Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
dude, this did not start on 10/7! it has been going on since the 1960s!! one action on one side begets a reaction by the other side and it carries on like that!! how many times do we have to show you that?
10/7 did not happen in a vacuum. come on, man, this is disingenuous at best. you are either not reading what people post, or being willfully ignorant at this point.
i can post dozens of your posts where you have expressed outright support for the israeli government's policies in the execution of this war. this is why i had you on ignore for weeks before i unignored you.
Post edited by Kat on
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
also, i see you didn't like it when i told you to go out in public and say something.
now you know how i felt when you told me to "go out in public and vocally support iran. stop hiding here."
you invited a response from me.
Post edited by Kat on
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
dude, this did not start on 10/7! it has been going on since the 1960s!! one action on one side begets a reaction by the other side and it carries on like that!! how many times do we have to show you that?
10/7 did not happen in a vacuum. come on, man, this is disingenuous at best. you are either not reading what people post, or being willfully ignorant at this point.
i can post dozens of your posts where you have expressed outright support for the israeli government's policies in the execution of this war. this is why i had you on ignore for weeks before i unignored you.
If we're being accurate, this conflict spans millenia, not decades. (Cue the comments that each side's land claim is based on fairy tales. )
Personally I still feel the "It didn't start on October 7" rationale comes dangerously close to excusing (certainly it downplays) the flat-out atrocities that occurred that morning. I recall one article posted here citing sexual violence by one group of Israeli soldiers, who are being actively investigated. On October 7 sexual violence was an overall policy of Hamas' operatives, how many of those perpetrators have been investigated or identified?
Post edited by Kat on
"The world is full of idiots and I am but one of them."
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
Someone has had their feelings hurt because the government they love has been criticized. Repeatedly and deservedly. It’s tough being called out, unable to defend your, general you, position, or have a leg to stand on.
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
dude, this did not start on 10/7! it has been going on since the 1960s!! one action on one side begets a reaction by the other side and it carries on like that!! how many times do we have to show you that?
10/7 did not happen in a vacuum. come on, man, this is disingenuous at best. you are either not reading what people post, or being willfully ignorant at this point.
i can post dozens of your posts where you have expressed outright support for the israeli government's policies in the execution of this war. this is why i had you on ignore for weeks before i unignored you.
If we're being accurate, this conflict spans millenia, not decades. (Cue the comments that each side's land claim is based on fairy tales. )
Personally I still feel the "It didn't start on October 7" rationale comes dangerously close to excusing (certainly it downplays) the flat-out atrocities that occurred that morning. I recall one article posted here citing sexual violence by one group of Israeli soldiers, who are being actively investigated. On October 7 sexual violence was an overall policy of Hamas' operatives, how many of those perpetrators have been investigated or identified?
i am not excusing what happened on 10/7. all i am saying is that this will continue to happen until honest brokers on both sides decide they want to stop this. will not happen with hamas leadership, and will not happen with current bibi government. bibi has no interest in peace at this point, because like trump, his freedom depends on him staying in power. but that is a different issue altogether.
what happened on 10/7 was terrorism. it was an atrocity, and those responsible should be caught and face justice. but at the same time, the pro israel folks cannot pretend to be ignorant of the fact that 10/7 is a result of the illegal settlements and continued theft of palestinian land.
as far as your question about 10/7 perpetrators being investigated? I have no idea. my guess is most of them are dead, having been bombed into oblivion by israel.
Post edited by Kat on
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
i don't support any of those groups. i just want a just, lasting peace. and i will continue to call out the bad actors.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
dude, this did not start on 10/7! it has been going on since the 1960s!! one action on one side begets a reaction by the other side and it carries on like that!! how many times do we have to show you that?
10/7 did not happen in a vacuum. come on, man, this is disingenuous at best. you are either not reading what people post, or being willfully ignorant at this point.
i can post dozens of your posts where you have expressed outright support for the israeli government's policies in the execution of this war. this is why i had you on ignore for weeks before i unignored you.
If we're being accurate, this conflict spans millenia, not decades. (Cue the comments that each side's land claim is based on fairy tales. )
Personally I still feel the "It didn't start on October 7" rationale comes dangerously close to excusing (certainly it downplays) the flat-out atrocities that occurred that morning. I recall one article posted here citing sexual violence by one group of Israeli soldiers, who are being actively investigated. On October 7 sexual violence was an overall policy of Hamas' operatives, how many of those perpetrators have been investigated or identified?
Why would a “government” making such claims not cooperate in investigations by third parties? And not just any third part(ies) but legitimate third part(ies)?
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
"The world is full of idiots and I am but one of them."
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
please search how bibi has helped hamas. how certain members of his current xabinet are pleased hamas had power. it benefits the fear mongers there.
bibi himself has said how proud he is for having scuttled efforts for peace and a 2 state solution.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
please search how bibi has helped hamas. how certain members of his current xabinet are pleased hamas had power. it benefits the fear mongers there.
bibi himself has said how proud he is for having scuttled efforts for peace and a 2 state solution.
it is kind of like our border issue here. there is a solution in the open, but one side refuses to proceed because they need the issue to run on. in bibi's case, he needs the boogeyman and the constant threat of attack.
"You can tell the greatness of a man by what makes him angry." - Lincoln
Go out in public and vocally support Iran. Stop hiding here.
you should go public saying your posts here are supporting a government that is in the process of ethnic cleansing.
If you're not a fan of ethnic cleansing wait until you get around to lran's goals
They really want trump to win.
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
also, i see you didn't like it when i told you to go out in public and say something.
now you know how i felt when you told me to "go out in public and vocally support iran. stop hiding here."
you invited a response from me.
