I am Praying for True Shalom in the Middle East Following Justice for All Sides, Including But Not Limited to Standing With Israel's Right to Defend Itself in Gaza & Eradicate a Terrorist Organization

I am praying for shalom (peace, but more than peace) in the Middle East, a time when the fighting can end, remaining hostages are released, the terrorism can be stopped, and when civilians will stop being killed. I am praying not for a temporary ceasefire, but for lasting peace after justice is accomplished, including deposing a US Department of State Foreign Terrorist Organization from power, so that they stop using child soldiers, stop killing each other via misfired rockets & wired explosives/mines, encouraging other terrorist organizations to use human shields because of how successful that campaign has been internationally, etc.

I stand with Israel's ability to defend their people against brutal terrorist forces bent on Israel's destruction in the face of perhaps the heaviest usage of a wide-scale human shield campaign than perhaps any that has occurred in my lifetime by Hamas to shift public opinion their way. Most of the world cannot empathize with what Israel is facing because they have never faced a wide-scale human shield campaign like this one. Those that fall for the documented war crime of Hamas are feeding right into what they hoped for when they positioned military throughout civilian populations. Doing so encourages more terrorists to employ those tactics.

Any Allsides Media Bias scores are for the pertinent news sources that they come from in general. Most news agencies quoted below lean left of dead center (0 score).

Why Instant Peace at All Costs is Not Always a Good Idea When Injustice is Present: The Birth of World War II via Appeasement Following Injustice

At the end of World War I, severe punitive damages crippled the German people via severe reparations. These reparations were unsustainable, and the economy quickly crumbled as inflation spiked. These unjust reparations meant to punish were the birth pains of World War II. Before World War II started, "Appeasement" was the primary tactic used with Germany. People didn't want another war, but the cost of not going to war was very high when war eventually erupted, allowing the Nazis time to strengthen in a way that they wouldn't have been able to if the Allies were more "trigger-happy", aka more wise and less "pacifist at all costs" as a reaction to the horrors of World War I.

Hamas Has Been on the US Department of State Foreign Terrorist Organization List Since 1997

https://www.state.gov/foreign-terrorist-organizations/

What the Tunnels Under Hospitals Show Regarding the Complexity of the Situation and the Naivity of The Opposition to Israel Regarding Israel Going Into Gaza Hospitals

"evidence examined by The New York Times suggests Hamas used the hospital for cover, stored weapons inside it and maintained a hardened tunnel beneath the complex that was supplied with water, power and air-conditioning."

Hamas Has a Long History of Lies to Inflate Civilian Deaths:

Excerpt from 2014 by US News & World Report

Hamas Lies

And the media believed it.

By Oren Kessler

|

Aug. 12, 2014, at 8:00 a.m.

"Hamas lies systematically, instructing civilians to misinform the foreign press. It lies habitually, with a formidable record of mendacity from previous conflicts. And it lies guiltlessly, convinced that the objectives of ‘resistance’ supersede quaint notions of truth-telling.

Nonetheless, since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge over a month ago, Western media have relied on Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry – as here, here and here – for casualty tallies. As one reporter told the Washington Post, when it comes to body counts, the Hamas Health Minister Ashraf Al-Qidra is "the only game in town." 

For his part, Qidra has acknowledged that he considers any fatality who has not been claimed by an armed group as a civilian. And for its part, the Hamas leadership almost never admits its operatives have been killed – and instructs Gazans to do the same. Consequently, Qidra’s running total labels three-quarters of Gaza deaths as civilians.

The result has been thundering condemnation of Israel for “indiscriminate” bombing (according to the United Nations Human Rights Council), and even targeting civilians deliberately (as per The Guardian). “The world stands disgraced,” bellowed the head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency on July 30, in words run by The Guardian in a banner front-page headline the next day. Human Rights Watch charged Israel with "collective punishment," and even the United States – the Jewish state’s closest friend – lamented, "Israel has to do a better job to avoid civilian loss of life."

After nearly a month, however, the media has belatedly cottoned to the Hamas game. Over the last week The New York Times, Al Jazeera and the BBC – none of them traditional redoubts of Zionist fervor – have begun casting doubt on their own previously reported statistics."

What About the Total Casualty Comparisons?

It's not a question of total casualties, as Hamas intentionally made that one-sided by heavily integrating civilians with military. Israel is trying to create a society where an attack like the one that occurred will never happen again. If Israel had stopped after killing 1500 Hamas terrorists, it would have only given Hamas time to regroup and mount a more severe attack than ever. Israel's past benevolence toward the people of Palestine has been betrayed, really, really badly. They now are more united than ever about doing what needs to be done to put a stop to terrorism.

