2y ago

Blinken calls out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender and ‘stop hiding behind civilians’

www.cnn.com

Blinken calls out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender and ‘stop hiding behind civilians’ | CNN Politics

Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.

“What is striking to me is that even as, again, we hear many countries urging the end to this conflict, which we would all like to see, I hear virtually no one saying – demanding of Hamas that it stop hiding behind civilians, that it lay down its arms, that it surrender. This is over tomorrow if Hamas does that. This would have been over a month ago, six weeks ago, if Hamas had done that,” Blinken said during a press briefing at the State Department Wednesday.

“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” Blinken went on to say.

The strong comments from Blinken come as the United Nations Security Council continues to negotiate a resolution calling for a suspension in fighting and encouraging more humanitarian aid into the beleaguered Gaza Strip, and as the United States’ support for the resolution remains unresolved.

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2y ago

Blinken calls out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender and ‘stop hiding behind civilians’

www.cnn.com /2023/12/20/politics/blinken-israel-hamas-surrender/index.html

85 comments

To analogize with another ongoing conflict: the Ukrainian war could be over tomorrow if Ukraine unconditionally surrendered to Russia, but they’re sure as fuck not going to do that, nor should they.
Also, to be clear: I am absolutely not saying that Hamas are the good guys here. They are definitely not the good guys. But addressing an incredibly complex and nuanced situation in such a reductive fashion (“Hamas should surrender unconditionally right now”) is deeply unhelpful, and ignores why Hamas came into being in the first place, and why they further developed into such a threatening force in the region.
- "We wouldn't have to kill so many civilians if the criminals would stop committing crimes."
  
  The indiscriminate killings and beatings will continue until morale improves
  
  More like "we wouldn't have to kill so many civilians if the criminals didn't use them as meat shields".
- There are interviews with Ukrainian soldiers who said they stay away from civilians so that when Russians bombard them the civilians will not be affected.
  I think the combat style and priorities are a bit different so a comparision cannot be made in this case.
- They are definitely not the good guys.
  They are considerably better than the Israeli government though.
  
  They are absolutely not.
- Can you link me to the part where Ukraine fired thousands of rockets at Russian cities and started a war by raping and murdering a thousand innocent people?
  
  You are intentionally misrepresenting what I said.
  
  The amount of people who think history started on October 7th (when they first heard about it) is staggering.
  Also lol at "raping a thousand people". You lot can't even prove one, maybe work on your atrocity propaganda. Also, if Ukraine had done that, presumably you would still not be OK with genocideing them.
- Hamas should surrender unconditionally because there is a 0% chance of them winning this war and a negligible chance of them surviving this war.
  That's when you surrender.
  
  You could replace 'hamas' with 'Ukraine' here and it would be just as true.
  
  I'm not sure there's much chance of them surviving a surrender either
  
  You don’t appear to understand how terrorist organizations work.
Let’s invade a country, then blame the war on the people for fighting back and tell the world “well if they wouldn’t fight back there would be no war, so it’s all their fault really”.
- Fighting back does is not the same as terrorism
  
  It literally is though; every resistance organisation in history has been called a terrorist organisation by its enemies.
  
  I mean the ANC was condemned as a terrorist organization. Mandela was a terrorist according to the US until 2008.
  
  99% of this site believes what comes out of the Palestinian government regardless of how it's been shown to be falsified more often than true and almost always spun. It's truly an example of a repeated lie being eventually believed.
- Your tineline seems a little confused? 10/7 was a strike by hamas, not Israel
  
  Yeah because we all know this all started on October 7…
“How can it be that there are no demands made of the aggressor and only demands made of the victim,” Blinken went on to say.
Israel has been the aggressor for decades now. They trapped these people, made it impossible for any economic opportunity, raided them daily killing indiscriminately, stole their land repeatedly and then want to play the victim when the provoked people fight back. Fuck off, Israel needs to return the land, end the blockades, and allow the investments it lied about, only then would it even be close to neutral. I hate hamas, but Israel made this bed
- "And don't get me started on those Native Americans who kept fighting back against the US settlers who invaded their lands. Clearly if they had just agreed to a ceasefire everything would have been fine."
  Aide whispers in ear.
  "OK, if they had just agreed to one more ceasefire despite the US constantly breaking them then everything would have been fine!"
Gaza is civilian. It's a city, an extremely densely populated city. So if Hamas is anywhere in their own land, Israel can make this accusation. What bullshittery to think an invading country slaughtering your population gets to make demands of the where your military is allowed to be in your own country.
- It's similar to the excuse Putin uses. He's just "defending Russian citizens in XYZ." It's cart blanche to do as you please where you please.
  
