The TSAP hereby condemns in the strongest possible terms the barbaric attack on Israel by Hamas on October 7th. There was literally ZERO justification whatsoever to deliberately target innocent civilians (men, women, children, and elderly alike) with such vicious violence like that. Whoever engages in that sort of evil and inhuman behavior thus acquires an indelible stain on whatever semblance of honor that they may have still had before. The same goes for those who support or cheer on such vile depravity as well, including, but not limited to, certain ignorant knee-jerk "leftist" fools in the Western world, as well as the predictable garden-variety antisemitism.
That said, the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict has nonetheless been a very complicated and nuanced issue in which both sides have very much blood on their hands, including the blood of civilians. The years-long siege of Gaza by the Israeli occupation is brutal and unjustifiable as well, as is their broader illegal occupation of areas not permitted to be occupied in the original plan that prevailed before 1967. The fanatical terrorist group Hamas is NOT representative of the Palestinian people in general, no more so than the crooked far-right Netanyahu Likud government is representative of Israeli Jews in general. Both sides actually have legitimate claim to the Holy Land to one degree or another, and DNA evidence has revealed both Jews and Palestinians to be essentially cousins to one degree or another. And ultimately, this is not really America's fight.
All of these things can be true without the universe exploding. And as Mahatma Gandhi famously said, "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind".
UPDATE: For the record, the TSAP supports a two-state solution, not a one-state solution of either kind. We believe two-state solution is the least-worst solution overall. And now that Israel has indeed responded to the Hamas terrorist attack, we do not support any further escalation (or any other countries entering the war on either side), and strongly recommend a ceasefire or at least a humanitarian pause. But all of the hostages still need to be released, and perpetrators still need to be brought to swift, certain, and severe justice all the same.
"Never Again" does NOT come with an asterisk.
