DarkGamer

In which he shows that civilian casualties are actually quite low when put in context compared to other conflicts, and Israel is being held to a different standard than other nations.

Many decry the number of casualties, particularly women and children, reported by the Hamas-run Gazan health ministry--over 20,000.

Set aside the unreliability of figures provided by Hamas--a terrorist organization that falsely accused Israel of killing 500 civilians with a rocket that was actually fired by Gazan militants. Even taken at face value, it is worth putting Hamas' figures in "context" (a favorite word of Israel's critics).

1. It's been reported that 67% of Gazans killed have been women and children. But according to a 2022 UN report, in a typical war, 90% of casualties are civilians. Israel is actually causing fewer civilian deaths than in the typical conflict, notwithstanding the dense urban environment.

2. Upwards of 5,500 Gazan casualties--nearly 1/3 the total--are reported to be children. What is not reported is how many of those "children" are boys 17 and under carrying automatic rifles, and thus legitimate enemy combatants. Plus, over 1/2 Gaza's population is under 18. So fewer minors are dying than one would expect if Israel were indiscriminately killing civilians.

3. What civilians typically do to survive a war is...leave. In Ukraine, within a month of Russia's invasion, nearly 1/2 of the population had left their homes and 1/4 had left the country--some 14 million people. But neighboring Arab states have refused to accept Palestinian refugees. They claim if they do, Israel might make Gazans' displacement permanent--a curious concern, given that Israel voluntarily left Gaza in 2005 and even forcibly evicted 9,000 Jewish residents. One would think a theoretical risk of displacement is better than a real risk of dying. Since Gazans can't or won't flee, the civilian death toll necessarily climbs, and Israel--not Hamas--continues to be blamed.

4. Responses to unprovoked attacks often cause more deaths than the attacks themselves. That doesn't make the response illegitimate. The 9/11 attacks killed 3,000 American civilians. In the Afghan war that followed, between 46,000 and 360,000 civilians died.

The hatred of Israel is what's disproportionate, not Israel's response. No other nation would respond differently. Yet no other nation is as hated. Antisemitism, not body count, makes the difference.

Originally posted here.

The Michigan Supreme Court has rejected an attempt to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot based on the US Constitution’s “insurrectionist ban.”

Jonathan Schanzer informs the House Ways and means Committee about how Hamas funds student groups and charities in the United States.

Jonathan Schanzer informs the House Ways and means Committee about how Hamas funds student groups and charities in the United States.

The National Labor Relations Board released its most important ruling in many decades. In a party-line decision in Cemex Construction Materials Pacific, LLC, the Board ruled that when a majority of a company’s employees file union affiliation cards, the employer can either voluntarily recognize their union or, if not, ask the Board to run a union recognition election. If, in the run-up to or during that election, the employer commits an unfair labor practice, such as illegally firing pro-union workers (which has become routine in nearly every such election over the past 40 years, as the penalties have been negligible), the Board will order the employer to recognize the union and enter forthwith into bargaining.

The Cemex decision was preceded by another, one day earlier, in which the Board, also along party lines, set out rules for representation elections which required them to be held promptly after the Board had been asked to conduct them, curtailing employers’ ability to delay them, often indefinitely.

Taken together, this one-two punch effectively makes union organizing possible again, after decades in which unpunished employer illegality was the most decisive factor in reducing the nation’s rate of private-sector unionization from roughly 35 percent to the bare 6 percent at which it stands today.

Donald Trump in a second term would likely install loyalists in key positions in the Pentagon, State Department and CIA whose primary allegiance would be to him, allowing him more freedom than in his first presidency to enact isolationist policies and whims.

EXPOSED: The biggest Hamas terrorist tunnel discovered.This massive tunnel system branches out and spans well over four kilometers (2.5 miles). Its entrance ...

Atheists behave 'impartially toward ingroup and outgroup partners,' while Christians demonstrate 'an ingroup bias'

U.S. Representative Liz Cheney, an outspoken critic of ex-President Donald Trump, said she is weighing a third-party bid for the White House in 2024.

Link to get around paywall

The negotiations involving Qatari, Israeli and U.S. officials had continued in the Qatari capital, Doha, even after the fighting resumed and Israeli military officials had indicated a readiness to implement another pause if mediators could persuade Hamas to release more hostages.

But later Saturday, Israel announced that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had recalled the Israeli negotiators, saying the talks on further hostage releases had reached an “impasse.”

A statement from Netanyahu’s office blamed Hamas for the failure, saying the militant group had failed to implement an agreement to release all the women and children it kidnapped.

Henry Kissinger has died at age 100.

Why does everyone besides the involved parties care so much when there are conflicts with much higher casualties in the same region that go largely unnoticed by the international public?