Merged Gaza just launched an unprovoked attack on Israel

[Loren Pechtel]

Hamas was also stuck between a rock and a hard place. Hamas existence is about conquering Israel and murdering all Jews in "the holy land". Eventually they'd had to make a move. Or they'd stop getting funding from Iran. And that's, pretty much, the only money Gaza had flowing into it. Something like what happened, was going to happen.

They (Iran) had to stop the Abraham Accords being signed. So Hamas was sent to the slaughter. Both start and be slaughtered.

Sounds like conspiracy theory nonsense. I think the Iranian govornment is more sensitive to the internal stability of Iran and their own security. The Iranian people are revolting increasingly often, and now the economy has collapsed. I think it's more likely that attacking Israel is more a diversion away from internal conflicts. In standard fascist fashion the appeal to patriotism and hopes it will kick in to override the people's hate for the govornment. That's what I suspect is going on anyway. Iran is a terror state where the government is hated by the people and only stays in power through brutal repression. Extremely brutal repression. The moment they show weakness internally they're gone. They all know it.

BTW, I have noticed that, pretty much all media shared on Social Media has been altered to emphasize the message. No matter what the message. Never before has footage been as unreliable as now. I have a bunch of exile Iranian friends. I have noticed that they're often suckered in by wishful thinking clips. I think it would be hard for anyone to have an accurate objective picture of what it going on right now. There's filters upon filters upon filters. So much bullshit.

No reason they can't have multiple motivations.

But I do agree about social media. Presume anything sensational is at least partially false.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The situation Israel is in is so extreme and bizarre, there's no historical equivalent. There's no other example in history of a people showing as much restraint as Israel has, considering how they have been treated.

I'll repeat, what else should they do?

What is wrong with you? Why can't you understand the "answer" is Don't Look Up!

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The situation Israel is in is so extreme and bizarre, there's no historical equivalent. There's no other example in history of a people showing as much restraint as Israel has, considering how they have been treated.

I'll repeat, what else should they do?

This is the West Bank, not Gaza. Illegal Jewish settlers have murdered over a thousand Palestinians there.

1) Why should we believe the 1,000 number?

2) Why should we believe murder? If they were truly fleeing why are they being hit in the front? It is not that unusual to see a defensive shooting in the back (the an attacker can respond to a threat by turning to run faster than a defender can recognize that the reason to shoot went away. Assume the shoot/don't-shoot decision was made 1 second before the shot to get a better evaluation), but it is very unusual to see someone fleeing shot in the front. Yet we have plenty of Palestinian "victims" shot in the front.

3) The continual attacks from Gaza actually cause settler issues. The thing is Israel knows it has no bearing on the overall picture, there simply isn't the reason to divert effort to deal with them.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Israeli police attack journalists in Jerusalem, fracturing wrist of CNN producer

Israeli police attacked a group of journalists outside the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, including a CNN producer who suffered a fractured wrist in the violent incident.

Police officers also damaged photographic equipment and confiscated memory cards from journalists who were outside the Lion’s Gate of the Old City covering Ramadan prayers.

On Tuesday, Muslim worshippers, barred from praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque because of wartime restrictions, gathered outside the walls of the Old City to perform the Tarawih prayers of Ramadan. But police prevented them from praying and pushed them away. The worshippers relocated to a street inside the nearby Wadi Al Joz neighborhood.

Police then relocated the worshippers one more time to a spot near the Old City walls when, moments later, officers threw stun grenades at the group. Two journalists were detained at the scene as officers assaulted them and damaged their equipment. Several other journalists at the scene who were documenting the unfolding incident, including CNN’s senior producer Abeer Salman, attempted to intervene but were pushed away.

After the two journalists were released, Salman and other journalists went to check on their colleagues. Police ordered the journalists back. Footage shows the group acquiescing to the police instructions when an officer in plain clothes – possibly indicating a special police unit – grabbed Salman’s hand, twisting it and causing a fracture in the wrist.

What part of "illegal assembly" do you not get?

This isn't about religion. This is about Israel not wanting any large public assemblies because Iran might shoot at them.

So, of course, the Muslims are encouraged to put themselves on the X to make Israel look bad.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Because Hamas gives journalist accreditation to Hamas fighters to prevent them from being targeted by Israel. Israel isn't buying it. Western leftist press are gullible idiots

Don't allow yourself to be manipulated by Hamas' bullshit

They are in a sense "journalists." It's just they are producing propaganda, not news. Geneva does not protect that.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

What your article proves is that Israel takes protecting the lives of real journalists very seriously

I don't think you have a mathematical proof because another alternative hypothesis on the table is that the Israeli govt takes it seriously when the journalists are not Muslim. It could just be a marketing thing--so if there is a chance they can accuse journalists through propaganda of being Hamas or Hamas sympathizers, they don't have to take news about it seriously.

