The problem is that some posters on here don’t consider Israeli and Palestinian civilian lives to be of equal value. It makes it incredibly difficult to have any conversation about morality and ethics.
I listened to LBC radio and James was having this exact conversation with a caller. He asked if Hamas were hiding in a hospital in Tel Aviv, would the IDF carpet bomb it? The answer was no of course not. Why? Because Israeli lives matter … and that was the point James was making. Human lives aren’t considered equal
I agree with you.
It is impossible to have a discussion about ethics during war with people who believe that fundamentally some innocent civilians are worth more than others.
That's what I've found quite concerning watching threads on here, how quickly it becomes clear that some posters believe that the race/religion/ethnicity of civilians affects whether it's acceptable to bomb them out of existence.
It's like there's three default responses to any criticism of the IDF:
- But the IDF told them to move south and they didn't move when they were told to, what are Israel meant to do?
- But it was Hamas' fault really for being in densely populated areas, something something human shields.
- But civilians are often collateral damage, there's no way to not kill some civilians, it's a war at the end of the day, the IDF haven't got any choice, what are they meant to do, wait until Hamas wipes the whole state of Israel out?
It always overlooks the reality of Gazan infrastructure, the high population density, the decades of issues affecting the people in Gaza, the difficulty for some people relocating during a war, the impossibility of moving during a war, the collective punishment regarding water, food, fuel, blockades on aid etc