@OpenScroller and @inamarina ,
But I find both of you equally pro Israel biased. Have you ever posted or even accepted an anti Israel argument?
It’s been a brutal rivalry/hatred for over half a century and, for the most part, I have ‘supported’ Israel but have been able to see both sides. There is no question that Hamas would have genocided Israel had they been able and deserve whatever Israel does to them (within reason, I don’t approve of torture whatever anyone has done).
In Gaza, they haven’t had elections since 2006, and the average age of the population is 19. Even when they were elected in 2006, it was a bought election by Iran in many ways. Hamas were voted for on a domestic agenda, and then it turned out that they cared more about hurting Israel and Jews than helping their own population.
However, your average Palestinian just wants to live their life, have an opportunity for an education and a career, same as everyone else. And, Israel. supposedly a liberal democracy and our ally, has prevented this from happening,
You have to pay attention to Smotrich (finance minister) and Ben G’vir (Security Minister) here. Netanyahu chose to form a coalition including their two parties which are basically racist by charter. They both advocate for ‘greater Israel’ and expelling the Arab population.
In a way, you could see 7/10 as a victory for extremists on both sides. For Hamas, they get to pursue their nihilistic agenda and maybe will meet some nice virgins some time soon, as well as getting the world on their side. For the extremist zionists, this is a perfect excuse to expand into ‘Greater Israel’. Meanwhile it radicalises both populations and sets any meaningful and rational solution back years.
But who can the western world influence and change? Well it won’t be Iran and her many proxies, as we are seeing in real time. But Israel? Does it want to become a pariah nation and can it choose a more merciful and decent path? Definitely. Ultimately, I suspect, for most of the Jewish world the victory Israel is now winning is a pyrrhic one. They are selling out decent Jewish values for victory on an unequal battlefield.
Which is why, as a Jew, I will continue to call out the behaviour of Netanyahu and his cronies, as every decent person will, notwithstanding that their choices have been difficult. Regardless of who started the killings, ethnic cleansing is never OK. And for me, the Gazans compressed into 40% of Gaza, with no return date, the continued settler harassment and the ‘buffer zone’ in Lebanon which some are already calling for settle, can’t really be thought of as anything else. We need to make Israel here us and take us seriously and sanctions are a good way of doing it (possibly the only way).