Thursday, May 30, 2024

Links - 30th May 2024 (2 - Hamas Attack Oct 2023)

Gaza Fatality Data Has Become Completely Unreliable - "In the first month of the war, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health (MOH) in Gaza relied on its existing collection system, made up primarily of hospitals and morgues, to certify each death. Starting in early November, however, hospitals in northern Gaza began to shut down or evacuate during the Israeli ground invasion, spurring the MOH to introduce a new, undefined methodology for counting fatalities: media reports. This methodology, which the MOH has rarely acknowledged publicly, accounts for the majority of fatalities reported over the past four months, surpassing the traditional collection system.  A comparison of the two methodologies, using MOH reports and claims published by the Hamas-controlled Government Media Office (GMO), yields wildly different and irreconcilable results, indicating that the media reports methodology is dramatically understating fatalities among adult males, the demographic most likely to be combatants. This undercuts the persistent claim that 72 percent of those killed in Gaza are women and children—a problem that has worsened since it was first noted by a Washington Institute report in January.  The result is that MOH statistics do not appear to offer a reliable guide to the actual Palestinian death toll even by the “foggy” standards of normal wartime reporting. Journalists, analysts, and government officials need to be aware that the actual overall death toll may be significantly higher (or, less likely, lower) than what the MOH has reported; the demographic composition of these fatalities is certainly far different than what the MOH claims... Despite known problems with the MOH central collection system (outlined in more detail in the author’s January study), it is the more reliable methodology because it involves identity verification and counting of actual bodies. Media reports, by contrast, are much more difficult to verify, regularly lack details necessary to determine the identities or disposition of those killed, and may double-count or miss many fatalities. The divergence between the two methodologies is perhaps best shown by how differently they have reported demographic details about Gaza deaths... data from the central collection system indicates a sharp decrease in overall deaths since November and a sustained increase in the proportion of men killed. In addition to the MOH’s growing reliance on the media reports methodology, these trends may reflect various factors on the ground, such as Israel’s shift from a primarily air-based campaign to ground fighting, the mass evacuation of civilians from the north to Rafah governorate, and the decreasing intensity of fighting in areas where the central collection system is still functioning. Such factors would be expected to reduce overall civilian casualties and therefore increase the proportion of adult men killed, since that is the demographic most likely to serve as combatants."

Meme - Stephen L. Miller: "Is a paid cable news information media host"
Chris Hayes @chrislhayes: "Wait: what"
Lara Seligman @laraseligman: "Wow: Ryder says "I do not believe" any of the aid that's been delivered through the pier has actually gotten to the people of Gaza"

Meme - Ari Ingel @OGAride: "Shani Louk’s body was just recovered in Rafah, Gaza.   This is her celebrating life at a music festival before she was brutalized and kidnapped by Hamas, who brought her lifeless body back into Gaza."
Southern Marxist @SouthernMarxist: "Maybe it’s just my Catholic guilt talking but I feel guilty eating a semi-bougie meal at a restaurant knowing there are homeless people in my city. Can’t even imagine “celebrating life” a few miles away from a concentration camp."
Paul Chato: "This concentration camp? *fancy condominium with nice swimming pool*
Meme - Memetic sisyphus @memeticsisyphus: "Whatever your opinions on Palestine or Israel may be, you should be able to recognize saying something like this about a random girl dancing at a concert captured and tortured to death makes you a scumbag. Progressives have such a strong friend enemy distinction. They'll jettison every previous value if it means defending one of their pet projects. They'll defend the most horrific murders imaginable because they disagree with the countries foreign policy. It shows who they really are.
"This may look bad but did you consider I don't like her country's government?" *Shani Louk's body at back of pickup truck*
When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time, when it fits the left wing agenda

Meme - Jaime Kirzner-Roberts @jaimekr: "A Jewish girl who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists then dragged half naked through the streets of Gaza so men could spit on her body is being mocked by millions today on social media. If you have never had to look this depravity in the eye, you don’t get to judge Israel."
"Rest in piss bozo"
"She was successfully sent to hell. Thank you Hamas <3"
"they're all dancing in hell right now"
"The world is better without her and her dirty ugly dreads"

