Pro-Palestinian demonstration

12 Oct 2023

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Okay, so let's say a Russian couple, finished with their vacation in Russian-occupied Crimea, head across the Kerch Bridge on their way home. The Kerch Bridge is a military-civilian asset, it's used for military supplies as well as for civilian traffic.  Well, it's 3:00 in the morning and Ukraine bombs the bridge. The couple is now classified as "collateral damage." Ukraine had no intention of killing them, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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On the morning of Saturday, October 7, Hamas launchd a large-scle attack on Israel. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, described what Hamas had done to civilians that had been captured:

Netanyahu's office released what it said were "horrifying photos of babies murdered and burned by the Hamas monsters"
...

"They were horrific pictures of the attacks and the victims of the attacks," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters, saying it "confirmed the brutality of the attacks".

These are murder victims. They aren't accidental deaths. Hamas should be (and largely is) condemned for these deaths.

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This blogger examines the issue of the brutality of Hamas, also using the Kerch Bridge example, but he goes on at greater lengtth.

This is very good news.

#Hamas leadership understands they have a problem. They understand they went too far. They understand they lost significant public support.

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Now, if you want to drive a liberal crazy, especially someone who criticizes the media a lot, you can take a "BothSides" approach to a story and to suggest that both sides bear some responsibility for the problem. In a great many cases, this characterization is simply not true. It isn't "Congress" that's the problem, the probelm is  more specific than that. It might very well just be "Republicans" or the former Speaker Kevin McCarthy or the Chairmn of the House Judiciary Committee Jim Jordan.

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But "BothSides" isn't always wrong. In the case of Israel-Palestine, there actually is plenty of blame for both sides. The blame for Hamas has mostly occured just over the last few days. The blame for Israel goes back a great many years. One of the most undignified exercises of power that Israel uses against Palestinians is that the West Bank is split up into many small sections, each separated by an Israeli checkpoint. Normally, officials of Fatah, or the Palestinian Authority (PA), can travel through these checkpoints at will. but there are times that Israel decides"Nah, these PA officials are not permitted to travel. They have to remain in their usual home distrits." Sure, there are sound securty reasons for this, but it's an ever-present reminder that no matter how high-ranking a Palestinian official is, they don't control their own land.

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From Informed Comment;

Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) have recently faced perhaps unprecedented repression. During the first nine months of 2023, Israeli authorities killed more Palestinians in the West Bank in 2023 than in any year since the United Nations began systematically recording fatalities in 2005. As of October, the number of Palestinians being held in administrative detention without charges or trial based on secret information reached a 30-year-high. Israel’s unlawful closure of Gaza, including its generalized ban on the travel of Palestinian residents who live in this 40-by-11 kilometer (25-by-7 mile) strip of land, with few exceptions, recently entered its 17th year.

Foreign Policy in Focus agrees that at least the effect of Israeli policies produces a BothSides result: "Both Israelis and Palestinians Are Victims of Israel’s Apartheid System"

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Netanyahu's popularity has crashed since Hamas attacked and the wreckage is burning. He isn't likely to lose office until the immediate situation is over, but is highly unlikely to be in offic after that.

From an Israeli Twitter/X user: "The IDF gives an ultimatum to the residents of Gaza by 20:00 you must leave the northern Gaza Strip." There's of course, nowhere to go!
And if they successfully flee? What then?

UN agrees. The demand is impossible to fulfill.

Not helpful. From Human Rights Watch: "HRW Confirms: Israel is Using White Phosphorus in Gaza"

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