Israel Hamas War, West Bank, Etc. | Hostilities resume

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Yes, I'm aware of the history. Your snippet of it here is tendentious, but decent.

The Palestinian demands are overwhelmingly material, and rooted in a powerful and IMO justified sense of being wronged not just by Israel, but by Britain, the US, and the UN. To the extent they want to "drive the Jews to the sea" (which you quoted, and which I'm sure you know is often used to paint the Palestinians as Islamist zealots), that desire is overwhelmingly for redress of wrongs, and restoration of lands and goods taken from them against their will, and has little or nothing to do with religion.

The Palestinians have to understand that they aren’t going to get that land back any more than the Native Americans are going to get New York back. Every nation that exists today was built through some sort of conquest at one point in history.
 
The Palestinians have to understand that they aren’t going to get that land back any more than the Native Americans are going to get New York back. Every nation that exists today was built through some sort of conquest at one point in history.
I said basically this same sentiment on the old ZZLP, much to the dismay of a few of the posters on this thread. I can only speak for myself, and my very American-centric thinking, but if I was in a similar situation here, and the lives of my family were at risk, I would say “bye bye America!” and leave tomorrow.

Here’s the thing though. I know that’s not possible for the Palestinians, because NONE OF THEIR MUSLIM BROTHERS WANTS THEM. You would think that Jordan or Syria or Egypt or any number of the surrounding Muslim countries would offer up asylum for the Palestinians to prevent and/or end the continuing war. But they literally wont take them.

Instead the ever dwindling Palestine, thanks to hamas, is hell-bent on “getting their land back”, which as you stated will literally never happen without a SIGNIFICANT war. And, by the way, as alluded to in the above post, just how far back do you go, because guess what? The land was the Israelites before it was the Palestinians.
 
Yes, I'm aware of the history. Your snippet of it here is tendentious, but decent.

The Palestinian demands are overwhelmingly material, and rooted in a powerful and IMO justified sense of being wronged not just by Israel, but by Britain, the US, and the UN. To the extent they want to "drive the Jews to the sea" (which you quoted, and which I'm sure you know is often used to paint the Palestinians as Islamist zealots), that desire is overwhelmingly for redress of wrongs, and restoration of lands and goods taken from them against their will, and has little or nothing to do with religion.
It's strange you omit the entirety of the Arab world in your list of groups that "wronged" the Palestinians. It was the Arab League and the UN Palestinian delegation that refused to negotiate with the UN for the partition plan - believing they could just defeat the Jews and kick them all out. This inconvenient fact is why reviewing "past wrongs" is a road to nowhere. Every group involved has their own arguments in favor of their positions. If this were a simple right vs. wrong situation we would have had a solution.
 
It's strange you omit the entirety of the Arab world in your list of groups that "wronged" the Palestinians.

I don't have a problem adding them to the list, so thanks for the feedback.

Worth pointing out though that Arabs didn't steal the Palestinians' land and property, so they're not exactly at the top of the list of here.
 
The Palestinians have to understand that they aren’t going to get that land back

The Palestinians I've met are enomously practical people, and all of them understand you can't but that djinn back in the bottle.

That doesn't mean any of them will stop advocating for fairness, opportunity and freedom for their families and their children. And they are certainly not going to get any of those things in the Gaza ghetto.

It's beyond time that the western world stand with the Jewish groups who fight for and advocate for basic rights and freedoms for the Palestinians.
 
The land was the Israelites before it was the Palestinians.

Yea, back before it was owned by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and Byzantium (and right after it was owned for 2,000 years by the Canaanites). Israel's "ownership" of that land amounts to a couple of hundred years about 1000 BC. Islamic "ownership" amounts to about 1,500 years. But yea, we should just give it all back to the Jebusites.

And blaming other Arab countries for the behavior of Israel towards the Palestinians (when their own Torah tells them to "welcome the stranger, for you yourselves were strangers once in the land of Egypt)...that's like the dog did something wrong so you tell everybody to kick the cat.

