Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I don't really understand what it means to side with Israel 100%. Obviously, Hamas is a bunch of terrorists and does heinous things. I don't side with Hamas at all. But Hamas is in power in Gaza not because it has widespread support among Palestinians or won free and fair elections, but in large part because Israel has weakened the Palestinian Authority over the years in a divide-and-conquer approach. This is hardly a secret. Netanyahu and Hamas have each used the other for their own ends. (And you should be fault things that Israel has done without having that construed as support for Hamas. It's really depressing how many people turn their outrage and grief into nonproductive attacks against others for not virtue-signaling in the right way.) Just as the US did with 9/11, the Hamas attacks likely will prompt an overreaction by Israel which will leave many non-combatants dead. I don't know if Hamas will survive as an organization, but there will continue to be some outlet for Palestinian nationalism, and the use of excessive force strengthens the most militant on the other side. It's great that Israel is moving towards normalized relations with a lot of Arab governments, but let's not pretend that those governments have democratic legitimacy or that their populations are invested in peace with Israel. Siding with Israel as an ally does not necessarily mean supporting the specific policies of the Israeli government.
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When I said I side with Israel 100% it meant in regard to this current attack by Hamas. A significant number of people have asserted this attack was somehow Israel's fault, or justified.
This position appears to have merit superficially, but falls apart rather quickly under even a moderately rigorous assessment of the facts.
1. The Palestinians have objectively not been treated well by Israel. (This is significantly their own fault, but that's another argument we needn't reach here.)
2. This would naturally cause some form of resistance by Palestinians. Had Hamas sent missiles into Israel, or skirmished with settlers near its borders, it'd be a not unexpected form of warfare.
3. However, the behavior of Hamas, in raping, murdering, molesting corpses, and threatening to execute hostages and broadcast it online, is not warfare. It's so far outside the Geneva Convention one can't even liken it to accepted forms of warfare. It is identical to the actions of ISIS - a pathological death cult.
One cannot excuse Hamas because Hamas didn't just go too far. Hamas trampled the line so badly the atrocities of the IRA are distant specks in the rear view mirror. The question of who is at fault for attacking the other in Colonel-Kurtz-meets-the-SS manner isn't up for debate. Whatever Israel's sins are in regard to the Palestinians, what Hamas did was something so vile it renders the argument "Israel is at fault, too" inapplicable. It's not. No country could ever deserve what those Israeli people received.
And if you doubt that, watch some of the uncensored videos on Reddit.
