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I say this with respect, but do be very careful of falling down the rabbit hole here.
Somehow I have been here for nearly 17 years, but I have seen a few posters embrace conspiracy theorising to their detriment.
Hamas are awful, shown by their treatment of other Palestinians who opposed them following the 2005 elections.
It is perfectly possible to accept that and acknowledge the historical role of Netanyahu and others in the government in emboldening the group to make a two state settlement impossible, and it is also possible to acknowledge that oppressing millions of people can lead to a number of them wanting to fight back.
What I would say is this - assume everything Hamas has been accused of is true. That to me would still not in any way justify the collective punishment of Palestinians, the acts of settlers endorsed by the Israeli government in the West Bank, the endless occupation, let alone what has happened in Gaza in the last month. That's the key point for me.
It doesn't matter what Hamas did. I'm much more concerned with testing the veracity of claims like Hamas controlling hospitals so making them a "legitimate target".
I would honestly put a restriction on people going down that path. The last thing we need is conspiracy theorists.Agreed. And as if "only" murdering 1400 in their attack is somehow ok if systematic rape (and then execution) didn't happen. How widespread it was is hard to currently ascertain but it seems certain some occurred.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...-evidence-of-sexual-violence-in-hamas-attacks
I feel confident in stating that Israel has surpassed the evil and cruelty shown by Hamas on October 7th by orders of magnitude.
I feel confident in stating that Israel has surpassed the evil and cruelty shown by Hamas on October 7th by orders of magnitude.
100%. They have become the evil they fought against. An example of hurt people transferring that hurt on to other people. There must be some studies somewhere or hopefully in the future that looks at the psychological aspect of the Israel cruelty towards the Palestinians and whether there is/was either an element of enacting the revenge that they couldn't enact in WW2 or whether like you see sometimes with abuse survivors, re-enacting that abuse on to others. Not saying all Israelis but the ones that are pro violence. Its also why a lot of people can see that the cycle of violence may never end as the hurt people now i.e. the Palestinians may be likely to do/ have already done the same to the Israelis
I'm also intrigued how this conforms with Judaism which I admittedly know little about.
Making the case that Palestinian children are evil and deserve to get bombed to death.
As usual, Thomas Friedman making lots of sensible points: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/opinion/israel-hamas-war.html
Worth a read if you have time.
Works really well as a pair with the previous one, with the Gazan scholar. Both are useful in getting a clear, articulate expression of the mindset each 'side' is approaching this from.Execellent epizode of Ezra Klein show.
https://the-ezra-klein-show.simplecast.com/episodes/yossi-klein-halevi
Did you see the notes in the book which apparently were talking about their mothers retirement. It's clearly bullshit.Have either of you actually watched the video? He says it was found on a Hamas fighter. Doesn't necessarily make it true, but this looks like yet another tweet that's deliberately misleading.
Did you see the notes in the book which apparently were talking about their mothers retirement. It's clearly bullshit.
There are photos of those notes online from the IDF. Apparently translated with quite banal notes.You mean this?
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It's too low res to make out what's written there and I assume It's not exactly written in English anyway.
There are photos of those notes online from the IDF. Apparently translated with quite banal notes.
Making the case that Palestinian children are evil and deserve to get bombed to death.
There are photos of those notes online from the IDF. Apparently translated with quite banal notes.
I think... After all they've been through.. it's simply a "never again, better them than us" mentality.
Compassion is easy to preach when we're not on the receiving end.
A nation's tragedy often bring resilient and hardheadedness
Looks like this didn't go well.
feck me in the ass. That's despicable.
Looks like this didn't go well.
feck me in the ass. That's despicable.
This is where they started though back in 2002:It was doomed from the beginning imo. An attempt by leaders to flog the facade that they care to their domestic publics, all the while working to advance their own respective regional aims. All the summit was lacking was Leslie Nielsen parachuting in.
This is where they started though back in 2002:
“He’s not a humble person. He has an enormous ego and sees himself as if on some sort of mission in this world,” said the non-Israeli with long experience with Sinwar. “He’s a sociopath. I don’t mean this as an insult.” “He would think nothing of sacrificing tens of thousands of lives, and more, to achieve his goals."
Obviously no way to verify this, so TWAPOS, but this Gazan claims one of the Israeli soldiers who addressed him was wearing US military attire:
feck me in the ass. That's despicable.
A good piece on Sinwar. Particularly this quote...