Pickering Angels

Israel at war

toguy5252

Well-known member
Jun 22, 2009
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This is a typical right-wing vs left-wing argument.
Left-wingers only care about emotions and feelings, right-wingers use logic and common sense in a debate
Typicallt right wingers use fiction in their debates. But there are exceptions to everything.
 

Valcazar

Just a bundle of fucking sunshine
Mar 27, 2014
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Are you really going to compare wanting political parties to have better leadership candidates in the self proclaimed greatest democracy to a decades long religious sectarian war that has no chance of peace?

Cripes, trying to score a point on two completely different situations half a world apart just makes you look petty AND myopic/stupid.
I always find if funny when you face plant and step on rakes like that.
It's just amusing.
 
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basketcase

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2005
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Hamas rejected a week long ceasefire.

But in their usual logic, something Frank would applaud, they refuse to negotiate about a ceasefire unless there is a ceasefire first. Their idiot allies in PIJ are demanding Israel release every Palestinian prisoner.
 
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basketcase

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2005
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Sure, and MAGA sympathize with a rapist leader.
...
Like the fighters in hamas? Oh that's right. You happily accuse Israel of everything but refuse to hold Hamas accountable for their disgusting actions.


And again, the ICC, who you kept claiming to want involved, said Hamas' attack was the exact kind of atrocity the ICC was set up to prosecute, that Hamas holding hostages is completely illegitimate, and that Israel generally does a good job of investigating their own troops actions.
 

Conil

Well-known member
Apr 12, 2013
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Sinwar doing the Kill kill kill rallies, its sick how he forces himself on the little girl.

Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar going nuts

 
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basketcase

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2005
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Bullshit, Israel does not jail terrorist settlers, ...
Bullshit. They do though probably not enough.

And thanks for bring up the topic because most of us condemn terrorism regardless of who the perpetrators and who the victims are. You on the other hand have claimed attacks on Jews in the West Bank are okay because some other Jews may be terrorists and have gone to great lengths to try and justify Hamas' attacks. You keep saying it is racist to criticize Hamas but you openly accuse all Israelis of terrorism.
 
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Conil

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Apr 12, 2013
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Hamas is pure evil, nobody is going to stop the Israelis, let them do their job.

Hamas's gleeful slaughter of innocents at Nova festival is why it must be eradicated
Documentary plays out like a horror film, laying bare this was no act of resistance, but hate-motivated murder


The holiday season should be a time for joy and peace, but in a world very much not at peace, plagued by a rising tide of coordinated terrorism and antisemitism, it must also be a time for reflection. This is why I’m making an extremely nontraditional movie recommendation to add to your seasonal watchlist that lays bare the ruthlessness and sadism of Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

If anyone can view Yes TV’s #NOVA documentary, a compilation of real-time footage captured before and during the Supernova music festival massacre — the most lethal concert attack ever, anywhere — and not unequivocally condemn Hamas as pure evil and call for their eradication, they have lost any sense of humanity.

This includes Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, who continue, apparently undeterred by being publicly thanked by Hamas leadership for their support, to proclaim moral equivalency between Israel and a genocidal hate organization where there is clearly none.

The film isn’t particularly gory or violent, at least not compared to the uncensored footage I viewed at an Israeli Consulate screening in early November. I also believe it’s important as many people as possible see that, but I understand why some feel unable to do so. #NOVA is undoubtedly disturbing and enraging, but in a way that risks less long-term trauma for viewers.


There’s been much reporting on the videos captured by Hamas as they gleefully slaughtered innocents for no reason other than the fact they were Jews, however the young Israelis at Supernova also captured a trove of powerful footage. #NOVA largely relies on their phone recordings and social media posts to tell the story of how a sea of happiness and peace so quickly turned to hell on Earth.

The documentary begins with excited young festival-goers and DJs preparing to attend Supernova and follows them as they party with friends and dance the night away, clearly having the time of their young lives. As viewers who already know what happens next as time stamps flash on the screen advancing the hours, there’s a distinct horror in seeing the moments before those same lives change forever, at least 364 of them murdered and 40 taken hostage.

Around 6 a.m., Hamas rockets begin to bombard Israel’s Iron Dome. Around 6:40 a.m. an organizer asks the DJ to stop his set, and the crowd is told to lay low and cover their heads. While the mood undeniably changes, most patrons still appear more concerned, some annoyed at the turn of events, than the abject terror and panic that’s soon to come.


At this point, #NOVA cuts to footage of Hamas terrorists riding toward the festival, their excitement and elation matching that of young festival-goers little more than an hour ago. The juxtaposition between joy found in music and friends and joy found in a planned murderous rampage is one of the more darkly poignant parts of the film.

Soon, gunshots are heard in the background of young Israelis’ videos. The descent into raw fear, anguish and dread happens in minutes and only deepens as the reality of what’s happening becomes more and more clear.

