the 2020 drone assassination of Soleimani was definitely 'participation' but that wasn't Biden
― Andy the Grasshopper, Sunday, 14 April 2024 18:29 (four months ago) link
fwiw: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/netanyahu-called-off-retaliatory-strike-on-iran-after-call-with-biden-new-york-times/
― symsymsym, Monday, 15 April 2024 01:03 (four months ago) link
This exchange was already a big win for Israel, the question was whether they realized it or not and would bank the win
― anvil, Monday, 15 April 2024 01:15 (four months ago) link
Fucking hell. What is Netanyahu doing. The one real risk the people of Israel face is a real war with Iran and don't get me wrong, I still think that's not going to happen, but he is not making it LESS likely and I don't see how to believe he gives a shit about the country he nominally leads. I hope I am overreacting. War between Israel and Iran would be a human disaster for everyone in the region that would dwarf anything we've seen so far.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 19 April 2024 02:55 (four months ago) link
The war between Iran & Iraq resulted in millions of casualties. If Netanyahu thinks Israel is so strong it can blast a determined Iraq into smoke and ash without suffering much, then his hubris would be pretty breathtaking.
― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Friday, 19 April 2024 03:24 (four months ago) link
obviously it's all iran's fault for objecting to having one of their generals assassinated by sending a bunch of drones that did nothing
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 03:39 (four months ago) link
They shot over 100 ballistic missiles.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 19 April 2024 03:41 (four months ago) link
which resulted in what, exactly?
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 03:45 (four months ago) link
I mean the best case scenario is that Israel is ALSO sending a visible attack meant to be mostly intercepted and do minimal damage. And that is not a great scenario. But better than the alternative of Netanyahu deciding to roll the dice on creating a war between the major regional powers and coming out on top.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 19 April 2024 03:48 (four months ago) link
did they raze a hospital? did they shoot people trying to retrieve food aid?
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 03:53 (four months ago) link
problem is of course someone needs to be the last one to send a visible attack meant to be mostly intercepted and do minimal damage
― 145 feet up in a Jeffrey Pine (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 19 April 2024 03:56 (four months ago) link
― mookieproof, Thursday, April 18, 2024 10:53 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
What does that have to do with Iran?
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 19 April 2024 03:58 (four months ago) link
my bad, just trying to establish what acceptable military targets are
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 04:01 (four months ago) link
dude in syria: surehospitals in gaza: are you shitting me?people literally cleared by the IDF to rescue children: hell yes
spare me the shock
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 04:07 (four months ago) link
in the third one, you aren't referring to a target but rather an acknowledged mistake (I think. Maybe I am mixing up tragedies).
― 145 feet up in a Jeffrey Pine (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 19 April 2024 04:23 (four months ago) link
Iran was always going to respond in some fashion, not responding at all isn't de-escalatory, and their response was clearly designed to not try and raise the stakes. That meant that out of the exchange Israel came out well ahead, a big win for Israel, ...if Netanyahu was able to walk away and take the win.
Which turns out to be a big if
― anvil, Friday, 19 April 2024 04:29 (four months ago) link
but rather an acknowledged mistake
a) i don't believe that was a mistakeb) it makes no difference to the dead people
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 04:33 (four months ago) link
xp Netanyahu looking as strong as Barry Lyndon after the duel now
― 145 feet up in a Jeffrey Pine (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 19 April 2024 04:42 (four months ago) link
israel is absolutely, obviously, specifically targeting -- with sniper shots to the fucking head -- anyone in gaza who could conceivably make it look like it's doing anything wrong
apparently doesn't even matter if accredited EMT's clear their movements
doesn't matter if josé andrés' aid workers get slaughtered (although it's funny that seeing white people mowed down was *almost* enough to sway world opinion)
come on
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 04:43 (four months ago) link
we all know that israel 'doesn't have nukes' of course
but if it dropped a nuke on gaza right now, how would the world respond? and how would that be in any way different from what it's doing now?
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 04:49 (four months ago) link
This doesn't seem very much after all? Iran's response seems to be "nothing to see here", are we just going to see performative all bark no bite strikes back and forth?
― anvil, Friday, 19 April 2024 05:27 (four months ago) link
iran can do little more than bark
but if it keeps going back and forth, someone will 'overreact'
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 05:36 (four months ago) link
i wonder who it will be
― mookieproof, Friday, 19 April 2024 05:39 (four months ago) link
Neither country possesses an expeditionary military so any war is going to be missile based I assume , and then its just a question of barking missiles or biting missiles. if Iran gets a working nuclear weapons program that would arguable increase Iran's ability to bite, or at least Israel might see it that way - that coupled with Iran seemingly revealing a weakened hand might increase the incentives for Israel (possibly could also help get rid of Biden too if it increases gas prices)
― anvil, Friday, 19 April 2024 06:00 (four months ago) link
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 19 April 2024 bookmarkflaglink
How many casualties?
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 April 2024 06:29 (four months ago) link
won't someone think of the missiles?
― il lavoro mi rovina la giornata (PBKR), Friday, 19 April 2024 11:41 (four months ago) link
I don't know anything about this org, does anyone know if this source is legit?
https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6271/Israeli-army-broadcasts-intimidating-sounds-to-lure,-kill,-and-forcibly-displace-civilians-in-the-Nuseirat-camp
― rob, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:20 (four months ago) link
I’ve actually been trying to figure out if that source is trustworthy. Sometimes they seem to just repost unverified stories that circulate. I found that one a little bit hard to believe only because it seems unnecessarily complicated as a way of killing civilians if that’s the aim.
