We now have Israel's explanation for killing seven World Central Kitchen workers earlier this week. In brief: drones followed the WCK trucks from a seaside jetty to the WCK warehouse. The Israelis knew exactly what they were. They also saw several cars join the trucks along the way, but they didn't realize they were part of the convoy. They figured they were Hamas soldiers commandeering an aid shipment. So after the food was unloaded and three of the cars headed south, they fired off three missiles and destroyed them.
This doesn't entirely make sense, but even if we take it at face value the conclusion is obvious: Israel should be providing military escorts for aid shipments. That would prevent misidentification and it would prevent Hamas from stealing humanitarian aid.
But Israel declines to do this. Too dangerous, I suppose. They prefer long-range killing. And it would take a thousand or so troops away from their prime mission of killing anything in Gaza that moves.
If President Biden is (a) serious about holding Israel to account, but (b) still supports Israel's goal of wiping out Hamas, then he should insist on military escorts for aid shipments, something Israel has never been willing to do. What other answer is there?
You're 100% right. Nuff said.
Every complaint about Biden makes it that much more likely that a man who thinks everyone brown deserves to die immediately.
Not debating the merits. Just the reality of the situation.
Why, so they can shoot them up directly?
Israel needs to stop shooting.
A useful idiot or useful fool is a person perceived as propagandizing for a cause without fully comprehending the cause's goals, and who is cynically being used by the cause's leaders.
All those people propagandizing for not genocide are just too dumb to understand the goal of not genocide. But Justin will set them straight!
Not genocide is part of the bad guys tricky plan, dont fall for it you dumb libs!
Still have our handy talking points from blaming the dirty hippies for casting doubt on the glorious war of Iraqi freedom and helping the terrorists! FREEDOM FRIES!
+1
So, the bad guys are against genocide and the good guys are for genocide?
There's another data point in support of the idea that, if you choose to believe that bad is good, then you are choosing to believe that good is bad. Authoritarian autocrats everywhere are applauding your naivete.
No. The reason why is because although Israel's military has shown a shockingly cavalier attitude about civilian casualties, it's less likely to allow its own troops to be put at risk. In essence, it would be using the members of the IDF who are escorts as human shields to protect the convoy against the rest of the IDF.
Of course, that's also the reason the Israeli military doesn't want to escort humanitarian aid.
Actually, what will obviously happen is that Hamas will wait until a crowd of civilians are around an aid shipment and then state shooting.
The Israelis then have to shoot at Hamas through a crowd of human shields.
Then idiots like you will complain that the Israelis are killing too many civilians.
Israel needs to stop shooting while Hamas is still holding Israeli hostages and raping the women?
Are you really that evil?
Hamas needs to surrender. That is how this war will end.
You have a private line to Netanyahu? Because his public comments contradict you.
People spouting this childish nostrum really ought to acquaint themselves with the reality of the situation:
That quote is not from Netanyahu. Don't lie.
You're uh, kinda dumb, aren't you.
Weirdly you use 'Israel' on one hand and 'Hamas' on the other...
...shouldn't the IDF stop taking hostages and raping women?
Are you really that evil? You do understand that the IDF has killed almost 30x as many people as Hamas did?
Scratch a Palestinian rights supporter, find an anti-Semite.
Needless to say, the IDF does not rape women or take hostages, and collateral casualties in a legal military operation are not crimes whereas deliberate rape, torture, and murder of civilians in a terrorist attack are crimes.
For any Israel supported reading this and thinking about your vote in November, please remember that the poster above is espousing the views of half of the 2024 Democratic Party. Your choice is clear.
