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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 13, 2025

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Firing tank shells into Churches, backing jihadists in Syria and occupying Christian territory.

This interview with Tucker is a good intro

Firing tank shells into Churches

Very good. That is actually oppression. If done intentionally and regularly.

On July 17, 2025, part of an Israeli tank shell hit the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli military expressed regret for the incident and launched an investigation. On July 23, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) stated that the church was "accidentally hit due to an unintentional deviation of munitions" during operational activity.

Okay. So a one-off accident. The actual definition of collateral damage. If anyone is ever going to fire a tank gun or drop a bomb, then there will be some failure rate in targeting. An accident is not what I would call oppression.

Googling more I see other collateral damage examples. A church water tank is broken while the Israelis battle jihadists, etc. The expected occasional screw up when firing tanks and missile striking urban regions. Regrettable, but not oppression.

occupying Christian territory

Between the alternatives of Jewish Israeli control or Palestinian jihadist Islamic control, there's no "Christian territory" under discussion. I get that the small Christian minority is in a tough spot. They don't have territory. If the crusades had turned out differently we'd be meaningfully discussing "Christian territory" in the region. But we aren't.

backing jihadists in Syria

Wisely arming non-jihadist rebel factions in Syria in order to counter Iranian influence. Not that Christians would flourish if Iranian-backed jihadist rebel factions got the upper hand. Arming the mildest rebels as a counter against the Islamist extremists is not oppressing Christians.

Firing tank shells into Churches

From what I can gather it was a fragment of a single tank shell which struck a single church by mistake. Your hyperbolic condemnation of every single thing Israel does is counterproductive.