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Even if Trump's audiovisual show in the skies of Damascus somewhat overshadowed yesterday’s events on the Gaza border, it is important to emphasize what happened there (and what did not happen ...). Yesterday it turned out that if the IDF really wants to, it could face for an entire day more than 10,000 unarmed demonstrators and kill “only” one of them. (And it is reasonable to assume that even this one killing could have been averted.) What was the difference between this last Friday and the two previous Fridays, during which IDF snipers killed a total of 32 unarmed Palestinian demonstrators? The Palestinians were the same Palestinians, the demonstrations were the same kind of demonstrations, the soldiers were the same soldiers, the snipers were the same snipers, the commanders were the same commanders. So what did change since last Friday? Only one thing: this time the commanders gave clear orders to avoid killings, and the snipers obeyed these orders. Just as these snipers had obeyed the manifestly illegal orders they got before. That's all the difference. It also means that anyone and everyone who dared to raise a voice of protest - far too few inside Israel, many more outside - had a part in saving lives. Literally. |