andrewrgross

This is truly horrific. I think anyone with a kid is hit especially hard. Imagining my kid drinking contaminated water, and being too tired to play, and just sitting in a makeshift tent, unable to get a good night's rest, constantly running from bombs... That's hell. No child should have to experience that.

Jesus Christ, dude.

Last I checked, Hamas wasn't made up of newborns.

Fuck.

I just want to preempt any debate over whether these claims are credible by saying that they are fundamentally not relevant to the long-term needs of this situation.

Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel need to be afforded their human rights. Israelis need security, and will never get it from violence and ruthless persecution of this ethnic underclass they've created.

My point is that if you diagram out the best of course of action, all nodes on that diagram that are based on what Hamas has or hasn't done lead to no meaningful difference. Their violence is abhorrent. There is no point is debating over their tactics or location however, because none of it changes the harsh realities that only a negotiation that provides Palestinians access to safe homes, education, food, etc. is going to bring an end to the cycle of violence, and I feel compelled to point this out whenever these distractions pop up, as they do on a daily basis.

It's darkly funny to imagine something worse than that.

'It's just kids -- so not exactly surprising to see it here. Anyway, get over it. Move on.'

See, this is the kind of context I'm looking for.

I highly doubt that any country would fly into combat airspace without coordination. That sounds a recipe for a massive international incident if a plane gets shot down.

I think about this all the time. I think about how unhappy it makes me to see a day wasted. If my kid spends a day in front of the TV I worry that he's missing out on something. And that assumes we have TV. I think about a few hours in an airport, and how erratic and miserable it makes my kid and the adults, and being stuck in this state while also constantly running from hellfire raining down, never getting clean, never getting a good meal, never getting a good night's rest... Hell does not seem sufficient to describe it.

Btw, I think the comparison between Zionism and Nazism is unhelpful. It's not unjustified, but the comparison obscures more than it reveals, imo. I think saying that Israel and the US are committing naked genocide captures the situation pretty effectively, and produces much more effective discussions online. As soon as the Nazi comparison comes up, I think it gives people who are uncertain what to believe an excuse to dismiss the criticisms against the Israeli government, and defenders of the genocide an easy way to divert the conversation away from Israel's recent and not so recent war crimes.

Yeah, and weird. Why, exactly? Like the author of the post, I don't believe people should "possess" ideas, I think everything should be freely repurposed. But it should be honest. It looks like this person took a story they liked and made meaningful changes, but deliberately obscured the obvious source material. And the source material does sound better and more cohesive.

How did they make it? Was it acted out with actors? Synthetic media?

I reject the framing of "Neither side": there are not two sides, there are many.

First, I think what you mean is that the Netanyahu government and Sinwar's Hamas don't want a ceasefire. And technically, it's more accurate to say that neither side wants a ceasefire along the terms offered by the other.

Secondly, though, I don't support either of these two parties. I didn't say "there needs to be a ceasefire when Hamas and Likud feel like it". Both sides are currently run by war criminals, and the matter shouldn't be in their hands.

I'm an American Jew, and my primary interest is compelling my president and government to stop providing material/logistical/political support for genocide. I want conditions on aid to Israel, and a formal declaration that the US position is that the war has gone far beyond securing Israel's safety and is clearly destabilizing the security of Israel, the US, and the region (not to mention Palestinian noncombatants). And if Netanyahu and Sinwar don't like it, that's good because their interests are diametrically opposed to mine.

I think it's spelled Ben-Gvir, but I'm glad his name is starting to reach American ears. The guy is both the head of the national police and also literally a convicted terrorist.

Biden and Blinken and their allies in media need to start recognizing that Sending weapons to a government that includes convicted terrorists has to be a red line. The guy was on Israeli AND American watchlists before he got appointed to be in charge of the entire Israeli police and prisons. That's just insane. And he's apparently the second most extreme member of the cabinet (the most radical is Bezalel Smotrich, who was charged but never convicted of terrorism).

I believe the Pope has already characterized these actions as terrorism.

Still, it just breaks my heart. Day after day, so many innocents killed and maimed. It must stop.

I hope, I hope, I hope.

The abandonment of the hostages is devastating to me. They are a backlight that reveals who doesn't care about human life at all, and unfortunately almost everyone on every side is glowing.

End the war. Release the hostages. Bring everyone home and negotiate a permanent path to peace. And while I'm wishing, I'd like the leaders on both sides charged with war crimes.