  I don't recall Ukraine going into Russia and murdering and raping civilians. Doesn't mean Israel has any right to slaughter citizens but these are not the same situation.
What a stupid comment by Blinken.
If there was no Hamas, Israeli settlers would still be committing terrorist acts on unarmed Palestinians in West Bank and right wing politicians would still be threatening to tear down Al Aqsa. If Hamas vanished tomorrow, none of that would change. Netanyahu would still refuse to recognize a two state solution and would refuse to negotiate with Abbas or the PA. Gazans would be in an open air prison.
The Israeli military shot unarmed Palestinian protestors and the US State Department did nothing. Palestinians asked the international community for help to end their oppression and the Israeli government called it “diplomatic terrorism” and sanctioned Palestinians further. Boycotting Israel is illegal in US law. Why should anyone listen to the US State Department’s recommendations when they don’t even follow through?
Dude, the US really has not shame left.
"wHy ArE tHe PaLeStInIaNs dOiNg ThIs To ThEmSeLvEs??"
Fuck these genocidal pieces of shit
If Israel would just stop being an ally of the US and receiving aid and weapons from the US none of this would have happened.
Turn about is fair play right Blinkers?
If this was any other country, they would never say that as a foreign transgressor enters. However, Palestine is not recognized as a state. So Israel, presumably, has not declared war and is just killing civilians as a means to anti terrorism. Even the USA after 9/11 sought valid reasons for war, even if they turned out to be fabricated. Now the veil is gone.
It's like saying that it was the fault of the Jewish Resistance for not surrendering unconditionally that the Nazis were killing residents of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Guess that at the end of WWII the US brought over a couple of Herr Goebbel's top employees in the Ministry Of Propaganda along with the rocketry and nuclear scientists. Certainly it would explain a lot...
They're terrorists, not a country with a reputation and trading partners. They have absolutely nothing to lose. Demand all you want, I demand this rock turn to gold.
Lay down your arms and your oppressors will open theirs. Sure.
This is practically a blood fued that has been going on for longer than anyone has been alive. Literally since biblical times. No one has a good solution cause there is none. Pure example of an eye for an eye leaving everyone blind.
- There actually is a very simple solution - secular unification. It's very difficult to have sympathy for religious fundamentalists.
- I get what you mean, but this mess has been going on since 1917, and evolved into its current form in 1948/1949. The biblical conflict over the holy land ended with the crusades.
  
  I'm sure there is a surviving connection.
Someone should walk up to this man and slap him in the face.
- I nominate you.
I'm going to guess that America and genocide Joe have lost any moral authority they had because they cower to Israel.
- We're not cowering, Israel is a Christian project ultimately.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A vote on the resolution was pushed for a third time this week as countries work to bring the US – one of the five permanent members on the council with the power to sink a deal with a veto – on board.
The delay underscored the Biden administration’s hesitancy to sign onto a resolution that could be interpreted as a rebuke of Israel’s continuing military campaign against Hamas in Gaza.
The US has vetoed previous measures at the UNSC and voted against a call for a ceasefire in the larger UN General Assembly earlier this month.
But the mounting civilian death toll in Gaza from Israel’s response has prompted top US officials, including President Joe Biden, to urge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take more meaningful steps to protect innocent lives while waging his war against Hamas.
The secretary acknowledged “the last couple of months have been gut-wrenching when you see the suffering of men, women, and especially children in Gaza,” and the administration, he said, has focused on “doing everything possible to minimize the harm to those who are caught in a crossfire of Hamas’ making.”
CNN’s Becky Anderson, Michael Williams, Kevin Liptak and Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.
The original article contains 611 words, the summary contains 200 words. Saved 67%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
Even the Nazis surrendered when it became obvious they couldn't win and the suffering of their people became great.
Meanwhile Hamas: 'Some of you Palestinians may die but it's a sacrifice Hamas is willing to make'.
entire Arab League and many other countries/leaders are only interested in Palestinians being Israel's problem. They don't care for peace, human rights or any of that. It's just a stick to beat/delegitimize Israel with.
They all know a cease-fire is temporary at best, until Hamas regains confidence.

85 comments