This shooting happened ten days ago. There WAS another shooting today (that barely scraped the news) in California where some more kids got shot at a school (let's not even get into the fact that such an event barely makes the radar anymore). However, it appears that Donald Trump is simply copying and pasting messages about mass shootings, and couldn't even be bothered to get the name of the town or city correct in this case. This shows the usual callousness, the usual lack of empathy. But what it really shows is that Donald Trump is one lazy asshole. He can't even fake being engaged in the news of the events of the country he is supposed to be running to even bother learning the basic details of what he is referring to. If Donald Trump was assigned Romeo and Juliet as an assignment in English class, he would not only not read it, he wouldn't even bother with the Cliff's Notes. He wouldn't even rent the movie.
Down in Alabama, they are inventing new, creative ways to try to get a accused pedophile elected (well, not so new it turns out). There are robo-calls going out in the state that claim to be someone from the Washington Post called "Bernie Bernstein" asking people who answer the phone if they know of any dirt on Roy Moore and offering cash payments for information. That's right, there is a concerted effort being made in Alabama to trick voters by pretending to be a Washington Post reporter (with a conspicuously Jewish name, which isn't a coincidence AT ALL) to make it seem like they are conducting a hit job on Roy Moore. I suppose supporting Moore at this point is one thing, but resorting to this kind of dirty-trickery to further help him along is way beyond the pale. At the same time, Moore and his wife presented a letter signed by over 50 pastors in support of him. Only one problem. The letter was from BEFORE the allegations came to light, and they deliberately attempted to pass it off as being written AFTERWARDS. I'm fairly sure the Ten Commandments Roy Moore became famous for having put on his courthouse steps said something about not bearing false witness, but what the hell do I know?? Maybe the 8th Commandment has been changed to "thou shalt walk around shopping malls looking for underage girls to molest".
I'm Moore concerned about the fallout from the pending tax cuts for the rich. Not only will they (the ultrarich) be paying less of their share of the cost of living in the USA but I'll be charged more to make up for the shortfall.
Also they are trying to kill Obamacare again and cut Medicare. I'm seriously concerned at this point that these business criminals running the Republican party will have destroyed Medicare by the time I'm going to need it in a few years.
So yeah it will suck to be old and not have Healthcare. I'm not poor but a night at the hospital and it's all over - you'd get a greater than 100k bill easily and that's not just pocket change you can throw away four or five times a year.
Why should anyone care about a shooting involving a few people at a school when no one gives a rat's read end about the daily shootings in Chicago and Baltimore? Until those make the front page headlines across the nation none of the others should, either...unless kids at a school are somehow more important than kids in Chicago, that is.
This is some 9th level bullshit right here. Quick primer: 3 UCLA basketball players were caught shoplifting on a trip to China. They were technically (based on Chinese laws) facing serious time. Aside from possibly the UCLA Administration behind the scenes, no one was suggesting he insert himself in the situation.
Here's what Trump does: he sees 3 black basketball players locked up in China. He intervenes with the EXPLICIT intent of then immediately taking to Twitter to say how ungrateful they are. Assuming they were in a Chinese jail until last night or this morning, there is almost no way the could have possibly had the CHANCE to thank him yet. This is Trump manufacturing another culture controversy out of thin air. He planned this tweet long in advance. He intervened specifically so he could call 3 black basketball players "ungrateful", when we have no evidence that is the case. When I saw the news he had inserted himself in the case last night on my phone, I knew this was going to be his play within 5 seconds.
No, the basketball thing is a manufactured controversy which appeals to people who dislike Trump. China would not have wanted the hassle of putting American citizens in prison so they were most likely going to be put on a plane and told "don't ever come back".
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Robert Mugabe, now in his 90s and leader of Zimbabwe since 1980 (yes, 1980!), has now been kicked out by the military. Mugabe's former VP, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was fired only a week or two ago but who has strong ties to the military, is now the interim leader of the country.
