Thomas Wictor

Several people have sent me the link to “The Ghosts of Gaza: Israel’s Soldier Suicides,” by Creede Newton. It’s an utterly worthless piece of garbage, the result of what happens when idiots become journalists. There’s no bottom that Hamas will reach in its depravity, and riding right along with them are western reporters like Creede Newton.

Here’s an excerpt.

In the weeks after Israel and Hamas agreed to an open-ended ceasefire, three Israeli soldiers decided to end their lives with their own weapons. And what was especially striking about their suicides was that all served in the same unit, the Givati Brigade, which had a reputation for its ruthless ferocity, considerable bravery, and the use of Old Testament religiosity to justify the merciless operations of its commander, Colonel Ofer Winter.

The unit spent most of its time in Gaza close to the border with Israel in an area the Israel Defense Forces set out to make a wide buffer zone consuming more than 40 percent of Gaza’s territory. Fighters from Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other groups did not fall back. Instead they operated out of a vast network of tunnels, and the combat was as ferocious as any the IDF has seen for many years. But the Givati Brigade drew particular attention because of its alleged responsibility for widespread civilian casualties.

The piece is entirely nonfactual. It relies 100 percent on Palestinian sources, which means that none of the allegations are true. Creede got his casualty figures from guys like this.

Not only that, Newton debunks himself without even knowing it. This is because his knowledge of military matters is nil.

To begin with, Newton says the Givati Brigade spent most of its time close to the Israeli border, when in fact it was deployed to Rafah to find and destroy tunnels. Colonel Ofer Winter’s letter to his men indicates that the brigade led the ground assault into Gaza.

Newton is also unaware that one of the three soldiers who committed suicide—David Menachem Gordon—was a victim of horrific childhood sexual abuse that he wrote about in The Huffington Post.

What the world refuses to accept is that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to surviving childhood trauma. Victims often adopt a methodology that they’re told will do wonders for them, and then nothing changes. They still feel horrible. But now they’ve made the commitment. If they go public, they’re praised for their courage. They become heroes and symbols.

Yet they still feel rotten. In addition they have the added stress of trying to live up to everyone’s expectations. This is why I’ve always said that the individual should choose how best to overcome trauma. For some people going public helps. For others it’s a death sentence.

Under no circumstances must you ever let another person tell you what you should do. All you need to know is that you’re not alone.

I collect World War I postcards. One of them has an amazing message on the back. It was sent from France by this Russian soldier on June 12, 1916.

This is what he wrote.

Dear Frida!

Here is direct proof that I am alive. But to what degree I am alive—this, apparently, should be of the most interest to you. I will respond to this only with silence; I do not wish to say anything because if you do not believe in me, then with what reasoning can I convince you, and why should I convince you and, for God’s sake, for what? Each person approaches life from his own side, and something that one sees as the higher motion and progress of life, another would see without a doubt as a sign of death. In addition, not under the influence of external conditions of life but because of the inner workings of my mind, I have changed my views so much that, if you have kept yours, it would make me their enemy. Thus speaks your friend who is now a devotee of pure thought, natural philosophy and, consequently, of occultism. Write about yourself. Address: Petrograd, Main Post Office, Secteur Postale 1-89 Française, Special Marching Battalion, 5th Company, 4th Platoon, F. Eger

P.S. Enemy of your views because we saw lies and did not speak about it.

Distance, circumstances, or even time may separate us from our kindred spirits, but that ought not diminish the power they have to sustain us. I hope F. Eger survived the war, and he and Frida ironed out their differences. Their conversations must’ve been epic.

Creede Newton, on the other hand, is an epic disgrace. One of the things he blathers about in his absurd article is the Hannibal Directive, or Hannibal Protocol, or Hannibal Procedure, something that the world press has distorted until it bears no resemblance to reality.

This is all it is: If an Israeli soldier is abducted, every effort must be made to rescue him. Small-arms fire may be used to try and disable a vehicle carrying the soldier. The directive specifically prohibits the deliberate killing of the kidnapped soldier. Israeli military law prohibits shooting in the direction of fellow troops; however, the Hannibal Directive absolves soldiers from culpability if the kidnapping victim is accidentally killed.

Whatever else you read about it is hand wringing, lies, and histrionics. Creede Newton quotes Haaretz.

On Friday morning, when the IDF still believed that Lt. Hadar Goldin may have been taken alive by Hamas into an attack tunnel beneath Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Hannibal Directive was activated to its most devastating extent yet—including massive artillery bombardments and airstrikes on possible escape routes. At least 40 Palestinians were killed in Rafah.

Can’t anybody think? All the “possible escape routes” would be underground! Massive artillery bombardments would be useless. Not only that, destroying buildings with artillery would make it harder for the Israelis to go in and rescue Goldin. Urban combat creates impassable piles of rubble. Here’s what really happened.

And no, artillery is no longer “inherently inaccurate.” The IDF has the Digital Army Program, called Tzayad in Hebrew. Brigadier General Roy Rifkin is the head of the Artillery Corps.

“Rafiah” is an alternate spelling of “Rafah.”

Here’s how it works: The Artillery Corps monitors the battlefield with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Targets are assigned twelve-digit coordinates and appear on maps displayed by laptop computers. The commander of the operation has high-definition video and a digital map that show him where friendly forces and the enemy are. Nobody is firing blind. All targets are acquired multiple ways, including by laser range finders that provide GPS coordinates.

To cap off his hatchet job, Creede Newton implies that Givati Brigade commander Colonel Ofer Winter was replaced hastily under questionable circumstances, since his successor wasn’t promoted from within. The reality is that IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz put paratroopers in command of four brigades, not just Winter’s unit. Gantz obviously likes paratroopers, that’s all. Who doesn’t?

There were no war crimes committed in Rafah. I’ve now searched for three hours, and I can find no evidence of high-explosive artillery shells fired into residential areas. This was a precision air strike that made the building pancake neatly.

There’s no damage whatsoever to a cinder-block structure in the lower left, which was within arm’s length of the target.

An air strike destroyed this weapons cache.

The building in the center background was hit by a Hamas rocket that took flight due to secondary explosions.

All of this damage is from pressure waves. There’s no sign of fragmentation anywhere, which means no Israeli munition was involved.

A gigantic Hamas IED did that.

Fake explosions, published by Reuters.

They’re too big, they’re hidden behind the apartments, and the fireball is from a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.

Another fake explosion.

The “flying debris” has no directional pattern, and there are no midair cinder blocks from the “broken” edge of the falling wall.

Everyone who sent me the link to this childish delusion written for Jew-hating imbeciles? Stop wasting your time. You can’t stump me. I’m right and you’re wrong. Always.

There’s a special place in hell for journalists who smear the names and reputations of people better than themselves.

This nightmarish creature with its head permanently lodged in the colon of Hamas is already in a hell of its own making.