Reply To: Good lads, got to love the IDF

[Siderite]

People might not see it that way, but it does come across that any opinion deviating from others just gets met with snide responses. Yes, I have responded that way, but it gets wearying after so long.

My position is that conflict was inevitable and justifiable after Oct 7th; I can’t see how it could be pretended that it could carry on with the previous norm after that. It would mean pogroms are acceptable, and no nation would accept that for its citizens, nor should it. Yes, this doesn’t mean that every military action by the IDF is justifiable and it hasn’t been. I have done a poor job in explaining that well before, but the sheer recognition of the justifiability (at least in my opinion) for conflict is enough. Still, there is a difference between unintended civilian casualties than an attempt to kill civilians; intent does matter. I have mentioned campaigns like the campaign against ISIS, because they did kill civilians, yet supporting such did not make people ‘cheering on mass murder’. The point of the comparison was to say it’s not inconsistent to say the US-UK-SDF-Kurd led actions against ISIS was justifiable despite civilian casualties, same with this. Of course it is bad, it is not ideal by a long stretch, but I don’t know what the alternative for reasons explained above. For that reason, I put the largest proportion of the blame on Hamas for the cause of this.

That said, I do agree that there needs to be a change in conduct from the IDF, especially since Hamas broke the last ‘pause’. There are fears of what Netanyahu will do with regards to a territorial grab, but international pressure (particularly from the USA) may well prevent that; I don’t think it’s room for complete pessimism in that regard. Though it’s no thanks to Netanyahu. I understand people will think differently and want the war to stop, I get it’s not all because of apologia for Hamas or whatever, I realise I could have previously explained that better. However, I do not see why differences in opinion need to be so snide. Yes, my posts can be long, yes, you may think JI is being condescending, but I think such charges are being made because there is a disagreement and I don’t think the comments from some are better than what they are charging against others. It’s just a messageboard, it’s not important, so I don’t see the need for snideness.