• Sylver@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I wish to share my most sincere gratitude and love with the service member and their family. According to the article this is the second self immolation outside an Israeli embassy in the US.

    Israel is committing genocide, and the US is complicit. Don’t let anyone forget that.

    • ULS@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Can anyone Eli5 us and Israel connection.

      I don’t know much about politics.

      • assassinatedbyCIA@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The middle east is an extremely geopolitically important region for the US because of all of the oil it has. The US therefore wants a country that it can use as basically a base of operation and client state in the region. Israel as a european settler colonials state is the client state that America wants because it largely is culturally closer to the US than the surrounding arab states. Consequently, the US defends Israel to the hilt regardless of the constant stream of atrocities that it commits.

        • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Perhaps that was the initial impetus, but it is also 50 years out of date. Now-a-days, Israel is self-propagating even if they had zero strategic value for US interests, they are the number one donator’s to many top Republican and Democrat campaign funds. In addition they represent a useful tax-haven for all the “high-tech” industries in the US. They are allow by law to develop for the MIC both hardware and software without being restricted by the usual import/export restrictions for national defense. Israel is considered international so corporations aren’t taxed on income from Israel, and Israel will pay large subsidies to American corporations to open offices there. Of course those subsidies are just money the US Government pays to Israel anyway. It’s grotesque, and even if Israel weren’t an apartheid state, the incestuous relationship the country has built with the US ruling class should give anyone with morals pause.

          • SineSwiper@discuss.tchncs.de
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            8 months ago

            Both of these takes are extremely cynical, and should be taken with a grain of salt. Israel’s actions with Gaza and the extremely right-wing PM in charge should not define Israel as a country and the reasons why the US has them as an ally, just like how Trump does not define the US as a country.

            To be clear, I’m not suggesting that they shouldn’t be criticized. But, let’s criticize the actions, instead of making up reasons that the US is involved with Israel in the first place.

            • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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              8 months ago

              You mean actions like being the number one bipartisan campaign contributors to a large portion of American Leadership? You mean spending more on lobbying then any other industry? You mean Israel isn’t a tax shelter for American Firms that are normally restricted to being located on US Soil? What exactly am I “making up” here?

              Are these numbers fake?

              Biden, Joe (D) 		$5,223,313  
              Menendez, Robert (D-NJ) 	New Jersey 	$2,500,005  
              Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) 	New York 	$2,358,112  
              Kirk, Mark (R-IL) 	Illinois 	$2,294,469  
              Lieberman, Joe (D-CT) 	Connecticut 	$1,996,274  
              McConnell, Mitch (R-KY) 	Kentucky 	$1,953,160  
              Schumer, Charles E (D-NY) 	New York 	$1,725,324  
              McCain, John (R-AZ) 	Arizona 	$1,494,066
              
    • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      I wish he had another choice. We failed him by not being organized enough to welcome him as a comrade. Instead he chose to do the only thing he could. I admire his courage, but it’s a damn shame we lost someone willing to die for Palestinians.

      • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
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        8 months ago

        We’ve failed him, we’ve failed the Palestinians, we’ve failed our immigrants and refugees, we’ve failed our LGBTQ+ people and people of color, we’ve failed our poor. The story of America is a story of one failure after another.

        And I say “America” even though this is world news, because he was American.

        • ULS@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          Sometimes I have this thought that feels like a realization that it was never even about “the people” or “freedom” to begin with.

          • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
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            8 months ago

            It was about creating an in-group and implementing a caste system under the deceptive guise of democracy. What it’s never actually been is democratic or free.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          I wasn’t aware of that, but I say that’s an indictment of their organization; a small org that doesn’t ever get beyond charity work and the occasional street protest could not save him from despair. A few thousand likes on Facebook? Is that the height of the organization he could join in his area? I’m sure they’re trying their best, but we have to get organized on a much larger scale to be able to do anything that matters.

