Shani Louk (the German woman whose body was videoed in the bed of a Hamas pickup) was an satanist-dabbling hippie, but obviously that detail is in the back seat considering the situation. Her legs were rotated 180 degrees on her body, it's pretty grotesque.
Setting aside the shocker title, settlers and anyone else in the settlements are being massacred. This will most likely make it hard for Palestinian allies to do PR. Rashida Tlaib hasn't tweeted and Ilhan Omar seems to be running with the "condemn atrocities then pivot to 'this raises our awareness of the plight of Gaza'" playbook.
However, Hamas 100% intended to do this from the beginning. This isn't a case of anyone going rogue, it's marauding Muslims given full permission to practice the traditions of their forefathers. Male IDF, for the most part, are being tortured and killed on the spot. Meanwhile, there is a widely broadcasted clip of what appears to be fighters shoving female civilians and IDF in the back of a truck, and we have only heard the beginning of the stories of rape, torture, and murder. This was their plan. But what is their goal? Push back the settlements? Maybe that will work - it's a confusing situation.
You're not going to get a lot of fighting age men to agree to your war if you tell them they can't rape young hot half naked women they come across. Rape has always been a lure for war since the dawn of time.
There's rape in every war. Even the American soldiers rape women in the countries they've had soldiers at.
The only difference between Hamas and everything else is that the news you're watching is 100% designed to paint a narrative. It's propaganda in action. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Russians blasted stories of Ukrainians committing war crimes and Ukrainians blasted stories of Russians committing war crimes. It's all standard stuff. Israel + The West utilize the most sophisticated propaganda in the entire world. No matter what Hamas did, no matter what precautions they took and orders they passed, The West would find something to twist to their advantage for propaganda.
There is a tiny difference in scale between the amount of rape done by American soldiers and what happened in ancient times, or by the Red Army in World War 2. I doubt any American joins the army in the hope of rape, and considering that this was the first time Hamas actually breached Israel proper, there was no realistic prospect for Hamas members either.
The difference is that Hamas is blasting stories of Hamas committing war crimes.
Of course, that also serves a purpose and should not be taken at face value, but when you see a mutilated and apparently raped woman, that is a little difference from Zelensky's usual ravings.
The West, sure. Israel? Hardly. 40% of UN resolutions are directed at a country of 7 million that definitely doesn't commit that percentage of wrongs, or even close to it.
It's pretty superficial to equivocate between US military rape cases and what's happening in the settlements now, where raping and pillaging is the whole point.
Yes, soldiers have always been tempted to rape. They've also been tempted to loot goods and kill any civilian that looks at them sideways, but the point of an organized military is to restrain those impulses as much as possible so soldiers can be an effective tool, and the US has been more successful at that than most outfits in history (maybe all). If we let ourselves go to the Third World standard (or even the Soviet Russian standard), half the women in Iraq would be ran through.
Maybe the USA military wouldn't have such a hard time recruiting if they allowed more rape.
That's a thought!