Russia is a genocidal gangster petro-state, led by a criminal wanted by the ICC, that should be kicked out of Ukraine, but credit where credit is due: the most recent era of great power military adventurism started when the US ignored the UN and international law to invade Iraq in 2003. So if we want to talk about who drove the world in this shit, the answer is clearly the USA.
The United States of America after the Cold War.
The shtetls are subjected to regular pogroms.
Here is what mainstream Israeli press thinks of the term:
“Settler” is not a neutral descriptor. In English, the word entered common use in the early 17th century to describe people establishing permanent communities in sparsely inhabited areas. At first, the term evoked ideas of pioneering and self-reliance. But during and after the age of European colonialism, it grew heavier with meaning, often associated with conquest, displacement, and injustice.
In today’s activist and postcolonial discourse, “settler” frequently implies illegitimacy, occupation, and even violence. That shift in meaning has colored its modern use, especially in contested areas like the West Bank.
For Palestinians, the term “settler” is almost always pejorative. The settlements are seen as encroachments on land designated for a future Palestinian state, and the continuing expansion—especially under the current Israeli government—has been viewed as a major obstacle to any viable two-state solution.
So, no, those fuckers don’t consider “settler” to be anodyne.
Does the word “settler” have connotations of innocence in your culture?
Apartheid state doing apartheid things.
According to Vlad Vexler, in Russian political/bureaucratic culture this is not to be understood as real analysis and more to be understood as functionaries pitching themselves as useful to Putin: https://youtu.be/ZJryUKULZ_E
This is complicity in genocide.
The Empire will strike back folks. Brace yourselves and don’t self-congratulate too much, the real fight starts now. Good luck, American friends!
Independence doesn’t mean no bias. Also what outlet has no bias?
I would assume the author focuses on them because they are retail facing and therefore somewhat vulnerable to consumer behaviour.
But for sure, any company profitting off of apartheid and genocide should be shamed.
I like you ask in hypotheticals.
Resist now.
All 30 if us who play it agree.
The Franco-German rivalry I had in mind is much older. WW2 was the very final phase of it, but it is clearly present and recognizable at least as early as 1871, ie 70 years earlier, whereas the supposed chronology goes all the way back to the 1400s: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French–German_enmity
Regardless, I don’t have the answer, obviously, but I wouldn’t underestimate the capacity of the Israelis and Palestinians to actually get to a (likely implicit/de facto) agreement of what they think is an acceptable answer. But for that, I would imagine serious external pressure to Israel would be needed, similar as the one exerted to the white Afrikaners…
I am quite eurocentric, so take this as a caveat. France and Germany I guess would be the most obvious and successful example? And Germany with like the Netherlands, Poland, etc. Ireland with the UK are getting there too possibly. Sub-nationally, I would add South Africa to the list, maybe also Catalonia, Basque and Quebec (but they’re not winning the oppression olympics).
For Greece and Turkey I think it’s still an unfinished project (Cyprus is the proof of that). We have achieved a big degree of functional reconciliation, but mistrust, hatred, and shenanigans persist (my theory: this because neither nation properly reconciled with the fact that we based our peace on mutual ethnic cleansing…).
And here is the weird take of the day: I wouldn’t be too shy to say that a lot of the Balkans have “advanced” to a point where in practice memes and teasing (think 2balkan4u) serve as a sort of a weird fucked up balkan version of truth and reconciliation…
But that’s the point, right? Justice seen as a process. Nothing can ever be said to be “done” but you can get more towards it.
The concept of justice I’m advocating for in this context (and I’m not claiming to be a moral philosopher) is a mix of Transitional and Restorative concepts of justice. I’m inspired from things like ending vendettas/blood feuds. For such long standing conflicts, absolute justice is just not realizable, because absolute evil has already happened. However we can get to functional relationships and communities that work towards a future. So when I say ‘each side gets what they can live with’ I mean exactly the question of how far can you get to justice without breaking the future. And I actually mean “live with” not just tolerate but actually live. It’s not a compromise in the sense of horse trading, it is a compromising in the sense of accepting that some wrongs just cannot be amended but that a better future is still possible.
The most certain way to deradicalize the Palestinians is simply to deradicalize and demilitarize the Israeli state and to dismantle its apartheid and occupation edifice.
I think you hit the nail on the head exactly. That’s it, the whole affair in one line.
“maybe ham fisted, in which case I apologize”
So now that the misunderstanding is cleared, I call you again to examine your assumptions and blind spots.
Best kind of Portlandia vibes.