Blinken denounces civilian toll in Gaza, says ‘far too many Palestinians have been killed’ | CNN Politics
www.cnn.com
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday declared that “far too many Palestinians have been killed, far too many have suffered these past weeks” – one of his most direct condemnations of the civilian toll in Gaza.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday gave one of his most direct condemnations of the civilian death toll in Gaza and said more needs to be done to “minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”

Although Blinken commended Israel for its announcement of daily military pauses in areas of Northern Gaza and two evacuation corridors, he said that “there is more that can and should be done to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”

The top US diplomat has subtly shifted his messaging in the days since he departed the Middle East earlier this week to more directly voice condemnation of the civilian toll in Gaza and the US’ expectations for the Israeli government. However, he still has not condemned the Israeli government offensive and has continually voiced support for its right to defend itself.

  • DarkGamer
    -6•8 months ago

    What’s needed is genuine Humanist and Democratic values

    Humanist Values
    As in, abandoning theocracy and religion? I agree. I’ve often said that peace will be achieved there when both parties can sit down and share a ham sandwich, only half joking because doing so would mean they have both abandoned their religious dogma.

    Regarding a secular government, neither party has one but Israel seems a hell of a lot more secular than Gaza, whose government appears to be enforcing something like Sharia Law on the people there:

    Following Hamas’ victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and a conflict with supporters of the rival Fatah party, Hamas took complete control of the Gaza Strip, and declared the “end of secularism and heresy in the Gaza Strip”
    Ismael Haniyeh officially denied accusations that Hamas intended to establish an Islamic emirate. However, Jonathan Schanzer wrote that in two years following the 2007 coup, the Gaza Strip had exhibited the characteristics of Talibanization, a process whereby the Hamas government had imposed strict rules on women, discouraged activities commonly associated with Western culture, oppressed non-Muslim minorities, imposed sharia law, and deployed religious police to enforce these laws.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamism_in_the_Gaza_Strip

    And then there’s the religious oppression of secularity. Islam is very intolerant to those who wish to become secular/leave the religion, as per their rules regarding apostates:

    classical Islamic jurisprudence calls for the death penalty of those who refuse to repent of apostasy from Islam
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam

    Both of these are major barriers to ending this conflict via shared humanist values.

    Democratic values
    They won’t help end this conflict unless popular opinion changes. At present it seems this war and belligerence is popular in both nations.

    According to polling, the majority of Palestinians want to:

    • Destroy Israel (70%)
    • Deny Jews equal rights in their one-state solution (76%)
    • Continue violent resistance, reject peaceful solutions (52%)
    • Employ guerilla/terrorist strategies to do so (58%)

    Israeli polling shows:

    • Israeli Jews do not support peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (fell from 47.6% in favor in September to just 24.5% in favor in late Oct 2023.)
    • Israeli Jews said that they believed the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were using too little firepower in Gaza (57.5%)
    • Israeli Jews do not support a two-state solution (dropping from 37.5% in favor of a two-state solution in September to 28.6% at time of poll)
    • @[email protected]English
      0•8 months ago

      It say a lot how much effort you put into the racist generalisation that All Islam = Hamas and how without that equality between both that can only be constructed using the racist axiom of “they’re all the same”, you have no humanist or democratic justification for the mass killing of Palestinian civilians by Israel.

      Also there is no Humanist principle that says that “Evildoing by some morally justifies evildoing by others” so even if being a Muslim was indeed the same a being Hamas, that wall of text of yours rests on something which is not a Humanist principle but rather a Sociopathic excuse for murder and one that, given the proportions of death so far (10 to 1), already is way beyond even the “mere” “an eye for an eye”.

      • DarkGamer
        0•8 months ago
        • My post was about barriers to Democratic and humanist approaches to peace. You seem to have read into it many associations and conclusions that I did not make.
        • All Islamic people are not Hamas, but as far as I’m aware, all Hamas are Islamic. Islam is hostile to secularism/humanism. This is a barrier to peace through humanism.
        • Peaceful compromise is unpopular by both sides of this conflict. This is a barrier to peace through democracy.
        • Self-defense, not humanism, is what motivates and justifies Israel’s actions. War is inherently inhumane.