It is odd to me, an outsider, that the religious and alt-right seem to love Israel, do anything for it, but on the other hand they really don't like jewish people.
Maybe it's like prisons, everyone wants more of them but here, but not in my backyard.
I don't mind Jewish people. Israel is one of our strongest allies and one of the better examples of democracy outside of the U.S. If the conflict between them and the Palestinians could be resolved peaceably I think it would work out splendidly. The roots of hatred burn very strong unfortunately...
There is no doubt that Israel is often under attack from Hamas. People in Israel do die because of Hamas rockets. Thing is, most of them fall harmlessly in the desert. And when Israeli citizens get killed, the government often just bombs hospitals and schools in Gaza. The argument to that is often "well Hamas is just using women and children as human shields". Which is often true. That doesn't change the fact that you decided to bomb them anyway.
I'm always get irritated with the narrative that Hamas rockets are "harmless" or just "fall in the desert", or the notion that the IDF "often just bombs hospitals and schools", for the fun of it.. (how often, btw?)
Couple of things:
1. Israel has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing the 'Iron Dome' , for intercepting short range rockets, and this is the main failure of the Hamas/Islamic Jihad rockets. During Operation Protective Edge over 735 rockets were intercepted. Thing is, that the system only intercept them after calculation of the rockets path and destination, meaning that without interception the rockets would fall 'harmlessly' on civilian houses and buildings.
2. Many of the 'harmless' rockets fall short, and actually hit Gaza strip itself, killing more than once Palestinians.
3. Hamas and Islamic Jihad aimed over the years their rockets towards the surrounding Israeli towns around Gaza, leaving only ~15 seconds for the citizens to run for shelter. So beside the human life that were lost because of the rockets and mortars, also the amount of traumatized children just because of this is enormous. Children are growing up to the sound of sirens.
4. Hamas is using Hospitals, Schools and UN facilities to stockpile rockets and to launch rockets from them
During Operation Protective Edge, the IDF bombed one hospital because shots were fired from it, and the secondary explosions were just a reminder of what else what inside it.
Fun fact: During Operation Protective Edge Hamas used the Al-Shifa Hospital as its main command bunker.
And also Hamas is using Red Cross ambulances to transport it troops, but that is old news..
. The argument to that is often "well Hamas is just using women and children as human shields". Which is often true. That doesn't change the fact that you decided to bomb them anyway.
Human shields is a very complicated situation, and you just simplified it by "decided to bomb them anyway".
1. In a situation where the life of the IDF troops is on the line, and a heavy fire is coming from a house towards the force, which also have citizens inside it, what should they do? run? lay down and die? How would you handle such a situation?
2. Hamas is launching rockets and mortars toward Israeli from a house, which happens to have citizens in it, what would you do? risk your own citizens to save the life of your enemy citizens? what would you do?
3. Many times the IAF actually canceled operations because of expected human life loss and collateral damage, even if the cancellation risked the IDF troops themselves.
Reality is much more complicated then "just bombs hospitals and schools"
I'd agree on almost every point, except for one: if you are in fact the good guy, you do not in fact kill human shields. Just because human shields make it harder to kill your enemies doesn't mean you get to shoot them.
Killing civilians isn't okay, even if it is convenient.
Hamas is scum for using human shields. But Hamas being guilty of using human shields doesn't mean the human shields are guilty of being enemy combatants.
Put it this way: if you're at a bank when it gets robbed and the robbers use you as a human shield, how do you feel about the police shooting you?
So the civilian death toll should be more even? Maybe they should let Hamas blow up a couple of hospitals to even things out.
That's not a valid argument as far am I'm concerned. There is no way to prove how many Israeli lives were saved and without knowing that there's no way to judge whether the responses are justified. Without the attacks from Hamas and other terrorist organizations I'd say the civilian death toll would be approximately 0-0...
I'd agree on almost every point, except for one: if you are in fact the good guy, you do not in fact kill human shields. Just because human shields make it harder to kill your enemies doesn't mean you get to shoot them.
