(11-12-2023, 12:53 AM)EndtheMadnessNow Wrote: John Mearsheimer - considered one of the foremost International Relations scholar's in the world today - on Gaza:
Israel is "waging a punishment campaign in Gaza, they are punishing the civilian population... The Israelis are interested in causing a huge amount of destruction in Gaza and in the process they are going to kill huge numbers of civilians... It seems to me that when you do that you're committing war crimes. If the Israelis were going to great length to target just Hamas and avoid civilian casualties then you could make a coherent argument that this is not a case of them committing war crimes but they're not doing that, they're purposely tearing the place apart. This is a massive punishment campaign.
Furthermore at the same time they've cut off all food, water and gas to Gaza and this means that in effect they're going to end up starving out, or trying to starve out, the civilian population in Gaza. By my understanding of international law, this too is a war crime."
He also says the U.S. is "definitely complicit" in those war crimes.
Mearsheimer also makes the case that it simply won't work as he doesn't believe there's a military solution here:
"I don't think that [Israel] can beat Hamas on the battlefield and even if [they] do some other group will come to take their place. And I don't believe you can beat the Palestinians into submission."
Instead he says "what you have to do is come up with a political solution", which everyone "fully understands" is the 2-state solution. However he says "the Israelis have - except on one occasion - never been really interested in even trying to achieve a 2-state solution."
Prof. John J. Mearsheimer: Ukraine/Israel: How China benefits (25 min)
Mearsheimer is wrong. I believe he is willfully wrong, and being willfully obtuse. I believe that because I cannot see how anyone could spout such nonsense without purposefully spreading Hamas propaganda.
Israel is not "punishing" Gaza, they are eliminating a threat. They have given Gaza civilians adequate warning to get the hell out of Dodge if they don't want to die, and have gone so far as to clear avenues of egress for them. Anyone remaining must be willfully providing cover for Hamas, and are therefore just as much "combatants" as Hamas is. They know the place will be eradicated, and if they remain, they will be eradicated, too, so it must be a conscious decision to thwart the elimination of Hamas.
They have made themselves fair game, and will not be receiving the 72 virgins they are expecting for becoming intentional "martyrs".
He is correct in saying that once Hamas is eradicated, some other organization will replace it. That only means that the next contestant will also have to be eradicated, and that will continue until they are all gone, or else have learned to be cautious about playing the Whack-A-Mole game they are playing. Most likely they will have to be eliminated, because they are showing no signs of having the intelligence level it takes to learn.
Where he really shows his willful ignorance is when he says "there is no military solution, there is only a political solution and that involves the two-state solution". No one knolegeable about the history of this conflict could possibly say that with a straight face unless they are intentionally misleading people who know even less about it than themselves. There is ALWAYS a military solution when one party is forced into delivering one. The two-state solution has been advanced and offered many times already, and the Palestinians have consistently refused it in favor of eliminating Israel, leaving only a "one-state" solution. Palestinians do not want their own state as long as Israelis get a state, too.
This is not a new war, it is just another battle in a 70 year long (so far) "forever war" that Palestinians insist on prosecuting against Jews. They are even now laying the groundwork to carry it into other nations, eliminating Jews "wherever they may be found" as their Qur'an dictates they do. The only way to stop this forever war is to eliminate the people pushing it.
Therefore, the only actual, real and lasting solution must be a one-state solution at the insistence of the Palestinians. Since they are the party refusing a two-state solution., the one state left standing should not be a Palestinian state, because they will not stop there. They have, over the years, demonstrated a willingness and intent to take over Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt as well, and will not stop with just a state for "Palestinians" that only includes Israeli lands. They will go expansionist as is their, and Islamic, history in general... even against "their own kind".
Hamas was given Gaza, and al-Fatah was given the West Bank. They could have demonstrated a willingness for two state solutions with those patches of ground, and achieved the Palestinian State, but tht is NOT what they want. They want the elimination of Jews. Hamas is the Islamic Brotherhood" version of Palestinians ( like al Qaeda and ISIS and the Taliban), and al-Fatah is the Marxist version of Palestinians. Neither one can get along with others without trying to kill them off - just look at what they've done with the patches of ground they've been given. Instead of aspiring to statehood, they've used them as bases to launch attacks.
Don't listen to what they SAY, watch what they DO.
There are only two possible worlds for such people - "Dar al-Islam", or "Dar al-Harb" - the "world of Islam" or "the world of war". There is no world of peace unless the entire world is Islamic... and in reality, as they have amply demonstrated over the last millennium and a half, they will continue war against each other if they have no one else to fight at the moment.
So, really, there is only Dar al-Harb in their worldview. Ever Dar al-Islam will be turned into Dar al-Harb.
The ONLY solution, to be a lasting solution, is the elimination of Palestinians, and indeed ALL Muslim Brotherhood factions of Islam as well as ALL Marxist Muslims. Anything less will just promote more "forever wars" in the Middle East. The ONLY solution is a military solution, beating them into an inability to wage any further war. Until they are pounded into that state, they will continue attacking.
Has the last 70 years of conflict involving "Palestinians" not taught anyone anything? Until the rest of the world gets serious about putting them down like the rabid dogs they are, they will continue putting the rest of the world down. Eliminating Israel is only a jumping off point for them.
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