I dont want to defend Israel BUT, let’s do a small thought experiment. If you could snap your fingers and reverse the roles, give Hamas the military power of Israel, what do you think Hamas would do? Do you think they would do worse things than Israel currently does? The same? Better?
It is very obvious that Israel is holding back. Not because they give a fuck about the palestinians but because they care about the political fallout.
I’d suggest that they return the land that they stole from Palestinians, dismantle the settlements and outposts on occupied land, and end the blockades in Gaza. And then punish their citizens that attacks Palestinians, burn Palestinian homes and olive groves, and seize Palestinian land. And hey!, maybe gave Palestinians a real vote in the knesset, since they seem so opposed to a two-state solution. As it stands, the overwhelming majority of Palestinians do not have a say in their own governance.
So your plan is to reward the palestinians for their attack? And you think this is a likely outcome? Do you think there is a single country who would do that? Of course not. All these are good suggestions and a position to have. But this attack by its nature will delay any peaceful solution for at least a decade.
Also the devil is in the details. What do you mean by “returning” the land? Which land? Because for many people, the stolen land is the entirety of Israel. Which is why Hamas’ goal is the destruction of Israel. Israel cant be charitable towards entities whose main purpose is Israel’s destruction, especially while having the holocaust ptsd.
So before we go into the nitty gritty details of a solution, let’s start with some basic and somewhat meaningless gestures. Like for example the palestinians accepting the existence of Israel in Palestine(region). And then we can talk about israeli settlements and settlers and which of these need to be returned to Palestine(state) and how.
We see this same thing in the US with black people, with Native Americans. When they protest peacefully, they’re ignored. When they protest violently, they’re thugs and murderers.
Do you think black people got rights in the US because of black people violence? Violence can accelerate things but it can also delay them. Imagine if Black Panthers indiscriminately killed 1000 white people, while kidnapping hundreds in the 60s. Do you think that would have led to more racial equality?
Or would that event have delayed racial equality for decades?
But Israel won’t do that, because the far-right politicians that are in power–and the majority of the people that keep voting them into power–equate anything that is anti-Zionist to being anti-semitic.
You are not wrong but you do realize that this attack only empowered the right wing israelis, right? It’s harder to convince your average israeli to be charitable and care about palestinian human rights after what Hamas did.
This is deliberate. Hamas wanted things to escalate. Because Hamas is funded by Iran. Saudi Arabia(KSA) and Israel were about to become best friends forever(well their governments, saudis still hate Israel), because MBS wanted to make his shiny city(NEOM).
As part of that deal, the US would also sign security deals with both Israel and KSA, similar to the ones it has with Japan and South Korea. And Israel would give back to Palestine(state) some israeli settlements, so that MBS would have something to justify the deal.
But Iran doesnt want KSA/Israel to become stronger/more stable, so they nuked this relationship by getting Hamas to do what they did. Not all powers want stability and peace. Some powers think that the current situation is fucked/unfair and they want to keep the world in flux in order to have a chance “to make things right”. There is a reason why Russia keeps talking about a new world order and have allies like Iran and North Korea. China isnt happy either but they also not necessarily willing to risk the current status quo.