Killing civilians isn't okay, even if it is convenient.
Hamas is scum for using human shields. But Hamas being guilty of using human shields doesn't mean the human shields are guilty of being enemy combatants.
Put it this way: if you're at a bank when it gets robbed and the robbers use you as a human shield, how do you feel about the police shooting you?
Using your own citizens as human shields is a relatively new phenomenon. Imagine if any if the combatants in say WW2 had tried that. I don't think Germans would've held back if the Soviets had tried to hide behind Russian citizens (or vice-versa). The fact that this works at all is a testament to how much progress has been made in the last 75 years...
So the civilian death toll should be more even? Maybe they should let Hamas blow up a couple of hospitals to even things out.
With respect, @Balrog99, strawman. Ideally, the death toll should be 0-0. People bring up the imbalanced civilian death ratio not to say that Hamas should be killing as many as Israel, but to say that Israel is doing most of the killing of innocents. Usually to condemn Israel, if not exonerate Hamas.
Personally, I think that has much less to do with Israel being more willing to kill innocents than it does with the fact that Israel is just plain stronger than the Palestinians. I'm sure the combatant-to-combatant ratio is just as lopsided, with Israel killing a lot more terrorists than Hamas kills Israeli soldiers.
Israel is just better at winning fights than their neighbors. They've been proving that ever since 1967. I actually find it kind of mind-boggling that there are so many Palestinians who think that war with Israel is their only hope for statehood, when war has resulted in unambiguous failure, year after year, for decades on end, each and every single time it's ever been attempted.
When it comes to American liberals and conservatives or when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians, I see little point in debating which side is "better." Too many people think that "better" means "righteous" or "justified." For me, it is much less about who is right than what is right.
I see no end to the conflict. A lot of people have been calling for a peaceful resolution for a very long time, but those people are generally not from either Israel or Palestine. There is no strong anti-war movement on either side, and you kinda need it on both sides for it to work.
For about 15 years now, my view on the Israel/Palestine situation has been this: it is only a matter of time before that conflict is taken to its logical conclusion and they fight it out to the last person standing, winner takes all. Anything short of that--peace talks, cease-fire agreements, etc--only delays the inevitable because there is no more logical reason for them to be fighting. At this point, it isn't political or economic or land-based. No, at this point it is personal and neither side is willing to forgive and forget the past.
I don't care what your motivations are for being in a conflict but if you are using human shields, hiding your weapons and/or fighters behind schools and hospitals, then you are automatically wrong. If my attack takes out innocent civilians along with you then their innocent blood is on *your* hands, not mine, because I am not the one who put them in harm's way.
Using your own citizens as human shields is a relatively new phenomenon. Imagine if any if the combatants in say WW2 had tried that. I don't think Germans would've held back if the Soviets had tried to hide behind Russian citizens (or vice-versa). The fact that this works at all is a testament to how much progress has been made in the last 75 years...
I agree that a lot of progress has been made. The killing of civilians has not just been done as a by-product of military actions, but a deliberate tactic in its own right to break the other sides' morale. Think of the British bombing of Dresden, the American nuclear attack on Nagasaki, fire bombing in Vietnam. You can see comparable examples right up to the present day in relation to ethnic cleansing campaigns, e.g. in Bosnia, Rwanda and Burma. What's changed is that such actions are now much more clearly felt to be morally wrong rather than justified as the best means to end a conflict.
I agree that the Palestinian conflict looks intractable, but I think there is still hope. South Africa has its problems, but I never would have believed 30 years ago that apartheid could end as peacefully as it did and there's been enormous progress in Northern Ireland as well for instance.
