Far-right Israeli minister orders preparations for West Bank annexation
aljazeera.com
"Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has ordered preparations for the annexation of the occupied West Bank ahead of US President-elect Donald Trump taking office in January 2025."
For the American voters to make sure it sinks in.
But Harris was responsible of this genocide!!! Turd said he would solve the war in a day!!!1!!1!!111!one!!1
And that's actually true. He'd just let Israel complete the genocide.
The Harris campaign made the decision to not break from Biden on Israel, at the cost of a +6 points gain. That's the fault of the campaign's calculations to ignore those voters, take them for granted, and instead run to the right with Liz Cheney and having the most lethal Military.
I voted for Harris and told others to do the same. It's still on the campaign. Blaming voters is just sowing division when we need unity and solidarity to fight against Fascism.
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American Attitudes: Shifting Realities After the Unfolding Genocide in Gaza (Nov 2024)
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Let's be honest, I voted for Harris. But her message was essentially:
"Vote for Kamala Harris. She will enable a slow genocide. But her opponent, Donald Trump, will enable a fast genocide. She is clearly the superior choice."
Saying that Kamala would be better than Trump was objectively true. However, it was also just shit, brain-dead, zero-awareness messaging. You cannot practically run on a message of, "yes, I will enable genocide, but my opponent will enable it WORSE!"
It's just a shit, poorly thought out message. Who actually is this for? Those pro-Zionist voters won't be persuaded either way. Those who want to see the Palestinians genocided will go with Trump instead, as he'll get the job done faster. Those opposed to genocide were asked to hold their nose and vote for someone who should be on trial at the Hague, simply because she was running against someone who deserves to be on trial at the Hague even more!
It's like running a campaign saying, "yes, I have some Nazi tendencies, but my opponent is a full-on avowed Nazi. My opponent is objectively worse."
A statement can be true, while also being just complete shit in terms of campaign strategy.
"Yes, my candidate is Mussolini, but her opponent is Hitler! Clearly a vote for Mussolini is better than a vote for Hitler!"
Why would you be criticising Mussolini if you didn't secretly want Hitler to win?! I cannot possibly come up with any other explanation. You must be trying to trick us.
Harris was campaigning and bibi knew he had leverage, because the worse it got, the more
anti-israelpro-palestine vote she'd lose. Lose-lose-lose situation for Harris, Palestine, anti-israel voters. That the left was not more strategic about this (e.g. Bernie's stance, which was strategic), I blame on great russian disinfo and agitators, not just shit intrinsic takes from the left.Yup. And she let him play her like a fiddle. And there are like, 3 anti-Israel voters in the US. Harris lost because of anti-genocide voters, not because of anti-Israeli voters. You seem to be implying that anti-genocide = anti-Israeli.
If you believe that the only way a person can be an Israeli is if they support the massacre of innocent civilians, then you are racist anti-Semitic trash that doesn't deserve to live. If that is the case, please chain yourself to a large rock, and throw the rock in the ocean.
you really didn't get the point, did you? Anti-bibi, anti-genocide, anti-whatever-israel-is-doing. Nitpicking about words and trying to own the moral high ground instead of focusing on the only path that gave you a little leverage. But again, it is not your fault, it was mostly a successful two-pronged campaign by disinformation centrals coming from the left and the right.
Take massive bribes from Israeli funders, actively fund a genocide that couldnt happen without our weapons, shut down palestinian voices in the campaign, and she supressed student free speech herself instead of supporting it.
But you're saying she was going to be better than trump in all this huh. Either she failed to message whatever your talking about, or you're talking nonsense. Theres a "trolley problem" for you.
Yes, there's a trolley problem and it seems pretty clear you picked the lane that ends up killing every single Palestinian.
I voted for Kamala, but be honest. The only difference between Kamala and Trump in terms of Palestine is that Trump supports a fast overt genocide, while Kamala supports a slow and quiet genocide. Neither of them care two shits if every last Palestinian is exterminated. Kamala just wants the genocide to be slow and quiet enough that she doesn't have to answer awkward questions about it.
Harris: "I will do everything in my power to end the war in Gaza, to bring home the hostages, end the suffering in Gaza, ensure Israel is secure, and ensure the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, freedom, security and self-determination"
Doesn't sound like a genocide to me, slow or otherwise.
