u/shoo

You don't nose dive your country and lock up/deport dissenters over chump change, you're losing more in stability and face (and the more lucrative bribes that come with those) than its worth. Trump's irrational instability has dropped the dollar value more than any of these donations could cover. The math doesn't add up.

The payment you're describing is a tithe; a show of gratitude and servitude. You wouldn't say a feudal vassal has power over his lord just because the material exchange only goes one way.

I really don't understand where this idea comes from of a country with the 40th rank GDP having the pull to mastermind politics worldwide. For reference: their revenue is about the same as Apple, whose lobbying sees less success despite being _more_ politically neutral.

The reason they have international support is because it's convenient and their location + antagonism align with the geopolitics of a large group of states. Isreal is a dog on a leash, what we're seeing Trump do is give them unprecedented lead to genocide at will.

Letting them go this far and long without tugging their collar back to peace talks is _not_ the historical norm, no matter how hard you point at Biden. Did Biden take direct military action to support them? Has any US president?

This Isreali lobbying is a boogeyman; Isreal could dissolve tomorrow and you would see another antagonist spring up in the region with international backing. People are just uncomfortable with their country being aligned with the bad guys of their own free will.

If you're going as far as throwing out monetary economics, cheap doesn't mean anything. You're just describing equitable transportation access.

Even in that scenario, it's not desirable to have that reliance on a foreign state for such a core function. Power dynamics aside, global supply chains are brittle (as seen during covid).

Don't really care about the competition. I care about having cheap access to [X]. If the competition can't compete, then fuck em. That's not my problem.

This comment is the American consumer for the last 50 years, next step is complaining about outsourcing jobs and lower quality products with no competition.

When did I say that? All I want is for all belligerents to be held to the same standard. Show me the evidence that these missiles are falling on targets with strategic importance; show me that they're making efforts to not waste human lives. It's clear that Israel's attacks are not and they're rightly called out for it. Why is Iran above the same scrutiny?

US was the invader during the Vietnam War so that's a bad example all around

Why is it a bad example? Does being the defender in a war make you immune to war crimes? It's indiscriminate killing of non combatants either way.

You're just wildly incorrect on all fronts here.

since you were the one talking about nations’ flags

A nation is not a nation state, and a population doesn't have to be a sovereign state to have a flag.

No, they did it in order to hit their targets, which were often cities.

Exactly, to limit collateral damage. Germany (and the RAF's night bombing, to be fair) also targeted cities with strategic war industries, they just cared more about their pilots' safety than civilian lives.

You’re putting words in my mouth.

I'm not at all, I'm pointing out the lack of criticism for clips like the one above. There's not even reserved judgment until we know what got hit and who died, just full throated support based only on the name of the city being bombed. I'm the only one here wanting evidence that these attacks are targeting anything of value and limiting non combatant deaths.

Remember when Israel was criticized for half-hearted pamphlet dropping to warn of barrages? All the scorn at Israel's reports of the use of human shields? The outrage over bombing population centers and refugee camps allegedly hiding rockets? Zionists saying Palestinians deserved bombing because they elected Hamas and had parties celebrating Oct 7 and X% of Palestines supported Y?

I'm seeing the exact same comments in reverse. Just read the comments on this post. But this time nobody bats an eye because the "right" people are dying.

I don't see how that makes a difference? Israel bombing civilians with precision doesn't make imprecise bombing of civilians more acceptable. Everyone ends up just as dead. It just makes it more palatable for people who value retribution above civilian lives.

To put it another way: if you want to hit a military target but can't do so without outsized collateral damage, you don't have ethical grounds to make the attack. You don't see people defending the USA's use of Agent Orange in Vietnam just because it was the only feasible way to clear foliage.

Holy fuck you don't even know what a nation is lmfao

If there’s anything to be learned from WWII, it’s that no one is more antifascist than communists.