I think @Mathsorcerer is right that the conflict in Palestine is personal, but that doesn't mean no progress can be made. I heard a few years ago a really interesting item about the role of emotion in conflicts and how that could potentially be addressed. One of the case studies was the Palestinian conflict and they ran an experiment where they asked various groups on both sides to listen to proposals on how to move the situation forward - they did so and the universal reaction was that the proposals were useless. They then asked groups to consider the same proposals, but after first being told that the proposals came from a particular source on the other side. In the case of Israel the proposals were said to come from a member of parliament and the Palestinian group were played a video of that MP standing up in Parliament and apologising for Israel's actions in the conflict. That led to an absolutely dramatic change in the extent to which the proposals were seen as a basis to move forward. There was a similar change of view by Israelis once they felt that the Palestinian negotiator did understand their perspective.
Al Franken is going to need to step down over this photo. And that is painful for me to type as a native Minnesotan and as one of the few people I actually admired up to this point. Not good. He should resign.
I can really distill most of my concerns with Israel/Palestine to a few quick points; it has lots of parallels with the USA's displacement of Native Americans actually, which I'm more familiar with.
1. There is a collossal power imbalance in Israel's favour. Israel can essentially kill Palestinians with impunity, and with little complaint from the international community. Yes, there are some that take issue, but the majority don't care. 2. Palestinians are at best an underclass with less rights and privileges. They are not valued even close to as highly as a jewish citizen is. 3. Both sides have a large vocal minority that doesn't want peace. In Israel these people push the settlement agenda, while the Palestinians are the guys shooting rockets. Both need to be ostracized and or criminalized. 4. Israel gets gobs of assistance from the international community, while Palestinians are disenfranchised and in poverty.
The Israelis have the power to push for peace imho due to having all the power, specifically because there is little the Palestinians can do that matters. With so little international censure/pressure I doubt they'll bother, as Israel won't even stop spreading settlements in other people's land. If Israel presently would learn compassion, there could be peace imo.
Personally, I'm not anywhere near as confident that Israel would still have as big of an advantage vs neighbouring countries in a war today... They certainly did well enough in the past, but if I were Israel I would be much more interested in trying to cooperate with my neighbours.
Al Franken is going to need to step down over this photo. And that is painful for me to type as a native Minnesotan and as one of the few people I actually admired up to this point. Not good. He should resign.
Agreed. Pretty damning. Liked him otherwise, but he the photo is pretty damning. Should resign.
One of the biggest criticisms that pro-Israel folks have about the prospect of Israel championing the peace process is that the Palestinians won't reciprocate. Israel's defenders often point out that Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza before, and yet the local Palestinians did not respond in kind; Israel still faces hostility from Gaza. The idea is that Israel has attempted peace, and peace has failed. A lot of Palestinians feel the same way, that Israel will keep fighting them no matter what they do.
The idea makes sense on the surface, but we've never really seen a true peace movement. The best we've had are temporary ceasefires and temporarily decreased settlement building. You can say "peace has failed" because once we went a couple of weeks without bombing each other, or you can say "war has failed" because both sides have been in a state of perpetual war for 50 years and yet the conflict rages on.
I'm actually pretty optimistic about this trend of seeing various powerful men accused of sexual assault or sexual harassment in Franken's case. It's disturbing that the behavior is so incredibly prevalent, but the issue has never been front-page news until very recently. People are taking it much more seriously, and men who abuse their power are being forced to admit it and apologize, lest they lose their careers.
I'm upset about Franken. I considered him a basically conscientious guy, but it's true: power corrupts people. Hopefully increased scrutiny and stronger retribution (the threat of a career-ending scandal) will stop this kind of behavior, or at least curtail it.
Franken renounced comedy when he became a senator. The idea was that he needed people to know they could take his words seriously, and not suspect he was joking, if he was in politics.
One of the biggest criticisms that pro-Israel folks have about the prospect of Israel championing the peace process is that the Palestinians won't reciprocate. Israel's defenders often point out that Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza before, and yet the local Palestinians did not respond in kind; Israel still faces hostility from Gaza. The idea is that Israel has attempted peace, and peace has failed. A lot of Palestinians feel the same way, that Israel will keep fighting them no matter what they do.
