It's just a preview of what will happen on Tuesday.

And of course, we'll probably also hear that the gang rapes and genital mutilations before the inevitable murders in cold blood were simply a justified manifestation of "resistance".

I'm making these predictions as a gentile who's been paying attention to what's been said since October 7.

Beginning the morning of October 8, in unison, simultaneously in locations all over the country, in a not-at-all spontaneous use of identical memes and phrases, the following has been said:

1. It's wonderful how our freedom fighters learned to fly! (That one got dropped pretty quickly, probably due to the uncomfortable obviousness that the "freedom fighters" didn't open the gates of Gaza and let everybody else out, but instead filmed themselves taking bloody hostages back into Gaza...this didn't really match the usual heroic trope so was dropped in lieu of a more blunt approach...)

2. The Jews are lying again. I predict this will be the main response. Along with the corollary...

3. This is just propaganda.

and, as we've seen...

4. It still doesn't justify....

And so nothing will change.

The first response to the OP and you can't pause to say "this was wrong." Nope. You fell over yourself to post "it still doesn't justify...!!!"

Nobody said it did.

"Innocent Israelis bad, women bad, children bad .... all Israelis (Jews) are oppressors.
"The rapes and murders were justified because... Israel exists and has no right to defend itself against those who would seek to destroy her."

BTW:
This has nothing to do with Netanyahu's reactions.

I'm not at all an expert on the Middle East and I'm not Jewish (nor do I have a great grandmother twice removed who might have been Jewish... I don't need those excuses and justifications because I'm not bringing an inherent anti-Jewish bias to my arguments, which many people are doing, in my opinion).

Just simple observation tells me...

1. The Oct 7 attack was designed to be so horrific that Netanyahu would have an excuse to ramp up attacks on Gaza...

2. Where Hamas has deliberately embedded themselves into hospitals, schools, and homes, so that any attack on Hamas is an attack on civilians....

3. And upset many Israeli soldiers so much that war crimes became inevitable...

4. There was a well-designed propaganda machine ready to roll the morning of Oct 8, complete with cute emojis, spread through DSA and other youth-oriented movements in the U.S., which would ensure that....

5. There would be clashes on college campuses to provide headlines, excuses for congressional inquiries and deeply hypocritical and cynical accusations of antisemitism and toxic woke by the likes of Elise Stefanik, all designed to convince American voters that we have a CRISIS at WOKE UNIVERSITIES caused by Democrats that only Trump can fix...

6. And meanwhile don't vote for genocide joe or killer kamala, thus ensuring that Trump would win...

7. And enable Netanyahu to further ramp up human rights violations and further destabilize the whole region..

8. All to the benefit of sniggering sociopathic billionaires. Everybody else loses.

I find myself somewhat agreeing to some of your points - at least the possibility.
It does, however, verge on the definition of a conspiracy theory.
But then again, there are conspiracies.

I was shocked and surprised at the anti- Israel protests early on October 8th.

There are billionaires in the world who want to make even more money and have even more power. Vlad Putin, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, a number of others.

We know that some of them colluded to ensure Trump's win in 2016. The stakes were even higher leading up to the 2024 election.

I think it's hard for many of us to think like sociopaths. We think "nobody would ever do that!" But in fact these people do cruel, inhumane, unethical things every day. Just watch them. Listen to their words, look at the memes they push. Why wouldn't a handful of them get together to put somebody in the White House who will guarantee that they make trillions more?

It's a business investment to them.

Makes sense.

I always thought it was a joke - maybe not.

People make little "conspiracies" with one another every day. It's human nature.

But the term "conspiracy theory" immediately brings to mind 9/11 truthers, assassination theories, etc. I don't think they're relevant.

We know that Trump was identified as a useful fool for Russia since the late 80s. Shrug off our natural ambivalence toward anything like "reds under the bed" hysteria and take a hard look at how Russia has been run since 2012 or so.

Look at who benefits. Follow the money.

For a short while I was involved in local politics.
Little "conspiracies" and shady deals all around - very little to do with the welfare of the electorate.
I extricated myself from that, but not before I made waves and had the audacity to tell the truth.

There are some who were power hungry (as much power there is in small towns) who still hate me.
oh well.

