Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

timesofisrael.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 272 posts

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#211

Post by unmole »

rayiner wrote: post #131
qsort wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are at least three different claims here that I'd like to unpack: 1) "If you really have to pick a belief system to put your faith in, you can do much worse than traditional religion." Now, I'm a lifelong atheist, and atheism is one of the few things I never changed my mind on, but I came to the conclusion that this is probably true: at the very least, traditional religion is a stable belief system that won't d…

To be clear, I’m not asserting that (3) is the case. I’m just saying that as a practical matter it’s a small number and a lot of people that abandon traditional religion fall into your (2).

Believing religious woo doesn't preclude one from believing non-religious woo. If anything, believing religious woo seems correlated with believing non-religious woo: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/07/27/what-dri...

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#213

Post by throwaway09223 »

johnchristopher wrote: post #173
throwaway09223 wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This guardian article is demonstrable nonsense. Professor Römer is either ignorant, or is intentionally gaslighting Bush. Gog and Magog are well-known figures mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Playing dumb because it's not also in the Old Testament is not a good look for someone who's supposedly an expert. This article is a silly hit piece written to fool people who are totally ignorant of religious h…

> This guardian article is demonstrable nonsense. Professor Römer is either ignorant, or is intentionally gaslighting Bush. Surely you meant gaslighting Chirac ? (which I disagree with, anyway). > Gog and Magog are well-known figures mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Playing dumb because it's not also in the Old Testament is not a good look for someone who's supposedly an expert. Good thing he's an ol…

It's simply not possible to be an expert on the Old Testament and to be that unaware of the context from which it was derived. Especially as they are also mentioned in the parts that made it into the Old Testament.

Imagine claiming to be a LOTR expert and then feigning ignorance as to the events that took place in the Hobbit!

I'm not religious or even particularly interested and even I am aware of this history. Ridiculous.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#214

Post by kajecounterhack »

auganov wrote: post #134
kajecounterhack wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews. It's a bit more complicated than this. Israel militarily occupies Palestine. And they institute an apartheid system that is unfair to Palestinians, denying basic rights to Palestinians -- they can take your property, they can restrict your travel, they can strangle your eco…

Of course the arabs in this area deserve better. Pretending Israel is the oppressor is not empathizing. Nor is believing in fake history in which some Palestinian state (or even major population) has ever existed. They're victims of PA/PLO/Fatah/Hamas and other such organizations as much as Russians are victims of their govt. Repeating their leadership's propaganda doesn't help them. To empathize with them is to reco…

Israel _is_ harassed by some violent folks who have misguided ideologies that don't want peaceful coexistence but instead annihilation of the other. But so is Palestine. If you're going to wholesale call out the _loose confederacies_ of the PLO and related organizations for this kind of thinking, you should be willing to acknowledge the same thinking exists within the Israeli govt and army. They have done bad things, and it's not hard to see why if you understand how war works. War results in polarization and dehumanization of the other to the extent of "these other people should be dead." It happens to both of the polarized sides.

And let's be real, Israel is in control here. They have a modern military and are the occupiers. The way they've gone about this is the cause of much violence. Imagine the desperation of living in an apartheid state: feeling that you are not being represented or fairly treated by the systems governing you. Imagine being treated differently from your neighbor because you're not a citizen, and you can never be one because of your race and religion. It's totally fair to call them the oppressor in this situation because what the heck are these loose disorganized confederacies living in occupied territory going to do? They don't really have power to change the situation.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#215

Post by johnchristopher »

throwaway09223 wrote: post #213
johnchristopher wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This guardian article is demonstrable nonsense. Professor Römer is either ignorant, or is intentionally gaslighting Bush. Surely you meant gaslighting Chirac ? (which I disagree with, anyway). > Gog and Magog are well-known figures mentioned in both the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Playing dumb because it's not also in the Old Testament is not a good look for someone who's supposedly an expert. Good thing he's an ol…

It's simply not possible to be an expert on the Old Testament and to be that unaware of the context from which it was derived. Especially as they are also mentioned in the parts that made it into the Old Testament. Imagine claiming to be a LOTR expert and then feigning ignorance as to the events that took place in the Hobbit! I'm not religious or even particularly interested and even I am aware of this history. Ridic…

I don't understand your point. How do you reach the conclusion that Professor Römer doesn't know about Gog and Magog ? Or that he doesn't know about the multiple interpretations of who or what they may have been ?