The idea makes sense on the surface, but we've never really seen a true peace movement. The best we've had are temporary ceasefires and temporarily decreased settlement building. You can say "peace has failed" because once we went a couple of weeks without bombing each other, or you can say "war has failed" because both sides have been in a state of perpetual war for 50 years and yet the conflict rages on.
I'm actually pretty optimistic about this trend of seeing various powerful men accused of sexual assault or sexual harassment in Franken's case. It's disturbing that the behavior is so incredibly prevalent, but the issue has never been front-page news until very recently. People are taking it much more seriously, and men who abuse their power are being forced to admit it and apologize, lest they lose their careers.
I'm upset about Franken. I considered him a basically conscientious guy, but it's true: power corrupts people. Hopefully increased scrutiny and stronger retribution (the threat of a career-ending scandal) will stop this kind of behavior, or at least curtail it.
I've been monitoring liberal reaction to this all morning. Almost everyone is saddened and pissed, and most are calling for him to step down. From a cold, nakedly politcal point of view, the best thing the Democrats can do is give up Franken. Franken himself should understand this. If he goes before the end of the weekend, it will force the conversation back on just why the hell we aren't talking about Trump's 20 accusers.
Also, note to Dems. In this post-Weinstein climate, nominating any male for the Presidency seems like a ticking time bomb. Nominate two females for President and Vice President in 2020. The resistance to Trump is not only women voters, but women running for office.
Comments
This shooting happened ten days ago. There WAS another shooting today (that barely scraped the news) in California where some more kids got shot at a school (let's not even get into the fact that such an event barely makes the radar anymore). However, it appears that Donald Trump is simply copying and pasting messages about mass shootings, and couldn't even be bothered to get the name of the town or city correct in this case. This shows the usual callousness, the usual lack of empathy. But what it really shows is that Donald Trump is one lazy asshole. He can't even fake being engaged in the news of the events of the country he is supposed to be running to even bother learning the basic details of what he is referring to. If Donald Trump was assigned Romeo and Juliet as an assignment in English class, he would not only not read it, he wouldn't even bother with the Cliff's Notes. He wouldn't even rent the movie.
Down in Alabama, they are inventing new, creative ways to try to get a accused pedophile elected (well, not so new it turns out). There are robo-calls going out in the state that claim to be someone from the Washington Post called "Bernie Bernstein" asking people who answer the phone if they know of any dirt on Roy Moore and offering cash payments for information. That's right, there is a concerted effort being made in Alabama to trick voters by pretending to be a Washington Post reporter (with a conspicuously Jewish name, which isn't a coincidence AT ALL) to make it seem like they are conducting a hit job on Roy Moore. I suppose supporting Moore at this point is one thing, but resorting to this kind of dirty-trickery to further help him along is way beyond the pale. At the same time, Moore and his wife presented a letter signed by over 50 pastors in support of him. Only one problem. The letter was from BEFORE the allegations came to light, and they deliberately attempted to pass it off as being written AFTERWARDS. I'm fairly sure the Ten Commandments Roy Moore became famous for having put on his courthouse steps said something about not bearing false witness, but what the hell do I know?? Maybe the 8th Commandment has been changed to "thou shalt walk around shopping malls looking for underage girls to molest".
Also they are trying to kill Obamacare again and cut Medicare. I'm seriously concerned at this point that these business criminals running the Republican party will have destroyed Medicare by the time I'm going to need it in a few years.
So yeah it will suck to be old and not have Healthcare. I'm not poor but a night at the hospital and it's all over - you'd get a greater than 100k bill easily and that's not just pocket change you can throw away four or five times a year.
This is some 9th level bullshit right here. Quick primer: 3 UCLA basketball players were caught shoplifting on a trip to China. They were technically (based on Chinese laws) facing serious time. Aside from possibly the UCLA Administration behind the scenes, no one was suggesting he insert himself in the situation.
