It feels like so few can have an honest discussion about what is going on. We have divided into two camps of either Israel should do what they want and Israel is committing genocide. Neither is true.
October 7 was freakin horrific. Like apples to apples population wise, it would the equivalent of 40k Americans (thousands of them women and children) being ambushed and slaughtered by a few hundred thousand armed terrorists who reside in a small contained area within our country and then return to the area celebrating in the streets where 70-80 percent of the people there supported the action. They also take in thousands of hostages too. And the overall attitude across world and from them is “we had it coming”. I am fairly certain in that hypothetical we would be doing the same exact thing which is pretty clear what Israel is doing: we would tear the entire area apart. No more tunnels. No more ability to operate unchecked. We would tear it all down and eliminate the area. Which I do think is the Israeli goal, not the genocide of Palestinians which they could accomplished in a month had they wanted to. But instead, Gaza is going to cease to exist as it once was, I doubt the give it back to being self governed and unoccupied once they are done.
On the other hand, none of this means the policies of Israel and Bibi should be off limits. We can point out that it was bad and contributing to what happened. And there should be more investigation on just how it was possible Israel somehow had no idea it was coming and was unprepared to stop it. The timing and nature of it all are a bid dubious. More importantly, Israel should be open to criticism of not doing a better job of reducing civilian and aid worker deaths, even if Hamas uses them as shields. By conducting the war this no ****s given way, they open themselves up to valid criticism they are becoming the enemy whom they fight.
The one frustrating thing I find for the people protesting the brutality of the Israeli response is how so very few of them did the same after October 7. Some of these same people cheered that or immediately said “they had us coming”.
Cliffs notes: Both sides suck and neither the innocent Israelis nor the innocent Palestinian civilians who died had it coming. So debating who is “right” is stupid. War sucks.
October 7 was freakin horrific. Like apples to apples population wise, it would the equivalent of 40k Americans (thousands of them women and children) being ambushed and slaughtered by a few hundred thousand armed terrorists who reside in a small contained area within our country and then return to the area celebrating in the streets where 70-80 percent of the people there supported the action. They also take in thousands of hostages too. And the overall attitude across world and from them is “we had it coming”. I am fairly certain in that hypothetical we would be doing the same exact thing which is pretty clear what Israel is doing: we would tear the entire area apart. No more tunnels. No more ability to operate unchecked. We would tear it all down and eliminate the area. Which I do think is the Israeli goal, not the genocide of Palestinians which they could accomplished in a month had they wanted to. But instead, Gaza is going to cease to exist as it once was, I doubt the give it back to being self governed and unoccupied once they are done.
On the other hand, none of this means the policies of Israel and Bibi should be off limits. We can point out that it was bad and contributing to what happened. And there should be more investigation on just how it was possible Israel somehow had no idea it was coming and was unprepared to stop it. The timing and nature of it all are a bid dubious. More importantly, Israel should be open to criticism of not doing a better job of reducing civilian and aid worker deaths, even if Hamas uses them as shields. By conducting the war this no ****s given way, they open themselves up to valid criticism they are becoming the enemy whom they fight.
The one frustrating thing I find for the people protesting the brutality of the Israeli response is how so very few of them did the same after October 7. Some of these same people cheered that or immediately said “they had us coming”.
Cliffs notes: Both sides suck and neither the innocent Israelis nor the innocent Palestinian civilians who died had it coming. So debating who is “right” is stupid. War sucks.
