#west’s Backed Terrorist Isra-Hell

[xtruss]

[mariacallous]

“Did they really decapitate babies?” my 14-year-old daughter asked me yesterday. She was pointing to a text message on her phone from a friend. “They’re saying they found Jewish babies killed, some burnt, some decapitated.” And I froze. Not because I didn’t know what to say—though in truth I didn’t know what to say—but because for a moment I forgot what century I was in. All of the assumptions I had made as a Jewish father, even one who had grown up, as I did, with the Holocaust just a few decades past, were suddenly no longer relevant. Had I adequately prepared her for the reality of Jewish death, what every shtetl child for centuries would have known intimately? Later in the day, she asked if, for safety’s sake, she should take off the necklace she loves that her grandparents had given her and that has her name written out in Hebrew script.

The attack by Hamas on Israeli civilians last Saturday broke something in me. I had always resisted victimhood. It felt abhorrent, self-pitying to me in a world that seemed far away from the Inquisition and Babi Yar���especially in the United States, where I live and where polls repeatedly tell me that Jews are more beloved than any other religious group. I wasn’t blind to anti-Semitism and the ways it had recently become deadlier, or to the existential dread that my family in Israel felt every time terrorists blew up a bus or café—it’s a story whose sorrows have punctuated my entire life. But I refused to embrace that ironically comforting mantra, “They will always want to kill us.” I hated what this tacitly expressed, that if they always want to kill us, then we owe them, the world, nothing. I deplore the occupation for both the misery it has inflicted on generations of Palestinians and the way it corrodes Israeli society; when settlers in the West Bank have been attacked, it has pained me, but I have also felt anger that they are even there. In short, I wasn’t locked into the worldview of my survivor grandparents and I felt superior for it.

But something in me did break. As I was driving on Tuesday, I heard a long interview on the BBC with Shir Golan, a 22-year-old woman who had survived the attack at the music festival where more than 250 people were killed, her voice sounding just like one of my young Israeli cousins. She described, barely able to catch her breath, how the shooting had started and how she’d begun to run. She’d found a wooded area and tried to hide. “I got really into the ground,” she said. “I put the bushes on me.” Covered with dirt and leaves, she’d waited. A group of terrorists had shown up and called for anyone hiding to come out. From her spot under the earth, she’d seen three young people, whom she called “children,” emerge. “I didn’t go out because I was scared. But there were three children next to me who got out. And then they shot them. One after one after one. And they fell down, and that I saw. I saw the children fall down. And all that I did was pray. I prayed to my god to save me.”

I pulled my car over because my own hands were shaking as I listened. She then described waiting, hidden in the dirt under bushes for hours, until she saw the terrorists begin to light the forest on fire. “I didn’t know what to do. Because if I’m staying there, I’m just burnt to death. But if I go out they are going to kill me.” She crawled over to where she saw dead bodies and lay on top of them, but the heat soon approached, so she found more bushes to hide in until she could run again. Burnt bodies were everywhere, and Shir looked for her friends but couldn’t find them, couldn’t even see the faces of those killed because they were so badly burned. “I felt like I was in hell.” She finally escaped in a car.

Her story flung me back to my grandparents’ stories. My grandmother hid in a hole for a year in the Polish countryside, also under dirt, also scared. My grandfather spent months in Majdanek, a death camp, and saw bodies pile up in exactly this way. Stories are still emerging of families burnt alive, of children forced to watch their parents killed before their eyes, of bodies desecrated. How was this taking place last Saturday?

But these stories aren’t what broke me. What did was the distance between what was happening in my head and what was happening outside of it. The people on “my side” are supposed to care about human suffering, whether it’s in the detention camps of Xinjiang or in Darfur. They are supposed to recognize the common humanity of people in need, that a child in distress is first a child in distress regardless of country or background. But I quickly saw that many of those on the left who I thought shared these values with me could see what had happened only through established categories of colonized and colonizer, evil Israeli and righteous Palestinian—templates made of concrete. The break was caused by this enormous disconnect. I was in a world of Jewish suffering that they couldn’t see because Jewish suffering simply didn’t fit anywhere for them.

The callousness was expressed in so many ways. There were those tweets that did not hide their disregard for Jewish life—“what did y’all think decolonization meant? vibes? papers? essays? Losers”—or the one that described the rampage as a “glorious thing to wake up to.” There was the statement by more than two dozen Harvard student groups asserting, in those first hours in which we saw children and women and old people massacred, that “the Israeli regime” was “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.” And then there were the less explicit posts that nevertheless made clear through pseudo-intellectual word salads that Israel got what it deserved: “a near-century’s pulverized overtures toward ethnic realization, of groping for a medium of existential latitude—these things culminate in drastic actions in need of no apologia.” I hate to extrapolate from social media—it is a place that twists every utterance into a performance for others. But I also felt this callousness in the real world, in a Times Square celebratory protest promoted by the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, at which one speaker talked of supporting Palestinians using “any means necessary” to retake the land “from the river to the sea,” as a number of placards declared. There were silences as well. Institutions that had rushed to condemn the murder of George Floyd or Russia for attacking Ukraine were apparently confounded. I watched my phone to see whether friends would write to find out if my family was okay—and a few did, with genuine and thoughtful concern, but many did not.

I’m still trying to understand this feeling of abandonment. Is my own naivete to blame? Did I tip too far over into the side of universalism and forget the particularistic concerns to which I should have been attuned—the precarious state of my own tribe? Even as I write this, I don’t really want to believe that that’s true. If I can fault myself clearly for something, though, it’s not recognizing that the same ideological hardening I’d seen on the right in the past few years, the blind allegiances and contorted narratives even when reality was staring people in the face, has also happened, to a greater degree than I’d imagined, on the left, among the people whom I think of as my own. They couldn’t recognize a moral abomination when it was staring them in the face. They were so set in their categories that they couldn’t make a distinction between the Palestinian people and a genocidal cult that claimed to speak in that people’s name. And they couldn’t acknowledge hundreds and hundreds of senseless deaths because the people who were killed were Israelis and therefore the enemy.

As the days go on, the horrific details of what happened—those babies—seem to be registering more fully, if not on the ideological left, then at least among sensible liberals. But somehow I can’t shake the feeling of aloneness. Does it take murdered babies for you to recognize our humanity? I find myself thinking—a thought that feels alien to my own mind but also like the truth. Perhaps this is the Jewish condition, bracketed off for many decades and finally pulling me in.

When news broke of the Kishinev pogrom in 1903 that took 49 lives (compare that with the 1,200 we now know were killed on Saturday), it caused a sensation throughout the world. “Babes were literally torn to pieces by the frenzied and bloodthirsty mob,” The New York Times reported. “The local police made no attempt to check the reign of terror. At sunset the streets were piled with corpses and wounded. Those who could make their escape fled in terror, and the city is now practically deserted of Jews.” In response to that massacre, the emigration of hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews to the United States began in earnest; the call of Zionism as a solution also sounded clearly and widely for the first time.

In his famous poem about the massacre, “In the City of Slaughter,” the Hebrew writer Haim Naḥman Bialik lamented, even more than the death, the sense of helplessness (“The open mouths of such wounds, that no mending / Shall ever mend, nor healing ever heal”), the men who watched in terror from their hiding places while women were raped and blood was spilled. I can’t say I know what will happen now that this helplessness has returned—if I’m honest, I also fear that Israel’s retaliation will go too far, that acting out of a place of victimhood, as right as it may feel, will cause the country to lose its mind. Innocent lives in Gaza have been and will be destroyed as a result, and competing victimhood is obviously not the way out of the conflict; it’s the reason that it is hopelessly stuck. But in this moment, before the destruction of Gaza grabs my attention and concern alongside fear for my relatives who have been called up to the army, I don’t want to forget how alone I felt as a Jew these past few days. I have a persistent, uncomfortable need now to have my people’s suffering be felt and seen. Otherwise, history is just an endless repetition. And that’s an additional tragedy that seems too much to bear.

[ace-hell]

So... Palestine:

-is an actual ethnostate

-Has no REAL freedom of religion

-violate woman rights

-... Violate HUMAN rights...

-was proven to use schools, houses and hospitals as terror base with weapons- which are war crimes

-kidnapped people-again, war crime

-makes missiles out water pipes... AGAIN a WAR crime

-bombed a children section in a hospital in south israel. AND YET AGAIN🙌🏻 A WAR CRIME

-Tried to bomb al aqsa like 2 or 3 times

-Genociding their christian community(im not even talking what would've happen to the jewish communities if they had any)

-literally ripped jewish people to shreds and walked around with their organs and celebrated it like its some kind of barbaric pagan human sacrifice from 2,000 years ago

-Has gender apartheid

-Homophobic as fUck with legal death punishment for queer people

-Antisemic like nazi germany

-Fought WITH the nazis

-Still support nazism, do the nazi salute, sell hitlers book, protest with swastikas, has stores under his name bc(and i quote a palestinian from the west back) "he has killed the most jews"

-advocates for murder of the "cursed" jews since childhood and teaches little kids to be shahid terrorists since VERY young age

-has a corrupt government like pakistan

-was proven to lie about hospital bombing, rape in al shifa and show pictures of victims of the syrian, armenian, afghanistan, iraqi and other wars and claim that they are all palestinians

-claimed that england stole the big ben from them💀

-claims that the flag of England represents palestine💀

-is supported by north korea, russia, south africa, yemen, china and iran: all apartheid states with corrupt dictators that violate human rights

-literally call black palestinians "slaves" (abeed)

-would rather film their kids getting blown to pieces than take them to a safe place

-celebrates the 9/11

-celebrated when hezbolla killed 12 druze kids

-hates the israeli druze

-hates israeli palestinians

-rape

-still do honor killing

-start all the wars since 1900's and then cry about them,,..,, like bffr💀

-their journalists were proven to be part of any terrorist group(either hamas, PFLP(ehem ehem bisan) or pij)

-A lot of their doctors have a certificate of being hamas members

Like sheesh even if i was anti israeli anti zionist no way in HELL would i support palestine as a country💀

[starlightshadowsworld]

Palestinians elected a terrorist organization to run their gov’t. That gov’t attacked Israel. Hamas AND the Palestinians who voted for them are responsible for every death. They wanted war. They got war. Deal with it.

