-
-Ukraine clearly honed their comms style to appeal to a western audience. It seems Israel didn’t have any such planning in place for a possible war.
Israel aren't analogous to Ukraine in this situation. They are the other guys.
Edit: I agree on the lack of context - it's a completely polarised narrative:
Hamas were using those ambulances to transfer weapons.
Hamas have a strategic base under that hospital.
We told all these civilians they should leave (to where?)
-
Israel aren't analogous to Ukraine in this situation. They are the other guys.
The comparison I was making was not so much who’s the historical aggressor, but rather their strategic approach to eventually needing to portray their position in a context that Western countries can relate to. Ukraine clearly had a communications playbook ready for an eventual Russian invasion; didn’t Israel have one? Apparently not, and they were caught unprepared.
I agree with your point about the narrative Israel is putting out. I’d politely caution against losing sight of the other fact that Hamas claim to have tens of thousands of fighters and stores of weaponry that they intend to use imminently against Israel. They’ve also said that protecting Palestinian civilians is the UN’s job, not theirs. This doesn’t justify Israel’s brutalising of two million civilians, but it begs the question: what is Israel to do against a perfidious, sworn enemy, happy to attack from behind a thick human shield?
This is all for discussion purposes. I am very much against how Palestinians have and are being treated.
-
Israel aren't analogous to Ukraine in this situation.
Agree with this.
They are the other guys.
Don't think this follows though. Israel hasn't just decided to invade apropos of nothing - they were the victim of a huge attack, which itself was in the context of over a century of friction between two main groups in the same area.
Thoughts from a friendly discussion today:
-Israel is not coming across as a country with which NATO countries should share nuclear capabilities or know-how.
-Ukraine clearly honed their comms style to appeal to a western audience. It seems Israel didn’t have any such planning in place for a possible war.
-Israel isn’t giving any context for their actions. They aren’t giving numbers on Hamas fighters killed, or the profiles of commanders killed, or even how many attackers actually invaded Israel a month ago. This plays to Hamas’ hand because all we can see is the horror of civilian casualties. I’m not saying that it would excuse these gross numbers of dead civilians, but in the battlefield of public opinion, which can shape geopolitical realities in the Middle East that later lead to worse conflicts, they’re letting Hamas indirectly control the narrative.
Misplaced the source but one of the big intl news agencies quoted a Hamas leader saying they had 40,000 fighters in Gaza. That’s half the size of the UK Army. Afaik Israel hasn’t said anything to help the public understand the scope of the threat they face (beyond the horrifying images of the 7/10 slaughter)