After years of apartheid in Gaza, a large surprise attack from Hamas on Saturday prompted a declaration of war and bombardments from Israel.
Ahmad Hasaballah / GETTY
Your complaining about SPD and these camera tickets sound like conservatives’ complaints about public school teachers - you don’t like them, you don’t want to fund them, you look for ways to cut them, and when they fail due to those cuts and the lack of staffing, you still blame them.
And I’m sorry, but when the powers that be that control Gaza (Hamas) won’t even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, then how can any “protest” be legitimate?
"The deputy then wailed on the man, breaking eight of his ribs, puncturing his lung, concussing him severely, injuring his shoulder, and disfiguring his lip in the process."
impunity
begets Atrocities
if said Po-po's
got a good "Union"
they'll see to it he gets
Weeks Off - maybe with Pay!
aaaaaaaaand prolly a Promotion!
far right Reactoinaries
Love them a Good Beatdown
to anypme with the unmiitaged
Gall to pretend to have "Rights" when
the Po-po's around. without Police Bocy Cams
there'd be
Zero copper
misconduct. it's
Their Word against
the Citizenry's. don't
"like" it? call a Cop, bud.
Love how Natalie fails to mention that the reason that SPD failed to review those 100k tickets... every ticket needs to be manually validated by an actual human at SPD. You know whose budget keeps getting cut so they have to cut personnel? SPD. So don't blame them for not being able to do their jobs while being woefully understaffed.
one nyt reader’s comment on
the continuing Atrocities of
Isreali Occupation:
“Most readers forget that under international law, a people under occupation can use force to resist their occupation.
They certainly recognize that law as it applies to Russia and sections of Ukraine.
Legal decisions have also held that an economic blockade, which Israel maintains against all the people of Gaza, is an act of war, a war crime, and resistance to it is not considered terrorism as long as the combatants observe the Geneva Convention.
Annexation of territory seized during a war is illegal, as is the ethnic cleansing of seized territory.
These ongoing, well documented conditions in Gaza and the West Bank go ignored, until there is resistance and then those acts are condemned in the US as terrorism.
It doesn't matter whether you approve of, or disapprove of, the occupying power. It is the act of occupation and the suppression of the rights of the occupied that determine its legality.
But we won't hear much about international law in the media. The United States has recently engaged in several wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria and has occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, against the will of the local people, even after their governments were deposed.
Israel and the US have announced their immunity from the standards of international law, yet often seek to enforce those standards against others.
This is American hypocrisy, not American exceptionalism.”
@11, yes, Obama was a centrist. They were good picks but he governed way too conservatively and naively thought Republicans could be worked with in good faith.
And the current centrist doesn't want to upset the GOP by expanding the court. He said it would "politicize it." He said that with a straight face.
OMG - READ THE ARTICLE that the news is sourced from!!! Law enforcement staff are required to legally enforce a camera ticket and collect revenue for important projects. Defunding the police has unintended consequences.
It's a little rich for TS to complain about the budget shortfall related the parking ticket fiasco considering that this resulted from pressure from Defund to needlessly move parking enforcement from the SPD.
Also, the African country of Angola is not "Angora."
The Stranger's "take" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is abhorrent. Natalie, do you have even the slightest clue what the fuck you are writing about, or are you just a mouth piece regurgitating whatever Rich and the rest of the asshats at The Stranger fills it with?
No matter what the subject is, it's just sickening the misinformation and propaganda this shit rag "publishes" on a daily basis. I'm glad to see it slowly spiraling into irrelevance as only left-wing nut jobs pay it any respect.
Aside from my feeling for the State of Israel and my belief in a two-state solution, you do know, don't you, that Hamas is about as interested in the welfare of the Palestinian people as you are in having a Friskies Buffet sandwich for lunch and washing it down with a tall glass of warm buttermilk?
Israel has a way to utterly destroy Hamas in an instant, never to return to fight again. Recognize the Palestinian Authority government, create a second state in the West Bank, and the illegal settlements that are later given legal status. Prosecute settlers who presently steal land and/or kill Palestinians with impunity. Hamas' support would dry up immediately.
