I’d say the scale of civilian death achieved through the deliberate targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure is so extreme, it could not have been foreseen. It is a vastly disproportionate response.

Agreed that it’s disproportionate. Somewhat conflicted on the “deliberate targeting” as I think it’s more of a “don’t care as long as we also hit something that might be Hamas”. Still certain that Hamas knew what would happen and already had a plan to use it for propaganda purposes.

This is just wrong. The western powers have unwaveringly supported Israel from the beginning. Only just recently has the US decided to perhaps reduce the weapon shipments to Israel, after vast destruction and loss of life has already occurred.

Israel already have all the weapons they need to flatten Gaza completely. Hamas tactics are kind of working though. Although most western governments support Israel, this is causing internal issues (protests etc) in those countries, which weakens those governments, which will translate to less support for Israel. I suspect it won’t do much in the short term, except perhaps strengthen the resolve of the Israeli government, which will only translate into more suffering for the Palestinian people.

The only people who can stop this suffering is the Israeli and Palestinian people, which they were trying to do before all this kicked off, and likely one of the reasons why one of the most pro-Palestine kibbutzes (Be’eri?) was hit so hard. Both Hamas and the Israeli government gain from this conflict, sickening as it is.

Do you think that Hamas are so inept that they didn’t know what was going to happen after Oct 7? No, they knew, and counted on it to get support and to wreck any goodwill Israel had with their neighbours and the world.

Don’t take me writing this as support for Israel. I hate their right wing fascist government as much as I hate the terrorists in Hamas.

There are no good guys in this, and both are fine with the killing of innocent civilians.

💗🇪🇺💗

Place 101 on the press freedom index. Just below Madagascar. “Problematic” is the grade, so yes, but not without issues?

Russia wasn’t kicked out for invading Ukraine, just to be clear. Russia was kicked out because they no longer have a free press, which is a requirement for participation.

You can call it a pretense if you want, but that’s the official reason, not the war.

Hamas attacked Israel, counting on the response being disproportionate and bloody. They wanted dead Palestinians and the Israeli government complied.

Hamas aren’t the good guys here. Neither is the Israeli government, just to be clear.

Typical no win situation. Can’t pick a side without being criticised, can’t not pick a side for the same reason.

Only thing that both the Israeli government and Hamas can agree on is that the Palestinian people is expendable.

What happens if Ireland grants them asylum? Can’t they just use the CTA go go back to Britain then, should they so choose? Or do they have to become citizens first?

And the Sweden Democrats. (not Swedish as I wrote before)

It’s the same AfD that has the same talking points as the Russia linked National Front in France. What a weird coincidence, right?

A question. If the migrants that comes to Ireland via the UK first came into the EU in France, could the Dublin agreement be used to send them back to France?

This isn’t a question of they should be sent back, only if they legally could.

Fair. I don’t have a strong opinion on the matter.

Wasn’t one of the reasons that the long term effects of puberty blockers weren’t known, and therefore caution was advised? I might be misremembering though.

I don’t get why children are less protected than the rest of us. It should be the other way around.

Why is an article discussing children’s welfare down-voted to oblivion? I don’t think that’s how down-votes are supposed to be used. However, I put it as NSFW because I knew it would be sensitive and I wanted to give fair warning.

It’s a sensitive subject that’s hard to talk about. Humility and compassion, as well as a will to listen to understand, is needed by everyone involved.

Thanks for updating your post to make it clear that you were talking about anti EU sentiment at the time. That makes it clearer, and I agree with you.

A poll from 2023 puts anti-EU sentiment in France (ie. Leave) at 26%. Not great, but obviously not very high. And I think a “remain” camp in France would have learned a few things from brexit.

Isn’t it the republicans withholding aid to Ukraine? So bombing refineries would drive up prices, making Biden unpopular, increasing the likelihood of Trump getting elected which would make more aid even more unlikely? Or am I missing something? 🤔

Not bombing them allows Russia to make money though, so it seems both choices are bad ones here.

The UK wasn’t a founding member, unless you start counting from the Maastricht treaty, and that was really just a continuation of the others going back to about 1948.