'Erase Gaza': War Unleashes Incendiary Rhetoric in Israel - NYT

[VernaF]

Shock, grief and pain have cascaded across Israel since Hamas gunmen poured out of Gaza to kill an estimated 1,200 Israeli civilians and soldiers on Oct. 7. So have anger and a thirst for vengeance, which the country’s leaders are verbalizing in language that critics in Israel say often crosses the line into incitement.

“We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,” said Yoav Gallant, the defense minister, two days after the attacks, as he described how the Israeli military planned to eradicate Hamas in Gaza. “We’re fighting Nazis,” declared Naftali Bennett, a former prime minister.

“You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible — we do remember,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to the ancient enemy of the Israelites, in scripture interpreted by scholars as a call to exterminate their “men and women, children and infants.”

Inflammatory language has also been used by journalists, retired generals, celebrities, and social media influencers, according to experts who track the statements. Calls for Gaza to be “flattened,” “erased” or “destroyed” had been mentioned about 18,000 times since Oct. 7 in Hebrew posts on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, said FakeReporter, an Israeli group that monitors disinformation and hate speech. The phrases were only mentioned 16 times in the month and a half before the war.

Archive Link: https://archive.ph/Dd9El#selection-452.0-593.494

NYT Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/15/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-war-rhetoric.html

[Beastly Boy]

1. Inflamatory language has also been used by

US lawmakers, Ivy League university students, French dignitaries, Palestinian representatives, Hamas terrorists, Lebanese paramilitary groups, pro-Palestinian demonstrators, UN officials, NGO spokespeople, Islamist radicals and Iranian members of government, among others.

I have yet to see a single attempt to quantify this data or distribute it on MSM.

[inthewind21]

2. Of

you have. Or did that ALL come to you in a vision?

[Beastly Boy]

3. I don't know. Are reported statements from the mentioned sources finding their way into the mass media

all coming to me in a vision?

Well, must be something wrong with me or the media, but not the sources, right?

[David__77]

4. Netenyahu's reference to "Amalek" is very important, and it is the political basis for the war campaign.

“You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible — we do remember,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, referring to the ancient enemy of the Israelites, in scripture interpreted by scholars as a call to exterminate their “men and women, children and infants.”

In saying this, he provided an excellent example of the Israeli government's operating basis in this war.

[VernaF]

5. Have You Seen This ?

Bibi Netanyahu's Bible lessons: How he pushes Gaza war to Jewish and Christian far right - Salon

“You must ‘remember what Amalek has done to you,'” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admonished on Oct. 28, as he announced the “second phase” of Israel’s war in Gaza, the ground invasion that is now underway.

To many non-Jewish people around the world, the reference likely seemed obscure or meaningless. In the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, Amalek is a nation whose soldiers ambushed the Israelites as they made their way to the Promised Land. Following the attack, which the Israelites were able to beat back, God instructed them never to forget the near-catastrophe, and to wage an eternal war until no trace of Amalek’s existence remained.

Netanyahu is notoriously secular in his private life. But he is nothing if not a shrewd politician, and scripture is the language he has chosen to sell this war both to Jewish supremacists in Israel and right-wing evangelical Christians in the U.S.

The victims of Hamas’ vile Oct. 7 attack, in which more than 1,400 Israelis died, lived within what is sometimes called the “Gaza envelope,” meaning the sparsely populated regions of southern Israel along the Gaza border. It’s an area heavy with kibbutzim — Israel’s famous intentional collectives, traditionally based around agriculture — and its residents are known for being largely secular and left-leaning.

More: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bibi-netanyahus-bible-lessons-how-he-pushes-gaza-war-to-jewish-and-christian-far-right/ar-AA1jPSf9

[David__77]

6. I've seen material like that, yes.

I don’t think the US should be providing military aid under these conditions.