Do we currently have any reason to believe they aren’t in Lebanon? I guess it’s just starting but the pager/wallow talkie attacks were brilliantly executed with very low civilian casualties.
One year on.
Where are we?
The IDF slaughter of children continues. 20 murdered last night. Do we care?
Knesset votes to expel UN refugee agency.
When will this end, and what, if anything, will #47 do about it?
Jay in good faith why do you think they have a problem with this particular UN agency?
Long-standing resentment, but what probably tipped the scales was that H amas managed to infiltrate them to some degree. Still, it is all many civilians have for basic humanitarian support, and with no replacement lined up what Israel is doing is despicable. Even their allies such as US condemn it.
I've long been very sympathetic to Israel; it is, after all, a liberal democracy in a part of the world where most states are decidedly illiberal and undemocratic. I see no reason to believe that a new Palestinian state will be much better in these respects than its Muslim-majority neighbors. I suspect that LGBT Palestinians are better off under Israeli occupation than they would be under a Palestinian state. (I'd love to see a one-state solution under a pluralistic secular government, though I know that's a pipe dream.)
But current Israeli leadership horrifies me in its rhetoric and its actions. As implied above, I don't know what the solution may be, but Israel has no credibility if its official position is that Palestinians must remain non-citizens (of any state) indefinitely, and that seems to be the official position of the Netanyahu government. I suspect Israel is going to have a hard time maintaining any kind of international support unless it finds an answer to the question of the status of Palestinians as full citizens of somewhere.
ICC issue arrest warrant for Netanyahu. A spark of hope.
This thread was on the very bottom of page one, about to slip away completely. That seemed wrong to me.
This is a holy war from islam to first Israel and then the west. Islam does not tolerate the west. This ongoing raid is the basis of islam. It is not a matter of living together. It is a matter of feigning peace until they are the majority, as we see happening in the UK now.
It is truly an existential battle between those who celebrate life and those who worship death.
Mariam Farhat, one of the leaders of the Palestinian parliament, had three sons she sent to their deaths with suicide belts. This was a key point of her party platform: that providing martyrs is important and that the goal is the destruction of Israel and the Jews. Because that is the foundation of Islam. 99% of Palestinians claim to support/be Hamas.
We really can't live together. There's a developmental gap of thousands of years. What makes it extra dangerous is that the left doesn't seem to do anything to stop their suppression and abuse of women and the murdering of gay people, to name a few problems. In fact, they are defending it. Thousands of islamic schools in the west teach children that homosexuals must be slaughtered and that beating women is ok and that you can rape them, it's in Quran. And islam is not a religion, it is an ideology that has not been through enlightenment. Whenever you say something about this, the left starts to attack the messenger.
Swing Joined: 12/27/17
So! Lets kill them all! Just wipe them off the face of the planet because we don't like them and we're a superior race.
blug said: "So! Lets kill them all! ."
That's what islamists think. It is their ideological assignment. It is the basis of islam and it is in the Quran. Islam is most comparable to Nazism.
With the news of several countries recognizing a Palestinian state, I do not believe that the United States should follow suit until Palestinian leadership makes a substantive pledge to uphold LGBT and women's rights according to modern Western standards. If they're not willing to do that, they'll have to wait until they're ready to join the 21st century.
Updated On: 9/21/25 at 09:50 AM
That would be the ideal scenario, but is there time to wait? We need to help the gay people of Palestine now, before they cease to exist. Exaggeration, perhaps, or not. That's not a bar we set for other nations, such as Saudi Arabia. If we wait for full equality, well then we'd be cutting diplomatic ties with countries like Italy. Still no marriage for gays there. The American head of state went to the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican, and we all know the Cathloic Church’s feelings on the matter.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/12/09
kdogg36 said: "With the news of several countries recognizing a Palestinian state, I do not believe that the United States should follow suit until Palestinian leadershipmakes a substantive pledge to uphold LGBT and women's rights according to modern Western standards. If they're not willing to do that, they'll have to wait until they're ready to join the 21st century."