"On 19 February 2024, a group of United Nations special rapporteurs released a report stating "rights experts call for probe into violations against Palestinian women and girls. According to the report, there is evidence that during the Israel-Hamas war, Palestinian women and girls were subjected to wartime sexual violence. Palestinian women and girls were reportedly randomly executed in Gaza, often together with their children. Allegations surfaced suggesting that Palestinian women and girls were deliberately targeted and extrajudicially executed by the invading Israel Defense Forces, even when they were holding white pieces of cloth, seeking refugee or fleeing.[1] According to these allegations, Palestinian women and girls were also subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment by the Israel Defense Forces, such as they were denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and were severely beaten, raped, assaulted, threatened with rape and sexual violence, and subjected to multiple forms of other sexual assaults. Palestinian women and girls were also stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers.[2][3][4][5][6] OHCHR stated that Israeli troops had photographed female detainees in “degrading circumstances” and that the photos had been uploaded online.[7][8]
The UN report states, "Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped".[7][8] One of the special rapporteurs; Reem Alsalem, cautioned that the reservation in reporting sexual violence was common due to reprisal concerns. Alsalem stated that since the 7 October attacks, women and girls in Israeli detention had faced an increasingly permissive attitude by Israeli officials towards sexual assault.[9]"
[7] "UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls". Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. United Nations. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
[8] Robertson, Nick (2024-02-19). "UN experts condemn 'credible' reports of executions, sexual assault by Israeli soldiers". The Hill. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
[1], [9] Borger, Julian (2024-02-22). "Claims of Israeli sexual assault of Palestinian women are credible, UN panel says". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
No link... which tells us that the original source has zero credibility so you don't want to give us a link.
MF has no idea what a footnote is.
Like I sayid 😉
Still no link...
The text I quoted came from here. But the source material, which is what you should be more concerned with, was listed at the bottom. In the quoted text you can see numbers in square brackets (eg "[7]") which indicates that the source for that assertion or quote can be found at the bottom, labled as eg. "[7]".
Here are the citation links for your convenience, though there was already all the info needed to find the cited material very easily for any facts of which you were sceptical.
[1] Borger, Julian (2024-02-22). "Claims of Israeli sexual assault of Palestinian women are credible, UN panel says". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
[2] "UN experts warn of Israeli violations against Palestinian women, girls". Al Jazeera. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
[3] "Israel/oPt: UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls" (Press release). Geneva: Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
[4] "Rights experts call for probe into alleged violations against Palestinian women and girls". United Nations News. United Nations Department of Global Communications. 19 February 2024. Retrieved 20 February 2024.
[5] Greene, Richard Roth, Kareem El Damanhoury, Richard Allen (February 20, 2024). "UN experts demand investigation into claims Israeli forces killed, raped and sexually assaulted Palestinian women and girls". CNN.
[6] Cullinan, Maeve (February 21, 2024). "Sexual violence against Palestinian women 'may be higher than first thought', says UN expert" – via http://www.telegraph.co.uk.
[7] "UN experts appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls". Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. United Nations. Retrieved 21 February 2024.
[8] Robertson, Nick (2024-02-19). "UN experts condemn 'credible' reports of executions, sexual assault by Israeli soldiers". The Hill. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
Poor MF. They have no idea how to look something up, even if you provide them with a title.
Israel held ~1,200 Palestinians imprisoned without charges, hearings or legal counsel: https://apnews.com/article/israel-detention-jails-palestinians-west-bank-793a3b2a1ce8439d08756da8c63e5435#
Is there a difference in law between ‘administrative detention’ and ‘hostage-taking’?
Yeah, that'll happen. (eye roll)
Good idea about escorting such convoys. Perhaps the Israel government doesn't trust their own troops.
The other answer is a stern phone call.
That seems like a political non-starter.
How many Israelis would be willing to die to make sure Palestinians are fed, in a war Gaza started?
The willingness of people to just shrug at 33,000 dead and more being starved, mostly women and children, and also apparently assume that there is no regional history that predates Oct 7 is amazing to me.
The war wasn't started by Gaza (Hamas is not Gaza), and it didn't start on Oct 7.
Sorry. You need to read more. The "war" has been ongoing for years, with some three to four Palestinians shot per week by Israel, most have died.
Bibi ignoring warnings from his own troops for over a year leads me to think that Bibi wanted a confrontation. Trouble is, I think it went further than even Bibi thought possible, them being so used to allowing "settlers" to confiscate Palestinian land and farms with impunity.
Have you even travelled to Israel, much less Palestinian lands?
Haaretz, October 8 last:
Who cares whether they're willing or not? Israel has the legal obligation to make sure Palestinians are fed. And is it just me, or is this a WTF!?!?! sort of post? I'm sure the guys who landed on Normandy beach weren't exactly happy about being there. But they were there, nonetheless because they felt it was their duty.
