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submitted 2 years ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

They exchanged text messages and emojis. Brief status updates with words of encouragement. A picture of the beloved family dog "Tutsi."

Until no more messages came.

And then, Cindy Flash, an American, and her Israeli husband Igal vanished into the violence, presumed kidnapped by Hamas.

Four days after Hamas attacked Israel, more than 100 Israelis and potentially dozens of foreign nationals are thought to be held captive in the Gaza Strip. At least 14 U.S. citizens have been killed and an unknown number are still unaccounted for.

Flash, 67, originally from St. Paul, Minnesota, is one of them. She lives in Kfar Aza, a kibbutz in southern Israel near Gaza, where some of the most harrowing and grisly stories have been emerging during the last few days.

"They are breaking down the safe room door," Flash said in one of her final messages to her daughter Keren, 34. "We need someone to come by the house right now." She had been communicating with her parents from a few houses away.

Keren described her mother, who worked as an administrator in a local college, as someone who had the "sweetest biggest heart," who everyone knew and loved, and who had spent a lifetime advocating for the rights of Palestinians, including those who live in Gaza where she may now be held.

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[-] avater@lemmy.world 235 points 2 years ago
[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 65 points 2 years ago

Palestinians knew who they were when they elected them.

[-] TokenBoomer@lemmy.world 97 points 2 years ago

Israel knew who Netanyahu was when they elected him.

[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

Sure. And Netanyahu is a right-wing asshole. But he isn't a terrorist.

You see the difference?

[-] OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe@lemmy.world 60 points 2 years ago

I'm not here to argue semantics, Hamas are terrorists, Netanyahu is a terrorist.

[-] Browning@lemmings.world 24 points 2 years ago

If a terrorist is someone who attacks civilians for political aims, then yes.

[-] tryptaminev@feddit.de 15 points 2 years ago

That is pretty much textbook. Someone or some party that uses violence and the threat of violence to create fear in the pursuit of political goals.

Problem is that applies to most nation states that are active on the global scale. So the political use can be reduced to "terrorists are always the others"

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[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

Yeah, if I was dead wrong about what words mean, I wouldn't want to argue semantics either.

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[-] Sparlock@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago

Hamas are terrorists, Netanyahu is a terrorist. If a terrorist is someone who attacks civilians for political aims.

I find it hard to discriminate Civilian A who was killed from Civilian B who was killed by the other side. Apparently that is a controversial statement around here. Ya'll are fucked.

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[-] SCB@lemmy.world 71 points 2 years ago

Hamas was never elected as sole leadership in Palestine. They never won a plurality of votes, ever.

They formed a unity government, then fought the other government, usurped control, and cancelled elections forever.

[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

Hamas won 74 out of 132 seats. They did it with 44 percent of the vote. Not sure how that worked.

Anyway, you're kind of right, kind of wrong.

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

Same way Republicans do it in Ohio, one assumes. Heavy concentration in minority-population areas.

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[-] zaph@sh.itjust.works 65 points 2 years ago

20 years ago. Around half of today's population didn't vote and of the ones that did many didn't vote for hamas. Find a new way to blame innocent people, this one doesn't work.

[-] mycatiskai@lemmy.one 52 points 2 years ago

Half of the population is below 19 years old. So they weren't even born when Hamas was elected.

The average age of Palestinians is 19. The average age of Israelis is 30. That tells you one thing, that you don't live a long life if your Palestinian.

[-] Gormadt 31 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Living in what human rights groups and the UN describe as an open air prison under bombarded from a neighboring country isn't exactly the best thing for life expectancy.

Roughly 2.3 million people live on the Gaza Strip out of the roughly 5 million people living in Palestine BTW, which is the area currently being bombarded by Israel in response to the terrorist attack by Hamas.

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[-] Siegfried@lemmy.world 18 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

50% of the persons living in palestina are under 18

Edit: had a stroke

[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 14 points 2 years ago

Yeah. I wish their parents loved them more than they hate Israel.

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[-] TinyPizza@kbin.social 152 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This seems more like an example of wrong place wrong time because nowhere in the article does it state that they were specifically targeted. What it does say is that they lived right next to the fence ~~and that they and their neighbors both had safe rooms. To me, when you (and your neighbors) feel the need to build a fortified room to protect yourselves during a potential attack that says~~ this area is potentially very dangerous.

Also, stop conflating the Palestinian people with Hamas. Not all Russians are committing war crimes in Ukraine. Not all Americans stormed the US capital on J6. Not all Saudis were on planes on 9/11. We do not need to further dehumanize ANY of the people who are now suffering through this now and the MANY who are continuing to have suffering brought upon them.

Nobody can excuse attacks on civilian populations for revenge. This goes both ways. And whether or not this poor sweet lady and her husband are still alive, I'm sure she would be equally abhorred that her life's work is being used as an excuse to undo the very thing she worked towards.

Edit: I've been informed all homes in Israel must have safe rooms by law.

[-] a_new_sad_me@lemmy.world 100 points 2 years ago

Israeli here:

  1. Every house in Israel has to have a safe room by law
  2. The place where she lived was close to the border but completely within Israel. It wasn't a settlement at all.
  3. Most kibbutzim in Israel are known to be centre-left. This is well-known to anyone who even vaguely follow the Israeli media (and Hammas follow)

Hammasb (not the Palestiniens, Hammas) knew exactly who they murder. There is no excuse to wash their hand.

