r/JewsOfConscience • u/PlinyToTrajan Non-Jewish Ally (Jewish ancestry & relatives) • Oct 19 '24
Discussion Questions about Sinwar's Death
- What they thought was an opposing soldier was heavily wounded and armed with a stick, which he threw at the drone. The I.D.F.'s response was to kill him with a sniper shot to the head and then bring down the building with tank fire.
Why haven't any Western journalists asked about what Israel's rules of engagement were? Was it legal to kill what appeared to be a badly wounded, dying enemy infantryman?
For months, reporters relied on U.S. and Israel intelligence assessments that said that Sinwar was hiding in a tunnel, surrounded by Israeli hostages, with whom he was protecting himself. This description tended to give an image of an insulated leader cowering in fear while putting ordinary people at risk. Instead, it's very plain that he died by chance, in combat with no hostages anywhere near. His corpse was diminutive; not a man who fed on ample rations. How much has the narrative been distorted?
Something written in the June, 2024 Wall Street Journal exclusive about Sinwar's private messages has stayed with me. "'Things went out of control,' Sinwar said in one of his messages, referring to gangs taking civilian women and children as hostages. 'People got caught up in this, and that should not have happened.'" Wall Street Journal, Jun. 10, 2024, "Gaza Chief’s Brutal Calculation: Civilian Bloodshed Will Help Hamas."
The description of the planning for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack as reported by the New York Times in its recent exclusive based on minutes of Hamas meetings went like this:
"At this point, preparations for the attack were roughly a month from completion, according to the June 2022 minutes. The plans included striking 46 positions staffed by the Israeli military division that guards the border, and then targeting a major air base and intelligence hub in southern Israel, as well as cities and villages."
"The leaders said it would be easier to target those residential areas if the military bases were overrun first — a prediction that proved to be correct on Oct. 7."
Did Hamas' high command, including Sinwar, plan a bloody slaughter of Israeli civilians, or did they have a different plan that went awry? Was it or wasn't it in Sinwar's nature to viciously and indiscriminately kill in that manner? With Israel's control of information and limitations on access for foreign press, the full story of Oct. 7, 2023 remains elusive.
Given the materials the New York Times has access to, minutes of a string of Hamas meetings in which the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks were planned, has it given an adequate account of whether Hamas high command intended to perpetrate atrocities?
- New York Times, Oct. 18, 2024, "What will become of Yahya Sinwar’s body?" "Israel often holds the corpses of Palestinians, hoping to use them in a future exchange with Hamas or other militant groups, just as Hamas has done with the bodies of hostages killed on or after the Hamas-led attack in Israel."
What the fuck?
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u/BadFurDay Oct 19 '24
Remember the claims that Hamas leaders were billionaires hiding in Qatar while Gaza burned? Hard to trust anything when these unsourced fake news make it around most of the media and social media world and people trust them.
Reminds me of the portrayal of Algerian FLN leaders by french colonial media during the Algerian war of liberation. They tried the same tactics to paint them as too greedy to be worth considering seriously.