Here's what Trump does: he sees 3 black basketball players locked up in China. He intervenes with the EXPLICIT intent of then immediately taking to Twitter to say how ungrateful they are. Assuming they were in a Chinese jail until last night or this morning, there is almost no way the could have possibly had the CHANCE to thank him yet. This is Trump manufacturing another culture controversy out of thin air. He planned this tweet long in advance. He intervened specifically so he could call 3 black basketball players "ungrateful", when we have no evidence that is the case. When I saw the news he had inserted himself in the case last night on my phone, I knew this was going to be his play within 5 seconds.
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Robert Mugabe, now in his 90s and leader of Zimbabwe since 1980 (yes, 1980!), has now been kicked out by the military. Mugabe's former VP, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was fired only a week or two ago but who has strong ties to the military, is now the interim leader of the country.
Couple of things:
1. Israel has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing the 'Iron Dome' , for intercepting short range rockets, and this is the main failure of the Hamas/Islamic Jihad rockets. During Operation Protective Edge over 735 rockets were intercepted. Thing is, that the system only intercept them after calculation of the rockets path and destination, meaning that without interception the rockets would fall 'harmlessly' on civilian houses and buildings.
2. Many of the 'harmless' rockets fall short, and actually hit Gaza strip itself, killing more than once Palestinians.
3. Hamas and Islamic Jihad aimed over the years their rockets towards the surrounding Israeli towns around Gaza, leaving only ~15 seconds for the citizens to run for shelter. So beside the human life that were lost because of the rockets and mortars, also the amount of traumatized children just because of this is enormous. Children are growing up to the sound of sirens.
4. Hamas is using Hospitals, Schools and UN facilities to stockpile rockets and to launch rockets from them
UN Report Confirms Hamas Stored and Fired Weapons from UN Schools
UN finds tunnel opening under UNWRA school in Gaza
During Operation Protective Edge, the IDF bombed one hospital because shots were fired from it, and the secondary explosions were just a reminder of what else what inside it.
Fun fact: During Operation Protective Edge Hamas used the Al-Shifa Hospital as its main command bunker.
And also Hamas is using Red Cross ambulances to transport it troops, but that is old news.. Human shields is a very complicated situation, and you just simplified it by "decided to bomb them anyway".
1. In a situation where the life of the IDF troops is on the line, and a heavy fire is coming from a house towards the force, which also have citizens inside it, what should they do? run? lay down and die? How would you handle such a situation?
2. Hamas is launching rockets and mortars toward Israeli from a house, which happens to have citizens in it, what would you do? risk your own citizens to save the life of your enemy citizens? what would you do?
3. Many times the IAF actually canceled operations because of expected human life loss and collateral damage, even if the cancellation risked the IDF troops themselves.
Reality is much more complicated then "just bombs hospitals and schools"
Killing civilians isn't okay, even if it is convenient.
Hamas is scum for using human shields. But Hamas being guilty of using human shields doesn't mean the human shields are guilty of being enemy combatants.
Put it this way: if you're at a bank when it gets robbed and the robbers use you as a human shield, how do you feel about the police shooting you?
That's not a valid argument as far am I'm concerned. There is no way to prove how many Israeli lives were saved and without knowing that there's no way to judge whether the responses are justified. Without the attacks from Hamas and other terrorist organizations I'd say the civilian death toll would be approximately 0-0...
Personally, I think that has much less to do with Israel being more willing to kill innocents than it does with the fact that Israel is just plain stronger than the Palestinians. I'm sure the combatant-to-combatant ratio is just as lopsided, with Israel killing a lot more terrorists than Hamas kills Israeli soldiers.
Israel is just better at winning fights than their neighbors. They've been proving that ever since 1967. I actually find it kind of mind-boggling that there are so many Palestinians who think that war with Israel is their only hope for statehood, when war has resulted in unambiguous failure, year after year, for decades on end, each and every single time it's ever been attempted.
