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Comment by DiogenesKynikos | Hacker News Reader

What does that have to do with the subject of this thread at all? Christians are also terrible to gay people, and European societies have only very recently (in the last two to three decades) become somewhat more tolerant.

In the context of Israel-Palestine, this issue is only raised in order to somehow justify Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, a la "They deserve it because they're not as enlightened as we are."

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It’s relevant because most commenters here hold moral standards that are completely self-undermining because they choose to not apply them to the “oppressed” group.

Consider that it doesn’t matter how genocidal Israel’s Islamicist neighbors are. The IDF occassionally targets civilians when they shouldn’t. Meanwhile Israel’s neighbors don’t even draw the distinction.

Western governments don't fund their neighbors. They do fund Israel. You have to live up to the standards of the patron such as observing western rules of engagement, treatment of prisoners, and human rights in general.

Western governments do fund Israel's neighbors. This includes Egypt (one of the largest recipients of US foreign aid), Jordan, Lebanon (including indirectly through UNIFIL and UNRWA), Syria, and Iraq if they count as a neighbor.

Patrons don't necessarily apply any standard evenly.

Egypt receives US aid in exchange for maintaining good relations with Israel. That's the deal they have with the US. It's basically the same with Jordan.

The IDF killed more than 20,000 Palestinian children in Gaza.

"But Muslims don't like gay people" does not justify that.

And saying the IDF "occasionally" targets civilians is just completely divorced from reality. They've been systematically attacking civilians for more than two years straight now, racking up a kill count of more than 80,000.

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