Good morning! The weather today should be a mix of a little drizzly in the morning and then sunny the rest of the day, according to the National Weather Service. A high near 67 degrees, but with winds up to 21 miles per hour, so wear maybe like a light jacket.
Prosecutors charge off-duty security guard in teen’s death: Aaron Brown Myers, 51, faces second-degree murder charges after he allegedly shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Hazrat Ali Rohani, according to KING 5. King County prosecutors argued for a high bail for Myers given his obsession with vigilante security. Apparently, Myers had a habit of acting like a spare cop, once even calling the police on someone who was riding around on a bike with what Myers thought was a gun. Myers told officers he may need to shoot the person, according to charging documents. Turns out the cyclist was holding a bike part.
Tragically, Myers’s supposed obsession with fighting crime led to him allegedly shoot 17-year-old Rohani in a parking lot that Myers had singled out for his “overwatch” surveillance. He allegedly shot Rohani seven times, despite Rohani putting his hands up and slowly backing away, according to security footage. Prosecutors said they believe Myers’s “self-imposed ‘duty to intervene,’ threatens public safety.” Washington’s own George Zimmerman.
A 15-year-old pleads guilty in 2022 Ingraham shooting: A boy who shot and killed another Ingraham High School student in November 2022 pled guilty Monday to first-degree murder, first-degree assault, and unlawful possession of a firearm, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office spokesperson. The boy who pled guilty was 14 years old when he shot and killed 17-year-old Ebenezer Haile five times. As part of the plea agreement, the 15-year-old will remain in a juvenile rehabilitation facility until his 21st birthday.
King County says it did a whoopsie when it ignored “dozens, if not hundreds” of discrimination complaints between January 2022 and September 2023, according to the Seattle Times. The King County Office of Equity, Racial and Social Justice failed to respond to people who made complaints about discrimination at workplaces, in housing, and by businesses for more than a year. Apparently, the office had some issues with coordination and an overall messy working environment. Ironically, the office also may have had some issues with inequity in pay.
Burger week begins! The Stranger has teamed up with 20 different restaurants all offering specialty burgers for $12 from now until Sunday, June 16. Megan wrote up the Stranger staff’s debate over their favorite burgers. I’m one of the “polite votes for Red Mill.”
Out of context Needling headline:
No one understands Seattle like The Needling https://t.co/fDHVQNihpD
— 💕 xenobriotic 🐘 (@xenobriotic) June 11, 2024
Seattle Rep layoffs: Struggling to rebound after the COVID-19 pandemic, and with federal aid to arts venues ended, the Seattle Rep has plans to lay off and combine about 12% of its staff. The cuts include a large chunk of its “artistic, arts engagement and Public Works departments,” according to the Seattle Times.
An Apple a day keeps AI on its way: Apple now says AI stands for “Apple Intelligence.” LMAO. At the World Wide Developers Conference, the company promised to start incorporating more AI into its devices, according to the Associated Press. Apple users who have downloaded the latest software update already have some of these new features. (I can’t tell you anything about that because I haven’t downloaded the latest update, not out of protest, but because I’m deeply addicted to this technology and even 15 minutes of it powered down makes me physically ill.) Effectively, the additional AI features just make Siri a little better at her job of looking up the weather for the day and telling me the name of the guy I saw in that thing.
Israel kills 274 to save four: Israeli Defense Forces launched an operation Saturday to rescue four hostages, killing 274 Palestinians in the process. The Gaza Health Ministry said many of the casualties included Palestinian women and children, according to the Washington Post. The number of deaths made the Post finally ask the question, is Israel “doing enough to protect civilians in its war against Hamas in Gaza?” The UN says Israel may have committed war crimes during the raid.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council has approved a ceasefire resolution: The Security Council passed its first ceasefire plan since the Oct 7 attacks in Israel started intense airstrikes on Gaza. The US has said Israel has accepted the plan (though Israeli officials beg to differ), and now Hamas must also agree, according to the Associated Press. Hamas seems interested. The three-phase plan seeks to entirely end the eight-month war.
