You’re right, in hindsight, Netanyahu should not have allowed Qatar to give Hamas “aid” money.
Of course, if he had prevented that, he’d have faced international screeching claiming he was starving Gaza. Lose, lose.
I disagree with the settlers very strongly, and have said so many times. But you know what? Maybe you should think for just a few minutes about the blowback caused by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and their Martyr Fund. Maybe if the PA wasn’t VERY LITERALLY paying people to murder Israeli civilians, I’d be more inclined to agree that Israeli politicians should spend political capital on uprooting the settlements.
No such thing as blowback or consequences for martyr funds or for massacring music festivals, of course.
And maybe he shouldn’t have said and acted, as has been reported, with the philosophy that Israel should favor and empower Hamas, and not their rivals, in Gaza, because they similarly oppose two states? Or is that going too far? After all, Netanyahu is such an honest man, such a man of decency and honor, that he’d never behave in such a way, right?
As for the settlements, good for you for embracing such a tit-for-tat philosophy! So wise and just, just like Netanyahu! No worries about blowback, no worries about consequences, just always excuse your side no matter what, and always blame everything on the Palestinians and Gazans. Especially considering their incredible wealth and power. What could go wrong? With such decent folks as Netanyahu and his settler allies in power, Israel’s future and long term peace is assured!
No, he’s a piece of shit that belongs in jail for his many corruption scandals. Pretty sure I’ve been very clear on that.
…are you trying to imply that tit for tat is a bad strategy? If you don’t tat when they tit, the incentive structure you create is one where the optimal decision for the other side is to continuously fuck you over and over again forever. It’s basic game theory. If the other side defects, you don’t just keep cooperating while they fuck you.
Now, pure tit for tat isn’t optimal, because it doesn’t allow the other side to reassess. Hence I favor the variant generally called “generous tit for tat”, or “tit for tat with forgiveness”, where yes, you tat back when they tit, but occasionally you give them the opportunity to deescalte. Which is why you’ll note that while Hamas’ “tit” was to attack Israel with the intention of destroying the “Zionist Entity” and ethnically cleansing all the Jews from the river and the sea, I don’t advocate for an equivalent “tat” of doing likewise to the Gazans.
Actually, the Prisoner’s Dillema is a perfect analogy. I’d rather both sides Cooperate (agree to peace and a two state solution), but if their side continues to Defect (make war and demand that the “river to the sea” all be Palestine) then we’d need to be utterly braindead to not fight back.
Such a perfect analogy, especially because there are only two parties! Only Hamas and Israel, no others. So it makes perfect sense that if/when Hamas misbehaves, only Hamas faces consequences for it. Good for Israel and its brave and wise leaders for limiting consequences to Hamas and only Hamas, and ensuring that Gazans and civilians in the West Bank are never mistreated or suffer for the actions of others!
And on a larger scale, I’m so glad that Netanyahu and his wise, decent allies are so devoted to long term peace. After all, this time is definitely different - this time the hyper-competent IDF, which never makes big mistakes, will end the conflict once and for all by completely destroying Hamas (and nothing else). And even better, because they’ve limited consequences and suffering so no children in Gaza have lost their parents to IDF bombs, and no parents have lost their children, and no one has lost brothers and sisters, there will be no long term hatred and resentment, so no chance of, say, tens or hundreds of thousands of future Gazan adults retaining long term murderous hatred for Israel for killing their peaceful civilian family members. History has shown us that long term hatred can be killed forever with a single war and maybe a short term occupation.
Hail Netanyahu and his leadership for guaranteeing long term peace for Israel with his wise and perfectly run war!
This is an excellent post which I broadly agree with. I get most of my news on the conflict from the Guardian* and Haaretz. I wonder if Babale thinks these are Qatari propaganda organs?
Israel continues to act in the best interests of peace and human rights by denying entry to a Palestinian 5 year old who desperately needs treatment for cancer.
Same. I probably get most of my news of the conflict from NPR.
And, fwiw, just because the Israeli government has been destroying homes, stealing property, and otherwise mistreating the Palestinians for many years doesn’t mean i think the October 7th attacks on civilians were justified. But the same logic that makes it okay for Israel to attack civilians in Gaza today can be used to justify those atrocities. If all is fair in war, then… Other than which side you are on, what’s the difference?
Sure, but Hamas can stop this anytime. Disarm. Stop terrorist attacks.
Do the Palestinians support peace or human rights for the Israelis? Political statements calling for the death of the Jewish people and the destruction of Israel.
Food aid is commonly stolen and resold to those who are starving. Some Hamas leaders are known to be very wealthy.
Of course they are not. Palestine is a separate nation-state, but run by terrorists and their backers. It is not the responsibility of Israel to give that nation “peace and security”, that is their own governments job. Israel simply wants the terrorism to stop.
Yes, Netanyahu is a crook, and he is backed by right wing religious extremists. Just like Hamas, the PLO, etc. But the people of Israel want peace. They dont want the Gazans dead. They want to bombings. rockets etc to stop. Remind me again- what is the title of this thread? Who started this?
Note that Bibi only got in due to a coalition of parties. He only has the support right now of barely 50% of the people- he isnt popular nor has he mass support.
And as far as the IDF and “killing children”- remember Hamas routinely recruits and arms young men , as early as 14 or even 12.
So lets look at the scorecard here.
Hamas- deliberately kills children- bombs school busses, and during October 2023 specifically killed babies.
Now, Hamas also uses women and children as human shields- but yes, the IDF has callously and hard-heartedly attacked those positions anyway. So, who is responsible for those deaths? the Terrorists who arm children and send them in to die, and then use the younger ones as human shield to protect their leaders? Or the Military who callously and hard-heartedly attacked those positions anyway?
The IDF only gets around 15% of it’s stuff from the USA- and a lot of the most expensive stuff is there to defend against long range missile attacks.
If the best you can do is “the Israeli government is not as bad as Hamas” (for which I remain unconvinced), then you’ve really got nothing. Serial rapists are not as bad as Hamas. Snuff film purveyors are not as bad as Hamas. Dogfighting kingpins are not as bad as Hamas.
The vileness and evil of Hamas doesn’t excuse Israeli-overseen atrocities. Not by one iota.
Do you think that whether or not someone deserves human rights is dependent on their willingness to recognize other people’s human rights, or do you think human rights are something that every human inherently deserves?
Who says only one side is expected to? Right now, the ones who are suffering are Gazan civilians… and Gazan civilians are not violating anyone’s human rights.
This is absolutely 100% false. I never said, nor would I ever say, that only the Israeli government needs to recognize human rights. This is such an incredibly egregious misreading of what I said that I’m having trouble believing you said it in good faith.
Who is “they”? Are Gazan babies “they”? Do Gazan babies support terrorism? Do you believe all Gazans support terrorism?
This is just the worst and most damaging type of generalizing and broad-brushing. Babies and children in Gaza are suffering immensely, because of actions by the Israeli government. That Hamas is also doing terrible things is no excuse to knowingly cause such massive, widespread suffering and death to so many babies and children.
So because 40% of Gazans answered a certain way on a poll, you believe that lends justification to the atrocities overseen by the Israeli government that have caused widespread suffering and death to tens or hundreds of thousands of civilians (including babies and children)?