Ridley deceives. As is the case of hospitals, schools, mosques and private residences, the IDF has uncovered tunnels and munitions depots underneath grave sites. It’s also valid to presume that Israeli hostages murdered by Hamas might be buried in these cemeteries but it’s doubtful that is the main reason. And just as Hamas and PIJ hides behind civilians they bury their combatant casualties amidst civilian casualty figures to give the false impression that Israel is targeting civilians rather than militants.
Military experts agree that Israel has done more to protect civilians in time of war than any other nation on earth. What is unusual and unprecedented is that Israel has an entire organization (COGAT) to ensure that enough aid reaches Gaza. Turkey does not do this in Afrin where they are fighting Kurds. Neither did the US in Iraq nor Sudan in South Yemen or Russia in Ukraine. The problem is that organizations such as UNRWA are staffed almost entirely by local Palestinians. Following Hamas’s coup in 2007, Hamas fired those teachers, doctors and administrators who were loyal to Fatah and replaced them with their own loyalists who then occupied the rank and file and upper echelons. Significant portions of aid reaching Gaza finds it’s way into the hands of Hamas who take their own share first then shamelessly resells that aid which is supposed to be free on the open market.
Further her disparaging remarks about the honorable Chief Rabbi Mirvis and his son are bigoted and unseemly. The son is not even in a combat unit, he performs a traditional Jewish religious role of caring for the dead. Ridley would have Mirvis harassed by the police for this, but would she also have the police harass medics who travel to Gaza who treat injured Hamas members in the same way, or British citizens who go to Afghanistan and give excuses for the harsh totalitarian rule of the Taliban? In what way is this not noble? In Ridley’s view it’s because the unit is “not known for their military prowess or heroics”. This is a peculiar insult for it he was in a unit that did have military prowess and heroics Ridley would be equally if not more disparaging.
As for Mirvis traveling to and staying in “settlements”, she is unclear as to where this might have been given that her pro-Hamas view is that all of Israel is a “settlement”. As far as I know Mirvis has not been to the Temple Mount or made a pilgrimage to Hebron but so what if he had? Why should British Muslims have a veto on where Jews can and cannot go? And contrary to Ridley’s assertion Mirvis has clashed with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu over the matter of “settlements”, though to be clear, Mirvis’s views are nowhere near the same as Ridleys.
Nor has Mirvis “preached hate”. If only Ridley would identify and condemn the antisemitic rhetoric spewed by pro-Hamas clerics in the UK who instead of preaching peace make false allegations of “genocide” while calling for the destruction of Israel and death to Jews. youtube COM/watch?v=l5irQUXb-1A