To feel sorry for Ed Sheeran.....

Perhaps people don't care to answer your question as you said calling whats happening in Gaza a conflict is like calling the Holocaust a gas leak.

Or maybe thats just me?

Zionism has different connotations for different people. What would you call the Zionism that supports Netanyahus beliefs, that include the ethnic cleansing of gaza to another person's Zionism who doesn't support genocide or ethnic cleansing? I'm not being facetious.

I'm really not sure about that. It was Messina, the tour promoters, who fired Macklemore because of Kraft. It comes down to financial liability. Macklemore would have still received his full payment which he has agreed to donate. The artists who pulled out will have lost all their contractual salaries but were not liable for anything else. Had Sheeran pulled the plug, Messina would have come for him to recover costs and it would have been multiple millions. Had Messina not dropped Macklemore and stood their ground, then Kraft would have had to literally lock the doors and then he would have been liable for all costs. I actually believe that if Messina had stood their ground, Kraft would have folded when he realised he was going to be liable for millions. Not sure it is fair to expect Sheeran to take on that hit to support Macklemore when none of this was his decision and I think it was Messina that took the easy road thinking they could just get rid of Macklemore and every would be hunky dory.

Doesn’t it concern you that he dresses up as a caricature of a Jew?

To answer the initial question, I have no sympathy with Ed Sheeran. He decided to side with a billionaire who is a friend of Netanyahu and was a friend of Epstein over his friend. He is a moral coward in my opinion.

That's a straw man argument, Ophelia.
I was talking of Sheeran, as per the title, not whether Macklemore is a human rights hero or not.

The Jews in Iran are protected by a fatwa going to back to Khomeini himself. The representative of the Jewish community has a permanent seat in the Iranian parliament. Palestinians aren't even protected under Israeli law.

https://x.com/drneilstone/status/2100303540291838084?s=46

If Macklemore is your idea of of human rights hero you have a problem…

To answer the initial question, I have no sympathy with Ed Sheeran. He decided to side with a billionaire who is a friend of Netanyahu and was a friend of Epstein over his friend. He is a moral coward in my opinion.

Because DeterminedRat, unlike on 7 October, the children were not the targets. Hamas were. Hamas started the war, knowing that their children would be killed, as they have been, in every single war ever in human history. The question of whether starting and prosecuting a war in this situation is morally right is extremely complex. No one wants children to die, on either side. I don't believe you want Israeli children dead, and you surely shouldn't believe I want Palestinian kids dead. It's pretty universal to most people. Apart from terrorists and crazy religious supremacists. Who both have complex narratives of competing truths and suffering. It's complex. Its thousands of years of complexity.
Now you tell me how its simple. You tell me how the IDF could have got Hamas without getting children. You tell me if you think they simply shouldn't have tried. You tell me what you think this easy, simple non complex answer is, genius?

Why focus on numbers killed ?? it's ridiculous
It's not a team sport !!
Hamas would kill more if they had the capability
Because they are unable to doesn't make them better
There is a parallel truth
Palestinians have a right to dignity freedom and self determination
Israel had a right to safety security and be free from rocket fire and terrorism
You choose to see only one of these realities and so the cycle of violence continues

@ImmortalNowBabyDoll
And this proves exactly what I was just saying in my post above. You're debating Israel's actions. I'm talking about the experience of Jewish people in an audience who didn't come there to debate Israel. Those are two different things.

So your contention is that life is better for Jews in Iran than for Arabs living in Israel? That's just pure invention.

The children were not the targets?? There are plenty of testimonies from independent doctors of various nationalities volunteering in Gaza who have explicitly testified that children were directly targeted by snipers. When you drop a massive bomb on a building which you know is full of children, even if there was a Hamas fighter in the building, the fact you know it was full of children means you targeted the children. This 'war' was nothing to do with simply getting rid of Hamas. It was always about clearing Gaza by making life to unbearable and horrendous that the population would want to leave. This was expressed in the first days after Oct 7 and has now manifested itself in Disengagement 710. October 7th was horrendous but no one seems to mention that in the years leading up to October 7th Israel had murdered 5 times as many Palestinian civilians by mowing the grass in Gaza as were murdered by Hamas on October 7th. Well that's the past. Do you think it is going to help the future dwelling on it.

