Meanwhile on the International front....

Farther back.

Exodus.

 

Remember, lots of disinformation this week.

 

My son's in college in a major city and there's a FB group of parents of Jewish students there and there was an awful lot of concern about their kids walking alone to (or even attending) events at the Hillel and Chabad. My son came home this weekend for my niece's bat mitzvah. There were 2 police cars monitoring the scene -- one at the entry to the driveway in to the temple from the main road and one in the circle in front of the temple. That's not unusual. We've always had a police detail outside our synagogue on High Holiday services when there are a lot of people. And you have to get buzzed into the building by security on other days. Not too many churches in America have to deal with that (though I imagine mosques do). Christian privilege.

 

So disingenuous to claim that civilian casualties flatly equals disregard for the killing of civilians. I don't give a fuck what anyone else says but the IDF has long sought to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible when carrying out operations. But they're dealing with enemies that deliberately positiion themselves among the population so as to maximize civilian casualties on their own side. So you tell me. How can Israel "defeat" Hamas without civilians dying? And does that really show "disregard" when they're sending warnings about specifically where and when bombs will be landing (which puts their own military personnel at greater risk)?

 

The Gaza Hospital explosion (attack?) is a game-changer.

 

We'll see. It's in dispute.

Literally nothing here, or in Ukraine, can be believed on first report.

 

From that column:

Israel cannot win this war just by killing all the terrorists. It is determined to break the power of Hamas, and in that effort it deserves the support of the United States and the rest of the world. But it can succeed only by upholding the rules and norms of behavior that Hamas so wantonly ignores. What Israel is fighting to defend is a society that values human life and the rule of law. To do that, the means and the ends of its military response must be consistent.

Israel’s goal is to destroy Hamas; in doing that, it should not lose sight of its commitment to safeguard those who have not taken up arms.

There have been lots of others columns and essays just like it in the last week on the same matter. From both sides. That one war crime does not excuse another.

I don't know how Israel can defeat Hamas militarily without civilian casualties. Maybe it can't.

Hamas was formed during the First Intifada more than 35 years ago, and no amount of military action or intervention on Israel's part since then has changed a thing.

 

https://luwianstudies.org/the-philistines-in-canaan-and-palestine/#:~:text=The Philistines who, in the,they are of Greek origin.

 

I think there's going to be a lot more of incidents like this before Israel launches any actual invasion. Why not pound the place into dust while withholding food and water?

 

It's going to get worse.