Thursday, May 13, 2021

In defense of Israel's 'disproportionate' response in Gaza

 https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2009/0109/p09s01-coop.html

 It seems that whenever Israel responds to violent overtures from groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, leaders of the international community are quick to assign equal condemnation to Israelis and Palestinians regardless of whether one is legitimately acting in self-defense.

 This is a particularly puzzling criticism of Israel. Would the international community truly prefer a proportionate or equal response? If Hamas launches three crudely-fashioned rockets into Israel, should the Israeli government respond with three equally-crude rockets? If three Israeli Defense Forces are kidnapped by Hezbollah, should the IDF respond by kidnapping an equal number of Hezbollah foot-soldiers?

 Hamas should garner no international sympathy simply because it made the poor decision of engaging an enemy of far-superior military might. The international community must further realize that both belligerents do not always need equal blame placed upon them.

The myth of disproportionate Israeli response

 https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/306133

 Unfortunately, the term “disproportionate response” has been intentionally used to negate Israel’s right to defend itself. Suddenly, Israel’s right of self-defense becomes contingent upon a low number of civilian casualties. If those casualties seem too high, Israel is called upon to show restraint and to cease eliminating the threat. Furthermore, the term also seems to ignore any Hamas responsibility for those civilian casualties.

But it is not axiomatic that a high civilian casualty rate points to a disproportionate use of force. It might or it might not. It is necessary to examine the facts.

And what are the facts?

Let’s Talk About the Israel-Palestine Conflict | The Daily Show - Hamas is winning PR war

Biden calls Netanyahu, says Israel ‘has right to defend itself’ against Hamas rockets

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-calls-netanyahu-says-israel-has-right-to-defend-itself-against-hamas-rockets

 President Biden on Wednesday spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reaffirm U.S. support for Israel after a night of bloodshed with civilians in Tel Aviv sheltering from Hamas rockets.

"I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu not so long ago. I’ll be putting out a statement very shortly on that," Biden told reporters at the White House.

"My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down sooner than later. But Israel has a right to defend itself against thousands of rockets flying into your territory."

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

McCarthy: No One ‘Questioning The Legitimacy’ Of 2020 Election

Cuomo: Lindsey Graham is telling the truth about Trump

McConnell Denounces Trump

Posting newspaper articles on Internet

Update from today 

 To Whom It May Concern,


We are writing to follow up on our emailed letter dated 5/4 regarding posts on your website. Said letter is attached hereto for your convenience. Please review and respond as soon as possible. Thank you

 

 I just received this lawyer letter requesting that I remove a posting of a newspaper article from 2014

Monsey mother loses custody battle after leaving Hasidic community which was published in the Rockland County Times. 

I have no problem deleting a post with false information but this is expressed as

Our client simply wishes to put this incident behind them and move on with their lives. While it is important that information be archived, surely one must not be punished in perpetuity? It is no secret that the Internet and technology have made it increasingly difficult for anyone to put even the smallest of mistakes firmly behind them and move on. Therefore, we would like to request that the article in question be removed from your website. Altematively, we are open to compromise aחangement such as de-indexing the article or, perhaps, removing our client's name from the article.

I would like to hear my reader's comment as to what is the best way to respond to this.

Liz Cheney ousted from GOP leadership role over Trump criticism

 https://edition.cnn.com/politics/live-news/liz-cheney-gop-vote-05-11-21/index.htmlHouse Republicans have voted to remove Rep. Liz Cheney as GOP conference chair over her opposition to former President 

Trump.Cheney voted to impeach Trump and has repeatedly rebutted his baseless claims of election fraud. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he supports replacing Cheney with New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, who has a more moderate voting record but is a staunch Trump supporter.


Dual Loyalty and the Israel Lobby

 https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/dual-loyalty-and-the-israel-lobby/

 In all these cases particular groups of Americans sustained and supported a country with which they had hereditary ties of some sort. But they did so in terms of standards that had universal currency among all their fellow citizens–the spread of democracy through the world, the self-determination of nations, international action for peace, the desirability of aiding small peoples against great oppressors. One did not have to be a Jew or an Irishman or an Italian to find justice in these arguments.

dual loyalty

 https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/dual-loyalty

 Dual loyalty is a bigoted trope used to cast Jews as the “other.” For example, it becomes antisemitic when an American Jew’s connection to Israel is scrutinized to the point of questioning his or her trustworthiness or loyalty to the United States. Dual loyalty accusations also occur on U.S. college campuses when Jewish students are asked to denounce the actions of the Israeli government in order to participate in progressive activities.

Why ‘Dual Loyalty’ Comments Are Anti-Semitic

 https://www.jewishexponent.com/2019/08/28/why-dual-loyalty-is-anti-semitic/

“Where has the Democratic Party gone? Where have they gone when they are defending those two people over the state of Israel?” Trump asked. He continued: “I think any Jewish people that vote for a Democrat, I think it shows either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty.”

 

Liz Cheney's Speech On House Floor

Why McConnell-Fox Attacks On 'Puppet' Biden Are Failing | MSNBC