They’re never going to stop fighting until one side loses the will to fight or one side’s all dead. I don’t claim to know a lot about Middle East. But here’s what I do know. Israel ain’t going anywhere. They will always be backed by the United States. Its military and technological advantages mean they can wage war way better than any Arab countries/factions in the region. Organizations like Hamas or countries like Iran have publicly stated that they don’t want Israel to exist. And they will NEVER lose the will to fight, given their propensity for things like suicide bombing. There’s the conundrum: an unstoppable force meets an immovable object. How many Presidents have tried to establish peace in the region? It never ends.
Note that some of what I’m writing is purely my opinion and you may disagree. Hamas will never stop fighting Israel because their goal is to destroy Israel. Despite a completely disproportionate and overwhelming military response from Israel, there appears to be no signs that Israel has broken Hamas’ back and they continue to fire rockets. Civilian casualties are spurring widespread condemnation of Israel’s actions.
I definitely support a country’s right to defend itself. Hamas won’t stop firing rockets. They started firing them without really much provocation. If Israel didn’t invade or withdrew right now, Hamas would continue firing rockets. So personally, I don’t oppose Israel’s war in Gaza. Yes, the civilian casualties are bad. But know this – Hamas rules Gaza and they carry out their attacks knowing they are putting their people at risk by provoking Israel. Not to mention they delibrately operate in civilian areas and hide weapons in mosques. There’s the problem – are they representing their people or carrying out some misguided holy war? I think it’s the latter.
Another problem is that Israel faces an irrational enemy. The whole point of this “shock and awe” strategy is to show Hamas that they will pay a huge cost for what they’re doing and discourage them from attacking Israel. But Hamas doesn’t get that, they just see this war as a reason to continue their fighting, their divine mission to destroy the infidels. Israel has far more firepower but Hamas doesn’t seem to care about their own civilian casualties. At least not enough to make them stop fighting. It’s an ugly hypothetical but if Israel leveled Gaza to the ground, this war would end. Why do you think bombing Nagasaki and Hiroshima immediately ended the World War II? The cost was too high to bear. Hamas apparently thinks their current rate of civilian casualties is acceptable. If the world consisted of just Israel and Gaza, I have no doubt that if necessary, Israel would bomb Gaza to rubble.
The fighting likely will never stop until one side is completely and utterly destroyed. The violence just perpetuates in a never-ending cycle. That’s the ugliness of war. It can only end when both sides wholeheartedly commit to peace but that just isn’t going to happen.
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