Fintan O'Toole's admiration for Yitzhak Rabin (Oslo Accords) is boundless. Edward Said would be turning in his grave.
Incidentally, the very fine Israeli historian, Avi Shlaim, wrote a long piece apologising to Said for their disagreement over Oslo, finally acknowledging that Said was proved right and the Accords were a step backwards.
Also, O'Toole might well have mentioned that the First Intifada was an example of non-violent resistance which was dealt with severely. That might have something to do with the taking up of arms during the Second Intifada.
No Endgame in Gaza
Extract:
"It does not seem that Israel understands what its endgame is. Without a clear sense of an ending, there can be no answer to the most crucial moral and strategic question: When is enough enough? Even in the crudely mathematical logic of vengeance, the blood price for Hamas’s appalling atrocities of October 7 has long since been paid. The body count—if that is to be the measure of retribution—has mounted far beyond the level required for an equality of suffering. Yet it appears to have no visible ceiling. What factor must Jewish deaths be multiplied by? When, as W.B. Yeats asked in a different conflict, may it suffice?
“Enough” is the word that Yitzhak Rabin, then Israel’s prime minister, stressed in his remarkable speech of September 1993 at the signing of the Oslo Accords:
'We who have fought against you, the Palestinians, we say to you today in a loud and a clear voice: Enough of blood and tears. Enough… We are today giving peace a chance and saying to you and saying again to you: Enough.'
Enough is a both a political goal and an ethical limit. Without the first, it is hard to set the second. To know how far you can go, you have to know where you want to get to. Benjamin Netanyahu’s government seems to know neither..."
https://www.almendron.com/tribuna/no-endgame-in-gaza/
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