Don’t fall into the trap of ‘picking sides’ over Gaza: Hamas’s attacks were unconscionable, razing Gaza to the ground would be abhorrent. In both cases, basic humanity is at stake --- [Opinion]
The big thing is the Hamas attack wasnt the start of all this. It wasnt Israel minding their own business and Hamas invading for the glory of Islam. The warning cries of a humanitarian crisis were going off long before this recent war, from international humanitarian agencies like Unicef. Gaza was being militarily oppressed by Israel, blocking humanitarian aid, international trade, even denying access to their own waters for fishing.
Civilians were dying off already as a result of Israel, and Israel ignored the warnings, the international community ignored the warnings, and then its shocked pikachus all around as a dying people fight back for survival.
This is a false equivalence. Most of the rhetoric I've seen about Hamas is that it's an inevitable consequence of Israel's treatment of restricting the Palestinian people to an open-air prison. Saying "We can't support either Hamas or Israel" ignores the fact that most people in favor of Palestine are in favor of the civilians, the people who did nothing and are still bombed and tortured and executed. Not to say that Hamas deserves to be bombed and tortured, they're citizens as well that shouldn't be in this situation in the first place, but the large majority of support is in favor of the Palestinian people more broadly that are just unfortunate enough to be adjacent to the conflict and are forced to deal with the consequences of Israel's bloodlust
to be clear: I do think Palestinians have a right to fight for their own freedom. But with the amount of disinformation at play here i don't know how many atrocities are actually committed by Hamas and how many are the result of Israeli misinformation campaigns. But the amount of any of that doesn't change how I feel -- Innocent civilians should never die in a conflict like this. I don't care if Hamas is doing it [edit: or not. The purpose of this statement is to show that I don't care if Hamas is doing something abhorrent and Israel isn't, or vice versa because it's irrelevant to the broader point. Just to clarify, my language was unclear], Israel is very clearly ALSO doing it, and it's abhorrent and gross no matter who. But in terms of the conceptual "high ground" the west likes to bandy around, Palestinians have a right to fight for its freedom from an occupying colonial force.
The article opens with "what about America's response to 9/11?". JFC, what a shitty justification. America was clearly wrong to war crime all over Iraq just as Israel is in the wrong for warcriming all over Palestine. I refuse to "both sides" imperialists and their victims. Frankly, "both sides" is the trap one should avoid.
Terrorists and Religious zealots (a Venn diagram which is nearly a perfect, single circle) will never recognize basic humanity, because power and control are more important than any human life. To expect peace in a land claimed as sacred by multiple groups is simply guaranteeing unending violence.
I actually never picked sides in that conflict. Both sides are nuts, the Hamas are terrorists, the IDF commits war crimes, they are both evil.
I propose putting a wall around the whole area and wait for the noise to stop, either by them getting their acts together, or by having killed each other.
After closely following the Ukrainian War and learning all the nuances and history in that....I just don't have the energy or time to do the same about a whole new conflict.
If an asteroid fell from space onto Tel Aviv, I'd be on the asteroids side. It's not about ideology, it's about removing a fascist ethnostate from the world.