Oh, wait, I think I get it: are you by anywere you by chance in the IDF?
Started?
So you're ignoring the civilians the IDF was caught shooting the week before Oct 7?
And the near 30x more the IDF has killed since?
What a weird comment. If it’s so important to the Left, Biden should send American troops to do it.
It's so interesting how many are pro-genocide.
"They figured they were Hamas"
That's called not having a fucking clue who you will be shooting at.
"they fired off three missiles and destroyed them."
This makes it sound so much less barbaric than what they did.
They shot one vehicle. When the survivors walked to the second vehicle. They shot again at the 2nd vehicle. When the survivors of the 2nd vehicle then walked to the 3rd, they shot once more at the 3rd.
That's just cruelty to the extreme making sure there were no survivors even if they had no fucking clue who they were shooting at (according to their story), and that the victims lived a literal hell for the last minutes of their life.
"then he should insist on military escorts for aid shipments"
The last time Isareli soldiers were close to an aid truck, they used that as an excuse to shoot at them.
The Israel Death Force is no different to Russian troops in their disdain for human life.
Kevin left off the "best" part. Israsel dismissed two of the officers and reprimnaded two others. Committ murder, get a slap on the wrists, boys and girls.
The answer is seven million green cards.
The alternative is war, more war, then nuclear war, the end and tens of millions of dead.
Hamas should surrender. They’ve clearly lost this war. Their recalcitrance in the face of this onslaught is as much a war crime as is the Israeli retaliation. But they are counting on the useful idiots to bail them out. They really don’t deserve it. If they won’t surrender, then it’s all in. Can you imagine the Russians showing mercy to Ukraine at some point? ????. No.
“At first glance, you might assume Hamas would be disappointed by the results of its murderous efforts on 7 October. It had high ambitions: this week, a former Gaza official revealed that the Hamas leaders were so convinced “that they were going to bring Israel down that they started dividing Israel into cantons, for the day after the conquest”. (They approached that ex-official to be a canton governor.) It did not pan out that way. Instead, Hamas’s rampage through southern Israel brought hellfire down on the people of Gaza, provoking an Israeli response that has left a staggering 2% of the population dead and displaced the rest.
That scale of destruction won’t unduly trouble the zealots at the top of Hamas: the death of others is a sacrifice they are willing to make. But they will lament the losses among their own: an estimated 10,000 men, more than a third of their fighting force, along with three battalion commanders and seven members of the ruling political bureau, according to Michael Milshtein, the former senior intelligence officer widely regarded as Israel’s foremost expert on Hamas. The group has lost or used up almost all its arsenal of rockets – and, its greatest disappointment, the action failed to spark the wider regional onslaught against Israel it dreamed of.”
All effing idiots. They deserve their fate. And the Israelis do too!
But they will lament the losses among their own: an estimated 10,000 men, more than a third of their fighting force, along with three battalion commanders and seven members of the ruling political bureau, according to Michael Milshtein, the former senior intelligence officer widely regarded as Israel’s foremost expert on Hamas.
No one should trust the Israeli figures for how many Hamas operatives they've killed. They aren't based upon rigorous methodologies. They just aggregate the number that low level officers say that their units have killed. Those officers are structurally incentivized and prone to exaggerate those figures.
For instance, given the widely varying rules of engagement that stem from the IDF not having issued general rules and left it up to tactical commanders, some Israeli units have set up 'kill zones,' and shoot anyone that enters them. These victims are then classified as 'terrorists,' without regard for who they were or what they were actually doing. The mere act of crossing an unmarked and arbitrary boundary qualifies them as such.
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-03-31/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israel-created-kill-zones-in-gaza-anyone-who-crosses-into-them-is-shot/0000018e-946c-d4de-afee-f46da9ee0000
I think the calculation is a lot less complex than that. Start with total casualties, subtract women and children, and everybody else is "part of the fighting force". I doubt the IDF has any idea how many actual fighters they have killed. They certainly do know how many Israeli soldiers have been killed. In a normal war, you might consider a 10 to 1 loss ratio a fairly brutal beatdown. That was roughly the Iraqi to US military death ratio. So far, Israel claims 250 Israeli soldiers killed. If they have been wildly successful and have a 20-1 loss ratio, that's about 5000 Hamas fighters killed. I seriously doubt they have been that successful.
