Itâs been a central part of the culture for 80 years. Itâs not so easy to simply change over night.
Recent events will have pushed a lot of Germans towards a position where criticism of Israel is conceivable and eventually they will drag the government along, but it will take some time.
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An insightful and informative piece here confirming how things are quickly going from bad to worse.
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Rather a facetious argument to suggest it is a âdouble standardâ. The Houthis are targeting US and UK shipping, it isnât any more complicated than that. There are any number of other situations of oppression and persecution happening in the world that are not targeted - because, like Gaza, it is not interfering with other nations. If that is a double standard, every country in the world that has friendly relations with China as it brutalizes the Uighurs has a double standard, etc. etc. Not sure there would be much of a list left from the nations of the world.
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It is jarring how close that might have been to a resolution this past summer, and how far away it is now.
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I wonder if Hamas knew they would get this kind of response from the Houthis if the Israelis overstepped (which they surely knew would happen) , or indeed if this whole thing had been gamed out in Tehran.
US is just despicable 
100 days and not a single mention of the nearly 24,000 killed - 1/2 of which are children. Shame on those who remain complicit and not call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Shame on them @POTUS @SecBlinken @USUN https://t.co/kfsA1DrzZe
â State of Palestine (@Palestine_UN) January 15, 2024
No wonder why the militant groups in the region have so much traction.
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Better late than never, I guess 
Itâs absolutely a double standard. Houthis/Hamas are the bad guys who we should attack (either directly or by proxy), Israel are the good guys that we support (in genocide).
Read somewhere that the equivalent to Gaza per capita would be 3.4 million being slaughtered in US. Half of them children
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Standing by and permitting Israel to tear into Gaza is not really the same proposition as engaging in direct military action in Yemen to my mind. No one really cares who the Houthis are, bad guys, good guys, or otherwise. It is not like that fight has not been going for years (with far more than 24,000 casualties). it only gains notice when it interferes with shipping, which has more or less been going on in that location since the time of the pharaohs.
I agree with the action to protect shipping.
Thereâs an awful lot that is wrong in the Middle East, and of course, the Hamas terrorist strike in October was despicable, then Israelâs disproportionate response to Hamas made everything worse, on the back of many years of mistreatment of the Palestinians.
America is the only one with any leverage over Israel, but it has continued to arm them and fund them to the tune of billions a year. There are numerous reasons why, history, religion, Jewish diaspora in the US, etc. but those reasons are getting more strained as time moves on, and I donât think it will be a given that the US will support Israel to the same extent in years to come.
There needs to be a two state solution or this will never end, until Israel has killed or displaced all Palestinians in the region, and that doesnât bear thinking about.
The wider backdrop is appalling, but limiting the observation to shipping, I agree with targeted military action that stops the Houthis from attacking commercial shipping.
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I agree that the indiscriminate attack by the Houthi was/is not the right thing. But I think US-UK strikes in Yemen will light another fuse in a region thatâs a tinderbox. Yesterday a warlord from the secessionist STC has goaded the US-UK for land invasion.
I feel an additional few thousand dollars in shipping costs is way better than another conflict that will likely cost another few hundreds/thousands lives.
Perhaps - my point was simply that there is no high-minded principle in operation here that is being ignored in Gaza. It is really straightforward, shipping is being attacked, powers with significant economic interests are taking measures to interdict the forces that are making those attacks. Nobody is getting a Nobel Peace Prize nomination out of this.
Looks like US-UK and Iran is hitting each otherâs proxies. Hopefully, and Iâm not really hopeful at all, all these will not come to an actual meltdown.
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I think weâre going to need an âEnd of the Worldâ thread soonâŚ
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It is sort of a weird action, maybe a sign that Iran is seeing itself as more able to throw weight around as a dominant regional power now that relations with Saudi Arabia have improved. But it isnât much of a provocation towards the US, I am not sure the US would do much for Pakistan even in a full incursion scenario.
What a despicable woman
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Sheâs running for the Republican nomination. She actually sees herself as someone whoâs fit to be President. There ought to be some sort of psychological and mental assessment for presidential candidates. 9/10 would fail; certainly every single one the current Republican lineup.
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Dissent amongst allies ?
Both Pakistan and Iran have close ties with China. It doesnât make sense for Iran to do that.
Yeah, it is an odd distraction. If anything, it send a reminder to the Arab world about the past importance of Israel as a balance to Iranian power. Not sure why Iran would choose to send that reminder right now.