worst. Let alone denying the right of the "natives" to live on their own land.

Mearsheimer compared her thinking to Jabotinsky's, which she never really understood.

What I want to point at, is the weight of history and the way Germany chose to deal with the consequences of the Holocaust. Whilst it was eminently commendable and necessary to truly reflect on it, something Japan never did, it also illustrates the flaws and the perverted logic Germany trapped itself into and still hammered into the head of its citizens for decades.

She's the product of her time and this education.
 
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Seems like she was setting him up for an ambush but underestimated him. I don't think she was ignorant, she knew about certain factual stuff (number of refugees etc) and parroted zionist propoganada points. She didn't press it after getting hit with the facts.

Nah, she got him on one point. He's supposed to be a realist. Why is he arguing morally? About genocide, fairness, etc? I don't think those things are relevant to realists. And she was coming across as one.
The only answer to her point about his inconsistency was:
"Ukraine now, Gaza now, and Germany after WW2, are defeated. So they had to reduce their borders and their people had to flee to the remainder of their states.
But there is no rump Palestinian state at all. There is no sovereignty."


It's funny that she later recoiled from the implications of her own arguments.
 
There's no ambush, nor ill intent from her.

I personally think that she was completely unprepared on this topic and got rapidly and utterly outclassed. She's lucky that it was Mearsheimer who's quite chill and very patient with his dialogue partner. A Finkelstein would've mercilessly torn her apart.

What truly distressed me is her genuine "Why don't Arab countries in the region take those two millions refugees in?", "Why don't Palestinian just accept their fate and feck off to other Arab countries? That's the only way the killing would stop".

It never occured to her for one second, that she was opting for and blank checking ethnic cleansing at best, and genocide at worst. Let alone denying the right of the "natives" to live on their own land.

Mearsheimer compared her thinking to Jabotinsky's, which she never really understood.

What I want to point at, is the weight of history and the way Germany chose to deal with the consequences of the Holocaust. Whilst it was eminently commendable to truly reflect on it, something Japan never did, it also illustrates the flaws and the perverted logic Germany trapped itself in, but still hammered into the head of its citizens for decades.

She's the product of her time and this education.

Nah, she got him on one point. He's supposed to be a realist. Why is he arguing morally? About genocide, fairness, etc? I don't think those things are relevant to realists. And she was coming across as one.
The only answer to her point about his inconsistency was:
"Ukraine now, Gaza now, and Germany after WW2, are defeated. So they had to reduce their borders and their people had to flee to the remainder of their states.
But there is no rump Palestinian state at all. There is no sovereignty."


It's funny that she later recoiled from the implications of her own arguments.
I think she knew enough, like I said she parrotted the usual Israeli propoganada points, for someone who is agnostic and knows nothing about the conflict she knew quite a bit.

I also feel it's easier to play the 'move on' card when your team is the winning one. Which is what she was doing.

Funnily enough, at least she acknowledged the issue of not being able to say anything critical of Israel in Germany.
 
Nah, she got him on one point. He's supposed to be a realist. Why is he arguing morally? About genocide, fairness, etc? I don't think those things are relevant to realists. And she was coming across as one.
The only answer to her point about his inconsistency was:
"Ukraine now, Gaza now, and Germany after WW2, are defeated. So they had to reduce their borders and their people had to flee to the remainder of their states.
But there is no rump Palestinian state at all. There is no sovereignty."


It's funny that she later recoiled from the implications of her own arguments.

Mearsheimer clearly said that genocide was a red line for him that supercedes any other action and which he'll never subscribe to. He also mentioned that it was one of the rare times when morals and strategy coincide.

It is not in the interest of Israel (at least long-term) to pursue this genocidal campaign and it's bound to backfire one way or another.
 
My point was that this user apparently had no problem denying something that happened and invent himself his own little, comfortable reality. And when you do that, you can also deny October 7 ever happened.

What was I supposed to have "learned"?

