{"id":48048,"date":"2024-06-09T10:06:56","date_gmt":"2024-06-09T18:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=48048"},"modified":"2024-06-09T10:06:56","modified_gmt":"2024-06-09T18:06:56","slug":"four-hostages-freed-274-palestinians-killed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/09\/four-hostages-freed-274-palestinians-killed\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Hostages Freed; 274 Palestinians Killed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views<\/a> with the author\u2019s permission.<\/i><\/p>\n

If you have to kill 274 people<\/a> to free four others being held hostage, is that a \u201csuccessful\u201d military operation? According to the Israeli and U.S. governments, it is.<\/p>\n

Israel, apparently with some U.S. help, attacked the Nuseirat Camp in Gaza and freed four hostages seized by Hamas. In doing so, however, Israeli forces killed and wounded hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a brutal calculus that sees Palestinians as being \u201cin the way\u201d and essentially worthless and therefore expendable. Put differently, Israel sees all Palestinians in Gaza as \u201cguilty,\u201d as \u201cterrorists,\u201d therefore there are no innocent Palestinians and Israel can kill as many as they need to, without guilt or remorse, to achieve a desired end.<\/p>\n

Coverage by the mainstream media in the West generally has been glowing, praising Israel for rescuing four hostages while downplaying the Palestinian dead as collateral damage that\u2019s hardly worth noticing.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s an example from the BBC:<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"\"<\/picture><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

You see a happy young woman freed by Israeli forces, but you don\u2019t see any images of the more than 200 Palestinians killed by Israel in this \u201cspecial military operation.\u201d And note how the Palestinian dead are consigned to a sub-heading and a smaller font, using the passive voice (\u201cwere killed\u201d), as if it\u2019s unclear who killed them and why.<\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s good to see four hostages freed. But if hundreds of other innocent people must die or suffer grievous wounds in the process, that\u2019s not a \u201csuccessful\u201d operation. It\u2019s a massacre.<\/p>\n

William J. Astore is a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF). He taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools. He writes at Bracing Views<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from Bracing Views with the author\u2019s permission. If you have to kill 274 people to free four others being held hostage, is that a \u201csuccessful\u201d military operation? According to the Israeli and U.S. governments, it is. Israel, apparently with some U.S. help, attacked the Nuseirat Camp in Gaza and freed four hostages seized by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-48048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"A Brutal Calculus"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48048"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48053,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48048\/revisions\/48053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48048"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=48048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}