Hamas terrorists hunt these innocent young people in what’s clearly not an act of war or resistance, but a hate-motivated mass shooting and pogrom. Festival-goers attempt to escape in vehicles and on foot, but the attack is well-planned and there’s simply nowhere for them to run to where they can’t be followed.


The festival-goers film themselves as they drive past dozens of abandoned and charred cars, blurred bodies hanging out of them and scattered across the road. They film themselves hiding amongst trees, laying on the ground being careful not to make a sound as though they are in a horror film hiding from a relentless psychopath — which, in effect, they are.

The video of hostages being corralled by Hamas attackers is especially emotional, even though there’s no death on screen. Young bodies, many bloodied, being literally piled into the back of trucks in scenes reminiscent of Nazi concentration camps. A woman being driven away on a motorbike, wedged between two terrorists, as she screams and reaches out for a male friend metres away, who is also being led away by Hamas assailants.
If you can’t bring yourself to watch the entire 54-minute documentary, at least view its final minutes, which begin at the 50-minute mark. It’s one of the most powerful and heartbreaking in-memoriam segments I’ve ever seen.

Brief clips of victims captured by themselves or friends enjoying the music festival, or in some cases in the last moments of their young lives, play before more traditional portraits appear. It leaves no doubt these were innocents slaughtered for no reason but antisemitic hate, and that such an atrocity must never be allowed to happen again.

 

mandrill

monkey
Aug 23, 2001
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Who is Yahya Sinwar, Israel's most-wanted Hamas terrorist (msn.com)


Few Israelis know the leader of Hamas in Gaza as well as Koubi, who, as an officer in Israel's internal security organization, Shin Bet, interrogated Sinwar for more than 150 hours when he was held in Israeli prisons.
Sinwar is accused by Israel of masterminding the deadliest terror attack in Israeli history on Oct. 7 of this year when 1,200 Israelis were killed. The Israeli military has dropped leaflets in Gaza offering a reward of $400,000 for information leading to his arrest.

Koubi remembers Sinwar as being "tough," devoid of emotions but "not a psychopath."

"He was a different type of detainee," says the former Shin Bet officer who interrogated Sinwar in the late 80s and early 90s.

In 1989 an Israeli court sentenced Sinwar to four life sentences for his role in killing suspected Palestinian informers and plotting to murder two Israeli soldiers.

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Yahia al-Sinwar addresses supporters during a rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023.

Yahia al-Sinwar addresses supporters during a rally marking Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Gaza City, on April 14, 2023.© Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images
Sinwar spent the following 22 years in prison and was one of more than 1,000 Palestinian detainees who were released in 2011 in exchange for Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, who had been held hostage by Hamas for five years.

At the time of his imprisonment, Sinwar was head of Hamas' infamous internal security arm, Al-Majd and according to Israeli and Palestinian sources his job was to investigate members of Hamas who were potentially working with the Israelis.


Koubi says Sinwar boasted during his interrogations about killing suspected Palestinian informants with "a razor blade" and with "a machete."

MORE: Israel-Gaza live updates
It is why, says Koubi, Sinwar was dubbed "the butcher of Khan Younis."

In early December of this year the Israeli military said it had surrounded the home of Sinwar in his hometown of Khan Younis in the southern half of the Gaza Strip. They didn't find him.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Dec. 6 that it was "only a matter of time" before he was located. Israeli military leaders have described Sinwar as "a dead man walking."

The precise whereabouts of Sinwar is still unknown. He is believed by Israeli officials and others to be hiding in Hamas' vast network of tunnels beneath the Gaza Strip.

He has not been heard from since Oct. 7, when Hamas and affiliated groups massacred hundreds of Israeli soldiers and civilians and took around 240 people hostage.

"This offensive is the mission of his life," says Dr. Michael Milshtein, whose job it was to study Hamas and key figures such as Sinwar when he worked in Israeli defense intelligence from 1993 until 2015.

In 2014, as chief of the Department for Palestinian Affairs, Milshtein claims he could see indications that Hamas' leadership in Gaza was already working on something big.

At the time Yahya Sinwar was a leading figure in Hamas' political leadership in Gaza. Three years later, in 2017, he was elected as the overall chief of Hamas in the Strip.

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Head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar attends a rally in support of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque in Gaza City on October 1, 2022.

Head of the political wing of the Palestinian Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip Yahya Sinwar attends a rally in support of Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque in Gaza City on October 1, 2022.© Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images


"When you're trying to find the seeds of this brutality of Oct. 7 you must understand not only the ideology, but also the personality of Yahya Sinwar," said Milshtein, who is now a senior analyst at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University.

According to Milshtein, Sinwar's brutality against alleged defectors within Hamas was "spread" throughout the organization and directed against Jews and Israelis, culminating in the atrocities committed on Oct. 7.


