Despite the administration's warnings, while international eyes are on Gaza, according to the United Nations, settlers in the West Bank encouraged by the policies of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have killed at least 115 Palestinians, injured more than 2,000 more, and forcibly displaced almost 1,000. Settlers in the West Bank. Not the Israeli military or police. ISRAELI SETTLERS.
The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross are concerned that Israel’s pursuit of Hamas militants has led it to commit war crimes of its own, enacting collective punishment on the civilians of Gaza by denying them food, water, and electricity as well as instructing them to leave their homes, displacing well over a million people.
I wonder why ‘progressives’ call for ceasefire knowing that Hamas will continue its totalitarian regime in Gaza, which turned Gaza into an open-air jail, knowing that Hamas will continue launching massacres of Israeli civilians, knowing that it’ll continue to halt any peace negotiations like it’s done since those started in 1993. Is it ‘progressives’ being aligned with Hamas on genocide of Jews in Israel being a good outcome, or is it digging their heels on being delusional? From the mouth of Hamas:
You wrote: "These people who have been fighting over this rocky land for five thousand years have far more in common with each other than they do with the bloodthirsty masses who claim to support them."
Very much like in America, where people have more in common than not, it is the politics that separates us, not blood. We had a war between states that cut families, neighbors, and the country into separate beliefs from which we have not recovered.
And I am conflicted. I grew up in Jordan and left just before the Six Day War that destroyed much of my childhood memories. I have been to Israel once, in a UN jeep while living there (I do not remember why my father, a US diplomat in Amman went), but my religion has its world center on Mount Carmel in Haifa. My childhood identity is with the Arab Palestinians and my moral compass is with the country that was always "at war" with the one I grew up in.
Politics is the reason for the hatred in the world. Until we understand and accept that we humans are far more similar than different, until we accept our "brotherhood," we will have wars waged to gain dirt, as it is in the Middle East.
You’re wrong about Israel. They left Gaza years ago and what happened it became a terror training camp. Stop blaming Israel for defending itself. The Arabs need to step up and take care of the Palestinians but they won’t because they don’t care. They only want war and the destruction of the Jews.
You also have an incomplete picture of what happened in Gaza. Israel pulled its settlements out of Gaza, it is true, but they also sealed it off, controlling everything that went in or out, including food, fuel, medicine, water, and electricity. Hamas tried to win the politics, but lost, so they resorted to the despicable and violent extremism that allowed them to kill wantonly, something Israel is also not against doing to the Palestinians.
There is no pure party here; both are wrong, neither is right, but the fight they have will not end, as it has not since I moved to Jordan in 1958.
Israel is the only country in the middle east that does anything for the Palestinians. Why is it none of you hold the Arabs accountable?? They do nothing for the Palestinians. Hamas picked the fight now they’re going to get a bloody nose.
Extensive MSM and online media, coverage from multiple English speaking print, TV, radio, and online, there was no glee in the days following the Hamas attack. Any interpretation of glee would be clutching at reasons to claim victimhood, stemming from a personal need, not objective measures.
By contrast, the dehumanization of Palestinians has increased throughout the month, in all MSM.
Great perspective! Thank you. We don’t have to choose sides as you’ve put it so well. But what drives me nuts is the histrionic reaction on either side from those who have nothing to do with this. Whether it’s the right or left.
Thank you for excavating your feelings! I relate to all of this. I too have been wanting to write about all my complicated feelings about it but something is holding me back.
I’d co-sign what you said here, Michael. Nothing is right to say, other than I feel sad for everyone. I get the Israeli action for the music festival massacre. That was earned blowback. A march into occupying the orphaned land of the Gaza Strip just helps nobody. But there’s no end until WW3 catastrophe there.
We’re not going to see peace anytime soon. And that sucks.
A ceasefire will be the opportunity Hamas needs to regroup and plan another massacre, and at the same time continue to enforce an Islamist totalitarian regime on Gaza civilians. The peace process can be reset after Hamas has its terror capability smashed, not before. Calls for ceasefire is all a progressive brain rotted with decades of pro Palestinian propaganda can come up with. That urge to imagine Hamas doesn’t exist is delusional.
There can be no peace. There might be a time of lack of war and killing, but the two sides want the same dirt, for the same reason, and neither side sees the other side as being worthy of it. There can be no peace until some kind of spiritual enlightenment happens, and in a time of worldwide political extremism, that just ain't gonna happen.
Despite the administration's warnings, while international eyes are on Gaza, according to the United Nations, settlers in the West Bank encouraged by the policies of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu have killed at least 115 Palestinians, injured more than 2,000 more, and forcibly displaced almost 1,000. Settlers in the West Bank. Not the Israeli military or police. ISRAELI SETTLERS.
The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross are concerned that Israel’s pursuit of Hamas militants has led it to commit war crimes of its own, enacting collective punishment on the civilians of Gaza by denying them food, water, and electricity as well as instructing them to leave their homes, displacing well over a million people.
I wonder why ‘progressives’ call for ceasefire knowing that Hamas will continue its totalitarian regime in Gaza, which turned Gaza into an open-air jail, knowing that Hamas will continue launching massacres of Israeli civilians, knowing that it’ll continue to halt any peace negotiations like it’s done since those started in 1993. Is it ‘progressives’ being aligned with Hamas on genocide of Jews in Israel being a good outcome, or is it digging their heels on being delusional? From the mouth of Hamas:
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/hamas-official-says-group-will-repeat-oct-7-attack-twice-and-three-times-to-destroy-israel/
You wrote: "These people who have been fighting over this rocky land for five thousand years have far more in common with each other than they do with the bloodthirsty masses who claim to support them."
Very much like in America, where people have more in common than not, it is the politics that separates us, not blood. We had a war between states that cut families, neighbors, and the country into separate beliefs from which we have not recovered.
And I am conflicted. I grew up in Jordan and left just before the Six Day War that destroyed much of my childhood memories. I have been to Israel once, in a UN jeep while living there (I do not remember why my father, a US diplomat in Amman went), but my religion has its world center on Mount Carmel in Haifa. My childhood identity is with the Arab Palestinians and my moral compass is with the country that was always "at war" with the one I grew up in.
Politics is the reason for the hatred in the world. Until we understand and accept that we humans are far more similar than different, until we accept our "brotherhood," we will have wars waged to gain dirt, as it is in the Middle East.
I also feel much the same as you. We are saddened.
Thank you, Michael, for articulating the messy thoughts and feelings that go with this tragedy, and for sharing them publicly. I feel much the same.
You’re wrong about Israel. They left Gaza years ago and what happened it became a terror training camp. Stop blaming Israel for defending itself. The Arabs need to step up and take care of the Palestinians but they won’t because they don’t care. They only want war and the destruction of the Jews.
You also have an incomplete picture of what happened in Gaza. Israel pulled its settlements out of Gaza, it is true, but they also sealed it off, controlling everything that went in or out, including food, fuel, medicine, water, and electricity. Hamas tried to win the politics, but lost, so they resorted to the despicable and violent extremism that allowed them to kill wantonly, something Israel is also not against doing to the Palestinians.
There is no pure party here; both are wrong, neither is right, but the fight they have will not end, as it has not since I moved to Jordan in 1958.
Israel is the only country in the middle east that does anything for the Palestinians. Why is it none of you hold the Arabs accountable?? They do nothing for the Palestinians. Hamas picked the fight now they’re going to get a bloody nose.
In which world did everyone respond with glee? Not the world that I live in. There was no glee to be found.
You must live under a rock.. turn on your laptop.
Extensive MSM and online media, coverage from multiple English speaking print, TV, radio, and online, there was no glee in the days following the Hamas attack. Any interpretation of glee would be clutching at reasons to claim victimhood, stemming from a personal need, not objective measures.
By contrast, the dehumanization of Palestinians has increased throughout the month, in all MSM.
Great perspective! Thank you. We don’t have to choose sides as you’ve put it so well. But what drives me nuts is the histrionic reaction on either side from those who have nothing to do with this. Whether it’s the right or left.
There’s no chance another Holocaust could happen, oh wait, it could.
I live in Jerusalem and I agree. It’s a shitshow. Israel shouldn’t be here, but it is. Israel shouldn’t HAVE to be here, but it does.
Thanks for your words.
You are never half baked or whinging. Thank you.
Thank you for excavating your feelings! I relate to all of this. I too have been wanting to write about all my complicated feelings about it but something is holding me back.
I get that. It's hard to write about.
I’d co-sign what you said here, Michael. Nothing is right to say, other than I feel sad for everyone. I get the Israeli action for the music festival massacre. That was earned blowback. A march into occupying the orphaned land of the Gaza Strip just helps nobody. But there’s no end until WW3 catastrophe there.
We’re not going to see peace anytime soon. And that sucks.
1,300 Jews killed by Hamas Terrorists.
Now 8000 Palestinians killed.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-10-29-2023-de1a7d660ba2f6d80b3d7aeaae5bb0f3
That's not "eye for an eye".
That's genocide.
Let me guess...
"They deserved it"
"Israel has a right to ethnic cleansing, military occupation, subjection as 2nd class citizens and economic blockade."
"Israel has a right to [do whatever it wants including genocide] to "protect itself""
WHY WON'T THOSE DIRTY TERRORISTS GO BACK TO WHERE THEY CAME FROM
"Thou shalt not kill".
You guys are literally full of shit.😄
That's not including the 400 or so killed in the West Bank.
In the 20 years or so, prior to October, 10,000 Palestinians had been killed, compared with 100 or so Israelis.
Those proportions have been consistent over time. The data is available to anyone.
It has never been an eye for an eye. Revenge is never proportionate. Funded by the Western allies. Shame on everyone.
Thanks for this perspective. Do you think a ceasefire would be the start of peace?
A ceasefire will be the opportunity Hamas needs to regroup and plan another massacre, and at the same time continue to enforce an Islamist totalitarian regime on Gaza civilians. The peace process can be reset after Hamas has its terror capability smashed, not before. Calls for ceasefire is all a progressive brain rotted with decades of pro Palestinian propaganda can come up with. That urge to imagine Hamas doesn’t exist is delusional.
There can be no peace. There might be a time of lack of war and killing, but the two sides want the same dirt, for the same reason, and neither side sees the other side as being worthy of it. There can be no peace until some kind of spiritual enlightenment happens, and in a time of worldwide political extremism, that just ain't gonna happen.
I have no idea.