I have not seen the OP respond in several days now. I hope that it is because he has reconsidered his opinion but does not know how to close out the thread gracefully.
I completely understand, and do not hold it against you, Soukuw. Everyone can only act on the the information they have, and for those of us in America, many news sources deliberately skip over information that would be prudent for us to know if we want to make systemic changes.
If you are willing to consider this "debate" over, I am too.
I would like to leave some closing points based on discussion i have seen arise between others in this thread:
First of all, I want to make it clear, kidnapping civillians is wrong, no matter who does it. However, the problem with the discourse of "what about Hamas" is that it puts the Palestinians in a position where they must denounce the only group of people who are trying to fight for their rights and liberties. Of course the majority of Palestinians would approve of what has been left as their only option for recourse.
The US had previously declined to recognize Palestine as an independent state until they are able to self govern,
however,
even when the US itself is the one to suggest allowing Palestinian self-government, Neyanyahu continues to refuse to hear any discussion about the topic.
Second, it has been discussed here that the Middle-East is and will always be in a perpetual state of war. That there is no peace. That simply is not true. There are people on both sides that want a ceasefire, people on both sides that understand the loss of human life is not worth whatever new land is cleared for development.
The enemy is not the people of Palestine, nor is it the people of Israel. Many Israeli citizens have spoken out and protested over the treatement of their Palestinian neighbors.
Our enemy has, and will continue to be, the Imperialist Ruling Class that continues to benefit from these decisions.This state of constant warfare is not natural, and decidedly avoidable.
Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin had made significant progress on establishing a Lasting Peace with the Palestinian Government.
He won a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts.
Indeed these past couple decades of continued warfare could have been avoided if he were not Assassinated by Far-Right Israeli-Nationalist Extremists in 1995.
Finally, the United States continues to fund and profit from this state-sponsered genocide, yet the American People do not agree to these activities.
In what is the largest disconnect in history between the opinions of voters and the positions of our representatives in congress,
60-70% of All Americans Across Party Lines Support a Ceasefire. Yes, even the republicans.
This is in contrast to the
11% of congress members who support a ceasefire.
Many of the congress members who advocate for the continuing war and genocide recieve funding from AIPAC, an Israeli-state endorsed PAC that influences the policies of our goverment. (This is despite
Federal Law Forbidding Candidate Funding from Foreign Governments.) And further, the
AIPAC continues to fund opponents of those congressional representatives who support a peace agreementThis has lead to many
Disturbing acts of censorship within our very government when people speak out about these atrocitiesYour takeaway should be that these are people who's vote relies on us. Our representatives, a body of goverment much more easily changeable than the president, can be voted out of office in favor of those who are actually willing to consider peace.
Please vote. Please call your representatives and demand a ceasefire.
If these facts have swayed you, and you find yourself in the economic position to, you can try to also make donations to aid those suffering in Palestine.
I suggest the
Palestinian Children Relief FundIt's not much, but it's better than nothing while we wait for next election.
And my heart breaks to have to leave with more bad news, but it looks like
the Israeli Military is now making plans to launch a final invasion of Rafah, the only remaining safezone to Palestinian Refugees.Speaking during a visit to Israeli army officers in Gaza City, Gallant warned “those who think we are delaying [the invasion of Rafah] will soon see there is no place we cannot reach.”