PS I don't doubt for a moment that if Hamas and Hezbollah had the firepower and forces that Israel has, they would do to Israel what Israel has been doing to Gaza and Lebanon. Boys (and sometimes girls) with lethal toys.
Robert, this is a full and detailed account and I applaud that. I do not condone the strategies of Netanyahu's government and nor do many Israelis or indeed the Jewish diaspora. However (there was always going to be a 'however'), we must always bear in mind what prompted this. Israel suffered an invasion and a massacre on Oct 7 2023. Hostages were taken, women were raped, babies were killed. This was a carefully planned attack on a community that lived in peace with its Palestinian neighbours. Why kill them? What purpose did it serve? If the Palestinians want their own state, and I support that, this is the wrong way to go about. I do not believe in an eye for an eye, nor indeed ten eyes for an eye, but there also needs to be some context. You should consider the roles of Britain and the USA in setting up the state of Israel, and the attacks on Israel by Arab nations days after the state of Israel was founded. You must also consider that Iran has explicitly stated that its goal is to obliterate the State of Israel, and has armed Hamas and Hezbollah, as has Russia. I do not condone the response of Netanyahu's government and believe he is a war criminal, but I still wholeheartedly support Israel's right to exist and defend itself from the attacks of terrorists and hostile nations. I do not know how this appalling situation can be resolved while the Netanyahu government is in power, and while Hamas and Hezbollah refuse to talk peace. A slightly modified quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: a plague on all your houses. Until someone has the courage to lay down their arms and say 'enough now, this can't go on', and let go of their hatred, this war will suck the world into its black hole. Right now, everyone has blood on their hands.
I try to refrain from speculating on these matters as to who would do what in hypothetical situations, as I do not think that that is particularly helpful for broadening our understanding of a situation. I will instead stick to the facts as far as I have been able to ascertain them.
Firstly, there is no evidence of any rape or dead babies on October 7, and lies told about these supposed crimes have been disproven many times over by journalistic outlets like the Electronic Intifada and The Grayzone, with even the New York Times having to walk back some of its false claims (though as far as I know they still have not retracted these stories). What does exist, is evidence of Israel killing its own citizens on October 7 according to something it called the Hannibal directive, as a way of preventing Hamas from getting any leverage by taking hostages. U.N. investigations have also not been able to find conclusive evidence that these rapes have taken place. On the other hand, there is ample evidence, including videos, of what Israelis have been doing to Palestinian prisoners. So what did Hamas actually do if we look past the many lies told about October 7? As far as can be gathered, they attacked Israelis, took quite a few hostage, and killed others, although what number they killed is unclear because of the aforementioned Hannibal directive.
Secondly, while I personally find it difficult to endorse any violent action, no matter how justified it may be thought to be, I also realise that I can say that from a position of luxury, since I am not forced to live in a place like Gaza, where you cannot get out without the permission of the Israeli government, where food and water are rationed in order to slowly starve you, where violence and repression is used to steal my land and deprive me of my humanity every single day. Where they once every few years go in with their army and kill scores of civilians to, in their words, "mow the lawn". I find it quite a stretch to see what Israel is doing to Palestinians as "living in peace with their neighbours", nor would I ever accept any reason for doing these things as legitimate, no matter what anyone may have done to them. Within that context, there is a group like Hamas, which has taken up arms in order to fight against occupation, a right which the U.N. charter grants as a legitimate way of resistance. The methods of resistance that you or I find acceptable can be debated, and I personally certainly do not condone the killing of innocent people, but it is also helpful to put ourselves in their shoes and understand why they may have felt like taking hostages was the only way to get their demands heard. They have had some success with that in the past, at times accomplishing with hostage taking what decades of peace negotiations could not. Unfortunately for them, Netanyahu does not seem to care much about the lives of his own citizens and therefore these hostages did not give Hamas the leverage they were hoping for, but instead gave Israel the excuse to once again go in and kill and destroy whomever and whatever they can, as many U.N. and human rights reports, as well as Israeli soldiers' own videos, amply demonstrate.
Addressing the roles of other countries as well as the longer history in all this is very complex and they often change over time, and that longer history was also not the focus of this article, nor is it something I think it is wise to go into in a comment, but let me say this. Much of the world's countries with only a few exceptions like the U.S. and Israel, have been willing to accept a two-state solution according to the pre-1967 borders (in 1967 Israel occupied parts of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt). Hamas has also said as recently as this year that it would lay down arms if this were implemented. Hezbollah has made similar statements. So contrary to what is often reported in the media, namely that they are unwilling to make peace or take negotiations seriously, it is in fact Israel which keeps making peace impossible by assassinating negotiators and changing its demands whenever an agreement comes closer. Of course, each party's actual intentions and motivations is something that can be debated, and one can never truly know to what extent anyone is being sincere, but when countries or groups say they want to lay down arms and negotiate, they should be taken up on that, instead of insisting that they cannot be reasoned with and continuing the fighting. The international community as a whole, which includes the United States who has been consistently unwilling to put any sort of pressure on Israel, should be forcing all parties to take these kinds of negotiations seriously and engage in them in good faith, and then hold them to their agreements.
