Israeli leader warns of 'long war' as it faces unprecedented hostage crisis following Hamas attack | CNN
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is “embarking on a long and difficult war” as it deals with an unprecedented hostage crisis after Palestinian militants launched a surprise land, sea and air attack from Gaza, killing hundreds and infiltrating into Israeli territory.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the country is “embarking on a long and difficult war” as it deals with an unprecedented hostage crisis after Palestinian militants launched a surprise land, sea and air attack from Gaza, killing hundreds and infiltrating into Israeli territory.

Saturday’s shock attacks by Hamas led to the deadliest day in decades for Israel and come after months of surging violence between Palestinians and Israelis with the decades-long conflict now heading into uncharted and dangerous new territory. Questions are also swirling over how the entire Israeli military and intelligence apparatus appeared to be caught off guard in one of the country’s worst security failures.

Israel’s political-security cabinet convened late Saturday and made a “series of operational decisions aimed at bringing about the destruction of the military and governmental capabilities of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, in a way that would negate their ability and desire to threaten and harm the citizens of Israel for many years to come,” according to a statement from the office of Israel’s Prime Minister.

  • @[email protected]English
    8•1 year ago

    Nethanyahu and friends enabled Hamas as a way of undermining Fatah and Palestinian statehood.

    In a very real sense, he caused this.

    • BraveSirZaphod
      6•1 year ago

      Make no mistake, I certainly wouldn’t hold Netanyahu even remotely blameless either. Like Hamas, he also has no real interest in peace, and continued Israeli settlement in the West Bank in also an atrocity, to say nothing of day-to-day oppression of Palestinians in the West Bank.

      However, none of that makes it acceptable to kidnap and murder random civilians. If Hamas continues to see the existence of every single Jew in Israel as a crime, then Israel will see every single Palestinian as a threat, and that isn’t a situation that ends well for Palestinians.

      People can argue about who started what, who should have accepted which deals, and who escalated what and when and thus justified something else until the end of the world. The only way peace gets achieved is when both sides decide that a peaceful future is more important than avenging past grievances. Until that happens, nothing will get better.

      • QuokkaEnglish
        0•1 year ago

        But one side is avenging current grievances, because Israel’s treatment of Palestinians has been ongoing for 50 years, it hasn’t stopped.

        As long as the powerful abuser keeps pushing people to breaking point, you can’t fault them for lashing out.

        • BraveSirZaphod
          2•1 year ago

          I am actually going to fault murdering 200 people at a festival and raping women and then parading their naked body through the streets.

          I’d also fault bulldozing Palestinian villages to make land for settlements. I don’t think saying Side A Good, Side B Bad is particularly productive in a situation this messy.

          • QuokkaEnglish
            0•1 year ago

            It’s not good vs bad.

            It’s oppressed vs oppressor.

            • BraveSirZaphod
              1•1 year ago

              If your resistance to oppression causes you to rape and murder civilians, you deserve to be oppressed.

              There are ways to fight back that are not the intentional murder of innocents, and you know that just as well as I do. Do you really have such little faith in Palestinians as to think that they don’t know that rape and murder are wrong? That they’ve simply been forced into these actions by the twisted machinations of the West?

          • QuokkaEnglish
            -1•1 year ago

            Treat people like animals and you don’t get to be shocked they act like animals.

            Israel has now cut off the water to 2 million Palestinians, do you not understand the difference in scale of atrocities being committed here?

            • BraveSirZaphod
              1•1 year ago

              Hamas could unconditionally surrender, release the 130 hostages, and vow to abandon any further attempts to attack Israeli citizens, and the water and electricity would be turned right back on.

              I genuinely do not understand how someone can see a group that has murdered and raped civilians, taken over a hundred hostages, and then attempt to justify their actions.

              • QuokkaEnglish
                0•1 year ago

                How many tens of thousands of Palestinian women has Israel raped and murdered yet you fucking sit here supporting them you sick fuck.

                In the following hours she was taken from the hut and forced to shower naked in full view of the soldiers. Three of the men then raped her.

                After the Sabbath meal the platoon commander, identified by Ha’aretz as a man called Moshe who had served in the British army during the second world war, proposed a vote on what should be done with her.

                One option was to put her to work in the outpost’s kitchen.

                Most of the 20 or so soldiers present voted for the alternative by chanting: “We want to fuck”. The commander organised a rota for groups of his men to gang rape the girl over the next three days. Moshe and one of his sergeants went first, leaving the girl unconscious. Next morning, she complicated matters by protesting about her treatment. Moshe told one of his sergeants to kill her.

                She was forced into a patrol vehicle with several soldiers, two carrying shovels, and they drove off into the dunes. When the girl realised what was about to happen she tried to run, but only made it a few paces before she was shot by a Sergeant Michael.

                Israel has been doing this for decades. It still continues today, and survivors are not even allowed to legally challenge it because Israel refuses to recognise their right to be heard.

                • BraveSirZaphod
                  0•1 year ago

                  You had to go back to 1949 to find an example and I’m meant to be convinced that these are remotely equivalent?

                  Meanwhile, I have to go back to two days ago to find who knows how many cases?

                  To make it clear though, that is horrendous and has absolutely no justification. Why are so many people not able to say the same thing about the actions of Hamas?