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surume ◴[] No.39147721[source]
Hi All, I am a combat soldier and commander in the IDF currently fighting in Gaza.

We are not committing any genocide. The give away for Genocide is that there are mass graves, which in Gaza there are not.

Yes there is collateral damage because Hamas uses civilians as human shields, so we have no choice but to kill them too, but we do not specifically target them.

We risk ourselves and our soldiers to ensure that the fewest number of non-combatants get killed. We have lost many of our own soldiers because of this. It would be much easier for us to just bomb everything from the air but we dont, because it's less precise than going in on foot.

Personally, as a commander, I would like to say that I have no ill feelings towards the Palestinian people, but we need to get as many of the hostages back as possible, and we cannot allow Hamas to continue ruling Gaza and attacking our civilians as they did on October 7th.

We will continue the fight with them until our military objectives are met, and we will also engage Hizbollah on the northern border for exactly the same reasons (Hamas actually stole their plan and used it on October 7th - Hezbollah had planned to do it in the north but much worse).

Israel is the canary in the coal mine. What happens to us today will happen to you tomorrow, so before you give your full throated support to Hamas, let me ask you, would you want October 7th to happen to your family and friends? If Hamas aren't stopped, that same attack will happen around the world.

Please support us and help rid the world of violent terrorism, and maybe one day, we can all live in peace.

Shabbat Shalom!

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tomp ◴[] No.39147884[source]
Hi there, I personally admire the work you do, I fully support Israel in it's war against evil, I hope you eradicate Hamas (ideally they would all surrender, but that's unlikely, so the other option is they get killed) as soon as you can. If you doubt any of these words, check out my tweets/likes (@tomprimozic)

However, there's 3 "contentious" points that I want to ask (my go-to Jewish (& very pro-Israel) close friend is currently very far away and has his own issues - not that you don't, but since you posted here...)

1. What's your comment on "Hamas headquarters below Al Shifa hospital"?

2. Why do IDF soldiers shoot (and post) videos of them "mocking"/"disrespecting" Palestinian homes/mosques/schools?

3. What's the steelman argument of why Israel is "occupying" the West Bank? The best I can come up with is "they didn't occupy Gaza and look what happened", but (a) that wasn't known before Oct7, and (b) they would have IMO gained a lot of goodwill abroad if they had given it more autonomy...

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surume ◴[] No.39148082[source]
Thank you for the kind words. Will reach out when I get home next. Been a long day - we did a big mission today and I'm wiped so please excuse the short answers.

1. Hamas was located in a significant want under Al-shifa. Israel released video of our commando unit raiding it. You can find that video online. Hard to watch.

2. Because they're angry and they're being stupid and reacting emotionally. Please understand, they raped our women, tortured them and then murdered them. They did the same to our men, old people and children. Imagine for a second if a specific group did all that to lots of people that you loved and cared for. How would you feel? What would you post as you took your revenge? Israel is a tiny country. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone is related to everyone, or is at least friends with them on some way. So the disrespect is because they are furious with our enemy, and our enemy identifies specifically as religious muslims and arabs. Hard stuff.

3. Oh wow that's a hard one. It's complicated. We're in a war to claim territory with the Palestinians. I mean, you could reverse the question and ask "why are the Palestinians occupying Israeli land". The Palestinians arent a people, per se. They are the random groups of different arab families that were living in the area at the time of the creation of the state of israel. Some are from iran, some from Syria, some from Jordan, egypt, etc. so we are not "occupying" their land because there is no "them".

Really what needs to happen is that we need to be separated. We can't continue to live in an intermingled fashion like this because it's too messy and unsustainable.

But.... that's a problem for another day. For today we just need to deal with Hamas and Hezbollah.

Good night =)

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Sporktacular ◴[] No.39150914[source]
> "I mean, you could reverse the question and ask "why are the Palestinians occupying Israeli land".

How? The West Bank, Golan. This is not the State of Israel's land. Never was. But it's being taken regardless. Israel's security justification might be taken seriously if it wasn't simultaneously supporting settlers who steal land. Stop them and you will find more international support.

> The Palestinians arent a people, per se. They are the random groups of different arab families that were living in the area at the time of the creation of the state of israel. Some are from iran, some from Syria, some from Jordan, egypt, etc. so we are not "occupying" their land because there is no "them".

This borders on racism and it still doesn't make the land they occupy yours. You need a stronger clam than conquest or an old book.

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nerpderp82 ◴[] No.39151042[source]
Just put this right on the shelf, "The Palestinians arent a people, per se."

I can't even. Genocide isn't just killing a people, it is also de-peopling them. So many in the entire comment section don't even know they are saying the quiet part.

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surume ◴[] No.39155910[source]
Nope. The definition of genocide is: "the deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group." We are not doing that. You can see it by the fact that we arent bombing the places that the innocent civilians are escaping to. We only bomb positions where hamas is or is attacking from. They are using human shields, while we are trying to protect palestinian lives even at the expense of our own
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throw__away7391 ◴[] No.39159069[source]
I believe that this is the single worst comment I have ever read on this site.
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surume ◴[] No.39159798[source]
Aweee... your compliments are too nice. I'm blushing. Thank you.
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1. throw__away7391 ◴[] No.39162620{3}[source]
My country has given Israel billions upon billions of dollars and transferred advanced weapon systems and yet you guys were overrun by some dudes wearing slides flying second hand paragliders. Now after killing tens of thousands of civilians in retaliation, bombing hospitals and refugee camps with US made weapons (as it seems that the only part of the IDF that actually works is the US supplied part) you're here explaining why what you're doing technically isn't genocide.