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

Another interesting piece on a recent Knesset debate (Haaretz - sorry, paywalled). I post this only illustrate that at the political level beneath Govt. Ministers, there are those that have some empathy and others who are hell bent on Genocide. Those who have empathy also have a lot of courage.

Israel's Knesset held a first-of-its-kind discussion on the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. During a meeting last Thursday, Dr. Sharon Shaul from NATAN, an Israeli-based organization that provides humanitarian aid around the world, made a seemingly trivial remark:

"I think that even everyone sitting around this table doesn't want a suffering child to be unable to receive painkillers or minimal medical treatment."

Israeli lawmaker Amit Halevi (Likud) angrily interrupted her:

"I'm not sure you're speaking for us when you say we want to treat every child and every woman. I hope you don't stand behind that statement either. When fighting a group like this, the distinctions that exist in a normal world don't exist."

Shaul didn't back down:

"I hope that you too don't want a 4-year-old whose arm has been amputated to go without painkillers. I hope you have that empathy too."

Lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech (Religious Zionism) couldn't hold back:

"The only treatment needed here is for you," she said, pointing at Shaul. Another participant remarked: "You are the sickest doctor I've ever seen."

The discussion was convened by MK Moshe Tur-Paz (Yesh Atid) as part of a subcommittee of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee dealing with public diplomacy and foreign relations. The issue at hand was not hunger in and of itself, but the diplomatic and public relations damage it might cause.

"To my understanding, the State of Israel does not intend to use hunger as a tool. I believe that even if there are no uninvolved civilians, in the Jewish morality I know, there is no permission to starve non-combatants, and I am under the impression that the Israeli government is not heading toward starving Gaza," Tur-Paz said after the meeting.

But those who set the tone in the discussion were Halevi and Son Har-Melech. Contrary to Dr. Shaul's hope, many around the table indeed thought that the starvation and torment of Gazan children is not only legitimate but even desirable.

It's hard to fathom the evil of those people with no empathy. One of the stages of genocide is dehumanisation and they seem experts at it. Gazans are just rats in their eyes.

It has become a very warped society and political system. They are fully exposing their nutjobs and intentions now though.

The following BBC verify video shows aerial footage of the areas where aid is distributed.

With all the barbed wire, fences and human pens, it looks vaguely familiar to B&W footage from 80 years ago.

What's sick is that so many know that this is evil, yet they are perfectly content to turn a blind eye to what israel is doing.

I missed this report in amongst all the other reports (telling in itself).

That former Supreme Court Justices have signed the letter, which states

""…genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide occurring," the legal experts wrote.

does not bode well for Israel's case before the ICJ.

Some 828 UK-based or qualified legal experts, among them former Supreme Court justices, signed a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday.

They warned "genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza" from Israel's blockade of food and aid and its new military offensive, which has killed hundreds of Palestinians there in the past fortnight.

As I said months ago, history will be very kind to Ireland's early stance on Israel's genocide. Not that it helps the people of Gaza. We called it out long before other countries had the courage to do so. Our president in particular drew extreme vitriol from the Israeli government and some Irish folks that were afraid to annoy Trump.

Have to say that I hope all the people in the room felt something deep within them when Riyad Mansour spoke.

hmmmmm , I'd believe Hamas far more than isreal at this stage

Believe neither.

That's powerful stuff. It's very very sad. I'd say the Israelis hate that the state of Palestine has a seat at the UN table.

Did you notice how the Israeli guy yawned during the speech.

The 'free the hostages and Hamas should surrender' line appears to have fallen off a cliff. Their boss Netanyahu is no longer even talking about either of these things - now openly discussing the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and displacement of the entire population.

That is a great post. Well said.

Yes, I heard one Jewish commentator (who hates Netanyahu) describe it in stark terms as "the final solution to the Gaza question". Solve the 'problem' of Gaza by removing the entire population and flood the place in future years with Israeli Jews only. Would mean multiple war crimes and breaches of international law obviously, and would also come under the category of genoide as it entails the forced displacement of an entire people from their homeland.

I think Ideal like another poster said wants a "final solution" and to take all of Gaza. However if international pressure is too much they won't be able to achieve this.

Instead I think they'll annex the slimmer northern stretch of Gaza and leave the southern corner for the West and the Arab nations to fund a rebuild.

So Khan Younis will become the new capital of Gaza. Because of Israeli influence embedded amongst the western world I personally think they'll get away with this.

It'll be far easier to contain and defend against the inevitable resumption of missiles launched into Israel from HAMAS when the war finally ends. That's assuming their "final plan" solution doesn't actually happen.

Nobody's had the balls to directly confront Russia in Ukraine so it'll definitely never happen in Gaza.