I wrote "both sides". Religion is at the core of this dispute. Why did Jews want to go back to the Holy Land and not some place else? Religion. Why does Iran want to wipe out Israel from the face of the Earth? Religion.

All sides of the Palestinian conflict have strong groups of influence who base their demands on religious grounds, because when you cannot deny facts or do not want to start a long, hard road to peace and reconciliation saying "my made up deity told me so" is apparently reason good enough to start killing people.

When your asks are things like "treat us as people equal to you" and "stop the secret police arrests and detention and torture of our children" and "give us self determination" and "stop genociding us", the world is unsurprisingly receptive to your asks. Hence, the world's current support for Palestine via the UN.

Religion is a red herring here. What must be done first and foremost is Israel, the party with all the power here, treats all people equally, with equal rights. Doing so will take the wind out of the sails of Hamas. If Israel's goal is genocide, an independent investigation of Israel's actions will show that they are different*.

* - An independent investigation of Israel's actions shows that they are different.

The extremists from both sides have to be removed from the conversation. Extremists on both sides are using religion to justify political goals and want to achieve political goals through military action. Half-measures will only result in suspension of atrocities for a brief moment while both sides re-arm. You cannot talk about what's going on without discussing Hamas' rise to power, removal of political opposition, and making preparations for an attack that resulted in what has been going on since last year. They took Palestinians hostage and used them to turn the world against Israel. How is that not genocidal? Palestinians are used in a political game for political gains. Does it justify Israel's actions? No. Does is present Hamas as a saviour of the Palestinian people? No.

You cannot talk about what's going on without discussing: Israel's long history of treating Palestinians unequal to Israelis; Israel's arrest, detention, and torture of Palestinian children and other civilians via secret police; denial of Palestinian self determination; Repeated attacks on Palestinian civilians before Oct7, killing thousands; and Israeli genocide of Palestinians. Each of these actions is literally inexcusable, as in there is no excuse one can come up with, which justifies any of the actions.

Because of this, anyone involved in the Israeli abuse and genocide of Palestinians is as extremist, if not moreso, than those involved in the attack that killed 95% fewer innocent civilians last year.

Either way, the first step is that Israel must stop treating Palestinians as half-people. It's the right thing to do, and it will take the wind out of the sails of Hamas, as well as the global condemnation of Israel.

> They took Palestinians hostage and used them to turn the world against Israel.

This is the gaslighting language of spousal abusers: "You made me hurt you". Israel did both those things, and is (unsuccessfully) attempting to gaslight others with abuser language, because they are abusers of Palestinians.