Perhaps you have seen a pro-Hamas meme on Facebook or elsewhere on the internet, with two photos comparing ruins in some Ukraine city with ruins in Gaza, the latter being far more extensive, and accompanied by some anti-Israeli question or comment.
Something of that nature (Shalom to Sarah Hoyt) leads to ask the following question in the New York Times: What Would You Have Israel Do to Defend Itself?
There seems to be a broad consensus atop the Democratic Party about the war in Gaza, structured around two propositions. First, after the attacks of Oct. 7, Israel has the right to defend itself and defeat Hamas. Second, the way Israel is doing this is “over the top,” in President Biden’s words. The vast numbers of dead and starving children are gut wrenching, the devastation is overwhelming, and it’s hard not to see it all as indiscriminate.
Which leads to an obvious question: If the current Israeli military approach is inhumane, what’s the alternative? Is there a better military strategy Israel can use to defeat Hamas without a civilian blood bath? In recent weeks, I’ve been talking with security and urban warfare experts and others studying Israel’s approach to the conflict and scouring foreign policy and security journals in search of such ideas.
The thorniest reality that comes up is that this war is like few others because the crucial theater is underground. … The current Israeli estimates range from 350 to about 500 miles of tunnels. The tunnel network, according to Israel, is where Hamas lives, holds hostages, stores weapons, builds missiles and moves from place to place. By some Israeli estimates, building these tunnels cost the Gazan people about a billion dollars, which could have gone to building schools and starting companies.
Hamas built many of its most important military and strategic facilities under hospitals, schools and so on. Its server farm, for example, was built under the offices of the U.N. relief agency in Gaza City, according to the Israeli military.
… in this war, Hamas is often underground, the Israelis are often aboveground, and Hamas seeks to position civilians directly between them. As Barry Posen, a professor at the security studies program at M.I.T., has written, Hamas’s strategy could be “described as ‘human camouflage’ and more ruthlessly as ‘human ammunition.’” Hamas’s goal is to maximize the number of Palestinians who die and in that way build international pressure until Israel is forced to end the war before Hamas is wiped out. Hamas’s survival depends on support in the court of international opinion and on making this war as bloody as possible for civilians, until Israel relents.
… In part because of the tunnels, Israel has caused more destruction in Gaza than Syria did in Aleppo and more than Russia did in Mariupol, according to an Associated Press analysis.
… John Spencer is the chair of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point, served two tours in Iraq and has made two visits to Gaza during the current war to observe operations there. He told me that Israel has done far more to protect civilians than the United States did in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Related • To Peacenik Protesters Everywhere (Pro-Palestinian or Other):
The People that Hamas Slaughtered Mercilessly at Israel's Rave — They Are YOU!
• The Genocide Charge Against Israel: What is
the Difference Between War and Genocide in the First Place?
• "You Have Wiped Israel Off the Map!" Clash on French TV As Pro-Palestine Speaker Tries to Gaslight the Fact that Her Palestine Logo Has Made Israel Vanish
• A cartoon on the current Middle East crisis and the truth about its roots
6 comments:
You need to get serious. Israel is a European colonial project, and the age of colonies is over. The Israeli state is illegitimate, as is the presence of European Ashkenazi Jews in Palestine. The colonists need to return to their European homelands, and the Israeli state needs to be replaced by a native Palestinian state.
Hamas, which is a terrorist group (though not as savage as the IDF), is in the mold of the Kenyan Mau Mau, the South African ANC, the Viet Minh in Vietnam, and the Chinese Boxers. If you supported the end of the European colonies in Africa and Asia, then you need to support the liberation of Palestine.
Over half of Israel's Jewish population is of Middle Eastern origin, for one thing.
"You need to get serious. Israel is a European colonial project, and the age of colonies is over. "
When you're done decolonizing Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, all of them modern nation states established by Britain and France in the 20th century, we can maybe discuss Israel.
In fact it is the Jews of Israel who have decolonized the region some call Palestine, after centuries of Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Ottoman, and British colonization.
Besides the fact pointed out above that a large majority of Israeli Jews have at least one Mizrachi grandparent, I'll note that some of the earliest Zionists were Yemenite Jews who migrated to Israel, starting in 1881, about half a year before the first wave of European Jews arrived. Between 1881 and 1914, about 10% of Yemenite Jews made aliyah.
Ashkenazi Jews' closest genetic relatives are Sephardi/Mizrachi Jews'. Those two groups' closest genetic relatives are Kurds.
Oh, and speaking of colonization, how about looking into the migration of Arabs and other groups into 19th century Palestine that was fostered and encouraged by the Ottomans?
"autothreads" expresses SUICIDAL IDIOCY – Read the Qur'an and you will learn that Islam requires the DEATH of non-believers. If the non-believer is female, RAPE after RAPE after RAPE will be their REWARD. EVIDENCE PROVES THAT’S WHAT THEY DO!!! 🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
As for colonialism, make all the Mideastern refugees in Europe return to their native countries.
I'm certainly in favor of RUSSIAN decolonization.
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