Hamas role? They tried to be peaceful during the march of return, they got gassed and shot with snipers.
The only role any Palestinian group can play that won’t have Israel making those same criticisms is to stand in a field and commit seppuku.
You criticize Hamas for not using uniforms, while Israel arms civilians and helps them build homes on stolen land between Gaza and their own military bases, you criticize Hamas for fighting near civilians, while the IDF’s HQ is literally next to a shopping mall.
The two aren’t even comparable, because Palestine doesn’t have the benefit of billions of dollars of military equipment and the ability to have a standing army without getting bombed necessary to fight a non-guerilla war, meanwhile Israel chooses to do these things.
There is one single party responsible for starting this conflict, who can end it at any time, that’s Israel.
Sometimes there are no good choices, but that doesn’t absolve you of the consequences of that choice you had to make.
The world isn’t made up of good guys and bad guys. Hamas doesn’t get a pass on their actions just because Israel committed worse. And my purpose in pointing this out is not to absolve Israel of their actions, it’s to ensure people remain aware of what actions are likely to result in what consequences.
My hope is that in the future, when some other fight for freedom starts up somewhere else, the people there can learn from what happened in Gaza. Learn which actions worked, which ones were futile, and which ones actively made things worse. That learning gets real muddy if we keep glossing the whole thing over with “Everything is only Israel’s fault”.
Hamas role? They tried to be peaceful during the march of return, they got gassed and shot with snipers.
The only role any Palestinian group can play that won’t have Israel making those same criticisms is to stand in a field and commit seppuku.
You criticize Hamas for not using uniforms, while Israel arms civilians and helps them build homes on stolen land between Gaza and their own military bases, you criticize Hamas for fighting near civilians, while the IDF’s HQ is literally next to a shopping mall.
The two aren’t even comparable, because Palestine doesn’t have the benefit of billions of dollars of military equipment and the ability to have a standing army without getting bombed necessary to fight a non-guerilla war, meanwhile Israel chooses to do these things.
There is one single party responsible for starting this conflict, who can end it at any time, that’s Israel.
Sometimes there are no good choices, but that doesn’t absolve you of the consequences of that choice you had to make.
The world isn’t made up of good guys and bad guys. Hamas doesn’t get a pass on their actions just because Israel committed worse. And my purpose in pointing this out is not to absolve Israel of their actions, it’s to ensure people remain aware of what actions are likely to result in what consequences.
My hope is that in the future, when some other fight for freedom starts up somewhere else, the people there can learn from what happened in Gaza. Learn which actions worked, which ones were futile, and which ones actively made things worse. That learning gets real muddy if we keep glossing the whole thing over with “Everything is only Israel’s fault”.
Someone beaks into your house, starts eating all your food, stealing your things, hurting your children, and kills your dog.
You fight back.
Do we now say that we need to acknowledge the role you had in the home invasion?
Do I kidnap the home invader’s kid in response? The world is not as simplistic as you’d apparently like it to be.
If taking hostages is the only way to save your family and you’ve already tried everything else, what do you do?
Like you said, the world is not simple.