oh, snap. no response. oh well.
Sorry man, I'm not interested in debating every single discussion to the bitter end, particularly when it's clear that the premises are off.
im scratching my head here. your giving me too many things to talk about. i can do long format if you want, here is short format:
1. no one in this topic has defended hamas however the whole "Israel is the most moral army in the world" is getting very old now.
2. 5million+ Palestinians and Arabs living in Israel can NOT vote. You mention Gaza but then skip over the West Bank & East Jerusalem. If its all 1 country, as the Israeli's are suggesting then everyone should be allowed to vote. Else its apartheid.
3. I have repeatedly commented in the Ukrainian thread to the effect that I dont think its a good idea, from a Ukrainian perspective, for Ukraine to have elections during war time. They need Zelensky, he is a figurehead. This is not a new concept in wartime. With no meaningful international support Gaza is FUBAR. IF Hamas was wiped out tomorrow Israel's march would still continue.
Saying Israel is the only functioning democracy in the region is simply false. Jordan has elections, a parliament, an independent judiciary, and regular peaceful transitions of government policy. No one claims it's a perfect democracy—but by that standard, neither is Israel, especially when it disenfranchises millions and rules over them by military law.
1. A lot of users in this thread have defended Hamas' goals while not saying a word of criticism about their heinous methods (hiding in schools and hospitals, using civilians as human shields).
2. It isn't one country, precisely because Israelis knows full well that a "one-state solution" would mean that Jews become a minority in "their own" country in the forseeable, near-term future - the country which was specifically founded as a safe haven for Jews around the world, the country whose whole raison d´être is to be the first/only Jewish-majority country on the planet. A full democracy with a hostile majority which wants to genocide you is not really a smart idea, is it?
This leaves a two-state solution as the only viable path forward. But even that isn't trivial when the Palestinians constantly use their self-governed territory as a rocket launching pad in direct proximity to Israel... On the flip side, the landgrabs Israel is carrying out in the West Bank are a big no-go, too. I've condemned them multiple times in this thread.
3. Gaza wasn't in a state of war pre-Oct7. It was Hamas which brought this war upon Gaza with their savage butchery. Likewise, the developments since Oct7 don't explain or excuse why there hadn't been a single election in Gaza between 2007 and 2023.
Jordan does have a functioning judiciary and parliamentary elections, yes, but this doesn't mean that it is actually a democracy. The Jordanian king is the head of state, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, it is him who appoints the prime minister and the government (not the parliament!) and he has full veto powers over any bills parliament might pass. He can unilaterally declare war or a state of emergency, dismiss the government or dissolve parliament. At the end of the day, nearly all power in the country is still vested in the king, rather than in democratically elected institutions. Therefore, the country is still an authoritarian monarchy with a democratic veneer, rather than the other way round.
This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Apr 13 2025 10:39am