I'm struggling with everything on this article. On the one hand anytime a hostage has been freed, that's good news. On the other, at what cost.
40 000 dead. That's the easy stat. Amputations are also incredibly high. Most of them kids and performed without anesthetic.
This is the first time the IDF has rescued hostages.
So I'm sitting here with my initial feeling of 'oh, that's good news' ,and then I think about the wider picture and context, and it doesn't seem so good anymore.
Nah, that was the one that Egypt fucked up. There had not been an actual agreed upon hostage transfer since the first one. Hamas also won’t give actual information on the hostages. This whole thing is just war crimes the whole way down.
So you think we should negotiate with terrorists? Give them something to make them stop what they're doing today, and they definitely won't commit more terrorism later in the hope of getting more things later.
Spain did successfully negotiate with ETA, and there is no more ETA today. Colombia's government negotiated with the FARC, and the immense majority of the FARC have gotten peacefully integrated in their country's parliamentary system.
If I looked into those organizations, I would bet they were probably at the point of talking reasonable concessions, and probably resembled a proper government, albeit radical or militant.
That would require Hamas to care about Palestinians. Their leadership is a bunch of wealthy shitheads living it up in the UAE. They hold a dictatorship over Palestine and refuse to have elections.
To actually get Hamas there, you probably need to target the rich people giving orders.
Three months ago the IDF also rescued 3 hostages by killing many civilians. They bomb entire neighbourhoods to rubble as a distraction mechanism for their teams to go in.
Imagine how much resources hamas spent on keeping these hostages and how many lives could be saved if they just released them all before the ground operation was started.
They don't have any leverage, because the people calling the shots in Israel (and to be clear, that is the likes of Ben-Gvir and Smotrich, who want effectively no Arabs river to sea, and hence Netanyahu, who I think would do just about any atrocity no matter how abhorrent just to stay in power and out of jail) value the pretext to invade far more than they value the lives of the hostages.
So the hostages do not actually give Hamas any leverage over Israel - hence why Israel is not willing to agree to anything. Hamas should not have taken civilians hostage or targeted civilians in the first place, and they should release them. That is still an ongoing war crime, even if it is overshadowed by bigger ones being perpetrated by the Israeli side.
Hamas never had a chance of winning on military might.
The best chance for a good outcome for the Palestinian people is through raising awareness of the plight of the Palestinians, resulting in international pressure. The pressure against Israel arising now is because of the severity of Israel's war crimes, while Hamas' war crimes are one of the key talking points used to justify not taking action. Hamas could help Palestine win the information space war by taking the high road; winning a military war is futile for them.
While it is not fair to punish Palestinian civilians for the war crimes of Hamas just because the interests of Palestinian civilians are aligned to Hamas' goals, there are many people who don't see it that way. Palestinian statehood (or a non-apartheid one-state solution) would now get far more international support if the Palestinian militants shifted to peaceful resistance.
What leverage? You're saying hostages are needed to save hamas members? Well that seems to be working pretty well huh? Remind me again why they were taken in the first place?
You should become a negotiator.
What negotiations? It was a perfect opportunity to show that your cause is a good one, and not to Israel. Instead they kept the hostages... For what purpose? To have "leverage"? Well let's see how that will help them with anything. Maybe there will be more news about released hostages that you could again associate with Israel trying to release its civilians, not with hamas doing right things.
Exactly!! Israel was just peacefully bulldozing the homes of those dirty Palestinians and pushing them out of their land and making sure that they weren’t too greedy and stopping them from eating too much food during these days of obesity 😇. Then Hamas had the disgusting choice of using violence against blessed israel? Talk about biting the hand that feeds you am I right?
I repeat: that violence did not serve the purpose and it was never meant to. It's useless to justify their actions based on their sufferings alone. It's obvious hamas never seeked anything except violence.
So true bestie, isn’t it crazy how Hamas went from a tiny minority with almost all Palestinians believing and pushing for a peaceful resolution, to now where every palestinian loves Hamas and wants to nuke every western country? It really shows you how they’re an inherently evil and violent people. They hate Israel because of how tolerant and peaceful they are. and Israel has been really so very willing to make peace! It’s crazy how historians lie about it and make up all sorts of fairy tales about how Likud is an extreme far right fascist party hell-bent on genocide. Seen lots of fake tweets from Israeli politicians, too!
It’s a good thing that there are smart sensible people like you and me out there fighting for the good guys! Doing the right thing! Keep bombing them - those kids would grow up to be terrorists anyways!
Thank you, I’m really glad that you’re here to protect the vulnerable from nefarious people like me. I will be more thoughtful next time before I write messages of love and admiration. We wouldn’t want to encourage that sort of behaviour!
