Zion and the Art of Armageddon

[JohnD]

People who support Israel's racist genocide pretend that any criticism of it is anti-Semitic.

Meanwhile,

"In an open letter, the 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said they could not “turn a blind eye or remain silent at this renewed loss of life and livelihoods”.

They also condemned violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which they said was encouraged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right administration, while warning: “This extremism also targets Israeli democracy."

FT.com

 

[Odds]

Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has shared photos and a video clip of Israeli settlers attacking and burning Palestinian homes and agricultural trees in the village of Sinjil, located in the northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank. Israeli forces also assisted an earlier attack by firing tear gas canisters at locals trying to put out the fires started by the settlers, the rights group said, adding that one resident of the village was killed.

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the Palestinian rights group Al Mezan said they have rejected the Israeli military’s investigation into the killing of 15 Palestinian rescue workers in Gaza in March. The medical charity and rights group said the Israeli report was a “gross distortion of reality” that was designed to cover up and deflect responsibility for the slaying of the 15 emergency workers, in what has been described as a possible war crime. Both organisations also pointed out that the only survivor of the attack – Palestine Red Crescent Society medic Assad al-Nasasrah – is still held in Israeli custody, and is one of some 300 healthcare workers abducted from Gaza by Israeli troops since October 2023.

 

[Lirefighter]

People who support Israel's racist genocide pretend that any criticism of it is anti-Semitic.

Meanwhile,

"In an open letter, the 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews said they could not “turn a blind eye or remain silent at this renewed loss of life and livelihoods”.

They also condemned violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which they said was encouraged by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right administration, while warning: “This extremism also targets Israeli democracy."

FT.com

That snippet from the article is very misleading.
It implies that all board members have signed the open letter criticising Israel.
There are 300 board members and only 36 (12%) have signed the letter.
They are now facing disciplinary action as their views are not representative of the group as a whole.

 

[Odds]

That snippet from the article is very misleading.
It implies that all board members have signed the open letter criticising Israel.
There are 300 board members and only 36 (12%) have signed the letter.
They are now facing disciplinary action as their views are not representative of the group as a whole.

They're part of a wider movement protesting the conduct of the war in Gaza and of Netanyahu's policies...

However, the letter did not confine its criticism to Gaza, expressing alarm over what it described as a broader erosion of democratic norms within Israel itself. “This most extremist of Israeli governments is openly encouraging violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, strangling the Palestinian economy and building more new settlements than ever,” it said. “This extremism also targets Israeli democracy, with the independence of the judicial system again under fierce attack, the police increasingly resembling a militia and repressive laws... bitterly dividing Israeli society.”

“Silence is seen as support for policies and actions that run contrary to our Jewish values,” the letter added, aligning itself with growing Israeli protest movements demanding a prioritisation of hostage returns and a path to peace.

"Within this diversity, however, there is much unity. The UK Jewish community as a whole wants to see the immediate release of the hostages held by Hamas. We want to see Hamas, Hezbollah and the other terrorist proxies of Iran prevented from ever being able to repeat 7 October. We want to see aid flowing into Gaza so that its civilian population can rebuild their lives. And we want to see definitive progress towards lasting peace and security for Israelis, Palestinians, and the wider Middle East.”

The Jewish Chronicle

"Judaism yes; Zionism No."

 

[Odds]

And, not only but also...@Al Jazz

Israel’s spy chief has accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to fire him for his refusal to commit illegal acts aimed at protecting the leader’s personal and political interests.

Netanyahu said he would sack the spy chief due to a breakdown in trust, supposedly linked to Hamas’s attack in October 2023 that led to the Gaza war. However, Bar said Netanyahu’s decision was motivated by a series of events between November 2024 and February 2025. In the unclassified part of the court submission, Bar said Netanyahu had told him “on more than one occasion” that he expected Shin Bet to take action against Israelis involved in antigovernment demonstrations, “with a particular focus on monitoring the protests’ financial backers”.

 

[ellal]

There are 300 board members and only 36 (12%) have signed the letter.
They are now facing disciplinary action as their views are not representative of the group as a whole.

So no dissenting voices allowed then...

No criticism of the ongoing genocide/ethnic cleansing at the behest of a corrupt war criminal will be tolerated because 78% don't have a problem with it?

