Blinken calls out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender and ‘stop hiding behind civilians’ | CNN Politics
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called out other countries for not demanding Hamas surrender.

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.

  • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    224·
    10 months ago

    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.

    • DoomBot5@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      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?

    • vaalla@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      01·
      10 months ago

      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.

        • Alsephina@lemmy.mlEnglish
          51·
          10 months ago

          Do you also think the Viet Cong was bad and a terrorist organization? They used similar guerilla tactics, and also attacked villages and took hostages. These are simply the most effective tactics for driving out an occupying force, and they wouldn’t be necessary if the oppressors weren’t there in the first place.

          Hamas isn’t great, but they sure as hell are better than Israel. Even their most damaging attack on October 7 doesn’t compare to the shit Israel has been repeatedly doing for over half a century now. Nor does it compare to the current Palestinian genocide.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
          11·
          10 months ago

          They are though. I get what you’re saying, but Israel is modern Nazi Germany. There aren’t many ways to be worse than Nazi Germany.