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“WE ALL TEND TO GRAVITATE toward information that validates our priors, especially when it comes to stories as emotionally charged as this one,” Cathy Young wrote in today’s Bullwark about the hospital explosion and deaths in Gaza city.

When I read about the 40 babies who had been murdered and some decapitated in Israel, I was sick to my stomach. It “validated my priors” about Hamas. But then I noticed that the NY Times and the Washington Post did not cover this particular aspect of the Hamas massacre of Israelis. I could not find any confirmation that this specific mass murder of babies had happened, as if the actual murders were not horrific enough. Did the Bullwark confirm the truth of these claims before publishing them?

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It is uncertain if they were murdered by being beheaded or decapitated after death. For me, this does not really matter. But here, hope it makes you happy. Some were decapitated by bullets. Some are too burned to identify cause of death.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/31/israel-attack-victims-forensic-identification/

and this

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-hamas-sexual-violence-1.7050237

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The DSA has always been a fantasy concept, of interest primarily to young and uneducated wishful thinkers.

But it now has demonstrated a morally bankrupt element in its so-called membership who applaud and call for barbarian brutality against those of a religious belief they don’t like. In fact, they appear to hate Jews and revel in their suffering.

No wonder Israel wants to exclude Palestinians from its borders!

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"There was some sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang gliders and took at least several dozen hipsters."

These people are monstrous. I piss on their graves.

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founding

I wish that the label left and conservative and progressive would no longer be used. Once upon a time these meant something. Today to fall into one of these groups means your views are extreme and not founded in logic. We need to have better labels like nut jobs, freaks, the stupid caucus etc etc

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Bravo, Charlie! 🎯🎯🎯

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Since when does bombing the hell out of Gaza killing innocent families that had nothing to do with Hamas’ attack constitute defending itself. This is collective revenge. Israel is using the Hamas attack as an excuse to kill Palestinians, further demoralize them, and further ruin what little of their land they have left. What I find morally reprehensible is America’s abject failure to acknowledge the humanity of the Palestinian people and what is happening to them now. They are human beings, no more but damn sure no less than the Israelis.

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Is there an genocide? Yes, Sudan.

Is there a Jewish state committing genocide? No, that's hateful blood libel.

Would Jewish Americans be responsible? No, duh even if it were happening.

160k Palestinians now >2M. Not genocide, hater

Hamas started the war and could end it.

Hamas ended the ceasefire and refused to release additional hostages.

Stop advocating for Hamas, you useless hater tool.

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TRUMP JOINS THE SQUAD?

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — and called the Lebanon-based, Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah “very smart” ― just days after Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel prompted the latter to declare a state of war, and amid escalating tensions across the Middle East.

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I am a Democrat. I am a Liberal. I am often referred to as Left. Sometimes I’m a Moderate. However, these groups and demonstrations are not even close to anything I am in support of. They call themselves Democratic Socialists. I call them terrorists. I don’t see how allowing these rallies in support of a terrorist group that beheaded babies is allowed on our campuses. California State College System should be called out on this.

I stand with the Jewish People 💙🇺🇸

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Thank you. The Holocaust inversion of genocide claims are particularly painful and toxic.

I marched and traveled to march against the invasion of Iraq. It was the largest popular demonstration in history. Everyone managed not to praise Saddam, call for deaths of random Americans, nor carry Iraqi flags.

Lots of motivations good & bad but in practice the protests are absolutely threatening to hand Michigan to Trump if Biden is not associated with the protests and risking handing the rest of country to Trump if Biden is associated with the protest. Like making the Gore/W election close enough for the Supreme Court to overthrow the popular vote by ending vote counting. Like electing Nixon. Like pushing Trump over the top in 2016.

Alas.

Of course, a Trump has already stated he does want to expel massive numbers of Gazans and develop the lovely beachfront into places for the nice rich people. Trump refers to the people of Gaza as "a cancer". So supporting his election is toxic in 2024 just like it was in 2016.

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I’m not sure thoughts and words make one a terrorist, I think to get that label requires certain monstrous actions. What does the word terrorist even mean if we apply it equally to those who say things we find disturbing (disgusting) and also to those who behead babies?

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Advocacy for genocide is a start.

Celebrating atrocities.

Encouraging policies that lead to more atrocities.

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The violence of words and the violence of action are not the same.

