I believe those tanks are at a base back in Israel, not in combat.
I believe the Javelin that you hear about is a diving weapon with the explosive in the nose.
Shaped Charge explosives go back to at least WWII. Nazis were giving them to children to fight tanks as they rolled into Berlin.
A post was merged into an existing topic: Sageese77 Troll Posts
You could say exactly the same thing about Christianity, or any other universalist religion.
“Islam” is an extremely broad category of belief systems that share certain characteristics. Same with “Christianity”.
There are hardliner branches of both faiths that do want to see everyone on the planet accept what they view as the true teachings of Jesus or Muhammad. Some portion of those people don’t just view this as a vague “wouldn’t it be nice” aspirational goal but are willing to proselytize, by force if necessary.
In 2023 these hardliners may be more numerous or influential in the Muslim world than in the Christian world (and even this is suspect - ever hear of the Lord’sResistanceArmy?), but at other times in history this was not the case. So it seems foolish (not to mention racist) to presume that this difference is caused by inherent differences between these faiths.
It seems far more reasonable to conclude that the difference is down to geopolitical and historical realities in regions dominated by Christianity (Europe) and Islam (the Middle East and North Africa).
Ah. I was hoping I could tell an amusing George Patton story. Alas.
This is not great:
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/12/07/middleeast/gaza-israeli-soldiers-detained-men-intl
A bunch of almost-naked blindfolded prisoners in a sandpit being watched over by uniformed soldiers is some “Just Before The Massacre” horrorshow visual.
Even if they were all known Hamas people who personally partook in Oct 7, this would not be justified treatment. And they’re apparently not all even that.
Seems SOP for most military arrests. Hidden weapons and suicide belts are a major concern. Stripping down prisoners for searches is a requirement. They’re given something to wear afterwards.
The US military used spit hoods on the more dangerous prisoners to prevent possible infections and disease.
I agree screens should have been placed to block public views.
‘Most military arrests’ aren’t rounding up every male on the street.
And… cite?
Abu Ghraib photos not being an acceptable cite for SOP…
And blindfolds aren’t spit hoods.
From the article:
At least some of the men are civilians with no known affiliation to militant groups, according to a conversation CNN had with one of their relatives and a statement by one of their employers, a news network.
What kind of relative or coworker would tell an interviewer “yes, my cousin/employee over there is a militant; please document my response in writing for later use in their trial”?
Agree with aceplace57 that screens should have been used, and at least one of the images seems to have been taken by an IDF soldier, who should receive disciplinary action for the violation of privacy.
Tal Heinrich, spokesperson for the Israeli Office of the Prime Minister, was on Morning Joe today. The video is at MSNBC.com.
Tal Heinrich assured Willie Geist that everything is being done to: protect civilians in Gaza, recover the hostages, provide transparency to the press and investigate the IDF failures on Oct 7. Mika pressed her on why Hamas was able to rampage, unopposed, inside of Israel for 8 hours on Oct 7. She said she couldn’t give details on anything because it’s secret stuff, but we will be told when the time is right.
The video is worth viewing as an excellent example of a professional propagandist in action. She is the official face of Israel today.
I saw this on the Israeli news yesterday. They also presented the same claim the quoted article did, made by Palestinians who said they had family among the arrested. It also quoted some IDF sources whose explanation was basically that they had a big group of people surrender to them, more than they were prepared for, and they were worried that someone could be faking a surrender in order to sneak explosives up to IDF troops.
Regardless of how this came about, I agree that these are ugly images, and that every effort should be taken to ensure that prisoners taken by Israel are treated as well as possible.
There is no reason for any non-militants to “surrender”, so any such were obviously arrested at gunpoint.
Genuine question here, pertinent to the captured men photo:
Do members of Hamas’ al Qassim group and Palestinian Islamic Jihad wear uniforms that clearly distinguish them from civilians?
They have their green headbands (other militant groups have other headbands), and they wear those when they want to showcase strength or influence. When they’re guerilla fighting they can easily blend into the populace though.
That could explain a strip search immediately when arrested.
That would not explain why they were stripped, then trucked, still in their underwear, and taken to a different deserted location and blindfolded there.
I agree that not letting them get dressed before moving them elsewhere has no productive purpose that I can see. Further, humiliating the prisoners in this way plays into the sorts of narratives that get used to delegitimize Israel. I hope the IDF leadership recognizes this and that this is the message conveyed to the commanders whose actions led to these photos.
This article claims they were stripped and paraded in the town.
…And the only source it gives for that claim are the same pictures that where already posted, where no “parade” is happening…
How did the US military treat Japanese prisoners that were made to strip? I’ve seen photographs of captured Japanese in their underwear to be certain they weren’t concealing grenades, but I don’t know what happened afterwards. Perhaps it was feared they had explosives or infernal devices in their clothing.