The order it seems to have been going in for some people I've seen online is something like:
- It didn't happen
- Ok, maybe it did happen but it wasn't as bad as is being reported
- It's as bad as reported but the victims were probably old enough to be in the IDF
- Ok well maybe some of them weren't in the IDF, but what were they doing in Israel anyway?
- Yes, lots of innocent people were killed, but have you considered that the Israeli state also does bad things?
I have absolutely no problem at all with criticism of the Israeli state for the evil shit they do, and a wider discussion of the long term causes of the conflict, but when the very first reaction of people online is not one of complete horror and contempt for the perpetrators of the atrocities, but to immediately jump to one of the above stages of denial/excuses, it makes me question the humanity of fellow people on the left. Comments on this thread like 'Palestinians have the right to try to end the occupation', 'Fuck yes! I could weep, I'm so delighted'.
Guess what, massacring 250 young adults at a music festival, executing civilians in the street and in their homes, and taking young children hostage, all backed by a despotic regime in Iran, isn't going to end the occupation. It isn't going to help Palestinians break out of their prison. It isn't going to break the cycle of decades of senseless violence. And it sure as hell isn't going to save the lives of the innocent Palestinians currently lying under the rubble of buildings hit by Israeli airstrikes.