Betul (with umlaut) is a common Turkish name as well, from Arabic, of similar meaning. Also name of birch tree and related things, e.g. Fomitopsis betulina for birch fungus.
There is a path to coexistence, but it needs to overcome a lot of malevolence present on the side of Arab nationalism and political Islam. Currently, violent extremists are setting the tone when it comes to public opinion, and the governements are somewhere in the middle between turning a blind eye and qctively promoting the hate. The right-wing hardliners in Israel also promote a similar dynamic, they are strongly opposed by the state establishment and most of the public, but it seems like the extremists on both sides make each other stronger while dragging the two nations to hell.
Yet, the kind of black and white thinking the villifies Israel and naively promote appeasement and pacifism with genocidial terrorists could only lead to a hugh storm of violence and suffering, that may or may not end with the destruction of Israel in the most violent way possible.
Egypt had 66,000 Jews before 1948.
A peace agreement was reached in 1979. Yet almost none came back to live in Egypt. Jews and Israelis were very afraid to live in Egypt after the peace.
Only in recent years A-Sisi started to do some work to replenish synagogoues and care for the country's very long Jewish legacy, probably as part of his policy against extremism.
A Two-State solution could work in some constellation. a one state solution I see as leading to massacre and banishment of most of the Jews in the land.
> "There is a path to coexistence, but it needs to overcome a lot of malevolence present on the side of Arab nationalism and political Islam."
I doubt that you can provide evidence for your biased statements with full context of the history of Zionism and its crimes against the natives of the region.
This idea stems from lack of familiarity with Israeli society.
Israel is a small country with very few degrees of separation between people.
The communities attacked are highly organized, hate the current government,somewhat critical of the establishment, and closely connected to the highest ranks in the IDF. Including some generals. And also connected to many of the fighters who were there on the ground.
There is absolutely zero chance that the army would kill many people and that it would be kept hidden from the families and the public in large.
Also, Hamas was not merely taking hostages, but spraying people with bullets and setting houses on fire with families in them. So your SWAT team dillema means nothing, as the army had no other option other then engaging with the enemy as fast as possible.
The fact that in many places special forces were indeed sent to carefuly deal with hostage situations is being criticised as it may have wasted time in which the Hamas was killing more people, and people who were trapped in their homes got choked or burned.
The better strategy may have been to charge at the terrorists, as their numbers and whereabouts were unknown and while some were holding hostages others were still moving around in cars or by foot looking for hostages to take or victims to kill.
The only confirmed friendly fire case during October 7 that I personally read about was a tank that entered into a fire exchange with Hamas hostage takers.
40 terrorists and 15 hostages were surrounded in a house at Be'eri,
Firing at IDF and police forces that surrounded the house.
After a failed negotiation in which the Hamas commander alone surrenderd with one hostage, fighting resumed.
The Hamas members were firing with guns and RPGs at the tank and nearby forces.
The Tank fired two shells at the house killing the terrorists and all but 1 of the remaining hostages.