When it comes to American liberals and conservatives or when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians, I see little point in debating which side is "better." Too many people think that "better" means "righteous" or "justified." For me, it is much less about who is right than what is right.
I see no end to the conflict. A lot of people have been calling for a peaceful resolution for a very long time, but those people are generally not from either Israel or Palestine. There is no strong anti-war movement on either side, and you kinda need it on both sides for it to work.
I don't care what your motivations are for being in a conflict but if you are using human shields, hiding your weapons and/or fighters behind schools and hospitals, then you are automatically wrong. If my attack takes out innocent civilians along with you then their innocent blood is on *your* hands, not mine, because I am not the one who put them in harm's way.
I agree that the Palestinian conflict looks intractable, but I think there is still hope. South Africa has its problems, but I never would have believed 30 years ago that apartheid could end as peacefully as it did and there's been enormous progress in Northern Ireland as well for instance.
I think @Mathsorcerer is right that the conflict in Palestine is personal, but that doesn't mean no progress can be made. I heard a few years ago a really interesting item about the role of emotion in conflicts and how that could potentially be addressed. One of the case studies was the Palestinian conflict and they ran an experiment where they asked various groups on both sides to listen to proposals on how to move the situation forward - they did so and the universal reaction was that the proposals were useless. They then asked groups to consider the same proposals, but after first being told that the proposals came from a particular source on the other side. In the case of Israel the proposals were said to come from a member of parliament and the Palestinian group were played a video of that MP standing up in Parliament and apologising for Israel's actions in the conflict. That led to an absolutely dramatic change in the extent to which the proposals were seen as a basis to move forward. There was a similar change of view by Israelis once they felt that the Palestinian negotiator did understand their perspective.
1. There is a collossal power imbalance in Israel's favour. Israel can essentially kill Palestinians with impunity, and with little complaint from the international community. Yes, there are some that take issue, but the majority don't care.
2. Palestinians are at best an underclass with less rights and privileges. They are not valued even close to as highly as a jewish citizen is.
3. Both sides have a large vocal minority that doesn't want peace. In Israel these people push the settlement agenda, while the Palestinians are the guys shooting rockets. Both need to be ostracized and or criminalized.
4. Israel gets gobs of assistance from the international community, while Palestinians are disenfranchised and in poverty.
The Israelis have the power to push for peace imho due to having all the power, specifically because there is little the Palestinians can do that matters. With so little international censure/pressure I doubt they'll bother, as Israel won't even stop spreading settlements in other people's land. If Israel presently would learn compassion, there could be peace imo.
Personally, I'm not anywhere near as confident that Israel would still have as big of an advantage vs neighbouring countries in a war today... They certainly did well enough in the past, but if I were Israel I would be much more interested in trying to cooperate with my neighbours.
The idea makes sense on the surface, but we've never really seen a true peace movement. The best we've had are temporary ceasefires and temporarily decreased settlement building. You can say "peace has failed" because once we went a couple of weeks without bombing each other, or you can say "war has failed" because both sides have been in a state of perpetual war for 50 years and yet the conflict rages on.
I'm actually pretty optimistic about this trend of seeing various powerful men accused of sexual assault or sexual harassment in Franken's case. It's disturbing that the behavior is so incredibly prevalent, but the issue has never been front-page news until very recently. People are taking it much more seriously, and men who abuse their power are being forced to admit it and apologize, lest they lose their careers.
I'm upset about Franken. I considered him a basically conscientious guy, but it's true: power corrupts people. Hopefully increased scrutiny and stronger retribution (the threat of a career-ending scandal) will stop this kind of behavior, or at least curtail it.
Since the incident took place while Franken was a comedian, I believe he should resign from comedy.
Also, note to Dems. In this post-Weinstein climate, nominating any male for the Presidency seems like a ticking time bomb. Nominate two females for President and Vice President in 2020. The resistance to Trump is not only women voters, but women running for office.