Outstanding editorial piece by Palestinian-American Mo Husseini that EVERYONE should read, regardless of your feelings about this war and/or who you side with. I have cut/pasted some $-quotes:
mo-husseini.medium.com/hmmm-do-i-need-a-title-129b27bed5f0Hamas is fu(k!ng awful.Whatever you may feel about legitimate resistance to occupation, there is no legitimate attacking of civilians.
Period.
10/7 was a war crime and most of Hamas’ operations are also war crimes.
Hamas deserves destruction and their impact on the Palestinian struggle for self-determination was corrosive and its effects will echo for years.
Let us be clear though on the fact that Hamas has been supported as a foil to the PA by multiple Israeli governments.
Israel’s actions in Gaza are disproportionate.While Israel has the right (and responsibility) to go after Hamas, it is my belief that there were other ways to do this.
Israel is a world-class military power that has shown (time and again) that it has both the intelligence and the technology to do targeted strikes.
It is abundantly clear, both in word and deed, that the Gaza operation is retributive and punitive, and that war crimes are being committed.
The US government has been an impotent actor in this mess.We have been played by Bibi at every turn and have, time and time again, protected Israel’s interests, well beyond any reasonable measure.
Honestly, it’s embarrassing to me as an American to see us engaging like we have no influence.
‘But Israel’s a sovereign country,’ you might say.
Please, let’s not be performatively obtuse.
We tell people what we expect them to do all the time.
That is how the Pax Americana works.
Israel is a freer country than many Arab states, but it is not a liberal Western democracy.Israeli culture has a lot of nasty f****d up racist $#!+ in it and while their right-wing government may well be an aberration of their goofy electoral system, it’s not unrepresentative of the public mood which is colored by decades of fighting and grievance with the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Authority is a F'D up, foundationally corrupt, and deeply broken Bantustan that has little if any resonance with the people it ostensibly represents.It’s a kakistocracy of the highest order and Palestinian culture also has a lot of nasty f****d up antisemitic $#!+ in it.Much like Israeli culture, there is little mandate for peace, an attitude colored by decades of fighting and grievance with the Israelis.
NEITHER SIDE WANTS TO NEGOTIATE.Not really.
I know it sounds super-unintuitive but it’s true.
Neither side wants to negotiate because that’s something that will mean they have to (a) acknowledge the other’s right to exist, and (b) lose the possibility of achieving their maximalist goals.
Much easier instead, to argue and bicker and deny the validity of the other and maintain some kind of low simmer of conflict.
This has been Bibi’s goal for decades… he has openly run on killing Oslo, on preventing the formation of a Palestinian state.
Ironically, this is Hamas’ goal also.
They do not WANT peace either.
To my mind, the ONE tiny, barely visible on an electron microscope, miniature f****** scintilla of good that came out of 10/7 is the sense of acknowledgement that this is not sustainable… that this cannot keep going on and on from generation to generation.
We have, both Palestinians and Israelis, been betrayed by our leaders.