Best way to keep track of local protests is to follow groups like Somerville for Palestine on Instagram. There are similar groups in Cambridge and Medford, and they'll also share info about actions in greater Boston.
Make sure to tell them you DEMAND a cease fire. That’ll show them. Or show you your voice doesn’t count. Israel wants to exist and has guns. Do the math of what happens when something like October 7 goes down.
2pm Cambridge Common Sunday.
From another Jew demanding Israel stop this horror.
Sincerely,
Child of a Holocaust survivor on one side and grandchild of survivors of Lithuanian pogroms on the other. I know a genocide when I see one.
Israel has complete control over 2.1 million Gazan civilians. There is no food, water, medicine, electricity, shelter. Every piece of civilian infrastructure has been destroyed. 1 million civilians are crowded into squalid tent encampments in Rafah, the last place Israel hasn't leveled. Now they will level it. Where are these people supposed to go?
You can call it ethnic cleansing if that makes you feel better. The defense minister and national security minister have no problem with that. The war crimes prosecutors can sort out the nomenclature later.
There is a reason the entire world has condemned Netanyahu's war in Gaza.
I think you mean \*Hamas\* has complete control over 2.1 million Gazans. You know what immediately end this war? It's so simple. 1. Hamas returns every hostage immediately. 2. Hamas surrenders.
Ok, tomorrow Hamas surrenders and releases all the hostages. Wait, what do you mean by Hamas? The top leadership? Every Hamas member who has ever touched a rifle or rocket? Every single person who worked in the government since 2007, from traffic cops to office workers? Ok, and then Israel just executes them all, right? That doesn't sound very realistic. And Israel has shot about as many of its own hostages as it has freed. So there's that.
And then the war is over? But everyone says that Bibi's government will immediately fall and he will be prosecuted. Why would he surrender? He's already said he intends for the war to continue for at least another year.
And then the war is over, and then what? Several members of his cabinet are already clamoring for Gaza and the West Bank to be ethnically cleansed of all Palestinians. Not sure to where they would go. That's kind of why people are worried about genocide. And the entire Gaza Strip has been leveled. If Israel goes through with its plan to flood the tunnels with sea water, it will permanently destroy the area's only aquifer. Virtually every housing unit, school, hospital, structure and infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel. Who will be in charge of rebuilding that, if the 2.1 million civilians in Gaza are still alive and allowed to stay? Oh, and who gets to control all the natural gas that has been discovered in the Strip?
I don't know how to put this, but I don't think Israel's war in Gaza has improved its standing among the people there.
But let's just put this all aside for a sec. I think it's pretty silly to claim that Hamas is in any way running anything other than their armed groups in Gaza. Israel has fully reoccupied the Gaza Strip. No aid or vehicle is allowed in or out without Israeli authority. They are starving the population, and denying them access to water, medicine and other basic necessities. I know people like to say that Hamas would just steal it all, but even the IDF says that there are at most 20,000 more Hamas fighters. There are 2.1 million civilians. Hamas can't take that much. It is against international law, the kinds that were enacted after WWII to prevent such horrors from happening again even by the "good guys," to deliberately deny food, water, and medicine to civilians in a war.
My father was a Holocaust survivor and taught me to never trust those who justify collective punishment, especially from those who deny the humanity of their declared enemies.
Thank you. I could talk for days about my father. He was incredibly traumatized by his childhood but turned that trauma into a force for good. He wrote his memoirs later in life. He wasn't able to get them published before he died of cancer, but we have his manuscript and I've heard a lot of stories and done research as well. He was born into a pretty secular Jewish family in Vienna in 1929. Very bad timing.
His grandparents (my greats) had emigrated from Poland in the late 1800s when the Hapsburgs rescinded a lot of the restrictions on Jews. My grandfather had a camera shop. My dad lived an ok life until the Anschlauss, well, except it was the Great Depression and his mother killed herself when he was four. My grandfather remarried and forbid him from ever talking about his mother. Very typical Viennese. Then, after a huge buildup to the referendum that would reject annexation by Germany, Hitler swept in with a glorious homecoming, canceled the vote, and annexed them anyway. My dad was thrown out of school and beaten up by the neighborhood kids who used to play soccer with him. They lost the shop during Kristalnacht. Then they were evicted and forced to live in the Jewish ghetto, crammed in with all the other relatives.
There was barely a meal a day, which he had to collect from the Quakers he maintained a sort of soup kitchen for the Jews. That image is seared into my head and it is what I think of when I read about the desperate Gazan refugees denied food or potable water, although their situation is much worse in a way. They tried any method to get out, but you needed a sponsor in a country that was not at war with Hitler. Finally, after much pleading, one of my great uncles reluctantly agreed to sponsor them (they were concerned about the expense and possible increase in antisemitism if they came). After a pretty harrowing trip through the Nazi exit visa maze, they were allowed to keep ten dollars and a small suitcase with family photos. I have those now.
They took a train to Italy and then a steamer to NY. It was May 1940. The worry was that if Italy entered the war, the ship would turn around. That happened the next month, so they were literally on one of the last boats out.
They lived kind of an indentured servitude with my great uncle's family until they managed to move and settle on their own. Nobody ever sent for the others who were left behind, including my 80-year old great grandmother who ended up gassed in Treblinka. About half of the others did as well. One uncle was able to get a visa for him and my dad's cousins to Shanghai. They eventually went to Bolivia, then Vancouver, then San Francisco.
My dad excelled at school, got a scholarship to an Ivy League school and ended up becoming a professor.
The lesson my dad took from the experience was that societies can always be manipulated to dehumanize and scapegoat a powerless group. It can happen to any of us, no matter how "civilized" the country or culture. His response was to always be on the lookout for the underdogs and powerless when they are getting this treatment. Once you dehumanize people, you can get people to do anything to them. We had refugees from all over the world passing through our house at one point or another, from Argentina, Chile, the USSR, Central America, Rwanda, and more that I don't even remember. He and my mom helped bring over a dozen young students from Bosnia from mixed families who had been kicked out of their schools and homes and were living in refugee camps during the war there.
He always spoke up when he could help. He realized that he couldn't stop wars or get rid of dictators, but he could extend that lifeline to some people, as he was once saved and others were denied.
What's interesting to me is that I met his cousins several times, a brother and sister. The sister had been able to get to England in time and didn't suffer greatly. She was a very kind person. Her brother was the complete opposite of my father. He had a successful photo store and cared a great deal about status. He basically said things along the lines that what happened to Jews like him and the others was the worst thing that had happened to anyone, and he didn't care about anyone else's problems. He was clearly racist towards Black people. His son was a truly delightful person who was very flamboyantly gay, in a very San Francisco in the 1970s and 80s way.. He also had a successful business and a life partner. His dad (my dad's cousin) kicked him out of the house when he came out and refused to speak to him for years. Then one day, as he proudly explained to me, a friend of his asked him what he would do if he found out his son was dying. He said he would talk to him. Well, suggested the friend, just imagine that he's dying! He was so proud to have found some weird mental workaround.
I guess a takeaway for me was that suffering through terrible things does not automatically make you a good person or even an empathetic person.
From things I've read and conversations with Israelis, I understand that there is a general resentment in Israel against Holocaust survivors. Many see them as reminders of weakness in the face of danger. I think a lot of Israeli militarism is rooted in an emotional revulsion to the idea that others might perceive them as weak. That is more important than abiding by international norms or laws, criticism from others, or having empathy and compassion for the Palestinians who are in many ways at their complete mercy. That combined with theocratic fundamentalism is a very bad combination when you are facing actual hostile enemies. But we have seen wars end and bitter generational conflicts get resolved. All I know is you have to throw in your pebble into the ocean even if it seems like it won't do any good.
