Israeli officials fear the pope’s vocal criticisms and symbolic gestures - such as this year’s nativity scene in St Peter’s Square featuring baby Jesus resting on a Palestinian keffiyeh - may influence global public opinion.
Created by Bethlehem artists Johny Andonia and Faten Nastas Mitwasi, the nativity scene prominently features Palestinian materials, including olive wood, a symbol of Palestinian resilience.
During its unveiling, Pope Francis condemned the global arms industry for profiting from human suffering and reiterated his call for an end to all wars, urging the faithful to remember those suffering in the holy land.
The display, praised by many as a message of solidarity and peace, drew backlash from Israel’s supporters, who accused the Vatican of promoting a pro-Palestinian agenda.
This is probably a good time to mention that Israel, like all developed nations, has been experiencing a slowing birth rate.
This was a problem for them because the birthrate in the occupied territories was higher, and if you can’t maintain a Jewish majority in the country, how can you maintain the country as a Jewish homeland? This existential doom has hung over Israelis like climate change or the heat death of the universe: even if they aren’t destroyed in fire, they’ll simply dissolve over time until they disappear, and it will all be for nothing.
So you know. I’m not saying that killing Palestinian children was the solution they came up with. But the prospect of a justified way to wipe Gaza clean came their way, and it was too important an opportunity to pass up. If some children must be killed in the process, they think, silently, in the quietest corner of their hearts, then so be it.
Unfortunately the data doesn’t support your thesis. child birth graph Haredi jews are having more than double births than the average Israeli Muslim.
Combined (secular etc.) Jewish birth rate is on par (slightly higher) than Israeli Muslims and Palestinians in Gaza. (This was even before all the bullshit started last year)
Well I got this information from some Israelis I guess you’d describe as “secular Jews” so their POV agrees with their data point in your graph anyway.
Still not shown by this data though, is the birth rate in the territories. I’m not talking about Israeli Arabs and wasn’t before either. It would also help to have some sense of proportion. Haredi Jews are 13% so although their birthrate is high it doesn’t characterize Jews as a whole.
But thanks for providing at least some data here.
This isn’t some secret. Listen to John Mearsheimer, who has talked about this for years. it is simple logic.
There is about the same number of Arab Palestinians and Western Israelis in the area. So for the Jewish supremacy ethonstate that Israel wants to be there is only three options:
Indefinite Apartheid. This is extremely costly and as the Arab population keeps growing more and more difficult to maintain. Also it is just preserving the status quo
Ethnic cleansing. Drive all the Palestinians out. However then your neighbors have to harbor them, they form a resistance there, and they keep demanding their right to return.
Genocide. By eradicating them all, you get the “final” solution to permanently steal and settle the land.
So what we see is Israel maintaining option 1 and looking to escalate to option 2 and 3 whenever possible. Notice how they first tried to expel the population of Gaza into Egypt? When this option wasn’t possible and they knew that their western supporters in the US, UK, Germany and others were okay with genocide, they escalated to genocide.
The only way to get out of this situation with minimizing further destruction and murder is to abandon the Zionist project in favor of a just state that grants equal rights and justice to everyone living in Palestine.
I don’t believe I presented the information as a secret. And I agree with everything else you said. I’m a one-state-solution guy. This does mean that the state won’t have one official ethnicity/culture/religion, but I have no regard for the desire to build a state hegemony.
I have no proof of this, but I think Israeli intelligence knew the October Hamas attack was coming. Probably didn’t realize how severe it was going to be, but they may have wanted it for an excuse for everything they did after.
I can’t even wrap my head around what the goal of Hamas was with their attack. Surely they knew that Israel’s response would be total insanity. Maybe they’re drinking their own koolaid even at the top.
Lets not confuse intelligence that something major is going to happen with actionable intelligence where you can preemptively take action to prevent an attack.
Prior to 9-11 there was most definitely increased chatter and I’d hazard a guess that many security and intelligence agencies knew something was going down on US soils but didn’t have actionable specifics that would have allowed them to take appropriate action and prevent 9-11.
I think it was a similar issue with Israel and they must have believed that the worse case was an isolated terrorist bombing and to prepare a typical lockdown and emergency services response and not a massive raid on their territories.
Yeah someone else provided some good links to the links here. I was making the same connection. Check the other reply.
Pretty sure this is common knowledge by now:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67082047
Yeah, seems like a pretty good source. It reminds me of the “Bin Laden Determined to Attack Within the US” reports that surfaced after the 9/11 attacks. I don’t actually believe that GWB was in on it, but I could see the administration letting something happen for reason to go to war.
It’s so similar in a way. Perhaps both were intentionally allowed at some level, just underestimated in scale. I can’t imagine either of the leaders, Bush or Netanyahu, to allow so many of their “own people” to die and make a mockery of their countries to the world. Perhaps they did. I doubt we’ll ever know.
I don’t believe Bush did it through malice, it was 100% incompetence.
I mean, take it from Richard Clarke:
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/trust-clarke-hes-right-about-bush/
Of course they knew, they have one of if not the best secret agency in the world.
What, Israel counts as developed nation?