steve

¹ Remember the famous IPC report claiming that Gaza - especially the northern part - is "facing imminent famine"? Well, turns out that on June 4, the Famine Review Committee (FRC) published a new analysis that, as far as I could see, received ZERO coverage in the media - apparently, because its conclusions are not consistent with the apocalyptic narrative pushed by the "humanitarian organizations" in the last few months. 🧵 ipcinfo.org/fileadmin/user_u…

I saw the disgusting and truly sick video of Hamas's fighters abusing the Israeli female soldiers at the Nahal Oz base. I won't be sharing it here, but I wanted to offer some thoughts: 1. Leading the post that published the video (On the "Israel" Twitter page) with an editorialized mistranslation was truly puzzling (these are girls you can get pregnant). The video is awful enough and terrible on its own; why insert this statement, which was not stated, nor was it indirectly inferred? 2. "Sabaya" does not refer to "young girls" as some have alleged (that word is with a ص and not a س). Sabaya refers to female captives who are effectively enslaved possessions of conquerors on battlefields. The concept of Sabaya is especially troubling because the doctrine behind it allows for the sexual abuse and rape of female captives. So yes, the Hamas fighter saying that in the video was referring to the enslavement of these captives. 3. There's a bizarre, gross, sad, pathetic, and inhumane obsession by some to focus on the mistranslation and textual inaccuracies instead of the real issue with the video: a brutal and vile group of fighters abusing, terrorizing, and mistreating dazed, bloodied young women who should not have been treated that way. If, after seeing the video, your takeaway is to focus on a false translation, you are a participant in the horrendous dehumanization game that plagues both sides of this conflict. You can be both horrified by the awful & horrendous killing taking place in Gaza without engaging in whataboutism to dismiss the true horror and evil seen in this video. 4. There's missing outrage that should be directed at the Israeli commanders who let these young women fall captive and didn't provide any support or reinforcement to the base, which was overrun for hours by Hamas. So be furious at Hamas but also livid at the incompetent and pathetic IDF leadership that allowed a ragtag militia to humiliate supposedly marvelous armed forces for hours and capture female soldiers. That no one has yet to be held accountable for the security failures on Oct 7 is an absolute scandal. 5. Hamas is not ISIS politically, strategically, and otherwise. But their Islamist ideology has numerous components that are just as vile, evil, sick, twisted, violent, and despicable as ISIS. I say this because when people cheer on Hamas's supposed "resistance," they are in an indirect way supporting a derivative of extreme Islamist ideology that has nothing to do with the Palestinian national project or the aspirations for dignity, freedom, and independence. I never thought that the Palestinian cause would be associated with such vile and grotesque acts that I believed would be relics of the last century. 6. Even if these were female soldiers, and they were not involved in combat, to mistreat women like this is not only criminal and disgusting, but it goes against the fundamental values of Arab and Muslim societies, which respect the holy sanctity of women's bodies and spaces. Imagine the outrage if Israeli soldiers did this to Palestinian women. Now, before you go off on me, yes, Palestinian women have experienced violence and mistreatment at the hands of Israel's military, and that's long been documented. But there's something exceptionally horrific about up close and personal/highly targeted and personalized violence in the way we saw in the video that is genuinely unprecedented. Two wrongs don't make a right; if you saw that video and thought it was justified because these are soldiers and are "prisoners of war," you've sadly lost the plot and your humanity. Think of how Naama Levy, who was truly & sincerely interested in peace and coexistence with Palestinians, was telling the fighter that she has friends in Palestine. This is another dimension to the horror of October 7: the attack targeted numerous individuals who were not hateful adversaries of the Palestinian people and killed many peace activists in the Gaza Envelope communities. 7. The most important outcome of the video should be immense and unrelenting pressure to restart the ceasefire and hostage exchange deal to get these young ladies released from Hamas's captivity as soon as possible. While this video can and does make one's blood boil with rage and fury, these feelings and energies must be meaningfully harnessed to push for a positive outcome. The hostages must be released, ideally immediately and unconditionally. But we know that's not the case; they will only be released through a deal. That might be difficult for some to accept, but it's the only way to get those young ladies and all the other hostages released. Hamas is a despicable, deadly criminal enterprise that has harmed the Palestinian people and cause and is an embarrassment to humanity and the Arab world. It deserves nothing but contempt, condemnation, and critique. Shame on anyone who's not repulsed by that video, regardless of mistranslated/misrepresented text. Ceasefire and hostage deal now!