Israel may "win" the battle for Gaza and destroy Hamas (who deserves to be annihilated), but I don't know if Israel will ever recover from being vanquished in the information war and largely world-wide court of public opinion. I'm afraid the death of so many Palestinian children will stain Israel for a long, long time.
What would you have them doing instead?
@mcfate I do believe there are ways to achieve peace other than war. More had to be done to open humanitarian corridors. ENORMOUS pressure should've been exerted on Egypt, and particularly Qatar, who harbor and help Hamas. As one analyst said, tell Qatar to denounce Hamas and stop supporting them, or be named a state sponsor of terror AND lose rights for their airlines to fly to other nations. Israel has every right to be angry and want vengeance, but that road usually goes nowhere.
Okay, but given that the past can't be rewritten and the word "should" means "didn't, despite my desires", what would you have them DO?
@mcfate Open humanitarian corridors. Get as many women and children out of Gaza (and into Egypt or Jordan) as possible. MORE PRESSURE on Qatar to eject (or hold in jail) Hamas leaders from their country. Maybe a cease fire to remove injured and hospital patients to a place they can be treated. Basically, show some compassion.
@mcfate I think I've answered that here a few times already. But to add to it, at minimum, prioritize food and medical relief.
Tough to do when you're being shot at by a bunch of terrorists, though.
@mcfate So much goes back to pressuring entities like Egypt and Qatar to leverage Hamas, or at least allow for a UN force at the Raffa crossing to let woman and children out. I suppose I am 4 parts hopeful, 4 parts naive, and 4 parts devil's advocate/optimist in thinking there must be a way that is better than the status quo slaughter.
I keep asking for that "way", and I'm pretty sure the State Department is applying what pressure they can β note that Qatar is keeping Iran's six billion out of Iran's hands β but they're sovereign states, we don't get to issue orders to them.
Why do you assume none of these things are being attempted, though? Because you're not seeing anything on YouTube? Why WOULD you?
@mcfate YouTube [eye roll confused emoji]. A nation can be decreed a state sponsor of terror ; it's been done at the UN (though I confess the UN is, and will presumably remain, ineffective). I am not assuming these/other things are not being worked on; I watch the news [eye-roll emoji]. I've no problem with you, or an end to this discussion. I just want to see peace in the middle east and more efforts to attain it.
@mcfate I'm also Canadian, so am not just looking at this from the standpoint of what [more] the USA can do.
@EdgeOErin
How does Israel manage to keep Hamas from exploiting "open corridors"? We've established that they've got no compunctions about using any human shields that happen to be handy.
Let Egypt and Jordan open some corridors, I've got no insight into what the State Department is doing, nor do you, for really good reasons.
I'm asking what you want Israel to be doing differently. I see a lot of issues with an "open corridor" between Gaza and Israel at the moment.