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They are smaller. But then, so is Israel.
It doesn't matter what Hamas wants. In other kinds of situations it might matter what the enemy wants, but this is different. When I quoted that Latin phrase about "_____ must be destroyed", you agreed with me. But the reason I quoted it, is that I've always taken the key word to be "must"; it has to be done, regardless of what it takes to get it done. So far, Israel is doing a very good job of ignoring world opinion, as they should.
What would radicalize more Palestinians, is if Israel shows weakness and loses, or accepts less than complete victory. In one of these threads, I posted a video from the Hamas leader's son where, near the beginning of the war, he said "But in the Middle East we deal with business the Middle East style". In the Middle East, they respect power, they attack weakness.
None of those strategies are anything Israel can accomplish except the military one. So your strategies for Israel are non-existent besides military. So it appears they are following your strategy.
Just how Hamas wanted it. Hamas got elected to run the place and they did nothing but run it into the ground. They received billions in aid and instead of using it to help build something for the people they stole it, built underground tunnels and purchased weapons and equipment for weapons, bought fuel And food for the terrorists....there is no question Gaza was the perfect environment to ferment radicaliztion and terrorists for 20+ years. A very young population, with no oppotrunities (very high unemployment), freedom of movement, etc. The same argument was used by the US to justify invading and occupy Afghanistan for nearly two decades. We saw how that turned out...Israel would be wise to repeat it...but I digress.
I think it's also true the Arab governments and various Palestinan actors have utterly failed the Palestinian people by not reaching a political solution with Israel over the past couple of decades.
As David Brooks recently opined:
"Throughout this horrible week, my mind has repeatedly flashed back to Dec. 23, 2000. That was the day the Palestinians were offered a path to having their own nation on roughly 95 percent of the land in the West Bank and 100 percent of the land in the Gaza Strip. Under that outline, Israel would also swap some of its own land to compensate the Palestinians in exchange for maintaining 80 percent of its settler presence in the West Bank.
The Palestinians would control, in President Bill Clinton’s formulation, “Arab areas” of East Jerusalem. And on the most sensitive religious sites, there would have been divided sovereignty or jurisdiction, with Palestinians controlling the Haram al-Sharif (including the Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques) and Israel controlling the Western Wall and the holy space of which it is a part. There would also be a return of many refugees into the new Palestinian state (without the right of return to Israel itself).
There were a million complexities — and many errors made by the Israeli, Palestinian and American sides along the way. But this offer pointed the way to the sort of fair solution negotiators had been struggling their way toward for years. It is hard to see this kind of option ever being on the table again. And the Palestinians let it slip away."
...and
"Another reason I think back on this history is the way a simplistic oppressor/oppressed, colonizer/colonized, “apartheid Israel” narrative has been imposed on this conflict.
The real history is much more complicated. It is the story of the Palestinians who were offered a state in 1947 that the Arab states opposed. More recently, it is the story of flawed human beings on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides, who were confronted with a devilishly complicated situation. They worked doggedly to secure peace and made real, if stumbling, progress toward that end. It is the story of how radicals on both sides undermined their efforts, leading to the bloodshed we see today. This is what happens when the center does not hold."
Opinion | The Missed Chance for Peace (Published 2023)
It’s hard not to wonder whether today’s suffering could have been avoided if in 2000 Palestinians had taken the offer of a path toward statehood.www.nytimes.com
I posted the same information. Gee I guess Israel is out to put all Gazans into the south to make it easier to kill them all. Cause obviously that's been their goal all along to kill as many citizens as possible committing genocide. Right?
Well let's take a look...
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org
No I've heard them from people here. One read so many posts I don't know if it was in this thread or another.
Oh I've read it all right. Not on this thread but on the one that was shut down. People said it. And haven't you read anything anywhere or heard anything anywhere about Israel committing genocide on the Palestinians?
Literally, some groups defend the initial Hamas, invasion:
