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Comment by machina_ex_deus | Hacker News Reader

[flagged]

The IDF literally killed three of those hostages without provocation. They don't give a shit about hostages except as a PR tool.

9/11 killed 3k people

I don't have the full context of the thread here, but it sounds to me like you're saying '9/11' was at scale x, and therefore a benchmark is established for acceptable 'repercussion cost.'

If that's what you're saying, I guess I'd flag that the 'repercussion cost' for 9/11 is still very much open to debate, and there is significant data to point towards almost every step the US took as a reaction to 9/11 being problematic, ranging from who was targeted, what the collateral impact was, and whether it actually solved any of the underlying problems.

3k out of 300 million, so 1 in 10000.

1k out of 8 million is 1 out of 8000.

Every person in Israel knows someone who knows a victim personally. Think how deep this trauma is to Israel.

The civilian count of October 7th was 695 people. Not that that makes it any better, but it's about a 50% increase to push it to 1000. The population of Israel is about 9.5 million. So your actual ratio is closer to 1 in 13500 or so.

If we're keeping the scales, then an October 7 situation happens in the Gaza strip every time about 170 die. I think if you look the numbers of the current and historical conflicts it might help shape perceptions.

OK, now do 37k out of 2 million

You missed a zero in 9/11’s case.

Also, I wouldn’t go into such numbers, because if these matter, then actions of Hamas are very easily justifiable. The story is way more complex than these numbers.

They've proven a lack of interest in the hostages. They've actively refused deals that involved the return of the hostages, and repeatedly carried out operations that put the hostages in danger.

Hamas will never return hostages on its own. It needs them to stay in power as insurance against destruction by Israel. Unfortunately, that means an offensive into central Gaza camps where some of the hostages are believed to be held and also Rafah ...

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