Major bot networks promote anti-Israel influencers on X, report finds - "Areport by disinformation detection firm Cyabra found that an average of 25% of users interacting with popular anti-Israel influencers on the social media platform X are fake, 25% of which have been established post-October 7. Some of the main users promoted by these bot networks include Jackson Hinkle, Muhammad Smiry, Motaz Azaiza, Dr. Anastasia Maria Loupis, and Mohamad Safa, many of whom experienced a rapid and unusual rise in followers, views, and appearances on the X news feed, formerly Twitter. The report found that some of the bot networks promoting these influencers are themselves overlapping, implying that a single group, institution, or even a state is responsible for the amplification of these users despite their divergent viewpoints. Another finding revolves around the fact that many of these fake profiles actively interact with each other to boost the visibility of the anti-Israel influencers and themselves. The report also found that most of the content from the fake profiles has been created solely to amplify the influencers’ content by generating more comments on their posts."
Clearly, the "People" are against "genocide"

Greens under-fire for defying calls to suspend councillor who claimed Hamas 'had a right to fight back' - as party is told it will 'rue the day' it 'threw open the door' to hard-Leftists and militant pro-Gaza activists - "The Greens have been warned they are becoming a 'dustbin' for 'disgruntled hard-leftists' as well as 'unpleasant hardline Free Palestine activists' as fury grows over their refusal to suspend under-fire Leeds city councillor Mothin Ali. Since his win last week and subsequent speech where he proclaimed 'Allahu Akbar' ('God is greatest') before ranting about Palestine, questions over the Green's vetting process has been rife due to his past controversial remarks. Ali, a 42-year-old father of three, previously said Hamas 'had a right to fight back' against Israel, a claim that has been branded 'completely unacceptable' by Rishi Sunak. Mr Ali also called Leeds University's Jewish chaplain, Zecharia Deutsch, a 'creep', a 'low-life' and an 'animal' in a social media broadcast earlier this year before the rabbi went into hiding with his family due to death threats. Speaking to the i paper, Lord Mandelson said: ‘The Green Party is becoming a dustbin, a bit of a repository, not only for climate activists, but for disgruntled hard-leftists leaving the Labour Party and some fairly unpleasant hardline Free Palestine activists as well... However, the pro-Gaza activist, whose local Green Party conclave is resisting calls for his suspension, has insisted he does not support violence... 'I should also make clear that it is not unusual for somebody of my faith to use the words 'Allahu Akbar' as an expression of gratitude and celebration. 'Some have sought to misrepresent this and it suggests Islamophobia to me... The councillor had been allowed to stand for the Greens despite branding Israelis 'white supremacists' after the Hamas Palestinian terror group killed 1,200 people on October 7 last year. He was filmed shouting 'We will raise the voice of Palestine – Allahu Akbar!' after winning his council seat. The party has faced a string of calls to take action against him, including from Jewish leaders who accused it of hypocrisy for not distancing itself from his 'extremist nonsense'. Back in February Daily Mail feature writer Guy Adams presented the Greens with a dossier of offensive comments made by Mr Ali, including the tirade against Rabbi Deutsch, who was later forced into hiding. When presented with the evidence at the time, the Green Party told this paper it 'believes in free speech' and Mr Ali was allowed to stand, and win, as a councillor. But staggeringly, when asked about Mr Ali's offensive remarks in a television interview on Sunday night, Carla Denyer co-leader of the Green Party, appeared not to know about them... Analysis has showed that more than 40 councillors were elected in England last week after making the Middle East crisis part of their campaign. Mr Ali, a prominent YouTuber who works as an accountant and runs a gardening blog, sparked outrage in February after he released a video aimed at Rabbi Deutsch. Calling him a 'kind of animal', 'creep', 'absolute low-life', 'absolutely disgusting' and 'shameful', he falsely claimed he had tried to kill women and children in Gaza after temporarily returning to his IDF unit after the October 7 attacks."
"Fight back" doesn't mean fight back, even in the wake of a massacre, when it suits the left wing agenda. But of course Trump talking about a bloodbath was inciting violence
George Bush talking about a "crusade" was Islamophobia, even though that term is part of normal English. But if you talk about "Allahu Akbar", that is Islamophobia too
Of course, the Green Party doesn't believe in free speech for the "far right"

