Neurolimal posted:

A significant (possibly even majority) of the West Bank do not care for Abbas' governance and have no reasonable course to change it, and if you were to stumble into the wreckage of the Gaza Strip and ask about LGBQT rights everyone (straight, gay, bisexual, man, woman) would look at you like you were a jackass.

Neurolimal posted:

second only to Iran in terms of countries a Just USA would and should ally with

VitalSigns posted:

Well they shouldn't kill gay people, but TIC's claim that the occupation is somehow to the benefit of LGBT Palestinians is loving ridiculous.

Iowa Snow King posted:

Some really effective use of Whataboutism in this thread. Like, textbook perfect.

The Insect Court posted:

The Insect Court posted:

Tell me about it, I'm trying to get it through their heads that injustice everywhere needs to be confronted and called out and certain posters think we should stop treating Palestinians like human beings when doing so doesn't become a pretext to criticize Israel.

The Insect Court posted:

Wow, a real tirade there against moral injustice. Too bad you had to follow it up with a total fabrication, but whatever you need to push back down the cognitive dissonance that rises from the whole "LGBT Palestinian rights? Booo-ring" thing.


Tell me about it, I'm trying to get it through their heads that injustice everywhere needs to be confronted and called out and certain posters think we should stop treating Palestinians like human beings when doing so doesn't become a pretext to criticize Israel.

Neurolimal posted:

Intolerance of LGBQT minorities in muslim-dominated countries is something to address (ideally when they are stable and healthy). It is disregarded in I/P debates because 1. They are some of the least extremist followers of islam out of many of the middle-eastern nationalities, 2. Neither the West Bank nor the Gaza Strip can significantly impact or change their governments; Abbas and his corrupt officials have long ago halted elections, and are not trustworthy enough to hold honest elections (and have the backing of a country that specializes in surveillances, security, and crowd control). Hamas is essentially the only real government option within the Gaza Strip; there exist other groups, but they are primarily interested in starting poo poo and earning brownie points, like the ISIL retards. Nobody else is willing to actually attempt the sisyphean effort of defending, maintaining, and supporting the Gaza Strip.

A significant (possibly even majority) of the West Bank do not care for Abbas' governance and have no reasonable course to change it, and if you were to stumble into the wreckage of the Gaza Strip and ask about LGBQT rights everyone (straight, gay, bisexual, man, woman) would look at you like you were a jackass.

VitalSigns posted:

Huh? Everyone agreed with you that it's wrong to kill gay people and Palestinians should stop,

The Insect Court posted:

They do? You might want to have a little chat with Neurolimal, who thinks that a "just" United States should ally with Iran. Do you think that?

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Christian school strike in Israel comes to end:

"Under Sunday's settlement, the Education Ministry said it would cancel the funding cuts and allocate a one-time payment of roughly $12.5 million to the Christian community in Israel. In addition, the ministry and Christian schools agreed to form a committee to resolve any remaining areas of disagreement by next March. The Secretariat of Christian Schools in Israel, an umbrella group, confirmed the terms."

The kids are going back to school.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Christian school strike in Israel comes to end:

"Under Sunday's settlement, the Education Ministry said it would cancel the funding cuts and allocate a one-time payment of roughly $12.5 million to the Christian community in Israel. In addition, the ministry and Christian schools agreed to form a committee to resolve any remaining areas of disagreement by next March. The Secretariat of Christian Schools in Israel, an umbrella group, confirmed the terms."

The kids are going back to school.

Crowsbeak posted:

Good to see that there is at least some good happening in Israel.

Also is there any other non westbank stuff happening in Israel?

Absurd Alhazred posted:

There's always stuff happening. They're trying to appoint a Chief of Police again, after the last candidate, Gal Hirsch, was met with too much backlash. It's apparently going to be the current Deputy Director of the Shin Bet.

Israel Katz, Minister of Transportation, got into a scuffle with the head of the Civil Aviation Authority over the latter's decision to close the airspace over famous Israeli model Bar Rafaeli's wedding, threatening to fire him if that happens. I think it didn't end up happening, but social media was all over this, sending fake (maybe real, also?) letters to the CAA about this or that event where they were asking planes not to fly over them please.

And oh, hey, Israeli airstrikes at a few Syrian military outposts as a response to several rockets falling in the Golan Heights. What better way to greet the incoming Jewish holiday?

