r/politics • • 6d ago

No Paywall Obama: Israel 'took the land' from Palestinians, 'ceded moral ground' in Gaza

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-911851
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u/elihu 6d ago

The Palestinians, he said, have to understand that they will not "outkill" or "outweaponize the Israelis...We have to look to other examples of how change comes about," he said, pointing toward "nonviolent strategies."

"That's going to take some time," the former president acknowledged.

I'm all for non-violent resistance, but this is a pretty out-of-touch thing to say. Israel is doing what they do because the US supports them. Palestinians can't change that.

As president, Obama actively discouraged Palestinians from taking their case for statehood to the UN and their case against Israel for war crimes to the ICC, actively denying them a peaceful means of improving their situation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-15014037

https://www.timesofisrael.com/obama-reassures-netanyahu-on-iran-icc/

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u/Tiaan 6d ago

I think he's just saying that it's not realistic to have the goal of "destroying Israel" and that peace takes two sides.

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u/Zealousideal-Film982 6d ago edited 6d ago

Yeah I mean. Let’s hold both sides to the same standard. If Netanyahu’s gov = Israel, then Hamas = Palestine. In this fair view, Palestine absolutely attempted a genocide.

Peace takes two sides. Before 10/7, Israel had not occupied Gaza for almost two decades. If Palestine had not invaded Israel and killed 1,200 innocent people in one day, this war would not have happened.

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u/stereofailure 5d ago

Every line of this is false. Gaza has never stopped being under Israeli occupation since 1967. Hamas cannot "invade" a land they have the legal right to under international law. 10/7 was in no way an attempted genocide, was not directly targeting civilians, and had a better ratio of armed combatants to civilian killed than any Israeli action before or since.