General Discussion

I fully agree with Biden's position that Israel has a right to defend itself against any organization that invades them and starts a war with them.

There are many things in Israel's policies that deserve criticism. Netanyahu is a criminal like his buddy, Trump. To stay in power and to avoid prosecution, Netanyau aligned himself with right-wing extremists in Israel. The occupation of the West Bank is illegal and should never have begun, long before Netanyahu became Israel's leader. I remember when it first started and opposed it then.

But Hamas is responsible for the majority of Palestinian deaths in Isael's self defense war against the Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7. The Hamas tactics of warfare, deliberately hiding behind and under their own civilians in order to cry "foul" when attacked, caused thousands of Palestinian deaths. They knew and planned in advance for that in order to use the false cry of "genocide" for propaganda purposes. Their leaders even bragged that it was acceptable to sacrifice their civilians in that way for the greater cause of destroying Israel. Such hypocrisy. They caused the deaths of their own people in order to blame Israel. I do not and never did buy into their BS.

Israel warned civilians in advance before it bombed targets when Israel found Hamas bunkers.

Hamas could have ended the war at any time by returning the hostages that it took. They gambled on world opinion siding with their propaganda.

Biden did not kiss up to Netanyahu like Trump has done. Biden made it clear that he would stand by Israel's right to self defense, but also made it clear that Palestine had a right to be a self governing nation when the war was over. He would never have backed Netanyau's push to take over Gaza completely after the war. He did agree with Israel about going after Hamas bunkers wherever they found them, but also urged Netanyau to be more cautious with civilians.

The chronic terrorism against Israel by Palestinians, aided by neighboring nations who made war on Israel ever since 1948, and Israel's retaliation would not have happened if Palestinians had accepted the offer of official recognition as a nation state by the UN at the same time that the UN recognized Israel. Palestinians instead chose to focus on trying to destroy Israel instead of building up a nation for themselves. The situation was further complicated by the Cold War and Soviet intervention in the ME.

The fake accusation by Hamas against Israel of genocide seeped into US politics to "teach Dems a lesson" by boycotting the 2024 election or voting for Trump instead. Kamala Harris would have followed a two state policy like Biden did. But thanks to the boycotts, we now have a fascist US government with a president who intends to turn Gaza into his own personal luxury resort for international elites. That is the end of any possibility for a free, self-governing Palestinian state. Emboldened by Trump, Netanyahu is imposing harsh rule in Gaza to clear a path for Trump's construction projects. Netanyahu is also openly declaring that there will never be a Palestinian state and is doubling down on Palestinians in the West Bank to intimidate and terrorize them.

Trump has enabled and encouraged this. A President Harris never would have done that. So the Hamas supporters who were shouting "From the river to the sea" and boycotted the election gave to the US and the world the fascist leadership of Trump and destroyed forever the Palestiniann hope of their own nation.

Palestinian civilians were used as pawns by Hamas and their propaganda supporters. Now they are pawns at the mercy of Trump and Netanyahu. I have sympathy for them but have zero sympathy for the Hamas propagandists who destroyed the future of a Palestinian state.