So I showed cites about IDF members reporting they were ordered to shoot harmless unarmed civilians, and the Israeli Finance Minister calling for genocide. Presumably now you will join us in calling for the IDF to stop conducting atrocities?
He was talking about snipers. In an artillery barrage or an airstrike, you’ve got some cover for accidentally killing a child, but how do you defend a sniper looking down the scope of his rifle, seeing a child, and then deliberately pulling the trigger as “unavoidable collateral damage”?
They have, or had, (there are questions about it’s current state) a countdown clock, but clocks being first order military targets Israel bombed it.
The clock was bombed by Israeli airstrikes on 23 June 2025 during the course of the Iran-Israel War, whereupon the semi-official Mehr News Agency published a short video on social media which purportedly showed it still ticking down the days to September 2040, with Israel having 5,569 days left (projected date of 21 September 2040). The video could not be independently verified.[9]
Palestine Square Countdown Clock - Wikipedia
Here is a gift link without the paywall. Just in the interests of allowing everyone in the discussion access to the same information:
That’s not, of course, a thing that was ever actually established.
The claim he’s referring to is that they found dead people including children with 5.56 mm rounds. The claim is that these are consistent with sniper bullets. Which is true but they’re also consistent with assault rifle bullets, which are used in suppressing fire - very different then a sniper looking down the scope and shooting a kid.
The only evidence provided that it was a sniper and not any old rifle is that the people were hit in the center of mass or head. Which, yes, if you’re killed by a bullet, is where it would have hit… It’s hardly proof of “sniping”.
What possible motivation would Israel have for setting snipers on children? Even if Israelis were horrible bloodthirsty monsters as described by some in this thread, I thought we wanted plausible deniability? If we don’t, why not just bomb without evacuation orders?
Genocide, or attempted genocide, doesn’t necessarily require direct leadership intent and orders. Sometimes all it might need is a relative handful of monsters in key positions in the military, and superior officers who look the other way.
Only hit in the head in many cases. That - and witness reports. So no, not the only evidence.
Looks like they’re emulating their great American colonizer heroes … ‘nits make lice’ - we all know how genocidal barbarians think.
Clearly some of you are just that stupid to think it’d work - or think everyone else is dumb enough to believe you.
If these fine men had been slightly less barbaric they’d have just shot Indian children in the head instead destroying a major food source to starve them onto reservations which clearly, for their part, was not an act of genocide/ethnic cleansing.
There was one little child, probably three years old, just big enough to walk through the sand. The Indians had gone ahead, and this little child was behind, following after them. The little fellow was perfectly naked, travelling in the sand. I saw one man get off his horse at a distance of about seventy-five yards and draw up his rifle and fire. He missed the child. Another man came up and said, ‘let me try the son of a b-. I can hit him.’ He got down off his horse, kneeled down, and fired at the little child, but he missed him. A third man came up, and made a similar remark, and fired, and the little fellow dropped.
I learned about Sand Creek in my teens . . . of course not in ‘’‘American history’‘’ class but because I watched the 1970 movie Soldier Blue.
“Some Israelis are sniping children” is not the same as a blanket “Israel is sniping children.” It only takes a small number of evil people performing evil acts to blow up into wholesale accusations against entire groups of people.
Is it possible some IDF members were evil enough to deliberately target children? Of course it’s possible. The problem is proving it. Then you have the question of whether it was their own idea or something ordered from above, which also requires proof.
All of which takes place in a war zone where proving anything is going to be challenging.
In case anyone isn’t clear on the quote, it’s attributed to one John Chivington in regards to the Sand Creek Massacre
It’s not a proud moment in US history.
Please. Both actions were genocidal. As were the forced boarding schools, smallpox contaminated blankets, and all the other shameful acts perpetrated in the European settlement of North America.
I guess I should have added that /s after all…
Probably. Sarcasm doesn’t come across well in plain text.
And if you find an American who denies our own genocide, then you’ve found a Republican.
The disingenuous Bibi-fanbois are not going to engage in anything resembling good faith debate.
The genocide apologist replied to my accusation of playing semantics with “genocide” by demanding a definition.
To think you’ll get anything worthwhile from such a unapologetic sealion is madness.
…I woke up to news this morning that they nearly got Bayan.
I started to follow a lot of Palestinians on Twitter at the start of the war. It’s one of the reasons why I’m still on the platform, despite all of Elon Musk’s shenanigans. And one of those people is Bayan, a journalist, one of the few left standing. There are a few less journalists today.
The IDF targeted a beachfront cafe, one of the few places that still has the internet, and is frequented by journalists where they would file news stories for foreign agencies.
Some footage from the scene. (spoiled because it contains blood and dead bodies. Twitter link)
The strike killed 30. It included journalists Omar Zaino, and Ismail Abu Hatab, also a photographer and filmmaker whose works featured in an exhibition in Los Angeles.
This is relentless. The people in Gaza are trapped. The stories of tragedy, countless. For all the high profile stories like the GHF massacres, there are thousands of stories that happen daily that most won’t even hear.
And there are people I follow who sometimes quietly just stop posting. I don’t know if they can’t access the internet or are dead. Sometimes people will write their farewells as bombs and bullets land around them.
Bayan stopped posting for a little while in March/April last year. She was trapped in Gaza City during the Al Shifa massacre. If you haven’t heard of that, it happened during the time when everybody believed everything the IDF said: and Israel claimed it was “victory” and had killed and captured hundreds of terrorists. Most people believed them.
One of those “terrorists” was Bayan’s brother. As she tells it:
Link spoiled as it includes photos of her dead brother, and some blood.
He was shot on their doorstep as he looked outside to see what was going on.
And they nearly got her today. They are calling this the first “live-streamed genocide.” Because we are getting to intimately know the people before they are killed.
Also killed today was Dr Shehada Mahmoud Asqoul, consultant pulmonologist and former head of the Pulmonology Department at Nasser. They targeted and hit his tent. It was the second attempt to kill him, they tried before five weeks ago.
This isn’t going to stop. Months ago Hamas agreed to release all of the hostages and step down from power if Israel withdrew from Gaza and agreed to a permanent ceasefire. Israeli leadership scoffed at the deal. They will only offer a temporary ceasefire in exchange for all the hostages. Then they will almost certainly resume where they left off.
Fuck all you warmongering pieces of shit. You enabled this.
But there were documented cases of Indigenous people attacking white settlers, so it was justified self-defense /s
This is a lie, of course.
A temporary ceasefire with Hamas. The goal of the war is for Hamas to be destroyed. If they stepped down and released the hostages, mission accomplished.
Interestingly most of the debate is from the “fanbois” as you would have it.
FWIW…I despise Netanyahu. I despise Trump too. Maybe more. They are both horrible people and it is shocking to me this is who we pick to govern us.
You’ve got nothing but vitriol to spew. You have zero engagement with the issues. Just an angry person pounding sand and ranting.
You are the crazy person on the beach everyone tries to ignore.
Loose definition you have of debate.