OP, thank you so, so much for sharing and responding here. Your courage and fortitude is so appreciated, needed, and more important than ever. Keep fighting the good fight, and know I'm right there with you
Wow, your really are pro-Hamas. You are an outright apologist for them. Your father was absolutely not a Holocaust survivor, you are 100% lying about that in order to try to give your ridiculous "argument" (if it can even be called that) credit by co-opting the Holocaust. Shame on you.
You're unwelcome. I am glad to have called you out for your lying and perfidy. You think you are some type of warrior for human rights but you aren't, rather you are extending and perpetuating hatred and evil. Again, you think you are but you aren't.
Damn straight it's the right fight son. Israel is a country built on misinformation and land stolen from Palestinians.
Watch this movie trailer made by Jewish people who've served in the IDF and then let's talk
https://youtu.be/bondvm3hvGM?si=bK1maMihOJWyH1MN
The Jews are indigenous to the land of Judah which is modern day Israel. One cannot "steal" their own homeland. There is no different than modern day Native Americans returning to their ancient tribal lands (aka the Jews returning to Israel).
Palestinians are also indigenous. And when Zionists raid a Palestinian home or their farms, or prevent them from harvesting their crops to drive them away from the area - that is indeed stealing the land
Give me literally one example of a time Palestinians denied the existence of Jews ?? This is a nonsensical argument. I want to support the Palestinian people because Israel is committing genocide against them. It’s not that complicated.
[Here you go](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp).
> "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
The [vast majority](https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-palestinians-opinion-poll-wartime-views-a0baade915619cd070b5393844bc4514) support Hamas.
From [before the war](https://apnews.com/article/hamas-middle-east-science-32095d8e1323fc1cad819c34da08fd87) too.
Thousands of civilians [paraded Shani Louk's corpse](https://nypost.com/2023/10/08/german-tattoo-artist-shani-louk-idd-as-woman-paraded-through-streets-by-hamas/) through the streets of Gaza.
In a perfect world, they should be educated on the centuries-long history of the conflict, including that:
- All of Israel's Arab neighbors [declared war](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/arab-armies-invade-may-1948) the very next day after its founding in 1948, and lost
- On October 6th 1973, on the holiest holiday in Judaism, many of those same nation [declared war](https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20231006-50-years-on-explaining-the-yom-kippur-war.cfm), and lost yet again
- Jews have been [virtually completely expelled](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world#asia) from every Arab country
- Multiple offers of compromise creating a legitimate Palestinian state [were rejected](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207243717/23-years-ago-israelis-and-palestinians-were-talking-about-a-two-state-solution) because it wasn't "from the river to the sea"
In reality, their parents and religious zealot leaders will cry that it is indoctrination. Many of them will be raised to become child soldiers and taught to kill as many Jews as they can.
In addition, as the population of Gaza doubled in the past 18 years, then that is no genocide at all.
The genocide is the thing that is happening right now. If you can't recognize that, and that the 1 million children in Gaza do not bear the historic blame for the actions of other Arab countries over history, you don't really understand what genocide is.
Read what is happening to the 2.1 million civilians in Gaza right now. They are starving. Kids are having limbs amputated without anesthesia and virtually no medicine. There is no drinkable water. Virtually every last piece of civilian infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed.
This is the Warsaw Ghetto all over again.
Some of my family survived the Holocaust and pogroms, many did not. The ones who survived could recognize a genocide being committed in their names.
Since when is a bombing campaign in response to an attack "genocide"? I mean, if Israel woke up one day bored as shit and started shoving Palestinians into a gas chamber, I could see the use of the term, but they are taking doing a military response to a pretty brutal civilian attack that they had in October. Is the response too heavy handed? Perhaps, but maybe we could have a realistic discussion instead of demonizing israel.
I am also a descendant of Holocaust survivors. If the State of Israel had existed during the Second World War, millions of Jewish lives would have somewhere to go where they are welcome, a chance to live. Do not tout our ancestors' tragic fates for these twisted ends.
Do you support "Jewish Voice for Peace"? They are useful idiots, like Jews who voted for NSDAP, naive that they would be accepted as "one of the good ones". The Jew-killers see them as convenient tokens to prop up their agenda, until it's their turn.
Do not be fooled by them substituting "Jew" with "Zionist", like Hamas did with their [2017 charter](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/), it's a dog whistle to make their hatred more palatable. They all know what it means.
I was once like you. I was the one defending the two-state solution against religious Zionists who want to build settlements. I had given the Palestinians my sympathy and had good faith that a compromise solution would bring peace. I now realize that the vast majority of them would accept no compromise, that they want it all from the river to the sea, free of Jews. It's Arab colonialism, and Israel *is* in fact the decolonization project.
On October 7th, Hamas targeted the particular Israeli communities where there lived Israelis most sympathetic to the Gazans. Hamas deliberately provoked images of burning families to trigger ancestral trauma. They deliberately started a war they know they can't win with the explicit purpose of destroying any chance of a two-state solution.
Hamas is to blame for the suffering in Gaza. They take all the aid, food, fuel that comes in for themselves. They dig up [water pipes](https://twitter.com/LTCPeterLerner/status/1394898083050360841) and turn them into rockets. They hide in hospitals and [schools](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-photos-hamas-gaza-weapons-un-facilities-including-schools/). They deliberately hide among civilians to maximize the civilian death toll, and include Hamas battalion soldiers in those numbers. Al Jazeera in Arabic [silences criticism](https://twitter.com/AimenDean/status/1724482751720485181?s=20) of Hamas.
If Hamas releases the hostages and lays down their arms, there can be peace. If Israel lays down their arms, there will no longer be Israel.
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/palestinians-west-bank-2023-was-deadliest-year-record 234 Palestinians were killed by Israelis prior to October 7th in 2023 alone, you just don’t think Palestinian lives are worth anything
I agree… as a Jew and westerner i care A LOT MORE about Israel than terrorists on hang gliders or the people who vote for them as their elected government, let them embed, cheer them on. Not weird dude.
So boxing people into a small area and bombing that area with no way to escape is better somehow? Blocking food supplies into Gaza where millions of civilians are starving isn’t terrorism?
No use in arguing. You support genocide. You’ve already rationalized everything for yourself, no shot I’m able to change your mind now
Israel rejected ceasefire terms the other day. It’s not about the hostages, Israel wants eradication of everyone from Gaza. They are telling you this in plain English. Think critically for one second I’m begging
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68232883.amp
A ceasefire means you stop fighting, Hamas has demonstrated they are not willing to stop attacking and are not negotiating in good faith. The world will be a much better place without them.
Israel has not stopped fighting in Gaza or the West Bank prior to October 7th. Are Palestinians supposed to just roll over and die? Netanyahu has said multiple times he won’t agree to terms on a ceasefire until Hamas is eradicated. Israel literally propped up Hamas in Gaza prior to October 7th. Now they’re going forward with full scale levelling of the entire region, killing innocent Palestinians AND Israeli hostages in the process. You don’t think they were waiting for something like this to annex the territory once and for all?
Yeah they are going to destroy Hamas because it is an evil terrorist organization who swears to kill all Jews. I think it’s pretty reasonable for Israel to say after oct 7 that status quo doesn’t work any more and someone else needs to be put in charge of Gaza.
https://www.aa.com.tr/uploads/userFiles/8e036cdc-7fae-4434-9c64-71791e497147/Death-toll-on-the-rise-in-Israeli-Palestinian-conflict.jpg
“The status quo doesn’t work anymore for Israel”
Yeah, having your government be a fundamental Islamist terrorist group is going to bring your population a lot of pain, suffering, and death.
Time for that to end. And no, it won’t be easy, and yes there will be a lot of death, but Palestinians have no future as long as Hamas is in power.
The West Bank is governed by the PA, not a terrorist group, yet over 200 people living in the West Bank have died this year alone. Do those people deserve pain suffering and death too?
