Israel-Gaza war

[MT Treasurer]

As it turns out, the Israeli's had already bombed this hospital a few days previously. But of course they wouldn't do such a thing a second time.

https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2023/10/anglican-run-al-ahli-arab-hospital-in-gaza-damaged-by-israeli-rocket-fire-as-conflict-continues.aspx

Not a good day for the credibility of neoconservative propagandists and online intelligence assets spreading naked disinfo.

The horseshoe theory is real especially when it comes to foreign policy

Every time I see this term thrown around, it involves reactions to people expressing their empathy for mistreated, bombed or starving people (yes, even brown people — shocking!) and their opposition to the actors committing those crimes, so it probably says a lot more about the 'centrist' people using that term than it does about the term itself..

[MT Treasurer]

As it turns out, the Israeli's had already bombed this hospital a few days previously. But of course they wouldn't do such a thing a second time.

https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2023/10/anglican-run-al-ahli-arab-hospital-in-gaza-damaged-by-israeli-rocket-fire-as-conflict-continues.aspx

Not a good day for the credibility of neoconservative propagandists and online intelligence assets spreading naked disinfo.

The horseshoe theory is real especially when it comes to foreign policy

Every time I see this term thrown around, it involves reactions to people expressing their empathy for mistreated, bombed or starving people (yes, even brown people — shocking!) and their opposition to the actors committing those crimes, so it probably says a lot more about the 'centrist' people using that term than it does about the term itself..

Israel didnt commit those crimes

I don’t care whether they committed that particular crime (although the idea that most Western media outlets are biased in favor of Palestine in its coverage of this conflict or that the IDF doesn’t have the superior propaganda machine here is preposterous), they’ve already committed more than enough other disproportionate war crimes which have led to preventable deaths among an already suffering, terrorized (especially by the sound of air raid sirens and strikes) and isolated civilian population without any future. A lot of people on the right are fine with that because we’re talking about brown people and Muslims being bombed here, they just won’t say the quiet part out loud.

[MT Treasurer]

^When you’ve learned that you can get away with a lot of things, there is no incentive for you to change course. As long as there is such a blatant power imbalance among the actors, there will never be an end to this conflict.

[MT Treasurer]

I remain convinced that Hamas must be ousted militarily, but the longer this goes on the more convinced I become that Israel is either unable or unwilling to conduct this war in a manner that is either ethical or lawful. Unfortunately I don't really know what can be done.

Western leaders calling out this blatant, entirely predictable, genocidal mass slaughter and threatening to end military aid for Israel rather than unconditionally promising an addtional >$10 billion?

[MT Treasurer]

The pro Allies side was morally superior than the pro Axis side despite are carpet bombing of many cities .

This is not a proper English sentence and would earn most non-native speakers a failing grade in most non-English-speaking countries.

(It still pales in comparison to the content of your posts in this thread, but it amplifies the embarrassment.)

[MT Treasurer]

Also Dule, Israel is not deliberately targeting civilians. The fact is Hamas has so integrated their military infrastructure into civilian infrastructure , that any military target becomes a civilian target as well. So if anyone is responsible for the large civilian death total its Hamas and not Israel.

This is outright IDF propaganda — even if (and it’s a ridiculous if) we suppose that parts of every single civilian-infrastructure target they have bombed so far were possibly/potentially used for military purposes, they still knew that bombing the entire complex would clearly result in large civilian casualties. And no, they quite evidently didn’t "warn" everybody residing in every building they bombed, as you can tell from the death toll. 

[MT Treasurer]

Also Dule, Israel is not deliberately targeting civilians. The fact is Hamas has so integrated their military infrastructure into civilian infrastructure , that any military target becomes a civilian target as well. So if anyone is responsible for the large civilian death total its Hamas and not Israel.

This is outright IDF propaganda — even if (and it’s a ridiculous if) we suppose that parts of every single civilian-infrastructure target they have bombed so far were possibly/potentially used for military purposes, they still knew that bombing the entire complex would clearly result in large civilian casualties. And no, they quite evidently didn’t "warn" everybody residing in every building they bombed, as you can tell from the death toll. 

That is not true.

Hamas are surrounding themself with civilian targets and dressing up as civilians. This is common knowledge.

Yes, all the 4,500+ children killed by Israeli bombs were either terrorists dressed up as civilians or surrounded by terrorists. This is common knowledge.

[MT Treasurer]

In addition to bombing churches and hospitals, Israel has also murdered journalists reporting for pro-Palestinian TV stations in its airstrikes, frequently in Lebanon:

https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-almayadeen-journalists-killed-farah-omar-a0c4f1bc13582231117c98d54c477b2b

Blatant war crimes that a country will only commit when it knows it will get away with it.

Israel's response is the same as always: "It said the attack was under review."

Only a ghoul would think of this as a partisan/ideological issue.