I didn't accuse you of supporting genocide.
These fatalities are the direct result of this war that began oct 7.
If Palestine wants to continually spin this as a result of other conflicts, Israel has as much claim as their population has by far been more impacted by efforts of genocide by the Ottoman Empire, the Romans and the Nazis. But we've been down that path and there is no solution re arguing these points
The only reason Palestine not waving the white flag as most every other nation would do in this situation, is because they are getting support from Iran
many experts believe Israel has taken unprecedented steps preserving civilian life in urban warfare
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
please search how bibi has helped hamas. how certain members of his current xabinet are pleased hamas had power. it benefits the fear mongers there.
bibi himself has said how proud he is for having scuttled efforts for peace and a 2 state solution.
There's a simple way Palestine could get rid of bibi. And that is to appeal to the israeli moderates to offer a negotiation of a treaty and put pressure on Israel to elect a moderate.
But there is no way Palestine and Iran are interested in that. If Palestine insists on a 100% victory including all of the territory in the west bank, this is going to drag on forever.
The only way out of this is through compromise, not by trying to gain militant support with misinformation around the globe like is happening on college campuses in America
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
And for some, the disingenuous is thick. One side is completely devoid of being an honest partner to peace and has no interest in a political settlement. Funny that “river to the sea” originated with Zionists but folks only got outraged when the Palestinians co-opted it. Funnier still that for every action, there is a reaction. It’s called “blowback” in spook parlance. Let’s not pretend there hasn’t been any Israeli malfeasance since the founding of Israel and let’s not pretend that not acknowledging that malfeasance makes Israel moral, just or honest brokers of a two state solution. Israel lost me decades ago.
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3]These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."[5]
Used in context in the second paragraph of the photo.
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
And for some, the disingenuous is thick. One side is completely devoid of being an honest partner to peace and has no interest in a political settlement. Funny that “river to the sea” originated with Zionists but folks only got outraged when the Palestinians co-opted it. Funnier still that for every action, there is a reaction. It’s called “blowback” in spook parlance. Let’s not pretend there hasn’t been any Israeli malfeasance since the founding of Israel and let’s not pretend that not acknowledging that malfeasance makes Israel moral, just or honest brokers of a two state solution. Israel lost me decades ago.
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3]These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."[5]
Used in context in the second paragraph of the photo.
You say only one side has no interest in peace, and I’m going to assume you mean Israel. If you want me to accept your argument then you would do well to state neither side has any interest in peace. Hamas has openly stated their policy of eradicating the State of Israel, if not the Jewish people in general.
And so as not to be disingenuous, it was the government of Gaza (Hamas) that broke the ceasefire on October 7, not Israel. In fact saying Hamas broke the ceasefire is a gross understatement in my opinion, given the sickening atrocities that were committed that morning.
"The world is full of idiots and I am but one of them."
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
And for some, the disingenuous is thick. One side is completely devoid of being an honest partner to peace and has no interest in a political settlement. Funny that “river to the sea” originated with Zionists but folks only got outraged when the Palestinians co-opted it. Funnier still that for every action, there is a reaction. It’s called “blowback” in spook parlance. Let’s not pretend there hasn’t been any Israeli malfeasance since the founding of Israel and let’s not pretend that not acknowledging that malfeasance makes Israel moral, just or honest brokers of a two state solution. Israel lost me decades ago.
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3]These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."[5]
Used in context in the second paragraph of the photo.
You say only one side has no interest in peace, and I’m going to assume you mean Israel. If you want me to accept your argument then you would do well to state neither side has any interest in peace. Hamas has openly stated their policy of eradicating the State of Israel, if not the Jewish people in general.
And so as not to be disingenuous, it was the government of Gaza (Hamas) that broke the ceasefire on October 7, not Israel. In fact saying Hamas broke the ceasefire is a gross understatement in my opinion, given the sickening atrocities that were committed that morning.
but hamas is only one part of that side , not the whole.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
And for some, the disingenuous is thick. One side is completely devoid of being an honest partner to peace and has no interest in a political settlement. Funny that “river to the sea” originated with Zionists but folks only got outraged when the Palestinians co-opted it. Funnier still that for every action, there is a reaction. It’s called “blowback” in spook parlance. Let’s not pretend there hasn’t been any Israeli malfeasance since the founding of Israel and let’s not pretend that not acknowledging that malfeasance makes Israel moral, just or honest brokers of a two state solution. Israel lost me decades ago.
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3]These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."[5]
Used in context in the second paragraph of the photo.
You say only one side has no interest in peace, and I’m going to assume you mean Israel. If you want me to accept your argument then you would do well to state neither side has any interest in peace. Hamas has openly stated their policy of eradicating the State of Israel, if not the Jewish people in general.
And so as not to be disingenuous, it was the government of Gaza (Hamas) that broke the ceasefire on October 7, not Israel. In fact saying Hamas broke the ceasefire is a gross understatement in my opinion, given the sickening atrocities that were committed that morning.
Then you have misunderstood the term “mowing the lawn” in the context of this discussion. The atrocities of 10/7 didn’t occur in a vacuum. They were the direct result of official Israeli policy as it relates to Palestine and the treatment of Palestinians. Read up on the West Bank land seizures after the 2006 ceasefire and election results. Read up on the daily indignities perpetuated upon the Palestinian people not only in Gaza but in the West Bank and within Israel proper. Again, the lack of acknowledgement and accountability for what life is/was like for the average Palestinian in that region from before 10/7 is a direct contributor to why 10/7 occurred.
