Israel created the current situation. It's been
decades in the making. The way Israelis have
treated Palestinians has been disgraceful. And
any demonstrations and protests were met with
excessive and deadly force by Israeli authorities
with thousands of Palestinians injured, arrested,
and detained.

Palestinians experienced oppression every day for
decades. The discrimination, the dispossession,
the repression of any dissent, the killings
and injuries - the land grabs, expansion of
settlements - all are part of a system which is
designed to privilege Jewish Israelis at the
expense of Palestinians.

That is why knowing the full history of the area
visiting places like Hebron and seeing with your
own eyes (as others have done) as to what's
really going on - sorting the myths from the facts
is so important to better understand the conflict.

Confronted by the current violence that's sweeping
over Israel currently, it can be easy to overlook
all the things that Jews and Palestinians share:

1) A deep attachment to the same sliver of contested
land.
2) A common tradition of descent from the patriarch
Abraham.
3) And as scientific research shows - a common genetic
ancestry as well.

Of course as stated earlier - if we look at the Biblical
tale of Cain and Abel, the fact that people are related
to each other - does not prevent their developing extreme
hostility to one another.

Dear Yuyutsu,

Do you believe one of the solutions would have been for the Gazans to continue to bravely and peacefully protest at the border instead of attacking?

'42 Knees in One Day': Israeli Snipers Open Up About Shooting Gaza Protesters
Over 200 Palestinians were killed and nearly 8,000 were injured during almost two years of weekly protests at the Israel-Gaza border. Israeli army snipers tell their stories"
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2020-03-06/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/42-knees-in-one-day-israeli-snipers-open-up-about-shooting-gaza-protesters

As to shooting anything that moves it seems that attitude from the IDF contributed heavily to the toll on the 7th.

Here's another link - from the Human Rights Watch:

http://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/28/west-bank-spike-israeli-killings-palestinian-children

Dear SteeleRedux,

The page you referred me to was not found.
So without knowing the exact details I will have to proceed only in a general manner.

«Do you believe one of the solutions would have been for the Gazans to continue to bravely and peacefully protest at the border instead of attacking?»

For any solution, one has to first define the problem.

If the problem was "how do we get to blow up and break through the fence around Gaza so we can kill as many Jews?" then we know that the demonstrations were effective: knees may have been lost, but under the cover and guise of civil demonstrations, Hamas managed to place detonating charges under the fence, which it then blew all up on the morning of October 7th.

But if the problem was "how can we live freely, peacefully and prosper our people?" then the best strategy was to do nothing, as the Gazans already had it all. Israel left Gaza and allowed the Gazans to do whatever they please. An airport and seaport were being planned with Israel's approval, which could have served the Gazans without restrictions. Unfortunately they started shooting rockets and fire-bombs at Israel instead, and dug attack tunnels that reached under Israel, which forced Israel to restrain them, brutally at times.

Yes, the present Israeli government has improper interests in parts of the West Bank, which I strongly oppose, but Israel had absolutely no interest in Gaza, so the Gazans at least were able live and prosper, but sadly they chose not to.

Dear Yuyutsu,

You claimed: "knees may have been lost, but under the cover and guise of civil demonstrations, Hamas managed to place detonating charges under the fence, which it then blew all up on the morning of October 7th."

As I can find zero evidence for that it would be helpful if you could provide a source.

As to your stated problem: "how do we get to blow up and break through the fence around Gaza so we can kill as many Jews?" there is no evidence that was the focus of the attack for most of the fighters. It seems a large number of the deaths were from retaliatory fire from the IDF as well as from non-Hamas persons who entered after the Hamas military units.

As to the airport in Gaza it was the Second Intifada started by Sharon's very provocative visit to the site of the Al-Aqsa Mosque which caused the unrest across Palestine which lead to the closure of the airport. Not the circumstances you describe.

Why do you seem to consider the Gazan's arming themselves to be criminal? Don't they have the right to protect themselves and other Palestinians from the use of military force? Or is that right only reserved for Israelis.

http://twitter.com/muhammadshehad2/status/1720454684031283647
Graphic: Israeli just bombed the main gate of al-Shifa medical compound where over 30,000 refugees are sheltering.
Dozens killed & wounded; literal pools of blood everywhere!
Multiple ambulances were damaged as they attempted to transport the critically wounded to Rafah.

http://twitter.com/ytirawi/status/1720430318484627526
Tens of dead bodies including children and women are strewn across the coastal road “Rasheed Street” after the Israeli military slaughtered them.
These are families who were fleeing to south Gaza

The Dahiya Doctrine and Israel’s Use of Disproportionate Force
http://imeu.org/article/the-dahiya-doctrine-and-israels-use-of-disproportionate-force

With strikes targeting rockets and tunnels, the Israeli tactic of ‘mowing the grass’ returns to Gaza
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/05/14/israel-gaza-history/

“Text-Book Case of Genocide”: Top U.N. Official Craig Mokhiber Resigns, Denounces Israeli Assault on Gaza
http://www.democracynow.org/2023/11/1/craig_mokhiber_un_resignation_israel_gaza

19 years ago today, the Israeli military killed 23-year-old American Rachel Corrie by running her over with a bulldozer while she was defending a Palestinian home from being destroyed by Israel.
http://twitter.com/theIMEU/status/1504098302744219649

Hamas did NOT bake a Jewish baby in an oven.
However, the Israelis did bake a Palestinian child in an oven and made the child’s father watch.
http://twitter.com/realstewpeters/status/1719769906013458453

A news report on a 1996 shooting at a Mosque by a Zionist extremist. A man entered and killed over 40 Muslims, many died on their knees while they prayed.
“What he did was a loyal act of heroism”, the Israeli citizens replied.
http://twitter.com/DrLoupis/status/1719823510585942466

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, Israeli’s murdered an elderly man in the West Bank.
Majdi Awad lived in the West Bank his entire life.
An Israeli shot him dead while he was crossing the street.
Sick. Just Sick.
http://twitter.com/CensoredMen/status/1719803435829117321

Israel has no right to self-defense because it is an occupying country, Russia's permanent representative to the UN Nebenzya said during the 10th emergency special session.
http://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1720025381275590757

What kind of conditions and circumstances causes a child to throw a rock at a modern tank? This is a picture of Faris Odeh.
What kind of environment causes the soldiers in the tank to take the child’s life in response to a rock being thrown? Was there no other way?
Faris Odeh here is not as lucky. RIP
http://twitter.com/jambuki888/status/1720095465147089170