The administration claimed that blocking arms transfers would embolden Hamas — ignoring Israel’s genocidal slaughter.

  • webghost0101
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    41
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 month ago

    What is the argument here?

    We cant stop giving weapons of mass destruction to this genocidal terrorist government, because otherwise this much smaller terrorist group may commit slightly bigger but still comparably very small acts of terror?

    They try to make a point that its pressure so hamas releases hostages ignoring the fact that this war itself is embolstering support for hamas as freedom fighters against the tyrannical israel. They want the US to give weapons to Israel because it helps their propaganda.

    • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      18
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      1 month ago

      What hostages? Does anyone really think there are any left alive and not either killed by Israeli bombs, starvation or straight up knifed by hamas out of anger/frustration/convenience?

      • xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        I mean I’m inclined to believe so, given both hamas and Israel claim it’s the case

        Hamas are incentivised to not kill them arbitrarily (or put them at risk of being killed in Israeli strikes) because it’s their primary bargaining chip, and Israel are incentivised to avoid targeting them for political reasons

        • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          8
          ·
          1 month ago

          Yeah but you’ll notice the first two methods of hostage death I mentioned would not require Israel to have targeted them, but would be natural outcomes for how they are conducting their military actions.

          • xor@lemmy.blahaj.zone
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            4
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            Sure, but you’ll notice I explicitly referenced that when I said hamas is incentivised to minimise risk of them being hit by Israeli strikes, especially by keeping them separately in members’ homes and in tunnels. The same goes for starvation, in that, if at all possible, hamas actively wants to keep them fed enough to survive, where that isn’t at the cost of starving to death themselves.

            You’re right that some/many (maybe even most, I have no data wrt specific numbers) of the hostages have, and will continue to die due to Israel’s actions, but that’s significantly different from your initial claim of “every single hostage is dead”

    • zephorah@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      What hostages? I always just figured this was a no hostage return we never stop full well knowing there’s no longer hostages to return.