Israel is not an innocent party to this conflict. Particularly since it was their official policy to play the democratically elected governments of the West Bank and Gaza against each other, knowing that by doing so that there’d be less chance or no chance of a two state solution. Do you deny this?
And we, who have been critical, have been called terrorists, anti-Semitic and supporters of Iran, Hamas and terrorism. But then again, it’s par for the course.
I’m not saying that’s right but at the same time it can’t be denied that one does need to examine with whom they align when they choose to only be critical of one side of the conflict.
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
And for some, the disingenuous is thick. One side is completely devoid of being an honest partner to peace and has no interest in a political settlement. Funny that “river to the sea” originated with Zionists but folks only got outraged when the Palestinians co-opted it. Funnier still that for every action, there is a reaction. It’s called “blowback” in spook parlance. Let’s not pretend there hasn’t been any Israeli malfeasance since the founding of Israel and let’s not pretend that not acknowledging that malfeasance makes Israel moral, just or honest brokers of a two state solution. Israel lost me decades ago.
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3]These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."[5]
Used in context in the second paragraph of the photo.
You say only one side has no interest in peace, and I’m going to assume you mean Israel. If you want me to accept your argument then you would do well to state neither side has any interest in peace. Hamas has openly stated their policy of eradicating the State of Israel, if not the Jewish people in general.
And so as not to be disingenuous, it was the government of Gaza (Hamas) that broke the ceasefire on October 7, not Israel. In fact saying Hamas broke the ceasefire is a gross understatement in my opinion, given the sickening atrocities that were committed that morning.
but hamas is only one part of that side , not the whole.
That’s what I was saying, it takes two to tango and both sides share the blame for the current situation. I don’t think I’ve denied that Israel has some serious questions to answer. But so does Hamas.
In all honesty in the days following October 7 I wouldn’t have blamed Israel if they had turned Gaza into glass (the nuclear option) but thankfully they didn’t. There is zero excuse for what those Hamas animals did, full stop. The only other solution I see to the current conflict is for the UN to take full control (martial law) of Gaza and to apprehend the animals. But I think we can agree the chances of achieving international consensus on this is pretty much zero, sadly.
"The world is full of idiots and I am but one of them."
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Honest broker of peace. See? No malfeasance here. Nothing to see. No reason for blow back or consequences, eh? By the way, what’s 1,200, a few Americans when you get 40,000, razed beach front and 6,000 acres in the West Bank, eh? “Plausible deniability,” ever hear of it? Mowing the lawn? More like “removing the topsoil.”
No provocation. Just minding their own business, treating everyone fairly and only the victim, eh? Just peace loving and not committing genocide, right? See the DNA quote below. Also, see the maps of the West Bank in this article and tell everyone you know that you support terrorists. Don’t hide here. Go march with your sign stating how the “DNA of the West Bank needs to change.” Go ahead, do it. Speaking of “we had “peace” during POOTWH’s reign of idiocy, sure, sure we did. ‘Murica deserves everything it’s going to get.
Israeli land grabs, settlement expansion and demolitions in Palestinian communities mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades.
During more than 19 months in power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has dramatically expanded Israel’s footprint in the occupied West Bank — accelerating a long-term campaign by the country’s settler movement to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.
The government has approved strategic land seizures — almost 6,000 acres this year alone — and major settlement construction, escalated demolition of Palestinian property and increased state support for illegally built settler outposts. Together, they mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades.
While the Biden administration insists that any diplomatic solution to the war in Gaza include a path to an independent Palestinian state, radical Jewish settlers and their far-right political backers, who have ascended to the highest levels of Israel’s government, are redrawing the map in real time — making the two-state solution envisaged in past peace accords effectively impossible.
In interviews across six Palestinian communities, residents described paralyzing constraints on daily life as settlements creep closer, limiting their ability to move freely and to access the farmlands that long sustained them. Settler violence has erased some villages.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, returned to office in December 2022 on the basis of a coalition agreement that promised to “promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel,” including Judea and Samaria, as the West Bank was called in biblical times.
The effort to expand and solidify Israeli control of the area is led by Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime settler activist who now serves as finance minister. Netanyahu also appointed him last year to a post within the Defense Ministry, giving him wide powers over Israeli policy in the West Bank.
Smotrich’s driving ambition is “to settle the land, to build it, and to prevent, for God’s sake, its division … and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he told his Religious Zionism Party at a conference June 9, according to an audio recording obtained by Peace Now, an Israeli rights group that has spent decades documenting the growth of the settler movement.
To achieve that goal, Smotrich said, he would need to “change the DNA of the system.”
An estimated 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, alongside more than 500,000 settlers, whose numbers have increased by more than 15 percent during the past five years.
The position of Smotrich and his allies at the levers of power has turbocharged their gains. Israel’s Higher Planning Council has fully approved almost 12,000 housing units in settlements in the past 19 months, compared with just over 8,000 in the prior two years,according to Peace Now. A growing number of West Bank outposts — illegal under Israeli law — have been legalized. Large tracts of land have been seized by the state.
Successive American administrations have criticized Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace. In February, after Smotrich announced plans for 3,000 housing units in the West Bank, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration considered settlements “inconsistent with international law” — a position first codified in 1978, under President Jimmy Carter, and reversed in 2019 by President Donald Trump.
Biden has also imposed sanctions on illegal settler outposts, and on Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians. Yet the executive actions have appeared to have little effect on the expansion of settlements or the explosion of settler violence.
Israeli security forces have failed to halt a rising tide of harassment, assault and murder by extremist settlers, aimed at depopulating the Palestinian communities around them. At least 114 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in those attacks since October, according to the United Nations. While the military has dismantled some illegal outposts, most are quickly rebuilt.
