October 23, 2023

Background: Arafat didn't negotiate - he just kept saying no

The call from Bill Clinton came hours after the publication in the New York Times of a "revisionist" article on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. On holiday, Ehud Barak, Israel's former prime minister, was swimming in a cove in Sardinia. According to Barak, Clinton said: "What the hell is this? Why is she turning the mistakes we [ie, the US and Israel] made into the essence? The true story of Camp David was that for the first time in the history of the conflict the American president put on the table a proposal, based on UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, very close to the Palestinian demands, and Arafat refused even to accept it as a basis for negotiations, walked out of the room, and deliberately turned to terrorism."

Clinton was speaking of the two-week-long Camp David conference in July 2000 which he had organised and mediated and its failure, and the eruption at the end of September of the Palestinian intifada which has continued since. Halfway through the conference, apparently on July 18, Clinton had "slowly" - to avoid misunderstanding - read out to Arafat a document, endorsed in advance by Barak, outlining the main points of a future settlement. The proposals included the establishment of a demilitarised Palestinian state on some 92% of the West Bank and 100% of the Gaza Strip, with some territorial compensation for the Palestinians from pre-1967 Israeli territory; the dismantling of most of the settlements and the concentration of the bulk of the settlers inside the 8% of the West Bank to be annexed by Israel; the establishment of the Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem, in which some Arab neighborhoods would become sovereign Palestinian territory and others would enjoy "functional autonomy"; Palestinian sovereignty over half the Old City of Jerusalem (the Muslim and Christian quarters) and "custodianship," though not sovereignty, over the Temple Mount; a return of refugees to the prospective Palestinian state though with no "right of return" to Israel proper; and the organisation by the international community of a massive aid programme to facilitate the refugees' rehabilitation.

Arafat said no. Enraged, Clinton banged on the table and said: "You are leading your people and the region to a catastrophe." A formal Palestinian rejection of the proposals reached the Americans the next day. The summit sputtered on for a few days more but to all intents and purposes it was over.

Today Barak portrays Arafat's behaviour at Camp David as a "performance" geared to exacting from the Israelis as many concessions as possible without ever seriously intending to reach a peace settlement or sign an "end to the conflict".

"He did not negotiate in good faith; indeed, he did not negotiate at all. He just kept saying no to every offer, never making any counterproposals of his own," he says. Barak shifts between charging Arafat with "lacking the character or will" to make a historic compromise (as did the late Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1977-79, when he made peace with Israel) to accusing him of secretly planning Israel's demise while he strings along a succession of Israeli and Western leaders and, on the way, hoodwinks "naive journalists".

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3

October 21, 2023

At the bottom of this page

https://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=124&page=20

I clicked on "discussion forums" and it came up.

I think du2 is still running on one of their servers, but it's locked to new replies.

October 12, 2023

Israel released almost 1000 terrorists for shalit.

That kind of thing isn't going to work this time due to the sheer number of hostages.

No one claimed that the US went into Afganistan after 9/11 for revenge or retribution. The media and public accepted the need to erode al qaeda abilities, capture it's leadership and bring them to justice.

The framing here though, is designed to demonize Israel and the IDF.

October 10, 2023

"Our young people are riding their bikes thru these settlements...

Where they were told they could never go because of Apartheid".

He said that.

And people applauded him.

September 5, 2023

Why furniture got so bad

No one expects an Ikea bookcase or West Elm sofa to last for generations, or maybe even to survive another move. But walk into a vintage furniture store and you’ll find all types of old pieces that were inexpensive and mass-produced in their day, yet have still managed to achieve heirloom status.

Furniture isn’t what it used to be. Fifty or 60 years ago, people thought of it as something they’d have for life — a dresser that a grown kid could take to college, a dining table where future grandchildren would have Thanksgiving. Today? Not so much.

Modern consumers are often all too happy to ditch last year’s Wayfair shipment for whatever new trend is sweeping their social media feeds. At the other end of that cycle is an industry relying on cheap labor and flimsy materials to fatten profit margins and keep prices down.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/home/2023/09/05/new-furniture-quality-doesnt-last/

Not really news to me, and I suspect a lot of DUers can relate to seeing this decline in quality and the reasons for it. Press board is utter crap, it's literally just paper that's been pressed together.

Most cheap furniture uses particle board covered with a plastic or wood veneer, it's not as weak as press board but a little water makes it swell up and ruins it. It also sucks at holding fasteners like hinge screws. Larger pieces have to be disassembled partly in order to move them, if they can be moved at all.

I'm lucky enough to have some old furniture, a couple pieces more than 100 years old now. It's really worth investing in good furniture, it can be moved, holds its value and frankly looks better.

August 21, 2023

Don't see any hatred from doctors, I see concern for their patients.

Sweden, a pioneer in LGBTQ rights, is now restricting gender-affirming treatments for minors, citing concerns about their long-term side effects.

Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare explains that the reason behind the rollback is that little is known about the effects of these treatments over the long term and "the risks outweigh the benefits currently".

However, experts say those treatments were designed for exceptional cases in the first place.

"We had a protocol in place which was designed for very rare and extreme cases and suddenly the demand exploded so we continued to use that protocol,” said Mikael Landen, a psychiatrist specialising in gender dysphoria who contributed to the scientific study on which Sweden’s health authority based its decision.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have done that. But I wouldn’t be the one criticising the clinicians for doing that because it was difficult, they wanted to help these patients," he told AFP.

Sweden, like many other western countries, has in recent years seen a sharp rise in diagnoses of gender dysphoria.

According to the Swedish health authority, the trend is particularly visible among 13- to 17-year-olds assigned female at birth, with an increase of 1,500 per cent between 2008 and 2018.

Experts say the reasons for this increase remain largely a "mystery".

....

https://www.euronews.com/next/2023/02/16/as-spain-advances-trans-rights-sweden-backtracks-on-gender-affirming-treatments-for-teens

August 21, 2023

The "problem" is that the DOJ

Is watching sales of amphetamines (Adderall, Concerta etc.) and benzos (Xanax, Ativan, Klonopin etc.) along with opiods.

So Drs and pharmacies are being careful with their purchases/scripts.

https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/cerebral-under-federal-investigation-possible-violation-controlled-substances-law

July 13, 2023

Israel is targeted on Twitter more than any other country, study finds

In a troubling new study, it was found that "Israel was mentioned approximately 10 times more than any other country in tweets pertaining to human rights violations."

This disturbing trend reveals a deep-seated double standard against the country, perpetuating a disproportionate focus in social media discussions. According to the study, Israel is mentioned 12 times more than China on issues of violating human rights; 38 times more than Iran, 55 more times than Iran and 111 more times than North Korea.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-749794

The media Intifada has an enormous reach and is very effective with its demonization of Israel, Jews and Zionists. Twitter in particular works well spreading antisemitism because of the nature of the platform, light on facts, analysis and credible experts, but heavy on visuals and fabricated narratives. Just in the past few days there have been 10s of thousands of hatful tweets about Gal Gadot, simply because she showed up for a premier of "Barbie" the movie. After a recent stabbing attack, antisemites took video of the incident and chopped it up to make it appear that the IDF were abusing some random elderly Palestinian woman. The platform is perfect for these types of dishonest, bigoted attacks.