He undermined the two-state solution and Palestinian Authority. When you do this, you back people into a corner. There's no path to peacefully making progress on anything you care about. It also conveniently gives Netanyahu a boogeyman for his own political ends.
You might argue the PA was corrupt, etc. But that status quo was far better than what exists now.
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-united-states-iran-an...
So no, what really happened was precisely the opposite of “eliminating all other avenues of Palestinian political expression.”
Even for Palestinians, the PA’s rule was hardly a path to peace or progress. Billions in foreign aid were stolen by elites, elections were canceled, dissent was crushed, and everyday life was marked by both authoritarianism and insecurity. So while today’s Hamas reality is undeniably worse, pretending the old PA era was some kind of lost golden path to peace overlooks that it was already a dead end for both peoples.
“it became notorious for corruption, power struggles, and failing to deliver basic services”
Agreed. But as a close friend -- who spent years living and working in the Middle East, including Gaza, and very well connected there -- pointed out to me, it's very hard to believe that Israel, with one of the most, if not the most, heavily guarded borders in the world, with arguably the best intelligence force in the world that is very embedded in the Palestinian Territories, did not know of the attack in advance, if not the details. Think about how much Israel had to gain from letting it happen and it becomes an easy decision.
The PA is a captured extension of the Israeli security state. The PA is standing by while Israeli settlers systematically kill, chase off and terrorize Palestinians on the West Bank. IOF soldiers will idly stand by while a settler just comes up with a (government-supplied) gun, shoots a 60 year old farmer and then complains to the Army that the locals are harassing them.
Would note that there is a huge divide between violent resistance and terrorism, same as there is between counter-insurgency and war crimes.
There... is? Really?
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended Israel’s regular allowing of Qatari funds to be transferred into Gaza, saying it is part of a broader strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separate, a source in Monday’s Likud faction meeting said.
The prime minister also said that, “whoever is against a Palestinian state should be for” transferring the funds to Gaza, because maintaining a separation between the PA in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza helps prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.
https://www.jpost.com/arab-israeli-conflict/netanyahu-money-...
He let Qatari cash find its way to Hamas.
Why do people keep bringing this up as if it matters? Every piece of land has had someone living on it for the last 10,000 years, how does it matter that some group lived there in like 500 bce then a jewish tribe came in and then later some other tribe came in and so on.
Think of how many Arab states exist.
Now think of how many Jewish states exist.
Israel is literally the only claim to land Jews have. Have you seen the size of Israel? It's not exactly gigantic
Its almost as if the Muslims conquered Israel to take the land for their own.
At some moment in time, the first human built a house there, then sometime later some other people showed up then sometime later the israeli tribe conquered the land then the romans conquered it and so on until some muslim tribe conquered it and then in 1950 or whenever the current people conquered it.
Which one of those groups is supposed to have some kind extra special entitlement to live there?
Not doubting you--I'm still learning about this conflict--but source?
So while I'm not closed to the idea that Netanyahu is a bad man. I find it hard to rationalize the actions of the people who were "backed into a corner"?
While I personally condemn Hamas's tactics and don't recognize their political legitimacy, Ukraine has billions in modern military equipment, including tanks and fighter planes. They have conventional military options Palestinians could only dream of.
Ukraine has also been supplied with intelligence, weapons and materiel from other countries in Europe, with which they also share land borders, as well as the United States. Palestinians can't even get food from Egypt, their immediate neighbor.
> there is not a single documented case where they [Ukraine] have attacked civilians or civilian infrastructure.
It must further be observed that Israel has likely killed over 100,000 civilians and miles of civilian infrastructure, even as they enjoy the upper hand economically and militarily. Whatever damage Hamas has done to Israel, Israel has retaliated far out of proportion to Palestinian civilians, in a way that is judged calculated to be genocidal.
It's funny because until they started winning, it was basically, "they're done in 3 days", now it's, oh they have billions in equipment etc.
Here's a question for you, why didn't Hamas have that? Why didn't the rest of the world send them more aid and weapons aid? Hmm strange.
Killing civilians is bad, killing soldiers invading your land is protected by international law.
October 7 is a tragic grain of sand in an desert of horrors the palestinian people suffered for nearly a century.
If you were in an "open air prison" (silly term, but ok), would your next move be to raid a peace and love festival and slaughter kids ? Just wondering?
Crimea contains multiple resorts! (And they've been selectively targeted when political and military elites are present [1].)
[1] https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/ukrainian-drones-strike...
>A 'United Ukraine' rally was attacked by pro-Russian separatists where Stones, petrol bombs and gunfire were exchanged. The pro-Ukraine protesters then moved to dismantle a pro-Russian protest camp in Kulykove Pole, causing some pro-Russian activists to barricade themselves in the nearby Trade Unions House. Shots were fired by both sides, and the pro-Ukraine protesters attempted to storm the building, which caught fire as the two groups threw petrol bombs at each other.
But also, that's forty-eight dead. The fiasco started after "a 'United Ukraine' rally was attacked by pro-Russian separatists." And this was criminality by a protest group (in predominantly pro-Russian territory, no less) not any party claiming to govern Ukraine.