I find the arrogance of people amazing.
Learnt to just say october 7 as an isolation
 
Mearsheimer clearly said that genocide was a red line for him that supercedes any other action and which he'll never subscribe to. He also mentioned that it was one of the rare times when morals and strategy coincide.

It is not in the interest of Israel (at least long-term) to pursue this genocidal campaign and it's bound to backfire one way or another.

I dont know if you already ckaimed this but certaintly i read it a few times. How do you expect this to backfire long term?
 

Gaza 'is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history'. ‘Each day 10 children are losing 1 or both of their legs,'​

- Lisa Doughten from United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Amputations carried out in one of the most deprived areas in the world, as Israel deliberately targets the health infrastructure, healthcare workers, supplies. An area severely lacking in basic medicine, anaesthetic treatment, electricity, water, food.
"By 23 November 2023, the WHO had documented 178 health attacks in the Gaza Strip that resulted in the death or injury of healthcare workers on duty."- wiki

These are the things that so many are choosing to look away from, to ignore, to justify and support from afar.
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/ace/standa...ce61d970-9531-11ef-958b-ddf3279c72c9.jpg.webp
https://media.newyorker.com/photos/.../w_1600,c_limit/Griswold-Child-Amputees-1.jpg

Israel has a right to defend itself
Israel has a right to defend itself
Israel has a right to defend itself
Israel has a right to defend itself
Israel has a right to defend itself
Israel is mutilating children. Israel has chosen to do this and continues to make this choice.
Joe Biden supports the mutilation of children. As does David Lammy and the UK government.
 
"This strike came with no warning, and only hit civilians, cutting them to pieces" Yesterday Israel bombed a building in Jabalia where displaced Palestinians had taken shelter. Dozens were killed. Hind Khoudary reports.

x.com/SaulStaniforth/status/1855876964873126154

"No civilians in Northern Gaza"
 
Most military people I know are more empathetic than most because of the absolute horrors that they've witnessed, endured or had to work in.

You have some absolute gems in this thread, the mercy one being the most polished one so far. This one is close though.

In a thread about an army who has been conducting a genocide for over a year no less.
 
Aid to Gaza falls to lowest level in 11 months despite US ultimatum to Israel
The amount of aid reaching Gaza has dropped to the lowest level since December, official Israeli figures show, despite the US having issued a 30-day ultimatum last month threatening sanctions if there was no increase in humanitarian supplies reaching the territory.

The ultimatum was delivered on 13 October, so will expire on Tuesday or Wednesday. It is unclear what measures Israel’s apparent failure to fulfil US demands will trigger, but they may include a temporary halt to the supply of some munitions or other military assistance.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...r-despite-us-ultimatum?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
 
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

Arab leaders and officials on Monday demanded an immediate end to the genocide Israel is perpetrating against Palestinians in Gaza and its aggression against Lebanon.

Their calls came during speeches by representatives from Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Sudan, Mauritania, the Arab League, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation at an extraordinary Arab-Islamic summit held in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The summit addressed ways to end Israel’s genocide in Gaza and Lebanon, describing the meeting as a continuation of a joint Arab-Islamic summit held in Riyadh last November, according to a statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry.


Genocide

Kuwaiti Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah condemned Israel’s actions in Gaza as a “genocide” and a “systematic targeting of Palestinian lives.”

He emphasized that Israel should not be treated as above international law, warning that “international institutions are now at a crossroads as the genocide continues in Gaza and Lebanon.”

Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s deputy prime minister, stressed that the prolonged war on Gaza and its expansion into Lebanon had exacerbated tensions and military escalation in the region.

He called on the international community to take decisive action, meet its humanitarian and legal responsibilities, and immediately end hostilities in Gaza and Lebanon to prevent further escalation.
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-eas...i-genocide-in-gaza-attacks-on-lebanon/3391166

Other Arab heads of state add their voices to the conclusion that Israel is responsible for Genocide.
 
