How Israel can destroy Hamas without killing more innocent children

Israel has killed over 13,000 Palestinian children in under 5 months (and maimed or orphaned tens of thousands more), because they say it is the only way to beat Hamas. But that’s not true. If Israel would simply offer the Palestinian people (not Hamas) a fair deal, that finally gave them freedom and justice, then extremist groups like Hamas would no longer be able to recruit, and most Palestinians would be willing and able to contain whatever was left of Hamas and any other extremists that remained.?

The Netanyahu government knows this but would rather continue killing children than make the modest compromise needed to be fair to Palestinians. And why would Palestinians fight Hamas if Israel has made clear that they still won’t get freedom and justice even if they do?

Below is what being fair would look like, and how it will destroy Hamas??

1) First, Israel needs to stop taking more Palestinian homes and farms in the West Bank every year, and stop moving in more illegal settlers that abuse Palestinians with impunity. How does this ongoing theft of property and abuse help Israeli security?

2) Offer to fairly compensate Palestinian refugees for the homes and farms taken from them in 1948, 1967, and the years since then, even if it was paid over many years. Those are the Palestinians who are most angry, and rightfully so. Most of them now live in the squalor of refugee camps like Gaza. Many Palestinian refugees even still have the keys to their homes, some of which are still standing and have Israelis living in them. If your house was taken, would you simply accept it?

3) Offer to give all Palestinians true freedom and equal rights through either a 1-state or 2-state solution. The 1-state option requires giving everyone 100% equal rights (which seems less likely to me), the 2-state option requires offering the Palestinians a truly independent and viable Palestinian state. Israel has never offered Palestinians either one, including during the Oslo peace talks that have been spun as generous offers by Israel that Palestinians rejected. The sad truth is that Israel never offered Palestinians a contiguous state that controlled its borders, airspace, and water. Instead, it offered a bunch of disconnected population centers completely encircled by Israel, without even guaranteed road connections between them, and without control of the water aquifers below them, or the airspace above them. And the worst part is that Israel's illegal settlement expansion in the West Bank continued during the "peace negotiations" which Israel insisted had to be done in phases over many years (i.e. they kept eating the pizza that they claimed to be negotiating over).

This article explains exactly why none of Israel's "peace offers" have ever come close to being fair deals for Palestinians or would have given them freedom:

4) If the Palestinian people had a genuinely fair deal on the table, then Hamas would not be able to recruit, and the majority of Palestinians would even be willing to fight them if necessary, if it meant they would finally get a fair deal from Israel. The problem has always been that Israel has never offered Palestinians anything close to a fair deal, and keeps committing more injustice against them every year no matter what the peaceful Palestinian parties have tried. Why would Palestinians risk their lives or even waste their time fighting Hamas, when Israel has shown them over and over that even if they do, more of their homes and farms will keep being stolen every year, and they will still have to endure daily abuse from Israeli settlers and soldiers under a brutal apartheid that controls and limits their movement, water, and local economies.

5) Israel should definitely not help fund or bolster Hamas or similar groups, as Netanyahu did in order to weaken peaceful Palestinian parties, and give Israel an excuse to not offer a fair peace deal (something that is well documented in the Israeli press). He and his cabinet have literally called Hamas an “asset” and called peaceful Palestinian parties “liabilities”.

6) For a fair deal that finally got them peace and justice, Palestinians would even be willing to make Hamas leaders stand trial for war crimes in the ICC, if Israel also made Netanyahu and other right-wing leaders and generals do the same.??

7) Put the deal to a referendum vote for Palestinians to approve as part of a UN supervised election (if a 2-state solution is the way), with the requirement that any elected government would accept the peace deal and recognize Israel’s right to exist in peace if they comply with the deal terms.

8) Then have the U.N. help enforce the borders and monitor compliance. The Palestinian state could even be demilitarized for 10-20 years or possibly longer with strong international security guaranties.

9) And finally, Palestinians in 1948 Israel (Arab-Israelis) would need to get 100% equal rights in Israel. They currently have almost the same rights as Jewish citizens, but definitely not 100% equal (which is easy to prove if you look at some of the laws that discriminate against non-Jews. I’m happy to share examples upon request).

If you support Israel’s current approach to fighting Hamas, which will actually just help Hamas recruit, then that means you’d rather kill thousands more innocent children than simply be fair to Palestinians, and treat them the way you would want to be treated in their shoes. This is what Israel’s continued abuse and theft of homes and farms has been saying to Palestinians for 75 years, which is why Palestinians are so angry. Even before October 7th, Israeli soldiers and settlers killed around 100 Palestinian children (10% babies) EVERY YEAR on average since at least 2000. All of their names and details are documented on BTselem.org. And 1 in 5 Palestinians have been imprisoned by Israel, often for years in horrible conditions, without due process or even knowing what they are charged with (including many women and children).?

What would you do in their shoes, and what kind of deal would you consider to be fair?

Please also read this article about how Americans who are peacefully protesting to stop Israel's genocide, are being falsely accused of calling for genocide as a way to silence them:

And to learn more about this tragic conflict, please go to m.youtube.com/@IsraelPalestine101 to watch hundreds of Jewish scholars, journalists, and soldiers explain the truth about it. They have no reason to lie and are like the white American abolitionists and civil rights activists of our time.? They are the ones telling the truth.

Here are some of those videos:

1) Why what Israel is doing right now is legally genocide, by Jewish Israeli Holocaust & Genocide scholar, Professor Raz Segal (16 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=V5YOctHHccM

2) Holocaust survivor, Dr. Gabor Mate, discusses the atrocities by Hamas on Oct 7, and explains the similarities and differences between the genocide that is currently in progress, and other genocides in history (12 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=r6pBNjE1ntI?

3) Award winning Jewish Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, explains why so many are now calling Israel an apartheid state (7 minutes): m.youtube.com/watch?v=HeQ-BC1EcUU??

4) Head of Israeli human rights organization, BTselem, explains why they call Israel an apartheid state (17 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=G4aM8TL2xxg

5) Jewish Israeli activist documents how illegal Israeli settlers terrorize and ethnically cleans Palestinians in the West Bank (2 min): m.youtube.com/watch?v=llhFCqEuVD0?

6) Former Israeli soldier explains how he controlled the lives of Palestinians in the West Bank (8 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=TkBIZkI025Q

7) Journalist explains what Israeli military sources have told him about how the IDF is making its targeting decisions (4 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=wCWU1UJhpdc?

8) Jewish American scholar, Noam Chomsky, 2018 interview describing what Gaza was like due to Israel’s blockades since 2005 (10 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=NoC7sRNkrlI?

9) What really happened in 1948, by the son of an Israeli soldier who was actually there (7 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=zUMTQ36F2SI

10) The ethnic cleansing has continued until today, by prominent Israeli historian who was a soldier in the 1973 War (2 mins): m.youtube.com/watch?v=PDV9KT48adc

11)? Israel’s apartheid and continuous settlement expansion, explained by Dr. Avi Shlaim, a Jewish Israeli Historian & IDF veteran (9 minutes): m.youtube.com/watch?v=3BKoxT6ZRog

12) Jewish American journalist explains the evidence of the different atrocities Hamas committed on October 7th. He also explains the evidence of what Hamas’s likely plan was, and how the IDF's fierce response likely contributed to the tragic death toll on that day (14 mins):

m.youtube.com/watch?v=-7vKzhd2Wac

In addition to helping save lives and promote equal rights, sharing these videos will also help fight antisemitism by showing that many many Jewish people are trying to help stop Israel's genocide, ethnic cleansing, and brutal apartheid.

#Israel #Palestine #Gaza #IsraelPalestineConflict