Former President Barack Obama said a way forward for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is only possible if people acknowledge the “complexity” of the situation.

“If there’s any chance of us being able to act constructively to do something, it will require an admission of complexity and maintaining what on the surface may seem contradictory ideas that what Hamas did was horrific, and there’s no justification for it. And … that the occupation and what’s happening to Palestinians is unbearable,” Obama said in an interview on the podcast “Pod Save America.”

The former president’s comments come as the Israeli military focuses its offensive against Hamas in Gaza City and northern parts of the enclave.

    • Annoyed_🦀 @monyet.cc
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      If you ask about the complexity of this issue, you tend to get a lot of simplified answer because it’s impossible to summarise without cutting out the complexity. It’s a story of war and politics, there’s no clear cut good guy and bad guy. That’s how complex it is.

    • Melkath@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      20
      arrow-down
      28
      ·
      1 year ago

      If Israelis stop killing Palestinians, then American military contractors can’t take billions of dollars from the federal government laundered through Israel in the form of arms deals.

      That would make the military industrial complex very sad.

      That complexity.

        • Melkath@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          arrow-down
          9
          ·
          edit-2
          1 year ago

          I think there is more to it, but if it weren’t for US military industrial complex corruption, a genocide wouldn’t be occurring.

          For context, in 2023, the US has sent aid to Israel that equals roughly half their total GDP.

          If The Party weren’t using Israel to enrich American war contractor billionaires, what is occurring in Gaza would be little more than a squabble. Both sides would be too broke to do anything of note.

          The Party wants to keep their billionaire overlords happy, so genocide is occurring.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        15
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        That is not only one-sided, but highly reductive of one of the most byzantine and politically convoluted conflicts happening in the world today.

        • Melkath@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          13
          ·
          1 year ago

          Hey, I just want to stop an active genocide.

          Then we can wax philosophical about how complex this conflict is.

          Fuck me, right?