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Jatrain

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Everything posted by Jatrain

  1. Water allocation in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza was negotiated in the Oslo 2 accords. However: 1.) According to the World Bank, despite being allocated 4 times as much water from the Mountain Aquifer (the primary water source for the West Bank), the Israeli’s have extracted over 80% more than their negotiated allotment. Palestinian use has fallen year over year as they’ve been only able to sink less than half of their allowed well capacity. Israel forbids Palestinians to sink wells in the West Bank (but allows settlers to do so). West Bank Palestinians are denied any water from the Jordan River, the Sea of Galilee and other local rivers as Israeli diverts it before it reaches the West Bank. In total, 80-85% of the usable water in the West Bank is reserved for settlers and Israeli farming or diverted into Israel. (Cites available upon request) 2.) Gaza’s only groundwater source is the Coastal Aquifer. However, Israeli has install a series of wells along the border and captures much of this water before it flows into Gaza. They then turn around and sell this water to Gaza. The water that makes it to Gaza is highly contaminated and polluted and is barely drinkable. Israeli forbids Palestinians from transporting water from the West Bank to Gaza. 3.) There are a number of desalination plants but the Israeli blockade makes procurement of chemicals and spare parts difficult. Of course who knows how many of those are still standing? They’re might have been Hamas somewhere nearby. 4.) The Palestinian’s do attempt to control water policy within its borders. The have water policy boards at both the National and municipal levels, however, it’s hard to implement water policy when your main sources of water are outside of your control and limited by another country. (See 1 and 2).
  2. Thanks, I’m an idiot.
  3. It’s ingenuous to say that Israel literally tried a two state solution with Gaza. Nothing about Gaza over the last twenty years even remotely approximates a functioning state - not when Israel controls its borders, food, water, electricity, etc, doesn’t allow it to engage in commerce with the rest of the world, controls the movement of its people into and out of it, etc.
  4. I don’t think that you can connect the fact that the pres of NBC is Jewish with the running of these segments. But I think that imagining what the outcry would be if they were highlighting innocent Palestinians victims (say any of the thousands of children that have been killed) tells you all that you need to know.
  5. Moving up in the world from Epstein.
  6. Is Israel’s endgame in this coming into focus? (Israeli Finance Minister) Smotrich then suggested that the removal of around 90 percent of Gaza's residents would help achieve his goal. "If there are 100,000 or 200,000 Arabs in Gaza and not two million, the whole discourse about the day after will be different," he said….. Smotrich's comments are the latest in a growing list of troubling remarks by Israeli lawmakers to seemingly support expelling Gazans en masse out of the Strip in order to ensure Israel's security after the war.
  7. During high school in my neck of the woods, a purity ring was basically a flashing neon sign that said, “this girls fucks!”
  8. Well, according to Ehud Barak at least some of the tunnels were built by Israel so you might start by asking your questions there.
  9. “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. 1 Samuel 15:3 ‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass’," — Bibi Netanyahu, 10/29/23, using the Bible (Torah) to justify the killing of not only Hamas, but of the entire Palestinian people.
  10. I appreciate this post, but will quibble with one part of it. If we are to solely focus on Hamas’s actions on October 7th (and up to now) and Israel’s reaction to that, as you have in your post, then yes I would agree that there would be a false equivalence. But that focus fails to take into what has happened in the decades of occupation before 10/7. IDF soldiers (and other Israeli security forces) have employed sexual violence, including rape, against Palestinian women (cites provided by request). According to the UN, an average of almost 1 child per week is killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank. An additional 700 are arrested and detained, without trial. UNICEF details practices that are classified as “cruel, inhuman, or degrading” according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and Convention Against Torture, both ratified by Israel and the PA. I don’t think it’s a false equivalence to say that rape and murder/torture of children when performed by Hamas is bad and that rape and murder/torture of children when performed by Israeli forces is bad as well. I don’t think one is “less bad” than another. That being said, I don’t think that Hamas and Israeli are equal, despite their actions having some equivalence. Hamas is a terrorist organization, Israel is a liberal democracy with the benefits (American $ and weapons) and responsibilities (to both their citizens and to their Palestinian subjects) that come along with being a member of world community. Israel should be held to a higher standard than Hamas.
  11. I don’t understand these posts. No one denies there is antisemitism in this world, some perpetuated by Palestinians and their supporters. Just like there is anti-palestian-ism (not sure what is the best world, Islamophobia feels to broad and Palestinians are a Semitic people), some perpetuated by Israeli’s and their supporters. That there is antisemitism or anti-Palestinian-ism doesn’t excuse the horrific actions taken by both sides.
  12. Are you suggesting that the IDF (and other Israeli security forces) don’t subject Palestinian women to sexual violence, including rape? Or are you saying that the rapes performed by Hamas is worse than the rapes performed by Israel?
  13. I listened to the whole to the whole thing. It lasted that long because the judges (particularly the women) grilled the fuck out of Trump’s lawyer (and the a lesser degree the state’s). At one point she was literally reading word for word back to Trump’s lawyer one of the cases they cited and explaining to him how it doesn’t say what they claim it says.
  14. They’re all assholes?
  15. 1.) I don’t agree that anti-semetism and Pro-Zionism are mutually exclusive positions. I would argue that is the exact position when it comes to many on the right. They buy into the anti- Semitic tropes and dog whistles about Jews individually (see Soros, George) and as a group and yet are have a staunchly Zionist view of what Israel should be- primarily due to a fundamentalist view of the Bible and/or the fact that they hate Muslims even more. 2.) If we understand your definition of those who are “opposed to Israel” to mean “opposed to what Israel is doing vis a vie the Palestinian question”, then I think can you add a fourth group: those who are Pro-Israel. A very legitimate argument can be made that the policies of Israel in the recent past and current war lessen the chance of a secure and safe future for Israel.
  16. Are you suggesting that the TikTok videos Bolverk posted are fake? That Israel isn’t using this as a opportunity to expand settlements in the West Bank?
  17. Actually, we have an example: the West Bank. No Hamas in control there, just the Palestinian Authority, which denounces terrorism and recognizes the right of Israel to exist. How does Israel treat the Palestinians under their control there?
  18. If Hamas was gone tomorrow, what would Gaza look like?
  19. Is shooting journalists in the head, building settlements, etc necessary for Israel to fight terrorism or maybe could they stop doing those things and still fight it? Do they get free pass on all their actions because they are fighting terrorists?
  20. And then the irony of this tweet becomes apparent when it turns out the video that the Israeli government is providing as “proof” that it was a Gazan rocket hitting the hotel actually was timestamped 40 minutes after the actual explosion. And it was the same NYT he criticizes that discovered the Israeli propaganda. It’s almost like we should realize that both sides are putting out disinformation to drive their preferred narrative.
  21. Is this going to end up being a long winded way (with a significant amount of mental masturbation included) for the OP to “prove” that God* exists? If so could he just cut to the chase? *God = whatever flavor of religion, most likely Christianity, that he favors
  22. Pubs got their talking points, hearing a lot of “National Debt” and “Border Crisis”. Chickenshit interviewers not mentioning them voting for Trump tax cuts that added a ton to the debt.
  23. So he’s actually pro-choice but signs what amounts to a total ban on abortion because he’s beholden to the far right? Way to stand behind your convictions Doug. Great example of leadership, I guess oil billion$ still aren’t enough to buy an actual spine. Just because the other guys are wearing full on make-up, a wig, floppy shoes, and a flower that squirts water and all Doug has is a big red nose that honks, it doesn’t mean that he’s not a clown.
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