If this was a war, Israel's actions would still be criminal.

They've committed every war crime in the book.

Though this is not a war.

Not that they aren't already violating every international law under the sun.

But who's counting?

Israel is an illegal apartheid state, their existence in Palestine is illegal.

And has been since 1948.

Hamas didn't come to being till 1987, so what about those 39 years?

When the Nakba (1948) and the Naksa (1967) occurred, the two major events that caused thousands of Palestinians to be displaced from their homes.

Israel was responsible for it all, there wasn't no Hamas to blame it all on than.

Or the time prior to their creation where the Zionists were invading Palestinian villages and torturing innocents.

Such as Deir Yassen, who's massacre has become infamous.

And is where the Palestinian child in oven story came from, with an Israeli soilder demanding a baker to throw his son in an oven and threw them both in when the baker refused.

There was no Hamas than. Israel did this all of their own doing.

And you don't need to take my word for it, Israeli soilders lovingly recount these atrocities with a smile.

Not to mention that Hamas was created by Israel as a way to destabilise Gaza.

And the moment they turned on Israel to fight for their people, Israel tries to pretend they were never involved.

As for the election, half of Gaza's population is under the age of 18.

The children Israel are mercilessly bombing and killing weren't at the age to vote, nor alive to vote in an election in 2006.

And what of those outside of Gaza?

Palestinians in the West Bank who are being killed, their is no Hamas in the West Bank.

It's almost like the colonial oppressors of Israel are the ones responsible for all of this.

The people who continue to blockaded Gaza and have done for 16 years, control their food supplies, water, fuel and don't allow Palestinians to return home.

All the Palestinians want is peace, to exist on the land that is and always has been there's.

The land that Israel is illegally occupying.

None of these atrocities, no one would have been killed if it wasn't for Israel.

Hell they've admitted to killing their own civilian hostages.

And denied wanting anymore hostages released. Any calls for peace, they refuse.

Hostages that have spoken pit against them and spoke of being treated humanly by Hamas.

Hostages that were taken in exchange for the thousands of innocent imprisoned Palestinians in Israeli.

Prisoners who don't get trials, and are mostly children.

This genocide been ongoing since 1948, it cannot be reduced to the 7th October.

Israel wants to wipe Palestinians off the face off the earth. And now they have the perfect excuse too.

They are responsible for every death. Along with everyone who supports them.

If Israel stopped fighting, no one would die.

If Palestinians stopped fighting they would be completly wiped out.

The one time Palestine fights back is the one time anyone cares, and blames them for their own massacre.

As if Israel isn't completly responsible and have been killing Palestinians since before the Israeli settlers settled in Palestine.

Israel tried for years to pretend that Palestinians never existed, now they are blaming them for their own massacre.

It is Israel dropping bombs on civilians, on ambulances, on houses, on hospitals, on schools, on churches, on mosques etc.

All things that are war crimes and violate international law.

Nothing they have done is justified.

And it never will be.

Palestinians were free once and they will be free again.

From the river to the sea.

[missinconsistent]

Israel may have won the battle, but they'll lose the war. I hope the Israeli zionist/fascist government alongside all the other world leaders, especially the oh-so democratic West, will know the majority of the world is not falling for their shtick anymore. They showed their true colours. And try as they might to push anti-Arab and terrorist propaganda down our throats, like they did after 9-11, the newer generation can see plainly that they do not care about the human lives they claim to protect and "defend". We have witnessed, in a mere 2 weeks, one of the biggest crimes against humanity in recent history, a blatant genocide against the Palestinian people, and watched how not a single world leader stepped in for ceasefire. The small handful of politicians that run the world chose to sit back and let it all happen.

I've distanced myself from religion and spirituality years ago, but I hope every world leader is haunted and tormented in their last moments. I hope they know they're evil and rotten to the core and will never have a second of peace in hell. I hope they are rightfully punished for all the sins they've committed. There is no forgiveness for people who are compliant and accomplices in a genocide. And if they won't face the wrath of God in their dying moments, then they will face the wrath of the world.

[ingek73]

Israel is clear about its intentions in Gaza – world leaders cannot plead ignorance of what is coming

Owen Jones

The UN is warning of a ‘risk of genocide’ against Palestinians. Future pleas of ‘If I knew then what I know now’ will not cut it

Tue 24 Oct 2023 10.51 CEST

Israeli army vehicles on a road close to the southern Israeli city of Sderot, 23 October 2023. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images

If I knew then what I know now. For many of the guilty men and women who plunged Iraq into blood and chaos, this became something of a stock phrase. When, in 2004, the then Tory leader, Michael Howard, was asked if he would still have supported the British government’s motion backing the war – only 16 Conservative MPs rebelled a year earlier – he replied: “If I knew then what I know now, that would have caused a difficulty. I couldn’t have voted for that resolution.” “If I knew then what I know now, I would not have voted that way,” protested Hillary Clinton during her doomed first campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. “If I knew then what I knew now, I wouldn’t have voted for it,” said Labour’s then deputy leader, Harriet Harman, a few weeks later.

Prepare yourself for the revival of this phrase. As the calamity of Israel’s onslaught against Gaza becomes apparent, those who cheered it on will panic about reputational damage and plead their earlier ignorance. Do not let them get away with it this time.

The claim was nonsense even in the context of the Iraq cataclysm. As the Chilcot inquiry later concluded, Blair was warned that an invasion “would increase the threat from al-Qaida” and other groups. As a result, the inquiry did “not agree that hindsight is required”, noting that everything from “internal strife in Iraq” to Iranian intervention to the rise of al-Qaida was “explicitly identified” before the war. Warnings of the disaster to come were not confined to private intelligence briefings to Blair. From the lack of weapons of mass destruction – as former foreign secretary Robin Cook detailed in his resignation speech – to violent strife to a boost for al-Qaida, the coming disaster was widely predicted in public. There was no shortage of evidence to justify the then-secretary general of the Arab League warning that the war would “open the gates of hell”.

‘Israel is dropping leaflets on northern Gaza warning that civilians who remain there may be considered an ‘accomplice in a terrorist organisation’.’ Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu/Getty Images

One prominent supporter of Keir Starmer on Labour’s national executive committee claimed that Israel was not in breach of international law on the grounds that its actions were “proportionate”, and that the “command structure involves sign-off by lawyers to ensure conformity with intl law for all IDF actions”. So let’s hear from one such lawyer, Israel’s former chief military advocate general and the country’s former attorney general no less, who declared that to destroy Hamas “then you have to destroy Gaza, because everything in Gaza, almost every building there, is a stronghold of Hamas”.

Israel is dropping leaflets on northern Gaza warning that civilians who remain there may be considered an “accomplice in a terrorist organisation”, self-evidently arguing that non-combatants can be considered fair game. Leaving aside that southern Gaza is itself being bombed, contrary to Israeli claims that it’s a safe zone, and that many are unable to flee – not least the injured and infirm – this is a public confession of what could amount to future war crimes.

When the supposed relative “moderate” foreign minister, Eli Cohen, declares that Gaza’s territory will shrink thanks to Israeli annexation, he is simply stating a longstanding open Israeli commitment. After all, when Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s ambassador to the UK, declares her support for Israel’s territory compromising the biblical territory of Judea and Samaria – that is, the annexation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip – she merely echoes Netanyahu’s promoting a map of “Greater Israel” before the UN.

From collective punishment – by depriving innocent people of water, food, energy and medicine – to indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, there are no excuses. The UN is warning of “mass ethnic cleansing”, has denounced “crimes against humanity” and is even arguing that “there is a risk of genocide” against the Palestinians. A ground invasion has not even begun, but what will happen next is clear. So here is a prediction. As it is, just 3% of Britons say there “definitely should not be an immediate ceasefire”, the same proportion as those who believe the Earth is flat. As the atrocities mount, the public mood will be a mixture of horror and fury at those complicit in one of the great crimes of our time.

Last week, the former foreign secretary Jack Straw conceded the Iraq war was “in retrospect, a mistake – I mean there’s no question about that”, with a casual tone more befitting someone who took the wrong turn off a motorway than someone who played a leading role in a war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Expect the same tone from those who justify this ongoing massacre. “If I knew then what I know now”, or words to that effect, will accompany their statements of regret. But they do know now: there are no grounds for ignorance, and those complicit deserve nothing but contempt and moral disgrace.

Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist

[viohra]

are these people for real? I'm sorry, but this is getting ridiculous

https://joshpeck.tumblr.com/post/735811016748875776

Yeah it’s amazing the amount of brain rot that’s happening. I don’t know what’s causing it either; is it blatant antisemitism? the need for the browner person to always be seen as the victim through the western liberal’s lens? a need to be seen as not racist/islamophobic? I don’t know.

The wild thing is that all these people are ignoring some pretty glaring details

No other Arab nation is helping because no one hates Palestinians more than other Arabs. They are seen as trouble-makers, terrorists, and bad for the economy. Literally they are seen as an eyesore that are more trouble than they are worth— the only reason Arab nations “support” the Palestinians is literally because they don’t want to take Palestinians into their own country as refugees and because antisemitism is so fucking rampant in the Arab world that it trumps the original aversion towards helping Palestinians. It’s a quite sad situation but it’s not without its reasons; every single neighbouring nation that took in Palestinian refugees had a national crisis, including civil wars that almost led to each respective nation almost collapsing, and each of those nations now have permanent refugee slums for Palestinians. People are outraged that “Israel” is keeping the border closed between Egypt and Gaza but Israel isn’t doing shit, the Egyptians don’t fucking want the Palestinians in their country AT ALL.

Related to the above, Israel (was) the most accepting Middle Eastern nation of the Palestinians since they offer(ed) Israeli citizenship in exchange for the renouncing of the Palestine state and recognition that Israel is a Jewish state. On one hand it’s shit for Israel to do that but at the same time that’s just Israel, a Middle Eastern country, acting like— get this— a Middle Eastern country. So it’s not surprising.

The people who destabilise the Middle East are Islamic fanatics and corrupt politicians. No other cause— Iraq can claim the US fucked them up for sure, but even then that is becoming an excuse for them to not get their shit together. I mean Lebanon is a wholeass failed state from sheer political incompetence. The only reason the gulf nations are still afloat is their addiction to western investors.

Most the people in Palestine fundamentally on a social, political, and religious level think of western liberals the exact same way trump supporters do. “Gays for Palestine” is a fucking joke.

Israel has the strictest Rules of Engagement (ROEs) of any nation in the MENA region and the West. Seriously. They fucking redesigned how to do air strikes so they have the least collateral damage possible. They warn people via text messages and roof knocking. Even in the midst of this war they are STILL DOING THAT. We wouldn’t do that. The US/UK/any european nation would fucking level the buildings civilians be damned.

Hamas live-streamed their crimes against humanity. I don’t understand how minutes after they posted the videos, a bunch of western liberals decided “yes! This is my time to shine and cry for palestines support!” Like lol go fucking die.

Technological differences between two sides will never dictate how lenient the more advanced side has to be in war. War is fucking war. It’s not an episode of Dr Who, it’s fucking hell and if someone slings a rock at you and you have an assault rifle, you gun them down. It really is that simple, as unfortunate as that is to hear.

A lot of the Israelis that the media is showcasing in stories they are bringing up from the past (eg settlers being cunts from a story in 2018 that For Some Reason is being brought back up) are Ultra Conservative Orthodox Jews that have never and will never represent Israelis as a whole— that’s like saying Westboro Baptist Church represents all Americans as a whole.

I also hate how there will be some people that read this and think “oh you hate Palestinians/Muslims” and that’s not what I’m saying. I just think one side is a little bit more justified unleashing the wrath of god upon the other.

[libertarian-druid-ny-separatist]

"Hamas wont let civillians leave" you mean Israehell wont let civilians leave you absolute fucking dunce. Were you dropped on your head as a child or were you born this fucking stupid? like be fucking real here man

Who controls all the check points? Israel.

Who bombs and shoots civilians trying to escape? Israel.

Who is blockading aid from reaching palestinians who need it? Israelis.

Who said no to a hostage deal where all israel has to do is permanently stop bombing gaza and killing civillians in exchange of ALL hostages? Thats right! Its Israel!

Wow who cheers while they watch people getting bombed? Israelis

Who loots palestinian homes after killing or scaring the owners off? Israel

Who is on here posting videos of kidnapped civillians and posting snuf videos of oof soldiers killing palestinians? Its Israel

Who is raiding palestinian homes in the west bank, forcible evicting families, killing livestock, and burning down olive trees? Israelis.

You libertarian idiots are all "dont tread on me" till the government decides to stomp the "wrong" kind of people into the dirt and dance in their blood

Not that youll actually care, cause your types are the most self interested selfish heartless people on the planet

Go back to doomsday prepping and letting the us government deep fuck you and shut the hell up

Wasn't aware Israel controlled Egyptian borders, but I was specifically talking about targets for mortar strikes. Ain't many Israeli checkpoints per city block in Gaza.

Far as the second read the above.

Literally nobody is blockading aid, don't use words you don't know the meaning of. Israel restricts arms and precursor chemicals for bomb and explosive making. Considering the region is literally controlled by terrorists asserting themselves as the government, I'd say that's perfectly reasonable. There's plenty of stuff that seems unreasonable on that list too, and I'm not gonna claim otherwise. That is something Israel needs to fix. However, humanitarian aid is always allowed through, and then stolen by Hamas.

So, all they had to do was promise to never use an asset which keeps Israeli lives safe. Yeah I wouldn't have denied that, I'd lie my ass off. But you've just got no problem that they're taking, maiming, raping, and killing hostages as young as infancy. Interesting.

Yeah, that's what happens when you base a terrorist organization in civilian infrastructure, then force people to stay despite warnings.

Far as looting, yeah, that's wrong. Never said Israel was perfect, but they're a damn sight better than Hamas.

I assume this is what you're referring to. And again, never said they were perfect. But they're a damn sight better than the PA.

The "wrong" people are fucking theocratic dictators and terrorists. These are not friendly people looking to free Palestine. Hamas is fucking evil, and while the IDF and Mossad bear some responsibility for not wiping them out sooner, when they were less of a threat, the reaction would be the same for Hamas simps.

Israel is an important part of stabilizing the middle east. They're one of very few stable governments, and are helping to bring stability to the ME. Saudi Arabia has actually started negotiating an alliance with the US and Israel. They're taking the Polish approach to westernization and holding tightly to their cultural heritage while also becoming a little more like the west. Meanwhile the support goes to the people looking to see the west and our progress burned to ash.

Make it make sense.

[female-malice]

By Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib November 26, 2023

As battered Gazans emerged from their destroyed homes in northern Gaza after the temporary four-day cease-fire took effect, a Palestinian reporter working for Hamas’ own TV station ironically captured dozens of resentful civilians cursing Hamas and accusing the group of having destroyed their lives.

This isn’t an isolated example.

In a short BBC clip showing the aftermath of a deadly Israeli strike that killed civilians in Gaza, a grieving Palestinian mother screams in agony, “This is all because of Hamas’ dogs.” A nearby man, likely a family member, can be heard quickly telling her, “Enough!” He places his hand on her mouth to prevent her from saying more.

Many Palestinians are either reluctant or fearful to express what they are honestly thinking about Hamas, the Islamist group that has ruled Gaza since 2007 and perpetrated the Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel. The massive Israeli bombardment throughout the Gaza Strip killed hundreds of people daily, many of whom were neither Hamas members nor supporters. Most, including my family members, are experiencing blowback for actions they didn’t commit, plan or endorse.

Immediately after the horrific Oct. 7 attack on Israeli towns and kibbutzim, I encountered dozens of social media posts from Gazans who expressed immense concern, fear, horror and worry about what this event would unleash. Hundreds condemned Hamas’ “adventures” and reckless disregard for the well-being of its people in the coastal enclave. They considered the attack a suicide mission that would inevitably result in the total and utter destruction of the strip.

Unfortunately, so far their fears have proven accurate.

After the first massive Israeli strike on the Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza, another short video captured a grieving man’s defiant outburst against Hamas during a press conference by one of the group’s spokespersons, blaming the group for what has befallen the coastal enclave.

“Why are they hiding amongst the people?” asked a battered man inside a Gaza Hospital on Aljazeera’s live Arabic news channel, referring to Hamas fighters. “Why don’t they go to hell and hide there?” The interviewer quickly cut him off.

Hamas is deeply unpopular with the people of Gaza. But the way that Israel is waging war in the strip will ultimately make things much worse for both Palestinians and Israelis long-term.

How Hamas uses the Gaza Strip

While ignoring its own people, Hamas has managed to insulate itself and its patrons from the impact of Israel’s 16-year-long blockade. There is rising anger among Gazans at this reality, as well as a rejection of Hamas’ methods, beliefs, ideologies and governance of the strip.

A recent popular Facebook post by a frustrated Gazan inside the strip lambasts the “Iranian-back armed factions” led by Hamas. “It doesn’t seem that we as civilians are remotely considered in their plans or calculus,” he adds, saying that militants “depict themselves as being perfectly fine” with their tunnels and well-prepared supplies and stockpiles while no such preparations were put in place to support the civilian population’s needs.

The post called for the release of all hostages in exchange for the complete withdrawal of IDF troops, stressing that the sanctity of Gazans’ lives is more valuable than prisoner swaps or Hamas’ ideologies and beliefs.