Vague bullshit platitudes. That's all she offered.
What you quoted is indistinguishable for saying, "I want all the good things for both Israelis and Palestinians! I like good things. I don't like bad things."
Zero acknowledgement about the hard choices involved.
She says she'll do "everything in her power," but we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she is lying.
Will she make US offensive aid contingent on a cease fire?
Will she make US defensive aid contingent on a cease fire?
Will she support US military aid contingent on Israel ending its ethnic-cleansing-by-zoning code in the West Bank?
Will she support slapping sanctions on Israeli leaders who support genocide and ethnic cleansing?
Will she agree to not interfere with the attempts to prosecute Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court?
Will she make long-term support of Israel contingent on the establishment of a two-state solution?
She cares for the Palestinians, but only if she doesn't have to life a finger for them.
Kamala is to the right of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush when it comes to actually reigning in Israeli excesses.
Again, Kamala supports a SLOW GENOCIDE. She doesn't mind genocide. She isn't willing to lift a finger to restrict it. Her only concern at all for the matter is that it might hurt her at the polls, so she opposes the kind of overt ethnic cleansing that Trump supports. Trump supports putting a line of tanks on the east side of the Gaza Strip and just driving forward until the entire Gazan population is forced into the sea. That's the kind of overt genocide Trump supports.
But in practice, Kamala is little different. I voted for Kamala, but I did so reluctantly. She says she opposes genocide, but those are meaningless words not backed by actual practice. Actions matter, words don't. And by her actions, it is clear she and Biden support genocide. They just want it done quietly.
Well, now we won't have Harris. So I guess that's moot.
Yup. You got that right.
But it doesn't matter. I'm not american and I already accepted that we're heading to what probably means the extinction of our race (i still have some hope that I'm wrong but not that much). So you know wnat? I'm just gonna sit, grab some popcorn and enjoy the ride while he fucks his country over and over while he fucks climate over and over. At least i'll go knowing that I tried to avoid it, not to accelerate it.
It's more the non-voters that it needed to sink in with but it's too late for that.
Do you understand who is president right now?
Can we finally stop pretending that Israel is an "ally." I consider the state of Israel to be an enemy to the general American public.
The general American public just voted in favor of this. The alliance will only be strengthend under Trump.
That doesn't change my opinion. That alliance is to the U.S. government, not to the U.S. people. I consider them to be a hostile entity.
Okay, but they can't be an enemy of the american public if that same public votes for a president that supports Israel and its genocide.
Don't know what to tell you. I'm expressing my opinion on how I personally see them, which is an entity that is openly hostile to the American public.
People voting for them doesn't negate this. It only means that people vote against their own self-interests, which is nothing new as we've seen time and time again.
Narrowing down the options to apartheid/genocide and the abolition of the Jewish character of Israel. In other words killing off the last vestiges of a non-fascist version of Zionism that a "small Israel" could allow.
So, liberal Zionists: which side are you on?
Dude I gave up the moment I heard on the radio that the fucker killed Rabin. If you want to live in Zion move to New York.
...also, to the rest of the thread: If you think the US election was decided on Israel, please go outside and touch grass. Talk to people. You know, those flesh-and blood things usually found within metal containers on rubber circles that you rarely interact with. Ask them. Practically nobody in the US gives a fuck, and especially not enough of a fuck for it to be the #1 cause of things.
I am absolutely not a Zionist, but this is kind of a shitty thing to say.
https://www.oed.com/dictionary/jew-york_n?tl=true
The answer to "if you want to live in Zion" is "too bad."
New York is host to the second most populous Jewish community, after Tel Aviv, before Jerusalem. That's a fact, not some antisemitic conspiracy theory.
And now you stand here, introducing a derogatory term because... noone said it? What's your intention? Make it more popular? Imply that the sentiment against Jewish New York would be any worse than existing sentiment against Israel? One has quaint strings up power poles and plenty of bagels, the other a genocidal maniac and convicted terrorist as minister of national security, I don't think there's a competition to be had, there.
...or is it that you don't want any more Jews in NYC?
I didn't say that it was a conspiracy theory. I said suggesting that New York is "Zion" just because of its Jewish population is a bad thing to say and I showed you the reason why.
I'm a Jew. I'm a even mod of c/Jewish.