Israel is reaping the awful consequences of rolling the dice that they could contain Hamas and gradually take the West Bank by abandoning the two-state solution. Hamas only took power in Gaza after the two-state solution was clearly dead.
Thanks for presenting an even-handed view on situation in Palestine/Israel. Most media are busy trying to justify the coming massacre of everyone trapped in the Gaza cage.
For the record, I don't support Hamas or the state of Israel. I am against killing civilians, which both sides do on an unfortunately regular basis. I believe that Hamas has shot itself in the foot again, and will suffer major setbacks from this invasion, largely because they killed large numbers of civilians. They may or may not come back in the same form from those setbacks. If they do come back, they will likely be even more radical.
@27 There was broad support for a 2-state solution in both Israel and Palestine, ~70% support as late as 2002. Even in 2013, a majority of Israelis supported a 2-state solution. However, continued land theft by settlers supported by the Israeli army and the Israeli border walls have made a viable state of Palestine nearly impossible.
The various parties (primarily Fatah and Israel) were very close to peace at a few points, but it always fell apart before negotiations were finalized. I'm not blaming Israel alone for the negotiations falling apart, but it didn't help that the Israeli government was consistently on the side of the settlers and rarely willing to dial back any settlements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-state_solution
I have a story from visiting Jerusalem in the early 90's that illustrates the Israeli attitude toward Palestinian land even during a time of relatively good relationships. We were walking along a residential street in Old Jerusalem, and one of the houses was surrounded by a razor wire fence. We asked our tour guide what was up with that, and he said that a Jewish family had taken the house at gunpoint from the Palestinian family who had previously lived there. The razor wire was to keep the rightful owners out. We asked why the police didn't evict the people who stole the house. The guide shrugged and said there wasn't any point since the settlers would just come back and steal the house again. There was never any consideration that the settlers might be imprisoned for theft at gunpoint. That's why it's been a little difficult to build trust.
I came into the comments expecting to see unabashed support for Israel, because, you know, they had nothing to do with anything the Palestinians do. They are an incident bystander after all. And, of course, I get to read the blatantly false narrative about SPD being defined. You all keep speaking it into truth, I guess.
@27 The two state solution has never come to fruition largely because of the status of Jerusalem, which your own anecdotal story highlights. It’s simply far too important to both parties to cede voluntarily, and unworkable to split peacefully. There is no easy way around the fact that two of the most important places in both religions are literally sitting on one another. A recognized Palestinian also wouldn’t drain support for Hamas given that it’s funding comes from Iran and global jihadi networks (many regular Palestinians already don’t support Hamas) and as long as there are state and non-state actors committed to the destruction of Israel and a Jewish state they will be financed and functioning regardless of whether an agreement over a Palestinian state is reached or not.
@32 -- you heard correctly:
SPD's been Totes defunded
and they're Forced to
finance their assault
on the Citizenry
thru Bakesales
& 'sexy' car-
washes.
@38- I think they are defending Hamas (and really, the Palestinians ) as people, not because they are islamists. Now, I think we can agree that they are assholes regardless of whether these attacks were motivated by religion or by the land dispute that is the Middle East.
@32: What’s “blatantly false” about describing the origin of Seattle’s problems with traffic tickets? They all originate with defund, as the comments here describe. (The Stranger’s headline posters have gotten this story wrong in the past, but being persistently wrong doesn’t count towards being right.)
Lets all remember that the British Mandate of Palestine only became Israel after a long and bloody terrorist war by the Irgun against The British Empire. Those same terrorists drove countless Palestinian families from farms their families had tended for centuries, because it was the farm of a long-dead ancient Hebrew, with only a vague religious tie to the European immigrant the land was then given to. And we call Hamas terrorists for doing exactly what the Irgun did? I'll use the modern parlance of Reddit's AITAH group: everyone sucks here. The victims are the innocent civilians on both sides. Both HAMAS and the government of Israel are the baddies in this, and Netanyahu is the biggest asshole, as he actively provoked this.
"And I want to say something very, very clear and very, very blunt. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justify — can justify or legitimize the carnage that Hamas carried out in the towns and kibbutzim and the villages in the southern of Israel. Nothing can justify it. It is appalling.