Hunter Biden found guilty on all counts: Prosecutors charged the president’s son with owning a gun while being a drug addict, a wildly dumb charge. The jury began deliberating Monday, but the judge released them after about an hour, according to CBS News. The young Biden now faces up to 25 years in prison, but the conviction is his first offense, so he probably won’t get that much.
The Baltimore Key Bridge shipping channel reopens: After almost three months of clean up, boats can once against pass through the Port of Baltimore’s shipping channel, according to the Baltimore Sun. The channel has remained at least partially blocked since late March, after a container ship crashed into a support pier for the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The crash caused the bridge to collapse and killed six men filling potholes on the bridge at the time.
Charli XCX drops Brat: Charli XCX sounds like she’s having fun on this album. Enjoy one of your most online friends trying to walk across the table at your next dinner table.
banger but i can’t focus too hard on the lyrics or i start to get embarrassed for her https://t.co/7Z26KJoKjz
— carey (@brokebackstan) June 9, 2024
Go, Geoducks, go! Through the wind and the rain and snow! Swivel high, swivel low, swivel all about, let it alllll hang out!
nyt:
Hunter Biden Found Guilty in Gun Case
President Biden’s son was charged with three felony counts tied to a handgun purchase in 2018. He could face up to 25 years in prison and $750,000 in fines.
His legal troubles are not over: The Delaware case, brought by the special counsel David C. Weiss, is widely regarded as the least serious of the two federal indictments against Hunter Biden brought last year.
He still faces serious tax charges in Los Angeles stemming from his failure to pay the government during a yearslong crack, alcohol and spending binge; the trial is scheduled to start in September.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2024/06/11/us/hunter-biden-trial-verdict
trumpf Offspring Found Lacking
Go, Ceasefire! GO!
C’MON Hamas!
C’MON all you
nuts n yahoos!
Free Palestine!
Free Isreal!
“Israel kills 274 to save four”
Palestinians lives are cheap under colonial rule. How cheap you ask, well some math genius may do the math for you.
I may not be a genius at math but
“Israel kills 37,598 to save seven”
seems a little
“lopsided”
to me.
is it just
Me?
“owning a gun while being a drug addict, a wildly dumb charge”
So The Stranger is vehemently anti-gun, except when it comes to the drug-addicted son of a Democratic president???
I wholeheartedly support President Biden… but his son Hunter is a privileged scumbag who deserves to be held accountable for his poor life choices.
@1, 7 The charges are dumb because they are politically motivated. Hunter had an agreed plea bargain and diversion agreement until Republicans in Congress pitched a fit and got prosecutors to renege on the deal. In a weird way, this was the reverse of the usual justice system–if Hunter had been anyone but the son of a president, he would have gotten a diversion agreement and nobody would have known.
The judge also suppressed a significant amount of exculpatory evidence, including that the FBI never actually validated whether the infamous laptop had been tampered with prior to being given to the FBI. Oh, and the application form that was the center of two charges? That was modified by the gun shop owner four years after the fact. The jury never got to hear that little detail, either.
I don’t doubt that Hunter was addicted to drugs, nor do I think he should have owned a gun. But the prosecution of this crime was corrupt from top to bottom.
From the linked AP article:
[UN human rights] “Office spokesman Jeremy Laurence expressed concerns about possible violations of rules of proportionality, distinction and precaution by the Israeli forces in Saturday’s raid at the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. … “All these actions by both parties may amount to war crimes,” he told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva.”
Huh. It seems like there’s a principle of proportionality of response after all, despite what one local self-appointed expert has been saying for months. Who are you going to believe on the details of human rights law, a former transit union shop steward or the spokesman of the UN human rights office?
@1: add to @8’s summary that Hunter Biden is likely the only person ever prosecuted solely for lying on ATF Form 4473 Question F.
Others have had Question F charges tacked on to other charges, or been prosecuted for other questions (like saying you aren’t a felon), but Question F? All you need to do is deny smoking weed, and you’ve violated Federal law.
@9
you’d be Amazed at the
Amount of Arcane info a
former transit union shop
steward has under their belt
to also be an Expert
at all things War-related
comes as no Shock to me.
perhaps
in the Future
the spokesman
of the UN Human
Rights Office might
Themselves go to NY or
wherever it Is this former
transit union shop steward
may have relocated to to find
themselves more Properly informed?
seemingly
a No-brainer.