[-] TinyPizza@kbin.social 27 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

So then Israel (not it's people, but the military) know exactly who they murder now? So when they now and in the past murder civilians there's also no excuse?

  1. I didn't know that about the safe rooms, thank you for the context.
  2. The article states she lived "right next to the security fence" and while I'm sure it's within the border that still doesn't mean it's a great place to build. Nobody said it was a settlement.
  3. There's no excusing the attack, rationalizing who they attacked or how they went about it. Again thank you for pointing this out because it highlights that this was either an indiscriminate attack against anyone and anything Israeli or that they were purposely trying to spoil the sentiment of those who would speak out against what now comes after. Were they just that diabolical or was it an attack of opportunity in terms of location and defense? You tell me.

Edit: also, aside from all that. I'm truly sorry this happened to your country and your people. I wish you all peace and an end to the bloodshed.

[-] Lucent@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

"It wasn’t a settlement at all."

Your entire country is a settlement.

There are Palestinians that are older than your "state".

[-] Tavarin@lemmy.ca 37 points 2 years ago

Palestine became a state at the same time. there was never a Palestine before that.

[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 15 points 2 years ago

Palestine isn't a state. It never became it state. It never has been a state.

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[-] donuts@kbin.social 58 points 2 years ago

nowhere in the article does it state that they were specifically targeted.

Basically nobody was specifically targeted. Hamas simply flooded in and started raping, murdering, destroying and taking hostages indiscriminately. People from various countries and religions, old women, children and babies, even pro-Palestinians advocates like these people. It was straight up terrorist madness, and now innocent people in Palestine are suffering as a result. A textbook cycle of violence.

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[-] ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 149 points 2 years ago

I really don't understand why people decided to live in these kibbutz right next to the Gaza border and never realize that this might happen.

It's like sitting right on the very edge of the shoulder of a very busy highway. Eventually you will be hit by a fast moving car.

It's disputed territory with the potential of becoming a war zone at any moment and people decided to buy expensive real estate and build beautiful homes next to impoverished people that have nothing.

And we should be surprised that this happened?

What the Palestinians did was terrible ... but we should all be reading the headlines with a lot of history and context. None of it is justified by any side ... but at the same time, none of it is a surprise.

[-] HubertManne@kbin.social 46 points 2 years ago

wow. this is the best comment I have seen on it. I feel sorta similar. Whats been done is just monsterous but man the situation is so ridiculous and I wish the US and the rest of the world had done many different things post ww2.

[-] donuts@kbin.social 22 points 2 years ago

It's a common misconception that Israel and Palestine were created post WW2 but the roots go all the way back to turn of the 20th century. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandate_for_Palestine

People like to blame America for all things, but this region has been under conflict and conquest for literally thousands of years. It was controlled at points by Egypt, Babylon, Assyrians and Persia, In biblical times it was essentially tribal (Israelites, canaanites, samaratins, philistines who were in conflict with israelites...) until the Roman Empire took over. Then Rome broke up into two and it become part of the (Eastern Roman) Byzantine Empire, then after Muhammad's death it was conquered by the Muslim Caliphate, then taken under control of the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire. Religiously it has been Jewish, Christian and Muslim and I think has historical significance to all 3. I'm sure I've left a bunch of stuff out because I'm no historian.

It's one of the most complicated and protracted conflicts in history, and the people who want to make this out to be simple are either plain dumb or have some kind of alterior motive.

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[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

WWII will continue to shape the history of the world for generations to come.

[-] ArmokGoB@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 2 years ago

Seoul is 11 km from the North Korean border. People just assume things won't go wrong until they do.

[-] JJROKCZ@lemmy.world 35 points 2 years ago

Moving a city is quite the feat compared to just not building houses blocks from a military DMZ

[-] donuts@kbin.social 17 points 2 years ago

If you're a lifelong Palestinian advocate, as this women was, it makes a lot of sense to live near the Gaza border.

What doesn't make much sense is someone like her being killed by an indiscriminate Hamas terrorist attack...

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[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 years ago

It's not like you have a lot of options in a small country.

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[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Israel is TINY. EVERYTHING is near a border with one of their hostile neighbors.

[-] wolfylow@lemmy.world 25 points 2 years ago

Man, if I could upvote this comment more than once I would.

Expresses my sentiments exactly.

I visited Israel years ago - shortly after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin - and remember coming across a class (girls, around 7-8 years old) out on a school trip … and they had 3 guys carrying assault rifles to protect them. And I remember thinking: “whatever it is you’re fighting for … isn’t worth it if you have to live like this”

And sadly I think it’s only got worse since that time.

[-] flossdaily@lemmy.world 16 points 2 years ago

“None of it is justified by any side ...“

Strong disagree. Israel has a right to exist and a right to defend itself.

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[-] cyborganism@lemmy.ca 55 points 2 years ago

Hamas isn't Palestine. They don't represent the Palestinian people. It's not because Hamas took her that she was betrayed by Palestinians.

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[-] TigrisMorte@kbin.social 34 points 2 years ago

Hamas isn't in any way working for Palestinian rights. Hamas is not a synonym for Palestinian.

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[-] Lucent@lemmy.world 30 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Maybe don't vacation in or move to an occupied colonial outpost apartheid state.

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this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
419 points (100.0% liked)

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