Nice try though.
...no you didn't? You showed that there was a disparaging name for the Jewish community in New York. From that I infer your argument to be "NYC can't be Zion because there exist at least some people that don't like Jews to be there", but, and you won't believe this: There's not a single place in the world where that's not the case. Found a colony on Mars, it'd still be the case. It's not a suitable way to judge a place's suitability to be Zion. Few people being miffed at its existence, sure, but none? That's just an impossible standard.
Okay, well I'm sorry I wasn't clear, but the point is that suggesting New York is Zion for Jews when Christians exponentially outnumber them plays into conspiracy theory nonsense whether or not you intended it that way.
Maybe you don't care you were saying something that could be taken as offensive by Jewish people, but it could.
...and different ethnicities outnumber Jews pretty much everywhere? Or is this about Wall Street? To that I have to say that I'm simply not antisemitic enough to even think about connecting the two, had to wreck my brain for a bit what you might be trying to get at. Certainly more (ethnically) Christian bankers there than Jewish ones.
(And just so you know where I'm coming from: German, grandpa was prosecuted as "half-Jew" (barely enough "German blood" to not end up in a camp, also, Lutheran, great-grandparents not so lucky), I have family in Israel. Long story short: Taking the lessons from my ancestry together, there can be no non-anti-fascist Zionism because fascism is a tragedy also for the perpetrators. There'd never be peace. hevenu_shalom_aleichem.opus)
I told you how what you are saying could be offensive to Jews. Either you care or you don't. Apparently you don't.
And I'm not very impressed with your ancestry. Let me know when someone looks at you and asks you why you support Israel because of your stereotypically Jewish features. Let me know when you walk by someone and they give a Nazi salute. And definitely tell me about the time when you were in high school and someone stole a book you were reading, drew a swastika on every page, then put it back in your backpack later that day.
Your little 'hevenu shalom alecheim' at the end there does not change the fact that what you said can be construed as offensive. This is some "I can tell racist jokes because my grandfather was half-black" territory.
So what? You have a personal responsibility for being offended. It's not everybody else's job to walk on eggshells to avoid offending you. If you go looking for things people have said that can offend you, you're gonna have a shitty time.
Try making an effort to interpret people in the best possible way, and you'll have a much better time, with much fewer people being perceived as "going after you".
I am telling you right now, as a moderator, that I will not tolerate offensive comments from you again. I'm not going to argue with you on the nature of being offensive. We have a very clear civility rule. I don't think it is wise for you to continue this conversation, but I will definitely take a look at other comments of yours in World News and also take note of you in the future.
You're asking a German whether that happens. Yes, yes, it fucking happens occasionally when abroad and I can't even punch them right there in the gob for it because the self-defence laws abroad don't tend to include insult. We also have actual Nazis here and they don't tend to like it when you look like a punk.
I don't want to make this a comparison, much less an Olympics. What I want to say is that I recommend against getting into the habit of assuming you're the only one, or part of the only group, which experiences shitty things. You're not alone, by a long shot. Especially kids are awful and will other you for every- and nothing just because they can. Least of all should you make it, even to the slightest degree, part of your identity: Standing up for justice doesn't require self-victimisation, on the contrary, self-victimisation tends to obscure perception, lock you into tunnel-vision, isolate you from solidarity because why would potential allies give a fuck about your struggle if you can't even see theirs. It's all in all a bad, self-defeating and self-destructive, trip.
"can be construed". You can construe anything to be anything if you try hard enough. I could say "Turkish Halva is better than Israeli Halva" and you could take offence at that, and interpret it as antisemitic (for the record: I can't tell a difference). The Israeli music scene certainly sucks, by and large and maybe glossing over two or three bands you have the choice between escapist electronica and escapist electronica with fascist texts. Was that offensive enough?
I'm perfectly aware of the difference between Jewish jokes and Jew jokes. The former are actually good.
Jesus Christ. You don't know the difference between someone doing a Nazi salute at a German "occasionally" when abroad and someone in the U.S. doing it to a Jew in the U.S.? And having it happen multiple times in my life? Really? Are you really comparing those two things?
Because that's even more fucking offensive.
Especially since you ignored literally everything else I said so you could whine about how you're treated as badly as Jews because you're German.
