Ice Cream & Surveillance--- Israel is Used to Having its Ice Cream and Eating it, too.

"By excoriating Ben & Jerry’s, the Bennett-Lapid coalition is, in effect, defending decades of illiberal policies: military rule of the occupied territories, creeping annexation and a blurred distinction between 1948 and 1967 borders that insists on Israeli sovereignty between the river and the sea. At the same time, they are implicitly acknowledging that it’s not easy to maintain an enlightened and peace-seeking image (the Abraham Accords notwithstanding) when an ice cream company calls attention to the gap between rhetoric and reality. Nor when a duly licensed Israeli company climbs into bed with some of the most repressive governments on the planet."

"The question is what happens now. Israel sees its high-tech sector as a point of national pride, and it constitutes an integral part of its economy and power in the world. It is not clear whether heightened scrutiny will bring consequences for Israel’s actions, either at home in the occupied territories or secreted in mobile phones around the world. But while the United States and other Western democracies have largely come to terms with Israel’s restrictions of Palestinians’ rights, now that some of that surveillance technology is being exported to restrict free speech in other parts of the world, the world is standing up and noticing. Israel is accustomed to having its ice cream and eating it too. That apparently comes with a price, and not just for Palestinians."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/27/opinion/israel-ben-jerrys-cybersecuri...

This is an excellent analysis of what's going on in Israel now. I've copied as much as I think is ethical.

When you have lost the high opinion of the NY Times, or better put, when the NY Times is unwilling to cover for an oppressive war profiteer country.....then you know that the world will at least make a start on paying attention to the nightmare apartheid that is Israel today.

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The Liberal Moonbat's picture

Who wouldn't?

As I mentioned before, I had the uncanny good fortune to grow up in halcyon-era Silicon Valley; my father gave his family The American Dream by making things that were GOOD and REAL and useful - but one of the several reasons he left is one that I feel everyone ought to hear:

"Nobody gives a FUCK about disc-drives!"

It's not fair. I'm a liberal, so I'm not supposed to blame consumers for anything when I could blame the supply-side instead, but as regards the desecration of Silicon Valley - A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE LIVE, LEARN, DREAM, AND PLAY, so stop talking about it like it's "The Pentagon"! - I am inclined to do just that. Nobody cared when people there made things that made life BETTER, but a few hipsters (mostly from the East) barge in and start pushing cyber-flakka, and suddenly you've attracted the attention of Rita Skeeter and the Eye of Sauron! Those two somehow manage to bring the absolute worst out of the Observer Paradox.

I'm sick of "high-tech" being shorthand for "telecom bullshit that nobody knew they needed before it was invented, because they DIDN'T, that makes life WORSE and scuttles or corrupts the slow-moving dreams of REAL techno-visionaries". I'm sure there are interesting aspects of some of what's being done (like cell phones not just using quantum physics, but depending on it, and thereby serving as functional proof of some truly far-out science! https://deeptechknowledge.com/quantam-phones/), but otherwise, this isn't what "high-tech" ought to be in the 21st Century; this is just Big Telecom at it again, AKA "Ma Bell with Mind Control":

https://eskow.substack.com/p/ma-bell-with-mind-control-liberalism?link_i...

Who will be OUR "Cap'N Crunch", I wonder?

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In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat @The Liberal Moonbat What has that got to do with Israel's surveillance? and countries objecting that their citizens and leaders are being closely watched....

Genuine question. Not snark. These are areas I do not know much about or claim to understand. Eager to learn.

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NYCVG

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@NYCVG A high-tech industry is good. Check.
A surveillance-planet is bad. Check.

Perhaps I digressed a bit, but my point is that I literally grew up with "the high-tech industry", and what it's become is anathema to what I know it could've and should've become.

One thing (arguably) worth learning I've learned over these past 5 years, it's the true meaning of "abomination" - a Thing That Should Not Be, all the more sickening and hateful for its deep resemblance to that which you most value, yet somehow made into that which you most loathe.

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7 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat Thank you for the concise explanation.

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NYCVG

usefewersyllables's picture

@The Liberal Moonbat

you should immediately go and stream "The President's Analyst" (1967, James Coburn), which is probably the very best example of the "Ma Bell with Mind Control" trope that I've ever seen. The full movie used to be easily available on Youtube, but it looks like Amazon has now bought the rights and taken it private. Bummer.

One of my favorite movies of all time, it barely made cult status- and that's a pity. It is *fantastic* satire, and well worth seeking out. It predated Lily Tomlin's "We don't care. We don't have to. We're The Phone Company!" by 9 years....

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PebCB0IIANI]

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Twice bitten, permanently shy.

The Liberal Moonbat's picture

@usefewersyllables "...I did not know that Hitler was a Nazi. The truth was that for years I thought he worked for the phone company."
- Woody Allen

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8 users have voted.

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed Man is declared mentally ill for describing colors.

Yes Virginia, there is a Global Banking Conspiracy!

@The Liberal Moonbat
But they fired him for being too soft-hearted and liberal.

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5 users have voted.

I've seen lots of changes. What doesn't change is people. Same old hairless apes.

@usefewersyllables @usefewersyllables on Amazon. This sounds like exactly what Is interesting to me.