“Any claim that the IDF supports and permits settler violence is false,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The U.N.’s highest court orderedIsrael last month to end its occupation of Palestinian territory, evacuate existing settlements and pay reparations to Palestinians who have lost land and property — a symbolically significant ruling, but one with limited practical effect.
Netanyahu was quick to blast the decision. “The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land,” he said.
New rulers
The West Bank has been under military occupation since Israel seized the territory in 1967, giving commanders oversight of administrative, legal and civilian affairs. Under the terms of the U.S.-brokered Oslo accords, Israel has full control over Area C — which makes up 60 percent of the land — though its forces also operate in Areas A and B, nominally administered by the Palestinian Authority.
In late May, the IDF announced that significant management powers over the West Bank were being reassigned to a newly created “deputy head” position within the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank. That same day, the role was given to Hillel Roth, a close Smotrich associate.
Transferring military control to a handpicked civilian was seen asanother step toward Smotrich’s long-running aspiration, outlined in a 2017 treatise, to achieve “victory by settlement” and extend Israeli law over the territory — which experts say would effectively convert occupation into annexation.
Roth lived for years in Yitzhar, known as one of the most violent West Bank settlements. He is now empowered to make sweeping decisions about new construction in the territory and the administration of state land. Roth declined to comment for this report. Smotrich did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“What Smotrich is doing is cementing a situation where every single aspect of Palestinian lives in the West Bank is determined by an Israeli civilian,” said Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem, one of Israel’s leading human rights groups.
In June, a Pew Research Center poll showed that 49 percent of Jewish Israelis think the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank helps the country’s national security, while 26 percent said it hurts.
The settler movement has worked patiently for decades to reach this point. For years, a glance at a map of the West Bank would have yielded few clues to what was coming. Land seizures were incremental; the placement of some settlements may have appeared illogical at first glance.
Over time, smaller settlements were consolidated into blocs. Highways and bypass roads connected them to Israel proper.
The state has used “planning and building as a weapon to conquer more land,” said Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, a coordinator with Bimkom, a group of Israeli urban planners and architects who help Palestinians navigate the system. The main aim, he said, was to create a “matrix of control.”
When the military had final say over all new construction and development, he said, there were limits to how that matrix could be expanded. With Roth at the helm, the process has accelerated.
One of his first moves was to approve the largest West Bank land seizure in more than three decades — declaring almost five square miles in the Jordan Valley as state land, opening it up to leasing by Israelis while prohibiting private Palestinian ownership. Peace Now said that the move could allow for the connection of four Israeli settlements along a key corridor bordering Jordan.
Reality. Remember that? Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. Ignorance makes it okay, I guess.
Continued from previous post:
Encirclement and expansion
Palestinians in the West Bank describe a creeping, decades-long encirclement by settler communities, followed more recently by rapid expansion and unchecked violence.
The Shilo settlement was established in the late 1970s on land confiscated from two neighboring Palestinian villages: Qaryut and Turmus Ayya. “It started with a few people, like Boy Scouts,” said Yousif Sadiq, deputy head of Qaryut’s local council. “Back then, we could herd our sheep between the two, never leaving our own private land.”
In 2011, Israel’s Defense Ministry approved a plan to increase the settlement’s housing units by 60 percent, local media reported. By late 2023, the village was almost surrounded by legal settlements and illegal outposts; harassment from soldiers and settlers led some residents to add bars and barbed wire to their homes.
Then came Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters poured into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza.
“Now, if settlers try to take a hill, the army will protect them, then the state will give them electricity and water,” said Bashar Ma’amar, a paramedic and activist from Qaryut who records attacks by Israeli settlers. The outposts can be seen from the village; sounds of construction are carried on the hot summer air.
Across the West Bank, the pace of settler attacks has doubled under Netanyahu’s coalition government, according to the U.N. On July 31, the agency’s humanitarian affairs office said it had recorded 1,143 separate incidents since the start of the war. Five Israeli settlers have been killed by suspected Palestinian militants during the same time period, according to the U.N.
In Qaryut, a large green belt of olive groves and vegetable fields sit untended. Villagers say they have been fired upon as they approach the area. They shared videos with The Post showing settlers bulldozing olive trees and burning crops.
“The IDF is committed to the well-being of the residents of the area and acts vigorously against manifestations of violence within its jurisdiction,” Israel’s military told The Post when asked what actions it had taken to stem settler violence in Qaryut. It referred questions to the Israel Police, which did not respond to requests for comment.
At the southern end of the village, settlers have spray-painted the walls of a now-abandoned children’s playground with a Star of David and a rifle. The water tank that once fed Qaryut has been hacked open and turned into a swimming pool for settlers.
On a recent afternoon, boys did somersaults before plunging into the cool water. Most were from a yeshiva in the nearby settlement of Eli; none knew the name of the Palestinian village perched on the top of the hill. Settlers had blocked the road with large broken boulders.
“With our snipers, it’s hard for anyone to come down from there now,” said one teenager. “It makes me feel safer like that.”
While new construction solidifies existing settlements like Shilo and Eli, the outposts that surround them provide an informal road map for expansion, watchdog groups say.
In February 2023, Israel’s cabinet designated nine illegal outposts as “sites under legalization” — a designation rarely used under previous administrations — promising government funds, connection to state power and water grids and an exemption from demolitions.
When Adalah, an Israeli legal rights group, challenged the decision as a breach of international law, Netanyahu’s Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs replied: “Israel is not an occupying power,” he wrote in a letter dated March 9 and shared by the group. He then quoted from the First Book of Maccabees: “It is not a foreign land we have taken nor have we seized the property of foreigners, but only our ancestral heritage, which for a time had been unjustly occupied by our enemies.”
