Interestingly just nine days ago someone here shared a link to the US's Law of War manual for military personnel. It's pretty good for what it is. Since countries base this stuff on the same international treaties they've all signed, it's a guide to Israel's conduct during war (or just about anyone's) as well as the US's. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46147605 https://media.defense.gov/2023/Jul/31/2003271432/-…
Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
511–520 of 832 posts
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#512Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh, I didn't know this. Innocent people were still killed and maimed by shrapnel. The other children aged 11 was killed when his father's pager detonated
hmm maybe you don't know there's "intentional homicide" and "unintentional homicide", and those two differ extremely in court? seems like you like being sarcastic, but don't know basic stuff even 15 year olds know
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#513Earlier quoted context omitted.
The issue is that Israel has no idea where those pagers were at the time of the attack, civilians were directly hurt by the explosions: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/survivors-of-israels-page...
Zionists don't care about civilian casualties. It's extremely well documented. They even defend the explicit rape of their "prisoners". They will just explain them away as Hamas sympathizers and people will shrug their shoulders and move on.
What is true is that I'd deny allegations about civilian casualties that I think are false, but that would be because I think they're false, nothing to do with zionism.
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#514Earlier quoted context omitted.
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It wasn't indiscriminate, is the main point. Almost exactly the opposite.
It being indiscriminate would be the lesser evil out of these two options and it is unclear to me why you would prefer this interpretation of the events.
My view is based on the technicalities as I found them reported in mass media and directly from individuals in Lebanon at the time, which gave me the impression that the israelis went ahead and detonated the gadgets at the time they did because they suspected that Hezbollah was onto them, and that they had basically no idea where exactly these devices were at the time. To me this explains why they were detonated at the same time and not 'surgically', as state terrorists like to put it.
I can sympathise with the impulse to believe that the IDF is almost omniscient and able to organise a simultaneous attack against thousands of people individually, they sure want to promote such an image of themselves and put a lot of effort into doing so. But I don't believe it, in part because they have shown themselves to be quite unprofessional and sloppy, as well as lacking in strategic sophistication. Basically, I don't think they have enough disciplined personnel to pull something like that off, and instead they just broadcast a detonation signal to all the devices based on the suspicion that their operation might be revealed and countered.
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#515I actually consider the pager attack to be legal. There's obviously criticism of it, but I'm fairly sure you're allowed to do this kind of thing by laws of war. Obviously this creates a huge problem for pretty much everyone though, since we can imagine that our ordinary consumer products from all sorts countries could similarly explode if we ended up at war with the manufacturers.
Such attacks are nothing but war crimes. Targeting civilians and harming/killing them without trial is illegal NO MATTER OF WHAT.
All kinds of retaliation attacks are also illegal if harming civilians etc.
This is not my opinion but global consensus for the past 80 years globally
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#516Earlier quoted context omitted.
Incorrect. The reports are 42 total killed, 12 civilians including 2 children. "Operation Grim Beeper" (seriously) on Wikipedia cites these numbers from Lebanese government. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Lebanon_electronic_device...
The figure of merit in a military strike is casualties, not KIA; it's the "wounded" part you actually care about (in fact, in some tactical situations, wounding is preferable to killing, as it ties up adversary logistical resources). Since the pagers that were targeted were exclusively used by Hezbollah (which fought an actual civil war with the Lebanese security forces specifically in order to establish its own tele…
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#517Yeah sure. Seems like a big leap from "they use Palintir's software" to implying that it was somehow important for this attack. Also did they really call it Operation Grim Beeper? Hilarious if true (but I suspect not given how codenames are meant to work).
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#518Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Do you know what the word "Indiscriminate" means?
If the israelis weren't indiscriminate it would obviously make their actions in this case even worse, i.e. they somehow were looking at those kids being close to the explosives and still initiated the detonation sequence to draw their attention and hurt them.
That's the position you'd take if you wanted to smear the israelis.
Re: Israel used Palantir technologies in pager attack in Lebanon
#519Earlier quoted context omitted.
The bomb in the pagers was so weak it could only harm someone directly holding it or if it was in a pocket.
I think we have in fact pretty strong reporting that at least 2 children were killed, and while the explosions and payload were nowhere nearly as devastating as a grenade, they were still much bigger than a firework mortar (which themselves have killed children). I think a stronger argument is that in the aggregate , the devices overwhelmingly targeted combatants.