The chief prosecutor of the international criminal court will face an external investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the court’s governing body has said.

In a statement, the president of the body that oversees the ICC said the inquiry would examine the allegations against Karim Khan, which related to his alleged conduct towards a woman who worked for him.

 


his is what the "defeat of hamas" - the goal of israel, explicitly supported by the west - looks like when successful.
 
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Many years ago I watched a documentary that included an interview with a Jewish man who was a Nazi Holocaust survivor, in which he described how camp guards would insert hot pokers in his rectum as a form of torture. Decade later he was still regularly bleeding from his anus. It stuck in my mind maybe more than any other atrocity because of the planned, wanton barbarity of the act. An act constructed and administered for the sole purpose of inflicting a lasting cruelty.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-detention-base.html
A report by the UN’s Palestinian relief agency Unrwa into abuse allegations at Sde Teiman provided a similar account of a detainee forced to “sit on something like a hot metal stick”, who said another detainee died after anal rape with an “electric stick”.

Israel has refused to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross access to Palestinian prisoners, and human rights activists have described it as the Israeli Guantanamo.
 
Many years ago I watched a documentary that included an interview with a Jewish man who was a Nazi Holocaust survivor, in which he described how camp guards would insert hot pokers in his rectum as a form of torture. Decade later he was still regularly bleeding from his anus. It stuck in my mind maybe more than any other atrocity because of the planned, wanton barbarity of the act. An act constructed and administered for the sole purpose of inflicting a lasting cruelty.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/06/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-detention-base.html
They have used animals to sodomize some of the detainees. It honestly cannot be any sicker than it is.

700K Jewish-Ultra Othodox far right settlers. Most of whom, as the term suggests, do not live in Israel but in the West Bank. Of those, take 200k away (minimally) because these are children and have nothing to do with what their parents are doing. Not yet anyway.

That's half a million Israelis to which the entire Israeli government has given over the keys through the likes of that ghoul Ben Gvir.

I were Trump, who says (whatever his word is worth) that he wants an end to this by January, I would be pressing Bibi's administration like there was no tomorrow. A strategic leak here and another one there. I'd take the Irish parliament's declaration and feed it to sympathetic news outlets in the US (including the Times which have not yet called this a genocide or ethnic cleansing but absolutely can be convinced into calling it Bibi's ethnic cleansing and Bibi's genocide, side-stepping the broader Israeli national issue). I'd also merely say, as the US said quite literally to the British during the Suez fiasco, "you can have this idea of a greater-Judea [You can have an empire] or you can have a state". I.e., we are not underwriting your attempts to invade southern Lebanon and raise anti-Arabic sentiment across the West when it has taken, from an America-EU perspective over a decade for that to quiet down.

For the first time since Iraq (and the end of that absolute madness) the US/EU were starting, once again (and this among Palestinians I spoke to personally), have a somewhat favourable "rating" in various Arab states. To which you add the Abraham Accords which, until there is now a solution to the Gazan and West Bank issues is completely dead. All this can be solved and it requires reigning Israel in. That is not difficult. The US has Egypt, Jordan, the Emiratis, the Saudis, parts of Syria, and parts of Iraq (these last two are the most unstable). But the idea that "if Israel - for foreign policy purposes - did not exist, then the US would have to create it" - this is last century thinking. What would you prefer, all being equal - and putting yourself into the minds of pentagon types: Egypt with its 100 million people right beside Israel (America once quipped that Israel was an aircraft carries); the Saudis with their 30 million or so people and a much larger landmass (see Egypt) and Jordan with, again, a similar sized population to Israel but none of the madness associated with it and an understanding with the US. The US uses Jordanian airspace routinely. It also can, and has, iirc, used Egyptian and Saudi airspace. What is this need for Israel? If you're aiming at "controlling" the middle east (for trade reasons) I do not see where Israel even enters the discussion. It is the Gulf states and the northern and eastern African/Arab states that are vitally important here.

