the kids are wrong, but they're more confused than evil. this particular attack by hamas could not be justified and it demonstrates why hamas, as a brutal fascist organization, needs to be destroyed. the idea that hamas is fighting against israeli colonialism is idiotic; hamas is a brutal fascist dictatorship that wants to convert everybody to islam and kill all the fags. hamas is more ideologically in line with colonialism than netanyahu is. the correct position is to support the imminent and permanent and thorough destruction of hamas, and have subtleties about it if you insist.
however, there used to be marxist groups in palestine and they used to be a part of what they interpreted as a colonial struggle (i don't agree with the perspective, as the jews were there first, but i understand the argument. i actually support a one-state solution where all citizens have equal rights, regardless of ethnicity or religion.). what's happening is that the kids are basically reading out of date literature and then making the mistake of applying it to the current moment, and then having that mistake reinforced by their professors and elders, who are the ones that need to be denounced, not the kids. the kids learn what they're taught. it's truly the profs that are the ones making a serious mistake, here.
we can talk about root causes all day, and we should, but what i want to type briefly in this space is that it is clearly the israelis (and the egyptians, who i am pleased to see are finally taking some initiative on the matter, which is long overdue) that need to take the initiative in redesigning a post-hamas gaza strip because the palestinians don't currently have the prerequisites to maintain a functioning democracy. this point is being lost. you can't just take any tribe out of the jungle and give them democracy, there has to be pre-conditions met, and they cannot be met at the moment in gaza. if they repeat the same mistakes, they'll get the same outcome. i've been calling the israeli policy genocide since before everybody else was calling it apartheid (i may be the author of this shift in direction), but this is a genocide that is required to get out of the status quo, which is not desirable and is not sustainable. gaza cannot be a democracy and the people that live there need to be deprogrammed in a way that is not realistic; it is easier and safer to just wipe them out. somebody else then needs to take over and focus on infrastructure and education and development. eventually, one day, they can start talking about a democratic state again.
the lesson from this process needs to be that you can't just build a fence around a city and expect the people that live there to adjust to it. i've read some things recently that suggest the israelis understand this and that there's a broad consensus developing that the root cause of palestinian terrorism is the tactics deployed by ariel sharon, which were in fact not favoured by the israeli civil service, military or intelligence apparatus, who wanted a mini marshall plan rather than a neo-auschwitz. unfortunately, sharon won the argument and we now have the consequences of a neo-auschwitz, and it is going to create terrorist headaches for decades. that mistake needs to not be repeated.
what the kids ought to be saying is that there needs to be serious shifts in the israeli's approach to a post-hamas gaza, that there needs to be a focus on infrastructure and development and that egypt needs to be taking a primary role in the process. they should not be arguing against dismantling hamas, but they've been confused and misled by simplistic and warped ideologies that are difficult to apply to a post-industrial world. they're just kids, and they're just trying to be cool.
it is ultimately of little consequence what the kids think, but i am concerned about the violent nature of the crackdowns, which would appear to be unnecessary. the admins and higher ups are embarrassed by the riff raff and want to mow the lawn of the protest presence. well, again, we need to ask: do we want this outcome? if not, we need to change our immigration policies, and we need to pay more attention to who we hire to teach our kids.