| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:What do the Palestinians and their supporters actually want ? | |
| Posted by: | Steven Rose | |
| Date/Time: | 15/05/24 21:18:00 |
| You are right. I was concentrating on the question of what Israel should do differently. At least John Kettlekey had a go at answering this question, though I don’t agree with his response. But to address his questions: 1) Around half of the hostages have been released. Unfortunately Hamas’ price for returning the remaining hostages, namely a complete withdrawal by Israeli forces from Gaza, is unacceptable. For this would leave Hamas in control of Gaza, able to regroup and strike again, as they have promised to do. As to the eradication of Hamas, the IIDF claim to have dismantled 20 of their original 24 battalions. Having been all but defeated militarily, Hamas’ only hope is that pro- Palestinian sentiment in Western countries will put pressure on their governments to suspend support for Israel. 2) The strike on the aid workers shows that it is not possible to justify every single attack by the Israeli military. War of its nature is chaotic and mistakes are made. But I don’t believe that the Israelis deliberately target the civilian population. It is also an exaggeration to claim that tens of thousands of civilians have died. Of the 35 000 Palestinians who have been killed in Gaza according to the Hamas ‘Health Ministry’, it is likely that almost a half were Hamas militants, some of whom may have participated in the atrocity of October 7. |