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

In fairness to RTE, they did report on the march. And in general, they do report a fair bit on the Middle East as do the BBC.

Everyone should be outraged at children being murdered regardless of sides. I brought up the fact that when Israeli children are murdered, there is outrage across the board. But when its Palestinian children, all we get is crickets from pro Israelis - no condemnation at all. They have taken a side and as long as its just the other side that is being murdered, they seem to be happy out. Pretty awful really.

But when a nation breaches not one ceasefire but two (Gaza and Lebanon), its not surprising really. The murder will continue - as will the silence.

More land grabbing in the West Bank

"This morning it was reported that the Security Cabinet decided last night to establish a new administration in the Defense Ministry tasked with enabling Palestinians to “voluntarily” leave the Gaza Strip, and to “split 13 settlements in Judea and Samaria.

” Since the Security Cabinet’s decisions are confidential, the text of the decision itself was not published, but publications indicate that it concerns granting independent status to settlements that already exist and operate as independent settlements, but until now have been considered “neighborhoods” of existing settlements, in order to avoid public and international criticism. This makes the number of officially recognized settlements 140, instead of 127. "

https://peacenow.org.il/en/the-cabinet-establishes-13-official-settlements

The hostage families are losing all trust in the Israeli Govt. and confirming that the original agreement was violated by Netanyahu (alleged War Criminal at large).

Israeli and Palestinians' suffering looks set to continue.

Yehuda Cohen, the father of Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, told Israel's public broadcaster that he has "no trust in any authority, neither governmental nor military. We are at a dead end. [U.S. President] Trump initiated a cease-fire proposal when he took office, got it, and then lost interest."

Cohen emphasized that "no one should tell me that returning to fighting is meant to bring back the hostages. The agreement said that the IDF would withdraw from Gaza on the 50th day [of the deal], and that in stage two of the agreement, there would be a cessation of fighting.

[But] Netanyahu, for his own personal and perverse reasons, violated the agreement, and Israel refused to move to the second stage."

"Even Gazans aren't preoccupied by the number of dead these days. They're busy with questions of day-to-day survival: Will Israeli attacks become as widespread as they were before the cease-fire? Will all of Gaza be reoccupied? And who will die today or tomorrow? Survival in Gaza is very temporary these days. If death doesn't come from an airstrike or artillery fire, it can come from disease or hunger or cold – babies are especially vulnerable" – Jack Khoury

Israel demonstrating their blood lust again

More on Hamdan Ballal -

"A Palestinian director of the Oscar-winning documentary No Other Land has been arrested by the Israeli army after masked settlers attacked his house.

According to five Jewish American activists who witnessed the attack, Hamdan Ballal, one of the four directors of the the film that documented the destruction of villages in the West Bank, was surrounded and attacked by a group of about 15 armed settlers in Susya in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron.

“They started throwing stones towards Palestinians and destroyed a water tank near Hamdan’s house,” said Joseph, of the activists from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, who asked not use his full name for security reasons.

The witnesses said that a group of soldiers arrived at the scene alongside other settlers dressed in military uniform, who chased Hamdan to his house and handed him over to the military."

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/24/oscar-winning-palestinian-director-attacked-by-israeli-settlers-and-arrested

It underlines my view that "settlers"(in actuality well armed colonists) can't be viewed as civillians, but are part of the machinery of Israeli occupation and its inherent violence.

Once again, crickets over Hamdan Ballal being beaten half to death and disappeared for his troubles.

Surrender followed by what? Accept that Gaza's destiny is to be ruled forever more by a racist, apartheid state and will never be independent?

I'm no fan of Hamas whatsoever but I've never heard of an independence or revolutionary movement that was expected to disband and accept its status as an oppressed region.

Being one does not preclude the other.

I'm stating that you're using the term "terrorist" as an appeal to emotion, that it's entirely possible for an organization to be a revolutionary independence movement and to be 'terrorists' and that suggesting otherwise is to present a false dichotomy. One need only look at Israels history and its struggle against the British to see examples of this.

Please refrain from falsely representing my position. I have made none of the claims you attributed to me.

"evil terrorist organisation" is ,again, an emotional argument. However if we follow the line that hamas's actions make it so, what of the far greater scale of 'evil deeds' and Israel? What description do you give the Israeli state?

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/2-other-palestinians-arrested-alongside-oscar-winning-activist-for-alleged-rock-throwing/

So these guys call him a rock throwing terrorist. The whole situation is hopeless ffs.

Evil terrorist organisation is a factual description of Hamas, no emotion, just cold reality. Why are you so afraid to agree with that description?

I portrayed your view of Hamas as one of a "noble revolutionary independence movement, working on behalf of the downtrodden people, with the people's full support" and you claimed that wasn't so, either.

So what are Hamas?

A Nation State defined under international law claiming legitimate self-defence.

Could you explain to me how killing roughly 35,000 women and children is "legitimate self-defence"?

What difference does Israel being a "nation state" make?