Israeli unit tasked with smearing Gaza journalists as Hamas fighters – report

It’s pretty clear that October 7th was the excuse the Israeli leadership was waiting for. They finally have causus belli to pacify Gaza one way or another. They might not raze it to the ground, that would have bad optics, but they’re certainly going to try to make life there unpleasant enough that the locals won’t protest too much if they’re forcefully relocated elsewhere.

A lot of western commentators are up in arms about the mistreatment and suffering but they’re missing the bigger picture: that’s the point. The suffering is the goal, not a side effect. The quiet part has been said out load enough (thanks Trump!) that we can’t act surprised.

What actually happens in the next couple of years hinges on how much political capital Bibi has left and how hard the general populace of Israel protests the atrocities committed in their name.

One minute after you made that statement, the Israeli propaganda brigade seems to have discovered this post and seems fully dedicated to proving your claims

>I don't understand where they think this is going ...

This statement could be taken two ways: 1) it's purely rhetorical, i.e., there is no possible explanation for what Israel is doing and there literally is no possible way to do any analysis of it, or 2) it's a statement of lack of knowledge, i.e., I don't understand this; maybe someone else can explain it to me.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume #2.

The way to understand the Israeli point of view is to read the Israeli press and listen to Israeli political analysts, of which there are many. That shouldn't be a controversial statement.

For English-language news and commentary from the Israeli point of view, you can read the Jerusalem Post https://www.jpost.com and the Times of Israel https://www.timesofisrael.com . No firewalls.

I found this recent podcast particularly informative. You don't have to listen to it; if you open it in an appropriate podcast app you can get the transcript:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/defining-victory-with-...

I don't understand what's happening on either side, honestly - even as someone who pays fairly close attention, almost none of the reporting strikes me as reliable.

For example, this article is referencing another, published by "the Israeli-Palestinian outlet +972 Magazine". Right off the bat, I'm suspicious of their motives due to their location and its politics. The Guardian article couches statements as "reportedly" and gives an example of "[...] at least one case the unit misrepresented information [...]"

So I went to the source. It relies on unnamed sources. That's understandable, but this isn't an outlet that I'm familiar enough with to judge whether or not they're trustworthy.

The specific example the Guardian mentioned read like this in +972:

    “They said: during the day he’s a journalist, at night he’s a platoon commander. Everyone was excited. But there was a chain of errors and corner-cutting. 

    “In the end, they realized he really was a journalist,” the source continued, and the journalist wasn’t targeted.

I... can't see anything to be upset about there. Israeli intelligence investigated someone, found insufficient evidence to believe they were guilty, and did not target that person. That sounds pretty reasonable to me.

This is not to say I trust pro-Israeli media, either. I don't. Articles I read there are similarly couched in "weasel words", making unsupported assertions and insinuations while carefully avoiding concrete statements.

T his articale includes ..... Al-Sharif wrote in his final message, posthumously published on his social media accounts. “I have lived through pain in all its details, tasted suffering and loss many times, yet I never once hesitated to convey the truth as it is, without distortion or falsification.”......

Did he ever post criticism of Hamas?

claims predate death of hamas and pij members by almost 1 year https://www.ynetnews.com/article/hjiotyul1x

Every non favorable article about Israel is flagged on HN eventually.

This is misinformation. There are independent journalists in Gaza, many of them have died reporting on the war: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

Photos of someone holding weapons in an effective war zone is not evidence of any group membership. There's so many reasons why a journalist would be talking to soldiers and talking about their weapons/training. Not even limited to journalists and war - obviously these are terrorists, right? https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-congressman-posts-family...

They didn't raid Israel on 7 Oct, they raided own stolen homes.