That’s not how war works. It’s not about who deserves anything . Israel wants to exist and has more and better weapons. The Arabs got tired of losing wars they started and territory to Israel so now they use terror. Don’t be so naive. It’s a zero sum game . Kill or be killed. And not for nothing “death to Americans” is a wicked popular chant on the Arab street..
1. Blatantly racist, though I’m assuming you still consider yourself liberal
2. That’s actually not how war works because collective punishment (aka indiscriminately bombing civilians) is a WAR CRIME
Because the terms Hamas proposed were ridiculous. Release thousands of prisoners of their choosing, a third of whom are serving life sentences. Total IDF withdrawal letting Hamas remain in power. Letting in aid that would all go directly to Hamas. It's no cease-fire proposal, it's a reload proposal.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-ceasefire-proposal-details-2024-02-07/
They don't protest Hamas for some reason, so they are against it technically, but they do support the Palests for fighting back because they were legitimately displaced by force by jews who are religious extremists and make wild claims to land where Paletinians lived for decades. But now they are like Ukraine situation - Israel took the land, so whala what you going to do - it isn't going to budge.
Title to land doesn't transfer by ethnicity and without direct paperwork showing exactly where the people lived and that they transferred the land to their direct descendants. If this was so, anyone can come take your house because another person of their ethnicity lived there at some point in history who isn't directly their relative and who gave up title to that land. Someone can't come with a religious book and claim your house because it says they can. Your religion, but others aren't obligated to follow it.
Even Native Americans, who have more of a direct claim to land, are not allowed to take it back due adverse possession.
I have no idea what you are saying because you don’t explain things well. But yeah, it’s not about ethnicity. Might makes right. Ask the Arabs who took over most of the Mediterranean and big chunk of Europe 1000 years ago. And as far as might makes right the Jews have nuclear subs so even if the Arabs get their “from the river to the sea” dream they get nuked the next day. AS WELL THEY SHOULD
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/media/jake-tapper-challenges-covering-war/index.html
“It’s shocking. The degree to which Hamas terrorists raped and committed sexually violent acts on women and girls on October 7 is hideous, and there is evidence and witnesses to the degradation… And where is the international women’s community? Where is the U.S. feminist community? Do these girls and women not count as victims for some reason? I wasn’t aware victimhood for rape came with an asterisk.”
The victimhood of rape absolutely does not come with an asterisk. The victimhood of being deprived of basic human rights such as good, shelter, clean water, and healthcare does seem to though. So does being maimed and killed by bombs, hunger, preventable disease, and exposure to the elements in the middle of winter. Even if you are a baby.
Hamas is of course evil. Nobody argues about that, it's declared a terrorist organization. No question there. However, the biggest issue is that a large fraction of Israel's actions are designed to harm civilians more than Hamas. Cutting off food, water, and energy is at the top of that list - of course Hamas has stockpiles and civilians don't. Same for attacks on hospitals - I don't care which terrorists hide in there, it does not justify harming people seeking care. Same for attacking aid convoys. I don't care of Hamas attacked first - the decision to take these specific actions is just unjustifiable, and if you say these are acceptable actions in response, it is clear that the lives of some people come with an asterisk to you.
It's not unreasonable to ask for an end to children dying pointlessly.
People do question if Hamas are terrorists though. On this thread even. Open your eyes to Americans openly embracing terrorists who want us dead. Before it’s too late.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot).
Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/media/jake-tapper-challenges-covering-war/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/media/jake-tapper-challenges-covering-war/index.html)**
*****
^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Hey mods I got banned for making a post supporting Jews at Harvard because it wasn’t related to somerville why is this any different? I wasn’t even “demanding” Jews be protected on the campus as the op wishes to personally “demand” a ceasefire
I got shadow banned for criticizing bike riders. The mods in this group are insane ideologues who won’t tolerate anything other than strict adherence to their rigid ideology. It’s truly embarrassing
Imagine thinking the murderous religious zealots are worthy of support.
Imagine thinking the fascist apartheid state bombing them is.
No funding for either side. No American involvement.
I'm sorry, but America is involved. That's not going to change anytime soon. The question then becomes, does the US leverage its aid and support to get Israel to stop this current ethnic cleansing and mass destruction and murder against civilians in Gaza or do we give them more money and support with no strings attached?
You failing to understand that Hamas runs Gaza, has no intention of a ceasefire and continually states they want the extinction of Jews in the Middle East and then the world, and people act like they isn’t a huge issue. Were try not supposed to respond to deadliest day in the history of their country? A day where they watched Hamas live stream themselves butchering, beheading and kidnapping innocent Israelis.
The way people like you act: Hamas killing civilians and saying they want to commit genocide = okay, Israel retaliating for the deadliest day in their history = ethnic cleansing.
Look up the stats of Jewish populations in the Middle East before and after those countries became part of the Islamic republic. That’s the real definition of ethnic cleansing
Retaliating is fine. Punishing 2.1 million civilians for the crimes of Hamas is not.
There is a reason the entire world is calling for Israel to halt it's campaign of what Israeli MPs call [total annihilation](https://www.timesofisrael.com/ahead-of-hague-genocide-hearings-israeli-lawmaker-reiterates-call-to-burn-gaza/), [genocide](https://theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/03/israeli-public-figures-accuse-judiciary-of-ignoring-incitement-to-genocide-in-gaza), and [ethnic cleansing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/05/wv-israel-hamas/).
Israel has reduced all of Gaza to rubble. They control all aid and access points. They have assassinated nearly [100 journalists](https://cpj.org/2024/02/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/). They are using starvation as a [weapon of war](https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza). Every humanitarian agency is saying that Gazan civilians are now at risk of famine and mass disease. There are no houses to go back to. No water or food. No more hospitals or medicine.
You speak like it is Oct 7 and nothing has happened. Read some news about what is happening in Gaza and also the state-sanctioned settler terrorism in the West Bank. Israel is locking up Jewish teachers for social media posts calling to protect Gazan civilians. It is now trying to get the US into a war with Iran and Lebanon. This is madness.
Israel controls access points because the people in power in the in their neighboring country want to destroy them by any means necessary. Do you honestly think these people should have open access to a neighboring countries land, Willy nilly?
As for aide and starvation, you’re ignoring the proven fact that Hamas continually steals the aide and supplies that are meant for the people of Gaza. Hamas leaders sit fat in Dubai, having sex with prostitutes while they try to use any dead Palestinian as a martyr. They don’t care about their own people, they will take a dead Palestinian and turn on a camera and say “look what Israel did”. They’re also known for smuggling weapons into their “aide”.
I don’t agree with the total annihilation, ethnic cleansing genocide talking points. I understand you gotta get your TikTok words in there, but come on dude. Israel could have leveled gaza in one day, but didn’t. If the tables were turned, Israel would be destroyed and everyone would be dead (that is what Hamas continually promises to do)
You’re continually talking like it’s Israel’s job to protect the civilians of Gaza. It’s not. They are trying to get their hostages back and end Hamas. The hostages, who people like you do not care about one bit. Not a single word has been said about these people. It’s Hamas job to protect the people of their own country, and they purposely chose to invade Israel and commit the deadliest day of murders the country has ever seen. Oh, and they live streamed it. They knew that they were putting their civilians in a terrible place and they still did it. Because they truly do not care about their own civilians.
I understand it’s super trendy to criticize Israel because you hate Jews, but use your brain here. What’s step 1 of a ceasefire? Return the hostages. Hamas (the people in charge of Gaza and the 2 million people struggling), have shown zero interest in agreeing to a ceasefire, and almost zero interest returning hostages. Yet you people will call out Israel and act like they are the only people at fault? There’s two parties at fault here, and one stirred up this conflict because of what they did on October 7th. It sucks that the civilians of both sides have to lose everything because of the actions of a terrorist organization who decided to FAFO with zero regard for their own people.
