There are some threads in GD about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, but I wanted to gauge broader opinion. All said and done, who are you positively inclined towards, even if only marginally? Feel free to qualify your answer in the thread, but the poll options are Israel or Hamas.
I’m putting in a ‘Neither’ option, but I encourage you to avoid using it. Click it only if you absolutely feel the same way towards the two sides and would be happy for your answer to this poll be decided by coin toss.
This is a thoroughly unhelpful way in which to frame the issue. The prevailing attitude that one side or the other has to be “in the right” and the other “in the wrong” in situations such as this is a large part of what makes them so intractable.
Meh. I’m not trying to help anyone. I’m trying to find out what people feel/think.
I suppose there’s such a thing as the “moral high ground” in this conflict. Problem is, the “moral high ground” keeps getting lower all the time, even as the immoral low ground sinks at least as fast.
I was about to choose “Neither,” but I wouldn’t quite say I’d be happy with a coin toss - I lean towards Israel. But both sides are wrong, and Israel being slightly less wrong doesn’t mean they’re right.
As I understand it, Hamas started the current hostilities with rocket attacks, so must bear the brunt of the blame. I think I accidentally hit the wrong button there and said I sided with Hamas. Nope, blame Hamas for starting the thing.
This. Lots of people seem to think life is a Wild West movie where there are White Hats and Black Hats, and once you identify one side as “bad guys” that means the other must be the “good guys”. A situation where there’s neither or where both are bad guys doesn’t fit the paradigm and is regarded as unthinkable.
As for me, both are in the wrong as far as I’m concerned. It’s the Hatfields & McCoys on the grand scale; two sides that hate each other taking potshots at each over what the other side did last in a cycle of revenge and ego.
It’s a shitty false dichotomy. The Gaza Ghetto is Israel’s fault and responsibility, same as the West Bank.
Sure, that’s valid, and fits with the information I’m trying to get. Thanks.
It’s not so much that I feel the same way towards both sides, but that I keep flopping back and forth. I guess, technically, I’m a little less sympathetic towards Israel right now, but that’s mostly because I think they are in a better position and thus deserve less sympathy.
I’m not “positively inclined” towards either party in the slightest because both bear responsibility for the current shitty situation - but like Octarine, I think Israel is slightly less wrong.
Israel is an invader and a fascist regime.
Hamas are theocratic and single minded.
If I had to pick sides, I would go with Hamas.
Just because one side is noticeably less evil than the other doesn’t mean they’re not evil. The trick with using a human shield is that it’s supposed to work… It’s obviously awful that Hamas is setting up their missile batteries near the civilian population, but it is also awful that Israel is taking the shot anyway, even though damn few of the Hamas missiles are getting through.
Gaza Strip has a population density of 13000/sq.mi. that is slightly less than Hong Kong.
it is hard to be anywhere there not next to people.
I’m all for all of the Israeli government and Hammas duking it out in the Thunderdome. No other weapons besides fists and rage. Whomever is left standing will be the “right” side. At least this way, everyone who is in the fight wants to be in the fight.
When you’ve got hundreds of dead civilians in the equation, there is no moral highground.
I can’t argue that any nation has to standby while someone is launching rockets at them, even if all the rockets miss their targets.
I just worry that quarantining the Palestinians and using military force that kills many civilians isn’t the best way for Israel to defend itself. It seems more of a political strategy rather than a practical one. Many Palestinians who do not support Hamas die and suffer because of it.
I would suggest a new strategy but the situation is too complicated for anything I suggest to be meaningful. I really think Israel and the Palestinians who do not support Hamas should be working on a way to neutralize Hamas together, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
Basically I think Israel should defend itself, but it’s current strategy doesn’t look helpful, and I’m not sure there is anything it could do to improve it.
Neither.
I guess if you go far back enough - and it would be REALLY far back - you could probably find “who started it”, but both sides seem to be trying to one-up each other in dickishness. The major problem is that one side is far more heavily armed than the other.
I read a newspaper report today that Hamas has spent an estimated million dollars to build each of its tunnels into Israel (using many tons of concrete for reinforcement, while Israel was blasted for limiting its importation into Gaza for just this reason). So far 36 such tunnels have been discovered and there are probably many more out there. That’s a huge amount of money (not counting what’s spent on munitions) that Hamas could be using to feed and educate its people.
So I’m going to amend the above statement to “the ‘moral high ground’ keeps getting lower all the time, even as the immoral low ground sinks even faster”.
Kid 1: Mooommmm, she won’t stop hitting me!
Kid 2: Mooommmm, she started it!
Mom: Both of you shut up. I don’t care who’s right or wrong, you’re sisters and you have to live with each other. Now hug each other and go play outside, for christ’s sake!
Hamas is a terrorist organization. Hamas could stop all of this by agreeing to a ceasefire. Israel has already accepted grounds for a ceasefire: grounds rejected by Hamas. Hamas is totally to blame.
I stand firmly behind Israel.