Right before Oct. 7, a survey by the Arab Barometer found a continuing decline in Gazans’ trust in Hamas’ governance along several metrics. Sadly, the intensity of Israel’s military operation is overshadowing dissenting voices, both those that existed before Oct. 7 and those that are increasing as a result of the destruction of Gaza.

Interestingly, Hamas enjoys much more support among the West Bank’s population despite lacking a robust presence in the territory. Resentment of settler violence, Israel’s occupation and the impotent Palestinian Authority likely fuel support for the violent resistance represented by Hamas’ ideology and tactics.

But despite the widespread suffering, the West Bank is light-years ahead of Gaza in terms of quality of life. The violent reality that Hamas rule would bring would seriously reverse support for the group.

Something that makes it difficult to assess Palestinian public opinion, including in Gaza, is that the concept of “resistance” enjoys widespread support, even if people dislike Hamas’ governance and practices. Hamas exploits this, and hides its failures behind its “acts of resistance,” which makes it possible to claim any “achievement.”

This is precisely why Hamas launched its attack on Oct. 7. The attack was not about settler violence in Jerusalem or seeking to break the blockade. It was about stemming the tide of resentment and discontentment. A recent poll suggests that Hamas’ gambit may have worked. Evidence suggests wide Palestinian public support for the Oct. 7 attack. Despite the severe limitations of this survey, the impending release of 150 Palestinian prisoners is already being spun by Hamas as a victory despite the unbearable death toll and cost.

Top Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya told The New York Times — from Qatar — that the group’s goals are not to “run Gaza and bring it water and electricity,” or to “improve the situation in Gaza,” but rather to put the Palestinian cause back on the map.

In other words, Hamas aims to use Gaza as a citadel from which it can drag 2.3 million people along in a “resistance” project that entails continuous and permanent war and violence.

The people of Gaza know this. Poor and working-class residents of the coastal enclave have paid the ultimate price in blood, misery, suffering and hardship without any hope for a prosperous and peaceful future. Amid the devastation of the IDF’s response to Oct. 7, more Gazans have been criticizing Hamas’ actions and hold on power.

Thousands took to the streets in Gaza this summer to protest against Hamas’ rule and their miserable living conditions, a rare display of defiance. The Islamist group quickly quashed the protests, arresting and beating hundreds of people. This is the group’s playbook whenever civilians demand improvements to dire living conditions. And yet there are still people daring to speak out.

I know Gaza well, and have a deep understanding of its population. The aforementioned anecdotes, my lived and professional experiences, friends and family currently in the strip, Palestinian social media, Hamas’ own statements, multiple past protests and the group’s brutal rule clearly demonstrate deep unpopularity and disdain for Hamas, both now and before Oct 7.

The unfortunate truth, however, is that the way Israel is waging this war will prove ineffective in achieving long-term and sustainable security. It is ultimately planting seeds for further violence, extremism and hate while also making it difficult for anti-Hamas activists and the general Gazan population to express what they truly feel and to challenge the Islamist group’s rule.

A counterproductive operation

Many Gazans blame Israel for their displacement from the land their families lived on for generations — about 70% of Gazans are refugees or descendants of refugees from the 1948 Nakba — as well as much of their current predicament. But they have no illusions about Hamas’ nefarious intentions, incompetence and selfishness. And they see the Israeli blockade as enabling Hamas to conveniently absolve itself from its responsibility to govern effectively and provide for their needs.

If Israel were to wave a magic wand over Gaza and somehow dislodge Hamas and remove its grip on power without civilian casualties, I am willing to bet my life that at least half of the strip would welcome such a move, and yell in unison: “Do us a favor!”

However, I am not optimistic that we are on the course to achieving anything close to that. Israel’s past political decisions, poor strategic choices and the conduct of the current military operation in Gaza point to an uncomfortable and deeply disturbing inevitability: Hamas will not be eradicated. And the group will survive as a cohesive entity, ideology and component of the Palestinian national project.

Israel’s military actions in response to the Oct. 7 attack have already killed over 14,000 people. Many bodies, like that of my dad’s youngest brother, uncle Riyad, 57, are long buried under rubble. My uncle was killed in a massive raid that destroyed our entire neighborhood. His body was only extracted from the rubble after six days. Nothing and no one has been spared, including aid workers, many of whom are in southern Gaza.

The unprecedented death toll and destruction have expended most of the international political capital that the Israeli government garnered after Hamas’ horrendous attacks. The IDF estimates its operation inside the strip has killed up to 2,000 Hamas fighters (not including Hamas and other groups’ members killed on Oct. 7) out of a force it estimates to be around 30,000 strong — a shockingly low number of combatants killed relative to dead civilians. Former CIA director and experienced counterinsurgency commander Gen. David Petraeus cautioned that “there’s got to be a real concern about the Palestinian people in Gaza,” especially as the IDF gears up for a ground operation in the south of the strip.

Instead of carrying out a targeted, low-intensity, long-term operation that could sustainably reduce Hamas’ military capabilities and create conditions to introduce a new administration in Gaza, the massive bombardment and destruction throughout the strip have set the scene for what will be one of the most complicated predicaments that Israel has ever found itself in: ambitious, difficult-to-achieve tactical and strategic goals, continued occupation of a ruined Gaza, and most importantly, a highly resentful and deeply antagonistic Palestinian population that will be even more hostile to Israel and more likely to embrace violence as a strategy.

Hamas is resilient

Multiple analysts and observers, including an unnamed senior U.S. defense official, have stated that Israel’s campaign thus far hasn’t even “come close” to eradicating Hamas’ mid- and senior-level leaders.

Unlike other Islamist groups, the official argued that Hamas has a “deeper bench of experienced midlevel military leaders,” in essence making it impossible to destroy the group by eliminating individual commanders.

As a child growing up in Gaza, I remember vividly when Israel assassinated founding and senior Hamas officials, including people like Salah Shehade, Ahmed Yassin and Adnan al-Ghoul. The killing of these leaders was thought at the time to be a fatal blow to Hamas.

Instead, the group’s arsenal, capabilities, political clout and position grew exponentially and expanded beyond what its founders could have ever dreamed of achieving. Not only have I observed this over the last two decades, but I am certain that Hamas today is militarily and politically prepared to successfully withstand Israel’s onslaught in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks.

This isn’t to suggest that Israel cannot or shouldn’t seek to weaken Hamas and target its terror infrastructure. Instead, thinking critically and methodically is an operational and strategic imperative to move forward meaningfully.

Tunnel warfare is dirty, complicated, costly and requires lengthy efforts and campaigns, not the short and swift operations upon which Israel’s military doctrine is built. Rather than weakening Hamas, which is underground, the current Israeli military operation in the strip is killing supporters and opponents of the group alike, inflaming the region, exacerbating anti-Israel sentiments worldwide, silencing political opposition to Hamas inside Gaza, complicating efforts at normalizing relations with Arab countries and achieving precisely what the group wanted in the first place: to reinvigorate the Palestinian cause and force Israel to act in a manner that in essence proves Hamas’ claims.

Despite our mistakes during the global war on terror, the U.S. took numerous steps to minimize civilian casualties. Consider the raid on bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in 2011. Instead of flattening the entire building, the U.S. surgically raided the structure and methodically separated bin Laden’s family from his guards and defenders, sparing the lives of women and children. 

Even if Hamas operates near civilian targets, making it difficult to clearly identify the group’s combatants, international and humanitarian law does not absolve the IDF of its responsibility to operate with due regard for civilians’ lives. If an active shooter is rampaging through a shopping mall, the response would not be to call an airstrike that levels the whole complex. Rather, the counterattack’s top priority would be eliminating the threat while minimizing civilian loss of life.

Defeating an ideology — and what comes next

By indirectly and inadvertently allowing Hamas to cement its rule over Gaza, Israel helped the group further entrench itself as an indisputable component of the Palestinian national project.

Even if the IDF were to permanently occupy Gaza at the end of this war — an option politically and diplomatically untenable —  the moment it leaves, Hamas would find a way to reconstitute. Remember, the Taliban survived 20 years of U.S. occupation in Afghanistan. Plus, an occupation will always entail some degree of populace resistance, including through violent means.

Unconventional and creative thinking is the only way to stop the massive bloodshed and stabilize the strip. Secretary Blinken stated recently that “there may be a need for some transition period at the end of the conflict.” Before then, greater U.S. and European pressure on the Israeli government to minimize civilian suffering, protect hospitals, and allow for more humanitarian aid to make its way into Gaza could help achieve meaningful outcomes. Vengeance is not a productive military strategy.

U.N. peacekeeping troops, with Arab and international support and participation, could provide a transitional period that stops the war and provides Israel with an offramp. Deploying these forces along Gaza’s borders with Israel to prevent future infiltration and attacks against Israel, and acting as a quasi-government while Gaza rebuilds, could allow for the emergence of a capable Palestinian body that can govern the strip. The U.N. could operate aerial and maritime corridors over the Mediterranean Sea to facilitate the movement of people and cargo, using existing U.N. infrastructure, protocols, and commonly deployed practices after wars and natural disasters.

Many have taken issue with calls for a cease-fire, fearing that it would freeze the conflict, abandon the remaining hostages and allow Hamas to re-attack Israel. But short-term and temporary cease-fires, not localized and inconsistent “pauses,” can allow for negotiations to release more hostages, revision of battle plans, further evacuations of civilians in Gaza and the delivery of desperately needed humanitarian aid. The impending four-day cease-fire is an example of this.

