this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
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[–] merc 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

If the cartels took complete control of Mexico

So, in this situation does Mexico still have an economy? I assume tourism has stopped, but are they still a petroleum exporter? Do they still make cars and trucks for export? Do they still grow Avocados and sell them to the US? Because the Palestinians in Gaza don't really have an economy to speak of, so unless you first reduce Mexico's economy to something barely self-sustaining, it really isn't a fair comparison.

then stated their goal was to kill all Americans

Not much of a cartel if they're killing their best customers.

we might start patrolling our border a little harder

See, that's a key difference. Nobody's saying that Israel shouldn't patrol their own border. What's a bigger issue is that they're patrolling the other borders too. Israel is in a position to cut Gaza off completely. Israel can completely shut off water, food, fuel and power to Gaza. Even before this conflict they shut off tourism and fishing.

In your scenario, imagine the US Navy had carrier strike groups in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Pacific coast, preventing even fishing boats from leaving the Mexican shores. Now imagine the Guatemala and Belize borders were closed too, so that the entire country of Mexico was essentially a prison. That's the situation in Gaza.

Also, in your scenario, is the US government encouraging Americans to move to Mexico and set up little American compounds there, either by building their own houses or by kicking Mexicans out of theirs and moving in? When Americans go to Mexico and take over a Mexican house, are those Americans protected by the US military? And do they get the protection of US laws, as if the families still lived in the US?

there is a reason that Israel is in the West Bank in the first place

Yes, they have extremely unfriendly relationships with almost every neighbouring country, and they seized that territory after one of the many wars with those neighbours, and have continued to occupy it counter to international law. That, of course, leads to extremely unfriendly relationships with almost every neigbouring country, which leads to conflict, which leads to a need to try to control that territory.

there will never be peace in that region until Hamas is stripped of all power in Gaza

And Hamas (or a group like Hamas) will always be popular in Gaza until people in Gaza have a reason to stop hating Israel, which will only happen when Israel changes the way it treats them. But, Israel is unlikely to treat them better because they know that the people there support Hamas (or groups like Hamas) because of how Israel treats them.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I appreciate this post as it adds needed context to the situation especially about the power imbalance between Israel and Palestine that my post doesn’t touch on (I wasn’t trying to mislead, just keep things simple)

Israel, for better or worse (mostly worse for Palestinians in Gaza) get treated like the US’ little brother because they are in an ever important geopolitical location for a US Ally so they get away with more than they should. The violence against Palestinians then creates a vicious cycle of shows of force and retaliation that helps the current Israel regime maintain power and aid as well.

Like a said it’s a horrible situation and there is room to be anti-hamas and pro-palestinian and room to criticize the IDF’s actions and not be anti-Semitic. Thank you for your comment

[–] merc 7 points 1 year ago

Yeah, I agree with this post. It's a really fucked up situation. In addition to what you mentioned, there are the various Arab neighbours of Israel whose policies have mostly made the problem worse. There's Iran funding / supporting Hamas. Syria and Iran funding / supporting Hezbollah. Qatar hosting Hamas leadership. Jordan and Egypt refusing to allow Palestinian refugees into their countries.

The main point I was making was that there's support for Hamas in Gaza because of how badly the Palestinians in Gaza are treated by Israel. The Palestinians in Gaza are treated horribly by Israel, partially to punish them for supporting Hamas, and partially to try to make it harder for Hamas to attack them. A military operation can't defeat Hamas, even if they kill every current Hamas fighter, the collateral damage will just convince more people to join Hamas. The only thing that has any hope of working is to destroy the support for Hamas. But, the Hamas terrorist attack has worked spectacularly. I don't mean how effective they were in killing and capturing Israelis, but in terms of provoking the exact response from Israel they wanted. Israel is playing into the hands of Hamas in exactly the same way that the US played into the hands of Osama bin Laden in its response to the 9/11 attacks.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Wait. How does Israel control the Gaza-Egypt border?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Egyptians are poor and Egypt's aid is determined by how friendly they are with Israel.