Former President Barack Obama said a way forward for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only possible if people acknowledge the “complexity” of the situation.

“If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively to do something, it will require an admission of complexity and maintaining what on the surface may seem contradictory ideas that what Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And … that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable,” Obama said in an interview on the podcast “Pod Save America.”

The former president’s comments come as the Israeli military focuses its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City and northern parts of the enclave.

  • acargitz@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I’m squarely Pro-Palestinian in this conflict, but I will say it: what you’re saying is bullshit.

    Israel should exist.

    If not due to the fact that Jews in Palestine existed before Zionism and have a right just as much as other Palestinians to want a country.

    If not due to the fact that some 60% of Israelis are Mizrahis, i.e., Arab Jews that were kicked out of virtually every other Arab country.

    If not due to the fact that the Two State Solution, endorsed by basically the entire international community via the UN (resolution 242), means that …Israel should also exist.

    If not due to any of those things… simply because 75 years after the founding of Israel, an Israeli nation exists. Entire generations of people have been raised with this self identity. They have the right to exist.

    There is no putting the genie back in the bottle. Israel exists, and the Israeli people exists as an entity not exactly the same as the Jewish people. The debate about Israel’s existence is a waste of time and it does a disservice to the Palestinian cause.

    • satan
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      1 year ago

      Why do people claim UN is a democratic organization and not the one for the superpowers benefits? that can veto any resolutions they don’t agree with to bully smaller countries into agreement?

      Other countries just line up in positions where they get the least amount of economic or political retaliation.

      Why do you think no US president or war criminal from US is tried in hague? or why Putin and Xi will live rest of their lives happily without a shred of repercussions?

      These cherry picked talking points are getting old.