I mean... kinda hard to do during an active genocide and if Israel (with our funding and weapons) continues to indiscriminately bomb the country killing Women, Children, and LGBT people the US has no leg to stand on for making demands because they've shown that they do not actually care about them. The US is also taking virtually no LGBT people/Women into the country from Palestine as refugees. So again, what ground do we have to stand on? The current leadership of the US is also actively rolling back the rights of LGBT people and women in this country, so for a third time WHAT LEG DO THEY HAVE TO STAND ON TO MAKE DEMANDS?
"recognizing a palestinian state"
This is nothing more than emotional rhetoric. Only acknowledging it after Hamas commits a massacre. That's a bad signal. A better idea for these "leaders" such as the prime minister of the UK, would be to roll up his sleeves and help eliminate Hamas once and for all, and then come back with this symbolic rhetoric.
It seems logical to me that Israel, in response, will soon recognize an independent Scotland, an independent Corsica and an independent Catalonia. Because recognizing states that don't exist is a detrimental form of backdoor politics. And they should stop insisting that it's not a reward for Hamas. 95% of the gaza population supports Hamas.
Jay Lerner-Z said: "That would be the ideal scenario, but is there time to wait? We need to help the gay people of Palestine now, before they cease to exist. Exaggeration, perhaps, or not. That's not a bar we set for other nations, such as SaudiArabia. If we wait for full equality, well then we'd be cutting diplomatic ties with countries like Italy. Still no marriage for gays there. The American head of state went to the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican, and we all know the Cathloic Church’s feelings on the matter."
We should be cutting ties with countries like Saudi Arabia. It's obviously not possible to dismantle an existing county, but I don't support the creation of more horribly repressive nations. I hope it's clear that I'm stating my opinion on what the US government should do (and why), not expressing any expectations that this is what will happen.
I see what you mean, but "recognizing" a state isn't the same as "creating" a state. I think. For me, it only humanizes the unfortunate people that live there. Kdogg, I think it was you who argued once that they have to be from somewhere!
I would hope one day the Palestinian people will be free forever of Hamas.
"95% of Gaza support Hamas"
Seb, how could you possibly know this? There has not been an election in Palestine in nearly 20 years. Most people living there are indeed VICTIMS of Hamas too. Although I imagine the actions of Netanyahu has boosted support for hem enormously, and for every terrorist Israel kill, they create ten more.
Jay Lerner-Z said: ""95% of Gaza support Hamas"
Seb, how could you possibly know this? There has not been an election in Palestine in nearly 20 years. Most people living there are indeed VICTIMS of Hamas too. Although I imagine the actions of Netanyahu has boosted support for hem enormously, and for every terrorist Israel kill, they create ten more."
It's what the gazans proudly say themselves. "We are all Hamas". "Hamas is in each and every household":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFverF8XbT4
We also see this in the celebrations in the gazan streets over October 7h and the cheering for dead bodies being dragged through the streets. It's a problem.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/12/09
TheatreFan4 said: "So vibes. Got it."
Are you disagreeing with what the gazans tell you and show you?
All official organizations agree that the vast majority of gazans is pro-hamas.
Your narrative is based on vibes.
You just hate all Muslims, Seb. Yet have no problem with the US being taken over by radical Christians.
Jay Lerner-Z said: "Kdogg, I think it was you who argued once that they have to befromsomewhere!"
I can hardly deny that, since it's right up there at comment #105.
As that post indicates, I'm deeply ambivalent about this horrible situation. I guess at the moment my own concerns are pushing me further in one direction than the other, at least in the short term.
I reiterate that what I'd really like to see is one secular, pluralistic state, rather than two states explicitly prioritizing one religion over all others (and of course over atheism: two atheists can't get married in Israel, and I very much doubt they'd fare much better in a sovereign Palestinian state). It doesn't seem like that's even part of the conversation, unfortunately.
Highland Guy… with respect, lest I incur your wrath… after the recent UN finding of genocide, can you perhaps finally concede that the title of this thread lends false legitimacy?
Swing Joined: 12/27/17
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