Smotrich’s Settlement Administration has since given the same designation to at least 60 other illegal outposts, according to Peace Now.
In April, the government announced its intention to legalize the outpost of Ahiya, a jumble of portacabins perched on a windswept hilltop near Qaryut, 27 years after the first settlers arrived there.
Inside one cabin, security guards monitored a bank of CCTV cameras that showed the surrounding roads. “The principle we live by here is one of mission,” said a guard, declining to give his name. “They understand that we would kill to stay.”
Later, the security team simulated their response to an infiltration by militants. Men in green uniforms scanned the hillside, rifles in hand, looking for a young boy from the settlement who was dressed as an Arab.
Demolitions
As Israeli settlements expand and outposts are incorporated, Palestinian communities are being whittled away through demolitions and denials of building permits.
More than 2,000 structures have been demolished in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under Netanyahu’s new government, according to the United Nations, displacing more than 4,000 people — 2,200 people were displaced in the two years prior.
In the south Hebron hills, the villagers of Umm al-Kheir don’t know how much longer they can hold their ground.
When Eid Yameen al-Hathaleenwas forced from his home in the Negev desert during the founding of Israel in 1948, the Bedouin patriarch resettled on land belonging to a Palestinian family, who later sold it to him, his son Yasser said.
The family grew and the village expanded to about 250 people. In the early 1980s, the Israeli settlement of Carmel was established next door. Israel issued the first demolition orders against houses in Umm al-Kheir in 1995, residents said; the first demolition was carried out in 2007. After a slew of demolitions in 2014, the village was spared for years.
On the morning of June 26, residents awoke to warnings that the Israeli army and police were approaching with bulldozers. Within hours, a cluster of houses belonging to Yasser had been smashed to pieces.
“We were left without homes, without shelter, under the sun, in the dirt,” Yasser said, sitting under a tent his neighbors had built for his sprawling family, as temperatures climbed above 100 degrees. His young sons played next to the wreckage.
Eleven structures were destroyed that day, including a communal tent, which had served as a health clinic and a place where villagers had married and celebrated the birth of babies.
The IDF said in a statement that the demolitions took place because the structures were built without a permit. “The law was enforced in their case according to all the procedures and by force of law,” it said. The Israel Police did not reply to requests for comment about their reported participation in the operation.
Umm al-Kheir’s residents applied for a master plan — a requirement for official recognition by Israel — in 2016, but it was “never discussed,” according to Tariq al-Hathaleen, Yasser’s nephew.
Palestinians are denied access to special local planning committees available to Jewish settlers. Land designated for Palestinian construction comprises only 0.5 percent of Area C, compared with 26 percent of Area C in which settlers are authorized to build, Cohen-Lifshitz said, citing Bimkom research and Israeli government data obtained through the country’s freedom of information law.
“In the West Bank, we can really say it’s official apartheid, because you have completely different laws for Palestinians and for Israelis,” he said.
In Umm al-Kheir, as in other villages, home demolitions have emboldened aggressive settlers nearby.
The evening before Post reporters visited the community July 2, several young settlers led their sheep to the village’s feed pen, witnesses said. When local women tried to get them to leave, the settlers beat them with sticks and stones and pepper sprayed their faces.
An hour after Post reporters departed, settlers pitched a tent in Umm al-Kheir as Israeli soldiers watched and joked with them, according to residents and videos taken by Israeli activists. The police force took two hours to arrive, and when they did, they told the villagers to file a complaint, witnesses said.
In a statement, the IDF said that the soldiers had arrived to “prevent friction until the arrival of additional forces and the Israeli Police.” The police did not respond to a request for comment about why they took so long to arrive or why they did not do more to intervene.
On Tuesday, the bulldozers returned to Umm al-Kheir, demolishing shelters set up for families whose homes were destroyed earlier this summer. They had been rebuilt “in violation of the law locally in effect,” according to Israel’s Civil Administration.
Comments
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
edit, come to think of it Kat the forum needs better rules. The bolded is where the name calling starts.
false accusations. Only one thing is true about the horrible Palestinian deaths. Had Oct 7 invasion never happened, those Palestinians would be alive. Stop with the false accusations gimme, and stop supporting trump. And keep ignoring Harris agrees with that, and she is about as a pro Palestinian president we will ever get
10/7 did not happen in a vacuum. come on, man, this is disingenuous at best. you are either not reading what people post, or being willfully ignorant at this point.
i can post dozens of your posts where you have expressed outright support for the israeli government's policies in the execution of this war. this is why i had you on ignore for weeks before i unignored you.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
now you know how i felt when you told me to "go out in public and vocally support iran. stop hiding here."
you invited a response from me.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Personally I still feel the "It didn't start on October 7" rationale comes dangerously close to excusing (certainly it downplays) the flat-out atrocities that occurred that morning. I recall one article posted here citing sexual violence by one group of Israeli soldiers, who are being actively investigated. On October 7 sexual violence was an overall policy of Hamas' operatives, how many of those perpetrators have been investigated or identified?
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
Reality bites.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
what happened on 10/7 was terrorism. it was an atrocity, and those responsible should be caught and face justice. but at the same time, the pro israel folks cannot pretend to be ignorant of the fact that 10/7 is a result of the illegal settlements and continued theft of palestinian land.
as far as your question about 10/7 perpetrators being investigated? I have no idea. my guess is most of them are dead, having been bombed into oblivion by israel.
