Again watch your language and only claim what has been proved (rape has not). I do agree atrocities were committed tho, but to stay partial and critical in this assessment we must be clear with ourselves on what has been proven to have happened, and what didn't. For instance we know Israel is also responsible for a portion of the killing of Israeli civilians on the 7th of October. Many burned bodies for instance turned out to be Hamas operatives hit with hellfire missiles. So let's be careful
I saw no reason not to believe the rape accusations of Hamas - many women came forward with this and it would absolutely fit with all the other things Hamas did on Oct. 7 - how they paraded around Shani Louk and then later killed her.
Unfortunately, rape by Israeli guards of Palestinian captives would also be believable from the reports you hear about treatments of captives.
These outrageous claims are fitting with the panic then overreaction we're seeing on the israeli side, resulting in them shelling their own kibutzes, and now murdering tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in cold blood, after announcing terrible things like they're not looking for accuracy, but damage, and that they're fighting "human animals". Not only that, but some stories like the last two in the previous paragraph have actually been documented to have been done by israelis during previous massacres like Der Yassin and Sabra and Shatila.
As far as the abuse done by israel on Palestinian women and even children
[1] https://jordantimes.com/opinion/ramzy-baroud/untold-story-ab...
[2] https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israel-cr...
[3] https://www.cair.com/cair_in_the_news/israeli-guards-rape-pa...
In fact, you’ll see many countries who are actively benefiting from the conflict through arms sales voting for a ceasefire.
In fact, the UN often nicely provides political cover for countries. It lets them do whatever they want behind the scenes then vote for peace and then trumpet it in their domestic media.
Which ones specifically do you mean here? This would be a really interesting information in this whole topic.
That might be true for Guterres but not for the GA. The delegations that voted were not directed by the UN but by their respective countries. No one forced them to vote for this.
Israel itself gets its legitimacy from the UN resolution in 1949.
> But why would anyone ask them to cease fire against an enemy that won't return the favour?
My understanding of the term "ceasefire" is that it always applies to both sides - so of course during such a ceasefire Hamas would have to stop the rocket attacks as well.
Either way, for the parent post being flagged, it is absolutely correct in its assessment and its flagged status is just a small glimpse on why the collective west faces the existential threat and does as much work at dismantling itself as its enemies (which too do so in the open).
The actual winning move would be strengthening sanctions against Iran and its proxies, quick eradication of any actual and perceived threats in the middle east and the lift of unofficial ban by the West to Ukraine to conduct military operations on the territory of ruskieland as well as supply of all long-range standoff munitions that are scheduled for a decommission in the next three to five years so that we can actually save money for US by being more efficient at doing so with immediate and second-order strategic benefits to everyone involved.
During which Hamas would regroup, recover, and then be impossible to defeat and then would go on to commit another October 7th
What should in fact happen is another humanitarian pause allowing more hostages to be released but relief for civilians in conflict.
Hamas is now demanding all Palestinian prisoners, i.e. those who have committed attrocities in the past to be released which will never happen as it would incentivize further attacks against Israelis
But it is an absurd request, like calling for a ceasefire between Britain and Germany at the height of World War 2. Like "legitimacy" and "international law", the concept makes no sense when thought about clearly.
It is war. Wars end with a believable long term peace, most commonly due to the absolute destruction of one side's ability to fight. A peace is meant to be lasting, which means people have to believe in its durability. But there is no way to believe it in the case of Hamas short of a complete Israeli victory (i.e. occupation and total disarmament), because they have demonstrated that they are always engaged in preparation for the next attack. Any pause in the fighting would obviously only be temporary and adopted for military advantage.
Except, al-Qassam is not a regular military with weapons of mass destruction at its disposal. An overwhelming casualties have been civilians.
> A peace is meant to be lasting, which means people have to believe in its durability.
Just now I see Israelis calling for a war on Qatar, Iran, and Lebanon. Where does one find solution for this obsession with violence, if not in Tel Aviv? By dismantling the settlements in the West Bank and immediately moving to secure a state for the Palestinians?
'Even though the United States is the strongest nation in the world, it should never use that power unilaterally: "if we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we better reexamine our reasoning.'
He was talking about our mistake applying unilateral policy in Vietnam. We didn't apply his advice to Iraq and look where it got us.
Of course UN votes are always subject to all kinds of political considerations and power dynamics and the saying "nations have no friends, only interests" still applies, but when such a wide range of countries from completely different geopolitical alignments vote for this (e.g. pro-palestinian but strongly anti-Hamas Egypt together with hosts of Hamas Turkey, Qatar and Iran, together with pro-Israel western countries such as France and Switzerland), this does give a strong hint how the world opinion on the matter seems to be.
News bulletin: https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/12/1144717
Votes by nation: https://twitter.com/UN_News_Centre/status/173468680169949197...