As far as I can see, everyone here seems to be assuming that the Israeli government is always telling the truth about, e.g. Hamas activity in that media building, human shields, etc.
Maybe they are.
On the the other hand does anyone seriously believe that Netanyahu’s government and the IDF don’t lie when it suits them?
Does anyone seriously believe that the Israelis don’t run disinformation campaigns?
In a 28-second video, which was posted to Twitter this week by a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to launch rocket attacks at Israelis from densely populated civilian areas.
At least that is what Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, said the video portrayed. But his tweet with the footage, which was shared hundreds of times as the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis escalated, was not from Gaza. It was not even from this week.
Instead, the video that he shared, which can be found on many YouTube channels and other video-hosting sites, was from 2018. And according to captions on older versions of the video, it showed militants firing rockets not from Gaza but from Syria or Libya.
That’s why it’s a good thing that Israel has a free and critical press and a very active opposition party to keep Netanyahu in check. Which makes one side of the conflict for which this is true.
The Atlantic article linked earlier raises some serious questions about just how “free” or “critical” that press really is; and I would note that Israel targeted Hamas, not the press. I agree, it IS a pity that Hamas would use buildings occupied by civilians and the press to launch their terrorist attacks into Israel; I believe you will find that doing so is, in fact, a war crime.
This is bullshit. You make a statement with zero factual basis–ie. based on ignorance of the facts. And here at the SDope, we like to fight ignorance, remember?.
.So I offer a little suggestion to correct the situation…You are welcome to come visit my house and sleep over tonight. I live on a nice quiet street in the Tel Aviv area,and the flowers are blooming this time year. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. And if you find anything military near by, let me know, okay? Because there isn’t any.
Until then, please stop spreading lies on a website that expects more from its members.
note to mods: I apologize for the rude language–but it is intended as a description of the totally ignorant statement in the quoted text, not as a personal attack on the poster. After all, I invited him to come visit me in my home, so he can learn the facts, and fight ignorance.
Perhaps you meant ‘Israel said they targeted Hamas, not the press’?
Targeted Israeli airforce attacks have destroyed the premises of 23 Palestinian and international media outlets in the past week.
Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor, has stated that they had offices in that building for 15 years, and never saw any signs of Hamas activity. She has also called for an independent investigation.
Let’s assume for the sake of argument that that 2014 article is correct, and the AP is perceived as being biased against Israel.
I’m sure that couldn’t possibly have been the reason they decided to destroy their offices. Israel has too much respect for the freedom of the press. No, it could only have been because… Hamas.
I call on Sally Buzbee to tell us how she knows who is and is not a terrorist. What are the signs? Is there a secret Hamas handshake? do their wear a special ring on their pinky?
I’ll be happy to do that right after you spend the night in a Gaza apartment building full of women and children with absolutely zero militants in it. How confident are you that the IDF won’t declare it a military asset full of human shields and bomb it into oblivion?
That’s my point. You want scrupulous honesty when it comes to rationalizing bombs on your house, but how many lies about “militants” do you automatically take at face value when it’s the other side getting bombed and murdered?
I earlier asked you to demonstrate proof of even one of those lies in the current round of fighting and you didn’t respond at all. So you’re the one making claims without evidence.
I guess there is the question as to whether Hamas is actually targeting civilians. They could be aiming for military bases, but because Israel has put civilians in between Gaza and their bases, given the short range and poor accuracy of the rockets that Hamas uses, the civilian areas used as buffer zones end up getting hit.
So, solution, move the military bases within range of the rockets from Gaza, then Hamas has a legitimate military target to hit. If it continues to shoot at civilians, then you know that that is their intent.
The Israeli press has been publishing statements from the army that the office tower was being used by Hamas for electonic warfare, and that the reason for demolishing it was the equipment inside and on the roof of the building. The only verification we have of this is that US secretary Blinken has stated that he has received secret intelligence info from Israel regarding the tower. He has refused all further comment.
So it remains possible that the info is correct, and yes, it WAS due to Hamas, but the information is , as described by the Hebrew press, very highly classified…
It also remains possible that the reporters are correct.
we wont know until Blinken says something.
Because I wasn’t making a factual assertion, I was demonstrating that some people will believe whatever the IDF says about why they annihilated an apartment building, that all civilian casualties are mere “human shields”, but won’t accept that bullshit for a second when it’s directed at them.
That’s not the part of the article I was referring to. I was referring to the part where people were shooting off rockets right outside and reporters who tried to cover that (and that it was endangering them) were silenced.
Why build infrastructure that will only be destroyed by Israel? Show me that Hamas’s rocket budget would build a desalination plant. I don’t think so. The rockets seem to be glorified fireworks- in other words, cheap.
But maybe the reasoning is that if Gaza had a viable economy they would have money for more and better weaponry.
No one has yet seen proof that ANY of the destruction of Gazan infrastructure was justified. Something concerning the press-occupied hi-rise would go a long way toward mollifying me.
I think that Friedman is the one that is “full of it” to be honest. There was nothing in that article that calls into question Sally Buzbee has said. And it would be surprising if it did considering it was written many years before the AP building was bombed and years before Buzbee said anything about it.
The IDF provides evidence of its claims? Really? The official twitter page posts a lot of memes. A lot of propaganda.
This is the sort of thing the IDF are posting as proof of “human shields.”
For those that don’t want to click: its a two minute video with rapid cuts of out-of-context clips, dramatic music, animations, but very little in the way of proof.
For those that don’t want to click, its a twitter user sharing a screenshot of the IDF posting a “before and after” meme of the bombing of an apartment complex in Gaza. (I checked the original page and its real, and the user is verified)
And the official Israeli government twitter is not much better, posting stuff like this.
And here they are outright lying about what Bella Hadid said.
All the official channels post is propaganda. All I hear from official spokespeople are talking points. So when you say “the IDF provides evidence for their claims” I really don’t know what it is that you mean. Can you be a bit more specific? Let’s start with the bombing of the building that housed the offices of the AP and Al Jazeera. What evidence have they provided that the building “hosted military assets belonging to the military intelligence of the Hamas terror organisation?”
I mean if Israel wanted to specifically kill Gazans there’d be tens of thousands of them dead. The idea that they are using low yield, expensive guided missiles, calling people to evacuate buildings in advance, but secretly want to kill Gazans seems highly illogical to me. I’ve seen what countries just intent on killing lots of people do, it doesn’t look anything like this conflict.