And even the occupation crimes, the crimes that Israel is guilty of, crimes of occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the Nakba, those, either, cannot justify such carnage.
At the same time, nothing, and absolutely nothing, can justify the massacre that the Israelis carries out now in Gaza, not even the crimes of Hamas."
--Ofer Cassif
this is what you Get
when you Occupy
another People
& when your generations-olde
open-air concentration camp
squeezes and mashes its oc-
cupants til there's damn
little to actually Live for
& steals their Homes
and so now Isreal
shows it's horrific powers
of Retribution. to what End?
"Nothing, absolutely nothing, justify — can justify or legitimize the carnage that Hamas carried out in the towns and kibbutzim and the villages in the southern of Israel. Nothing can justify it. It is appalling."
fuck off
with your
False Equivalencies
@43 -- again with your usual strawman
my non-comment on your
Every Issue is Not Now
and will never BE
Endorsement
irregardless
of Your
wishes.
@3 Will in Seattle: +1 That, and from the SPOG, and the entire GOP while we're at it.
I'd love to see the Orange Turd, its minions Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Mitch McConnell ad nauseum all sweating like luau pigs over the federal minimum wage of $7.25/ hour on their own KKKorporate slave labor.
It's time for the punishment to fit the crime.
I wish I had more to add to this comment thread, and that I had any answers.
Heaven help us, we are so fucked.
Jesus, Nathalie, don't send everybody to the San Juans just for the sake of a 32 hour work week!
San Juan County also observes routine county-wide power grid outages in efforts to conserve energy, and there is a water shortage throughout the islands. Droughts are frequent during the summer months, and often ice water isn't offered to restaurant patrons unless it is specifically asked for.
Commutes can be tricky, too, as there is a high dependency on the Washington State Ferry system, boats, and seaplanes to and from the mainland. Available healthcare is limited; many people are sent to PeaceHealth St. Joseph in Bellingham for urgent care. Woe be to anyone with a doctor's appointment who can't make the ferry back to Anacortes on time.
As beautiful and desirable as the San Juan archipelago is for me and my beloved VW to visit, the cost of actually living there is prohibitive for us and many others. And there aren't a lot of high paying jobs, there, either.
You better know somebody you can shack up with if you're thinking of working as a barista or waiting tables in Friday Harbor.
After reading a dismaying article in Monday's edition of the Seattle Times, I really feel sorry for everyone in Seattle needing access to a public restroom who has to settle for a filthy port-a-potty or pee in a back alley instead.
One stupid question (at least it feels stupid for me to have to ask this):
Who declared Washington State as the world's refugee, drug dealer, and addict capitol of the universe?
In another recent Seattle Times article, many West Coast cities are declaring infeasibility to actually being able to provide housing for everybody. What may sound good on paper--and especially for every greedy, profiteering developer--just isn't possible economically, environmentally, or in dealing with public health and safety (Might I reiterate the current lack of public restrooms in Seattle, lightrail or no lightrail?). The study on homelessness claiming that we "need 1.1 million new homes" is insane and pure bullshit! We don't have the infrastructure to add ~ 8 million newcomers overnight, our roads and freeways are already gridlocked, and increasing population density would only make Washington unlivable. We just had a 4.0 earthquake last Sunday, and we're still not adequately prepared for The Big One.
Raise your hands, commenters, if you would honestly like to see the population density of communities such as Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Bellingham, Tacoma, Everett, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, etc. equal to that of New York City? I sure as my morning shit do not.
We didn't feel anything on Beacon Hill.
Your complaining about SPD and these camera tickets sound like conservatives’ complaints about public school teachers - you don’t like them, you don’t want to fund them, you look for ways to cut them, and when they fail due to those cuts and the lack of staffing, you still blame them.
And I’m sorry, but when the powers that be that control Gaza (Hamas) won’t even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist, then how can any “protest” be legitimate?