[MT Treasurer]

Killing of Reuters Journalist Was ‘Apparently Deliberate’ Israeli Strike, Group Says

An Oct. 13 strike that killed a videographer for the Reuters news agency and injured six others in southern Lebanon was carried out by the Israeli military and appeared to be a deliberate attack, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The watchdog group said that evidence it had reviewed — including dozens of videos of the incident, photographs and satellite images, and interviews with witnesses and military experts — showed that the journalists were not near areas where fighting was taking place and that there was no military objective near their position.

“The attack on the journalists’ position directly targeted them,” the report said, labeling the attack a war crime.

The Israeli authorities did not immediately respond to the report.

Reuters published its own investigation on Thursday and said that an Israeli tank crew had killed its journalist and wounded the others.

“The evidence we now have, and have published today, shows that an Israeli tank crew killed our colleague Issam Abdallah,” the Reuters editor in chief, Alessandra Galloni, said in a statement. She called on Israel “to explain how this could have happened and to hold to account those responsible.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/07/world/middleeast/reuters-journalist-killed-lebanon-israel-hrw.html

Israel's war crimes just keep piling up.

Israel has been deliberately targeting journalists for a long time. Like with the countless other war crimes, when you’re given a blank check and guaranteed impunity, there is nothing that will deter you from going on like this. That’s why those unconditionally backing Israel deserve just as much blame as the Netanyahu government itself.

It’s not that difficult, and you don’t need a lot of "nuance" or ten paragraphs to understand why Israel has been behaving the way they have.

[MT Treasurer]

Didn’t see this posted yet, but here’s an extensive article that provides insight into how Israel is waging psychological warfare in Gaza. It distinguishes between "tactical targets," "underground targets," "power targets" and "family homes", noting that Israel has disproportionately attacked targets which fall into the last two categories in order to destroy civil society in Gaza. It also notes that the Israeli army is keeping track of the number of civilians likely to be killed in every attack on any particular type of target and relying extensively on AI in "mass-generating" targets.

As always, take this with a dose of salt as the sources (mostly members of Israel's intelligence community) are anonymous, but you don’t really even need this article to realize that the main point here is to break the morale of the entire population and to make the place virtually unlivable, essentially forcing Gaza's civilians to leave in what obviously amounts to ethnic cleansing.

“If they would tell the whole world that the [Islamic Jihad] offices on the 10th floor are not important as a target, but that its existence is a justification to bring down the entire high-rise with the aim of pressuring civilian families who live in it in order to put pressure on terrorist organizations, this would itself be seen as terrorism. So they do not say it,” the source added.

Indeed, according to sources who were involved in the compiling of power targets in previous wars, although the target file usually contains some kind of alleged association with Hamas or other militant groups, striking the target functions primarily as a “means that allows damage to civil society.” The sources understood, some explicitly and some implicitly, that damage to civilians is the real purpose of these attacks.

“The perception is that it really hurts Hamas when high-rise buildings are taken down, because it creates a public reaction in the Gaza Strip and scares the population,” said one of the sources. “They wanted to give the citizens of Gaza the feeling that Hamas is not in control of the situation. Sometimes they toppled buildings and sometimes postal service and government buildings.”

As documented by Al Mezan and numerous images coming out of Gaza, Israel bombed the Islamic University of Gaza, the Palestinian Bar Association, a UN building for an educational program for outstanding students, a building belonging to the Palestine Telecommunications Company, the Ministry of National Economy, the Ministry of Culture, roads, and dozens of high-rise buildings and homes — especially in Gaza’s northern neighborhoods.

In one case discussed by the sources, the Israeli military command knowingly approved the killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in an attempt to assassinate a single top Hamas military commander.

[MT Treasurer]

Israeli strike kills 76 members of one Gaza family, rescue officials say as combat expands in south

How can anyone defend this sh**t? And why is our government so gutless and cowardly to call this out? Who the hell is the superpower here?

"Why is Joe Biden struggling with young voters? How has he collapsed with this group?"

What could possibly be the reason? I am stunned, just stunned.

[MT Treasurer]

To highlight the barbaric scale of destruction in Gaza, nearly 70% of all homes there are either destroyed or damaged. Yes, 70%.

The Wall Street Journal reports that almost half of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed in the war there, a figure that also accounts for almost 70 percent of its 439,000 homes.

The report cites analysis of satellite photography of the Strip and other remote sensing methods.

The paper noted buildings hit include factories, houses of prayer, schools, shopping malls and hotels. Israel has said many schools, mosques and other buildings have been hit after being used for military purposes and as bases of operation by Gaza terror groups.

WSJ adds that only eight of Gaza’s 36 hospitals can accept patients, and that most basic infrastructure including water, electricity and communications is demolished.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/some-70-of-gaza-homes-damaged-or-destroyed-wall-street-journal-analysis/

The goal here was displacement/ethnic cleansing.