Israel versus Palestine: 2021 Edition

Husky_Khan

The Dog Whistler... I mean Whisperer.
Founder
Sotnik
Palestinians and Israelis have put aside their differences and have put on a nightly fireworks show for the past few nights. The festivities have shown no sign of abating in the days or years to come.

 

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
Sirens for something like 10 minutes straight at my town. Heard a LOT of distinct explosions, maybe as many as 20. A couple of them were close enough to rattle the windows a little. Hope the Iron Dome is doing its job.

EDIT: More sirens, 5 distinct events so far, each one with multiple explosions. Can hear Iron Dome interceptors as they're flying somewhere above us.
 
Last edited:

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder
Looks like things calmed down somewhat. Finally had the time to eat a quick dinner without having to run to shelter literally every 2 minutes.

Footage of the skies above Tel Aviv half an hour ago that I found online.



All that and only a couple of rockets slipped in, resulting in 2 wounded and 1 dead. If not for Iron Dome things would have been much more grim.
 

Arch Dornan

Oh, lovely. They've sent me a mo-ron.


One moment of quiet and now shit is stirring up. Protests over Israel and Palestine in the states and threats of retaliation. What started it? The previous protest in Jerusalem?
 

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Hamas needed a big flareup to distract the people of Gaza from the fact they furtherly messed up the place, the biannual Al-Aksa rioting happened and it became a good enough excuse for rocket time.
In addition to this, there's an ongoing issue in 'Sheikh Jarrah'--a Jerusalem neighborhood with a long history, to say the least, that is complicated by the various transitions its part of formerly 'East' Jerusalem has gone through. And its agitated current protests and issues.

Long story short(ish), because of Ottoman records of ownership, Jordan's occupation-but-not-annexation, and previous Israeli court decisions after Jordan noped out, the neighborhood is owned by (predominantly Jewish) Israelis but lived-in by Palestinians who were protected from eviction by court-order because of their preexisting occupancy so long as they maintained the property and paid rent, etc. There's been a steady series of cases against tenants who don't pay or violate that court mandate, with recent evictions being carried out, which becomes political right-quick because Palestinians are...not thrilled about paying Jews/Israelis money, and disagree with the land ownership determination, to try and be nonpartisan.

Which, stepping away from attempted nonpartisanship, becomes more political because Hamas jumps at the opportunity to use such a handy public-relations club against both Israel and Fatah, both with the domestic Palestinian population and international populations. Because 'greedy Jewish landlords evicting Palestinians for the crime of not being Jewish' makes for great PR copy.

At least, that's what I've gathered from a bit of news-digging colored by my own prior judgements on the players (or, at least, on Hamas).
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
Who started? You can go to 1949 or even before. After that, is just a case of retaliation on top of other side retaliation and so on. Is a real mess with no possible solution.
 

GoldRanger

May the power protect you
Founder

IMG-20210512-232546-172.jpg
 

The Original Sixth

Well-known member
Founder
In addition to this, there's an ongoing issue in 'Sheikh Jarrah'--a Jerusalem neighborhood with a long history, to say the least, that is complicated by the various transitions its part of formerly 'East' Jerusalem has gone through. And its agitated current protests and issues.

Long story short(ish), because of Ottoman records of ownership, Jordan's occupation-but-not-annexation, and previous Israeli court decisions after Jordan noped out, the neighborhood is owned by (predominantly Jewish) Israelis but lived-in by Palestinians who were protected from eviction by court-order because of their preexisting occupancy so long as they maintained the property and paid rent, etc. There's been a steady series of cases against tenants who don't pay or violate that court mandate, with recent evictions being carried out, which becomes political right-quick because Palestinians are...not thrilled about paying Jews/Israelis money, and disagree with the land ownership determination, to try and be nonpartisan.

Which, stepping away from attempted nonpartisanship, becomes more political because Hamas jumps at the opportunity to use such a handy public-relations club against both Israel and Fatah, both with the domestic Palestinian population and international populations. Because 'greedy Jewish landlords evicting Palestinians for the crime of not being Jewish' makes for great PR copy.

At least, that's what I've gathered from a bit of news-digging colored by my own prior judgements on the players (or, at least, on Hamas).

That's probably the straw that broke the camel's back, but there's also the wider context.

The Trump Administration cut off foreign aid to Palestine over two years ago. A lot of programs and supplies that Palestine had become accustomed to would have gone up in smoke. That's ever growing poverty and social unrest for two years, most probably while Israel squeezed them in hopes of getting a formal agreement with their leaders. On top of that, the past year has been one of constant lockdowns. And while I don't know if certain nations have cut off their foreign aid, my guess is that it has slowed down. Even if it hasn't, just supplying what they did before is not enough--some of that will have to be diverted to treating COVID-19, such as supplying masks. Even if they got extra, it's probably a drop in the bucket.

Worse, Israel and Egypt have blockaded Gaza for over a decade now in response to their terrorist activities. So getting all of those supplies through requires additional logistics. Israel itself is approaching full vaccination, but Palestine is far, far behind in vaccinations. On top of losing their homes, their land, their livelihoods, their jobs, and most probably Iran is egging them on, hoping to use it as a bargaining tool against the US for lifting their sanctions.

What COVID-19 has done is expose weaknesses in the system and the smaller players are beginning to crack under the pressure. Azerbaijan and Armenia were one example. Palestine and Israel are another. Those would have cracked sooner or later, but the process is accelerating under COVID. Worse is that this is not going to get better for most of the world. The US will finish mass vaccinations for everyone who wants it by June or July. Its economy will return to around full strength in fall or winter. Europe and most of the first world will be fully vaccinated by the end of the year. Their economies will NOT recover. Because they'll probably face mass retirement in 2022. Their economies are as strong as they're going to be for the foreseeable future.

And it gets worse from there for everyone below the first world.
 

Zachowon

The Army Life for me! The POG life for me!
Founder
Picture perfectly encapsulating the crisis in the Middle East. Palestinian missiles flying every which way on the left, Iron Dome fixated on defending against them from the right.


That is oddly...beautiful
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top