Monomate

You don't believe me? Those who are immersed in islamist ideology think quite differently from people of christian heritage (even if they're not christian themselves, but they inherit a set of values). For the islamists, self-sacrifice if a good thing if done for a holy cause. That's what motivated the plane terrorists from 9/11: their religion made them believe that what they were doing was just. And as a reward, they'd have the company of multiple virgins in paradise.

In the western countries, due to the inherited christain values, people value life and reject self-sacrifice. Suicide is considered a sin, because the person is throwing away the body given by God, which is a holy thing. That's why the USA and other west-aligned countries pressure Israel to preserve the life of innocent Gazans: that's what best aligns with their moral values. If a bank is being robbed with the use of hostages, the police will do its best to preserve the life of the innocent, even negotiate with the robbers if necessary.

That's a way of thinking that's the polar opposite of the muslims. For them, if the cause is holy, self-sacrifice is allowed and encouraged. They're indoctrinated in these values since they're children. What the Hamas is doing is exploiting the western values for their benefit. That's why they took hostages, because they knew it would be a huge leverage against Israel. And that's why they're always flaunting the number of casualities (which are obviously inflated, because it helps their goals), in an attempt to reach the western countries' moral values and turn it into pressure for Isreal accept an indefinite ceasefire agreement, even a bad one.

Consider this: if the roles were reversed: Gaza had immense millitary strenght and Israel was the poor country, the Gazans would invade Isreal in a heartbeat and would care much less about Isrealli innocent civilians: for them the cause is holy, so it is justified to kill indiscriminately.

When I see how easily the Hamas uses their own population as sacrifices, I have doubts they really value their lives. Remember: the Gazan population elected the Hamas with more than 60% of the votes. It's not too farfetched to say a significant part of the Gazans think like the Hamas in terms of sacrifice, and by extension, how they value their lives.

In the end of the day, humans are like this. If faced with the option of saving oneself or another person, most people would choose themselves (unless it's a parent/child situation). In fact, in most jurisdictions, it's not a crime killing in this circustance, but a self-preservation act that nulls any penalty.

In the case of the Israel/Hamas war, Isreal will think of their citizens first and Gaza's citizen's last. And let's not fool ourselves: the Gazan population elected the Hamas with more than 60% of votes. I bet the IDF soldiers think of that before showing excessive pity towards the Gazan population.

I can't see how the UN and UNICEF can get to an accurate number for the number of casualities, as most bodies are in a zone of war. And just because a building was blown up doesn't mean there were civilians inside. Most civilians are in tents in refugee camps. I'm not trying to say there's no casualities in a war, but that it's impossible to count all bodies right now because of the warfighting, and there's probably bodies under rubble as well. Only when the war is over it'll be possible to get an exact number.

As a said, even if the professor isn't pro-Hamas, he's beholden by institutional pressure to either hide his pro-Isreal views, or be lax on the pro-Hamas views of the students. No matter the side they are, it's controversial either way. But just the pro-Hamas or Pro-Palestien side are allowed to express themselves freely without some kind of pushback or retaliation.

No. What I'm saying is that the pro-Palestine protesters in the western countries are, knowingly or unknowingly, boosting the pro-Hamas message in many cases. There are probably very few (if any) pro-Palestine protests that don't include the presence of some degree of pro-Hamas (and by extension, pro-Extermination of all Jews) people. This manifests either in the form of Hamas Flags, explicit anti-Israel flags and demonstrations, or chants of "from the river to the sea".

On the other hand, the pro-Israel protests are very focused on the defense of Israel territory/citizens and anti-discrimation against people of Jewish heritage. There's no explicit call to kill/expell all Palestinians. If there is, it is very fringe and the protestors themselves would certainly eject said person from the protest. At most, the most aggressive remarks are reserved specifically to the Hamas only.

Likewise, there's no independent verification when the Hamas minister of healthcare periodically announces the number of casualties, but the media tends to take it at face value as it was the crystalline truth. When this is most likely an inflated number to keep Israel in the worst light possible, and to exert political pressure for the USA to stop supporting Israel with weapons of war. It's all with the intent of the Hamas getting away with it.

The Hamas has a history of lying and deception in order to support the narrative in their favor.

There's the incident of Hamas accusing Israel of bombing an hospital last year, which the media widely reported as truth before checking, but in the end it was in a building a block away from the hospital. Since this embarrassment the media has been more careful before confirming anything coming from Hamas official sources.

