> They reached out to israel to try and return hostages and were ignored. They reached out to the US to return hostages and were ignored.
That Hamas was open extremely early on in the conflict to negotiations for returning hostages and Israel and the US knew this while they waged a bombing campaign and pretended like Hamas wasn't trying or willing to return hostages.
Negotiations weren't happening because Israel didn't want those negotiations, not because they weren't available.
And, I don't know if you are aware, but negotiations involve give and take. Israel didn't need to "traded for all of the concessions Hamas wanted in exchange for them".
The reason the hostages weren't returned sooner is because Israel didn't want them. In 2024 Hamas accepted all of Israel's terms multiple times only for Israel to change terms. Israel knew they'd have fewer justifications for their genocide if they got the hostages back.
Yes it would have been insane to accept any concessions. If you don’t understand that then you have work to do on yourself. This is a very weak and suicidal position to take.
There were many temporary ceasefires in exchange for hostages but this was done as part of the broader war effort, ultimately Israel is not bound to anything in these “agreements”. It’s basically just saying and doing whatever needs to be said and done to accomplish the war goals.
If that is what you’re talking about ok, but it sounds like you were saying to actually make concessions.
The point is to accomplish the aims of the war. There are no concessions that have to or should be made. Israel is by far the stronger power.
A ceasefire is a concession. And my point, which I think is clear, is there's a pretty wide gap between "They have to accept all hamas concessions" and "they have to negotiate".
It's pretty hard for you to argue against the fact that there are, in fact, reasonable concessions that aren't "suicidal".
That is not the context of the discussion. The context is "what should world leaders have done differently".
And, I never said that the war was either avoidable or that Israel was wrong to use force after Oct 7.
What I am saying is that the war could have ended years ago and that Israel has committed genocide. I'm also saying that the pretext that it was about "getting the hostages home" was false.
And with that context, yes there are things world leaders should have done to stop Israel from committing genocide.
