Mark Humphrys (politics)

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7 October attack - War against Hamas - Arguments


  The challenge of the Gaza war

The Israeli way of war

The Hamas way of war

How many deaths?

"Genocide"

Comedy

"Gaza is a concentration camp"

The "genocide" of the Palestinians

Gaza wars



The war against Hamas - Arguments

The final war between Hamas and Israel began with Hamas' barbaric massacre on 7 October 2023. Any country on earth would respond as Israel did - with a determination to destroy the enemy regime entirely.

The Western left was silent when Israelis were massacred, shrugged, and even marched against Israel. Once Israel went to war with Hamas, the Western left found its voice and got angry about Gaza civilian deaths. Israel-haters in the West have tried every possible argument against this war. They have called Israel's war:

  1. war crimes
  2. collective punishment
  3. starvation
  4. genocide
This page is to address these claims, which are all ludicrous.




The challenge of the Gaza war

Israel decided on 7 October to eliminate the Gaza regime. A reasonable response, and most countries would do the same. But eliminating any regime, and certainly Hamas, without damage to civilians is a hell of a challenge. Here is what I think:

  

Israel's wars versus other countries' wars

There is an amazing contrast in how the world treats Israel's war against genocidal jihad, versus how the world treats the war of other countries against genocidal jihad.
  


The Israeli way of war

Israel strategy to reduce civilian deaths in Gaza includes:
  1. Moving civilians around from sector to sector to keep them safe.
  2. Dropping warnings of attacks in a sector to tell them where to move to. Even though this alerts the enemy.
  3. Aborting strikes when civilians appear.
  4. Letting in vast amounts of aid, even though this feeds and supplies the enemy.
We will now discuss all of these.
  


Moving civilians around

Israel spends a huge amount of energy moving civilians around by telling them where is safe. Almost no army in the history of the world does this.
  


Even a Gazan who hates Israel, Muhammad Smiry, admits that Israel sends them messages telling them where to go to avoid imminent bombing and fighting.
And another leaflet drop on 8 Jan 2024.
What other army in the world drops such messages?


  

No targeting of civilians

Of course Israel does not target civilians. The IDF targets only fighters. Israelis have a normal Western-style universal morality that regards civilians in the enemy state as human beings, who should not be targeted. Muslims and Arabs fight for the IDF, because they know the IDF regards Muslims and Arabs as human beings deserving of rights. This universal morality means the IDF has no interest in targeting civilians.

This is not the norm worldwide. The Palestinians are not like this. Because of the inadequacy of Islam in developing any universal morality, the Palestinians have no such morality, and regard all civilians in the enemy state as targets, as we saw on 7 October.


  


Civilian-combatant ratios in various wars, genocides and attacks.
Note where the Israel-Gaza war is (light blue).
See full size. From Avi Bitterman, 25 Feb 2024.
Also here. The ratio of military v civilian deaths strongly suggests this is normal war.


  

John Spencer

John Spencer is chair of urban warfare studies at West Point. He writes about the IDF's conduct of the war.
  


Humanitarian aid

For the entire war, Israel has let in a vast amount of humanitarian aid, even though this feeds and supplies the enemy.
  


COGAT as at Aug 2024 says 48,000 trucks of aid have gone into Gaza during the war so far.


  

The Hamas way of war

  


The incredible difficulty of fighting Hamas:
As the IDF closes in, Hamas assembles children at Al Shifa Hospital (Hamas HQ) in order to protect it, 7 Nov 2023.
Not only have their parents totally refused to move south out of the war zone (for 4 weeks!) but their parents have deliberately placed the children at ground zero, the Hamas HQ, the very centre of the coming fighting.


  

How many deaths?

Death tolls must consider all the following groups:
  1. Terrorists engaging in combat.
  2. Families of terrorists forced to stay with them. Will include children.
  3. The many under 18 male teenagers working for the terrorists. These will count as "child" deaths.
  4. Civilians killed by terrorists, by accident.
  5. Civilians killed by terrorists, on purpose.
  6. Innocent civilians caught up in the fighting, as in every war.
  7. The thousands of normal deaths in any period, from old age, cancer, etc. Hamas probably adds many or all of these to the death toll.
  8. Completely fictional stats made up by terrorists.

  


More than half of "journalists" killed in Gaza were linked to terror groups. At least 13 were actual terrorists.
Analysis from Elder of Ziyon, 27 Feb 2024.


  

"Genocide"

The ludicrous claims of "genocide" are nothing new. They have been applied to Israel's actions in Gaza almost every year since 2005.

  


"Stop Gaza genocide" in 2010.
Original photo is from "One victory on a long road to freedom", Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, 8 April 2010.



Total population of the Gaza Strip.
Note in 1967 the brutal Israeli occupation begins and the Gazan population falls.
Then in 2006 after Hamas takeover the Israeli genocide of Gaza begins and the population is decimated.
There will be no one left in Gaza soon.



The Gaza war compared to other wars and genocides.
From here.


  

Comedy

"Comedy" may be the wrong word for it, but the absurdity of Palestinian arguments since 7 October lends itself to a form of dark comedy or absurdity.

  

The absurdity of the attack

Gazans on 6 October: "Israel is a uniquely evil, heavily-armed, dangerous genocidal state. It has a powerful military and will kill us all for any reason."

What Gazans did not say: "Let's stay away from this dangerous state. Do not go near the border. Do not go near it."

What Gazans did say: "Things are quiet right now. Let's invade the dangerous genocidal state and rape and slaughter its people. Oh yes, and kidnap hostages to bring back into Gaza. Sounds like a plan."

Also Gazans, after months of war: "Help! Israel is a dangerous genocidal state!"

  

The absurdity of the war

Gazans during the war: This is the worst genocide we have ever suffered! Please, please stop doing this to us! Please let us live! We are desperate. We will do anything, anything at all, to stop this genocide.

Israel: Surrender and release the hostages.

Gazans: No way.

  


A "genocide" unlike every genocide in history.
Found here.


  

"If you wanted to commit genocide, you'd crack on and commit genocide. You wouldn't spend ten months faffing around facilitating aid delivery to your victims and blowing up tunnels."
- Andrew Fox, 17 Aug 2024, sums it up.

"If Israel was committing genocide, none of our prisons would be full of terrorists. They'd be empty."
- Another brilliant summation, from here. If this is "genocide", why are any of the captured terrorists still alive?

"The Palestinians would rather see all of Gaza destroyed than return the hostages."
- Another quote that sums up this tragic war. From here.



  

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