Two other points should be made, apart from the fact that this situation wasn't created by the other Arab countries. One, it would be enormously expensive and logistically difficult to take in the Palestinians. Jordan has done a lot of work along these lines - for decades - but it's not easy. But maybe more importantly, if other Arab countries just said "Okay, send us your Palestinians" that would give Israel just the excuse it needs to set up a racially pure ethno-state and to build those condos it so covets on the Gaza seashore (in which case you can bet your bottom dollar the area will finally get the infrastructure - gas, electricity, waste management, security - that Israel for decades has refused to provide).
 
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The Palestinians I've met are enomously practical people, and all of them understand you can't but that djinn back in the bottle.

That doesn't mean any of them will stop advocating for fairness, opportunity and freedom for their families and their children. And they are certainly not going to get any of those things in the Gaza ghetto.

It's beyond time that the western world stand with the Jewish groups who fight for and advocate for basic rights and freedoms for the Palestinians.
I agree with your last paragraph. Unfortunately that cannot realistically happen with groups like Hamas in charge. What needs to happen is a Marshall Plan type level of investment in Gaza once this war is over, but the IC needs to make sure that money is not stolen by Hamas like it has been in the past.
 
Worth pointing out though that Arabs didn't steal the Palestinians' land and property, so they're not exactly at the top of the list of here.
No - they just invaded Israel in an attempt to over throw the government and kick out all the Jews. They also are complicit in encouraging and ignoring the UN attempts at creating a Palestinian State in 1947 - which - together with the lost invasion and war - was the beginning of the situation we see ourselves in today. So - yeah they should be at the top of your list.
 
Ok... Palestinians are Arabs. They are the same people as the Jordanians (many or the people currently living in Jordan lived in the WB as well) - nomadic Arabs who lived in the M.E. during the Ottoman Empire. Jordan included the West Bank from 1948-1967.

Because of the 60 years love affair with terrorist organizations (PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah) and association with the hated Iranians (Arabs don't get along with Persians - there's 6000 years of history) and overall trouble, Jordan doesn't want the Palestinians. Neither does Egypt, and Gaza was an Egyptian territory from 1948-1967.

So, Hamas/Palestinians will attempt to disrupt American politics again in the upcoming DNC in Chicago. In 1968 Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan assassinated RFK Sr. and gave us Nixon. Will the new Palestinian/Hamas stab effect another election....and gives us more Trump dystopia?

I feel sorry for the women and children of Gaza. I believe Bibi should sign the Biden Peace Treaty now or resign. We need to transition to a protectorate state. I think the Palestinians will be fortunate to become a protectorate nation. I don't think we should reward 60 years of terrorism, but the Biden Peace deal is the best short and long-term solution as it creates stability, erases Hamas as a power broker, and cordons off Iranian influence in the region.
 
Ok... Palestinians are Arabs. They are the same people as the Jordanians (many or the people currently living in Jordan lived in the WB as well) - nomadic Arabs who lived in the M.E. during the Ottoman Empire. Jordan included the West Bank from 1948-1967.

Because of the 60 years love affair with terrorist organizations (PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah) and association with the hated Iranians (Arabs don't get along with Persians - there's 6000 years of history) and overall trouble, Jordan doesn't want the Palestinians. Neither does Egypt, and Gaza was an Egyptian territory from 1948-1967.

So, Hamas/Palestinians will attempt to disrupt American politics again in the upcoming DNC in Chicago. In 1968 Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan assassinated RFK Sr. and gave us Nixon. Will the new Palestinian/Hamas stab effect another election....and gives us more Trump dystopia?

I feel sorry for the women and children of Gaza. I believe Bibi should sign the Biden Peace Treaty now or resign. We need to transition to a protectorate state. I think the Palestinians will be fortunate to become a protectorate nation. I don't think we should reward 60 years of terrorism, but the Biden Peace deal is the best short and long-term solution as it creates stability, erases Hamas as a power broker, and cordons off Iranian influence in the region.
I tend to stay away from this issue because I can’t think of a more complicated problem in international politics and I am only somewhat familiar with the history. That said, this post is pretty close to my feelings on the situation. I definitely feel compassion for the Palestinian people and support an immediate cease fire. I think the Palestinians need to purge Hamas from power. If I saw some kind of reasonably similar fervor in removing Hamas from the protesters and Palestinians as I do against Israel that would be a start. I know they generally don’t support Hamas, but they need to go farther than that. Netanyahu needs to go along with his right wing compatriots. I think the Palestinian supporters who threaten a sort of mutually assured destruction with Democrats by potentially withholding their votes which could result in Trump’s election are completely misguided. I won’t feel sorry for them if they contribute to a Trump presidency.
 
