The ICC arrest warrants were never going to deter anyone from doing anything, so the UKs stalling tactic is therefore irrelevant to saving lives. In fact, it gives the court a chance to strengthen its jurisdiction. Not worried about this.
Israeli soldiers have destroyed 11 homes and other structures in an isolated community in the occupied West Bank, leaving 50 people homeless, amid a reported uptick in house demolitions and spiralling violence in the Palestinian territory....
Turkey using its loudmouth support for Palestinians as a cover to deepen its campaign against the Kurds.
Same hypocrisy and double standard as when US officials condemn Russia's crimes but feel very nuanced, conflicted, appalled but understanding of Israeli crimes.
Germany equating its historic debt to Jewish people with support for a particular state is an absolutely disgusting distortion of the German obligation of remembrance.
Just like this, they throw under the bus any anti-Zionist Jew.
Honestly, when it comes to Israel/Palestine, the German state should just do what their other genocide victim, Namibia, told them to do and
Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Stay the fuck out of it. Say the honorable thing that you will abide by the rulings of international courts. Provide humanitarian aid, help refugees and displaced people. Be a ray of light and humanity, not a stickler for rules and definitions. Don't be so goddamn fucking German for a change.
I didn't say it's a random state, I said it was a particular one. It is one particular expression of Jewishness, when others also exist. Precisely because of the history of Germany, the German state has no business whatsoever to play arbiter about which version of Jewishness is the most authentic.
Denying the right of the Jewish state to exist is not denying the right of the Jewish people to exist IN EXACTLY THE SAME WAY as denying the right of white Afrikaner South Africa to exist is not a call for the genocide of white Afrikaners.
Afrikaners have a right to life and a right to safety. They don't have the right to set up an Afrikaner ethnostate on top of the rest of the people who inhabit the land.
Germany is right 100% to combat antisemitism. They are wrong, entirely wrong, to use recognition of Israel as a metric to detect it. It is in fact extremely dangerous and ultimately a generator of antisemitism. Attitudes towards Israel should never be used as proxy for attitudes towards Jews. Anti-semitism is irrational and atavistic at its core. Opposition to the existence of Israel as such is a spectrum of nuanced, but rational positions about land, rights, justice and so on. By lumping in rational arguments with atavistic feelings, they are giving the legitimacy of reason to Anti-semitism.
In fact the majority of European antisémites have zero problem with the existence of Israel "out there". They are more than happy to see the Jews leave Europe for the middle east. American antisémites are fantasizing that Israel will be the site of the Second Coming of Christ who will then turn all the Jews into Christians. This observation alone should tell you everything about why it is stupid and wrong to use attitudes towards Israel as proxy measures for attitudes towards Jews. When the antisémites pass your metric with flying colours whereas Jewish anti-Zionists fail it, your metric is just shit, simple as that.
Germany is making an extremely dangerous choice here, when they really don't need to. They don't have to take a maximalist pro-revisionist-zionism position. They are in fact taking sides in an internal debate between Jews and picking and choosing certain Jews as good and others as bad. Under these statutes Jewish people who speak out against Zionism are automatically labelled as ... antisémites.
This is wrong wrong wrong in every way and it makes the world worse for Jews first and foremost.
White South Africa did not have the right to exist.
Rhodesia did not have a right to exist.
That's what we are talking about.
Israel has become a Jewish supremacist apartheid state. Its crimes have become so egregious and so entrenched ("facts on the ground") that it is not unreasonable to argue that it cannot be reformed in its present form. In this case it is reasonable to argue for its replacement by a democratic successor state in which Jews and others will all have the same rights to freedom and safety.
Wake me up when Israel institutes universal suffrage and legal equality for everyone from the river to the sea, elects Marwan Barghouthi as president and changes it flag and anthem to incorporate Palestinian national symbolism. If such a country would like to still call itself Israel, I will be happy to be proven wrong.
Because this is what ending apartheid means, buddy. Not just getting rid of Netanyahu, but deep structural change, and a commitment to justice, truth and reconciliation.
Israeli jews have the right to life, freedom, safety. They have the right to a home in the Holy Lands.
They don't have the right to set up a Jewish supremacist apartheid state to deny the same rights to everyone else.
The state that they have created and entrenched with genocide and "facts on the ground" no longer has legitimacy to exist in its present form. Because of its entrenchment I don't see how it can be reformed.
So instead, ending this political entity to establish a new democratic one seems to be the surest way out of this mess.
This is not a call for genocide by any stretch of imagination.
Yes, it is the Fatah line as well. If it were feasible, I would also support it. However, Israeli created "facts on the ground" say it isn't. It is impossible to extract the entrenched colonists from the West Bank and it is impossible for Israel to accept a sovereign Palestine that is anything more than a Bantustan. Worse, it might just mean that Israel will have not one but two Gazas on its doorstep. It's a recipe for more death and destruction.
The 2SS was reasonable 30 years ago. That time has very sadly passed. Just like the Palestinians lost their chance in '48, so did the Israelis lose their chance at Camp David in 2000. The current mess is a knot that can only be solved by a single state solution. And if that is the case, and we agree that either side "cleansing" the other is completely unacceptable, then universal equality from the river to the sea, a democratic country, is the only game left.
