Little more complex than that. Hamas is basically Muslim Brotherhood, which won elections in Egypt before the current government overthrew them. They don't want to take a chance on importing more of them, as the MB has a power base within the Egyptian population, having really originated there. You never know how stable things are. Plus, it would allow Israel to basically dump off Palestinians, most of which have a tie to that land.
what about the large number of Gazans who are Egyptian? You do know that Gaza was part of Egypt until 1967?
I don’t know if anyone has done a count. But Most are Egyptian. And. Oddly, there is still a Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza. Why is that?
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I agree that continued attacks is no pathway to peace, and an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. But if Hamas was truly interested in peace, do you think they would have spent months, if not years planning their attack directed at civilians, including women and children, knowing full well what the Israeli response would be? Peace must be desire by both sides for there to be actual peace. Right now, neither side wants it. There may be Israeli citizens and Palestinian citizens that want peace, but leaders of both groups don't want it. So, the insanity continues. And it will continue until the Palestinians stand up, find a peaceful leader, and say enough if enough. Hamas stated goal is death or removal of all Israelis, and Israel no longer on the map. Anyone think there is a foreseeable future where Hamas accomplishes this goal? No. So, the only pathway to peace exists where the Palestinians acknowledge the right of Israel and Israelis to exist. As long as Hamas is planning and carrying out terrorists attacks against Israel, again, the insanity will continue, as it has for centuries.
Good stuff AZ, except that I believe Israel was making sincere moves in the direction of peace. Hamas couldn't have that--they'd be out of bidniz. Now of course, Israel can not do peace, as long as hamas holds her citizens hostage ( and of course there can be no peace with the perps of Saturdays attack. Upon what could they possibly base any hope for such?).
I would also add that Egypt doesn't want to be in the position of having to support over one million refugees for an extended period of time. There are 1.3 million Syrian refugees in camps in Jordan and a similar number in Turkey. Egypt doesn't want the burden of having to support a huge number of Palestinian refugees from Gaza.
Sometimes it makes people feel good to state that they have the most moral position that makes the most sense even though it means nothing towards an actual solution.
Yeah it's beyond naive. Morality has nothing to do with it. It's about threats that can not be solved politically, so war is the last resort. The problem is we try to play both sides. Pick a side and either win or die. That's what war is, you fight until you cry uncle or someone else helps you. Unfortunately, we keep pulling back and prolonging the conflict.
It's difficult. The simple truth is that there is no real way to say perfect justice will be done - that there is some feasible way to remove Hamas without the deaths of a lot of innocents. But better to say nothing than to just state there is no problem, that anyone who is killed somehow deserves it. So better to deflect. The Economist podcast from 10-11 has an interview with a Hamas spokesman where he tried to say that no civilians were knowingly taken, that all appeared to be IDF, and that no civilians were harmed. Strong pushback from interviewer. But he just kept saying it, along with the fact that they would defeat Israel and liberate all of Palestine and that the Palestinian people would be better off for the atrocities (I have a hard time calling it an attack, as that makes it sound more respectful as a military exercise).