I didn't even get past that part because you are coming from such a ridiculous position of privilege that you don't even comprehend the idea of what it is like to be on the receiving end of bigotry.
You need to open your eyes.
And since I have tried to be nice about this so far, I will be blunt: I will not tolerate these sort of offensive comments from you any longer. It's up to you whether or not you want to keep poking the bear here.
I'll quote myself:
I hereby formally concede. I want to win this even less than I wanted to start it.
You're off your rocker mate. Being Jewish does not equal being a Zionist, and what does New York have to do with Zion? It's like saying New York is Irish or Italian because they have big populations living there.
No it doesn't, and I never implied that. But Zion, aka a place for Jews to live in peace, happiness and prosperity? Why not NYC? It certainly can be a Zion for some who look for one, I didn't bother to go all "some but not all" for an off-hand quip.
Bruh, fuck isreal and all but let's not get antisemitic here.
Legit. Fuck Israel. Fuck Zionism. Fuck apartheid. Fuck the genocide of Palestinians. But also fuck antisemitism.
It really is interesting to see how quickly seemingly normal folk fall into anti semitism the moment a group of Jewish folk do something terrible. It's like they think that because we are shutting on a state that claims to be a Jewish ethno state that it's valid to shit talk the entire race and religion.
Insidious really.
you're right. it was decided on fear of immigrants, economic ignorance and selfish individualism.
bUt iT DoEsN'T mAtTEr tHey ArE BoTh EqUalLy BaD On pALeStiNe
I mean, aren't they? The only real difference I can see between Kamala and Trump on Palestine is that Kamala prefers a more respectable version of genocide. She supports genocide, but she just wants it to be done slowly and quietly. Trump is on board with a fast and overt genocide. Their policies lead to the same outcome; Trump is just a lot more honest about it.
Harris promised to do everything in her power to end the war in Gaza.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/11/4/harris-says-will-end-gaza-war-in-final-election-appeal-to-arab-americans
I can't even begin to fathom the brain rot required to believe this... I can't tell if it's unfettered ignorance, or just propaganda.
Jesus h. Chist, you ARE the problem in the room. You and people like you.
Had kamela won she could have doubled down in Israel. If not, mass protests could have pushed her. Something, anything could have been done. Hell, even if nothing was done, at least the worst impulses would have been constrained. Now, because of smug assholes like you, the US will likely become a dictatorship, the US likely will pull out of NATO and the entire fucking world will become a much, much dangerous place to live in. Forget about internal policies that will make racism and discrimination against anyone slightly different okay again, this shit affects the whole goddamn world. People like you ate the reason why a Jesus-will-come-back-if-we-end-the-world cult is now in possession of nukes.
Oh, and Palestine is absolutely fucked now.expect it to simply and completely disappear, you are the reason why so many men, women and children will be slaughtered
Thank you!
I voted for Kamala, ya dingus. I just have enough self-reflection to note that her messaging was shit and that there was little difference between the two of them when it came to Palestine. I voted for her because of domestic policy, not foreign policy.
There are lessons to be learned here. And sticking our heads in the sand will not help us learn those lessons. And one of those lessons should absolutely be that, "vote for me. I support genocide, but my opponent supports it EVEN MORE!" is a shit campaign message. Whoever thought of that strategy should be shot.
Her message was shit. I still don't think that Israel would feel comfortable annexing the west bank like this under her presidency. The dems are cooling on Israel, especially since it was slowly leading them into a war with Iran and tensions with Saudi Arabia. So I'm not saying the dems are better on this issue for altruism. No. I think Gaza was fucked either way and the dems are complicit in genocide there. But I do think Trump will directly result in expansion and full out war into the west bank and then the whole region in a way Harris wouldn't have and they are very different in that way.
This is ridiculous nonsense. Why would she. The Harris campaign ran on the strategy that she could ignore the voices of Palestinians and their allies during the most vulnerable time for her. Why would she do anything if she was delivered into power. The whole point of her doing that was to prove that she didn’t need support from the antigenocide crowd. Why do you believe she would do anything if we gave her power. All the leverage is gone at that point. You are being delusional.