Stay focused on the brown baddies lol. Useful idiots comment, so much ironing.
BUT HAMAS/SADDAM/BINLADEN !!!! It is their fault we are killing/torturing innocent people!!!
Vanquishing brown enemies at literally any price is a popular policy in the US because of all the Justins. Its not just Trumpers, lots of crossover appeal.
Well, that's our Justin. May I offer some friendly advice: DO NOT MAKE EYE CONTACT when he shits himself on the sidewalk and offers the results to passersby. I'm sure you know all the rules about that sort of thing, you just gotta remember (unfortunately) to apply them here as well as there.
Re: IDF escorting food caravans.
Provide target practice for Hamas??
That was my thought as well.
Yes, nice idea but also not realistic.
Hamas would want to starve why?
A few additional salient facts:
1. It is 10:28 PM
2. Aide workers generally and usually arrive and leave in a truck
3. There is less than a half moon out
4. This is an unlit, usually deserted beach highway
5. Israeli command chides the command on the ground for not reading (!) sent messages...they are doing this by Text?!?
6. There is apparently no protocol that messages must be responded too to ensure receipt (there are all kinds of possible causes for failure in this loose system...battery failure, weather, the operator on the other end fell asleep or is dead...)
7. Which brings me to WCK....when Andres says all proper protocols were followed, Just what does he mean?
8. Did WCK inform the Israeli's that the workers would be in a convoy of cars, not a standard truck as was usually the case?
9. What kind of confirmation did WCK receive from the Israelis? I want to see these actual confirmations. Or not...
10. This is why I recommend an actual Courts Martial trial....The facts and transparency are vital here....(and obviously I still believe in an adversarial judicial system....my prejudice)...to properly inform the pubic of what happened and what remedial steps in the protocols are necessary.
Best Wishes, Traveller
Traveler,
There was enough light, apparently, for the IDF to see one armed man at the warehouse. They had no reason to think that that they would not be killing or wounding multiple aid workers to get at most one Hamas militant of unknown rank. Perhaps they thought most of the occupants of the three vehicles were Palestinian, and they had already killed nearly 200 Palestinian aid workers, so who would care?
The cars had WCK logos; had the IDF never seen WCK-marked automobiles before?
At night I would guess “sighting” things would be by infrared.
Which doesn't explain how they were able to determine that there was an armed man at the warehouse.
I would expect a largely metal weapon to have a different infrared signature than background. For example, one of the hits for “man holding rifle infrared” https://www.x26.com/long-range-thermal-imaging/thermal-clip-on-systems/x27-long-range-clip-on-thermal-flir-rifle-scope-sniper-sight/
Your hypothesizing has failed. In the IDF investigation, they interviewed the soldier responsible for the claim that an armed man joined the convoy. He now says that it was probably a bag.
In the investigation carried out following the incident, one of the operators admitted he had made a mistake in "incriminating" the person thought to be carrying a weapon and that "he was probably carrying a bag."
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-04-05/ty-article/.premium/israeli-army-series-of-mistakes-led-to-killing-of-world-central-kitchen-workers-in-gaza/0000018e-acb9-d906-a5cf-aebd1f560000
Re the "one armed man." It's been determined that the guy's "machine gun" was actually just a ...wait for it ... backpack.
Blinks. So it turns out he was a hippy? Well that's okay then.
I feel like this is a setup. What an odd suggestion.
It is kind of like, your brother is an alcoholic. He's ruining his life. Among many other things, his wife left him because he lost his job because he can't keep his car running. So you focus on referring him to a mechanic.
"...the conclusion is obvious: Israel should be providing military escorts for aid shipments. That would prevent misidentification and it would prevent Hamas from stealing humanitarian aid"
Now you sound a little naive. They attacked clearly marked foreign aid trucks (that had authorized their route) in a relatively safe zone that weren't a threat to anyone just to maybe get a garden variety member of Hamas. Previously they shot up a bunch of starving Palestinians because they were too excited by the aid supplies.
