"There are many horrific things happening in Gaza. It's called war. And it's especially awful when the combatants are not easily identified. Like any decent human being and like most if not all of my neighbours here in Israel, I want to minimise the deaths of innocents in Gaza. I want to minimise the deaths of our soldiers. At the same time, the depth of the depravity of October 7, the unhesitating publicly stated willingness of Hamas to do it again, the continued rocket attacks coming out of Gaza, the fact that they still hold over 100 of our people hostage, our willingness to accept the deaths of our soldiers rather than burn the whole thing to the ground because that would be vile and disgusting, the complicity of the UN and other international organisations in the theft and corruptions surrounding humanitarian aid ... why are we, Israel, the bad guys? Please tell me what Israel should be doing differently. And please tell me why a ceasefire is being demanded instead of demanding that Hamas release the hostages and surrender their leaders? Please explain what I'm missing."~ Russ Roberts, from Econ Talk, from his Twitter post
UPDATE:
6 comments:
On the other hand, do you think the mass bombings and killings will eliminate HAMAS?
Hamas is an ideology, the the same as the PLO and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (those guys that did all the Aircraft hijackings/Bombings in the 70s and 80s.)
Remember how the Romans wanted to eliminate the Christians(an ideology/religion)
How did that work out.
Its a bloody mess and simple solutions do not work!!
Flattening Gaza will achieve nothing but a rallying cry for many around the world. Unfortunately it has become an Israeli PR disaster.
That is a terrible comparison. The response to the actions of the Hamas terrorists savagely beating, raping , killing Israel citizens being compared to the Roman persecution of Christians?
I agree its a terrible situation and that as the initial Hamas actions are so evil there are no simple solutions. Israel do not have the luxury of time to consider long winded theoretical or philosphical discussions. The evidence is that thier people being held hostage will be being abused beyond description. Do they just abandon them as too hard to deal with?
They have tried appeasement, it failed. They could have wiped out Gaza. They have hopefully ruled out that option.They are taking a path where there is the potential to spare innocent citizens. It is a tragedy that so many are so terribly affected.
Anti Israel bias or influence seems to ensure a PR disaster is hardwired into any Israel response.
Literally nothing Israel could do beyond complete surrender would appease the protestors globally. None of them give Israel any credit for withdrawing from Gaza and demolishing Jewish settlements. None of them complain to Egypt when it periodically shuts the border with Gaza. None of them care about Hamas. If Israel offered the Palestinian Authority most of the West Bank in exchange for some remainder of Israeli territory for statehood and peace, none of the protestors would urge Palestinians to accept it - all would support rejecting it if the gerontocratic anti-semitic Holocaust denier Abbas said no.
Israel doing nothing would be suicide, at least for the Israeli Government but also for Israelis who will be the next victims of the next pogrom.
Israel doing what it is doing now, offers a chance to weaken Hamas.
Israel could try to occupy Gaza, teach Gazans to be tolerant, liberal and peaceful and transition to a government that embodies those values - but would be hated for it, and it would cost money (and lives) as Hamas's successors would wage a terror war against it.
Two state solution? Rejected by Arabs many times - main point is the right of return they want(code for destroy the Jewish state)
Remember here 750,000 Jews evicted by Arab states were welcomed by Israel.
Thought you might enjoy my post on the history, even though my support for Israel is not rooted in the land or the religion, Whose land is it anyway? Almost a biblical story
Genocide is a terrible evil no matter who is doing it, even if it is the goodies on your side who are doing it. One would have thought there are people who would realise that and oppose the doing of genocide as a matter of principle. One would be quite wrong in thinking this. Memories are short. History is written by the winners. Lessons are unlearned. Collectivising them others is so luscious and so much easier.
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