See also below:

2019 Publication by NATO StratCom COE on Hamas' Extensive Use of Human Shields...

January 2024: "You're Being Misled About the Gaza Death Toll | Opinion" - Newsweek

Per Newsweek opinion piece:

"We all grieve the horrendous loss of life in the Israel-Hamas war. And it is imperative that news organizations provide an accurate description of who those casualties are—and who is responsible..." (continued in quotes in drop downs below)

Major News Organizations Often Don't Mention Source of Civilian Casualty Count, a Documented Pathological Liar

Major news organizations including NPR, CNN, CBS, and NBC repeatedly state that over 20,000 have been killed in Gaza. Yet they usually omit that this figure comes from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry and includes at least 8,000 Hamas terrorists. The Gaza Health Ministry, by its own admission, doesn't distinguish between combatant and civilian deaths. Instead, the Gaza Health Ministry includes combatants in its total death toll. In fact, that 8,000 figure, which accounts for 40 percent of the casualties, might be low; looking at the 2014 Israel-Hamas war, human rights organizations, including those that routinely criticize Israel, found that up to 60 percent of deaths had been combatants."

Gaza Health Ministry Lumps All Palestinian Casualties Together, Including Friendly Fire from nearly 2500 terrorist launched rockets crashing in Gaza strip

"The "Gaza Health Ministry" also does not distinguish between Palestinians killed by Israel and those killed by Hamas. Rockets launched from within Gaza fail often, landing back inside Gaza. As even Human Rights Watch acknowledged, the rockets used by Hamas "are prone to misfire" and "have misfired and struck areas in Gaza." Research has consistently found that up to 20 percent of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) rockets land in Gaza. Given that there have been over 12,000 rockets fired from Gaza by Hamas and PIJ since October 7, this means nearly 2,500 terrorist-launched rockets have crashed in the densely populated Gaza Strip."

Highest Casualty Event of War (after initial strike on Israel) was a Hamas Mishap at a Hospital, as Confirmed by US, France, Etc., While Gaza Health Ministry Counts it Against Israel

"The highest reported casualty event of the war was the explosion at the Al-Ahli hospital on October 17. Yet the AP, Human Rights Watch, and U.S. and French intelligence all concluded that the explosions there were the result of a failed rocket launched by a Palestinian terrorist group from within Gaza. And still, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry states that 471 Palestinians died at the hospital from "Israeli aggression.""

Hamas Fight in Civilian Clothes

"Israeli soldiers on the ground seek to shoot terrorist combatants while avoiding civilians. Yet this effort to avoid shooting civilians is made incredibly difficult because Hamas soldiers routinely fight in civilian clothing—a violation of the laws of armed conflict."

Child Soldiers Add to the Death Toll

"Furthermore, media reports almost never mention that Hamas has a long history of recruiting and using child soldiers. Footage recently seized during Israel's operations in the Khan Younis area of Gaza found extensive documentation of the use of child soldiers, including videos of minors being used by Hamas to transfer explosives and use automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

The U.S. State Department's 2023 human trafficking also reports that "armed wings of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas have allegedly recruited and used children."

Hamas's long history of training children to kill, arming them, and sending them into combat makes it even more difficult for Israeli soldiers to discern combatant from civilian. When a child soldier dies, blame should fall on Hamas for using children in battle in contravention of international law. Instead, the Gaza Health Ministry includes the death of child soldiers in their toll of child death, for which they blame Israel.

It is a tragedy every time a child is killed in war, which is precisely why Hamas's use of child soldiers is a war crime."

Hamas Admits Openly That Their Strategy Depends in Part on Maximizing Civilian Casualties

Conclusion

2019 Publication by NATO StratCom COE on Hamas' Extensive Use of Human Shields since 2007 is Critical to Any Understanding of the Situation

Here's a NATO publication from 2019 regarding Hamas's documented war crimes of human shield usage since 2007. By embedding militants and military installations throughout civilian populations, they make it much more difficult for Israel to perform strikes effectively, increasing Israel's costs, increasing the number of fatalities that they will inflict on Israel if Israel wants to try to still fight without killing too many people, and increasing pressure from those outside the conflict against Israel when civilians are killed.

https://stratcomcoe.org/publications/hybrid-threats-hamas-use-of-human-shields-in-gaza/87

An example from the report is where Israel telgraphs where they are going to strike a building, and then within hours, unarmed populations flooded the roof, making it necessary for Israel to not strike the facility at the time.