It doesn’t seem implausible to me that some asshole Israeli soldier somewhere in Gaza launched a drone playing baby sounds to be an asshole, but I’d be kind of surprised if it was a broader tactic, only because it doesn’t really make any sense.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 19 April 2024 12:37 (four months ago) link
yeah it is kind of baroque. I suppose there is precedent for bizarre-seeming forms of sonic warfare, but it does sound unnecessarily creative
― rob, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:40 (four months ago) link
They have promoted a few other stories that I haven’t seen verified, like claims of widespread organ harvesting
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 19 April 2024 12:47 (four months ago) link
ah ok, yeah I'll remain skeptical
― rob, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:54 (four months ago) link
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1781283216432783500.html?utm_campaign=topunroll
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 19 April 2024 12:56 (four months ago) link
OK it does seem like last night's events seem understood by all parties not to be War Step 1, so sorry for freaking out
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 19 April 2024 15:57 (four months ago) link
Understandable! I’ve been on edge.
Part of me wondered if this was just kind of like needing the last word in an argument.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Friday, 19 April 2024 16:07 (four months ago) link
What’s left to say pic.twitter.com/FSh30ApOEx— Tameem | تميم (@TameeOliveFern) April 21, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 21 April 2024 13:57 (four months ago) link
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-22/ty-article/.premium/less-than-quarter-of-israeli-jews-in-favor-of-renewed-settlement-in-gaza-poll-finds/0000018f-0587-d64a-a9af-85efc6e30000
Only about 19% of Israeli Jews favor any Jewish settlement in Gaza. Just posting because I think overly simplistic narratives get promoted, like this was all a false flag so Israel can take over the land, and I never thought that made sense. Israel dismantled what little settlement it had in Gaza almost 20 years ago. Even for the religious fundamentalists, it is not part of what was once Judea and Samaria.
While the constituency for settlement has grown since October 7, it is still a mostly unpopular idea.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Monday, 22 April 2024 16:06 (four months ago) link
Yale students arrested, Harvard Yard getting closed due to protests; not sure how they don't realize that by arresting these protestors, they're simply causing these protests to grow and escalate
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 22 April 2024 16:23 (four months ago) link
Wrong thread.
― Not waving but droning (Tom D.), Monday, 22 April 2024 17:11 (four months ago) link
oops
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Monday, 22 April 2024 17:24 (four months ago) link
A nuanced take on Iran’s soft power and their recent response to the embassy attack from retired diplomat Chas Freeman:https://x.com/erlsn/status/1782420008733127101?s=46
― ɥɯ ︵ (°□°) (mh), Monday, 22 April 2024 22:29 (four months ago) link
Israel has announced they are moving ahead with assaulting Rafah.
In light of that, this 14-year-old's personal account is harrowing but worth reading if you feel up for it: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/the-bulldozer-kept-coming-a-girl-stares-down-death-in-gaza/
― rob, Wednesday, 24 April 2024 16:51 (four months ago) link
Of course, one objective of such a protest is often to direct public attention in exactly the opposite direction. A protest demands that we look toward it, but only so that it can reroute our gaze to the thing being protested. The two-step hypostatizes the dynamic speech act of protest, dissevering it from its referential function so that it cannot achieve its goal.
DAMN. Mind expanded.
― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Thursday, 25 April 2024 14:42 (four months ago) link
Sorry that was for other thread now that I think about it.
― Ima Gardener (in orbit), Thursday, 25 April 2024 17:09 (four months ago) link
700 bodies now discovered at Nasser hospital alone (1,500 uncovered at Al Shifa), patients, some with catheters still attached, children, with hands still bound, doctors and nurses, still wearing their scrubs, many shot in the back of the head at point blank range execution-style https://t.co/d9SjVKtOu9— ashok kumar 🇵🇸 (@broseph_stalin) April 25, 2024
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 26 April 2024 09:54 (four months ago) link
Saw one of those arrogant belligerent ghouls who are wheeled out to defend Israel's actions talking about this on Sky TV, "They were probably all terrorists".
― Not waving but droning (Tom D.), Friday, 26 April 2024 10:37 (four months ago) link
Interestingly this morning I saw another one of these arseholes - there seems to be an endless supply of them - favourably comparing the actions of the IDF (in terms of death and destruction unleashed) to the Americans after Pearl Harbor and 9/11.
― Not waving but droning (Tom D.), Friday, 26 April 2024 11:03 (four months ago) link
Good piece.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/26/cost-of-living-crisis-uk-prices
Though this but is hilarious.
"The government sometimes encourages this misunderstanding. Last July, Rishi Sunak told the radio station LBC: “If we bring inflation down, people will have more money to spend.” For a former chancellor, someone supposed to understand the economy better than almost anyone, it seemed a weirdly over-optimistic prediction."
Bet you anything Sunak is a thick fucker and doesn't actually get it.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 26 April 2024 11:39 (four months ago) link
Wrong thread oops
maybe this is fixating over details because I can’t take in the magnitude of what’s being done to Palestinians, but surely we don’t have accurate death counts? Feels like the number has been between 30 and 40,000 for weeks. Are there journalists left to document? Is the Gaza Health Ministry still functional?
― horseshoe, Friday, 26 April 2024 21:51 (four months ago) link
I think it's only the roughest of estimates - they really have no idea how many bodies are buried in rubble until they begin to excavate the ruins, whenever that happens
― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 26 April 2024 21:57 (four months ago) link