(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Both Siderism, Israel, Hamas and Palestine [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-10 What we need most at this moment in regards to the recent Hamas offensive in Israel is a rational and objective look at the long history of this conflict and what we in American should understand, advocate and respond to. The first thing to note, and perhaps the most important, is that as shocking as this offensive by Hamas has been in terms of loss of life, cruelty and reported vicious acts of murder and rape, it did NOT come out of nowhere. It had all the hallmarks of revenge killings after almost 17 years locked up in GAZA facing deplorable conditions, regular bombings and frequent assassinations. We would be wise not to unconditionally support the usual “counter-terrorist” terror campaign that Israel usually launches in response. Gaza Today: Opposing Terrors have Two Sides Huge explosion after Israeli bombing in Gaza. Netanyahu’s declaration of war against Hamas and Gaza would have been laughable if it were not so ominous. A state of war was already enacted by him many years ago in Gaza. Today it remains a virtual outdoor prison of over 600,000 Palestinians, blockaded, surrounded and periodically terror bombed, traceable back to when Hamas defeated the Fatah in a valid election in 2005. An astounding 80% live in poverty, 70% are unemployed. Large scale conflicts have erupted every few years since then. The morbidly oppressive conditions in Gaza are in large part responsible for the desperate terror attacks against Israel a few days ago. He cannot be absolved for his role in precipitating the conditions leading up to the latest conflict. This is not both siderism. In war both sides may commit terror atrocities, that does not mean that you must support the use of them. Just about all U.S. media and politics are supportive of harsh Israeli retaliation. We are told that terror policies by Israel are acts of self defense, those by Palestinian interests always acts of terror. This obscures the reasons for the conflict and justifies the use of terror tactics on both sides. And makes it impossible to ever resolve the conflict. War Begets More War, Few Victories are Lasting A 2014 bombing in Gaza. The mutual cycle of war, violence and terror has gone on more or less continually since before the 1948 formation of the State of Israel. Students of history will note that Zionism existed long before that. In ancient times there once was a functioning Jewish State, which fought many wars of survival and was conquered and occupied by the Greeks and then the Romans. Upon which it ceased to be an independent state, declined further, and eventually ceased to function as even a vassal state, with Jews being scattered throughout the Western world over the last 2,000 years. There are many good accounts of Jewish history and the roots of Zionism available for study and readings as well as works on the Palestinian history of that area after Israel had ceased to exist. The notion which, in my opinion, undermines the legitimacy of Zionism is not it’s advocacy for fighting all forms of antisemitism, or even Jewish Nationalism, it’s trying to establish a nation-state in an area vacated 2000 years ago without regard for the rights and well-being of the current population. A secondary problem of concern is forming nation-states and liberation organizations based on religion. A Brief History Aftermath of an Israeli bombing in Gaza in 2010. Particularly during and after World War II, the repressive policies against Jews practiced in Europe and accelerated to genocidal levels by the Nazis helped the cause of Zionism as it began to take firmer root in Palestine. Britain, which had occupied it and won control from the Ottoman Empire (Turkey today) was given control by the U.N. after WWI. Jewish settlement increased rapidly as did support to establish a Jewish State. Other locations were considered and rejected by Zionists groups, including some in the Soviet Union. But I suspect Stalin would not allow too much talk of something like that. In response to near universal antisemitism in the Western world, Zionist sympathies developed in many Jews over the possibility of returning to Palestine, and changing it back into a Jewish State. Of course after thousands of years, different peoples had settled into that area, wherein lies the roots of the problem. This is also the main flaw in Zionism, upon which achieving its goal, it must become an imperial power. Truth be told, none of the victorious nations after WWII were anxious to provide a location within their own nations for Jewish settlement or a possible homeland. They had varying degrees of antisemitism of their own and ulterior motives for supporting a Jewish State in the Middle East. So Palestine became ground zero for any Jewish State, regardless of who else was living there and how it was established. Militarized Zionist groups such as the Irgun launched a terror campaign which helped “convince” Western allies, Britain and the U.N. to permit formation of a Jewish State in Palestine. But is was ultimately based on resorting to any means necessary to establish a world order going back more than 2,000 years. War Breaks Out Arab forces prepare to fight Israel in 1948. The British mandate over Palestine was ended in May of 1948, upon which the Zionists declared an Independent State of Israel in place of what was originally proposed, which was a more equal distribution of land for both Arabs and Jews and areas that would be jointly controlled. War immediately broke out with many native Arab peoples expelled or driven out in the fighting over what would become Israel, and the Arab peoples losing more than 50% of the land promised to them in the struggles that followed. All problems today can be traced back to these events. History has demonstrated that failure to establish an independent state for displaced Arabs and Palestinians formerly occupying what is now Israel is the main trigger behind the many outbreaks of shooting wars since then along with the virtual imprisonment of 600,000 Palestinians in Gaza, which is now