Why call Hamas a "rape cult"? It's a political party and your term indiciates that you are unaware of the history of Hamas. I see no more or less rapiness among other parties. Irrespective, Matt, history--recent history--matters. The fact is that Israel has perfectly colonised Palestine and to point this out is imperative given that folks like you seem to this that this is "heavy lifting". Get thee to the West Bank. I have. The daily dehumanisation that these people live through would make your jaw drop. If not entirely fall off.
Can't disagree. You are always on the ball in my mind.
However, like almost all Leftist pieces since Marx died, it ignores reality, power and history. There is no moral equivalence, but if you are a weak, divided, undeveloped, fractured state with no history of being a nation-state (ie. Palestine), and you are up against a power like Israel (even without the history of Islam/Judaism), you don't get to go chest to chest.
If you do, you will pay sorely.
Its like a bunch of fat over 50 men thinking they can beat the Warriors. You can't.
So, face facts, and appeal to fellow Muslims (who don't care much lets face it) or the wider world.
I can see the end of Palestine at this rate.
I'm left. I want Palestinian statehood, but lord, this is a miscalculation.
Palestine was sold off to the highest bidder (and terrorists) by the British. And Palestinians are not uniquely Muslim. The problem is that people have ADD with the news--most in the west mistakenly believe that when the Palestinians react, this is terrorism; all the Israel does is self-defense. It's quite the inverse given the aggressor in this situation is Israel and that state has been starving the Palestinians for decades. All well-documented, all ignored by the Americans who fund the IDF to the gills.
If you actually delve into that period, boring archival docs and all, it isn't that simple. The British were acting in line with norms in the 1910s, and um, at war with the worst empire you would see (Germany, that is until China takes Africa and the Middle East in the next few years, that will be fun), and also far less abusive than the Sunni Muslim empire who had abused that region for centuries, the Ottomans. Put the Turks and the Germans in power and Palestinians would have vanished a century ago.
I'm no imperialist but the tiring accusations against this one (liberal) empire are just wrong. They had no choices.
The rest of it I agree with. Israel's R/wing are, like most worldwide, incredibly abusive and immoral. So its not Israel. Its the Right. We all know how liberal Israelis/Jews feel about this situation, and its fairminded.
Good terrorist/bad terrorist. Sure. But if you look at the story from 1948-1967-73, Israel is not the aggressor. Its all quite relativist.
And do most Palestinians want (or need) Hamas? I doubt it.
And the US will support its allies. No hegemon ever gave out candy.
Back to the imperial point, very unpopular view, but I think Palestinians would be better off in an Israeli state than in this situation going forth. They would be like Tariq Ali (ironically), doing great, citizens of a powerful, wealthy, literate state, and moving on, as Palestinian Arabs in a mostly Jewish nation.
I have. I am a scholar and wrote many an article and books, many on htis subject. Nobody is saying ALL of Israel bu tthe Israel government. I have worked with many NGOs in Israel all manifestly protesting their government's illegal activities.
I don't doubt that, but blaming the British Empire for anything is generally lacking comparison to any other power at a given moment, past empires, or current imperial states. The British did what they could, when they could, and in almost all cases there are parliamentary records showing they were woke for their time, more so than many powers today, in Ireland, India and the MIddle East. The past 10 yrs has obsessively focused on the sins. Few know the complexity of the British Empire.
Is it not true that Hamas is funded and armed by Iran? Sources in Iran told me some years ago that if a woman is in an Iranian prison awaiting execution, prison guards will rape her before she is killed. Their purpose is to prevent her from being welcomed into paradise after death, since the rape will transform her from a “virgin” into a “whore.” What kind of society thinks it can control the gates of heaven? I suggest that what the Hamas terrorists were doing to Israeli women was-- raping western, liberal values via the bodies of actual young women. If Hamas ever “wins”, whatever that means, they will import sharia law and a culture that believes women are little better than animals, to be controlled absolutely by men. I cannot believe any woman, let alone a feminist, would find any justification for the rape and murder of women, children and the elderly. That was not a military uprising, it was an act of revenge.
The people of Palestine have been subject to decades of violence of all forms. Israel is a colonial project. It is well-documented by Israeli historians. Taking up a battle for feminism, cherry-picked all because you ignored the many rapes commited by the IDF and others, does not make yours a feminist statement. It makes it highly selective: the rape of Palestinian women, ok; Israeli women, not ok. You cannot gloss over history because you turned on the news Saturday.
I condemn all violence. It’s not a feminist project to sit in the bleachers as two patriarchies brutalize each other and cheer on either side, surely? Especially when -- as always happens -- they use the bodies of women to score their points.
This is why it is important that any self-described feminist understand that there the dead bodies of many more Palestinians (women and men, does it matter?) are the raison d'être for this resistance. Israel is the aggressor, not the oppressed.
"Colonizer" does so much heavy lifting in the rationalizations for the homicidal rape cult known as Hamas.
