Greta Thunberg deleted a pro-Palestine social media post after critics claimed a stuffed octopus in the photo could be viewed as an 'anti-Semitic' symbol.
The octopus is a popular plushy toy helpful in expressing feeling states nonverbally. It’s beloved by countless autistic people. It is ridiculous and defamatory to accuse Greta of weaponizing it as an antisemitic symbol from a century ago.
Greta Thunberg has never had a normal or stable life, especially by autism spectrum disorder standards. Getting arrested frequently does not exactly lend itself to a feeling of stability and creating safe routines. The world’s default messaging against her is trolling on a variety of issues. But remember, we’re old enough to remember when Greta Thunberg brought down Andrew Tate by triggering him about his "small dick energy"
Two weeks into the horrific war between Israel and Hamas, the state of online discourse has descended from "generally bad and stupid" to "unfathomably dumb and borderline dangerous." Case in point: recent allegations that environmental activist Greta Thunberg, after posting a "Stand with Gaza" sign and demanding a ceasefire, was actually posting a Nazi dog-whistle. Later, the official X account for the Israeli government piled on, too.
On Friday, Thunberg posted a photo on social media of her holding a "Stand with Gaza" sign accompanied by other activists holding similar pro-Palestinian messaging. The caption on her post on X read, "Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected." In the original post, she was seen with a light-blue stuffed octopus on her shoulder.
Predictably, many criticized her post for failing to condemn the terrorist group Hamas's Oct. 7 surprise on Israel, which left at least 1,400 people dead, many of whom were civilians. Perhaps less predictably, however, others focused on the octopus, interpreting it to be a kraken, a mythical, multi-tentacled sea beast that was occasionally used in Nazi iconography.
"What does the Kraken next to you on the couch mean @GretaThunberg?," one account with more than 1,000 retweets wrote. "The Kraken was, and is, a well-known sign of the Nazis for the anti-semitic term international finance judaism." The post included an image from a 1938 Nazi propaganda cartoon showing a person as an octopus whose tentacles are encircling the globe, with a Star of David over their head. (The image appears to be depicting Winston Churchill, who was not Jewish - but to be fair, the Mogen David over the octopus's head doesn't indicate the artist had warm and generous feelings toward Jews.)
www.msn.com/...
(2017)
For more than a decade, Israel has clashed with Hamas in Gaza, with cycles of violence defined by periods of intense fighting followed by relative lulls. This brief summarizes a report focusing on a five-year period of this conflict — from the end of Operation Cast Lead in 2009 to the end of Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
The report tells many stories and holds many lessons. It analyzes the changing face of urban warfare and how an advanced military fought a weaker, yet highly adaptive, irregular force. It also provides a case study of military innovation — showing how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) evolved operationally, organizationally, and technologically to meet ongoing hybrid challenges.
Most broadly, though, this is a story of deterrence. Israel never strived for a decisive victory in Gaza. While it could militarily defeat Hamas, Israel could not overthrow Hamas without risking the possibility that a more radical organization would govern Gaza. Nor did Israel want to be responsible for governing Gaza in a post-conflict power vacuum. As such, Israel’s grand strategy became "mowing the grass" — accepting its inability to permanently solve the problem and instead repeatedly targeting leadership of Palestinian militant organizations to keep violence manageable.
Dealing with Hamas in Gaza puts Israel in a strategic quandary: It needs to exert enough force to deter Hamas from attacking but not so much that it topples the regime.
Dealing with Hamas in Gaza puts Israel in a strategic quandary: It needs to exert enough force to deter Hamas from attacking but not so much that it topples the regime. As one Israeli defense analyst put it, "We want to break their bones without putting them in the hospital."
While this story is about one country, Israel, dealing with one foe, it has broader applicability—the IDF’s experiences in Gaza offer valuable lessons about using different types of military technology and operational concepts, conducting urban combat under intense legal and public scrutiny, and deterring nonstate actors.
www.rand.org/...
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