I don't think any Israeli (other than some random insane zealots) wants any ordinary Palestinian to die. In the billion of IG posts and reposts I've seen this past week, not one post even suggesting such a thing.
The North American Jewish population is remarkably supportive of Palestinians tbh, relative to those in Israel who obviously track more religious. Versus the high % that are secular in America.
and again, I’m not trying to say anything of this tracks 1-1, that it’s all equivalent, it excuses anything etc….and I’d agree with you that there’s like more vile deep rooted hatred amongst Palestinians than there is amongst Israeli’s…..(some of this we do have to acknowledge is a result of power dynamics, economic issues, quality of life etc)….but I believe also of religion and ultimately what % are fundamentalists or not.
Everything you’ve said, I think probably applies quite accurately if tracking mainly secular folks….as they’re more likely to be enlightenment people, more left leaning/progressive etc
You get into people who think all arabs need to be ethnically cleansed from the region, or will carry out their own terrorist acts over holy sites, (that wild Jewish Underground plot to bomb the Temple Mount Dome….while filled, that Shin Bet snuffed out) those that settle in the West Bank exclusively for religious purposes & to make any strides towards peace impossible…..or that play a part in how roads, schools, etc are built based on demographics to benefit one and ignore/hinder the other……I think that’s different than the people you’re talking about.
….she’s a professor in Jerusalem, and the mother of a 13 year old daughter who died in a Hamas attack years ago. (I think one of the bus bombings?)….but she did a huge study & then wrote a book over how arabs are depicted in Israeli education materials and the impact that has on how they’re viewed/treated etc.
But, as I told him, this is such a random extreme example of basically your drunk uncle rambling shit at Thanksgiving, and not representative of even the smallest minority of sentiment. Also, there's a big fucking difference between some geezer just saying this shit in private, and the Israelis fucking storming Gaza and raping and murdering children. But oh, he hasn't "decided who is more wrong" yet. I'm like, fuck you, this is about a war against terrorism, an effort to identify and eliminate every terrorist responsible for the tragedies of last week.
10000% agree….if you can’t decide who is more in the wrong, you have a mental illness.
Just as it was when the US went after ISIS and no one had anything to say about the "other side" of that.
I don’t think that’s particularly fair….in so far that I think historically the US populace
has often had a similar swath of people that were talking about the other side in Vietnam, Iraq 2….and while I think overall ignorance in 2001 likely makes you above statement technically true, I think today with what everyone has learned through the 20 years in Iraq & Afghanistan a nearly identical “other side” discussion would be taking place today…..and maybe be even louder, tbh.
(Although I do think it would be something that showed itself over the long term…..not people out in the streets protesting en mass on 9/12.
The problem is, these Hamas weasels have built their installations into civilian areas and under residences, hospitals and schools.
they do, and it’s vile…..but I also think it’s a military survival tactic given the (relatively) small area they have to exist in, and the level of power disparity between the two, both in weapons technology (precision bombing) and intelligence services.
ideally they wouldn’t use this gross tactic….because of how easy it would be to wipe them all out, if they didn’t…..which they’d say is the point.
So what the fuck is Israel supposed to do, just let them continue to attack from there?
obviously they have the choice as to whether to bomb or not, because of the potential for collateral damage…..and while so much is made imo when it happens, not enough is made over how frequently restraint is shown & attacks aren’t made regardless of the value of the target, because of the potential damage to civilians.
I’m still impressed that with the sort of international carte blanche Bibi had in the days immediately following the attacks, that he didn’t dish out a level of retribution that would have killed an enormous amount of Hamas, but with too high a civilian body count…and yeah, I’ve not heard a peep about that anywhere.
Israel is handling all this up to this point pretty damn remarkably imo…and hopefully that continues to be the case. If they can get as many civilians out as possible, and then go H.A.M. wiping out Hamas….that’s an enormous victory.
on top of that there could be great potential to win over Palestinian civilians by going out of there way to help those displaced return to Gaza, get back in their homes…..and ideally help with the rebuilding process. Cause as we’ve discussed before, peace is likely to be found by being overly generous to civilians, so that they’re incentivized to want government who works hand in hand with Israel to keep Hamas/terrorism at bay.
