It's remarkable to me how many seem to forget there is "morality" apart from "legality". Even if this does violate some treaty somewhere, we need not wring hands over the death of an objective dictator.
Well, there are other things you can look at. For one, Khamenei was dictator of a regime that abducts women and recently murdered 10s of thousands of protesters in the streets. I'd reckon most, including Iranians, would not judge the killing of such an individual immoral, unjust or uncivilized.
Agreed. I see far too many people rationalizing piracy as a principled thing to do. Instead of finding ways to improve the market such that the control of content isn't siloed in monopolistic corporations, many celebrate Annas Archive which is itself a more or less monopolistic profit-interested entity. The major difference being that we don't have to pay directly. The cost continues to fall on the writers and artists and the industry suffers.
I think it's more beneficial to think in terms of incentive structures. How we structure societies and industries can incentivize virtue, but it can also disincentivize fradulance and incentivize good clean work more directly.
And the war would have to carry on centuries to maintain the current rate. If there is a subtle insidious plot to erode the population of Gaza over time, it is a huge flop.
The first mistake would be Israel's unilateral withdraw from Gaza in 2005, ethnically cleansing its own citizens from the region to make way for the Palestinians.
The population of Gaza has increased by roughly a million since then, which I must say isn't great for the Zionist plot.
Perhaps what most different about this conflict is the dearth of nations willing to accept refugees. Many if not most Gazans do in fact want to leave [1] (wouldn't you?).
The unsettling conclusion is that these nations are willing to let Palestinians live in dire conditions--conditions the world has no reservation against decrying passionately on cable news and social media--so long as Israel does not get a perceived "win." The West has adopted the Hamas mindset.
Exactly. From 1950-67 Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied the Gaza Strip from 1959-67. At no point during this time was there any desire on part of the Palestinians to establish a Palestinian state.
The Palesinians don't want a state, they want no Israel.
I could on and on with historical examples, but it doesn't seem many here are interested in that sort of thing.
How is it self-defeating? Hamas is able to continue fighting with the more aid they steal. By stealing aid they also increase the suffering in Gaza thus winning the propaganda war.
The net savings are probably positive. DOGE's stated savings are 199B, so that would leave 177.3B in savings.
If DOGE is overstating savings, I doubt they are doing so by 900% which is what it would take for savings to dip into negative territory. Either that or losses are severely understated, but again if so probably not by enough.
All UCLA has to do is strike up a deal with the gov't that presumably entails eliminating affirmative action and preventing pro-Hamas factions from taking hold of the university.
Columbia made a deal and they have their funding back now.