[davidf18]

I've been to Israel many times including during the time of the first Gaza conflict (Cast Lead).

There were elections in 2006 and Hamas was elected over Fatah. Hamas does not recognize Israel and is declared a terrorist state by the US, EU as well as Israel.

There were supposed to be elections in 2010 but Hamas will not allow them.

Hamas has spent large sums of money shooting missiles into Israel and using concrete meant for building homes and schools for and hiring labor for building tunnels into Israel. So serious was the missile problem that Israel created the Iron Dome missile system (see youtube or CBS 60 minutes) to protect its population. That technology is now being co-produced with a US arms manufacturer for sale to other countries. The Israelis have also had to develop tunnel locating technology.

While Israel has a program of encouraging venture capital and startups, it is truly a pity that the Palestinians did not elect Fatah over Hamas.

[shmerl]

Normal people in Gaza have little choice with current fascist "government" which eliminates opposition in a literal way. So "elected" is a strong word for it.

[davidf18]

In 2006 there was a supervised election where Hamas was legitimately elected over Fatah. The Palestinians gave a mandate of a terrorist organization to lead them.

[shmerl]

Do you trust a "supervised election" in a fascist regime? I don't really. But let's say you are right, and majority actually supports it. It means quite something morbid about such society.

[davidf18]

The supervised elections were by US, UN or similar groups, not by Palestinian government.

The Palestinians were given the chance to self-govern Gaza when Israel pulled out in 2005 and show the world community that they are capable of self-government. Instead Hamas was elected and Hamas shot many thousands of missiles into Israel.

[shmerl]

> The supervised elections were by US, UN or similar groups, not by Palestinian government.

How exactly does such supervision help? I.e. let's say someone votes (under supervision) today against, and then, killed tomorrow for being in opposition. You get the idea. Supervision has zero value when fascists control everything.

Estimating by Egypt situation, around half of the population supports fascist groups, and half is against. Hamas is a projection of Egyptian fascists, so the picture can be similar.

[davidf18]

Hamas is part of Muslim Brotherhood, the group that assassinated Egyptian President Sadat.

They are terrorists who target among other things family restaurants (e.g., Sbarro in Jerusalem [1]) and teens dancing at Dolphinarium Discotheque. [2]

Incidentally, there were in fact Palestinians dancing in the streets during 9/11. (I was in Upper West Side of Manhattan when it happened).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2001/09/13/palestinian-official...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sbarro_restaurant_suicide_bomb...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphinarium_discotheque_massa...

[random314]

> There were elections in 2006 and Hamas was elected over Fatah.

If the people of the land don't elect the party we prefer (by cross-checking with our terrorist list) we have no choice but to support their seige, occupation and Apartheid.

[iblankm]

The US, Israeli, and Polish governments don't represent significant chunks of their population (in the US, 50% of the population didn't vote for Trump). A government being elected does NOT equal a reason to ostracize all the people living there.

In Gaza people who protest against Hamas get killed. During the 2014 conflict, 70 people in Gaza were hung for being collaborators with Israel, with no trial, proof, etc.

Gazans who are not in favor of their government are between a rock and a hard place: ostracized by the international community for a government they didn't choose, and suffering due to the local politics that they don't approve of. Wouldn't you at least want to support the people whose perspectives you align with?

[davidf18]

The Palestinians elected a terrorist organization that shot missiles into Israel killing civilians that also refuses to recognize Israel.

Egypt has closed off their border and flooded illegal tunnels to Gaza as well.

I was a few miles away from the World Trade Center in Upper West Side Manhattan on 9/11. I don't feel kindly toward people that elect terrorist organizations to be their government. Sorry if that bothers you.

[random314]

http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stat/deaths.html

See also the UN OCHA report that records the 2,220 victims (67% of them civilians) of Israel's summer 2014 massacre in Gaza. 71 Israelis were killed during the same period (9% of them civilians).

So is the IDF a terrorist organization in your personal opinion?

> I was a few miles away from the World Trade Center in Upper West Side Manhattan on 9/11. I don't feel kindly toward people that elect terrorist organizations to be their government. Sorry if that bothers you.

Classic - equating Hamas with Al Qaeda and hence justifying prejudice against millions of Palestenians, victims of Apartheid, seige and civilian massacres by IDF in one smooth sentence.

So Khalid Sheikh Mohammed killing civilians is a justification for IDF killing the same number or more civilians.

Once again, is the IDF a terrorist organization in your personal opinion?

[shmerl]

There is no reason to whitewash Hamas. They are point blank fascists. If you claim they are "elected", then you claim that majority there supports fascist regime.

[iblankm]

My point is that much of Gaza's population did NOT vote for Hamas. Why wouldn't you want to support THOSE people?

[jbermudez5]

David, the founders and team members that are impacted by GSG are very young, a new generation that have not been part in the decades of conflict.

As another volunteer mentioned in the thread, GSG is helping a younger generation look at the future with a different outlook, that is a big reason I love the program so much, it has a real impact on Gaza and a new generation of people.