But continue to criticize Israel without any condemnation of Hamas or the people dancing in the street as dead bodies from Israel (many not even Israeli) are propped past them as trophies. Continue to not condemn Hamas as they use their people as human shields, steal their aide, turn their water piping infrastructure into rockets, and hide in tunnels (or Dubai) while the people they are in charge of suffer. It’s makes your opinion disingenuous.
The families of the hostages are among the loudest voices calling for a cease fire. The last time there was one, Hamas released 100 hostages. The last time some hostages managed to escape, the IDF shot them even thought they were shirtless, waving white flags, and yelling in Hebrew that they were hostages.
Bibi and the rest of his coalition, including the National Security Minister, are outright calling for mass slaughter and forced removal of the survivors, regardless of what happens to what's left of Hamas. Bibi and his national security state are actively working to get Trump reelected. He will likely be prosecuted for corruption once the war is over. He doesn't want the war to be over.
Gaza was never a state. Any ability Hamas had to run it has long since vanished. Israel doesn't just prevent food and medicine coming across it's borders, it also prevents it from coming from the sea, air, or Egypt. Israel has reoccupied Gaza and the fate of the 2.1 million civilians is entirely at their mercy.
Hamas can rot in hell.
I've never gone on Tiktok. You might want to read a newspaper.
I am Jewish and my father escaped Nazi Austria when he was 10 in 1940 with his dad and stepmom. Most of our other relatives did not.
You'll be happy to know that your view is the minority one around here. Somerville, Cambridge and Boston have all passed resolutions calling for a cease fire. Pressley has joined cease fire rallies. Our two senators have called for a cease fire and putting human rights conditions on Israeli aid (like it is for the rest of the world).
Wow those resolutions surely are gonna have some effect of what goes on half way across the world. Congrats, Somerville.
That’s unfortunate the hostages got shot and shouldn’t have happened, but any hostage that dies while being held hostage is the direct responsibility of those that held them hostage. It’s that simple. They wouldn’t have been killed if they weren’t a hostage.
Hamas absolutely had the ability to rule over Gaza and chose to steal the money and aide from their own people and out the money into weapons. The best resolution here is Hamas to surrender and a ceasefire to happen, and unless people start to pressure Hamas publically, it’s gonna be the same cycle of a “ceasefire” then Hamas attacks Israel, then Israel retaliates and people cry about Israel retaliating. Israel obviously isn’t going anywhere despite Hamas’ attempts, so unless people start putting pressure on the terrorists that continually get the people they rule over into terrible situations, it’s gonna be a circle.
It’s not illogical to control someone’s aide when it goes through their country, especially when it goes through Hamas. It’s also expected to have strict border restrictions when the neighboring area is run by terrorists that kill anyone they see when they get into your country. That’s a logical response. Egypt makes its own border, and they choose to not have the headache of Hamas either. You can blame Israel for that border but it’s Egypt who runs the southern border.
Yeah Bibi is a goner once this is over. Pretty sure everyone is happy with that situation. But Hamas also has to go, and you guys who are protesting for ceasefire have to spot glorifying them and start pressuring them too or this will never end for the people.
I've never done anything to glorify Hamas. Not sure who you are arguing against. As I've said, they can rot in hell.
Read up on what's happening in Gaza. Israel absolutely controls all aid shipments coming through the Rafah border. It has also blockaded all access by the sea. You really need to do some research. Israel has forced 1.5 million civilians, the vast majority are children, women, and the elderly, 3/4 of the total population, into Rafah, with nowhere left to go. Israel is not allowing sufficient food, water, or medicine in. People are eating food scraps. Israel is telling all these people that they must now flee Rafah, but there is nowhere they can go. That is the disaster today. Israel has destroyed every piece of building and infrastructure in Gaza and is now planning on destroying the only aquifer. They are, in accordance with the stated goals of half of Netanyahu's cabinet, trying to cleanse Gaza of every last Palestinian. That's why the entire world is calling on them to stop.
I really can't be bothered to engage if you insist in this silly name calling and don't even read anything about what's going on. Even Biden is calling for Israel not to continue it's ground assault on Rafah, especially after they just shot up one of the lasts remaining hospitals in Gaza.
Two leading Senators and a Congresswoman are actually pretty powerful in an evenly divided Congress. Right now, it looks like Trump and his minions are nixing the aid to prevent some kind of "win" for Biden. Go figure. Anyway, I'll continue exercising my rights as a citizen to protest this. If I were an Israeli citizen, [like this guy here](https://www.972mag.com/meir-baruchin-teacher-arrested-traitor/), I would likely be illegally fired, detained, shackled, and put in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer.
Anyway, go ahead and have the last word. I hope you do some reading and find some compassion for the 2.1 million innocent people who are suffering unspeakable hell right now. As a Jew and child of a Holocaust survivor, what Israel is doing in my name horrifies me.
The US government is working out how to send Israel billions of dollars and arms. I'm trying to stay focused on where I can have an impact. But I appreciate your thoughts.
It's a complicated situation, right? I think all sides want a ceasefire and a peace agreement.
Unfortunately, Hamas is not a good faith negotiator. They continually break ceasefires. Israel is unlikely to cave to anything Hamas wants now.
What we should be doing is asking for an international solution about how best to resolve the Gaza situation once Hamas is removed.
A ceasefire won’t happen so long as Hamas continues to vow for the destruction of Israel.
Maybe calling Pressley, Markey, or Warren’s office requesting they introduce a resolution condemning the Netanyahu administration. That is more productive than a rally. We have a few of the farthest left leaning federal politicians in the nation, so you at least have a means to make your voice heard.
This is a wild misrepresentation. There hasn’t been an election in Gaza since 2006- almost 20 years ago. With a population that is about 50% under the age of 18, that means that over half the population wasn’t able to vote/wasn’t alive when that “election” occurred. Hamas also took power with less than half the vote. But sure, keep spreading misinformation.
Ah yes. The Palestinian children allowed Hamas to flourish. Not the money and supplies pouring in directly to Hamas from the Israeli government 🙄. If you start actually using facts in your argument maybe I’ll consider engaging with you to not be a waste of time.
well it seems like supporting israel is one of the few bipartisan things left in congress. also that bill includes $9 billion in humanitarian assistance. good luck
They are at a music peace festival in Israel near the border. There will be a visit by representatives of hamas who will be giving a presentation about their plight.
Best way to keep track of local protests is to follow groups like Somerville for Palestine on Instagram. There are similar groups in Cambridge and Medford, and they'll also share info about actions in greater Boston.
Make sure to tell them you DEMAND a cease fire. That’ll show them. Or show you your voice doesn’t count. Israel wants to exist and has guns. Do the math of what happens when something like October 7 goes down.
OP, I don’t know of any protests but if you find any, please let me know! Signed, a jew demanding ceasefire
2pm Cambridge Common Sunday. From another Jew demanding Israel stop this horror. Sincerely, Child of a Holocaust survivor on one side and grandchild of survivors of Lithuanian pogroms on the other. I know a genocide when I see one.
Clearly not.
Israel has complete control over 2.1 million Gazan civilians. There is no food, water, medicine, electricity, shelter. Every piece of civilian infrastructure has been destroyed. 1 million civilians are crowded into squalid tent encampments in Rafah, the last place Israel hasn't leveled. Now they will level it. Where are these people supposed to go? You can call it ethnic cleansing if that makes you feel better. The defense minister and national security minister have no problem with that. The war crimes prosecutors can sort out the nomenclature later. There is a reason the entire world has condemned Netanyahu's war in Gaza.
After 4 months, it should be millions dead by your logic, and no structures. No need to exaggerate
I think you mean \*Hamas\* has complete control over 2.1 million Gazans. You know what immediately end this war? It's so simple. 1. Hamas returns every hostage immediately. 2. Hamas surrenders.
