OK, I can certainly respect your desire to scrutinize the veracity of anyone's account. After all, it's why I am disregarding all media sources and all politically conflicted organizations. As for your initial scrutiny of eyewitnesses to the IDF opening fire, I can think of several reasons why I might do exactly as you did initially. My issue then becomes how you are not applying the exact same standards to Israel, i.e. you are committing a special pleading fallacy. You haven't responded to volsrock's OP in the exact same way, i.e. declaring that we shouldn't just be taking Israel's front organization (GFH) on their word, especially when they are obviously lying. Neither you nor I doubted the eyewitnesses (who we did not know) of the 2020 election stealing, who presented sworn affidavits, and here we have eyewitnesses for whom we have no reason to doubt (we don't know them either) ... and yet you imply that I should somehow immediately dismiss that eyewitness testimony and allow myself to be manipulated by Israel. Could you elaborate on why I should do that?
I totally get it. You are in the right to scrutinize to whatever extent you see fit. The problem comes when you simply reject eyewitness testimony for which you presently have no reason to doubt (you do not know Mohammed Abu Teaima) and automatically embrace the word of lying terrorists in mid-genocide.
That is my issue here. I do not question your right to doubt and to question. It's the double standard that is immedately problematic, and is what I am trying to ameliorate by focusing on eyewitnesses.
Why don't we discuss what the eyewitnesses say, and then discuss why we shouldn't believe them. I, for one, want to know if the reason I shouldn't trust eyewitnesses that are Arabs is because they are Arabs.
Sure, both sides deserve scrutiny, but the contrast is stark. One openly calls for genocide, (tends to damage credibility, don't you think?) starting with Jews but targeting all infidels (all of Western Civilization) as well, driven by an evil radical ideology.
Israel, whatever its flaws, doesn’t advocate wiping out every Arab (can we be accurate, Palestinians are Arabs, not a distinct people). My instincts flare when radicals execute women for showing their faces, kill gays for existing, and rule through fear and brutal punishment. Credibility crumbles for those who strap bombs on their own people, slaughter innocents at music festivals, overrun villages, rape, mutilate, and behead infants while filming it on iPhones, likely sourced in Israel, for bitter irony.
Compare that to media outlets peddling “Baghdad Bob” propaganda. There’s a chasm between an American testifying freely in court and someone cowering under lifelong oppression. You’re sharp enough to know this, so let’s be real: Hamas wouldn't think twice about killing and mutilating children just to take pictures and claim the Jews did it. Are you not aware of the countless cases of using the weak, elderly, and children to shield themselves and their weapons from harm like the evil cowards they are. Jew-hatred isn’t rooted in Gaza’s actions. And I should point out, If thugs from a place like Gaza did Oct 7th in an American town, that place would be a smoldering crater by now and CNN would be there siding with the terrorist as usual.
So, admit it, be a man and be honest, you're hate for the Jews was complete long before Oct 7th. I'd be happy to be wrong, and this is just a case of you buying into the propaganda, the pictures, the 'eyewitnesses speaking without coercion or fear', but I'm not quite that stupid as many here think.