Everything hamas did was useless for Palestinians. Israel isn't stopping because they have the ability. Hamas doesn't, they won't win in a military fight and hostages are useless for them. They could start doing something proper like releasing hostages (woyild decrease support for Israel hugely) but they won't because they think it would help them survive (not even Palestinians).
Hamas had a chance to increase its abilities over time, but instead they chose to spend resources on useless attacks.
I see. I disagree. Hamas's actions are utterly deplorable but also entirely expected. This is what oppressed people do.
I also think you're wrong that Hamas have done nothing for Palestinians. They've never had as much international support as they do now.
Maybe the Palestinians themselves devalue their own lives compared to Israeli lives. Just look at when they agreed to a ceasefire and traded hostages for prisoners: each hostage was worth multiple prisoners released by Israel.
This is also noticeable when Hamas use their own population as human shields, exemplified by when they hide their soldiers and weapons in hospitals and schools. Or when they blend in with civilians on purpose by not using any combatant uniform like the IDF do. They really don't care for their own civilians. These are only useful for acting as human shields and, if they're killed or injured, strike a pose for NatGeo-style photos in their attempts to appeal to western sentiment.
Maybe what I said was too harsh, sorry. It's just what seems the logical conclusion in the following sense:
The Hamas and its militants are Gazans themselves.
They have an ideology stipulating that self-sacrifice is a good thing if the cause is holy.
Such ideology comes from the religious upbringing that apply to most Gazans (even those not affiliated to Hamas)
So, in accordance with their beliefs, they see no problem using their own citizens as sacrifices for their goal of destroying Israel.
I'm not saying everyone from Gaza will happily throw away their lives for such a "holy cause". I'm just saying that there are those who believe this and would commit self-sacrifice, and in my view, it's an act of devaluing their own lives.
This would be unthinkable in the western countries, because of the christian values spread across its population that dictates self-sacrifice/suicide is a sin.
No, no it doesn't. Suicide is a sin but Christianity absolutely glorifies self-sacrifice for the religion. I mean you've heard of martyrs right? It became a core tenant of the religion in the early roman days that dying for the faith gets you straight into heaven. Glorifying dying for the faith is a massive part of Christianity too. In Islam committing suicide is a sin unless you're self-sacrificing yourself for the faith and dying for the faith also gets you straight into heaven. Just like in Christianity. They're both Abrahamic faiths and have a lot of the same roots.
So yeah what the fuck are you talking about? They are no more self-sacrificing than anyone else. They're just fucking people. They're all just people. Why can't we just treat them like people?
Maybe the Palestinians themselves devalue their own lives compared to Israeli lives.
You should just stop right there. If your logic depends on saying "they actually don't value their lives as much as others" then please stop and ask "what the hell is wrong with yourself?". People who think like this probably value their life least of all. /s
When I see how easily the Hamas uses their own population as sacrifices, I have doubts they really value their lives. Remember: the Gazan population elected the Hamas with more than 60% of the votes. It's not too farfetched to say a significant part of the Gazans think like the Hamas in terms of sacrifice, and by extension, how they value their lives.
50% of the population of Gaza was under 18 based on Israeli numbers for Gaza prior to October. This means 50% of the population wasn't even alive when that vote happened since it happened 18 years ago!
Fun fact about that vote; Hamas represented themselves as significantly more moderate in the run-up to the election only to drop that the moment they got elected and murder all their political opposition. They have since continued to murder outspoken political dissidents and quash any efforts for new elections.
A twenty-year-old election that was run on lies tells us nothing about the feelings of the people of Gaza in the current day. It doesn't tell us how much they support Hamas now and it certainly tells us nothing about how much they value their lives.
Though your twisted rationlisation tells me a lot about how you value their lives.
You don't believe me? Those who are immersed in islamist ideology think quite differently from people of christian heritage (even if they're not christian themselves, but they inherit a set of values). For the islamists, self-sacrifice if a good thing if done for a holy cause. That's what motivated the plane terrorists from 9/11: their religion made them believe that what they were doing was just. And as a reward, they'd have the company of multiple virgins in paradise.
In the western countries, due to the inherited christain values, people value life and reject self-sacrifice. Suicide is considered a sin, because the person is throwing away the body given by God, which is a holy thing. That's why the USA and other west-aligned countries pressure Israel to preserve the life of innocent Gazans: that's what best aligns with their moral values. If a bank is being robbed with the use of hostages, the police will do its best to preserve the life of the innocent, even negotiate with the robbers if necessary.
