You should be looking at a magnitude maybe 10 times higher for it to be scorched earth / genocidal levels
We might yet get to that number. But as of now , we haven’t. So it’s more of a small mercy.
The mental gymnastics people go through so not to accept the genocide unfolding before their eyes. Destroying over 50% of homes, trapping and starving innocent people and slaughtering children directly and indirectly. Killing many thousands (99.5% civilians) to get a few Hamas fighters. And it’s considered a ‘small mercy’.
Have lost all faith in humanity
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Yes, it could have been worse. That’s all we got to hold on to now. 
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The possibility of the conflict spilling over into Lebanon and beyond is beginning to look more and more likely after events during the week-end. Hezbollah have been firing more anti-tanlk missiles across the border and reportedly hit a bunch of Israeli civilian power workers and the Israelis have responded with more strikes involving fighter jets.
Nasrallah has also been boasting about Hezbollah using its new weapons for the first time which drew this ominous response from Yoav Gallant , the Israeli defence minister ; “What we’re doing in Gaza, we can also do in Beirut.”
Unbelievably , the Lebanese PM has thrown more oil on the fire by referring to Hezbollah as acting rationally and patriotically.
I would say it has very little to do with our peacekeepers going to Lebanon.That is something i think a lot of people have been proud that we play our part there.
For most of us it has more to do with our own history of occupation at the hands of the british which has for a very long time led us to showing solidarity with the Palestinian people.Recent shows of “subdued hostility” from our government is not something new as we have always spoken out in support of the struggle Palestine has had to endure at the hands of Isreal.
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Ireland should be proud of the nation’s peacekeeping tradition, which has included some of the most difficult (viz. Congo). No doubt the history of occupation is the larger driver. My comment was simply around the fact that a non-trivial number of Irish soldiers have been under fire from Israel, and would have good reason to distrust Israeli explanations that ‘there were terrorists there’. I recall one incident in the late ‘80s (so definitely not recent) where it was simply impossible to reconcile the Israeli account of why they fired with the peacekeepers’ reports of what was happening.
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Is anyone seriously still buying this fairytale ?
Subdued hostility or compassion for innocent people being slaughtered?
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The two are not mutually exclusive. I just have to think that in Irish military and political circles there is an enormous skepticism toward the claims that ‘Hamas was there’, because Irish peacekeepers have been on the receiving end of that. Did not quite realize how long it has been since the last incident, they happened all the damn time in the 80s and 90s.
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This is a good article, but also a very concerning one, especially in the light of recent antisemitic attacks in Germany. The tale about that center-left politician (Habeck) who, speaking about hostages with German nationality currently held by Hamas, said ‘Das sind doch keine reinen Deutschen’ (these aren’t pure Germans, a typical Nazi expression)…
My God… what on earth was he thinking when he said that? 
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Today, the @UN family observed a moment of silence to mourn & honour our colleagues killed in Gaza.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) November 13, 2023
Since the start of this conflict, more than 100 @UNRWA staff have lost their lives - the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short time.
They will… pic.twitter.com/O9ZBy92Xu0
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Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has let it be known that he is available if needed to help in an effort to end the growing crisis in Israel and Palestine.
Haven’t you done enough already 
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The brass neck!
Perhaps he can lend some assistance to Iraq while he’s in the region?
You would laugh if it wasn’t so tragic.
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Because that’s what it is. The alternate Israeli attack could well have killed 50k by now.
What took you so long? 
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Its not though.
Small mercy as a term in this situation is reductive and trite.
How can we see whats happening as an easier alternative to anything.
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UTTER PRICK!
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