I am 100% sure Palestinians should have their own land + self governance. I’m 100% sure they had Gaza handed over in 2006 with all Israelis forcibly removed by Israel. I’m 100% sure the people elected Hamas and Hamas then held no elections ever again and diverted all money to building an underground war machine underneath a society that should have had vibrant investment + plans for a future and instead was entirely invested in murderous plots because they are 100% sure that Israel and Jews must be annhiliated + exterminated. Intentionally “Annhiliated” + “exterminated”. Like animals, like vermin, like this below. I am 100% sure that 80%+ of Israelis can understand the desire for Palestinian self-governance and independence and support it and 100% sure 100% of Israelis just want to be left alone and not attacked, stabbed, suicide-bombed, hide in bunkers to dodge daily rockets. WHEN Palestinians and supporters understand that when a murderous terror group that refuses to accept Israel and futilely continues threatens and acts to attack it, make it feel insecure, make it feel eternal pain (children forced to watch mothers raped + fathers beheaded)––that Israel cannot stop until that threat is eliminated, that fire extinguished so that it no longer existentially threatens its people But to refuse to understand or relent against a people that have been ejected from every country in the region, whose direct parents and grandparents were killed by ACTUAL GENOCIDE of 10,000 jews a day in execution gas chamber factories of death. THAT is the obstacle to peace. Understand that Israelis just want to be left alone—IN PEACE––and we will have peace. Refuse to give them peace and threaten death––and we will have war + death. It’s that simple.
WAR is about the WILL of the people once you realize the WILL of all of israel (left or right) is unified in support to destroy hamas who wont rest until they destroy israel and the WILL of Hamas leaders + Hamas fighters who wont surrender, won’t release the hostages (including innocent Palestinians) means that WAR will continue, fueled by the WILL of the former until the WILL of the latter submit that is war. the WILL of Americans to protest or even the will of US politicians to not support Israel, can result in jawboning + criticism, and might possibly, though improbably result in not shipping more arms + precision weapons. should the precision weapons stop being sent by US or allies, it only means more Palestinian civilians are likely to die as the WILL of Israel (whether with more precise + more moral targeting—or less precise and more immoral collateral damage) WILL not be thwarted by the WILL of distant protestors or foreign politicians —none of whom face existential threat Like the tale of the Predator and the Prey––one is running for its dinner (Hamas), the other for its life (Israel). Jews, expelled from everywhre, have always been Prey––they just for the past 2 generations have been fighting back against murderous deathcult hell-bent predators––and tragicly innocent people are dying because of the predators who hold them hostage have an unrelenting WILL that WILL eventually relent. Israel has no other option.
@wolfejosh Josh How sure you are Palestinians think Israel should exist? It's not just Hamas which is the barrier anymore.
@wolfejosh AFAIK, the settlement situation in the West Bank suggests that “Israelis just want to be left alone” is a bit simplistic. israelpolicyforum.org/west-bank-sett…
@wolfejosh Gazans want Hamas, even still.
@wolfejosh Gazans want Hamas, even still.
@wolfejosh well put. The future is not looking bright, but we have to be optimistic.
@wolfejosh “And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it.” — ZACHARIAH 12
I used to think it was "that simple" too, Josh. It's not. The truth is that since the war broke out, more and more Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza believe armed struggle is the only way. I used to believe that the next generation would recognize the absurdity in "Right of Return," seek peace, and lift their people out of misery with the promise of a future... of having something worth losing. But as Golda once said, they hate us more than they love their own children. The majority of Palestinians do not want a state, Josh. They want you and me dead. Whether we live in Israel or in Brooklyn or in Atlanta. We share the view that Israel is a bastion of Western values. Unfortunately, this neighborhood seems to only understand strength and force. There is no two-state solution to discuss until leadership emerges that redirects the Palestinian cause. Until then, they are destined to be met with strength and force that protects Israeli citizens. The threat on Israel's doorstep was once theoretical. Now it's existential, and its not the time to give one inch.