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Israel-Gaza Megathread #2

This is a refreshed megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.

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This actually feels pretty close to my thinking on it. Every time I start to think along the lines of, those Palestinians did get a pretty raw deal, getting booted off of their land effectively permanently mostly due to things that had nothing to do with them, they go and do something so freaking savage that it's hard to think anything but that the only thing they deserve is the same savagery pointed right back at them.

The left / blue team tries to excuse it with "that's how the oppressed naturally behave", to which I would reply that plenty of groups have managed to rebel against oppression without resorting to the laundry list of awful things the Palestinians have been known for.

those Palestinians did get a pretty raw deal, getting booted off of their land effectively permanently mostly due to things that had nothing to do with them

I agree with that. Then, of course - like an awful lot of oppressed people whose way of relating to each other is the paradigm of oppressor and oppressed - they turned around and engaged in savagery. Like, I feel for the Palestinians, but the guys who decided to open a war by attacking a music festival and then parading the corpses around seem to have erred badly. Even leaving morality aside, this looks like it might just be a ploy to goad Israel and perhaps the West into an equally savage response. What is the ultimate purpose of this kind of thing for Hamas? Who benefits? What does "victory" look like? Even if we're being uncharitable and it's "Drive the Israelis out of Israel, kill those that won't leave, and control the territory there", deliberately attacking civilians hardens resolve and makes you look like a bunch of savages to Westerners...the ones with the boatloads of guns and ammo and bombs.