So, Hamas should not have kidnapped civilians out of Israel, should not have held them indefinitely, and should not have imprisoned them, especially not in the middle of a densely-populated area? Because I’m pretty certain most of those were actually crimes, no determination of proportionality needed.
Shorter Ahab: ” unless you can force me to do it, it’s not legal” or “might makes right”
@9 don’t short change him. Human rights law and the laws of warfare are but a small part of his self-declared expertise that has no bound, really
@15 Which expert are we going to believe on the topic of human rights and war crimes? Some Dude On The Internet or the spokesperson for the UN human rights office? I mean, they say that there is a requirement to use force proportional to the target and you keep saying that there is no such requirement. They say that there’s a duty to protect civilians and you say that there’s no need to try to limit civilian casualties as long as there’s some legitimate military objective.
No doubt we should believe the shop steward. /s
@16 And just like Elmer Fudd, Israel keeps shooting themselves in the foot in the land of public opinion. At some point, you’d think that they’d learn.
I support the jury’s decision in the Biden case, but I do not agree with Our Dear NoSpin that he is a “scumbag”. That’s not for me to say. I respect that he went into recovery, with the support of his loving family and is apparently clean and sober.
Would that the trump family to the same, but their addiction issues are multi-generational.
how many innocent Gazan children were killed by Hamas firing at the fleeing Israelis with automatic weapons and RPGs? they also fired anti-aircraft missiles at the rescue helicopters. that’s when the IDF called in the planes.
@20
Report is the outcome of an expert meeting which took place in June 2016 on the principle of
proportionality in the rules governing the conduct of hostilities under international humanitarian law:
Commentators have pointed to the lack of precision in the principle, arguing that the application of the principle by military commanders who are planning for and conducting attacks will vary greatly. 8 While the ICRC 1987 Commentary on AP I acknowledges that analysing the disproportion between losses and damage and the military advantage anticipated “raises a delicate problem”, it also emphasized that “in some situations there will be no room for doubt, while in other situations there may be a reason for hesitation. In such situations the interests of the civilian population should prevail.”9 In the same vein, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) stated in the Galic case that “[t]he basic obligation to spare civilians and civilian objects as much as possible must guide the attacking party when considering the proportionality of an attack”.10
https://icrcndresourcecentre.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/4358_002_Expert_meeting_report_WEB_1.pdf
Stanislav Galic was condemned to prison for life
we can all rest easily
now that justice
has been served upon
Hunter Biden! 🌞
@24 According to the NPR reporter on the ground, the shelling started after the rescue party left. But, you are right about Hamas putting innocent civilians in the crosshair. I also wish you put the emphasis on “innocent children” in all instances. Did you hear that the number of Israelis killed by the IDF on October 7 is unclear according to Haaretz and other Israeli news sources?
Hamas was just minding their own business innocently holding the hostages they captured at gunpoint eight months ago and have been torturing ever since, when that mean old IDF came along with guns blazing to take them back! How is a self-respecting hostage-taker supposed to operate in this oppressive environment, when even zones crammed full of civilian refugees aren’t safe places to imprison hostages?
It almost destroys the incentive to seize hostages in the first place! Almost.
@25 ” War is the ultimate inhumanity.”
Indeed, which is the reason why international institutions and Human Rights Organizations are trying to make it difficult and costly to wage war. Which side are you on exactly? Providing cover for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians puts you on the wrong side of history.
@29: at this point, i’m getting weary of the focus on “innocent children”. are old Gazans less valuable? less innocent? are their deaths more acceptable?
@30 it’s almost as if Hamas is deliberating holding the hostages in civilian areas that have a high propensity of collateral damage rather than isolated areas where only military combatants could be impacted. I’d ask our Hamas sympathizers on this page why they think Hamas is holding these hostages captive in civilian areas? One thing’s for sure now though is that the remaining hostages will be placed in even more critical areas to maximize collateral damage from any further rescue attempts.