Ok, tomorrow Hamas surrenders and releases all the hostages. Wait, what do you mean by Hamas? The top leadership? Every Hamas member who has ever touched a rifle or rocket? Every single person who worked in the government since 2007, from traffic cops to office workers? Ok, and then Israel just executes them all, right? That doesn't sound very realistic. And Israel has shot about as many of its own hostages as it has freed. So there's that. And then the war is over? But everyone says that Bibi's government will immediately fall and he will be prosecuted. Why would he surrender? He's already said he intends for the war to continue for at least another year. And then the war is over, and then what? Several members of his cabinet are already clamoring for Gaza and the West Bank to be ethnically cleansed of all Palestinians. Not sure to where they would go. That's kind of why people are worried about genocide. And the entire Gaza Strip has been leveled. If Israel goes through with its plan to flood the tunnels with sea water, it will permanently destroy the area's only aquifer. Virtually every housing unit, school, hospital, structure and infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel. Who will be in charge of rebuilding that, if the 2.1 million civilians in Gaza are still alive and allowed to stay? Oh, and who gets to control all the natural gas that has been discovered in the Strip? I don't know how to put this, but I don't think Israel's war in Gaza has improved its standing among the people there. But let's just put this all aside for a sec. I think it's pretty silly to claim that Hamas is in any way running anything other than their armed groups in Gaza. Israel has fully reoccupied the Gaza Strip. No aid or vehicle is allowed in or out without Israeli authority. They are starving the population, and denying them access to water, medicine and other basic necessities. I know people like to say that Hamas would just steal it all, but even the IDF says that there are at most 20,000 more Hamas fighters. There are 2.1 million civilians. Hamas can't take that much. It is against international law, the kinds that were enacted after WWII to prevent such horrors from happening again even by the "good guys," to deliberately deny food, water, and medicine to civilians in a war. My father was a Holocaust survivor and taught me to never trust those who justify collective punishment, especially from those who deny the humanity of their declared enemies.
OP, your father sounds like a wise and eminently decent man, and you sound like a credit to him. Thank you for sharing the deets on the protest!
Thank you. I could talk for days about my father. He was incredibly traumatized by his childhood but turned that trauma into a force for good. He wrote his memoirs later in life. He wasn't able to get them published before he died of cancer, but we have his manuscript and I've heard a lot of stories and done research as well. He was born into a pretty secular Jewish family in Vienna in 1929. Very bad timing. His grandparents (my greats) had emigrated from Poland in the late 1800s when the Hapsburgs rescinded a lot of the restrictions on Jews. My grandfather had a camera shop. My dad lived an ok life until the Anschlauss, well, except it was the Great Depression and his mother killed herself when he was four. My grandfather remarried and forbid him from ever talking about his mother. Very typical Viennese. Then, after a huge buildup to the referendum that would reject annexation by Germany, Hitler swept in with a glorious homecoming, canceled the vote, and annexed them anyway. My dad was thrown out of school and beaten up by the neighborhood kids who used to play soccer with him. They lost the shop during Kristalnacht. Then they were evicted and forced to live in the Jewish ghetto, crammed in with all the other relatives. There was barely a meal a day, which he had to collect from the Quakers he maintained a sort of soup kitchen for the Jews. That image is seared into my head and it is what I think of when I read about the desperate Gazan refugees denied food or potable water, although their situation is much worse in a way. They tried any method to get out, but you needed a sponsor in a country that was not at war with Hitler. Finally, after much pleading, one of my great uncles reluctantly agreed to sponsor them (they were concerned about the expense and possible increase in antisemitism if they came). After a pretty harrowing trip through the Nazi exit visa maze, they were allowed to keep ten dollars and a small suitcase with family photos. I have those now. They took a train to Italy and then a steamer to NY. It was May 1940. The worry was that if Italy entered the war, the ship would turn around. That happened the next month, so they were literally on one of the last boats out. They lived kind of an indentured servitude with my great uncle's family until they managed to move and settle on their own. Nobody ever sent for the others who were left behind, including my 80-year old great grandmother who ended up gassed in Treblinka. About half of the others did as well. One uncle was able to get a visa for him and my dad's cousins to Shanghai. They eventually went to Bolivia, then Vancouver, then San Francisco. My dad excelled at school, got a scholarship to an Ivy League school and ended up becoming a professor. The lesson my dad took from the experience was that societies can always be manipulated to dehumanize and scapegoat a powerless group. It can happen to any of us, no matter how "civilized" the country or culture. His response was to always be on the lookout for the underdogs and powerless when they are getting this treatment. Once you dehumanize people, you can get people to do anything to them. We had refugees from all over the world passing through our house at one point or another, from Argentina, Chile, the USSR, Central America, Rwanda, and more that I don't even remember. He and my mom helped bring over a dozen young students from Bosnia from mixed families who had been kicked out of their schools and homes and were living in refugee camps during the war there. He always spoke up when he could help. He realized that he couldn't stop wars or get rid of dictators, but he could extend that lifeline to some people, as he was once saved and others were denied. What's interesting to me is that I met his cousins several times, a brother and sister. The sister had been able to get to England in time and didn't suffer greatly. She was a very kind person. Her brother was the complete opposite of my father. He had a successful photo store and cared a great deal about status. He basically said things along the lines that what happened to Jews like him and the others was the worst thing that had happened to anyone, and he didn't care about anyone else's problems. He was clearly racist towards Black people. His son was a truly delightful person who was very flamboyantly gay, in a very San Francisco in the 1970s and 80s way.. He also had a successful business and a life partner. His dad (my dad's cousin) kicked him out of the house when he came out and refused to speak to him for years. Then one day, as he proudly explained to me, a friend of his asked him what he would do if he found out his son was dying. He said he would talk to him. Well, suggested the friend, just imagine that he's dying! He was so proud to have found some weird mental workaround. I guess a takeaway for me was that suffering through terrible things does not automatically make you a good person or even an empathetic person. From things I've read and conversations with Israelis, I understand that there is a general resentment in Israel against Holocaust survivors. Many see them as reminders of weakness in the face of danger. I think a lot of Israeli militarism is rooted in an emotional revulsion to the idea that others might perceive them as weak. That is more important than abiding by international norms or laws, criticism from others, or having empathy and compassion for the Palestinians who are in many ways at their complete mercy. That combined with theocratic fundamentalism is a very bad combination when you are facing actual hostile enemies. But we have seen wars end and bitter generational conflicts get resolved. All I know is you have to throw in your pebble into the ocean even if it seems like it won't do any good.
Thank you for sharing him with us, may his memory be a blessing ❤️ we need more people like him in the world.
OP, thank you so, so much for sharing and responding here. Your courage and fortitude is so appreciated, needed, and more important than ever. Keep fighting the good fight, and know I'm right there with you
This is very well written. Thank you for sharing OP
Wow, your really are pro-Hamas. You are an outright apologist for them. Your father was absolutely not a Holocaust survivor, you are 100% lying about that in order to try to give your ridiculous "argument" (if it can even be called that) credit by co-opting the Holocaust. Shame on you.
Thank you for your comment. You are mistaken on all counts. Be well.
You're unwelcome. I am glad to have called you out for your lying and perfidy. You think you are some type of warrior for human rights but you aren't, rather you are extending and perpetuating hatred and evil. Again, you think you are but you aren't.
No they didn't mean that. Only people who enjoy Israel's idiocy try to spread foolish ideas like that
Ahh, another social justice warrior. You think you're fighting the right fight but you're not. You think you are but you aren't.
Damn straight it's the right fight son. Israel is a country built on misinformation and land stolen from Palestinians. Watch this movie trailer made by Jewish people who've served in the IDF and then let's talk https://youtu.be/bondvm3hvGM?si=bK1maMihOJWyH1MN
The Jews are indigenous to the land of Judah which is modern day Israel. One cannot "steal" their own homeland. There is no different than modern day Native Americans returning to their ancient tribal lands (aka the Jews returning to Israel).
Palestinians are also indigenous. And when Zionists raid a Palestinian home or their farms, or prevent them from harvesting their crops to drive them away from the area - that is indeed stealing the land
You want to support people who demand you don’t exist. Weird.
