There is no "genocide", just as there was no epidemic of Amerikkkan cops killing thousands of unarmed black men, just as there is no way for a child to change sex and if impeded they will kill themselves, just as the planet isn't about to boil and explode unless we immediately forswear fossil fuels, just as there was no epidemic of death from Covid that could be cured by a "vaccine" that didn't stop transmission etc etc...these are all dishonest, simplistic, incendiary media narratives crafted by the propagandists of Left academia then fed to a supine media, who eat off of panic and terror and the bloodshed of others.
(And just in case anyone here hasn't been following this long-running conflict closely or across decades, I want to point out that the Anti-Israel Industrial Complex has been accusing Israel of "genocide" for decades. Edward Said was already accusing Israel of genocide in his 1979 book "The Question of Palestine", where he claimed "U.S. allies like Israel sponsor naked genocidal wars"; Said's homeboy Noam Chomsky has been accusing Israel of genocide since at least the 1980s, he constantly equates Jews with Nazis, referring to “Israeli concentration camps” and the “genocidal texts of the Bible,” and warning of a Zionist “final solution” that will annihilate the human race. The list of Leftist academics who've been accusing Israel of "genocide" for decades is endless.)
If Israel intends to kill Palestinian civilians, why does it send Arab-language warnings to civilians before attacks? Why does it evacuate civilians through humanitarian corridors? Why has it sacrificed the lives of almost a thousand soldiers when bombs dropped from the air can kill far more, without any risk to the IDF?
If Israel’s war in Gaza qualifies as genocide, it would be the first such case of genocide triggered by a mass terrorist attack involving the slaughter of civilians and the taking of hostages; the first in which the genocider permitted food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to flow into the territory of its purported victim. It may also be unique in that the targeted group’s combatants have deliberately embedded themselves in civilian infrastructure and sought to increase civilian casualties for strategic and propaganda purposes. And it could be the only genocide that might plausibly be halted on the spot—not by the genocider, but by the group claiming victimhood. Specifically, were Hamas to release the hostages and lay down its arms, Israel’s military campaign—having achieved its core objectives—would cease.
In the Holocaust, 67 percent of European Jews were killed; 85 percent of Tutsis were murdered in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and 80 percent of Armenians were massacred in Turkish-controlled lands in 1915–1917. If we realize that at least half of the supposed 50,000 Gaza dead were armed combatants, that means only 1.25 percent of the Gaza population of 2 million was killed. To put it crudely, if the IDF was intending genocide, it has been phenomenally ineffective.
Israel is fighting a defensive war against a brutal enemy that seized hostages in a surprise massacre, cloaks itself among its civilian population, and avows the destruction of Israel as its inalterable goal—the only "genocide" is the dreams of one written in the Hamas charter.
I understand why the opponents of Israel have to cling to this grotesque moral inversion and concoct these hateful lies and slanders—it's the only possible way to save face and have any moral credibility after the barbaric assault of 10/7. Without this political form of psychological projection, they'd just be defending a brutal band of theocratic terrorists. The "genocide" charge is an evil lie that no honest person should repeat.
I was going to come in and comment something like this, but it would have been way less comprehensive and way less eloquent. Wonderful post. I will just add that, to call what is happening in Gaza "genocide" requires one to not know what that word means, to know what it means but dishonestly use it as a slur nonetheless, or in the case of the NGO complex, redefine the word altogether.
As to the thrust of Matt's article--that he should be free to comment or not comment on any topic he wishes--the obvious answer to that is yes.
We have people here who argue "context" and "justification." They allude to what happened on October 7th, but avoid the specifics. Vague is better. They refer to Palestinian children and babies,but not Jewish ones.
Those troublesome specifics. Bone chilling, merciless, up -close and personal, deliberate, rabid savagery. The most horrifying thing I've seen in my lifetime because it was evil incarnate. That's it, I thought, there it is. Still celebrating the atrocities, Hamas promised to repeat this stain on humanity until they got rid of the Jews entirely, those cute chants about into the sea. Imagine seeing that, in such a tiny country, a few miles wide, and being threatened with more savagery. It could be you, or your baby, or your husband, your mother or your father. They weren't choosy.
I hate seeing kids of any kind suffer. Or people not get enough food. I wish this war never happened. I know that no country surrounding the Palestinians-- not Jordan,not Lebanon, not Egypt, wants them. That's because in Lebanon they started killing Christians and other Muslims and turned the place into the particular hell they have a talent for creating, like they're doing in the US, trying to foment an intifida, the revolution. Richly, they want to decolonize the United States.
The irony is every person here concerned about decolonizing, if they had a choice during a mythical peacetime of living under Israeli rule of law versus a Hamas ruled Palestine, would choose the former.
How does on know what to think when virtually everyone on both sides is a liar and a fabulist? I don't really hold any opinion here because i have a basic mistrust of all of the information that come to me about it.
Why is it incumbent upon me to hold opinions about these things when so much of our own country is in disarray. I really don't give a rat's ass about most of these things. Those people have problems too. So what? 9/11 is a different sort of segue. Yet another thing that you nor I have any real information about. Just reporting by controlled outlets.
No Comment. You wonder why people left the 'Old World' and came on a one way ticket ocean voyage to the 'New World', well this is why. America First and your faith second, don't like it, well theres the door. I LOVE them both but they make me loose a little 'faith' in humanity. Peace Out !!!
Most of the opinions I hear are from the mouths of those ignorant of the real situation. They are cocktail party parroters of propaganda who neither know nor care about the people actually living there. That's about as much as I'm willing to share on the topic.
You can look at other details of history to know what to think. Bill Clinton says [paraphrase] "I handed the Palestinians the deal and they turned it down".
You can ask yourself why in such a compassionate world the Palestinians are actually fully isolated in their plight. Surely the Arab states could have let them come long ago?
Oops they did, but it went too terribly to allow more.
After the six day war a couple hundred k Palestinians ended up in Jordan. They caused so much strife King Hussein finally at much heavy handed expense and with many losses rounded them up and got them out. Then they went to Lebanon and started the whole civil war there in the late 70s early 80s. Egypt saw all of this and made sure to keep that border tightly sealed and never let anyone escape to safety.
Somtimes your "friends" know you as well as your enemies do..
Most of these Arab countries will talk about the Palestinians, but it's mostly to dive focus and attention away from their own governments. The countries in the region do not fear Israel, but they do fear another Arab spring...
This is a good question. The first casualty of war is always the truth. But the international media’s performance on Israel and Gaza has always been atrocious. This allows leftists committed to the oppressor-oppressed, settler-colonialist, white supremacist et al narratives that bear no relation to reality concoct an alternate reality. Widely trusted news sources such as PBS news hour or the major networks simply regurgitate what Hamas wants you to think. The IDF’s version is always under more suspicion despite years of evidence to the contrary. I believe (in general) the Israeli take because it makes sense and matches the incentives you’d expect both sides to have. Dead civilians and atrocities benefit Hamas thanks to this twisted state of affairs, and keeps Israel from changing this endless horrible Groundhog Day state of affairs in Gaza and the West Bank. I’m sure Israel has done some things that are troublesome, but it isn’t done in a vacuum. The entire world is getting it wrong, badly, and ironically they just perpetuate the average Palestinian’s suffering by always letting Hamas off the hook.
Let the Palestinians have their own state. It will be the most efficient way to kill as many of them as possible…they will do it to themselves. What can you say about people who name streets after terrorists who killed defenseless children (and when captured by Israel, were eventually freed in prisoner exchanges).
I feel great sorrow for the Palestinians trapped in this mess. They suffer terribly. HAMAS or some other terror group strikes at Israel and Israel retaliates. Innocent Palestinians die. Their friends and families are enraged and want blood vengeance. This is how terror groups thrive…by making certain as many innocents as possible suffer so that the hate builds.
The whole point of the October attacks were to stir up hostility to the Israeli state when it responded to the murder of its people. This is the wicked calculus of Hamas. It is a strange thing to realize, but the perversity of the circumstances make it likely, that if the Palestinian sympathizers had told Hamas..."Don't look to me.....YOU started this, you murdered your neighbors, now you are fucked", the hostage taking would possibly be over. I only say possibly because hatred makes people do not just wicked, but irrational things.
I don't know, I can't talk to him about it and he might not want to tell me either, but I suspect Matt may feel this way about the whole situation in Gaza. Off the charts mistrust of all the parties involved, everyone with an agenda, everyone willing to lie and over hype every claim. Only way to have any idea what is really happening is to be in Gaza AND in the room with the Israeli leadership AND the Hamas leadership. Good luck with that.
so what to you propose for these uniquely for this people that have such a talent for creating this “particular hell”? And what is the 100 year background behind October 7th? And why do the atrocities reported on October 7th matter more than the oppression and atrocities visited on Palestinians more or less daily ?
I'll say it once: there is a moral chasm between defensive war, and ambushing young people at a festival, raping the women,driving around in a pickup truck with one woman's genitals exposed raping her after they had cut off her head, running down and shooting at point blank range young people on the parkway as they tried to flee, taking elderly grandparents and babies hostage, who the hell does that? Or shooting 20- year -olds in the fields as they ran for their lives,grenading a father in front of his sons as he tried to protect them, killing infants. Infants. Not from a distance, not after warning them to get out of the way,but deliberately- that was the point of it -genocide the word you love so much --maniacally taking an infant and killing it. Teaching children the most noble thing they can do in life is to murder a Jew. Everything just listed is the definition of a monster. Enslaved blacks suffered through far more oppression and never did that in the United States. The Jews endured racial murder and eradication and never did that anywhere. What did Lebanon do to them? The Christians in Lebanon, the other Muslims with whom they didn't agree? Other than exist.
I was once like you, and the reason im now on the other side of the argument is the same reason everyone else here is- I got educated about the history of this area and came to understand that supporting the Palestinian cause is encouraging the most unrealistic and self destructive behavior imaginable. I fully support the Palestinian people, which is why this is all I have to say to them- " you lost every one of these wars and in every other time period in history you would have been massacred or displaced after the first loss. You're lucky you have any land, and any hope for self determination. Stop fighting immediately, recognize israel, negotiate the best deal you can, accept that the right of return is a ridiculous fantasy, and then sign that agreement with Israel and do everything in your power to stop your young men from further attacks against israel. You will have a small but beautiful homeland with a great climate a stones throw from the suez canal. Keep fighting and your complete and total annihilation is inevitable.
Yes, those troublesome specifics. The specifics that there were no babies in ovens, not 40 of them beheaded, no mass rapes, but all the time dozens of Apache Helicopters & tanks destroying everything that moved - some going back to re-arm more than once. Those specifics should trouble everyone.
every time the hannibal directive or the massive array of forewarnings (INCLUDING PLANS) the israelis had about the attacks comes up they always seem to want to change the subject, innit
Okay. We can dispense with the lies and hyperbole. We can just use the crimes that the Oct 7 attackers documented themselves. They gleefully posted GoPro videos of their attacks. They joyously called home to brag to their friends and families of the people they killed. No lies. No rumors. Just brutal self incrimination.
Thanks for the Zionist version of the Covidiot lock-everyone-down argument - just like them you're conflating deaths 'associated with' and 'caused by'. Facts do matter - how people actually died did for CV19 and it does on October 7th. Hamas almost certainly killed fewer Israeli citizens on that day than the IDF did because they had small arms, the IDF had tanks, helicopters and missiles - it's as simple as that.
Furthermore, the IDF response on 10/07 was delayed by several hours. Most of the 1,200 murdered by the Gazans were already dead by the time the IDF showed up.
Irrelevant. A killing documented by the killer is not a "death associated" with a murder. You are claiming that the IDF killed some or all of the 1,200 Israelis (and other innocents) who died on 10/07. I think you are the one confusing "associated with" and "caused by."
I mostly agree with you, but on one point, I disagree. There are many many reasons to believe that on October 7 and September 11, elements within the national security state of Israel and the US knew the attacks were coming, and certainly appear to have cleared the decks to allow for them to happen. And the reasons for doing so are obvious and compelling, albeit machiavellian. If you agree that radical Islam is a serious threat to the west, its understandable why people who are in charge of mounting the response to that threat would be willing to do what it takes to galvanize their public behind the policies they intend to use. I personally think that radical Islam is the real Islam, and is a terrible model for society, but I take a lot of issue with the neoconservatives and their methods. The whole dynamic reminds me of the mob and a protection racket.
and the moral difference between the above , and shooting kids in a food queue, stalking and assassinating medical personnel, having little games where you hit different body parts on different days , preventing ambulances from arriving to provide aid for victims ? We could go on and on .
Israel is a regional military superpower - it kills from afar in scale , as well as more intimately .
It deploys the full range of its possibilities of violence .
In addition to that its leaders ( and you have joined them in this ) speak regularly of the entire population of Gaza in the dehumanising, pejorative terms that are an essential prelude to genocide ( whether or not you think that is already happening ).
And Hamas is just a bunch of boy scouts. Butter wouldn't melt. They're not withholding food, stealing it,selling it on the black market and shooting people. And what about torturing Palestinians who wanted to depose them? By the bye, what did Lebanon and Jordan do to the Palestinians? They are run by a murderous, fanatical faction.
Why are you concerned about Hamas torturing Palestinian civilians , when at the same time you’re actively condoning the slaughter of Gazan civilians by the IDF ?
As for a “murderous , fanatical faction “ it seems to me that there’s a great example of that operating under the leadership of Netanyahu .
Semantics. Sorry to say, whatever it is called, there is no justification for blaming a moving target for specific, targeted, merciless killing of innocents and choking off life support; there is no excuse for a slew of people relishing, even cheering on these killings and the acquisition of beachfront property. It is a joke, whether lying or having been lied to, which is, in part, willful ignorance. Do I mean to excuse October 7th? If you think that you might be part of the problem. Both are an abomination.
This was against Israel - the propaganda war - is one Jews are sadly used to. It used to be Jews do not belong in Europe. They arrived there after being forced out of Israel by the Romans. Now Jews are told they are colonialists in Israel. A country they lived in before Romans existed and long before the murderous prophet, Mohammed was born.
Meanwhile, Muslims, in their Qur'an dictated tenets to build the caliphate, have colonized 57 countries and no one is protesting their endless wars to colonize and contril the infidel nations.. As an aside, once Islam has conquered the UK, Nigeria and Spain (again) they will have colonized 60 countries.
Anyone not poisoned by the propaganda war against Jews and supportive of Islam understands what is happening. And you have laid it out beautifully.
Caught the tail end of ATW Live - enough to grasp that Matt and Walter - made some extremely poor editorial decisions about content.
When you have to bail on your audience on no notice and cut the most interesting part of the show for many - the book discussion, that's hard evidence Matt and Walter planned poorly. Nuff said.
Yeah they spent 30 minutes talking about a foreign country and why they don't talk about it on a show called AMERICA This Week. Then proceeded to read stupid comments, (from the YouTube feed, not the paid subscriber Substack feed.) And then wrapped the show without the book club portion, that I had been waiting for and had been reeding. Pretty fucking disappointing! Can I get a refund?
Everyone's entitled to a bad day at the office. Matt's a big boy - I especially appreciated his shout out to Bari over the Twitter files and Walter's tales of working with Bari.
Matt and Walter today echoed my own comments on the Bari hire, but with informed context.
Rule 1 - what other people think of me is none of my business.
Even on a bad day, Matt and Walter offer far more than I get from other sources, including those I respect greatly. That Matt revealed himself to be human today is no flaw, but as you note - maybe not the most riveting discussion - much more like a therapy session. Not at all Walter's fault, and I'm certain both will do better.
This is exactly right. I also think Matt is overly sensitive to the trolls, and you know he gets that crap from everywhere, online and offline. So maybe overly sensitive is the wrong word. Anyway, they both had a bad day.
The Christian-Jewish United States has killed more than 20 million people in 37 “victim nations” since World War II. Since 1945, the U.S. Government has perpetrated 297 invasions of foreign countries and at least 60 coups. I am a Christian who has read and respects the Quran. It condemns killing civilians. It say war is justified only in self defense.
If you think that’s bad, just wait and see what you will get without the Christian-Jewish United States leading things. The US has done terrible things. It’s done things it should not have done. But it’s going to get worse if the Chinese and the Russians take the lead. My dad was in China in 1937 and he saw what the Japanese Army did in Nanking. The Chinese would gladly return the favor to Japan….and to a lot of other countries.
China doesn't invade other countries. Their consitution explicitly forbids it. Instead they invest billions in building up the infrastructures of emeging economies around the world with the goal of becoming future trading partners. The United States has 800 foreign miitary bases. China has one. And Russia has only a handful. Gallop has for many years been doing international polling. On the qustion of what country is the greatest threat to world peace, the answer is almost universally the United States. No other coutry even comes close. I have seen Pakistan as a very distant second.
Let's just start over again then shall we. By your logic any country invaded by Muslims belongs to someone else. All 57 Muslim conquered countries should be returned.
One could make the exact same argument in favor of Palestinians accepting defeat, recognizing israel, and moving on. Its been 80 years. They've lost every war. None of their neighbors will accept them as refugees after the many past instances where Palestinian refugees brought radical militancy and violence wherever they went. They have a million good reasons to cut the shit and accept that they only have these small territories left and that's got to be enough at this point. Instead they cling to the most unrealistic idea ever- that they will get israel back if they just keep fighting. If you are encouraging Palestinians to "resist", you are participating in their self destruction.
The people in Gaza and the West Bank were far better off before all of the Intifadas and before the Oslo accords that allowed the PLO back into the region.
In 2017 Hamas agreed to recognize Israel and agreed to a two-state arrangement. Since 2005 when the IDF left Gaza they turned it into the world’s largest open-air prison; no one can enter, no one can leave without Israeli permission. Currently Israelis are taking homes away from Palestinians in the West Bank.
You think Palestinians should just get over it, huh?
Israel wants all the Levant for itself. The Greater Israel Project, the Likud’s, “From the Euphrates to the Nile will be Israeli sovereignty. The Greater Israel project is even in Israeli children’s books.
The Israelis are The Bad Guys. They want more and more.
Here’s a 40-second Youtube clip, the Israeli children’s book dreaming of taking control of Lebanon:
Comanches are a subset of the Shoshone group, that originally came from northeast Nevada (think Elko, Ruby Mountains). So, according to the original landowner theory, that's where they should be clamoring for. Lots of mining going on there right now, so they could become rich! (Just an example of how "the original homeland" theory is basically empty.)
HAMAS succeeded in its goal to make Israel respond in barbaric fashion. They probably did not expect this much of a response, through they probably did not expect October 7 to be as successful as it was. Shin Bet was asleep but the Israeli liberals are defending the Shin Bet incompetence because they prefer to blame Netanyahu (who was kept uninformed about the 10/07 attack for several hours by Shin Bet and military leaders).
Most of the world is as evil as HAMAS. Given a chance, they would visit similar atrocities on their neighbors and on non-conforming members of their own populations.
I do not think Israel has acted barbarically. In fact, the opposite.
Hamas has been bombarding Israel, off and on, since 2005. They have been a constant threat. A deadly, unrelenting threat. They have been clear in their goal of eliminating Israel. Oct 7th was a crescendo to Hamas' barbarism.
Israel has taken utmost care in trying to protect civilians. This is despite everything Hamas has done to make this all but impossible. Israel has allowed untold tons of food and medical supplies into Gaza, something very rare during warfare.
But, yes, the liberals always fight the wrong fight. Their madness is predictable and destructive. They are the enemy from within.
Thank you for your comment. You are absolutely correct. Israel is going to heroic lengths to prevent innocent civilian deaths. But people make mistakes. And there are always some people acting with evil intent.
Interesting idea. Much like Osama Bin Laden provoked the US to act barbarously. I am certain it's intentional. Bin Laden was a smart person, however evil.
Sounds like an accusation derived from received historical context-free opinion. And I would go so far as to say this “opinion” has at times been brought forth in bad faith.
Exactly. I'm like Matt in that I don't talk a lot about this issue because I don't know all the history, but to be blunt: When a group of people (Hamas) tells you that they want to kill you and wipe you off the face of the earth, believe them. And if Israel was committing genocide, they could have just stopped giving Gaza food, money, and supplies -- the money and supplies that were used to rape, butcher, and kidnap Israelis on 10/7. Not to mention the propaganda coming from Gaza (i.e. the "starving" child that was not in fact a starving child, on the front page of the NYT.)
Israel DID stop giving Gaza food, supplies, medicine, etc. Israelis are the ones raping prisoners. There were no rapes on Oct. 7. Israel has been murdering Palestinians and stealing their land since 1948.
