Hamas Attack in Israel

[Rajoo]

Originally Posted by finnbow

I was responding to your assertion that "Israelis just want to be left alone." Their actions on the West Bank (and Bibi's acquiescence thereto) belie that profoundly uninformed comment. There are now over 500k illegal settlers on the West Bank and these settlers are becoming increasingly violent towards Palestinians there, risking significant further escalation.

https://www.economist.com/middle-eas...-the-west-bank

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/i...ans-rcna123311



I made no such suggestion. I was just pointing out that the last Prime Minister who actually took concrete steps toward peaceful coexistence in a 2-state solution was gunned down by one of his own countrymen for his efforts.

In this country, people like you love to play the anti-Semitism card whenever anyone criticizes Bibi, his policies, his far right coalition partners, or the illegal settlers/settlements, notwithstanding the fact that 80% of Israelis believe his cynical policies vis-a-vis Hamas and the weakening of Israeli intelligence and military resulting from his attempted judicial coup helped set the stage for the current Gaza violence. I have been critical of Bibi for years before this latest blow-up.

Your emotions far exceed your grasp of the situation there.

Mr. Thomas Friedman agrees with you.

If you care about Israel, you should be more worried than any other time since 1967. Back then, Israel defeated the armies of three Arab states — Egypt, Syria and Jordan — in what became known as the Six-Day War. Today, if you look closely, you’ll see that Israel is now fighting the Six-Front War.

This war is being fought by and through nonstate actors, nation-states, social networks, ideological movements, West Bank communities and Israeli political factions, and it is the most complex war that I’ve ever covered. But one thing is crystal clear to me: Israel cannot win this six-front war alone. It can win only if Israel — and the United States — can assemble a global alliance.

Unfortunately, Israel today has a prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and a ruling coalition that will not and cannot produce the keystone needed to sustain such a global alliance. That keystone is to declare an end to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and overhaul Israel’s relations with the Palestinian Authority so that it becomes a credible, legitimate Palestinian partner that can govern a post-Hamas Gaza and forge a broader two-state solution including the West Bank.

If Israel is asking its best allies to help the Jewish state seek justice in Gaza while asking them to look the other way as Israel builds a settlement kingdom in the West Bank with the express goal of annexation, that is strategically and morally incoherent.

It won’t work. Israel will not be able to generate the time, the financial assistance, the legitimacy, the Palestinian partner or the global allies it needs to win this six-front war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/25/o...stine-war.html