Angry Israel/Palestine Ranting Thread.

Weird. I was able to read the whole thing, but now when I return it's paywalled as well.

here, AaronSofaer

Yep. That's how you whitewash eugenics -- it wasn't so bad!

And slaves in the old south? They were happier as slaves. Really!

Suspiciously lacking is the simple fact that whoever wrote that would be outraged were the tables turned and it had happened to them.

Nice, Haaretz.

A heartwarming tale of Arab-americans visiting Israel.. oh wait.
http://mondoweiss.net/2012/06/do-yo...-detained-and-interrogated-at-ben-gurion.html

Fucking dammit.

Pretty much what you would expect when you combine the chucklefucks who seem to gravitate towards airport security-like professions with the endemic state racism of modern Israel. Just a solid reminder never to visit Israel unless you are very white and very Jewish.

Then again I'm not sure the TSA is substantially better half the time.

Playing the "who's worse" game with the TSA and Israeli airport security is like stabbing yourself repeatedly in the left kidney and right kidney, trying to figure out which one hurts more.

I'm not sure I would ever take a computer across international borders anymore -- it's just asking for trouble with the local security goons.

I suppose if I were traveling frequently for business I might think differently, but even then I'd seriously consider having a separate computer on each end and sharing data between them across the net.

There were some great articles about what you have to do if travelling internationally. The takeaway was not to store anything locally, use a clean laptop, and then VPN to your data once in your destination. Even if you travel with encrypted files, you often have to turn over encryption keys or face the chance of being denied entry.

Fun fact: My company's standard IT install encrypts the local hard drive. F*cked if I even know how to decrypt it, other than logging on I guess.

I am DREADING a trip to the US later this year and my interaction with TSA.

Your IT guys, if they know their shit, should already be aware of the dangers of traveling with encryption. If you doubt they are up to snuff on these things, forward this along to them, and tell them to make sure they're aware of the section labeled "Border Agent Demands for Access to Data." Then make sure they have a way for you to VPN to work or have some way to make sure you can get through customs without having to compromise your data.

I'm f*cked.

More seriously, I'll just make sure nothing important is on the local hard drive (mostly outlook cache), then copy anything important back on once I hit the office network.

Bwahahaha! A new laptop!! NEXT YOU'LL WANT BREAD WITH YOUR SOUP!

I've been watching this Intelligence Squared debate, the motion being "Israel is destroying itself with its settlement policy":



I can't claim to be entirely unbiased, but I do come to this from a position of not having deep knowledge of the issues, and as such enjoy being informed by both sides of the debate. Which is why I find it quite disturbing how dishonest those arguing against the motion seem willing to be. They aggressively push transparent non sequiturs, outright falsehoods, and even thinly veiled charges charges of anti-Semitism as if they were obvious truths.

I don't think it's excessive snark to say that those rhetorical tricks are all they have. Near as I can tell, their position is thoroughly unjust no matter how you slice it.

Our IT department (defense contractor) has clean laptops for any foreign travel, even to Canada. People get fired for not clearing foreign visits before hand, even to Canada.

Even to Canada.

Wait. If storing data in the cloud is a way to bypass snoopy border agents, wouldn't the terrorists know this too?!?

It has nothing to do with security (seriously, do you think terrorists run around with emails marked high priority with subjects of "FYI: Bomb arming instructions!!"), and everything to do with bullying. They are fully aware that even if you reject their bullshit, you're going to miss your flight and likely be out a chunk of cash for it. So at some point you'll give in and let them do whatever the fuck so you can get on with your life. Giving security any shit can result in you having an extremely bad day, or even just looking funny when they're already having a bad day.

Airport security is a complete joke with a very depressing punchline.

Israeli airport security is much less of a joke than the TSA, though.

Parts of it. Mostly the design of the planes and the question asking methodology. They appear to have the same giant unfunny joke of power games however.

I didn't mind Israeli security at Ben Gurion when I passed through it. Even though it took a long time, they were very polite and explained the reasons behind everything they were doing, e.g. that as a single male under 40 I was their second highest risk profile. They even escorted me through security to make a short cut to the transit lounge, chatting amiably with me the whole time.

Compare this to my first trip to the US where I had to fill out some dumb form saying that I wasn't a communist, and noticed I'd missed something while I was queuing for immigration. I didn't have a pen, so I asked a po-faced official to lend me one - she had a rack of them in her upper pocket. She reached instinctively for the pens, but then some miserable training etiquette took over and she refused. Welcome to America!

