War. War never changes. (Except when it does)

[Blossom]

Unless this went up completely sight-unseen, then somebody had to approve an article titled "When Genocide is Permissable", and that person needs to be fired.

[Thad]

And if it DID go up completely sight-unseen, then somebody had to give the sort of person who headlines articles "When Genocide is Perimissible" permission to post articles without having them screened first.

[Mongrel]

And if it DID go up completely sight-unseen, then somebody had to give the sort of person who headlines articles "When Genocide is Perimissible" permission to post articles without having them screened first.

My best guess is that this is the scenario, though TA's version isn't impossible.

Either way, that's where flogging the Opinion Editor comes in.

[François]

From http://www.timesofisrael.com/times-of-israel-removes-an-unacceptable-blog-post/

This blog post, which was described by our Ops & Blogs editor as both damnable and ignorant, blatantly breached The Times of Israel’s editorial guidelines.

We have discontinued the writer’s blog.

The Times of Israel maintains an open blog platform: Once we have accepted bloggers, we allow them to post their own items. This trust has rarely been abused. We are angry and appalled that it was in this case, and will take steps to prevent a recurrence.

So, it's a failure of the honor system, probably. In more ways than one.

[Mongrel]

I don't know if this is true, a setup, or what the hell yet, SO it could just turn out to be ringers or someone setting up these goons, but here's the preliminary info.

In protest news, right wing israelis have started carrying these signs:


"One nation
One state
One leader"

It's so obvious that they have to know, so I don't know where the signs are coming from.

[Blossom]

Hand-translated to confirm, that is indeed what it means. Sourced to this photographer.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, I mean it's too obviously ridiculous - I suspect that if this is true, you could eventually trace this back to a troll who put the idea in the heads of some right-wingers or even made the signs and passed them out Third Wave-style. It's a simple phrase, but the odds of this being a pure coincidence are beyond the pale.

[Brantly B.]

I find it very, very unlikely that they don't understand the reference.

That said, context is important. If I went to a picket line with a sign saying "Work makes one free" I think you'd all understand I was being ironic.

[Blossom]

A militant right-wing Israeli protest does not seem to me to be the sort of place that tolerates ironic Nazi references. But it is the sort of place that will let the cognitive dissonance of a sincere or even unintentional Nazi reference win out.

[Mongrel]

You don't know how tempted I was to put this in the Good News thread instead of here. The URL may be NYT, but the headline is pure Onion:

Suicide Bomb Trainer in Iraq Accidentally Blows Up His Class

[Büge]

Law of averages.

[Mongrel]

So I guess Russia seems to be straight up invading now and nobody seems to care much? Like the newspaper articles are almost bland today "Oh, ho-hum, Russia now sending actual Russian troops over the border and isn't even trying to deny it. Well, whatever."

If Europe has any brains they'd better have cobbled together an alternate gas plan so they can do a full embargo, which would easily hurt Russia way more than it would them.

[Büge]

Russia's also one of the countries with veto power in the UN security council, so it's not like they can condemn it as an invasion of a sovereign nation... and I'm pretty sure Ukraine isn't a NATO member, so there's no help there either.

POLITICS!

[Blossom]

Maybe not yet, but Ukraine's trying to join NATO as fast as possible.

[François]

Overnight, Russian President Vladimir Putin called on the rebels to open a "humanitarian corridor" to allow encircled Ukrainian troops to leave without unnecessary casualties, though he did not specify the location.

That's one way of saying "if you don't, they're all gonna die".

[Mongrel]

Putin has actually been straight up doing the nuclear weapon swagger too.

That seems bad, until you realize that is pretty much the last card he can play.

[Büge]

So Israel just swallowed up 1,000 acres of West Bank territory. Way to be dedicated to the peace process, guys.

[Mothra]

Hooo boy. This is going to be bad.

[Blossom]

Hey now, they just need some living space.

[Mongrel]

They really just don't give two fucks at all anymore, do they?