Whose freedom, Gus? Ours and our allies, or those who are the original citizens of the region in question?
If you want to prosecute all those guilty of crimes against humanity and in violation of all international rules of war, should we go back to WWII where the Allies also killed millions of German and Japanese citizens in their fire bombing raids of German and Japanese cities? Should the Irgun be tried as well? Where do we draw the line?
Which leg of legitimacy do we stand upon? Do we even have one? We are the interlopers in this current struggle, are we not?
Look, I don't have the answers anymore than you do. But, we should probably take more of an impartial role like we did in the Camp David Accords which Jimmy Carter initiated in the settling of Israel's and Egypt's struggles in the Arab-Israeli conflict of the 1970's. That was a start, but unfortunately there hasn't been as much progress since then. Maybe this is the opportunity, although a very costly one, we have been looking for where we can bring all of the aggrieved parties together again for another attempt at building a more lasting peace, although I have to question that even this will be the end of it.
We have to try, though.
I appreciate your lengthy and thoughtful response. That’s more than many would offer up.
I don't think now is the time to look for a peaceful solution. Had the Hamas militia attacked military targeted and treated those like a normal war I could maybe see this. This was not that.
Evil needs to be confronted and destroyed. Once Hamas has been brought to it's knees if some of the cooler minds in it's movement wish to come to the table for a negotiated peace then, I could see that making sense.
The beef I have with this all is that throughout history, when you are the aggressor and lose a war you started (1948) you don't get to have the land back you lost in that war. Especially land you have a strategic advantage from. Like Golan heights etc.
Fact is, no one has a homeland. Land has always been taken via purchase, treaty, or war. I mean, how far back do we wanna go? There has never been an actual nation of Palestine. Even if it had existed, with borders, it lost it in war after war. This is land that Israel claims and has earned and has won over and over. If Palestinians wanted peace they have had multiple opportunities to find it. Yet they have other goals.
Why don’t you give your land back to the Native Americans? I mean your house probably exists on land that was once theirs right? Don’t they have a legitimate claim to their homeland? What if you lived adjacent to a reservation of Native Americans and in a process of attempting to take back their ancestral lands they came into your home, raped your wife and killed one of your children? All over a conquest you had nothing to do with? I think I’d be looking to exact a significant cost from this enemy. Regardless of the validity of their claims as a whole.
Worse yet, this story doesn’t involve a mythical tribe. This involves a historically persecuted people with a centuries old history of violence directed towards them in certain instances beyond anyone’s imagination. You cannot look at this story without that being considered.
Sure. You could say that this applies to the Palestinians as well. Ok then line up an Army and fight within the established international rules of war and if you can defeat Israel, then good on ya. But what has happened in this case is not that. By anyones calculus.
Recall, there are lots of Muslim homelands. There is only one Israel.