Hamas strike on Israel - Threadbans in op - mod warning in OP updated 19/10/23

Another day, another Israeli war crime.

According to the Council of Europe, the intentional targeting of journalists constitutes a war crime.

Some of the journalists below were killed by Hamas, most were killed by Israel.

Committee to Protect Journalists:

"As of January 6:

• 77 journalists and media workers were confirmed dead: 70 Palestinian, 4 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese.
• 16 journalists were reported injured.
• 3 journalists were reported missing.
• 21 journalists were reported arrested.
• Multiple assaults, threats, cyberattacks, censorship, and killings of family members."

Source:

It couldn't possibly be accidental - the sheer numbers suggest that the IDF is deliberately going after Palestinian journalists i.e. seeing them as an 'enemy' and a legitimate target.

It's completely intentional.

They were told to leave Gaza and go here for safety, then Israel bombed them.

#warcrimes

People blindly supporting Israel here will just class that as spoils of war and not looting.

There's nothing that will make them think less of Israel.

You are correct. It looks like, to summarise, you have two questions:

1. Why do the Israelis behave as they now do, and:
2. How come they have so little respect in the international community.

The answer to the first question, IMHO is simple: absolute necessity.

The answer to the second question is more complex and I will try to be fair to those I disagree with, to convey their stances as accurately as I can.

Starting in 1947, it became clear that there were those in the Islamic/Arab worlds who would never accept any kind of Israel in the region, no matter its borders. Originally that was the entire Islamic world, but since then some countries have made peace and normalised relations with Israel (Like Egypt, Jordan etc) But there are still parts, for example Iran, Hamas etc that want to wipe them out. Iran, in particular, I believe, wants to develop nuclear weapons so that they can slaughter the Jews (and maybe also Sunni Muslims) wholesale instead of just in small numbers through proxies as today.

Another problem for Israel is that Iran has allies across the world, Russia, China, North Korea, Venezuela etc.

But these problems pale in comparison to its largest and most powerful enemies: the Western Radical Left. This group is happy to collaborate with the others, happy to repeat their genocidal chants like "From the River to the Sea, Palestine (a.k.a. an Arab country) will be free" etc. The modern/radical left has developed entire theories surrounding race, such as Critical Race Theory, which centres around theories of power, oppression and privilege. In a nutshell, it holds white people as oppressors and some others (like the so-called BIPOC in the US) as inherent victims of oppression, based on their theories of power.

In that respect, they cast the Israelis as "white" (even though that's not true as only a minority of Israeli Jews are full blooded European) and the Palestinians as POCs or People of Colour. To radically over-simplify radical-Leftist thought, it logically follows, from their view, that Israel is the bad guy, and that the Palestinians are helpless victims with absolutely no agency. That's why Israel's actions are presented as though they're happening in a vacuum, as if their enemies literally don't exist.

That's it in a nutshell. The amount of hoops they go through to defend every single thing Israel has done since Oct the 07th is mind boggling.

Oh as well I condemn Oct the 07th. Because you HAVE to condemn it in every post you do. Or you're an anti semite. Because not wanting thousands of innocent children to be killed is being anti semite.

I pointed out weeks ago they were bombing the f**k out of Gaza and was lambasted, saying its targeted blah blah. Its targeted at journalists alright. And over half of all Gaza's houses are now uninhabitable. So that is actually bombing the crap out of the place.

Now we see Israelis saying Gazans should live elsewhere. Watch the next few weeks and the somersaults that the usual posters will do to justify every single Israeli action of horror. Maybe they just have no empathy. Lastly I know theres wars on in Syria and Yemen. Thats not an argument winner, it's a thread about the Israel/Hamas conflict.

1. Why do the Israelis behave as they now do, and:
2. How come they have so little respect in the international community

1. Because this is their retribution on people they hate. This is more than being about neutralising Hamas. In doing so, they are committing genocide and committing war crimes
2. Because of 1

Schindler's List was on telly on Friday. Its a long time since I last saw it. The parallels with what Israel is doing to Gaza are very disturbing.

Admittedly I haven't done a 4 year degree in CRT but I am loosely familiar with Radical Leftist thought based around race. Like I said, a full discussion of CRT and the Radical Left's theories on race are beyond the scope of this thread, but I do believe these concepts/theories colour (pun intended) the Radical Left's view of Israel and the Palestinians. In particular, that the Radical Left hate Israel for racial reasons no matter what they do or what their enemies do to them.

Allusions to racial concepts have been common on this thread with at least poster having brought race into it and you yourself IIRC having brought in "critical" concepts like "Orientalism."

But you cannot deny that Israeli Jews are considered to be "white" (even though only a minority of them are full blooded European Jews) and that Palestinians are correctly considered to be brown/Arab. And you cannot deny that the modern Radical Left bases much of their theories based on race, although like I said, a full exploration of their theories, the terms they use etc. are beyond the scope of this thread.

It's not difficult to conclude thusly that the Left's view of Israel-Palestine is 'coloured' by their perception of the races of the people involved.

100%. Most leftists simply views Jews as "whites" even though very few Jews consider themselves so regardless of their blood. And of course "whites" must be held to higher standards than brown "people of colour" from Palestine.

Israel isn't an empire, the metropole is the centre of an empire - it even says that in the Wiki entry to you linked to. They're expanding their territory by conquest/expansion. Colonialism isn't a "leftist concept" either, accusing anyone and everything you don't agree with or like as "leftist" isn't doing what it probably is you think it's doing.

More often than not Israel is the aggressor and only because they can hide behind the US. After this war to try to paint them as the victim is ridiculous.

American style ID pol has been wholly embraced by the Western left, so it's not outrageous to use such framework to analyse how the left may or may not view the conflict.