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voisin ◴[] No.39143281[source]
Perhaps I am unlearned in this area but I am unclear why the Jewish state, after its people experienced the atrocities of World War II, would act in this manner toward the Palestinians. Can anyone shed light on this? I understand completely the need to rid the world of Hamas terrorists, but in the process they have shown a reckless disregard (to put it mildly) for Palestinian people and their wellbeing.
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vladgur ◴[] No.39146989[source]
I was in my 20s and remember the feeling in the air after Al Qaeda members hijacked commercial planes and flew them into WTC in 2001. Fear, Anger, A bit of revenge.

Many of Americans, including soviet immigrants, enlisted in the army driven by that feeling.

Israelis lost significantly more of their population percentage-wise during October 7 attack perpetrated by the official government of Gaza AND as we know now, some Gazan civilians. Over 200 Israelis were taken hostage.

With that in mind, its fairly simple for me to empathize with the Israeli public who are angry at the death of their fellow citizens and want Hamas to be punished.

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Sporktacular ◴[] No.39147820[source]
Hamas barely scraped into victory in a power sharing agreement it then broke. Gazan at that time did not want this government. Half of Gaza's present population wasn't even born at the time of the last election. To blame Palestinians generally (including in the West Bank who are effectively being punished too) for this is exceedingly unfair.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/10/was-hamas-electe...

Compare culpability with Israel's, which IS a functioning democracy, has had regular elections, a free press, a large population participating in the war and actively in favour of it - and blaming the average Gazan is even less fair.

Feeling like revenge isn't good enough.

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1. ApolloFortyNine ◴[] No.39148147[source]
Poll showing 75% in Gaza believe the attack on Israel was correct.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/poll-shows-palesti...

Seeing how they literally took hostages, in addition to targeting and killing civilians, I'm honestly not sure how you can argue it wasn't a terrorist attack.

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2. Sporktacular ◴[] No.39148487[source]
75% of a population indoctrinated for years by a violent group of thugs (partially supported by the current Israeli PM). But that still doesn't justify slaughtering them in a fit of vengeance. Check the numbers for a gloves off response within Israel and we see the cycle of vengeance you seem fond of.

I didn't argue it wasn't a terrorist attack.

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3. ApolloFortyNine ◴[] No.39148697[source]
>But that still doesn't justify slaughtering them in a fit of vengeance.

I didn't say it did, I just wanted to show that the population of Gaza does seem to condone terrorism as a whole, and it's not a small minority as you were making it sound.

Also if Israel wanted to slaughter everyone in Gaza they could do it almost over night. And it wouldn't require nuclear weapons, they possess more than enough conventional weapons to do so. Hamas has been shown to keep and fire their weapons in population centers, it makes it incredibly difficult to truly minimize casualties. If Israel wanted to maximize civilian casualties, they easily could.

>cycle of vengeance you seem fond of.

Seriously my comment was simple, not sure why you think I condoned 'vengeance'.

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4. ESTheComposer ◴[] No.39148771[source]
Yeah it's understandable why though from your own article:

>The PCPSR poll found that 44% of Gazans say they have enough food and water for a day or two, and 56% say that they do not. Almost two-thirds of Gazan respondents - 64% - said a member of their family had been killed or injured in the war.

>Fifty-two percent of Gazans and 85% of West Bank respondents - or 72% of Palestinian respondents overall - voiced satisfaction with the role of Hamas in the war. Only 11% of Palestinian voiced satisfaction with PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

I would wager that actually means they're satisfied that there's "someone fighting for their rights" rather than they're satisfied with terrorism.

From another article[1]: "Israelis reject U.S. pressure to shift the war in Gaza to a phase with less heavy bombing in populated areas by a ratio of 2-1...Only 23 percent answered that Israel should agree to the U.S. demand "that Israel shifts to a different phase of the war in Gaza, with an emphasis on reducing the heavy bombing of densely populated areas...A full 75 percent of Jewish respondents said Israel should ignore the U.S. pressure"

So it seems the same number of Jewish respondents are ok with the genocide occurring right now. Like I said in another comment, both Hamas and Israel seem to have genocidal intentions but only one side is actively pursuing it at the moment.

[1]: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-01-02/ty-article/75...

5. Sporktacular ◴[] No.39151211{3}[source]
Apologies. I misattributed the vengeance comment to you.

When did I dispute the 75% figure? I said you'll find bloodlust in the general Israeli population too.

Wanting to slaughter everyone in Gaza isn't the standard to apply. It has shown it doesn't care if it does if that means killing the small fraction of that population responsible for October 7. It's shockingly callous, disproportionate and can never justify heavy bombing a populated urban area.