This is a megathread for any posts on the conflict between (so far, and so far as I know) Hamas and the Israeli government, as well as related geopolitics. Culture War thread rules apply.
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Notes -
How do we assess how much of the Gazan population supports Hamas, or at least this conflict?
They won their only election with 44% of the vote and haven’t held any since. I keep hearing people say they hold supermajority support but the most recent polls I see, conducted on 500 people, show a more mixed bag:
Even the 57% positive opinion may be an overestimate, given that other polls show 75% of Gazans are afraid to criticize Hamas.
I have no idea how credible these polls are, or where other people’s numbers about supermajority support come from, this is mostly an open question.
All the polling is clever, but ultimately irrelevant to the people citing Hamas' supposed popular support. I suspect that the logic of punishing civilians in Gaza for the crimes of their leadership is primarily Randian
The citizens of Gaza, under such a view, are responsible at a level of primordial democracy: if they truly objected to living under a genocidal Islamist dictatorship, really truly objected with the ferocity requisite to such a belief, they would rebel and overthrow that government. Not just the right to rebel against an unjust government, but the responsibility to do so.
This is also the view of OBL. American civilians voted for the government that had soldiers in Saudi Arabia. For that reason, OBL thought it allowable to kill American civilians.
You're missing a key difference, under Rand's view voting has nothing to do with it. Merely choosing to live under a wicked government is sufficient consent to sign your death warrant. One must martyr oneself for freedom, one revolts and wins or dies; if you do not revolt you do not deserve mercy or consideration.
Perhaps this is obvious, but that view actually makes me much less sympathetic to any grievances someone may have against the US.
The philosophy of a long dead, Jewish Russian author whose objectivism is a minority within the broader ancap/libertarian US political movement that itself is a minority within the American rightwing coalition influences your level of sympathy for issues with the US?
No, I meant if terrorists abroad are going to consider me, someone that was a teenager on 9/11, morally culpable for what the US government does and a valid target, that makes me much more war hawkish in general.
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