And I want a unicorn for Christmas.

Look, right now I don’t even have a good reason to hope that Israel will be stopped before they finish their genocide. But step 1 is to get a permanent ceasefire in place. Whatever fantasies we might have beyond that is a moot point. But recognizing both parties as sovereign would go some way towards facilitating the terms and enforcement of that ceasefire.

If you’ve got a plan to achieve that and doesn’t involve genociding israel, shoot for it. But I don’t think “unrecognizing” Israel is a particularly productive step towards that.

In this context? Someone who is currently on the good side of the current apartheid system in Israel/Palestine.

Don’t play dumb with me, you know full well what I meant. If you have a point, make it.

So no Israel, just Palestine? That would leave Israelis a majority population in Palestine. Do you expect Israelis to magically not outvote the Palestinians, or are you proposing an autocracy or an apartheid system stripping Israelis of their voting rights?

I would also strongly suggest you do some reading on the factors leading up to the Rwandan genocide. A “just” peace isn’t enough; after generations of life under apartheid, there are no easy or quick paths to lasting peace. I won’t commit the hubris of pretending I have a definitive solution, and I think it’s important to underline that as outsiders to the conflict, the best we can do is offer to safeguard peace. That’s what the Two-State Solution was meant to do, that’s what arms sanctions are meant to do, that’s what the threat of economic retaliation would be meant to do (granted each with their own significant shortcomings). Denying the practical existence of either Israel or Palestine is antithetical to building a path towards lasting peace and a meaningful international effort towards safeguarding said peace.

For a practical example, assuming a peace treaty ever gets signed, sending UN Blue Helmets would be diplomatically easier if all parties involved recognized Palestine and Israel as sovereign states. Even if that all seems like a moot point right now what when neither Israel nor most Western nations are actually looking forward to peace.

I mean, it’s a matter of opinion, but leather sucks in hot and in cold weather. It doesn’t breathe so I get super sweaty, and it gets super cold in winter. So luxury cars compensate with heated seats and in-seat ventilation…

I’ve never considered the friction of my car seat to even be a factor, I don’t tend to move much once I’m sat down.

So there are two interpretations I could make of your comment, one of which is more charitable than the other.

1. You are using the Chinese and Israeli playbook of weaponizing statehood recognition as a value judgement. That is profoundly problematic, both on a practical and a philosophical level. De-humanization should not be a tool we have to use on our enemies. Our moral high ground should speak for itself.
2. Your are dog-whistling for the genocide and/or deportation of all Israelis. In which case our conversation is done here.

To be clear, Israel is committing genocide and every single member of its government and of the IDF should be tried at The Hague. But laws and international order exist for a reason, and trying to circumvent them like this is a very bad look that Israel has been rightfully criticized for for decades.

The first part applies to… Most of the world outside of Europe?

The second part applies, to lesser degrees, to a large part of the world. Such as the USA.

What even is this argument. Israel’s not a state? Well fucking great, so following that logic which state should we hold responsible for Israel’s crimes then?

Europe’s colonial past is a whole-ass subject but amongst all the potential ways to try to make up for it, “stop formally recognizing former colonies because we fucked it up too badly” is one of the worst takes I’ve heard.

I’m sure google is already working on GenAI to “fix” that for you.

I hate the future.

Fabric is superior in comfort and cost.

But if you absolutely want leather for looks/stain resistance, there historically hasn’t been much of a choice. Plastic fake leather alternatives degrade pretty badly under UV light, causing cracking/flaking after just a few years. As anyone who has owned a fake leather chair or jacket would have noticed. But the expected lifetime of a car interior is measured in decades.

The article mentions some startup innovating on new synthetic hemp-based fake leather, it’ll be interesting to see if they can match the long-term durability of genuine leather. Otherwise it’ll be a shame if those interiors fall apart in 5-10 years, reupholstering an entire car is not a small job.