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I Thought I Saw A Terrorist
The Israeli military's "deeply" sorry for killing seven food volunteers in Gaza earlier this week. It was a case of mistaken identity.
That's according to the results of an investigation conducted by... well, conducted by the Israeli military. They investigated themselves. What can you do? Laugh, I suppose. Despairingly. The World Central Kitchen incident's a lot of things, but funny isn't one of them.
The IDF's account of the mistakes made in the final minutes of the volunteers' lives was abo
I’m not sure how “demanding a cease fire” has more power than providing $14B in military aid does. Sure sure, we’ll get right on not using the weapons you just sent us! The juxtaposition of continuing to send military aid while telling that leader not to use it to commit genocide against not sending aid to a leader who’s people are victims of continuous violence is beyond farcical. Look, clearly in the post truth world facts don’t matter and propaganda is king but I have no idea what is going on in Biden’s head that he thinks his words will somehow be more powerful than the action of sending military aid. He’s either naive or just trying to appease dissent with his hollow words. Either way, this kind of crap makes it difficult to be proud of the world dominating power we possess because we keep using it for the wrong damn reasons. We can be just as supportive of Netanyahu without sending billions in military aid as we are of Zelenskyy who is getting practically none. The distinction being there is no active military threat against Israel in Gaza right now.
Sorry but the fact they are not already in Rafa mowing down Gazans shows it is not a genocide. We really shouldn’t be throwing that word around. The goal is to eliminate Hamas, collateral damage is high but not the goal. If Hamas had the kind of weapons Israel has, you would see exactly what a “genocide” looks like.
I’ve said this repeatedly and I’m going to say it again: Your willingness to take the IDF’s word for things indicates a woeful unfamiliarity with the history of this conflict. It is absolutely possible (indeed, I’d argue it’s very likely) that the Israeli military is wittingly maximizing civilian casualties and I can assure you that there are members of Netanyahu’s government who support the systematic eradication of Gazans, either figuratively, through forced displacement, or literally. I’m not sure why you’re so wedded to what, in my view, is a dangerously naive read on this. If you have a vested interest (e.g., relatives in Israel or you knew someone who died on October 7), that bent’s certainly understandable, but if not, it’s just naive for the sake of it.
The fact that Hamas doesn’t have the kinds of weapons Israel does is my point. They have already eliminated the imminent threat to the country. Sorry, bombing hospitals first and explaining why those are “terrorist targets” later doesn’t excuse the fact that you intentionally chose to destroy a building full of ailing civilians while also eliminating a care center for the other civilians you’re getting ready to harm. The only types of organizations that intentionally target hospitals, apartments, and food centers happen to be terrorist organizations by the way. See Putin.
Great article. Complex situation for sure. I am in the camp that Israel needs to eliminate Hamas as quickly as possible but this was just reckless and shouldn’t have happened. Obviously purposefully embedding yourself into civilian populations with the express purpose of maximizing civilian casualties complicates matters. At least Israel made an attempt at making the investigation results open and transparent, however biased it may be. I couldn’t say the same about Hamas but anyway, we need to be better.
I can’t resist the temptation to make the unfortunate crack that I hope shoah-colored glasses don’t become a thing. They are executing their own hostages, scores of journalists and aid workers, and multiple women and children for every Hamas fighter. Sometimes if you are going to be better than the enemny, you actually have to be better than your enemy.
I was of draft age right in the middle of the Vietnam war. I can still remember us apologizing repeatedly every time we were responsible for wiping out a village of women and children we though might be hiding Cong killers …. blah, blah, blah. The tell was when we included those unlucky kills in the daily “body count” that showed up nightly on the news so Westmoreland could keep pressing his case for more money and more troops. Today, we’ve got a new approach, yes we. We identify a bunch of supposed terrorist higher-ups is a country with whom we are not at war, and we just openly kill these people unapologetically, in the sovereign territory of someone else, and hang their virtual heads on our wall. That’s not war, that’s simple assignation.