We obviously also disagree on what causes the conflict. I don't see it as a clash between opposing cultures, which by definition is irreconcilable. It is a clash over land, over sovereignty, over rights, over resources. These can of course be resolved and have been resolved even at least tentatively in many countries in the region. With justice can come peace.
If Serbs and Muslims can coexist in Bosnia, if Macedonians and Albanians can coexist in North Macedonia, if Protestants and Catholics can coexist in Northern Ireland, if Flemings and Waloons can coexist in Belgium, if the various denominations can coexist in Lebanon, if English and French can coexist in Quebec, then Israelis and Palestinians can work it out as well. Note that the above examples are at a varying degree of peace and harmony, from not very much to quite a lot. But none of them are genocidal cases. In fact, a couple are societies that coexist after a genocide took place (Bosnia, Ireland).
You bringing up the Bosnian Genocide reinforces my point rather than undercut it.
The Bosnian genocide happened, just like the Nakba did (or arguably still is) and still after it happened, the Bosnia and Herzegovina of today exists. In Bosnia today Serbs and Muslims coexist, even if Serbs massacred the Muslims in the past. Same for Israelis and Palestinians: the Bosnia of today is a case study of what an Israel/Palestine of tomorrow might look like.
That's exactly why I mentioned Bosnia and Ireland in the first place.
I really don't understand how ending apartheid is an escalation from where we are now. It's precisely the opposite: de-escalation and peace.
We are living the genocide moment, right now, and we have been living it for several decades. This is about ending this genocidal status quo. What the fuck are you talking about?
They stay right where they are. They may need to pay reparations to Palestinians they displaced however, and any laws restricting land ownership or buying and selling to Jews should be abolished.
Universal suffrage and equal rights for everyone from the river to the sea. That, as a basic universal principle that any reasonable person wherever in the world can assert as the basic requirement for democracy. If you don't like that, you're against democracy, and I don't know if anything else can be discussed.
Your math doesn't really check out. Israel has 9 million people 2 million of which are Arabs, and Palestine is 5 million. A binational state would be about 50-50 Arab and Jewish.
Also, you're misrepresenting the difference between the current apartheid state present in Israel/Palestine and the American problem of racism. One has different rules, different courts, different rights, and different protections there is no universal standard. The other often fails to live up to its universal standard. The latter can be improved, the former cannot.
Ultimately, getting lost in the weeds and the details has been an israeli tactic for maintaining the status quo for 50 years. The way you're nickel and diming the details of what would happen after freedom is like asking Lincoln to produce a full account of systemic racism as a precondition to the Emancipation Proclamation. No! I don't care what the details are and I don't need to care, and I refuse to be bogged down with shitty minutiae while injustice reigns. The current system is unacceptable and must be dismantled in favour of universal democratic human rights. Let the people be free and let them decide. Prolonging an insufferable situation just because you don't know every little detail about what freedom might look like is despicable, slavish and cowardly.
Germany's government has agreed on a draft law making it easier to deport people who promote "terrorist crimes." The legislation lowers the bar at which foreigners can be returned to their country of origin....
I don't speak German, so this is just Google Translate:
Anyone who establishes an organization (§ 129 paragraph 2) whose purpose or activity is aimed at
murder (§ 211) or manslaughter (§ 212) or genocide (§ 6 of the International Criminal Code) or crimes against humanity (§ 7 of the International Criminal Code) or war crimes (§§ 8, 9, 10, 11 or § 12 of the International Criminal Code) or
crimes against personal freedom in the cases of § 239a or § 239b
or anyone who participates in such an organization as a member shall be punished with imprisonment from one year to ten years.
So like, just wondering a hypothetical here, let's say that in the future the ICJ sides with South Africa against Israel regarding the Gaza genocide case, would Germany actually start persecuting pro-kahanist bootlickers for terrorism? Or does the German "raison d'etat" cover criminals if they're Jewish Israelis?
On Sunday, a group of 250 Iranian legislators introduced a motion that requires the administration to designate the Canadian Army and federal police forces as terrorist organizations.
Historically speaking, from an indigenous perspective, the characterization of the RCMP as terrorist is not too far off the mark.
The United States is expected to lift its hold on the shipment of ammunition and weapons designated for the IDF, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office said on Tuesday, just one day after the Israeli leader accused the Biden administration of preventing the delivery of those arms....
Until his complaints are about how he doesn't have enough books in his cell in the Hague penitentiary, I don't care about anything that Bibi Fucking Netanyahu has to complain about.
In the real world there are no single "true solutions". More social housing is needed. Capping speculation is needed. Taxing empty houses is needed. Building new dense and walkable neighbourhoods is needed. Carefully deflating the bubble to free up capital to productive investments is needed. Retrofitting existing buildings is needed. Housing coops are needed. All these things are needed.
There are places that cap real estate speculation? And also are shifting equity away from real estate and towards the productive parts of the economy? While also promoting social housing and coops and building new walkable neighborhoods? Like all of those things at once? Where is that social-democratic utopia?
