@Walter Hinteler,
Quote:The reason can be summed up as follows: the immediate casus belli – Hamas aggression – appears to justify Israel's actions. But on closer inspection, threats against civilians fade compared to actual carnage among civilians – Palestinians.
The biggest problem with this is the fact that the Palestinian death toll is fabricated.
But even if factual numbers could be established regarding the death toll among Palestinian civilians, collateral damage is just an unfortunate part of any war.
Israel's need to defend itself doesn't fade as claimed.
Quote:Zooming out, the long-term context of the conflict is increasingly indefensible. Yet Israel's argument for the war depends on immediate justifications and ignores the context. To compensate, Israel is fixated on narrative, in the deep conviction that a campaign of slogans and images, known as "hasbara", will work.
The long term context of this conflict is the fact that the Palestinians never make peace and always try to murder innocent Israelis.
For Israel at least, the long-term context is completely defensible.
Quote:For Israel, this is a war against Hamas that started a few weeks ago. Outsiders increasingly see it as war against Gaza for years, and against Palestinians for decades. In that environment, it doesn't matter who fired at the UN school.
I agree that the fuss over the school is irrelevant.
Actually I was not even aware that there was a fuss over the school.
But yes, irrelevant.
Quote:People were killed because of a war, because of the big picture, which doesn't favour Israel.
Nonsense. It is hardly Israel's fault that the Palestinians insist on continual war.
Quote:The UN school, like other cases before it, could be reduced to a whodunnit in the grimmest of games: Who fired the shot? Did Palestinians doctor the photos? Evidence-doubting is becoming a favourite game.
Considering that all the Palestinian claims are fabricated, "evidence" doubting is wise indeed.
Quote:By ignoring and perpetuating the long-term conflict, obsessively reading only the very, very short term, and by dressing up its actions in cheap linguistic clothes, Israel's communications may backfire among precisely those who need to be convinced.
Israel neither ignores nor perpetuates the long-term conflict.
I am not aware that anyone needs to be convinced of anything, but I note that anti-Semites will find any excuse to lie about Israel. The solution is to just denounce the anti-Semitism. No point in worrying about whether a given course of action will result in a certain anti-Semitic lie.
