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I would think letting Russia keep Ukrainian land would be playing into Russias hands. What are you proposing? This seems like the most realistic way to end the war and return Ukrainian territory rightfully to Ukraine.
Edit: can someone explain why I’m being downvoted? An unconditional surrender by Russia would be great, but I don’t see how that can be accomplished
Same playbook as always for Israel. They’ve done this in the past with Lebanon, with Golan Heights, with Gaza, and now again in Lebanon
Their link under Read More goes into more details. Arguing that it’s unreasonable because Putin has no genuine interest in peace is a valid criticism. But it’s disingenuous to say Veterans for Peace is advocating for Ukraine to accede to Russian demands.
First, an immediate ceasefire–an end to the fighting. That will require Russia to immediately pull back its troops and weapons out of Ukraine.
But negotiations mean that both sides need to give something. So NATO and the U.S. should agree to pull back heavy weapons and missiles away from the Russian border and recognize in public what NATO has long acknowledged privately: that Ukraine will not be joining the military alliance in any foreseeable future.
New negotiations, organized by combinations of the United Nations and the broad Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (which includes Russia, Ukraine, most European countries, and the United States) could move further towards renewing lapsed European arms control treaties and eventually towards full nuclear disarmament across Europe.
After Horrific Invasion, ‘Diplomacy Not War’ Must Be More Than a Slogan
I don’t see anywhere in their statements any advocating for Ukraine to accede to Russian demands. That goes against their belief that “Russia out of Ukraine” is the most direct route to peace
https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/diplomacy-not-war-peace-ukraine
You might be confusing it with Southern Lebanon like I did. Although the continued occupation of the Syrian Golan Heights and Palestine are a certainly related to the continued existence of Hezbollah. They are against all Zionist Settler Colonialism, not just when it’s done in Lebanon
That would be 50 attacks from Hezbollah and 10 attacks from Israel. As you can see, Israel is responsible for over 80% of the the attacks
https://acleddata.com/knowledge-base/israel-palestine-sourcing-profile/
Even if they have reserve weapons, they are still reliant of a steady flow of US Military Weapons. If that ends, they are in major trouble. Especially with the Internal unrest in Israel and their reputation on the international stage.
Netanyahu even approved the bombing of Lebanon’s Capital, using US built Bombs and US built Planes, while on US Soil, with the approval of another 8.7 Billion Dollars of Military Weapons to Israel.
So gross that the US considers the use of multiple 2000 lbs Bunker-buster Bombs on a residential district of a counties Capital, flattening at least six residential buildings, burying and killing hundreds of civilians, as a ‘measure of justice.’ because the intended target is the terrorist and now using Human Shields, so it’s their fault for all those civilian deaths, not Israel. Terrorism is only what Our and Israel’s enemies do.
Whatever violence the US and our Allies do is good and just, whatever violence our and our Allies enemies do is bad and unjustified. The double standard is so flagrantly obvious. It’s not about civilians, or peace, or justice. Israel can kill however many civilians they want, even US ones, and the US will still back them.
All that money could be going to our crippled Social Services instead and actually help people’s lives.
It’s also worth recognizing that the creation of the PA in the West Bank is a classic Counter Insurgency tactic. Used by Israel to quell resistance in the West Bank while they continued to expand seller colonies to divide the West Bank
If you look at the actual evidence about Human Shields, and not just IDF sources, it becomes clear that Israel justifies it’s deliberate attacks on civilians with that excuse. Bombing a residential area with civilians and claiming Human Shields does not make it any less of a war crime.
Tthere are some independent reports for past conflicts of Hamas jeopardizing the safety of civilians via Rocket fire in dense urban areas, two instances during Oct 7th, but no independent verification since then so far. None of which absolve Israel of the crime of targeting civilians under international law:
Intentionally utilizing the presence of civilians or other protected persons to render certain areas immune from military attack is prohibited under international law. Amnesty International was not able to establish whether or not the fighters’ presence in the camps was intended to shield themselves from military attacks. However, under international humanitarian law, even if one party uses “human shields”, or is otherwise unlawfully endangering civilians, this does not absolve the opposing party from complying with its obligations to distinguish between military objectives and civilians or civilian objects, to refrain from carrying out indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks, and to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians and civilian objects.
Additionally, there is extensive independent verification of Israel using Palestinians as Human Shields:
Including Children (2013 Report)
Israel “Systematically” Uses Gaza Children as Human Shields, Rights Group Finds 2024
Breaking The Silence - Testimonies from IDF Veterans
Israel does deliberately targets civilian areas. From in general with the Dahiya Doctrine to multiple systems deployed in Gaza to do so:
The Dahiya Doctrine & Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force
‘A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza
When it comes to Israeli Soldiers and Civilians, there is also the use of the Hannibal Directive, which was also used on Oct 7th.
While Israel is currently bombing Lebanese civilians, continuing to occupy the Syrian Golan Heights, and is still doing genocide in Gaza?
Yes, the will continue to while Israel continues it’s Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, Settler Colonialism, and Occupation of all people in the region
Hezbollah only exists because of Israel.
The 1982 Lebanon war began on 6 June 1982, when Israel invaded again for the purpose of attacking the Palestine Liberation Organization. The Israeli army laid siege to Beirut. During the conflict, according to Lebanese sources, between 15,000 and 20,000 people were killed, mostly civilians.
On 16 February 1985, Shia Sheik Ibrahim al-Amin declared a manifesto in Lebanon, announcing a resistance movement called Hezbollah, whose goals included combating the Israeli occupation. During the South Lebanon conflict (1985–2000) the Hezbollah militia waged a guerrilla campaign against Israeli forces occupying Southern Lebanon and their South Lebanon Army proxies.