Most voters think shouting 'Allahu Akbar' is inappropriate for politicians - "Six in ten voters think it is inappropriate for politicians to shout “Allahu Akbar” or to praise God after winning an election, polling has found.  The finding came after a Green Party councillor provoked controversy by shouting the Arabic words—which mean “God is the greatest”—after being elected in Leeds in a victory he declared as a “win for the people of Gaza”... At the local elections earlier this month, Mothin Ali won the Gipton and Harehills seat for the Greens with 3,070 votes. Delivering a victory speech after the result was announced, he said: “We will not be silenced. We will raise the voice of Gaza. We will raise the voice of Palestine. Allahu Akbar!”  Following criticism of the remarks, Mr Ali later said he was “sorry for any upset my comments caused about the Gaza conflict”, adding: “It is not unusual for somebody of my faith to use the words ‘Allahu Akbar’ as an expression of gratitude and celebration.”  “Some have sought to misrepresent this, and it suggests Islamophobia to me.” However, the Greens have opened an investigation into the councillor after it emerged that he had previously described a Jewish chaplain at the University of Leeds, who was forced into hiding by threats from protesters, as a “creep” and a “kind of animal”, and referred to Israel as a “settler, colonial, occupier”... Fifty-eight per cent said that it is “inappropriate” for politicians to express religious sentiment, such as praising God or saying “Allahu Akbar” in their victory speeches, while 29 per cent thought it “appropriate”.  The only actions deemed more inappropriate are politicians attacking their own party’s policies (64 per cent) and not acknowledging their rival candidates (63 per cent) in their speeches... People who voted for Labour in the 2019 general election are significantly more likely than 2019 Conservative voters to say that it is appropriate for local politicians to campaign on foreign affairs when they are trying to be elected (52 per cent to 36 per cent).  After the local election results, some commentators voiced concerns about candidates putting Gaza at the centre of their campaigns, arguing that it was evidence of a growing sectarianism in British politics."
Clearly, most UK voters are Islamophobic. But any Christian language is evidence of impending Christofascism

9News Melbourne on X - "There were chaotic scenes in Melbourne after pro-Palestinian protesters stormed a Labor Party conference, forcing the Prime Minister and Victoria Premier into hiding. #9News"
Conspiracy News on X - "What's interesting is that Vic Labor did nothing about these protesters when they were disrupting the CBD every day, they condoned the behaviour with their silence. As soon as these same protesters ruin their little tea party, Labor cries about how they are a scourge of society."
Bina Reisz on X - "Why did the Victoria Prime Minister and Premier had to hide? Aren’t they supportive of these protests?"
More "peaceful protests"

Meme - Swann Marcus @SwannMarcus89: "Brie is now just straight up denying anti-gay hate crimes because inconvenient facts like these get in the way of the fantasy Palestine she's constructed in her mind"
"Gay Palestinian man who fled to Israel to escape persecution murdered and beheaded in West Bank"
Briahna Joy Gray @briebriejoy: "No record of gay "lynchings" in Gaza, but there's tons of evidence of targeted drone and sniper attacks against Arab children, medical staff, and women by Israel."

Open Source Intel on X - "WATCH Innocent and uninvolved Palestinian civilians from Burqa are attempting to stone an Israeli drone conducting surveillance over grazing lands in the Binyamin region."
Clearly, they are not attacking the IDF and all civilians who are casualties are victims of "genocide"

Thread by @sfrantzman on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "Israel's IDF said today that "The bodies of the hostages Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk, and Amit Buskila were rescued overnight during a joint IDF and ISA operation. Based on verified intelligence in our possession, Yitzhak Gelernter, Shani Louk, and Amit Buskila were murdered during the October 7th Massacre at the Mefalsim Intersection, and their bodies were abducted to Gaza." This is a reminder that Hamas has not been charged with crimes against humanity yet and it continued to receive a lot of backing from intl NGOs...and it is ALSO a reminder of how so many voices tried to prevent an IDF operation in Gaza because they wanted to let Hamas keep holding bodies as leverage, just as Hamas did with the bodies of Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, which Hamas illegally held for a decade and which Hamas continues to hold. The criminal organization Hamas holds living and dead hostages in Gaza. In some cases it took them to medical facilities where they were likely seen by all the intl orgs that work there...but those orgs have a kind of omerta with the Hamas cartel...and so they don't speak up about this group. A number of NGOs continue to talk about Hamas as "law and order" and praise it quietly...how is it "law and order" to parade the dead body of a person through the streets as Hamas did with Shani Louk on October 7. What I don't understand that there isn't one condemnation for what Hamas did from the Red Cross, UN or so many of these groups. Many NGOs continue to quietly partner with Hamas and prefer Hamas rule to the PA. Why? There is something deeply disgusting about it."