@8 If you replace Hunter Biden for Trump you sound just like the MAGA hats about his trial in NY. I don’t disagree with you but irrespective of why they were tried the fact remains they are both guilty of what they did and deserve whatever consequences are coming their way.
You’re on a roll today Ahab. Can’t take being wrong, can you? You’d best settle down before you blow a gasket.
@26 Thanks for the prebuttal to @28. From the document where an international court made an enforceable order to imprison Stanislav Galic for war crimes: (https://www.icty.org/x/cases/galic/tjug/en/)
“58. One type of indiscriminate attack violates the principle of proportionality.104 The practical application of the principle of distinction requires that those who plan or launch an attack take all feasible precautions to verify that the objectives attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects, so as to spare civilians as much as possible.105 Once the military character of a target has been ascertained, commanders must consider whether striking this target is “expected to cause incidental loss of life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objectives or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.”106 If such casualties are expected to result, the attack should not be pursued.107 The basic obligation to spare civilians and civilian objects as much as possible must guide the attacking party when considering the proportionality of an attack.108 In determining whether an attack was proportionate it is necessary to examine whether a reasonably well-informed person in the circumstances of the actual perpetrator,109 making reasonable use of the information available to him or her, could have expected excessive civilian casualties to result from the attack.110”
Note that sentence in the middle: “The basic obligation to spare civilians and civilian objects as much as possible must guide the attacking party…” Yes, this is couched in terms of what a reasonable person would do, but so are plenty of other enforceable laws, both national and international.
You know what’s even better? This document convicting a person of war crimes also discusses your favorite hobby horse, mens rea.
“54. The Trial Chamber will now consider the mental element of the offence of attack on civilians, when it results in death or serious injury to body or health. Article 85 of Additional Protocol I explains the intent required for the application of the first part of Article 51(2). It expressly qualifies as a grave breach the act of wilfully “making the civilian population or individual civilians the object of attack”.99 The Commentary to Article 85 of Additional Protocol I explains the term as follows:
wilfully: the accused must have acted consciously and with intent, i.e., with his mind on the act and its consequences, and willing them (‘criminal intent’ or ‘malice aforethought’); this encompasses the concepts of ‘wrongful intent’ or ‘recklessness’, viz., the attitude of an agent who, without being certain of a particular result, accepts the possibility of it happening; on the other hand, ordinary negligence or lack of foresight is not covered, i.e., when a man acts without having his mind on the act or its consequences.100
The Trial Chamber accepts this explanation, according to which the notion of “wilfully ” incorporates the concept of recklessness, whilst excluding mere negligence. The perpetrator who recklessly attacks civilians acts “wilfully”.
For the mens rea recognized by Additional Protocol I to be proven, the Prosecution must show that the perpetrator was aware or should have been aware of the civilian status of the persons attacked. In case of doubt as to the status of a person, that person shall be considered to be a civilian. However, in such cases, the Prosecution must show that in the given circumstances a reasonable person could not have believed that the individual he or she attacked was a combatant. “
Golly, seems like what you said was impossible exists, was proven in court, and is international precedent. Do you ever get tired of being wrong?
@22 You’re straight-up lying again. Nobody said that every ship passing every bridge nationwide would get mandatory tug escorts.
As for the Key bridge, they probably won’t issue those rules until the new bridge is under construction.
@32: And our oh-so-concerned with civilian casualties folks here continue to imply the IDF was the only attacking party, even after evidence suggesting Hamas opened fire on the hostages and their rescue party, to prevent the hostage rescue from succeeding.
@32, 39 From the Hannibal Directive article on Wikipedia; excerpt cited is in 2023-24 section but a lot more substantiating details follow:
“Some commentators have argued that the Hannibal directive, previously understood to generally apply to situations involving IDF soldiers, enemy combatants and possibly non-Israeli civilians […], but not to Israeli civilians, was implemented by the IDF on a mass scale on 7 October 2023 when the IDF fired on Israeli civilian hostages while they were being driven by Hamas militants into Gaza. This would be the first time in the history of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict that a Palestinian kidnapping operation and subsequent IDF Hannibal reaction included Israeli civilians.[62]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannibal_Directive
Has anyone noticed how much Ahab sounds like a toddler?