If you knew anything about WW2, you'd know that strategic bombing of population centers was a futile effort that wasted lives. Allies and Axis both admitted it, and the Allies even stuck to day bombing to limit collateral damage.

I've been asking up and down this thread for any context on what these bombs hit, any evidence at all, and all I get is equivocation like yours.

Your "critical support" isn't very critical at all, it's pretty one dimensional. Isreal bombs a population center: bad. Iran bombs an Isreal population center: good. I've seen no depth beyond that.

These aren't people being tried for their crimes, not even people being picked out and put in front of a firing squad. This is an explosion in a city. You have no clue who might have been in that area any more than I do.

How many residents have fired a weapon against a Palestinian? 30% if you're being generous? That's about the same as the population of children.

You're OK with those odds? Or does your form of communism always cheer at indiscriminate death so long as some of the right people get caught in it? If X% of the population drinks the apartheid propoganda kool-aid it's open season? What's your number?

Nobody expects the state to relinquish power without violence, but that doesn't mean it's OK to cheer clips of massive explosions within lethal range of civilian houses.

I have yet to see anyone share hard evidence that these are targeted at military areas, let alone actually hitting them. Just a bunch of equivocation about military reserves and public opinion polls. Isreal rightfully caught shit for their pager attack being too indiscriminate but an explosion clearing half a city block isn't?

Total population of Israel: 9.2 million

Total IDF personnel (including reservists): 500k

Total settler population: 700k

Total Isreal police force: <30k

But sure, let's glass them all. Especially the 86% that have no active involvement with what's going on. You sound like a goddamn fool.

Edit: let me cut off the horseshit collective punishment argument before you make it: you're still cheering for your own class to be slaughtered

Here's a fun fact, did you know that 65 other countries _also_ have mandatory military service, including Iran? Being a class traitor by the law of the state doesn't make you not proletariat.

Abandoning massive chunks of workers based only on their place of birth or the bubble of propoganda they live in is the opposite of every reputable leftist ideology. If your empathy for the people crushed under the rubble of an apartment complex depends on the flag out front then just admit you're a frothing nationalist and stop pretending.

For an instance nominally based on worker solidarity and elevating the proletariat, everyone sure is pretty quick to throw that out the window for tribalism and nationalism

Where is that evidence? I'm not denying it, I'm asking for it and nobody provides it.

Edit: from what I can tell that F35 rumor started in 2024 as a meme mocking Israel's claims of apartments hiding Hezbollah weapons. Why would you stack up $100m planes in a place extremely hard to scramble them and perform maintenance?

How? Nobody dies and the neighborhood ends up destroyed? It's the exact same thing.

By all means, I'll take evidence that they've been hitting military targets. My issue is with people cheering videos like this lacking any of that evidence at all.

And no, having a bunker doesn't make a civilian population fair game. It's the same thing as crowding people into internment camps while you level their neighborhood.

Comment sections have been absolutely fucked since this started. I've seen some reports that these are hitting military targets but apparently I should be cheering about rockets landing a few dozen meters from this apartment?

I remember a video of an Israeli rocket hitting just outside a shop window in Yemen/Iran at a similar distance and people were balking that it could be hitting anything of strategic importance. Suddenly pictures of collapsed apartments and hospitals are fine because it's the guys you don't like?

Apparently it's a bad take for me to think civilians shouldn't be bombed regardless of how much Zionist brainwashing they have. People talking about "they deserve it" and pointing to Isreal opinion polls showing 60% support X awful thing. Last time I checked, a rocket doesn't take a survey before it explodes. So 4/10 people in that explosion deserve to die by association?

You all make me sick, down vote away.

Oh I'm sure, but it seemed like a different beast. American Idol was really tuned into the characters and personal drama, there was never that much meta-drama. Almost like the Super Bowl vs. World Cup

Forgive my American ignorance, but do people actually watch Eurovision as entertainment? I feel like I've only ever heard of it as an arena for politics/protest/controversy, never "hey listen to this great song that won". Is the controversy part of the draw?