You seem to be suggesting that people who would support the Palestinian cause such as Barrera need to be prompted to do so by acts of terror?
You also seem to be justifying the murders by Hamas here?
While you indulge your interpretations of what you think I seem to be suggesting or justifying, I prefer to discuss the political observations I made. This being the Politics and Current Affairs board.
Since this thread started with the Hamas attack on Israel, do you have some evidence to show that the Hamas terrorist operation on 7th October did not result in immediate prominent headline news and more media and widespread public discussion, and pro-Palestinian marches against Israel's years of blockading Gaza and its restriction of movement and arbitrary detentions and killings of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?
My observation was that Hamas and Israeli terrorism generates publicity, which may be why despite the recent terrorism of Hamas, it is not just Hamas that has been criticised and there has been pressure on Israel for a political solution. There is a media and public spotlight on decades of Israeli aggression and Israeli terrorism, murder, illegal collective punishment of civilians, military occupation, kidnapping and detention of Palestinian civilians, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, Israeli settlement expansion etc, especially in the West Bank, where Hamas is not in power.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/23/middleeast/israel-palestine-west-bank-hebron-collective-punishment-intl/index.htmlDo you have a view on the possible Palestinian/ international responses to the current repression in the West Bank?
Do you have evidence to share that supports an alternative view e.g. that people:
- Do NOT often react to military expansion, occupation, land theft, brutal repression, discrimination, denial of autonomy/ethnic cleansing by forming a tribal political identity and framing the conflict as a matter of life and death in order to source the necessary arms and political support to be able to violently resist their occupiers and oppressors?
- Will NOT use guerrilla tactics and terrorism against occupiers who, funded by their political allies, use their technological and military superiority to enforce their military occupation?
Do agencies in Israel and Palestine and in the international community and other parts of the world go down this route of encouraging people to be prepared to sacrifice lives to settle in or hold onto a particular piece of land because there is no credible alternative? e.g. the US funding of the Mujahideen against Russia's occupation of Afghanistan;
US and UK and various European countries arming Ukraine against Russian annexation and occupation; fundraising in the US for the IRA;
Iran arming Hezbollah and Hamas against Israel's invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Palestine;
My observation is that historically an inferior fighting force, especially one under occupation, does not usually go into conventional battles against a superior military force. It has to rely on a combination of guerrilla warfare and political pressure caused by cost to civilian populations to overcome the disadvantage of reduced military capability and have political leverage to bring a superior military power to abandon its occupation and/or negotiate a political solution.
The links to the 2017 Hamas charter provided by Jeremy show that Hamas has modified its position since it has been in power, and seems to be looking for an eventual political solution that does not involve recovering all the land "from the river to the sea". Did you have any views on the political solution?
Israel publicly says it wants peace for political PR reasons, but historically both Palestinians and Israelis seem to have political reasons for restarting the war - terrorism in the form of Israeli airstrikes or Hamas bombs in civilian areas seem to be a way for both sides to exert pressure for political gains or to overcome an impasse.
I agree that demonising both sides creates myths that are obstacles to peace.
https://archive.is/ONeXC and that there are moderates on both sides who are realistic about what is necessary for mutual co-existence with security and peace for Israelis and Palestinians
https://tinyurl.com/747r4umt
