Meanwhile on the International front....

He may be a rake on a chalkboard, but he's not incorrect. Israel recognizes LGBTQ+ rights while people do get killed in the West Bank (and in Gaza before 10/7) if they're identified as such. Palestinians from West Bank and Gaza have long sought asylum in Israel rather than facing honor-killings and the like. It's fairly well-documented. Which is why I always kind of get a chuckle combined with a feeling of sadness when I see shit like this:

What kind of intersectional LGBTQ+ paradise do they think a Palestinian state -- particularly one "from the river to the sea" devoid of Jews -- would be? Is this willful ignorance or simple naivete?

None of this in my mind excuses IDF tactics in Gaza right now or the way this government is carrying out the occupation in the West Bank and the way it's protecting the worst elements among the settlers. But come the fuck on. Just unveils the ongoing idiocy of the progressive woke left. I say this as a center-left individual myself.

 

There is no "shin" on a dreidel in Israel. The 4 letters (nun, gimel, hay, shin) stand for "nes gadol haya sham" -- "big miracle happened there." In Israel it would have a nun, gimel, hay and peh for "nes gadol haya po" -- "big miracle happened HERE." A small quibble.

Netanyahu -- or at least his kids -- would also probably call it a s'vivon (spinner), which is what it's called in Hebrew and what most people call it in Israel (the term "dreidel" is Yiddish and a majority of Israeli Jews do not descend from Eastern European Yiddish speakers. And those who do still typically use modern Hebrew phrases, not old Yiddish phrases, though someone Netanyahu's age might have still used the Yiddish phrase as a kid).

Anyway, I enjoyed your post and I enjoyed my opportunity to engage in pedantry while hopefully being somewhat informative.

 

Gift Article: What Did Top Israeli War Officials Really Say About Gaza?

In late November, the NPR reporter Leila Fadel interviewed the international-law scholar David Crane about a disquieting subject: potential genocide in Gaza. Crane was uniquely qualified to opine on this fraught topic, having served as the founding chief prosecutor for the UN’s Special Court for Sierra Leone, where he indicted the president of Liberia for war crimes. On air, he explained why he did not think Israel’s actions met the criteria.

“If I was charged with investigating and prosecuting genocide,” Crane said, “I would have to have in large measure a smoking gun,” which he characterized as “a rebel group, a person, a head of state” explicitly directing those under their control to destroy a people in “whole or in part.” Precisely because genocide is the highest crime, proving it demands the highest standard of evidence. What is required, in relation to the current conflict, is not simply documentation of destruction or war crimes, and not just incendiary statements from individual soldiers or politicians with no role directing military operations, but rather a declaration of intent to eliminate Gazans—not just Hamas—by the top Israeli decision makers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Crane said, had not made such a statement, which meant that legal intent could not be established. By contrast, he added, “Hamas has clearly stated that they intend to destroy, in whole or in part, the Israeli people and the Israeli state. That is a declaration of a genocidal intent.” Fadel was not convinced, and deftly countered with several damning quotes from the Israeli defense minister, Yoav Gallant: “We are fighting human animals.” “Gaza won’t return to what it was before. We will eliminate everything.” The segment ended inconclusively.

Last week, a similar exchange unfolded on BBC radio, when an anchor pressed British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps about Israel’s conduct in Gaza. “The defense minister said, ‘We will eliminate everything,’ in relation to Gaza,” the host observed. Wasn’t this a clear call to violate international humanitarian law? Under repeated questioning, Shapps allowed that Gallant might have overstepped in the emotional aftermath of Hamas’s slaughter of more than 1,000 Israelis, but insisted that the quotation did not reflect the man he’d been regularly talking with about “trying to find ways to be precise and proportionate.”

As it turns out, there’s a reason the quote did not sound like Gallant: The Israeli defense minister never really said it.

 

Any time you post information from Gaza health officials, it would be appropriate to mention that the information is coming from Hamas.

 

Is "As it turns out ..." worse or way worse than "Well actually ..."?

 

I do not need convincing that Palestinian leadership is terrible or that many of the people they represent hold abhorrent views. But the same goes for the other end of the street.

 

Don't tell that to Dr. Bühler ...

ICEJ Executive Director Dr. Jürgen Bühler responded by wishing the prime minister a "Happy Hanukkah" and giving him a huge silver Hanukkah dreidel as a gift. A dreidel is a special top that children play with during Hanukkah.​

https://www2.cbn.com/news/news/netanyahu-greets-christians-worldwide-christmas

Bühler ... Bühler ...

 

The story might state different if it were in Hebrew rather than English. Just saying.

 

I have no doubt anyone who's part of the ICEJ calls them "dreidels." Pretty much everyone in the West does.

But is he good enough to make it to The Show?