this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2023
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The thing is you also have to admit the power imbalance at play here.
Both sides suck, but one side has the power to stop making the situation worse and stop abusing millions as they colonise their land.
This can never end or start to heal until the fucked up treatment of Palestinians stops. All they are doing is breeding tomorrow’s fighters.
Oh, I don't disagree, but Hamas committing similar atrocities isn't helping. A war crime is a war crime is a war crime. Targeting innocent civilians is never justified, and that is something both sides continue to do: target innocent civilians. Both sides essentially are involved in collective punishment of each other. In other words, war crimes.
Both sides are guilty as hell of some really fucked up shit. Yes, Israel is the occupier, but it doesn't justify killing innocents. Period.
Just like killing innocents in Palestine makes more sympathizers for Hamas, killing innocents in Israel just makes more sympathizers for the Israeli right-wing like Netanyahu.
It's a two way street and while Palestine has been oppressed for 50-some-odd years now, it just doesn't justify killing people who had nothing to do with making those decisions.
I think an apt comparison is Russia and Ukraine right now. I fully support Ukraine in this war, and part of that is not just because they're the underdog who got unjustifiably invaded, but because they take care to avoid targetting innocent civilians. For example, when they strike Sevastopol, they strike military facilities, never residential areas. Whereas Russia intentionally terrorizes the Ukrainian people, kidnaps Ukrainian children, targets residential areas, and commits so frickin many war crimes.
If the attack by Hamas were against legitimate military targets, I don't think there would be many people out here questioning it. But they didn't. They are a fundamentalist religious group that wishes to commit genocide, and they intentionally targeted and mass-murdered civilians. Beyond that, by attacking a music festival, they targeted people who were statistically more likely to be sympathetic to their cause. Clearly their goal is not simply self defense, but genocide.
Also a good comparison is the PLO in West Bank, as they aren't Hamas and had no hand in this attack. In fact, they and Hamas hate each other. And as far as I'm aware, PLO just wants the two-state solution and haven't officially sanctioned terrorist attacks in ages. Unfortunately, Hamas has likely managed to discredit the PLO cause, despite them not having any guilt in this.
That's... complicated. There is a fund that the PA pays the PLO to administer called the Palestinian Authority Martyrs Fund. It pays out stipends to the family of Palestinians who have been killed, imprisoned, or hurt while attacking Israel. This has been a point of contention for a long time, but it's apparently very popular among Palestinians so politicians are loath to touch it.
Yes both sides are targeting innocent civilians, and this is not cool.
But only one side is colonising a people’s land, imprisoning them in ghettos, and destroying their future.
Hence why criticism of Israel should always be greater
Hamas knows this. And they knew that Israel would respond with disproportionate force. They only care about destroying Israel and the Jews, per their charter, and they aren’t afraid to sacrifice as many Palestinian lives as it takes.
Maybe Russia got Iran to get Hamas to attack Israel knowing that Israel would go full scale, knowing that the USA is all in on Israeli support, thus reducing their aid to Ukraine?
Yup. The meme and simple “everyone is bad” explanation doesn’t touch on the fact that this is an asymmetrical war.