Explain why the real estate sector in a small island city-state is comparable in any way to that in the country with the second largest landmass in the world.
I don't know if 1% of Canada is urban. But assuming it is, and assuming that it is impossible to grow that 1% of the 9,093,507 sq km that make up the country (a ludicrous assumption that one), that is still 90,935.1 sq km.
Your comparison is just plain irrelevant and wrong.
Sorry but any analysis of real estate economics that does not take into account the scarcity or abundance of ...land is just pointless.
Singapore does not have a Brossard to connect with a REM to build a new urban core. Even more, it does not have multiple options for different places to develop and densify, like Montreal has, just based on the current plans for the REM, and without taking into account future transit projects or the idea of, oh I don't know, creating an Ottawa-Montreal megacity with HSR.
Yes but we are not talking generally about the correlations, we are specifically talking about Singapore which you brought up as a place where many policies are implemented and there is still a housing crisis. My response is that the Singapore scenario suffers from extreme scarcity of land which would explain a lot of Singapore's problems and is therefore not a good counterargument for the Canadian context which is very very difficult.
You misrepresent what I'm saying. I'm saying that the constraints in one vs the other country are so vastly different that you can't draw direct conclusions.
I have no idea how the Singaporean society and economy functions. Maybe they need more space for factories and vertical farms. Maybe the previous situation was too crowded to begin with and they are taking up more space. I don't know. Do you?
And regardless, it's up to you to explain why the real estate market of a tiny island city state is a useful paradigm from which to learn policy lessons in the second largest country on earth. It's a counter-intuitive position, so the maxim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence applies.
No I am not. I am not even defending: I did not reject off hand your position, I said it is implausible based on what I know, explained why I think it is implausible and asked for you to explain why you think it isn't. It's dialogue, not sparring.
I don't even have to provide "proof" of policies working. You are the one that said none of them would work, i.e., you're the one that makes a blanket statement. I'm saying try them all, some combination will probably do it, because these all sound like good ideas that are also not mutually exclusive. You're asserting something logically stronger than me, so you're the one with the burden of proof.
This is nothing shocking. Parliamentary candidates routinely make these kinds of statements before elections. I think he's trying to corner the other far right party, really.
Precisely. Mecca has always been incredibly hot and yet pilgrims have not been dropping like flies. Ostensibly because over the centuries certain common religious/pilgrimage practices have helped them cope with the heat. But when climate change moves the needle to 11, those centuries old religious/pilgrimage practices no longer work to protect people.
That is the message I'm trying to send; what's yours?
ICC decision on Netanyahu arrest warrant may be delayed by UK ( www.theguardian.com )
Israel destroys 11 homes in West Bank village amid spiralling violence ( www.theguardian.com )
Israeli soldiers have destroyed 11 homes and other structures in an isolated community in the occupied West Bank, leaving 50 people homeless, amid a reported uptick in house demolitions and spiralling violence in the Palestinian territory....
Chinese Foreign Influence Campaigns Trying to Seed Anti-Western, Pro-China Sentiment in Canada, Study Says ( www.isdglobal.org )
Archived link...
Turkey attacked Kurdistan Region over 800 times this year: Monitor ( www.rudaw.net )
Pyongyang Says It Will Send Support Troops to Ukraine Within a Month ( www.kyivpost.com )
New German citizens required to affirm Israel's right to exist ( www.middleeasteye.net )
German Cabinet backs deportations for praise of terrorism ( www.dw.com )
Germany's government has agreed on a draft law making it easier to deport people who promote "terrorist crimes." The legislation lowers the bar at which foreigners can be returned to their country of origin....
UN tells Israel it will suspend aid operations across Gaza without improved safety, UN officials say ( apnews.com )
Conservatives win longtime Liberal stronghold Toronto-St. Paul's in shock byelection result ( www.cbc.ca )
Canada's population forecast to reach 63 million, as people over 85 set to triple ( www.timescolonist.com )
Iran to designate Canadian army as a terrorist entity ( islamabadpost.com.pk )
Climate goals could make gas heating obsolete. So why do gas companies keep adding customers? Building more gas infrastructure is like investing in video rental stores 15 years ago, says expert ( www.cbc.ca )
Netanyahu: US promised to lift hold on ammunition, weapons ( jpost.com )
The United States is expected to lift its hold on the shipment of ammunition and weapons designated for the IDF, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Office said on Tuesday, just one day after the Israeli leader accused the Biden administration of preventing the delivery of those arms....
Quebec's housing crisis goes beyond supply and demand, says new report ( www.cbc.ca )
Submitting for this truly astonishing quote:...
France’s far-right leader says he will not be PM without absolute majority ( www.theguardian.com )
[article] Montreal becomes largest North American city to eliminate mandatory minimum parking spots ( cultmtl.com )
More than 300 Egyptians die from heat during Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, diplomats say ( www.cbsnews.com )
Netanyahu Blasts Biden Admin For ‘Withholding’ Weapons From Israel In Harshest Criticism Yet: ‘Inconceivable’ ( www.forbes.com )