What is the NATO StratCom COE & What Nations are Part of It? (i.e. US didn't join until 2020)

Per the site:

"NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence is multi-nationally constituted and NATO-accredited international military organization, which is not part of the NATO Command Structure, nor subordinate to any other NATO entity. As such the Centre does not therefore speak for NATO."

"The Centre is staffed and financed by its sponsoring nations and contributing participants. The centre was initially founded by

Latvia,

Estonia,

Germany,

Italy,

Lithuania, 

Poland, and the

United Kingdom in 2014.

The Netherlands and Finland joined in 2016,

Sweden in 2017,

Canada in 2018 and

Slovakia in early 2019.

Denmark and USA joined in 2020. 

Hungary joined in 2021,

but France and Australia have initiated the joining process."

I didn't see an Allsides rating for them.

Hamas' & Houthi Use of Child Soldiers

Hamas Use of Children is 1 of 5 key parts to their strategy, per NYT investigation

"Hamas’s strategy relies on" 5 things according to an article by New York Times. Here's one of them:

"Ambushing Israeli soldiers with small groups of fighters dressed as civilians, as well as using civilians, including children, to act as lookouts"

Houthis are Using the Gaza Conflict to Recruit Soldiers, Including Children

As reported by the Orion Policy Institute, Houthis in Yemen, supporting the Palestinian cause, have been recruiting, & have included hundreds or thousands of children in their military ranks. When the ICC is investing & prosecuting, the Palestinians & Israelis aren't the only ones that should be investigated.

Orion Policy Institute

"Our mission is to promote good governance, advance human rights, and improve policy through high-quality research. OPI seeks to generate practical and sustainable solutions based on multi-disciplinary, diverse, and in-depth scientific research and analysis. We address a broad range of issues including national and global security, democracy, human rights, political and economic development, peacebuilding, conflict resolution, and various other issues at the local, national, and global level."

https://www.orionpolicy.org/about-us

I didn't see an Allsides rating for them.

Hamas Militants Increase Civilian Deaths by Often Fighting in Civilian Clothing

(repeated from above - "Hamas Use Children")

"Hamas’s strategy relies on" 5 things according to an article by New York Times. Here's one of them:

"Ambushing Israeli soldiers with small groups of fighters dressed as civilians, as well as using civilians, including children, to act as lookouts"

Hamas Militants Increase Civilian Deaths by Integrating Rigged Explosives into Civilian Infrastructure, per (left-leaning NYT) investigation

"Hamas’s strategy relies on" 5 things according to an article by New York Times. Here's two of them:

• "Leaving secret signs outside homes, like a red sheet hanging from a window or graffiti, to signal to fellow fighters the nearby presence of mines, tunnel entrances or weapons caches inside;"

• "Using civilian homes and infrastructure — including medical facilities, U.N. offices and mosques — to conceal fighters, tunnel entrances, booby-traps and ammunition stores;"

I Support Conditional Fueling of Hospitals to Mitigate Support to Hamas While Providing Humanitarian Aid: Hospital Fuel Request a Cover for Hamas Seeking Fuel, & Hospital Refusing Fuel from Israel Reportedly

"Nov 12 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel had offered fuel to Gaza's Al Shifa hospital, which suspended operations after running out of fuel, but that the militants had refused to receive it.

Netanyahu was asked by NBC News whether Israeli allegations that Hamas had a command post under Gaza's main hospital justified jeopardizing the lives of sick people and babies.

"On the contrary, we offered actually, last night, to give them enough fuel to operate the hospital, operate the incubators and so on, because we (have) no battle with patients or civilians at all," Netanyahu said."

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/netanyahu-says-hamas-refused-israeli-fuel-offer-gazas-shifa-hospital-2023-11-12/

Both Israel & Hamas should be investigated and prosecuted if convicted of war crimes & terrorism.

In the past 24 hrs Netanyahu has shared about a tragic mishap that killed a few dozen people. That was not intentional though. There will be collateral damage, but that collateral damage is exponentially increased intentionally not by Israel, but by Hamas. Israel still has the right to defend itself. If we ever experience a similar situation, it's possible that we will better empathize with what Israel is going through.

Also, what the ICC is saying Israel has done that Israel is denying makes me think that Israel could be in the wrong regarding some crimes and that they should be investigated further, & prosecuted if convicted.

Amnesty International alleges that Israel is guilty of "Apartheid". It should be investigated, and if true, dealt with via prosecution etc.

The formation of Israel includes what appear to me to be terrorist-style acts by Israelis. That formation should also be investigated, and if true, prosecuted, w reparations to victims if there are truly innocent victims & descendents of those victims. That said, reparations to those who respond with terrorism doesn't appear to make sense either, & identifying the truly innocent victims who haven't responded with terrorism could prove difficult.