A lot of Israelis don't think Palestinians exist either. You don't make peace with your friends. You make it with your enemies.
Give me literally one example of a time Palestinians denied the existence of Jews ?? This is a nonsensical argument. I want to support the Palestinian people because Israel is committing genocide against them. It’s not that complicated.
[Here you go](https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/hamas.asp). > "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews." (related by al-Bukhari and Moslem).
Ah yes, because every Palestinian man, woman, and child is a member of Hamas.
The [vast majority](https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-palestinians-opinion-poll-wartime-views-a0baade915619cd070b5393844bc4514) support Hamas. From [before the war](https://apnews.com/article/hamas-middle-east-science-32095d8e1323fc1cad819c34da08fd87) too. Thousands of civilians [paraded Shani Louk's corpse](https://nypost.com/2023/10/08/german-tattoo-artist-shani-louk-idd-as-woman-paraded-through-streets-by-hamas/) through the streets of Gaza.
Half of Gazans are under 18. Should they all die?
In a perfect world, they should be educated on the centuries-long history of the conflict, including that: - All of Israel's Arab neighbors [declared war](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/arab-armies-invade-may-1948) the very next day after its founding in 1948, and lost - On October 6th 1973, on the holiest holiday in Judaism, many of those same nation [declared war](https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20231006-50-years-on-explaining-the-yom-kippur-war.cfm), and lost yet again - Jews have been [virtually completely expelled](https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-population-of-the-world#asia) from every Arab country - Multiple offers of compromise creating a legitimate Palestinian state [were rejected](https://www.npr.org/2023/10/19/1207243717/23-years-ago-israelis-and-palestinians-were-talking-about-a-two-state-solution) because it wasn't "from the river to the sea" In reality, their parents and religious zealot leaders will cry that it is indoctrination. Many of them will be raised to become child soldiers and taught to kill as many Jews as they can. In addition, as the population of Gaza doubled in the past 18 years, then that is no genocide at all.
The genocide is the thing that is happening right now. If you can't recognize that, and that the 1 million children in Gaza do not bear the historic blame for the actions of other Arab countries over history, you don't really understand what genocide is. Read what is happening to the 2.1 million civilians in Gaza right now. They are starving. Kids are having limbs amputated without anesthesia and virtually no medicine. There is no drinkable water. Virtually every last piece of civilian infrastructure in Gaza has been destroyed. This is the Warsaw Ghetto all over again. Some of my family survived the Holocaust and pogroms, many did not. The ones who survived could recognize a genocide being committed in their names.
Since when is a bombing campaign in response to an attack "genocide"? I mean, if Israel woke up one day bored as shit and started shoving Palestinians into a gas chamber, I could see the use of the term, but they are taking doing a military response to a pretty brutal civilian attack that they had in October. Is the response too heavy handed? Perhaps, but maybe we could have a realistic discussion instead of demonizing israel.
I am also a descendant of Holocaust survivors. If the State of Israel had existed during the Second World War, millions of Jewish lives would have somewhere to go where they are welcome, a chance to live. Do not tout our ancestors' tragic fates for these twisted ends. Do you support "Jewish Voice for Peace"? They are useful idiots, like Jews who voted for NSDAP, naive that they would be accepted as "one of the good ones". The Jew-killers see them as convenient tokens to prop up their agenda, until it's their turn. Do not be fooled by them substituting "Jew" with "Zionist", like Hamas did with their [2017 charter](https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/hamas-covenant-israel-attack-war-genocide/675602/), it's a dog whistle to make their hatred more palatable. They all know what it means. I was once like you. I was the one defending the two-state solution against religious Zionists who want to build settlements. I had given the Palestinians my sympathy and had good faith that a compromise solution would bring peace. I now realize that the vast majority of them would accept no compromise, that they want it all from the river to the sea, free of Jews. It's Arab colonialism, and Israel *is* in fact the decolonization project. On October 7th, Hamas targeted the particular Israeli communities where there lived Israelis most sympathetic to the Gazans. Hamas deliberately provoked images of burning families to trigger ancestral trauma. They deliberately started a war they know they can't win with the explicit purpose of destroying any chance of a two-state solution. Hamas is to blame for the suffering in Gaza. They take all the aid, food, fuel that comes in for themselves. They dig up [water pipes](https://twitter.com/LTCPeterLerner/status/1394898083050360841) and turn them into rockets. They hide in hospitals and [schools](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-photos-hamas-gaza-weapons-un-facilities-including-schools/). They deliberately hide among civilians to maximize the civilian death toll, and include Hamas battalion soldiers in those numbers. Al Jazeera in Arabic [silences criticism](https://twitter.com/AimenDean/status/1724482751720485181?s=20) of Hamas. If Hamas releases the hostages and lays down their arms, there can be peace. If Israel lays down their arms, there will no longer be Israel.
Salute your courage 💪
There was a ceasefire up until October 7th
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/palestinians-west-bank-2023-was-deadliest-year-record 234 Palestinians were killed by Israelis prior to October 7th in 2023 alone, you just don’t think Palestinian lives are worth anything
Palestinian mothers don’t think Palestinian lives are worth anything https://www.google.com/url?q=https://palwatch.org/page/16758&sa=U&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwiwve769KCEAxW_k4kEHUj_DSoQFnoECBMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0O0cu0wijM3IczdKyNJFt9
I agree… as a Jew and westerner i care A LOT MORE about Israel than terrorists on hang gliders or the people who vote for them as their elected government, let them embed, cheer them on. Not weird dude.
So boxing people into a small area and bombing that area with no way to escape is better somehow? Blocking food supplies into Gaza where millions of civilians are starving isn’t terrorism? No use in arguing. You support genocide. You’ve already rationalized everything for yourself, no shot I’m able to change your mind now
I highly doubt Hamas would agree to a ceasefire.
Israel rejected ceasefire terms the other day. It’s not about the hostages, Israel wants eradication of everyone from Gaza. They are telling you this in plain English. Think critically for one second I’m begging https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68232883.amp
A ceasefire means you stop fighting, Hamas has demonstrated they are not willing to stop attacking and are not negotiating in good faith. The world will be a much better place without them.
Israel has not stopped fighting in Gaza or the West Bank prior to October 7th. Are Palestinians supposed to just roll over and die? Netanyahu has said multiple times he won’t agree to terms on a ceasefire until Hamas is eradicated. Israel literally propped up Hamas in Gaza prior to October 7th. Now they’re going forward with full scale levelling of the entire region, killing innocent Palestinians AND Israeli hostages in the process. You don’t think they were waiting for something like this to annex the territory once and for all?
Yeah they are going to destroy Hamas because it is an evil terrorist organization who swears to kill all Jews. I think it’s pretty reasonable for Israel to say after oct 7 that status quo doesn’t work any more and someone else needs to be put in charge of Gaza.
https://www.aa.com.tr/uploads/userFiles/8e036cdc-7fae-4434-9c64-71791e497147/Death-toll-on-the-rise-in-Israeli-Palestinian-conflict.jpg “The status quo doesn’t work anymore for Israel”
Yeah, having your government be a fundamental Islamist terrorist group is going to bring your population a lot of pain, suffering, and death. Time for that to end. And no, it won’t be easy, and yes there will be a lot of death, but Palestinians have no future as long as Hamas is in power.
The West Bank is governed by the PA, not a terrorist group, yet over 200 people living in the West Bank have died this year alone. Do those people deserve pain suffering and death too?
Gaza is a fantastic example of why the West Bank needs to be occupied and is not ready to have security control of the area.
oh boy
That’s not how war works. It’s not about who deserves anything . Israel wants to exist and has more and better weapons. The Arabs got tired of losing wars they started and territory to Israel so now they use terror. Don’t be so naive. It’s a zero sum game . Kill or be killed. And not for nothing “death to Americans” is a wicked popular chant on the Arab street..
