I don’t know exactly the right words to say, but I know some need to be said.
I think it’s pretty apparent that genocide is happening in Palestine, and the attacks that Israel is inflicting are not at all proportional to the attack from Hamas on October 7. There’s no excuse for the extreme number of casualties of Palestinian civilians, and it’s reprehensible that they continue bombing Gaza with no end sight.
I don’t know what else to say, except for the fact that I wanted to say something. Now is not the time for silence. See you at the protests, and don’t forget to call your representatives! xoxo
On October 7th (EXTREME trigger warning!) Hamas slaughtered families, raped young girls in their beds, mutilated women’s sexual organs, extracted a baby from its bisected mother’s womb and stabbed it, and kidnapped girls and boys into dark tunnels.
Not going to praise Israel’s current government, in fact a lot of Israelis are pretty unhappy with it. Or that that their response is correct and working. But what should Israel be doing in response to assure safety of the citizens? What’s the response that Israel would have had where this post would have said, “good proportional response there Israel, and successfully securing the safety of your citizens”?
I don’t see how bombing as much of Gaza as possible is helping anyone? How can Israel even be sure they’re not bombing places where the hostages (they’re supposedly doing all this for) are? And even if somehow all the hostages are fine, indiscriminately bombing innocent civilians over and over isn’t proportional in any way. I hear your counterpoint, but I’m wondering how this current response could be argued as one that’s “securing the safety of its citizens”?
Unfortunately, I don’t have all the answers. Maybe ask me again if I get a degree in Global Affairs and/or work in the State Department. I just know enough to know that it’s time to speak up when human rights violations are occurring. The exact details can be handled by the experts.
By the way, Israel is exchanging 150 Palestinian people for 50 hostages. If they’re going at a 3-1 rate, how many Palestinian people are they holding? And why isn’t anyone talking about that part?
I think what Israel is doing is wrong, and I don’t think it’s wholly a response to a terrorist attack.
The UN has acknowledged that Israel is violating human rights and the UN Secretary General called for a ceasefire. Human Rights Watch has also acknowledged the atrocities Israel continues to commit and asked for them to respect International Law. I’m holding a view consistent with smart, trustworthy organizations.
[I think all senseless murder and torture of civilians is wrong. So, I don’t think that calling for a ceasefire excuses earlier torture or murder. But I don’t understand how committing more senseless murders makes things better?]
Lastly, I’m not sure if this analogy works totally, but if someone broke into Person A’s home and tortured and murdered Person A’s family – for the sake of the analogy, we’ll say this person basically has a lawful authority to chase this murderer down and use deadly force – If Person A works hard to find the murderer, sees the murderer in their home, and takes them off this planet, understood. [Again, on an individual level, there’s more nuance and Person A actually probably would get in trouble for shooting someone outside of the time their life was in immediate danger [although it would depend on a lot of factors] and that murderer would generally get a criminal trial, not just death [well, again depending; this is America after all….] But for the sake of the analogy and the power a country holds against a terrorist attack, we’ll assume Person A has a legal power to chase someone who’s tortured and murdered and to then end that person’s life.]
Aaaaaaaanyway, if Person A finds that the murderer went to a giant shopping mall and in order to try to shoot him, person A shoots up half the mall in the process, we wouldn’t call that person a hero. We wouldn’t say they were defending themselves. We would call that person a mass shooter. Some would say person A’s bloodlust and thirst for revenge blinded them to the horrors they were committing. Most people would be disgusted at the atrocities. But while some people may be able to find some empathy for the circumstance as a whole, as they said on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, “Cool motive, still murder.”