No you are the problem. Democrats and Republicans are becoming cult, you can't assume your responsibilities and blame each other. Both parties are complicit to the genocide and military support data shows that there support for Israel is almost equal. The fact that you defend the imperialist power called NATO who destroyed Afghanistan is crazy and shows that you can't give a damn about justice
Wow, they are really going to do it, aren't they?
they've been self-defensing their way towards the total elimination and annexation of Palestine from the 1940s to now.
this whole thing really should not surprise anyone that knows even a simplified history of god's special country. they have been slowly and steadily inching towards their goal. they're not really shy about it.
hear it from Israel's first prime minister
Here's another guy, a director of the JNF, Joseph Weitz
I just didn't think they would do it formally (de jure).
games like EU4 simulate it pretty well
when you first take a territory, it requires infamy. other countries look at you with sideways. you can't extract the full value out of the land yet. but after a long period of time (upwards of 50 years) it slowly starts to become legitimized. especially as you import settlers and built population centers. after a long enough time, it's both de facto and de jure yours and if you hold it long enough people will recognize it as yours.
so look what happened with West Bank. when Israel took control of WB in 1967, it was majority Palestinian.
what did they do? first, you import settlers. you give incentives for people to come and populate the area with Jews. you also tacitly endorse the ideology of the settlers, so they do it even without you actively supporting it (so you have some semblance plausible deniability when people call you out)
then, you take the native peoples and you herd them into smaller and smaller pieces of land. you restrict movement (like through their "jewish only roads" and the many checkpoints through the WB) (edit: sound similar to what Americans did to another native peoples by chance? almost like it was a blueprint)
fast forward to today, and now 63% of the land area of West Bank is majority Jewish. The Palestinian population is still higher, but they are forced into smaller and smaller pieces of low-value land. In about 50 years or so they've managed to turn a majority Arab area into a majority Jewish.
this gives them legitimacy. there's no way some future government, even if they wanted to be more generous, would ever give up majority Jewish land.
I'd say the entire process is gonna take ~75 years or so. we're almost to its conclusion. they're gonna replicate their WB strategy in Gaza, but since Gaza is much smaller and they're being much more brutal about it, it'll go much faster
I think the best way to become more resistant to propaganda is to read and understand history. If you only pay attention to this conflict since Oct 7th and you are getting your entire media diet from certain dubious sources, you don't stand a chance.
but if you deep dive and actually look at the history. look at the beginning of the state of Israel, look at the early leaders, what they were saying, what they believed. look at the process of occupation, what the policies have been (
ethnic cleansingspopulation transfers, restriction of movement, blockade of gaza, destruction of airports, killing of journalists, etc)then you will have a more cynical eye when certain people try to twist and bend the truth. and you will be more accurate in predicting where the ball will land.
They've already BEEN doing it. And this was the critical failure of all those who argued that Trump would be better for Palestine than Harris. I voted for Harris, but I am not at all surprised this cost her the election.
Israel doesn't need to do ANYTHING differently to complete its genocide of Gaza and the West Bank. It is already on that road, actively engaging in a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. And the Biden/Harris team have, through their inaction, fully endorsed this genocide.
Kamala was so comically bad on Palestine that the only hair-brained thing they could come up with to defend her stance was, "well...well...Trump will let the Israelis do a genocide EVEN FASTER!"
Kamala's campaign slogan was, "a vote for Mussolini is better than a vote for Hitler!"
And then she was surprised when enough liberal voters in swing states stayed home to cost her the election. It turns out, there are plenty of people who will NOT turn out to vote for Mussolini just because Hitler is also on the ballot. They won't vote for either of them; they'll just say "a pox on both your houses!" and stay home.
Is a vote for Mussolini better than a vote for Hitler? Objectively, probably yes. Hitler objectively did a lot worse harm than Mussolini. But you also can't be shocked when people refuse to hold their noses and vote for Mussolini, just because Hitler might be objectively worse. Ultimately, it's your fucking fault for expecting people to vote for Mussolini.
I can't speak for the nuances w.r.t Harris, Trump and US foreign policy in Israel/Palestine.
I can with full confidence say that not voting is definitely not going to achieve anything. The only justified case would be an attempt to highlight the illegitimacy of the voting process if there are no options at all. It's relatively common for people to vote tactically on a consistent basis, although of course it's understandable when people lose motivation to vote when they feel there are no good options.