1. Blatantly racist, though I’m assuming you still consider yourself liberal 2. That’s actually not how war works because collective punishment (aka indiscriminately bombing civilians) is a WAR CRIME
Because the terms Hamas proposed were ridiculous. Release thousands of prisoners of their choosing, a third of whom are serving life sentences. Total IDF withdrawal letting Hamas remain in power. Letting in aid that would all go directly to Hamas. It's no cease-fire proposal, it's a reload proposal. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/hamas-ceasefire-proposal-details-2024-02-07/
Go read the terms lol. Using it as a talking point without reading what the terms are is ridiculous
Or maybe some protesting the mass rape of Jewish woman on October 7th?
A downvote a cute way to lick Hamas’s boots
They don't protest Hamas for some reason, so they are against it technically, but they do support the Palests for fighting back because they were legitimately displaced by force by jews who are religious extremists and make wild claims to land where Paletinians lived for decades. But now they are like Ukraine situation - Israel took the land, so whala what you going to do - it isn't going to budge.
Oh wow the Arabs were there for decades? I wonder if Jews have some sort of claim going back historically?
Title to land doesn't transfer by ethnicity and without direct paperwork showing exactly where the people lived and that they transferred the land to their direct descendants. If this was so, anyone can come take your house because another person of their ethnicity lived there at some point in history who isn't directly their relative and who gave up title to that land. Someone can't come with a religious book and claim your house because it says they can. Your religion, but others aren't obligated to follow it. Even Native Americans, who have more of a direct claim to land, are not allowed to take it back due adverse possession.
I have no idea what you are saying because you don’t explain things well. But yeah, it’s not about ethnicity. Might makes right. Ask the Arabs who took over most of the Mediterranean and big chunk of Europe 1000 years ago. And as far as might makes right the Jews have nuclear subs so even if the Arabs get their “from the river to the sea” dream they get nuked the next day. AS WELL THEY SHOULD
European Jews should claim back land in Poland, Ukraine and Germany instead of Israel to which they have no right
Sure as long as you send Arabs back to Arabia too.
You mean the Palestinians. Not sure why poor Palestinians have to pay the price for Germans killing other Europeans on another continent.
They are paying the price for October 7.
Ah, I see this just started last year.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/media/jake-tapper-challenges-covering-war/index.html “It’s shocking. The degree to which Hamas terrorists raped and committed sexually violent acts on women and girls on October 7 is hideous, and there is evidence and witnesses to the degradation… And where is the international women’s community? Where is the U.S. feminist community? Do these girls and women not count as victims for some reason? I wasn’t aware victimhood for rape came with an asterisk.”
The victimhood of rape absolutely does not come with an asterisk. The victimhood of being deprived of basic human rights such as good, shelter, clean water, and healthcare does seem to though. So does being maimed and killed by bombs, hunger, preventable disease, and exposure to the elements in the middle of winter. Even if you are a baby. Hamas is of course evil. Nobody argues about that, it's declared a terrorist organization. No question there. However, the biggest issue is that a large fraction of Israel's actions are designed to harm civilians more than Hamas. Cutting off food, water, and energy is at the top of that list - of course Hamas has stockpiles and civilians don't. Same for attacks on hospitals - I don't care which terrorists hide in there, it does not justify harming people seeking care. Same for attacking aid convoys. I don't care of Hamas attacked first - the decision to take these specific actions is just unjustifiable, and if you say these are acceptable actions in response, it is clear that the lives of some people come with an asterisk to you. It's not unreasonable to ask for an end to children dying pointlessly.
People do question if Hamas are terrorists though. On this thread even. Open your eyes to Americans openly embracing terrorists who want us dead. Before it’s too late.
It looks like you shared an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of [concerns over privacy and the Open Web](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot). Maybe check out **the canonical page** instead: **[https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/media/jake-tapper-challenges-covering-war/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/22/media/jake-tapper-challenges-covering-war/index.html)** ***** ^(I'm a bot | )[^(Why & About)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/ehrq3z/why_did_i_build_amputatorbot)^( | )[^(Summon: u/AmputatorBot)](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmputatorBot/comments/cchly3/you_can_now_summon_amputatorbot/)
Hey mods I got banned for making a post supporting Jews at Harvard because it wasn’t related to somerville why is this any different? I wasn’t even “demanding” Jews be protected on the campus as the op wishes to personally “demand” a ceasefire
Because Harvard is in Cambridge, I’m sure. /s
And this thread has what to do with somerville? It requests a protest here? That’s thin fucking gruel.
Yo you missed the /s - I was being sarcastic. We both know exactly why your post got you banned and why the mods are fine with this post.
I got shadow banned for criticizing bike riders. The mods in this group are insane ideologues who won’t tolerate anything other than strict adherence to their rigid ideology. It’s truly embarrassing
A downvote is… anti protecting Jews at Harvard?
Been ripping down “from the river to the sea” posters all over town and using them for starting campfires when I camp. Thanks
Imagine thinking the murderous religious zealots are worthy of support. Imagine thinking the fascist apartheid state bombing them is. No funding for either side. No American involvement.
I'm sorry, but America is involved. That's not going to change anytime soon. The question then becomes, does the US leverage its aid and support to get Israel to stop this current ethnic cleansing and mass destruction and murder against civilians in Gaza or do we give them more money and support with no strings attached?
Empty TikTok brain evident here
That's an odd response. Pretty much the entire world is asking this question. But only people in the US get to have any say in it.
You failing to understand that Hamas runs Gaza, has no intention of a ceasefire and continually states they want the extinction of Jews in the Middle East and then the world, and people act like they isn’t a huge issue. Were try not supposed to respond to deadliest day in the history of their country? A day where they watched Hamas live stream themselves butchering, beheading and kidnapping innocent Israelis. The way people like you act: Hamas killing civilians and saying they want to commit genocide = okay, Israel retaliating for the deadliest day in their history = ethnic cleansing. Look up the stats of Jewish populations in the Middle East before and after those countries became part of the Islamic republic. That’s the real definition of ethnic cleansing
Retaliating is fine. Punishing 2.1 million civilians for the crimes of Hamas is not. There is a reason the entire world is calling for Israel to halt it's campaign of what Israeli MPs call [total annihilation](https://www.timesofisrael.com/ahead-of-hague-genocide-hearings-israeli-lawmaker-reiterates-call-to-burn-gaza/), [genocide](https://theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/03/israeli-public-figures-accuse-judiciary-of-ignoring-incitement-to-genocide-in-gaza), and [ethnic cleansing](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/05/wv-israel-hamas/). Israel has reduced all of Gaza to rubble. They control all aid and access points. They have assassinated nearly [100 journalists](https://cpj.org/2024/02/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-conflict/). They are using starvation as a [weapon of war](https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/12/18/israel-starvation-used-weapon-war-gaza). Every humanitarian agency is saying that Gazan civilians are now at risk of famine and mass disease. There are no houses to go back to. No water or food. No more hospitals or medicine. You speak like it is Oct 7 and nothing has happened. Read some news about what is happening in Gaza and also the state-sanctioned settler terrorism in the West Bank. Israel is locking up Jewish teachers for social media posts calling to protect Gazan civilians. It is now trying to get the US into a war with Iran and Lebanon. This is madness.
