Middle East Conflict

[oldius]

How do you think they should respond? I’m just interested in people stating one opinion but not giving an answer

How should Israel respond to the Black Saturday attacks?

In my view, not at all, at least not with weaponry.
Once you take revenge against a population for a terrorist attack, you feed further attack and anger and condemnation. Naturally, this fuels further retaliation and the worm keeps turning. It is asking a lot of Israel, but they are a nation state and the death toll after years of violence is overwhelmingly in their favour, and against the people of Palestine.

The only long-term solution is diplomacy.

I saw an interesting question being asked the other day - how can an occupier be only acting in self-defence?

 

[Palerider]

How do you think they should respond? I’m just interested in people stating one opinion but not giving an answer

How should Israel respond to the Black Saturday attacks?

Hamas have to be removed. Either the Palestinian people remove Hamas themselves (ideal solution), elect a civilised government with their own peoples interest at heart and then negotiate an acceptable peace deal with Israel OR the UN take control of the Gaza strip and bring civilised a government etc OR Israel destroy Hamas themselves (not easy). Leaving Hamas in place is not an option or solution. Israel have a democratic mechanism to get rid of any leader they wish, Palestine appears to be controlled by those who have the biggest gun.

 

[Ducado]

Hamas have to be removed. Either the Palestinian people remove Hamas themselves (ideal solution), elect a civilised government with their own peoples interest at heart and then negotiate an acceptable peace deal with Israel OR the UN take control of the Gaza strip and bring civilised a government etc OR Israel destroy Hamas themselves (not easy). Leaving Hamas in place is not an option or solution. Israel have a democratic mechanism to get rid of any leader they wish, Palestine appears to be controlled by those who have the biggest gun.

But in the process of removing them you just create Hamas 2, unless the core issues are dealt with, people will resist oppression it’s a fact of life

 

[The blue phantom]

But in the process of removing them you just create Hamas 2, unless the core issues are dealt with, people will resist oppression it’s a fact of life

Hamas 2 is going to come from the 1 million children currently witnessing Israeli missiles raining down on them.

 

[Palerider]

But in the process of removing them you just create Hamas 2, unless the core issues are dealt with, people will resist oppression it’s a fact of life

Hamas :The group's charter calls for establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and rejects all agreements made between the PLO and Israel.

You cannot negotiate with people like that, they are not reasonable. The only solution is to remove them and try again with a decent Palestinian government.

 

[oldius]

The removal of Hamas is a little bit of a red-herring, IMO. You may remove every member of Hamas from within the walls of Gaza, but it is impossible to drain the fuel that feeds them unless you stop occupation of the West Bank. Even then, you have a job on your hands. Once you do that, and you stop any retaliation, the excuses are gone. Of course, the involvement of the West, and Iran, Egypt and Jordan all place additional caveats upon the simplicity of my view.

I am no Middle East expert, but I remember speaking to a Jewish friend of mine when we were both 18. He told me that he hated Arabs. I was ignorant of the situation at the time, completely so, and I don't remember his explanation, but I remember the venom in his voice and how out-of-character it seemed. That was nearly forty years ago. I have no doubt that this is will be the same for many people in the Arab world, unfortunately. There is a difference between this type of emotion and acting upon it with violence, but the fuel is there, and so continued violence just brings the next wave of terrorist, and the next wave of war and reprisal.

 

[arbabarshad]

Hamas :The group's charter calls for establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and rejects all agreements made between the PLO and Israel.

You cannot negotiate with people like that, they are not reasonable. The only solution is to remove them and try again with a decent Palestinian government.

For a balanced discussion, do you think the current extremist Israel government should also be removed along with Hamas ? As their acts are much worse ? And how do you bring a more moderate government in Israel to negotiate with a supposed more moderate Palestine government?

 

[Gorton_Tubster]

How do you think they should respond? I’m just interested in people stating one opinion but not giving an answer

How should Israel respond to the Black Saturday attacks?

Well Israel can continue doing what they're doing, a cycle of death and destruction for both sides that has been going on for decades... Doesnt work.

Or they can make some concessions, start negotiating seriously, and aim for a longer peace. That is NEVER going to come from the other side, its all on Israel unfortunately. And whilst all that is going on keep negotiating. Because the current answer hasnt been working for what 50 years?

 

[robbieh]

Netanyahu has always wanted a greater Israel which by definition means Palestine ceases to exist. What is happening now is part of this. He hopes that Palestinians will be absorbed by neighbouring Arabs states.
The 2 state solution is dead in my opinion. Hamas don't want it either.

The problem is Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon do not want millions of poverty stricken radicalised people living in their countries.

So we have a stalemate.

 

[Palerider]

The removal of Hamas is a little bit of a red-herring, IMO. You may remove every member of Hamas from within the walls of Gaza, but it is impossible to drain the fuel that feeds them unless you stop occupation of the West Bank. Even then, you have a job on your hands. Once you do that, and you stop any retaliation, the excuses are gone. Of course, the involvement of the West, and Iran, Egypt and Jordan all place additional caveats upon the simplicity of my view.

I am no Middle East expert, but I remember speaking to a Jewish friend of mine when we were both 18. He told me that he hated Arabs. I was ignorant of the situation at the time, completely so, and I don't remember his explanation, but I remember the venom in his voice and how out-of-character it seemed. That is nearly forty years ago. I have no doubt that this is will be the same for many people in the Arab world. There is a difference between this type of emotion and acting upon it with violence, but the fuel is there.

It's a good post and you may well be right. I think most of us just want an end to this never ending cycle of violence. I cannot see how you can do that without reasonable people making reasonable compromises.