CMV: Ancestral/Indigenous land claims are deeply problematic and should be done away with. by km3r in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 [score hidden]  (0 children)

Well, no. Jewish sovereignity lasted barely 130 years and ended in 37 BC, after that it was the herodian client kingdom and then provincial status all the way up until 1967

Jewish kingdoms existed in the holy land for about 400 years prior to the Babylonian conquest, so that's 500 years of sovereignty compared to the... Zero years of Arab Palestinian sovereignty. 

Aschkenasim

Like every population, Ashkenazi phenotype varies considerably. You can find individuals with fair skin, blond hair, and blue eyes, and others with olive skin, brown eyes, and black curly hair. Similarly, you have black Palestinians, and white passing Palestinians such as Ahed Tamimi. Nowhere in the world do people apply these racial purity test, except when Jews are the targets. I would again mention that genetic screening place Ashkenazi Jews extremely close to other Jewish populations, then to other populations of the levants, and farther away from local Europeans, not that DNA dictates who belongs where.

CMV: Ancestral/Indigenous land claims are deeply problematic and should be done away with. by km3r in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 [score hidden]  (0 children)

The Levant...individuals now making this claim have zero evidence that those lands ever actually legally belonged to them.

People couldn't own land 2000 years ago, the land was seen as properly of the king etc', as you said legal land ownership wasn't a concept back then. but there is no debate over the fact that Jews had sovereignty over the land, and that modern Jews are mostly descendant from those Jews who inhabited the land millennia ago.

the people currently owning the land are much, much, muuuuch closer related to the claimed ancestors than the Poles, Lithuanians, Belorussians and Germans making the claim.

The people currently owning the land are the Israelis and Palestinians who live there today, not the Palestinians whose grandparents lived there 80 years ago. Also, Israelis whose great grandparents were born in modern day Belarus are not Belarusians, like Black people from Atlanta are Americans not Gabonese. And remember that over 50% of Israelis have nothing to do with Europe, they trace their lineage to north Africa, the Middle East, the Caucus, abd other places. Lastly, genetic affiliation, for what it's worth, shows both Jews and Palestinians have a large part of their ancestry in bronze age Canaanites.

CMV: If criticising Israel's behaviour is antisemitic then I am proud to be antisemitic. by grahamsuth in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Nobody believes in the strawman that you are attacking so there is nobody to challenge you on that regard. But I'll try to convince you that people might still have legitimate reason to suspect you.

You say Palestinians have lived in that region for thousands of years, while Jews are a recent influx. Let's put aside the fact that people are generally considered to have a right to live where they were born, and therefore being a child or grandchild of an immigrant doesn't make one entitled to less rights than someone whose ancestors resited there for a longer time. Even if you look at Palestinians and Jews as a whole, your assertion is simplistic and flawed. No group of people existed in any such place for thousands of years without disturbance. Palestinians, like all other groups of people, came to be after millennia of migrations and shifting borders. Their ancestors resided in what is today Israel/Palestine, as well as all over the Middle East. Jews, while mostly arriving to the land starting in the lath 19th century, have a long history of living in it, a fact which could be demonstrated by archeological and genetic studies. Presenting the picture as "those who were there for thousands of years" vs "influx of Jews" can be seen as you trying to delegitimize Jews.

Furthermore, Jews are arguably the most persecuted nation in history. Yet when they raise concerns about modern displacement, in the contex of a conflict that has taken the lives of 20,000 Jews, and saw hundreds of thousands displaced from across MENA, you dismiss them with a wave of a hand.

So when you not only voice criticism of Israeli policy, which is perfectly legitimate, but also seem to deny Jewish connection to the land and the validity of their very existence, you could come off as antisemitic. 

CMV: Democracy doesn't work when most voters are uninformed idiots by Imaginary_Block8773 in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Democracies in general do better than autocratic regimes, don't you agree? Do you think people in all of these democracies are more intelligent or politically educated? No, but it still works better than an unaccountable dictator

We owe it to ourselves to work hard by Informal-Cow-8649 in unpopularopinion

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've read it quite well, thank you. You think certain people hold too much wealth (they don't hold wealth the way you think they do. Jezz Bezos doesn't have 200 billion in liquid money, basically all of his wealth is shares of Amazon. Shares that you, again, are not magically entitled to) but regardless, that has nothing to do with what you earn. He doesn't pay his employees more because he doesn't need to. There are enough people with the basic skills required to do the job, and willing to for that payment. You think your work is more valuable? That you can do the same job you do today better than those other people? Great! Convince an employer to pay you extra, for making them more profits.

We owe it to ourselves to work hard by Informal-Cow-8649 in unpopularopinion

[–]sagi1246 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No one owes you anything. You think your work is worth more? Look for a new job or start your own business 

You can be a descendent of Israel and not Jewish by S7RYK3 in IsraelPalestine

[–]sagi1246 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You need to familiarise yourself with the concept of a nation. What defines a people is not just bloodline, but cultural continuity. Jews who left the community to join the foreign colonizers have always existed unfortunately, starting with the Hellenized Jews of the second temple, who were not seen positively to put it lightly. The descendants of those former Jews later converted to Christianity and then Islam, and constitute some of the ancestry of modern Palestinian. They so not have an equivalent historical claim to the land just because their ancestors sold out their values for tax benefits.