There was not a single documented case of rape on October 7. On the other hand, Israeli prison guards have literally bragged about raping and torturing Palestinian prisoners.
I actually think Racket and WK are weak if they say, “We don’t know enough . . .” Didn’t Hamas share their/its murderous pleasure? On-line. Raping women, murdering babies.
Was the PLO offered a state as negotiated by Bill Clinton?
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland and Eastern Europe took in the refugees. Question. Why doesn’t any number of Arab countries take in the Palestinians, their brothers?
I don't talk about specifics because I don't know enough about specifics -- but yes, you are right, the Palestinians have been rejected by all their Arab brothers and they have rejected every two-state solution that has been presented (I think there have been 5, but I may be wrong.) Hamas is evil. You know what isn't being talked enough about? Half the country is under 20 and all they know is Hamas and hatred of the Jews. There is no negotiating because they don't want to negotiate. The propaganda is insane. Is Israel perfect? Nope. Who is? But Hamas started this war, and Israel will, hopefully, end it.
You are correct, you don’t know enough, should have stopped there. Israel has never negotiated in good faith with Palestinians, they want all of there land, and they want them gone. This is known as ethnic cleansing.
And these kind of comments are exactly why I avoid talking about this issue online. Bill Clinton helped negotiate a two-state solution that Israel agreed to and Arafat (or whoever was running the PLO at the time) rejected it. Israel and Jews deserves to exist. Hamas and other terrorist organizations have stated for generations that they want to kill all Jews. Those are facts. As far as the nuances of Middle East politics and who does what to who, that's where I say I have no idea what's really going on. But when people like the guy above say that no Israeli was raped on Oct 7 when we all saw the videos and violence and know that BABIES were murdered, it's frustrating.
I actually agree with you but also not talked about much is that Netanyahu funded Hamas. Like literally smuggled them bags of money. I don't think he contemplated something like October 7th but he certainly didn't mind rockets flying every so often to keep his party high in the polls.
Why in the world does everyone need to expound upon everything? If they don't like the subject, so be it. It is never strength to shoot your mouth off about something of which you have no ken.
Nothing better than a single sentence that boils everything down to its essence. “They are defending a brutal band of theocratic terrorists” qualifies for that honor. Perfectly put, thank you.
And the other way around, if you're the invading force from a country with 25x the GDP per cap and you only kill two to three percent of the population, that's a really ineffective attempted genocide too, leading very much to the conclusion that it ain't one.
That is a fictional (or at the very least unverified) number reported by Hamas to a group of journalists who utterly despise Israel (and have for a long time) and who might as well be the Hamas PR wing. Drop Site has zero credibility and eat well off of Jew hate.
What do you think happened to the people who lived in all those buildings that are now dust? They’re doing fine? The actual death counts are going to turn out to be much higher.
"The actual death counts are going to turn out to be much higher." You mean you HOPE they'll be higher, because their deaths will help support your claims.
The Russians flattened whole blocks and buildings in Chechnya, are doing similar in Ukraine, America flattened buildings in Baghdad and Mosul, Assad flattened multiple areas...where were the claims of genocide?
And Amnesty and Agnes Callamard can't support this claim, they've been accusing Israel of everything except (maybe) killing Jesus for decades, they exist to attack and oppose Israel and cannot be believed or trusted— and that goes for the rest of the NGOocracy that dines on Palestinian pain, while never once helping to end this conflict.
I oppose the wholesale slaughter of innocent humans. It's very weird that you don't, and you're the freak who wants more dead bodies in this scenario. That's you.
"I oppose the wholesale slaughter of innocent humans."
Well, doesn't that place you at the apex of Mount Morality!? I, of course, am a drooling vampire who drinks baby blood...
"you're the freak who wants more dead bodies in this scenario..."
Here's what I want: 1) Israel to destroy Hamas; 2) the Palestinians to find some way to finally support peaceful coexistence and elect leaders who do also; 3) both countries to separate but flourish and learn at least to tolerate each other's existence.
To get here, yes, this means the war needs to continue. But sometimes the pursuit of war is the only thing that leads to a durable peace. Unconditional surrender did wonders for all the innocent humans of the Confederacy, not to mention for the Japanese and Germans last century—but it took a lot death and suffering for them to get there.
Interesting...calling the person who disagrees with you a "freak" and then concluding that he or she "wants more dead bodies" with no substantive evidence. Nowhere else to go, I guess.
Ackshually, the death toll reported by Hamas is always propagandistic horseshit, just like everything else they put out for eager and unquestioning consumption by the global leftist media, appallingly ignorant Ivy League activists, etc.
Observers from the United Nations agree with me, not you. And this is not a partisan issue. Many on the right like Marjorie Taylor Green are calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide.
The United Nations that lets China and Russia be permanent members of the Security Council? If you’re going to commit the “appeal to authority” logical fallacy, at least appeal to an actual authority, not that clown show. You need to do better. A lot better.
There is. And I assume you’re actually upset with Hamas for being the actual perpetrators of it. Hamas reminds me of the person who brutally murders his parents and then asks for mercy because he is an orphan.
This coincides with the Bari Weiss segment on Racket News tonight. The comments on YouTube were very interesting. OK. Not really. Is Bari a Jewess? That is the problem, no?
I have loved the YouTube comment section for RacketNews on election night +. It was funny and sharing, and did I say, funny?
That crapola today — all Palestine all the time, because none of us cares enough about genocide, according to commenters, blah, blah, blah.
What a fake cause. Fake “genocide.”
These bastards posted their barbarity online, no? Until, the shock did not payoff anymore.
Anyway. All you pro-Pal commenters — I bet Greta needs someone to help with the flotilla. There is more than one way to serve.
I know I would find it quite impossible to live in an almost bombed out state, mostly rubble, and carry my kids and my belongings from one place to another, search for food, potable water, hoping we wouldn't be sniped, droned, bombed, etc. In fact, Americans are quite precious about all of their comforts and could never tolerate what the Palestinians are going through and have been through just as we also could not tolerate what the jews, catholics, gays and others went through under Hitler. It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's actions because they see the parallel in demonizing an entire population including children in order to justify outrageous actions and take resources. BTW I am an independent voter and always have been.
"Palestinians are going through and have been through just as we also could not tolerate what the jews, catholics, gays and others went through under Hitler."
I realize that people get off on calling Jews Nazis but your claim is stupid and insane. Jews had no peace offers, humanitarian corridors, refugee camps, no chance at surrender, could not be saved by any govt, and had little chance of survival. 2/3rds of Europe's Jews were murdered—6 million people—just because they were Jews. No war, no territory, no other reason.
There are only parallels bw the Gaza War and the Nazi Holocaust in the minds of various Jew haters and other merchants of hate and ignorance. The comparison is grotesque and is only regurgitated by bigots and angry screen-addled infants of any age.
Am I the only one who sees the Palestinian people as victims of Hamas just as much as the Jews are? Granted that the stupid bastards voted them into office in 2007, however they have subsequently been the victims of these rabid zealots for as long as the Jews.
oh absolutely yes, these poor people have been cursed with maybe history's worst leadership.
The root of the problem is that the Palestinians aren't treated as people but as a Cause—they are the literal and symbolic incarnation of the Islamic world's refusal to accept the Jewish state and its desire to have it bleed out, no matter how many deaths or decades this takes. (As well as the Western Left's last leftover revolutionary cause in their eternal crusade for communist/socialist "liberation".)
The Cause is much more important than the actual people it claims to represent, which is why the welfare of the Palestinians is never a paramount concern for their wannabe saviors. The people can be failed or be killed, but the Cause must live on.
God protect all of us from ever becoming someone else's Cause! It might be worse than being their enemy.
Well said! And lest we forget, the surrounding nations refuse entry because they don't want the subversive and corrosive influence of radicals raised in a camp to infect the disenfranchised within their own countries. I thought it was extremely telling that Jordan would only accept Palestinian children.
While Hamas won the election in 2006/2007, they lost in the West Bank (who thus should be safe. Right?)
Netanyahu supposedly bragged to his friends that he controlled Hamas and their money in 2018 and 2019; they were HIS secret police. The Israelis at the rave were not Netanyahu supporters; Netanyahu knew that October 7th was coming and did nothing to stop it as it was the perfect justification for ethnic cleansing.
And while the murderers of Oct 7 must be punished, an occupied country has the right to resist whereas the occupying force by International Law is much more restricted in their actions and Israel has long crossed the line.
Both sides are evil, but my bigger concern is that Israel has free health care and University and the US does not, with US taxpayer money. Trump (indeed all our politicians) have made Zionism a protected religion. We are free to criticize America but not Israel.
I think it was Shin Bet that was doing the bragging, and was giving this information to Netanyahu. The military also screwed up. They did not inform the civilian leadership about the attack for several hours.
The Jews of europe didn't take german hostages, kill german soldiers and civilians, or constantly bleat about "the teutonic entity" must be destroyed by any means necessary, including mass-terrorist campaigns.
Maybe don't have music festivals outside a concentration camp--the venue was moved just 48 prior to warnings of an anticipated 'event' by Hamas by the same person who did not respond on Oct 7.
Israel knew about the Oct 7 attack before it happened
Israel moved the Nova fest closer & extended it by a day
Israel did not respond to the attack for over 6 hours
When Israel responded, they killed Israelis re: Hannibal Directive
You need to remember to take your Lithium or mommy will have to call the men in the white jackets to come take you away again. We don't want that now, do we, Elaine?
#2: "It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's action...“
. . .
“In 1948, Hannah Arendt wrote an open letter that began, “Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the ‘Freedom Party’ (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy, and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.” … Arendt based her comparison on an attack carried out in part by the Irgun, a paramilitary predecessor of the Freedom Party, on the Arab village of Deir Yassin …”
“Netanyahu has been brandishing Amalek in the wake of the Hamas attack … for the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in compound where only a small fraction of the population had the right to leave for even a short amount of time—in other words, a ghetto. ... like a Jewish ghetto in an Eastern European country occupied by Nazi Germany. … The term “open-air prison” … the more fitting term “ghetto” would have drawn fire for comparing the predicament of besieged Gazans to that of ghettoized Jews. It also would have given us the language to describe what is happening in Gaza now. The ghetto is being liquidated.”
#3: "It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's action...“
. . .
Back in the early 80's, as a teenager, I read Leon Uri's book "Mila 18" about the 1943 Jewish Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Last night [3-03-25] , I googled images of "Warsaw ghetto uprising ruins” Looks about the same as Gaza today.
In 1943, Nazi SS General Jurgen Stroop liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto. When the poorly armed Jewish resistance fought back, the Nazi's starved out, burned out, and leveled the ghetto. The resistance retreated to basements and sewers until they were killed. The survivors (and remaining civilians) were “transferred” to the death camps.
IN 1944, after the Polish 1944 uprising, Hitler ordered, 'Warsaw is to be razed to the ground while the war proceeds.’ … Himmler made sure his officers understood exactly what was intended: ‘The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth… No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to it's foundation.' … less than 5 per cent of pre-war Warsaw remained intact … in the city of ruins … genocide and urbicide march in lockstep.”
This past weekend: “The decision we made last night [3-01-25] to completely halt the entry of humanitarian aid [e.g. food , water, etc] into Gaza until Hamas is destroyed or surrenders completely and all our hostages are returned is an important step in the right direction— ‘standing at the gates of hell,’” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “Now, we must open these gates as quickly and as lethally as possible …”
Don't you hear echos of Hitler and Himmler in Smotrich's promise (and President Trumps] to “open the gates of hell.”? Doesn't take much imagination.
#1: "It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's action...“
. . .
[Ehud Barak, other Israeli leaders] Don’t you dare show your faces at any memorial ceremony for the heros of the Warsaw Ghetto, . . . You are not Anne Frank of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but Haens Frank, the German general who acted to starve and destroy the Jews of Poland. Today the Warsaw Ghetto is right in front of you, targeted by your own tanks and artillery, its name is Gaza.”
—Michel Warschawski, “Absolutely Not in Their Name, Not in Ours”, AIC, January 18, 2009. Quoted in Tony Greenstein, “Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation” (2022).
There are so many errors in your logic and moral equivalence, but just to highlight the most obvious. The European Jews could do nothing to stop their own slaughter because they were being killed for being Jews and nothing would ever change that situation.
I agree with you ... after replacing a few words: "The Gazans could to nothing to stop their own slaughter because they were being killed for being Gazans and nothing would ever change that situation."
What could change their situation? Free the remaining living hostages? (many of whom were killed by IDF bombing, etc). Israeli leaders have repeatedly said releasing the hostages won't stop the "war" and "transfer" of Gazans out of Gaza.
Hamas knows that. They would rather fight to the death (like the Jewish resistance in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto) than be put into torture centers or a "humanitarian" concentration camp. Wouldn't you, faced with that choice?
The Israeli leaders don't really care about their lives of their own "hostages". On October 7th, a "Mass Hannibal" was ordered and IDF helicopters were ordered to blow up all cars heading to Gaza (probably killing 100-200 Israelis). Unfortunately, the Israeli prisoners (they are all captured soldiers now) will probably die with their Hamas captors.
Well deserved. What's interesting about this discussion is that it ignores the central points. Hamas is one of many of the theocratic-driven terrorists groups who operate on principles developed and used for over 2,300 years. The central tenets are these: you must convert or kill all non-believers (no exceptions) and all rewards are in the afterlife. A main operating principle is Taqiyyah which basically says it is perfectly honorable to lie to your enemy until you are in a position to defeat them. Hamas is just one example. This death cult, as Douglas Murray has so aptly named them, makes no attempt to hide any of these operating principles. It is left to the intellectual sloth and moral cowardice of the Western media to ignore this.
Our Western liberal ruling class, most especially the progressive clerisy that constructs their morals and worldview, have converted en masse to the Social Justice faith, and in the SJ faith, once a group becomes anointed as sacred victims, they are beneath agency and responsibility, can never DO but only be DONE TO, and even their massacres are the fault of their enemies. This is why the kids on the Harvard Quad were marching for Hamas on 10/8 and claiming it was all Israel's fault—Hamas had no choice because of how abject and hopeless their oppression is, the Jewish devil made them do it!
The Palestinians have seized the top spot in the global progressive hierarchy of sacred victims—migrants have been bumped down, as have Trans and gay and black people (for now)—which means that all the aspiring ambitious Good People on the Right Side of History™ know what they're expected to do, say and think and are easier to manipulate than a hungry puppy.
Western liberals and Leftists are absolutely lost and hopeless on this issue, we (and they) think they're doing politics when they're really doing religion—looking to save their souls by acting out a Passion Play where the Palestinians suffer and die for our sins, but the Church of Social Justice saves and redeems them, with all sins loaded onto the Jewish scapegoat, whose slaughter will sanctify the new dispensation.
"Our Western liberal ruling class, most especially the progressive clerisy that constructs their morals and worldview, have converted en masse to the Social Justice faith, and in the SJ faith, once a group becomes anointed as sacred victims, they are beneath agency and responsibility, can never DO but only be DONE TO, and even their massacres are the fault of their enemies."
I was immediately reminded of today's rant by Jasmine Crockett, naming this country's violent criminals as sacred victims.
If you're a devoted member of the Free Palestine cult and/or one of the many Leftists who've been attacking and demonizing Israel for decades and you wake up on 10/7 to the news of the Hamas massacre, you have 2 choices: 1) admit you were wrong, or at least that things have changed, condemn Hamas and admit that Israel has to respond and that it's reasonable for them to demand the total eradication of Hamas (though this may lose you friends, followers and cause all sorts of personal and professional problems, esp if you work in media or on a fancy campus); or 2) heap so much scorn and slander on Israel, paint it as a totally evil abomination—settler-colonial imperialist capitalist apartheid genocide etc—or as one scholar at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research wrote recently that “[Israel is] a condensation of Western colonial and imperial power, a worldwide symbol of Western perfidy, a state which physically cleaves Africa and Asia, a merchant and mercenary of global counter-insurgency, all melded in a manticore of death and destruction.”—talk about gilding the lily!
This way Team Free Palestine! can save face and status and maintain their exalted self-image and the dogma and narratives that undergird it. It makes perfect sense psychologically, however loathsome it appears to those of us not in their cult.
A lot of you guys are so spiteful to liberals you can comprehend what Israel is doing is at a minimum ethnic cleansing and in likelihood outright genocide
Countless dead, complete destruction of the vast majority of Gaza, starving masses.
The left will overuse this word until one of their favorite proxies is found committing real genocide, and then it will be a word that will get you canceled.
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part"
umm sure sounds like a WAR to me
"Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group" I've seen no measures of a decline in Palestinian births or fertility, in fact quite the opposite.
You are reasoning backwards from a desired result and trying to twist words, meanings and facts to reach your pre-conceived foregone conclusion. None of what you sent pertains to this current war. And if you read my comment, you'd see I provided examples of various academics and activists who've been accusing Israel of "genocide" for decades. Is this just a coincidence?
"So tell us the word for what Israel is doing to Gaza in your language?"
Israel is fighting a war against a terrorist death cult that committed a brutal massacre of civilians, which death cult hides embedded in the civilian population and has stated repeatedly that part of their strategy is to get as many of their own people and children killed.
Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh: “The blood [spilled] in the Gaza Strip, alongside the resistance and the [Izz A-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades] (i.e., Hamas’ military wing), will defeat this occupier (i.e., Israel), will defeat this enemy… As I said, and I repeat every time, the blood of the children, women, and elderly – I do not say that it shouts out to you, but rather we need this blood so that it will ignite within us the spirit of revolution, so that it will arouse within us persistence, so that it will arouse within us defiance and [a forward] advance.”
Words have meanings. What the Saudis did to the Houthis was more than an 10x worse than anything going on in Gaza - literally 84,000 yemeni children starved to death over three years - and while it's undoubtedly horrifying, it wasn't a genocide.
What Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did to the Cambodians - killing 25% of the population in purges and mass slaughters - was horrible. It also wasn't a genocide.
What the Janjaweed are trying to do to the Dinka, Nuer, etc. in South Sudan is closer to genocide, but that's not a genocide either, as horrifying as it is.
The closest we've seen to a genocide recently is probably what the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments tried to do to the Tigrayans.
Words have meanings. You’re babbling in circles to avoid saying you support Israeli committing genocide. I’m not the one you have to convince. Enjoy your keyboard-warrior circle jerk, Adolf.
Payback? For genocide? Has Israel invaded Germany in the 1940's? Oh wait, no - they're just murdering thousands of civilians, as payback for some assholes murdering a few civilians.
That's genocide. Thanks for telling us who you are.
None of that gets you anywhere near a "genocide". I'm not sure you know what the word means.
This is a WAR, a very ugly one, where the battlefield is a densely populated territory fought by a modern army against a guerrilla army that wears no uniforms, is embedded within the population, that uses schools, hospitals and mosques as its bases and hides inside the world's largest network of tunnels, and among the only wartime population that is forbidden to flee as refugees but must survive inside a war zone.
Intellectual hygiene and basic honesty demand that you exhaust or at least explore other possible causes and explanations before you insist on the very extreme and incendiary charge of "genocide". But I understand that thinking and reasoning clearly about a very complicated situation is not as thrilling and gratifying as angry denunciations, esp in our age of performative rage and conspicuous compassion, where all the cool kids hate Israel.
"mass terrorist attack" when the majority of deaths were either 1) military enlistees or 2) killed by the party being attacked (aka Mass Hannibal).
Yeah. Now show us some evidence for the "mass rapes" other than the ones that Israeli society rewards on a daily basis, including against their own people, but also in prisons filled with innocent Palestinian teenagers and women.
No way, man. I just heard from Caitlin Johnstone that it was all a big misunderstanding and that Hamas is really into the electronic trance scene and were just upset that they hadn’t been invited to the show. Those guys love to party! I have a few gay friends who partied so hard in Gaza they fell off the roof!
And of course there couldn’t have been any rapes, the tickets came with an automatic sexual consent form, so any activity was already agreed upon. Those horny Jewish bitches wanted it! It was all a psyop anyway to benefit the Netanyahu family and the cause of Greater Israel and its settler-colonial master plan—Noam Chomsky says the IDF will be in Damascus by Hanukah (and he’s never wrong).
Caitlin also told me that she used to be a member of Hassan Nasrallah’s harem, but he usually preferred one of his goats. The man had good taste.
What's your rule of thumb for commenting on a plutocrat paying massively over-the-odds for a rabid Zionist blogger's services and planting her atop a news corporation he's buying? Is it to call anyone who questions that situation as just jealous?