You are ignoring how people actually think and live. You view voting as a utilitarian choice. Utilitarianism is not the only ethical system in existence. In fact, utilitarianism is exactly how histories worst autocrats justified their atrocities. Hitler himself ran on a platform of doing painful things that, he at least claimed, simply had to be done. The Holocaust itself was justified entirely from a "lesser of two evils" perspective. Hitler just had to convince the broader German populace that killing all the Jews was a necessary evil. Kill all the Jews or have the world taken over by godless Communists. That was Hitler's central "lesser of two evils" message.
This is the fatal flaw of appeals to the lesser of two evils approaches. Yes, you "achieve more" by picking the lesser evil. But from many ethical perspectives, if both choices are objectively evil, and you can't stop either, your only ethical choice is to not support either side. You're still supporting evil, even if it's the lesser evil.
this is rather why i like the quote from ZIzek i heard in an interview recently
"if i were an American, I would obviously vote for Kamala. No question. But before I go into the booth, I would make the Christian Catholic cross with my hands and beg God for forgiveness"
i voted for Kamala but I did it with an awful taste in my mouth. Of course, just like all humans are guilty of Eden's original sin.. I think all of us Americans are guilty of benefiting from imperialism, capitalist exploitation, and the spoils of genocide.
No, I am basing this on real life experience. I.e. How I and many people vote and voted in my country, as well as other European countries that I follow.
This is a very practical matter. You feel like voting, you pick either your candidate or the best option that works. You're not happy with that, don't vote; but then you take responsibility for your (lack of) action. It's as simple as that.
I don't know where you are going with the utilitarianism and Hitler example. This is a massive stretch bordering on being rather insulting.
That is how YOU vote. A lot of people do not view it as a practical matter. They view their vote as an endorsement.
It really isn't when we're discussing fascists coming to power in the US. Godwin's Law is dead. It is not a stretch when the reason Kamala lost is for literally supporting a genocide.
Kamala's message was, "yes, I support a genocide overseas. But, my opponent supports it even more, and he will support crimes against humanity at home, while I will only support them overseas."
Not just me. This is common in other countries. People most definitely do not treat their vote as an endorsement. You can believe me or not or say I am bad, but this is a matter of fact.
I was refering to your claim that tactical/pragmatic voting is somehow related to a deep philosophical commitment to utilitarianism which in turns is how you get Hitler. People don't vote tactically out of some deep commitment to utilitarianism. Utilitarianism of course has its own set of problems, the stuff about Hitler in context of tactical voting is a ridiculous stretch; very condescending as well.
I don't deny the possibility of US turning into a essentially a non-democratic oligarch state. If anything, research suggests authoritarians who come to power via somewhat democratic means, tend to solidify their rule in their second term if there is no pushback from society. So in a sense I agree with you.
Where I don't agree with you are your justifications for not voting. As I said originally, I think the only fair reasoning is if there is nationwide protest to highlight the illegitimacy of an election/regime. Otherwise, there is no point in not voting.
Being from an "other" country, having lived in another 3 of said "other" countries, an even having been involved in politics in 2 of them, what you wrote is complete total bullshit.
Plenty of people do indeed have an utilitarian view of their vote, but lots of people, maybe even most, treat their vote as an endorsement.
In fact from my own experience in various countries the utilitarian view is more common in countries with less Democratic voting systems with few actually electable choices, similar to the US (so, for example, Britain) whilst the endorsement view is more common in countries with highly Democratic voting systems with lots of choices (such as The Netherlands, which has Proportional Vote).
I'm sorry but whilst you having an utilitarian posture is perfectly valid, your idea that it's the only valid posture and other people don't have different postures is complete total mindless self-centred bollocks.
I never said anything about validity. Let me quote myself:
I didn't mean to imply all people treat their vote as an endorsement. That's my mistake, I wasn't clear. I was saying that a lot of people vote tactically and do not treat their vote as an endorsement.
You can have a different posture, but the fact remains that people are complex and they can (and should) switch between committed voting and tactical depending on the situation. If you don't take the tactical approach, then it is reasonable to hold one responsible not taking part in the voting process.
In my experience, how many people vote tactically massivelly depends on the voting system and whether it's a presidential system or not.