Reasonable people: Now Ahab, Israel can’t just indiscriminately kill civilians.
Ahab: That’s not a rule!
RP: Yes, it is a rule, see here.
A: They didn’t mean to!
RP: Israel needs to try not to kill civilians.
A: You can’t make them!
What’s next, threatening to hold your breath until you turn blue?
@39 By your own rules, the IDF also bears responsibility for civilian casualties. You’ve repeatedly blamed Hamas for civilian casualties because Hamas doesn’t wear uniforms that distinguish them from civilians. Turns out that the IDF had a bunch of people dressed in civilian clothes for this operation. Naturally, you’d agree that they bear responsibility for any civilian casualties that resulted from that decision?
Or is ideological consistency a bridge too far?
@35 “our Hamas sympathizers on this page “
Your statement is a blatant and disgusting attempt to intimidate and shut down debate by claiming that critics of Israel are “Hamas sympathizers”. You are behaving like the autocrats you pretend to denounce, which makes you a hypocrite and a McCarthyist. Contrarily to you, I do not chose camp while ignoring the evidence. I stand for humanitarian principles agreed upon by international institutions and human rights organizations: I do not defend autocrats because they are our friends, and I do not advocate funding for extremists because they fight our enemies.
Just dropping this here. It will be willfully ignored by the Stranger and the willfully naive hard-left contingent here. No college students nor code pink will protest. It will all go down the memory hole.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-chiefs-brutal-calculation-civilian-bloodshed-will-help-hamas-626720e7
@45: The lady doth protest too much. You repeatedly ignored eliminationist statements against Israel, which flowed from campus protestors in a steady stream. You repeatedly questioned whether “eliminationist” was even a word; fifteen years ago it appeared in the title of a best-selling book, written by a prize-winning PNW journalist. In short, you had your chances to demonstrate what you’re now claiming to believe, and you fought every one of them, as hard as you could.
Don’t want a genocide tomorrow? Don’t give today’s eliminationist speech a free pass. That was Neiwert’s point in writing the book, all those years ago.
Dear Raindrop. You’re what Mother Vel-DuRay used to call a “gossipy old bitch”
No wonder you’re a Republican. Republicans are horrible people.
@48 “The lady doth protest too much.”
As if I was going to let vile POSs (includes you) smear me without reacting
“Don’t want a genocide tomorrow?”
We don’t want a genocide TODAY and tomorrow. Do pay attention.
@51: Is “eliminationist” a word?
More seriously, Hamas abducted Israeli civilians into Gaza, held them illegally, imprisoned them amongst Gaza’s civilians, and then shot at the fleeing hostages and their IDF rescue party. For the resultant needless bloodshed amongst Gaza’s civilians, the Stranger and you blame Israel. Not Hamas.
If you were trying to show you were not pro-Hamas, you certainly chose a very bad way of doing so.
@49 Ooooh! The bold “You can’t make me!” defense. That’s a sure way to take the moral high ground.
@35 We don’t actually know that Hunter Biden committed two of the crimes he was charged with (lying when he checked a box on a federal form). The form was filled out in three colors ink by at least three different people, and was never subjected to a handwriting analysis to see who checked what box. In addition, the gun store owner admitted to altering the form after the fact.
Not to mention that people are charged with falsifying documents all the time. See below on the selective prosecution on that…
@43 The law is typically applied to give an additional charge for someone who’s being charged with another serious felony. Like they shot someone and also lied on the federal form. Virtually or actually nobody is charged with these charges without other, far more serious crimes.
@46 Golly, what could be different? I dunno, maybe size and type of ships, common weather conditions, where tugs normally make up to and let go of the ship, size and depth of the channel, all kinds of things. Also, you won’t see any public policy changes until after the final NTSB report comes out. Because otherwise bright bulbs like you would bellyache about making public policy changes before all the facts were known.
@51 we aren’t smearing you, you and your Intifada chanting gang are doing a great job of that all on your own. I’m just waiting for one of you to go all out and post something lamenting all the innocent Germans killed when Dachau was liberated.