Obviously the cuts need to come from the SPD budget
"The deputy then wailed on the man, breaking eight of his ribs, puncturing his lung, concussing him severely, injuring his shoulder, and disfiguring his lip in the process."
impunity
begets Atrocities
if said Po-po's
got a good "Union"
they'll see to it he gets
Weeks Off - maybe with Pay!
aaaaaaaaand prolly a Promotion!
far right Reactoinaries
Love them a Good Beatdown
to anypme with the unmiitaged
Gall to pretend to have "Rights" when
the Po-po's around. without Police Bocy Cams
there'd be
Zero copper
misconduct. it's
Their Word against
the Citizenry's. don't
"like" it? call a Cop, bud.
Love how Natalie fails to mention that the reason that SPD failed to review those 100k tickets... every ticket needs to be manually validated by an actual human at SPD. You know whose budget keeps getting cut so they have to cut personnel? SPD. So don't blame them for not being able to do their jobs while being woefully understaffed.
one nyt reader’s comment on
the continuing Atrocities of
Isreali Occupation:
“Most readers forget that under international law, a people under occupation can use force to resist their occupation.
They certainly recognize that law as it applies to Russia and sections of Ukraine.
Legal decisions have also held that an economic blockade, which Israel maintains against all the people of Gaza, is an act of war, a war crime, and resistance to it is not considered terrorism as long as the combatants observe the Geneva Convention.
Annexation of territory seized during a war is illegal, as is the ethnic cleansing of seized territory.
These ongoing, well documented conditions in Gaza and the West Bank go ignored, until there is resistance and then those acts are condemned in the US as terrorism.
It doesn't matter whether you approve of, or disapprove of, the occupying power. It is the act of occupation and the suppression of the rights of the occupied that determine its legality.
But we won't hear much about international law in the media. The United States has recently engaged in several wars of aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria and has occupied Iraq and Afghanistan, against the will of the local people, even after their governments were deposed.
Israel and the US have announced their immunity from the standards of international law, yet often seek to enforce those standards against others.
This is American hypocrisy, not American exceptionalism.”
--Drspock; New York Oct. 7
You’d think the billions we provide Israel every year for weapons and defense would be enough of a show of support.
@4 you don’t need to elect republicans when centrist democrats will bend over backwards to act like republicans.
@11, yes, Obama was a centrist. They were good picks but he governed way too conservatively and naively thought Republicans could be worked with in good faith.
And the current centrist doesn't want to upset the GOP by expanding the court. He said it would "politicize it." He said that with a straight face.
OMG - READ THE ARTICLE that the news is sourced from!!! Law enforcement staff are required to legally enforce a camera ticket and collect revenue for important projects. Defunding the police has unintended consequences.
It's a little rich for TS to complain about the budget shortfall related the parking ticket fiasco considering that this resulted from pressure from Defund to needlessly move parking enforcement from the SPD.
Also, the African country of Angola is not "Angora."
IT’S WHALED.
It's SPD DIDN'T DO THEIR JOB not Wailed
The Stranger's "take" on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is abhorrent. Natalie, do you have even the slightest clue what the fuck you are writing about, or are you just a mouth piece regurgitating whatever Rich and the rest of the asshats at The Stranger fills it with?
No matter what the subject is, it's just sickening the misinformation and propaganda this shit rag "publishes" on a daily basis. I'm glad to see it slowly spiraling into irrelevance as only left-wing nut jobs pay it any respect.
Aside from my feeling for the State of Israel and my belief in a two-state solution, you do know, don't you, that Hamas is about as interested in the welfare of the Palestinian people as you are in having a Friskies Buffet sandwich for lunch and washing it down with a tall glass of warm buttermilk?
Israel has a way to utterly destroy Hamas in an instant, never to return to fight again. Recognize the Palestinian Authority government, create a second state in the West Bank, and the illegal settlements that are later given legal status. Prosecute settlers who presently steal land and/or kill Palestinians with impunity. Hamas' support would dry up immediately.
Israel is reaping the awful consequences of rolling the dice that they could contain Hamas and gradually take the West Bank by abandoning the two-state solution. Hamas only took power in Gaza after the two-state solution was clearly dead.
Thanks for presenting an even-handed view on situation in Palestine/Israel. Most media are busy trying to justify the coming massacre of everyone trapped in the Gaza cage.
