Former President Barack Obama said a way forward for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only possible if people acknowledge the “complexity” of the situation.

“If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively to do something, it will require an admission of complexity and maintaining what on the surface may seem contradictory ideas that what Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And … that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable,” Obama said in an interview on the podcast “Pod Save America.”

The former president’s comments come as the Israeli military focuses its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City and northern parts of the enclave.

  • Five@slrpnk.net
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    1 year ago

    I’m not saying the details of it are not complicated.

    History is always complicated

    Present events are always complicated

    But the way this is reported in the western media is as though one needs a PhD in Middle Eastern studies to understand the basic morality of holding a people in a situation in which they don’t have basic rights including the right that we treasure most the franchise the right to vote and then declaring that state a democracy

    is actually not that hard to understand.

    Ta-Nehisi Coates

    • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      I’m actually not sure which country you are talking about now. I don’t know of anyone who calls Palestine a democracy. I think the reason people call Israel a democracy is that Israeli citizens have free elections and are not oppressed. I don’t think they factor in oppression of other countries when they call something a democracy. If they did, the US and UK wouldn’t count as democracies either.

      • dustyData@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If they did, the US and UK wouldn’t count as democracies either

        Most political experts agree that they barely classify. The US has a rather unique electoral college system. The UK is most literally a constitutional monarchy. At best, they’re hybrid systems.

      • stella@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        holding a people in a situation in which they don’t have basic rights

        I’m actually not sure which country you are talking about now.

        If the options are Palestine and Israel, which country do you think it is?

        Come on, use your brain.

        • tias@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          No need to be condescending. With how polarizing this issue is, you are surely aware that there might be people on the Internet who would stand by these claims for either of the two countries. What I use my brain to conclude isn’t relevant, the question is what you used your brain to conclude.

        • HappycamperNZ@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          holding a people in a situation in which they don’t have basic rights

          Hamas holding their own population as human shields and failing to provide basic infrastructure, or Israel blocking their own borders that stops Palestine civilians from access to necessity of life.

          Im with the other poster, and if you didn’t see both there is already a bias in your head that no reasonable and open discussion of facts would ever overcome.

          • stella@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            Lol, what? You’re buying into Israeli propaganda talking points to justify bombing civilians. I’m not going to entertain your bias.

            Hamas isn’t denying Gazans basic human rights. Israel is. This isn’t up for debate.