Israel at War—I share my thoughts (Page 19): At least you didn't stoop to calling me an anti-Semite this time. From my reading Netanyahu seems more popular in the us than in Israel.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

lbrande wrote:

Good deflection. The palesinians elected hamas. Hamas leadership took all the aid and put it in their pockets and are now living in other Arab states. Hamas dug up pipes to create rockets that were launched against Israel. The palestinians cheer everytime a suicide murderer detonates a bomb in Israel killing Israelis. The family gets ~$25,000 for his murdering act. You do not mention the UN which constantly condemns Israel and is silent about hamas or palestinian acts.

"Since the UNHRC's creation in 2006, it has resolved almost as many resolutions condemning Israel alone than on issues for the rest of the world combined. The 45 resolutions comprised almost half (45.9%) of all country-specific resolutions passed by the UNHRC, not counting those under Agenda Item 10 (countries requiring technical assistance).[1] From 1967 to 1989, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) adopted 131 Security Council resolutions directly addressing the Arab–Israeli conflict. In early UNSC practice, resolutions did not directly invoke Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. They made an explicit determination of a threat, breach of the peace, or act of aggression, and ordered an action in accordance with Article 39 or 40. UNSC Resolution 54 determined that a threat to peace existed within the meaning of Article 39 of the Charter, reiterated the need for a truce, and ordered a ceasefire pursuant to Article 40 of the Charter. Although the phrase "Acting under Chapter VII" was never mentioned as the basis for the action taken, the chapter's authority was being used.

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a number of resolutions stating that Israel's strategic relationship with the United States, a superpower and permanent member of the Security Council with veto power, encourages the former to pursue aggressive and expansionist policies and practices in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The 9th Emergency Session of the UNGA was convened at the request of the UNSC when the United States blocked all efforts to adopt sanctions against Israel. The United States responded to the frequent criticism from United Nations organs by adopting the Negroponte doctrine of opposing any UNSC resolutions criticizing Israel that did not also denounce Palestinian militant activity"

Good deflection. The palesinians elected hamas. Ha... (show quote)

At least you didn't stoop to calling me an anti-Semite this time. From my reading Netanyahu seems more popular in the us than in Israel. You totally dodged all the Israeli Jews who are against what Israel is doing in Gaza. Israel may be winning the battle but they are losing the war. Are you more interested in punishing Palestine, or in Israel surviving as a place worth living in. I believe this is a very real and important question. When Hamas attacked Israel, Israel had tons of good will from all over the world. They have since thrown vast amounts of that away. Common wisdom says Netanyahu will remain in power till this war is over and not much beyond that, giving Netanyahu absolutely no incentive to want this war to end. As far as my feelings about Jews, I see them as people. I don't like them less because they are Jews, and I don't like them more because they are jews. I feel the same about other ethnicities.

lbrande

Neither Israel nor Hamas have presented a new proposal for a cease-fire, despite mounting international pressure for a deal, an official involved in the talks told Haaretz. Israel asked Qatar and Egypt to mediate another truce that would allow the release of more Israeli hostages held in Gaza, Egyptian sources told Sky News Arabia. A WHO official said less than a third of Gaza's hospitals remain functional, and only partially.

Here's what you need to know 67 days into the war

What happened today

People stand near an empty table and a banner referring to hostages taken by militants of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas into the Gaza Strip, on Place des Nations on the sidelines of an event commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Geneva, Switzerland, December 12, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

■ GAZA: The IDF continues its ground offensive in Gaza, focusing on Khan Yunis. On Tuesday overnight, a Givati Brigade force demolished a building used for weapons manufacturing.
A WHO official said that only 11 of Gaza's hospitals, less than a third, remain functional and only partially, and pleaded for them to remain intact.
U.S. President Joe Biden suggested that PM Netanyahu is in a "tough spot" and that the two have had their share of disagreements. Biden said Washington will continue to work to free hostages still held in Gaza, speed humanitarian aid to Palestinians and "emphasize to our Israeli friends we need to protect civilian life."
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that he would soon be discussing with Israel officials their timetable for the war in Gaza.
The Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 18,412 Palestinians have been killed and 50,100 wounded in Gaza since the war began.
■ CEASE-FIRE: Neither Israel nor Hamas have presented any new proposal for a cease-fire and hostage release, an official involved in the talks told Haaretz.
Egyptian sources told Sky News Arabia that Israel asked Egypt and Qatar to help mediate another cease-fire agreement with Hamas, and that a three-way meeting between Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials – under U.S. sponsorship – would happen soon.
Families of Israeli hostages began traveling towards Jerusalem on Tuesday to increase pressure on the government for a deal to return all the captives still held in Gaza.
The IDF said it has extracted the bodies of Eden Zecharya, 28, who was taken from the party near Re'im, and First Sergeant Ziv Dado, whose body was taken by Hamas, from Gaza. The statement did not elaborate on Zecharya's cause of death.
"Some experts estimate terror activity makes up a quarter of the Hamas budget, i.e., about $600 million a year, though other estimates put it at double that. How does overseas money reach Hamas? Through money-exchange networks worldwide and, of course, cryptocurrency" - Natan Lipson

■ ISRAEL: Rocket sirens sounded across Israel throughout Tuesday. In the north, the IDF said it identified and intercepted a suspicious target that flew into Israeli territory from Lebanon.

