592
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Ex-president says decision threatens to worsen humanitarian crisis, undermine peace effort and erode global support for Israel

Some of Israel’s decisions in its war against Hamas – including cutting off food and water for Gaza – could “harden Palestinian attitudes for generations” and weaken international support for Israel, Barack Obama said on Monday.

In rare comments on an active foreign policy crisis, the ex-US president said any Israeli military strategy that ignores the human costs of the war “could ultimately backfire”.

“The Israeli government’s decision to cut off food, water and electricity to a captive civilian population [in Gaza] threatens not only to worsen a growing humanitarian crisis – it could further harden Palestinian attitudes for generations, erode global support for Israel, play into the hands of Israel’s enemies, and undermine long-term efforts to achieve peace and stability in the region,” said Obama.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 174 points 10 months ago

I mean, I do understand him saying: “don’t cut off water and power to over a million civilians, because it will be counterproductive in the long term”.

But what he should really be saying is “don’t cut off water and power to over a million civilians because that’s fucking evil”.

How did we get to this position where no leaders of the West will stand up and call this out for what it is?

I understand it’s a complex situation, but treating an entire people like they’re subhuman is morally unacceptable. And I can’t fucking believe that the sodding Israelis - of all people - don’t know this.

[-] [email protected] 53 points 10 months ago

"Evil" is incredibly subjective and doesn't convince people well enough. Next time you're in an argument with someone, call them evil and see how quickly you've convinced them.

I saw an interview a while back where Obama said he makes these exact types of statements because if you want other countries to do things you perceive as "good" it's more effective to convince them that it's beneficial for them.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

You're probably right, but take a step back for a moment and think about how psychotic it is that "starving civilians is evil" is considered an unconvincing argument?

As soon as you have to explain why starving civilians is evil, or how not starving civilians will be a more beneficial, profitable, or productive outcome for the non-starved, you're already living in a dystopian hellhole that doesn't deserve to exist.

load more comments (33 replies)
this post was submitted on 24 Oct 2023
592 points (96.2% liked)

World News

38531 readers
2168 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS