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DAVID FORSMARK's avatar

Unfortunately, we have a pretty good idea of what would happen if the Palestinians were "freed." https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palestinians-back-oct-7-attack-israel-support-hamas-rises-2023-12-14/

Forget whether they back Hamas to rule them, 70% back the insane atrocity of October 7th.

That's why they haven't had an election in the West Bank. The PA KNOWS HAMAS WOULD WIN.

BTW, Nat Turner wasn't isolated. Every southerner lived in fear of another Haiti, but that's another topic. But we know what happened when slaves WERE freed, and they had allies. Hamas, even after atrocities deliberately designed to give Israel little choice but to go medieval (or WWII)

https://claireberlinski.substack.com/p/sinwars-script?r=2k7n7&triedRedirect=true

But your insistence on using Hamas numbers of casualties baffles me. Are the supposed 500 deaths of the people at the hospital included in that number? The same people who said Israelis killed 500 people when it turned out a failed Hamas rocket killed about 15 are putting out those numbers.

Other observers have said that Israel's real count should be about 1 Hamas militant killed for every civilian. Tragic, but let's look at that. Considering using human shields is a Hamas STRATEGY, should Israel just say, "Okay, we can't do anything now" and make that tactic a successful slam dunk for the future?

Hamas doesn't have a formal army, so EVERYONE can be considered a "civilian." Many of them are in their teens, so they are "dead children."

I don't know what the real numbers are, and I don't think anyone does. But parroting Hamas's numbers because the anti-Israeli majority in the UN accepts them doesn't fly with me.

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Steve QJ's avatar

Over 90% of Palestinians disbelieve or are unaware of the reports of atrocities committed by Hamas (https://www.timesofisrael.com/for-most-palestinians-october-7s-savagery-is-literally-unbelievable-blame-the-tv-news/amp/). Partly because their news networks didn’t report it, and partly because they now can’t access much of anything.

They think it was a legitimate military strike. Not a massacre.

Meanwhile, less than 2% of Israelis think Israel is using too much force as it kills 30,000+ people (https://social-sciences.tau.ac.il/sites/socsci.tau.ac.il/files/media_server/social/2023/Findings-November-2023-EN.pdf).

It feels as if every time we talk about this, you’re trying to convince me of how terrible all the Palestinians are. All while totally overlooking how terrible Israel has been. And why, given Israel’s actions, some people in Gaza, by which I don’t mean Hamas, have legitimate grievances that should be acknowledged instead of handwaved away.

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