General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: No longer defending Israel [View all]PatrickforB
(14,948 posts)Bibi is trying to stay in power, and he is in real danger of losing it if there is a new election. It is in his best interest to keep the war going, not have a ceasefire and grind on.
Here's the real question you seem to be overlooking:
Is every Palestinian who has died so far in Gaza a member of Hamas, or is Hamas a subset of all Palestinians?
I think with over 30,000 dead Palestinians, attacks on food trucks and aid convoys, thousands on the verge of starvation, and drinking dirty water, we can safely say that while some Hamas terrorists have in fact been killed, a whole bunch of innocent people have also died.
I won't use the word genocide since you seem to object, but we did the same thing in Vietnam. That was a war of attrition, and we killed thousands and thousands of people in both North and South Vietnam, and some of our snake and nape attacks on villages minted a whole bunch of new Cong.
We can also cite our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan under W. I always believed W, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice were war criminals because of that.
And you know what? Netanyahu is a war criminal as well. He is. We really need to rethink just giving Israel weapons without insisting on a ceasefire so these innocent children who are dying because of the acts of a few Hamas terrorists. We must wonder why, why, why we still seem to think the 'war on terror' can ever be won on the battlefield.
The real truth is the Palestinians in Gaza have been economically oppressed by Israel for decades. They don't always have electric power. Even before October 7, Israel would ration their electricity to four hours a day. They faced checkpoints everywhere and were not free to travel. They sometimes had their water turned off.
So, if you are able to put yourself in the moccasins of some Palestinian kids as you seem to be for the Israeli victims of the Hamas terrorism, think about how you would feel if the IDF had killed your family in this war of attrition. Would you become a terrorist when you grew up after seeing your parents killed?
In my day job, I wage peace against economic violence. Things like joblessness, homelessness, poverty and lack. Not having enough to live is economic violence. If we can acheive peace here, get rid of Bibi and his right-wing Likud party, and ensure that Gaza is rebuilt, the people there have jobs, economic opportunity, decent housing, good education, and hope for the future, terrorist acts will be less likely to happen in the future.
What is happening now is hurting Isreal, not helping. And children are dying. What if they were our children? And that deal with Chef Andres? There is no excuse. Someone in the IDF was trigger happy there. Attacking supply convoys? This really IS a humanitarian crisis, and Netanyahu's actions are making it harder for everyone to be supportive of Israel.
I am sorry to disagree, but we should no longer send weapons to Israel without some serious strings to prevent women and children, sick people and innocent civilians in general from starving, being homeless, not having potable water, being unsafe with no hope for any kind of future.
Again, Hamas is only a small subset of all the people who have died so far.