andrewrgross

This is a weird story, just because it takes place in front a backdrop of widespread child death and social collapse.

The thing is, it's STILL a tragedy. It just feels odd. Like reporting "American soldier from Illinois drowns during operation in Normandie" or "Woman killed in vehicular accident outside Bartertown".

Like... that's terrible, but they're in the midst of complete social collapse. There's no food or water, and also a kid dies in Gaza every 15 minutes. So again, it's really heartbreaking that this kind -- Ahmed Bracha -- died. It's just hard to figure how one writes an article about this particular child dying while apparently trying to get food among so many corpses of children trying to get food.

There needs to be a ceasefire. The siege must end. Hostages on both sides need to go home. This is truly atrocious.

I still can't believe we're likely to face another Trump presidency because Biden somehow viewed mass murderer as too alluring to resist.

What kind of trade is this? We give up American democracy (tarnished add it is) and the safety of millions of Americans who will be hunted under a fascist takeover in exchange for... what? Thousands and thousands of dead children??

What kind of insane trade is this?? Why???

I know the answer. Biden is a zealot for American Empire. He will trade literally anything for the perceived benefits of asserting the US's seat upon a throne of global power, regardless of how misused that power is. Ironically, he's clearly hastening the sunset of this empire. I wish I could say that's the silver lining, but that's really not much comfort among such horrors.

The incident [the brutal murder of three unarmed Israeli hostages screaming for help by Israeli soldiers] has sparked an uproar in Israel and put pressure on the government to reach a new deal with Hamas. The military chief has said the shooting was against its rules of engagement.

Oh really? Murdering your own hostages isn't in the handbook?

Joking aside, it's clear that the IDF is indiscriminately killing noncombatants. There's no good explanation for killing someone trying to surrender after telling them that it's safe to come out from cover. It's especially shocking that these were Israeli hostages, but it's clear that this isn't an aberration, it's how they have been treating Gazans this while time.

I genuinely don't understand what Musk considers his leverage here.

It seems like he has... none?

Go apply. Who knows? Maybe the job will be yours.

I want to add to this some blunt facts that the article leaves out:

1. Israeli soldiers are routinely participating in these acts of terrorism

2. Israel's police minister, Itmar Ben Gvir is a convicted terrorist who vocally advocates for terrorizing Palestinians off their land, and eventually forcably expelling all Arabs - including Israeli citizens - from Israel. He has made one of his primary goals arming settlers.

3. Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich is to Ben Gvir's right.

There's no point in finger wagging. These are international crimes sanctioned and perpetrated by the state.

This is so dumb and reductive, though.

First, that goal is like trying to drink the ocean. It's obviously impossible, so it's not useful as an indicator for what they'll agree to.

Second, we hear this over and over, but the only citation is their founding document over thirty years ago. And in 2006 they went through a moderate rebrand, and then a lot of people in the org died, and Sinwar spent two decades in Israeli prison, so... that doesn't really tell us where they're at in this moment.

Folks act like they're orcs. Just mindlessly evil. They're definitely completely ruthless, but the stuff they do isn't that different from what the IRA did, and they still made peace. So what does Sinwar want? Has anyone thought to ask?

This is such good news. Now the challenge is to keep both sides from reigniting.

I don't really know what Hamas and Haniyeh and Sinwar want, so it's hard to speculate what they'll do, but I know that Netanyahu is trying to reignite the war as hard as he can, and will be desperate to see the ceasefire ended prematurely under circumstances he can blame on Hamas.

For those who haven't followed his career (and his actions in the least week in particular) this seems abundantly clear. The absolute worst thing that could happen to him would be a deescalation that leads to an political negotiations. I really hope the US antiwar movement is prepared to increase their pressure, because I believe it's made the difference in getting us this far. As furious as I've been at Biden's response, I have read multiple reports that the US was far more involved in hostage negotiations than Israel, so I will give Biden this sliver of credit if people actually come home. But he really needs to stop propping up Bibi if he wants to land this plane for real.

It seems to me that they're planning on squeezing the people from the north into the south, then closing off the north from any return. This is consistent with a plan of annexing and depopulating Gaza.

If so, this would be ethnic cleansing. This strategy appears to be genocide.

This guy says a few very sane things, and then just totally loses connection with reality.

He's right that there a huge risk to our while civilization, and that we need to deescalate both sides. He's right that there will never be peace or security until Palestinians have a future.

And then he says that the peace treaty with Saudi Arabia was a step forward: it is not. It is a deal between authoritarians to further legalize Isreal's ethnic cleansing program.

He says that Hamas should release the hostages without conditions. I wish they would, but that is as sensible as suggesting that they should all turn over their weapons and turn themselves in to be scheduled for execution. How is that anything other than a further embrace of the current Israeli peace plan, which is displacement, conquest, eradication? That's not acceptable.

The international community needs to demand that Israel afford Palestinians living under permanent occupation full civil rights as Israeli citizens (including displaced Palestinian refugees) in exchange for security measures and a staged binational reintegration.

It's this or continued gradual genocide.

Geez. The article doesn't mention until paragraph six of seven:

"Separately, The Associated Press reported that an Israeli shell landed among a group of international journalists killing the Reuters journalist and injuring six others."

It's crazy that it's not even news that Israel is launching shells at journalists.

So how do you expect it to shake out, btw? Do you think if there's enough centaur cock on the sub they'll be forced to let you stay? Are you expecting to get demodded regardless? I'm deeply curious.