On the bright side Amnesty almost condemned Hamas in a tweet but obviously didn’t actually, preferring to say the murder of the Bibas children (Hamas have sent back the corpse of a random Palestinian woman rather than the boys’ murdered mother) is an example of children dying being bad. Cheers lads. Save The Children as usual silent.
“The Prime Minister has ordered the [military] to carry out an intensive operation against centres of terrorism in Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank]. The Prime Minister also ordered the Israel Police and the ISA [Israeli Security Agency] to increase preventative activity against additional attacks in Israeli cities,” Netanyahu’s office said. Some parts of the West Bank were immediately sealed off and further restrictions have been imposed on the movement of Palestinians. Citing unnamed security officials, The Jerusalem Post reported that the explosives had been linked to “terrorist infrastructure” in the West Bank. If that's the case, then Israel absolutely has the right to weed out terrorists in the West Bank What it doesn't have is the right to persecute the whole population in the West Bank on the back of it. If it is terrorists either operating alone or in a small group from the West Bank, then that again does not mean Hamas has broken the ceasefire and Israel should go back in and start a war again in Gaza. I know it's not exactly the same, but this has parallels with the Ireland situation when the IRA and Sinn Fein were negotiating a peace deal with the British. There were splinter terrorist groups, namely the Real IRA who continued terrorists activities during that process trying to derail the peace process. Thankfully the negotiators held firm and a peace was established.
My considered opinion is to not take any risks and just flatten both. Lebanon too. Not heard from Yemen for a bit but nothing to be lost by flattening that. Maybe Qatar if Richard Keyes is still there.
I think you have to look at this democratically, more countries in the region want to eliminate Israel, so as CK suggested, let's just nuke Tel Aviv Problem solved.
See, now I respect that opinion, because it makes more sense than some of the other bolloxs I've heard. I genuinely hadn't thought of it in that way about the diversity compared to America. I think one reason that resonates with me is because I've covered a lot of the US states, and one of the things that stuck in memory is wherever you go it's always the same. It's boring. I still stand by my stance that America's constitution does not allow a seperation in the way Gorbachev allowed, also the restrictions they applied on cuba, but at least I can see some rationale from a Ukraine perspective a bit clearer. That does not mean I don't want Ukraine to have its freedom, for me it's down to how someone asks the questions, but people just tend to make assumptions, so I let them get on with it. The question in my mind is how many deaths are acceptable for freedom, if we think millions crossed the border into Poland, another million are either scarred for life or dead. What hurts even more is I don't feel those in power do care about the human lives, Trumps getting a lot of stick now about minerals, but I knew all along before Trump returned to power, this is not about humans it's about their resources, the only difference is Trump is in you face about it - it's why I hate the EU and NATO so much, it's all about what can we grab. Milk even said as much yesterday, when he attempted to explain to me about concessions, I'm just like stop right there, if I save a friend I don't expect a reward, everything for me in life is done in good faith...being a good Christian. If that develops into a good freindship that is good, but I really do question peoples morals sometimes. Anyway Fosse I've rattled on now lol.
Going to say with the Israeli hostage mix up, I do think it was a genuine mistake. I often think how does Hamas manage all the logistics around this when Gaza has been flattened. It's just mindboggling to me, how all this transfer takes place, and makes me often think they must be holding the hostages in another country. Where's the safe ground otherwise to put all this logistics together without being taken out by security forces. Hamas need to put it right though, and if they can't they need to explain why, what, where and when. I do understand the distress this causes the hostage family, so it's an unacceptable mistake but I believe a genuine one, maybe I'm just gulliible.
I really don’t think it is. Would be a hell of a mistake with the corpse of a hostage they know is even more symbolic to Israeli society than the others excluding the children. I think it’s more likely there’s evidence of some sort of brutality against her they don’t want known. Or, probably more likely, it’s just more mind games hoping for a reaction.
Sort of thing I'd probably do Woke up the other day, glanced at the clock and thought it was getting on for 10am, I'm like wtf, so rushed to get up - anyway, when I went in to the living room I looked at the time and thought, oh the clock has stopped, it's not even 8am yet. Then the penny dropped, where's my phone, looked at the time and was life oh ffs.
