Many Western critics of Israel fundamentally misunderstand the conflict.
The mistake they make is believing that Hamas and other radical Islamic organizations are fighting to get a good deal from Israel or to establish a Palenstinian state, for self-government, or some similar goal which makes sense from our point of view.
Sure, there are Palestinians who just want a peaceful resolution to the conflict, but they have no power.
If you want to understand what is going on you have to understand that for decades various factions of Palestinians have been little more than expendable proxies for powers who are only nominally interested in the fate of actual Palestinians. Billions of dollars are funneled into the West Bank and Gaza Strip by competing powers, and the people to whom those dollars are funneled aren’t answerable to the citizens whom they claim to represent.
If the Israeli/Palestinian conflict were resolved, those powers would lose tremendous power and influence not just in the immediate region, but throughout the Middle East and the world.
Hamas is a creature of Iran, which planned and green-lighted the wave of terror that has shocked Israelis.
You know, the Iran we just delivered billions of dollars to in exchange for American hostages. Not coincidentally, more American and other Western hostages were taken this weekend. You get more of what you pay for.
Quote: "Iranian security officials helped plan Hamas’s Saturday surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut last Monday, according to senior members of Hamas and Hezbollah, another Iran-backed militant group." https://t.co/pLQv1GvWcj
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 8, 2023
Few, if any, of the people who plan and fund these attacks and have helped perpetuate this conflict care one whit about the fate of actual Palestinian refugees. There shouldn’t BE any Palestinian refugees by now, almost 80 years after Israel became a state. The fact that some Palestinians are still living in horrible conditions is a choice made by those who claim to care so much for the “refugees.”
Oil-rich countries funneled billions into the conflict, supported the most corrupt and evil leadership of “liberation” movements, funded terrorism to ensure perpetual conflict, and ensured that their proxies rejected every Israeli overture and brokered deals offered them.
It is the conflict they want, not a resolution to it.
Iran, Syria, Russia, and a host of rogue nations keep these conflicts alive to harass the Western world and pressure us to make concessions to them. Israelis and the Palestinians who just want to live decent lives are caught in the middle.
Israel is telling Gaza residents how to evacuate to avoid being caught in the coming crossfire. Their government, led by Hamas, is telling them to ignore those instructions because they want to use innocent Palestinians as human shields. https://t.co/P3RfLnOk0J
— AG (@AGHamilton29) October 8, 2023
Not that there are enough of the latter. Life for Palestinians under Palestinian rule–did you know that Israel does not militarily occupy the West Bank or the Gaza Strip anymore, and hasn’t for decades?–is so nasty because of their own leaders, who shift the blame to Israel. The onslaught of propaganda forced on everybody from childhood up makes the Stasi look ineffective.
Palestine is not a state–because nobody there actually wants to make peace with Israel–but the regions are self-governed. In fact, Hamas is the elected government of the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians should be angry–at their so-called leaders and allies.
Westerners who express sympathies for Palestinians under occupation are not exactly wrong, but when they direct their anger at Israel they are blaming the wrong party. There is literally nothing Israel could do, short of committing national suicide, that would satisfy Hamas or Iran.
You don’t have to take my word for it: they scream their intent to commit genocide on Israelis and all Jews every day, and making Israel Judenrein is explicitly stated as Hamas’ goal in their original charter.
Even people who have not endured The Holocaust would push back against such an avowed enemy. Israel, born out of the ashes of World War II, knows better than most that you cannot surrender to enemies who demand your death.
Trump has claimed that this invasion would never have happened had he been president. As much as I think he is a boastful narcissist, I also think in this he is right. His policy was to cut off the Palestinians, close down attempts to appease Iran and squeeze the Iran/Russia/Syria coalition.
Oh, yeah. Biden’s (and Obama’s) Iran envoy turns out to have been an Iranian spy. The most important US diplomat tasked with dealing with Iran was a spy for Iran.
Smart diplomacy™.
Trump got the Abraham Accords, normalizing relations between Israel and Arab countries–Saudi Arabia has been making noises about closer ties to Israel as well.
Biden has delivered yet another war. That war is not quite his fault, but not quite NOT his fault. Afghanistan begat Ukraine, and rapprochement with Iran has begotten us this new war in the Middle East.
We were promised a return to “normal,” Obama-type diplomacy, and we have gotten it. This is what it looks like.
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