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this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2023
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United States | News & Politics
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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.