Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.
“What is striking to me is that even as, again, we hear many countries urging the end to this conflict, which we would all like to see, I hear virtually no one saying – demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow if Hamas does that. This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that,” Blinken said during a press briefing at the State Department Wednesday.
“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” Blinken went on to say.
The strong comments from Blinken come as the United Nations Security Council continues to negotiate a resolution calling for a suspension in fighting and encouraging more humanitarian aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip, and as the United States’ support for the resolution remains unresolved.
To analogize with another ongoing conflict: the Ukrainian war could be over tomorrow if Ukraine unconditionally surrendered to Russia, but they’re sure as fuck not going to do that, nor should they.
Also, to be clear: I am absolutely not saying that Hamas are the good guys here. They are definitely not the good guys. But addressing an incredibly complex and nuanced situation in such a reductive fashion (“Hamas should surrender unconditionally right now”) is deeply unhelpful, and ignores why Hamas came into being in the first place, and why they further developed into such a threatening force in the region.
There are interviews with Ukrainian soldiers who said they stay away from civilians so that when Russians bombard them the civilians will not be affected.
I think the combat style and priorities are a bit different so a comparision cannot be made in this case.
Can you link me to the part where Ukraine fired thousands of rockets at Russian cities and started a war by raping and murdering a thousand innocent people?
Hamas didn't murder a thousand innocent people at all
Only around 780 unarmed occupiers died of which most were recruited members of the the IDF terrorist organisation. Hamas directly killed 375 armed IDF Nazis.
Of course we now know that many occupiers, especially most if not all of the children were actually killed by the ZioNazis firing rockets and tank shells at their own people.
And there still is no evidence of Hamas raping anyone not sure why you keep bringing up this lie.
Let’s invade a country, then blame the war on the people for fighting back and tell the world “well if they wouldn’t fight back there would be no war, so it’s all their fault really”.
99% of this site believes what comes out of the Palestinian government regardless of how it's been shown to be falsified more often than true and almost always spun. It's truly an example of a repeated lie being eventually believed.
“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” Blinken went on to say.
Israel has been the aggressor for decades now. They trapped these people, made it impossible for any economic opportunity, raided them daily killing indiscriminately, stole their land repeatedly and then want to play the victim when the provoked people fight back. Fuck off, Israel needs to return the land, end the blockades, and allow the investments it lied about, only then would it even be close to neutral. I hate hamas, but Israel made this bed
"And don't get me started on those Native Americans who kept fighting back against the US settlers who invaded their lands. Clearly if they had just agreed to a ceasefire everything would have been fine."
Aide whispers in ear.
"OK, if they had just agreed to one more ceasefire despite the US constantly breaking them then everything would have been fine!"
Gaza is civilian. It's a city, an extremely densely populated city. So if Hamas is anywhere in their own land, Israel can make this accusation. What bullshittery to think an invading country slaughtering your population gets to make demands of the where your military is allowed to be in your own country.
I don't recall Ukraine going into Russia and murdering and raping civilians. Doesn't mean Israel has any right to slaughter citizens but these are not the same situation.
If there was no Hamas, Israeli settlers would still be committing terrorist acts on unarmed Palestinians in West Bank and right wing politicians would still be threatening to tear down Al Aqsa. If Hamas vanished tomorrow, none of that would change. Netanyahu would still refuse to recognize a two state solution and would refuse to negotiate with Abbas or the PA. Gazans would be in an open air prison.
The Israeli military shot unarmed Palestinian protestors and the US State Department did nothing. Palestinians asked the international community for help to end their oppression and the Israeli government called it “diplomatic terrorism” and sanctioned Palestinians further. Boycotting Israel is illegal in US law. Why should anyone listen to the US State Department’s recommendations when they don’t even follow through?
entire Arab League and many other countries/leaders are only interested in Palestinians being Israel's problem. They don't care for peace, human rights or any of that. It's just a stick to beat/delegitimize Israel with.
They all know a cease-fire is temporary at best, until Hamas regains confidence.
Lay down your arms and your oppressors will open theirs. Sure.
This is practically a blood fued that has been going on for longer than anyone has been alive. Literally since biblical times. No one has a good solution cause there is none. Pure example of an eye for an eye leaving everyone blind.
I get what you mean, but this mess has been going on since 1917, and evolved into its current form in 1948/1949. The biblical conflict over the holy land ended with the crusades.
If this was any other country, they would never say that as a foreign transgressor enters. However, Palestine is not recognized as a state. So Israel, presumably, has not declared war and is just killing civilians as a means to anti terrorism. Even the USA after 9/11 sought valid reasons for war, even if they turned out to be fabricated. Now the veil is gone.
It's like saying that it was the fault of the Jewish Resistance for not surrendering unconditionally that the Nazis were killing residents of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Guess that at the end of WWII the US brought over a couple of Herr Goebbel's top employees in the Ministry Of Propaganda along with the rocketry and nuclear scientists. Certainly it would explain a lot...
They're terrorists, not a country with a reputation and trading partners. They have absolutely nothing to lose. Demand all you want, I demand this rock turn to gold.
A vote on the resolution was pushed for a third time this week as countries work to bring the US – one of the five permanent members on the council with the power to sink a deal with a veto – on board.
The delay underscored the Biden administration’s hesitancy to sign onto a resolution that could be interpreted as a rebuke of Israel’s continuing military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
The US has vetoed previous measures at the UNSC and voted against a call for a ceasefire in the larger UN General Assembly earlier this month.
But the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza from Israel’s response has prompted top US officials, including President Joe Biden, to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take more meaningful steps to protect innocent lives while waging his war against Hamas.
The secretary acknowledged “the last couple of months have been gut-wrenching when you see the suffering of men, women, and especially children in Gaza,” and the administration, he said, has focused on “doing everything possible to minimize the harm to those who are caught in a crossfire of Hamas’ making.”
CNN’s Becky Anderson, Michael Williams, Kevin Liptak and Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.
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