A process that has been criticized by many specifically because it ignores and undermines Israeli efforts to prosecute war crimes committed by its own. It violates the principle of complementarity, so there’s a decent chance the request for warrants will be dismissed without prejudice on those grounds alone.

I personally believe the request was made to appease the Muslim world as the others in that request are Deif, Haniyeh, and Sinwar. Those warrants will likely be granted, given that the State of Palestine (signatory to the Rome Statutes and the reason for jurisdiction) clearly lacks the ability or willingness to hold them or their organization responsible for their actions.

If you don’t care what the US does - why argue that they should impose sanctions on Netanyahu? Shouldn’t you be arguing that Germany impose sanctions on Israel (feddit.org being based in Germany and aimed at a German userbase)?

Well written op-ed - but it fails some fact checks. The protests at Sde Teiman were dispersed after they realized the soldiers who had been arrested were no longer at the base. Similarly, the protest at Beit Leid started after it was announced the soldiers had been transferred there.

Opinion articles aren’t held to journalistic standards, and it shows.

The US followed up on those two incidents - quite publicly. Simply hand waving that it happens and blaming the media is not very convincing. ]=]

…virtually no Hamas in West Bank…

5 fewer as of a few hours ago. Hopefully the last ones in the entire West Bank, but somehow I doubt it. This statement is only exposing that you don’t have very deep knowledge of the current state of affairs in the West Bank. Not surprising given the amount of propaganda and less than factual coverage of the conflict.

Likud consisted of terror organizations before becoming a political party

So were the ANC, the PLO, and many others around the world. Hell, the Republican party used to be staunchly against racism and slavery. Organizations change over time. But that change happens slowly, and to remove the stench of terrorism takes demonstrable steps away from violence.

The rules are applied evenly - Israel isn’t designated a terrorist state because there is no such definition. It simply doesn’t make sense - terrorism was invented to describe war crimes committed by non-state actors, and had no established process to be held responsible for their crimes. Israel may not heavily punish those who commit war crimes, but they do prosecute them, and that’s the bar that’s needed to avoid sanctions. Like it or don’t like it, but that’s the way the world works right now.

Searching news archives doesn’t pull up any results for Palestinian American citizens killed in Gaza. I probably missed something if you’re so confident, so please send some sources if you have them on hand.

Designations of terrorism were more or less invented to deal with non-state actors. Which is why the definitions largely overlap with war crimes. If you’ll recall, the ICC are discussing whether or not to issue warrants for the arrest of Netanyahu, Gallant, Sinwar, Deif, and Haniyeh.

I’m extremely unfamiliar with Turkish law. Is there an anti-censorship law like this? I would imagine it requires various carveouts for liability in case of actual law-breaking content, libel, etc.

My assumption that this was simple corruption where a private company compelled the government to take actions for their immediate benefit.

Subjective, but not arbitrary. Here’s the relevant sections of EO13224 (linked above):

…may designate foreign individuals or entities that he determines have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the U.S.;

…

For the purpose of the Order, “terrorism” is defined to be an activity that (1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and (2) appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.

There are 8 US citizens still held hostage by Hamas in Gaza - which means they meet the criteria of both 1 and 2. That’s without opening up any other accusations of terrorism.

Haniyeh earned his Specially Designated Global Terrorist title on January 31, 2018. A company caught hosting terrorism-promoting content can face company-ending consequences. Executives have been sent to prison for turning a blind eye to doing business with sanctioned countries. Instagram was probably complying with these regulations.

Punishing Instagram for complying with the law puts Turkey into a precarious position. It’s an open secret that they offer cheap rubber, steel, and other raw materials because they’re willing to lie on forms and act as a conduit for Russia and Iran to bypass sanctions. Too much attention on sanctions programs and Turkey in the same sentence can potentially end that part of their economy, which they can’t really afford right now.

Terrorism is not armed resistance

I very much doubt he’ll be leaving the tunnels under Gaza

nominally, I agree that the immediate motives are Bibi’s self interest.

Strategically, this does drive a wedge between Hamas and Iran. Of the likely successors, Mashaal has had multiple conflicts with Iran, Abu Marzouk is a pragmatist who would probably start de-escalating, and al Hayya who is a hardliner. For two of those three, Hamas moves away from Iran which is probably a good thing for Israel.

Only time will tell though

what makes you think there’s little to no violence in the west bank? Are you basing that on media coverage of incidents, or on same comprehensive data source?

A lot of the criticism I’ve seen thus far falls into two categories:

1. Users complaining that their favorite source is scored poorly
2. Users complaining that the ratings have various sources of statistical bias

The ones in the first group I think should take it as a wakeup call that they are either headline shopping or missing out on other perspectives of current events. This is especially important on the international stage where armed conflicts will naturally produce two opposing accounts (and lots of propaganda).

The second group have a point - MBFC isn’t the end all be all, but it’s certainly better than nothing. Having meaningful bias measurements for each relevant scale would be impressive but way beyond what MBFC aims to do.

So all in all - I see this as a very positive change

About 20 years ago Hezbollah first started using guided anti-tank missiles. In some cases they are steering the missile all the way until impact. I’m sure details will come out soon, but you don’t just randomly hit the field/playground in the middle of town by accident without trying at least a little bit.

Hezbollah has been launching combination rocket/drone attacks along the entire northern border for the last 6 months. In the least week or two there have been several reports of hits without any warning sirens. I’m inclined to say that this is indicative of a shift in tactics and/or technology that has been shared, and may also impact the Ukraine war (the drones are the same Iranian design/manufacture).

This incident will draw lots of saber rattling against the Houthis, and there will probably be some air raids on Houthi military assets by various coalition forces. The ones to watch here are Saudi Arabia and Jordan - they both have the opportunity to earn some goodwill for relatively little risk and achieve their own goals at the same time.

I have no clue if the Houthis will attempt to escalate this with larger drone swarms. Their doctrine so far has been less than 20 daily, most of which are targeting ships or Eilat. But this is the first time they’ve directly targeted Tel Aviv.

“He saw groups of men with sticks waiting for trucks to leave the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. All trucks he passed were badly damaged, with broken windshields, mirrors and hoods.”

My personal bias filled in the masks. I guess I was holding out hope that they had some fear of consequence left.

How exactly do you propose to “remove Israel”?

So your solution is just to destroy Israel?

You clearly didn’t read the article.

Israel needs that aid to be distributed. Otherwise Gazans starve and the war has to end before the hostages are returned or Hamas is killed off. The masked men attacking aid trucks are terrorist sympathizers who are trying to starve Gazans.

So 30 years of killing and terrorism. Great idea.

Korean unification has better chances than a one state solution.