Greta Thunberg, in a video posted on social media, said she and other members of the Freedom flotilla en-route to Gaza have been kidnapped by Israeli forces. This comes after the Daily Mail reported that several Israeli vessels surrounded the ship Madleen, prompting the crew to raise an alarm.

Thunberg shared a pre-recorded video appealing for international help. “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden,” she said in the clip. “If you see this video, we are being intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel. I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”

  • davel@lemmy.ml
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    3 days ago

    Reporter: [REDACTED]
    Reason: Anti-semitic conspiracy theory that Israel is in charge of the US and not the other way around

    You really need to let this go. US imperialism is not a “cheap excuse,” nor are Christian Zionists. Every time you dismiss the hegemonic US’ agency and falsely lay all the blame on Israel, you’re feeding into antisemitic tropes.

    • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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      3 days ago

      It’s simultaneously:

      1. The broader U.S. imperial apparatus (e.g., the State Department) understands Israel’s importance for the U.S. and backs it for that reason
      2. All sorts of minor U.S. politicians who don’t really influence foreign policy face a major hurdle from AIPAC if they don’t sufficiently support Israel

      The U.S. is predominantly running the show, but Israel has agency too, and its state policy involves filtering out U.S. politicians who might oppose its interests as early as possible. This includes a massive amount of pro-Israel propaganda intended for mainstream consumption, harassing professors at colleges, etc.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      3 days ago

      Nope. If anything people should have been completely convinced by now that I am right over the past 20 months. The ‘aircraft carrier’ is the cheap excuse from the same guy who destroyed the US global reputation so Israel can do genocide.

      Are we watching the US and Europe destroying their entire reputation so Israel can do a genocide or not? Nobody can explain this away with convenience factor. This genocide is in no way beneficial to the empire.

      Christian Zionists such as Genocide Joe are indeed also a reason this is happening, but they too do not support Israel for any pragmatic cause which would benefit the empire such as being an aircraft carrier.

      Countries such as Egypt, UAE and Saudi are infinitely more obedient than Israel which does things like the USS liberty and selling American secrets to Russia.

      • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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        3 days ago

        There are hundreds of explanations, from crushing armed resistance to prevent other movements from arising, to showing military might so other nations don’t get any ideas, to being a bandaid to the property crisis in the West, to further increase MIC sales, to just being a blunder, etc…

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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          3 days ago

          The American hegemony runs on soft power and American exceptionalism. Showing other nations that they can… starve women and children in a concentration camp… is not what I would call a “great showing of might”.

          Even the MIC sales in Gaza are not that huge. Ukraine is making the MIC tonnes more money while the Western hegemony fully believes it is doing the right thing.

          Gaza is the dumbest and least significant hill to die on for the empire. But it dead set to die on it.

          • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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            2 days ago

            US hegemony runs of military might and financial might, not soft power ffs. There is a reason to the thousands of US military bases all around the world yk.

            • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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              2 days ago

              No the US empire has many ties with other countries in order to allow their bases to be there.

              USAID and all the other mass propaganda outlets and mainstream news networks have a purpose. Whitewash the empire.

              If you are on Lemmygrad, that should be known to you.

              Also, the empire just took the L from the Taliban. So in terms of hard power, nobody is really impressed anyways. A show of hard power would be if they got Ukraine to win the war. Not a genocide against women and children lmao

      • ComradeRat [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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        3 days ago

        This genocide is in no way beneficial to the empire.

        They want the Gaza Marine Gas field. They don’t want the financial risk of the Palestinian people attacking the facilities and transportation.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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          3 days ago

          Then they would have cleansed all the Palestinians into Egypt at the start.

          There is nothing worse for the reputation of Israel and the West than getting these types of headlines every single day because they had to be literal cartoon villains and shoot 30 Palestinians trying to find food at an aid point.

          If this ends with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, which it might, doing it at day 600 instead of day 30 makes absolutely no sense.

          It is not the negative news, but the repetition of negative news which sticks in people’s heads.

          • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
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            3 days ago

            Biden pushed for the mass displacement option early on, but Egypt, Jordan and other regional actors refused, just like they have so far under Trump.

          • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            3 days ago

            Nah this is not the hill you should be dying on. This is literally ahistorical non materialist analysis with a dose of antisemitism.

            Where do you think the Israel lobby gets its funding lmao.