Thomas Wictor

Earlier today I wrote a post about the horrendously dishonest and inept Reuters piece “Ten-year-old Palestinian boy the first casualty of renewed fighting in Gaza.” At the end, I wrote that Salem Salem Salem Salem—the “victim” in the fake Gaza sniper video—was in the funeral procession for Ibrahim Dawawsa. I was just kidding, but a reader sent me a side-by-side comparison that makes me wonder.

First, I trust everyone to understand that I’m not making fun of the death of Ibrahim Dawawsa. However, his family told two different stories about how he died. One said that he was playing in a mosque yard when the Israelis just…killed him. That’s a lie. The Israelis only engage mosques when they’re used as combat posts.

Sure enough, a reader sent me a message that Ibrahim Dawawsa’s mother now says that her son went to watch terrorists firing rockets from the mosque, and he was killed when the Israelis took out the launcher. Since the Israelis destroy missile launch sites with air-to-surface AGM-114 Hellfire missiles that have warheads of only twenty pounds (9 kg), Ibrahim was standing among the terrorists when he died. He wasn’t across the street. His death is entirely the fault of the terrorists, in this case almost certainly the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

How can I say his death is a tragedy? The Gazans are in a frenzy of self-destruction. Hamas has caused so much damage to Gaza that now it’s desperate to have something to show for this idiotic war. Therefore Hamas is making demands that Israel can’t accept.

Hamas’s price for stopping the suicide of Gaza includes a port, an airfield, the unsupervised importing of cement into Gaza, the release of all Hamas prisoners, and the free flow of duel-use products that could serve in a military capacity.

That article includes this misleading photo.

I see no sign of artillery strikes. It’s possible that the holes on the right side were made with tank rounds, but the broken roof shows that once again, the Israelis used an inert aerial munition to target a building full of explosives. That’s why every single structure nearby has lost its fronts and sides. That’s damage from pressure waves.

If the Israelis used explosive aerial munitions, the buildings would be gutted because all the force would go upward, taking everything inside the apartments with it.

London, during the Battle of Britain (July 10 to October 31, 2023).

See how the building is just an empty shell? Now compare it to the photo of Gaza above. In the Gaza photo, all the roofs and floors are intact. Therefore explosive aerial bombs were not used. There isn’t enough fragmentation damage on the buildings to indicate artillery strikes, so I conclude that the IDF dropped an inert bomb on the building the foreground, after perceiving or receiving intelligence that the apartment was booby trapped. The IED exploded, causing a pressure wave that stripped all the other buildings of their fronts and sides.

All the destruction is due to the actions of Hamas. And now they refuse to stop unless they get some huge concession from Israel.

I say to Israel, “Keep fighting.” Today the US began bombing the Islamic State, so Gaza is beginning to recede. Stand fast.

You are in the right, and you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of. There is no “disproportionate” or “excessive” force being used. Hamas is doing most of the damage from IEDs and errant rockets.

The blame for this stupid, deranged war is rightfully placed on the heads of Hamas, especially the fat billionaires safe in Qatar.

War is the remedy that our enemies have chosen, and I say let us give them all they want.

—William Tecumseh Sherman

On to Salem Salem Salem Salem.

A resurrection?

When I wrote that SSSS was in the funeral parade that Reuters covered, I wasn’t serious. But a reader sent me a really good side-by-side comparison.

Same hollow eye sockets, same overbite, same ears, same high cheekbones, same chin, same long nose, same nasal-labial folds, same skinny arms. And a liking for green shirts.

We know from the phony sniper video that SSSS is an activist if not a full-fledged operative. If it isn’t the same guy, they could be brothers.

Or maybe Gaza is like this Bill Mauldin cartoon, the caption of which is, “This is the town my pappy told me about.”

Yuck.