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If you’re not going to be satisfied with anything short of Netanyahu on tape saying “our intent is to kill as many Palestinian civilians as possible”verbatim, t

If you’re not going to be satisfied with anything short of Netanyahu on tape saying “our intent is to kill as many Palestinian civilians as possible”verbatim, then we can just end this conversation now. Even the US would probably be forced to meaningfully withdraw support if Israel fully took the mask off (though as I’ve shown, many high ranking ministers and IDF members have come shockingly close). What you hear instead are thinly-veiled justifications. Oh, we had to bomb those hospitals because there were tunnels there. So sorry about the civilian deaths at a refugee camp, but we just wanted to get that one commander. Let’s be real here. Israel shut off food, water, medicine and electricity to Gaza. They’ve damaged over 2/3 of the buildings there [1]. As of a month ago, they’d dropped almost 2x the amount of explosives the US delivered to Hiroshima [2]. These are not the actions of a country “going after military targets even at some cost to civilians”. Israel is doing exactly what Hagari said: inflicting maximum damage. [1] https://x.com/tksshawa/status/1732447886237974898 https://x.com/tksshawa/status/1732447886237974898 [2] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/11/9/israel-attacks-on-gaza-weapons-and-scale-of-destruction https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2023/11/9/israel-att...

Natsu 3y ago
If they're planning to just kill everyone, why haven't they just leveled the place? Militarily speaking, they can do that right now and have been able to do that for a long time. So if that's their true goal, then what stops them from giving the order right now? Meanwhile, Palestine has shown no restraint at all in their 10/7 massacre and no Jews live in Palestine, whereas many Arabs live peacefully in Israel.
- bluish29 3y ago
  > Meanwhile, Palestine has shown no restraint at all in their 10/7 massacre and no Jews live in Palestine, whereas many Arabs live peacefully in Israel. Do you realize that isreal is the side who killed at least 10x the number that the other side kill. I can see that you describe hamas's action as horrible but there is no way of condition that justifies what isreal did and is still doing to Palestinian civilians (no matter how you think you can)
  - Natsu 3y ago
    Israel could kill literally everyone though, and has been able since long before this. So the idea that they're not restrained in their response ignores that capability. As to the latter part, you're pulling a trick to imply that the 10x are all civilian non-combatants, which is just as bad as the other people pretending that all the teen-aged Hamas soldiers who have been killing people are non-combatant children.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - YZF 3y ago
    This is one relevant read: https://time.com/3035937/gaza-israel-hamas-palestinian-casualties/ https://time.com/3035937/gaza-israel-hamas-palestinian-casua... Why are we playing this numbers game? If Hamas hypothetically had killed 30,000 Israels would you be saying that Israel still has 12,000 to go? Every person matters and in a war there are no targets for how many people are killed, in wars people get killed for achieving some other objectives. I would imagine that even if Hamas had only killed 150 people in Israel we'd be in exactly the same place and the ratio would be 100x because there's a point where Israel has to (well, at least they think) reoccupy Gaza at any cost. Israel was almost there in previous conflicts, but backed off. There is no war in history, as far as I know, but willing to be corrected, where the measure or who is wrong and who is right, or when the war should end, was some threshold or ratio in the number of dead people. A war continues until both sides agree to stop it. Wars have a terrible human price. I think something like 400,000 people have died in the war in Yemen. I think there are hundreds of thousands of dead in the Russian-Ukraine war (mostly soldiers but they're people, and young people, too. Many civilians.). Sudan is pretty bad. 600,000 killed in the Syria civil war.
  - kaba0 3y ago
    Because Israel cares about their civilians and defends them at huge costs (Iron Dome), while hamas is happier the more civilian death happens on their side, as it’s free propaganda/media outrage for them - see human shield, starting rockets from civilian buildings, etc.
- jakelazaroff 3y ago
  I already answered your question. Your second point is wrong, by the way. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews living in settlements in the West Bank.
  - Natsu 3y ago
    Only if you want to claim that words are more revealing of intentions than actions, which would discredit you. The hospital they bombed had the parking lot damaged by a failed Hamas rocket. The "refugee camp" has been there for many years, not as huddled fleeing masses, but permanent structures from people who fled there long ago, the tunnel network is well known and there's video evidence, the aid was being supplied by Israel to begin with (including the water) and they were using the pipes to make weapons, etc. So I'm not surprised to find that none of your other points make sense either.
