IDF shot a 9 year old boy

Yes, his trial restarted today. Courts were on hold from October 7th, but are back to processing cases. Due to the war, he likely will not be called to the stand for months, but his trial for several charges has restarted.

Abbas may be corrupt, but most leaders are. It’s not acceptable, but it’s the reality. On a side note, Nethanyu’s trial for corruption restarted today.

Hamas and PLA (Fatah party) did draw up an agreement to have elections across all the occupied territories for a coalition organisation. They got the US to agree to it, but Israel refused to allow it because their geopolitical objectives have always been to divide Palestinians. So there are back channels between Hamas and PLA, it’s one of the sources of the allegations of corruption. But then how can Fatah hope to regain representation of Gaza without communicating with Gaza authorities which are administrative arms of Hamas? It’s similar to how many accuse Qatar of corruption and being too cosy with Hamas without realising they were literally asked to set up an office that mediates between the US and Islamic terrorists (among others) by the CIA. They’re not best friends with Hamas that’s not how or why they took on the mediator role, it was a deliberate move by the US to help keep the entire region stable. (I realise you haven’t said you have this view, saying that others have expressed it)

[ I am saying coalition organisation and representation as neither PLA or Hamas have self-rule or power of governance. They have less power than Britain allowed the colonised in its colonies]

Isn't Netanyahu still charged with corruption?

Sorry I meant Gaza being run by a terrorist state. The PLA is at least semi-legitimate, although the graft is something else. Apparently Abbas is the most corrupt leader the Palestinians have ever (notionally) had. But I guess the PLA have no actual authority since no one in Gaza wants anything to do with them…

The PLA doesn’t have a vote. They have a seat at the table, but they are not recognised as a nation state and so have no vote. A bit like how wives could chatter in their husband’s ear at the dinner table, but could not vote in elections or on referendums. With no vote, you don’t have a real voice and you have no power.

The PLA is also not “run by a terrorist state” you are confusing PLA with Hamas.

Palestinians get aid to rebuild what Israeli military destroys. If you take the time to research the UNWRA reports on costs to repair or rebuild damages from every round of air strikes, it’s often several hundred million per day of airstrikes. As the Israeli military regularly did airstrikes before this Oct 7 total war, aid was never enough to improve life. In fact many countries leaders have said during the discussions about the current Gaza conflict and aid packages that they are tired of cleaning up a Israel’s mess and why can’t Israel fund rebuilding of the strip this time like the U.S. funded rebuilding Iraq?

As I said, per capita is roughly in line. 300bn for 10 million against 40bn for 500,000. Which makes it around 15bn for 500,000 Israelis. So…more aid per capita than Israel.

When you say they don’t have a voice? They do- the PLA sits in the UN, and there are many states (largely ex eastern block) condemning Israel’s actions right now. They ARE supported. They do have a voice.

They don't have much power, to be fair- but that’s sort of guaranteed when you’re a tiny country that is run by a terrorist state interested in pillaging the country for their corrupt rulers, living the lives of oligarchs in Qatar while starting fights with bigger neighbours.

I think you are missing the point of the video. Yes Palestine receives foreign aid to support its citizens, helps feed them, educate them, fund their hospitals, services etc. as do many many countries across the globe. The video is about their position on the Global stage, their voice. Their aid is also not in line with Israel when you look at the money they get for weapons from the US. Close to 300bn US dollar since WW2 for their military.

@Hiddenmnetter Israel gets a free pass because of the Holocaust, this unprecedented act of horror is still felt throughout the world and no one wants to criticise (too much) people who suffered so much.

There maybe specific regional security reasons too.

That doesn’t make sense though- Palestine has received 40bn in aid globally in the last 25 years or so, since the mid 90s or something like that. It’s not like they have no international support. In fact, per capita it’s in line with what Israel has received. Further, that doesn’t include what has been given by countries that support the various terror groups (such as Iran and Russia). Palestinians don’t have no support- they have lots of support.

