I'm not Jewish and I appreciate your thoughtful post. Some of my Jewish friends are very angry too the point of calling what you have said regarding the treatment of Palestinians anti-semitc. I think because of that retaliation by Israel is not just inevitable it is going on already. I do feel Hamas needs to be stopped but stopping them will kill a lot of others. There are no good solutions here.
The West Bank was part of Jordan and the Gaza Strip was part of Egypt. The Arabs had the opportunity to have a state of Palestine in 1948. They rejected it. They didn't want there to also be a state of Israel. Israel accepted the plan and formed a State. They were attacked by the Arab League and won. In 1967, they were attacked by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and they won again, taking portions of those countries (including the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights). Palestine declared itself an independant state in the 1980s led by Arafat, claiming all of Israel as their territory. Israel has allowed for the "Palestinian" government to have control over Gaza and parts of the West Bank, but even now most of Europe, the US, Australia, and Japan do not recognize the State of Palestine. As far as the United States is concerned, the State of Palestine has never existed. The two-state solution is aspirational.
They do try to minimize them. It's Hamas who hide behind civilians. Hamas must be eliminated. Any civilian death is on Hamas, its supporters and funders.
I agree Hamas is responsible. I also believe they are going to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of Palestinians. That doesn't mean those Palestinians in Gaza are responsible or that we should just dismiss them as "collateral damage." As I said. There are no good solutions here.
So? That is how a lot of the Middle East has been historically. It doesn't mean that they don't want their land and autonomy back. I suppose one way to look it is that might has largely made right in that region of the world........ many tribes and groups of people have been displaced, or been targets of genocide, and have had to deal with it - so why should those Muslims in the WestBank and Gaza be any different than the Assyrians or Kurds or other groups.
The concept of Palestine lasted less than a year. The original British partition plan was to create three entities: Transjordan (which today is Jordan), Israel and Palestine. But as you note, after the 1948 war, Gaza was controlled by Egypt and Jordan controlled the West Bank. There were also parts of Palestine that are now contained within Israel itself. For example, Gaza wasn't a small strip originally. It was part of a larger stretch of land that went north and south. Also a large chunk of northern Israel that borders Lebanon was originally supposed to be part of a Palestinian state. Ultimately, the Palestinians were not organized at the time and the Arab states did them no favors. Jordan had secret talks during the 1948 armistance with Israel to ensure that they could annex the entire West Bank. There's a lot of anger towards Israel but the Arab states really didn't care about them either. The 1967 war in particular started because the Soviets basically made up a story that the Israelis were going to invade Syria. Egypt unfortunately believed this and started massing troops and blocked Israeli ships. But Egypt, Syria and Jordan all deserve a lot of blame for the situation today. They were interested in land grabs as much as the Israelis were and weren't looking after the interests of the Palestinians. It certainly doesn't excuse how Israel has managed the Palestinian territories but I think people miss a lot of the nuance and history that makes this situation so complex and instead reduce it to a basic good vs. bad dichotomy that isn't real.
Its mind boggling how some people are trying to complicate this situation, Hamas did this. They cowardly murdered people in a horrific way, took hostages to continue to commit crimes against humanity and then ran back to Gaza to shield themselves in their "war".... Any casualty as tragic as it may be is a result of Hamas...
Pfffft that a load of horse sht. Israel repeatedly treats people from palestine as Second tier people and deny them equal rights. They have all these extra restrictions and laws to put palestines down. Choosing to Pull the trigger on human shields and then blaming others for it is the stupidest thing I ever heard. If Israel made the decision to bomb and kill innocent people in palestine they share part of the blame for loss of life in this conflict. Missiles being launched by Israel with the intent to kill folks indiscriminately in the gaza ain't being done by Hamas
I don't get why people can't have rationale views about the conflict. Hamas being scumbags doesn't mean the people in Gaza somehow support them. They havnt had an election in over 15+ years. Hamas should be removed from power and allow the PLO to come into power.
Based on history - there will be no tears in Israel for the death of civilians in Gaza or the West Bank..... from the perspective of a lot of Israeli's, there isn't a clear division between Hamas and the Arabs in those areas.... as the support for Hamas is fairly high. This is only going to end with the removal of the Arabs in the region, and the Westbank and Gaza being Jewish settlements. The level of hatred on both sides is at a genocidal level - and there are powerful people on both sides that want to keep the hatred at this level.
Well - I suppose that is a matter of opinion. I will say this - long term there will be less violence if Israel murders all of the muslim Arabs in the WestBank and Gaza. Of course, the flip side is that people will scream genocide - but a pessimist can point out that the world has been formed largely by genocide and it's convenient for the USA and Western Europe to preach against genocide when they did the same thing in the past.
**Bookmarked and labeling for disinformation - Your 4th time this week. I never said labeling media as disinformation is censorship. I specifically stated labeling disinformation is what should be done. Banning, deleting, shadow banning, ect... is censorship.
Yeah - I did, in the sense that they are both tribal and largely have no relied on strict boundaries in the Middle East.... and both have been victim of being ruled over by a larger and stronger government. That is how most of the Middle East has been historically. Ask the Assyrians where their "home" is.
Israel will not murder anyone. They are defending themselves. Big difference (you as a lawyer know this). The best solution would be for the Palestinians to be accepted by the Arab countries who pretend to care so much for them. The reality is that, unfortunately, as a group, other Arabs actually do NOT want them, based on their history.
