The War Over War Propaganda

All sides in this conflict are killing innocent civilians and that's all that matters

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu | Source

A week ago, the supporters of Israel were demanding that we all acknowledge the critical importance of whether or not Hamas terrorists, in their attack on Israeli civilians, specifically beheaded 40 babies. And the level of barbarity Hamas is capable of is an important fact to determine, but we know that Hamas is a gang of murderous thugs who kidnapped, beat, tortured, and murdered hundreds of Israeli civilians, including babies, in their attack. In short: While it's important to know whether they did, we know that they would, and that's the really important fact.

This week, we turn our attention to the question of who blew up the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza; was it the Israeli government as initial reports (from Hamas) claimed, was it Hamas, or was it a separate terrorist group called Isalmic Jihad? It's important that we know who specifically is responsible, but on the other hand we know that all three groups would attack a hospital.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad are terrorist organizations, so attacking civilians is, frankly, what they do. The idea that they would not attack a hospital is preposterous. Did they attack Al-Ahli hospital? Most of the evidence I've seen so far seems to indicate that one or the other of them attempted to launch some kind of rocket at Israel and it misfired and hit the hospital, which they may have been using as some sort of weapons cache to begin with. So either one of these groups seems to be the most likely, in fact, to have attacked the hospital, and then they attempted to blame Israel for propaganda purposes.

If you're denying that Hamas could have done this then I have to wonder what delusion you're operating under. Is it simply that you, for some reason, have a unique hate for the Israeli government? Do you think Hamas cares about the Palestinian people? Simply put: Hamas has every incentive to kill as many Palestinians as they can possibly blame Israel for, and, in fact, are hoping that Israel will kill innocent Palestinians because it helps them in the propaganda war. That was the entire purpose of their attack against Israeli civilians: To provoke Israel into attacking Gaza and killing mass amounts of Palestinian civilians.

All of that said, Israel has struck hospitals in Gaza in previous conflicts, and, as Michael Tracey points out, the groundwork has been laid for them to do so again because "Hamas hides in hospitals."

So, again, it's important to determine whether Israel did strike this specific hospital in this specific instance, but we already know that they would and that the same people bending over backwards to point out that they did not would bend over the other way to justify it as a legitimate strike if they had.

Facts are important, and maybe especially important in a time of war. It's important that we know who specifically attacked the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza; was it Hamas, Islamic Jihad, or Israel? Most of the evidence indicates that in this case it was probably Hamas or Islamic Jihad, but the crime is that civilians are being targeted at all, by anyone, including Israel. In this war between Hamas and Israel, there has been an appalling lack of humanity from outside observers who feel it's their duty to pick a side. We should pick the side of all innocent civilians whether that be innocent Israeli civilians butchered by Hamas terrorists, or innocent Palestinian civilians blown up or buried under rubble as a result of actual Israeli missiles or terrorists who want to blame Israel.