Crowsbeak posted:

How much airspace was closed to stop the paparazzi? Because knowing how much space is limited throughout the levant, I can imagine this created alot of hell for Airplanes.

The Insect Court posted:

They do? You might want to have a little chat with Neurolimal, who thinks that a "just" United States should ally with Iran. Do you think that?

The Insect Court posted:

"LGBT Palestinian rights? Booo-ring" thing.

The Insect Court posted:

Kim Jong Il posted:

Substitute in Netanyahu and Israel here and then read it back.

"Palestinian LGBT don't deserve rights because Israel is the bigger problem."

"Palestinians don't deserve rights because Saudi Arabia/ISIS/Assad/etc... are the bigger problem."

quote:

Kerry reportedly told Abbas to hold off on meeting Netanyahu

In bid to keep Washington in loop, US secretary told PA president to wait until after sit-down at UN General Assembly, officials tell paper

US Secretary of State John Kerry recently prevented a meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas from taking place, an Israeli daily reported on Sunday, citing Israeli and Palestinian officials.

The State Department denied the report, which appeared in the Haaretz broadsheet.

Earlier this month Abbas was encouraged by a non-American official to meet with the Israeli prime minister to discuss the stalled peace process, according to unnamed Palestinian and Israeli officials cited by the paper.

The Palestinian Authority president said he would bring up the possibility with the US secretary. Kerry then told him to hold off on any meeting with Netanyahu until after he and Abbas met ahead of the UN General Assembly, scheduled to begin Monday.

Palestinian officials said Kerry sought to ensure American involvement in any peace bid, and therefore asked Abbas to postpone the meeting.

Israeli officials, meanwhile, said Kerry was absorbed in the Iranian nuclear deal and was unable to take on Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

US officials said Kerry intends to dive back into peace talks, but said the Palestinian account was a misrepresentation aimed at deflecting attention away from Abbas’s reluctance to meet Netanyahu.

“The secretary is interested in reengaging on the issue,” a senior US official told Haaretz. “He is talking to a full range of experts and stakeholders to better understand the options as part of our ongoing policy review.”

Kerry and Abbas are both in New York for the UN General Assembly. They are expected to be joined later this week by Netanyahu.

Kerry and Abbas met on Saturday afternoon in New York.

According to Israel Radio, the US secretary sought to persuade the PA president not to drop his promised “bombshell” in his Wednesday address at the UN General Assembly.

Abbas has said he will make an important announcement in his speech, but has not elaborated.

Netanyahu will address the UN General Assembly on Thursday, a day after the PA president.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu said he was willing to meet Abbas “right now” to resume peace negotiations without preconditions.

Secret contacts between Netanyahu and Abbas have been taking place for several months, according to recent reports, including in The Times of Israel. Those reports have been denied by both the PMO and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.

American officials, meanwhile have indicated that intensive engagement on the peace process would be resumed after the Iran Deal was inked.

Nine months of US-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians fell apart in April 2014 amid mutual recriminations.

Main Paineframe posted:

In other news, both Palestinian and Israeli officials are accusing John Kerry of interfering with the peace process to prevent it from moving without American involvement. The State Department denies the accusations, and suggests that they are being scapegoated and blamed for the sides' own reluctance to get involved.

Personally, I suspect there's an element of truth to each side's story. It's not unusual for Kerry to want to have a chance to meet with both sides before he lets them into the same room together, the US definitely wants to maintain control of the peace process and doesn't want to cede it to other countries, and I/P issues have absolutely taken a backseat to the Iran deal in recent months. On the other hand, Abbas could have ignored Kerry's request and met with Netanyahu anyway, but it's not surprising that the two sides aren't really as eager to meet as they seem, considering that the political situation has only deteriorated since last year. Still, it's new and interesting to see them blaming the US instead of each other.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/kerry-reportedly-told-abbas-to-hold-off-on-meeting-netanyahu/

Svartvit posted:

It has for a long time been almost impossible to interfere in the "peace process" without every move being blessed by the US, even if you happen to actually be one of the negotiating parties. It's so tightly controlled that the US will dole out punishments to whoever even attempts to do it.

Jpost posted:

A Palestinian gunman shot dead two Israeli parents in a shooting attack on their vehicle in Samaria, between Elon Moreh and Itamar on Thursday night; Four of their young children survived the attack without injury and were rescued by emergency responders from the bullet-ridden vehicle.

