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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • On May 31, 2010, the Gaza Freedom Flotilla comprising of the Mavi Marmara, Sfendoni, Challenger I, Eleftheri Mesogios, Gazza I and Defne Y vessels, departed with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza but were confronted with an illegal raid and intervention by Israeli military forces. The vessels were only carrying humanitarian aid and aid workers. During this attack and in its aftermath, 10 humanitarian aid workers lost their lives and 56 were severely injured. Nine of the 10 were brutally killed during the attack, and the 10th victim died after spending a prolonged period in a coma

    https://ihh.org.tr/en/mavi-marmara



  • Government spending/revenue as percentage of GDP is the common proxy for government size. That said actual empirical evidence doesn’t lead to clear cut conclusions about the relationship between economic growth/outcomes and government spending. It’s very much dependent on the country, quality of government institutions and components of the expenditure.

    Intuitively, you can clearly see that if you had 2 identical countries where 50% of gov spending went to building schools, hospitals and roads in one and paying interest on national debt in the other then you would expect very different outcomes with the same government “size”.

    For the US, that metric has been close to 30% for the last several decades with spikes during crises like 2008 and 2020 (changes to money supply or “minting” is a component of government size but usually a temporary one). It’s been relatively stable outside of that since the 1970s. https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/government-spending-to-gdp

    Relative to the rest of the world’s rich countries it’s on the lower end:

    In my view, it’s highly dependent on the quality of the government institutions and components of spending. People immediately think of inefficiency and bureaucracy when governments are brought up but there is empirical evidence to show that gov spending on things like education and infrastructure are usually “productive” in additional to contributing to factors that may not be properly captured by measures like GDP growth.

    In short, people reducing government spending/regulations as inherently bad/controlling are at least not being completely honest because it’s a very complicated discussion.












  • Yes, breaches of said Oslo accords water agreements… I don’t know why I bother arguing with wikipedia links and gross misrepresentations of facts. I know that long after occupation ends you will claim to never have supported such atrocities.

    You cannot claim it’s about safety and rule of law when it’s only for one ethnoreligious group at the expense of another’s ability of self-determination. If you believe that Jewish people are some magical chosen people who are above everyone else and especially above those savage, terroristic Muslims then that world view makes sense but then you’re a religious fundamentalist. There is no self-defense under occupation by definition as they are and continue to be the perpetual aggressor under international law.


  • You portray aggressors as victims

    Incredibly ironic that you frame militants who hide in tunnels because that’s the only way they can avoid being wiped out as a legitimate existential threat to the 19th most powerful military of the world.

    They go to beach and have houses so everything is fine. Disgusting framing once again. I’m sure people of the Warsaw ghetto also had a couple of nice spots as well. They’ve both had movement limited and caloric intake rationed and access to clean water limited as well. If you don’t like the designation then bring it up with scholars of the subject who believe it to be the case.

    I’m not saying the Israeli state does not exist. I’m saying it is the only state that exists at the moment. Killings having happened before the expulsion of ~70% of the population from their homes does not justify the perpetual subjugation of a people. Those that had emigrated to mandate Palestine owned a small fraction of land at the time of the expulsion as you know (and the percentage itself is irrelevant as that does not give them the right to claim more land through violence).

    Hamas had virtually less than 2% support around 40 years after the nakba and it’s gained support consistently at junctions where Palestinians felt that they had no other means of achieving self-determination than through violence as a sovereign Palestine state was not intended to be allowed from the very start by the Zionist project as you can tell from the very first letters that frame them as the non-Jewish population as if they were a tiny minority. That is not to justify any killing of civilians or explain away the actions of Hamas. I hate islamists as much as you do (but I’m consistent with extending my hatred to judeo and christo facists as well). Hamas’ original charter was written by 5 people at a time when they did not have much popular support and was since revised in 2017 to remove mentions of being against jews and replace it with zionists instead (again not to say that they are “moderates” but for accuracy).

    You talk about a miniscule GDP but why do you think that is the case? Why do you think they do not have the means of improving their conditions? Please don’t say water pipes into rockets because that’s also factually incorrect (they were pipes that were not in use). Israel has prevent action that would expand water access and has overdrawn from the aquifer that provides clean water to Gaza. The list of such actions goes on and on.

    And lastly your wishes that the perpetrators are brought to justice are unfortunately pointless as long as occupation persists. I wish for occupation to end for the sake of Palestinians but also for the sake Israelis and hope you eventually reconsider your position.


  • “Unprovoked”. They are literally locked into that plot of land. Some might say there’s a concentration of them there. They are not 2 separate sovereign states at war but an occupied people within one state that is actively hostile towards them. A “government” which does not control the border, air or port is symbolic at best. 200+ civilians were killed in the west bank in 2023 prior to october 7th but that’s not violent terrorism in your eyes is it?


  • Yes, civilians who want to leave should be able to. Does that change the reality of the situation? Does that make Egyptians willing to take in 2 million refugees because Israel is breaking international law? Does that save the lives of those who stay? Does that eradicate Hamas? Does that resolve the conflict equitably?

    Spare me with your “agenda” accusations.

    bombing the people who just targeted and murdered over a thousand civilians is legitimate or not

    Bombing over 2000 children (so far) is not morally ambiguous. It’s never justified. There are other means. If you don’t believe that is the case then I urge you to reassess how you value the lives on each side of this conflict.


  • Once again, the continuous bombing is a military choice by Israel. It’s because they don’t want to fight on the ground and value Palestinian civilian lives infinitely less than they value the lives of their own soldiers.

    If that’s what you got from what I said then you’re deliberately being obtuse. Even if you evacuate 1.5 million civilians to Egypt what do you do with the 500k that stay? Are they alright to kill because they chose to remain in their homes?

    I’ve left my home country due to the deteriorating situation from events indirectly caused by this conflict so I guess that’s my “agenda”. I am against the collective displacement AND collective punishment of Palestinians and the further destabilization of the region as a sick form of “revenge”.