For the record, I don't support Hamas or the state of Israel. I am against killing civilians, which both sides do on an unfortunately regular basis. I believe that Hamas has shot itself in the foot again, and will suffer major setbacks from this invasion, largely because they killed large numbers of civilians. They may or may not come back in the same form from those setbacks. If they do come back, they will likely be even more radical.
@18- perhaps the kindly officer, having “whaled” on the gentleman, realized what he had done and began to loudly “wail”?
@27 There was broad support for a 2-state solution in both Israel and Palestine, ~70% support as late as 2002. Even in 2013, a majority of Israelis supported a 2-state solution. However, continued land theft by settlers supported by the Israeli army and the Israeli border walls have made a viable state of Palestine nearly impossible.
The various parties (primarily Fatah and Israel) were very close to peace at a few points, but it always fell apart before negotiations were finalized. I'm not blaming Israel alone for the negotiations falling apart, but it didn't help that the Israeli government was consistently on the side of the settlers and rarely willing to dial back any settlements.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-state_solution
I have a story from visiting Jerusalem in the early 90's that illustrates the Israeli attitude toward Palestinian land even during a time of relatively good relationships. We were walking along a residential street in Old Jerusalem, and one of the houses was surrounded by a razor wire fence. We asked our tour guide what was up with that, and he said that a Jewish family had taken the house at gunpoint from the Palestinian family who had previously lived there. The razor wire was to keep the rightful owners out. We asked why the police didn't evict the people who stole the house. The guide shrugged and said there wasn't any point since the settlers would just come back and steal the house again. There was never any consideration that the settlers might be imprisoned for theft at gunpoint. That's why it's been a little difficult to build trust.
I came into the comments expecting to see unabashed support for Israel, because, you know, they had nothing to do with anything the Palestinians do. They are an incident bystander after all. And, of course, I get to read the blatantly false narrative about SPD being defined. You all keep speaking it into truth, I guess.
@27 The two state solution has never come to fruition largely because of the status of Jerusalem, which your own anecdotal story highlights. It’s simply far too important to both parties to cede voluntarily, and unworkable to split peacefully. There is no easy way around the fact that two of the most important places in both religions are literally sitting on one another. A recognized Palestinian also wouldn’t drain support for Hamas given that it’s funding comes from Iran and global jihadi networks (many regular Palestinians already don’t support Hamas) and as long as there are state and non-state actors committed to the destruction of Israel and a Jewish state they will be financed and functioning regardless of whether an agreement over a Palestinian state is reached or not.
@32 -- you heard correctly:
SPD's been Totes defunded
and they're Forced to
finance their assault
on the Citizenry
thru Bakesales
& 'sexy' car-
washes.
they'll do ANYthing
to Protect and
Serve.
@38- I think they are defending Hamas (and really, the Palestinians ) as people, not because they are islamists. Now, I think we can agree that they are assholes regardless of whether these attacks were motivated by religion or by the land dispute that is the Middle East.
@32: What’s “blatantly false” about describing the origin of Seattle’s problems with traffic tickets? They all originate with defund, as the comments here describe. (The Stranger’s headline posters have gotten this story wrong in the past, but being persistently wrong doesn’t count towards being right.)
Lets all remember that the British Mandate of Palestine only became Israel after a long and bloody terrorist war by the Irgun against The British Empire. Those same terrorists drove countless Palestinian families from farms their families had tended for centuries, because it was the farm of a long-dead ancient Hebrew, with only a vague religious tie to the European immigrant the land was then given to. And we call Hamas terrorists for doing exactly what the Irgun did? I'll use the modern parlance of Reddit's AITAH group: everyone sucks here. The victims are the innocent civilians on both sides. Both HAMAS and the government of Israel are the baddies in this, and Netanyahu is the biggest asshole, as he actively provoked this.
"And I want to say something very, very clear and very, very blunt. Nothing, absolutely nothing, justify — can justify or legitimize the carnage that Hamas carried out in the towns and kibbutzim and the villages in the southern of Israel. Nothing can justify it. It is appalling.