■ DAY AFTER: PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel and the U.S. "have differences regarding 'the day after Hamas,'" declaring that a post-war "Gaza won't be Hamastan or Fatahstan," effectively slamming U.S. plans for the Palestinian Authority to take over the governance of Gaza.
Reservists serving in air force rescue units say they were ordered to steer clear while PM Netanyahu visited their base, claiming the directive was intended to silence their criticism of the premier.
■ HOUTHIS: Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis said they launched a cruise missile at a Norwegian commercial tanker after the crew refused to respond to warnings. The company which owns the ship said no crew members were wounded in the attack.
A French warship intercepted and destroyed a drone targeting a Norwegian oil tanker in the Red Sea launched by the Houthis, France's Defense Ministry said.
The IDF announced that an Israeli warship has docked in the port of Eilat, a serial target of Houthi missiles, "in accordance with a situation assessment and as part of reinforcing the defense effort."
■ IDF CASUALTIES: The IDF announced Tuesday the name of a reservist soldier who died Monday from wounds he sustained fighting in Gaza.
The IDF estimates that 13 soldiers killed while fighting in Gaza were shot after being mistakenly identified as Hamas members, and another seven were killed in operational incidents.
The IDF updated the number of soldiers wounded during and after October 7 to 1,683. According to the data, 263 soldiers are seriously injured, 465 moderately, and 955 lightly.
■ WEST BANK: The Palestinian Health Ministry said six Palestinians were killed in an IDF drone attack in the West Bank targeting members of the militant group Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, which is considered a part of the Palestinian Fatah organization's military wing.

Context

Children walk along a street in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on December 12, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (Photo by Mohammed ABED / AFP)

Israel declared war after Hamas killed at least 1,200 Israelis and wounded more than 3,300 in a merciless assault. In Gaza, the Hamas-controlled health ministry reports that at least 18,412 Palestinians have been killed. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad hold hostage more than 137 soldiers and civilians, dead and alive, including foreign nationals.

The war comes after ten months of the most significant domestic political and social crisis in decades, due to the Netanyahu-led government's judicial coup – legislation aimed at dramatically weakening Israel's judiciary and potentially rescuing Netanyahu from the three corruption trials he faces – and amid an escalation of violence between West Bank Palestinians and Israeli settlers, the latter empowered by Israel's most right-wing government ever.

lbrande

thom w wrote:

At least you didn't stoop to calling me an anti-Se... (show quote)

The Israeli's have offered a 2 sate solution 6 times in the past 75 years, but rather than accept, the Arab states initiated wars to exterminate the Jews and Israel. Maybe enough is enough.
Hillel teaches, “Whatever is despicable to you, do not do to anyone else. All the rest of the Torah is commentary. Now go and learn it.”
hamas started a war, now they must pay for that.

lbrande

When calls for violence become "conduct," it is far too late. How can Jewish students in America live like this, in constant concern for their well-being? How can they constantly be on their guard?

Linda Dayan

Student pro-Palestine protest outside New York's Columbia University campus last month

"I've been starting to wonder if we're the frog who doesn't know it's being boiled alive," a friend told me in his Brooklyn home last week. We had grown up together in a Syrian-Jewish bubble in New Jersey – a place where we took our safety, our observance and our expressions of identity for granted. Now, like many other American Jews, he is hearing offhand comments from passersby about posters of hostages, cutting friendships with October 7 deniers and wrestling with the question of whether the country will continue to be safe for Jews.

One aspect of this is playing out at prestigious universities, and whether their presidents will be ousted after disastrous testimonies to Congress last week on Jewish safety at their schools. All eyes have been on Harvard President Claudine Gay. During the hearing, she'd responded to Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik's charged, aggressive line of questioning with the exhausted but firm tone of a mother whose toddler had requested their fifth post-bedtime cup of water.

Gay repeatedly acknowledged that chants at anti-Israel protests calling for a globalized intifada – which for Jews conjure images of bombed-out buses and which Stefanik defined as a call for Jewish genocide – are abhorrent to her. But such speech, she said, will not be disciplined until it "crosses into conduct." This rightfully terrified the Jewish community. When calls for violence become "conduct," it is far too late; the water has boiled.