I don't happen to care even a tiny bit about Israel, Palestine, Bari Weiss, or CBS News. But I do have another rule of thumb that's relevant here: anytime I find myself mad about a situation that doesn't concern me at all, it's helpful to reflect on how I got into that emotional state, who led me there, and what their motives are. I hope you find peace!
So you're kind of the anti-Martin Niemöller then. Thanks. Not sure where you're from but I'm from England & my government is currently involved in enabling an ongoing genocide, which gets me a little exercised - can't help it. That Taibbi is carrying water for one of that genocides apologists is, to say the least, very disappointing.
I'm sure I don't fit into your little Venn diagram of beliefs. Britain is indeed failing in all of those respects. Our support for the Ukraine regime. like our support for the Israeli one is disastrous and blokes in frocks should be kept out of women's spaces. I'm just morally consistent enough to realise we can't complain too much about all the illegals given the active role we played in the destruction of most of their countries - all those on Wesley Clark's list and more. In an ideal world we ship them all off to Tel Aviv, but I don't get to make the decisions I'm afraid.
Bari Weiss is being placed at the top of CBS News in order to take a wrecking ball to it. To reform it into a news organization, not a propaganda arm of the democrats.
I'm not the person you are replying to, but I can agree with an issue someone is pressing, but still think they are "my enemy" and an a-hole because of their poor behavior or poor ethics.
Where is the badgering? What I see are a very few independent analysts/podcasters commenting and questioning the blaring contortions MT has to take to avoid any mention of the topic of Israel’s occupation while conducting a weekly current events show. Most blatantly his bizarre take on Bari Weiss’ move to CBS, which had to be constructed to avoid implicating the pro-Zionism aspects.
Wow, you found a reductio ad absurdism. Great job! Now put that galaxy brain to work pondering why mobs do not form to badger people not to jump off cliffs.
Oh, I've been working on my list for a while. Let's compare . . .
"Hamas"
"Human shields"
"But they voted for them (in 2005)"
"Terrorists"
"Hostages"
"Right to exist"
"If they'd just give up their weapons . . ."
"Tunnels"
"Jew hater"
"Anti-semite"
"Empty land"
"Divine right of return"
"Where else will the Jews be safe?"
Edited to add "Hamas lover"
Oh, and my favorite . . . "Holocaust"
And, no, it really, really ceased to be "complicated" a long time ago. Not unless you want to suggest that US civilians should pay for the crimes of their government (and there are many) by losing a tenth of our population to bombs, bullets, lack of medical care, and adequate food and water.
A whole lot more than 10%. What's NOT counted in the body count is all those who are buried in the rubble, those blown to unidentifiable bits, etc. Only those positively identified are in that count.
And of course, the maimed, who are a big multiple. The children with no arms, no legs, no both. The starved children who are permanently intellectually disabled by the starvation...
Well, that’s the most common word that is used to “justify” all the death, commonly preceded by the word “but,” so “but . . . Hamas . . .” As long as they are shielded by the magic word “Hamas,” Israel can do no wrong. Everything is “complicated” and therefore mass killing can be justified, or at least ignored.
As the source of the war and the ongoing suffering is Hamas, as the daily war crimes are committed by Hamas, then yes it makes sense. They start with unspeakable atrocities against civilians on 10/7–intentionally killing any and all they can. Raping and taking hostages. War crimes. If you are a combatant intentionally hiding among civilians it is a war crime. If you fight in civilian clothes it is a war crime for the same reason. If you make war from hospitals, schools, and civilian apartment buildings, it is a war crime. Israel has every right to eliminate them under the laws of war wherever they may be, and if they don’t, the same atrocities will happen over and over and all resources meant for the poor people of Gaza will be misdirected into tunnel building and war making for the explicit purpose of killing all the Jews. Not my opinion; historical fact and the Hamas charter is flatly genocidal. That is where and how they fight, and you just noticed that it’s impossible to do so without a lot of civilians dying. Israel would prefer to remove Hamas without noncombatants getting killed; after all they get blamed for them and would prefer not to be isolated. The Palestinians are stuck in a miserable existence not by Israel but by the death cult who controls them, and sadly the media as well who are complicit in perpetuating that misery by blaming Israel for consequences that are squarely on Hamas.
You know, I wondered how Holocaust denial worked. I mean we have all the stories out of World War II. We can see the pictures and hear the stories. And yet there is this whole group of people who will deny it ever happened or find reasons to excuse it. But I wonder no more.
Eighty years from now, people like you will still be running around screaming “human shields” to deny that Israel did anything wrong, long after the rest of the world has admitted the truth and condemned at least this version of Israel to the ash heap of history for good reason.
You completely ignore the problem and the reason for the war. Yes there is killing in war. I would never say any human party can do no wrong; that just isn’t reality. I can discern root causes and see the obvious problem with Hamas in Gaza and how that creates an untenable situation for Israel and for the Palestinians. You deny that using civilians as human shields is happening and is a problem? I’m not the one with the myth making problem.
From the Lancet in February 2025, "Although these numbers are understood to refer to deaths due to traumatic injury, others have speculated that the indirect effects of the military operations against Gaza could push all-cause excess mortality to 186 000.14" So yes a tenth of Gaza's population of around 2.2 million are likely dead due to the "war." (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext)
But let's for a second entertain the idea that *only* 60,000 Gazans are dead. You do know that is the rough equivalent of 9.5 million Americans. So if a country attacked us and killed nearly 10 million Americans, 83 percent of them (or 8.3 million) civilians, would you be so cavalier? I mean, that's like killing every resident of New York City in the course of twenty three months. Our media lost its mind when a million people died of COVID, supposedly. That's a little over eight COVIDs. Just for some perspective, and that's not even close to be the real number. That's just the people they know are dead from Israeli attacks. That's not the people who have died of hunger, later died of injuries, died of lack of medical care, and all the other "side effects" of having your country bombed to rubble, the 186,000 the Lancet had in February, likely far more after the blockade. Now you're talking something like 35 million Americans.
I propose the “inverse proportion rule of Substack”. The intelligence of the comments vary inversely to the commenter’s number of Substack subscriptions.
so you're turning this into another juvenile "drinking game"? .... so desperate to avoid confronting the immense suffering of Israel/Gaza head on like an authentic investigative journalist you're turning the discussion into a joke?......you are becoming irrelevant......
(1) He brought this on himself through his ignorance of what people outside the mainstream media suspected about Bari Weiss's "deal" with CBS news, and (2) instead of acknowledging that others might see more to it, he has a temper tantrum on paper and then in the comments section and then on notes.
I don't care if he doesn't want to weigh in, but if he's going to weigh in, maybe make sure that he at least had the basics of the anti-Israel/pro-Palestine argument. Not knowing is one thing: willful ignorance of the information that is out there is quite another.
I've seen an abundance of temper tantrums right here in the comment sections, and for several days. Some of yours come pretty close. On the other hand, I think matt does a pretty good job of stating his case.
And it's not necessary for him to understand the anti-Israel/pro-Palestine argument if he's not going to address the issue.
the I-G issue permeates everything.....AIPAC control of congress, the loss of free speech and protest rights around the issue of Palestinian support......this isn't just about "war correspondence" it's about narrative control, civil liberties and injustice/oppression...... go read Chris Hedges/Caitlin Johnstone........
No, this conversation tonight on this particular thread is all about what is happening in Gaza, not on college campuses . It's not about anything that's happening in the US.
You want matt Taibbi, essentially a political reporter who's bailiwick is media bias, to suddenly choose to become a war correspondent.
I appreciate your perspective Matt, but the list from the pro-Israel side is just as bad. Both sides have lost the plot on this one, not just the left.
So there are no issues here, because some of them are commonly explained with words by a lot of people? Was Edward Said nothing but a SJW, or was he ok because it was still unpopular to stand up for Palestinians back then?
I honestly don’t give a crap what Matt Taibbi thinks about Israel and the Gazans, or any other topic. I pay to read what he writes because I believe he is an honest reporter.
Excellent thought, with which I agree. He's been resisting doing this, but has apparently been "pestered" enough to finally provide his thoughts.
But his thoughts aren't on Israel-Gaza, they're on other journalists and who is allowed to say what and who gets deliberately misconstrued. He should have left it as is. All this will do is generate more "Genocide!" versus "Jew-Hater!" material here in the comments.
It's like if Barry Melrose was pushed to tell us who is really bad: Yankees or Red Sox? Dude covers hockey, so who cares.
Precisely. And note the comments in this thread that gallop past that core point and dig in on their views about the underlying conflict and just provide additional use cases beyond the ones identified in Matt's article regarding being harangued into an acceptable view from the perspective of the brow-beater.
Exactly! I can’t think of another journalist I trust to report the facts more than Taibbi.
And you know how many people’s minds have been changed on a topic because of someone else’s opinion? If you multiply the number of honest politicians in DC by, oh pick any number, say the population of China, you get a pretty close approximation.
Whole issue and others encapsulates what I realized some years ago: there is no neutral anymore among some. That attitude/belief used to be the domain of fringe guys (often religious), accelerationists and govs (see: war propaganda). The strategy has been adopted by more groups, and people fall for it like horny kids in a strip club.
Excellent point. And IMV it is mainly due to the massive increase in politicalization of every aspect of life. Politicians cannot practice politics if they cannot win elections. Political parties cannot get control of the pot of gold (our tax dollars) unless they can first win elections. The battle for that pot of gold has become more fierce. To win elections politicians and their parties must divide us. They must deliberately create anger, resentment, to bring in the donations and to get people motivated to get out and vote. Currently, as has been discussed many times by Matt and Walter, the internet has opened up the flow of information. The result has been this massive increase in the battle to control the information. Politics and the associated information war has seeped into every aspect of our lives
Excellent analysis and I agree. Another way we’re divided and set upon each other is by our age groups. The whole “Generation —“ thing. It’s just as valid as astrology. My favorite snide commentary on the topic is the following: “My twin brother was born just before midnight on Dec. 31, 1964. He’s a greedy Boomer, responsible for all my problems. I was born after midnight, Jan 1, 1965, so I’m a saintly Gen X.”
Many of us subscribe for the same reason. I think Matt is the “last Mohican” of journalistic tribe who has integrity. I respect his right to chose topics important to him. It is a privilege to read his articles. Those who try to tell him what to say should be just waved away. Arguing with them is a waste of time. Matt, just continue to be yourself, and we will continue to treasure you.
100%. I subscribed when he first started his independent newsletter, and I will continue until he stops. I don't agree with everything he says, he's left of center and I'm right of center, but he is honest and thoughtful and we agree about the big stuff. I trust him. I don't say that about a lot of journalists.
Golda Meir said, “We can forgive [the Arabs] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with [the Arabs] when they love their children more than they hate us...”
Clearly, Hamas hate their children, or they would have given all the hostages back as an attempt to make peace. But, when children are starving, as fellow human beings, we should all want it to end, regardless of who is at fault.
In response to Golda Meir's thoughts about Jews' love for their children.
AP
@Average_NY_Guy
The Jewish child is the most radical fact in history. You can burn books, you can destroy synagogues, and you can gas millions, but if even one Jewish child survives, just one, the story continues. That is why the child has always been the target. Pharaoh drowned babies, not soldiers. The Crusaders ripped children from their mothers before they set synagogues on fire. The Nazis made sure to burn the children first, because they knew that killing adults ends the present, but killing children ends the future. Auschwitz was the graveyard of 1.5 million Jewish children. But Auschwitz failed. Within months of liberation, survivors with nothing, no homes, no families, no health, were having children. Babies were born in DP camps before their parents even had beds. Every diaper, and every stroller was an insult to the idea that the Jews were finished. This is the pattern of Jewish history: children against death. Our enemies write their philosophies, build their statues, parade their armies. We raise children. That’s it. And somehow that has been enough. Other nations celebrate their cathedrals, their palaces, their kings. But Jews celebrate noise... the noise of children. The chaos of a Jewish living room on Shabbat afternoon where ten conversations happen at once and no one is ever truly quiet. The shrieking of a schoolyard in Brooklyn or Bnei Brak where jump ropes slap the pavement, balls bounce off walls, and a hundred voices rise in the same instant to answer the question of the teacher. To outsiders, it looks messy, maybe primitive. In reality though, it’s eternity. Auschwitz was silence. Jewish destiny is noise. The Jewish child is not “free” in the modern sense. They don’t come into the world to “find themselves.” They come already belonging to a group of people, to a covenant, and to a story. The first thing a Jewish boy feels in his body is the mark of that covenant the brit. The first words a Jewish girl learns to say are not random, but ancient. Few if not no other child in the world is bound to history like this. That’s why the world resents them. A Jewish child is not neutral. They are a living continuation of Sinai. And yes, there are many of them. Too many for a world that measures progress in smaller families and declining birth rates. Jewish families with many strollers are viewed as fanatic, as backward. But the stroller is the most powerful political object the Jewish people own. It doesn’t ask for permission. It doesn’t argue. It just moves forward. The child is how Jews have always answered their enemies. With no vengeance, and no destruction, but with life. Hitler’s speeches are completely forgotten. A Jewish child still learns the Aleph-Bet. Stalin’s empire collapsed decades ago. Jewish children still sing Shema. Empires fall, ideologies rot, conquerors disappear. But a child’s voice asking on the Passover night “Why is this night different?” still echoes across thousands of years. The Jewish child is not just a child. They are the rejection of every plan to erase us. They are proof that history’s numbers don’t add up. They are the loudest answer Jews have ever given. And that is why our enemies never stop going after them. Because deep down, they know the truth: the future of the Jewish people is small, noisy, sticky-fingered, and unstoppable.
All of this is true of EVERY society and every religion, but of course Jews think they are extra special because they love children, hence this silly hagiography.
And it's precisely because Palestinians are a family-oriented society that genocidal Israel is slaughtering women and children. Because killing children ends the future.
And the ultra-orthodox Jewish community has a problem with pedophilia, and Israel protects Jewish pedophiles. If your point is that Islam has an element of pedophilia and therefore deserves our hatred, then what am I to make of a religion where pedophilia is de facto common and a country that protects pedophiles from prosecution abroad?
A family-oriented scoiety that practices honor killing, genital mutilation and teaches their precious children how to use handguns starting in first grade.
Nice hate you have showing, and no one believes your hateful Zionist lies so why don't you keep them for your genocidal bubble.
But - genital mutilation, really? Last time I checked, Jews mutilate the genitals of all their baby boys when they are only a few days old. It's called circumcision, or have you forgotten. So do Muslims.
You mean Golda Mabovitch, born in Kiev, emigrated with her family to the US, married Morris Meyerson, became part of the Labor Zionist movement, and only then moved to what was known at the time as *Mandatory Palestine* (you know the Palestine that never existed) and only in 1956 becoming Meir?
Thousands of years of history that don't fold easily or simplistically into anyone's preferred narratives. Or was the correct answer: the evil Jews did something evil?
If we go down that road, who created Hamas? Ron Paul said it was Israel. How crazy is that?
You could go further down the road when the Ottoman Empire kicked out (killed) the Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians in Palestine and replaced them with Arabs. Where and when does it end?
But, if Hamas gave up the hostages right now, Israel would have to cease fire. So, why hasn't Hamas given back all the hostages?
Because they're waiting to swap them for the Palestinians imprisoned by the IDF in the West Bank (ie the main reason Hamas took Israeli hostages on 10/7).
The only way to have hostages is if you don't kill them. Israel settles that problem by just killing and maiming Palestinians (including some Christians) of all ages. Maybe the maimed children should demand that the IDF give them back a 100% working leg or arm.
Golda Meir was an atrocious racist and a master of bigoted propaganda. Makes Goebbels look like a piker.
Both those quotes are incredibly evil and racist, and of course genocidal Zionists trot them out thinking the world buys their hate-filled hasbara any more.
My controversial opinion is that bombing civilians is a war crime. Whether the question is raised in or out of a vacuum is irrelevant. It was wrong in Dresden and Darmstadt when the British did it, and it is wrong now when the Israelis are doing it with American help.
This is not a war: this is a genocide and a demolition project. They are wiping an entire people from history, and the only words you can spare are for the "hostage" for whom even Israel cares not. Every day is a new horror story that should devastate any empathetic human being and here you are being smug about "not saying anything" like that's an enlightened position.
It's fine if you don't want to cover topics outside your expertise, but it seems you're spending quite a bit of time and words on it anyway. You don't have to say anything at this point: it's clear where you stand.
Did the paragliders do any raping and burning? No? Or was that the Hannibal Directive? Huh. How about that.
But yes, you're right, they had homemade paragliders. Let's kill millions and build a parking lot, it's the only solution. Burn some babies alive in hospitals while we're at it, it's what our Holy Book tells us.
Ah, this was a hygienic massacre. Hamas only threw hand grenades into the emergency shelters with huddling families, my mistake. Unless that also never happened?
I’m sure both sides here have committed atrocities, that’s the unfortunate part of war in the 21st century. We can be anti war, that’s great, but minimizing the crimes of one side isn’t effective at changes hearts and minds.
How interesting! It is always good to learn something new. Where can we find the videos of them raping and burning all those cars? Not just laughing, mind. I know, laughing is illegal for Palestinians and warrants a drone strike on their extended family, but humor me.
Would you like the video of the devastated father wailing as he holds the decapitated body of his toddler who was murdered by American-funded Zionists? Let's trade, bestie.
Katja, you're one crazy evil lady. And "woe to those who mistake evil for good and good for evil". Your life is evil and your future will be too. You're like Hamas: fated for nothing but delusion and sadism.
Again, very persuasive. Hard to see any fault with your argument. Truly you are a master of facts and logic. Go forth and cleanse the world of Amalek: I have every confidence you will have no qualm.
The Hannibal Directive for the killing & burning---no rapes occurred & a staged atrocity movie was made later by a former British intelligence officer that was shown to gullible leaders and MSM ...
You are completely backwards as to which is the genocidal side. Your ignorance is a danger to society.
The reason you argue the way that you do is that you want to skip past the fact that you're incredibly stupid and get right to the emotional manipulation, which is forever the tool of the evil.
I hope you live a long and enriching life. I wish that you may consider, some time down the line, that maybe firebombing hospitals is a bad thing. You may not even change your mind, but just consider the possibility, however remote.
Bombing civilians? It is said Muslims have killed as many as 50 million Hindus and Buddhist in the Muslim conquest of southern India. They didn't need bombs they slit the throats and choked the babies to death just as they did to the children they took hostage from Israel.
Israel has taken more precautions to save civilians than any army in history. And the ratio of civilians killed versus soldiers proves this. The fact that Hamas does not wear military garb, hide in schools, hospitals and behind woman's bruqas is further proof of the concern for civilian life Israel has practiced.
The exact opposite of what Muslims are doing currently in Nigeria, Israel for the last 75 years, Sudan and at Taylor Swift concert's in the UK (or which ever European country it was).
How interesting! How many military casualties have there been? It must be several million, given the number of civilians killed, don't you agree? Why, there must be more Hamas fighters than the total number of Palestinians in total! Fascinating. I didn't know that.
Run me the numbers, let's quantify how moral and good the IDF is, shall we. This will be fun.
The most extreme estimates are 70,000 dead, half of whom are civilians, so a little over 3% of the total population. From what i understand, for a densely populated urban area, those stats are surprisingly low, including the percentage of civilians killed. I agree that israel doesn't seem overly concerned with the welfare of Gazans, but calling it a genocide redefines that word. I for one am tired of redefining words to support chosen narratives. The war in 1948 settled the issue for me. Israel established its "right" to exist the same way every other country on earth has- it won the war. Each subsequent war resulted in more territorial losses for the Palestinians. Gaza can continue to attack israel but what will eventually happen is it will cease to exist entirely. Seems like a very dumb choice to me. I've followed this issue since I befriended a Gazan in 2000 who gave me a couple books to read about the conflict. I was very interested and very sympathetic but was struck by how much emotion, and how little detail was included in these history books he was giving me. So I read Benny Morris s book, 1948 in hopes of better understanding. When I read an actually objective, factual book about that war, I realized that for all the propaganda that israel puts out, the Palestinian propaganda is far more dishonest and way more destructive to its people and their prospects for building a better future. Its tragic, but the Palestinians are primarily responsible for their own misery
Which government “lost” the war in 1948? How was the state of Israel created? By a majority of the population? Which other wars supported by the UN resulted in exile of the inhabitants?
