Soapbox,

The perpetrators of the atrocities on Oct 7 were Hamas. It was also their aim to get Israel to retaliate so trying to paint Israel as the perpetrators is an outright lie.

The number of casualties in Gaza (nearly half of whom are Hamas militants) is largely due to the Hamas war crimes of using Gazans as human shields.

A ceasefire to allow Hamas to survive, to kill again and go unpunished is unacceptable.

There is an interesting article in The Australian on the issue of casualties. Hamas has a habit of falsifying records, while Israel is generally reliable. You can read the article at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/israelhamas-locked-in-data-war-over-true-mortality-figures/news-story/3cbdcc1dd1cd0684ea5a580c595edb85, and I have also uploaded a pdf of it to our server. http://onlineopinion.com.au//documents/articles/Hamas_Mortality_Data_The_Australian_24_01_02.pdf for those without a subscription to the Oz. It's a slight breach of copyright but I think this is an important enough issue to do it.

It details Hamas' history of doing exaggeratin, plus errors and inconsistencies in the data they are releasing at the moment. There are also complications in that Hamas often advertently and inadvertently kills its own citizens.

The argument that Israel is practicing genocide is self-evidently wrong. As is the argument that there is some sort of equivalence between murdering and raping unarmed civilians, and accidentally killing civilians during an armed conflict with a foe that does not abide by the laws of war and uses those civilians as shields, and cover for its own activities.

Those making those arguments are attempting to "globalise the intifada", ie to make it a civil war without borders. That makes them complicit in the genocide that Hamas advocates, and in the crimes it has committed. It also makes them enemies of civil society.

That there is a significant number of them, even some in our parliaments, and that they feel free to march in the streets and terrorise law-abiding citizens gives a pressing reason to denounce their lies. This is no ordinary political debate where good people can differ.

I agree this conflict appears not to be an ordinary
political debate. However, the best recommendations for
the throng of supporters on both sides, and those watching
on the sidelines, is to be careful what you believe and
the information that you share.

An article put out by United
Press International at the end of October 2023 for the Rand
Corporation, tells us to find trusted sources, corroborate
information where we can, be suspicious of emotionally
laden content or overly dramatic headlines, and take a
pause before posting or sharing.

For the belligerents, false accusations or even inaccuracies,
and disinformation will only undercut their cause.

Though truth is said to be the first casualty of war. It is
still the best weapon and as the international community
assesses the loss of civilian life, it will be critical to
cut through the mistruths and collect the cold, hard facts.
Unpleasant as they may be.

The war appears to have no immediate end in sight and the
mistakes, lies, and accusations, we're told will only grow.
Sadly this will surely obscure the true cost of the war
while the success of the Israeli operation and the fate
of Palestinian civilians will hang in the balance.

Finally....

The President of Harvard, who thought that, depending on the context, it was acceptable to call for a genocide against the Jews, has resigned in disgrace.

The left-world has become deranged in its hatred of the Jews, but some rays of hope remain.

Harvard President Claudine Gay, the first black woman
to be President of Harvard had a campaign against her
led by conservative activists and championed by
far-right extremist congresswoman Elise Stefanik whose
combative questioning of university presidents at a
congressional hearing went viral. The congresswoman has
claimed credit for the Harvard President's resignation
in a Fox News interview.

The congresswoman has been criticized for being against
diversity (code word for anti-black) and for her failure to
hold Donald Trump and other far-right and Republican
figures to account for their antisemitism.

Claudine Gay along with the presidents of M.I.T. and the
University of Pennsylvania came under fire for their
lawyerly responses to a live questioning from NY Republican
Rep. Elise Stefanik who asked whether "calling for the genocide
of Jews "would violate the college's code of conduct?"

In response Gay and the other presidents gave legalistic answers.
Gay said it depended on the context and that when "speech crosses
into conduct that violates our policies."

Gay later apologised and said that she got caught up in the
heated exchange that was directed at her.

"What I should have said had I had the presence of mind to do
in that moment was return to my guiding truth, which is that
any calls for violence against our Jewish community or
threats to our Jewish students has no place at Harvard and will
never go unchallenged."

More than 700 Harvard Faculty members signed a letter supporting Gay
who remains at Harvard as a Faculty Member

Well of course Foxy hastens to exonerate the Harvard president. Two reasons....

1. Supporting calls for the genocide of Jews is OK in Foxyland
2. Gay was also a proven plagiarist which is something Foxy does on a daily basis.. (this is the article most of Foxy's last post came from - http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/harvard-corporation-condemns-racist-vitriol-directed-at-claudine-gay-and-says-she-acknowledged-missteps-latest-updates/ar-AA1mlYxy).

Gay was appointed because she was black, a women and supported by the Obama crime family. She was always out of her depth and the testimony before congress showed it.

There were three Ivy league presidents at that Congressional hearing all of whom thought calls for Jewish genocide was OK. Two have now resigned. Perhaps there's hope for the US yet.