While the president has stood strongly behind Israel since Hamas attacked, he said on “60 Minutes” that a new occupation of Gaza would “be a big mistake.”
  • Copernican@lemmy.world
    333·
    9 months ago

    “I think it’d be a big mistake,” Mr. Biden told “60 Minutes” on CBS in a conversation taped on Thursday and aired on Sunday night. “Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don’t represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.” But “taking out the extremists” there, he added, “is a necessary requirement.”

    I’m not sure how anyone is taking this as a controversial take. Logistically, practically, and the urgent bloodthirst for revenge make this fucking hard to do. But this seems to me to be a pretty even keeled non polarizing take on a complex situation where there is justification for military action against a terrorist group, and that military action must be measured against the safety and needs of a civilian population.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
      131·
      9 months ago

      It’s not an even take, because he has not proposed taking out the extremists in Israel.

      • phillaholic@lemm.ee
        1·
        9 months ago

        Not comparable. Israel is an ally, and needs our funding. Russia has been an advocacy or “enemy of my enemy” type more or less for a hundred years

      • night_of_knee@lemmy.world
        23·
        9 months ago

        Because Israel already occupies Gaza and other Palestinian areas.

        Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, where the hell are you getting your information?

        • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
          91·
          9 months ago

          Israel still controls all traffic, imports, utilities, and ingress/egress from the area (if it didn’t, they wouldn’t have been able to cut off power, water, and aid). Israel “withdrawing from Gaza” doesn’t really mean much unless Gaza has elected representation and can sustain itself.