And even the occupation crimes, the crimes that Israel is guilty of, crimes of occupation, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and the Nakba, those, either, cannot justify such carnage.
At the same time, nothing, and absolutely nothing, can justify the massacre that the Israelis carries out now in Gaza, not even the crimes of Hamas."
--Ofer Cassif
this is what you Get
when you Occupy
another People
& when your generations-olde
open-air concentration camp
squeezes and mashes its oc-
cupants til there's damn
little to actually Live for
& steals their Homes
and so now Isreal
shows it's horrific powers
of Retribution. to what End?
@44 -- from my comment @41:
"Nothing, absolutely nothing, justify — can justify or legitimize the carnage that Hamas carried out in the towns and kibbutzim and the villages in the southern of Israel. Nothing can justify it. It is appalling."
fuck off
with your
False Equivalencies
@43 -- again with your usual strawman
my non-comment on your
Every Issue is Not Now
and will never BE
Endorsement
irregardless
of Your
wishes.
fuck off dewey
I'm as Calm
as a cuc-
umber
@3 Will in Seattle: +1 That, and from the SPOG, and the entire GOP while we're at it.
I'd love to see the Orange Turd, its minions Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Mitch McConnell ad nauseum all sweating like luau pigs over the federal minimum wage of $7.25/ hour on their own KKKorporate slave labor.
It's time for the punishment to fit the crime.
I wish I had more to add to this comment thread, and that I had any answers.
Heaven help us, we are so fucked.
your Projections
notwithstanding
bertha I see/feel
much more Joy
than you with
your misery.
small wonder
you're always
harshing my
Mellow. you
can bugger
off as well
now get
out there
& Have a
Nice Day!
Jesus, Nathalie, don't send everybody to the San Juans just for the sake of a 32 hour work week!
San Juan County also observes routine county-wide power grid outages in efforts to conserve energy, and there is a water shortage throughout the islands. Droughts are frequent during the summer months, and often ice water isn't offered to restaurant patrons unless it is specifically asked for.
Commutes can be tricky, too, as there is a high dependency on the Washington State Ferry system, boats, and seaplanes to and from the mainland. Available healthcare is limited; many people are sent to PeaceHealth St. Joseph in Bellingham for urgent care. Woe be to anyone with a doctor's appointment who can't make the ferry back to Anacortes on time.
As beautiful and desirable as the San Juan archipelago is for me and my beloved VW to visit, the cost of actually living there is prohibitive for us and many others. And there aren't a lot of high paying jobs, there, either.
You better know somebody you can shack up with if you're thinking of working as a barista or waiting tables in Friday Harbor.
After reading a dismaying article in Monday's edition of the Seattle Times, I really feel sorry for everyone in Seattle needing access to a public restroom who has to settle for a filthy port-a-potty or pee in a back alley instead.
One stupid question (at least it feels stupid for me to have to ask this):
Who declared Washington State as the world's refugee, drug dealer, and addict capitol of the universe?
In another recent Seattle Times article, many West Coast cities are declaring infeasibility to actually being able to provide housing for everybody. What may sound good on paper--and especially for every greedy, profiteering developer--just isn't possible economically, environmentally, or in dealing with public health and safety (Might I reiterate the current lack of public restrooms in Seattle, lightrail or no lightrail?). The study on homelessness claiming that we "need 1.1 million new homes" is insane and pure bullshit! We don't have the infrastructure to add ~ 8 million newcomers overnight, our roads and freeways are already gridlocked, and increasing population density would only make Washington unlivable. We just had a 4.0 earthquake last Sunday, and we're still not adequately prepared for The Big One.
Raise your hands, commenters, if you would honestly like to see the population density of communities such as Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Bellingham, Tacoma, Everett, Portland, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, etc. equal to that of New York City? I sure as my morning shit do not.
@50: Expression through my music is about the only way I can effectively express myself, raindrop dear.
Quite often words fail me anymore.
"I
really
enjoy the
shit show."
of Course you do
bertha - which's
why you Like
to Shit on it
so fucking
frequently.
no coffee for
me - for Me
it's gotta be
the green T.
@53: Muffy, is that you?