Last Friday, Gay apologized for her remarks in an interview with the institution's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. "Words matter," she said. "What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community – threats to our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged."

The university's board announced Tuesday that Gay will continue in her post. She will not go the way of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who resigned Sunday following the tremendous backlash to her comments from the same hearing. But all the academic firings in the world would not be enough to reverse campus tensions or restore the sense of safety for Jewish communities across the country.

Walking through the New York University campus, my friend and I voiced our relief that we were not in the midst of our degrees now, and our surprise that there were no signs or symbols of protest as we passed by Washington Square Park. My uncle, who wears a kippa in his daily life in New York City, told me it was the area he had been most nervous to go through. How can Jewish students in America live like this, in constant concern for their well-being? How can they constantly be on their guard?

I returned to Israel early on Monday, unpacked my bags, took a warm shower and tucked myself in for a midmorning nap. At noon, I was awakened by several converging rocket alarms. I shuffled out of bed, grabbed my keys and headed to the safest corner of my building, in time to hear a rapid succession of explosions in the sky. Such a comfort to be safe at home again.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

lbrande wrote:

When calls for violence become "conduct," it is far too late. How can Jewish students in America live like this, in constant concern for their well-being? How can they constantly be on their guard?

Linda Dayan

Student pro-Palestine protest outside New York's Columbia University campus last month

"I've been starting to wonder if we're the frog who doesn't know it's being boiled alive," a friend told me in his Brooklyn home last week. We had grown up together in a Syrian-Jewish bubble in New Jersey – a place where we took our safety, our observance and our expressions of identity for granted. Now, like many other American Jews, he is hearing offhand comments from passersby about posters of hostages, cutting friendships with October 7 deniers and wrestling with the question of whether the country will continue to be safe for Jews.

One aspect of this is playing out at prestigious universities, and whether their presidents will be ousted after disastrous testimonies to Congress last week on Jewish safety at their schools. All eyes have been on Harvard President Claudine Gay. During the hearing, she'd responded to Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik's charged, aggressive line of questioning with the exhausted but firm tone of a mother whose toddler had requested their fifth post-bedtime cup of water.

Gay repeatedly acknowledged that chants at anti-Israel protests calling for a globalized intifada – which for Jews conjure images of bombed-out buses and which Stefanik defined as a call for Jewish genocide – are abhorrent to her. But such speech, she said, will not be disciplined until it "crosses into conduct." This rightfully terrified the Jewish community. When calls for violence become "conduct," it is far too late; the water has boiled.

Last Friday, Gay apologized for her remarks in an interview with the institution's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. "Words matter," she said. "What I should have had the presence of mind to do in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that calls for violence against our Jewish community – threats to our Jewish students – have no place at Harvard, and will never go unchallenged."

The university's board announced Tuesday that Gay will continue in her post. She will not go the way of University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill, who resigned Sunday following the tremendous backlash to her comments from the same hearing. But all the academic firings in the world would not be enough to reverse campus tensions or restore the sense of safety for Jewish communities across the country.

Walking through the New York University campus, my friend and I voiced our relief that we were not in the midst of our degrees now, and our surprise that there were no signs or symbols of protest as we passed by Washington Square Park. My uncle, who wears a kippa in his daily life in New York City, told me it was the area he had been most nervous to go through. How can Jewish students in America live like this, in constant concern for their well-being? How can they constantly be on their guard?

I returned to Israel early on Monday, unpacked my bags, took a warm shower and tucked myself in for a midmorning nap. At noon, I was awakened by several converging rocket alarms. I shuffled out of bed, grabbed my keys and headed to the safest corner of my building, in time to hear a rapid succession of explosions in the sky. Such a comfort to be safe at home again.

When calls for violence become "conduct,"... (show quote)

So you are saying that at this point genocide is justified do to prior bad actions. Anything at all to say about the settlers? When you come back from vacation and find I am now living in your home, but in all my magnanimity, I'm going to let you live in one closet, how many years is it going to take you to get over it. Oh, by the way, if you act out I'm going to take the closet back.

lbrande

There is only 1 Jewish country on this planet. There are 22 Arab countries on this planet. Let them go to one of those.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

lbrande wrote:

There is only 1 Jewish country on this planet. There are 22 Arab countries on this planet. Let them go to one of those.

