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by dontleakkeys 334 days ago
Without expressing my opinion on the war in Gaza, supporters of Israel would probably describe it as "existential and defensive."

Pretty, pretty please, let's not debate whether or not this is the case and just acknowledge we can't rule Israel out.
2 comments
strcat 334 days ago
It has nothing to do with Israel.

See the response at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44583672.

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bawolff 334 days ago
For that matter, even Russia describes their war that way (not agreeing, just saying that they do in propaganda). We don't know the politics of the person posting, they may be patriotic to whatever country it is, just because they described the war that way, doesn't mean a neutral observer would agree.

I think the best argument against it being Israel, is that it appears to have happened suddenly and unexpectedly. News reporting makes it sound like the Israeli system is very predictable - people get conscripted at a specific age (even in peace time), and then afterwards serve in reserves, that might get called up. Ukraine on the other hand has a significant manpower problem and has been somewhat desperately trying to increase the conscription pool. Someone being unexpectedly caught up in conscription seems more likely in Ukraine's situation where the rules are being actively changed to get more recruits.

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strcat 334 days ago
When we initially made it public, we avoided stating the country but it was heavily implied. The goal was getting help while explicitly avoiding taking a political stance on their use of conscription.

The final paragraph was added later after further internal discussion about how people were misinterpreting the country as being Russia or Israel. It was carefully worded to make it obvious which country we were referring to to almost everyone while also making it clear we weren't taking a stance against them defending themselves. It was meant to be very obvious after the addition of the final paragraph.

See the response at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44583672.

> Someone being unexpectedly caught up in conscription seems more likely in Ukraine's situation where the rules are being actively changed to get more recruits.

It wasn't due to a change in rules. They've lowered the age range to 25 through 60 and people age into it but it wasn't either of those things.

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