    - jakelazaroff 3y ago
      Sure, let’s look at their actions: - Killed almost 18,000 people - Displaced 1.9 million people - Cut off food, water, medicine, fuel, electricity and Internet access - Limited press access except for footage reviewed by the IDF - Dropped ~2x as much explosive as the US dropped in Hiroshima - Damaged over 2/3 of buildings - Bombed basically every hospital - Bombed an ambulance - Told people to move south and then bombed Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt - Kidnapped thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank - Tortured Palestinian abductees - Handed out weapons to West Bank settlers - Stripped civilians and paraded them through the streets This is all after October 7th — before that, Israeli settlers were responsible for pogroms and dozens of murders in the West Bank.
      - Natsu 3y ago
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        deleted 3y ago
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YZF 3y ago
I'm honestly not sure how to engage in this discussion. Rather than asking me for what proof I would accept, what proof would you accept that Israel is not trying to kill as many Palestinian civilians as possible? If that was the goal, wouldn't you think more Palestinians be dead by now? How does this goal benefit Israel in any way? But it's a fair question what would it take to convince me. I think you'd need to show me enough incidents of Israel intentionally targeting civilians with the clear goal of maximizing civilian deaths. e.g. carpet bombing of civilians in the south with casualties in the 10's of thousands from one bombing raid or indiscriminate artillery firing on the south like we see the Russians doing in Ukraine. Just a by the way, do you know what exactly "refugee camp" means in the context of this conflict? Can you describe what that is and why it's called a refugee camp. I'm asking because it seems many do not know (and if you don't, it's not actually what you think it is). Haven't you seen large numbers of civilians walking from the north part of Gaza to the south part of Gaza right by Israeli soldiers and tanks? I've seen IDF soldiers give them water as they're passing by. There were photos of civilians arrested yesterday (and treated poorly, doesn't look good) ... but alive. Israel does provide water now to Gaza. It did temporarily shut down its water supply to Gaza which is part of how Gazans get water (but not the sole source). How many people have died from lack of water? Food is restricted but is getting in. Probably not enough. How many people have died from starvation?. Medicine is coming in. Israel is not providing electricity. It's a war! Many, one might say too many, have died. Can you provide references to other major wars where one side was providing the other side with water, food, electricity, medicine? When siege was laid on Mosul did the US provide all those to the citizens of the city? Did the Russians to Mariupol? And sure, I understand Gaza's situations is a bit unique so it's hard to find parallels (and definitely don't want Israel to be compared to Russia). There is definitely wide scale destruction to structures. I've seen the figure 1/3 today. It's all one big combat zones, when tanks fire inside cities and airplanes drop bombs, and artillery shells targets there is widespread damage. Very much like major scale war in other urban areas around the world, Bahkmut, Mariupol, are two examples from the other active conflict. I don't take it as proof of targeting civilians. It is a tactic to avoid urban warfare, booby traps, remove cover that the enemy can use etc. I agree it's a pretty brutal tactic but not one specifically disallowed in the rules of war. Have you ever been to Israel? I'm just curious. Do you know many Israelis?
kaba0 3y ago
If they “only” managed to kill this amount of people with that amount of (much more modern) explosives, isn’t that proof in itself that they don’t want to deal maximal casualties? Or otherwise they are very bad at it. With that said, any amount of civilian death is tragic - and we should absolutely mandate Israel to be as specific in their attacks as possible. But 0 civilian casualty is impossible to achieve. What we can know, even according to the biased hamas numbers, they are roughly in the 2 civilian to 1 military personnel ratio, which is absolutely realistic given the circumstances/other modern warfares, etc. Feel free to refute this statement of mine, if you do believe that they “want to kill as many civilians as possible”.
- jakelazaroff 3y ago
  I’ve said this multiple times in this thread — Israel is unable to truly inflict maximum casualties because they cannot afford to lose the US as their ally. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has admitted as much: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gallant-we-cant-say-no-to-the-us-on-humanitarian-aid-given-how-much-they-do-for-us/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gallant-we-cant...
- account42 3y ago
  > But 0 civilian casualty is impossible to achieve. No it isn't. It might be impossible to achieve Israel's goals without any civilian casualties but those goals are not a given. Not doing anything would have caused less total suffering than Israel's current strategy.