Now you're just being an AH, and you obviously don't believe in religious freedom. If there is any bigotry here it isn't me against Jews. It is you against anyone who isn't a jew. Fortunately I'm much to intelligent to blame jews in general for your F anyone who isn't a jew attitude. I'll leave you to get back to your dreams of genocide. Your attitude towards Arabs is no more justifiable than many others attitudes against Jews. Both are very wrong.There anr several bad things I have to say about you and none of them have anything to do with you being Jewish. Should the rest of the world say Jews have their own land, let them go live there? You know they shouldn't, though I might make an exception for you. You obviously hate Arabs, I bet you don't bear Germans any ill will at all. Have a nice life, but not here. This country doesn't need you, and again, it isn't because you are Jewish. By the way, it would seem you are wrong about Israel being the only Jewish country on the planet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Ethiopia

Now I'm expecting a racist rant from you about them not really being jews.

lbrande

Genocide, you are really stretching it. I didn't say kill, I did intone relocate. There are over 2.1 million Arabs living within the boundaries of Israel without any issues. Only palestinians and their useful idiots say "From the River to the Sea Palestine shall be Free". Religious freedom has nothing to do with this. In my entire comment I didn't say anything about killing. You are the AH for saying what you had said. You're really "EFFED" up if you got that from let them go to one of the 22 other Arab countries.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

lbrande wrote:

Genocide, you are really stretching it. I didn't s... (show quote)

So Israel is for Jews only, and the rest of the world is for Jews and everyone else? How does that work. Maybe you can get your god to smite me. What does there being 22 other arab countries have to do with the people who call Gaza their home. I'me pretty sure that a whole lot of Ethiopians can trace their jewish history back a lot further than you can yours. I have no tolerance for those who wish to kill jews just because they are jews and I have no tolerance for those who look at those of Arab decent and say "they all look alike to me". You seriously lack humanity. Persons such as yourself don't make it easier for decent jews.

lbrande

thom w wrote:

Now you're just being an AH, and you obviously don... (show quote)

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

If Ben want's to climb my as, he strikes me as a decent person, and I'll listen to what he has to say. He'd obviously biased, but maybe we all are. Now that there is no doubt in my mind that you don't even see Arabs as people, I have no interest in anything you have to say. That you disagree with me, is to be expected. That you see Arabs as animals makes me sick. I'm guessing that I have more Jewish friends than Arab ones, but since, I, unlike yourself, don't keep track of such stuff, I guess I don't really know.

lbrande

thom w wrote:

If Ben want's to climb my as, he strikes me as a decent person, and I'll listen to what he has to say. He'd obviously biased, but maybe we all are. Now that there is no doubt in my mind that you don't even see Arabs as people, I have no interest in anything you have to say. That you disagree with me, is to be expected. That you see Arabs as animals makes me sick.

You are so far from reality it's sickening.
My client, Darwish, who is Lebanese calls hamas and isis s@@t. We have very stimulating discussions regarding the Koran and the Torah. Your saying I don't see Arabas as people, but see them as animals makes me question your sanity and intelligence.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

lbrande wrote:

You are so far from reality it's sickening.

At this point it is obvious that you were sick long before you ever heard of me. If a jewish guy kills my brother, does that give me the right to wipe out his whole family? Of course it doesn't. But if an Arab kills a Jew the shy is the limit? Where is your humanity? When students are threatened because they are Jewish, I find that an atrocity. When students are threatened because they are palestinian, I find that an atrocity as well. I'm pretty sure you don't.

lbrande

thom w wrote:

At this point it is obvious that you were sick long before you ever heard of me. If a jewish guy kills my brother, does that give me the right to wipe out his whole family? Of course it doesn't. But if an Arab kills a Jew the shy is the limit? Where is your humanity? When students are threatened because they are Jewish, I find that an atrocity. When students are threatened because they are palestinian, I find that an atrocity as well. I'm pretty sure you don't.

I don't know what you're basing your conclusions upon, but it definitely isn't reality.

thom w Loc: San Jose, CA

lbrande wrote:

I don't know what you're basing your conclusions upon, but it definitely isn't reality.

"There are 22 arab countries on the planet, let them live in one of them" This isn't going to go anywhere. I believe you told me earlier who you are. No comment on the other and older jewish country? These other arab countries don't even all follow the same religion. I think that was a very telling and a very ignorant statement. Netanyahu is not a friend of anyone but himself, and you sound like him. What am I accusing you of saying that you didn't say. I wouldn't ask my god to smite you and I don't believe your god will smite me, so I'm quite happy no longer believing you exist. If a jew who has humanity (I expect more do than don't) wants to set me straight, I'me happy to hear what they have to say. I believe you leave a smear on Judaism. Jews are no better and no worse than anyone else, with a few exceptions such as yourself. I don't blame Palestinians for Hamas and I don't blame jews for you. I've got better things to do than hate on you. Why not let it lie. I made my point, I have no need to go on and on. If there is something you believe I'm missing, have a jew I respect (that would be most) talk to me about it. I believe Israel is an apartheid nation, you believe it should be.