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US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

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Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Orthodox Jews by vast margins support Israel, you've been a victim of disinformation. " Possible, there is lots of disinformation going on. My wording also might have been bad, but by my definition and understanding orthodox jews aim for a 100% jewish state. And Israel is not 100% jewish, but tries a mixture as they also have arab and beduin population with voting rights. So orthodox jews surely mostly support Israe…

"By my understanding Orthodox Jews aim for a 100% Jewish state" Most of my family is Orthodox, I was raised Orthodox, and have a pretty clear understanding of Orthodoxy's views on Israel (which is generally pro-Israel). You are confusing various ultra-Orthodox (also called "Haredi") sects, some of whom are anti-Zionist, but not for the reasons you're giving — in fact, the largest anti-Zionist Haredi sect (although "l…

Thanks for clarifying, I definitely should have used "Ultra-Orthodox" then.

The extremists are usually just the loudest and the most extreme phrases get the most media coverage with usually bad context, ... which can be summed up as missinformation, I fell for.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#162

Does US law have anything to say about private companies supporting human rights abuse in other countries through their policies?

The U.S. doesn't care about "human rights" if the supposed perpetrator supports U.S. hegemony.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That will never happen though. Israel would become a minority Jewish nation. Do you have a good overview source how many arabs/jews live in the occupied regions?

The State of Israel (including Area C under the Oslo Accords) had a population of ~9,650,000, of which ~7,100,600 are Jewish (for reference, about 600,000 are settlers in Area C, 250,000 of whom are in East Jerusalem). ~3,990,000 Palestinians (Muslim & Christian) live in Areas A and B. If Israel were to annex Areas A, B, and C, the total population would be ~13,650,000, with 7,100,000 Jewish people and ~6,550,000 Mus…

In addition, the Muslim population have more children than the Jewish population. so that slight majority wouldn't last.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Of course not, but what's the alternative?" Targeting only the people in charge? Targeting everyone is a good recipe of uniting them all behind the bad ones.

Hamas is their democratically elected government. They have no excuse. Is there no way to leave Palestine if you don't support Hamas?

It's hard to call either Hamas or Fatah democratically elected - there haven't been elections since 2006, and Hamas actually ran a coup the following year to seize power after they lost in the parliamentary elections.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really domestic when the effective governing body in Gaza and some of the West Bank is Hamas? Should we not sanction countries ruled by terrorist organizations?

> Should we not sanction countries ruled by terrorist organizations? Correct. The punishment should fit the crime. Being born in a location run by a terrorist organization is not a crime. This idea of group punishment is a very slippery slope and I believe you've already slide down it. As I pointed out in the previous comment, there are domestic terrorists in the US. And I'll go even further, members of the US curren…

> The punishment should fit the crime. Being born in a location run by a terrorist organization is not a crime.

The problem is, as soon as you remove the sanctions, Hamas will use that to collect funds to buy more weapons to send off to Israel.

The only way to achieve actual, lasting peace in Israel and Palestine is to get an Arab country as a guarantor that Israel won't be attacked - but Hamas is so deeply connected with Iran whom everyone else in the region intensely dislikes that no one will take on that role.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#166
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Of course not, but what's the alternative?" Targeting only the people in charge? Targeting everyone is a good recipe of uniting them all behind the bad ones.

OK, so your ministers are targeted, but everyday citizens are not. It's now trivial to work around sanctions and they don't matter at all. When your sanctions are symbolic, that's fine. When they're meant to actually have an economic impact, that doesn't work. There's an argument for fomenting dissent against the government causing the sanctions, too. If there were good, easy solutions, it wouldn't be the conflict th…

"It's now trivial to work around sanctions and they don't matter at all."

Putin did not dare to travel to south africa. The Oligarchs cannot use their Yachts anymore and their international assets are frozen(and they are not happy about it). That sounds like pretty effective targeted sanctions to me.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#167
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, so your ministers are targeted, but everyday citizens are not. It's now trivial to work around sanctions and they don't matter at all. When your sanctions are symbolic, that's fine. When they're meant to actually have an economic impact, that doesn't work. There's an argument for fomenting dissent against the government causing the sanctions, too. If there were good, easy solutions, it wouldn't be the conflict th…

"It's now trivial to work around sanctions and they don't matter at all." Putin did not dare to travel to south africa. The Oligarchs cannot use their Yachts anymore and their international assets are frozen(and they are not happy about it). That sounds like pretty effective targeted sanctions to me.

I thought the point of sanctions was to discourage whatever behavior caused the sanction to be implemented in the first place.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's now trivial to work around sanctions and they don't matter at all." Putin did not dare to travel to south africa. The Oligarchs cannot use their Yachts anymore and their international assets are frozen(and they are not happy about it). That sounds like pretty effective targeted sanctions to me.

I thought the point of sanctions was to discourage whatever behavior caused the sanction to be implemented in the first place.

No one claimed that sanctions alone will stop the war.

And ALL of the russians are under sanctions since 2014 btw. and that clearly did not prevented the big war, or made Putin less powerful. So if anything, this refutes that sanctions against a whole population are helping.

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#169

Does US law have anything to say about private companies supporting human rights abuse in other countries through their policies?

If it did, almost none of the top companies in the US would exists anymore. Of course it doesn't.

the US often doesn't even have to say anything about human right abuse _in_ the US

Re: US lawmakers urge PayPal to end ban on Palestinians in Occupied Territories

#170

Does US law have anything to say about private companies supporting human rights abuse in other countries through their policies?

Yes, US law in 35 states does have something to say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-BDS_laws#Anti-BDS_laws_in...

Namely, if you do not support the human rights abuses of one particular country, action will be taken against you.

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