That's a way of thinking that's the polar opposite of the muslims. For them, if the cause is holy, self-sacrifice is allowed and encouraged. They're indoctrinated in these values since they're children. What the Hamas is doing is exploiting the western values for their benefit. That's why they took hostages, because they knew it would be a huge leverage against Israel. And that's why they're always flaunting the number of casualities (which are obviously inflated, because it helps their goals), in an attempt to reach the western countries' moral values and turn it into pressure for Isreal accept an indefinite ceasefire agreement, even a bad one.
Consider this: if the roles were reversed: Gaza had immense millitary strenght and Israel was the poor country, the Gazans would invade Isreal in a heartbeat and would care much less about Isrealli innocent civilians: for them the cause is holy, so it is justified to kill indiscriminately.
What is it that I disbelieve exactly? You're here trying to convince others that a group of people don't value their lives as much as you do. I believe you when you say that you don't value groups of human lives equally, I just don't share that view.
Those who are immersed in islamist ideology think quite differently from people of christian heritage
I'll be honest, I didn't bother reading the rest of the wall of text after this. Enjoy your crusade and may you die as you have lived.
I could be wrong, but I haven't seen any independent verification that Hamas has been using hospitals and schools for bases, but I'm positive that there's been debunked Israeli reports that schools and hospitals have been used as Hama's bases.
Same thing for human shields. IDF admits to using Palestinians as shields. To my knowledge, there's no Hamas equivalent.
This 'war' isn't about Hamas anyways. If it was, there wouldn't be 1000 people killed in the west bank. Hamas isn't in the west bank. Why is the IDF letting people kill Palestinians in the west bank?
Likewise, there's no independent verification when the Hamas minister of healthcare periodically announces the number of casualties, but the media tends to take it at face value as it was the crystalline truth. When this is most likely an inflated number to keep Israel in the worst light possible, and to exert political pressure for the USA to stop supporting Israel with weapons of war. It's all with the intent of the Hamas getting away with it.
The Hamas has a history of lying and deception in order to support the narrative in their favor.
There's the incident of Hamas accusing Israel of bombing an hospital last year, which the media widely reported as truth before checking, but in the end it was in a building a block away from the hospital. Since this embarrassment the media has been more careful before confirming anything coming from Hamas official sources.
Also the Hamas had a guy that multitasked as an News Reporter, Combatant, Healthcare Professional, Bloodied Victim. This was reported in social media, a guy from Hamas appearing in photos doing all those things in different occasions. Give this guy an Oscar already!
The Hamas does not hesitate to manipulate facts to confirm their intended narrative. Their track record is tarnished at this point. But, to be honest, an organization that takes hostages as a leverage to negotiate a ceasefire in a war they themselves started, from this point it was already very clear they'd do anything to achieve their goals. From using civilians as human shields to lying without shame, these things are just the cherry on top of the heinous acts they committed as the catalyst of the war. They were not trustworthy from the start.
And what you say about "IDF using Palestinians as shields" makes no sense. That's what the Hamas do, actually. The Hamas see their civilians as disposable sacrifice for a religious end. If an IDF soldier took a Palestinians civilian literally as a human shield in order to avoid being shot by a Hamas militant, the militant would shoot both of them without hesitation, because they see their civilians as sacrifices in a religious sense. Just an addendum, the Islamic State leaders used to say "we love death like you love life" as a point of comparison of the radical islamic worldview compared to the western worldview. That's the kind of thinking that drives the Hamas, and that's why they're not ashamed to call for the extermination of all Jews as if it's the most normal thing in the world.
About the deaths in the West Bank, I'm not too knowledgeable about this to comment further.
The media isn't taking the numbers at face value, unless you're also making the claim of the UN and UNICEF because they use the same numbers. The fact is, given the wide destruction, the actual numbers are much worse. If you can't admit that last point then I assume you're not familiar with what percentage of homes have been destroyed or how many dead journalists and their families have been murdered.
I can't see how the UN and UNICEF can get to an accurate number for the number of casualities, as most bodies are in a zone of war. And just because a building was blown up doesn't mean there were civilians inside. Most civilians are in tents in refugee camps. I'm not trying to say there's no casualities in a war, but that it's impossible to count all bodies right now because of the warfighting, and there's probably bodies under rubble as well. Only when the war is over it'll be possible to get an exact number.
Both statements can coexist without any contradiction.
If no numbers can be trusted (due to loggistical concerns I cited in my previous comment), how can Hammas be so sure of the numbers it gives to the press? Not only would Hammas' numbers be innacurate if they were acting in good faith, but they'd be outright fake in case of bad faith on their part (most likely scenario).
Again, the UN has looked at the numbers and found them to be reasonable. And we would have more numbers if the IDF didn't kill a record number of journalists (and their families).
I'd take this with a grain of salt because it's just the tale of one man. But if it's true, it's sad becuase it would represent the wheel of hatred turning.