The White House said Sunday that “it’s the right time” for Israel to scale back its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, as Israeli leaders again vowed to press ahead with their operation against the territory’s ruling Hamas militant group.
The comments exposed the growing differences between the close allies on the 100th day of the war.
I did say I acknowledge and condemn all atrocities that were committed. However, that and the idea that October 7th as a whole was a terrorist attack are different things, because to say October 7th was a terrorist attack is to deny the concrete military goals it had or, alternatively, claim that in addition to these goals it had the goal of killing civilians. The distinction is important because “Hamas soldiers committed atrocities on October 7th” and “October 7th was legitimate resistance” aren’t mutually exclusive, but “October 7th was a terrorist attack” and “October 7th was legitimate resistance” are.
Also, the IDF killed their fair share of civilians at the festival, so blaming all the casualties on Hamas requires numbers that Israel refuses to release or denies altogether.