They don't want aid delivered. They are not interested.in helping the Palestinians. I understand that it's a complicated, multifaceted conflict, but you CANNOT pretend that the Israelis can be dispassionate administrators of Gaza.
Re a Drunk Brother:
Not at all....all the pictures I see circulating are shot in the daytime, and clearly the vehicles are white, marked and obviously the property of WCK.
Conversely, at night, I don't think you see anything distinguishing.
maybe I am wrong....I don't know, you don't know either.
Everyone here knows there is great distrust between the IDF and Aide Agencies in general...it must also be noted that this dislike is fully reciprocated.
The Israeli's are screwing the pooch....I would like to see them on a straighter path. Things change in war...my position is changing with changing facts.
I am generally pro Israeli, though staying in the West Bank with Palestinians was...pretty good also. There are real issues...Water Rights from the Jordan, "Two," Palestinian states, (I favor a three state solution)_, the utter craziness of the birth rate in Gaza, (in 1950, Gaza population was approx 65,000...all fertile women having 6 to ten children is crazy...doesn't anyone know how to practice birth control?
Let me be frank, this is maybe my most real complaint...the Palestinian leadership has always bragged and said that their population growth would necessarily win them any conflict...and over time this is true....in another ten years there will be five million Palestinians jammed into Gaza...they will have to spill over somewhere....this cynical use of Fertility as a weapon of war itself should be a crime against humanity).
Best Wishes, Traveller
.
Gaza population was approx 65,000...all fertile women having 6 to ten children is crazy...doesn't anyone know how to practice birth control?
When you completely destroy an area's economy and ensure that most of the population don't have anything to do, this is what happens.
Religious fundamentalists of all kinds - definitely including all Ultra Orthodox Jews - generally have as many kids as they can.
“And it would take a thousand or so troops away from their prime mission of killing anything in Gaza that moves.”
As opposed to The Prime Mission of Hamas which is killing anything in Israel that moves?
When it comes to Israel, Kevin is inching ever closer to the rhetoric adopted by the worst of the Leftist ideologues. He thus continues to ever more deeply discredit himself.
And he likely doesn’t care. That is, after all, one of the distinguishing features of an ideologue: a mind that has grown so narrow on a given topic (or range of topics) that it is no longer capable of entertaining any doubt regarding its own supposed righteousness.
I'm seriously and in good faith asking you why anyone should read anything you've posted on this subject? You have never -- not once -- ever admitted you are wrong on anything regarding this subject nor addressed some very obviously sincere objections to your logic, your cites, and your sources.
Yeah, okay, I get it, we're all a bunh of radical left idealogues who brook no dissension. But if that is really the world as you see it ... why are you even here?
Look, I'm not harshinag on your mellow (that phrase is a cou[ple of decades ahead of where I'm from in the time strem. I just want to know what your're doing here since by your lights this is leftist cesspool that has no brief for any dissensioj.
Trolls gotta troll. Leo gets off on trolling Kevin’s readers for whatever sad emotionally-stunted reason. Don’t feed the trolls.
WordPress needs up and down votes for just that sort of comment, as well as the really smart ones.
@ScentOfViolets:
Your post doesn’t address any of my points regarding Israel and Hamas.
@LEO,
Your post doesnt address the new topic. Try to stay focused. You get so confused so easily.
14 paragraph rambling response. Carb up and Go!
" . . . a mind that has grown so narrow on a given topic (or range of topics) that it is no longer capable of entertaining any doubt regarding its own supposed righteousness."
Excellent self-analysis! Describes the writer of this comment to a T!
No, I don't want the Israeli's administrating Gaza....I want the Gazans to do this. But how has this worked out in practice?
Schoolbooks with maps showing no Israel....the children growing up now for two plus generations in a lecture hall of hate?
People keep saying Gaza was an open air prison...what kind of prison allows the smuggling in of 10,000 rockets, of a million rounds of ammunition, the construction of miles of underground tunnels?
No a very good prison, as a prison, was it?
Best Wishes, Traveller
Your name is already at the top of your comment just like everyone else's.
Pretty much any open-air prison.