I do believe the defense of 'only following/obeying orders and doctrines' has been used unsuccessfully in the past

 

[Lirefighter]

88% not 78%.
I don't think it's a good idea to use the name of an organisation you're a member of to spout personal views which don't align with those of the organisation.
Not if you value your position anyway.
All companies, boards, organisations etc would discipline those who did, it's not a respons used solely by a Jewish board.

Orders?
What orders, these people aren't involved in the conflict.

 

[Odds]

88% not 78%.
I don't think it's a good idea to use the name of an organisation you're a member of to spout personal views which don't align with those of the organisation.
Not if you value your position anyway.
All companies, boards, organisations etc would discipline those who did, it's not a respons used solely by a Jewish board.

Orders?
What orders, these people aren't involved in the conflict.

Then you disagree with Gary Lineker's view that "we should all have a little opinion on it"?

 

[Odds]

Apparently Lire-Lire, doesn't think we should have a little opinion on the state of Israel but Ami Ayalon, commander of the navy and head of Shin Bet has an opinion which cannot be claimed as anti-semitic nor uninformed on the workings of Netanyahu's far-right cabal. And he's not in a minority: The overwhelming majority of the Israeli public agree with us – 70% believe there needs to be a comprehensive end to the war in return for bringing our hostages home, and an election as soon as possible so that this government can be replaced. Since we took out our advert, (in two major Israeli broadsheet papers) we have been joined by thousands of pilots, navy officers, members of the intelligence and reservists, all of whom, in their own letters to the government, have expressed the same sentiments as our advert did...The truth is that our hostages in Gaza have been abandoned in favour of the government’s messianic ideology and by a prime minister in Benjamin Netanyahu who is desperate to cling to power for his own personal gain. Our government is undermining the democratic functions of the state to shore up and protect its own power. It is forcing us into a perpetual war with no achievable military objectives and which can only result in more loss of life and hatred. the Guardian

 

[Odds]

 

[JohnD]

Israel is also stepping up war against the West Bank.

Nothing they enjoy more than slaughtering some non-Jews and destroying Palestine.

 

[JohnD]

"James Shotter in Tammun
Published 5 HOURS AGO

The initial report from Israel’s military was brief and unequivocal. “The [Israeli air force] struck a terrorist cell in the area of Tammun. Details to follow.”

It was also wrong. In fact, the drone strike in the hillside town in the north of the occupied West Bank had killed three Palestinian cousins, aged eight, 10 and 23, as they gathered on the sloping street just metres from Iman Bisharat’s front door.

When Bisharat rushed outside moments later she was confronted with a scene of total horror. Her son Hamza’s body was riddled with shrapnel. His cousin Reda’s head had been cut open and part of his brain was spilling out. The third cousin, Adam, drew his final breaths in her arms."

FT.com

 

[JohnD]

"After a 17-year pause, the military has resumed air strikes in the West Bank, carrying out dozens of attacks using drones, but also helicopter gunships and — in at least one case — a fighter jet. And earlier this year, it deployed tanks there for the first time in more than 20 years, as it launched an operation against militants in refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams.

The new approach adopted by Netanyahu’s government — widely seen as the most right-wing in Israeli history — has taken a heavy toll. According to the UN’s humanitarian arm OCHA, Israeli forces have killed more than 900 people in the West Bank since October 7, making 2023 and 2024 the deadliest years for Palestinians there since the UN began collecting data in 2005."

 

[JohnD]

"But the casualty figures are only part of the story. The Israeli operation has also destroyed infrastructure, with forces tearing up roads and demolishing houses, and displaced tens of thousands of people. And it has been accompanied by sweeping restrictions in movement and suffocating economic pressure that have upended daily life for the West Bank’s 3.3mn Palestinians."

 

[JohnD]

"Indeed, human rights groups regard Israel’s actions in the West Bank as disproportionate. Last month, the UN’s human rights office accused it of showing “an alarming disregard for Palestinian lives” and carrying out “unlawful killings” in the territory, arguing that its actions there could not be justified under the applicable legal framework.

"As there are no hostilities in the West Bank, the international human rights law standards on the use of force in law enforcement operations apply,” it said in a statement. “Instead, Israel now routinely resorts to using tactics and weapons developed for war fighting, including the deployment of air strikes and tanks.”

“Air strikes and this practice of displacing whole communities and destroying the infrastructure they depend upon — the refugee camps, the roads — this is prohibited in law enforcement operations in occupied territory,” said Eitan Diamond, manager and senior legal expert at the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre in Jerusalem."