PS I don't doubt for a moment that if Hamas and Hezbollah had the firepower and forces that Israel has, they would do to Israel what Israel has been doing to Gaza and Lebanon. Boys (and sometimes girls) with lethal toys.
Robert, this is a full and detailed account and I applaud that. I do not condone the strategies of Netanyahu's government and nor do many Israelis or indeed the Jewish diaspora. However (there was always going to be a 'however'), we must always bear in mind what prompted this. Israel suffered an invasion and a massacre on Oct 7 2023. Hostages were taken, women were raped, babies were killed. This was a carefully planned attack on a community that lived in peace with its Palestinian neighbours. Why kill them? What purpose did it serve? If the Palestinians want their own state, and I support that, this is the wrong way to go about. I do not believe in an eye for an eye, nor indeed ten eyes for an eye, but there also needs to be some context. You should consider the roles of Britain and the USA in setting up the state of Israel, and the attacks on Israel by Arab nations days after the state of Israel was founded. You must also consider that Iran has explicitly stated that its goal is to obliterate the State of Israel, and has armed Hamas and Hezbollah, as has Russia. I do not condone the response of Netanyahu's government and believe he is a war criminal, but I still wholeheartedly support Israel's right to exist and defend itself from the attacks of terrorists and hostile nations. I do not know how this appalling situation can be resolved while the Netanyahu government is in power, and while Hamas and Hezbollah refuse to talk peace. A slightly modified quote from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet: a plague on all your houses. Until someone has the courage to lay down their arms and say 'enough now, this can't go on', and let go of their hatred, this war will suck the world into its black hole. Right now, everyone has blood on their hands.
I try to refrain from speculating on these matters as to who would do what in hypothetical situations, as I do not think that that is particularly helpful for broadening our understanding of a situation. I will instead stick to the facts as far as I have been able to ascertain them.
Firstly, there is no evidence of any rape or dead babies on October 7, and lies told about these supposed crimes have been disproven many times over by journalistic outlets like the Electronic Intifada and The Grayzone, with even the New York Times having to walk back some of its false claims (though as far as I know they still have not retracted these stories). What does exist, is evidence of Israel killing its own citizens on October 7 according to something it called the Hannibal directive, as a way of preventing Hamas from getting any leverage by taking hostages. U.N. investigations have also not been able to find conclusive evidence that these rapes have taken place. On the other hand, there is ample evidence, including videos, of what Israelis have been doing to Palestinian prisoners. So what did Hamas actually do if we look past the many lies told about October 7? As far as can be gathered, they attacked Israelis, took quite a few hostage, and killed others, although what number they killed is unclear because of the aforementioned Hannibal directive.
Secondly, while I personally find it difficult to endorse any violent action, no matter how justified it may be thought to be, I also realise that I can say that from a position of luxury, since I am not forced to live in a place like Gaza, where you cannot get out without the permission of the Israeli government, where food and water are rationed in order to slowly starve you, where violence and repression is used to steal my land and deprive me of my humanity every single day. Where they once every few years go in with their army and kill scores of civilians to, in their words, "mow the lawn". I find it quite a stretch to see what Israel is doing to Palestinians as "living in peace with their neighbours", nor would I ever accept any reason for doing these things as legitimate, no matter what anyone may have done to them. Within that context, there is a group like Hamas, which has taken up arms in order to fight against occupation, a right which the U.N. charter grants as a legitimate way of resistance. The methods of resistance that you or I find acceptable can be debated, and I personally certainly do not condone the killing of innocent people, but it is also helpful to put ourselves in their shoes and understand why they may have felt like taking hostages was the only way to get their demands heard. They have had some success with that in the past, at times accomplishing with hostage taking what decades of peace negotiations could not. Unfortunately for them, Netanyahu does not seem to care much about the lives of his own citizens and therefore these hostages did not give Hamas the leverage they were hoping for, but instead gave Israel the excuse to once again go in and kill and destroy whomever and whatever they can, as many U.N. and human rights reports, as well as Israeli soldiers' own videos, amply demonstrate.
Addressing the roles of other countries as well as the longer history in all this is very complex and they often change over time, and that longer history was also not the focus of this article, nor is it something I think it is wise to go into in a comment, but let me say this. Much of the world's countries with only a few exceptions like the U.S. and Israel, have been willing to accept a two-state solution according to the pre-1967 borders (in 1967 Israel occupied parts of Syria, Jordan, and Egypt). Hamas has also said as recently as this year that it would lay down arms if this were implemented. Hezbollah has made similar statements. So contrary to what is often reported in the media, namely that they are unwilling to make peace or take negotiations seriously, it is in fact Israel which keeps making peace impossible by assassinating negotiators and changing its demands whenever an agreement comes closer. Of course, each party's actual intentions and motivations is something that can be debated, and one can never truly know to what extent anyone is being sincere, but when countries or groups say they want to lay down arms and negotiate, they should be taken up on that, instead of insisting that they cannot be reasoned with and continuing the fighting. The international community as a whole, which includes the United States who has been consistently unwilling to put any sort of pressure on Israel, should be forcing all parties to take these kinds of negotiations seriously and engage in them in good faith, and then hold them to their agreements.
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