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this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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Israel bombed a refugee camp this week killing the entire family down to the grandchildren of a journalist it did not like. Hamas are bad guys doing bad shit no doubt about it, Israel are the bad guys though, it's through their actions that all of this has come. They have displaced and systematically culled an entire people.
I'm not defending what Hamas did, but when your corner people and inch closer and closer to them, applying pressure and pressing down your boot you do not get to be surprised when they lash out.
Israel failed it's people.
It is possible for a story to have two sets of bad guys.
Only one of them is attempting to eradicate the other and receiving support from western countries, up to and including military aid.
No, both of them are attempting to eradicate the other. It's very true there's a massive power disparity, and obviously Israel gets a huge amount of western support. Let's not fool ourselves though: if Hamas had the power to genocide every Jew in Israel, they would.
DISCLAIMER BEFORE SOMEONE TRIES TO MISINTERPRET ME: Hamas only represents a small number of Palestinians, and the PLO has been entirely peaceful since the 90s. This in no way justifies Israel's response.
That disclaimer is doing a lot to be fair, it is the legitimate government with the people's support committing these atrocities while it is a terrorist organisation that seized control in Palestine that is doing it on the other side. While I'm not naive enough to think there is no support from eithers population it is the case that this situation has been pushed on Palestinians whereas Israel have opted for it.
For context, the numbers I've seen suggest it's around 57% of Gazans have at least a "somewhat positive" view of Hamas. However, 62% of Gazans supported Hamas maintaining the ceasefire (ofc this was before the attack).
The crazy part is, that had Israel had a calm and measured approach, using targeted munitions on confirmed targets only, minimizing civilian casualties, kept the food+water+electricity flowing during the military action, and kept firm rule of law vs settler reprisal attacks in the west bank, they would have moved the needle on Hamas support.
Now they've all but guaranteed the radicalization of a new wave of terrorists for the foreseeable future. This unjustified violence is truly self-defeating.