Sh%$ Storm at a Sh%$ty Paper, Part 2

Now that we have gotten the New York Times middle school bull sh%$ out of the way, it's on to the December 28 story reporting widespread rape and alleging the deliberate use of rape as a weapon by Hamas.

The dispute over this story was what was leaked to The Intercept.

What the Intercept story alleges is that reports of sexual violence are false as are the allegations of a deliberate policy of sexual violence by Hamas.

These are two very different issues, sexual violence, and sexual violence as a tactic.

First, it is abundantly clear, and has been since the first days after the attack that there was widespread sexual violence.

Even if we ignore the today's report by the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence, it would be inconceivable that there would not have been extensive sexual violence that day. 

The NYT leakers leaked, and The Intercept published before the report was issued.

Sexual violence against civilians is common when military units seize territory and take control of a civilian population with regular military units.

With irregular units, as is the case with Hamas, it is near universal.

The idea that the sexual violence is all a construct of, "Those Perfidious Jews," much like the accusation that the deaths were all from Israeli military actions, requires one to ignore the documentary evidence.

Hamas literally live streamed the attacks, including instances of sexual violence.

To claim otherwise is an antisemitic trope.

To argue that this, heinous though it is, is NOT a justification for the current scope and ferocity of Israeli operations is not necessarily antisemitic.

War is a nasty business, and how it is conducted, and whether it is to be conducted, will ALWAYS be contentious, as it should be.

Additionally disputing that sexual violence was a deliberate policy of the Hamas attack, and was instead merely an (entirely foreseeable) consequence of the attack is not necessarily antisemitic.

I am inclined to believe that sexual violence was anticipated and at least tacitly endorsed by Hamas leadership, but I cannot see into the minds of Hamas leaders.  (Nor would I want to.  When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back)