Thanks for sharing. Depressing but so true. I do think as public opinion mounts in favour of the Palestinians and people are getting more and more shocked with what is coming out of Gaza the US are beginning to speak out against Israel's continuous bombardment. Kamala Harris did so at the climate summit. It needs to be remembered as was pointed out up thread that there are many many countries standing with Palestine and speaking out against Israeli actions in Gaza, but as the the video posted above of Noam Chomsky, some of these nations don't have big Global power so their voices are not as significant as the US coming out and condemning Israel.

It's very simple..... Noam Chomsky dissects it beautifully.

https://twitter.com/AJEnglish/status/1716040149878853683

Re: option A (and C) - let's remember the intelligence that Iraq was defintiely very near to having usable WMD 20 years ago. A huge range of seniuor political and military figures supported that, and it was used to justify the attack on Iraq.

'Intelligence' tends to find what it is looking for. And you can call it a conspiracy, or call it group-think - get a bunch of people together from a homogenous background and training, and they will tend to agree with each other, especially when the system they operate in punishes them (directly or indirectly) from speaking out.

I would suggest that option A&C are very applicable.

The US navy are stationed in the Red sea defending Israel from the Yemeni Houthi and the UK military has joined Israel in the search for the hostages:

"The UK’s military will conduct surveillance flights over Gaza to help locate captives held by Hamas, according to the British Ministry of Defence, joining the US in backing Israel in its war against the Palestinian armed group."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/3/uk-to-start-gaza-surveillance-flights-to-locate-captives-held-by-hamas

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-military-activity-in-the-eastern-mediterranean#:~:text=In%20support%20of%20the%20ongoing,tasked%20solely%20to%20locate%20hostages.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/u-s-navy-destroyer-and-multiple-commercial-ships-attacked-in-the-red-sea-pentagon-says

Oops sorry @OuiOuiKitty you got there first haha I didn't notice

why would the US want syria to keep pumping? The US is a net exporter of Oil - reduction in oil supply would increase the value of their exports.

It could also just be to protect their political interests to maintain a strong presence in the area. Ideally, if Israel was a peaceful presence without continuous oppression and settler colonialism, it would have been better all around for everyone, allowing Palestinians to have a home and Israel to keep a presence in the region. However Israel had no intention of letting Palestinians, in WB or Gaza, to live peacefully, leading to ongoing conflict. But Israels supporters had to keep supporting because they need to have a long term ally in the region to protect their interests (eg their continuous bombing of Syria to maintain their oil pumps) and to have a base to attack neighbouring nations if necessary.

No, it wouldn't. The US is not the only country in the world with interests in the Middle East. I think country's governments are intelligent enough to weigh up the pros and cons of speaking out against Israel themselves without it being some kind of conspiracy theory.

I didn't mean the US there - I meant all the other countries not criticising. That would be some kind of conspiracy wouldn't it? The point I was trying to make was that in a post-USSR world, the rest of the west doesn't tend to operate in lockstep with US foreign policy so much anymore, and yet many of the west are still remaining silent on this. That's what i'm suggesting is conspiracy.

Here is Joe Biden openly admitting that Israel is the best investment USA ever made and they would need to invent an Israel if it didn't exist already, as it allows US to protect its interests in the region.

If you want to call countries protecting their interests in the Middle East a conspiracy theory then crack on. I don't care.

I would say that comes under C- that you’re suggesting that the USA’s investment means they convince people to turn the other way. This would involve some level of conspiracy because then world political leaders would have to say “we’re ok with what’s going on because Biden says so”.

I agree absolutely that the US foreign policy relies on Israel in the Middle East. The alternatives are simply not friends of the west: UAE, Qatar, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt are all countries that are ultimately hostile to US foreign policy. But I don’t think these days people are so in thrall of US foreign policy that they would ignore a humanitarian crisis of this magnitude just because they say so. It doesn’t really add up. It’s not like the demon of the USSR exists in the same way that people act in lockstep with the states for their self protection.

I suppose it might be that fear of global terrorism might be the reason. That’s actually not unlikely. Mossad and 5 eyes are the primary source of global anti-terror intelligence. Thats probably part of the consideration to be fair.

This.