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
In all honesty I still haven’t figured out what I think is the proportional response is when faced with barbarity like 10/7 and a faction sworn to repeat such attacks until one’s own culture is eradicated. In general I’ll favour a stronger response as a (hopeful) deterrent.
The worst part of this being a continuum is that the next generation of zealots is being created on both sides.
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I didn't accuse you of supporting genocide.
These fatalities are the direct result of this war that began oct 7.
If Palestine wants to continually spin this as a result of other conflicts, Israel has as much claim as their population has by far been more impacted by efforts of genocide by the Ottoman Empire, the Romans and the Nazis. But we've been down that path and there is no solution re arguing these points
The only reason Palestine not waving the white flag as most every other nation would do in this situation, is because they are getting support from Iran
many experts believe Israel has taken unprecedented steps preserving civilian life in urban warfare
https://www.newsweek.com/israel-has-created-new-standard-urban-warfare-why-will-no-one-admit-it-opinion-1883286
But there is no way Palestine and Iran are interested in that. If Palestine insists on a 100% victory including all of the territory in the west bank, this is going to drag on forever.
The only way out of this is through compromise, not by trying to gain militant support with misinformation around the globe like is happening on college campuses in America
From wiki, wiki, wiki:
Mowing the grass (Hebrew: כיסוח דשא) is a metaphor used to describe the strategy of Israel against Palestinian militants[1] in the Gaza Strip.[1][2]
The term was coined by Efraim Inbar and Eitan Shami to describe 'a patient military strategy of attrition with limited goals: to diminish their opponents' capacity to harm Israel, and to accomplish temporary deterrence – both of which are achieved through occasional large-scale operations, as seen with the three Gaza Wars and the Second Lebanon War (and epitomised by the "Dahiya doctrine"). Those who employ this strategy hope that, over time, the repeated achievement of these limited goals will drain the motivation of enemy fighters to harm Israel, and eventually cause the movement to fizzle out into obscurity.[3] These are usually carried out by conducting short, sharp military operations to maintain a certain level of control over the area without committing to a long-term political solution, similar to how one would mow a lawn to keep it neat and tidy.[4]
According to Adam Taylor in The Washington Post, "the phrase implies the Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip and their supply of crude but effective homemade weapons are like weeds that need to be cut back."[1]
Naftali Bennett referred to the idea in a speech in 2018 when he said "מי שלא מכסח את הדשא, הדשא מכסח אותו('He who does not mow the grass, the grass mows him')."[5]
Used in context in the second paragraph of the photo.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
And so as not to be disingenuous, it was the government of Gaza (Hamas) that broke the ceasefire on October 7, not Israel. In fact saying Hamas broke the ceasefire is a gross understatement in my opinion, given the sickening atrocities that were committed that morning.
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
but hamas is only one part of that side , not the whole.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel is not an innocent party to this conflict. Particularly since it was their official policy to play the democratically elected governments of the West Bank and Gaza against each other, knowing that by doing so that there’d be less chance or no chance of a two state solution. Do you deny this?
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Those that win wars get to draw the boundaries. Except Israel, of course.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
In all honesty in the days following October 7 I wouldn’t have blamed Israel if they had turned Gaza into glass (the nuclear option) but thankfully they didn’t. There is zero excuse for what those Hamas animals did, full stop. The only other solution I see to the current conflict is for the UN to take full control (martial law) of Gaza and to apprehend the animals. But I think we can agree the chances of achieving international consensus on this is pretty much zero, sadly.
10-30-1991 Toronto, Toronto 1 & 2 2016, Toronto 2022
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
No provocation. Just minding their own business, treating everyone fairly and only the victim, eh? Just peace loving and not committing genocide, right? See the DNA quote below. Also, see the maps of the West Bank in this article and tell everyone you know that you support terrorists. Don’t hide here. Go march with your sign stating how the “DNA of the West Bank needs to change.” Go ahead, do it. Speaking of “we had “peace” during POOTWH’s reign of idiocy, sure, sure we did. ‘Murica deserves everything it’s going to get.
Israeli land grabs, settlement expansion and demolitions in Palestinian communities mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades.
During more than 19 months in power, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government has dramatically expanded Israel’s footprint in the occupied West Bank — accelerating a long-term campaign by the country’s settler movement to thwart the creation of a Palestinian state.
The government has approved strategic land seizures — almost 6,000 acres this year alone — and major settlement construction, escalated demolition of Palestinian property and increased state support for illegally built settler outposts. Together, they mark the most significant territorial changes in the West Bank in decades.
While the Biden administration insists that any diplomatic solution to the war in Gaza include a path to an independent Palestinian state, radical Jewish settlers and their far-right political backers, who have ascended to the highest levels of Israel’s government, are redrawing the map in real time — making the two-state solution envisaged in past peace accords effectively impossible.
In interviews across six Palestinian communities, residents described paralyzing constraints on daily life as settlements creep closer, limiting their ability to move freely and to access the farmlands that long sustained them. Settler violence has erased some villages.
Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, returned to office in December 2022 on the basis of a coalition agreement that promised to “promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel,” including Judea and Samaria, as the West Bank was called in biblical times.
The effort to expand and solidify Israeli control of the area is led by Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime settler activist who now serves as finance minister. Netanyahu also appointed him last year to a post within the Defense Ministry, giving him wide powers over Israeli policy in the West Bank.
Smotrich’s driving ambition is “to settle the land, to build it, and to prevent, for God’s sake, its division … and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he told his Religious Zionism Party at a conference June 9, according to an audio recording obtained by Peace Now, an Israeli rights group that has spent decades documenting the growth of the settler movement.
To achieve that goal, Smotrich said, he would need to “change the DNA of the system.”
