Saturday, 16 December 2023

From the news on: the war in West Asia [Content Warning - links to reports on bigotry/hate, violence including SA & CSA/abuse/war, genocide, language. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are shown in green. I have loosely grouped the posts where such seemed reasonable, but that is subjective (i.e., my opinion - others are free to disagree), and challenging, as some posts belong in multiple “groups”.

Reporting on recent and currently ongoing tragic events in West Asia, in Israel, Gaza, and adjoining nations, includes the following:

  • “Did Israel’s overreliance on tech cause October 7 intelligence failure?”   https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/9/did-israels-overreliance-on-tech-cause-october-7-intelligence-failure   ““Nobody was listening to them,” Ziv said. Apparently, he added, the Israeli military suspected _____ would break through the barrier surrounding Gaza, disable security equipment and storm border towns. The newspaper, Haaretz, posed the question on November 20 of whether the response would have been different if men had been the ones warning their superiors.”   So ... because higher ups were possibly misogynists, over 1,000 Israeli and over 17,000 Palestinian lives have been lost, and hundreds of Israelis and two million Palestinians have been subjected to a staggering range of severe human rights crimes?! If true, this is appalling  
  • “Israel’s AI can produce 100 bombing targets a day in Gaza. Is this the future of war?”   https://theconversation.com/israels-ai-can-produce-100-bombing-targets-a-day-in-gaza-is-this-the-future-of-war-219302   “AI should support democratic ideals, not undermine them. Trust in governments, institutions, and militaries is eroding and needs to be restored if we plan to apply AI across a range of military practices. ...   Until then, machine learning algorithms are best kept separate from targeting practices. Unfortunately, the world’s armies are heading in the opposite direction”   
  • “Israel rejects claims it is trying to force Palestinians out of Gaza”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/11/israel-_____-war-idf-khan-younis-gaza-hostages-threats   “... Arab leaders and aid officials warn its intensifying ground offensive could leave civilians with few other options”   A major problem here is that Israel has been destroying its credibility for decades now (e.g., one year delay in admitting responsibility for shooting and killing a female US journalist), and a significant number of people/organisations/nations are sceptical of what Israel says (also, see previous news item)  


  • internationally:   “Accidents of Eccentricity: Israel’s Pacific Hold - The Australian Independent Media Network”   https://theaimn.com/accidents-of-eccentricity-israels-pacific-hold/   “Israeli policy in the Pacific has seen United Nations votes cast in its favour, the foreign policies of certain countries adjusted, and favours switched”     “Moscow and Gaza: Is Russia ready for a major Shift in its Middle East Policy?”   https://www.juancole.com/2023/12/moscow-russia-middle.html   CW: mention of genocide.   Also, a number of the 17,000 Palestinians killed so far are going to be violent extremists (I have heard claims of up to 7,000 on one radio programme, but I consider that likely to be too high - but it may be in the thousands)    


Note: as with other mass murderers/serial killers/and the like, violent extremists crave publicity, so I refuse to give that to them - I will avoid using their names (which is a policy adopted by good law enforcement and media for other mass murderers), and I will not give them the satisfaction of being described with the T word. 

Note also that the genocidal intent of the VEs I refuse to name is clear, according to this from experts in that topic.

My links for activism post may aid any activism  you may decide to do on any/all of these.

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

  • this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

  • there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  • I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.


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