Hamas is a terrorist organization with no aim other than the destruction of Israel. Israel mistakenly funded in back in the 80's as a counterpoint to the PLO - obviously a huge mistake. I did not understand why Israel withdrew from Gaza and left it to Hamas in 2007. Gaza was never free though - it was sealed off from the rest of the world blockaded by Israel which is why it's called the largest open air prison. And Hamas has never held an election. So the Palestinian people don't have a voice. As to why Israel's defenses were so easily overcome and why it took so long for the IDF to respond to the incursion is a mystery to me. But at the very least a massive intelligence failure. As I have said many times before, Hamas needs to be taken out. But not by indiscriminate bombings and mass human suffering. There was no need to rush this.
It is blockaded by Israel? Seems that Egypt also borders it..... Israel has offered a state numerous times, it is never enough - time to wipe Hamas off the earth. DD
It was bound to happen, but still shocking and sad to see when it happened. Too much hate being spread. Will County news: Wadea Al-Fayoume, unincorp. Plainfield boy stabbed to death, to be laid to rest Monday; DOJ opens investigation - ABC7 Chicago PLAINFIELD, Ill. (WLS) -- The 6-year-old suburban boy stabbed to death in an apparent hate crime over the weekend will be laid to rest Monday, in Muslim tradition. Joseph Czuba stabbed Wadea Al-Fayoume and his mother in unincorporated Plainfield Saturday morning because they are Muslim, the Will County Sheriff's Office said on Sunday. A recent photo of Al-Fayoume showed a young boy who had celebrated his birthday a couple of weeks ago. He was stabbed 26 times with a military-style knife, officials said. His mother was stabbed 12 times, and remains in the hospital. Will County investigators said they were attacked by their landlord in their home on Saturday morning. The boy and mother had rented the ground floor for the past two years, with no issues arising until Saturday. "What we have is a murdered Palestinian child by someone who is radicalized by the environment in which we live right now, that casts Palestinians as human animals," said Ahmed Rehab, president of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Chicago. "This person had no track record with the family. As a matter of fact, the father says he had built a treehouse for the boy, and allowed him to swim in a makeshift pool and brought him toys." Czuba, 71, has been charged with first-degree murder, attempted first-degree murder and two counts of committing a hate crime. In announcing the charges, the Will County Sheriff's Office called the crime "senseless" and "cowardly," saying, in part, "Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the on-going Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis." "He knocked on the door and that he attempted to choke her, and said, 'you Muslims must die,' and attempted to stab her, and stabbed her. And, she went to the bathroom and called 911. And, this was all in her own words," Rehab said.
That aligns with cancel culture, characterized by a limited willingness to listen to others and an excessive focus on self-expression. In order to foster constructive dialogue and critical analysis, there should be a space for open, fair criticism. For instance, the ease with which the Iraq war unfolded in the United States can be attributed to the rapid and substantial suppression of dissenting voices (You were often labeled as anti-American if you criticized Bush/Cheney at the time).
Why? Part of it is cultural, honestly. This type of thing is really not that uncommon in this part of the world, because of the incredibly instability. Also, in places like Egypt, protesting is a recipe for death or long term prison terms. The Middle East is also is largely controlled by a relatively small number of very violent and wealthy people - who typically have control of the people until they do not. Also the Middle East is very tribal, it is a lot like the Southern United States was - your allegiance and your identity is tied to very small pockets of people. The idea of nationalism is in many cases not natural to some Middle Easterners. We can debate how much of this control is due to exploitation of religion, how much of it is cultural, how much of it is based on the geography, and how much of it is a result of Western and Turkish (in the past) interference - but that is how it is. I am not at all surprised that other countries are not welcoming Palestinians into their land with open arms - the Palestinians are not easy to rule, and they will likely not easily be acculturated into there new nation and terrorists and extremists will move in with them. We see the same thing in Afghanistan.
Why? Part of it is cultural, honestly. This type of thing is really not that uncommon in this part of the world, because of the incredibly instability. Also, in places like Egypt, protesting is a recipe for death or long term prison terms. The Middle East is also is largely controlled by a relatively small number of very violent and wealthy people - who typically have control of the people until they do not. Also the Middle East is very tribal, it is a lot like the Southern United States was - your allegiance and your identity is tied to very small pockets of people. The idea of nationalism is in many cases not natural to some Middle Easterners. We can debate how much of this control is due to exploitation of religion, how much of it is cultural, how much of it is based on the geography, and how much of it is a result of Western and Turkish (in the past) interference - but that is how it is. I am not at all surprised that other countries are not welcoming Palestinians into their land with open arms - the Palestinians are not easy to rule, and they will likely not easily be acculturated into there new nation and terrorists and extremists will move in with them. We see the same thing in Afghanistan.
Once I quit lurking, I attacked Bush Junior’s deliberate propaganda campaign to justify invading Saddam’s Iraq right here at the time, but after the fact. There were a large number of members who bought into Bush and Cheney’s BS and were still buying it. There was one member, who’s moniker I’m blanking out on, who ardently insisted that there was evidence in Iraq that Saddam was working on building The Bomb. Took forever for the guy, former military, to give up on the idea, if he ever did. The back and forth was interesting, but I don’t recall being called “unpatriotic” or anything. I supported Bush’s attack on the Taliban in Afghanistan and the subsequent attempt to capture/kill bin Laden. Someone had to pay for 9/11. But then Bush lost interest in Afghanistan. Someone got in his ear about Iraq (Cheney, in my opinion), and Bush went off into madness, carrying our allies with him on a carpet of “yellow cake” lies. We had some lively discussion about that here. I had stopped lurking and simply reading the BBS and joined, primarily because I had been been looking for content about the Rockets and found the BBS when it was still in “.com” mode. A side benefit was being able to enjoy another interest, talking politics. There weren’t a large number of extremists here back then. Not like there is today. Moving on. Time told us all, eventually. I said, several times, that wars have unintended consequences. That invading Iraq and overthrowing Saddam would destabilize the region. I was right. We are still seeing the consequences today, in my opinion.
I think a lot of Americans don't understand how truly complex the Middle East is. Jordan took in a lot of Palestinians and in the 70's essentially had a civil war. Just because Palestinians are Muslim and Arab doesn't mean that other countries will welcome them. That goes for really any group as even in Houston we saw a lot of tension when many from Louisiana moved there after Katrina. Also why is it necessary for the Palestinians to move when they have lived there for generations? This is just the flip side of those who say Israelis should just move because they are well educated and Western in outlook so they could live in the US, UK or Australia. Neither side is going to move en masse.