Jordan, Egypt, syria, and Iraq lost the war in 48. Some Palestinians did fight with the Arab armies but mostly they fled, and in any event, they were not organized. In the area that the UN partitioned in 1948, 33% of the poulation was Jewish. Every time the UN has stepped in to partition countries, India and Pakistan in 48, etc., there have been population transfers. The whole reason israel was created was because of how likely more pogroms were in the emerging ethno states of the former Ottoman empire, together with the fact that western countries had zero intention of taking in middle eastern or north African refugees. The UN, UK, and certainly jews around tge world felt that creating a Jewish state was an immediate necessity in light of what happened in Europe and what seemed practically inevitable in the emerhing world of Arab nationalism.
Certainly England thought redefining part of Palestine was necessary because they didn’t want them there. Much of Europe agreed, the antisemitism was a European issue, not Middle Eastern. Did Israel’s 1967 land grab also settle the issue for you too. It is clear from their words and actions that they never intended for Palestinians to have self-determination. When based on ethnicity, this meets the definition of apartheid.
Katja there were not even millions of Hamas soldiers and most of them were hiding behind woman's skirts. Make that black behind black burkas, the garb of beaten women. Beaten by male Muslims. Repressed, depressed women.
Anyway, like everything you've written your facts are wrong on all accounts. You're a sad, miserable, sadistic person. GTH, not that you're not already in a self imposed hell of your own making.
Gay? I'm glad you brought it up Katja. Isn't Hamas famous for tossing gays off of buildings? No answer necessary, we all know Hamas (your love idols) does this.
1) I didn't bring up "gay": that was a quote from the guy I was replying to. There is an ongoing reading comprehension crisis but that is a rant for another day.
2) No, they're not "famous" for that. Even if they were, your response is, what, burn families alive in their tents?
3) I really hope you're a bot because this level of discourse is godawful.
The fact that you think "genocide" is a brand at all, let alone one to be quibbled over while innocents are being slaughtered by the thousand, says more than you could ever admit out loud.
Call it a Roadside Picnic for all I care: just stop doing it and punish all responsible.
There is a difference between civilian casualties in a war as collateral damage, and the deliberate terror-bombing of cities like Dresden and Darmstadt. ("But it was war!" you might say. "Of course we had to destroy the universities!")
I am also quite against fire-bombing Japanese civilians, and do not think Japanese children needed to be polled as to their political opinions regarding China before making that judgement.
The Gaza situation is more akin to the German plan for Warsaw, which was a depopulation and demolition project meant to create a new sparsely-populated administrative center.
No, this is not a war. It is a Holocaust, and you are condemning those who resist it. So be it.
And Greg, my new friend, there is no winning here.
Very good. You may now wear your woke pin with pride. Along with your pride pin. And your "I voted" sticker. Do you have an official Greta frog hat, too? That's a collector's item.
Like it or not, true or not, your opinion on war crimes carry no weight in the rules of war, Geneva con, etc. those decisions were carried out by those we don’t know of, and will never meet.
Hell hath no fury like a leftist scorned, Matt. This isn't really about Israel anyway, but rather what should be done about violent Islamic jihad. If a single moderate Muslim was brave enough to denounce October 7, Gazan hostages, or a host of other barbaric crimes, I'd be more willing to listen to Gazan tears. Hamas must go; if Israel is the agent of their destruction that seems appropriate to me.
Great argument! If this is genocide it’s pretty weak for the Middle East , saddam killed 300000 swamp Arabs your type didn’t say boo. Half million dead in Syria , meh. Ethnic cleansing in Sudan , what me worry ? Slave raids and massacres in Nigeria , no biggie! But Israel that’s the one that bothers you
Here’s the 40-minute compilation of the Useful Idiot’s freedom fighters. These same people in this video would do the exact same to every one of us in the comment section if we just happened to have been in Israel in the day of their glorious rebellion.
There was a 2-state solution in place on October 6. One side broke it. Pay attention, because these same freedom fighters are coming to the West on the welcome mat you keep rolling out.
Israel has been constantly usurping Palestinian land since its self-declared inception. Which side has killed more civilians? Which side had stolen more land?
The funniest thing about this current kerfuffle here at Matt's place is the fact that Matt's earlier piece about Bari Weiss and CBS, the one that got so many panties in a bunch, had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Palestinians, Genocide or dead babies.
It was a slam against the legacy media for continuing to believe they're relevant.
That's all it was about; that and nothing more.
But it was fun to see so many people lose their shit.
I support Matt's (or anyone's) right to say whatever they feel or think about anything; so it is indeed lamentable and pathetic that so many readers apparently felt the need to hate on Matt for simply saying something as innocuous as that he admired Bari Weiss for her talent, tenacity and business acumen in maneuvering herself back into a powerful position in corporate media.
Having said that, I will also exercise my right to say this:
As a former paid subscriber to The Free Press for a couple of years in the earlier 2020s, I can summarize that experience as: initial enthusiasm and appreciation for a Substack site that purported to stand for independent thought and expression; followed by a gradual dawning realization and reluctant-but-unavoidable conclusion that Bari Weiss's brand of "free speech" was constrained by both a) an overriding commitment to 'patriotism' defined as unwavering support for the US government as a benevolent and protective force for Americans and the world in general, and b) a slavish devotion to the Zionist entity called Israel and its actions past and present. My dissatisfaction and disillusionment crystallized -- I will never forget -- one day while listening to Bari interview RFK Jr *(and don't get me wrong, I have many problems with him, too): when he asked her if she believed that the 800+ US military bases around the globe were critically needed in order to 'keep Americans safe', she responded, "Heck yes I believe those bases are keeping us all safe!"
.... I unsubscribed from The Free Press that day, and have never looked back. This was well before October 7, 2023; and since then, Bari has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is a 'useful idiot' for Israel.
So yes, I agree with the Bari-haters in general (though for more reasons than just the single issue I suspect is driving most of the hate-mail to Matt); but just because we have no use for Bari Weiss, why in the world should we transfer any portion of that animosity to Matt Taibbi -- who continues to render an invaluable service to us all with Racket News and ATW -- just because he happened to offer some charitable professional props to someone we don't like???
I have a slavish devotion to the entity called the USA. I also believe (slavishly) in the sovereignty of the single predominately Jewish state on the planet, just as I believe (slavishly) in the existence of predominately Muslim states and the predominately Hindu state of India.
Not really. How many other ethnostates are eliminating the rights of citizens on the basis of religious or ethnic identity with US support (there may be more we don’t know about yet).
I assume you meant to say religious or ethnic identity, along with the sex of the citizen. How about all of the above in Muslim countries? What rights are withheld in Israel based on the three things listed?
I’m not aware of other countries in the ME where residents of a particular religious, ethnic, (or sex) identify are maintained in secured fenced enclosures, prevented from moving about freely, deprived of needed supplies, and periodically bombed and shot at. Let me know where I can find them.
I think it's time for you, Matt and Walter, to learn about the history of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinian people from its inception. I, personally, am sick of the "I don't know enough about it to comment" line. As Americans, you should educate yourselves.
I really liked Russ Dobular, he is a transcendent talent, but by last fall all Due Dissidence could talk about was how incompetent Trump's campaign staff were (how'd that analysis turn out?) and that you needed to hate Israel. By spring it was down to just you need to hate Israel.
These Hamas lovers in this weird Youtube-to-college-campus bubble know they can't win the war, they can't win the public, they can't even win an argument. What do Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about trans athletes and Norm Finkelstein talking about Israel have in common? They're both screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time hoping people just won't continue the conversation when they finish and make them look stupid. These people have no credible points to make, most of what they try to dunk on Israel with are just Hamas talking points spread by fake news outlets like al Jazeera (sometimes by a journalist who's also a Hamas member), and they cannot sit down and answer simple questions like 'If Israel is genociding Palestinians, since that would take no more than 48 hours, why are they not done yet?' and 'If Israel is genociding Palestinians, why has their population grown exponentially since the Israelis established an actual state in that region?'
It's nothing but typical leftist purity spirals and spite politics. It's all due for a bloodletting, just wait and see how the American public responds to a JD Vance taking over the GOP, a conservative populist who isn't screaming things at you or talking about how society is a vast conspiracy of white male patriarchal privilege that needs replaced with socialism. A person who just plans to quietly fix the nation's problems and let you live your life, and not shriek at you with worthless ivory tower sociology grievances. It won't surprise me if we see the GOP rack up Electoral College margins like they had in the 70s and 80s.
And when they do, all this insanity is going to be put to bed.
And right there, Matt, you SHOWED which side you're on. On the side of genocide. And then you claim you're neutral. Read this piece of genocidal hasbara again, the one you LIKED and responded yup too. You stripped off your mask.
As for Leftist purity - I'm VERY conservative and a Trump voter. Check the polls - young conservatives are seeing through the Zionist propaganda. We know we can't win Israel's war of genocide, but it's divorced from reality to claim "they can't win the public." The public all over the world has been won by us. Already. The genociders only have the bought-up govts on their side.
And the power. And the media. And, sadly, you, Matt.
The great thing about Paulette is that she's a texbook example of moral idiot. She's also a reminder that no side... not the NRA, PTA, DNC, RNC... no one team has the market cornered on imbecility. For that I thank her for her service.
Bon voyage Paulette. May you find greener pastures with other like minded moral idiots, fish or fowl, Brihana or Morning Joe.
I think it's the childishness that bothers me more. This is going to become one of the defining moments of our age politically: Is America for its people or for the special interests, even when the special interests commit genocide and smear America and her people in their gore? And the man who saw Russiagate for what it was and shivered over Internet censorship when everyone else pooh-poohed it can't get beyond the pro-Israel propaganda and treats it all like a joke.
Here's all you need to do to regain your credibility, Matt - just admit - "I'm a huge supporter of Israel and am choosing to be silent on what is going on in Gaza and on the West Bank."
It's your dishonesty that is destroying your credibility with those of us who are not genocidal Zionists.
I like(d) Due Dissidence, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as “transcendent talent” with Dobular. Pre-Oct. 7, Due Dissidence was a scrappy throwback to a pre-Twitter left, but the minute Oct. 7 hit, Dobular was out screaming at people in town halls. Another group from that cohort of YouTube shows, Revolutionary Blackout Network (who Sabby Sabs is a member of in some capacity), was gleefully celebrating Oct. 7 the moment it happened.
"I don't care about any of this and we should not be involved in any way whatsoever" is Schrödinger's argument: Simultaneously it's rabidly pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, depending on who you're talking to.
I don't think anyone should be compelled to state that the earth is round before voting, but I also don't want people who think the earth is flat to vote.
Hamas is the closest thing we have to 21st century Nazism, and the TikTok-malleable are eagerly providing us all with a demonstration of how Nazism caught fire the last time around.
It is completely and utterly beyond these impressionable idiots that the messaging they're fed is not true.
I agree. Paulette would look great in camos with an AK. There's probably even some money to be made on OF. For the cause, of course. Just like all those other sexy female Hamas fighters.
"Hamas is the closest thing we have to 21st century Nazism"
Having lived through the last 5 years, I'm going to disagree with that, but even if it WERE true, we obviously have a "Nazism" problem of our own to deal with first.
I get your point, but comparing Hamas to Nazism is akin to saying Pol Pot was as bad as Stalin. Both bad, but one had the opportunity and means to kill many, many, many millions, while the other did bad things on a significantly smaller scale.
There is no "genocide", just as there was no epidemic of Amerikkkan cops killing thousands of unarmed black men, just as there is no way for a child to change sex and if impeded they will kill themselves, just as the planet isn't about to boil and explode unless we immediately forswear fossil fuels, just as there was no epidemic of death from Covid that could be cured by a "vaccine" that didn't stop transmission etc etc...these are all dishonest, simplistic, incendiary media narratives crafted by the propagandists of Left academia then fed to a supine media, who eat off of panic and terror and the bloodshed of others.
(And just in case anyone here hasn't been following this long-running conflict closely or across decades, I want to point out that the Anti-Israel Industrial Complex has been accusing Israel of "genocide" for decades. Edward Said was already accusing Israel of genocide in his 1979 book "The Question of Palestine", where he claimed "U.S. allies like Israel sponsor naked genocidal wars"; Said's homeboy Noam Chomsky has been accusing Israel of genocide since at least the 1980s, he constantly equates Jews with Nazis, referring to “Israeli concentration camps” and the “genocidal texts of the Bible,” and warning of a Zionist “final solution” that will annihilate the human race. The list of Leftist academics who've been accusing Israel of "genocide" for decades is endless.)
If Israel intends to kill Palestinian civilians, why does it send Arab-language warnings to civilians before attacks? Why does it evacuate civilians through humanitarian corridors? Why has it sacrificed the lives of almost a thousand soldiers when bombs dropped from the air can kill far more, without any risk to the IDF?
If Israel’s war in Gaza qualifies as genocide, it would be the first such case of genocide triggered by a mass terrorist attack involving the slaughter of civilians and the taking of hostages; the first in which the genocider permitted food, fuel, and humanitarian aid to flow into the territory of its purported victim. It may also be unique in that the targeted group’s combatants have deliberately embedded themselves in civilian infrastructure and sought to increase civilian casualties for strategic and propaganda purposes. And it could be the only genocide that might plausibly be halted on the spot—not by the genocider, but by the group claiming victimhood. Specifically, were Hamas to release the hostages and lay down its arms, Israel’s military campaign—having achieved its core objectives—would cease.
In the Holocaust, 67 percent of European Jews were killed; 85 percent of Tutsis were murdered in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and 80 percent of Armenians were massacred in Turkish-controlled lands in 1915–1917. If we realize that at least half of the supposed 50,000 Gaza dead were armed combatants, that means only 1.25 percent of the Gaza population of 2 million was killed. To put it crudely, if the IDF was intending genocide, it has been phenomenally ineffective.
Israel is fighting a defensive war against a brutal enemy that seized hostages in a surprise massacre, cloaks itself among its civilian population, and avows the destruction of Israel as its inalterable goal—the only "genocide" is the dreams of one written in the Hamas charter.
I understand why the opponents of Israel have to cling to this grotesque moral inversion and concoct these hateful lies and slanders—it's the only possible way to save face and have any moral credibility after the barbaric assault of 10/7. Without this political form of psychological projection, they'd just be defending a brutal band of theocratic terrorists. The "genocide" charge is an evil lie that no honest person should repeat.
I was going to come in and comment something like this, but it would have been way less comprehensive and way less eloquent. Wonderful post. I will just add that, to call what is happening in Gaza "genocide" requires one to not know what that word means, to know what it means but dishonestly use it as a slur nonetheless, or in the case of the NGO complex, redefine the word altogether.
As to the thrust of Matt's article--that he should be free to comment or not comment on any topic he wishes--the obvious answer to that is yes.
We have people here who argue "context" and "justification." They allude to what happened on October 7th, but avoid the specifics. Vague is better. They refer to Palestinian children and babies,but not Jewish ones.
Those troublesome specifics. Bone chilling, merciless, up -close and personal, deliberate, rabid savagery. The most horrifying thing I've seen in my lifetime because it was evil incarnate. That's it, I thought, there it is. Still celebrating the atrocities, Hamas promised to repeat this stain on humanity until they got rid of the Jews entirely, those cute chants about into the sea. Imagine seeing that, in such a tiny country, a few miles wide, and being threatened with more savagery. It could be you, or your baby, or your husband, your mother or your father. They weren't choosy.
I hate seeing kids of any kind suffer. Or people not get enough food. I wish this war never happened. I know that no country surrounding the Palestinians-- not Jordan,not Lebanon, not Egypt, wants them. That's because in Lebanon they started killing Christians and other Muslims and turned the place into the particular hell they have a talent for creating, like they're doing in the US, trying to foment an intifida, the revolution. Richly, they want to decolonize the United States.
The irony is every person here concerned about decolonizing, if they had a choice during a mythical peacetime of living under Israeli rule of law versus a Hamas ruled Palestine, would choose the former.
How does on know what to think when virtually everyone on both sides is a liar and a fabulist? I don't really hold any opinion here because i have a basic mistrust of all of the information that come to me about it.
If you don't hold any opinion after October 7th or September 11th for that matter, l can't help you
Why is it incumbent upon me to hold opinions about these things when so much of our own country is in disarray. I really don't give a rat's ass about most of these things. Those people have problems too. So what? 9/11 is a different sort of segue. Yet another thing that you nor I have any real information about. Just reporting by controlled outlets.
No Comment. You wonder why people left the 'Old World' and came on a one way ticket ocean voyage to the 'New World', well this is why. America First and your faith second, don't like it, well theres the door. I LOVE them both but they make me loose a little 'faith' in humanity. Peace Out !!!
we have all the information that exists and if you don't think that then I feel sorry for you
It would seem that you would have no opinion about anything except that which you directly observe. None are required however.
Most of the opinions I hear are from the mouths of those ignorant of the real situation. They are cocktail party parroters of propaganda who neither know nor care about the people actually living there. That's about as much as I'm willing to share on the topic.
Both of them were likely permitted to induce a ferocious reaction. That's an opinion, IMO.
You can look at other details of history to know what to think. Bill Clinton says [paraphrase] "I handed the Palestinians the deal and they turned it down".
You can ask yourself why in such a compassionate world the Palestinians are actually fully isolated in their plight. Surely the Arab states could have let them come long ago?
Oops they did, but it went too terribly to allow more.
After the six day war a couple hundred k Palestinians ended up in Jordan. They caused so much strife King Hussein finally at much heavy handed expense and with many losses rounded them up and got them out. Then they went to Lebanon and started the whole civil war there in the late 70s early 80s. Egypt saw all of this and made sure to keep that border tightly sealed and never let anyone escape to safety.
Somtimes your "friends" know you as well as your enemies do..
Most of these Arab countries will talk about the Palestinians, but it's mostly to dive focus and attention away from their own governments. The countries in the region do not fear Israel, but they do fear another Arab spring...
This is a good question. The first casualty of war is always the truth. But the international media’s performance on Israel and Gaza has always been atrocious. This allows leftists committed to the oppressor-oppressed, settler-colonialist, white supremacist et al narratives that bear no relation to reality concoct an alternate reality. Widely trusted news sources such as PBS news hour or the major networks simply regurgitate what Hamas wants you to think. The IDF’s version is always under more suspicion despite years of evidence to the contrary. I believe (in general) the Israeli take because it makes sense and matches the incentives you’d expect both sides to have. Dead civilians and atrocities benefit Hamas thanks to this twisted state of affairs, and keeps Israel from changing this endless horrible Groundhog Day state of affairs in Gaza and the West Bank. I’m sure Israel has done some things that are troublesome, but it isn’t done in a vacuum. The entire world is getting it wrong, badly, and ironically they just perpetuate the average Palestinian’s suffering by always letting Hamas off the hook.
Let the Palestinians have their own state. It will be the most efficient way to kill as many of them as possible…they will do it to themselves. What can you say about people who name streets after terrorists who killed defenseless children (and when captured by Israel, were eventually freed in prisoner exchanges).
I feel great sorrow for the Palestinians trapped in this mess. They suffer terribly. HAMAS or some other terror group strikes at Israel and Israel retaliates. Innocent Palestinians die. Their friends and families are enraged and want blood vengeance. This is how terror groups thrive…by making certain as many innocents as possible suffer so that the hate builds.
"This is how terror groups thrive…by making certain as many innocents as possible suffer so that the hate builds."
Bingo!
I’m sure you feel sorry for them, so might as well shoot them in the head.
How do explain Israel’s land grabs and mass killings and expulsions before Hamas and outside of Hamas control?
The whole point of the October attacks were to stir up hostility to the Israeli state when it responded to the murder of its people. This is the wicked calculus of Hamas. It is a strange thing to realize, but the perversity of the circumstances make it likely, that if the Palestinian sympathizers had told Hamas..."Don't look to me.....YOU started this, you murdered your neighbors, now you are fucked", the hostage taking would possibly be over. I only say possibly because hatred makes people do not just wicked, but irrational things.
I don't know, I can't talk to him about it and he might not want to tell me either, but I suspect Matt may feel this way about the whole situation in Gaza. Off the charts mistrust of all the parties involved, everyone with an agenda, everyone willing to lie and over hype every claim. Only way to have any idea what is really happening is to be in Gaza AND in the room with the Israeli leadership AND the Hamas leadership. Good luck with that.
Word. There's already so much to be concerned about here at home. Heck in just MY home.
so what to you propose for these uniquely for this people that have such a talent for creating this “particular hell”? And what is the 100 year background behind October 7th? And why do the atrocities reported on October 7th matter more than the oppression and atrocities visited on Palestinians more or less daily ?
