But only ONE party is fighting for control. The other party is willing, if allowed, to live in peace. And besides, I don't think the Arabs consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel. They consider themselves to be the masters of the universe and the Qua'ran tells them that they must conquer or kill anyone they cannot convert.
Sorry, I do not share your "Israel good, Arabs bad" outlook. The rest of my family does...makes conversation in my house REAL interesting at times.
Then you have no knowledge of the history of the area and probably shouldn't comment. Israel is not the aggressor in this war of genocide. Israel does NOT target civilians regardless of what the NYT tells you. In fact Israel warns civilians of upcoming attacks and Hamas keeps the civilians from evacuating the area because they WANT civilian causalities so the antisemites have something to shout about. Therefore, there is no way to avoid killing/injuring civilians.
Before assuming I don’t know history, understand that I’ve served on guard duty in the region and seen both sides up close — their strengths, their flaws, and the human realities on the ground. Experience, not ideology, shapes my perspective.
On that I agree with you - it's generally not Israel. We agree on large swaths of this issue, just not the exact actions the Israelis have taken in this recent war.
Well said! There are LOTS of credible stories, too, of Israeli settlers beating/killing Palestinian civilians with total and complete impunity. stuff like that shows Israel is not just 100% innocent in the deal - they've done wrong, too
See, there's where the history comes into play. In 1948, the British separated the Palestinian Mandate into two (three physical) parts when they withdrew. The Arabs totally refused to any division of land where the Jews got a square inch so the British gave Gaza and Samaria and Judea to the Arabs and the rest of the remaining territory to the Jews. That was when the first invasion came. The very next day after Israel declared their independence, Israel invaded and took Gaza, Jordan invaded and took Samaria and Judea. Israel defended itself but not the Arab territories and so the Arabs withdrew and Palestine died at the hands of its Arab neighbors. That is who the Palestinians should hate. Skip a bunch of intifadas and small wars up to 1967. Six Arab nations formed up on the border of Israel prepared to invade. Israel struck first. This was the 6-day war. During that war, Israel occupied Gaza and the Sinai all the way to the Suez canal. They took Samaria and Judea and the Golan Heights. And since they were not the aggressors, THEY KEPT THE OCCUPIED territories and proceeded to integrate them into Israel proper. Were they supposed to give the occupied territory back? I don't think so. That isn't the way war works. To the victor go the spoils. Try to make Russia give Crimea back to Ukraine even though the Russians were wrong to take it. Israel was not in the wrong here or maybe you think she was. Eventually in the late 80's, Israel relented and gave the Sinai back to Egypt. It's all desert anyway. Israel tried very hard to integrate the Palestinians but they flatly refused. They still thought they got the raw end of the deal from 1948. So they fought the Jews tooth and nail and finally in ~2004, Israel made all its people abandon their settlements and businesses and leave Gaza. They even took the dead from the cemetaries because they knew the Muslims would desecrate the graves. So, I remind the uneducated, Gaza has been free for more than 20 years and what have they done? Did they make Gaza into a Singapore like "free city"? No, they took every single of penny of aid they could guilt out of the rest of the world and bought bomb to drop on civilian targets in Israel.
Thanks Isaac, knowing your devotion to Christianity I understand how unpopular your statement could be in the circles I assume you are a part of.
Look, I get the history you’re laying out — Israel’s had attacks and real security threats from day one. Nobody’s denying that. But saying Palestinians “lost twice, so tough luck” ignores decades of occupation, displacement, and blockades that make everyday life a fight just to survive. You can’t expect Gaza to be a “Singapore” when they’re living under restrictions, bombings, and economic strangulation. That’s not failing; that’s being trapped.
You are always willing to believe the worst of Israel just as you are always willing to believe the worst of Trump. I'm not saying that there are not bad individuals. The very important point you are missing is that it is the charter of Hamas to KILL ALL the JEWS. Israel has no such charter. In fact as you can see, Israel tries its best to protect the civilians who live in Gaza.
You miss the point of why they are struggling. Let me lay it out for you. You know all that aid that flows into Gaza? What happens to it? It doesn't get to the people. Some of it sold to the people the rest is sold on the open market or if the aid is money it is directly funneled into buying bombs to drop on Israeli civilians. A lot of it is philtered off first to provide lavish lifestyles for the Hamas leaders. The current crop lives in lavish comfort in Dubai. They don't even go to Gaza. Do you think at any point in the past 20 years they might have looked inward and said - gee, this is dumb, why don't we stop trying to kill all the jews and take advantage of what we do have. But no. The Palestinians are convinced that the Jews deserve NOT an INCH of territory to call home. The bible be damned. The area is NOT the home of the Jews it belongs only to the people who call themselves Palestinians. So, they will bomb Israeli civilians until every single one of them is dead. If I had had my finger on the trigger, that would have happened after the October attack. Those animals all deserve to die. They cannot live as civilized humans. They have tried to destroy Jordan and Egypt and Syria and Kuwait who took them in by large numbers after 1948, they succeeded in destroying Lebanon and Afghanistan.
and always will. It is only when both sides stop shooting and sit peacefully at a table that long-held grievances have any merit.
And for the record, whether or not Arab countries accept Palestinian refugees is a political issue, not proof that Palestinians are unworthy of life.
A fair point. Hamas’s ideology is extreme, and Israel’s survival instincts are strong. But even if one side would “stop” tomorrow, the civilians caught in the crossfire continue paying the price.
Careful now, factual truth isn't welcome here
On that, we are perfectly aligned...
