• PugJesus@kbin.socialOP
      162·
      7 months ago

      Radical fundamentalists, I believe they’re saying, make more palatable enemies. Same essential reason why Hamas was funded by Israel to split Palestinian support from Fatah - Fatah, as a secular and nominally leftist organization drew some international sympathy - Hamas, much less.

      The other side of the coin is that Hamas was able to rise in the first place because Fatah had become incredibly corrupt and inept.

      • daisy lazarus@lemmy.worldEnglish
        22·
        7 months ago

        I’d have thought psychopathic madmen who want to die and become martyrs are about as terrifying an enemy imaginable

        Btw I’m not disagreeing

        • PugJesus@kbin.socialOP
          52·
          7 months ago

          You can get martyrs and madmen from all sides, religious fundamentalists or not.

          • daisy lazarus@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            7 months ago

            I’m not sure non-fundamentalists actually desire martyrdom, religious or otherwise. Secular armies at least fear death.

            • PugJesus@kbin.socialOP
              61·
              7 months ago

              I think you’d be surprised by a deep dive through history. Plenty of secularists have been willing and even eager to trade their lives for justice.

              • daisy lazarus@lemmy.worldEnglish
                11·
                7 months ago

                Historically, of course. Modern day, less.

                I get the international support for wars on terror though. Makes sense.

    • kibiz0r@midwest.socialEnglish
      81·
      7 months ago

      In 1982, a prominent Israeli strategic analyst, Avner Yaniv, coined the term “Palestinian peace offensive” to describe the risk that Palestinians would become too moderate politically and Israel would be forced to make concessions.

      He urged using the “fiercest military pressures” against the PLO in Lebanon to undermine Palestinian moderates and make the PLO more hardline in order “to halt its rise to political respectability”.

      https://www.newarab.com/analysis/why-israel-has-strategic-interest-escalating-violence