Hamas is certainly responsible for the Oct 7th kidnapping of the hostages discovered yesterday--all those youthful faces are heartbreaking. But but why do you so readily accept that Hamas killed them? Do you trust the New York Times' reporting of the story? It's coverage today ran with the heading “Israel’s Military Says Hostages Were Killed by Hamas Shortly Before Being Found.” It claims that the hostages were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” quoting Admiral Hagari. The article cites Israeli forensic evidence that the hostages were "shot at close range" but offers no details. Much further down in the text there is this: "Hamas later claimed in a separate statement, without providing evidence, that the hostages were killed by the Israeli military’s bullets." Given the problems inherent in the media coverage of Gaza, it's not easy to assess plausibility.
There certainly is a history of Israel denial/obfuscating. Recall Shireen Abu Akleh (just one of many ... and now nearly forgotten as the horrors continue). Also from a cold-hearted strategic sense, Hamas killing hostages doesn't make sense. If there are no longer any live hostages, Hamas will loose it's strongest "bargaining chip" and the Israeli response will be devastating (as if it could be even more so). Would think Hamas understands killing hostages does not help with world opinion. Seems there is reason to question.
It is certainly true, as you say, that Hamas is guilty of a war crime for abducting civilian hostages, and thus bears responsibility for their deaths. It is not yet certain that, as you suggest, they bear sole responsibility. The Hannibal Directive and Israel's previous execution of Israeli hostages suggest that we should pause briefly.
How is Hamas responsible for the failure of a ceasefire? They have been offering an actual ceasefire since October 2023.
May all hostages return home soon--the remembered Israelis as well as usually forgotten Palestinian ones.
I often think of Hillary Clinton's "Hamas Must Go" in The Atlantic last November. I remember feeling anguished at the delusional insistence that Hamas could be defeated militarily and that the Israeli hostages could be rescued safely. I was also enraged at the disparity in her language about Israel vs. Palestinian suffering. She talked about personal interactions with Israelis and gestured vaguely at Palestinians' hopes and dreams.
What I cannot wrap my mind around is that this continues to be the framework for Democrats' communication! The statements from both POTUS and VP about the killing of the 6 hostages seem almost childish in their overwrought focus on Hamas being evil and depraved. They talk about revenge and retribution. It seems like they refuse to internalize what has happened in Gaza, in the Israeli government, among US citizens who see our government blatantly breaking its own laws and causing outrageous carnage and suffering by refusing to enforce conditions on arms transfers.
As the son and grandson of German postwar hostages held for over two years by Czechoslovakia while my grandmother's Nazi occupation cop husband was sentenced to 10 years as a minor war criminal, I have limited sympathy for Zionists in Palestinian captivity. Zionists would do better to acknowledge and atone for their perpetratorship. The experience strengthened both my mother's and grandmother's anti-fascism and while they obviously resented their internment, they were aware of their complicity and guilt despite or because of my grandmother's ongoing efforts at standing by her best friend during the lady's own internment at Theresienstadt before the Nazis' defeat by sending her food packages which despite never having arrived, no doubt played a role in Tante Martha and her gentile husband's postwar employment of my grandmother in their deli. The lady committed suicide shortly after my grandfather's return to Germany and active police duty.
The news media presents full portraits of Israeli victims killed but never presents full portraits of Palestinians killed. Photos and stories and sobbing statements from those who loved them... What is fascinating is that the news media don't get that every time they do that now, then more people are seeing the dehumanization of Palestinians and the total imbalanced and disgusting lack of equality on full display. Photos and stories for Israelis? Replete with sobbing statements from those who loved them... ? None for Palestinians? You'll do 6 people but you won't do 40K? Hmm, yah... In that case, don't ask me to support condemnations of the murderers of WHOMEVER-WHO-THE-HELL-CARES at this point when there are such grotesque levels of state-sponsored violence/slaughter that our entire civilized democratic system has been laid bare as a total farce - our tax dollars captured so completely that we have failing communities and economies, while we have plenty to commit these levels of disgusting slaughter. I am no longer horrified. I am disgusted.
You are so well spoken about this conflict. My heart breaks for the families of hostages, for the innocent Palestinians and families damaged . Hamas and Netanyahu Government are guilty of war crimes. The US must recognize these crimes. Please keep writing and talking. We cannot be complicit.
The title of the article should be reversed to "End the War Now and Release All Prisoners". Those who have followed the ongoing occupation and resistence would have experienced shock at Hamas's invasion of Oct. 7. And they would have known that Israelis' reaction would be horrendously 'disproportionate', yet unable to destroy the Hamas and free the hostages.
Only the U.S. might have ended the war and brought about the release of prisoners. But it has predictably refused to do so. It continues to be complicit to what has become the destruction of Gaza and what is becoming the siege of the West Bank.
It seems a forelorn possibility that the necessary awakening of popular protest in the U.S. will bring the government to withold arms and financial support of Israel.
There is in my view no other way.
Kenneth Brown and John Mohr, "Journey Through the Labyrinth : A photographic Essay on Israel-Palestine" in Studies in Visual Communication, vol. 8, no. 2. Spring 1982. Copy available on academia.com
A lament. How much suffering must be endured until the two madmen who are primarily responsible for the death and destruction- Sinwar and Netanyahu - are deposed and held accountable.
