What follows are some comments I received on my piece “War Crimes.” I removed the writers’ names because, in at least one case, it was a personal email. I thought it would be useful to pass along these reactions, partly because I don’t think certainty is healthy on this issue. I am no expert, to be sure. Much of what I’ve written comes from what I’ve read and from my gut.
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By saying a colonial state has a right to exist basically justifies its founding on top of the indigenous population. People have a right to exist, but not states. Especially those founded on the displacement of indigenous population.
I see lots of hand-wringing about everyday Israelis killed while ignoring the daily killings of everyday Palestinians by the IDF, emboldened settlers, and the fascists in govt. How can you expect Palestinians not to want to be free from the river to sea when they once were? They have been under the boot of colonizers and occupation for over 100 years.
The occupation is solely to blame for the abhorrent violence we’re seeing. And it’s a coalition of Palestinian groups, not just Hamas—an easy western target to dehumanize all Palestinians and essentially excuse the calls for outright genocide we’re seeing now.
You simply cannot expect the oppressed, the occupied, the subjugated, the displaced to resist in ways white westerns find acceptable. Hamas does not enjoy widespread Palestinian support but who else fights for the people’s right to exist? Who but these groups attempt to at least defend the populations in Gaza and the West Bank. What other means exist to break free?
Peaceful marchers are gunned down by the IDF. One of the most revolutionary grassroots nonviolent movements, BDS, is being actively criminalized across the US and EU. Social media accounts banned.
No one wants it this way but what other way is there? Paraphrasing a tweet I read, decolonization is, indeed, violent. But it pales in comparison to the violence of the initial colonization.
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Sorry, could only read less than half. The facts are so far from reality here that I can only offer a chat to clarify your misconceptions about a terrorist group that has declared war on all Jews and Christians worldwide and the atrocities they committed on Israelis, Palestinians, and foreign nationals.
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Israel is not committing war crimes……Hamas is using civilian Palestinians as shields…..the war crimes were strictly committed by the Palestinian terrorists who are still brutally raping and killing innocent Israeli’s and other nation’s innocent civilians. If Palestinians civilians die in this conflict, so be it….that is not the intent of Israel….but the intent of the Palestinian Hamas terrorists were to kill Israel civilians…….
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I read and reread your article on War Crimes- thank you for writing it. It is possible at the time of writing the you did not have the full extent of information on what actually transpired but I have the following response.
I agree with a lot of what you had to say but it is now clear that the attack by Hamas was aimed at the explicit murder of civilians….children, elderly, disabled, all unprovoked and with the intent to terrify. It was a playbook that Hitler would have drawn up. There is no moral equivalent to Israel’s invasions where the intent was and now is is to destroy Hamas, which is a terrorist organization. I agree that Israel has overstepped its own bounds with settlements and unfair treatment of Palestinians. But that does not under any circumstances justify cold blooded murder of the scale we have just seen. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, you have downplayed the fact that Hamas will not negotiate and has never negotiated. When Israel sent cement into Gaza with the intent to build schools and support education, Hamas used the cement to build tunnels to infiltrate Israel and kill people. No schools were built. You cannot make peace with an organization that is intent on eliminating you and also will not negotiate. The Palestinian people are unfortunately mostly innocent bystanders and that is very unfortunate.
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Follow the money: Defense stocks surged on Monday as the U.S. began delivering munitions to Israel, with Northrop Grumman (NOC), L3Harris (LHX), Huntington Ingalls (HII), Lockheed Martin (LMT) and General Dynamics (GD) finishing the session as the top five gainers in the S&P 500. The USS Gerald Ford aircraft carrier and accompanying war vessels have also been sent to the eastern Mediterranean, with the U.S. indicating it was prepared to come to Israel's defense and protect its interests in the region. Elsewhere, WTI crude oil (CL1:COM) pared its big gains following a "knee-jerk" surge reaction, but still remains elevated at $86/bbl, while U.S. stock indexes turned higher and Treasuries had their best day since March following the latest policy remarks from the Federal Reserve.
This is from Seeking Alpha, a Wall Street blog, and this was in their post today under Wall Street Breakfast.
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