this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2025
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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.”

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[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 154 points 1 week ago (11 children)

Why is everyone so hands off and permissive with Israel? Like they can do nothing wrong when they go out of their way to do wrong things?

[–] rumimevlevi 27 points 6 days ago

Old colonial power just became neo colonial powers.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 22 points 6 days ago (1 children)

it should be fairly obvious to everyone by now. Israel is an extension of the US, their unsinkable aircraft carrier in the middle east, or as Biden put it "if israel didn't exists, we would have to invent it to protect our interests in the region."

also it's fairly obvious that the "rules based order" is nothing more than a "might makes right order" enforced by the US.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml -3 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Biden is the top AIPAC recipient.

The aircraft carrier story is nothing more than a cheap excuse. The real reason US politicians support Israel is because of the AIPAC lobby bribing them and the Epstein tapes they are on.

[–] davel@lemmy.ml 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (2 children)

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 12 points 6 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.ml -5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.ml -1 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 6 points 6 days ago (1 children)

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.ml -3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 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

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Do you mean governments or people?

People don't have much power here. Other than boycotts, what can people do?

For governments, Israel is fairly powerful. They have powerful lobbyists, and aren't shy to leverage claims of antisemitism against anybody who speaks up against Israel. In many cases, there's also the guilt over how jews were treated in WWII. This is one reason Germany is so incredibly pro-Israel. Then there's the fact that Israel is still more-or-less a democracy, which makes it unique in the middle east. It's the one country in the region pushing back against various Islamic fundamentalist goverments, movements and terrorist groups. Many countries don't want to lose that "friend".

And then there's spyware. Most of the best spyware in the world is produced in Israel. Some cynical people would say that countries don't want to lose access to the world's best producer of spyware. Some even more cynical people would say that that spyware has already been used on politicians and Israel is using it for blackmail. Who knows what the right level of cynicism is.

[–] Thesilverpig@lemmy.ml 7 points 6 days ago

Don't forget that Epstein was linked to Israel Military intelligence, so there is that...

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

there's also the guilt over how jews were treated in WWII.

How many are still alive? That excuse has long expired.

the region pushing back against various Islamic fundamentalist goverments

You can thank the CIA for that.

[–] merc@sh.itjust.works 0 points 5 days ago (1 children)

How many are still alive? That excuse has long expired.

It's not individual guilt, it's institutional guilt. In many other cases that's a good thing. We want German kids to grow up learning about the holocaust and thinking "we can't allow that to ever happen again". I don't think what's happening in Gaza could happen in Germany because of what Germans are taught growing up.

OTOH, in Israel they seem to only be taught that jews are victims and can never be perpetrators.

You can thank the CIA for that.

Yeah, they were involved. They were saving the world from the dangers of communism. Looking back, all the west really had to do was sit back and wait for the communist system to collapse. But, I wonder what the middle east would look like without the CIA's interference. It sure seems unlikely it would be a land of healthy, stable democracies. Look at all the places where the CIA didn't interfere. Countries ruled by strongmen is the rule rather than the exception.

But, however we got here, that has been Israel's traditional role. It was a democratic country with somewhat similar values to the west, nestled among Islamic Arab countries with very different values.

[–] 0x0@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 days ago

We want German kids to grow up learning about the holocaust and thinking "we can't allow that to ever happen again".

I think they kind of overdid it 'cos know they activelly defend nazis...

[–] Manmoth@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago

Do you like having a job and a place to live? That's why.

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 78 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Israel has a huge lobby in most Western countries. And Epstein material on their politicians.

[–] flandish@lemmy.world 39 points 1 week ago (1 children)

manufactured consent and capitalist profit. it’s a cult.

[–] lagoon8622@sh.itjust.works 3 points 6 days ago

Western Kabuki

[–] AWittyUsername@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Because if you criticise you're called "Anti Semitic"

[–] rumimevlevi 14 points 6 days ago

BS. Those countries doesn't care about being labeled antisemite they are racist toward palestinians

[–] BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 week ago

Western countries never face any consequences for their atrocities.

[–] eldoom@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 week ago

We just need to help god make the book of revelations happen so Jesus can come back!

/s