I'll say it once: there is a moral chasm between defensive war, and ambushing young people at a festival, raping the women,driving around in a pickup truck with one woman's genitals exposed raping her after they had cut off her head, running down and shooting at point blank range young people on the parkway as they tried to flee, taking elderly grandparents and babies hostage, who the hell does that? Or shooting 20- year -olds in the fields as they ran for their lives,grenading a father in front of his sons as he tried to protect them, killing infants. Infants. Not from a distance, not after warning them to get out of the way,but deliberately- that was the point of it -genocide the word you love so much --maniacally taking an infant and killing it. Teaching children the most noble thing they can do in life is to murder a Jew. Everything just listed is the definition of a monster. Enslaved blacks suffered through far more oppression and never did that in the United States. The Jews endured racial murder and eradication and never did that anywhere. What did Lebanon do to them? The Christians in Lebanon, the other Muslims with whom they didn't agree? Other than exist.
For you, inconvenient facts and history simply don’t exist, or like Matt, “I don’t know anything about that.”
is it just me or do some of those claims sound a bit hearsay-based
I was once like you, and the reason im now on the other side of the argument is the same reason everyone else here is- I got educated about the history of this area and came to understand that supporting the Palestinian cause is encouraging the most unrealistic and self destructive behavior imaginable. I fully support the Palestinian people, which is why this is all I have to say to them- " you lost every one of these wars and in every other time period in history you would have been massacred or displaced after the first loss. You're lucky you have any land, and any hope for self determination. Stop fighting immediately, recognize israel, negotiate the best deal you can, accept that the right of return is a ridiculous fantasy, and then sign that agreement with Israel and do everything in your power to stop your young men from further attacks against israel. You will have a small but beautiful homeland with a great climate a stones throw from the suez canal. Keep fighting and your complete and total annihilation is inevitable.
thanks for sharing your incredible wisdom
Its called common sense and you're welcome
Yes, those troublesome specifics. The specifics that there were no babies in ovens, not 40 of them beheaded, no mass rapes, but all the time dozens of Apache Helicopters & tanks destroying everything that moved - some going back to re-arm more than once. Those specifics should trouble everyone.
every time the hannibal directive or the massive array of forewarnings (INCLUDING PLANS) the israelis had about the attacks comes up they always seem to want to change the subject, innit
Okay. We can dispense with the lies and hyperbole. We can just use the crimes that the Oct 7 attackers documented themselves. They gleefully posted GoPro videos of their attacks. They joyously called home to brag to their friends and families of the people they killed. No lies. No rumors. Just brutal self incrimination.
Thanks for the Zionist version of the Covidiot lock-everyone-down argument - just like them you're conflating deaths 'associated with' and 'caused by'. Facts do matter - how people actually died did for CV19 and it does on October 7th. Hamas almost certainly killed fewer Israeli citizens on that day than the IDF did because they had small arms, the IDF had tanks, helicopters and missiles - it's as simple as that.
Furthermore, the IDF response on 10/07 was delayed by several hours. Most of the 1,200 murdered by the Gazans were already dead by the time the IDF showed up.
Irrelevant. A killing documented by the killer is not a "death associated" with a murder. You are claiming that the IDF killed some or all of the 1,200 Israelis (and other innocents) who died on 10/07. I think you are the one confusing "associated with" and "caused by."
Bulldoody
I mostly agree with you, but on one point, I disagree. There are many many reasons to believe that on October 7 and September 11, elements within the national security state of Israel and the US knew the attacks were coming, and certainly appear to have cleared the decks to allow for them to happen. And the reasons for doing so are obvious and compelling, albeit machiavellian. If you agree that radical Islam is a serious threat to the west, its understandable why people who are in charge of mounting the response to that threat would be willing to do what it takes to galvanize their public behind the policies they intend to use. I personally think that radical Islam is the real Islam, and is a terrible model for society, but I take a lot of issue with the neoconservatives and their methods. The whole dynamic reminds me of the mob and a protection racket.
The most intelligent response I would have expected from you.
and the moral difference between the above , and shooting kids in a food queue, stalking and assassinating medical personnel, having little games where you hit different body parts on different days , preventing ambulances from arriving to provide aid for victims ? We could go on and on .
Israel is a regional military superpower - it kills from afar in scale , as well as more intimately .
It deploys the full range of its possibilities of violence .
In addition to that its leaders ( and you have joined them in this ) speak regularly of the entire population of Gaza in the dehumanising, pejorative terms that are an essential prelude to genocide ( whether or not you think that is already happening ).
And Hamas is just a bunch of boy scouts. Butter wouldn't melt. They're not withholding food, stealing it,selling it on the black market and shooting people. And what about torturing Palestinians who wanted to depose them? By the bye, what did Lebanon and Jordan do to the Palestinians? They are run by a murderous, fanatical faction.
i’m not a supporter of Hamas.
Why are you concerned about Hamas torturing Palestinian civilians , when at the same time you’re actively condoning the slaughter of Gazan civilians by the IDF ?
As for a “murderous , fanatical faction “ it seems to me that there’s a great example of that operating under the leadership of Netanyahu .
Okay for the record you don't think Hamas is murderous and fanatical. The monsters you are defending torture and kill their own people.
Go live there with these people and report back.
More satire, right?
Bastardizing words and language is a feature of Leftism.
Exactly!
Semantics. Sorry to say, whatever it is called, there is no justification for blaming a moving target for specific, targeted, merciless killing of innocents and choking off life support; there is no excuse for a slew of people relishing, even cheering on these killings and the acquisition of beachfront property. It is a joke, whether lying or having been lied to, which is, in part, willful ignorance. Do I mean to excuse October 7th? If you think that you might be part of the problem. Both are an abomination.
Thank you for this comment.
This was against Israel - the propaganda war - is one Jews are sadly used to. It used to be Jews do not belong in Europe. They arrived there after being forced out of Israel by the Romans. Now Jews are told they are colonialists in Israel. A country they lived in before Romans existed and long before the murderous prophet, Mohammed was born.
Meanwhile, Muslims, in their Qur'an dictated tenets to build the caliphate, have colonized 57 countries and no one is protesting their endless wars to colonize and contril the infidel nations.. As an aside, once Islam has conquered the UK, Nigeria and Spain (again) they will have colonized 60 countries.
Anyone not poisoned by the propaganda war against Jews and supportive of Islam understands what is happening. And you have laid it out beautifully.
Thanks!
Caught the tail end of ATW Live - enough to grasp that Matt and Walter - made some extremely poor editorial decisions about content.
When you have to bail on your audience on no notice and cut the most interesting part of the show for many - the book discussion, that's hard evidence Matt and Walter planned poorly. Nuff said.
Yeah they spent 30 minutes talking about a foreign country and why they don't talk about it on a show called AMERICA This Week. Then proceeded to read stupid comments, (from the YouTube feed, not the paid subscriber Substack feed.) And then wrapped the show without the book club portion, that I had been waiting for and had been reeding. Pretty fucking disappointing! Can I get a refund?
Everyone's entitled to a bad day at the office. Matt's a big boy - I especially appreciated his shout out to Bari over the Twitter files and Walter's tales of working with Bari.
Matt and Walter today echoed my own comments on the Bari hire, but with informed context.
Rule 1 - what other people think of me is none of my business.
Even on a bad day, Matt and Walter offer far more than I get from other sources, including those I respect greatly. That Matt revealed himself to be human today is no flaw, but as you note - maybe not the most riveting discussion - much more like a therapy session. Not at all Walter's fault, and I'm certain both will do better.
This is exactly right. I also think Matt is overly sensitive to the trolls, and you know he gets that crap from everywhere, online and offline. So maybe overly sensitive is the wrong word. Anyway, they both had a bad day.
And, so?
The Christian-Jewish United States has killed more than 20 million people in 37 “victim nations” since World War II. Since 1945, the U.S. Government has perpetrated 297 invasions of foreign countries and at least 60 coups. I am a Christian who has read and respects the Quran. It condemns killing civilians. It say war is justified only in self defense.
Or you're a liar who never read the Qur'an.
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/quran-peaceful.aspx
Great resource
Another great resource is Robert Spencer creator of Jihad Watch.
Or you're stupid, cannot read and cannot comprehend.
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx
Or you cannot comprehend what you read.
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/articles/quran-hate.aspx
Or you're a lobbyest stooge for Qatar.
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/violence.aspx
You can't read.
https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/pages/quran/introduction.aspx
If you think that’s bad, just wait and see what you will get without the Christian-Jewish United States leading things. The US has done terrible things. It’s done things it should not have done. But it’s going to get worse if the Chinese and the Russians take the lead. My dad was in China in 1937 and he saw what the Japanese Army did in Nanking. The Chinese would gladly return the favor to Japan….and to a lot of other countries.
China doesn't invade other countries. Their consitution explicitly forbids it. Instead they invest billions in building up the infrastructures of emeging economies around the world with the goal of becoming future trading partners. The United States has 800 foreign miitary bases. China has one. And Russia has only a handful. Gallop has for many years been doing international polling. On the qustion of what country is the greatest threat to world peace, the answer is almost universally the United States. No other coutry even comes close. I have seen Pakistan as a very distant second.
The Jews migrated out of the levant before and after the Romans.
The Comanches or the Arapaho or the Navajo want their land back. Get out of your house now, they were there first.
Let's just start over again then shall we. By your logic any country invaded by Muslims belongs to someone else. All 57 Muslim conquered countries should be returned.
I like it. Good idea.
And take their horrible religion with them.
Uh, European Jews are stealing Arab land.
Case Closed.
The difference is the desire to not just claim land but exterminate all Jews. Annihilation in fact.
Then we Kafirs will be next. Hope you understand that.
In 2017 Hamas agreed to recognize Israel and to a two-state. In the meantime Israelis keep taking houses from Palestinians in the West Bank.
Are you really this ignorant?
Is it too much Fox Noise or MSDNC?
I don’t respond to propagandist lies.
One could make the exact same argument in favor of Palestinians accepting defeat, recognizing israel, and moving on. Its been 80 years. They've lost every war. None of their neighbors will accept them as refugees after the many past instances where Palestinian refugees brought radical militancy and violence wherever they went. They have a million good reasons to cut the shit and accept that they only have these small territories left and that's got to be enough at this point. Instead they cling to the most unrealistic idea ever- that they will get israel back if they just keep fighting. If you are encouraging Palestinians to "resist", you are participating in their self destruction.
The people in Gaza and the West Bank were far better off before all of the Intifadas and before the Oslo accords that allowed the PLO back into the region.
In 2017 Hamas agreed to recognize Israel and agreed to a two-state arrangement. Since 2005 when the IDF left Gaza they turned it into the world’s largest open-air prison; no one can enter, no one can leave without Israeli permission. Currently Israelis are taking homes away from Palestinians in the West Bank.
You think Palestinians should just get over it, huh?
Israel wants all the Levant for itself. The Greater Israel Project, the Likud’s, “From the Euphrates to the Nile will be Israeli sovereignty. The Greater Israel project is even in Israeli children’s books.
The Israelis are The Bad Guys. They want more and more.
Here’s a 40-second Youtube clip, the Israeli children’s book dreaming of taking control of Lebanon:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/mNDolWiY440
Comanches are a subset of the Shoshone group, that originally came from northeast Nevada (think Elko, Ruby Mountains). So, according to the original landowner theory, that's where they should be clamoring for. Lots of mining going on there right now, so they could become rich! (Just an example of how "the original homeland" theory is basically empty.)
HAMAS succeeded in its goal to make Israel respond in barbaric fashion. They probably did not expect this much of a response, through they probably did not expect October 7 to be as successful as it was. Shin Bet was asleep but the Israeli liberals are defending the Shin Bet incompetence because they prefer to blame Netanyahu (who was kept uninformed about the 10/07 attack for several hours by Shin Bet and military leaders).
Most of the world is as evil as HAMAS. Given a chance, they would visit similar atrocities on their neighbors and on non-conforming members of their own populations.
I both agree and disagree with your comment.
I do not think Israel has acted barbarically. In fact, the opposite.
Hamas has been bombarding Israel, off and on, since 2005. They have been a constant threat. A deadly, unrelenting threat. They have been clear in their goal of eliminating Israel. Oct 7th was a crescendo to Hamas' barbarism.
Israel has taken utmost care in trying to protect civilians. This is despite everything Hamas has done to make this all but impossible. Israel has allowed untold tons of food and medical supplies into Gaza, something very rare during warfare.
But, yes, the liberals always fight the wrong fight. Their madness is predictable and destructive. They are the enemy from within.
Thank you for your comment. You are absolutely correct. Israel is going to heroic lengths to prevent innocent civilian deaths. But people make mistakes. And there are always some people acting with evil intent.
And thank you too.
Interesting idea. Much like Osama Bin Laden provoked the US to act barbarously. I am certain it's intentional. Bin Laden was a smart person, however evil.
Sounds like an accusation derived from received historical context-free opinion. And I would go so far as to say this “opinion” has at times been brought forth in bad faith.
Thank you for pointing this out.
Exactly. I'm like Matt in that I don't talk a lot about this issue because I don't know all the history, but to be blunt: When a group of people (Hamas) tells you that they want to kill you and wipe you off the face of the earth, believe them. And if Israel was committing genocide, they could have just stopped giving Gaza food, money, and supplies -- the money and supplies that were used to rape, butcher, and kidnap Israelis on 10/7. Not to mention the propaganda coming from Gaza (i.e. the "starving" child that was not in fact a starving child, on the front page of the NYT.)
Israel DID stop giving Gaza food, supplies, medicine, etc. Israelis are the ones raping prisoners. There were no rapes on Oct. 7. Israel has been murdering Palestinians and stealing their land since 1948.
You can't possibly be serious.
You can't possibly be a human being with a moral conscience.
Oh, shut up! You jackass. "There was no rape on Oct. 7." What a maniacally, moronic thing to write. Fuck off.
There was not a single documented case of rape on October 7. On the other hand, Israeli prison guards have literally bragged about raping and torturing Palestinian prisoners.
Partial truths combined with lies. Pay him no heed.
I actually think Racket and WK are weak if they say, “We don’t know enough . . .” Didn’t Hamas share their/its murderous pleasure? On-line. Raping women, murdering babies.
Was the PLO offered a state as negotiated by Bill Clinton?
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Poland and Eastern Europe took in the refugees. Question. Why doesn’t any number of Arab countries take in the Palestinians, their brothers?
I don't talk about specifics because I don't know enough about specifics -- but yes, you are right, the Palestinians have been rejected by all their Arab brothers and they have rejected every two-state solution that has been presented (I think there have been 5, but I may be wrong.) Hamas is evil. You know what isn't being talked enough about? Half the country is under 20 and all they know is Hamas and hatred of the Jews. There is no negotiating because they don't want to negotiate. The propaganda is insane. Is Israel perfect? Nope. Who is? But Hamas started this war, and Israel will, hopefully, end it.
You are correct, you don’t know enough, should have stopped there. Israel has never negotiated in good faith with Palestinians, they want all of there land, and they want them gone. This is known as ethnic cleansing.
And these kind of comments are exactly why I avoid talking about this issue online. Bill Clinton helped negotiate a two-state solution that Israel agreed to and Arafat (or whoever was running the PLO at the time) rejected it. Israel and Jews deserves to exist. Hamas and other terrorist organizations have stated for generations that they want to kill all Jews. Those are facts. As far as the nuances of Middle East politics and who does what to who, that's where I say I have no idea what's really going on. But when people like the guy above say that no Israeli was raped on Oct 7 when we all saw the videos and violence and know that BABIES were murdered, it's frustrating.
I actually agree with you but also not talked about much is that Netanyahu funded Hamas. Like literally smuggled them bags of money. I don't think he contemplated something like October 7th but he certainly didn't mind rockets flying every so often to keep his party high in the polls.
Why in the world does everyone need to expound upon everything? If they don't like the subject, so be it. It is never strength to shoot your mouth off about something of which you have no ken.
Misery loves company. “ why don’t you think like I do?”
Unhinged lunatic.
Nothing better than a single sentence that boils everything down to its essence. “They are defending a brutal band of theocratic terrorists” qualifies for that honor. Perfectly put, thank you.
Thanks!
There very much is a genocide being attempted. It's just that the Muslims aren't very good at it.
And the other way around, if you're the invading force from a country with 25x the GDP per cap and you only kill two to three percent of the population, that's a really ineffective attempted genocide too, leading very much to the conclusion that it ain't one.
100 kids being killed every single day. Not a genocide?? https://x.com/DropSiteNews/status/1965129608409264379
That is a fictional (or at the very least unverified) number reported by Hamas to a group of journalists who utterly despise Israel (and have for a long time) and who might as well be the Hamas PR wing. Drop Site has zero credibility and eat well off of Jew hate.
What do you think happened to the people who lived in all those buildings that are now dust? They’re doing fine? The actual death counts are going to turn out to be much higher.
Still doesnt get you to "genocide".
"The actual death counts are going to turn out to be much higher." You mean you HOPE they'll be higher, because their deaths will help support your claims.
The Russians flattened whole blocks and buildings in Chechnya, are doing similar in Ukraine, America flattened buildings in Baghdad and Mosul, Assad flattened multiple areas...where were the claims of genocide?
And Amnesty and Agnes Callamard can't support this claim, they've been accusing Israel of everything except (maybe) killing Jesus for decades, they exist to attack and oppose Israel and cannot be believed or trusted— and that goes for the rest of the NGOocracy that dines on Palestinian pain, while never once helping to end this conflict.
I oppose the wholesale slaughter of innocent humans. It's very weird that you don't, and you're the freak who wants more dead bodies in this scenario. That's you.
"I oppose the wholesale slaughter of innocent humans."
Well, doesn't that place you at the apex of Mount Morality!? I, of course, am a drooling vampire who drinks baby blood...
"you're the freak who wants more dead bodies in this scenario..."
Here's what I want: 1) Israel to destroy Hamas; 2) the Palestinians to find some way to finally support peaceful coexistence and elect leaders who do also; 3) both countries to separate but flourish and learn at least to tolerate each other's existence.
To get here, yes, this means the war needs to continue. But sometimes the pursuit of war is the only thing that leads to a durable peace. Unconditional surrender did wonders for all the innocent humans of the Confederacy, not to mention for the Japanese and Germans last century—but it took a lot death and suffering for them to get there.
Unfortunately, Hamas started this war.
Interesting...calling the person who disagrees with you a "freak" and then concluding that he or she "wants more dead bodies" with no substantive evidence. Nowhere else to go, I guess.
"I oppose the wholesale slaughter of innocent humans."
You're Pro Life! 😊
Actually, the death toll reported by Hamas greatly underestimates the numbers killed by the IDF, because they only report confirmed deaths.
Tens of thousands more are buried under rubble and officially just missing. But there is no way they could still be alive.
Ackshually, the death toll reported by Hamas is always propagandistic horseshit, just like everything else they put out for eager and unquestioning consumption by the global leftist media, appallingly ignorant Ivy League activists, etc.
Precisely horseshit because precisely 70% of the fatalities are women and children. Every day. Of course, women and children can be combatants.
Observers from the United Nations agree with me, not you. And this is not a partisan issue. Many on the right like Marjorie Taylor Green are calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide.
The United Nations that lets China and Russia be permanent members of the Security Council? If you’re going to commit the “appeal to authority” logical fallacy, at least appeal to an actual authority, not that clown show. You need to do better. A lot better.
Lies.
There is. And I assume you’re actually upset with Hamas for being the actual perpetrators of it. Hamas reminds me of the person who brutally murders his parents and then asks for mercy because he is an orphan.
This coincides with the Bari Weiss segment on Racket News tonight. The comments on YouTube were very interesting. OK. Not really. Is Bari a Jewess? That is the problem, no?
I have loved the YouTube comment section for RacketNews on election night +. It was funny and sharing, and did I say, funny?
That crapola today — all Palestine all the time, because none of us cares enough about genocide, according to commenters, blah, blah, blah.
What a fake cause. Fake “genocide.”
These bastards posted their barbarity online, no? Until, the shock did not payoff anymore.
Anyway. All you pro-Pal commenters — I bet Greta needs someone to help with the flotilla. There is more than one way to serve.
I know I would find it quite impossible to live in an almost bombed out state, mostly rubble, and carry my kids and my belongings from one place to another, search for food, potable water, hoping we wouldn't be sniped, droned, bombed, etc. In fact, Americans are quite precious about all of their comforts and could never tolerate what the Palestinians are going through and have been through just as we also could not tolerate what the jews, catholics, gays and others went through under Hitler. It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's actions because they see the parallel in demonizing an entire population including children in order to justify outrageous actions and take resources. BTW I am an independent voter and always have been.