Jim Sciutto just tried to “interview” a representative of Hamas on CNN and it went about as well as you might expect … lunatic yelled unintelligibly for a while, slagged on CNN and then cut off his feed.

 
Ok... Palestinians are Arabs.

Well no kidding. I thought it was pretty clear from the context of the conversation that I was referring to Arab states, but I guess I'll have to be more explicit about that next time.

A couple of points. The PLO, Hamas, and Hezbollah aren't *only* terrorist organizations. They have more militant wings, and less. All three have done significant things to confront poverty, lack of education, and infrastructure amongst their constituents. IMO it's important to keep that in mind, because a lot of Americans are simply ignorant about it, and think that those organizations came about solely to hurt people and break things. It's more complex.

Also, you wrote, "I don't think we should reward 60 years of terrorism," are you referring to 60 years of terrorism by Israel against the Palestinian people (shunting them into ghettos, subjecting them to random invasive searches, imprisonment as a form of intimidation, intentionally depriving gaza of basic services, etc?) If so, I agree with you, I don't want to reward Israel in that regard either.
 
Neither side has the moral high ground here. Besides being an occupying power, Israel has never even bothered to respond to these Arab peach intiatives. The Netanyahu govt will never agree to a 2-state solution and anyone who aqrgues that has not been paying attention for the past 25-30 years.
End the current war, end the Israelu Occuations, Israel and Palestinans mutuaqlly recognize one another, same for Israel and remaing ARab states, insert robust internation al peackeeping force in WB and Gazxa, demilitarized Palestinian state, Israel gives up some land in WB or does land swaros with Palestinians
 
I should slightly amend my statement to say thaqt neither Israel nor Hamas is or has been on the moral high ground over the past couple of decades. About the only party which has is Abbas and the Palestinian Austority in the West Bank.

And yes the Middle East dpes get complicated. Some reminders of the Israel/Hamas relatiohnship over the decades. TLDR: It is about Isreal keeping the occupied West Bank.
 
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They came into the village just past sundown, dozens of Israeli settlers wearing masks, dressed in dark clothes and armed with rocks, Kalashnikovs and M-16s, witnesses said.

A local resident, Muawiya al-Sidee, said his 13-year-old daughter was one of the first to spot them as she and her younger siblings were playing on Thursday in their front garden in the village of Jit, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“‘Baba, settlers are coming!’” the girl screamed.

Mr. al-Sidee and his wife, who was breastfeeding their 2-year-old daughter at the time, piled their five children into their car and drove off just as the settlers reached their front door.

Seconds later, he said, the Israelis from the nearby Eli settlement smashed the windows of his family’s home and threw in three Molotov cocktails, burning rooms where, moments earlier, the family had gathered.

As the family fled, a call went out over mosque loudspeakers in the village of some 3,000 people, imploring young men to come out and defend against the rampaging settlers.

When Mr. al-Sidee returned hours later, after the settlers had withdrawn, he found the sofas in his house were charred husks and the overhead lamps had melted.

Elsewhere in the village, Rasheed al-Seda, 23, awoke when the call for defenders sounded from the mosques. He joined a group determined to defend the village, armed with nothing but stones.

It would cost him his life, his mother and the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the village.
 

They came into the village just past sundown, dozens of Israeli settlers wearing masks, dressed in dark clothes and armed with rocks, Kalashnikovs and M-16s, witnesses said.

A local resident, Muawiya al-Sidee, said his 13-year-old daughter was one of the first to spot them as she and her younger siblings were playing on Thursday in their front garden in the village of Jit, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“‘Baba, settlers are coming!’” the girl screamed.

