It’s just seems like a really divisive and polarizing topic to bring up here in our community at the moment.
We are all about free speech though, so let’s keep it classy at least.
It is the ultimate polarizing topic.
Balfour was typical of the attitudes of the great powers of the day.
They carved up chunks of land for each other with total disregard for the residents. This resulted in hostility between groups that had previously had their own territory but were forced together.
Israelis vs Palestinians is small potatoes compared to the Tutsi vs Hutu. I’d bet more have died ( over the same time frame) in Shia vs Shiite conflict than the entire Israeli existence.
True. And if you look at the actions of the future Israelis in those days, they did things like bombing hotels full of British troops and so on.
I hate to bring up "assymetric warfare" because it sounds too arcane, but nations fight with the means they have available at the time.
Israel today is a dominant military power, with artillery, tanks, attack helicopters, fighter jets, bunker-busting bombs, drones, navy guns, anti-aircraft missiles, sattellite intelligence, and oh yes, NUKES.
Hamas does not have firepower of that magnitude. But they fight in other ways, more sneaky and unexpected ways, but no less determined or ruthless.
There are plenty of atrocities to unleash using both methods, and they both do.
its amazing that western liberal cultures with large Jewish populations are so prone to denounce humanitarian violence perpetrated by other states that discriminate based on religion (and there are lots of them) and yet... its OK if Israel does the same.
Indeed, some of the strongest voices against the government of Israel's conduct have been left wing Jews in the west. They are not blind, and can't stand the idea of the Holocaust being used a rhetorical shield to cover a crooked openly racist mass murderer like Netanyahu (and his government, some of whom are even more radical). Israeli politics is a tangle of petty vicious politics, even leaving out the Palestinians entirely.
However, where's also the "all Jews are like X", "all Palestinians are like Y" stereotype, usually thrown at them by the racist foes they have, and at times like this, that kind of behavior skyrockets. Getting verbally attacked without cause is a sure way to push you into a conflict as well. Social media amplifies everything and one stupid dink with a sign can have his bullshit viewpoint go world-wide.
The morbidly comical thing is watching the usual white racists in Canada trying to sit on the fence over this, unsure of who to spew hate towards more, the Jews or the Arabs, depending which group they think is more representative of "the left". (The irony being that both Hamas and the Israeli leaders are on the right too.)
What racists really want is an excuse to act like douchebags towards someone. It does not have to make any logical sense. It does not have to serve any actual strategic purpose. It is about ego gratification, building yourself up by knocking someone else down.
Never assume all people want peace and will be peaceful if left alone. Some people profit from stoking hatred. Some just enjoy it. When they get into power, these racists are going to act even worse.
