And you seem to be suggesting that Israel should now invade - which will mean slaughtering and displacing and injuring innocents as well as Hamas members - because Hamas slaughtered innocents. People have and will die for things Hamas did that they had nothing to do with. This is a “Hamas did it, therefore it’s fine or even morally right for Israel to do it” argument.
Which is the sort of revenge-first argument that will inevitably just fuel the same argument going back the other direction, and around we all go again, and innocents keep dying the entire time.
There won’t be any stopping the cycle of violence while the root issues that caused it in the first place - the Nakba displacement and slaughter of Palestinians from their homeland, and Israel’s subsequent apartheid government and occupation - is acknowledged and addressed.
However and whenever it stops, there will be people who did evil who will go free. Just like there were low-level Nazis and people who helped put the Nazis in power who went consequence-free when WWII ended. It’s a legistic impossibility to deliver perfect justice to ever evildoer. If we make that the goal and try anyway, then all we get is more evil-doing, more revenge-seeking, more blood, and no real ultimate justice to show for it.
So, in my opinion, achieving peace, an end to systemic injustices, and compensating victims as much as possible (e.g. making sure the families of those lost on both sides have food, shelter, safety and education), should take predecence far above and beyond making sure everyone who deserves punishment is punished.
Especially since history’s previous examples of invading a country to stamp out a terrorist organization (coughcough Afghanistan…) didn’t exactly work to end the target organization, let alone the terrorism and violence and so on in yhe region as a whole.
My my. Israel has a right to defend itself, and from a citizen’s standpoint, a duty. As to your last paragraph of this diatribe, do you see Al Queida around anymore?
It’s a both sides do it type argument…
And you seem to be suggesting that Israel should now invade - which will mean slaughtering and displacing and injuring innocents as well as Hamas members - because Hamas slaughtered innocents. People have and will die for things Hamas did that they had nothing to do with. This is a “Hamas did it, therefore it’s fine or even morally right for Israel to do it” argument.
Which is the sort of revenge-first argument that will inevitably just fuel the same argument going back the other direction, and around we all go again, and innocents keep dying the entire time.
There won’t be any stopping the cycle of violence while the root issues that caused it in the first place - the Nakba displacement and slaughter of Palestinians from their homeland, and Israel’s subsequent apartheid government and occupation - is acknowledged and addressed.
However and whenever it stops, there will be people who did evil who will go free. Just like there were low-level Nazis and people who helped put the Nazis in power who went consequence-free when WWII ended. It’s a legistic impossibility to deliver perfect justice to ever evildoer. If we make that the goal and try anyway, then all we get is more evil-doing, more revenge-seeking, more blood, and no real ultimate justice to show for it.
So, in my opinion, achieving peace, an end to systemic injustices, and compensating victims as much as possible (e.g. making sure the families of those lost on both sides have food, shelter, safety and education), should take predecence far above and beyond making sure everyone who deserves punishment is punished.
Especially since history’s previous examples of invading a country to stamp out a terrorist organization (cough cough Afghanistan…) didn’t exactly work to end the target organization, let alone the terrorism and violence and so on in yhe region as a whole.
My my. Israel has a right to defend itself, and from a citizen’s standpoint, a duty. As to your last paragraph of this diatribe, do you see Al Queida around anymore?