Originally Posted by
DogOfDanger
Here's a very recent video (post Oct-7) of a Hamas leader discussing the prospect of a two state solution. And this has been Hamas's official stance since its founding, it's the same thing their charter says... this stance is consistent with Islam which decrees that Allah granted Muslims the holy land, and establishes that Jews are the enemy of Muslims:
If Hamas's opposition to Israel were merely socio-political there would be no rational explanation for this negotiating stance. This stance does not benefit the Palestinians from a socio-political standpoint. For proof... just look at the current state of affairs in Gaza, which this stance does nothing to rectify and infact indirectly brought about. This stance only makes sense through the lense of fundamentalist Islam. And in the Hamas charter the stance is justified with reference to Islam. So there's really not much to be skeptical about here.
The civilian casualties, land grabs, "occupation" and social fallout are consequences of the war between these nations... The core problem is the Arab leaders led their nations to war, and still to this day insist on war. They refuse to negotiate... this is the problem that has caused all the other problems.
So allow me to repeat myself: There are many factors that motivate Hamas, including economic, social and geopolitical factors... but when you discount the religious factor this is a catastrophic error because it completely changes how we assess the political situation. One thing that's significant about religious dogma is you can't change it or reason with it.
The conflict follows from their negotiating stance, because it is essentially a war declaration: either the state of Israel agrees to dissolve or Hamas will reclaim it through force... period. And that entails Israeli citizens being kicked out of their homes, btw. That's Hamas's official negotiating stance. And the PLO had the exact same stance, and it was justified by Islam then too. Incidentally, it was the Arab states that declared the war in 1948, and their losing that war led to the Israeli expansion. That expansion is completely justified because a nation is not obligated to cede territory back to, and in so doing strengthen, an enemy who attacks it and refuses to make peace / continues to openly call for its destruction. A nation should not so casually declare war on neighboring nations, but if it loses it's going to suffer consequences... if it continues to declare war there will be continued consequences. This should be expected by a nation making war declarations.
It's pretty easy to selectively reinterpret history in a way that benefits you... especially when an issue is complicated and consists of multiple events over such a long timespan. When two parties have their own sets of historical facts it's very difficult to tell what's true. But ideas are not so shrouded in mystery, and on this level we can see plainly who the aggressor is... It's the party discounting all possibility of a two state solution publicly. It's the party adhering to a murderous, megalomaniacal religious delusion... it's the party that will only accept, as final outcome, the complete dissolution or obliteration of the opposing party. Ideas have a natural end... ideas have consequences.