Mr. al-Sidee and his wife, who was breastfeeding their 2-year-old daughter at the time, piled their five children into their car and drove off just as the settlers reached their front door.

Seconds later, he said, the Israelis from the nearby Eli settlement smashed the windows of his family’s home and threw in three Molotov cocktails, burning rooms where, moments earlier, the family had gathered.

As the family fled, a call went out over mosque loudspeakers in the village of some 3,000 people, imploring young men to come out and defend against the rampaging settlers.

When Mr. al-Sidee returned hours later, after the settlers had withdrawn, he found the sofas in his house were charred husks and the overhead lamps had melted.

Elsewhere in the village, Rasheed al-Seda, 23, awoke when the call for defenders sounded from the mosques. He joined a group determined to defend the village, armed with nothing but stones.

It would cost him his life, his mother and the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the village.
UFB. The settlers launch attacks like this because they know the IDF or police are not going to try and protect the Palestinians.
 

They came into the village just past sundown, dozens of Israeli settlers wearing masks, dressed in dark clothes and armed with rocks, Kalashnikovs and M-16s, witnesses said.

A local resident, Muawiya al-Sidee, said his 13-year-old daughter was one of the first to spot them as she and her younger siblings were playing on Thursday in their front garden in the village of Jit, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“‘Baba, settlers are coming!’” the girl screamed.

Mr. al-Sidee and his wife, who was breastfeeding their 2-year-old daughter at the time, piled their five children into their car and drove off just as the settlers reached their front door.

Seconds later, he said, the Israelis from the nearby Eli settlement smashed the windows of his family’s home and threw in three Molotov cocktails, burning rooms where, moments earlier, the family had gathered.

As the family fled, a call went out over mosque loudspeakers in the village of some 3,000 people, imploring young men to come out and defend against the rampaging settlers.

When Mr. al-Sidee returned hours later, after the settlers had withdrawn, he found the sofas in his house were charred husks and the overhead lamps had melted.

Elsewhere in the village, Rasheed al-Seda, 23, awoke when the call for defenders sounded from the mosques. He joined a group determined to defend the village, armed with nothing but stones.

It would cost him his life, his mother and the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the village.
The story of the young man of 23 defending his village with stones reminds me of a famous picture.
The Hungarian Uprising of 1956 was an attempt to overthrow the Russian backed puppet government of the country. For a while the uprising succeeded in larger cities like Budapest. However, the Russians sent in reinforcements and the uprising was crushed. There is a famous picture taken in Budapest of two young men throwing rocks at a Russian tank. Guess history does repeat itself.
 

They came into the village just past sundown, dozens of Israeli settlers wearing masks, dressed in dark clothes and armed with rocks, Kalashnikovs and M-16s, witnesses said.

A local resident, Muawiya al-Sidee, said his 13-year-old daughter was one of the first to spot them as she and her younger siblings were playing on Thursday in their front garden in the village of Jit, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

“‘Baba, settlers are coming!’” the girl screamed.

Mr. al-Sidee and his wife, who was breastfeeding their 2-year-old daughter at the time, piled their five children into their car and drove off just as the settlers reached their front door.

Seconds later, he said, the Israelis from the nearby Eli settlement smashed the windows of his family’s home and threw in three Molotov cocktails, burning rooms where, moments earlier, the family had gathered.

As the family fled, a call went out over mosque loudspeakers in the village of some 3,000 people, imploring young men to come out and defend against the rampaging settlers.

When Mr. al-Sidee returned hours later, after the settlers had withdrawn, he found the sofas in his house were charred husks and the overhead lamps had melted.

Elsewhere in the village, Rasheed al-Seda, 23, awoke when the call for defenders sounded from the mosques. He joined a group determined to defend the village, armed with nothing but stones.

It would cost him his life, his mother and the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack on the village.
Didn’t the IDF arrest someone in connection with this murder? How many people has Hamas arrested due to their actions on 10/7? I do agree that the IDF should have been there to prevent this atrocity, however in wartime perhaps they were spread thin.
 
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