Vox.com’s content director Max Fisher — who recently suggested that Israel exploited the deaths of three teens — thinks it’s worth noting that a lot more Palestinians have died during Israeli-Palestinian conflicts than Israelis:
https://twitter.com/Max_Fisher/status/488777387732402176
From Vox:
The conflict remains at a relatively low level until, every couple of years, it flares up with heavy Israeli strikes on Gaza that also cost a large number of Palestinian lives. This status quo, on net, clearly causes a large number of Palestinian lives. But it kills very few Israelis, which is a big part of why Israeli voters and leaders have appeared willing to accept it.
This Israeli strategy is sometimes described as “cutting the grass.” In this thinking, Israel never really solves the conflict or even tries; it tolerates a level of violence from Gaza-based militant groups, but every few years bombs and maybe invades Gaza to weaken militants there and destroy their weapons – to cut the grass. It treats the Israel-Palestine conflict, at least as it pertains to Gaza, as something to be managed rather than solved.
It is important to stress that this strategy is not one that ever produces peace or that is designed to lead to a solution. It accepts a low level of Israeli deaths from rocket fire, and occasionally dozens or hundreds of Palestinian deaths from air strikes, as status quo.
In other words, this is Israel’s fault.
Where did this idea that both sides in a war should have an equal number of deaths come from? It's just bizarre. #IsraelUnderFire
— big tuna (@keder) July 14, 2014
With all due respect, Mr. Fisher, whose fault is it that there have been so many more “dozens or hundreds” of deaths on the Palestinian side?
It *seems* that Israel is targeting places that Hamas rockets are coming from while Hamas is targeting "any Jew we can find"
— PoliMath (@politicalmath) July 14, 2014
Not for lack of trying though. RT @Max_Fisher: Israel-Palestine conflict has killed 14 times more Palestinians than Israelis since 2000”
— Kathleen McKinley (@KatMcKinley) July 14, 2014
Terrorist organizations like Hamas are ultimately responsible for the slaughter of Palestinian civilians.
@CharlieBrownsDi I know…God forbid Israelis try to keep themselves safe during a war. @RBPundit @Max_Fisher
— JimDelRey #ChiComDelendaEst (@JimDelRey) July 14, 2014
Israel is defending itself from attacks. The terrorists, by contrast, have no intention of keeping Palestinian civilians safe. To them, civilians are nothing more than tools to prop up their deadly cause. Behold, Mr. Fisher, Hamas’ preferred “defense” strategy:
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/488777657526796288
https://twitter.com/Fountainviewkid/status/488779394228695040
https://twitter.com/NathanWurtzel/status/488783822398697472
Here’s something for Fisher to keep in mind:
There would be *zero* Palestinian deaths if Hamas would stop firing rockets into Israel cities. #IsraelUnderFire
— big tuna (@keder) July 14, 2014
Not for nothing, but in light of this maybe Hamas oughta stop launching rockets into Isreal, eh? @Max_Fisher
— That Goddamned Finklestein Shit Kid (@Supreme____Beef) July 14, 2014
@Max_Fisher There's a surefire (pardon the word) way to get that ratio to 0:0. Hamas stops firing rockets at Israel.
— Joel Engel (@joelengel) July 14, 2014
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Update:
Vox’s @Max_Fisher erases & corrects his 100% misreport of Israeli casualties in 2nd Intifada http://t.co/t0n4KTwS2d
— David Frum (@davidfrum) July 15, 2014
Fisher on Monday afternoon updated his post with a correction:
This post initially reported erroneous fatality statistics. I had misread B’Tselem’s data tables in a way that significantly under-counted Israeli deaths, as well as some Palestinian deaths. The charts and statistics in this post have been corrected to reflect the accurate count. I regret the error and thank Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner for pointing it out to me.
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Related:
‘Just grotesque’: Vox pounded for ‘moronic’ take on murders of three Israeli teens
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