"Secondly, and more importantly, what I fear the most is that events have spiraled out of control and taken on a life of their own such that turning the violence “off”, so to speak, is impossible. Both sides have a perverse incentive to keep the fight going."
I've witnessed similar violence cycles break down personally, and as much as bot…
"Secondly, and more importantly, what I fear the most is that events have spiraled out of control and taken on a life of their own such that turning the violence “off”, so to speak, is impossible. Both sides have a perverse incentive to keep the fight going."
I've witnessed similar violence cycles break down personally, and as much as both sides have incentives to continue the violence--vengeance-based motivations--they likewise have incentives to end the violence--savings countless numbers of their children and grandchildren. I watched the Iraqi Sunni-Shia civil war of '06-'08 die down--at least until ISIS grew out of the Syrian civil war (a convo for another day)--specifically because the Sunnis had had enough of Al Qaeda in Iraq running their lives (much like Hamas runs the Palestinian's lives), and they turned their backs on AQI who were their fellow Sunnis in an ethnic civil war. Palestinians face this same choice between selfish vengeance-based motives and selfless desires to not have their children and grandchildren find the same fate that they did. Palestinians have agency, and to deny this fact is to rob them of their own societal agency. Palestinians have the real choice to turn on Hamas--just as Iraqi Sunnis did against AQI, they just don't do it (at least not that I've seen). And if you think the Iraqi Sunnis didn't fear for their lives in turning against AQI then you should give a look as to what AQI did to Sunnis suspected of being American sympathizers. AQI was proto-ISIS well before Hamas learned to do terrorism the way ISIS did.
"...implicit in it is the assumption that so long as *ANY* Gazan is engaged in armed resistance, then that means Israel is “justified” in continuing apace."
Armed resistance against whom exactly? If the Palestinians want to do Intifada shit and go after the IDF, that's fair game. The moment they start doing 10/7-style attacks against *Israeli civilians* they throw their lot in with ISIS. Armed resistance and horrific terrorism are two very very different things and it's important to understand that difference in tactics.
"Secondly, and more importantly, what I fear the most is that events have spiraled out of control and taken on a life of their own such that turning the violence “off”, so to speak, is impossible. Both sides have a perverse incentive to keep the fight going."
I've witnessed similar violence cycles break down personally, and as much as both sides have incentives to continue the violence--vengeance-based motivations--they likewise have incentives to end the violence--savings countless numbers of their children and grandchildren. I watched the Iraqi Sunni-Shia civil war of '06-'08 die down--at least until ISIS grew out of the Syrian civil war (a convo for another day)--specifically because the Sunnis had had enough of Al Qaeda in Iraq running their lives (much like Hamas runs the Palestinian's lives), and they turned their backs on AQI who were their fellow Sunnis in an ethnic civil war. Palestinians face this same choice between selfish vengeance-based motives and selfless desires to not have their children and grandchildren find the same fate that they did. Palestinians have agency, and to deny this fact is to rob them of their own societal agency. Palestinians have the real choice to turn on Hamas--just as Iraqi Sunnis did against AQI, they just don't do it (at least not that I've seen). And if you think the Iraqi Sunnis didn't fear for their lives in turning against AQI then you should give a look as to what AQI did to Sunnis suspected of being American sympathizers. AQI was proto-ISIS well before Hamas learned to do terrorism the way ISIS did.
"...implicit in it is the assumption that so long as *ANY* Gazan is engaged in armed resistance, then that means Israel is “justified” in continuing apace."
Armed resistance against whom exactly? If the Palestinians want to do Intifada shit and go after the IDF, that's fair game. The moment they start doing 10/7-style attacks against *Israeli civilians* they throw their lot in with ISIS. Armed resistance and horrific terrorism are two very very different things and it's important to understand that difference in tactics.