[auganov]

Of course the arabs in this area deserve better. Pretending Israel is the oppressor is not empathizing. Nor is believing in fake history in which some Palestinian state (or even major population) has ever existed. They're victims of PA/PLO/Fatah/Hamas and other such organizations as much as Russians are victims of their govt. Repeating their leadership's propaganda doesn't help them. To empathize with them is to recognize there are sane people living there who don't buy into this hogwash and are simply victims of circumstance.

[kajecounterhack]

Israel _is_ harassed by some violent folks who have misguided ideologies that don't want peaceful coexistence but instead annihilation of the other. But so is Palestine. If you're going to wholesale call out the _loose confederacies_ of the PLO and related organizations for this kind of thinking, you should be willing to acknowledge the same thinking exists within the Israeli govt and army. They have done bad things, and it's not hard to see why if you understand how war works. War results in polarization and dehumanization of the other to the extent of "these other people should be dead." It happens to both of the polarized sides.

And let's be real, Israel is in control here. They have a modern military and are the occupiers. The way they've gone about this is the cause of much violence. Imagine the desperation of living in an apartheid state: feeling that you are not being represented or fairly treated by the systems governing you. Imagine being treated differently from your neighbor because you're not a citizen, and you can never be one because of your race and religion. It's totally fair to call them the oppressor in this situation because what the heck are these loose disorganized confederacies living in occupied territory going to do? They don't really have power to change the situation.