Israel/Hamas War Superthread

[Dill]

(12-28-2023, 03:05 AM)Bengalzona Wrote: I'm going to finish with some things I believe:
1) I support Israel's right to exist as a sovereign nation because it has been accepted by the U.N.
2) I am highly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinian people who, in my opinion, made only one error (not declaring statehood when it was available) and have been made to pay dearly over the years (often by neighboring Arab governments pretending to be their friends).
3) I do not agree with many of the actions of Netanyahu's administration/regime. They have instigated many of the current events. I hope the Israeli people vote them out.
4) I abhor the violence of Hamas and the purpose they exist.
5) I abhor the Israeli violence in the Gaza Strip. For a nation which has made many shrewd decisions over the years, doing exactly what a terrorist organization wants and expects them to do is just plain dumb (see #3 above).

OK B., you've done it now. I'm going to have to take a stand right here and affirm that . . . . I agree with you on all this--except the bolded (by which I mean a choice was never genuinely there).

I loved reading your thoughtful and richly detailed post, which pushes this thread to another level of historical historical discussion. 

Don't have time for a full response this evening, but tomorrow I'd like to review what happened in the months between Nov. '47 and May '48, Plan Dalet, and why UN "options" didn't matter much as masses of people were being driven from their homes. I appreciate the balance you bring with reference to Palestinian violence at the time. Some closer comparisons of method, scale, intent, and coordination should follow. 

Sunday * I want to address your comments on sovereignty as this applies to the intricacies of the UN settlement. You've mounted an unusually informed defense of the Jewish declaration of statehood and the UN Partition. Your very developed geopolitical sense (manifest in other topics) appears to be complemented on this issue by your professional competence in assessing/sorting property law on multiple levels.  All this is much appreciated enrichment of the forum discussion. 

*I'm in MT for the holidays, traveling between relatives. That means I have to spread responses out between visits.