My brother, who works for a British medical NGO in Gaza City and has lost his home, told me that in addition to enduring heart-stopping daily bombardment, his family sometimes had to drink salt water (seawater) and boil grassy plants to sustain themselves in Gaza City. How is his suffering and that of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians going to help eliminate Hamas?

Thousands of innocent Gazans are paying with their lives for a sin they didn’t commit. Israel and its international partners should actually implement steps that will weaken and eventually marginalize Hamas. The group and its extremist ideology will never be entirely eliminated in a military operation, just like the U.S. could not destroy the Taliban even after 20 years. However, there are practical steps to take that would give Gazans a fighting chance for political self-determination and stability in the strip.

[xtruss]

Is This the End of War Criminal, Terrorist and Zionist C*** Bibi?

Satan-yahu’s coalition of zealots, the resistance in the streets, and the Israeli Kulturkampf.

— By David Remnick | July 22, 2023

‘War Criminal, Terrorist and Zionist C*** Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’ and his cynicism, deceptions, and ethical gymnastics have never really fooled anyone.Photograph by Gil Cohen-Magen/Getty

War Criminal, Terrorist and Zionist C*** Benjamin Netanyahu has been Prime Minister of Israel longer than anyone in the history of the state, longer than F.D.R. was President of the United States. And yet, for all his electoral success, he has always been a known quantity. Twenty-five years ago, during Netanyahu’s first term, I spoke with his predecessor and fellow Likud member Yitzhak Shamir. “Bibi?” Shamir said. “He is not a very trustworthy man.” He added, “I don’t believe he believes in anything. He has a huge ego. People don’t like such people. I don’t like him.” Not long after, I spoke with Shimon Peres, the Labor Party leader who had lost to Netanyahu in 1996. Peres was furious with Netanyahu’s determination to undermine the Oslo peace accords with the Palestinians. His general assessment of Netanyahu’s amoralism and cynicism was much like Shamir’s. “Netanyahu’s only consideration is his own coalition,” Peres said. “He’s always worried about losing power—that is always his first priority.”

On the same reporting trip to Jerusalem, I discovered that the cliché is true: No man is a hero to his director of communications and policy planning. David Bar-Illan, a former concert pianist and editor of the Jerusalem Post, was without illusions about Netanyahu even as he pledged abiding loyalty to him. When I asked Bar-Illan how Netanyahu won the ultra-Orthodox vote despite his rigorously secular life style, Bar-Illan said, “Finessing his being secular was nothing compared to other things, like adultery. One thing is to have an affair with a shiksa—but a married woman! With a shiksa, even the rebbes do it. But a married woman! Now Bibi’ll go to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, maybe he’s gone to the Western Wall, or he’ll say the phrase ‘With God’s help.’ But he’s not fooling anyone.”

When Bar-Illan’s remarks were published in The New Yorker and then in the Israeli press, Netanyahu was incensed. He barred his spinmeister from his plane and his next trip to Washington. Bar-Illan, who died in 2003, panicked and not only denied that he’d said those things to me but he also told Israeli television that he had never even met me. (This forced me to go on Israeli TV to display the copy of his book “Eye on the Media,” which he had inscribed, “To David from David, With admiration and best wishes.”)

The point is, Netanyahu has never really fooled anyone. He didn’t fool his fellow-politicians or various American Presidents, who knew him to be a liar and an opportunist. He was not fooling the Mizrahim, who obviously knew that he came from an Ashkenazic background. Nor has he fooled the ultra-Orthodox, who have always known that he followed the rules of fidelity and kashruth with equal attention. Netanyahu’s cynicism, deceptions, and ethical gymnastics are no more shocking to his Israeli supporters than Trump’s similar qualities are to his immense base. He won so long as he could deliver for his constituents.

And now this generation-long drama, the Netanyahu era, has reached its dispiriting resolution. Netanyahu has pursued his aim to cling to power at all costs. Facing criminal charges, he has made common cause with a cabinet of messianic authoritarians and bigots who are righteously determined to hack away at judicial independence, freedom of the press, minority rights, protest and opposition politics, and democracy itself. Next week, the Knesset is poised to get rid of the so-called reasonableness clause, a stricture borrowed from British tradition which allows the Supreme Court to strike down actions of the legislature. Such a move, in a state with no constitution, would undermine what modest balance of powers exists in Israeli political life. Avichai Mandelblit, a former Attorney General, warned recently that, if Netanyahu fails to restrain his coalition, Israel is in the process of turning into a “borderline dictatorial state.”

The government’s ability to act without judicial restraint is only one item on an illiberal menu that also includes efforts to restrict media outlets that are deemed excessively critical and to enshrine as a right the ultra-Orthodox community’s exemption from military conscription. In its contempt for the rule of law, the balance of powers, immigration, and ethnic and sexual minorities, the ruling coalition is in synch with intolerant governments and parties around the world; it is, in fact, a harbinger of Trump 2.0. Netanyahu, who can count, sees that the most religious citizens of his country procreate at a high rate, and he has staked his future with them. As Celeste Marcus writes in the latest issue of the journal Liberties, “Netanyahu, who has for decades projected the image of Israel’s protector, has allied with people who insist the study of Torah provides Israel with as much security as the army does, and therefore shirk mandatory conscription. His cynicism is bottomless.”

For years, left-leaning parties and constituencies in Israel have been dispirited and weak. The settlers of the West Bank have not only increased in their numbers and led the resistance to their territorial dominion but they have also helped shape the political rhetoric and character of the state. The Palestinian issue is rarely spoken of—as if the people of Gaza and the West Bank will somehow do Israel the favor of disappearing—and Arab citizens of Israel are too often regarded, by the right wing, as less than citizens. And because so much of the rest of the world, the United States very much included, is immersed in the very same drama of right-wing populism, only modest attention is paid.

But, as grim as the outlook has been, the defeatism among those who oppose the right-wing coalition government in Israel has come to an end. There is a Kulturkampf in Israel but it is hardly a rout, a settled matter. For the past twenty-eight weeks, infuriated by the coalition government’s “judicial overhaul,” hundreds of thousands of Israelis have marched at one dramatic protest after another. It is a sustained act of resistance, an inspiring reassertion of democratic values. These demonstrations have taken place in cities both secular and religious. The protests draw from all occupations and have immobilized city centers and highways. Protesters fearing that the judicial reform will strip women of civil rights sometimes dress in the red robes of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Arnon Bar-David, the head of the Histadrut, the national labor union, has suggested the possibility of a general strike, saying, “If the situation reaches an extreme, we will intervene and employ our strength.” The Israel Medical Association, which represents nearly all of the country’s doctors, voted to “employ all available means” if necessary to head off the judicial reform. Leading figures in the tech industry have threatened to leave the country. Most dramatic, perhaps, hundreds of Air Force reserve pilots signed on to a petition of protest, and there is now a question of whether they will serve if ordered.

Netanyahu knows that, if he dares to forestall the legislation, ministers in his coalition will rebel. And where will that leave someone who values power above all? Anshel Pfeffer, a leading Israeli journalist and the author of “Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu,” told me that no Prime Minister in the history of Israel has ever been in a weaker situation. “In seventy-five years, there has never been a question of the military’s loyalty or any kind of mass disobedience. Smaller things, but not this,” he said. “We’ve gone from the idea of Bibi being the longest-serving Prime Minister to the weakest P.M. ever! And, for him, it just doesn’t compute. He can’t grasp what’s happening to him. For him, it is like those nightmares that you are driving a car, but when you press the brakes or turn the wheel nothing happens. The car doesn’t respond.” Netanyahu “lives in a bubble and thinks, How can they not be listening to me?,” Pfeffer went on. “He has this crazy, mistaken idea that the tech miracle was his doing. And he thinks, I made these guys rich! Before, we only sold oranges. He thinks, How could they join the protests or move abroad?”

Netanyahu has criticized members of the armed forces who have broken with the government, but some leading reservists have insisted publicly they have the right to stop their voluntary service as a protest against a danger to the state. According to the Times, Brigadier General Ofer Lapidot, a reservist who was among those who stepped down, told Channel 11, “What is worse? The destruction of the country? Or the strengthening of an army that will be serving an illegitimate government—legal but not legitimate—that is bringing us all to a dictatorship and will soon give us illegal orders?”

Some signs at the weekly protests read “President Biden, Help Us Please.” For his part, Biden spent much of this week sending Netanyahu clear signals that the Prime Minister is endangering the stability of his own country and his future relations with the United States. Aluf Benn, the editor of the liberal daily Haaretz, wrote that those signals “can be summed up as a demand to replace the coalition,” to dump fanatics like Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir “and replace them with Benny Gantz,” a retired general and alternate Prime Minister from 2020 to 2021. Leading Israeli politicians say that Biden is a longtime friend of Israel, and they worry that younger Democratic politicians don’t share that affection. Biden has made it clear that his Administration wants to see a series of serious policy changes, including a halt to the judicial legislation until there is a broader national consensus on its details; a freeze on construction in the settlements; the strengthening of the Palestinian Authority; and total coördination of military activity regarding Iran.

