I have a hard time condemning Hamas, given that they’ve seen their land stolen for three generations now while the world did nothing, and they’ve seen three generations of Israel indiscriminately killing them. When they protest peacefully, they are ignored. When they riot, they’re murdered. When they try to fight back–and yes, that includes acts of terrorism–they’re bombed indiscriminately.
What’s the right thing for them to do? How should they act in order to regain the land that was stolen from them by Israelis?
Is asking for their land, that was taken by violence from their parents and grandparents, to be returned to them unreasonable? And, TBH, people in the US have a hard time addressing this because we did exactly the same things to Native Americans.
IDK, I don’t have a hard time condemning Hamas. As soon as you target non-combatants, you lose all sympathy from me. And yes, that goes for Israel as well.
What’s the right thing for them to do?
Reject Hamas and form a peaceful government to demonstrate they can keep the terrorist factions at bay. Then appeal to the UN for negotiations to happen.
You have a lot more chips at the bargaining table if you’re not murdering the citizens of the country you’re negotiating with.
Is asking for their land… unreasonable?
Absolutely not! I have a lot of sympathy for the Palestinians and believe they have a lot of justified claims that need to be addressed.
That said, it’s a very different situation than in the US because it’s much more recent for Palestinians. The native tribes were displaced almost 200 years ago so nobody alive actually remembers it, therefore reparations, imo, have passed the statute of limitations. The state of Israel was created less than 100 years ago, so the Palestinians alive today are absolutely directly impacted.
I have my own opinions about how things should be settled, but that’s honestly not for me to decide, that’s between the Israelis, Palestinians, and any relevant coalitions of nations (UN and perhaps the Arab League). At the very least, non-Israelis need to have direct access to East Jerusalem, and it should probably not be directly under Israeli control.
First: they had one. Hamas was funded by Israel in order to siphon votes away from their democratically elected gov’t that was gaining significant international support. (Remember Yassar Arafat, that guy that won a Nobel Peace Prize for trying to negotiate…?) Since Hamas took power, there has not been an election in Gaza. Even if they wanted to, Palestinians don’t have the ability to form a new gov’t. But even if they did, Netanyahu et al. have said that they aren’t going to negotiate, and have rejected *all Palestinian demands.
They literally have nothing to bargain with. Violence is the only tool that they have left.
The native tribes were displaced almost 200 years ago so nobody alive actually remembers it,
That is so very, very not true. Abuse of Native Americans was happening through the 80s (!!!) , and it was only very recently that they were permitted to speak their own languages, preserve their culture, and so on. Don’t you remember the whole pipeline thing that Native Americans were protesting because it took yet more of their land? This shit is happening NOW, and we-like the Israelis–ignore it.
Yeah, he was way better than Hamas. I can’t condone the attack on Khartoum, but Arafat turned it around and denounced terrorism, recognized Israel’s right to exist, and sought peace.
Here’s what I’d like to see:
UN pressure Israel to give the West Bank more autonomy - they’re currently doing the opposite
Israel open a corridor for Palestinians to evacuate to the West Bank, in coordination with the West Bank (i.e. West Bank helps in screening and sets limits)
move toward recognition of the West Bank as Palestine, with internationally recognized claims to Gaza
But I doubt that’s going to happen, at least right now with Israel.
Abuse of Native Americans was happening through the 80s (!!!)
Yes, and that’s what discussions should be around: actual harms experienced by living people today.
Yet the conversion tends to be muddied by things that happened a long time ago. So it’s often punishing the current generation for things their ancestors (or people completely unrelated to them) did. The same goes for other minorities, though those have very different claims compared to native tribes.
I have opinions on how to move forward here, but it’s very different from what to do about what’s happening to Palestinians today.
You see the problem, right? With Israel working to oust Arafat and get extremists like Hamas in power in Gaza? Israel is creating their own monster, and then killing civilians indiscriminately when they fight the monster they’ve created.
Hamas is absolutely a bad guy here, but Israel’s actions, and their death toll, is far, far worse by an order of magnitude.
I have a hard time condemning Hamas, given that they’ve seen their land stolen for three generations now while the world did nothing, and they’ve seen three generations of Israel indiscriminately killing them. When they protest peacefully, they are ignored. When they riot, they’re murdered. When they try to fight back–and yes, that includes acts of terrorism–they’re bombed indiscriminately.
What’s the right thing for them to do? How should they act in order to regain the land that was stolen from them by Israelis?
Is asking for their land, that was taken by violence from their parents and grandparents, to be returned to them unreasonable? And, TBH, people in the US have a hard time addressing this because we did exactly the same things to Native Americans.
IDK, I don’t have a hard time condemning Hamas. As soon as you target non-combatants, you lose all sympathy from me. And yes, that goes for Israel as well.
Reject Hamas and form a peaceful government to demonstrate they can keep the terrorist factions at bay. Then appeal to the UN for negotiations to happen.
You have a lot more chips at the bargaining table if you’re not murdering the citizens of the country you’re negotiating with.
Absolutely not! I have a lot of sympathy for the Palestinians and believe they have a lot of justified claims that need to be addressed.
That said, it’s a very different situation than in the US because it’s much more recent for Palestinians. The native tribes were displaced almost 200 years ago so nobody alive actually remembers it, therefore reparations, imo, have passed the statute of limitations. The state of Israel was created less than 100 years ago, so the Palestinians alive today are absolutely directly impacted.
I have my own opinions about how things should be settled, but that’s honestly not for me to decide, that’s between the Israelis, Palestinians, and any relevant coalitions of nations (UN and perhaps the Arab League). At the very least, non-Israelis need to have direct access to East Jerusalem, and it should probably not be directly under Israeli control.
First: they had one. Hamas was funded by Israel in order to siphon votes away from their democratically elected gov’t that was gaining significant international support. (Remember Yassar Arafat, that guy that won a Nobel Peace Prize for trying to negotiate…?) Since Hamas took power, there has not been an election in Gaza. Even if they wanted to, Palestinians don’t have the ability to form a new gov’t. But even if they did, Netanyahu et al. have said that they aren’t going to negotiate, and have rejected *all Palestinian demands.
They literally have nothing to bargain with. Violence is the only tool that they have left.
That is so very, very not true. Abuse of Native Americans was happening through the 80s (!!!) , and it was only very recently that they were permitted to speak their own languages, preserve their culture, and so on. Don’t you remember the whole pipeline thing that Native Americans were protesting because it took yet more of their land? This shit is happening NOW, and we-like the Israelis–ignore it.
Yeah, he was way better than Hamas. I can’t condone the attack on Khartoum, but Arafat turned it around and denounced terrorism, recognized Israel’s right to exist, and sought peace.
Here’s what I’d like to see:
But I doubt that’s going to happen, at least right now with Israel.
Yes, and that’s what discussions should be around: actual harms experienced by living people today.
Yet the conversion tends to be muddied by things that happened a long time ago. So it’s often punishing the current generation for things their ancestors (or people completely unrelated to them) did. The same goes for other minorities, though those have very different claims compared to native tribes.
I have opinions on how to move forward here, but it’s very different from what to do about what’s happening to Palestinians today.
You see the problem, right? With Israel working to oust Arafat and get extremists like Hamas in power in Gaza? Israel is creating their own monster, and then killing civilians indiscriminately when they fight the monster they’ve created.
Hamas is absolutely a bad guy here, but Israel’s actions, and their death toll, is far, far worse by an order of magnitude.