On October 7 last year, the al-Qassam Brigades of the Hamas Party-Militia, joined by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and some other small groups of militants, attacked Israel from Gaza. They took on Israeli troops and briefly occupied an Israeli military base, displaying the skills of a trained army and not just those of a ragtag guerrilla group. Had the al-Qassam Brigades stopped there, international law experts might be debating whether the operation was lawful, given the right of occupied people to defend themselves.
But, possibly influenced by the ISIL (ISIS, Daesh) doctrine of *tawahhush* or acting like wild beasts (in direct contradiction with the medieval Islamic law of war), Hamas operatives used hang gliders to attack a rave <https://www.juancole.com/2024/06/commission-inquiry-humanity.html> being held near some peacenik kubbutzes in southern Israel. They machine-gunned down hundreds of innocent civilians and chased them to hiding places, murdering them. The musical event was the “Supernova Sukkot Gathering,” held outside during the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret near Kibbutz Re’im. The kibbutzes in that region were known to be peaceniks and favorable to peace with the Palestinians. Some, almost miraculously, still are. They are Menschen. The militants also invaded kibbutzes and wrought a slaughter. Over 600 innocent, noncombatant Israelis were killed that day, in one of the worst war crimes committed by a non-state actor since the demise of ISIL in 2018. The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, which did not get the cooperation of the Israeli government, found that it was plausible <https://www.juancole.com/2024/06/commission-inquiry-humanity.html> that some victims were sexually assaulted. Hamas also kidnapped hundreds of people. Some of them were killed by Israeli troops, who had standing orders not to allow military personnel to be kidnapped even if it was necessary to kill them to prevent it. This “Hannibal directive” was, according to *Haaretz*, extended to Israeli civilians on October 7, so some of the civilian death toll was from the Israeli side. But it was likely a minor contributor to that death toll, given Hamas carnage at the rave. The Hamas militants injured 14,970 people and displaced 150,000 Israelis from their homes for months on end. Nothing can excuse or justify the act of terror committed by the al-Qassam Brigades and others that day. They should all have been tried the way war criminals were at the Nuremberg Trials. However, many observers have pointed out that it is misleading for our historical understanding of this epochal event and its even more horrific aftermath to begin history on October 7. Europeans and Americans see Israel through the lens of 20th century European nationalism, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust, such that Israel comes as a response to this European genocide. But that is a narrative of Zionist nationalists and those persuaded by them. https://www.juancole.com/2024/10/things-israel-october.html -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32756): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32756 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108870048/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
