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| Allied bombardment in Vire, Normandy, 1944 (Wikipedia) |
Israeli strike on UN school in Gaza reportedly kills at least 35
Based on this headline and the way they reported this incident, Israel has indiscriminately attacked a school filled with young children operated by the ’neutral’ UN under its ‘humanitarian’ UNRWA arm.
The IDF completely denied that narrative and gave a very plausible explanation of what happened and the care they took to avoid civilian casualties. Which basically amounted to carefully analyzed intelligence information that indicated that the two upper floors of the building they atttacked were the “locations of the terrorists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad who took part in the October attack. 20 and 30 fighters had been using the school to plan and carry out attacks, and that many of them were killed in the strike. And that a number of steps were taken to reduce the risk of harming uninvolved civilians.
That was then followed by UNRWA oficial saying the following:
“Attacking, targeting or using UN buildings for military purposes are a blatant disregard of International Humanitarian law. UN staff, premises and operations must be protected at all times.” (and) more than 180 Unrwa buildings had been hit since the war began despite their co-ordinates being shared with parties to the conflict, and that more than 450 displaced people had been killed as a result.
“This must stop and all those responsible must be held accountable,” he said.
Guess who gets the last word? That was followed by the oft quoted Hamas statistic of over 36,000 civilian casualties killed by Israel so far.
The damage that spreading this kind of poisonous yellow journalism (passed off as truth) does is incalculable. The following reported by JTA is but the latest example of a Jew negatively affected by it:
Harrison Mann An American Jewish military intelligence officer has resigned to protest U.S. support for Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza, saying that what is happening to the Palestinians there reminds him of the Holocaust.
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| Major Harrison Mann (JTA) |
First let us dispense with one common lie by Hamas constantly being repeated by the mainstream media. The Times of Israel reports the following:
UN cuts by more than half the number of women, children ‘identified’ as killed in Gaza...
Having previously reported that 9,500 women and 14,500 children had died during the war (some 69% of all fatalities), OCHA is now reporting far lower numbers, stating that among “identified” deaths, 4,959 women have died, along with 7,797 children (or 52% of the total number of identified deaths in the war.
That has not stopped Hamas and the media from continuing to report those lopsided woman and children casualty numbers.
Furthermore the 30,000 figure Hamas keeps repeating as the number of civilians Israel has so far killed does no differentiae between civilians and Hamas terrorists - legitimate targets of the attacks. Israel estimates that it has killed about 15,000 terrorists so far. Which makes for a one to one civilian to combatant casualty rate. much lower than the accepted ratio of the rules of war so often thrown at Israel in accusation of their gross violation in excess of that.
When considering the undeniable fact that Hamas uses their civilian population as human shields, that is a remarkable achievement. Which makes a mockery of any accusations suggesting Israel is committing genocide!
And another thing. It may be understandable when you hear casualty number like 30,000 civilians and see images of human suffering day after day for 7 months in a row with the blame placed squarely on Israel - that it makes Israel look bad.
But consider this.
In what I can only describe as a moment of truth from a CBS reporter attending the ceremonies there marking the event, he mentioned that his own grandfather was a bomber pilot for the US who - along with other pilots from the US and the UK were tasked with the mission of bombing Nazi occupied countries. In France alone 50,000 innocent French civilians were killed as a direct result of those bombs Sad as that may have been, it was for a just cause: the defeat of the Nazis. Sadly civilian casualties cannot be avoided.
So said this reporter. He is of course right. Is Israel’s war with Hamas not a just cause? Did not the events of October 7th prove that? And does not the low civilian to combatant casualty rate prove Israel’s claim of taking extraordinary precautious to avoid civilian casualties? And that the Hamas claims about casualties are blatant lies?
When are the bigots at the BBC who keep pushing the antisemitic Hamas narrative about Israel - going to be exposed for the antisemites they are - for all the world to see? When are any denials they might make to the contrary be ridiculed as insincere at best – if not outright lies?
What will it take for the world to realize that what Israel is trying to do is merely defend itself while protecting innocent civilians as best they can – even though they know full well that the vast majority of those very same civilians support Hamas and their terrorism against the Jewish people?
We need more high profile political people like Nikky Haley, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, and John Fetterman to be out there telling these truths. They have been doing a good job but it hasn’t been enough. It would help if a lot more of congress especially on the Democratic side would do the same instead of finding ways to criticize Israel and its leaders.