US Politics |OT|

[SvennoJ]

JWeinCom said:

Thanks for the info. Will have to read more into it before I can respond to most of it, as a lot of it is new info to me, and I try my best not to limit speaking on matters I don't fully understand. But I did read it all, and genuinely appreciate you taking the time to lay it out.

My understanding is that Hamas platform specifically rejects a two state solution. From the river to the sea I believe is their motto, referring to the Jordan River to the Mediterranean sea, borders which would encompass all of Israel. What this would hypothetically mean for the people currently living in Israel is unclear, however if Hamas were to remain an active presence, their record on religious liberty is suspect to put it mildly.

Definitely agree that the expanding settlements and the Israeli violence which accompanies them is a massive problem which almost certainly is a violation of international law. The announced plans to expand them has certainly changed my view of things.

That's mostly Israeli propaganda. Hamas was formed after Likud adopted the slogan as their party platform. Hamas turned it around and made it rhyme for it to catch on. "From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free."

The original Hamas platform was very reactionary, they updated their party platform in 2017

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/doctrine-hamas

In 2017, a revised Hamas manifesto included three departures from the 1988 charter, former U.S. diplomat Aaron David Miller told The Islamists. First, Hamas accepted the establishment of a Palestinian state separate from Israel —although only provisionally. Its statement on principles and policies said, “Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea. However, without compromising its rejection of the Zionist entity and without relinquishing any Palestinian rights, Hamas considers the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state, with Jerusalem as its capital along the lines of the 4th of June 1967, with the return of the refugees and the displaced to their homes from which they were expelled, to be a formula of national consensus.” Second, it attempted to distinguish between Jews or Judaism and modern Zionism. Hamas said that its fight was against the “racist, aggressive, colonial and expansionist” Zionist project, Israel, but not against Judaism or Jews. The updated platform also lacked some of the anti-Semitic language of the 1988 charter. Third, the document did not reference the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood, from which Hamas was originally an offshoot.

Hence Hamas always states their fight is with the "Zionist entity", not with Israel per se, not against Judaism.