          Beyond being an indictment of their org, that’s an indictment of us all. We are not organized enough. Not even close.

      • hasnt_seen_goonies@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Maybe people are understandably uncomfortable with self immolation? Nobody has ever liked an effective activist in their time. The civil rights protesters in USA had a <25% approval rate in the 60s.

        I think this person did what he thought was right, and I will remember him for that. And peace can’t come soon enough.

        • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
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          8 months ago

          It takes courage and convictions to do this kind of protest. There’s no need to reduce it to just a suicide. It was a courageous and highly honorable act. I’ve got nothing but respect.

            • Herbal Gamer@sh.itjust.works
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              8 months ago

              That my friends, is a cowardly and selfish act.

              Forcing people to stay alive against their will while they suffer in one way or another because you can’t deal with missing them is cowardly and selfish.

            • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
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              8 months ago

              Bullshit. You are insulting everyone who’s had a legitimate reason to commit suicide and their loved ones by proxy. Get this puritanical nonsense out of here. I’ve known multiple people who’ve committed suicide, and while it hurts to lose them, they’ve all had valid reasons, and it’s really tasteless for me to dismiss that or guilt trip people who want to check out.

              And in this case, it’s objectively one of the most selfless acts imaginable.

            • lanolinoil@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I think we can have compassion for people who commit suicide because of suffering and are young, but not think it’s a good or ideal thing. I think the protest here or euthanasia because you’re old/sick is a different thing.

              For everyone (for me) condoning suicide too much – I always think about it like this:

              We were dead for billions of years and we will be dead for billions of years. This little sub 100 year run we all have is just a flash in the pan and even if you’re not having a good time at all and think you can’t ever have a good time, surely just sticking it out for the novelty if nothing else is better in most cases of suffering than checking out too early. We’ll all be back there soon enough.

                • Nudding@lemmy.world
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                  8 months ago

                  I still think suicide is a selfish and cowardly act and only hurts those who love you.

                  Nobody asks to be born. You should be able to leave when you want.

      • sadreality@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        Telling people that someone who burn himself is a role model is poor taste even if you respect the cause.

          • explodicle@local106.com
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            8 months ago

            I think the “pearls being clutched” are that you have a great general point but are suggesting something strange. A role model is someone you want people to imitate. We want people to get his message, not to just do the same thing.

            Sacrifices like this should always be super rare. If he’s inspiring others to action, then it should be mass protests (at least), not more immolations.

            • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
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              8 months ago

              A role model is someone you want people to imitate

              Yes

              Sacrifices like this should always be super rare. If he’s inspiring others to action, then it should be mass protests (at least), not more immolations.

              Imagine gatekeeping protests.

                • LinkOpensChest.wav@midwest.social
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                  8 months ago

                  I’d never presume to be so haughty as to prescribe to another person a form of protest, nor to disparage a meaningful and impactful act like this.

        • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          I don’t get this, I’m sure right-wingers would wish you had the courage, too. Why would you idolize this instead of looking at it like a tragedy?

            • WldFyre@lemm.ee
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              8 months ago

              Lol sure. I don’t think it makes sense to have the same goals as a Zionist, personally. You and a Zionist both wish you were “courageous” enough to kill yourself, I don’t see how that could possibly improve things.

    • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Never. Israel pays too much to US politicians and election campaigns for the ghouls they get elected to ever change. If they do have a change of heart they are easily replaced.

    • Szymon@lemmy.ca
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      8 months ago

      Well, we’re here talking about an important issue and he’ll be remembered forever.

      What are you using your life for?

        • archengel@nichenerdery.duckdns.org
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          8 months ago

          I’m not sure what you mean by that, can you clarify? For example, I took that as a question that makes someone think about how they could be making the world a better place.

          • Szymon@lemmy.ca
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            8 months ago

            If he’s asking me, he’s an asshole. I choose to interpret it the way you did, and use it as a way to improve yourself and your community.