There can be a one- or two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or there will be a genocide, whether slow or fast, and ongoing regional instability.
Those are the only real options and everybody involved knows that, but the West and the Netanyahu government decided they would simply ignore the Palestinian side of the equation.
Netanyahu has no desire for peace and was content with the brutal status quo of ongoing violence in Gaza and the West Bank, the resulting radicalization of some Palestinians, and the ongoing security threat to Israeli civilians that created.
In fact, Netanyahu enabled Hamas in order to keep Palestinians politically divided and the West chose to keep quiet and look the other way, at least until Hamas did what Hamas was always going to do.
The Israeli government is well aware that the easiest way to stop Hamas is by making them irrelevant by improving conditions in Gaza, ending the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank, and making partners of peaceful Palestinian political groups.
It's also aware that moves them in the direction of an eventual negotiated settlement, which Netanyahu and other hardliners have already rejected because they want all that land.
So here we are.
You don't level an entire city full of women and children to fight a handful of Hamas terrorists.
The current Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza is not about fighting Hamas. It's about blind rage and revenge.
It's also about Netanyahu covering his ass for allowing Hamas to become so powerful. A large majority of Israelis blame him for what happened.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-767880
It's also about using international sympathy to accelerate the genocidal program against Palestinians.
The US Biden administration and other Western governments are making themselves complicit in war crimes by supporting the Israeli government's brutal campaign against Gaza civilians, but it's doubtful they will suffer any serious blowback for it inasmuch as Palestinians have virtually no political influence.
Having given up on peace and the idea of imposing any requirements on Israel to achieve it, they will simply wash their hands of what happens.
@gwynnion I kind of suspect it's in large part not a covering-his-arse thing but a poorly hidden attempt to trigger the rally-around-the-leader effect. Israel's governments have been having particular stability problems in the recent years, with a new election lurking behind every corner, and he might reckon that if he gets to be seen as the mighty warlord who defeated the intolerable neighbouring tribe down the river, voters will reward him for it.
I hope such a reckoning is wrong.
@gwynnion The only ones working towards a genocide in this conflict are the Hamas and their partners.
They have been advertising it publicly for years.
Unfortunately, warfare has a civilian toll. Even more, if parties abuse civilians as "shields".
It's awful, but it's not the same as genocide.
@gwynnion I really don't get why the international sympathy part appears to be working either.
Why are people rooting for authoritarians/fascists?
Sure by all means Hamas needs to be gone, but so does Netanyahu's regime.
@gwynnion
Israel prefers the name "Jewish State of Israel" or something like that.
In politics I never see anything religious, it's a death cult that has lost all connections to humanity.
#deathCult #deathCultIsrael
#Israel #palestine #freepalestine
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