Hamas Attacks Israel: 70 Israelis, 198 Palestinians Dead

[Dill]

(10-07-2023, 01:29 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I'll give benefit of the doubt to Israel over Iran and a terrorist group known as Hamas for what's happened today. 

It's a complicated situation, Mill.

In this year alone, over 200 Palestinians and 30 Israelis have been killed in the occupied West Bank.
https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/international/2023/08/21/this-year-over-200-palestinians-and-nearly-30-israelis-have-been-killed--highest-since-2005--un-says

That includes 38 children.
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/2023-marks-deadliest-year-record-children-occupied-west-bank

When we hear of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the US press, it is usually framed as the former's response to something the latter did out of the blue. Israel's "right to self defense" is quickly affirmed. From our Right Wing there is an effort to block discussion of conditions on the ground and substantive public discussion of the conflict's history. What is the Gaza Strip? We only hear the name when rockets come out there, launched by some inexplicable anger which can be neither excused nor examined.

I'm not a big fan of Hamas, and don't know what could be the immediate cause of the recent attack, but I suspect it has something to do with several recent tendencies in ME politics: the annexation of the the Golan Heights followed by Israeli talk of annexing the West Bank as well, the continuation of illegal settlement there along with unimpeded settler violence, the apparent abandonment by the US of any commitment to a two-state solution (or any solution, really), the Abraham Accords, and current discussions between Saudi Arabia and Israel about normalizing relations.

The latter two especially would leave the Palestinians pretty isolated, with only two effective players in the region backing them: Iran and Hezbollah.