For the record, my feelings on Hamas have not changed. In fact, I'm gonna double down on my stance - if you support Hamas, say so and I will block you. Hamas has killed thousands of innocent Israeli civilians, including friends of friends and family. There is no justification for this, people need to realize that Israeli civilians are not responsible for the suffering of the Palestinian people. If you support Hamas, you want me dead, and I'm not interested in hearing you out.
That being said, I absolutely do not condone the killings of Palestinian civilians either. Neither us nor them wanted this war, and I fully believe that Palestine deserves to exist as its own nation alongside Israel. We came to this land after years of suffering under the Nazis, but that doesn't excuse kicking people out of their homes. I don't believe Hamas is a representative of the Palestinian people's desires and I simply want us to coexist, as I have ever since childhood. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to happen.
A big player in this war who doesn't seem to have any interest in owning up to his role in it is Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister. Netanyahu has been in power for close to two decades now and he has systematically destroyed any chance of peace between us and the Palestinians. He actually delivered a fatal blow before he even entered office by inciting riots against the prime minister of the 90s, Itzhak Rabin, who was in the process of negotiating with the Palestinians and has signed several peace agreement already. Those riots culminated in Rabin's assassination in 1995. After that, Netanyahu entered office.
My knowledge on what came after that is murkier but I know the important bullet points -
- Netanyahu supported the separation from Gaza which left it as easy picking for Hamas
- Gave Hamas 1,027 of their men back in exchange for one hostage
- Has publicly declared to be against a Palestinian state which he used as a justification for supporting Hamas over the Palestinian National Authority
- Got publicly accused of accepting bribes and has since then been hellbent on avoiding prosecution by proposing laws that allow the PM to essentially be above the law
And now he's aligned himself with the far-right in a desperate bid to keep his ass on the seat, including people who previously got arrested for hate crimes and together they started a plan to weaken the Supreme Court. This caused a divide between people who support the reform (mostly out of blind admiration for Netanyahu since he's very popular, hence why he got re-elected so many times) and those who are opposed to it out of the understandable concern that it'll be easier for them to pass laws that benefit the ruling government and the haredi populace, while also making it harder for Palestinians, LGBTQ+, non-religious people like myself, and women to exist there.
That made it very easy for Hamas to exploit the divide and massacre a bunch of innocent people, and Netanyahu and his right-wing coalition have yet to take responsibility even though it's starting to look like people are finally having their eyes opened regarding how terrible of a PM Netanyahu is. A lot of people are saying that he's definitely gonna be gone for good after this war ends, but I'm not so sure since he has basically declared that he will destroy Hamas and flatten Gaza, and this war has made it very difficult for a lot of people to tell the difference between Hamas and Palestine, which means that if he succeeds (which he will because the IDF is the strongest military force in the middle east), I can see him getting a lot of support from the populace and keep his ass on the seat.
Either way, even if the worst-case scenario doesn't come to pass, I still think peace with the Palestinians is not going to be attainable after this. It's essentially died with Rabin but Netanyahu has killed it even further, and now it's going to be dead for good. So I'm gonna start an immigration process after this is over. Not just out of fear for my personal safety, but also out of sheer disgust with how it seems like the populace is fine with the deaths of innocent Palestinians. The worst part of all of this is that I know that this is the only way we'll be able to end the war in our favor, but that doesn't mean I like it.
This is gonna be my final post on the war. If I'm being honest, the war doesn't affect me as much as it does some other people. The effects are mostly on my mental health but I live in one of the safest places in the country and the only member of my immediate family or social circle who's in any danger is my cousin if he ever gets re-drafted. This war is mostly an inconvenience for me, and I fully admit that the main reason I want it to end is that I want to go back to my simple, peaceful life. But it genuinely hurts me every time to think of all the deaths and realize that it's out of my control, and the fact that those deaths are going to beneficial for me in the long term. I try to distract myself from the situation whenever I can.
That's all.