I have no idea whether Hunter is serious about his recovery, nor is it any of my business, but the video in question does not show Hunter Biden doing coke at the White House.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/07/18/hunter-biden-video-from-after-white-house-cocaine-found-fact-check/70415488007/
It’s also childish to pass judgement on an entire family because an adult widow had a consensual sexual relationship with her brother in law. You must have a boring sex life if you think this is scandalous.
@49 “Ending wars, by one side beating the other, is what saves the non-combatant lives. “
People stopped dying when war stopped (duh!) but you are ignoring all the colonial asymmetric wars, like the present one if you can label that a war rather than a massacre, that were stopped by lack of appetite of public opinion for continuing the mass murder of natives during military stalemates. These didn’t lead to war crime tribunals and I doubt that Netanyahu would leave Israel much if subject to an arrest warrant but becoming an international pariah has consequences. I also strongly doubt that the Israeli public would want to bear such consequences for very long nor would its allies provide unconditional support forever.
but none of that has anything to do with the concept of proportionality being inapplicable as you claimed previously.
@42: Nice dodge. It should be obvious the IDF wasn’t the only attacking party, and even if they were “attacking,” it was to rescue hostages. Your moral equivalence between hostage-takers and hostage-rescuers has been noted.
“You’ve repeatedly blamed Hamas for civilian casualties because Hamas doesn’t wear uniforms that distinguish them from civilians.”
Really? Quotes (plural) and ULRs (plural), please.
Now, we both know you won’t do that, because you’re just trying to distract from what I (and others here) have actually repeatedly said, which is Hamas bears most or all of the responsibility for civilian deaths in Gaza. This hostage rescue is an excellent example. At any time in the past eight months, Hamas could have released the hostages; in the event of the rescue, Hamas could just simply have not impeded the exits of the hostages and rescuers. What does the Stranger report? “Israel kills 274 to save four: Israeli Defense Forces launched an operation Saturday to rescue four hostages, killing 274 Palestinians in the process.” Apparently, stray gunfire from Hamas’ didn’t claim so much as a single civilian life during the rescue, and the Stranger verified this!
@55 ” I’m just waiting for one of you to go all out and post something lamenting all the innocent Germans killed when Dachau was liberated.”
I would lament the civilians killed during the bombing of Dresden or those of Hiroshima but that is because I am morally and ethically consistent, which you aren’t when you compare Palestinians who have been chased off their land to Jew exterminating Nazis.
@58 Well this is absolutely /fascinating/. So I did a search, as you requested. I found a number of places where I had replied to you (or possibly Ahab, but it’s awfully hard to tell the two of you apart), in discussions about uniforms. And the comment by you (or Ahab) was missing. This is one example, with my reply at 18 and you (or Ahab) at 15 missing.
https://www.thestranger.com/slog-am/2023/12/07/79296118/slog-am-three-dead-in-university-of-nevada-shooting-kevin-mccarthy-to-resign-and-no-show-trump-wins-fourth-gop-debate/comments/18
@58 It takes two to tango. Netanyahu has repeatedly made it clear that releasing the hostages won’t stop the war, so Hamas releasing hostages won’t stop the slaughter in Gaza. Netanyahu could have stopped the war at any point by, well, stopping the war. Or signing on to any number of previously proposed peace deals that would have, you know, permanently stopped the war in exchange for releasing all of the hostages. But that’s the thing. Netanyahu doesn’t want to stop the war because the moment that happens, he loses his job and goes back on trial for corruption.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-israel-blinken-blames-hamas-for-hostage-deal-holdup-gaza-humanitarian-crisis/
And you’ll read all of that and say that Hamas alone refuses to stop the war, despite Netanyahu explicitly and directly saying that he will not stop the war regardless of what Hamas does.
You could just as well say that Ukraine could stop the war and slaughter of civilians at any point by surrendering to the Russians and taking whatever Putin wants to give them.