The kind of utilitarian votes that sees one vote for somebody one does not like is not quite an Americanism because it doesn't happen only in the US (for example, the UK, even though it doesn't have a Presidential system, has a lot of tactical vote because they use First Past The Post for Parliament so each parliamentary seat is like a mini-presidential election where thare can only be one winner), but it's not really common in other countries.
As I said, I was involved in Politics in two countries, including canvassing and leafletting, and from talking to people (as well as observing how my family, friends and party colleagues did their "politics") voting it's far more often an affair of the hearth than of the head, starting by how people chose which politicians to trust given that they all promise nice things to them.
The cold and rational pondering about who to vote is not actually that widespread and many of those who try are still being swayed by emotional factors (for example, via who they chose to trust and how much) and people tend instead to vote on who they like and trust (or dislike and distrust all of them hence refuse to vote).
Further, even the cold and rational pondering is often not that rational because when it comes to such complex subjects with such a high level of uncertainty and misinformation, most of what one choses to believe as informations and one's own most favored forecast, is chosen based on less that scientific proof. (There is so much misinformation, disinformation and outright lying that chosing not to chose - i.e. not to vote - might be the most rational option of all).
What I've learned from decades of trying to go at things in a rational way is that we can never be fully Objective so it's a good idea to be aware of and keep track of the Subjective elements in one's decision making. Sure, it's valid to try, just don't decieve yourself that you have a perfectly logical decision making process and that everybody should be reaching the same conclusions as you.
From were I stand, your idea that you have a valid tactical approach and that it THE superior approach without question is just you misleading yourself about the nature of your information gathering and your thinking processes, hence you passing judgment on others for not going through the same obstacle course you do to end up making a decision which was de facto contaminated by subjective elements such as your choice of what information to trust and what forecasts you judged more likely, is like the blind criticing others for not seeing.
You really are not standing on top the moral high ground you think you're standing on.
This is not about a "moral high ground" or some deep commitment to utilitarianism (which you somehow turned into a bizarre rant about electing Hitler).
I am talking about a practical, real life evaluation. Of course many people vote based on emotional reasons, but that doesn't mean tactical voting is not extremely common (perhaps even a majority of voters).
And the fact remains that even people who have a strong emotional motivation can still be willing to make tactical choices. It's not all black and white like you describe.
They've been signaling it for more than a year now.
Are you surprised?
Drop pretence? Yeah they are going to do that.
What does annexation actually mean? Do all the Palestinians get Israel citizenship and voting rights? Or is this officially implementing apartheid or expulsion/death?
I'm no diplomat but having the government officially annex it sure seems like an escalation. Many (most?) of those settlements are illegal even under Israeli law* so the way to legitimize them is to annex the territory, because "it doesn't have a government now".
* According to Wikipedia, Israel's Supreme court has said repeatedly (until 2012 at least) that the settlements are illegal, apparently against the word of the Executive branch of the government. And then last year, this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Israeli_judicial_reform
Israel is literally a "Nation for Jews" in its constitution were it says roughly that all Jews and only Jews are entitled to Israeli nationality, hence why any Jewish person can just land at Tel-Aviv, ask to get Israeli nationality and get it.
That said, Israel, pretty much uniquelly in the World, separates Citizenship from Nationality and assigns different rights to both, so non-Jews can get Israeli Citizenship but not Israeli Nationality.
Limitations on the rights that people get from having Israeli Citizenship without the Nationality include, for example, limits to where they can live.
Appartheid in Israel is already officially implement, since the very beginning, so even if the Palestinians were given Israeli Citizenship (highly unlikely given Israel's track record on this: for example tens of thousands of Arab residents in Jerusalem have for decades been refused Israeli Citizienship even though they were born there and lived there their whole lives), they would still have less rights than Israeli Jews or in fact any Jew in the world if they came to Israel.
But but but, i didn't vote for Kamala because she wouldn't do exactly as I wanted for the Palestinians! Things should be getting better for them, not worse, how could this be happening?
After murdering everyone in Palestine under the Biden administration, the Trump administration moves the border line.
Which is worse, the line on the map?
Netanyahu expressly wanted a Trump administration and even closely corresponded with him during the campaign. Moreover, no, the outlook under Biden was nowhere near as dire as what it's already shaping up to be under Trump, even if it was awful and an affront to any reason le persons conscience.
