I genuinely do not know who the bad guys are. S lot of my leftist friends are against Israel, but from what I know Israel was attacked and is responding and trying to get their hostages back.
Enlighten me. Am I wrong? Why am I wrong?
And dumb it down for me, because apparently I’m an idiot.
I don’t think there is a good guy:
Hamas Attacked Israel and killed more people in the attack relative to the population then 9/11. They used the population of the Gazastrip as human shields, building there bases in the City sometimes near hospitals. Using human shields is a war crime. UN schools use(d) books in which Israels existence is disclaimed. Hamas doesn’t want a two state solution, they want the complete destruction of Israel. Remember, not every Palestinian is Hamas, but a large portion of them supported the terror attack.
On the other side is Israel, the only democratic nation in the near east. Occupying parts of Syria, Lebanon, the west Bank and Gaza. Building villages in the occupied partes of West Bank for decades, illegally. The occupied Gaza just like the westbank until the mid 2000s when they retreated and left the villages. Hamas got into power and attacked Israel many times with simple rockets. After the devastating terror attack last year the responded with hard force killing many hamas fighters, but much more civilians. To be clear, it isn’t a war crime when there are some civilians under the casualties. But in my opinion, Israel wasn’t killing many hamas and there where a few civilians, they killed some Hamas and there were many normal people, sometimes ignoring them. But remember, Hamas wants this they want the world to hate Israel. If that means that many Palestinians die, so what. They used civilians as shields, hiding in them (war crime) Whether in city’s or refugee camps, hamas tried to hide there, putting normal Palestinians in danger.
To be honest, I don’t think we will see a solution to this decade long conflict in the near future. :(
Don’t forget that Israel’s government also has explicitly said it wants to ethnically cleanse and genocide the Palestinians, on multiple occassions. It also isn’t democratic, considering there quite literally is a case of apartheid state.
I’m happy they are a “democracy”, but they need to actually live up to the word instead of the former victim becoming the perpetrator themselves.
I doubt most Palestinians actually support the terror attack. If they do, they probably want revenge for the Nakba in 1948, in where Israel has systematically expulsed and cleansed Palestinians from their native soil.
Not that it solves anything, but it’s hard to feel sympathy and anger to both, when it is overall a tragedy that only has one true solution:
Both sides living in peace, equal among kin, with no animosity, with no fascist Israeli government, with no calls to genocide from either side.
There certainly is a good guy and it’s called the citizens who just don’t want their governments to be shit, and to cooperate instead. The citizens who want to return to their country. The citizens that don’t settle. The citizens that want loved ones back, but don’t call for murder. Those are your good guys: normal people, who do not contribute to hatred.
I think there certainly is a solution. The question is whether the US actually has the balls to put multiple warships near the fascist Israel government and Hamas’ repression and credibly threaten both sides (with actual consequences following if neither listens), unless if the former retreats from all settlements and actually contributes to cooperation with the right to return and full citizenship, and the latter releases the prisoners alive and well, and agrees to cooperate as well.
This, all while guaranteeing the right of queers to be enshrined, the seculars to actually have secular marriages, the religious to cooperate and build an interfaith communion.
Hatred needs to be exterminated. If fascists and dictatorships do not listen (they never do), they need to be fought on all fronts.
The Nakba was really bad and heavily shapes modern Palestinian consciousness, but nobody is seeking revenge for the Nakba itself anymore. It’s more about retaliating against much more recent and current offenses, mainly the Gaza blockade and settlements, resisting Israeli occupation and freeing Palestinian detainees.
Israel is using Palestinians as human shield. How do you expect Hamas to not be in civilians area in a highly populated 365 square kilometers area? Do you expect Hamas to kill themselves or to let Israel occupy land with no resistance at all? By resistance, I don’t mean things like 7 of October but something like attacking military target
Correction: Israel claims they used (and still use) human shields. Those claims have not been proven in any way. You’ll say they build their military bases and headquarters in cities, but literally every military in the world does that.
Look up the 2008 and 2012 ceasefires. Hamas isn’t fundamentally opposed to a two-state solution. It’s not their preferred result, but they’ve taken part in serious peace deals more than once only for Israel to destroy the whole thing.