Israel takes it seriously when they really are reporters. Not when they are propaganda people in the guise of neutral reporters.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

An independent press is a threat to authoritarians everywhere.

Are you really that naïve to think that journalists moonlighting as Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives constitute anything remotely approaching "independent press"?

Are you really that naïve to think that Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives are moonlighting as CNN producers and photojournalists in such numbers that attacks on reporters doing their jobs can be justified? Or that there is credible evidence that the journalists who have been attacked, injured, or killed were all, or even mostly, Hamas or Islamic Jihad operatives and Israel is just sitting on that evidence for no apparent reason?

The problem here is that Israel has not allowed western reporters into Gaza lest they be used as human shields. Thus anyone reporting from Gaza is Hamas.

This one is different, idiots overreacted trying to disperse a crowd. Stupid on both sides.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Israeli settlers killed a Palestinian farmer on his own land, in front of his father. Yes, again

It's the third time in a month that Israeli settlers in the West Bank have murdered Palestinian farmers working their own land and in front of their families.

And what proof do we have of the events?

I note "B'Tselem" so I figure it should be taken with a grain of salt. But is there anything but their words? No. Note that the article says the land is privately owned, the article does not say who owns it. I find this quite damning.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Six children at 39. The reason so many Palestinians have so many children is that they are using it as a demographic weapon against Israel, like Yasser Arafat wanted them to.

So, some kind of Great Replacement strategy? Every Palestinian with as many children as American families had in the 1960s is part of the plan to replace the European immigrants and their descendants with native born non-Euro Palestinians?

Better than Plan Dalet, anyway.

It's an openly stated Palestinian strategy.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

They do not mention what percentage of the total population these demographic groups represent (~77% of the total population), as that would show that 56.2% is heavily underrepresented, meaning that adult men under 65 are heavily overrepresented.

They do not need to mention that. You _want_ to mention it because you want to be political. Science doesn't need to be political as _you_ were able to draw the conclusion from the data anyway.

No, what they did was political. They cherry picked the numbers to make Israel look bad. We can deduce the missing data but that doesn't mean most people will.

You are being political in deciding what they _should_ do.

It also ignores the fact that Hamas and other terror groups routinely recruit minor teenagers.

Why do you feel that they need to state this explicitly?

Because the data is counting those under 18 as if they were non-combatants.

No, it isn't.

Therefore, 15-17 age cohort should have been examined separately from the 0-14 one.

Show the math.

The graph was presented. Note how the lines deviate before 18. And there have been plenty of other discussions on this.

None of which means all 15-17 year olds are combatants.

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

What your article proves is that Israel takes protecting the lives of real journalists very seriously

I don't think you have a mathematical proof because another alternative hypothesis on the table is that the Israeli govt takes it seriously when the journalists are not Muslim. It could just be a marketing thing--so if there is a chance they can accuse journalists through propaganda of being Hamas or Hamas sympathizers, they don't have to take news about it seriously.

Israel takes it seriously when they really are reporters. Not when they are propaganda people in the guise of neutral reporters.

In your view, Israel while engaging in war never, ever engages in propaganda. That view is proved false. Obviously Hamas engages in propaganda, but so does Israel. That is how wars operate.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

No argument from me. Those settlements need to stop.

First we need to establish that it was settlers.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

In reality, the Lebanese state should never have allowed Hezbollah to become as powerful as it got.

They never really had the ability to prevent it. The terror money is simply too great a lure.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Part of the problem is Israel thinks its borders are wherever it says they are.

No. Rather, Israel has no reason to weaken their position by declaring borders as they know that will simply be taken as a starting point. The borders aren't the issue, it's the very existence of Israel that triggers the problem.

The other part is the conflict between the Iranian clerics and mostly the Saudi religious monarchy.

This is much wider than the Saudis. Iran is using terror and genocide as a weapon across the area to gain covert control. You either kowtow to Tehran or you face attacks from well-armed terrorists and insurgents who will kowtow. We hear about the Israeli part because they can fight back and thus provide bodies to parade in front of the camera. We don't hear much about the others because nobody is documenting it, almost nobody cares even when the horrors occasionally make the news.

But there are no good answers so the world takes the don't look up approach.

 

[laughing dog]

Israeli police attack journalists in Jerusalem, fracturing wrist of CNN producer

Israeli police attacked a group of journalists outside the Old City of Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, including a CNN producer who suffered a fractured wrist in the violent incident.

Police officers also damaged photographic equipment and confiscated memory cards from journalists who were outside the Lion’s Gate of the Old City covering Ramadan prayers.

