Well I'm pretty sure the people protesting were aware this could be the outcome.
So in that regard, I think it's very admirable for them to put their convictions over money. From the outside, I agree with their opinion. But then again, money screams and people talk.
I feel like a lot of people in tech tend to be very much "not interested" when it comes to politics, even though tech and particularly these big companies are so involved in what goes around in the world. But I get it, when you're being paid 250k+ a year you get to live a really comfortable life; upsetting the status quo is difficult.
But yeah, I wish these people received more support from their peers than they do. Rather than people thinking we shouldn't "bring politics into the workspace" when the decisions being made in our workspaces are making deals with a government that is currently committing genocide.
Personally I do think you should try to avoid bringing politics into the workplace, but I also think it's fair game if the workplace brings politics to you.
Supporting one side or the other in such a highly contentious war is politics and anyone who tells you different simply thinks their politics is the right one.
What does genocide mean in this context? Are you saying that an enemy can just put women and children in front of every military installation and the other side can never respond to any attacks anymore?
I find it hard to justify that thousands of children killed in the past few months and the countless reports from human rights organizations calling for the abuse that's happening to civilians in Gaza does not constitute genocidal intent. Not only that, but killing people trying to flee the conflict is also something that they've done.
The words themselves of the people in government in Israel very much point to it.
I just invite you to do some research on the topic.
I don't think the Israeli soldiers want to be there, and I don't think their family want them risking their lives. What they really don't want is a repeat of the 7th October, and the only way that's going to be the case is to eradicate Hamas and control the gaza strip. It's clear that leaving them to self-govern is never lead to peace.
Right. No one in military conflict can really claim moral superiority.
E.g., Nazis vs Soviets. While yes, I'm not here to dispute that Nazis were on the wrong side of history, the soviets committed a fair amount of atrocities including towards their own people. Same with pretty much any military conflict the US has been involved in (e.g. remember how the US shot down iranian passenger plane and refused to apologize?).
My point is, wars do not determine who is right, only who is left.
The Darfur Genocide is still happening, is on a much larger scale than Gaza and despite media coverage, the people who are very worked up about the Israeli actions don’t seem to care. I wonder why that is.
The US government could stop giving aid to Israel six months ago and it would have done nothing to discourage or stop Israel from doing what its done in Gaza since Oct 7, because its neither contingent on US funding nor US or UN approval.
First of all the military conflict in Gaza is asymmetric warfare, unlike Ukraine - Israel does not need any more money or weapons than it already has to destroy buildings. They already have everything they need, they already had it five years ago. No US military funding or weapons required.
Second, this is like 9/11 for Israel in terms of # of deaths of citizens (oct 7). They are not acting in a calculated manner but a vengeful manner. The UN could condemn them and nothing would happen. They have and will pursue this unless they are prevented forcefully, not merely criticized or tsk tsk'd.
The only thing that might do something to stop them from doing what they have done / are doing is economic sanctions or military intervention. But both those measures could be applied equally to Darfur or any other ongoing conflict, many of which are far more deadly than the war in Gaza currently. So it really isn't that different from those other conflicts, except optically (we love to hate on rich "white" people harming poor brown people, but when brown people kill brown people in Africa we don't really care, or Asian people kill Asian people, etc).
Ok, I disagree that this is just happening because (many, not all) Israelis would be classified as white. The diversity on the streets of Tel Aviv is phenomenal, but I digress.
Fundamentally the reason that I hold Israel to a higher standard is because of the Holocaust, and all the pogroms that occurred before, all of which were incredibly morally wrong.
And here we are 80 years later, and they are acting in ways that are very very similar to the ways that their oppressors acted. Like, Gaza is equivalent to a ghetto, the West Bank is basically occupied territory, and there are many Palestinians who have their rights violated in ways that simply would not happen to Israeli citizens.
It's profoundly disappointing and depressing, that if even the Jewish people haven't learned from all of the terrible historical things that have happened to them, then what hope for the rest of the species?
Thats why I, at least care more about what's happening in Gaza right now.
So in that regard, I think it's very admirable for them to put their convictions over money. From the outside, I agree with their opinion. But then again, money screams and people talk.
I feel like a lot of people in tech tend to be very much "not interested" when it comes to politics, even though tech and particularly these big companies are so involved in what goes around in the world. But I get it, when you're being paid 250k+ a year you get to live a really comfortable life; upsetting the status quo is difficult.
But yeah, I wish these people received more support from their peers than they do. Rather than people thinking we shouldn't "bring politics into the workspace" when the decisions being made in our workspaces are making deals with a government that is currently committing genocide.