Paddy Cosgrave said his "personal comments have become a distraction from the event, and our team, our sponsors, our startups and the people who attend."

Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave steps down in wake of controversy over his Israel comments::Paddy Cosgrave said his “personal comments have become a distraction from the event, and our team, our sponsors, our startups and the people who attend.”

  • stifle867@programming.devEnglish
    342·
    9 months ago

    Everything you said is valid… but to me, it doesn’t really apply to this specific context. As far as I could see (admittedly I did only skim the article) but the general statement he made did not mention any specifics. I think it’s unfair to take a broad statement such as condemning war crimes, and to rebut it by saying well a lot of other people are calling this one specific instance a war crime when it hasn’t yet been proven.

    • avater@lemmy.worldEnglish
      718·
      9 months ago

      I get what you are saying and let’s be honest to loose your job because of your tweets and your opinion is simply idiotic, since he did not post anything even nearly in an antisemitism area…

      But I get that the timing of his first tweet was not the best and his second tweet was much better in terms of “a possible general acceptance”. We sadly live now in a quite strange world where everything you post can be used against you based on your reach in social media and he should knew that.

      Also I think this whole “Hamas did bad, but Israel is committing war crimes” narrative always leaves a bad taste in many mouths and has some kind of justification for the Hamas actions in it…don’t know.

      • stifle867@programming.devEnglish
        182·
        9 months ago

        It’s not a competition to see who can commit the most war crimes. This whole idea of comparing one faction against another to see who is worse is just stupid. It should not even come into play when someone simply condemns war crimes! The fact that people read so much into a simple statement says more about them than the person who posted it. If someone’s reaction to someone saying “war crimes are war crimes even when commited by your allies” is to think “well that person is justifying Hamas’s actions” then the problem lies there, just as much as it is to think “that person is saying Israel doesn’t have a right to defend themselves”.

        All it is is making the world more divisive when it should be unifying to condemn the tragic loss of innocent human life. People should not impose their factional viewpoints on something as simple as that.

        • avater@lemmy.worldEnglish
          210·
          9 months ago

          All it is is making the world more divisive when it should be unifying to condemn the tragic loss of innocent human life. People should not impose their factional viewpoints on something as simple as that.

          But they do, and very open in this very long and very unnecessary conflict. And again not every news of an incident in the middle east right now is a war crime. This is also an information war and to use the term war crime for every operation or military strike done by Israel is also part of an agenda of the hamas, because it sure as shit frames Israel in a very intentional way, fuelig the hate against them, which then aids the hamas again.

          I also condemn every human loss in this war about who has the better god and has more right to live in this area of the middle east, but in the end I also support Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself and I don’t know how Israel should fight an enemy that is deeply rooted in palestina and also uses its citizens as a welcoming sacrifice…

          • stifle867@programming.devEnglish
            101·
            9 months ago

            These are all points to be making to a totally different conversation. The original comment that caused this person to step down was a condemnation of committing war crimes, not an analysis of which specific acts qualify as war crimes nor whether they support a specific party. These type of comments further the exact problem I pointed out. It’s not an excuse to say “but they do”. Be better, don’t make the same mistakes just because everyone else is.