Is attacking the refugee camp still "self defence"

@Patriot96 What a convenient excuse to bomb literally everyone.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow At the same time, it's also true. So how do you suggest fighting an enemy who hides behind civilians?

@LordShadowfire And you are basing that on assumptions and excuses from a country carrying out genocide. And as I pointed out to another poster the last confirmed cases of Hamas using human shields is a decade old.

It also doesn't matter. Because if you are attacking a country you still have a duty to minimize civilian casualties.

The laws of war don't have a clause that says "you only have to do it if it is easy."


But assuming it is true. You do what even Israel did for decades. Police and intelligence work and then either arrest, or assassinate the people who are actually responsible.


Also you know their claims about wanting to take down Hamas is bullshit because they are not even attempting to do anything about the actual leaders and shot callers who are all sipping champagne with Saudi princes in Qatar.

Flattening entire neighborhoods because you might get some low level thug doesn't even hold up with their justification to the west when you look at it tactically or strategically.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow So, you don't have an answer.

@LordShadowfire I stated the answer very clearly.

So either you didn't read it or are ignoring an answer you didn't like.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow I don't see an answer in all of your wall of text as to how to fight an enemy that hides behind civilians.

@LordShadowfire Translation. You didn't read it. Got it.

And your response was based on an unproven assumptions anyway. But that is a different discussion


Here is the TLDR

You do what even Israel did for decades. Police and intelligence work and then either arrest, or assassinate the people who are actually responsible.


Further to that you kill them with kindness. You make yourself the best friend of the local population. Feed them, cloth them, pay for their kids to go to school. Give them medical care.



Basically the complete opposite of what Bibi and co are doing.

Basically Bibi and co are doing exactly the worst possible response to an insurgency. What literally every field manual and expert says not to do unless your goal is to prop up the militants.


Based on this there are two possibilities. Either the Israeli government is run by a bunch of idiots too stupid to even follow a manual or their stated goals are bullshit.


Since they say their stated goal is completely different domestically I am going to go with the second option.

@LordShadowfire Also the real leadership and shot callers in Hamas are in Qatar and they are doing fuck all about them which also suggests their stated goal to the English speaking world is bullshit.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Fine. You could have said that without paragraph after paragraph insulting me.

@LordShadowfire I said that in my original response you pretty much admitted you didn't even bother reading.

Not a fan of having to repeat myself.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Oh. So you did. Sorry.

@LordShadowfire I did forget the second step in my first post which is just as important.




The reason you do this is to get the people on your side and totally discredit the militants.


Right now when Hamas says "Israel is your enemy" Being oppressed, bombed, shot at and starved it lines up with their lived reality.


If you make yourself their best friend, feed them, cloth them, give them medical care, and educate their kids suddenly the militants come across as lunatics divorced from reality.

It also incentivizes the locals to start turning in militants for you.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Yeah, that's definitely not something Netanyahu is thinking about in his strategy.

@LordShadowfire Well it is the only thing that actually works.


And since what he says locally in Hebrew is completely different...basically calls for holy war and genocide to me just tells me they are using this as an excuse for their English speaking allies.

At home they are not even pretending there is a distinction between Hamas and 2 million other people in Gaza.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Makes sense to me. Get the Evangelicals behind the war, and the US government doesn't dare oppose it.

@LordShadowfire The thing is though most Evangelicals don't understand hebrew and his calls for holy war and genocide have been pretty much exclusively in Hebrew and to domestic audiences.

Maybe he thinks this is a bridge too far even for the Jerry Falwell types?

And the "we are only going after Hamas" gives the US government political cover too.

Personally I think part of it is that the Israeli government thinks the American people in particular are idiots.

An example of this was that infamous English PSA that was supposedly for people in Gaza despite the fact it was in English and given during a power and communications blackout.

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow Oh, there's not a doubt in my mind they think that.