This is a fantastic opinion piece by Sanders that lays it out the situation before the Hamas attack, the current situation, and what should be done. He lays out several requirements for peace that aid to Israel should be contingent on. He also notes that Hamas is hurting the Palestinians, which is a detail very few mention.
He’s also one of the first people I’ve seen try to take a stab at what a lasting solution needs to be – two states, Netanyahu ousted, Hamas destroyed, foundations of Palestinian civil government created.
We can’t have a world where the only political issue is “Which psychotic fascists are worse than the others?” But avoiding that requires recognizing that Netanyahu and Hamas are both psychotic fascists who willingly throw “their people’s” lives away in pursuit of power and image.
Hamas keeps Palestinians imprisoned and deprived to use them as human shields to make Israel look bad. They steal food and fuel, maintaining Palestinians in a state of deprivation in order to point to them and say “Look what Jews did!”
Netanyahu explicitly permitted Hamas’s attack on October 7, allowing Israelis to be raped, tortured, and killed because it would make Palestinians look bad. He lets Hamas do horrible things because it lets him say “Look what Palestinians did!”
They’ve both gotta go.
They love to talk smack about Sanders relative inexperience in foreign affairs, but he nails it where it matters. One of few politicians who says things like ‘never again’ and means it.
From Sen. Sanders statement:
An immediate humanitarian response is vitally important, but it is equally important for Israel to have a political strategy. It cannot bomb its way to a long-term solution. Such a strategy must include, as minimum first steps: a clear promise that Palestinians displaced in the fighting will have the absolute right to safely return to their homes; a commitment to broader peace talks to advance a two-state solution in the wake of this war; an abandonment of Israeli efforts to carve up and annex the West Bank; and a commitment to work with the international community to build genuine Palestinian governing capacity.
What is happening now is butchery, not the steps to a lasting peace. Every single person and nation can walk back from the brink of madness if they realize they are wrong and start the process to peace. Peace doesn’t come at the end of a sword. It comes from an outstretched hand. Show these poor trapped people your humanity. Show them mercy in the face of crushing death and sow the seeds of a future both your children can live in.
This piece was published 4 days ago. Israel still has time to save 350,000 people dying in the rubble around them. There is always time to be human. There is always time for mercy when you were shown none.
One of 3 politicians in America today who deserve the presidency, and would recieve my vote.
I think that would be easier said than done. Right now, Israel has split the country in two and is engaging Hamas directly. In order for there to be a pause, Israel would have to pull back which not only negate their progress but allow Hamas to regroup.
So?
How the fuck does that stop anything? If I leave my phone at home I turn around and get my phone or I don’t. It’s not what is easier or how far I’ve driven. It’s whether it’s worth doing. In the case of saving the 330,000 civilians trapped in the rubble around the forces that have encircled them, then yes it’s worth doing. Nobody gets to act like it’s too late until there isn’t a shred of hope for those people and the hearts that beat inside them.Nobody gets to claim the moral high ground in sacrificing the lives of the people trapped where you decided to invade or Hamas decided to defend. You cannot beat monsters by being an equally gross monster. It only leaves us a world of dead civilians filled with awful monsters. You want to beat Hamas? You have to be better than Hamas. Sanders gets that. Why don’t you?
Saving civilians is not a loss of progress. It’s the first step toward it dude.
If I leave my phone at home I turn around and get my phone or I don’t. It’s not what is easier or how far I’ve driven. It’s whether it’s worth doing.
Wait, what?
So the decision making is identical if you realize you forgot your phone after 5 minutes of driving vs if you drove cross country for 3 days?
That Israel should forgo revenge for humanitarian purposes aside, either your analogy is terrible or you have some of the strangest prioritization I’ve ever encountered.
