| Barton and Yossi in twitter spat on 18:01 - Aug 5 with 954 views | CiderwithRsie |
| Barton and Yossi in twitter spat on 16:15 - Aug 5 by TheChef |
Would the people of Gaza be in this tragic position if Hamas were absent? If they were led by people who had their best interests at heart, to create a fully functioning society? Rather than focusing all the aid received and all their efforts on destroying Israel and building an Islamic state?
As I said, all I want is peace. We have a three day ceasefire, talks are taking place in Egypt, let us all hope that some progress can be made towards a better future for Palestinians, Israelis and the region as a whole. |
Fair play Chef, I don't doubt your motives. Given that Hamas peddle a fundamentalist Islamic line which personally I would find hideous to live under even in peace, constantly seek confrontation with Israel and appear to be generally authoritarian and corrupt, it's hard to disagree that their absence would improve matters.
But why are Hamas present? The Oslo Accords stared a peace process in 1993 between Israel and the PLO. Hamas didn't control Gaza before 2007. For 13 years Israel had the option of negotiating with a non-Hamas non-jihadi alternative. They still have that alternative re the West Bank. [I know they refuse to do so unless Fatah cuts links with Hamas, but that's a recent development following years of non-progress. In any event, Fatah is still in power in the West bank, not Hamas.]
Hamas isn't going to be eliminated by making them poster boys for opposition to Israel. And no-one but no-one is going to be able to create a fully functioning society in a West Bank in which land is regularly stolen or a Gaza in which a population half the size of London is pushed into a territory less than a quarter the size of London and is subject to blockade.
Gaza is a big prison; it's not that surprising that it is being run by organised criminals.
I hope you get your wish. |  | |  |
| Barton and Yossi in twitter spat on 18:11 - Aug 5 with 942 views | robith |
| Barton and Yossi in twitter spat on 16:44 - Aug 5 by timcocking |
Lmfao |
Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor: "I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel's accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields." The Guardian: "In the past week, the Guardian has seen large numbers of people fleeing different neighbourhoods.. and no evidence that Hamas had compelled them to stay." The Independent: "Some Gazans have admitted that they were afraid of criticizing Hamas, but none have said they had been forced by the organisation to stay in places of danger and become unwilling human-shields." Reuters, 2013: "A United Nations human rights body accused Israeli forces on Thursday of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields."
Plenty of evidence that they stash weapons - but the question is, if a six story tower block has 10 rockets in it, is it self defence to destroy that entire block, potentially killing many civilians and ruining their homes? Is that a proportionate response?
Most Palestinians don't flee because they a) have nowhere to go and b) during Cast Lead IDF ground forces operated a policy of making unoccupied homes unliveable so they're taking the 50:50 chance on not losing their home |  | | |
| Barton and Yossi in twitter spat on 18:28 - Aug 5 with 927 views | baz_qpr |
Benjamin Netanyahu is a huge part of the problem, he was in the nineties, the noughties and is now. He does not want a two state solution he never did. He has overseen the militarisation and deployment of troops into palestinian areas on multiple occasions opposed all attempts at peace or kinda gone along with them only to tear them up. He has overseen the mass growth of settlements and the bulldozing of palestinian property.
Benjamin Netanyahu is the real cancer in the region, the real terrorist and nothing will change until the Israel's remove him from power, and have someone in place that wants to bring an end to this and is willing to make the real and just decisions to do so. Until that happens the world is a much more dangerous place |  | | |
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