Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Tuesday claimed the social media platform TikTok is creating “warped” perceptions of Israel’s war with the Palestinian militant group Hamas. When as…
Those of us who feel like both are to blame tend to be outshouted by the “I ALWAYS STAND WITH ISRAEL NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO” and the “HAMAS ARE JUST FREEDOM FIGHTERS SO ANYTHING THEY DO IS JUSTIFIED” groups. And if we speak up to point out that both groups have issues, we get attacked by both groups for not being on a side and especially for not being on their side.
One of the big problems with the Middle East is that it’s a messy situation and people like simple narratives. They don’t want to hear a hundred plus years of attacks, revenge attacks, generational trauma, etc. That’s not easy to resolve. Instead, people want to know that A is always good and B is always bad. That’s nice and simple and easy to fix. You just eliminate the bad people and all is well.
Sadly, the real world is rarely so black and white.
As an Irish person I can say with some experience that what Hamas is doing is not justified but it is pretty much inevitable. And unless Israel are really going to continue their genocide, all they’ve done is perpetuate this inevitability.
Those of us who feel like both are to blame tend to be outshouted by the “I ALWAYS STAND WITH ISRAEL NO MATTER WHAT THEY DO” and the “HAMAS ARE JUST FREEDOM FIGHTERS SO ANYTHING THEY DO IS JUSTIFIED” groups. And if we speak up to point out that both groups have issues, we get attacked by both groups for not being on a side and especially for not being on their side.
One of the big problems with the Middle East is that it’s a messy situation and people like simple narratives. They don’t want to hear a hundred plus years of attacks, revenge attacks, generational trauma, etc. That’s not easy to resolve. Instead, people want to know that A is always good and B is always bad. That’s nice and simple and easy to fix. You just eliminate the bad people and all is well.
Sadly, the real world is rarely so black and white.
As an Irish person I can say with some experience that what Hamas is doing is not justified but it is pretty much inevitable. And unless Israel are really going to continue their genocide, all they’ve done is perpetuate this inevitability.