Magen David Adom paramedics and IDF units pulled the children out of the car near the Palestinian village of Beit Furik, and paramedics declared the parents dead on the scene after failing to detect vital signs.

A 4-month-old baby, a 4-year-old boy, a seven-year-old boy and a nine-year old boy survived the attack without physical injury, after witnessing their parents being shot dead before their eyes.

Boaz Malka, a MADA paramedic who arrive on the scene, said, "It was a very difficult scene. We saw a car in the middle of the road, and next to it, a man in his 30s lay on the ground with upper body gunshot wounds. Inside the car a woman sat, with severe upper body wounds.

They had no vital signs and to our sorrow we had to declare them dead on the scene.

The IDF was sweeping the area for suspects.

In light of the shooting, right-wing politicians accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's incitement for the attack, which came a day after he threatened to stop abiding by all agreements with Israel in a fiery speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

Likud Minister Miri Regev said, "24 hours after the violent speech of the arch-murderer Abu Mazen [Abbas], a husband and wife were killed in Israel."

She called on Israel to take harsher steps against Palestinian terror.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Bayit Yehudi) said that Abbas's "call to arms was taken up tonight in Israel, and it is red with blood."

Bennett added that "A people whose leaders encourage murder will never have a state, and this must be made clear. Now the time of talking is done and the time for action has come."

Meanwhile, Hamas praised the "heroic terror attack" and called for more "quality attacks."

The group said that "Zionists will pay the price for [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's criminal policies everywhere."

Cugel the Clever posted:

Welp.



Is it still gauche to ask what the gently caress these parents were doing bringing their children into the Occupied Territories in the first place?

Edit: I mean, I know the answer is that they're pea-brained pricks who don't think twice about their part in the Israeli state's oppression of the Palestinian people, but still.

Cugel the Clever posted:

Welp.



Is it still gauche to ask what the gently caress these parents were doing bringing their children into the Occupied Territories in the first place?

Edit: I mean, I know the answer is that they're pea-brained pricks who don't think twice about their part in the Israeli state's oppression of the Palestinian people, but still.

Absurd Alhazred posted:

Most settlements in the West Bank are towns and cities, which include families, and therefore, children, who do not need to be brought "into" anywhere. I imagine they brought their children along in the car the same reason you would bring your children along to visit your aunt and uncle. It's the Jewish High Holidays, and many people travel around there to have dinner with family and friends, which is why that is also a time in which Palestinians are under increased curfew. I guess curfew didn't work.

Cugel the Clever posted:

I'm not saying those civilians actively perpetuating the system of Apartheid by living in illegal settlements are legitimate targets of violent attack, but the onus should be on the Israeli state for the violence it has created.

Edit: Why are the Palestinians under curfew in their lands? For the convenience of their occupiers?

Cugel the Clever posted:

I'm not saying those civilians actively perpetuating the system of Apartheid by living in illegal settlements are legitimate targets of violent attack, but the onus should be on the Israeli state for the violence it has created.

Edit: Why are the Palestinians under curfew in their lands? For the convenience of their occupiers?

Cat Mattress posted:

So the next step is bombing Gaza, right? That's generally what happens after Israeli are killed in the West Bank.

Cugel the Clever posted:

I'm not saying those civilians actively perpetuating the system of Apartheid by living in illegal settlements are legitimate targets of violent attack, but the onus should be on the Israeli state for the violence it has created.

Edit: Why are the Palestinians under curfew in their lands? For the convenience of their occupiers?

Cat Mattress posted:

So the next step is bombing Gaza, right? That's generally what happens after Israeli are killed in the West Bank.

JPost posted:

The IDF ordered four battalions to join existing military forces in the West Bank in the wake of a terror attack in which an Israeli couple was shot and killed. The decision was made following a security evaluation held by IDF General Staff on Thursday night...

The first of the extra units will begin arriving on Friday, to assist in searches for the terrorists and ensure IDF control of the area, and prevent a deterioration of the security situation.

The main focus of this stage of the defense establishment's response will be on the intelligence front, a senior IDF said.

"There is certainly a change of atmosphere on the ground," the source said.

"The Shin Bet is carrying out a large range of activities, intelligence activities, to place our hands on the terrorists," the source added.

Additionally, the IDF will surround a number of Palestinian villages in the vicinity of the attack to help the hunt for the terrorists.