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/5-stories-of-real-life-escape-attempts-by-allied-prisoners-of-war
That is a good idea Kevin, and I like the part about theft prevention measures. But I don't think that it will be necessary at least to keep aid convoys from coming under fire again. Israel took a LOT of heat for this, including with the US Administration, whose opinion it does care about if only grudgingly. It is in their interest that this does not happen again. My guess is that the orders went down hard and strong in the IDF that something like this is NOT GOING TO HAPPEN AGAIN and that rules of engagement have been changed. Bureaucracies around the world behave that way.
And even if you are part of the "Israel is a genocidal madhouse where IDF officials are quietly high-fiving each other for killing aid workers" crowd, the "mission" of scaring off aid workers is "already accomplished."
"I'm sure he's learned his lesson, no need to pursue this matter any further" sez the senator from Maine.
Why do you and some commenters here keep searching for excuses for Israel?
Actions speak. They did this on purpose. They put the conditions in place for this to happen - on purpose.
They want this to happen. They want Gazans to be starved.
The cruelty is the fucking point.
How is this not obvious to you all by now?
@ Cmayo:
“Why do you and some commenters here keep searching for excuses for Israel?”
You’re referring to the country that was attacked by terrorists on 10/7.
“The cruelty is the fucking point.”
At present, defeating the genocidal terrorists known as Hamas is the point.
Perhaps you don’t approve of that goal. Or, perhaps you simply disapprove of the way that goal is being carried out. Or maybe you honestly don’t know that’s the goal.
Whatever the case may be, I personally don’t think there are any easy or simple ways to achieve the destruction of Hamas. And that’s largely because of the manner in which Hamas has embedded itself among the civilian population of Gaza.
So Hamas bears a great deal of the responsibility for everything that’s happening in Gaza. Do you agree? Or are you “searching for excuses” for theocratic murderers who have explicitly committed their lives to exterminating Jews?
Hey @Leo, it's kind of weird how this comments section has a group of guardians of an orthodoxy who seem less interested in discussion than slapping down anything that does not adhere to it, and often in bizarrely personal terms that have the same flavor as angry MAGA denunciations. If you bring up normal comments that in the greater world are not at all at odds with mainstream thought, you are denounced and gang tackled. I find it unfortunate that this site, which is worth reading because Kevin uses data to examine things in a distressingly rare spirit of open inquiry and comes up with interesting ideas, has attracted such a mob so fundamentally at odds with what he is doing. I wonder if he even reads these comments anymore, and if he does what he thinks of them.
Which is all a way of saying, yes, you are correct. Hamas is an evil Islamist death cult who appears to have engineered this general situation, and whom everyone, including the Gazans, would be better off without. Sadly I think that is not going to happen. But I am at a loss to figure out how to get rid of them. I was hoping that when Hamas essentially took over Gaza, that the responsibilities of civil administration would tame their radicalism and domesticate them, much as the PLO terrorists became the somewhat (if kleptocratic and incompetent) PA. I am afraid that so far that has not happened.
Dear C Mayo: This is not at all obvious to me. If what you say is true, the operational arm of the IDF that carried out these strikes, if they knew these were Aide Workers returning to Rafah, they knew the time and the route being taken...with no threat of imminent harm...then you sould want to see a trial of these soldiers even more than I.
But you don't know.
I see in one headline this evening....World Kitchen saying the Israeli investigation is not sufficient, then they should do their own....what messages were sent, (not a re-phrasing, the actual messages with time stamps. What return assurances were given, when, again with time stamps? What was the communication from the Convoy of vehicles? From each of these persons?)
Release these communications and put some pressure on Israel.
I also see that Hamas has formally rejected Israel's most recent cease fire offer and the release of the hostages....
You can read this anyway you want, but there it is. Best Wishes, Traveller
I'd have more patience with this response if this were an isolated incident. It's not. It's just the first time that the Israelis have killed foreign aid workers, rather than only killing Palestinian workers.
In February, the Israeli navy shelled a Medecins sans Frontiers convoy that had coordinated its travel with the IDF.
In March, an American Near East Refugee Aid worker was killed when the Israelis bombed his house, the coordinates of which they had been given multiple times.