On Tuesday, Muslim worshippers, barred from praying at the Al-Aqsa mosque because of wartime restrictions, gathered outside the walls of the Old City to perform the Tarawih prayers of Ramadan. But police prevented them from praying and pushed them away. The worshippers relocated to a street inside the nearby Wadi Al Joz neighborhood.

Police then relocated the worshippers one more time to a spot near the Old City walls when, moments later, officers threw stun grenades at the group. Two journalists were detained at the scene as officers assaulted them and damaged their equipment. Several other journalists at the scene who were documenting the unfolding incident, including CNN’s senior producer Abeer Salman, attempted to intervene but were pushed away.

After the two journalists were released, Salman and other journalists went to check on their colleagues. Police ordered the journalists back. Footage shows the group acquiescing to the police instructions when an officer in plain clothes – possibly indicating a special police unit – grabbed Salman’s hand, twisting it and causing a fracture in the wrist.

What part of "illegal assembly" do you not get?

This isn't about religion. This is about Israel not wanting any large public assemblies because Iran might shoot at them.

So, of course, the Muslims are encouraged to put themselves on the X to make Israel look bad.

You expect readers to seriously take your evidence-free thesis that the current Israeli gov’t is protecting Muslim worshippers from Iranian attacks by throwing stun grenades at them and arresting journalists.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Part of the problem is Israel thinks its borders are wherever it says they are.

It isn't that simple. Israel was much smaller. And then the surrounding Arab nations made some critical errors of judgment (repeatedly) which led to Israel growing. If Israel wanted to, they could have conquered more.

I don't think the world would have permitted them to conquer more.

The problem in Israel and the surrounding areas is that the people with the power have massive grudges and they refuse to move forward. This is then made worse by powers like Iran stoking the embers. And no one actually cares about the Palestinians, Earth's orphans.

A bunch of people that are making each other suffer for reasons they think are reasonable, and while some of the reasons are viable, their logic and problem solving sucks!

Most of the countries around aren't actually being much of a problem anymore. After 1973 nobody was interested in invading anymore and the nations around have moderated. Lots of noise but they aren't going to do anything.

But the Islamists switched to the terror approach. Over time most of them have fallen aside, but Iran has seized upon it as a weapon to take partial control of large areas. Things like Gaza are a good distraction from the millions Iran is quietly killing.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

The article does, however, confirm that Hezbollah never had any intention to honor the 2024 ceasefire.

This Israeli invasion has reignited a long-running conflict that was supposed to have paused with a November 2024 ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, in which Lebanon's Army promised to disarm Hezbollah in the country's south. The United Nations says Israel violated that ceasefire thousands of times between late 2024 and early this year, with continued airstrikes that have killed more than 100 civilians.
While Hezbollah held its fire during that period, Jihad says they never disarmed. He says they pointed Lebanese soldiers to disused, defunct or damaged old stockpiles they no longer needed, and let them confiscate those. But Hezbollah's real arsenal was largely untouched, he says.
"They didn't confiscate anything! We gave them empty boxes, or a few old items to go blow up," he explains.
He says Hezbollah's weapons weren't as depleted by the 2024 war as Israel believed, and that the group has re-armed since then — with a mix of imported weapons and domestically manufactured ones.

And yet, UN (and by extension NPR, by not commenting on Hezbollah's duplicity in not even beginning to honor the ceasefire) is accusing Israel of violating it. And note also that the latest hostilities started because Hezbollah decided to start shooting rockets into Israel because of the Iran war.

And let's look more carefully at that claim.

"Thousands" of violations. Because they are counting every zig and zag of reconnaissance flights as separate violations. While counting a large stockpile of Hezbollah weapons as one violation.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It did not call him "terrorist", only that US considers Hezbollah terrorists. Such mealy-mouthed cowardice by NPR.

Not sure how it is either mealymouthed or cowardice to fail to blindly agree with the US government.

So you question whether he is a terrorist??

 

[Loren Pechtel]

Of course they are a terrorist organization. They are a militia launching rockets without the permission of their country. If I were Lebanese, I would hate Hezbollah.

Launching rockets without their host's permission doesn't make them terrorists. Launching said rockets at civilian targets makes them terrorists.

 

[Loren Pechtel]

It wasn't favorable. It was neutral.

Hardly. For example, the article called Israel striking Hezbollah positions as a "ceasefire violation" but did not use that language when the Hezbollah commander admitted that they never intended to turn over their weapons to the Lebanese government.

Technically, unless Hezbollah missed a deadline for weapon turnover or overtly refused to turnover weapons, their intention was not a ceasefire violation at that time. It was bad faith bargaining.

Unfortunately, firing weapons during a ceasefire is a violation.

Once again, reality debunks your claim.

1) Why does it have to be overt?? That's irrelevant.

2) Even if you are "right", so what? What label you stick on it doesn't change the fact that they failed to honor the agreement.