In the fifties one could denounce Stalin’s murder of 6 million + of his fellow countrymen and still dislike how the CPUSA was treated in our country.

I support freedom of speech and I condemn support for killing noncombatants no matter the need to think “We had to destroy the village in order to save it" (possibly apocryphal comment by a Major at the Battle of Bến Tre.)

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Thank you so much Charlie. As a Jew, I know that I have a different view of Israel’s history, and who is at fault for the failure of the peace process, etc. than a Palestinian person would. I don’t expect to agree on much, but it’s pretty shocking that no one on that side is condemning the brutality, the capture of children, elderly, etc. The gleefulness and sadistic mocking of innocent Israeli lives is absolutely disgusting. (Oh, I forgot, there are no innocent “settler colonialists.”). There isn’t even a cursory attempt at making their statements palatable - even if they don’t believe it - so they won’t repulse people. (I don’t think you mentioned the George Washington Univ statement, which was by far the worst). I guess I’m glad to know that these people really want to kill Israelis. When someone says “what did you think decolonization would look like?” I guess I can only say in response “thank you for explaining your plans so clearly. I won’t make the mistake of misreading your intentions again.”

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There is liberal civilization. There are various illiberal and/or barbarous societies, and there are savages. A person does not have to believe that liberal civilization and everything it does are perfect to see that it is right and better for the human race, and the others are wrong and worse. Too many people in this country fail to see it. Maybe this will wake some of them up. The simple fact is that the Hamas terrorists are inhuman savages, and so is anyone cheering them on. The people Charlie references have taken their mask off. People need to remember how they look now when they expediently put them back on. I would also criticize the thinking of people who may not care for rape and beheading infants but still cannot quite take Israel’s side. Expressing regret that things have come to war with all its human loss and particularly for deaths of innocent civilians on both sides is appropriate (though those doing so should be aware that only Hamas is killing civilians intentionally as a tactic). Mealy mouthed statements of an at least implied equal regret for casualties among those fighting on both sides are not. They are equivalent to regretting equally losses by the RAF and the Luftwaffe during the battle of Britain. Israel needs to win, and Hamas needs to lose decisively and catastrophically. To that just end losses by Hamas are good things, and the more the better. That is how war works. Those siding with Israel need to have the stomach for it, and those balancing on the fence need to get off it.

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RemovedOct 12, 2023·edited Oct 12, 2023
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That Which Is Hateful to You, Do Not Do to Your Fellow! That is the Whole Torah; The Rest is Interpretation’ (from the Elder Hillel in Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a)

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Good call. I haven’t read the Old Testment since I was a child , but I just remember it being very, very battle driven.

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Extremism is ugly and evil. It tears at the fabric of humanity and freezes our ability to find solutions to our common problems. Those who applaud terror and terrorists, murderers and rapists, the be heading of infants are complicit in evil. Ends do not justify means. These are all bullies and thugs. To be gleeful about such carnage defies my understanding. I am glad Alexandria Cortez turned away from this.

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However real or imagined the grievances of the Palestinians, Hamas has made them enemies of the free world. The population of Gaza is an astonishing 50% children under the age of 18. However bleak their existence was, Hamas has doomed them. The coming days and weeks are going to be horrible, mostly horrible for the Palestinians.

But I am very fearful for the Israelis. Though they most likely possess overwhelming firepower, the attack by Hamas was so shockingly brazen that I suspect they may possess some kind of WMDs. I do no believe they are willfully committing suicide. They've already demonstrated there is no depth too deep for them to sink.

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Because the women live under a nightmarish forced-birth theocracy.

Because Hamas is a horror.

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Hamas is barbarism inc. ButCharlie, college kids see an underdog here and they arena completely wrong. But they are kids. This isn’t a bunch of 30 year olds. They’re going to figure out evil themselves, but I hope they don’t have to experience it.

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Oh look: The same cosplay social justice warriors pissing bromides like: "the Holocaust doesn't justify what Israel has done to the Palestinian people" seem to also be supporting the position that "what Israel has done to the Palestinian people" justifies rape, chopping babies' heads off, burning people alive, and mass murder.

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Oh look: The same cosplay social justice warriors pissing bromides like: "the Holocaust doesn't justify what Israel has done to the Palestinian people" seem to be simultaneously supporting the position that "what Israel has done to the Palestinian people" does justify rape, chopping babies' heads off, burning people alive, and mass murder.

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