Off Topic Politics Thread

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You reckon Israel would admit it if they did? There's video evidence that Israel have used white phosphorus which they've denied too. Wake up.

Obviously seems very likely that Israel did it, but w need to know because this genuinely pushes us a lot closer to WW3 in my opinion
 
Israel have imprisoned the Palestinian populace in an open air prison for years whilst controlling, and restricting, exactly what goods flow in and out... all whilst periodically bombing them.

Our Government support this so why would they suddenly care now the bombing has stepped up in severity.
First sign of any criticism of Israel is called antisemitism and the debate stops there
 
Israel have imprisoned the Palestinian populace in an open air prison for years whilst controlling, and restricting, exactly what goods flow in and out... all whilst periodically bombing them.

Our Government support this so why would they suddenly care now the bombing has stepped up in severity.

Yep. Us and (in particular) the US are entirely complicit in all of this.

Palestinian leader has cancelled meeting with Biden tomorrow apparently. Feel this could really escalate in coming days.
 
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First sign of any criticism of Israel is called antisemitism and the debate stops there

Slightky off topic but I've never understood why the term 'anti-semtism' only applied to discrimination against Jewish people.

Unless I'm mistaken Arabs are semites as well? Plus some Christians too?

Sure there is a reason behind it which I'm ignorant of but it's always caused me confusion.
 
Ha you think that actually deters people? I read a story the other week where a shop kept getting robbed despite the presence of a load of CCTV cameras. It kept getting robbed because the police don't bother with shoplifters any more.


There's a massive difference between shoplifting and robbery, it's not just semantics.

Those who think the police aren't "bothered" with these sorts of crimes couldn't be more wrong. Most forces use the THOR/THRIVE model of grading calls simply because there's no where near enough officers to go about. The average Borough will have 15-20 officers per shift, abstractions and leave will put that to about 14 officers. That's seven cars.
-1 x car assigned to Missing people
-1 x car on a cell watch/bed watch
-1 x car dealing with prisoners in custody from the previous shift
-1 x car at the local M/H hospital trying to wait for a bed to come free.

That leaves 3 cars for 10s of thousands of people, with multiple calls throughout that shift. The calls have to be graded on threat, harm or risk. If there's a domestic incident, someone threatening suicide and a Missing child where do you think shoplifting will sit on that list of jobs? Rightly, at the bottom. It's not a lack of being bothered, risk to life comes before risk to property
 
Tbf none of us know what happened and while Israel are bound to say that it's hardly unrealistic either given Hamas are known ti set up launching sites in close proximity to civilian infrastructure.

It's also rather difficult *not* to be in proximity to civilian infrastructure, in Gaza. It's not a sort of place with a lot of free real estate. Israel knows where all of that civilian infrastructure is, though, and given the precision of large munitions these days, you can't really accidentally hit a hospital with a bomb large enough to level it (and it most certainly wasn't a Hamas rocket...they don't have munitions that are even remotely large enough to do this). They made the conscious decision to drop bombs on or in close proximity to the hospital, and with utterly predictable results.
 
There's a massive difference between shoplifting and robbery, it's not just semantics.

Those who think the police aren't "bothered" with these sorts of crimes couldn't be more wrong. Most forces use the THOR/THRIVE model of grading calls simply because there's no where near enough officers to go about. The average Borough will have 15-20 officers per shift, abstractions and leave will put that to about 14 officers. That's seven cars.
-1 x car assigned to Missing people
-1 x car on a cell watch/bed watch
-1 x car dealing with prisoners in custody from the previous shift
-1 x car at the local M/H hospital trying to wait for a bed to come free.

That leaves 3 cars for 10s of thousands of people, with multiple calls throughout that shift. The calls have to be graded on threat, harm or risk. If there's a domestic incident, someone threatening suicide and a Missing child where do you think shoplifting will sit on that list of jobs? Rightly, at the bottom. It's not a lack of being bothered, risk to life comes before risk to property
I live in a rural area, and we have one beat manager PC and one PCSO managing an area over well over 100 square miles, with a population around 10,000 if you add all the villages together. My village sees a uniform copper about once every couple of years.
 
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It's also rather difficult *not* to be in proximity to civilian infrastructure, in Gaza. It's not a sort of place with a lot of free real estate. Israel knows where all of that civilian infrastructure is, though, and given the precision of large munitions these days, you can't really accidentally hit a hospital with a bomb large enough to level it (and it most certainly wasn't a Hamas rocket...they don't have munitions that are even remotely large enough to do this). They made the conscious decision to drop bombs on or in close proximity to the hospital, and with utterly predictable results.

I’m not sure you can say that with such certainty.

Israel are relying heavily on outside support, it would seem very short sighted of them to do it. It basically guarantees huge support for Hamas.
 
It's also rather difficult *not* to be in proximity to civilian infrastructure, in Gaza. It's not a sort of place with a lot of free real estate. Israel knows where all of that civilian infrastructure is, though, and given the precision of large munitions these days, you can't really accidentally hit a hospital with a bomb large enough to level it (and it most certainly wasn't a Hamas rocket...they don't have munitions that are even remotely large enough to do this). They made the conscious decision to drop bombs on or in close proximity to the hospital, and with utterly predictable results.

I agree that seems the most likely explanation by far.
 
The IDF has already walked back the narrative that it was a Hamas rocket, and is now suggesting that they retaliated owing to rockets that passed 'in the vicinity' of the hospital. They posted proof on Twitter...and then removed the proof from their tweet when reporters noted that it was chronologically impossible.

https://bsky.app/profile/nycsouthpaw.bsky.social/post/3kbxxwr5irx2h

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Hamas' Qassam rockets are small. They are effectively anti-personnel rockets...you can't blow up a hospital with a payload of 20kg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qassam_rocket
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Quds_3

But if Hamas were using it to stockpile weapons there, whos to say that didn’t cause the larger explosion?

The videos suggest it was Hamas. But equally both sides are accusing the other.

Like I said, it looks like Israel but we have to be 100% sure here because this would cause a huge escalation
 
Interesting that the Israelis are contradicting each other. The IDF statement said it was Islamic Jihad and the PM's office and others are saying it was Hamas.

Make your mind up chaps...
 
Interesting that the Israelis are contradicting each other. The IDF statement said it was Islamic Jihad and the PM's office and others are saying it was Hamas.

Make your mind up chaps...

Fog of war.

Video showing it was Hamas here:

https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1714379637839573451?s=46

Fairly compelling as it was taken from a live stream.

In all honesty, I don’t think it will matter now. Even if it was Hamas, people around the world will blame Israel and escalate
 
Fog of war.

Video showing it was Hamas here:

https://x.com/visegrad24/status/1714379637839573451?s=46

Fairly compelling as it was taken from a live stream.

In all honesty, I don’t think it will matter now. Even if it was Hamas, people around the world will blame Israel and escalate

That video is the one the IDF deleted from their tweet, because the timestamps don't match up in the slightest. Bombing of the hospital happened several hours after...12:13am, versus 7:59pm in the timestamps for the video of rockets being fired.
 
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Tear gas fired outside the US embassy in Lebanon…

Does anyone else think it’s absolutely mental that Biden is visiting Israel?
 
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I live in a rural area, and we have one beat manager PC and one PCSO managing an area over well over 100 square miles, with a population around 10,000 if you add all the villages together. My village sees a uniform copper about once every couple of years.
How does the local police deal with immigration in your area then?