Samsung, LG, Hyundai, Korean Air on alert as Israel battles Hamas (Oct 9, 2023) - "The Israel-Hamas war, which broke out on Saturday after the Palestinian militant group launched an abrupt attack, has put Korean companies doing business there on alert for potential damage and disruptions to their operations. As a consequence, Korean companies are now preparing to evacuate personnel, according to industry officials"
Terrorism supporters were claiming that Samsung withdrawing in April showed their boycott had succeeded, when it was a sign that terrorism works

Israel Has Created a New Standard for Urban Warfare. Why Will No One Admit It? - "The Israel Defense Forces conducted an operation at al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas terrorists recently, once again taking unique precautions as it entered the facility to protect the innocent; Israeli media reported that doctors accompanied the forces to help Palestinian patients if needed. They were also reported to be carrying food, water and medical supplies for the civilians inside. None of this meant anything to Israel's critics, of course, who immediately pounced. The critics, as usual, didn't call out Hamas for using protected facilities like hospitals for its military activity. Nor did they mention the efforts of the IDF to minimize civilian casualties. In their criticism, Israel's opponents are erasing a remarkable, historic new standard Israel has set. In my long career studying and advising on urban warfare for the U.S. military, I've never known an army to take such measures to attend to the enemy's civilian population, especially while simultaneously combating the enemy in the very same buildings. In fact, by my analysis, Israel has implemented more precautions to prevent civilian harm than any military in history—above and beyond what international law requires and more than the U.S. did in its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The international community, and increasingly the United States, barely acknowledges these measures while repeatedly excoriating the IDF for not doing enough to protect civilians—even as it confronts a ruthless terror organization holding its citizens hostage. Instead, the U.S. and its allies should be studying how they can apply the IDF's tactics for protecting civilians, despite the fact that these militaries would almost certainly be extremely reluctant to employ these techniques because of how it would disadvantage them in any fight with an urban terrorist army like Hamas. The predominant Western theory of executing wars, called maneuver warfare, seeks to shatter an enemy morally and physically with surprising, overwhelming force and speed, striking at the political and military centers of gravity so that the enemy is destroyed or surrenders quickly. This was the case in the invasions of Panama in 1989, Afghanistan in 2001, Iraq in 2003 and the failed illegal attempt by Russia to take Ukraine in 2022. In all these cases, no warning or time was given to evacuate cities. In many ways, Israel has had to abandon this established playbook in order to prevent civilian harm. The IDF has telegraphed almost every move ahead of time so civilians can relocate, nearly always ceding the element of surprise. This has allowed Hamas to reposition its senior leaders (and the Israel hostages) as needed through the dense urban terrain of Gaza and the miles of underground tunnels it's built. Hamas fighters, who unlike the IDF don't wear uniforms, have also taken the opportunity to blend into civilian populations as they evacuate. The net effect is that Hamas succeeds in its strategy of creating Palestinian suffering and images of destruction to build international pressure on Israel to stop its operations, therefore ensuring Hamas' survival... Israel has made over 70,000 direct phones calls, sent over 13 million text messages and left over 15 million pre-recorded voicemails to notify civilians that they should leave combat areas, where they should go, and what route they should take. They deployed drones with speakers and dropped giant speakers by parachute that began broadcasting for civilians to leave combat areas once they hit the ground. They announced and conducted daily pauses of all operations to allow any civilians left in combat areas to evacuate. These measures were effective. Israel was able to evacuate upwards of 85 percent of the urban areas in northern Gaza before the heaviest fighting began. This is actually consistent with my research on urban warfare history that shows that no matter the effort, about 10 percent of populations stay. As the war raged on, Israel began giving out its military maps to civilians so they could conduct localized evacuations. This, too, has never been done in war... I saw that the IDF even tracked the population in real time down to a few-block radius using drone and satellite imagery and cell phone presence and building damage assessments to avoid hitting civilians. The New York Times reported in January that the daily civilian death toll had more than halved in the previous month and was down almost two-thirds from its peak... the real figure could be closer to 1 to 1. Either way, the number would be historically low for modern urban warfare. The UN, EU and other sources estimate that civilians usually account for 80 percent to 90 percent of casualties, or a 1:9 ratio, in modern war (though this does mix all types of wars). In the 2016-2017 Battle of Mosul, a battle supervised by the U.S. that used the world's most powerful airpower resources, some 10,000 civilians were killed compared to roughly 4,000 ISIS terrorists. And yet, analysts who should know better are still engaging in condemnation of the IDF based on the level of destruction that's still occurred—destruction that is unavoidable against an enemy that embeds in a vast tunnel system under civilian sites in dense urban terrain. This effects-based condemnation or criticism is not how the laws of war work, or violations determined. These and other analysts say the destruction and civilian causalities must either stop or be avoided in an alternative form of warfare. Ironically, the careful approach Israel has taken may have actually led to more destruction; since the IDF giving warnings and conducting evacuations help Hamas survive, it ultimately prolongs the war and, with it, its devastation... all available evidence shows that Israel has followed the laws of war, legal obligations, best practices in civilian harm mitigation and still found a way to reduce civilian casualties to historically low levels. Those calling for Israel to find an alternative to inflicting civilian casualties to lower amounts (like zero) should be honest that this alternative would leave the Israeli hostages in captivity and allow Hamas to survive the war. The alternative to a nation's survival cannot be a path to extinction."
The flip side is that whatever Israel does, terrorism supporters will hate them anyway, so they might as well take off the kid gloves

