Israel needs to think and rethink their move into Gaza. We have seen over and over where a strong military force attacks thinking they have the upper hand only to be stuck in a long standstill or even a defeat. The longer the fight is the more likely it is that other countries or territories will decide to pick a side and fight.
My fear is that it will be years before any of this resolves itself.
The cycle of violence that has marred the region for decades is so unfortunate.
It escapes my mind how decision makers (on both sides) have failed to value the human cost in the past. Irrespective of the history, the current situation is not very complex: it's a one sided war where Israel is the occupier (responsible for a lot of inhumane actions), and Palestinians, represented by Hamas, are resisting by whatever means necessary (no matter inhumane e.g the Oct 7th attack). The cycle continues.
Peace is usually in the hands of the more powerful, the one who has more, and can give more. In this conflict, at present, it's Israel. Some other day, in some other place, it'll be another entity. The only way for peace to happen is 1) either the powerful decides that it want's peace and offers what it takes to achieve that, or 2) the powerful completely eliminates the other side (akin to a genocide). I don't think (2) has ever worked, or will ever work. Even if it did, I hope no human with even slightest of morals would ever think of it as a viable solution.
In the last two decades: ~15,000 including children, ~1,700 Israelis, ~13,000 Palestinians, have lost their lives [1]. Each of these lives was equally valuable.
I don't even know why I am writing this, knowing full well I may be attacked. I guess, I just hope that somewhere, slowly, seeds of peace will be planted and people will start moving towards a world which is more peaceful.
People never talk about the cycle of violence when Russia invades Georgia. Nobody talks about the importance of restraint when it comes to Zelensky's aid package.
>>> Irrespective of the history, the current situation is not very complex: it's a one sided war where Israel is the occupier (responsible for a lot of inhumane actions), and Palestinians, represented by Hamas, are resisting by whatever means necessary (no matter inhumane e.g the Oct 7th attack).
I don't believe this for a second. It gets repeated a lot. I've grown very skeptical and mistrustful of political arguments that begin with "It's simple...". Having grown up in a country who's situation is often compared with Israel/Palestine (although thankfully on a far smaller scale) I can tell you it's never simple. It's not simple to the people who live there and it's utterly impenetrable to those who don't. Most of the trouble is caused by people who insist that it's simple.
>>> Peace is usually in the hands of the more powerful, the one who has more, and can give more
What makes you say this? Nothing I have seen makes me think that this is true. A few hundred people can keep a country in a state of chaos for years no matter what everyone else wants.
If Israel stops bombing, occupying, and displacing Palestinians in the past ~70y, you will have peace, if Palestinians stops however, they cease to exist, and in 50 years or so, the international community will make a museum and a memorial that one day some indigenous people lived there..
> Israel cleared out of Gaza in 2005. That's just a fact.
And before that? You realize that most people in Gaza are actually refugees since when there were displaced from their homelands across Palestine back in 1948? And the ones refused they got massacred -Tantura (1) Deir Yassin (2). And who do you think controls water, electricity, food, resources that’s going in/out of Gaza?
> removing Jews from Palestine is just more genocide. I'm not down with that.
It isn’t what you or me are down to, it what’s the United Nations (incl Israel) have agreed to, and to have a separate states per 1967 borders (1) even Hamas agreed to that (2), did Israel stopped doing what they were doing since they set foot in the country? No, in fact, it’s much worse, Gaza is an open air prison now that in 2021 -and before- they marched to the borders peacefully to say that we are still here (5) and slowly dying, they got shot on sight, west bank is still under a martial law that will gets you years in prison for social media likes, and Jerusalem is under and full control of Israel police.
My fear is that it will be years before any of this resolves itself.