Congressional staff say the mood inside the Capitol is tense, stifling and bewildering as members brush off their constituents’ outrage.

  • nucleative@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I’m not sure how my idea will come across but here goes.

    This Gaza conflict is complicated as F. I think most people agree with that.

    Pretty much everyone that’s touched it has blood on their hands by this point. And everyone in the fallout has been hurt in some immeasurably painful way.

    The US involvement multiples the complexity because there is evidently a proxy between Hamas and Iran, and the US is already in opposition to Iran in other ways.

    The US is also in the position of throwing its weight around in many other conflicts at the moment.

    Diplomatically, this US is walking a thin line all over the place between needing to show strength vs compassion. Using negotiating finesse vs being strong fisted.

    Inside the US, our representatives ideally can think for themselves, but as a party they hopefully work as a team to represent the American best interests, vis a vis “the people.” Specifically, I mean the people don’t always know what they want or how to get there, nor do they educate themselves as a whole about every issue at play. Not to mention that international diplomacy issues are very often not shared with the public.

    So, yes, the average human with a functioning soul wants to see a ceasefire yesterday. But what if there is something else at play that we don’t know about, which justifies not pressuring Israel to stop?

    • 5too@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’ve never found this sort of argument compelling. Yes, it’s possible there’s things going on we don’t know about; and sometimes tactical and strategic necessities may require hidden actions.

      Those actions still need brought to light as soon as it’s feasible to do so; and I struggle to imagine what sort of strategic necessity would require this sort of stance for more than a few months, let alone the years these stances have been in effect. Not to mention the difficulty of keeping something on this scale quiet for this long. At best, things are more or less as they appear - the alternative is there’s things they don’t want their electors to find out.

    • wildginger@lemmy.myserv.one
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      10 months ago

      What, in your mind, justifies helping genocide?

      No joke, you clearly think its a possible concept. What thing could you theorize justifies this?

      • nucleative@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Genocide is unacceptable. It’s unjustified in every case. Does this conflict meet the definition of genocide? And if so, who is the perpetrator here?

          • nucleative@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Not sure if you’re being sarcastic or serious. I’m being serious. I’d be happy to learn and discuss if you’re willing to reply with more than accusations.

            As I understand it, the Hamas Charter says that Israel should not exist. At all. Attacking civilians as opposed to Israeli militants appears to reinforce that assesment. I’m not sure this meets the definition of genocide but telling your opponent they don’t get to exist seems to bark up that tree.

            At the same time, Israel is sending missles into populous zones, which absolutely sucks, but isn’t that where Hamas attacks from and stores weaponry? I consent that I only think this because of what I’ve read. I have no idea if it’s really factual. Is Hamas using the Palestinians as a shield to further their goals? That doesn’t sound like symbiosis, it sounds like a parasite.

            If it’s true, why is Hamas putting civilians in the line of fire by waging war and then locating their gear in such a location? That sounds a bit genocidal in the same way that cancer kills its host.

              • Feathercrown@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                How do you reconcile the fact that Hamas explicitly does not want Israelis to exist anymore though? Does that not mean they intend to carry out a genocide?

                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                  10 months ago

                  They would be fine with Israelis becoming Palestinian. That’s hardly genocide.

                  They just don’t want Israel to exist.

                  • donuts@kbin.social
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                    10 months ago

                    The Day of Judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, ‘O Muslim, O servant of God, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.’ Only the Gharkad tree would not do that, because it is one of the trees of the Jews.

                    A real hadith quote from Hamas’ founding charter, Article VII (1988)

                    Let’s be totally real here, for most of their short history Hamas has been deeply committed to carrying out a genocide against the Jewish people for a mix of reasons including politics, religion and race. Over the last 4-5 years Hamas have made an effort to moderate their language around this topic, but judging by recent events they have done very little to moderate their actions and ideology.

    • mycatiskai@lemmy.one
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      10 months ago

      https://youtu.be/62I61kBahNY?si=EPFMpGYNM1gCK2iT

      Michael Brooks on the complexity of Gaza.

      Leadership of Hamas is in Qatar, money from Qatar was released through Israel by Bibi. So additional to this video showing how not complex it is, the Israeli leader wants Hamas in charge to make sure nothing peaceful happens in a joined Westbank and Gaza.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Just as in any schoolyard fight when you remove the power imbalance and or the bully the problem goes away.

      The solution here is to move one of the “kids in the fight” somewhere else. One of them is saying I was here first. The other kid has a rich dad.

      We all know what the correct moral decision is here when you take away the political labels.

      The big fuckup here was by daddy England back in 1947 and he’s got massive egg and on his face right now.

      • nucleative@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        In a fair world, I would agree with you. But in every conflict since the beginning of time, at least on this faulty rock careening through space, the wealthy are the winners. Every king became king because he controlled the most resources and squashed his opposers.

        If the rest of the world hadn’t gotten involved I don’t think Gaza would have even made it this far.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I think most people agree with that.

      Only the ones filled to the brim with pro-Israeli and pro-colonialist propaganda agrees with you. You are either against white supremacist settler-colonialism or you’re not.