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#216

Post by nailer »

UtopiaPunk wrote: post #192

I'm seeing several comments here demonstrating that some people do not understand the long conflict between Palestine and Israel. That's too bad, but understandable, as the United States government in particular has been uniquely supportive of Israel and has defended its interest. Public criticism has been easily squashed by dismissing anything negative regarding Israel's policies as anti-Semitic. There's a great doc…

You're being downvoted because you're not making the argument here. "Read my book" or "Watch my film" isn't an effective answer to the question of why you'd think a state where Jews and Arabs and Europeans have equal rights is an apartheid state.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#217

Post by nailer »

ethotool wrote: post #191
koheripbal wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a lot of dishonesty in this comment. I encourage people to watch the video linked above. The relevant part is 3m30s in and judge for themselves. He very clearly did not say anything close to what you claim. I really don't understand your hate.

Here’s the video since my original comment was flagged. How is that hate? I quoted what he said word for word at 3:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFqWZYW4Boc

Thanks for posting it again.

I meant to reply that your quote was incorrect at the time but was rate limited. I'm glad someone else pointed it out.

> Palestinians “crash planes into skyscrapers in New York”

This is false. The man speaking says terrorists, not Palestinians, crash planes into skyscrapers in New York. Please watch the video and confirm it for yourself.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#218

Post by nailer »

krageon wrote: post #47
atemerev wrote: post #6

“In her statement, Koren also singled out “Jewglers,” a forum for Jewish Google employees, for not accommodating Jews who hold anti-Zionist views.” Zionism is the belief that Israel has the right to exist, and that Jews have the right to live in Israel. If you are against this, your views are quite extremist and it is hard to find understanding and accommodation, particularly among fellow Jews.

> If you are against this, your views are [...] You do not get to tell other people what their views are. In the first place, questioning what has in practice meant "buy some tanks and go oppress the natives" is not something spoken of positively for literally any other country doing it. But when it is Israel, pointing out that humans have (and should have) rights somehow means that you hate all Jews. Ridiculous. Rat…

> You do not get to tell other people what their views are.

They are judging people's views, not telling them what to think. It's fine to believe what you want about other people's views. You do not control other people's minds.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#219

Post by panick21_ »

starkd wrote: post #88
yodsanklai wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's very very dumb legislation, and I think derives from a very odd facet of belief found in some American Protestant belief systems - that for Jesus to come back, the State of Israel has to exist. I remember reading Bill Clinton's biography. At some point, he mentioned that a pastor told him something along these lines, and that it was an important realisation for him. (I read that years ago, could be slightly wr…

It's not founded on archaic religious belief. Israel is a major ally of the U.S. They are integral part of any foreign policy the US embraces.

Pretty funny to call Israel an major ally of the US. Because most of the problems the US has in that part of the world are because of that alliance in the first place.

Not mention Israels extremely damaging influence on US domestic politics. Israel working together with Neocons to push the US into some of the worst foreign policy choices since Vietnam. And that's just one aspect of the problem. The list goes on and on.

If Israel is a major ally, then I think the US would be much better of with fewer allies.

Re: Google employee resigns after ‘retaliation’ for protesting Israeli contract

#220

Post by panick21_ »

elzbardico wrote: post #97
starkd wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not founded on archaic religious belief. Israel is a major ally of the U.S. They are integral part of any foreign policy the US embraces.

The US is a major ally of Israel. Israel is the ultimate pragmatic nation.

Israel is the ultimate pragmatic nation? You mean the religious police state that has illegal nuclear weapons and did its best to provoke an apocalyptic conflict between the US and Iran?

The apartheid state that is dominated by far right extremist that are still living by a 19th century colonialist doctrine?

Post reply on HN