Here are some numbers for those keeping score on what's going with Israel and Hamas in the Gaza territory.
More than 1,400 Israelis killed.
And 2,670 Palestinians killed
So no matter how you look at this, that's a lot of dead people.
By the time this posts on Monday, it will be a lot more dead people as Israel ramps up an air campaign and ground assault into the Gaza strip.
These events were initiated when Hamas launched a shit ton of rockets into Israel a week ago. Lots of death and destruction was the result and yeah, Israel needed to make Hamas pay for that.
Although perhaps all the Palestinians in Gaza are being handed the bill.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said this: “It is an entire nation out there that is responsible. It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
Simple as that, eh, Isaac?
Look, the Palestinians have been pawns in these pissing matches between Israel and it's enemies since the country was founded in 1945.
Yeah, there may be Palestinians who are all gung ho for Hamas to kick Israel's ass back to the stone age. Israel has not made it easy for Palestinians to be on their side with a consistent pattern of restrictions on the people in Gaza to do basic stuff like make a living and just get on with their lives.
I think it's just as likely (maybe more so) that most Palestinians are just "I want a good paying job to provide for me and my family and I don't want to shoot any missiles at anybody".
We've been here before. See the diagram below.
And we're seeing the cycle repeat itself.
Oh, according to the Republican Party, I am engaging in antisemitism.
Yeah, over here in the United States, Republicans see the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians as an opportunity to stick it to the their political enemies. ("Opportunity" is exactly the word used by the chairperson of the Republican National Committee.)
To wit: any hint of criticism towards Israel is "antisemitism".
Well, this is not the first time Republicans have conflated being Jewish and being Israeli as the same thing (Donald Trump does it a lot!) but here goes:
Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews.
The strategies towards the Palestinians are enacted by the Israeli government, not by Jewish religious leaders. Yeah, the leaders of the Israeli government are Jewish but their actions are a matter of political policy, not religious principles.
But me pointing out that maybe, just maybe Israel could be somewhat culpable for this cycle of violence makes me guilty of antisemitism according to the Republican Party.
Also according to Republicans, Joe Biden paid Hamas to attack Israel for $6 billion of the American taxpayers' money.
What?
Geez, this shit!
Here we go.
A few weeks ago, the Biden administration negotiated the release of Americans being held in Iran. In exchange, Biden agreed to free up $6 billion of Iran's own money from assets that had been frozen through various sanctions against Iran for their role in doing sketchy shit.
So not American tax payer dollars at all.
And Iran hasn't spent the money at all. The $6 billion is being held by a bank in Qatar and Iran can only access it for humanitarian needs (food and medicine) with American approval.
And given the large quantity of rockets and guns Hamas had on hand for their strike against Israel, the attack by Hamas had to be planned for months before the U.S. deal with Iran.
Despite being routinely and vigorously discredited, Republicans are still out there repeating the lie that $6 billion American tax dollars was paid by Biden to Iran to fund Hamas.
And Donald Trump blamed the Hamas attack on Israel on the "stolen rigged election" of 2020. Here's his logic: if the election had not been rigged and stolen, Trump would still be President and Hamas would never have dared to attack Israel while he was in charge.
Also Republicans who bitch and whine over every cent of aid we give to Ukraine to fight off Russian aggression are nearly hysterical defending continued or increase aid to Israel.
And that is what's going on over here on our side of the planet.
Over on the other side, a million Gaza citizens have been displaced in a worsening humanitarian crisis while the death toll continues to rise.
As doom continues to spiral.
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