Also the Hamas had a guy that multitasked as an News Reporter, Combatant, Healthcare Professional, Bloodied Victim. This was reported in social media, a guy from Hamas appearing in photos doing all those things in different occasions. Give this guy an Oscar already!

The Hamas does not hesitate to manipulate facts to confirm their intended narrative. Their track record is tarnished at this point. But, to be honest, an organization that takes hostages as a leverage to negotiate a ceasefire in a war they themselves started, from this point it was already very clear they'd do anything to achieve their goals. From using civilians as human shields to lying without shame, these things are just the cherry on top of the heinous acts they committed as the catalyst of the war. They were not trustworthy from the start.

And what you say about "IDF using Palestinians as shields" makes no sense. That's what the Hamas do, actually. The Hamas see their civilians as disposable sacrifice for a religious end. If an IDF soldier took a Palestinians civilian literally as a human shield in order to avoid being shot by a Hamas militant, the militant would shoot both of them without hesitation, because they see their civilians as sacrifices in a religious sense. Just an addendum, the Islamic State leaders used to say "we love death like you love life" as a point of comparison of the radical islamic worldview compared to the western worldview. That's the kind of thinking that drives the Hamas, and that's why they're not ashamed to call for the extermination of all Jews as if it's the most normal thing in the world.

About the deaths in the West Bank, I'm not too knowledgeable about this to comment further.

When they chant "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free", what do you think they want? Israel is located between said river and sea, so they want to exterminate all Israeli so the land is all theirs. The extermination of all Jews is codified in written form in the Hamas Constitution.

If there are people there who only want to advocate for the Two State Solution for Israel/Palestine, that's a fair point to make. But when these people, knowingly or unknowingly, mix themselves with people that carry Hamas flags and chant "from the river to the sea", then they're either useful idiots, or they're pro-Hamas while using the pro-Palestine cause as a cop out.

But I know what's the dominant doctrine in western universities related to the Israel/Hamas war. They're mostly pro-Hamas. I know there are students that don't condone this worldview, but they're strongly penalized by peer pressure and institutional pressure (try being pro-Israel knowing your professor is pro-Hamas... Your grades will surely be affected negatively). When there's incidents of students suffering antisemitism, the administration of those universities have shown they're extremely lax on the perpetrators. It's a systemic failure in respecting different worldviews, because there's an "official" one already.

That's why I'm saying these universities have lost a lot of credibility regarding anything related to this Israel/Hamas conflict, given the pro-Hamas protests occuring in university grounds, and the lack of any condemnation by faculty staff.

I don't support the indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza territory by the IDF. The IDF should practice restraint and act in a way to minimize civil casualties.

But, consider that the Hamas militants deliberately use civilian buildings (hospitals, schools, mosques, etc.) as their military bases, and try their best to blend in with the civilians, when international law dictates all combatants in a war should be wearing uniforms so as to avoid mixing civilians in the skirmishes.

Under those circumstances, and knowing that until the Hamas is anhilated there won't be true peace for Israeli civilians (risk of new missile attacks), it's only natural that Israel will keep pressuring for the destruction on Hamas.

Will there be collateral damage? Sure, like all wars there will be. Especially when Hamas is doing its best to maximize civilian casualties so the useful idiots in the west take pity on them.

Should Israel be scrutinized for their effectiveness in minimizing civilian casualties? Sure. But I don't think that we, living comfortably in countries in which there's no neighbouring nation trying to send missiles at us, should be in a position to demand they cease the war just because we want them to, or pressure them to accept any ceasefire deal that's not good for them. It's primarily up to Israel to decide what's best for the security of their citizens. And also for the security of their soldiers, which have families awaiting for their safe return home when this war's over.

In this scenario, I'd not blame the IDF if they're a little more trigger-happy than we would feel it's reasonable. It's easy for us to judge when we're safe and sound in our countries. But the soldiers are human too and they'll do what's best to preserve their lives. If a neighbouring country launched missiles against my country, I'm sorry for sounding cold, but I'd rather they die them my people die. Of course, I'd prefer if the military acted in a way to minimize casualties so as to preserve the innocent, but if being too careful in this quest endangers the soldiers of my country, I'd prefer my soldiers enhance their survival rate a little more than grant this benefit to the nation that attacked me first.