Alan Meyer's answer to Does Israel's response to the October 7 attacks prove everything that the Palestinian resistance has been telling us all along? - Quora - "Indeed it is. Absolutely!  Here are some of the things the “heroes of the resistance” say about Israel:
Salah al Aruri himself, Hamas second in command hiding in Lebanon (now killed) said: “I admire a people who will exchange 1,000 arab prisoners for one of their soldiers”
Israel does not torture their arab muslim prisoners.
Arab terror prisoners get two square meals a day
Arab terrorists can watch TV in a communal area at stated time of evening Israel lets some arab muslim prisoners study for PhDs while in captivity
Arab muslim terrorists have full AND IMMEDIATE access to the best Israeli medical attention when required. After all Sinwar was treated for cancer ( a brain tumour…) in Israeli prison…..
Unlike the “heroes of the resistance”, the Israelis do not shoot their prisoners and leave their bodies to rot in tunnels
The Israelis do not sexually assault their female prisoners or deny ill prisoners medication as appropriate
It is true that arab muslim terror prisoners in Judea are allowed family visits at the discretion of the prison commander
The Israelis do not shoot arabs from neighbouring arab villages who pass through checkpoints into Israel and do not lynch or physically tear arabs limb from limb (literally) if they stray into Israel illegally. They mean like the 2 Israeli reservists who were literally butchered alive in Ramallah in 2000 because they took a wrong turn into the town 👇👇👇
The Israelis do NOT hand out sweets or dance in the streets if the IDF kill a terrorist in Tulkarem, or Jenin, or Hebron or Nablus.
All these things the “heroes of the resistance” who raped Israeli women and girls, burned babies, slaughtered families and mutilated grandmothers have been telling us about the Israelis all along are indeed proven true."

