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I can claim it because it is true. A minister (that is part of a coalition of many parties in Israel) is not indicative of government policy. There are some pre
by YZF 3y ago
I can claim it because it is true. A minister (that is part of a coalition of many parties in Israel) is not indicative of government policy. There are some pretty whacky ministers in the Israeli government right now with some pretty weird opinions. This is not Israeli policy. Policy is determined by Cabinet and broader government votes, not by what people are saying (responding emotionally or trying to appease some political base). It's also what's executed on the ground. Israel's government is also subject to judicial oversight, the government can't just do whatever it wants. You just don't understand Israel's political system and how it works, and you're taking statements either made under extreme emotional states or by extremists and presenting them as official policy.
You're taking the Israeli defense minister quote, a snippet of it, made at the height of shock, as factual policy, when you know this is not true on the ground, e.g. Israel is letting food and fuel in and has not laid a complete siege on Gaza since Oct 7th. It also supplies Gaza with water. I'll concede that in the immediate shock after the barbaric Oct 7th attack there were some very strong statements made but actual policy has been within the laws of war. Gallant was also mostly referring to what Israel supplies Gaza but Israel has no direct control over the Gaza-Egypt border. His referral of "fighting human animals" was referring to Hamas's Oct 7th rape, mutilation, murder, torture, etc. Maybe not the best choice of words.
I am going to maintain that this is a blood libel.
I do think I'm in a better position to interpret government policy because I actually listen to the broader voices and understand how the system works. You're obviously not exposed to the broad public discourse in Israel but rather to highly filtered/cherry-picked views.
"Israel is doing all it can to get civilians out of harm's way as it battles Hamas in Gaza, including dropping leaflets warning them to flee, but its attempts to minimize casualties were "not successful", Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.": https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-not-successful-bid-minimize-gaza-civilian-casualties-netanyahu-says-2023-11-17/ https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-not-success...
"A senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s military is undertaking a “maximum effort” to minimize civilian casualties amid its military campaign in Gaza.": https://thehill.com/policy/international/4269020-netanyahu-adviser-israel-minimize-civilian-casualties-gaza/ https://thehill.com/policy/international/4269020-netanyahu-a...
"“We don’t seek to govern Gaza, we don’t seek to occupy it. But we seek to give it and us a better future … and that requires defeating Hamas,” he said. “I’ve set goals, I didn’t set a timetable because it can take more time.”: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/10/netanyahu-says-not-seeking-to-occupy-gaza-but-strip-must-be-deradicalised https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/10/netanyahu-says-not...
"The PMO said that when Netanyahu used the biblical quotation “Remember what Amalek did to you,” he was using it as a way of describing the savage Hamas attack of October 7, and certainly not as a call for wanton killings.
The PMO pointed out that the same phrase appears in a permanent exhibit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, as well at a memorial in The Hague itself for Dutch Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
“Obviously neither reference is an incitement to genocide of the German people,” the PMO said." https://www.timesofisrael.com/pms-office-says-its-preposterous-to-say-invoking-amalek-was-a-genocide-call/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/pms-office-says-its-prepostero...
"President ‘disgusted’ by judges using ‘partial, fragmented quotes’ in genocide ruling, ignoring accompanying remarks that Israel follows international law, doesn’t target civilians" https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-blood-libel-herzog-says-icj-twisted-my-words-to-support-unfounded-contention/ https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-blood-libel-herzog-says-icj-...
The IDF spokesperson has said hundreds of times in his daily briefings that the war is not against Palestinians, it's against Hamas:
"“I’ve seen, personally, many types of targets that we have. The resolution of the intelligence, as in whose house it is, which Hamas commander uses the facility or what the offices in a certain building are used by Hamas for,” Conricus said. “I can tell you that the intelligence is solid and it is focused and that we are striking targets that are directly related to Hamas and not targets that don’t have anything to do with them.” https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4250823-tapper-presses-idf-spokesperson-on-palestinian-civilian-casualties/ https://thehill.com/homenews/media/4250823-tapper-presses-id...
""I want to be clear from the beginning, there is not a single drop of cynicism about Palestinian civilian casualties. We do not want and we are not trying to achieve any casualties. Our fight is against the evil terrorist organization Hamas. It is them that we are targeting, not the civilian population. But unfortunately, because Hamas hides behind them, unfortunately, civilians get caught in the middle," he said." https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/hamas-prefers-to-have-fuel-for-warfighting-capabilities-idf-spokesperson-123102600271_1.html https://www.business-standard.com/world-news/hamas-prefers-t...
EDIT: and again, the comparison of Israel to the Nazis is ignorant and disgusting.
- bjourne 3y agoYour argumentation is a form of damage control. Just like modern neo-Nazis either downplay, minimize, or try to justify atrocities committed by the Nazi regime you try to downplay, minimize or justify atrocities committed by the Israeli regime. The neo-Nazis say that the number of victims of the Holocaust is grossly overstated. You will say that there is no grounds for accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. The neo-Nazis say that ordinary Germans had no idea about the concentration camps. You will say that ordinary Jewish Israelis do not revel in Gaza's destruction. Neo-Nazis spreads the myth of the clean Wehrmacht (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_clean_Wehrmacht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_clean_Wehrmacht), just like you will spread the myth of the clean IDF. Neo-Nazis downplay statements from leading Nazi leaders just like you downplay statements from leading Israeli leaders. They say "Yeah, Hitler said he wanted to exterminate Jews but he didn't mean it!" and you say "Yeah, Gallant said Gaza should be starved but he didn't mean it!" While Golan is a minister without a portfolio, she wouldn't be in her position if she was not a popular politician or if her views were not aligned with those of the rest of the government. And she certainly has power to affect government policy. Although these ministers may be "whacky" to you the very fact that they are ministers prove that they aren't wacky to most Jewish Israelis. After all, they were elected. Children are starving to death in Gaza and your country is on trial for genocide. While you try to excuse these crimes and justify calls for genocide (Amalek). Whine about anti-Semitism all you want, in my eyes you are nothing but an Israeli neo-Nazi. You have learned nothing from history and had you been German you would have justified the Nazi crimes too.
- YZF 3y agoThis honestly does not deserve a reply. Your argument is that Israelis are Nazis and therefore Israelis are Nazis. You refuse to entertain the possibility that the literal Nazis here are the Hamas and their supporters despite all the evidence and their rhetoric saying so. Your comparison of Israel to Nazis is disgusting, ignorant and antisemitic. You're taking natural emotional responses when your people are brutally raped, mutilated, kidnapped, slaughtered in their homes and comparing it to the deliberate calculated murder of 6 million Jews that did nothing to the Germans over years. EDIT: You are the one who is "downplay, minimize, or try to justify atrocities committed by the Nazi regime". What does that make you by your own definition? A lot of people have died, I'm not happy about it. There's been a lot of destruction. I blame Hamas for starting the war. There are starving children, yes. These are nothing compared to the Nazis. Nothing. Israel is within its rights to wage this war, it has good reasons, it is persecuting it within the norms for similar wars. It is not committing genocide and "your country is on trial for genocide" is bullshit and you know it.