It is absolutely insane. Even from the "no heart" but "they have a brain" perspective that the West is continuing to provide ideological cover for a regime which is doing what this Israeli regime is doing. The entire Arab world despises it as does the non-Arab world (within Western countries themselves there is no support, except among the most ideological of Israel's supporters, for what is happening). Thus, you have the rest of the world calling it a genocide (Ireland is welcomed and is joining with South Africa in its ICJ prosecution of the case) whilst the Western press, which absolutely knows that it is a genocide/ethnic cleaning, refuses, because, almost entirely, of top-down (PM/President [state] briefings) ideological briefings to call it such. All of which is predicted 30 years ago (just over that) by Chomsky and Herman with respect to what genocides the media will and will not report on. Chomsky used two famous examples. The phrase "American Invasion of South Vietnam" (couldn't find it once within thousands and thousands of papers, local and national, within the US but could find it easily outside the US"; and then any coverage, whatsoever, regarding what was happening in East Timor. The constant? The US itself had invaded South Vietnam and as such it could not, by US press, be called an "invasion" but had to be called something else. Meanwhile, the US backed Suharto entirely and pretending that his genocides weren't happening. Same thing here.
 
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How did it happen, a student asks their history teacher, that the European colonialists went about ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Americas?

Take a look at Israel over the past 80 years or so, back when the map said "Palestine", and understand exactly what happened with very little difference. How does the Western press merely not note this - and keep noting it - so as to do their job as it is conceived by they very class: as a check and balance upon the political and business infrastructures and superstructures of state. It's mind-boggling that only Ireland (and the left wing group, out of power, in Spain) have said anything worth listening to. US. Nothing. EU/UK. Nothing.

How farcical the right-wing dog-whistling is when you ignore the quackery of what is said and merely look the socio-historical. The map, over time, telling the complete story. The only nation-state-people (for those catechists which will say "it was not a nation" or some other nonsense) which has been wiped off the map is Palestine. Yet, in reverse-psychology, you get people using the rhetoric of the oppressed (their anger) and turning it to the rhetoric of the oppressor. Now it is "Israel" which, for the past only God knows how long, which is threatened to be wiped off the map even though it is Israel which has gone about, systematically, wiping the state-people-land of Palestine from the map.

Madness.
 

This morning, Israeli forces stormed the shelter, killed some civilians, forcibly displaced the rest, and set the humanitarian aid on fire.You can imagine every form of brutality, but you will never grasp the full extent of what Israel is doing.
 
96 hours later, not one single word in mainstream media about Israel sadistically executing 3 Gazan hostages: Ordering them to make a run for their lives, then hunting them down one by one as they fled in terror were they Israeli hostages, the earth would be shaking right now; you'd never see the end of Western gov's condemnations & media segments decrying this as "barbaric" Unprecedented disinformation by omission!

This is at least the second known time Israel does this. In July, the IDF did the same, release 3 Gaza hostages, order them to run, then hunt them down one by one.

x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1856276135564218816
 
96 hours later, not one single word in mainstream media about Israel sadistically executing 3 Gazan hostages: Ordering them to make a run for their lives, then hunting them down one by one as they fled in terror were they Israeli hostages, the earth would be shaking right now; you'd never see the end of Western gov's condemnations & media segments decrying this as "barbaric" Unprecedented disinformation by omission!

This is at least the second known time Israel does this. In July, the IDF did the same, release 3 Gaza hostages, order them to run, then hunt them down one by one.

x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1856276135564218816

Instantly reminded of the Wehrmacht soldiers terrorising the village in Come And See.
 
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump will nominate former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, Trump announced Tuesday.

Huckabee is a staunch defender of Israel and his intended nomination comes as Trump has promised to align U.S. foreign policy more closely with Israel’s interests as it wages wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.


https://apnews.com/article/trump-tr...aff-huckabee-f51121db5b18814bbab014e872c2a736
 
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