Walker wrote: ↑Sun Oct 15, 2023 5:48 pm
Hamas’ primary interest in the Gaza civilians is to use them for anti-Israel, anti-Jewish propaganda. Using the civilians as human shields is one way to do this, which is why Hamas embedded themselves in the population, with offices in hospital basements, that sort of thing.
One note on the term *civilian* as it pertains to Israelis. Looked at in one way there are no Israelis who are purely civilians. All Israelis, including women, serve in the military unless they get exempted for one reason or another.
Again, and seen from one angle, all Israelis are citizen combatants. They did in fact conquer and occupy Palestinian lands. They did herd hundreds of thousands into refugees camps. You (or anyone) can do impressive triple backward rhetorical flips and offer breathtaking explanatory discourses on the *right* of Jews to that land but none of this actually changes the core reality.
Therefor, and at least in my own case, I never felt inclined to lie about it -- and here I speak of when I was pro-Israel. I simply said: In this world it is Power that makes choices. You see something, you take it.
Then you construct your justification. There is no place on this planet that has not been conquered in the most brutal way by someone else, and then set themselves up as the *indigenous* whose land it really is.
The issue with Israel is that it is so ultra-modern, and so recent, that it is adjudicated according to *lofty standards* which were, for hundreds of thousands of years, non-considerations. It is a microcosm of so many different strains of *narrative* (not the least being the "God gave it to us" one but there are a hundred others) that it seems to become the flash-point for world-consciousness.
My advice is to remember: Jewish history is not over. It was not settled with the Jewish *return* to Israel and one other event that, among Jews and in Jewish history, has been totally unprecedented: the United States as one of the only places of sustained Jewish safety and the gaining of a foothold within a powerful state. I can tell you with complete certainty that Jews know this (because they read their own histories and have a high level of historical awareness) and that right now we are witnessing a Jewish effort to hold to the position they have achieved and -- again as we can easily observe -- determine and direct the 'grand narrative' about what all this means. The game -- very suddenly - became serious indeed.
But here is a part that must also be considered and understood. The Jewish struggle is not the world's struggle. You have to be sort of trained-up in Jewish issues and history and mind-set to either defend or condemn Jews in their historical project. The reason why England and America as so much in the forefront of pro-Israel issues is because of Christian Zionism. This
must be understood. The *picture* derives from Biblical fables and the bizarrest of bizarre phantasies (and where is IC in all this?!?) If it were to fall away there could be big trouble for Israel and Jewry. For some -- trust me I have studied the issue in some depth -- Jews and the Jewish issue are seen as "a misfortune that befalls us". I am just telling you the facts.
What is now occurring in
The Holy Land seems to be the beginning of what seems to be a culmination within Jewish history but also in how Jewish history, and Jewish issues, are perceived and understood. It would be so interesting to actually discuss these things but here is the problem: you and most of those who write on this forum do not even know what a Jew
is. Therefore you do not really know what non-pro-Judaism, Judenhass and antisemitism actually is. Yet -- and this will sound strange -- it is you whose perception is what is being fought over. How things are decided, in a large measure, depends on
you.
And yes, you are a sociopath. Get over it.