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The United States withdraws from UNESCO

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651–660 of 989 posts

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#651

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you implying? Genuinely I can’t tell who you think these “men on speeding motorcycles” are? I don’t see anything obviously suspicious in that - if your family was starving would you sit back and let them die? Or maybe hop on a motorcycle and cut to the front of the queue?

I don’t think the people who are starving are the ones with motorcycles and gasoline.

During the Bosnian war even gold jewelry was worth less than food and cigarettes in weight, after the initial period. (I read it directly from a survivor's accounts.) You've got no idea how the combo of urban + isolation + starvation looks.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#652
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to sign a document saying you won't boycott Israel, academic journals cancel editions which talk about Palestine, you can't be part of UNESCO for Israel. You can't write a college article critical of Israel or we'll kidnap you off the streets into an unmarked van. You can't be a business and not give a contract to Israel or your employee will tip off the Anti Boycott Office against you. Your Congressmen wear…

The right (same people behind project 2025) planned (and are now executing) an effort to use opposition to Israeli policy (calling it anti-Semitic) as a way to crack down and disrupt liberal and progressive groups across the Us. It’s all out in the open, they don’t hide it.

To clarify: my point is they don’t really care about antisemitism, it’s just useful as a wedge

And the left does the same kind of thing when it suits them.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#653

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hamas, who run Gaza, want to "Globalize the Intifada" and bring violence to Jews worldwide. You speak about ethnic cleansing like if the roles were reversed we wouldn't be seeing the same thing. This is basically just criticizing Israel for having the means. Clearly both have the will. The two parties are locked into a death pact with each other.

Can you link authenticatic sources to back those claims up? Do you even know what the intifada means? Or are you using foreign words to make it sound scary?

When the definite form is used , and certainly when used in English and in the context of global events, The Intifada (emphasis added on the to highlight that this is used in definite form) refers to the Second Palestinian Intifada - which was characterized random violent attacks against civilians such as suicide bombings and shootings. Calls to Globalize the Intifada are calls for violent attacks against civilian targets around the world and especially against Jews.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deliberately did not answer your question. I refuse to get into the weeds because I reject your premise. I don't know anything about the inner workings of these organizations. (It's really not a "simple question" at all!) It's not my job, I'm just a voter. I have other things to do. You seem to want me to assume that because of this, I have to default to YOUR position. I'm saying, that doesn't match my broad view o…

> If there's one guy who says he's gonna try to slash it, I'll take that guy and hope for the best. Ok, and then what we actually got was elon musk's incompetent "doge" organization. This is literally my point, you have faith that there is this "bad cruft" and so you're willing to believe in, and give power to, incompetent idiots merely because they sound like they agree with your predetermined faith. It's frustratin…

I'm willing to throw a hail Mary. At this point yeah I'm not too impressed with their work.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#655

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I deliberately did not answer your question. I refuse to get into the weeds because I reject your premise. I don't know anything about the inner workings of these organizations. (It's really not a "simple question" at all!) It's not my job, I'm just a voter. I have other things to do. You seem to want me to assume that because of this, I have to default to YOUR position. I'm saying, that doesn't match my broad view o…

> I refuse to get into the weeds because I reject your premise. Occam's Razor would indicate that you have made an unsubstantiated claim that you cannot justify and have been deflecting, desperately. Starting discussions in bad faith, is not constructive.

Occam's Razor based on your priors.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#656
post #638

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some history is called for here. The UNESCO issue extends far beyond Trump. Under the Obama administration, the US stopped financing UNESCO in 2011(!) after it voted to include Palestine as a member state that year. The Trump administration decided to withdraw fully from the agency in 2017. The Biden administration rejoined UNESCO in 2023 and agreed to pay it $600 million(!) in back dues. Now, the Trump administratio…

The 2011 thing keeps getting cited in this thread, but it's wrong . The funding was cut because of what amounts to a booby-trap condition in pre-existing legislation . And they tried to get it overturned by it was blocked in congress. In fact this is an almost perfectly partisan issue, and the 2011 canard is giving cover to some horrifying both-sidesism.

That pre-existing legislation (which banned US financing of any UN agency that grants membership to Palestine) was signed by George HW Bush in 1990 and expanded by Bill Clinton in 1994, in both cases passed by Democrat-controlled Houses and Senates. So it's still "both-sidesism," whatever that is.

And for what it's worth I never mentioned nor was thinking about "two sides," just multiple distinct administrations. Partisanship wearies me (and the parties have changed a lot over the last 20-30 years)

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#657
post #627

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A big difference is that in 2022, an estimated five million Ukrainian refugees fled to other parts of Europe - which is more than twice as large as Gaza's entire population. Similarly, many Syrians fled the war there. We could ask why there aren't more Palestinian refugees who fled to other countries? As far as I can tell, leaving Gaza is very difficult, and nobody really talks about making it easier.

it's not that it's hard to leave gaza. it's just nobody willing to accept gazans. and trumps plan that talks about voluntary migration out of gaza is been described as genocide and ethnic cleansing (btw, 75% of them actually registered as refugees by unrwa for past many decades) i never saw anybody been against migration of population out of war zone to safety. in case of ukrainian refugees it was widely discussed th…

i never saw anybody been against migration of population out of war zone to safety.

I can't think of any comparable historical example of declaring a people's entire territory a war zone and migrating a substantial/majority of the entire population out. Can you? The reality is they'd be unlikely to ever be able/allowed to return, and as such the actual purpose of such a project would be ethnically cleansing the territory.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#658

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s wild to question numbers, but not question the country preventing independent verification of those numbers. You can be skeptical of the gaza MoH all you want, but unless you’re demanding independent verification you’re just enabling what we have to assume is a genocide.

Actual independent verification would be great. Maybe even a coalition of peacekeepers to go in and control Gaza. Hamas could maybe even give up the rest of the hostages. > have to assume is a genocide. ??? Guilty until proven innocent? In what world?

Why do you think they kill journalists? If they were innocent, they would invite everyone to send their journalists in and verify that Israel's position is valid. What Iareal does is not just a lack of assistance, it is active prevention of uncovering whatever happens there. With all due respect, you have to be an idiot to not assume that a crime happened.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#659

I feel like the US is becoming like China. Very economically important obviously, but will end up culturally irrelevant. It's hard to build up that much ill-will and still be considered glamorous. I can be wrong, and this isn't my personal judgement, but a genuine prediction.

Trump admires China and how the country is run.

Re: The United States withdraws from UNESCO

#660

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're getting ready to bomb Iran's UNESCO sites. They did bomb several UNESCO sites in Yugoslavia and other places while they left. Their boy Grossi also told the whole world that there is a big target on a UNESCO site a short while back.

Which site in Yugoslavia did they bomb?

History mismatch/Mandela effect? Some of the bombed sites were already known as culturally significant but not recognized by unesco yet, like Novi Sad that became a unesco creative city in 2023.
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