Israel started it: bbc.com/news/articles/cdj9vj8g…

Israel attacked with air strikes. Iran had done nothing.

@lynnskyi You're right Lynn, poor little innocent Iran was totally doing nothing. Those proxies they kept sending to attack Israel along with all the Jews they murdered around the world was just them having a little fun and it was no big deal and how dare they not continue to put up with it.

@acarson Amanda! I have never claimed that Iran was not wrong. All I said is that they did nothing, at this time, to provoke an attack by Israel and the US. They were at the negotiating table. Does Iran support terrorism? Of course they do. But I don't think us bombing them is going to have the desired consequence. It is only going to make them and more determined, in my view.

@lynnskyi So you think they should have just been allowed to build a nuclear bomb, which they would have then launched at Israel? You think they should just get a time-out or something? Because that's totally worked over the last 40 years. And we all know what would have happened had they launched a nuke. The same thing's that's happened as they've launched missiles at civilions. Crickets.

@acarson @lynnskyi Lynn, do you follow Geoff Shang? not including his masto handle here because I don't want to involuntarily drag him into this, but you really should have heard his recording of Iranian missles striking near his apartment last week. The impact of hearing that is going to stay with me for a long time, probably forever. You heard the air raid sirens, the misssiles, and the interceptors. they have to go to the bomb shelter several times a day lately, many times at night! he got that recording by leaving his phone on his kitchen windowsill and setting it to record while he went into the shelter. If that's Iran doing nothing, i'd really hate to see what them actually doing something is, because it sure seemed like something to me. they want to wipe Israel off the map. for that matter, they would like to do the same to us here in the U.S. They call us the Great Satan. ok, i know I shouldn't get into this, but that recording I heard, well it really affected me and I just can't imagine such conditions. I know someone else over there and I can't even imagine what he's going through, if he's even still ok. it's horific. I don't usually get into these discussions, I don't... But, well let's just say i felt like I was there and so I feel almost like I experienced it or was close enough to hear it happening around me at the very least. I don't mean any offense, but I do feel strongly on this one.

@nycki96 @lynnskyi Everything Nicky said, except not just last week and not just one person. So I'm sorry people you don't like are solving a problem you can't bring yourself to acknowledge in a way you don't like, but Team Diplomacy has had 30 years to fix this and has abjectly failed, and you are not entitled to more failing forward on the part of said team while people other than you continue to pay the price for it. And, racing to the defense of a regime that hangs LGBTQ people from cranes just for being who they are and forcibly detransitions trans people, during Pride Month no less, all because you hate Trump and really can't be bothered to give a crap about any Israeli until you're called on it is one hell of a bad look. And no, all-lives-mattering this doesn't cut it.

@lynnskyi @nycki96 I never said Israel has some sort of right to divinely kill, as you put it. It has a duty to defend its citizens, and to do whatever it takes to ensure that things like October 7 never happen again. It does not have an obligation to continue to tolerate its neighbors lobbing missiles at it or committing terrorist attacks inside it or abducting its citizens, not even for the sake of your vaunted peace. There's being a peaceful person, and then there's being at best naive and at worst expecting Israel to operate by a standard you do not expect any other nation to operate by. If you want less violence, then maybe you should sue for Israel's neighbors to attack less, and in the case of Gaza since you keep trying to tie everything back to it, for Hamas to surrender and hand back all the hostages

@acarson @lynnskyi Yes, october 7 was just unjustified and unprovoked.

@nycki96 @acarson @lynnskyi Oh, Amanda, you are a breath of fresh air, a voice of common sense and, if I may say, an extremely courageous woman for speaking your mind as you do on a platform which claims to honor love and tolerance except for where Israel's right to exist is concerned. Thank you.

@DavidGoldfield @nycki96 @acarson A lot of us on this platform support Israel's right to exist, and a lot of us support diversity and women's rights and a whole bunch of other things. Just because I don't support absolutely everything Israel does or everything the United States does, doesn't mean I want to see Israel gone. That is a total exaggeration and totally untrue. Mastodon, to me, is like a breath of fresh air because their are people here with diverse beliefs and points of view. If people don't want such, there are many other alternatives. I like that Mastodon doesn't seem to be a my way or the high way platform. There should be a place for everyone at the table.

@lynnskyi @nycki96 @acarson Lynn, I think you and I are mostly in agreement. Where I unfortunately disagree is that I don't see Mastodon as diverse in the same way that you do. If I chose to not hold back on some of my views on certain topics, I'd likely be reported to my server admin as well as dealing with backlash in other ways.