Exactly. Israel has a functioning government and a proper military. Said government can decide not to engage in retaliatory violence and expect their decision to be respected. Palestine has no such government. Even Hamas’s leadership cannot ensure their side will respect a ceasefire. Ergo, the onus is on Israel to act like they want to end the conflict in order to convince the Palestinian people that an end to the conflict is possible.
Both Israel and Palestine should have a 2 state solution. With the international community running the show, such as military presence. You can’t give one state a strong military and infrastructrial enforcement, and deny the other one its right. The Palestinian government doesn’t have any power to protect its people from Hamas. It’s just disgusting. Perhaps if they had an army and actual tangible governmental functions they could combat Hamas themselves. Instead of Israel having to do the job, with blind anger towards Hamas and thus taking innocent lives.
The Palestinian government can’t do shit, because everything has been taken away from them. The international community should give the Palestinians as much as they give Israel. Train, support and enfore them.
facepalm
You could have been more elaborative.
An “I don’t agree” or " Of course" with an explanation as to your viewpoint would suffice. But I respect your stance, whatever it may be.
Right? What the hell are you talking about? They aren’t playing checkers.
I don’t agree that the Palestinian government can protect its people from Hamas…
Because the Palestinian government IS HAMAS.
And they were elected by an overwhelming MAJORITY OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE to BE THE GOVERNMENT.
I fail at the internet again. I was using your words as a counter point attempting to point out that we are all outside of the circle of violence(assumption on my part). I disagree with some of the posters here who think that some type of non-violent response would have worked. I understand your point about nuance. I am not Jewish, bloodthirsty, or particularly pro-Isreal, but I am anti terrorist.
Hamas essentially declared war on Isreal. Hamas should either surrender and lay down their arms or expect a war(and stop pointing fingers and whining about it).
My assumption at this point on Israel’s actions is that they are trying to weaken Hamas enough that they are replaced by a more moderate Palestinian faction that Israel can bargain with in good faith.
I know what you mean, but what’s Mahmoud Abbas? Is he Hamas too?
He leads the faction (Fatah) that lost the last elections and kept power anyway. As a result Hamas took power in Gaza via armed revolt. In response Fatah put together its own government in the West Bank. Although Fatah is the less legitimate government the West prefers them because Hamas refuses to make peace.
Had you actually read the post, rather than cherry picked pieces to get frothy-mouthed about, you would have seen that he’s not offering that false choice at all.
No, the goal is to achieve a durable peace with all of Israel’s neighbors. I’m amazed that people still don’t grasp this concept, but winning battles != winning the war. Again:
Right. You’re just affirming what most of us already know, which is that the powers that be in Israel are just as uninterested in long-term peace as the leaders of Hamas are.
Democracy in action. You can see why the Palestinians would be enamored with our progressive western political system.
Oh…
That’s what I meant. We need to promote them, enfore them the International community ( Not Israel) should do this for the faction. So that Palestinians don’t see it as " betrayal" and finally dismiss entities similar to Hamas.
We should give Palestinians a life with dignity . Take the blockades away, give them more freedoms etc.
All of which should be done under the banner of " Hey look, Abbass faction really is working".
Since when has 44% been an “overwhelming MAJORITY”?
You’d help to differentiate yourself from the likes of problematique by not engaging in the same level of hyperbole.
He’s Fatah, a branch of the increasingly irrelevant PLO. He’s the successor to Yassir Arafat, and the Israelis and the US have rewarded his moderation and desire for peace by treating him like a joke. Plus he has little support outside of the West Bank or from Palestinians as a whole.
He’s Fatah and he’s head of state… but not head of government.
The Prime Minister is the head of government in a parliamentary system and that was …Ismail Haniyah of Hamas.
Fatah and Hamas don’t get along too good and have since dissolved the Hamas government and declared that some other guy was the new PM.
Hamas, who won the election, and most of the Palestinian Population, object to this as illegal. So as it stands now, Hamas controls Gaza and… Fatah sort of controls West Bank, but not really because they’ve been so weakened from fighting with Hamas…
Trying to negotiate with Fatah with backroom deals is going to get Israel nowhere if the Palestinians themselves aren’t on board…
I agree that collectively holding our breath and turning blue until Hamas went away wasn’t the most productive of strategies. However, Hamas taking over the PA was seen as enormously self-destructive since, among other things, they didn’t believe the PA should exist (since it was an Israeli construct). Given the news the past couple weeks, this was proven regrettably correct.
Unfortunately you can’t really punish democracies for voting in the wrong people, or else the US would have been in deep kimchi for most of the past 10 years. However, withholding foreign aid (which the PA is 100% dependent on, among other reasons since the Israelis don’t let them collect taxes) from an organization devoted to destroying the structure it was putatively elected to control is an appropriate measure.
I agree, that’s the problem.
You have a faction here that clearly supports a peaceful two state solution. But everyone seems to ignore and debase them.
What would happen if the West Bank (not Gaza) was declared a state, given significant outside aid, and the settlements (or at least most of them) were evacuated/dismantled?
If nothing else, it’d be an interesting exercise. Personally, I’m not sure it’s possible to evacuate the settlements (many living there are crazy zealots), but it’s ultimately got to be part of the solution.
I agree.
Instead of punishing Palestinians collectively. Rewarding should be the solution.
Rewarding them for committing acts of terror sounds like the perfect way to convince them to never commit more.