Letter sent to defence minister and IDF chief says assault on city ‘appears to be nothing short of recklessness’
The parents of more than 900 Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza have signed a letter urging the military to call off an offensive in Rafah, calling it a “deadly trap” for their children.
“It is evident to anyone with common sense that after months of warnings and announcements regarding an incursion into Rafah, there are forces on the other side actively preparing to strike our troops,” says the letter, sent on 2 May.
“Our sons are physically and mentally exhausted,” adds the letter, addressed to the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi. “And now, you intend to send them into this perilous situation? … This appears to be nothing short of recklessness.”
The letter was initially signed by the parents of about 600 soldiers but in recent days the parents of another 300 have signed it.
Man, when I was studying in the US there was this girl from Israel, she was super sweet and nice, very extroverted. During a party she shared her Facebook and a someone noticed she had a picture with a gun and she talked about how she had to go through training for a year and even showed us how she could carry the heaviest guy there using what she learned.
The one guy asked her about Palestinians (why, just why). I swear I never saw someone change her demeanor so quickly. The sweet woman became pure hatred in one second, she started talking how they were less than human, murderers, just pure evil and should wiped off the face of the earth, how they were the reason she and other young people had to go through compulsory military training. That was one wild thing to see, and it was clear that hatred was passed down to her since she was young and didn’t seem to have gone through much.
This alienation is what gets me. Yes, there is organic and there is fabricated propaganda all over the world, all peoples and cultures have some sort of conflict with another, in the past or ongoing. That will get passed down, to some extent, every generation. But what is the thought process in declining to give the benefit of the doubt to a whole people with very different individuals, some of them are kids, young men and women in their blooming years, going through the same personal problems such as this girl you mention. Do they consider all of them inhuman, even when reminded with the reality of the diverse population? How do they justify thinking this? Do they consider those kids to be future Hamas fighters only? Do they consider those women Hamas breeders only? How can someone have their own lives and be able to understand their societal group at that moment, but not be able to apply the same solidarity to the same civilian that hates the idea of conscription on the other side of a border? If they decide to not apply this solidarity, or at least the thought of giving the same class of individual a benefit of the doubt they would seek themselves if they were on the receiving side of a gun, how do they consider their actions and thoughts to be the right ones?