Defiant Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on opposition to Palestinian statehood, deepening the divide with Israel’s closest international allies, as cracks in his wartime “unity” government became increasingly evident.
Anger with Netanyahu is also increasingly visible on the streets, even though there is broad public support for the war. On Saturday, protesters gathered in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Caesarea and Kfar Saba, some calling for bolder action to secure the release of hostages, and others demanding the prime minister step down.
One in Jerusalem held a placard that read: “Mothers’ cry: we will not sacrifice our children in the war to save the rightwing.”
Then what were the Oslo accords? What about Camp David (which, contrary to popular knowledge, he did try to make work)? Dismissing everything Arafat did and claiming he “never wanted peace” is very disingenuous. Also what was the PLO doing with weapons post 1993 when they denounced violence?
Also making it sound like poor Israel tried so hard to get Palestinians a state but because they didn’t have leadership it didn’t work out makes me question how much you’re committed to faithful discussion of the topic.
They publicly denounced violence while secretly arming for the next round of violence.
See sometimes people lie. If all you know about the situation is based solely on official statements, then you aren’t really even trying to understand what’s going on.
Negotiating with Palestinian leaders was pointless because there was no leadership that could but trusted to honor a deal. So Ariel Sharon tried removing all settlements and ending the occupation of a part of a Palestine as a show of goodwill to the Palestinian people. Guess which part of Palestine that was?
After the occupation of Gaza ended, Palestinians voted for Hamas. I suppose thy felt like they were winning and should fight harder? I don’t know, but after the last occupation of Gaza ended the Palestinian people chose violence, not peace.
See Palestinians had Gaza, free of occupation, a place with access to the ocean and therefore access to trade. There was a lot of optimism for the future then. Gaza has nice beaches and could be a tourist destination. They could trade and develop industries separate from Israel. The could be prosperity there and when people are prosperous they generally don’t want violence over some land that a history book says they should have.
But then they voted for Hamas.
A lot of people felt disappointed by that. The Palestinian people broke our hearts.
But some people just pretended it didn’t happen. Couldn’t accept that Palestine went fascist. Made excuses. Pretended it wasn’t that bad. Pretended that Hamas wasn’t building rockets to fire rockets at Israel so a blockade was outrageous. Pretended the rockets fired at Israel didn’t exist. Pretended that Hamas wouldn’t try to send gunmen across the border if Israel allowed protesters to cross. Pretended October 7 didn’t happen, and if it did it was somehow justified. When called out for these statements they pretend they didn’t mean it.
And this is why there’s no good leadership for Palestine. Too much pretending, too much looking the other way. No one ever wants to hold Palestinian leadership accountable because hatred of Israel allows for the rationalization of lies, corruption, and even the genocide committed on October 7. People are desperately trying to “both sides” actual genocide by claiming that a war started by the genocide committed by Hamas is also genocide. Whatever rationalization needed to try to keep Hamas in power because admitting that Hamas needs to be destroyed would be admitting that there’s something seriously wrong with Palestinian leadership.
Palestine will never have good leadership so long as the leadership is never held accountable. By constantly making excuses, it’s just perpetuating the status quo. Oh well, maybe the next generation of Palestinians will understand it’s no benefit to them to have leaders that either billionaires living in Qatar or at the very least hiding underground while leaving them to the mercy of the people they’re been indoctrinated into believing are genocidal monsters. Who’s the real monsters in all of this?
I was gonna say cry me a river, but unfortunately people like you can vote, so I’ll just lose faith in humanity in silence.