Natsu 3y ago

If they're planning to just kill everyone, why haven't they just leveled the place? Militarily speaking, they can do that right now and have been able to do that for a long time. So if that's their true goal, then what stops them from giving the order right now? Meanwhile, Palestine has shown no restraint at all in their 10/7 massacre and no Jews live in Palestine, whereas many Arabs live peacefully in Israel.

bluish29 3y ago
> Meanwhile, Palestine has shown no restraint at all in their 10/7 massacre and no Jews live in Palestine, whereas many Arabs live peacefully in Israel. Do you realize that isreal is the side who killed at least 10x the number that the other side kill. I can see that you describe hamas's action as horrible but there is no way of condition that justifies what isreal did and is still doing to Palestinian civilians (no matter how you think you can)
- Natsu 3y ago
  Israel could kill literally everyone though, and has been able since long before this. So the idea that they're not restrained in their response ignores that capability. As to the latter part, you're pulling a trick to imply that the 10x are all civilian non-combatants, which is just as bad as the other people pretending that all the teen-aged Hamas soldiers who have been killing people are non-combatant children.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- YZF 3y ago
  This is one relevant read: https://time.com/3035937/gaza-israel-hamas-palestinian-casualties/ https://time.com/3035937/gaza-israel-hamas-palestinian-casua... Why are we playing this numbers game? If Hamas hypothetically had killed 30,000 Israels would you be saying that Israel still has 12,000 to go? Every person matters and in a war there are no targets for how many people are killed, in wars people get killed for achieving some other objectives. I would imagine that even if Hamas had only killed 150 people in Israel we'd be in exactly the same place and the ratio would be 100x because there's a point where Israel has to (well, at least they think) reoccupy Gaza at any cost. Israel was almost there in previous conflicts, but backed off. There is no war in history, as far as I know, but willing to be corrected, where the measure or who is wrong and who is right, or when the war should end, was some threshold or ratio in the number of dead people. A war continues until both sides agree to stop it. Wars have a terrible human price. I think something like 400,000 people have died in the war in Yemen. I think there are hundreds of thousands of dead in the Russian-Ukraine war (mostly soldiers but they're people, and young people, too. Many civilians.). Sudan is pretty bad. 600,000 killed in the Syria civil war.
- kaba0 3y ago
  Because Israel cares about their civilians and defends them at huge costs (Iron Dome), while hamas is happier the more civilian death happens on their side, as it’s free propaganda/media outrage for them - see human shield, starting rockets from civilian buildings, etc.
jakelazaroff 3y ago
I already answered your question. Your second point is wrong, by the way. There are hundreds of thousands of Jews living in settlements in the West Bank.
- Natsu 3y ago
  Only if you want to claim that words are more revealing of intentions than actions, which would discredit you. The hospital they bombed had the parking lot damaged by a failed Hamas rocket. The "refugee camp" has been there for many years, not as huddled fleeing masses, but permanent structures from people who fled there long ago, the tunnel network is well known and there's video evidence, the aid was being supplied by Israel to begin with (including the water) and they were using the pipes to make weapons, etc. So I'm not surprised to find that none of your other points make sense either.
  - jakelazaroff 3y ago
    Sure, let’s look at their actions: - Killed almost 18,000 people - Displaced 1.9 million people - Cut off food, water, medicine, fuel, electricity and Internet access - Limited press access except for footage reviewed by the IDF - Dropped ~2x as much explosive as the US dropped in Hiroshima - Damaged over 2/3 of buildings - Bombed basically every hospital - Bombed an ambulance - Told people to move south and then bombed Rafah crossing, on the border with Egypt - Kidnapped thousands of Palestinians from the West Bank - Tortured Palestinian abductees - Handed out weapons to West Bank settlers - Stripped civilians and paraded them through the streets This is all after October 7th — before that, Israeli settlers were responsible for pogroms and dozens of murders in the West Bank.
    - Natsu 3y ago
      [flagged]
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]

