I write a day after the October 7, 2023 massacre and general attack by Hamas against Israeli civilians and military.

There is no moral framework worth remembering that would justify the murdering of civilians and then parading their cadavers. Hamas is an absolutely barbaric terrorist organization. They have sown the wind and they will reap the whirlwind.

I see, however, a lot of confusion about the parties involved. Gaza is not a democratic pseudo-state. They haven't had elections since 2006, and even those are probably dubious. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, nor their cause. They are a radical terrorist organization that took power in a very peculiar situation.

That peculiar situation is one of a desperate and hopeless people. The Palestinians have been confined to increasingly smaller plots of lands. Every year, since 1918, their hope for sovereignty and freedom gets chipped away. They have no true friends. The Pan-Arabism of the time of Hussein bin Ali and Gamal Nasser are gone. The Gulf countries are modern petrostates with purely economic agendas. Jordan and Egypt normalized relationships with Israel long ago, and left the topic alone. Hezbollah and Syria are not friends, they are pawns of Iran which has an ambitious geopolitical agenda. And so is Hamas.

That Hamas took power is also not strange. It is common for radical and violent organizations to spring out of broken societies. You can see it in the Russian Revolution, in Weimar Germany, in Afghanistan, and in the jungles of Colombia.

In fact, Israel's own origin comes from broken societies giving birth to violent organizations. In 1890, Jews were only 8% of the population in today's Israel-Palestine. Around the same time, European Jews had had enough of centuries of oppression, mistreatment and pogroms. In line with the rise in nationalism in Europe, they got together and decided it was time for a Jewish state, and after much debate, they decided they would found it in their ancestral homeland. This was the birth of Zionism.

Between 1918 and 1947, Zionist settlers migrated from Europe to Palestine, first slowly then rapidly. Their intentions were clear and the Palestinians resented this. Violent clashes erupted with both parties committing horrible massacres and acts of terrorism. By the end of WW2, the UK was not happy with giving the Zionists their state, but after the horrible atrocities of the Holocaust there was little political capital for pushing back. The UN partition plan was overly generous for the Zionists. Israel declared independence, Arab countries declared war, and Britain disappeared from the scene. Israel, Palestine and their conflict were born in their modern form.

Stalemates only reach peaceful conclusions if they are mutually painful. At some point in the early 90s, that seemed to be the case, and we had some progress through the Oslo accords. Since we have moved to a situation where the status quo is comfortable to Israel but painful to the Palestinians.

The solution is not to inflict pain by killing innocent civilians. Rather, to do it via diplomatic means. The US has for too long tolerated and even endorsed Israel filibustering while it keeps taking Palestinian land. We should punish Israel diplomatically and economically when it behaves like a pariah state.

The solution is also not to go back to 1890, 1947 or 1967. The past is long gone. Instead of looking at states, let's think about the people. We should aim for every Palestinian to have a country to call home and have a democratic voice in that country. First, I think Palestinians should have full sovereignty over the entirety of the West Bank and Gaza. Second, refugees abroad should be given the option to become citizens of their current country or permanent residents of the US or the EU.

The common road block to these solutions is often the "right to return" of Palestinians to their old land. But we know that Israel will never accept for them to claim back their homes. At least the countries that started the cycle of violence can offer a new home.