Excerpt:
“First and foremost, we need to sort out the matter of the hostages, to swap them with the terrorists that are here [referring to Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, not all of whom were involved in militant activities]; it’s just explosive material to hold them in prison. After that, we need to sit down and negotiate a peace agreement,” Pauker said. As he spoke, the sounds of explosions from Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza could be heard in the background.
“I have good friends from across the border [in Gaza], but I can’t meet them, and they can’t meet me. They used to come to my house. I spoke to them on Saturday. They are human beings. They have bad leaders, like us. We can throw away the leaders on both sides and make peace in a matter of minutes.”
The quote from the article has it right: "They are human beings. They have bad leaders, like us. We can throw away the leaders on both sides and make peace in a matter of minutes".
Hamas and Likud are the instigators of this, and they actually both want to entirely destroy the other side rather than a peaceful resolution. To quote Hamas' 2017 charter: "Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea" (noting that means the complete destruction of Israel). To quote Netanyahu: "Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian State has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring of money to Hamas… This is part of our strategy".
Deliberately killing civilians is never okay (which both sides are doing - see the article, and Hamas are safe in their tunnels and it has become a trope that after killing many civilians Likud people just automatically claim it was Hamas HQ, with no credibility), and neither side has a right to target civilians.
What should Hamas have done instead?
Gaza isn't occupied for almost 20 years. The only issue Gaza had is no freedom of air and maritime space, and no freedom of travel outside of Gaza, all those authority is oversee by Israel. What hamas can do is, with the help of Qatar and other islamic world that understand their issue, secure a diplomatic ties with Egypt and open up the rafah crossing, secure funding in the mean of loan and build facilities(electricity, water) to become more independent from Israel, have a force strong enough to prevent Israel attack, and stop lobbing rocket at Israel.
Of course, this will face strong objection from Netanyahu because he's a bitch, but at least then it's very clear the issue lies with Israel, not Gaza. You gotta show the world you're willing to build up, and willing to respect the Greenline that you say you want Israel to respect.
This, of course, is oversimplifying the politics between Hamas vs Fatah and Hamas vs the west, and the hatred that's swelling up for the last few decades or so, but at least it's a good base to stand on.
Israel tightly controls all imports and exports, has its water controlled, it's electricity controlled, it's fuel controlled, it's food imports counted down the the calories, can not access things like concrete or steel or other construction materials. It's a concentration camp. It's a settler colonial occupation even if the colonizers don't set foot inside the ghetto.
And How is Hamas supposed to form ties with Egypt? They'd have to outbid Israel. What do they have to offer?
Meanwhile, Israel is working to normalize relationships with all the surrounding countries so Hamas can't have diplomatic ties with anyone! That's one of the reasons this attack happened - normalization has been defeated.
You mean there is no alternative to killing civilians at gunpoint, including children, filming the whole thing and publishing it online? Hamas doesn't want a two-state solution, and this kind of reaction from Israel is music to their years. It will keep on fueling hate for years to come.
I mean I want you to give an alternative. Name it. What should Hamas have done? Name literally one fucking thing they could do.
Also, the two state "solution" is a mirage and it never actually was on the table. Israel has no interest in that, which is why they've been squeezing Gaza to death for years and allowing settlers to steal more land in the West Bank. Get real.
An actual solution is a single multi-ethnic state, from the river to the sea. Settlers don't get to steal land just because the British partitioned it and gave it to them.