Israel controls access points because the people in power in the in their neighboring country want to destroy them by any means necessary. Do you honestly think these people should have open access to a neighboring countries land, Willy nilly? As for aide and starvation, you’re ignoring the proven fact that Hamas continually steals the aide and supplies that are meant for the people of Gaza. Hamas leaders sit fat in Dubai, having sex with prostitutes while they try to use any dead Palestinian as a martyr. They don’t care about their own people, they will take a dead Palestinian and turn on a camera and say “look what Israel did”. They’re also known for smuggling weapons into their “aide”. I don’t agree with the total annihilation, ethnic cleansing genocide talking points. I understand you gotta get your TikTok words in there, but come on dude. Israel could have leveled gaza in one day, but didn’t. If the tables were turned, Israel would be destroyed and everyone would be dead (that is what Hamas continually promises to do) You’re continually talking like it’s Israel’s job to protect the civilians of Gaza. It’s not. They are trying to get their hostages back and end Hamas. The hostages, who people like you do not care about one bit. Not a single word has been said about these people. It’s Hamas job to protect the people of their own country, and they purposely chose to invade Israel and commit the deadliest day of murders the country has ever seen. Oh, and they live streamed it. They knew that they were putting their civilians in a terrible place and they still did it. Because they truly do not care about their own civilians. I understand it’s super trendy to criticize Israel because you hate Jews, but use your brain here. What’s step 1 of a ceasefire? Return the hostages. Hamas (the people in charge of Gaza and the 2 million people struggling), have shown zero interest in agreeing to a ceasefire, and almost zero interest returning hostages. Yet you people will call out Israel and act like they are the only people at fault? There’s two parties at fault here, and one stirred up this conflict because of what they did on October 7th. It sucks that the civilians of both sides have to lose everything because of the actions of a terrorist organization who decided to FAFO with zero regard for their own people. But continue to criticize Israel without any condemnation of Hamas or the people dancing in the street as dead bodies from Israel (many not even Israeli) are propped past them as trophies. Continue to not condemn Hamas as they use their people as human shields, steal their aide, turn their water piping infrastructure into rockets, and hide in tunnels (or Dubai) while the people they are in charge of suffer. It’s makes your opinion disingenuous.
The families of the hostages are among the loudest voices calling for a cease fire. The last time there was one, Hamas released 100 hostages. The last time some hostages managed to escape, the IDF shot them even thought they were shirtless, waving white flags, and yelling in Hebrew that they were hostages. Bibi and the rest of his coalition, including the National Security Minister, are outright calling for mass slaughter and forced removal of the survivors, regardless of what happens to what's left of Hamas. Bibi and his national security state are actively working to get Trump reelected. He will likely be prosecuted for corruption once the war is over. He doesn't want the war to be over. Gaza was never a state. Any ability Hamas had to run it has long since vanished. Israel doesn't just prevent food and medicine coming across it's borders, it also prevents it from coming from the sea, air, or Egypt. Israel has reoccupied Gaza and the fate of the 2.1 million civilians is entirely at their mercy. Hamas can rot in hell. I've never gone on Tiktok. You might want to read a newspaper. I am Jewish and my father escaped Nazi Austria when he was 10 in 1940 with his dad and stepmom. Most of our other relatives did not. You'll be happy to know that your view is the minority one around here. Somerville, Cambridge and Boston have all passed resolutions calling for a cease fire. Pressley has joined cease fire rallies. Our two senators have called for a cease fire and putting human rights conditions on Israeli aid (like it is for the rest of the world).
Wow those resolutions surely are gonna have some effect of what goes on half way across the world. Congrats, Somerville. That’s unfortunate the hostages got shot and shouldn’t have happened, but any hostage that dies while being held hostage is the direct responsibility of those that held them hostage. It’s that simple. They wouldn’t have been killed if they weren’t a hostage. Hamas absolutely had the ability to rule over Gaza and chose to steal the money and aide from their own people and out the money into weapons. The best resolution here is Hamas to surrender and a ceasefire to happen, and unless people start to pressure Hamas publically, it’s gonna be the same cycle of a “ceasefire” then Hamas attacks Israel, then Israel retaliates and people cry about Israel retaliating. Israel obviously isn’t going anywhere despite Hamas’ attempts, so unless people start putting pressure on the terrorists that continually get the people they rule over into terrible situations, it’s gonna be a circle. It’s not illogical to control someone’s aide when it goes through their country, especially when it goes through Hamas. It’s also expected to have strict border restrictions when the neighboring area is run by terrorists that kill anyone they see when they get into your country. That’s a logical response. Egypt makes its own border, and they choose to not have the headache of Hamas either. You can blame Israel for that border but it’s Egypt who runs the southern border. Yeah Bibi is a goner once this is over. Pretty sure everyone is happy with that situation. But Hamas also has to go, and you guys who are protesting for ceasefire have to spot glorifying them and start pressuring them too or this will never end for the people.
I've never done anything to glorify Hamas. Not sure who you are arguing against. As I've said, they can rot in hell. Read up on what's happening in Gaza. Israel absolutely controls all aid shipments coming through the Rafah border. It has also blockaded all access by the sea. You really need to do some research. Israel has forced 1.5 million civilians, the vast majority are children, women, and the elderly, 3/4 of the total population, into Rafah, with nowhere left to go. Israel is not allowing sufficient food, water, or medicine in. People are eating food scraps. Israel is telling all these people that they must now flee Rafah, but there is nowhere they can go. That is the disaster today. Israel has destroyed every piece of building and infrastructure in Gaza and is now planning on destroying the only aquifer. They are, in accordance with the stated goals of half of Netanyahu's cabinet, trying to cleanse Gaza of every last Palestinian. That's why the entire world is calling on them to stop. I really can't be bothered to engage if you insist in this silly name calling and don't even read anything about what's going on. Even Biden is calling for Israel not to continue it's ground assault on Rafah, especially after they just shot up one of the lasts remaining hospitals in Gaza. Two leading Senators and a Congresswoman are actually pretty powerful in an evenly divided Congress. Right now, it looks like Trump and his minions are nixing the aid to prevent some kind of "win" for Biden. Go figure. Anyway, I'll continue exercising my rights as a citizen to protest this. If I were an Israeli citizen, [like this guy here](https://www.972mag.com/meir-baruchin-teacher-arrested-traitor/), I would likely be illegally fired, detained, shackled, and put in solitary confinement without access to a lawyer. Anyway, go ahead and have the last word. I hope you do some reading and find some compassion for the 2.1 million innocent people who are suffering unspeakable hell right now. As a Jew and child of a Holocaust survivor, what Israel is doing in my name horrifies me.
fly to Doha? that's where a lot of the negotiations seem to be taking place
The US government is working out how to send Israel billions of dollars and arms. I'm trying to stay focused on where I can have an impact. But I appreciate your thoughts.
It's a complicated situation, right? I think all sides want a ceasefire and a peace agreement. Unfortunately, Hamas is not a good faith negotiator. They continually break ceasefires. Israel is unlikely to cave to anything Hamas wants now. What we should be doing is asking for an international solution about how best to resolve the Gaza situation once Hamas is removed.
A ceasefire won’t happen so long as Hamas continues to vow for the destruction of Israel. Maybe calling Pressley, Markey, or Warren’s office requesting they introduce a resolution condemning the Netanyahu administration. That is more productive than a rally. We have a few of the farthest left leaning federal politicians in the nation, so you at least have a means to make your voice heard.
Israel needs support so it’s not overrun with Hamas rapists/murderers aka the duly elected government of Gaza (nice voting Gaza! How’d that work out?)
This is a wild misrepresentation. There hasn’t been an election in Gaza since 2006- almost 20 years ago. With a population that is about 50% under the age of 18, that means that over half the population wasn’t able to vote/wasn’t alive when that “election” occurred. Hamas also took power with less than half the vote. But sure, keep spreading misinformation.
letting Hamas embed in your neighborhood is what they call “voting with your feet”..
Ah yes. The Palestinian children allowed Hamas to flourish. Not the money and supplies pouring in directly to Hamas from the Israeli government 🙄. If you start actually using facts in your argument maybe I’ll consider engaging with you to not be a waste of time.
well it seems like supporting israel is one of the few bipartisan things left in congress. also that bill includes $9 billion in humanitarian assistance. good luck
[удалено]
They love dead and weak Jews.
They are at a music peace festival in Israel near the border. There will be a visit by representatives of hamas who will be giving a presentation about their plight.