the world’s largest outdoor prison. Taken over in the Six Day War of 1967 by Israel, the West Bank, formerly a Palestinian territory given to Jordan under the original terms of the U.N. 1948 proposal, is another flash point. It is considered occupied territory by the U.N. and today has almost 3 million Palestinians and over 200,000 Jewish settlers there considered illegal by international law, another source of conflict and tension. What to do About the Middle East Conflict? Massive Palestinian refugee camp in 1948. More escalated terror bombing will never solve the problems in the Middle East. A policy that America has largely endorsed. I was not surprised by the public statements made by President Biden but extremely disappointed: “Today, the people of Israel are under attack, orchestrated by a terrorist organization, Hamas. In this moment of tragedy, I want to say to them and to the world and to terrorists everywhere that the United States stands with Israel. We will not ever fail to have their back! We’ll make sure that they have the help their citizens need and they can continue to defend themselves.” Apparently thinking he may have given Netanyahu too much rope, he also said: “One of the things that I have seen thus far is that there has not been a significant overreaction,” he said. “The question is how we get to a point, how they get to a point where there is a significant reduction in the attacks, particularly the rocket attacks that are indiscriminately fired into population centers.” Israel Also Practices Terrorism Mass destruction from a previous Israeli attack on Gaza. Apparently, the many shockingly violent measures Israel has dished out on the Palestinians in the past are never to be described as terror campaigns. Good luck with thinking that Netanyahu, will not consider killing 100 times more Palestinians over the last Hamas offensive. It’s also the worst thing he could do, both for his own sake as well as his country’s. Escalation at the level Netanyahu could be planning could lead to disaster, bringing other forces into the fight, including the long pacified West Bank. And Hezbollah, from the North. Exactly what Hamas wants. Israel is also at a distinct disadvantage entering Gaza and fighting gorilla warfare where superiority in equipment is much less important. Another factor is “last-strike” reporting, which is applied only to a Hamas terror strike. It’s reported not that there is back and forth fighting and terror tactics on both sides, but instead it’s reported that the “peace” has been shattered by Hamas and Israel must retaliate in self-defense. There is of course no peace in Israel or Gaza. Just intervals between acts of war and terror. Much of what Israel does in terms of terror policy, terror bombing and repression is ignored or reported as self-defense. I say this not in support of Hamas terror attacks, but to put it into the actual back and forth context of the conflict. I have no magic answers to the Middle East conflicts. Except that increasing the death toll and counter escalation are not on my agenda. We should not always have to pick one side or the other to have a progressive position. If neither side wants peace, and both endorse war, we can have a perspective that does not give unconditional support to either of the warring entities. It case of the Middle East, I do not believe problems can be resolved by war. This is not Ukraine. Reigning in Netinyahu I do know that Netanyahu must not be given a green light to kill as many people as he wants to and is unfit to lead the country or direct the response. Nor should anyone enter into a coalition government with this criminal and bail his “a**” out of the mess he helped create by sealing in Hamas into their own tomb-like enclave for 16 years and regularly bombing and killing them! The Hamas massacres were clearly deliberate revenge killings and a desperate gamble. As far as Hamas (link is a detailed history of Hamas, both the arguably good, the bad and the ugly) is concerned, they are a radicalized product of decades of massive mistreatment of Palestinian human rights. They need not be supported to recognize that they did win the right to represent the Palestinians in the occupied territories, and for that the entire region known as Gaza was turned into a massive unattended prison and blockaded by Israel only to eventually erupt and break out. I’m far from convinced Hamas strategies and terror tactics can accomplish much of anything or that they are worthy of even begrudging support. Atrocities happen in war, but they are not always planned in advance and deliberately directed indiscriminately against civilians, as has become the case on the part of both Hamas and Israel. Neither demonstrates they have the capacity to negotiate a settlement. Terrorism Begets Terrorism Benjamin Netanyahu, with the Trump comb over. For example, the Israeli practice of destroying an entire family’s house if someone is a member of Hamas is an act of political terror. Frequent and numerous assassinations are acts of terror. Cutting power and gas to 600 thousand people, including hospitals, is an act of terror. In the last major Israeli attack on Gaza, more than 1000 buildings were shelled, bombed and destroyed and many thousands killed, including scores of women and children. Blockading the entire city from all directions is a huge provocation and declaration of all out war and happened sometime between 2005 and 2007. In conclusion, it is clear at least to me, that the recent Hamas attacks were an attempt at shock and awe. Intended both to demonstrate their power as well as provoke a deadly, massive response on the part of Netanyahu with a resulting great loss of life. And perhaps also setting off a wider conflict. Many are indicating keeping Saudi Arabia from making peace with Israel was another motive. Others even claim that Netanyahu considered Hamas a god-send, and may have secretly supplied aid to them to justify his escalating his own terror campaign against Gaza. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/10/2198243/-Both-Siderism-Israel-Hamas-and-Palestine?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/