"Palestinians are going through and have been through just as we also could not tolerate what the jews, catholics, gays and others went through under Hitler."
I realize that people get off on calling Jews Nazis but your claim is stupid and insane. Jews had no peace offers, humanitarian corridors, refugee camps, no chance at surrender, could not be saved by any govt, and had little chance of survival. 2/3rds of Europe's Jews were murdered—6 million people—just because they were Jews. No war, no territory, no other reason.
There are only parallels bw the Gaza War and the Nazi Holocaust in the minds of various Jew haters and other merchants of hate and ignorance. The comparison is grotesque and is only regurgitated by bigots and angry screen-addled infants of any age.
Am I the only one who sees the Palestinian people as victims of Hamas just as much as the Jews are? Granted that the stupid bastards voted them into office in 2007, however they have subsequently been the victims of these rabid zealots for as long as the Jews.
oh absolutely yes, these poor people have been cursed with maybe history's worst leadership.
The root of the problem is that the Palestinians aren't treated as people but as a Cause—they are the literal and symbolic incarnation of the Islamic world's refusal to accept the Jewish state and its desire to have it bleed out, no matter how many deaths or decades this takes. (As well as the Western Left's last leftover revolutionary cause in their eternal crusade for communist/socialist "liberation".)
The Cause is much more important than the actual people it claims to represent, which is why the welfare of the Palestinians is never a paramount concern for their wannabe saviors. The people can be failed or be killed, but the Cause must live on.
God protect all of us from ever becoming someone else's Cause! It might be worse than being their enemy.
Well said! And lest we forget, the surrounding nations refuse entry because they don't want the subversive and corrosive influence of radicals raised in a camp to infect the disenfranchised within their own countries. I thought it was extremely telling that Jordan would only accept Palestinian children.
While Hamas won the election in 2006/2007, they lost in the West Bank (who thus should be safe. Right?)
Netanyahu supposedly bragged to his friends that he controlled Hamas and their money in 2018 and 2019; they were HIS secret police. The Israelis at the rave were not Netanyahu supporters; Netanyahu knew that October 7th was coming and did nothing to stop it as it was the perfect justification for ethnic cleansing.
And while the murderers of Oct 7 must be punished, an occupied country has the right to resist whereas the occupying force by International Law is much more restricted in their actions and Israel has long crossed the line.
Both sides are evil, but my bigger concern is that Israel has free health care and University and the US does not, with US taxpayer money. Trump (indeed all our politicians) have made Zionism a protected religion. We are free to criticize America but not Israel.
I think it was Shin Bet that was doing the bragging, and was giving this information to Netanyahu. The military also screwed up. They did not inform the civilian leadership about the attack for several hours.
I agree with you. You are not the only one. This is a tragedy for the non HAMAS people living in Gaza.
The Jews of europe didn't take german hostages, kill german soldiers and civilians, or constantly bleat about "the teutonic entity" must be destroyed by any means necessary, including mass-terrorist campaigns.
FOH with that sophistry.
Maybe don't storm musical festivals, then rape, kill and kidnap?
Gazans deserve their fate.
The only good Muzz is a dead Muzz.
Maybe don't have music festivals outside a concentration camp--the venue was moved just 48 prior to warnings of an anticipated 'event' by Hamas by the same person who did not respond on Oct 7.
Israel knew about the Oct 7 attack before it happened
Israel moved the Nova fest closer & extended it by a day
Israel did not respond to the attack for over 6 hours
When Israel responded, they killed Israelis re: Hannibal Directive
Here is your "concentration camp" in 2019:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBo7i-TXy6s&t=189s
Is like a scene from "Schindler's List"!
It is now an extermination and death camp...
You need to remember to take your Lithium or mommy will have to call the men in the white jackets to come take you away again. We don't want that now, do we, Elaine?
When the civil war starts here, you're going to find out what a concentration camp really is.
Then, you will die in a gas shower. Personally, I can't wait to flick the switch on your filthy kind.
wow, that goes quite a bit beyond social discourse and polite disagreement. Shame on you... troll.
Toughen-up.
There's no moral high ground. Just the cold dead ground we bury them in.
Seek help.
Average Matt Taibbi fan these days.
#2: "It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's action...“
. . .
“In 1948, Hannah Arendt wrote an open letter that began, “Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our times is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the ‘Freedom Party’ (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy, and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties.” … Arendt based her comparison on an attack carried out in part by the Irgun, a paramilitary predecessor of the Freedom Party, on the Arab village of Deir Yassin …”
“Netanyahu has been brandishing Amalek in the wake of the Hamas attack … for the last seventeen years, Gaza has been a hyperdensely populated, impoverished, walled-in compound where only a small fraction of the population had the right to leave for even a short amount of time—in other words, a ghetto. ... like a Jewish ghetto in an Eastern European country occupied by Nazi Germany. … The term “open-air prison” … the more fitting term “ghetto” would have drawn fire for comparing the predicament of besieged Gazans to that of ghettoized Jews. It also would have given us the language to describe what is happening in Gaza now. The ghetto is being liquidated.”
From “In the Shadow of the Holocaust” by Masha Gessen December 9, 2023 https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/in-the-shadow-of-the-holocaust
#3: "It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's action...“
. . .
Back in the early 80's, as a teenager, I read Leon Uri's book "Mila 18" about the 1943 Jewish Warsaw Ghetto uprising. Last night [3-03-25] , I googled images of "Warsaw ghetto uprising ruins” Looks about the same as Gaza today.
In 1943, Nazi SS General Jurgen Stroop liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto. When the poorly armed Jewish resistance fought back, the Nazi's starved out, burned out, and leveled the ghetto. The resistance retreated to basements and sewers until they were killed. The survivors (and remaining civilians) were “transferred” to the death camps.
IN 1944, after the Polish 1944 uprising, Hitler ordered, 'Warsaw is to be razed to the ground while the war proceeds.’ … Himmler made sure his officers understood exactly what was intended: ‘The city must completely disappear from the surface of the earth… No stone can remain standing. Every building must be razed to it's foundation.' … less than 5 per cent of pre-war Warsaw remained intact … in the city of ruins … genocide and urbicide march in lockstep.”
https://geographicalimaginations.com/2013/04/24/city-of-ruins/
. . .
This past weekend: “The decision we made last night [3-01-25] to completely halt the entry of humanitarian aid [e.g. food , water, etc] into Gaza until Hamas is destroyed or surrenders completely and all our hostages are returned is an important step in the right direction— ‘standing at the gates of hell,’” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. “Now, we must open these gates as quickly and as lethally as possible …”
Don't you hear echos of Hitler and Himmler in Smotrich's promise (and President Trumps] to “open the gates of hell.”? Doesn't take much imagination.
"when the jackboot is on the other foot", innit
#1: "It is shocking to me that people cannot see the parallels. There are plenty of concentration camp survivors that are speaking out against Israel's action...“
. . .
[Ehud Barak, other Israeli leaders] Don’t you dare show your faces at any memorial ceremony for the heros of the Warsaw Ghetto, . . . You are not Anne Frank of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but Haens Frank, the German general who acted to starve and destroy the Jews of Poland. Today the Warsaw Ghetto is right in front of you, targeted by your own tanks and artillery, its name is Gaza.”
—Michel Warschawski, “Absolutely Not in Their Name, Not in Ours”, AIC, January 18, 2009. Quoted in Tony Greenstein, “Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation” (2022).
There are so many errors in your logic and moral equivalence, but just to highlight the most obvious. The European Jews could do nothing to stop their own slaughter because they were being killed for being Jews and nothing would ever change that situation.
I agree with you ... after replacing a few words: "The Gazans could to nothing to stop their own slaughter because they were being killed for being Gazans and nothing would ever change that situation."
What could change their situation? Free the remaining living hostages? (many of whom were killed by IDF bombing, etc). Israeli leaders have repeatedly said releasing the hostages won't stop the "war" and "transfer" of Gazans out of Gaza.
Hamas knows that. They would rather fight to the death (like the Jewish resistance in the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto) than be put into torture centers or a "humanitarian" concentration camp. Wouldn't you, faced with that choice?
The Israeli leaders don't really care about their lives of their own "hostages". On October 7th, a "Mass Hannibal" was ordered and IDF helicopters were ordered to blow up all cars heading to Gaza (probably killing 100-200 Israelis). Unfortunately, the Israeli prisoners (they are all captured soldiers now) will probably die with their Hamas captors.
Independent. Sure. Holocaust survivors speaking out. Whatever you say.
Nicely stated.
as we also could not tolerate what the jews, catholics, gays and others went through under Hitler
And yet we've done it many times WWII. Let's leave out the Armenians--they came before. And let's consider Rwanda, Uyghurs, Bosnian, Congo.
Truly excellent commentary.
Thanks!
Well deserved. What's interesting about this discussion is that it ignores the central points. Hamas is one of many of the theocratic-driven terrorists groups who operate on principles developed and used for over 2,300 years. The central tenets are these: you must convert or kill all non-believers (no exceptions) and all rewards are in the afterlife. A main operating principle is Taqiyyah which basically says it is perfectly honorable to lie to your enemy until you are in a position to defeat them. Hamas is just one example. This death cult, as Douglas Murray has so aptly named them, makes no attempt to hide any of these operating principles. It is left to the intellectual sloth and moral cowardice of the Western media to ignore this.
Our Western liberal ruling class, most especially the progressive clerisy that constructs their morals and worldview, have converted en masse to the Social Justice faith, and in the SJ faith, once a group becomes anointed as sacred victims, they are beneath agency and responsibility, can never DO but only be DONE TO, and even their massacres are the fault of their enemies. This is why the kids on the Harvard Quad were marching for Hamas on 10/8 and claiming it was all Israel's fault—Hamas had no choice because of how abject and hopeless their oppression is, the Jewish devil made them do it!
The Palestinians have seized the top spot in the global progressive hierarchy of sacred victims—migrants have been bumped down, as have Trans and gay and black people (for now)—which means that all the aspiring ambitious Good People on the Right Side of History™ know what they're expected to do, say and think and are easier to manipulate than a hungry puppy.
Western liberals and Leftists are absolutely lost and hopeless on this issue, we (and they) think they're doing politics when they're really doing religion—looking to save their souls by acting out a Passion Play where the Palestinians suffer and die for our sins, but the Church of Social Justice saves and redeems them, with all sins loaded onto the Jewish scapegoat, whose slaughter will sanctify the new dispensation.
"Our Western liberal ruling class, most especially the progressive clerisy that constructs their morals and worldview, have converted en masse to the Social Justice faith, and in the SJ faith, once a group becomes anointed as sacred victims, they are beneath agency and responsibility, can never DO but only be DONE TO, and even their massacres are the fault of their enemies."
I was immediately reminded of today's rant by Jasmine Crockett, naming this country's violent criminals as sacred victims.
Thank you, great comment.
I’ve been following this for a very long time and agree with the facts as you have presented them.
The thing that struck me the most is your last paragraph, which I have not yet pondered, and have to say, it’s 100% correct and accurate.
I guess the reason I’ve never considered this point is that the premise of the left’s moral inversion, I happen to know is patently false.
So I never considered this.
But as we know, the left’s morality is bankrupt, so this is the only possible position they could have taken.
Well done.
If you're a devoted member of the Free Palestine cult and/or one of the many Leftists who've been attacking and demonizing Israel for decades and you wake up on 10/7 to the news of the Hamas massacre, you have 2 choices: 1) admit you were wrong, or at least that things have changed, condemn Hamas and admit that Israel has to respond and that it's reasonable for them to demand the total eradication of Hamas (though this may lose you friends, followers and cause all sorts of personal and professional problems, esp if you work in media or on a fancy campus); or 2) heap so much scorn and slander on Israel, paint it as a totally evil abomination—settler-colonial imperialist capitalist apartheid genocide etc—or as one scholar at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research wrote recently that “[Israel is] a condensation of Western colonial and imperial power, a worldwide symbol of Western perfidy, a state which physically cleaves Africa and Asia, a merchant and mercenary of global counter-insurgency, all melded in a manticore of death and destruction.”—talk about gilding the lily!
This way Team Free Palestine! can save face and status and maintain their exalted self-image and the dogma and narratives that undergird it. It makes perfect sense psychologically, however loathsome it appears to those of us not in their cult.
Thanks for the kind words...
The binary choices you listed are accurate.
My gut says very few admitted they were wrong.
Human nature prevents it.
A lot of you guys are so spiteful to liberals you can comprehend what Israel is doing is at a minimum ethnic cleansing and in likelihood outright genocide
Countless dead, complete destruction of the vast majority of Gaza, starving masses.
Amnesty International is Hamas, right?
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/gaza-evidence-points-to-israels-continued-use-of-starvation-to-inflict-genocide-against-palestinians/
The left will overuse this word until one of their favorite proxies is found committing real genocide, and then it will be a word that will get you canceled.
"There is no "genocide" ..."
So tell us the word for what Israel is doing to Gaza in your language?
Because in English, that word is "genocide"
Read all about it, save the bad faith comparisons for Twatter or Facespace: https://www.ushmm.org/genocide-prevention/learn-about-genocide-and-other-mass-atrocities/what-is-genocide
"Killing members of the group
Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction, in whole or in part"
umm sure sounds like a WAR to me
"Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group" I've seen no measures of a decline in Palestinian births or fertility, in fact quite the opposite.
You are reasoning backwards from a desired result and trying to twist words, meanings and facts to reach your pre-conceived foregone conclusion. None of what you sent pertains to this current war. And if you read my comment, you'd see I provided examples of various academics and activists who've been accusing Israel of "genocide" for decades. Is this just a coincidence?
"So tell us the word for what Israel is doing to Gaza in your language?"
Israel is fighting a war against a terrorist death cult that committed a brutal massacre of civilians, which death cult hides embedded in the civilian population and has stated repeatedly that part of their strategy is to get as many of their own people and children killed.
Hamas Political Bureau Chairman Ismail Haniyeh: “The blood [spilled] in the Gaza Strip, alongside the resistance and the [Izz A-Din] Al-Qassam [Brigades] (i.e., Hamas’ military wing), will defeat this occupier (i.e., Israel), will defeat this enemy… As I said, and I repeat every time, the blood of the children, women, and elderly – I do not say that it shouts out to you, but rather we need this blood so that it will ignite within us the spirit of revolution, so that it will arouse within us persistence, so that it will arouse within us defiance and [a forward] advance.”
So your definition of "war" is also the definition of genocide - thanks for telling us who you are.
Good luck with the mental gymnastics.
Good luck with your disabled mind.
War. The word you're looking for is war.
The word you're looking to avoid is genocide, so you can pretend you don't support Israel committing genocide. Thanks for telling us who you are.
Words have meanings. What the Saudis did to the Houthis was more than an 10x worse than anything going on in Gaza - literally 84,000 yemeni children starved to death over three years - and while it's undoubtedly horrifying, it wasn't a genocide.
What Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge did to the Cambodians - killing 25% of the population in purges and mass slaughters - was horrible. It also wasn't a genocide.
What the Janjaweed are trying to do to the Dinka, Nuer, etc. in South Sudan is closer to genocide, but that's not a genocide either, as horrifying as it is.
The closest we've seen to a genocide recently is probably what the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments tried to do to the Tigrayans.
Words have meanings. This is war, not genocide.
Words have meanings. You’re babbling in circles to avoid saying you support Israeli committing genocide. I’m not the one you have to convince. Enjoy your keyboard-warrior circle jerk, Adolf.
Buh-bye jihadi.
Payback.
Payback? For genocide? Has Israel invaded Germany in the 1940's? Oh wait, no - they're just murdering thousands of civilians, as payback for some assholes murdering a few civilians.
That's genocide. Thanks for telling us who you are.
Thanks for describing your disabled mind.
REVENGE
No genocide!?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/palestinian-death-toll-in-gaza-passes-64000-officials-say-after-ceasefire-talks-break-down
None of that gets you anywhere near a "genocide". I'm not sure you know what the word means.
This is a WAR, a very ugly one, where the battlefield is a densely populated territory fought by a modern army against a guerrilla army that wears no uniforms, is embedded within the population, that uses schools, hospitals and mosques as its bases and hides inside the world's largest network of tunnels, and among the only wartime population that is forbidden to flee as refugees but must survive inside a war zone.
Intellectual hygiene and basic honesty demand that you exhaust or at least explore other possible causes and explanations before you insist on the very extreme and incendiary charge of "genocide". But I understand that thinking and reasoning clearly about a very complicated situation is not as thrilling and gratifying as angry denunciations, esp in our age of performative rage and conspicuous compassion, where all the cool kids hate Israel.
eloquent and to the point as always
Thanks!
Well said.
Sorry, you lost me at www.pbs.org. We need reliable sources on this, not organs of coastal-think propaganda.
No genocide.
64,000 Palestinian deaths? Who says? Hamas?
Sure, Jan.
According to Hamas who are in the tunnels. Yet they can count dead people.
But 64,000 were Hamas terrorists.
If you re-arrange the letters, PBS — .ORG — that be, HAMAS. Congratulations.
"mass terrorist attack" when the majority of deaths were either 1) military enlistees or 2) killed by the party being attacked (aka Mass Hannibal).
Yeah. Now show us some evidence for the "mass rapes" other than the ones that Israeli society rewards on a daily basis, including against their own people, but also in prisons filled with innocent Palestinian teenagers and women.
No way, man. I just heard from Caitlin Johnstone that it was all a big misunderstanding and that Hamas is really into the electronic trance scene and were just upset that they hadn’t been invited to the show. Those guys love to party! I have a few gay friends who partied so hard in Gaza they fell off the roof!
And of course there couldn’t have been any rapes, the tickets came with an automatic sexual consent form, so any activity was already agreed upon. Those horny Jewish bitches wanted it! It was all a psyop anyway to benefit the Netanyahu family and the cause of Greater Israel and its settler-colonial master plan—Noam Chomsky says the IDF will be in Damascus by Hanukah (and he’s never wrong).
Caitlin also told me that she used to be a member of Hassan Nasrallah’s harem, but he usually preferred one of his goats. The man had good taste.
Yah sure Zionist. Ask Nutty and Likkud about the Hannibal Directive.
My rule of thumb is that anyone trying to badger me into repeating their slogans is my enemy.
I really like that rule of thumb. I also apply that rule to people who badger me to do something I don't want to do.
Lonesome's rule is a corollary of yours.
What's your rule of thumb for commenting on a plutocrat paying massively over-the-odds for a rabid Zionist blogger's services and planting her atop a news corporation he's buying? Is it to call anyone who questions that situation as just jealous?
I don't happen to care even a tiny bit about Israel, Palestine, Bari Weiss, or CBS News. But I do have another rule of thumb that's relevant here: anytime I find myself mad about a situation that doesn't concern me at all, it's helpful to reflect on how I got into that emotional state, who led me there, and what their motives are. I hope you find peace!
So you're kind of the anti-Martin Niemöller then. Thanks. Not sure where you're from but I'm from England & my government is currently involved in enabling an ongoing genocide, which gets me a little exercised - can't help it. That Taibbi is carrying water for one of that genocides apologists is, to say the least, very disappointing.
You live in a country that is fostering an invasion of illegals, a country of censorship and gender lies and corruption.
Support for Israel isn't even your country's worse foreign policy problem; support for Ukraine is.
England has already fallen, bub.
I'm sure I don't fit into your little Venn diagram of beliefs. Britain is indeed failing in all of those respects. Our support for the Ukraine regime. like our support for the Israeli one is disastrous and blokes in frocks should be kept out of women's spaces. I'm just morally consistent enough to realise we can't complain too much about all the illegals given the active role we played in the destruction of most of their countries - all those on Wesley Clark's list and more. In an ideal world we ship them all off to Tel Aviv, but I don't get to make the decisions I'm afraid.
It's not morally consistent to hate what the Israelis are doing without hating equally who the Islamists are too.
Matt's being morally consistent.
They're all fucked up.
Bari Weiss is being placed at the top of CBS News in order to take a wrecking ball to it. To reform it into a news organization, not a propaganda arm of the democrats.
What a stupid oppositionally defiant rule of thumb. So you don’t judge issues on their merits?
Cool dime store psychology, bro
That’s counts as “psychology” to you? Wow. Bro.
The key word used was “ badger” Got it?
If you just repeat a falsehood enough times it becomes true?
I'm not the person you are replying to, but I can agree with an issue someone is pressing, but still think they are "my enemy" and an a-hole because of their poor behavior or poor ethics.