There were tens of thousands of Egyptian troops moved into the Sinai Peninsula and Nasser literally said that he was 'going to destroy Israel'.

Compared to Israel. You're joking surely.

1967 was a simple land grab. The idea that the other armies were preparing for war against Israel is nothing more than propaganda. I know Israel have a good army but no one could seriously believe that it faced 3 armies preparing for battle and the war was over in 6 days. No one is stupid enough to believe that.

Because DeterminedRat, unlike on 7 October, the children were not the targets. Hamas were. Hamas started the war, knowing that their children would be killed, as they have been, in every single war ever in human history. The question of whether starting and prosecuting a war in this situation is morally right is extremely complex. No one wants children to die, on either side. I don't believe you want Israeli children dead, and you surely shouldn't believe I want Palestinian kids dead. It's pretty universal to most people. Apart from terrorists and crazy religious supremacists. Who both have complex narratives of competing truths and suffering. It's complex. Its thousands of years of complexity.
Now you tell me how its simple. You tell me how the IDF could have got Hamas without getting children. You tell me if you think they simply shouldn't have tried. You tell me what you think this easy, simple non complex answer is, genius?

Because DeterminedRat, unlike on 7 October, the children were not the targets. Hamas were. Hamas started the war, knowing that their children would be killed, as they have been, in every single war ever in human history. The question of whether starting and prosecuting a war in this situation is morally right is extremely complex. No one wants children to die, on either side. I don't believe you want Israeli children dead, and you surely shouldn't believe I want Palestinian kids dead. It's pretty universal to most people. Apart from terrorists and crazy religious supremacists. Who both have complex narratives of competing truths and suffering. It's complex. Its thousands of years of complexity.
Now you tell me how its simple. You tell me how the IDF could have got Hamas without getting children. You tell me if you think they simply shouldn't have tried. You tell me what you think this easy, simple non complex answer is, genius?

Oh honestly don't be so simplistic.

Perhaps you could talk us through the military strategy you'd use to separate the terrorists who committed October 7 and vowed to do it again and again? How you'd get those ones apart from the innocent ones, although they didn't wear uniforms, told their people not to evacuate to safe areas. Perhaps you could tell us how to get terrorists out of tunnels or in fact how to find the tunnels without using explosive. Perhaps tell us how many civilians you'd find appropriate numbers of collateral damage before killing a terrorist? Is it 0? Then please tell us how you'd get to that terrorist without hurting innocents amongst whom he is hiding?

Or would you perhaps just leave Hamas to it in case any women or children are killed in getting to them?

Are any wars justifiable? Really? Because there will always be innocent tragedy accompanying wars. Is war ever acceptable?

There is absolutely nothing simple about this whole thing. Its complex.

Perhaps you tell us why you think its so simple?

Because DeterminedRat, unlike on 7 October, the children were not the targets. Hamas were. Hamas started the war, knowing that their children would be killed, as they have been, in every single war ever in human history. The question of whether starting and prosecuting a war in this situation is morally right is extremely complex. No one wants children to die, on either side. I don't believe you want Israeli children dead, and you surely shouldn't believe I want Palestinian kids dead. It's pretty universal to most people. Apart from terrorists and crazy religious supremacists. Who both have complex narratives of competing truths and suffering. It's complex. Its thousands of years of complexity.
Now you tell me how its simple. You tell me how the IDF could have got Hamas without getting children. You tell me if you think they simply shouldn't have tried. You tell me what you think this easy, simple non complex answer is, genius?

Perhaps people don't care to answer your question as you said calling whats happening in Gaza a conflict is like calling the Holocaust a gas leak.

Or maybe thats just me?