Extraordinary

I haven't looked at Harry's place lately but it seems these days to be a website/blog almost entirely given over to defending Israel and in particular its attack on Gaza.

The latest post is called "Getting our heads round Hamas", which probably makes some valid criticisms of the mindset of Hamas, as if that justifies killing nearly a thousand people. Here is an excerpt, which links to a video:

And here we have another Hamas figure explaining how, when he got a phone call from the Israeli military warning him to get out of his house, he instead moved his family onto the roof, and invited his friends and neighbours to bring their wives and children into the house as human shields.

Both acts are extraordinary. It is extraordinary to phone your enemy and warn them to clear civilians from a target. And it is extraordinary not only to ignore the warning but to do the reverse and crowd the area with women and children.

I'm not going to get into justifying what the "Hamas figure" is alleged to have done, just highlight the comment that "it is extraordinary to phone your enemy and warn them to clear civilians from a target". It's a house. Apparently a house occupied by a family. In what sense is that a "target"? According to Harry's place, Israel should be given credit for suggesting that the family leave before destroying their house, which as far as I can see serves no purpose - not even the assassination of the "Hamas figure" beyond collective punishment and probably amounts to a war crime.

How proud Harry must be to home to apologists for collective punishment. What an astonishing lack of insight the poster "Brett" must have to have started his piece with a discussion of holocaust denial.