Selective Intelligence

Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan is taking a lot of heat for her support of Palestinians, but after all, she is a Palestinian American.

Tlaib is against the United States supporting Israel’s war effort against Hamas, not because she’s supporting Hamas but because she doesn’t like the way Israel’s targets often include innocent civilians. I get that. While I do support Israel fighting against terrorists and its right to defend itself, I don’t entirely trust the Israeli government and military because of their actions in the past.

Israel has been blockading Gaza (with Egypt) since 2007. Sure, they dont like that Hamas is the elected government in Gaza but the blockade isn’t hurting Hamas as much as it’s hurting innocent civilians. After Hamas attacked Israel a little over two weeks ago, Israel immediately cut off power, water, fuel, food, and all humanitarian relief to Gaza. Even after President Biden negotiated for Egypt to open an entry point into Gaza for humanitarian relief to enter, Israel has steadfastly refused to open one on their border.

Israel has killed nearly 80 Palestinians since the start of the war, not in Gaza, but in the West Bank. Hamas says 3,785 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been killed, but we can’t trust the information Hamas gives us (more on that in a minute). If that number is accuragte, how many were killed by Israel and how many by Gaza or one of their partners in terrorism (more on that in a minute). Over the past 20 years, Israel has killed at least 20 journalists in Palestinian occupied territory. After killing Palestinian American Shireen Abu Akleh, a reporter for Al Jazeera, Israel denied it for four months.

The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that at least 19 journalists have been killed since the war started on October 7. Fifteen of those were Palestinians, three were Israeli, and one was Lebanese. Eight other journalists have been injured, and three are missing or detained.

Hamas kills innocents. They rape and murder. But they’re terrorists. Israel is a Democratic nation supported by every free country on the planet. They’re supposed to be better than Hamas. Here’s a fun fact: 99.7 percent of all U.S. aid to Israel goes to its military. Not one Republican who has howled for a full accounting of every dollar sent to Ukraine for its fight against Russia’s illegal invasion has not asked for the same with money sent to Israel.

My point is, it’s really hard to find good guys fighting in this war. So I understand opposition like that from Tlaib against supporting this war. To her credit, she has expressed empathy for the civilians on both sides. Where Tlaib messed up is that after a rocket struck a hospital in Gaza, she took the word of Hamas that Israel was responsible (they’re also claiming Israel hit a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza, killing 18 Christian Palestinians which Israel has not denied yet. Also, the World Health Organization, who blames Hamas for starting the war, has claimed that there have been over 115 attacks on healthcare facilities across the Occupied Palestinian Territory since the start of the war, with 51 of those being in Gaza, killing 15 healthcare workers and injuring 27). Every Muslim nation is still blaming Israel as well as Al Jazeera, which is supposed to be a legitimate news outlet. News outlets that use their platforms for advocacy/propaganda need to face facts even when they don’t like them. Even Fox News called the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

U.S. intelligence says that Israel did not bomb the hospital and it was the result of an errant rocket fired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) that aimed at Israel. The PIJ is a different terrorist group than the much larger Hamas, though they’re allied. PIJ is considered to be much more extreme than Hamas who are not a bunch Bunny Foo-Foos sniffing dandelions. The PIJ is against a two-state solution and is devoted to destroying Israel entirely. While Hamas has the same goals as PIJ, it also has a political wing and understand there has to be at least some diplomacy (some). PIJ does not. It only focuses on terrorist attacks. The PIJ receives $70 million annually from Iran, though it doesn’t appear that they purchase quality rockets with that money. The PIJ weaponry is less sophisticated than the weapons of Hamas. Their rockets are less powerful and have a shorter range. PIJ is a big fan of suicide bombings. They are probably the ones responsible for the hospital strike, But Tlaib still hasn’t blamed them yet.

It’s been two days and Tlaib still hasn’t retracted her blame of Israel for the strike. This is something she needs to own. She’s been rightly criticized by her fellow Democrats for this. Republicans have also criticized her, but they need to shut up.

On January 6, even after a white nationalist terrorist attack hit the Capitol, 147 Republicans voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election.

During the terrorist attack, Fox News was blaming Antifa. Afterward, many Republicans continued to blame Antifa. Some are still blaming the FBI. Others called it a group of tourist who got a little carried away. Marjorie Taylor Greene has called them patriots and visited many in jail.

The white nationalist MAGA terrorists may not be as organized as Hamas, but they’re terrorists just the same. Donald Trump praised the MAGA terrorists, has referred to them as heroes and patriots, and even tweeted to them, “We love you.” The Department of Homeland Security has determined that the greatest terror threat to the United States is not al Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, or even the fuckers who wrote the Kars-4-Kids jingle, but white nationalist right-wing groups.

I’ve seen several cartoons over the past week accusing Democrats of siding with Hamas, but it’s conservatives who have spent the past three years siding with and defending terrorists.

Today, nearly 70 percent of Republicans still believe that President Biden wasn’t legitimately elected. Nearly 40 percent believe there’s solid concrete evidence that Donald Trump won (there’s not).

Republicans also love to run around screaming about the “Russia hoax,” that there was no meddling by Russia in the 2016 election. Donald Trump has denied that Russia meddled in the 2016 election and even did it once while standing next to Vladimir Putin. Trump and MAGAts are taking Russia’s word over that of U.S. intelligence which has firmly stated that Russia interferedin the 2016 election with the goal of helping Donald Trump win the White House. Neither the Mueller or Durham Report states that Russia didn’t meddle. In fact, both state Russia did interfere in the 2020 election.

Representative Tlaib can think of this as an opportunity to be bigger than MAGAts. Accept the facts and own your mistake. We know Trumpers will never do that. Tlaib needs to stop acting like a Trumper.

Supporting terrorists is a position of the GOP, not the Democratic Party.

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