In every group of humans there are a few who are interested mostly in power and money. They spend a lot of time trying to get power and money. They are single-minded.

The rest of us are easy marks because we're focused on a lot of other things.

The power-hungry gravitate toward fields that will give them what they want: politics, business, technology. And owning news and content media. Like Fox News and Twitter.

As we see in the responses, we are not allowed to point out - even though WE KNOW, WE KNOW that this report will be used to justify what was done to Palestinians and CONTINUES to this day - that one war crime does not justify another and must not be used as cover for ongoing crimes.

That sexual-based violence in its various forms occurred on October 7th is not in dispute. What has to be pointed out, however, is that the "investigation" and authorship was conducted by Israelis. It is not the independent, fully professional and trained investigation by the UN body that is specifically mandated for that, that the UN has been begging for since October 7th and which Israel has repeatedly denied. Why??

A cursory review of this Dinah Project's report reveals it uses "innovative" methodology and seeks to assign "collective responsibility". WTF is that? Is that similar to collective punishment that is inflicted on all Palestinians? It's certainly a new legal and ethical concept. What is the purpose here, one might ask but is probably not allowed to.... Regardless, I ask, what is the purpose of establishing this new concept of "collective responsibility" if not to excuse and rationalize the collective punishment inflicted?

Sexual violence is a horrific crime but it has to be regarded as such no matter who the perpetrators are. The silence around the sexual, gender-based and reproductive-based violence toward Palestinians is deafening. Who here even read the UN Human Rights report on the horrific, vomit-inducing such violence against Palestinians called "More than a human can bear: Israel's systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since October 2023"? For those that have the stomach, courage or the will, here it is:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/03/more-human-can-bear-israels-systematic-use-sexual-reproductive-and-other

People who care about victims of sexual violence in all its forms should be condemning this too. After all, it has been happening for years and is happening RIGHT NOW. Anything less points to the weaponization of sexual violence for political and ideological benefit. And yes, we are "allowed" to say all of this, though of course the attacks will be incoming and likely ignored.

Your opinion is the strong majority here on DU and it's even more popular among Democrats outside DU.

Why you folks persist in viewing yourselves as the victims in all this is a mystery.

You do know that, right?

In the end, Democrats came through. When they realized that in order to stand for/against something - like human rights or war crimes and atrocities - you have to consistently apply them, regardless of race, religion or ethnicity. Otherwise you're just another hypocrite and supremacist. And Democrats/progressives try to avoid falling into that trap, no matter how many accounts of October 7th atrocities they read. Because, simply, Palestinians are people too.

I still don't see any condemnation of Israel's war crimes and atrocities by many of those who've been defending Israel all this time. At this point it seems that they never will, regardless of what Israel does. Seems to me they believe only Israelis are victims, perpetually, and incontestably.

So I'm not sure where your question about victimhood comes from, but to me it has some element of projection.

Self-identified progressives and Democrats who still can't bring themselves to admit to Israel's culpability in war crimes and atrocities and their ethnic cleansing agenda - or engage in "look what you made me do" abuser logic - would do well to read the various reports on this subject, including the one I linked to by the UN. There are many others.

I made an OP a few weeks after October 7 because I noticed that most posters were piling on Israel and ignoring what Hamas had done.

It's been that way from the start.

As for being "excoriated and shamed," no, I didn't notice that happening much to the anti-Israel posters. My observation was it was the opposite. Anybody who brought up Hamas was told that we were excusing baby killers and that history would judge us.

Nonetheless, it has never occurred to me to view myself as a victim in all this.

It's a shame because I've rec'd your posts about other issues where I absolutely agree with your views. Looks like we may never agree on this one. Though I still hold out hope...just wonder what the HELL it will take, if starving and incinerating children and shooting the starving is not enough. What level of cruelty is ever gonna be enough?

No need to answer. But maybe get back to me when the skeletal, traumatized-beyond-hope masses of brown kids and adults are herded like unwilling cattle into the Sinai. Perhaps then?

without a "but, but Israel."

Why would they stop now.

It was part of a wider discussion on sexual violence and she brought this up and was attacked for it.

Just bringing this up makes you a war criminal. Even if you think Israel should not have responded the way they did you are accused of calling for war.

Genocide bad.