And, while you are here, usefewersyllables, what do you make of this diatribe from zerohedge? It seems insane to me but some of the info is what we have been saying here. especially the part about the gov't ignoring Ivermectin and Vitamin D in order to boost Pharma profits.

The Crazy is the claim that Vaccinate people are the ones getting sick and dying. WTF!!!!!!

Nevermind. That article was from yesterday and is no longer available. Today that website is ranting about masks and Fauci as usual.

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6 users have voted.

NYCVG

usefewersyllables's picture

@NYCVG

Zerohedge quite a while back: the vast majority of their commenters are far too rightwing for me to stomach. And some really do like to play the "kill them all!" role from the safety of their keyboards.

Covid mitigation is the new third rail. That sort of antivaxx commentary becoming the de facto position of the group (enforced by the moderators) was what led me to abandon WoTB here recently, so it seems to have found rich soil to grow elsewhere on the web. I don't need to seek it out. It'll find me, whether I like it or not.

The problem is that the folks who refuse to believe anything the government says can find lots of people who agree with them, and therefore the sort of thought process that has somehow now led to "Vaccines actually cause the disease!" can't really be countered. This is because the proponents of that thought have already dismissed, with prejudice, any and all of the primary sources of evidence that might indicate the contrary. There's no fixing that.

And who would bother? The people who believe that vaccines might actually do some good (like, say, keeping us from dying), and do so despite the government, are really easy to run off. Just keep insisting over and over that (fill in the trope) is real, is the only Truth, and people who believe anything else are idiots, and we finally just say "Well, sure, by golly, if you say so..." and find other things to do with our time.

I have a deep dislike and distrust of the government, and deeper still hate for the handful of corporations that own it in fee simple. I used to think of myself as one of the more hard-bitten cynics you're likely to meet, but I now realize I can't hold a freakin' candle to the True Believers on many topics. As soon as a given topic becomes religion, all I can do is sit back and let it go its own way: discussion becomes like trying to sell alcohol to a Mormon (or a Muslim, for that matter- traveling to Egypt years ago showed me that the greatest oxymoron in the English language is "Muslim bartender").

I'll do what I think is right for myself and my wife WRT Covid, and people from any of the opposing viewpoints will peck at me for it. And yet I can still look at wonderfully well written antigovernment art and smile right along with them. We just smile for different reasons, apparently... It's a mystery to me.

BTW, one of the best parts about that clip from the movie: it predates the introduction of the first microprocessor by 4 years, and yet there's the canonical picture to show the scale: stick it on a fingertip. Everything old is new again.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAomAwIwxm8]

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8 users have voted.

Twice bitten, permanently shy.

@usefewersyllables from wotb was acrimonious, to put it mildly, and on the same matter as yours.

I can still be amazed, it seems, by the outrageousness of the Covid lies. floored. gobsmacked. way past amazed.

Your thoughtful answer means a lot.

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NYCVG

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@QMS Every time I think of Ed Snowden and his wife, safely in Moscow,, my heart sings.

Snowden's opinion and the publicity NSO is getting now, in spite of Ice Cream Insanity, is very encouraging to me as it is to him. maybe even a tipping point. fingers crossed for more Americans eyes to open.

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9 users have voted.

NYCVG

https://thehill.com/policy/international/565150-israeli-organization-loo...

An Israeli organization said it registered a commercial entity called “Judea and Samaria’s Ben & Jerry’s” with the Israeli registry of corporations and plans to sell products under the name in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

In a recent letter sent to Unilever, of which Ben & Jerry's is a subsidiary, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Tel-Aviv based Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, notified the company that her organization registered a commercial entity under the new name with the Israeli Corporations Authority.

Darshan-Leitner said the group intends to use the ice cream company’s name “and match the Vermont company’s current ice cream line,” in addition to adding “on new flavors and products using locally-sourced ingredients and traditional spices and flavors of the region.”

The letter comes just days after the American ice cream company made headlines when it announced it would end sales of its ice cream in Israeli-occupied areas.

snip

Darshan-Leitner said the organization will “no longer consider Unilever nor the Vermont Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream company to have any right to utilise their previously-owned name in these territories, as you have publicly stated that you are withdrawing from there.”

“Accordingly, we warn both Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s against utilising the Ben & Jerry’s name in these areas. We will actively and aggressively defend our Ben & Jerry’s name, rights, and trademarks in this area by all legal means,” Darshan-Leitner added.

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@humphrey of this, but was going to spare Caucus 99 my meander down memory lane. Oh well, here goes. Not to be ungrateful for the response. I'm happy we share this interest.

But, Your quote missed the best part of this farce.

On the container of this proposed brand is the subtitle: "Frozen Chosen."

The history behind this term is a proposal back before the founding of Israel when the then Secretary of State proposed relocating displaced Jews to Alaska rather than the hostile Middle East. Hence, the title Frozen Chosen. That secty 's son, of the same name, was one of Hillary's top advisors. ( I cannot recall the guy's name right now. Sometimes age cuts into my memory bank, slowing me down a bit.)

Not to mention that Jews declaring themselves "chosen" are just aiming a gun at all of us. A better idea is that we are all One. My people have a lot to answer for.

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NYCVG