Why call Hamas a "rape cult"? It's a political party and your term indiciates that you are unaware of the history of Hamas. I see no more or less rapiness among other parties. Irrespective, Matt, history--recent history--matters. The fact is that Israel has perfectly colonised Palestine and to point this out is imperative given that folks like you seem to this that this is "heavy lifting". Get thee to the West Bank. I have. The daily dehumanisation that these people live through would make your jaw drop. If not entirely fall off.
Can't disagree. You are always on the ball in my mind.
However, like almost all Leftist pieces since Marx died, it ignores reality, power and history. There is no moral equivalence, but if you are a weak, divided, undeveloped, fractured state with no history of being a nation-state (ie. Palestine), and you are up against a power like Israel (even without the history of Islam/Judaism), you don't get to go chest to chest.
If you do, you will pay sorely.
Its like a bunch of fat over 50 men thinking they can beat the Warriors. You can't.
So, face facts, and appeal to fellow Muslims (who don't care much lets face it) or the wider world.
I can see the end of Palestine at this rate.
I'm left. I want Palestinian statehood, but lord, this is a miscalculation.
Palestine was sold off to the highest bidder (and terrorists) by the British. And Palestinians are not uniquely Muslim. The problem is that people have ADD with the news--most in the west mistakenly believe that when the Palestinians react, this is terrorism; all the Israel does is self-defense. It's quite the inverse given the aggressor in this situation is Israel and that state has been starving the Palestinians for decades. All well-documented, all ignored by the Americans who fund the IDF to the gills.
If you actually delve into that period, boring archival docs and all, it isn't that simple. The British were acting in line with norms in the 1910s, and um, at war with the worst empire you would see (Germany, that is until China takes Africa and the Middle East in the next few years, that will be fun), and also far less abusive than the Sunni Muslim empire who had abused that region for centuries, the Ottomans. Put the Turks and the Germans in power and Palestinians would have vanished a century ago.
I'm no imperialist but the tiring accusations against this one (liberal) empire are just wrong. They had no choices.
The rest of it I agree with. Israel's R/wing are, like most worldwide, incredibly abusive and immoral. So its not Israel. Its the Right. We all know how liberal Israelis/Jews feel about this situation, and its fairminded.
Good terrorist/bad terrorist. Sure. But if you look at the story from 1948-1967-73, Israel is not the aggressor. Its all quite relativist.
And do most Palestinians want (or need) Hamas? I doubt it.
And the US will support its allies. No hegemon ever gave out candy.
Back to the imperial point, very unpopular view, but I think Palestinians would be better off in an Israeli state than in this situation going forth. They would be like Tariq Ali (ironically), doing great, citizens of a powerful, wealthy, literate state, and moving on, as Palestinian Arabs in a mostly Jewish nation.
I have. I am a scholar and wrote many an article and books, many on htis subject. Nobody is saying ALL of Israel bu tthe Israel government. I have worked with many NGOs in Israel all manifestly protesting their government's illegal activities.
I don't doubt that, but blaming the British Empire for anything is generally lacking comparison to any other power at a given moment, past empires, or current imperial states. The British did what they could, when they could, and in almost all cases there are parliamentary records showing they were woke for their time, more so than many powers today, in Ireland, India and the MIddle East. The past 10 yrs has obsessively focused on the sins. Few know the complexity of the British Empire.
The article doesn't "blame" but discusses the history. It matters. Obviously.
Is it not true that Hamas is funded and armed by Iran? Sources in Iran told me some years ago that if a woman is in an Iranian prison awaiting execution, prison guards will rape her before she is killed. Their purpose is to prevent her from being welcomed into paradise after death, since the rape will transform her from a “virgin” into a “whore.” What kind of society thinks it can control the gates of heaven? I suggest that what the Hamas terrorists were doing to Israeli women was-- raping western, liberal values via the bodies of actual young women. If Hamas ever “wins”, whatever that means, they will import sharia law and a culture that believes women are little better than animals, to be controlled absolutely by men. I cannot believe any woman, let alone a feminist, would find any justification for the rape and murder of women, children and the elderly. That was not a military uprising, it was an act of revenge.
The people of Palestine have been subject to decades of violence of all forms. Israel is a colonial project. It is well-documented by Israeli historians. Taking up a battle for feminism, cherry-picked all because you ignored the many rapes commited by the IDF and others, does not make yours a feminist statement. It makes it highly selective: the rape of Palestinian women, ok; Israeli women, not ok. You cannot gloss over history because you turned on the news Saturday.
I condemn all violence. It’s not a feminist project to sit in the bleachers as two patriarchies brutalize each other and cheer on either side, surely? Especially when -- as always happens -- they use the bodies of women to score their points.
This is why it is important that any self-described feminist understand that there the dead bodies of many more Palestinians (women and men, does it matter?) are the raison d'être for this resistance. Israel is the aggressor, not the oppressed.
Was the music festival where hundreds of people were slaughtered and kidnapped a military target or a settler colony?