Baldrick, (aka armchair critic)

It is possible to criticise Zionism and Israel without being antisemitic. However, most of them that do this are raging racists and antisemites.

The litmus test brought up at the UN is whether the criticism of Israel is legitimate and equally applied to those Israel is fighting. Against this measure, you are a raging antisemite.

For example, Israel has dropped more than 40,000 bombs on Gaza yet the highly exaggerated death toll quoted by Hamas is 20 000. If the bombing was indiscriminate as the racists claim the death toll would be vastly higher.

The war crimes in Gaza are being committed by Hamas using civilians as human shields at gun point, by firing at civilians trying to get food etc. Let alone the barbaric killing of women and children in Israel.

" the mass slaughter of something like 20,000 of the innocent citizens of Gaza"

According to the IDF, at least 8500 of those killed were HamaSS soldiers. Innocent?

Difficult to understand why so many in the west think every Arab killed is an innocent life and every Israeli is a murderer. Difficult to understand how so many in the west have managed to memory-hole the massacre of 1200 Israelis only a few months back. But I guess that if you can rationalise that the massacred Israelis were guilty and the murdering Arabs were innocent, then any mind tricks are possible.

I was quoting the number as the general figure killed, which includes a large number of women and children. mhaze, how does the Israelis identify Hamas fighters from the general population, and where did the number of 8,500 come from? How do you rationalise the thousands of women and children killed so far.

"how does the Israelis identify Hamas fighters from the general population,"

I think they're the ones shooting back or throwing grenades or hiding in the myriad tunnels or manning the rocket batteries or hiding behind kids and burkas.

According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor the number of children dead in Gaza since 7th October is over 10,000. According to you the Israelis are engaged in some sort of hand to hand combat against identified Hamas fighters, so how do you explain the over 10,000 dead children. It wouldn't be the result of indiscriminate bombing of civilians by the Israelis by any chance. I think you are wrong on both counts, the Israelis are indiscriminately targeting civilians, and secondly they have no idea who are Hamas fighters and who are not, they don't have a clue as to how many Hamas fighter there are, or who they are, every person in Gaza is a target.

The sad truth is simple - there is no other way to finish off Hamas.

Hamas operates from and sets deadly traps in ordinary family homes and other civilian buildings, everywhere in the Gaza strip with no exceptions. Attempting to enter or even just pass by such buildings by infantry or even inside tanks, would cause enormous casualties which the IDF cannot afford.

So whenever troops detect or suspect a building with Hamas personnel inside, or that are trapped, they call in the air-force which flattens that building, and when a building is flattened, everyone inside is usually killed, including civilians if they stayed there along with Hamas and it traps - and quite often, Hamas would not allow them leave.

Israel reports at least 8,000 Hamas militants which have been clearly observed to be killed, but the actual number could be much higher, while Hamas counts only civilian casualties, so these numbers are mutually exclusive.