OccamsTeapot

We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a clean fact-check record.

Why not "very high" then?

MBFC:

The wiki says they are accused of it but lists many reports which found no evidence of this. In the current conflict there are apparently a couple of cases with hostages.

The big problem with most of these claims is that it's "proximate" shielding being alleged, which is not when you are literally shielding someone (as in the recent cases with Israel using Palestinians, and assumedly those with Hamas using the hostages), but when you are just sat at home, in school, whatever, going about your usual business totally unaware. But you are a "shield" because the enemy decides they want to attack something near you.

This quote really sums up the rhetorical strategy:

"Israeli citizens in Tel Aviv are not classified as shields when Hamas launches rockets towards the Israel Defense Forces military command headquarters located in the city center. By sharp contrast, Palestinian civilians are cast as human shields when Israel bombs Hamas command centers and military infrastructures in Gaza. In other words, if Hamas kills Israeli civilians, it is to blame, and if Israel kills Palestinian civilians, then Hamas is also to blame, since, at least ostensibly, it is Hamas that has deployed these civilians as shields."

It is a trick so that Israel can avoid responsibility for it's actions. I'm not saying you are supporting Israel or denying their crimes (I know you explicitly didn't), but this rhetoric is WAY more common than genuine instances of human shielding, which thus far has primarily been done by Israel, not Hamas.

Likewise, this isn't excusing Hamas. Fuck them. But aside from the case with the hostages (didn't check the reference but I trust it), there is very little evidence that Hamas does this. Most of the time it is an outright deception.

Edit: this is from the report cited by wikipedia:

 A witness said that as Israeli forces advanced, the fighters phoned the Israeli police using one of the hostages as an interpreter, identified themselves as from the Qassam Brigades, and told the police that they would shoot those they held if the Israeli forces fired on them. During the standoff, the attackers forced about half the hostages into the yard of the home between Israeli forces and the fighters, according to two witnesses the New York Times interviewed. A man the attackers said was their commander took off his clothing and took Yasmin Porat, one of the hostages, outside to shield him as he surrendered to the Israelis. After the fighters fired again at the Israeli forces, an Israeli tank opened fire on the home. The fighters were killed, as well as 12 hostages who were killed in the crossfire. 

So clearly it does happen. But cases are rare and on both sides of the conflict

MBFC is a fundamentally flawed credibility gatekeeper. Lemmy.World loses credibility every day this bot continues to operate.

Absolutely. It's hilarious that people care about fact checking enough to want to rate sources but apparently extend no skepticism whatsoever to these ratings. "Let's just ask that one dude and go with whatever he says, I'm sure it'll be fine"

Here you go, bot:

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-new-arab

Bias Rating: LEFT-CENTER

Factual Reporting: MOSTLY FACTUAL

Country: United Kingdom

Press Freedom Rank: MOSTLY FREE

Media Type: Website

Traffic/Popularity: Medium Traffic

MBFC Credibility Rating: HIGH CREDIBILITY

Only "mostly" factual because even though they have no failed fact checks:

We also rate them as Mostly Factual rather than High due to a lack of transparency with ownership.

Translation: we make this shit up. Wouldn't that be an issue with credibility and not factual reporting?

As always, fuck MBFC!

Thanks! That's interesting. So because they are technically sales it's under the commercial system, but it sounds like the Biden era policy has rules about this type of thing for those too. And also, aren't these "sales" actually coming from US aid packages anyway?

Really seems like the rules could be applied consistently to justify stopping supporting this:

Well, the State Department has said publicly that the same policy applies to Israel as apply to every other country. In practice, Israel gets special treatment. In practice, arms transfers that, given similar conduct by any other country would not be allowed, are being allowed for Israel. You may recall the Biden administration suspended items that could be used in offensive air-to-ground operations for Saudi Arabia because they were causing civilian casualties. Those civilian casualties are nowhere near the civilian casualties that Israeli air-to-ground operations have caused so far. Yet unconditional transfers of air-to-ground munitions continue.

They can't just stop giving weapons completely as it is literally illegal.

What about the Leahy laws? Isn't it illegal to continue?

Yeah that explains his views on vaccines alright

committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:

What Trump did is awful, of course, but was it really committed with this intent in mind?

Like I get what you're saying, separating families at the border is harmful, cruel and driven by racism. But I'm not sure it counts as genocide. This from the CNN article:

The Physicians for Human Rights likened it to “torture,” and the American Academy of Pediatrics told CNN the Trump administration’s practice of separating families at the border was “child abuse.”

Seems totally fair to me. It is torture. It is abuse. It is callous and disgusting. But I feel like it would be a stretch to call it genocide, particularly with what Israel is doing in mind.

Look at the same list for Israel:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Since it's hard to keep up at this point they may have even done the last.

What I'm saying is that for all us that want to stop or at least minimize such horrendous acts, I think there should be a clear priority here. And honestly saying separating families at the border is genocide is really cheapening what genocide means.

But yeah pragmatically speaking there is only one harm it seems possible to stop with the election. UNLESS Harris changes her position, which is a thing she can do. Then we could stop both and to me that is what we should fight for in any way we can.

Then stop. No one is forcing you to debate.

Nobody is forcing you to make it such hard work to have this debate either. So many people just pivot right to the election and then the whole conversation gets derailed. It's like you need to add voting intention disclaimers if you want to say something as basic as "if you give Israel 2,000 lb dumb bombs you will be helping them kill innocent children. That's a bad thing."

Any independent reader or any Republican that is swaying to Harris can change their mind on anything, including your post.

I think our posts aren't really very impactful. But I see your point. The problem is they would have to be misreading my posts, and I think I've been pretty consistent. Vote blue, but push them to be better on this. I have hopes about Walz's take but I almost don't want to check if they're misplaced.

Then maybe we should just talk about the current sitting president who will be in that position in the next 5 months rather than a VP whose only power is tie breakers in the senate.

Yeah I mean why not both? It's not like the issue will be solved in 5 months so her position also matters. And the idea that this is her only power is a bit misleading, surely? Does she not talk to Biden? Does he not listen to her? Lol

A genocide happened in America by Trump.

What do you mean?

Not just funding but hedging against the 7 million Jewish-Americans still sympathetic to Israel and who are also a key voting bloc for Democrats.

Actually it doesn't seem to be a good tactical move even if we forget that we're supposed to also have morals:

https://lemmy.world/post/18668755

I like Harris. She's just shit on this.

This debate is so exhausting. Do you understand that people can criticise a specific policy without advocating voting for the other side or not voting at all because of it? Like, do you get that this is NOT an election issue but a policy issue? It is just something that I care about.

There never has been a perfect candidate in the history of human kind.

This isn't me bitching about universal healthcare or something. This is actually someone arming a genocide. Not "perfect" - yeah no fucking shit we don't expect that but is the bar really THAT low?