Where is the badgering? What I see are a very few independent analysts/podcasters commenting and questioning the blaring contortions MT has to take to avoid any mention of the topic of Israel’s occupation while conducting a weekly current events show. Most blatantly his bizarre take on Bari Weiss’ move to CBS, which had to be constructed to avoid implicating the pro-Zionism aspects.
🎯🎯🎯
Yeah but if they badger you not to jump off a cliff do you do it to show your independence…..
Wow, you found a reductio ad absurdism. Great job! Now put that galaxy brain to work pondering why mobs do not form to badger people not to jump off cliffs.
The magic word list (I’m just beginning it, so additions are welcome):
“Zionist”
“Genocide”
“The moral issue of our time”
“Settler colonialism”
“It’s not complicated”
“It’s not about disagreeing, it’s about seeing the facts…”
Oh, I've been working on my list for a while. Let's compare . . .
"Hamas"
"Human shields"
"But they voted for them (in 2005)"
"Terrorists"
"Hostages"
"Right to exist"
"If they'd just give up their weapons . . ."
"Tunnels"
"Jew hater"
"Anti-semite"
"Empty land"
"Divine right of return"
"Where else will the Jews be safe?"
Edited to add "Hamas lover"
Oh, and my favorite . . . "Holocaust"
And, no, it really, really ceased to be "complicated" a long time ago. Not unless you want to suggest that US civilians should pay for the crimes of their government (and there are many) by losing a tenth of our population to bombs, bullets, lack of medical care, and adequate food and water.
But you left off “Do you condemn Hamas?” You know, the terrorists funded by Israel
I thought of that one late last night.
“Self-hating Jew”
That's another good one.
A whole lot more than 10%. What's NOT counted in the body count is all those who are buried in the rubble, those blown to unidentifiable bits, etc. Only those positively identified are in that count.
And of course, the maimed, who are a big multiple. The children with no arms, no legs, no both. The starved children who are permanently intellectually disabled by the starvation...
That was the Lancet number. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more. How long can people live in those conditions?
How do you expect to be taken seriously when you lead off your list with “Hamas”?
Well, that’s the most common word that is used to “justify” all the death, commonly preceded by the word “but,” so “but . . . Hamas . . .” As long as they are shielded by the magic word “Hamas,” Israel can do no wrong. Everything is “complicated” and therefore mass killing can be justified, or at least ignored.
As the source of the war and the ongoing suffering is Hamas, as the daily war crimes are committed by Hamas, then yes it makes sense. They start with unspeakable atrocities against civilians on 10/7–intentionally killing any and all they can. Raping and taking hostages. War crimes. If you are a combatant intentionally hiding among civilians it is a war crime. If you fight in civilian clothes it is a war crime for the same reason. If you make war from hospitals, schools, and civilian apartment buildings, it is a war crime. Israel has every right to eliminate them under the laws of war wherever they may be, and if they don’t, the same atrocities will happen over and over and all resources meant for the poor people of Gaza will be misdirected into tunnel building and war making for the explicit purpose of killing all the Jews. Not my opinion; historical fact and the Hamas charter is flatly genocidal. That is where and how they fight, and you just noticed that it’s impossible to do so without a lot of civilians dying. Israel would prefer to remove Hamas without noncombatants getting killed; after all they get blamed for them and would prefer not to be isolated. The Palestinians are stuck in a miserable existence not by Israel but by the death cult who controls them, and sadly the media as well who are complicit in perpetuating that misery by blaming Israel for consequences that are squarely on Hamas.
You know, I wondered how Holocaust denial worked. I mean we have all the stories out of World War II. We can see the pictures and hear the stories. And yet there is this whole group of people who will deny it ever happened or find reasons to excuse it. But I wonder no more.
Eighty years from now, people like you will still be running around screaming “human shields” to deny that Israel did anything wrong, long after the rest of the world has admitted the truth and condemned at least this version of Israel to the ash heap of history for good reason.
You completely ignore the problem and the reason for the war. Yes there is killing in war. I would never say any human party can do no wrong; that just isn’t reality. I can discern root causes and see the obvious problem with Hamas in Gaza and how that creates an untenable situation for Israel and for the Palestinians. You deny that using civilians as human shields is happening and is a problem? I’m not the one with the myth making problem.
A 10th?
Some remedial math needed I guess
Along with logic lessons
From the Lancet in February 2025, "Although these numbers are understood to refer to deaths due to traumatic injury, others have speculated that the indirect effects of the military operations against Gaza could push all-cause excess mortality to 186 000.14" So yes a tenth of Gaza's population of around 2.2 million are likely dead due to the "war." (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)02678-3/fulltext)
The Lancet?
“Sigh”
Just another captured publication, 90% of what they publish is false.
Oh, of course. I mean, look at Gaza. Who wouldn’t be thriving there? Silly Lancet.
But let's for a second entertain the idea that *only* 60,000 Gazans are dead. You do know that is the rough equivalent of 9.5 million Americans. So if a country attacked us and killed nearly 10 million Americans, 83 percent of them (or 8.3 million) civilians, would you be so cavalier? I mean, that's like killing every resident of New York City in the course of twenty three months. Our media lost its mind when a million people died of COVID, supposedly. That's a little over eight COVIDs. Just for some perspective, and that's not even close to be the real number. That's just the people they know are dead from Israeli attacks. That's not the people who have died of hunger, later died of injuries, died of lack of medical care, and all the other "side effects" of having your country bombed to rubble, the 186,000 the Lancet had in February, likely far more after the blockade. Now you're talking something like 35 million Americans.
Give up the hostages , wars over
I propose the “inverse proportion rule of Substack”. The intelligence of the comments vary inversely to the commenter’s number of Substack subscriptions.
Apartheid? Open-air prison?
Starvation
But also paradise before the Ashkis (or whatever they say instead of Joooos) ruined it.
...somehow they have got to work in *existential threat to democracy* ...
so you're turning this into another juvenile "drinking game"? .... so desperate to avoid confronting the immense suffering of Israel/Gaza head on like an authentic investigative journalist you're turning the discussion into a joke?......you are becoming irrelevant......
Investigative journalists rarely cover war: they're to busy investigating the stuff we don't already know.
We already know what's happening in Gaza. We have war correspondents to tell us about war.
You know, someone might mention that to Israel, which won't let outside war correspondents on the ground. Kind of makes you wonder.
Then I'd guess it's even less likely they'd allow a Media/Political reporter like Matt to do his best work over there.
I keep seeing a bunch of people whimpering that Matt isn't covering Gaza, as if covering Gaza is the kind of thing Matt does.
Are they just stupid, or are they new subscribers who are unfamiliar with Matt's work?
(1) He brought this on himself through his ignorance of what people outside the mainstream media suspected about Bari Weiss's "deal" with CBS news, and (2) instead of acknowledging that others might see more to it, he has a temper tantrum on paper and then in the comments section and then on notes.
I don't care if he doesn't want to weigh in, but if he's going to weigh in, maybe make sure that he at least had the basics of the anti-Israel/pro-Palestine argument. Not knowing is one thing: willful ignorance of the information that is out there is quite another.
I've seen an abundance of temper tantrums right here in the comment sections, and for several days. Some of yours come pretty close. On the other hand, I think matt does a pretty good job of stating his case.
And it's not necessary for him to understand the anti-Israel/pro-Palestine argument if he's not going to address the issue.
What don't you understand about this?
the I-G issue permeates everything.....AIPAC control of congress, the loss of free speech and protest rights around the issue of Palestinian support......this isn't just about "war correspondence" it's about narrative control, civil liberties and injustice/oppression...... go read Chris Hedges/Caitlin Johnstone........
No, this conversation tonight on this particular thread is all about what is happening in Gaza, not on college campuses . It's not about anything that's happening in the US.
You want matt Taibbi, essentially a political reporter who's bailiwick is media bias, to suddenly choose to become a war correspondent.
Once again, it's not what he does.
"We already know what's happening in Gaza. We have war correspondents to tell us about war."
Before they are killed, that is.
I don't think Matt's required to take their place.
"Bari Weiss" - just her name apparently causes many rage boners.
It’s quite power she has
qatari chocolate is her nickname
Matt please stop pretending….
The NAFO Paradox.
No one gets more emotionally involved in a war than those who will never ever ever ever ever ever go there to fight.
No one gets so callous about a genocide as Zionists...
“Go back to Poland where you came from”
I appreciate your perspective Matt, but the list from the pro-Israel side is just as bad. Both sides have lost the plot on this one, not just the left.
I feel as if I’m hallucinating as I read this comment in particular. Gaslighting extraordinaire!
"Hey, this guy doesn't want to wear the pin!"
open aired prison
"Silence is complicit". Gotta applaud their complete disregard both for honesty and grammar.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/12/israeli-ex-commander-confirms-palestinian-casualties-are-more-than-200000?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
How about “Palestinians?”
So there are no issues here, because some of them are commonly explained with words by a lot of people? Was Edward Said nothing but a SJW, or was he ok because it was still unpopular to stand up for Palestinians back then?
I honestly don’t give a crap what Matt Taibbi thinks about Israel and the Gazans, or any other topic. I pay to read what he writes because I believe he is an honest reporter.
Excellent thought, with which I agree. He's been resisting doing this, but has apparently been "pestered" enough to finally provide his thoughts.
But his thoughts aren't on Israel-Gaza, they're on other journalists and who is allowed to say what and who gets deliberately misconstrued. He should have left it as is. All this will do is generate more "Genocide!" versus "Jew-Hater!" material here in the comments.
It's like if Barry Melrose was pushed to tell us who is really bad: Yankees or Red Sox? Dude covers hockey, so who cares.
Precisely. And note the comments in this thread that gallop past that core point and dig in on their views about the underlying conflict and just provide additional use cases beyond the ones identified in Matt's article regarding being harangued into an acceptable view from the perspective of the brow-beater.
How embarrassing! Barry Melrose is still alive! Johnny Upton Captian of the Chiefs has the perfect line for this situation!
Barry Melrose: Gone, but not forgotten! Rest in Peace Brother Barry!
That’s what is great about Racket.
Honesty and facts.
We can go elsewhere for opinions.
Exactly! I can’t think of another journalist I trust to report the facts more than Taibbi.
And you know how many people’s minds have been changed on a topic because of someone else’s opinion? If you multiply the number of honest politicians in DC by, oh pick any number, say the population of China, you get a pretty close approximation.
This!
Whole issue and others encapsulates what I realized some years ago: there is no neutral anymore among some. That attitude/belief used to be the domain of fringe guys (often religious), accelerationists and govs (see: war propaganda). The strategy has been adopted by more groups, and people fall for it like horny kids in a strip club.
Excellent point. And IMV it is mainly due to the massive increase in politicalization of every aspect of life. Politicians cannot practice politics if they cannot win elections. Political parties cannot get control of the pot of gold (our tax dollars) unless they can first win elections. The battle for that pot of gold has become more fierce. To win elections politicians and their parties must divide us. They must deliberately create anger, resentment, to bring in the donations and to get people motivated to get out and vote. Currently, as has been discussed many times by Matt and Walter, the internet has opened up the flow of information. The result has been this massive increase in the battle to control the information. Politics and the associated information war has seeped into every aspect of our lives
Excellent analysis and I agree. Another way we’re divided and set upon each other is by our age groups. The whole “Generation —“ thing. It’s just as valid as astrology. My favorite snide commentary on the topic is the following: “My twin brother was born just before midnight on Dec. 31, 1964. He’s a greedy Boomer, responsible for all my problems. I was born after midnight, Jan 1, 1965, so I’m a saintly Gen X.”
EXACTLY
I'm not here for opinions or feelz.
I am here for facts.
Opinions are a dime a thousand.
Just the (hard mined) facts, Matt. With continued excellent and descriptive snark please. Skee-ball operator indeed hahaha
I’ve heard this said about opinions:
Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one.
exactly. part of what I enjoy about Matt is to see what topics he picks to cover.
Many of us subscribe for the same reason. I think Matt is the “last Mohican” of journalistic tribe who has integrity. I respect his right to chose topics important to him. It is a privilege to read his articles. Those who try to tell him what to say should be just waved away. Arguing with them is a waste of time. Matt, just continue to be yourself, and we will continue to treasure you.
In the finest traditions of independent media. The United States needs a lot more Matt Taibi.
100%. I subscribed when he first started his independent newsletter, and I will continue until he stops. I don't agree with everything he says, he's left of center and I'm right of center, but he is honest and thoughtful and we agree about the big stuff. I trust him. I don't say that about a lot of journalists.
Agreed.
Golda Meir said, “We can forgive [the Arabs] for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with [the Arabs] when they love their children more than they hate us...”
Clearly, Hamas hate their children, or they would have given all the hostages back as an attempt to make peace. But, when children are starving, as fellow human beings, we should all want it to end, regardless of who is at fault.
In response to Golda Meir's thoughts about Jews' love for their children.
AP
@Average_NY_Guy
The Jewish child is the most radical fact in history. You can burn books, you can destroy synagogues, and you can gas millions, but if even one Jewish child survives, just one, the story continues. That is why the child has always been the target. Pharaoh drowned babies, not soldiers. The Crusaders ripped children from their mothers before they set synagogues on fire. The Nazis made sure to burn the children first, because they knew that killing adults ends the present, but killing children ends the future. Auschwitz was the graveyard of 1.5 million Jewish children. But Auschwitz failed. Within months of liberation, survivors with nothing, no homes, no families, no health, were having children. Babies were born in DP camps before their parents even had beds. Every diaper, and every stroller was an insult to the idea that the Jews were finished. This is the pattern of Jewish history: children against death. Our enemies write their philosophies, build their statues, parade their armies. We raise children. That’s it. And somehow that has been enough. Other nations celebrate their cathedrals, their palaces, their kings. But Jews celebrate noise... the noise of children. The chaos of a Jewish living room on Shabbat afternoon where ten conversations happen at once and no one is ever truly quiet. The shrieking of a schoolyard in Brooklyn or Bnei Brak where jump ropes slap the pavement, balls bounce off walls, and a hundred voices rise in the same instant to answer the question of the teacher. To outsiders, it looks messy, maybe primitive. In reality though, it’s eternity. Auschwitz was silence. Jewish destiny is noise. The Jewish child is not “free” in the modern sense. They don’t come into the world to “find themselves.” They come already belonging to a group of people, to a covenant, and to a story. The first thing a Jewish boy feels in his body is the mark of that covenant the brit. The first words a Jewish girl learns to say are not random, but ancient. Few if not no other child in the world is bound to history like this. That’s why the world resents them. A Jewish child is not neutral. They are a living continuation of Sinai. And yes, there are many of them. Too many for a world that measures progress in smaller families and declining birth rates. Jewish families with many strollers are viewed as fanatic, as backward. But the stroller is the most powerful political object the Jewish people own. It doesn’t ask for permission. It doesn’t argue. It just moves forward. The child is how Jews have always answered their enemies. With no vengeance, and no destruction, but with life. Hitler’s speeches are completely forgotten. A Jewish child still learns the Aleph-Bet. Stalin’s empire collapsed decades ago. Jewish children still sing Shema. Empires fall, ideologies rot, conquerors disappear. But a child’s voice asking on the Passover night “Why is this night different?” still echoes across thousands of years. The Jewish child is not just a child. They are the rejection of every plan to erase us. They are proof that history’s numbers don’t add up. They are the loudest answer Jews have ever given. And that is why our enemies never stop going after them. Because deep down, they know the truth: the future of the Jewish people is small, noisy, sticky-fingered, and unstoppable.
All of this is true of EVERY society and every religion, but of course Jews think they are extra special because they love children, hence this silly hagiography.
And it's precisely because Palestinians are a family-oriented society that genocidal Israel is slaughtering women and children. Because killing children ends the future.
Pretty shameful.
The prophet Mohammed loved children so much that his 12th wife, Aisha, was only 6 when he married her and 9 when he raped her.
Pretty shameful.
Let's try something a little more modern, shall we? https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2017-23296-003
I'd be careful bringing up pedophilia and Israel (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-jewish-american-pedophiles-hide-from-justice-in-israel/).
Lillia, you're pretty shameful.
In Islam Mohammed is considred the perfect example. And "the perfect example" raped a nine year old girl.
It is common for Muslims to marry 9 year old girls to this day. Very common.
And the ultra-orthodox Jewish community has a problem with pedophilia, and Israel protects Jewish pedophiles. If your point is that Islam has an element of pedophilia and therefore deserves our hatred, then what am I to make of a religion where pedophilia is de facto common and a country that protects pedophiles from prosecution abroad?
A family-oriented scoiety that practices honor killing, genital mutilation and teaches their precious children how to use handguns starting in first grade.
Pretty shameful.
Nice hate you have showing, and no one believes your hateful Zionist lies so why don't you keep them for your genocidal bubble.
But - genital mutilation, really? Last time I checked, Jews mutilate the genitals of all their baby boys when they are only a few days old. It's called circumcision, or have you forgotten. So do Muslims.
Circumcision is quite different than cutting off a woman's clitoris.
The only thing of value gleaned from your comment is that you are a victim of genital mutilation. Suks to b u.
First of all, circumcision IS genital mutilation. Look it up.
Second, Palestinians do not practice FGM. You are such a bigoted liar, it's funny.
And since I don't have more time to waste on dumb bigots, I'm not going to respond to your bigotry any further.
She is one of those who has been programmed, Bob. Common sense and reality will never get through.
She reminds me of the standard cult follower.
Is this from the latest chapter they sent you from head office?
I can feel the love!
https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/gaza-boy-with-gun
You mean Golda Mabovitch, born in Kiev, emigrated with her family to the US, married Morris Meyerson, became part of the Labor Zionist movement, and only then moved to what was known at the time as *Mandatory Palestine* (you know the Palestine that never existed) and only in 1956 becoming Meir?
Cool! I'd never been exposed to that idea before.
I don't forgive the Arabs for killing our children. Or any of these Nazi fucks who justify it. Sorry Golda.
What do you think was happening in Palestine before there were any Israel hostages? Before there was a Hamas?
Thousands of years of history that don't fold easily or simplistically into anyone's preferred narratives. Or was the correct answer: the evil Jews did something evil?
If we go down that road, who created Hamas? Ron Paul said it was Israel. How crazy is that?
You could go further down the road when the Ottoman Empire kicked out (killed) the Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians in Palestine and replaced them with Arabs. Where and when does it end?
But, if Hamas gave up the hostages right now, Israel would have to cease fire. So, why hasn't Hamas given back all the hostages?
Because they're waiting to swap them for the Palestinians imprisoned by the IDF in the West Bank (ie the main reason Hamas took Israeli hostages on 10/7).
The only way to have hostages is if you don't kill them. Israel settles that problem by just killing and maiming Palestinians (including some Christians) of all ages. Maybe the maimed children should demand that the IDF give them back a 100% working leg or arm.
Maybe all the people Hamas and Palestinians butchered should come back to life as well.
"What do you think was happening in Palestine before their were any Israel hostages? Before there was a Hamas?"
1,000 years BC Jews built a temple in Jerusalem. The killer prophet Mohammed was born 570 AD.
Does this help?
Golda Meir was an atrocious racist and a master of bigoted propaganda. Makes Goebbels look like a piker.
Both those quotes are incredibly evil and racist, and of course genocidal Zionists trot them out thinking the world buys their hate-filled hasbara any more.
Perfect Taibbi supporter - racist and ignorant as shit.
Anyone that has a problem with what is happening in Gaza needs to take it up with Hamas.
My controversial opinion is that bombing civilians is a war crime. Whether the question is raised in or out of a vacuum is irrelevant. It was wrong in Dresden and Darmstadt when the British did it, and it is wrong now when the Israelis are doing it with American help.
This is not a war: this is a genocide and a demolition project. They are wiping an entire people from history, and the only words you can spare are for the "hostage" for whom even Israel cares not. Every day is a new horror story that should devastate any empathetic human being and here you are being smug about "not saying anything" like that's an enlightened position.
It's fine if you don't want to cover topics outside your expertise, but it seems you're spending quite a bit of time and words on it anyway. You don't have to say anything at this point: it's clear where you stand.
So, what do you call killing civilians by rape, stabbing, burning and the rest of the atrocities on October 7th?
A wholly debunked fabrication? How are you on the substack of a journalist and yet unaware of the lies of Hasbara?
Did you miss the paragliders going into the music festival, just as one example?
Did the paragliders do any raping and burning? No? Or was that the Hannibal Directive? Huh. How about that.
But yes, you're right, they had homemade paragliders. Let's kill millions and build a parking lot, it's the only solution. Burn some babies alive in hospitals while we're at it, it's what our Holy Book tells us.