“It’s impossible to fulfill even a single item on this list with Netanyahu’s present coalition,” Benn wrote. “The only person with the power to pull the emergency cord and stop the train of destruction being led by Netanyahu, before it destroys the country, is Benny Gantz. . . . The time has come for him to offer himself as the national savior, the one who prevents the destruction of the army and the economy moments before a civil war. . . . Israel won’t return to the imaginary ideal portrayed in the army entertainment troupe songs beloved by Gantz, but the bleeding will be stanched.” Such a shift, the replacement of the leading zealots in the coalition government with a retired general and a relative centrist, will hardly represent a revolution in Israel, but even that measure of sanity and reconciliation may be beyond the impoverished political imagination of Benjamin Netanyahu. ♦

[thelearnedwobbly]

See normally I'd just block this and move on, because while this is just plain wrong, and not only that, it's dangerously wrong, I normally just do not have the wherewithal to unpack posts like these, nor do I typically have the leg to stand on, but someone I care about deeply reblogged this, so I feel a need to unpack the assumptions being made here.

I'm Irish. Should mention that up front. I have family who fought in our wars of independence going back literally centuries, and I can literally name family members who fought with the Fenian Brotherhood and the First IRA, including survivors of the Easter Rising, Irish War of Independence, and Irish Civil War(incidentally my great granddad was all three)

The cause of Irish independence is extremely deeply held to me, and realistically if I'd been born a couple decades earlier I probably would have been a Provo.

And before someone makes the argument that that makes me a hypocrite, that if I support Irish independence and the reunification with the occupied North then I must be racist--I support free Palestine. I believe that they have every right to live safe and happy lives without the IDF brutalising them, without the threat of bombs or rockets or tanks destroying their homes. I believe that they deserve to be fully independent and equal members of the international community. Hell, I'm an anarchist, so I'd rather we tear down borders altogether, but we're not there yet, so I'll settle for harm reduction and national sovereignty.

The problem is that this entire argument I keep seeing--that Palestine are just defending themselves, that they're freedom fighters no different from any others, that they're only being called terrorists due to racism or zionism or islamophobia--is predicated on a massive logical fallacy.

It's one that a lot of bad actors--including those in Israel--are counting on you to not notice.

Hamas is not Palestine.

This is not a case where the people attacking Israel are a group of grassroots freedom fighters who just want a better world. Hamas are a theocratic authoritarian minority government with a massive paramilitary wing that is occupying the Gaza Strip. The IDF do not have a formal presence inside the Strip, but Hamas does.

Hamas are not freedom fighters. Their founding charter calls for the extermination of all Jewish people. It calls not for a free Palestine but for a mass pogrom of Israelis, and the establishment of a far-right islamist regime instead.

Hamas opened this war by killing thirteen hundred innocent people. And you can try to claim that they were 'settler-colonials' or whatever buzzword is the current way to describe living, breathing, thinking, feeling, hoping people--many of whom in the Kibbutzes Hamas destroyed wholesale, slaughtering children alongside noncombatants--were pro-peace activists. Leftists and progressives who wanted the same thing this post ostensibly does.

Palestine and Hamas are not interchangeable. Hamas is not the only possible answer--they are not an example of extremists being the only ones willing to fight, as sometimes happens in history, and I know this, because Fatah is right there.

Fatah, who have a democratic majority in the West Bank. Fatah, who want a peaceful two-state solution. Fatah, who have a militant wing they use when necessary. Fatah, who do not use their citizens' bodies as human shields. Fatah, who do not call for the extermination of their enemies, down to the last man, woman, and child.

Men, women, and children who did not ask to be born in Israel. Innocent people whose only 'crime' is of faith. People whose ancestors moved to Israel on a broken British promise, just two years after the end of World War Two and the Holocaust. People who, until the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, had a real chance at peace through negotiations with Fatah...until the far-right of Israel shot that peace dead, then tore up the Oslo Accords and took power.

The Israeli government under Likud are absolutely an increasingly-corrupt right-wing regime intent on theocratic and autocratic rule...but the Israeli people are not their government any more than Palestine is Hamas. This is not a war of revolution, and Hamas are not freedom fighters, any more than Likud and the current IDF are liberators or whatever propaganda they're spouting right now. But they were attacked first, and not in the manner of a freedom fighter; not in the desperate use of limited force against civilian officials because every other option has been closed to them; wanton, pointless slaughter and kidnapping; rape and torture of random, innocent Israelis, many of whom were anti-Likud. The IDF had entire units on strike due to Netanyahu's attempts to gut the judiciary and increase his own power; there were protests in the streets. And then Hamas killed their families and kidnapped their friends, and many of them picked up weapons to defend themselves. Do you blame them?

There is no easy 'good guy' or 'bad guy' here, and I question Tumblr's current fixation on trying to find one; sometimes, two right-wing regimes hellbent on establishing theocratic rule go at each other, and the civilians--and the people who actually want to fix the problems of their forefathers--get caught in the middle. That is who you should root for.

I just...do not understand how so many people who should know better have failed to research this before making their voices heard; I barely understood this conflict a year ago, and I have refrained from saying anything until I'd done my own independent research. Now I can avoid putting my foot in my mouth, and I'm so late to the races I'm seeing people I genuinely care about claiming an antisemitic terror organisation are comparable to an Irish nationalist militia whose primary motivation when the fighting began was preventing pogroms against catholic neighbourhoods. And that really fucking hurts, to say nothing of how badly my Jewish friends are hurting to see leftists and progressives unbashedly rooting for Hamas or framing the IDF as intrinsically evil; claiming that Jewish people in Israel should pay for the mistakes of terrified ancestors and the idiocy of the British government of the late 1940s. Even if you don't mean to be antisemitic, even if you just care deeply and want to avoid seeming like you're sitting this one out, I promise you, the people you're trying to support wouldn't want you to root for their oppressors--whether that's Hamas or Likud.

I'm trying to find a pithy or cathartic way to end this. I can't. This is a humanitarian tragedy with no easy answers, and people I know don't mean to are repeating propaganda uncritically from both sides because they don't want to be seen to be silent--take the time, breathe, think about what these posts are trying to sell you, and do your own research. And I get that this is a busy, shitty world, with a lot going on, and you can't always make that time, but if you can't do that, you need to try to avoid weighing in, because you're extremely liable to do more harm than good. And I don't mean 'boost people who seem to know what they're talking about', I mean don't even reblog a post if you can't vet it, because the information war is active, and you are very likely to become a casualty.

you know when irish people were fighting for freedom the rebels were never considered revolutionaries or freedom fighters. we had only ever been called terrorists by the british government, because when you call a people fighting for their rights and their freedoms terrorists you can distance yourself from them. people aren't fighting because they've been radicalised by 800 years of colonialism or 75 years of brutal settler imperialism, they're fighting because they're dirty terrorists trying to hurt our democracy and kill our children. and now we don't have any responsibility to reckon with the years of subjugation and settler violence and attempted genocide, because how can you expect us to deal with terrorists? the same story repeats itself over and over n it's shocking how people will eat it up every time when it comes to protecting and maintaining western power.

[argaman01]

Israeli Knesset outlawing UNRWA

I'm very troubled by the two laws that the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, has just passed, to prevent UNRWA, the UN refugee agency for Palestinian refugees, from operating in Israel and putting it under severe restrictions in Gaza and the West Bank.

While it does seem that some employees of UNRWA are or were members of Hamas, and some took part in the Hamas terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, does that mean that the entire organization is irrevocably tainted?

The professional leadership of UNRWA employed by the UN certainly does not belong to Hamas, and they are pointing out how disastrous the outlawing of the organization in Gaza will be, if it is indeed outlawed.

Who will take care of the people of Gaza if UNRWA is kicked out? Gaza is a heap of rubble now, and thousands of people have been killed. Where will food, medicine, and shelter come from, for the people of Gaza, if UNRWA is not there? There are some other relief agencies in Gaza, such as the World Central Kitchen, but UNRWA has been established in Gaza since the late 1940s and 1950s, and knows the needs of its people intimately. Unless Israel is prepared to take over all of its relief activities, I think it would be much better for Israel to work with UNRWA (as hard as that may be) than to destroy it.

My readers may not agree with me about the value of UNRWA (and I'm no expert on it), but I think that those of us who support Israel need to think seriously also about how to ensure that there is adequate food, clothing, and shelter for the people of Gaza.

This is a good Times of Israel article on the laws, including denunciations of the laws by the UN, the UK, and the United States, among other bodies.

Despite widespread international opposition, lawmakers voted overwhelming on Monday evening to approve two bills essentially barring the UN agency for Palestinian refugees and their descendants from operating in Israel, and severely curtailing its activities in Gaza and the West Bank.

During the opening plenum session of the Knesset’s winter legislative session, MKs voted 92 to 10 to approve a law barring UNRWA from operating in Israeli territory, and 87-9 in favor of another measure curtailing UNRWA’s activities in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank by banning state authorities from having any contact with the agency.

Without coordination with Israel, it will be almost impossible for UNRWA to work in Gaza or the West Bank, since Jerusalem would no longer be issuing entrance permits to those territories or allowing coordination with the IDF. Israel also currently controls access to Gaza from Egypt, with Israeli forces deployed along the border between them.

UNRWA — short for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East — provides education, health care and aid to millions of Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

Responding to the “unprecedented” vote, UNRWA warned that the legislation “sets a dangerous precedent,” breaches the UN charter “and violates the State of Israel’s obligations under international law.”