Ahem, I can see we are trying to skip the memory hole and just ignore. Again, Hamas apologists, Yahya Sinwar’s leaked correspondence shows that Hamas is intentionally setting up Gaza civilians for death to sucker all of you useful idiots to charge out and protest, etc… I realize you don;t care and still blame Israel, but you could at least do some tortured logic here to rationalize it.
https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-chiefs-brutal-calculation-civilian-bloodshed-will-help-hamas-626720e7
@62: What a great comment! You start by implying Hamas can just keep the hostages as long as they like, because keeping hostages simply isn’t a bad thing to you, apparently; then you end with another equivalence between a terrorist gang who takes hostages, and a legitimate government which protects its people from imperialist aggression.
Hamas could end this war at any time, by releasing the hostages and surrendering. Full stop. They refuse to do this, continuing to hide behind civilians and keep hostages, knowing full well they endanger the lives of those civilians by so doing. And yet, somehow, you assign them zero blame for the resultant ongoing deaths of the civilians you’re always claiming to care about. Civilian lives (in Gaza) are incredibly important when you can blame Israel for their deaths, but for some reason, their lives are just not important enough to justify Hamas’ surrender.
@63, Maybe no one is biting because it’s widely accepted that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields and this is news to no one? I haven’t seen anyone here deny this or defend Hamas as a moral actor in this war.
I think the disagreement is that some people see this as carte blanche for Israel to kill civilians indiscriminately, and others see this as an opportunity for Isreal to win the long war for hearts and minds. Treating Palestinians more humanely than their own leadership has the potential to pay greater dividends than killing a few militants here and there while minting more of them and alienating allies through the casual destruction of countless innocent lives.
But more to the point, if Hamas knows they can win the global propaganda war by goading Israel into bombing hospitals and refugee tents, why is Israel so eager to give them what they want? If you see someone setting a trap it’s in your best interest to avoid walking into it.
@57 “ignoring all the colonial asymmetric wars, like the present one if you can label that a war rather than a massacre, that were stopped by lack of appetite of public opinion for continuing the mass murder of natives during military stalemates”
Dude is once again ignoring Jewish claims to their historic land (but I forgot, Arabs are victims – it’s just those evil Jews who are the bad guys). It’s the colonizers whose ruins were built upon by subsequent “natives”. The sad part is @57 doesn’t even realize what antisemitic tripe he posts (he’s just down for the cause de jour).
@64 “Hamas can end the war any time they want by releasing hostages and surrendering.” The first part of that statement is not true. And you know that. It’s not about Hamas holding hostages as long as they want, it’s that the release of the hostages is irrelevant to Netanyahu’s overall war aims. The plan is purportedly to completely destroy Hamas, and release of hostages isn’t going to change that. The second half is putting every single one of their heads in a noose, so I won’t hold my breath on that score. I say purportedly because I’m not actually convinced the plan is to destroy Hamas. If it was, he wouldn’t have pulled the IDF out of Northern Gaza, allowing Hamas to regroup there. A permanent war is actually useful to Netanyahu in a number of ways, including both staying out of prison and hardening Israeli public opinion against a two-state solution. And yes, he is that Machiavellian, having previously supported Hamas to reduce the chances of a two-state solution.
A cease fire is a compromise, and neither side gets everything they want.
I have never excused Hamas’ war crimes. I have said that Israel commits war crimes as well. Hamas dials the evil up to 11, while the IDF is content to keep it around 5-7 depending on the month. Everything Hamas does, Israel does as well, with only a little less frequency and vigor. I call out the hypocrisy of Israel claiming to be the most moral army in the world because they are not.
@63 And Israel not only knows all that but they keep going in like Elmer Fudd and blasting themselves in the figurative face with a figurative shotgun. You would think they would have learned something about international relations by now, but that’s the way it is.
@66 The Arabs have a historic claim to their traditional lands as well. It’s not like the Jews were the only people ever to live in the current borders of Israel and Palestine. The Palestine Protectorate was given to Israel by the British, who took it from the Ottomans, who took it from… Nobody has an exclusive claim or title to the land.
thank you
Boatgeek &
averagebob for
your countenarrative
to our far ‘right’ commentariat’s
perpetual propensities for prevarication
a Breath
of Fresh Aire
to Seatle’s skies y’all’re.