Thread by @Aizenberg55 on Thread Reader App – Thread Reader App - "🧵CRITICAL GAZA CASUALTY FINDINGS: UN published 24,686 “identified” Gaza fatalities based on Hamas list of names and IDs. However 4,063 (16%) persons have missing, false or duplicate IDs. Some were even listed as killed in 2014! Detailed analysis of fake "identified" deaths:
On May 5 Hamas “Ministry of Health” released 498 page PDF with 24,682 names (not 24,686) supposedly each person rigorously identified with valid IDs based on actual bodies as opposed to “unidentified” deaths which actually means bodies are missing too. 1693 claimed fatalities, which are supposed to be fully identified by name and ID according to the UN, are missing an ID number (at center). Just blank. Here is one sample (see p. 428). Without an ID they should of course be considered "unidentified" based on UN criteria.  821 claimed fatalities have less than the required 9 digit ID number. Another 16 claimed deaths have 10 digits. For example, here is a group of claimed fatalities with preposterous nine consecutive numbers all with incorrect 8 digits (from p. 264). 1522 claimed fatalities have invalid ID numbers proven by incorrect check digit. You can’t just make up any 9 digit ID, the final digit must follow a formula of first 8 digits. These invalid IDs thus appear faked. There are far too many to be just a few data entry errors. Here is an obvious example of faked ID numbers: 3 consecutively recorded deaths of people born five years apart with consecutive ID numbers (see p. 159). Falsification is proven since every set of first 8 digits can only have one 9th check digit. All three are wrong. Next, there are 9 duplicates in the list. Again, with these deaths supposedly identified body-by-body by Ministry of Health this is already too many errors. Here are two examples of duplicates from the same document, far right shows the row number. Final category: 2 deaths already reported in Gaza in 2014 are again reported as deaths today! See Palestinian WAFA website list of “martyrs” from 2014 war. Here are screenshots of 2 ID's from 2014 list of deaths and from 2024 list. They aged 10 years. Fakery of deaths has been evident from day one, even the so-called “identified” deaths the UN deems fit to certify shows 1 of every 6 claimed fatalities in error. That’s not a “margin of error” but deliberate falsification. @chrislindmeier Mr. Lindmeier, care to comment? END"
I still see terrorism supporters parrot the zombie statistics to support terrorism

The UN's Gaza Statistics Make No Sense - The Atlantic - "Between May 6 and May 8, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) revised its estimates of how many women and children had died in Gaza. The numbers appeared to drop drastically: first, it reported at least 24,000 dead women and children, and two days later, it reported exactly 12,756 “identified” dead women and children. One could be forgiven for wondering whether the UN had raised about 6,700 Gazan children and 4,500 Gazan women from the dead... For about two months, OCHA had been repeating numbers from Hamas’s Government Media Office, and on May 8 it switched back to Hamas’s Ministry of Health, its source at the beginning of the war. The Ministry of Health is acknowledged to be the more reliable of the two, and it is unclear why OCHA switched to the worse of the two sources, or switched back. A UN spokesperson, Farhan Haq, later explained that the Ministry of Health was “for whatever reason, given the conditions on the ground, unresponsive.” But the Ministry of Health kept publishing statistics in the interim. OCHA didn’t use them.  On Wednesday, Haq said that the UN had “difficulty” verifying Hamas’s numbers but was adamant that the number of total dead remained the same. There was, he said, a “reduction in the number of identified bodies.” To clarify, to the extent possible, Haq seems to be arguing that there are just as many dead Palestinians as before, but many have now lost their identity? Haq makes the discrepancy sound like a minor correction. But the UN so drastically reduced the count of identified women and children that it amounts to an admission that it had been spreading deficient numbers for months... Neither Hamas source, Adesnik writes, has fully explained where it gets its estimate of the number of unaccounted-for dead: more than 10,000 people. During the war, hospitals have stopped functioning, and keeping people alive has taken higher priority than keeping defensible statistics. But these numbers matter—first, because of the dignity of those killed or still living, and second, because total deaths and the ratio of combatant to noncombatant deaths will have implications for judgments about alleged war crimes and genocide. This is one of those moments when the fog of statistics could be dispersed with just a few sentences of straight talk, of the sort rarely uttered by spokespeople. The UN numbers changed because the UN has little idea how many children have been killed in Gaza, beyond “a lot.” It gets its statistics from Hamas. Where else would it get them? There are no independent epidemiologists in Gaza right now doing the survey work, house to bombed-out house, that would yield reliable numbers. So OCHA used unreliable ones. It never concealed its sources, but it distributed even the most questionable numbers under the UN name.  Operating a statistics laundromat for Hamas’s media wing is embarrassing. But the absence of alternatives is also concerning."

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