“These bills will only deepen the suffering of Palestinians, especially in Gaza where people have been going through more than a year of sheer hell… and are nothing less than collective punishment,” the agency said in a statement.

“It’s outrageous that a member state of the United Nations is working to dismantle a UN agency which also happens to be the largest responder in the humanitarian operation in Gaza,” Juliette Touma, spokeswoman for UNRWA, told AFP.

According to the Ynet news site, the Foreign Ministry had warned of the dangers of passing the UNRWA legislation, stating that Israel could be found in violation of the UN charter and be expelled.

Ahead of the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that passing the bills would be a “catastrophe,” while European Commission Vice President Josep Borrell stated that they “would have disastrous consequences.”

Immediately prior to the vote, the US made clear to Israel that it was deeply concerned by the legislation, with State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller telling reporters that humanitarian assistance was not getting to the people in Jabalia in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military has stepped up its campaign, and that Washington would not accept that.

A State Department spokesperson told The Times of Israel that the US was “deeply troubled” by the legislation, saying that it could force the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees to discontinue all of its operations in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also previously expressed concern over the bills, stating that the “enactment of such restrictions would devastate the Gaza humanitarian response” as well as the provision of “vital” services in East Jerusalem.

British Foreign Minister David Lammy expressed London’s “profound regret” over the legislation, stating that “the allegations against UNRWA staff earlier this year were fully investigated, and offer no justification for cutting off ties with UNRWA.”

Lammy added that banning the organization would not be in Israel’s “interests.”

In a seeming response to the international criticism, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Israel was prepared to work with international partners, both in the 90 days before the legislation takes effect and afterward, to ensure that humanitarian aid would still reach Gazan civilians.

“UNRWA workers involved in terrorist activities against Israel must be held accountable. Since avoiding a humanitarian crisis is also essential, sustained humanitarian aid must remain available in Gaza now and in the future,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement issued in English.

“In the 90 days before this legislation takes effect – and after – we stand ready to work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security,” Netanyahu’s office said.

While Israel has worked to gradually limit UNRWA’s role in the delivery of humanitarian aid, in favor of the World Food Program, UNICEF and other agencies, UNRWA is still heavily involved in the Strip’s humanitarian operation, running shelters, clinics and warehouses.

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the security establishment and professional staff cautioned political leaders against passing the legislation in the middle of the war against Hamas in Gaza without a viable replacement in place.

While some Israeli political leaders recognized the humanitarian risk and the international backlash that would result, “the political cost of opposing the legislation became too significant to endure,” the official said, explaining that the IDF itself spent months building a campaign that ties UNRWA to Hamas.

The Knesset’s approval of the two bills in their second and third (final) readings came only days after UNRWA confirmed that a Hamas Nukbha commander killed in an Israeli strike, who led the killing and kidnapping of Israelis from a roadside bomb shelter near Kibbutz Re’im on October 7 last year, had been employed by the agency since July 2022.

Israel alleges that more than 10 percent of UNRWA’s staff in Gaza have ties to terrorist factions, and that educational facilities under the organization’s auspices consistently incite hatred of Israel and glorify terror.

In February, the IDF revealed the existence of a subterranean Hamas data center directly beneath UNRWA’s Gaza Strip headquarters. The IDF has also repeatedly targeted Hamas command centers and gunmen hiding out in UNRWA schools.

Israeli lawmakers celebrated the legislation’s passage on Monday evening. Likud MK Boaz Bismuth, the sponsor of the bill prohibiting UNRWA from operating within Israel, tweeted: “UNRWA terrorists, your story ends here; enemies have no right to exist in the State of Israel.”

“UNRWA will not operate in the territory of the State of Israel, their perks will be canceled, their entry into Israel will be prohibited, complete severance of ties,” exulted opposition Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, the sponsor of the second bill.

“That’s it, it’s over. UNRWA is out,” cheered Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, the chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, calling the bills’ passage an “historic and significant move for the security of the country” against terrorists operating “under the auspices of the United Nations.”

“UNRWA employed terrorists who participated in the October 7 massacre and is educating young Palestinians about terrorism and hatred of Israel,” said Energy Minister Eli Cohen.

“Terrorists and supporters of terrorism have no place in the State of Israel,” argued Housing Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf.

“I congratulate and thank the members of the Knesset from across the political spectrum for passing the laws that tonight put an end to the ongoing disgrace of cooperation with UNRWA,” said far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

“Whoever harms the security of the State of Israel, the State of Israel will harm him,” he added.

MK Benny Gantz’s centrist National Unity party also supported the legislation, and criticized Netanyahu for missing the votes against what it described as “an organization that was part of the Hamas apparatus and whose employees took part in the October 7 massacre.”

During a debate in the Knesset plenum ahead of the votes, Arab lawmakers railed against the laws, with Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman claiming Israel was carrying out “genocide” in Gaza.

“No Palestinian wants to be a refugee,” she yelled, adding that “the majority of Gazans are now refugees.”

Likud MK Tally Gotliv had to be physically restrained by Knesset ushers after approaching the podium during a speech by Hadash-Ta’al MK Ahmad Tibi, in which he railed against what he termed “fascist” legislation.

“The Palestinian people will be freed from the occupation,” Tibi screamed, as right-wing MKs called for him to leave the Knesset.

Israel had been extremely critical of UNRWA long before the Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, saying that its near uniqueness in the world — granting refugee status not just to the first generation of refugees but to their descendants — perpetuated the conflict and a culture of dependence among Palestinians.

At the same time, some Israeli politicians and officials saw the relief that the agency provided as a means of keeping the Gaza Strip, and parts of the West Bank, from deeper poverty and thus greater violence and terrorism.

[iwantjobs]

10/8/2024: UH OH. I don't know if there's a non-human-force of God as Jesus' father/Allah/Yahweh/Brahman/Ong Troi/etc. but the poor Floridians (conservative-state-Americans who support Netanyahu and his war cabinet destruction in of Gaza especially in poor Lebanon where the most innocent people in this white-Christian-backed-Judaism-Islam war the Christians in the forms of Lebanese children and adults. In the beginning of this Israel-Hamas war, Florida's governor and Florida made national headlines to accept a small plane filled with Israeli refugees. Coming the West side of Florida is extremely rare as the direction for hurricane.) are suffering a lot of lives and destruction similar to a war zone with the 2 hurricane-storms being back to back with the second storm forcing 5 millions Floridians were suggested to move out of the area like this war forced 1.2 millions Lebanese to move out of their house in matter of hours before Isreal strike Hezbolla in their area. Florida is where Trump is and I think this will be the Christian-Zionist man's warning in case he comes the next president since Trump loves war and he talks about WWWIII against Iran (WWWIII is very scary for the planet and humans). Today, your Netanyahu hero just warned Lebanese if they don't take arms to fight Hezbollah along with him, hell flatten Gaza if he has to to eradicare Hezbolla. While the world praises Netanyahu and his excellent IDf for killing nearly all Hezbollah leaders, 2,000 Lebanese were killed in the bombings in the first two weeks because IDF gave very short notice for people to love befoee strikinf their precision bombs. IDF bombed only hours after warning people to leave and some were hit while leavie. Evil Putin only killed 12,000 ukrainians in last 2 years. Trang's work of searching for evidence of God as a non-human-force that created the universe at 54.49 years old. My Palestinian lawsuit will get its decision soon for it has been 2.5 months already. I know I promise not to return to Tumblr, but if I discover more evidence of a God via weird and un-human-made coincidences in life, I'll go back to document it. Pray for less lives loss in this Milton storm in Florida for the Helene took at lot of lives and destruction already. I fear the next destruction is in California for their support of the 3.1 gays (or 3.1 bosses with 1.1 bosses at Starbucks who didn't report my backsprain work injury on June 1st, 2008 at Starbucks) who bullied and harassed near death to become what I am today: disabled, mental, lost my condo and most of my savings, semi-homeless and 16.5 years to have biological children). The first hurricane (Helen) came about 1-2 weeks after Israel started bombing Lebanon like madness and its highly successful terrorist technique of placing bombs in pager and telephone. A Fox warspecialists said on NPR radio that he doesn't blame democracy Isreal to turn to terrorist technique to kill terrorists because he said they have to find ways to fight back. I, Trang, said"if this Fox war specialist thinks it was OK for rich democracy Israel to use terrorist technique as of desperate measure then he will have to be fair and no a hypocrite to also think that the poor Hamas terrorists also thought they had no choice to use terrorist technique on October 7th to kill democracy terrorist stealing their land of 400 years and keeping them in an apartheid open-aired jail from seeing their grandparents while you are hufging yours on the other side of the fence. Can't accept one terrorist move and deny another.". Thank heavens i have disability checcks two years after injury. California hasn't suffered a big earthquake in a long time. I don't know which part of California (liberal State) but I became injured in the northern part in gay capital of the world (San Francisco,) and this is where my appeal lawsuit is currently sitting (9th appeal court). I asked the court for a speedy answer since the Gaza children are suffering much but the court is taking it time. Peace and love via suing.

[brexiiton]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the U.S. would be "doing a hell of a lot more" after a terror attack

By Kaia Hubbard, February 25, 2024 11:47am

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the military's response in Gaza, saying that the United States would be doing "a hell of a lot more" if faced with a terror attack similar to Hamas' attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

"What would America do?" Netanyahu said on "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "Would you not be doing what Israel is doing You'd be doing a hell of a lot more."