The guy who checked my passport was very friendly, though, at least after he learned why I was in the US - to record dialog for Crysis :).

What race are you?

I'm English with a bit of Irish. They told me the highest risk profile was single male Arab under 40.

Just think how close we came to losing that nice bit of Brit dialogue!

Damn you TSA!!

The highest risk profile in the US is British Male. 6/18/1812 NEVER FORGET.

I was recording it, not acting it... although I did get an acting credit in Warhead :).

I hope the Australian government does its job and demands an explanation.

So wait. He was a secret prisoner not on the books, and wound up hung in his cell?

It's even odder that it seems like Australia has known about this for years and stayed quiet until a reporter figured it out. I'm only putting that bit together because the story doesn't declare they just found out, and says the body was flown back for burial which would have to have had a few questions raised about the death.

It also reads like the family also acted to suppress the network's investigation. I'm not sure if that's out of a sense of basic human privacy or they reached some kind of settlement with Israel.

Presumably this means the story is at least moderately embarrassing for everyone. I'm favouring the speculation that he sold Mossad secrets to someone Mossad really doesn't want their secrets sold to like, say, Iran.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hicks This guy (Australian Citizen) was in Gitmo for like decade on the heinous charge of having once trained with militants. The past conservative government basically said fuck it and colluded with the Bush administration to throw away the key. Then when the pressure got a bit much (mostly thanks to his Dad turning up on TV like every 5 minutes to shame the government), they accepted the "verdict" of Gitmo, put him in jail here for a while, then let him out subject to an almighty gag order.

Re prisoner X though, It's actually turning into an interesting political issue here.

1. Firstly, the Foreign Minister (Bob Carr) when interviewed for the original story that broke the news basically said - "this man is news to me, the department has advised me they've never heard of him and was unaware he was imprisoned in Israel"; BUT
2. Later on today the Department fessed up "Oh whoopsies! You meant THAT Australian citizen imprisoned without charge, no consular access and who mysteriously managed to kill himself in his very high tech maximum security continuously monitored prison cell in Israel. Oh yeah, another Australian agency told us about him."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-13/dfat-was-aware-of-australian27s-detention-in-israel/4517074

"another Australian agency" here no doubt being code for one of ASIO or ASIS (our version of MI5 / MI6). Very importantly note the use of the word "agency" not "department". Departments are for boring stuff like Health and Education. Agency is for shit with guns, like federal Police, Customs and spooks.

The Foreign Minister also confirmed the family had not asked for consular assistance - so kind of confirmed there is something fishy going on with the family too.

The Foreign Minister is not some lackey either - he is a former successful premier of the of one of the States here, so has been around the block a few times and wont have the wool pulled over him by Sir Humphrey Appleby types. Being made to look an idiot by the Department of Foreign affairs will not sit well. There are early signs he is about to go on one righteous witch hunt through the department on this issue. Plus they have to face up to a senate estimates committee tomorrow and get grilled by the opposition(s) which will make him even more pissed.

(Foreign Minister = Secretary of State)

Australia is usually pretty much in lockstep with the United States on the Israel / Palestine question. BUT:

• There will be members of the Australian foreign affairs / intelligence community still pissed off about the Israelis using fake Australian passports when they assassinated the Hamas guy in Dubai
• We just started our spot on the UN security council. So efforts must be made to not look like a complete American puppet / cipher during our term
• The same Foreign Minister recently "rolled" the Prime Minister in cabinet over not voting against Palestinian observer status at the UN - ie. our Prime Minister wanted to vote against, but the Foreign Minister gained enough support in the cabinet for an abstention, such that the Prime Minister gave way on the issue rather than have an internal party fight over the matter
• The current ruling Labor party (allegedly centre "left" sort of the same as Democrats. Sort of) is in loose alliance with the far lefter Greens party - they rely on them and a bunch of independents to govern - it s minority government
• the Greens party is massively (for a western political party) pro Palestinian. So they might throw some bones that way, or just be seen to be "tough" on Israel to woo voters back to Labor from the Greens.

So, cant take for granted Australia will be total Israeli apologists in this case.

http://electronicintifada.net/blogs...g-instragram-photo-child-crosshairs-his-rifle

FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU

Livni makes it into the government after all. I would guess that she is there to assume the Barak role in assuaging US guilt, because certainly nothing else about the Netanyahu government suggests a peace process direction of travel.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/19/tzipi-livni-israel-justice-minister

Subject deleted per request. Well, not really by request, but by very polite complaints.

Racism is only something that other people do.