dennisbmurphy
1 min readNov 17, 2023

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Agree with much of what you said

Hamas has no interest in a two state solution.

But neither does any Israeli govt under Netanyahu who explicitely rejected it in 2009. [1] He has since walked it back.. a little. But in my opinion that is just stalliing rhetoric while on the ground he continues to relocate Israelis into the West Bank. The population of Israelis in the west bank has gone from 111,600 in 1993 to 503,000 last year [2]

And the perpetual argument from the right and Israel , which blames the palestinians , is that Arafat rejected the two state solution but that simplistic answer hides some real problems with the offer. The offer was not one of a fully independent contiguous nation. [3] Link below shows the map- it a swiss cheese nation thoroughly dominated by Isreal.

Even so all that does not excuse Hamas. They were voted into power in Gaza mostly because Fatah party was corrupt and also put up competing slates. Since their win in 2006 Hamas has never held another election. They are using the Gazans as shields and hostages.

In my opinion, the surest way to marginalize Hamas would have been for Israel to offer the Palestinian Authority a real contiguous nation in the west bank. Any Israelis there could either become citizens of that new nation or relocate back into Israel.

Once other arab nations and the palestinians see that nationhood was possible, that would delegitimize Hamas.

It is a mess all around, sadly

[1] https://www.vox.com/2015/3/8/8171001/netanyahu-two-state

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement

[3] http://www.passia.org/maps/view/37

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dennisbmurphy
dennisbmurphy

Written by dennisbmurphy

Cyclist, runner. Backpacking, kayaking. .Enjoy travel, love reading history. Congressional candidate in 2016. Anti-facist. Home chef. BMuEd. Quality Engineer

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