This activity unfortunately has a long history in the occupied territories.
Palestinians were forced to remove suspicious objects from roads, tell other Palestinians to come out and surrender themselves, physically shield soldiers while they fired, and more. In 2005, the High Court of Justice ruled the practice unlawful, yet… in most cases, no one was held accountable
Maybe stop sending them billions in weapons then, eh?
I see at least three actions in that statement:
#1 should have happened a long time ago imo, if not used as a leverage to prevent an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, the West Bank, Lebanon, striking enrichment at Natanz. “Free bombs for crimes against humanity” is a bad moral play, bad politics, and bad diplomacy outside the US:Israel sphere.
#2 Is politically hard normally, impossible in an election cycle. I hate it, but here we are in the house we built. Make FEC the only campaign funds - it’s OUR government, not the highest bidder’s.
#3 The US’s geopolitical track record shows that we’ll tolerate some awful, terrible people if they’ll get ‘on our side’ even if there’s a trend of massive and foreseeable blowback, the diplomatic corps don’t learn lessons.
So we throw away the “rules based international order” and return to the pre-1914 unilateral rules and all the brutal wars that bought? So much better, amirite? Might makes right, and we’ve got the might for now!
The US stance on Israeli leadership is decimating our ability to wield soft power influence. We are global hypocrites blocking ANY action, whilst expecting the world to fall in line to support Ukraine against Russian revanchism - even NATO members dissent from the US position. The global south is turning to China/OPEC+ trading blocs. They already tried to break the petrodollar, which would be a huge blow if successful.
Even taking a realpolitik approach, without soft power all those US military bases used for ‘power projection’ lose their local consent, and become occupation sites inside non-allied nations. the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan is a chill spot for launching COIN drone missions - whereas the Conoco base in Syria is constantly under drone and rocket attack.
Supporting Bibi’s wars of aggression is a stupid play on multiple levels.
They already did surrender to both sides. UNFIL had/has a mandate to preserve the blue line, and afaik does not actively permit Hezbollah to cross - they’re just not too bothered about seeking them out. And they backed down from enforcing it against the Israelis…
On 31 October 2006, eight Israeli F-15s… came in at what was interpreted as an attack formation, and the peacekeepers were “two seconds away” from firing at the jets with an anti-aircraft missile.
Which clearly sparked some back-room diplomacy, because soon after:
On 6 September [2006], during a European Union meeting in Brussels, the French Defense Minister announced that the Israeli Air Force had stopped mock air attacks over UNIFIL positions. On 17 November, two Israeli F-15s overflew UN positions at low altitude and high speed while two reconnaissance planes circled the headquarters of the French battalion. French peacekeepers responded by readying their anti-aircraft batteries, and warned that Israeli warplanes conducting mock attacks could be fired on.
The IAF continued its reconnaissance flights over Lebanon, and despite strong protests, UNIFIL peacekeeping forces did not follow through on their threats to fire at Israeli aircraft.
Ahhh yes, the “only democracy in the Middle East” a bastion of individual and human rights, very aligned with our values, yes.
I don’t doubt at all that this media office closure is linked to the recent video of IDF troops desecrating Palestinian corpses by kicking the dead off rooftops. No association whatsoever, yessir.
Another “outrageous lie” - just like the last time this happened and was filmed.
The ‘most moral army’ in the world folks.
Again Israel attacks anyone and everyone standing next to anyone/anything they claim is Hamas.
Why are we still arming them? Repeatedly?
Lame duck or no, Biden is still the commander in chief
Because people won’t leave Xitter. Mastodon was propped up expressly as a replacement, but the bird yet lives.
Eyyyyy we’re fucked 🙃
He’s such a wonderful director, but him doing every voiceover and interview can be a little jarring. Films like Cave of Forgotten Dreams or The Killing Fields he was perfect for - his semi-cursed vocabulary and raspy voice lends well to wonder and sadness, but Grizzly Man…?
Maybe get an intern instead for the interview with the dead guy’s mother idk
Whole new meaning to toggling now I guess?
“HAL, eco-buy and camp long B”
Why would they pay anyone? Just turn their own AI loose to dog pile dissent
Won’t anyone think of the shareholders?!?!!
This is a very easy to flag, given the intelligence of the people working at OpenAI. Russian IP, political topic, high post frequency. But blocking them has an opportunity cost in identifiable dollar value, doing nothing only costs them a few pithy press releases and a “commitment to truthfulness and openness”.
Move fast and break things, right? As long as the money rolls in… Just this time they’re breaking the fabric of reality binding society together.
Lawful neutral cuz in 6mo when some “controller” punches three buttons to run a report and asks “Hey why’d you do that?” THEN I’ll have documentation. And a job.
Make ticket, receive assistance. Fight me on that and I’ll add you to my email inbox’s ruleset - I am now an LLM, and will gentle-tone you to death via faux misunderstandings
Or maybe, here’s a thought: You stop reacting capriciously, and asses the situation to make an informed decision for shoot/no-shoot. Retreat to safety and investigate. Israel likes to flout their ‘world class’ ISR and HUMINT capabilities and superior and accurate weapons, but then keeps making “tragic mistakes” that kill civilians, reporters, and aid workers. Hamas et al are definitely not respecting the laws of war, but that’s not license to turn neighborhoods into free-fire zones.
Of course that requires the forces involved respecting civilian life and showing restraint.
because when that law is broken, it turns civilians into targets
Have you absolutely no shame? Or are you naïvely trying to sound authoritative? Unlawful combatants existing in an area, does not mean that civilians are greenlight for deliberate targeting.
Nor does it excuse the atrocious and callous 1:10,1:20,1:100 ‘acceptable collateral damage’ Hamas:Civilian ratio the IDF has self assigned and modified up and down based on international outcry.
for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians… in the event that the target was a senior Hamas official with the rank of battalion or brigade commander, the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians in the assassination of a single commander
We’ve finally found it - an ethical application for deepfake AI