The % of deaths that would appear to be along the lines of terrorism and war crimes would seem to heavily favor Israel as perpetuating a lower % of it than Hamas. The effort to prosecute should be spread relatively equally between Israel & Hamas, not exclusively focused on Israel. Heavy usage of human shields & usage of child soldiers may be Hamas' greatest war crime, causing more loss of life than what they did directly to Israel on Israeli soil.

I Support the US Pressure on Israel to Provide Aid to Gaza, but not an Outwardly Imposed Mandate for Commerce (& Inherently, War Fueling Capital) to flow From Israel to Gaza.

While I believe that Israel rightly claims that aid goes in part to Hamas militants, I believe that aid should go to Gaza and that the US is right to pressure Israel to allow that. In addition, I believe that the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is right in claiming that the UN "does not have enough workers to move aid to warehouses for timely distribution." I do not believe that Israel should be forced to allow commercial goods to go through their territory to Gaza, as commerce in Gaza brings capital that helps buy guns, rockets, and ammunition that helps fuel the war more than food and water does.

See for reference:

https://apnews.com/article/israel-gaza-war-hamas-aid-trucks-unrwa-30173642b5c298c829f1457db357071e

Do I Support Biden's Position on This Issue? Mostly

While there are many ways that I don't support Biden, & I wish that Biden had stronger support of Israel, I support the majority of his stance with Israel, and am glad that he is a more moderate Democrat than many who would not be supporting Israel as much as he is.

Why Should Hamas be Eradicated & How Have They Admitted to Intentionally Provoking Israel to War That Would Lead to Civilian Casualties to Discredit Israel?

"Israel launched the war after Hamas infiltrated Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people including children and the elderly, taking hundreds of hostages, and committing atrocities including rape. Since then, the group has vowed to repeat the attack. Israel is doing everything it can to avoid the deaths of innocents, its leaders say, but they are unavoidable when Hamas forces use virtually the entire Gazan population, including those in hospitals, as human shields. “How can we fight Hamas without having civilian casualties?” says Yaakov Amidror, a former IDF general. And without destroying Hamas, Israeli leadership argues, you condemn the country to more massacres and send a message to other hostile powers in the region, like Iran, that terrorism works. “That cannot be the future of the Middle East,” agrees Dennis Ross, a former Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiator who served in multiple U.S. administrations."

"Reminding the world what happened on Oct. 7 has been at the heart of Israel’s effort to explain its war effort to an increasingly skeptical public....The sheer barbarism of it, which included the rape and mutilation of women and the murder of babies, is one reason Israel is determined to eliminate Hamas. If Israel allows Hamas to survive after perpetrating a pogrom, Israel's leaders reason, it’s only a matter of time until Hamas or other enemies do it again. “There is no future for the Jewish people or the State of Israel in a world where genocidal terrorists can invade Israel and abduct babies from their beds, burn whole families alive, torture children in front of their parents and get away with impunity,” says Levy."

"But the hasbara effort is struggling in the face of massive civilian casualties in Gaza. The Islamist group embeds its military installations within densely populated neighborhoods in part to increase civilian casualties, Israeli officials say. "They seek to maximize casualties on their side, because it's effective," says Ophir Falk, a foreign policy adviser to Netanyahu. "If there are a lot of civilian casualties on their side, it's easier for them to win the propaganda war."

Hamas officials all but acknowledge the strategy, saying they launched the Oct. 7 attack to provoke a major military response by Israel they expected would produce civilian casualties. Israel had been on the cusp of a diplomatic agreement to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia that would have marginalized Iran and its proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah. Hamas was determined to stop it. “We planned for this because Israel thinks it can make peace with anyone, it can make normalization with any country, it can oppress the Palestinians, so we decided to shock the Israelis in order to wake up others,” Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official, told TIME in the aftermath of the attack. “Now they want to destroy everything. This will cost them. It will cost them very much.”"

"the IDF’s punishing air and ground campaign rallied millions of young people whose views have been shaped less by the Holocaust than by the decades of Israeli dominion over Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. TikTok and other platforms have become bastions of pro-Palestinian content to youthful audiences who see Israel not as the victim in the conflict but as the oppressor."

https://time.com/6549544/israel-and-hamas-the-media-war/

I pray the Palestinian people will be free from terrorist leadership, out of poverty, and less susceptible to death, but the cost for that is not an easy one when their leaders are supportive of terrorist policies and when the people of Palestine primarily support those leaders. I pray that the usage of human shields by terrorists will not become much more widespread in light of public opinion towards Palestine where Hamas plan to inflate civilian deaths in order to wage a more international campaign against Israel has worked extremely well.