YZF 3y ago

I'm honestly not sure how to engage in this discussion. Rather than asking me for what proof I would accept, what proof would you accept that Israel is not trying to kill as many Palestinian civilians as possible? If that was the goal, wouldn't you think more Palestinians be dead by now? How does this goal benefit Israel in any way? But it's a fair question what would it take to convince me. I think you'd need to show me enough incidents of Israel intentionally targeting civilians with the clear goal of maximizing civilian deaths. e.g. carpet bombing of civilians in the south with casualties in the 10's of thousands from one bombing raid or indiscriminate artillery firing on the south like we see the Russians doing in Ukraine. Just a by the way, do you know what exactly "refugee camp" means in the context of this conflict? Can you describe what that is and why it's called a refugee camp. I'm asking because it seems many do not know (and if you don't, it's not actually what you think it is). Haven't you seen large numbers of civilians walking from the north part of Gaza to the south part of Gaza right by Israeli soldiers and tanks? I've seen IDF soldiers give them water as they're passing by. There were photos of civilians arrested yesterday (and treated poorly, doesn't look good) ... but alive. Israel does provide water now to Gaza. It did temporarily shut down its water supply to Gaza which is part of how Gazans get water (but not the sole source). How many people have died from lack of water? Food is restricted but is getting in. Probably not enough. How many people have died from starvation?. Medicine is coming in. Israel is not providing electricity. It's a war! Many, one might say too many, have died. Can you provide references to other major wars where one side was providing the other side with water, food, electricity, medicine? When siege was laid on Mosul did the US provide all those to the citizens of the city? Did the Russians to Mariupol? And sure, I understand Gaza's situations is a bit unique so it's hard to find parallels (and definitely don't want Israel to be compared to Russia). There is definitely wide scale destruction to structures. I've seen the figure 1/3 today. It's all one big combat zones, when tanks fire inside cities and airplanes drop bombs, and artillery shells targets there is widespread damage. Very much like major scale war in other urban areas around the world, Bahkmut, Mariupol, are two examples from the other active conflict. I don't take it as proof of targeting civilians. It is a tactic to avoid urban warfare, booby traps, remove cover that the enemy can use etc. I agree it's a pretty brutal tactic but not one specifically disallowed in the rules of war. Have you ever been to Israel? I'm just curious. Do you know many Israelis?

kaba0 3y ago

If they “only” managed to kill this amount of people with that amount of (much more modern) explosives, isn’t that proof in itself that they don’t want to deal maximal casualties? Or otherwise they are very bad at it. With that said, any amount of civilian death is tragic - and we should absolutely mandate Israel to be as specific in their attacks as possible. But 0 civilian casualty is impossible to achieve. What we can know, even according to the biased hamas numbers, they are roughly in the 2 civilian to 1 military personnel ratio, which is absolutely realistic given the circumstances/other modern warfares, etc. Feel free to refute this statement of mine, if you do believe that they “want to kill as many civilians as possible”.

jakelazaroff 3y ago
I’ve said this multiple times in this thread — Israel is unable to truly inflict maximum casualties because they cannot afford to lose the US as their ally. Defense Minister Yoav Gallant has admitted as much: https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gallant-we-cant-say-no-to-the-us-on-humanitarian-aid-given-how-much-they-do-for-us/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/gallant-we-cant...
account42 3y ago
> But 0 civilian casualty is impossible to achieve. No it isn't. It might be impossible to achieve Israel's goals without any civilian casualties but those goals are not a given. Not doing anything would have caused less total suffering than Israel's current strategy.