As a father of a soon-to-be-4-year-old, that picture tears me up inside. I can't fathom losing my son, especially not in this way. That goes for both sides of this fucking terrible thing.
Remove all context from that photo. That's what I see. Whether staged or not, children on both sides are experiencing these things. Once you become a parent, providing you wanted to be one intentionally, you see all children, not just your own, as innocence and any perception of grief for the loss of that child as personally identifiable and deeply felt. We, as a species and society, have lost our humanity if we look at a picture like that, no matter the context, and don't immediately feel sadness for the known innocence lost.
That's where we differ. It's our cold indifference, or our insufferable need to justify or define our world, that drives us to conclude that, "sure, the picture is sad, but what if this photo is staged to garner sympathy for terrorists." To me, I don't have to believe anything about the context to know how distraught I'd be as a parent in that situation. I don't need to know if it is or isn't doctored to gain support, be it for the state of Israel or Hamas.
I see a man, could be a father, could be a stock photo (it matters not), holding a child (or large sweet potato for all I know) wrapped in cloth, and I'm moved to tears because I can put myself in that place, in that moment, in that grief. I can acknowledge that the photo I'm seeing may not be legitimate, but that doesn't make it less likely to represent real fathers mourning the loss of their child and how I would feel in that moment; how absolutely devastated I would be; how I wish for all of it to end.
That's empathy, my friend. It doesn't see sides. It doesn't push agendas. I can feel that empathy strongly, mourn with that man intensely, and grieve with the very real fathers who have had to bury their innocence, whether this photo is real or not.
I want you to know, I did not down-vote your comment(s). I understand that this whole conflict, situation, and world sucks. All I can do is hope for a peaceful resolution while I hold my child for all the fathers who no longer can.
These are victims of hamas and its actions in the first place. Israel's attacks are not unprovoked. Even though it sucks to know people are dying, context is important to understand better why it happened and how similar stuff could be solved.
Yeah the context is Israel as an apartheid state. Forgot that part I guess..
What's really funny is the rethoric of Israel as the soirce of security for all Jews - only has been for decadea the biggest reason why Jews are attacked all around world.
The irony.
Fuck it. Assume I agree Israel are bloody monsters who want to enslave everyone around. This doesn't change my message to hamas: "stop building rockets, you idiots, whenever you use them you only get more Palestinians killed".
Anything you might have to say about Israel does not change what I said to hamas idiots even a bit. It's not about Israel, it's about idiots and their poor choices. They are incapable of managing their own lives effectively and don't care about Palestinians' lives either.
Would you really like to exchange videos like that? I can drop you stuff with Palestinians being happy firing rockets, staging scenes for false victim reports etc.
In the end, it's all about doing what's better for your people or not, being terrorists or not. Hamas are very much below what anyone would call "adequate". Israel is nothing like that.
Would you really like to exchange videos like that?
Do you have any videos showing a massively-funded, western-backed military machine bombing Israeli hospitals and refugee camps filled with Israeli people?
This attack by Hamas has done a lot to widen the cracks appearing in the west's pro-Israel propaganda effort - the fact that you are here trying (and failing) to patch the gigantic holes in that sinking propganda ship is proof.
Oh, look... another white supremacist that only started caring when Israelis started dying! You sure came out of the woodwork when that happened, didn't you?
So you support such aggression?
I am perfectly fine with the colonized defending themselves from colonizers using all means available to them.
Your thinly-veiled pearl-clutching is fooling less and less people these days, isn't it?
Oh, look... another white supremacist that only started caring when Israelis started dying! You sure came out of the woodwork when that happened, didn't you?
Where were exactly those people, who look like they care about Palestinians, all these years? It almost looks like they started dying just recently too.
I am perfectly fine with the colonized defending themselves from colonizers using all means available to them.
I'm, too, perfectly fine with people performing mass suicide and making lives of their fellow citizens worse as the only result. I just can't help calling them stupid for that.
You're right. No one should trust the IDF. War crime after war crime. They're the worst plague on the planet since Isis, but actually have the backing of major world powers because they got their guys to weasel into the top of every nation's government.
Anyone speaking out against their narrative, from the UN to newspapers are being cancelled.
These are Gazans. They're not trained Hollywood actors dude. Look at the grief on their faces. That's REAL. If it's not real in this picture (for whatever reason), it's real in thousands more. The stats alone show how many people have had to hold their dead children in their arms like this.
It's disgusting. It's Genocide. No people who suffered at the hands of Nazis in WWII, should ever perpetrate this kind of hell on someone else. Israel has forgotten everything. Their ancestors would be ashamed.
but actually have the backing of major world powers because they got their guys to weasel into the top of every nation's government.
So they found something that works for them. It's better than building nothing but rockets.
These are Gazans. They're not trained Hollywood actors dude.
Oh. I'm sure both celebration of launching missiles and tears of receiving them back are sincere.
No people who suffered at the hands of Nazis in WWII, should ever perpetrate this kind of hell on someone else. Israel has forgotten everything. Their ancestors would be ashamed.
Palestinians should have not attacked Israel in the first place. They forget each time this happens that it only brings more tears. Their god is already sad by their attempts that only hurt themselves, and maybe doesn't even approve.