We give attention to things that deserve our attention, i.e., things that affect us. The war in Ethiopia scores very low on that list, to the point of almost complete irrelevance.
That’s one of the reasons COVID got to spread. People in the West saw it as “a Chinese issue”. Me included. And I work with Chinese people every day. I would see them in lockdown and still think it couldn’t possibly affect me.
Fortunately, multibillion dollar dams can't spread like COVID.
So there isn't one likely to draw global powers to my neighborhood to pit one group of people against another.
/s
Let's be honest man, there's just little chance at all that this issue affects your average San Fran tech guy. Let's not try to shame people because they don't pay attention to those kinds of issues. If you want people to know something about the issue, put it in your comment.
other conflicts that to don't have any significant effect get plenty of attention like Ukraine or Palestine. the Russian Ukrainian conflict does have some effect on Europe but Israel Palestine has no tangible effect on the West and people talk about it frequently.
Because of history, how it was founded and people from both sides living in europe?
Germany as an extreme example has the survival of Israel as state doctrin. So that is a hot topic by definition.
Then there are many jews living in the west who sends weapons en masse to Israel - and there are also many Palestinian/Arabs living in the west. All that directly effects us.
Ethopia on the other hand is one of few african countries that was not (really) colonized. So there are not so much ties. The strongest is probably reggae and Haile Selassi chanting in songs, but most have no idea who that was. So, people are less interested naturally.
Speaking as a Jew in the West who is very anti-Israel, I think the weapons being sent to Israel are only partially explained by Jewish pro-Israel lobbies. Zionism happens to go beyond Judaism, and American imperialism, which Israel serves a role in, is a larger project than even that.
Saying that the Ukraine war has no significant effects is like saying that AI has no significant effects.
Europe started rapid remilitarization as a direct response to the war. The increase in military spending in European countries not participating in the war is comparable to worldwide investments in AI data centers and infrastructure.
Then there is the fact that a permanent member of the UN Security Council is waging an old-school war of conquest. If we assume that the post-WW2 world order is gone and wars of conquest are legitimate business again, the world will reassess other aspects of that order as well. Including the idea that people have inherent rights beyond those their government is willing to grant and capable of protecting.
Israel has more impact on the West than any other country (and not in a good way). The Palestinians have brought light to it, but it's Israel's own bribing, blackmailing and industry influence in the US (and other Western countries) that people are upset about.
Because Israel is manipulating the US. We literally have laws curtailing freedom of speech just to stop people from boycotting Israel. The vast majority of our government is bribed or blackmailed by Israel. We currently have a Zionist hawk consolidating all of our mass media (Larry Ellison). TikTok was forced to move ownership to Zionists in the US due to Israel. Our tax dollars go to Israel. The last two presidents (and probably more) have gone on tv and lied to every US citizen on behalf of Israel...
It's a pressing and important issue, which is why it's getting a lot of attention.
A constant flow of USA taxpayer dollars, and German taxpayer euros, is the only reason Israel is still afloat. Continuing the war is the decision of US and German voters. Other western countries are also nominal supposed to be stopping their allies from doing this and aren't.
Israel is the world's 7th largest arms exporter but only the 14th largest importer. It in fact sold this year around $8bn to Europe alone (Arrow-3 to Germany, and Achilles Shield missile defense to Greece).
The concept that Israel relies on foreign weapons for its survival is detached from reality. Yes, there are things you can't replace like F35 and submarines, but in drones, missiles, air defence, radars, armored vehicles, communication systems etc - Israel is amongst the worldwide leaders.
History is not on your side. US did not support Israel until the 1970's. Israel is far, far stronger today then it was back then. Israel will always have friends, it has a lot to offer and situated in an interesting area.
It's a completely different situation than South Africa in so many ways. Israel is very well integrated into the global supply chain, has the power of the Jewish diaspora, is majority Jewish (unlike Afrikaners which were a small minority), and is a nuclear power.
Yeah, it's so much worse than South Africa and Israel has had a much larger negative impact on the US and rest of world.
> has the power of the Jewish diaspora, is majority Jewish
Curious what you mean by this since we're told over and over that Israel doesn't represent all Jews? Regardless, it's a tiny country with almost no natural resources that has rapidly accelerating mass opposition. Israel cannot defeat the entire planet.
With all due respect, I think you've been radicalized to the point you think the world is going to come together with the singular goal of destroying Israel. No, it will not. Israel's economy is very strong, in fact it's been getting stronger as the war with the Islamists has gone on. It's a technological and military powerhouse. European skies are defended by Israeli systems. A large part of your iPhone was designed in Israel. If you've been running any workload on Amazon, GCP or Azure, chances are you've been using Israeli tech.
Relax, Israel is not going anywhere :) Yes there is a growing anti-Israeli sentiment, but that will go away with time. The strategic gains Israel has made over the past 3 years, though, may hold.
You're vastly misreading (or more accurately misrepresenting) how angry people are with Israel. Regardless, there's no point in continuing this conversation. The last thing you should be doing is accusing others of being radicalized while you use terms like "Islamists", that's disgusting.
Islamist is a standard term refering to proponents if Islamism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism). Maybe you're arguing at the author was using it in an inappropriate context but to imply that the word itself somehow not PC frankly shows that you know very little about his mom and countries and are probably not from one. If you were you would see it differently.
The genocide in Gaza doesn't have anything to do with "Islamism", it's about land theft, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and sovereignty for indigenous Palestinians. Zionists are also murdering Christians. I'm an atheist and view Israel as my enemy. The only religious extremist ideology at play here is Jewish supremacy.
Thos is a gross simplification of things. Hamas is specifically an Ilamist political movement and an outcrop of the Muslim Brotherhood political movement. I understand that for you it's a one-dimensional piberation movement but it behooves you to to deeper.
That's not relevant though, it's the Zionists that are the colonizers. Their victims could be of any religion or political movement, it doesn't change the nature of the genocide and apartheid committed by Israel and their allies.
An analogous situation would be like Nazis complaining about Roma. The Roma were the victims, their beliefs have nothing to do with the Nazi's genocide.
I see. Are you indigenous to the part of the Americas you live in now? Do you consider yourself to be a member of the colonizer culture or your indigenous culture? Some kind of hybrid?
Yes, hybrid and I support land back (and reparations for Black Americans). It's not too late for the world to stop Israel from committing the same crimes, and in fact the world does seem to be (slowly) doing that.
Wouldn't Zionist be a better parallel? Though I would argue that even then it's a bit different because most zionists do not espouse a particular Jewish rooted governance system whereas Islamism is specifically about an Islamic political model
why do we (residents of western countries) pay attention to Israel? There's nothing relevant to our lives happening there. It's not more relevant than Ethiopia or Sudan.
Not really true, first German taxpayer euros don't go to Israel, second without Israel could pay for USA taxpayer dollars from their aid with some debt increase.