The Israelis make this problem worse by refusing to allow humanitarian aid groups to bring radios into Gaza. They are forced to rely on satellite phones.
The Israelis also make this worse by requiring all communications to go through the UN, and then through COGAT in Jerusalem.
It is very clear that the Israelis don't have any interest in making this system work. While that doesn't mean that we should necessarily assume that all of these actions deliberately targeted aid workers, the Israelis have forfeited any benefit of the doubt. The best that you can say is that they are indifferent to the starvation and grossly negligent in their operations.
There's also the problem that their story still doesn't make sense. At best, it means that they saw vehicles that they couldn't identify come out of the WCK warehouse, and destroyed them in order to kill a Hamas operative that may never have existed. Maybe, just maybe, they should assume that vehicles that leave a humanitarian aid facility belong to, and are carrying, humanitarian aid workers. But they don't.
The only way that the Israeli story works is if they are promoting morons into command positions.
Dear Melancholy:
Those are good and well taken points you make.
I could argue this or that, but that would be arguing simply for the sake of arguing.
Much of what you say is simply true, or pretty true, and there isn't much I can do about it. When you're right, meaning you, you are just right...that's all.
Best Wishes, Traveller
Have you considered using the "Reply" button? It would make things easier to follow.
They haven't even considered not writing apologia for genocide.
The idea that WCK cleared their itinerary with IDF with some vague "a few trucks" language, or that Israel would accept that, is I think ludicrous on the face of it. Nor do I think it is true that aid convoys are never accompanied by cars. This is blame the victim talk. Those vehicles had been notified, they were clearly marked, WCK did absolutely nothing wrong except perhaps trusting Israeli assurances - much like the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled south on Israeli orders only to be bombed there too.
The IDF investigation, in which I still lack confidence, says that WCK fully cleared its operation with the IDF, but that this information was not passed down the chain of command, for reasons it doesn't identify.
As I said in response to a different comment, the Israelis in which humanitarian aid group are supposed to inform the UN as to their travel plans. The UN then communicates this with COGAT headquarters in Jerusalem, which is supposed to pass this down to local units.
It is an absurd system, exacerbated by the Israeli refusal to allow aid groups to bring radios into Gaza. This is a process that would only be set up by idiots, or by people who actively don't want it to work well.
“ This doesn't entirely make sense …..”
Not so fast, mr. Drum. You should wait for tomorrow’s entirely new explanation. Maybe the WCK logo looks like something on the Hamas flag. Maybe the logo had a dirt smudge where Israel is located. A clear provocation.
Currently, I've started Ian Black's history of Israel/Palestine, Enemies and Neighbors and so far it's very, very good. It's hard to imagine a more f$%k-ed up s%^tshow than the current situation. But I imagine if we wait a bit longer, Bibi and Hamas/Hezbollah/Iran, et al will find a way.
Genocide Joe, say it ain’t so! I can’t believe he let himself get played like this. What a jackass. I can’t believe I have to vote for this guy.
“ Biden misread how Israeli society had changed over the last two decades, and consequently how best to influence Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas attacks. He did not foresee what Netanyahu’s war cabinet was prepared to do to expunge a trauma that required not just revenge but an irreversible and ill-defined change in the relationship with Palestinians, so that Israel’s security issue could be assured once and for all. Biden “lives with an Israel in his head which probably never existed and certainly doesn’t exist today,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli negotiator in peace talks with Palestinian leaders. Israel says it is acting in self-defence.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/06/world-disorder-israel-gaza-war-international-relations
Ahh, yes, blame Biden for a genocide he's not in control of.
The answer is President Biden is serious about supporting Israel's goal of wiping out Gaza.
Citation not included.
Even if Bibi kills every Hamas fighter from October, he’s recruiting 2 million more!
It shouldn't have to be suggested; Israel has the obligation.
If it wants to gain any traction with Gazans and Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and the world in general, it has to be responsible for aid, support, and in the end, reconstruction.
On thing that the coverage of this genocide has changed is that you don't hear the Israelis claiming that they have nowhere else to go.
I guess that would be a little difficult after all of the interviews and youtube videos with IDF soldiers who grew up in Brooklyn, Arizona, St, Louis, Los Angeles, London.