An estimated 3 million Palestinians live in the West Bank, alongside more than 500,000 settlers, whose numbers have increased by more than 15 percent during the past five years.
The position of Smotrich and his allies at the levers of power has turbocharged their gains. Israel’s Higher Planning Council has fully approved almost 12,000 housing units in settlements in the past 19 months, compared with just over 8,000 in the prior two years,according to Peace Now. A growing number of West Bank outposts — illegal under Israeli law — have been legalized. Large tracts of land have been seized by the state.
Successive American administrations have criticized Israeli settlements as an obstacle to peace. In February, after Smotrich announced plans for 3,000 housing units in the West Bank, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Biden administration considered settlements “inconsistent with international law” — a position first codified in 1978, under President Jimmy Carter, and reversed in 2019 by President Donald Trump.
Biden has also imposed sanctions on illegal settler outposts, and on Israeli settlers accused of attacking Palestinians. Yet the executive actions have appeared to have little effect on the expansion of settlements or the explosion of settler violence.
Israeli security forces have failed to halt a rising tide of harassment, assault and murder by extremist settlers, aimed at depopulating the Palestinian communities around them. At least 114 Palestinians have been killed or wounded in those attacks since October, according to the United Nations. While the military has dismantled some illegal outposts, most are quickly rebuilt.
“Any claim that the IDF supports and permits settler violence is false,” the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement to The Washington Post.
The U.N.’s highest court orderedIsrael last month to end its occupation of Palestinian territory, evacuate existing settlements and pay reparations to Palestinians who have lost land and property — a symbolically significant ruling, but one with limited practical effect.
Netanyahu was quick to blast the decision. “The Jewish people are not conquerors in their own land,” he said.
New rulers
The West Bank has been under military occupation since Israel seized the territory in 1967, giving commanders oversight of administrative, legal and civilian affairs. Under the terms of the U.S.-brokered Oslo accords, Israel has full control over Area C — which makes up 60 percent of the land — though its forces also operate in Areas A and B, nominally administered by the Palestinian Authority.
In late May, the IDF announced that significant management powers over the West Bank were being reassigned to a newly created “deputy head” position within the Civil Administration, Israel’s governing body in the West Bank. That same day, the role was given to Hillel Roth, a close Smotrich associate.
Transferring military control to a handpicked civilian was seen asanother step toward Smotrich’s long-running aspiration, outlined in a 2017 treatise, to achieve “victory by settlement” and extend Israeli law over the territory — which experts say would effectively convert occupation into annexation.
Roth lived for years in Yitzhar, known as one of the most violent West Bank settlements. He is now empowered to make sweeping decisions about new construction in the territory and the administration of state land. Roth declined to comment for this report. Smotrich did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
“What Smotrich is doing is cementing a situation where every single aspect of Palestinian lives in the West Bank is determined by an Israeli civilian,” said Sarit Michaeli of B’Tselem, one of Israel’s leading human rights groups.
In June, a Pew Research Center poll showed that 49 percent of Jewish Israelis think the continued building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank helps the country’s national security, while 26 percent said it hurts.
The settler movement has worked patiently for decades to reach this point. For years, a glance at a map of the West Bank would have yielded few clues to what was coming. Land seizures were incremental; the placement of some settlements may have appeared illogical at first glance.
Over time, smaller settlements were consolidated into blocs. Highways and bypass roads connected them to Israel proper.
The state has used “planning and building as a weapon to conquer more land,” said Alon Cohen-Lifshitz, a coordinator with Bimkom, a group of Israeli urban planners and architects who help Palestinians navigate the system. The main aim, he said, was to create a “matrix of control.”
When the military had final say over all new construction and development, he said, there were limits to how that matrix could be expanded. With Roth at the helm, the process has accelerated.
One of his first moves was to approve the largest West Bank land seizure in more than three decades — declaring almost five square miles in the Jordan Valley as state land, opening it up to leasing by Israelis while prohibiting private Palestinian ownership. Peace Now said that the move could allow for the connection of four Israeli settlements along a key corridor bordering Jordan.
WELCOME TO THE 21st CENTURY APARTHEID STATE.
Continues next post.
Libtardaplorable©. And proud of it.
Brilliantati©
Encirclement and expansion
Palestinians in the West Bank describe a creeping, decades-long encirclement by settler communities, followed more recently by rapid expansion and unchecked violence.
The Shilo settlement was established in the late 1970s on land confiscated from two neighboring Palestinian villages: Qaryut and Turmus Ayya. “It started with a few people, like Boy Scouts,” said Yousif Sadiq, deputy head of Qaryut’s local council. “Back then, we could herd our sheep between the two, never leaving our own private land.”
In 2011, Israel’s Defense Ministry approved a plan to increase the settlement’s housing units by 60 percent, local media reported. By late 2023, the village was almost surrounded by legal settlements and illegal outposts; harassment from soldiers and settlers led some residents to add bars and barbed wire to their homes.
Then came Oct. 7, when Hamas fighters poured into southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages to Gaza.
“Now, if settlers try to take a hill, the army will protect them, then the state will give them electricity and water,” said Bashar Ma’amar, a paramedic and activist from Qaryut who records attacks by Israeli settlers. The outposts can be seen from the village; sounds of construction are carried on the hot summer air.
Across the West Bank, the pace of settler attacks has doubled under Netanyahu’s coalition government, according to the U.N. On July 31, the agency’s humanitarian affairs office said it had recorded 1,143 separate incidents since the start of the war. Five Israeli settlers have been killed by suspected Palestinian militants during the same time period, according to the U.N.