I think it's entirely plausible that it's a mix up. Like you say, the logistics of dealing with hostages in an area that's been flattened. The communications between various Hamas members, some of whom will have been killed. And then the grizzly details of dealing with bodies that have been dead for a year Any number of mix ups could have happened in that chain of events. You're right, Hamas need to put it right. I also don't want to see Netanyahu using it as an excuse to go back to war.
Don't think you are gullible - if Hamas 'executed' them you have to question why (and how) they kept the bodies - given the extent of the levelling of Gaza it is quite probable that, whether dead or alive, their location was hit - what that did to the bodies, particularly if it was a long time after death, can only be guessed - but it's more than possible that after the dust settled Hamas assumed the nearest female remains were the kid's mother ... seems a bit daft if Hamas, for some reason, thought they could pass off a different body purposefully... Whatever actually happened - it's totally ****ed up and unbelievably tragic...
Fair enough mate, I've not really read or listened to much on it around this particular woman, I did see an old video of her yesterday on the news with her two kids, so I had a look on twitter to gain some insight and saw her name trending suggesting she was being discussed - all respectful stuff I should add. It seems hard to contemplate for me that someone would purposely harm or want to cause distress around a woman and her two kids, who she was holding closely in the video I saw, let's hope this gets sorted out immediately for all concerned.
When I see the videos of hostage exchanges, maybe I'm a bit weird but I wonder if people understand the logisitics involved around all this, it genuinely is mindboggling and even harder from a Hamas perspective getting everyone in the right place at the right time, and ensuring military survellience isn't tracking you. Also the terrorist on the ground / in a tunnel, actually understanding who he is holding and knowing their identities when things go tits up. Any horror of war can make identity nigh impossible if you are picking up human bits. I don't mean to sound crass here, but it's the reality of war.
I don't mean to sound crass here, but Hamas really couldn't give a toss if things go wrong. They are and have always been a death cult.
People aren't born into death cults - it tends to be events in life that dictate recruitment ... Very naiive to think that every member of Hamas must be a monster whereas the IDF is wholly made up of men of principle... There will be nasty ****ers in both ...
So it was either a mistake or it's mind games, which is it? If it was a mistake I believe Hamas would care if it went wrong, because they are generally very meticulous in their operation especially so around the exchange of hostages, also considering the conditions they have to work in, if but one surrounded by questionable propaganda and showing of strength. Do I believe hostages could have died from Israeli airstrikes, I say why not, thousands of Palestinians have been killed by the same methods, so it's a high probability that Israeli targets may have sadly and unwittingly struck their own. I said to you and I know you remember this, from the very beginning that Netty did not care about hostages, he was more intent on revenge and the hostages came second in that process. He wasn't following what I saw as a normal path in negotiations that I could see that would gain their safe release, as soon as possible. This war is far from over, I actualliy think that once the last live hostage is freed that Netty will go for strikes once again. I can imagine Trump having said to Netty in private, let's get the hostages out first then you are free to do what you want. Trump has already made his thoughts on Iran very clear. As for them being a death cult, well yeah that's a given, you are tallking to me not Piskie here lol
Just putting it out there, and I mean this point with the utmost sincerity: The Hamas Ministry of Health cannot apparently locate and/or correctly identify the body of a single high-profile woman, yet is totally and unequivocally trusted to tell us all precisely how many men, women and children have died due to Israel's response, down to the nearest decimal place? Absolute bollocks imo. If they got Shiri Bibas wrong, I'd imagine there's plenty more they've got wrong too.
A report that Anthony Blinken produced citing US intelligence, had found that Hamas has recruited as many members as had been killed by Israel, because there is simply nothing else to fill the void. Young men are seeing their homes and families blown to pieces and joining the cause to fight against those who are killing them. This is why you can never destroy Hamas (or another iteration of them) because until there is a just resolution to the Palestinian occupation, they will simply fill their ranks with new disillusioned and traumatised young men who want to fight for what they see as a just cause.
