@Human77 said in #35:
> I criticise that they waited until a massacre.
> In my opinion they should have pressured Gaza and whole Palestine to have elections,
> otherwise they do what they can to overthrow the terror organization Hamas.
> Did "Never Again" really mean wait until a massacre happens?
> I hope I understood your question.
Are you aware that Israel in the past has propped up Hamas over alternatives? This was done specifically because the more militant Hamas was seen as easier to deal with - not because the opposition was more of a danger of violence, but because they were a danger diplomatically.
As long as Hamas controls Gaza, Israeli propaganda basically writes itself - "they're a violent, undemocratic terrorist group and whatever we have to do to contain them to Gaza is acceptable and reasonable". Through this lens, the idea that Israel could ever end its blockade and allow Gaza to govern itself becomes absurd - the risk of Hamas violence is simply too great. Allowing the country to govern itself? You may as well preheat the ovens for Holocaust 2.0.
But the Palestinian Authority, or the Palestinian Liberation Organization? You can't simply dismiss them as a group of barbaric terrorists. I mean, you can try (and they did), it just strains credibility somewhat. If they were to come to power in Gaza, how do you justify the monstrous repression of Palestinians?
This propaganda strategy is what's going on *right now*. It is being used to justify the complete destruction of Gaza and the violent murder or relocation of millions of people. After all, what is Israel supposed to do, simply accept the existence of this brutal terrorist organization right next to them that, in the years between 2008 and 2022, is responsible for a whole several hundred fatalities? Never mind that seizing Gaza (and the West Bank, they're taking that too, despite Hamas not being active there, and they've been making noises about annexing parts of Lebanon as well) has always been on Israel's wishlist.
So in short, what you're asking for is something Israel never actually wanted. Democratic elections in Gaza would legitimize Gaza as a state, rather than occupied territory, and someone other than Hamas coming to power might raise some unpleasant questions about Israel's justification for its brutal occupation. That's why Israel has propped up and supported Hamas over the years. The tiny handful of Israeli fatalities (less than 300 from 2008 to 2022) was, I have to assume, an acceptable price to pay. Hamas was never a real operational threat, and the moment it became one, Israel immediately had the cover it needed to commit genocide.
For context, over the same time frame that Hamas killed less than 300 Israelis, the Israeli military killed more than 6,000 Palestinians. (Source: United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs casualty data.) Now, granted, this excludes the October 7th attack, the most brutal in Israeli history. Thing is, if we add the provisional 2023 numbers to that data, it shifts to a ratio of about 1,500 to 28,000, which, gonna be honest, doesn't sound much better. The ratio of roughly 1 Israeli life for every 20 Palestinian lives remains largely the same.
