Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday gave one of his most direct condemnations of the civilian death toll in Gaza and said more needs to be done to “minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”
Although Blinken commended Israel for its announcement of daily military pauses in areas of Northern Gaza and two evacuation corridors, he said that “there is more that can and should be done to minimize harm to Palestinian civilians.”
The top US diplomat has subtly shifted his messaging in the days since he departed the Middle East earlier this week to more directly voice condemnation of the civilian toll in Gaza and the US’ expectations for the Israeli government. However, he still has not condemned the Israeli government offensive and has continually voiced support for its right to defend itself.
Humanist Values
As in, abandoning theocracy and religion? I agree. I’ve often said that peace will be achieved there when both parties can sit down and share a ham sandwich, only half joking because doing so would mean they have both abandoned their religious dogma.
Regarding a secular government, neither party has one but Israel seems a hell of a lot more secular than Gaza, whose government appears to be enforcing something like Sharia Law on the people there:
And then there’s the religious oppression of secularity. Islam is very intolerant to those who wish to become secular/leave the religion, as per their rules regarding apostates:
Both of these are major barriers to ending this conflict via shared humanist values.
Democratic values
They won’t help end this conflict unless popular opinion changes. At present it seems this war and belligerence is popular in both nations.
According to polling, the majority of Palestinians want to:
Israeli polling shows:
It say a lot how much effort you put into the racist generalisation that All Islam = Hamas and how without that equality between both that can only be constructed using the racist axiom of “they’re all the same”, you have no humanist or democratic justification for the mass killing of Palestinian civilians by Israel.
Also there is no Humanist principle that says that “Evildoing by some morally justifies evildoing by others” so even if being a Muslim was indeed the same a being Hamas, that wall of text of yours rests on something which is not a Humanist principle but rather a Sociopathic excuse for murder and one that, given the proportions of death so far (10 to 1), already is way beyond even the “mere” “an eye for an eye”.