Israel/Palestine Thread

What do you mean "if the war is so lopsided" - the statistics are widely available, look them up if you have the will. The ratio of approx 98%/2% (80% civilian) is unprecedented in an "all out war". It is approaching Rwanda ratios.

Again, surrendering is not carte blanche for policies which mass target civilians, which cause intentional famine, or destroying all civilian infrastructure. You aren't arguing this isn't a genocide, you are making up an imaginary metric that is irrelevant to whether it is or isn't

And again, you didn't answer the question on the hospital hypothetical, you made up a different one.

If the IDF fired missiles at a hospital in Tel Aviv to get a terrorist, killing the Israeli patients, civilians and medical professionals inside, you would support it, or not? Would you consider it a warcrime, or not?

You have shown you support the act described when the victims are Gazan civilians, such is your hatred for Hamas terrorists. They are collateral damage in the hunt for said terrorist, you have said as such many times.

Under IHL, all civilians, regardless of "side", deserve equal protection. That is how most people view this conflict, especially if they live in a neutral country like Ireland (one would hope).

It seems you see a difference between Gazan and Israeli civilians in this respect.

If so, can you explain why?

If you dont see a difference, I don't understand why you can't you answer yes or no?

You would have to ask them. I would say they are extremists who will never be seen to give up, and who also treat their people as collateral.

But it is still irrelevant to the question of whether Israel are committing mass atrocities against civilans or not. I fail to see your logic as I am not talking about them fighting Hamas, I am talking about policies which predictably cause population wide harm to all men women and children in Gaza, about brutal collective punishment.

As to your dodge of the hospital hypothetical - under IHL, it is a "main job" of a military to protect civilian life when carrying out objectives "to the greatest extent possible".

It is a main job to provide evidence of terrorist activity. To allow journalists to document actions. On and on.

Yet you flit away the enormous civilian death toll in Gaza as "collateral damage". You don't ask "serious questions of the IDF" about any of this when the victims are Gazan, in fact you often slander those that do.

In your posts you clearly see a difference between Gazan and Israeli civilians caught up in this conflict. Can you explain why? It is a genuine question, I can't understand it.

Are you serious? ISIS are Israel's proxy. Did you not know that?

That explains Israel’s tacit support of ISIS in Syria at least up until it became clear ISIS was on the way out. Wounded ISIS fighters were ferried into the Golan Heights for treatment and then returned. Israel-sourced arms were discovered in abandoned ISIS locations. This all seemed too bizarre to be believed, but makes sense in the “long run” strategy of Israel to keep the resistance divided, brazenly accelerating the illegal settlements while ISIS re-educated its flock for some distant confrontation with Israel.

You could be right! It could take Israel 50 years to exterminate Palestinians. After all, the IDF are a bunch of goat thieves :) Maybe they are destined for the land stolen by settler thieves?

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-troops-steal-250-goats-syria-and-smuggle-them-occupied-west-bank

The ethnic-cleansing erasure of Palestine continues.

An amendment to a geography textbook used in UNRWA schools, in which the word “Palestine” was removed, sparked widespread outrage and protests across several Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, according to reports.

The word “Palestine” was replaced with “West Bank” and “Gaza Strip” on a map for sixth-grade students for the 2025-2026 academic year, reports said.

Public opinion is massively changing in the US, especially with the younger people. Took a while but hard to see it not increasing.

I think Sean, calling ISIS and Al Qaeda Iranian proxies shows the gaps in your knowledge. Do a little research on the Iran/ISIS relationship.

Weapons systems have moved on since 85 years ago. Collateral damage where civilians are killed unintentionally is different from what we have seen in Gaza where civilians, children are specifically targeted which is a war crime. Hence Israeli politicians are wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Wars have also been won with relatively few civilian casualties. For example the Six Day War in 1967, Falklands War. Etc.

Israel has killed tens of thousands of civilians but have not defeated Hamas but have lost a huge amount of political legitimacy internationally.

You'd wonder when the penny will drop with Merz that his beloved Israel is firmly in the Trump - Russia nexus and is no friend of Europe or NATO.

Yes, neither were a genocide. Although Israel did start the Six Day war, killed prisoners of war, committed ethnic cleansing and murdered American sailors. All in under a week.

Shackles and genocide for shekels

Israel's overarching strategy from the time gas was discovered in Gaza in 2000 until now "has revolved mainly around monopolizing control over the natural gas reserves in Gaza Marine and the oil reserves along the West Bank-Israel border while simultaneously depriving the Palestinians of a fair share of revenues resulting from these resources."

The desire to take control of gas off the coast of Gaza may be one reason for Israel's ongoing genocide. If Israel is able to achieve its goal of ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza and annexing the strip for Jewish settlement, this would allow it to take control of Palestinian's untapped gas wealth as well.

"Israel was established in 1948 on land seized during the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and later occupied the remaining Palestinian territories. Israel continues to reject withdrawal and the establishment of a Palestinian state."