That's his opinion. The fact and not opinion is that the biggest military deal for Israel was made during Obama. He also blocked a resolution condemning illegal settlement. Neither a Biden or Harris ever condemned that
Bud, I'm too tired to care about arguing about reality with you. The entire settler movement and likudnik side of Israel is fully aligned with and happy about Trump. Disappearance of Gaza and West Bank entirely was extremely unlikely under Harris and is very likely under Trump. As is actual US troops side by side with IDF in the Levant in a very obvious very different way than they have been so far. Lot of people, perhaps an entire people, are very pprobability going to die.
You are blinded by your cult, same as trump cultists. It's extremely likely for Gaza and the West bank to disappear under both parties. Obama blocked an resolution condemning illegal settlements and gave the biggest military deal to Israel. Biden and Harris only goal from the cease fire is to get the hostage out than Israel can continue it's genocide. Everytime Israel do something wrong, the Biden administration gift new real on the ground support for Israel.
The fact that you consider the Palestinians struggling to survive in Gaza dead already.
North Gaza is being emptied as we speak. Ethnic cleansing does not require full murder of a population.
Silver lining we'll soon get to know if the Scriptures are right about that second coming of Christ. If all the believer could just fuck off to heaven, the heathens might get some peace.
please please please please please please please please
Well would it matter if I could already tell you right now if it's right or not? Just saying, based on results so far, it's 99.9999% surely not right. Sorry.
It's already annexed unofficially
Hey, Arab American Trump voters:
WE FUCKING TOLD YOU SO. YOU FUCKING IMBECILES.
Is this the first time you have this bombardment of nonsense on social media prior to the ellections? My read abput this idiots is that they were just trolls... we have so much of this in my country that some politicians even started publickly admiting that they were running troll farms, everybody does here apparently.
$hill Stein voters will never admit they were duped. All those protests centered on Biden or Harris but NEVER on Republicans. Also it’s Congress that establishes foreign aid, but whatever. It must have felt so good to be entertained by your own anger.
The genocide happened during Biden. I expect as much protests once Trump takes power
Congress establishes foreign aid, not the president. And there won’t be much protesting about Gaza anymore because the purpose of the protests has already proved successful, to disenfranchise Democrats for a Trump win.
And who constitute the Congress? Oh yeah it's Republicans and Democrats which both voted for the 10 years deal with Israel. Even if the president can't do anything in action, he can still condemn and criticize the Congress decision.
Bingo. These morons only care during election cycles
What does pointing your anger at and blaming other voters accomplish? They did the right thing. Republicans want minorities dead and Democrats are holding them hostage. I'm glad Trump won. Now white Americans can feel a fraction of the suffering Palestinians are going through. That'll make them care. That'll make them fight.
If any civilian should be blamed, it's you for accepting this lesser evil bullshit over and over and over again to the point that got the world here. If the only thing that comes out of your mouth is shit, then don't talk.
Yeah, entertained by your own anger and the hubris to never be wrong… Gaza is fucked now, and apparently the West Bank, too. The lesser of two evils is all there is in this world, and you sit there celebrating that evil won (at the behest of quite a few minorities).
So how would you describe Gaza during the past 6 months? Everything in rubbles, hospitals barely functioning or not at all. People starving to death while the US still supplies the bomb to murder them more actively...
Especially the past month that Israel is just straight up ethnically cleansing northern Gaza withour any pretense left, murdering American citizens, attacking UN troops...
There is absolutely no indication that Harris would have turned things around. Because the points to turn things around kept passing and passing and she made a point instead to declare here steadfast support for Israel.
The (infuriating, I absolutely agree) choice was “Gaza in rubble”, or “Gaza AND the West Bank AND wherever else Israel feels like annexing (probably a good chunk of Lebanon) in rubble, and the possibility of open war with Iran”.
Glad you got what you thought you wanted, I guess.
Blah blah blah Democrats… Tell us how awesome things will be in Gaza under Trump and a Republican controlled Congress…
There is no lesser of two evil in supporting a genocide
"B Biden Seım!"
::: spoiler spoiler "But Biden Same!" :::
Biden is the president, no?
Why are they waiting for Trump before enacting the plan?
Probably because they're still razing Gaza and Lebanon currently along with fighting in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and soon Iran. They don't want to stretch our US resources too thin.