Israel/Palestine

I haven’t heard of that before, but it doesn’t surprise me that there would be some small sects of Roman Catholicism that would still harbor ill will towards Jews.

I’m going to have to interject there because there’s a strong argument that anti-semitism is a core tenet of Christian theology. I’d go further and say it is the original source of it.

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There’s not a lot of difference between organised religion and organised crime except religion is more ruthless and considerably richer.
It’s also better at hiding their criminal activity, like child abuse and is funded by the tax payer.
Nice job if you can get it.

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Wasn’t Jesus also King of the Jews? :slight_smile:

That’s Larry David.

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This just shows the ignorance though.

Israel vacated Gaza because they needed less outside noise from the international community and could isolate Gaza more which is exactly what they did. They have literally blockaded Gaza for long before the “vacation” and long after and continues to this day. They never gave Gaza the opportunity to prosper. And the rise of Hamas came about because of an uprising against Israeli violence and control. It has been decades in the making.

You’re just ignoring the absolutely insane amount of control that Israel have continued to have over the lives of Palestinians for decades when trying to shift the blame for lack of peace to both parties.

Israel have NEVER wanted peace with Palestine. In an ideal world they would be able to extend their land grab through parts of Syria and Lebanon - another part of the wider plan they have always had. They’ve occupied parts of Lebanon for nearly 20 years at one point, taken the Golan Heights, occupied Gaza before “vacating it” but continuing to access total control over the prosperity of the small strip and now people speak proudly at the idea that Gaza could become Israel’s.

There has never been a plan for peace and it’s just completely wrong to suggest that Israel have ever genuinely sought peace.

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That’s not why the Israeli government pulled out of Gaza. They pulled out of Gaza because there were concerns that Palestinians were shifting their focus from a two-state solution to a one-state solution and would out number Jewish citizens in a hypothetical one-state. There are plenty of quotes from the Israeli government at the time as to why they pulled out. It had nothing to do with less outside noise as you put it. It was a unilateral withdrawal designed to make it less likely that “Arab-Israelis” (I hate that term) could pursue reforms through elections.

You seem really sure of this. Have you ever been there? Talked to Israelis? Like regular folks, not the religious wackos in the West Bank.

Sharon’s own aide said that it was to freeze the peace process and to remove international pressure on them relating to their settlements in the West Bank and also to stop international pressure on the idea of a Palestinian state.

Your reasons may well also be correct, but they absolutely did it because they wanted to relieve pressure from the international community and exercise greater military control.

@SRCJJ
How can you claim that I am ignorant when you are giving me an atypical negative & unfounded narrative I usually hear from anti-semites?

If Israel’s motive is a land grab, why would they return the Sinai Peninsula, which is larger than the current landmass of Israel?

If Israel were not attacked, Golan Heights wouldn’t be in Israel’s control. Syria shouldn’t have attacked Israel if they don’t wish to lose their land.

If Lebanon doesn’t wish to get it’s land occupied, don’t host PLO which have engaged in killing Israeli civilians.
If Israel’s motive is to land grab, why did they return the Southern Lebanon?

In essence, every negative Israeli act you mention is a reaction to an original act of aggression from the Arab nations; and I can’t stress that enough.

Maybe it’s just because I have a deep loathing for Ariel Sharon and his cronies but I think they crunched the numbers regarding population in Gaza and the West Bank and made a decision that suddenly saying “actually these people aren’t our citizens anymore and therefore can’t vote” was a way kick the can down the road in terms of what’s sometimes referred to as the “demographic problem” which is the way some of the Likudniks rebranded Apartheid and Apartheid-esque policies.

I don’t think @SRCJJ is being antisemitic. Believe me, I’d have no issues pulling him up on it if I thought he’d crossed the line.

There is no doubt that there were definitely many different thoughts that went into the decision and yours sounds like an entirely plausible school of thought.

To clarify, I am not calling him one either.

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Go away mate. Don’t label that tag at me when nothing I’ve said is even remotely anti-Semitic.

I clarified. I didn’t call you that.
I am saying the argument is a lazy one that I have often seen floating among the anti-semitic content creators or people who wish to blindly blame Israel without doing any homework & rely heavily on what they see on reels or tiktoks.

Unfortunately one of my relative is that annoying second kind.

For context I was living in Be’er Sheva at the time. The withdrawal was big news and very controversial. There were rumors that the IDF had quarantined groups of soldiers to undergo special training that would prepare them to evict people still in Gaza.

Then after the withdrawal when Hamas took over Gaza there was this general feeling of not betrayal but like “well, what the fuck” that ran through. Hamas, as much as they may have a political wing and do things that a normal government would do, is still at its core an Islamist movement that doesn’t really have any interest in Jews living anywhere between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. Maybe they’d allow it if dhimmi status made a comeback but I doubt it.

So it was this weird moment of not triumph but like “Oh I told you so” from people on the right who would use some really racist tropes against Palestinians. This narrative took root that Israel left this beautiful futuristic version of Gaza and the Palestinians destroyed it within months of governing it. And to be clear, I don’t think for one second Hamas was using all of the international aid it received in a constructive way. We know they haven’t since there were music videos released not long after 7 October showing people using construction supplies to make tunnels and bullets. But that narrative always left out the blockade that went on in Gaza and periodic bombings to “mow the lawn” as the Israeli government put it.

I think there could have been a version of disengagement from Gaza that looked like a real handover to the PA or some other successor government and not the slapdash withdrawal we actually got.

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Do you blame them?
The first thing Hamas did after defeating Fatah was to bomb Israel, completely eroding all progress made to find peace.

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I mean Hamas is gonna Hamas. That’s kind of what they do. But the handover didn’t have to go that way and the elections didn’t have to go that way. If what Likud wanted was to handover Gaza in order to create a springboard for a Palestinian state (or half of one) there was a way to do it. But that’s not what they wanted. Whether it’s because of the “demographic problem” I cited or @SRCJJ citing international pressure, the whole thing was handled poorly.

What progress had been made to find peace :joy::joy:

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We can’t go “Hamas is gonna Hamas” and brush over it.

To achieve any sort of reconciliation to the then 50-year-old conflict, you need a gradual withdrawal and improvement of the relationship.

Israel was dealing with PLO up north and just putting your arms up with no caution down south would have been suicidal. And it proved to be right. Palestinian leadership was fragile and the moment they could get a chance to launch an attack on Israel, they would take it. So having a blockade is essential during the transitional period.

Were you expecting Israel to just vacate all control and allow militants free reign close to Israeli territory?

Look up Oslo Accords and all the progress made in the negotiation before Yasir Arafat bailed on it.

The very fact that we are talking about Israeli withdrawing from Gaza for Hamas to come into power is an evidence of progress.
If Hamas had not been so anti-diplomatic, we would have seen a different landscape.

Israel has made more attempts to find peace than the Arab counterparts.

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