Posted on May 21, 2021
CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana
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The war between these two states lasted 11 days, where both sides shelled one another. Given this 11-day war, the question is how long can these two adversaries maintain peace in the region; can the two sides compromise to achieve unity or separation of state?
Posted in these groups: Flag of israel svg Israel46beed1 Palestine4de5ecdb ConflictPeace logo Peace
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SSG Robert Perrotto
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Edited 3 y ago
The truth is this - does Hamas want peace. For all intents and purposes, the answer is no, they do not. Israel has tried numerous times to negotiate with Hamas and what they formerly were, the PLO, with nothing to show for it. As long as Hamas targets Israeli civilians, then there will never be peace.

Put yourself in Israels shoes, from inception, the entire region around them have wanted to exterminate them, starting two major wars, and hundreds of intense conflicts with most of the intense conflicts targeting Israeli civilians. The United States invaded both Afghanistan and Iraq in the so called "War on Terror" as retaliation for 1 horrible attack on our civilians, yet want to criticize Israel for defending itself from a clear and present hostile entity that launched hundreds of rockets at civilian cities within Israel, and have done so for decades. That Palestine still exists is testament to Israels continued efforts towards a peaceful solution. If this was the United States Hamas was attacking, then Palestine would have ceased to exist decades ago.

I really get a kick out of Americans, living in comfort and privilege, relatively safe from concerted efforts to kill innocent civilians on a daily basis, having the audacity to question Israel after an attack against them.
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SR Kenneth Beck
SR Kenneth Beck
3 y
Modern Israel was founded May 14, 1948.
Kingdom of Israel dates to about 890 BC. Saul is appointed king after leading of an army to victory over the Ammonites and the Philistines. Ref. 1st Samuel.
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MAJ Hugh Blanchard
MAJ Hugh Blanchard
3 y
SFC (Join to see) - This reminds me of Christiane Amanpour's complaint broadcast on CNN last week that it's unfair that Israel's "Iron Dome" system is so effective and that so many more Hamas fighters have died than Israelis. Ridiculous! There is no "fairness" in war - you use the best weapons, intelligence, and tactics that you have, and you kill the enemy as completely and quickly as you can. The sooner the fighting stops, the fewer deaths there will be on all sides. It doesn't have to be, and should NOT be "fair". There is nothing admirable or noble about Arab mobs trying to kill Israeli citizens and burning down 10 synagogues, as they have done during this criminal and terrorist uprising. If Hamas doesn't want to die, then they shouldn't commit terrorism against Israel.
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SFC Peter Krarup
SFC Peter Krarup
3 y
To quote Golda Meir, fourth prime minister of Israel, ""When peace comes we will perhaps in time be able to forgive the Arabs for killing our sons, but it will be harder for us to forgive them for having forced us to kill their sons. Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."
It's written in the Koran that it's a Muslim's duty to seek out and kill Jews. I don't see that requirement in the Torah or the Old Testament or the New Testament. Maybe it would be a good thing if the Koran had the equivalent of a Protestant Reformation and removed all the hatred for the Jews and other faiths.
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SSG Bill McCoy
SSG Bill McCoy
3 y
This thread has provided some fascinating historical relevance from both sides. Yet the fact remains, the Islamic world hates Jews (and Christians), The Palestinians are merely a tool used by Iran and other Arab nations to undermine Israel. The most telling point though is the quote by Golda Meir provided by SFC Peter Krarup.
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MAJ Ron Peery
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If you get rid of Hamas and Hezbollah, they could most likely live in peace.
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CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana
CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana
3 y
Doubtful Ron. Hamas and Hezbollah are only Islamic Resistance Movements to resist the occupation of their land and territories. Unless Palestine and Lebanon are given legitimacy, the resistance will continue. Initially, the librration of Palestine was fought by the PLO and after PLO, Hamas is leading the resistance movement. If Hamas is finished, like the PLO, another party will arise to fight for Liberation of the Arab State of Palestine. Likewise, the Hezbollah in Lebanon.
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MAJ Hugh Blanchard
MAJ Hugh Blanchard
3 y
CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana - Israel isn't occupying Lebanon, Iran's proxy army, the terrorist group Hezbollah, is occupying Lebanon. Israel would never have gone to war in southern Lebanon had not Hezbollah continually escalated its terror attacks against settlements inside Israel. The Syrian Army also occupies Lebanese territory, and the Lebanese don't want them there but lack the capability to get them out. Palestine does not exist as a legitimate nation so long as it continues to be mismanaged by terrorist groups who care nothing for the Palestinian people. Hamas is a terrorist group, it is not a legitimate political party. So long as Hamas vows to destroy Israel and has the Palestinian people in a stranglehold, there can be no stable peace.
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MAJ Hugh Blanchard
MAJ Hugh Blanchard
3 y
Do Hamas’s supporters in the West know what this organization really stands for? The reality is that Hamas is no liberation movement in search of a Palestinian nation. Instead, it seeks the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state on its ruins. How do we know? Because senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has said so:

“Islamic and traditional views reject the notion of establishing an independent Palestinian state… In the past, there was no independent Palestinian state… This is a holy land. It is not the property of the Palestinians or the Arabs. This land is the property of all Muslims in all parts of the world… [Hence] our main goal is to establish a great Islamic state, be it pan-Arabic or pan-Islamic."

Understanding this makes it clear that the most recent bout of fighting — in which thousands of rockets have been fired and dozens killed — has little to do with freeing Palestinians from Israeli domination. It is inspired instead by the idea of freeing the Holy Land from Israel.
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LTC Program Manager
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Yes, we have seen significant progress toward peace over the last few years. As more mideast nations enter peaceful relationships with Israel the state sponsors of Hamas will end their proxy war.
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SPC David S.
SPC David S.
3 y
Israel and the PLO signed peace accords in 1990's. However as Hamas wanted to see Israel no longer a country decided to veto the accords via a wave of suicide bombers on buses - Jaffa Road bus bombings. These bombings were widely blamed for turning Israelis away from the peace process and bringing Benjamin Netanyahu - a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords - to power. As such Hamas kind of set the tone on Israeli Hamas relations.

With that in mind I'm betting this all is related to Israel trying to instigate some Hamas-Fatah infighting in order to undermine Hamas's influence within Palestine and the region. Attack Palestinians with stun guns and rubber bullets hoping Hamas fires rockets, then bomb the shit out of Gaza in response to Hamas rocket attacks. End result no elections.
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MAJ Hugh Blanchard
MAJ Hugh Blanchard
3 y
CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana - Hamas is no liberation movement in search of a Palestinian nation. Instead, it seeks the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state on its ruins. How do we know this? Because senior Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar has said so:

“Islamic and traditional views reject the notion of establishing an independent Palestinian state… In the past, there was no independent Palestinian state… This is a holy land. It is not the property of the Palestinians or the Arabs. This land is the property of all Muslims in all parts of the world… [Hence] our main goal is to establish a great Islamic state, be it pan-Arabic or pan-Islamic."
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CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana
CPT Gurinder (Gene) Rana
3 y
MAJ Hugh Blanchard, was Palestine first or was it carved out of Israel, or did Israel earn independence from Palestine? These are basic questions for the interest of the international community.

Facts:

Isreal was founded in 1948.
Palestine can be traced back to the land between Phoenicia and Egypt in 5th century BCE, when Herodotus wrote of a district of Syria called Palestine. In the 12th century BCE, Greek writers wrote about the Philistines of Philistine. From 1571 till 1917, in the Ottoman Empire, the presence of Palestine makes it obvious that the British Crown took over Palestine and divided it creating Israel in 1948; pitting the Arab Muslims against the Jews and Christians.

The story of Isreal is alike to the tale of Pakistan. Pakistan is like Palestine, where, to gain legitimacy the leadership turns to terrorism. If we are unwilling to take definitive measures to stop terrorism in Pakistan then, why are we trying to reshape Palestine?
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MAJ Hugh Blanchard
MAJ Hugh Blanchard
3 y
There were Arabs and Jews living on this land from thousands of years ago. Palestine as a state formally existed only for a few decades in the early-middle 1900's and for most of that time was under Turkish or British colonial rule. The Ottoman Empire was ruled by the Turks, not Palestinians, and the Turks oppressed everyone under their dictatorship. Yes, the modern state of Israel was founded in 1948. But the ancient state of Israel existed for hundreds, if not thousands of years before that, which has been confirmed via archeological studies from the 19th Century and onwards to the present day. The Jews of Israel didn't just show up in 1948, they have as valid a claim to the land as do the Arabs.

It's not possible for two contending groups to rule over the same physical territory. Yet the "Palestinians", controlled by terror groups (Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, etc.) who claim to represent them, refuse any attempts to reach any kind of peaceful settlement with Israel. For those terror groups it's all or nothing, the destruction of Israel or unending fruitless attacks on Israel. And these terrorists keep the Palestinians in poverty and misery as a group of unwilling pawns to their "strategy".
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