In recent weeks it has become clear that multiple warning signs about Hamas' plans for an attack were either missed or ignored by Israeli officials, however the attack still succeeded because the precise details about when the group would strike were kept secret.

"That's the way Sinwar works," said Ismat Mansour, a Palestinian writer and activist who spent 15 years inside the same detention facilities as the Hamas leader. Arrested at 16 for his part in the death of an Israeli settler in the West Bank, Mansour was released in 2013 ahead of resumed talks between Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials.

Mansour said that, when in prison, Sinwar operated, for much of the time, "in the shadows … with a small and closed group that he trusts."

He described the Hamas leader as a "tough" and "pragmatic" man who learnt fluent Hebrew and spent much of his time studying Israeli society and security matters, including Israel's army, which is now hunting him down.


Both Sinwar's former fellow inmate Mansour and his former interrogator Koubi agreed that he was not just widely respected by other prisoners but also by prison staff.

"He knew how to convince people to be with him," said former Israeli security officer Koubi, who said Sinwar's influence over prison officials earned him "the best" conditions.

Sinwar's ideology and long-term hatred towards Israel was what motivated him to carry out the attack on Oct. 7, according to Milshtein and Koubi.

Milshtein said he believes the Hamas leader in Gaza was driven by "jihad" and a "vision" that Israelis and Jews are "germs" and their killing could be justified on religious terms.

Mansour, a Palestinian, said there were three factors which drove Sinwar to launch the attack on Oct. 7.

The first, he said, were the visits earlier this year by Israeli hard-right nationalists to the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem as well as raids on the mosque carried out by Israeli police.

The second, according to Mansour, was Sinwar's rejection of Israel's blockade on Gaza and the tight Israeli restrictions on goods and people leaving and entering the Strip.

Finally, as someone who spent much of his adult life behind bars, Sinwar had a "personal commitment," said Mansour, to try and free as many of his close associates being held in Israeli prisons.

Despite multiple statements by Israeli officials clearly pinning the blame for Oct. 7 principally on Sinwar, some independent experts who study Hamas are not convinced he was the main architect of the attack.

Hugh Lovatt, a senior policy fellow on the Middle East at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said he believes Mohammed Deif, the leader of Hamas' military wing in Gaza, was the overall mastermind.

"Sinwar was certainly an important figure in terms of the planning of the attacks that took place on Oct 7. However, at least in my mind, he was not the ultimate architect of those attacks," Lovatt said.

After the scale of the atrocities committed on Oct. 7, Israeli anger "needed to be directed at someone," argued Lovatt, noting Sinwar became a "figure of hate" because he was well-known to Israelis.

In contrast, imagery and information on Deif is so sparse that he is more of "a ghost" figure, said Jennifer Jefferis, a Georgetown University professor and author of "Hamas: Terrorism, Governance and its Future in Middle East Politics."

Jefferis said Israel "needs a win" in its war in Gaza and the emphasis on Sinwar is part of the Israeli government's narrative in claiming that victory.

"Israel is saying to themselves, 'How do we say that we have beaten Hamas?' and I think this is a way they are doing it, by painting a target on this one guy," she said.

Every source interviewed for this article agreed that Sinwar is probably still in Gaza.

His former interrogator, Koubi, predicted that the leader of Hamas in the densely populated Gaza Strip will go down fighting if he's located.

"He wants to die a hero of the slum, as a hero of Hamas, as a hero of the Gaza people," Koubi said.

Both Jefferis and Lovatt said Sinwar's death would not signal the end of Hamas in Gaza.

Hamas is "a grass roots, bottom-up organization," said Lovatt. Hamas "has consistently shown the ability to replace leaders when they are killed or captured."

Jeffries added, "There will be Hamas 2.0 and resistance to whatever comes next."
 
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mandrill

monkey
Aug 23, 2001
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Camera embedded on dog reveals Hamas tunnel in Gaza City (msn.com)


The IDF discovered and raided a tunnel built by Hamas in the southern part of Gaza City, an IDF spokesperson said on Friday.
The tunnel was used as an underground outpost by the terror group, and buildings nearby where Hamas operated in the south of the city were destroyed. IDF soldiers identified a terror squad that attacked and promptly eliminated them.

A number of shafts leading to an underground multi-level route were located and uncovered, whose floors were used for the purposes of command, control and movement for Hamas between different sectors for storage and accommodation. Israeli forces destroyed the underground route.
IDF provides video documentation via a dog
Video documentation that was equipped to a dog showed the terror tunnel which was hundreds of meters long, which included command and communication rooms, residence halls that are tens of meters in area, concrete dumps, as well as water and electricity infrastructure.
The video can be seen below:
Camera equipped to a dog reveals Hamas terror tunnels on December 22, 2023 (credit: IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
Dozens of tunnels have been scanned by the unit's fighters and dogs.
 
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