Conflict between Palestine and Israel escalates

Seanchaidh

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You can see the importance of the distinction when you consider who is taking that general position, a person who does not care about the Palestinians beyond his desire for Israel to fall or at least be fully ostracized in order to weaker American international hegemony. "This is their ancestral land, the State of Israel robs them of their birthright and destroys history just by existing, therefore there can be no compromise" is a stance taken specifically because it disallows the peaceful existence of a US ally there.

If you say something like "there can't be peace while Israel is killing civilians", it implies that if they weren't killing civilians, Israel can stay. Hence, different arguments are made in order to reach more absolute conclusions.
kindly stop the defamation

Let's be real, your primary concern with where I'm going is that I'm the one making the argument.
and the narcissism.
 

Agema

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So it's rational to argue that Palestinians have a claim to the land for historical reasons because it's problematic to argue the Israeli's have claim to the land for historical reasons? I don't think that tracks.
No, the Palestinian claim to land is that they had it in 1948 (although numerous other years, particularly 1967, may apply depending on how we frame it). International law is supposed to uphold principles that individuals are not driven from their land or unfairly dispossessed, and that nations should not be able to expand their territory through military coercion. Yes, there's lots of dodging around the letter of the law, but by the spirit of the law Israel blatantly is both annexing territory through military force and driving Palestinians off their land.

The question is why anyone thinks this shit is reasonable when equivalant conduct draws so much condemnation anywhere else.

Well, one of the propaganda arguments deployed that has gained traction - even going back over 100 years - is that the Jews have some sort of right to their ancestral homeland. In a sane world, this should be dismissed out of hand. After all, the English don't get to invade Lower Saxony and expel all the Germans just because their ancestors came from there many centuries back. Nevertheless, it is deployed and a significant number of people credit it. The fact that the Palestinians are too the descendants of the ancient inhabitants (except that their ancestors did not fuck off elsewhere many centuries ago) helps expose the claim's absurdity.
 
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No, the Palestinian claim to land is that they had it in 1948 (although numerous other years, particularly 1967, may apply depending on how we frame it). International law is supposed to uphold principles that individuals are not driven from their land or unfairly dispossessed, and that nations should not be able to expand their territory through military coercion. Yes, there's lots of dodging around the letter of the law, but by the spirit of the law Israel blatantly is both annexing territory through military force and driving Palestinians off their land.

The question is why anyone thinks this shit is reasonable when equivalant conduct draws so much condemnation anywhere else.

Well, one of the propaganda arguments deployed that has gained traction - even going back over 100 years - is that the Jews have some sort of right to their ancestral homeland. In a sane world, this should be dismissed out of hand. After all, the English don't get to invade Lower Saxony and expel all the Germans just because their ancestors came from there many centuries back. Nevertheless, it is deployed and a significant number of people credit it. The fact that the Palestinians are too the descendants of the ancient inhabitants (except that their ancestors did not fuck off elsewhere many centuries ago) helps expose the claim's absurdity.

The general reasoning throughout recent history can be summated as “God’s Chosen People”, “Rules for thee, not for me”, etc.
 

Silvanus

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So the UK has suspended some of its arms export licenses to Israel, on the grounds that there are credible reports of breaches of humanitarian law and it cannot be sure they wouldn't be used.

By 'some', I mean a relatively paltry 30 out of ~350, and not including the British parts of the bomber aircraft.

What I'd really like to know is how that argument applies to these 30, but somehow not the remaining ~320. We know the remainder aren't all just defensive.

The legal challenge against UK arms sales continues in the background. I expect that claimants will point out that the British government has now effectively conceded that they can't guarantee Israel won't use the stuff in illegal activity.
 

Cicada 5

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According to a report, the BBC has breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during this war.

The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during the height of the Israel-Hamas war, a damning report has found.

The report revealed a “deeply worrying pattern of bias” against Israel, according to its authors who analysed four months of the BBC’s output across television, radio, online news, podcasts and social media.

The research, led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, also found that Israel was associated with genocide more than 14 times more than Hamas in the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.


On Saturday, Danny Cohen, a former BBC executive, warned that there was now an “institutional crisis” at the national broadcaster and called for an independent inquiry into its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.

Two leading Jewish groups, the Campaign Against Antisemitism and the National Jewish Assembly, added their voices to calls for an independent review, while Lord Austin, a former Labour minister, accused the BBC of “high-handed arrogance” for continually dismissing questions over its impartiality.

The Asserson report analysed the BBC’s coverage during a four-month period beginning Oct 7, 2023 – the day Hamas carried out a brutal massacre in southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 251 into Gaza as hostages.

A team of around 20 lawyers and 20 data scientists contributed to the research, which used artificial intelligence to analyse nine million words of BBC output.

Researchers identified a total of 1,553 breaches of the BBC’s editorial guidelines, which included impartiality, accuracy, editorial values and public interest.

