Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Lewis Elbinger's avatar

Peter, you are a mensch. I especially like the way you connect the Palestinian liberation struggle with the history of other such struggles. As you correctly said, "The only way to stop oppressed people from responding to the violence of oppression with violence of their own is to end their oppression." It's so damn obvious.

Expand full comment
David Peters's avatar

Excellent article , very informative. I also get frustrated by Israel's framing of this as 'Israel v Hamas'. It takes over the narrative which then gets taken up the media and then the watching public is more likely to accept Israel's attacks on Gaza. Thatcher did this in the 80s when talking about the IRA 'terrorists' who did commit some terrible acts of violence, but was often in response to oppression and violence meted out to nationalists in Northern Ireland, i.e they were defending their people from the dominant force in the land. The old adage, 'one man's terrorist, is another's man's freedom fighter', springs to mind.

Hamas I feel (and your piece suggests they may be on this path already) needs to take the same route followed by Sinn Fein and commit to removing the armalite/rockets and demand equal rights for all those living in Israel/Palestine. Bottom line: there will never be peace until borders are drawn and Palestine is given 'statehood', which has been snatched away by western powers desperate for a strong ally or 'fifth column' in the middle east.

Expand full comment
37 more comments...

No posts