+bonifartius 𒂼𒄄 @bonifartius@qoto.org

1. Israel has presided over the biggest massacre of children in the 21st century.

The method of that varies. That includes the Israeli military waiting until supposed targets return to their private homes and then blowing them up with their families, whilst knowing exactly how many children are present before they do so (https://www.972mag.com/lavender-ai-israeli-army-gaza/)

It includes sniper shots to the heads and chest of small children, as per the testimonies and evidence of dozens of US-based medics who served in Gaza:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/09/opinion/gaza-doctor-interviews.html

It includes desperate children being riddled with bullets by tanks in broad daylight just metres away from their car: https://forensic-architecture.org/investigation/the-killing-of-hind-rajab

Your attempt to claim any of this is simply an unfortunate byproduct of war is grotesque. These are war crimes committed against children, resulting in their mass slaughter and maiming.

And Israeli pundits go on TV and literally call for the slaughter of babies, including this analyst and former Israeli officer: https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1741069437518680399

Just today this prominent Israeli account celebrated the killing of a toddler: https://x.com/owenjonesjourno/status/1908130772399055291

2. Your claim that Hamas is actually responsible for any Israeli war crime is simply a means to offer carte blanche for Israel to commit any war crime it wants.

By your logic, Israel can commit any war crime without limit, because Hamas will always be held responsible for it.

Applied consistently in reverse, Hamas can simply argue that its atrocities on 7th October were a response to Israeli atrocities - including 240 Palestinians, 42 of them children killed before 7th October in 2023 alone - and that therefore Israel is actually responsible for all the war crimes it commits.

There is nothing novel about your defence of war crimes. Almost every perpetrator of war crimes justifies their atrocities this way. There is never any justification for war crimes. You cannot argue somebody made you commit a war crime. You are still guilty of a war crime.

3. 36 Israeli children were killed on 7th October, about 3.5% of the total. Every single one of these killings was a crime.

Many of these children were killed by unguided Hamas rockets. If that's a crime - which we both agree it is - then where does that leave guided Israeli missiles, where those firing the missiles know about exactly how many children are going to be killed before they press the button?

About a third of those killed in Gaza are children, the absolute number being many many thousands. Your view is that the 36 Israeli children killed on 7th October is intolerable - and you're right - but this far great number is completely tolerable.

If the method of killing is irrelevant, then why was there a need to spread the lie that Israeli children were beheaded on 7th October?

And if the method of killing is irrelevant, then if I claim that some of the thousands of Palestinian children who have been cooked alive, incinerated, blown apart, riddled with bullets by Israeli weapons were actually beheaded by Israeli soldiers - surely then you won't object?

If you then angrily denounce my claim that Israeli soldiers are beheading Palestinian children, can I respond that you're sick in quibbling over how they were killed? After all it's the fact they were killed that matters, isn't it - apparently the method of killing is irrelevant?

4. You are an apologist for one of the worst crimes of our age and people like you are only remembered as monsters.

https://bird.makeup/@avigarson/1908168524436287824