“The findings reveal a deeply worrying pattern of bias and multiple breaches by the BBC of its own editorial guidelines on impartiality, fairness and establishing the truth,” the report said.
Honestly don't know what to make of this. The comments in that article don't help.
 

crimson5pheonix

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According to a report, the BBC has breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times during this war.






Honestly don't know what to make of this. The comments in that article don't help.
"A deeply worrying pattern of bias against Israel", "The research, led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, also found that Israel was associated with genocide more than 14 times more than Hamas in the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.", AI analysis.

Speaking of bias, I feel some pretty damning biases here. Like why is this called a "report"? Who is this guy? It's just some random lawyer.
 

Gordon_4

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"A deeply worrying pattern of bias against Israel", "The research, led by British lawyer Trevor Asserson, also found that Israel was associated with genocide more than 14 times more than Hamas in the corporation’s coverage of the conflict.", AI analysis.

Speaking of bias, I feel some pretty damning biases here. Like why is this called a "report"? Who is this guy? It's just some random lawyer.
The BBC (and to a lesser extent it’s Australian cousin, ABC), as publicly funded entities are often trotted out by most right wing media as evidence of government money being improperly used to push a left wing agenda. Consequently they have their funding reduced and put under the sort of vigorous oversight that would otherwise outrage the right wing media if they were subject to even one tenth of the same scrutiny.

The guy heading this little exercise in think-tank wanking is probably a nobody, just the latest in a long line of shitheads who want to put the boot in.
 

Agema

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The guy heading this little exercise in think-tank wanking is probably a nobody, just the latest in a long line of shitheads who want to put the boot in.
It certainly is. It has been published by the so-called "Campaign for Media Standards", recently founded by one Trevor Asserson (funnily enough, author of the Asserson Report) seemingly for this purpose, who has a track record of campaigning against the BBC on behalf of Israel.

And indeed, it wears its allegiances openly, saying in its preamble:

ORIGINS AND FUNDING OF THE REPORT

The Report was produced following a suggestion from a client of Asserson Law Offices that the firm explore whether the BBC is in breach of its duties of accuracy and
impartiality in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas War. The research needed to explore that question was designed and run by Trevor Asserson independently of the direction of any particular client. Most of the work from solicitors within Asserson Law Offices was carried out on a voluntary basis. However one Israeli businessman, based in London, has funded out of pocket expenses, including paying for external lawyers conducting human review and expenses incurred by the data scientists who have contributed to the Report. The majority of the contributors to the Report have personal connections to Israel.
* * *

I'd also just quickly note that in the space of a few days, Hamas killed around 1000 Israelis, whereas Israel's spent about a year totalling Gaza and causing well over 40,000 casualties. If Israel has been associated with "genocide" 14 times more often than Hamas in BBC reporting, it could consider itself the beneficiary of bias given that it has inflicted about 40 times as many deaths and spent 100 times as long at it.
 

tippy2k2

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I do find it a little funny that they're accusing The BBC of anti-Israel bias when The BBC has been using their passive "cop" voice when talking about Israel.

Palestinians die from fighting
Israelis are murdered by a Hamas Terror Attacks

A child is killed when Ukraine is bombed by Russia
A child dies from an explosion in Palestine

And so on...
 

Silvanus

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I'd also just quickly note that in the space of a few days, Hamas killed around 1000 Israelis, whereas Israel's spent about a year totalling Gaza and causing well over 40,000 casualties. If Israel has been associated with "genocide" 14 times more often than Hamas in BBC reporting, it could consider itself the beneficiary of bias given that it has inflicted about 40 times as many deaths and spent 100 times as long at it.
This was my immediate thought as well. News has a duty to cover the factual nature of ongoing events, much less so (if at all) to characterise particular groups. Hamas and the Israeli government/IDF certainly both have genocidal racists in positions of influence and power within their organisations. But it is undeniably the Israeli government/IDF that has been able to actually pursue those aims with so much more far-reaching impact. As you say, arguably ~40x more. News has a duty to report the facts of that situation.

The Israeli government/IDF are the beneficiaries of media bias in the UK and US.
 
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Agema

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I do find it a little funny that they're accusing The BBC of anti-Israel bias when The BBC has been using their passive "cop" voice when talking about Israel.
The BBC has a long history of being heavily pressurised by Israel and its supporters, and absolutely hammered from some quarters. One of which in particular is very alarming for the BBC as it has had the ability to thoroughly gut the BBC - although those concerns have receded since it was voted out earlier this year.
 

Thaluikhain

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I do find it a little funny that they're accusing The BBC of anti-Israel bias when The BBC has been using their passive "cop" voice when talking about Israel.
Who hasn't been accused of anti-Israel bias if they hint at maybe saying Israel might have done something a tad not nice?