You don’t get “rejected”, they just hire someone who isn’t you.

"Capitalism is when stores aren't hotels"

They don't, though. Check. They can't. No independent body can operate freely in Gaza, it's under Hamas control. They know that Hamas can rescind whatever meager access they have, and so they figure that humanitarian purpose is better satisfied by preserving access by not angering Hamas.

But they don't have access to strike sites, they don't have access to morgues. Islam requires the dead be buried by nightfall, so there's simply no opportunity for independent observers to actually verify body counts. They're just demographically "verified" - "oh, we know about that many people lived in the apartment block, so X is a plausible figure for deaths." But that's not confirmation.

They're "found reliable", but not actually checked. Like, nobody actually checks Hamas' numbers; they just "confirm" them.

They don't routinely lie about it. They pre-drop little fliers that say "we're about to bomb here; if you don't want to die you better leave" and then they come back in a couple of days or weeks and bomb. What on Earth would they lie about? "Wow, a bomb went off right where we dropped leaflets saying it would, but it definitely wasn't us."

The only bombing they actually did lie about is this one, where Hamas beefed a rocket launch and struck one of their own hospitals and Israel said "yeah, we were active in the zone" before anyone knew it wasn't an Israeli weapon.

You're not going to like it, but the way you get over and past something like this is forgiveness. You have to forgive the pretentious twat who had the temerity to speak to you that way; you forgive him because that's how you eliminate his power over you. You forgive him because that's how you pull out the hooks. You forgive him because the alternative is, what? Carry this around in you forever? Find him and beat the shit out of him?

Just forgive him. Ultimately, he didn't have your gifts - the gift of grace, the gift of the expansive generosity of spirit that leads a person not to construe literally every social encounter as "which one of us is coming out on top? It better be me." The gift of not reflexively being a shithead to people, maybe. Whatever. You almost pity him. Almost.

Forgiveness is how you get past it. People don't like to hear it, but it is.

Once a week is fine. You're clean when you get out of the shower, and the towel air-dries as you're not using it. Even where I live - 65% humidity year-round - we only wash the towels once a week.

I mean, I was going through college when GW Bush was elected, and here's what I remember:

1. Everyone lying about GW Bush being the "first Spanish-speaking President" (he spoke no Spanish at all), the first of many lies meant to cover up his manifest incompetence and intellectual incapability

2. Republicans shutting the government down for weeks at a time

3. A maniac, entirely fictitious scandal invented solely to hamper Al Gore's election prospects (the White House phones scandal)

What was different about that day's Republican Party than today's? We knew less about it, was all.

In what respect would the crime not matter if you're a "child"? Minors frequently participate as attackers in Hamas attacks. If Israel didn't apply punitive detention to anyone under 18, then every Hamas attacker would be under the age of 18.

None of the Palestinian prisoners released today had been imprisoned for "stone-throwing." One woman stabbed several Israelis with a knife.

Throwing a rock at someone can cause grievous injury or death. We're not talking about pebbles; they're throwing multi-kilogram stones in an attempt to damage IDF property and harm IDF soldiers.

And you may say "ok, well, that's war; soldiers and their equipment are fair game" and that's fair, but if you attack enemy soldiers that makes you a soldier, whatever your age might be.

So the IDF can either capture and imprison these people, or they can shoot them. Sometimes they do - the prisoners held by IDF are the ones they didn't.