Transcript of an interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that aired on Feb. 25, 2024

More than four months after Hamas' terrorist attack on Israel, Netanyahu's government has been under intense international pressure to halt its offensive in Gaza, as the death toll approaches 30,000 in the region, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health. Meanwhile, President Biden has taken an increasingly sharper public tone with Israel in recent weeks, while balancing support for the U.S. ally as the White House seeks a lengthy pause in the fighting and a hostage exchange.

Netanyahu said Sunday that Hamas is on "another planet" in the negotiations, though he acknowledged that Israel is "working on it" and wants to see the remaining hostages released. Netanyahu said seeing the remaining hostages freed is part of his three goals, which he reiterated on Sunday. The other goals, he said, are to "destroy Hamas," and to "ensure that Gaza does not pose a threat to Israel in the future."

"Unless we have total victory, we can't have peace," Netanyahu said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on "Face the Nation," Feb. 25, 2024 CBS News

The Biden administration and the Israeli leader have diverged on the path forward in recent weeks, as the White House aims for Palestinian governance of Gaza and a two-state solution in the long term, which Israel's government opposes.

Last week, Israel formally opposed recognizing Palestinian statehood unilaterally, suggesting that a decision would have to be made through negotiators. The Netanyahu-backed move preempts international pressure, amid discussions about recognizing a Palestinian state absent a deal.

Netanyahu touted the vote on Sunday, saying "the Israeli people are united as never before," while adding that "the policy is right."

The comments come after Israel's finance minister announced new plans in recent days to build thousands of homes in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, following a fatal shooting attack by Palestinian gunmen. The Biden administration said the plan is inconsistent with international law.

"Our administration maintains a firm opposition to settlement expansion and, in our judgement, this only weakens, doesn't strengthen Israel's security," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Friday, adding that the U.S. is "disappointed" by the announcement.

Mr. Biden has also urged Netanyahu in recent weeks not to proceed with an invasion of the large southern Gaza city of Rafah, where around 1.4 million Palestinians have south shelter from the war. Mr. Biden has repeatedly urged Israel not to move forward unless it had a "credible" plan for ensuring the safety of the people sheltering there.

Netanyahu said Sunday that once the Rafah operation begins, "the intense phase of the fighting is weeks away from completion." He said he has been meeting with officials imminently on a plan to evacuate Palestinians out of Rafa, and he said that Israel has "gone to extraordinary lengths" to notify people in Gaza about incoming bombardments more broadly.

"We'll clear them out of harm's way, we'll complete the job and achieve total victory, which is necessary to give a secure future for Israel, a better future for Gaza and a better future for the Middle East," he said.

[buzz-london]

Stubborn Enemy

The land Israeli are building on is won through several bitter wars. All wars were initiated by its most stubborn enemy - Palestinians.

As mentioned earlier, what you win, you keep. That's the rule of war. If Palestine had won, they would have pushed the Jews out. They are very clear about that in their manifesto and all their conversations.

No one wants the current state of affairs, with walls, security checks, strict segregation etc. But, given the level of hostility, its a reality of life. If these apparatus were not there, what happened last weekend would happen every week.

Hamas has been raining rockets on Israel for years! 5000 in a single attack last weekend was a new level of hostility, but, generally, there were rockets flying all the time, day and night.

Terrorists, with bombs & suicide vests, are regularly caught and put in jail. Stone throwing on worshipers praying at the ‘western wall’ are a regular occurrence. These hostilities need to be countered with a lot of policing to keep Israeli citizens - Jews and non-Jews - safe. Palestinian actions have shaped the response they get from Israel.

If the palestinians of the west bank and gaza lived in peace, there would be no need for walls, security checks etc. But sadly, they are hell bent on war every single day of the week.

Palestinian authorities in both places have billions of dollars thrown at them by the world. They have more money than most African nations! Yet they use this money to buy rockets rather than food or fuel. They wont use solar panels to become energy-resilient, or build desalination plants to get clean water from the sea. Because they know, they can get plenty of food and water delivered by UN, fuel given by other middle eastern countries for free. They wont bother to teach values of peace to their children, because they are hell bent on war and vengence.

Every major university in the world has free scholarships for palestinians - even in India! Yet, have they produced any notable business, science or engineering genius? They fire rockets at israel, but have they tried to reach space for research?

From the very week they were born, these twin nations have been fighting. From day 1, palestine is trying to oust israel and push its jewish citizens out of this region. Their hate is very specifically directed at the Jewish identity of Israel.

Some people have mentioned Kashmir in this context. Guess what, from the very first day, pakistan has been fighting to grab kashmir from India. Would you consider india an aggressor for killing terrorists who continually infiltrate its land?

They have attacked Mumbai! They have attacked the Indian parliament! If they had the chance they would have gladly killed our MLAs.

For what? Kashmir and more land-grab of India!

Have we got peace with pakistan by not attacking PoK? In 1965 war, got all the way to Lahore! We gave all of that land back. Did we get peace in return? After 1971 war, we transported 90,000 pak soldiers from bangladesh to pakistan. They were not our responsibility. We could have asked pakistan to send ships or planes to collect them - but - as gracious neighbours, we housed, fed, treated their injured and returned them to pakistan at our cost. Did we get peace in return?

Some people are hell bent on war no matter what you do to promote peace with them. That's just the way they are.

We have pakistan as our entrenched enemy that will never make peace, even if it is starving! Last year, when it could not afford food, India was happy to help, provided they stopped terrorist incursion. Pakistan refused! They insisted that their people would rather starve, than make peace.

Similarly, hamas has said it will happily starve its citizens rather than give up 129 civilian hostages they grabbed from israel!

What can you do with a stubborn enemy!

[appleshmapples]

Again, no one in THEIR RIGHT MIND would say that about any group of people. Those people who said that to you were obviously not in their right mind, and do not know how to appropriately discuss this topic.

I want you to tell me why you think it started on October seventh when there have been over 5,000 Palestinians killed since 2007 before October seventh.

Israel has always been shooting missiles at Gaza since they colonized Palestine, but on October seventh after Hama’s attack, they went batshit and started bombing everything they could.

There is plenty of evidence of IDF soldiers intentionally targeting civilians. They snipe shoot children and elderly people for sport. I’ve seen many posts from IDF soldiers and Zionists celebrating the deaths of civilians.

Incitement of genocide: Biden has been funding the IDF’s bombings from the start, and talking about how Israel needs to finish off the Palestinians.

If it was truly about Hamas, Israel would be bombing Hamas bases (which are NOT on the West Bank) instead of bombing hospitals full of injured people and babies.

Tell me, if the rolls were reversed, and the Palestinian forces bombed an Israeli hospital because they suspected that MAYBE a bad guy was hiding there, would you have the same energy you are currently showing me?

People aren’t shitting on Zionists and Israel because they’re Jewish. It has nothing to do with your religion or background. However; it DOES have a LOT to do with how Israel and Zionists are openly supporting the genocide of the Palestinians and are openly violent towards Muslims.

If you truly think that Israel does not have the intent to kill all Palestinians, but constantly hear from Zionists about how they want all Arabs dead, then I am truly concerned for who in the hell is teaching you this stuff.

I heavily appreciate that you recognize Netanyahu is a shitass, but you are still heavily unaware of the full extent of what is happening.

If you have humanity, I must ask you to look through the #free Palestine tag, and tell me what you see. Do you see people posting about killing Jews? Do you see them saying Zionists need to die?

I have went through Pro Israel tags many times, and they all consist of celebrations of people dying, they consist of people calling all Arabs terrorists, you see them spreading outlandish lies.

I want you to look at both of those tags and compare and contrast the behaviors you see from the people posting.

Personally, in other conversations I’ve had with Zionists about this, they approached me aggressively, resorted to name calling, did not site sources, and gave me empty statements.

So I want you to do what they taught us to do in elementary school: try to see it from the other side’s point of view. Look at what is happening, tell me how you would feel if it was happening to you.

When I put myself into the shoes of Israelis and Zionists, this is what I see you feel:

- you are afraid of a repeat of the holocaust,

- you are scared that the world will turn its back on you again

- you want to keep your state so that Jews can have a safe place to live and be together

- you are closed minded, and refuse to even look at what’s happening to the Palestinians.

- you have a lot of anger, which stems from the fears listed above.

So I want you to go to the pro Palestine tags and tell me what you see, and list the emotions you see people feeling. List the kind of videos you see of people being pulled from under the rubble, tell me, do you think a video of a child taking its last breaths is fake?

I appreciate you being civil with me in this conversation.

If anyone ever asks me why I choose wholeheartedly to support Palestine over Israel, even if I might not know all the facts, even if Hamas might be the big villains everyone says they are, I will tell them;

It is not a “war” if one side has beds, food, clean water, and luxuries like cake and tv, while the other side starves and dies from inaccessibility to live saving medicine.

It is not a “conflict” if one side can laugh and smile and have fun making signs, while the other side lives in fear, knowing that any day they might die.

It is nothing but a genocide, because Israel has a constant influx of weapons and resources, while Gazans (even Hamas) have a slowly draining pool of broken and bad quality resources.

It is only a war, if both sides can fight, it is only a conflict, if both sides are struggling.