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Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

arstechnica.com

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Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#31

Post by skrebbel »

philwelch wrote: post #19
cup wrote: post #16

An adaption from an earlier comment of mine: Lets be frank, this was a targeted assassination by a nation state that consistently tries to paint itself as a beacon of democracy in the region. Say all you want about Ahmed Jabari but his modus operandi was a direct result of a life of occupation and subjugation. You don't go into prison at the age of 22 and come out 13 years later a happy individual. I mean it was only…

I find it very strange that people criticize Israel for assassinating terrorist, but say nothing about Obama's kill list or drone strikes.

Most people I know who tend to criticize Israel, tend to also believe that America's self-assigned world wide license to kill is an atrocity.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#32

Post by chacham15 »

confluence wrote: post #5

Holy shit! What the fuck are they doing? This is absolutely insane! What better way to create more terrorists than by laughing in their faces, publishing military operations on Twitter as if they were trivial events, showing military kill strikes on YouTube and using game like graphics stating their leaders have been "eliminated". Do you want to enrage your enemy into more violence or do you want to win? Do your mili…

There are two sides to the coin. One that they take the media personally and another that it boosts morale for a people who are bombed and hurt mentally and physically. It is my feeling that the latter benefit will outweigh the earlier cost.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#33

Post by gyardley »

skrebbel wrote: post #29
earlyresort wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Arab world is already awash in antisemitic propaganda. This Twitter account isn't going to move the needle there. No, this account is aimed at Americans. It shares short, simple, true messages: Hamas is a terrorist organization, Hamas launches hundreds of rockets into Israel, Israel is defending itself, and Israel is rather good at defending itself. The messages are designed to be shared with friends, in order to…

I doubt it'll work. Before this, I merely thought of the Israeli government as a bunch of nazis who believe that driving people out of their homes is god's work. Now, I also think they're barbarians.

Re-read what you just wrote. Now, do you really think you're the target audience?

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#34

Post by spin »

gyardley wrote: post #21
sk5t wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt that a majority of the American people support Israel the way that a majority of American politicians apparently do. My perception is that Zionists are a very powerful special interest group.

Uh-huh. Do they also control the media?

By your rhetorical question ("Do they also control the media?") I assume that you're trying to paint sk5t as some kind of conspiracy nut.

sk5t's comment was: "My perception is that Zionists are a very powerful special interest group." Which strikes me as a calm, rational opinion. (Whether or not you or I agree with it is another matter...)

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#35

Post by pinaceae »

cup wrote: post #16

An adaption from an earlier comment of mine: Lets be frank, this was a targeted assassination by a nation state that consistently tries to paint itself as a beacon of democracy in the region. Say all you want about Ahmed Jabari but his modus operandi was a direct result of a life of occupation and subjugation. You don't go into prison at the age of 22 and come out 13 years later a happy individual. I mean it was only…

does Hamas recognize the right of Israel to exist?

this is war.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#36

Post by eoin_murphy »

stickfigure wrote: post #18
confluence wrote: post #5

Holy shit! What the fuck are they doing? This is absolutely insane! What better way to create more terrorists than by laughing in their faces, publishing military operations on Twitter as if they were trivial events, showing military kill strikes on YouTube and using game like graphics stating their leaders have been "eliminated". Do you want to enrage your enemy into more violence or do you want to win? Do your mili…

Wild guess: This is for domestic consumption, or consumption by western allies. The face you present to your own citizens is not the face you present to your enemy. Most Palestinians probably don't read english anyways.

It may be for domestic consumption but there are plenty of Palestinians who do speak English and I'm pretty sure at least some of them are on Twitter. After all, if a Danish cartoon in a newspaper can set off riots in countries where it is not published then I'm sure public posts on a very popular website will get some coverage.

Regardless of how the Palestinians react to it, it does just seem a very dehumanized way of approaching a conflict where actual real people are dying.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#37

Post by philwelch »

avolcano wrote: post #26
philwelch wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it very strange that people criticize Israel for assassinating terrorist, but say nothing about Obama's kill list or drone strikes.

Erm, I haven't seen this at all. In fact, most of the people I know who are most critical of Israel are also critical of Obama's foreign policy (though most begrudgingly voted for him anyways, because, y'know, Romney).

> though most begrudgingly voted for him anyways

Is there anyone in Israel running for office on the platform of "let's not assassinate terrorists"? Are these people under the illusion that they would vote for such a person, or abstain from voting if no such candidate presented themselves?

Once you vote for an assassin in your country, you lose the moral authority to denounce another country's assassinations. Romney or not.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#38

Post by skrebbel »

gyardley wrote: post #24
philwelch wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it very strange that people criticize Israel for assassinating terrorist, but say nothing about Obama's kill list or drone strikes.

Interesting, how people hold the world's only Jewish state to a different moral standard than every other country. There's a word for that.

I'm sure there's people who do this, but I doubt there are many of them in this thread. The fact of the matter is that both the Israelis and the Palestinians consistently commit horrible crimes, in the name of some perceived God-declared right to a strip of desert.

On individual cases, you can't blame Israel for defending against hand-made rockets flying over the Gaza strip border. Similarly, you can't blame your average Palestinian for joining the resistance after an Isreali army bulldozered his village to make place for Israeli houses and theatres.

Both sides, in many ways, are equally bad. The main difference is that Israel can choose to stop colonizing, can choose to give Palestinians basic human rights to allow some sort of economy to develop. The only thing Palestinians can choose to do is to stop fighting. There's a difference here.

I don't see how all of that has anything to do with Israel being a Jewish state, except of course that declaring a single-religion state, in general, is asking for trouble.

EDIT: In a different set of comments here, it was pointed out to me that Isreal is in fact a "surprisingly secular state". I tend to believe that. So in that case, you can scratch my last line. In exchange, we all stop calling Israel a Jewish state.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#39

Post by kibwen »

I'm agape at such a bizarre use of social media. If I didn't know better, I'd say this was satire. Hell, this image alone is Onion-worthy: http://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/war-of...

Thing is, I can't pinpoint why, exactly, it feels so strange. Just... militant combatants pledging mutual annihilation, living right alongside a photo of your aunt's cat peering out of a shoebox. The dissonance is off the charts.

Re: Israel live-tweets assault on Gaza

#40

Post by DodgyEggplant »

meepmorp wrote: post #10
confluence wrote: post #5

Holy shit! What the fuck are they doing? This is absolutely insane! What better way to create more terrorists than by laughing in their faces, publishing military operations on Twitter as if they were trivial events, showing military kill strikes on YouTube and using game like graphics stating their leaders have been "eliminated". Do you want to enrage your enemy into more violence or do you want to win? Do your mili…

I agree in principle, but honestly this is pretty low on the list of things that Israel does that helps build the next wave of Palestinian militants. The blockade of the Gaza Strip, for example - whatever you think of its merits - has had a fairly harsh effect on average people living there, and has been a effective tool in keeping the support for Hamas high. It's let up somewhat recently, though it'll be interesting…

"blockade of the Gaza Strip"

Gaza strip borders Egypt on the southwest (11 km) and Israel on the east and north (51 km (32 mi))[1]. Israel can only "blockade" it's borders. The border to Egypt is open, and that where the rockets come from. The strip was occupied too long, true (38 years), but once Israel pulled you would expect something better than a fundamentalist militant Islamic regim that is focused on terror rather then encouraging better life after the occupation. One can hardly call "free from occupation" the Palestinians who live under this Islamic brutal oppression.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_Strip

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