Some facts have become clear over the duration of the Israeli/Gaza conflict of 2023.
- The initial Hamas attack did not have a lot of atrocities committed, despite Israeli claims. No widespread rape, no baby killing and few civilian casualties caused by Hamas. Hamas’s targets were military, plus grabbing hostages and most of the civilian casualties seem to have been caused by indiscriminate Israeli fire, some due to calousness, some due to panic and some due to the Samson doctrine that states Israel will not allow hostages to be taken.
- Hamas treated its captives humanely. Israel routinely tortures and sexually humiliates theirs.
- Israel attacked multiple hospitals and deliberately forced them to shut, while cutting off all water, power and food. The population pyramid of known casualties very closely follows the Gaza population pyramid, and the most common age of those killed was five. Most dead were women and children, which means they weren’t soldiers and couldn’t be.
- Israel is clearly engaging ethnic cleansing and genocide.
Support for Israel has come primarily from the West: the US and most European nations, with Ireland and to a lesser extent, Spain, being exceptions. The US sent tons of aid, appears to have had soldiers on the ground, and aided in targeting of civilians. They intercepted missiles from Yemen and generally did everything they could to help Israel kill as many Gazans as possible.
The Europeans have cracked down heavily on any pro-Palestinian protests, with the Germans being worst in class. The Germans have learned the exact wrong lesson from the Holocaust, they believe it means they must support Israel no matter what, not that genocide and ethnic cleansing are bad.
Only two large groups have really supported Gaza: Yemen and Hezbollah. Yemen has fired missiles and captured shipping ultimately owned by Israel. Hezbollah has attacked many military targets in Northern Israel and forced Israel to keep about a third of its army, including many of the best units on its border.
No one else has done anything meaningful. The Arab countries and Turkey talked a big game, but they had the leverage of oil and refused to use it.
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So, who are the “bad guys?” Pretty clearly those committing and supporting the genocide. In order, Israel, the US, and Europe/Canada.
Who are the good guys? We’ll leave out Hamas, though frankly, I consider them an armed liberation movement: freedom fighters, and they should probably be on the list. Remember the Israeli mass murder didn’t start October 7th.
So: Hezbollah, Yemen, Ireland (since they were under a lot of pressure). And that’s about it.
Civilians around the world and especially in America who protested in vast numbers are due a lot of credit. It’s fairly clear that the ceasefire occurred because Biden couldn’t take any more popularity loss.
I think it’s important to point this out. If you’re helping commit a genocide, you’re bad. If you’re trying to stop one, you’re good.