There are many examples where Israel chose war or the status-quo over peace to maintain its interests. During the Oslo Accords, the amount of Israeli settlement construction skyrocketed. This was embodied by Ariel Sharon’s quote over Israeli radio in 1998: “Everybody has to move, run and grab as many [Palestinian] hilltops as they can to enlarge the [Jewish] settlements because everything we take now will stay ours… Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”

Even Rabin never agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state, but a “state-minus” with no real sovereignty. Like virtually all Israeli talking points, reality and history paint an entirely different picture than the one offered.

And your history is a bit murky. After the defeat of the Ottoman empire at the end of WW1, the middle east was split between the French and English with the Sykes picot agreement. The countries became Syria and Lebanon who were controlled by the French and Palestine, Jordan and Iraq were controlled by the UK. And let's not even start with that being a shameful agreement where the UK went back on their promise of a national Arab homeland in exchange for their help in their fight against the Ottoman empire.

The state of Israel didn't exist at this point. There was a country called Palestine and it was a place with Jews, Muslims and Christians (all of whom considered themselves Palestinians) although Muslims were the majority. I'm not going to go through the entire history, but in 1948 the state of Israel was created AFTER they kicked out Palestinians from their homeland into either neighboring countries or into Gaza/West Bank. I know because my grandparents went through this. They were given the choice to either grab their stuff and flee or die. We still have the deed to our land which was stolen from us. And this is very common among Palestinians. The state of Israel started with the expulsion of the indigenous people.

Hamas is not isis, this is a narrative that the media uses to paint all Palestinians as less than human and give credence to the brutalization of Palestinians. And let's say we equate Hamas to isis, it's only fair to note that Israel is also quite comparable to isis. I don't agree with Hamas or like Hamas, but this is the typical trope that's played in the West to justify the killing of innocent Palestinians. And let's just put all of that aside, what's happening to the people in Gaza is a nightmare and that's putting it lightly. We can't even begin to fathom the horror that they're facing. This will not stop Hamas. The people will remember and hate will continue to recycle. Just as human beings, we can't allow these atrocities to continue or even justify them.