Ah, this was a hygienic massacre. Hamas only threw hand grenades into the emergency shelters with huddling families, my mistake. Unless that also never happened?
I’m sure both sides here have committed atrocities, that’s the unfortunate part of war in the 21st century. We can be anti war, that’s great, but minimizing the crimes of one side isn’t effective at changes hearts and minds.
It's not a war. For that, Gaza would have to have a military. It's a mass slaughter and destruction of a civilian population.
And now you are just spouting lies, so fuck off.
What are the lies?
You have a real problem with facts. The idiots were recording everything they did. They were soooo happy!
How interesting! It is always good to learn something new. Where can we find the videos of them raping and burning all those cars? Not just laughing, mind. I know, laughing is illegal for Palestinians and warrants a drone strike on their extended family, but humor me.
Would you like the video of the devastated father wailing as he holds the decapitated body of his toddler who was murdered by American-funded Zionists? Let's trade, bestie.
Katja, you're one crazy evil lady. And "woe to those who mistake evil for good and good for evil". Your life is evil and your future will be too. You're like Hamas: fated for nothing but delusion and sadism.
Again, very persuasive. Hard to see any fault with your argument. Truly you are a master of facts and logic. Go forth and cleanse the world of Amalek: I have every confidence you will have no qualm.
Your use of reasoned argument has gone missing.
It’s right here: https://x.com/lionsofzion_org/status/1843283075045728702?s=46
My brother, that is a 40-minute video. Gonna need a timestamp.
Surely, you can’t expect rational humans to believe 10/7 was cooked up. Seriously…..
Are you asking about the Israelis that the IDF killed as well with their mass Hannibal directive, just to be precise?
The Hannibal Directive for the killing & burning---no rapes occurred & a staged atrocity movie was made later by a former British intelligence officer that was shown to gullible leaders and MSM ...
I call it zionist hasbara.
You are completely backwards as to which is the genocidal side. Your ignorance is a danger to society.
The reason you argue the way that you do is that you want to skip past the fact that you're incredibly stupid and get right to the emotional manipulation, which is forever the tool of the evil.
Now that you have unpersuasively alleged that I am stupid, I cannot but see the correctness of your position. Well done!
Never argue with a Zionist, kids.
Katja, you are not stupid, but your moral compass is.
I hope you live a long and enriching life. I wish that you may consider, some time down the line, that maybe firebombing hospitals is a bad thing. You may not even change your mind, but just consider the possibility, however remote.
It is odd that there are only hospitals and schools in Gaza. And why didn't Egypt open the border, or even let Gazans work in Egypt?
I'm guessing this is Greta commenting from the flotilla.
Not sure anyone has a problem with you being stupid. It's your immorality that led you to where you are.
Zionists have a monopoly on morality, gotcha. Let's have drinks one day after Israel ceases to exist. Prost, brother.
Bombing civilians? It is said Muslims have killed as many as 50 million Hindus and Buddhist in the Muslim conquest of southern India. They didn't need bombs they slit the throats and choked the babies to death just as they did to the children they took hostage from Israel.
Israel has taken more precautions to save civilians than any army in history. And the ratio of civilians killed versus soldiers proves this. The fact that Hamas does not wear military garb, hide in schools, hospitals and behind woman's bruqas is further proof of the concern for civilian life Israel has practiced.
The exact opposite of what Muslims are doing currently in Nigeria, Israel for the last 75 years, Sudan and at Taylor Swift concert's in the UK (or which ever European country it was).
How interesting! How many military casualties have there been? It must be several million, given the number of civilians killed, don't you agree? Why, there must be more Hamas fighters than the total number of Palestinians in total! Fascinating. I didn't know that.
Run me the numbers, let's quantify how moral and good the IDF is, shall we. This will be fun.
The most extreme estimates are 70,000 dead, half of whom are civilians, so a little over 3% of the total population. From what i understand, for a densely populated urban area, those stats are surprisingly low, including the percentage of civilians killed. I agree that israel doesn't seem overly concerned with the welfare of Gazans, but calling it a genocide redefines that word. I for one am tired of redefining words to support chosen narratives. The war in 1948 settled the issue for me. Israel established its "right" to exist the same way every other country on earth has- it won the war. Each subsequent war resulted in more territorial losses for the Palestinians. Gaza can continue to attack israel but what will eventually happen is it will cease to exist entirely. Seems like a very dumb choice to me. I've followed this issue since I befriended a Gazan in 2000 who gave me a couple books to read about the conflict. I was very interested and very sympathetic but was struck by how much emotion, and how little detail was included in these history books he was giving me. So I read Benny Morris s book, 1948 in hopes of better understanding. When I read an actually objective, factual book about that war, I realized that for all the propaganda that israel puts out, the Palestinian propaganda is far more dishonest and way more destructive to its people and their prospects for building a better future. Its tragic, but the Palestinians are primarily responsible for their own misery
Which government “lost” the war in 1948? How was the state of Israel created? By a majority of the population? Which other wars supported by the UN resulted in exile of the inhabitants?
Jordan, Egypt, syria, and Iraq lost the war in 48. Some Palestinians did fight with the Arab armies but mostly they fled, and in any event, they were not organized. In the area that the UN partitioned in 1948, 33% of the poulation was Jewish. Every time the UN has stepped in to partition countries, India and Pakistan in 48, etc., there have been population transfers. The whole reason israel was created was because of how likely more pogroms were in the emerging ethno states of the former Ottoman empire, together with the fact that western countries had zero intention of taking in middle eastern or north African refugees. The UN, UK, and certainly jews around tge world felt that creating a Jewish state was an immediate necessity in light of what happened in Europe and what seemed practically inevitable in the emerhing world of Arab nationalism.
Certainly England thought redefining part of Palestine was necessary because they didn’t want them there. Much of Europe agreed, the antisemitism was a European issue, not Middle Eastern. Did Israel’s 1967 land grab also settle the issue for you too. It is clear from their words and actions that they never intended for Palestinians to have self-determination. When based on ethnicity, this meets the definition of apartheid.
Earth to Katja...come in please.
Katja there were not even millions of Hamas soldiers and most of them were hiding behind woman's skirts. Make that black behind black burkas, the garb of beaten women. Beaten by male Muslims. Repressed, depressed women.
Anyway, like everything you've written your facts are wrong on all accounts. You're a sad, miserable, sadistic person. GTH, not that you're not already in a self imposed hell of your own making.
Is this Bill Maher under a pseudonym?
If it’s a war crime, and you can’t do anything about it, is it still a war crime?
Fact is? International law is fake and gay. Cry more.
Is the appropriate, mature, educated response to the problem of the enforcement of international law, "Gay. Cry more"?
These are truly the only thoughts you could muster while living through another Holocaust? How boring.
Shut up, retard.
I recommend you not try to match wits with Katja. It's not going well for you so far.
You her gimp or something?
No, just an observer of your gimp-ness.
What holocaust?
Gay? I'm glad you brought it up Katja. Isn't Hamas famous for tossing gays off of buildings? No answer necessary, we all know Hamas (your love idols) does this.
1) I didn't bring up "gay": that was a quote from the guy I was replying to. There is an ongoing reading comprehension crisis but that is a rant for another day.
2) No, they're not "famous" for that. Even if they were, your response is, what, burn families alive in their tents?
3) I really hope you're a bot because this level of discourse is godawful.
There’s no discourse. You’re not interested in that.
You’re a liar.
Words have meaning. Rebranding the word genocide is wrong. But you do you.
The fact that you think "genocide" is a brand at all, let alone one to be quibbled over while innocents are being slaughtered by the thousand, says more than you could ever admit out loud.
Call it a Roadside Picnic for all I care: just stop doing it and punish all responsible.
Can you name a war where civilians weren't bombed? Was the bombing of Germany and Japan a genocide and a demolition project?
You can't win your argument simply by repeating the claims over and over.
There is a difference between civilian casualties in a war as collateral damage, and the deliberate terror-bombing of cities like Dresden and Darmstadt. ("But it was war!" you might say. "Of course we had to destroy the universities!")
I am also quite against fire-bombing Japanese civilians, and do not think Japanese children needed to be polled as to their political opinions regarding China before making that judgement.
The Gaza situation is more akin to the German plan for Warsaw, which was a depopulation and demolition project meant to create a new sparsely-populated administrative center.
No, this is not a war. It is a Holocaust, and you are condemning those who resist it. So be it.
And Greg, my new friend, there is no winning here.
Very good. You may now wear your woke pin with pride. Along with your pride pin. And your "I voted" sticker. Do you have an official Greta frog hat, too? That's a collector's item.
You do realize that you're now broadcasting your various biases against the LGBTQ community, climate change, and apparently even voting, right?
Hahaha dude that shit don’t work
Except for when it does, like now.
Fuck off, faggot.
Gosh, that response couldn't have been predicted.
Like it or not, true or not, your opinion on war crimes carry no weight in the rules of war, Geneva con, etc. those decisions were carried out by those we don’t know of, and will never meet.
Hell hath no fury like a leftist scorned, Matt. This isn't really about Israel anyway, but rather what should be done about violent Islamic jihad. If a single moderate Muslim was brave enough to denounce October 7, Gazan hostages, or a host of other barbaric crimes, I'd be more willing to listen to Gazan tears. Hamas must go; if Israel is the agent of their destruction that seems appropriate to me.
Genocidal Zionist opines...
Great argument! If this is genocide it’s pretty weak for the Middle East , saddam killed 300000 swamp Arabs your type didn’t say boo. Half million dead in Syria , meh. Ethnic cleansing in Sudan , what me worry ? Slave raids and massacres in Nigeria , no biggie! But Israel that’s the one that bothers you
Did the US pay for that?
Pay for what?
As Cosmo Kramer learned early on, “you must wear the ribbon” or you risk being hunted down by the group think mob
Which ribbon? The one with the Israeli flag or the watermelon?
https://youtu.be/tuafhcg843c?si=CyL3uLODX9ctZM4R
Here’s the 40-minute compilation of the Useful Idiot’s freedom fighters. These same people in this video would do the exact same to every one of us in the comment section if we just happened to have been in Israel in the day of their glorious rebellion.
There was a 2-state solution in place on October 6. One side broke it. Pay attention, because these same freedom fighters are coming to the West on the welcome mat you keep rolling out.
https://x.com/lionsofzion_org/status/1843283075045728702?s=46
Israel has been constantly usurping Palestinian land since its self-declared inception. Which side has killed more civilians? Which side had stolen more land?
The funniest thing about this current kerfuffle here at Matt's place is the fact that Matt's earlier piece about Bari Weiss and CBS, the one that got so many panties in a bunch, had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with Israel, Gaza, Hamas, Palestinians, Genocide or dead babies.
It was a slam against the legacy media for continuing to believe they're relevant.
That's all it was about; that and nothing more.
But it was fun to see so many people lose their shit.
Thank you. My God…
Anything to hate on a pro-Israel Jew
I support Matt's (or anyone's) right to say whatever they feel or think about anything; so it is indeed lamentable and pathetic that so many readers apparently felt the need to hate on Matt for simply saying something as innocuous as that he admired Bari Weiss for her talent, tenacity and business acumen in maneuvering herself back into a powerful position in corporate media.
Having said that, I will also exercise my right to say this:
As a former paid subscriber to The Free Press for a couple of years in the earlier 2020s, I can summarize that experience as: initial enthusiasm and appreciation for a Substack site that purported to stand for independent thought and expression; followed by a gradual dawning realization and reluctant-but-unavoidable conclusion that Bari Weiss's brand of "free speech" was constrained by both a) an overriding commitment to 'patriotism' defined as unwavering support for the US government as a benevolent and protective force for Americans and the world in general, and b) a slavish devotion to the Zionist entity called Israel and its actions past and present. My dissatisfaction and disillusionment crystallized -- I will never forget -- one day while listening to Bari interview RFK Jr *(and don't get me wrong, I have many problems with him, too): when he asked her if she believed that the 800+ US military bases around the globe were critically needed in order to 'keep Americans safe', she responded, "Heck yes I believe those bases are keeping us all safe!"
.... I unsubscribed from The Free Press that day, and have never looked back. This was well before October 7, 2023; and since then, Bari has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is a 'useful idiot' for Israel.
So yes, I agree with the Bari-haters in general (though for more reasons than just the single issue I suspect is driving most of the hate-mail to Matt); but just because we have no use for Bari Weiss, why in the world should we transfer any portion of that animosity to Matt Taibbi -- who continues to render an invaluable service to us all with Racket News and ATW -- just because he happened to offer some charitable professional props to someone we don't like???
"a slavish devotion to the Zionist entity"
Good one, you just used the same language used by the Iranian mullahs.
Does that mean you stipulate to all the other points in the comment?
I have a slavish devotion to the entity called the USA. I also believe (slavishly) in the sovereignty of the single predominately Jewish state on the planet, just as I believe (slavishly) in the existence of predominately Muslim states and the predominately Hindu state of India.
Isn’t it odd how the Jewish state is the only one that gets singled out as bad but every other country in the region it’s natural
Not really. How many other ethnostates are eliminating the rights of citizens on the basis of religious or ethnic identity with US support (there may be more we don’t know about yet).
I assume you meant to say religious or ethnic identity, along with the sex of the citizen. How about all of the above in Muslim countries? What rights are withheld in Israel based on the three things listed?
I’m not aware of other countries in the ME where residents of a particular religious, ethnic, (or sex) identify are maintained in secured fenced enclosures, prevented from moving about freely, deprived of needed supplies, and periodically bombed and shot at. Let me know where I can find them.
That is the glaring Tell.
I think it's time for you, Matt and Walter, to learn about the history of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinian people from its inception. I, personally, am sick of the "I don't know enough about it to comment" line. As Americans, you should educate yourselves.
How's the food on the flotilla?
🤣
WORD! Inexcusable for journalists of their (now former) caliber.
“You Americans”.
I really liked Russ Dobular, he is a transcendent talent, but by last fall all Due Dissidence could talk about was how incompetent Trump's campaign staff were (how'd that analysis turn out?) and that you needed to hate Israel. By spring it was down to just you need to hate Israel.
These Hamas lovers in this weird Youtube-to-college-campus bubble know they can't win the war, they can't win the public, they can't even win an argument. What do Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about trans athletes and Norm Finkelstein talking about Israel have in common? They're both screaming at the top of their lungs the whole time hoping people just won't continue the conversation when they finish and make them look stupid. These people have no credible points to make, most of what they try to dunk on Israel with are just Hamas talking points spread by fake news outlets like al Jazeera (sometimes by a journalist who's also a Hamas member), and they cannot sit down and answer simple questions like 'If Israel is genociding Palestinians, since that would take no more than 48 hours, why are they not done yet?' and 'If Israel is genociding Palestinians, why has their population grown exponentially since the Israelis established an actual state in that region?'
It's nothing but typical leftist purity spirals and spite politics. It's all due for a bloodletting, just wait and see how the American public responds to a JD Vance taking over the GOP, a conservative populist who isn't screaming things at you or talking about how society is a vast conspiracy of white male patriarchal privilege that needs replaced with socialism. A person who just plans to quietly fix the nation's problems and let you live your life, and not shriek at you with worthless ivory tower sociology grievances. It won't surprise me if we see the GOP rack up Electoral College margins like they had in the 70s and 80s.
And when they do, all this insanity is going to be put to bed.
Yup
And right there, Matt, you SHOWED which side you're on. On the side of genocide. And then you claim you're neutral. Read this piece of genocidal hasbara again, the one you LIKED and responded yup too. You stripped off your mask.
As for Leftist purity - I'm VERY conservative and a Trump voter. Check the polls - young conservatives are seeing through the Zionist propaganda. We know we can't win Israel's war of genocide, but it's divorced from reality to claim "they can't win the public." The public all over the world has been won by us. Already. The genociders only have the bought-up govts on their side.
And the power. And the media. And, sadly, you, Matt.
Good Grief🤦♂️
The great thing about Paulette is that she's a texbook example of moral idiot. She's also a reminder that no side... not the NRA, PTA, DNC, RNC... no one team has the market cornered on imbecility. For that I thank her for her service.
Bon voyage Paulette. May you find greener pastures with other like minded moral idiots, fish or fowl, Brihana or Morning Joe.
You really need to unsubscribe….for the good of mankind….and your health
Those of us with a conscience are perturbed by genocide and its supporters.
Clearly all you genocide supporters don't have one....
Oh, I have to go add "Hamas lovers" to my list below. Damn, I forgot that one.
I seriously hoped someone has hijacked your account. Because this is getting ridiculous.
Matt's a pretty good disappointment, isn't he? All that posturing about neutrality, when he absolutely bleeds pro-israel bias from every pore.
I think it's the childishness that bothers me more. This is going to become one of the defining moments of our age politically: Is America for its people or for the special interests, even when the special interests commit genocide and smear America and her people in their gore? And the man who saw Russiagate for what it was and shivered over Internet censorship when everyone else pooh-poohed it can't get beyond the pro-Israel propaganda and treats it all like a joke.
Here's all you need to do to regain your credibility, Matt - just admit - "I'm a huge supporter of Israel and am choosing to be silent on what is going on in Gaza and on the West Bank."
It's your dishonesty that is destroying your credibility with those of us who are not genocidal Zionists.
So let me get this straight, a genocide is only real if it happens quickly in a matter of days? Do you realize how stupid that sounds?
You missed pretty much everything. Try again.
I like(d) Due Dissidence, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as “transcendent talent” with Dobular. Pre-Oct. 7, Due Dissidence was a scrappy throwback to a pre-Twitter left, but the minute Oct. 7 hit, Dobular was out screaming at people in town halls. Another group from that cohort of YouTube shows, Revolutionary Blackout Network (who Sabby Sabs is a member of in some capacity), was gleefully celebrating Oct. 7 the moment it happened.
That whole enterprise got distasteful fast.
"I don't care about any of this and we should not be involved in any way whatsoever" is Schrödinger's argument: Simultaneously it's rabidly pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian, depending on who you're talking to.
I don't think anyone should be compelled to state that the earth is round before voting, but I also don't want people who think the earth is flat to vote.
Hamas is the closest thing we have to 21st century Nazism, and the TikTok-malleable are eagerly providing us all with a demonstration of how Nazism caught fire the last time around.
It is completely and utterly beyond these impressionable idiots that the messaging they're fed is not true.
No, Zionism IS today's version of Nazism. Not the closest thing. The real thing. Racist, genocidal, blames the victim, has no conscience.
Sounds like you need to be manning a rocket launcher in Gaza. Your level of dedication demands nothing less
And there he is to prove the point.
I agree. Paulette would look great in camos with an AK. There's probably even some money to be made on OF. For the cause, of course. Just like all those other sexy female Hamas fighters.
You know, it's a wonder people find Israel simps so repulsive. I mean, here you are just so charming and adult and mature and nuanced. It's a mystery.
The only nazis where Jews and Arabs vote and have basic liberties in the country
"Hamas is the closest thing we have to 21st century Nazism"
Having lived through the last 5 years, I'm going to disagree with that, but even if it WERE true, we obviously have a "Nazism" problem of our own to deal with first.
Yes. Getting rid of that problem is why Trump won the election.
And how's that going?
Fantastic.
Well, we define "fantastic" quite a bit differently then.
I get your point, but comparing Hamas to Nazism is akin to saying Pol Pot was as bad as Stalin. Both bad, but one had the opportunity and means to kill many, many, many millions, while the other did bad things on a significantly smaller scale.
"I don't care about (the ongoing wholesale torture and killing of human beings)." is an opinion that supports the perpetrator, yes.
https://media1.tenor.com/m/k7rr5ih8oBcAAAAd/i-dont-care-care.gif
But thank you for proving the point. For some people, even declaring you want to remove every last cent of funding from Israel puts you on their side.
Ye when Iran gets rid of Little Satan, who do you think they go after?
When Russia steamrolls Ukraine, guess who's next?!?!?!?!??!
After China takes Taiwan, GUESS WHO'S NEXT?!?!??
You've nailed it. Every country you've named are evil just like the 57 Muslim countries.
Individual freedoms are minimal, the moral code of all of these countries is e3vil.
It's not about the morality of the country, it's about invoking fear to prod me to support unnecessary American military action.
After all, we can't let the smoking gun come in the form of a mushroom cloud, right?
Caring about Old World shit holes is a waste of time for us Americans.
If that bothers you? Good!
Oh but surely if we hold the proper political position, the sides will lay down their arms and realize how stupid their eternal holy war is! 🙄
“Old World Shit Holes” thank you for inspiring my new tourism venture.
Of course, because it’s the properly pro-American position.
And that’s not allowed!