Hamas has brutally attacked Israel. They’ve killed civilians indiscriminately, abducted people, all on a flimsy excuse that this had something to do with Jews on or near the Al-Aqsa Mosque. We know that that’s not the reason.
Israel had ended the occupation of Gaza in 2005, and as a result, Gaza has been dominated by Hamas, and Hamas has done everything to use all the money given to it by all kinds of well-meaning governments to produce weapons and to antagonize Israel, which is why Gaza is not the functioning country it could otherwise be.
We know that Israel was just days away from finalizing treaties with Saudi Arabia. We know that Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran are deeply interconnected and that Russia and Iran are working together, so there are all kinds of global foreign policy connections that you could draw here.
Most importantly though, we see oftentimes in these occasions how the truth is being turned around. People see “Israel attacks,” “Israel declares war,” but they don’t see that Israel is responding to aggression against it just as today. We’ve already seen people blaming Israel for this, even though Israel was attacked, not the other way around. Antisemitism is alive and well.
In fact, Israeli civil society has largely stood against the more right-wing political movements in control of the government right now. Maybe that also created a weakening of Israeli security.
Now, that doesn’t mean that Palestinians have no rights, that Israel is doing everything right in the area – certainly not. But Israel has a right to exist. This is the original homeland of the Jewish people. Palestinians also have a right to democratic rule. We know that neither Hamas nor Fatah have any democratic rule, and that’s not the fault of Israel.
So whatever side you’re on, just remember it was not Israel that started this, it was Hamas. We have to stand up for what is true and what is right.
This is about a militant group whose only interest are terror and the elimination of the state of Israel. Its motivation is deeply antisemitic, anti-human, anti-democratic, and it also oppresses its own people in Gaza.
Whatever the outcome of this, it’s going to be complicated, it’s going to be muddled, it’s going to fuel violence and it’s going to fuel all kinds of propaganda that you hear out there. We need to stick to the truth, be aware of propaganda and care deeply about what’s going on in the world.
See also: #95: For Israel, For Palestine, For Peace
Erratic Attempts 