In Qaryut, a large green belt of olive groves and vegetable fields sit untended. Villagers say they have been fired upon as they approach the area. They shared videos with The Post showing settlers bulldozing olive trees and burning crops.
“The IDF is committed to the well-being of the residents of the area and acts vigorously against manifestations of violence within its jurisdiction,” Israel’s military told The Post when asked what actions it had taken to stem settler violence in Qaryut. It referred questions to the Israel Police, which did not respond to requests for comment.
At the southern end of the village, settlers have spray-painted the walls of a now-abandoned children’s playground with a Star of David and a rifle. The water tank that once fed Qaryut has been hacked open and turned into a swimming pool for settlers.
On a recent afternoon, boys did somersaults before plunging into the cool water. Most were from a yeshiva in the nearby settlement of Eli; none knew the name of the Palestinian village perched on the top of the hill. Settlers had blocked the road with large broken boulders.
“With our snipers, it’s hard for anyone to come down from there now,” said one teenager. “It makes me feel safer like that.”
While new construction solidifies existing settlements like Shilo and Eli, the outposts that surround them provide an informal road map for expansion, watchdog groups say.
In February 2023, Israel’s cabinet designated nine illegal outposts as “sites under legalization” — a designation rarely used under previous administrations — promising government funds, connection to state power and water grids and an exemption from demolitions.
When Adalah, an Israeli legal rights group, challenged the decision as a breach of international law, Netanyahu’s Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs replied: “Israel is not an occupying power,” he wrote in a letter dated March 9 and shared by the group. He then quoted from the First Book of Maccabees: “It is not a foreign land we have taken nor have we seized the property of foreigners, but only our ancestral heritage, which for a time had been unjustly occupied by our enemies.”
Smotrich’s Settlement Administration has since given the same designation to at least 60 other illegal outposts, according to Peace Now.
In April, the government announced its intention to legalize the outpost of Ahiya, a jumble of portacabins perched on a windswept hilltop near Qaryut, 27 years after the first settlers arrived there.
Inside one cabin, security guards monitored a bank of CCTV cameras that showed the surrounding roads. “The principle we live by here is one of mission,” said a guard, declining to give his name. “They understand that we would kill to stay.”
Later, the security team simulated their response to an infiltration by militants. Men in green uniforms scanned the hillside, rifles in hand, looking for a young boy from the settlement who was dressed as an Arab.
Demolitions
As Israeli settlements expand and outposts are incorporated, Palestinian communities are being whittled away through demolitions and denials of building permits.
More than 2,000 structures have been demolished in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, under Netanyahu’s new government, according to the United Nations, displacing more than 4,000 people — 2,200 people were displaced in the two years prior.
In the south Hebron hills, the villagers of Umm al-Kheir don’t know how much longer they can hold their ground.
When Eid Yameen al-Hathaleenwas forced from his home in the Negev desert during the founding of Israel in 1948, the Bedouin patriarch resettled on land belonging to a Palestinian family, who later sold it to him, his son Yasser said.
The family grew and the village expanded to about 250 people. In the early 1980s, the Israeli settlement of Carmel was established next door. Israel issued the first demolition orders against houses in Umm al-Kheir in 1995, residents said; the first demolition was carried out in 2007. After a slew of demolitions in 2014, the village was spared for years.
On the morning of June 26, residents awoke to warnings that the Israeli army and police were approaching with bulldozers. Within hours, a cluster of houses belonging to Yasser had been smashed to pieces.
“We were left without homes, without shelter, under the sun, in the dirt,” Yasser said, sitting under a tent his neighbors had built for his sprawling family, as temperatures climbed above 100 degrees. His young sons played next to the wreckage.
Eleven structures were destroyed that day, including a communal tent, which had served as a health clinic and a place where villagers had married and celebrated the birth of babies.
The IDF said in a statement that the demolitions took place because the structures were built without a permit. “The law was enforced in their case according to all the procedures and by force of law,” it said. The Israel Police did not reply to requests for comment about their reported participation in the operation.
Umm al-Kheir’s residents applied for a master plan — a requirement for official recognition by Israel — in 2016, but it was “never discussed,” according to Tariq al-Hathaleen, Yasser’s nephew.
Palestinians are denied access to special local planning committees available to Jewish settlers. Land designated for Palestinian construction comprises only 0.5 percent of Area C, compared with 26 percent of Area C in which settlers are authorized to build, Cohen-Lifshitz said, citing Bimkom research and Israeli government data obtained through the country’s freedom of information law.
“In the West Bank, we can really say it’s official apartheid, because you have completely different laws for Palestinians and for Israelis,” he said.
In Umm al-Kheir, as in other villages, home demolitions have emboldened aggressive settlers nearby.
The evening before Post reporters visited the community July 2, several young settlers led their sheep to the village’s feed pen, witnesses said. When local women tried to get them to leave, the settlers beat them with sticks and stones and pepper sprayed their faces.
An hour after Post reporters departed, settlers pitched a tent in Umm al-Kheir as Israeli soldiers watched and joked with them, according to residents and videos taken by Israeli activists. The police force took two hours to arrive, and when they did, they told the villagers to file a complaint, witnesses said.
In a statement, the IDF said that the soldiers had arrived to “prevent friction until the arrival of additional forces and the Israeli Police.” The police did not respond to a request for comment about why they took so long to arrive or why they did not do more to intervene.
On Tuesday, the bulldozers returned to Umm al-Kheir, demolishing shelters set up for families whose homes were destroyed earlier this summer. They had been rebuilt “in violation of the law locally in effect,” according to Israel’s Civil Administration.
“We have nowhere to go but to God,” Yasser said.
Continued next post.
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