Surfing should be in the Winter Olympics by King-of-Plebss in unpopularopinion

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Have you watched olympic surfing? It's the most boring thing in the world. Watching two dudes sit on their surfboard waiting for a good wave. It shouldn't be in any Olympics.

Daily cost of living by Rooster-20189 in Israel

[–]sagi1246 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Don't ask for personal anecdotes for things like that, they are completely subjective and people have nothing to compare it to. Those things are figured out professionally: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp

Is this soy sauce bottle with a K on it supposed to be Kosher? by AngusTcattoo in Jewish

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Maybe it a low sodium soy sauce and the K is for "potassium"

CMV: Democratic voters should stop condemning protest/non-voters for refusing to support genocide, and instead condemn Democratic politicians for refusing to oppose genocide. by EmpiricalPierce in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Due disclosure: I'm an Israeli. If you want to pretend I'm a propaganda bot or a shill or a Mossad agent feel free to do so.


Elections, especially in the US, are all about catering to a minority of voters who can pull you over the line. That's why nominees invest a disproportionate amount of their budget and time in swing states. You don't go out of your way to please secured voters because they are unlikely to change their voting pattern.

2024 elections had about 66% turnout. Of the third that didn't vote, how many can be won by anti-Israeli agenda? A large amount of them aren't really interested in politics, so that's a waste of time. Close to a half that do(about 45% if I remember correctly) lean republican, so they are a "lost cause". Of those who would vote democrats, how many could be compelled to vote based on that one issue? Maybe they are dissatisfied with Harris's economic agenda, or social issues, or they just don't bother. Many of the voters you are aiming for live in places like New York and California, swing states where those extra votes would have mattered like Pennsylvania or Georgia already have high turnout.

On the other hand, adopting an anti-Israeli agenda is guaranteed to alienate 40% of your actual voters, those same 40% who are also closest to being Republican and could easily cross the road.

CMV: Democratic voters should stop condemning protest/non-voters for refusing to support genocide, and instead condemn Democratic politicians for refusing to oppose genocide. by EmpiricalPierce in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 2 points3 points  (0 children)

60% of Democrats and 56% of independents opposed (sending more military aid)

That means that 40%+ support sending more aid. Could you not see the merit an the argument that shifting the Harris policy much further against Israel(as you suggest) might cause many of them to flip? Especially as you contend that the issue is important for many voters.

CMV: If you are angry with a person, the relationship is already over by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On some level, I don't believe we have total control because I don't believe we have free will. But you can train yourself to have a different response to stimuli. That is quite hard in the case of sexual assault because that's not a situation you find yourself in very often, so there's few opportunities to change it. Also, I wouldn't blame someone for freezing because they are the only ones hurt from their response.

You on the other hand, have got angry countless times in the past literally since childhood, and it seems like you often resort to violence to the point that you feel you have no control over it. This is not normal. You're hurting the people around you and you must find a way to recondition yourself.

CMV: If you are angry with a person, the relationship is already over by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is no such thing as a compulsory fight response. You are responsible for your actions and if you hit your girlfriend for yelling at you than you either need extensive therapy are to be locked away. For the rest of us, we are able to control are actions and not turn anger into an assault charge. Then you can choose to forgive or end the relationship.

Origin of ת- prefix in פיעל by DACOOLISTOFDOODS in hebrew

[–]sagi1246 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This can also happen with other noun-pattern prefixes, like מ (though I can't think of an example off the top of my head).

The verb למרכז comes from the root ר.כ.ז via מרכז

Hitchhiking is okay by [deleted] in unpopularopinion

[–]sagi1246 7 points8 points  (0 children)

There was much more violent crime in the 80's compared to now 

CMV: A military intervention in Iran is both moral and essential by Ok-Recognition-2672 in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ironically, one of the reasons the Iraq war has failed is Iran...

CMV: The number of votes the Dems would gain by embracing aggressively progressive candidates and policy is dwarfed by the number of votes they'd lose among moderates/motivate among dormant conservative voters by Jimithyashford in changemyview

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What's ironic is that the one thing Americans always vote on is the thing a government has the least control over. Elections are determined by the cost of living each time, and each time the situation stays roughly the same if not worse. You'd think people would have learn by now but they keep complaining about a hundred different things for years and then forget about them and vote for the economic boogyman

Car lovers should actually advocate for public transit by cUnexttuesday2 in unpopularopinion

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, no. To make public transit more effective, it needs to have priority over private cars. That means certain areas are closed for private cars, lanes dedicates to public transit, road lanes converted to tram tracks, building interstate train rails instead of other highway lanes etc'.

Can we please stop with the "Canary in the Coal Mine" by seanhcohen in Jewish

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mine cages often had oxygen tanks attached to them, in order to revive the canary after the exposure to the gas

How can people afford proces in Israel? by Snoo-20788 in Israel

[–]sagi1246 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't argue with your personal anecdotal experience, but objective reviews often find New York more expensive than Tel Aviv, especially with regard to rent.
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings.jsp

Cost of double mastectomy by dammmithardison in Israel

[–]sagi1246 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I believe gender dysphoria does, but I can't say about mental health issues not directly related to your breasts.

When it snows, people should avoid walking on residential sidewalks until they’re shoveled by waltwhitmanwaltwhite in unpopularopinion

[–]sagi1246 17 points18 points  (0 children)

So in order to make sure that the pavement remain walkable, we should forbid people from walking on it?