Throughout the painstaking process of confirming the Israeli withdrawal, Hizballah was at pains to declare its commitment to recovering the last millimeter of Lebanese territory, but it also acknowledged that it would not act hastily to reinitiate violence. In sum, Hizballah’s behavior and deference to state authority have worked to its political advantage. It reaped recognition in an unprecedented meeting between Nasrallah and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who praised Hizballah’s restraint and its promise of cooperation. The meeting with Annan offers a remarkable contrast with Hizballah’s earlier days, when it was hostile to the UN and especially to the UN force in the south.
Without an agreement between Syria and Israel, there will be little pressure on Hizballah to disarm. Syria’s calculated strategy is to allow Hizballah to serve as a constant reminder of the consequences of continuing to occupy the Golan Heights.This is a role that Hizballah is happy to play, given its enmity toward Israel. At the same time, it remains profoundly aware of the political costs of bringing destruction down on the heads of its supporters, and this further reduces the prospect that Hizballah will initiate attacks on Israel
The doctrine is named after the Dahiya suburb of Beirut, where the Lebanese paramilitary group Hezbollah has its headquarters, which the Israeli military leveled during its assault on Lebanon in the summer of 2006 that killed nearly 1,000 civilians, about a third of them children, and caused enormous damage to the country’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants, sewage treatment plants, bridges, and port facilities.
It was formulated by then-General Gadi Eisenkot when he was Chief of Northern Command. As he explained in 2008 referring to a future war on Lebanon: "What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on… We will apply disproportionate force on it (village) and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases… This is not a recommendation. This is a plan. And it has been approved.” Eisenkot went on to become chief of the general staff of the Israeli military before retiring in 2019.
While it became official Israeli military doctrine after Israel’s 2006 attack on Lebanon, Israel’s military has used disproportionate force and targeted Palestinian, Lebanese, and other civilians since Israel was established in 1948 based on the ethnic cleansing of indigenous Palestinians, including dozens of massacres to force them to flee for their lives.
Until recently, the border had been relatively quiet. Occasional rockets or drones crossed from Lebanon into Israel without leading to serious escalation, while Israel violated Lebanese airspace more than 22,000 times from 2007 to 2022.
While the withdrawal was certified by the United Nations, Lebanon disputed it, arguing that the Shebaa Farms was part of its territory, and not part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which Israel continues to occupy.
So there are two separate issues here that lead to the current dispute: the first is that Israel occupies the Golan Heights and treats it as its own territory in violation of international law, and the second is that there was already a pre-existing disagreement between Syria and Lebanon over the border, prior to the Israeli occupation.
That’s not an opinion, that is the reality.
Hamas only ends when the Apartheid and Occupation end, Hamas only exists because of the occupation
People are pretending that Israel is the victim. A victim of blowback, sure. But ignoring that Israel is the one doing settler Colonialism, an Apartheid, and now a genocide in Gaza for nearly a year, does not magically make them the victim
Most people don’t have the same history with Palestine and Israeli forces. And no, they don’t want genocide, that’s incredibly disingenuous. Not to mention you never apply that same lens about aggression to the actions of Israel. I don’t agree with Hezbollah at all when it comes to a solution, I think Israelis and Palestinians need to have a Secular One-State with equal rights for both, displacing Israelis is not a solution anymore than displacing Palestinians.
Hizbu’llah’s reluctance to grant Israel recognition is rooted in its rendition of the origins of the Israeli state, which it unequivocally portrays as a ‘rape’ or ‘usurpation’ of Palestinian land, there by rendering it a state which ‘is originally based on aggression’. By extension, the continued existence of the Israeli state constitutes ‘an act of aggression’, insofar as it represents a perpetuation of the original act of aggression. Therefore, Hizbu’llah ‘does not know of anything called Israel’. It only knows a land called ‘occupied Palestine’. In fact, the party never refers to the state of Israel as such, but to ‘occupied Palestine’ or ‘the Zionist entity’.
Based on the party’s delegitimisation of the Israeli state, its excoria-tion of Israeli state and society and its emphasis on the Zionist essence of both, certain existential elements of Hizbu’llah’s conflict with Israel can be readily discerned. Upon closer examination of these elements, the following three existential themes emerge: the party’s legitimisation of the use of violence against an essentially Zionist society; its rejection of the notion of a negotiated peace settlement with the Israeli state; and its pursuit of the liberation of Palestine.
According to the party, this aspiration to return ‘every grain of Palestinian soil’ to its rightful owners necessitates Israel’s ‘oblit-eration from existence’. Put simply, the reconstitution of one state is contingent upon the annihilation of another. The only way that the Palestinians can return to Jerusalem, and the ‘original Palestineof 1948’ generally, is for all Jews, with the exception of those native to Palestine, to ‘leave this region and return to the countries from whence they came’
Even if you ignore the history and just act like it started after October 7th, or that Hezbollah should not care about Israel indiscriminately bombing Civilians in Gaza, Israel still drew first blood when it comes to Hezbollah
The initial strikes on the 8th were on bases and both had no causalities
The next day, Hezbollah fired at Israel in response to Israel killing 3 Hezbollah members from bombardment of Southern Lebanon
The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah has fired a barrage of rockets into Israel after at least three of its members were killed during an Israeli bombardment of southern Lebanon amid soaring tensions on Israel’s northern border.
I agree that it’s reasonable for Ukraine to have a defensive pact and that Russia’s invasion completely justifies the need for a defensive pact in Europe. I just don’t see how they’ll agree to it from a geopolitical standpoint if their concern, justified or not, is Moscow being within range of US nukes. I think a different defensive pact without US hegenomy could satisfy every European countries security needs, but I don’t know how realistic that is either