Is it justice or ethnic cleansing? The writer argues that the tenant evictions affecting Palestinians in Jerusalem are legally and morally justified in the same way that returning Nazi loot to its original owners is justified and moral.
Of course, the rule of law can serve as a fig leaf for evil, but there is little evidence of evil here.
Tidewater News and Opinion Forum 
Little evidence of evil?
Collective punishments are evil. Indiscriminate bulldozing and bombing of civilians as payback for attacks committed by individuals is collective punishment and is an enumerated war crime. Likud has been committing this crime again and again. And to our shame we have repeatedly replenished Likud’s stock of bombs and artillery shells after they have used them up committing these crimes.
If the “principle” of prior ownership by Jews of this piece of land before the Partition is sufficient to evict people living there for generations is valid, then a huge percentage of Israelis need to be evicted from lands that originally belonged to Palestinians. Is the Likud government going to act on behalf of Palestinians in such matters? Don’t hold your breath.
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RE: “Collective punishments are evil.”
The evictions are individual legal actions, not collective punishments. Please try to stay on topic.
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Since you’ve already invoked the Nazis, all of their actions were legal too.
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Hardly.
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The topic is the abuse of human rights by Likud and their deliberate provocation of this violence through lawless evictions in Palestinian neighborhoods. Wrapping a crime in a veneer of legal respectability does not make it not a crime. Sending war planes and high explosive bombs against civilians is a war crime. Likud has been committing such crimes for decades.
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Only in your imagination.
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Did I imagine 83 dead civilians including 17 dead children?
So far.
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RE: “Did I imagine 83 dead civilians including 17 dead children?”
Yes, you did.Those tragic deaths are unrelated to the story the post addresses.
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Oh, good, Elliott Fucking Abrams has thoughts on what does and does not constitute war crimes against an occupied indigenous population. The lack of self awareness of these people is staggering. Just the absolute perfect guy to have on your side.
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Are the evictions war crimes?
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When used as a policy of ethnic cleansing, yes.
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What makes you think the evictions amount to ethnic cleansing?
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History, Israeli policy, etc.
“Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people–and only it.” –Benjamin Netanyahu, 2019
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And yet the evictees are persons who overstayed their leases or squatted on the properties they were evicted from. Even in a “nation state of the Jewish people,” such proceedings are entirely justified and moral. They don’t amount to ethnic cleansing.
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As a Jewish -American, this entire situation is completely heartbreaking. There is a lot of wrong on both sides and very little right.
I will say that Kushner had a good start with Israeli-Arab peace deals with the Abraham Accords. While not perfect, they were a step in the right direction. Fixing generations of ill will between peoples is extremely challenging. I don’t expect to see it in my lifetime.
But until Hamas and Hezbollah are no longer in control of the Palestinian Leadership and Bibi is no longer PM, I fear this is going to continue longer than need be. And it does not matter who sits in the Oval Office.
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Wait! You think this is about evictions?
Hamas and Hezbolah are puppets of Iran. Iran wants concessions from the US on the Nuclear talks.
So, there will be violence to put pressure on Boden to cave in.
This is all in service of Iran.
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“This is all in service of Iran”
Not too laughable, but haters gotta hate. The shame of it is that next to the Palestinians the Iranians are the closest thing we have to civilized modern people in the Islamic world. Somehow we ended up on the side of the Wahhabists. Just one more massive hidden cost of burning fossil fuel, I guess.
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I would tend to agree with you about the Persian people, but the regime of Ayatollahs that runs the country are murderous fanatics. Makes you wonder why such civilized people put up with them.
But we should indeed not take side in the Shia/Suni schism. Our involvement should be limited to taking care neither side runs out of flamethrowers.
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They tried to have a secular parliamentary democracy, but we overthrew that and installed the murderous fanatic Shah. I guess they decided their clerics were preferable to him.
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“Wait! You think this is about evictions?”
WTF are you talking about? I didn’t say that. I didn’t indicate anything except that it is nto a cut-and-dry situation that folks on both sides of the discussion seem to think.
Yes, Iran is the big issue. But in the present, people are DYING.
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The Rule of law still applies, even if you’re Palestinian
https://www.wsj.com/articles/almost-nothing-youve-heard-about-evictions-in-jerusalem-is-true-11621019410?mod=opinion_lead_pos7
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Nothing you have posted in reply to my comment has ANYTHING to do with my comment.
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Here is a view of Likud policy by one Jewish American.
https://tinyurl.com/2yf56sj6
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Teen Vogue? Really Paul? J/K. Interesting to see a piece like that there.
It is not just the writer’s generation that questions the far right Israeli leadership. My family has always been wary of it.
But again, it is not as easy as some pundits try and put it. Is the two-state solution the best? Who knows until we get there. And the only way to get there is to get people talking. But when Bibi refuses to try and the Palestinian leadership only spends time condemning Israeli occupation (and existence), it is hard to get the parties to the table.
Funny, but wasn’t it Carter who got Israel and Egypt to talk back in the 70’s?
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Former Ambassador Friedman points the fingers where they belong, PERHAPS.
https://thehill.com/opinion/international/553532-place-the-blame-for-the-gaza-war-where-it-belongs
This closing seems to make a lot of sense. …”That blame lies exclusively with a bunch of antisemitic, misogynistic, homophobic terrorist thugs known as Hamas. Contrary to pretextual grievances regarding Jerusalem, Hamas started this war because its political rival, the Palestinian Authority, abruptly cancelled the scheduled elections that already had been postponed on and off for 12 years. The Palestinian Authority, itself violent and corrupt, obviously anticipated a bad outcome from its polling. Hamas, realizing that it could not take over leadership of the Palestinian people at the ballot box, opted instead to gain control through an alternative and even more popular method — inciting riots and killing Israelis.
There is only one side to this story — Hamas started a war to kill Jewish civilians in order to burnish its “leadership” credentials. Anyone hoping for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict better hope and pray that Hamas is decisively defeated. Any other outcome would be devastating to the entire region, most significantly the Palestinian people. ”
It was his job for four years so I would say his credentials to comment on the topic are legit and worthy of consideration.
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