No. of Recommendations: 14
There is no difference to my view between the actions of Hamas in October or the IDF currently, except that the IDF casualties are an order of magnitude greater already and climbing.
I think this is the fundamental disagreement.
There is a difference between deliberately making the intentional murder and kidnapping of noncombatants your objective, and conducting military operations against an attacking belligerent knowing that it will result in unintended civilian deaths. The fact that the physical outcome is the same to the dead people does not make the actions equivalent, either morally or under international law.
Hamas doesn't get a "free pass" to attack Israel without a responsive attack simply because they have embedded themselves (unlawfully) within a civilian population. The fact that responsive combat against Hamas will unavoidably result in civilian casualties does not make the IDF's actions equivalent to Hamas' actions.
It's just false to claim a lack of difference between the intentional killing of noncombatants with the unavoidable and unintended killing of noncombatants.
How can anyone believe that the current action by the IDF will eradicate Hamas? Was the US military able to similarly eradicate the Viet Cong, or ISIS, or the Taliban. Fruitless endeavor. This looks to me more like a program designed to drive all the residents of Gaza south, claiming North Gaza for Israel.
I do. The US was able to substantially degrade the operational capacity of both Al Qaeda and ISIS to near-nil. The brand of Hamas might continue on (like those brands do) - but the specific organization as it presently is constituted can be degraded to near inutility. And the destruction of all of their physical resources in Gaza - the weapons and supply caches, tunnel networks, and other facilities - will substantially diminish the threat they pose.
Can we agree that Palestinians are human beings worthy of human rights, and not human animals as described by the Israeli defense minister?
Of course - although it's pretty clear from context that the Israeli defense minister was referring to Hamas (the people they are fighting against, and who committed the atrocities) and not the Palestinian people writ large. Well, clear unless you're predisposed to apply the worst possible interpretation on them because that's where your starting from.
