Opinion piece in newspaper -RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: The only purpose of these endless marches is to intimidate British Jews.

[floodlightonwhatisright]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12878659/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-marches-intimidate-British-Jews-tolerate-hatred-streets.html

He raises some interesting ideas.

And I wasn't justifying what Guterres said by any means but taking one line out of a massive speech is not helpful. He didn't just slate Israel. And I am angry at what he left out of that speech..

Hamas is just the latest in a long line of violent organisations claiming to represent the interest of the Palestinians in the last hundred years. Violence wasn't the last resort here it has been the first, third and preferred method of negotiation in the region for longer than most of us have been alive:

It is used as a sound bite and was badly worded. This will forever be used by some apologists to justify the pogrom

That is why it was a horrific thing to say and he should have known better and realised this would happen

Sorry to me if he is articulate that makes it worse

I actually think if you spoke to some of the regular poster on this thread or bothered to read the thread you would find the majority of people agree with both those statements

However not the bit about hypocrisy

Anyway carry on as you are and happy new year

@RedJumper13 tell me you haven't read a thread without telling me you haven't read a thread.

Afraid I can only use this image if that is what you are seeing when reading this thread

I think what you are seeing is mostly people that don't agree or justify killing on either side. Don't support the current Israeli government at all. However they are coming on a thread like this to call out hate crimes or racism that happens on marches or at protests. Plus talking about the support some protests have of Hamas or lately Houthi.

I can't make you see that is what is happening here and see why this thread exsists. However it does need to exsist and people do need to speak of these things. It doesn't mean they are cancelling or excusing anything else.

Wish I could just write a quick and simple reply to things like yourself

I can imagine others reading probably wish that too😂

I don't think it's clear that everyone here agrees about Israel's mistreatment of Palestine until now but I may be wrong.

We'll agree to disagree on the vacuum quote. I've seen many people justify the horrendous bombing of Gaza by saying no one would put up with what happened to Israel on October 7th. This isn't the case just for Israel.

The Hamas attack was diabolical but you can't treat a population like animals for decades and expect them to put up with it forever. This can be true without it also being true that what they did was justified or justifiable. It obviously was not.

It may have been "too soon" but the flip side is that by that stage Israel was already bombing the population and time was of the essence. With all due respect the children being killed didn't have time to wait. Not that it had any impact and thousands of children have been horrifically killed since then but at the time strong words were needed to condemn the bombing of civilians. I believe the quote to be true and so I think it was reasonable.

I come from a place that had a conflict like this (not as bloody of course - nothing is as bloody as what we're seeing now). I didn't agree with the paramilitary groups but I can understand how they came to be.

nothing is as bloody as what we're seeing now).

@EmberLight sadly that's not true. You don't have to go far either for that to be disproved.

Bombing of a civilian population on this scale is highly unusual. The numbers speak for themselves.

nothing is as bloody as what we're seeing now

That's not even close to being true though?

The Hamas attack was diabolical but you can't treat a population like animals for decades and expect them to put up with it forever

I'm sorry but I can't let this comment go. Armed resistance or whatever you want to call it is one thing. The 7th Oct was a whole different ballgame - rape, torture of civilians including children, burning people alive in their homes, and filming the whole thing. This was not some outpouring of frustration by Hamas. It was sadism and brutality beyond anything ordinary people can imagine, and all elements were carefully planned in advance.

It may not have been your intention but your words suggest that the attack was in some way justified, and are deeply offensive.

I clearly stated in my post that it wasn't justified.

But it's also true that people won't put up with being treated like shit forever and this is the context Guterres was referring to.

The two things can be true at the same time.

@EmberLight Do you honestly think Hamas give a shit about the way Palestinians are treated? Really?

Yes she is quite young isn't she.

Please do some research and check the source of that page it purports to come from. I had the misfortune of looking and it's disgusting. Have commented on it on another page.

Smotrich is a settler who lives in a settlement deemed illegal under international law.

He is also member of Israel’s elected government, voted in last year. He therefore can be assumed to represent his country.

His comments from Sunday are highly inflammatory. Saying that Israel should control all Gaza borders, including the one with Egypt. That settlers should settle in Gaza. That the indigenous Gazan population should be reduced to a max of a couple of hundred thousand and the rest should move elsewhere.

He is a member of government that was voted in in 2022! He does not want peace - quite the opposite. How does he expect the Palestinian people to respond to these highly inflammatory statements? How he can be expected to keep his post is bizarre. Unless the majority of the Israeli population is happy for him to remain there.

It’s incredibly simplistic. I take it she is UK based? The analysis of structural violence for example- no recognition or understanding of the structural violence perpetrated on Palestinians by the PA or Hamas (Capital punishment etc). The way she talks about minority groups and their risk of radicalisation takes no account of this. The way she talks about why Gaza was blockaded (or refuses to) and the lack of understanding- Hamas is just an iteration of terrorists that have been behaving like this for hundreds of years, not just since the Israel-Gaza issue.
To be honest it seems like a sixth form debating project, although I agree with her that Netanyahu’s response is disproportionate.

She is perfectly correct.

@stomachamaleon thank you for the heads up, I didn’t but I should have.

Bloody hell- @RedJumper13 you may want to remove that.