Hamas is certainly responsible for the Oct 7th kidnapping of the hostages discovered yesterday--all those youthful faces are heartbreaking. But but why do you so readily accept that Hamas killed them? Do you trust the New York Times' reporting of the story? It's coverage today ran with the heading “Israel’s Military Says Hostages Were Killed by Hamas Shortly Before Being Found.” It claims that the hostages were “brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists a short time before we reached them,” quoting Admiral Hagari. The article cites Israeli forensic evidence that the hostages were "shot at close range" but offers no details. Much further down in the text there is this: "Hamas later claimed in a separate statement, without providing evidence, that the hostages were killed by the Israeli military’s bullets." Given the problems inherent in the media coverage of Gaza, it's not easy to assess plausibility.
There certainly is a history of Israel denial/obfuscating. Recall Shireen Abu Akleh (just one of many ... and now nearly forgotten as the horrors continue). Also from a cold-hearted strategic sense, Hamas killing hostages doesn't make sense. If there are no longer any live hostages, Hamas will loose it's strongest "bargaining chip" and the Israeli response will be devastating (as if it could be even more so). Would think Hamas understands killing hostages does not help with world opinion. Seems there is reason to question.
It is certainly true, as you say, that Hamas is guilty of a war crime for abducting civilian hostages, and thus bears responsibility for their deaths. It is not yet certain that, as you suggest, they bear sole responsibility. The Hannibal Directive and Israel's previous execution of Israeli hostages suggest that we should pause briefly.
How is Hamas responsible for the failure of a ceasefire? They have been offering an actual ceasefire since October 2023.
May all hostages return home soon--the remembered Israelis as well as usually forgotten Palestinian ones.
Thank you Peter. I hope the American Jewish community was listening.
Linda Snider
I often think of Hillary Clinton's "Hamas Must Go" in The Atlantic last November. I remember feeling anguished at the delusional insistence that Hamas could be defeated militarily and that the Israeli hostages could be rescued safely. I was also enraged at the disparity in her language about Israel vs. Palestinian suffering. She talked about personal interactions with Israelis and gestured vaguely at Palestinians' hopes and dreams.
What I cannot wrap my mind around is that this continues to be the framework for Democrats' communication! The statements from both POTUS and VP about the killing of the 6 hostages seem almost childish in their overwrought focus on Hamas being evil and depraved. They talk about revenge and retribution. It seems like they refuse to internalize what has happened in Gaza, in the Israeli government, among US citizens who see our government blatantly breaking its own laws and causing outrageous carnage and suffering by refusing to enforce conditions on arms transfers.
As the son and grandson of German postwar hostages held for over two years by Czechoslovakia while my grandmother's Nazi occupation cop husband was sentenced to 10 years as a minor war criminal, I have limited sympathy for Zionists in Palestinian captivity. Zionists would do better to acknowledge and atone for their perpetratorship. The experience strengthened both my mother's and grandmother's anti-fascism and while they obviously resented their internment, they were aware of their complicity and guilt despite or because of my grandmother's ongoing efforts at standing by her best friend during the lady's own internment at Theresienstadt before the Nazis' defeat by sending her food packages which despite never having arrived, no doubt played a role in Tante Martha and her gentile husband's postwar employment of my grandmother in their deli. The lady committed suicide shortly after my grandfather's return to Germany and active police duty.
The news media presents full portraits of Israeli victims killed but never presents full portraits of Palestinians killed. Photos and stories and sobbing statements from those who loved them... What is fascinating is that the news media don't get that every time they do that now, then more people are seeing the dehumanization of Palestinians and the total imbalanced and disgusting lack of equality on full display. Photos and stories for Israelis? Replete with sobbing statements from those who loved them... ? None for Palestinians? You'll do 6 people but you won't do 40K? Hmm, yah... In that case, don't ask me to support condemnations of the murderers of WHOMEVER-WHO-THE-HELL-CARES at this point when there are such grotesque levels of state-sponsored violence/slaughter that our entire civilized democratic system has been laid bare as a total farce - our tax dollars captured so completely that we have failing communities and economies, while we have plenty to commit these levels of disgusting slaughter. I am no longer horrified. I am disgusted.
You are so well spoken about this conflict. My heart breaks for the families of hostages, for the innocent Palestinians and families damaged . Hamas and Netanyahu Government are guilty of war crimes. The US must recognize these crimes. Please keep writing and talking. We cannot be complicit.
My comment has been lost by you ? Kenneth Brown
The title of the article should be reversed to "End the War Now and Release All Prisoners". Those who have followed the ongoing occupation and resistence would have experienced shock at Hamas's invasion of Oct. 7. And they would have known that Israelis' reaction would be horrendously 'disproportionate', yet unable to destroy the Hamas and free the hostages.
Only the U.S. might have ended the war and brought about the release of prisoners. But it has predictably refused to do so. It continues to be complicit to what has become the destruction of Gaza and what is becoming the siege of the West Bank.
It seems a forelorn possibility that the necessary awakening of popular protest in the U.S. will bring the government to withold arms and financial support of Israel.
There is in my view no other way.
Kenneth Brown and John Mohr, "Journey Through the Labyrinth : A photographic Essay on Israel-Palestine" in Studies in Visual Communication, vol. 8, no. 2. Spring 1982. Copy available on academia.com
A lament. How much suffering must be endured until the two madmen who are primarily responsible for the death and destruction- Sinwar and Netanyahu - are deposed and held accountable.