Israel's assault on Gaza and Hamas

[Matt]

I'm surprised there wasn't already a thread on this, but personally I'm loving the fact that Israel finally got the balls to handle the problem. Fuck, did Hamas expect them to just silently take all of their rockets?

Opinions on this?

 

[Ender Rises]

30% of the people Israel has killed have been Hamas.


Fuck that whole conflict. Fuck Hamas for starting it and fuck Israel for not taking the political steps necessary to get them to shut the fuck up. I'm just... I don't care about a fucking piece of dirt in the desert. I don't. Killing people over the holy land of the Judeo-Christian religions is just fucking stupid. I don't see the point in Hamas doing what they're doing. I'm on the side of Israel, really, because it's the only Jewish nation on earth and the Jews have been through enough shit, not to mention Hamas really started it, but I'm just tired of hearing about the conflict.

 

[Matt]

Hamas doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist, and seriously. Constant bombardment requires force.

 

[Ender Rises]

This is true. Hamas is really just batshit crazy, and Israel has a right to defend itself, but I think the force of Israel's response is a bit much.

 

[MasterOLightning]

I blame Israel. Frankly, they should know better. Of course Arab people are fucking nuts. The Jews are a lot of things, but dumb usually isn't one of them.

 

[sevag00]

I think Israel is doing a fantastic job. There musn't be any negotiations for cease-fire. Hamas must be destroyed, as well as Hezbollah.

 

[Matt]

A UN ceasefire is about as binding as cobweb so there will not be a ceasefire. Hopefully Israel destroys all of Hamas. Their civilian population needs to be punished for allowing those lunatics to gain power so rain down the casualties imo.

 

[Ender Rises]

Wow you fuckers are bloodthirsty.

 

[Satanstoenail]

Their civilian population needs to be punished for allowing those lunatics to gain power so rain down the casualties imo.

 

[tagradh]

This conflict needs moar nukes.

 

[PowerSpirit]

Just a another fight in this world that will end soon enough once both nations grow weary. /End

 

[The Heartbreak Kid]

Bring back the Crusades!

 

[Krigloch the Furious]

Good job Israel!!!
now keep going, and dont slow down.

 

[Dak]

A UN ceasefire is about as binding as cobweb so there will not be a ceasefire. Hopefully Israel destroys all of Hamas. Their civilian population needs to be punished for allowing those lunatics to gain power so rain down the casualties imo.

I hope some army rolls through your neighborhood and blows up your house one day because a gang in the neighborhood threw some molotov's at it. Cause that's what you get ya dirty enabler! Should have put the fuckin lid on that gang yourself.

:Smug:

 

[Savern]

Wow... Looks like there are an awful lot of stereotypical pro-israel americans here. Seriously, how you can keep pumping out this tripe Matthias I don't know...

Israel, as a democratic country, should be taking all steps it can towards peace and a ceasefire. Instead it has made a vicious counterattack that is wholly over the top. Its led to hundreds of innocent civilian casualties. I believe the current death count is something like 30 israelis, 500 palestinians.

This is ignoring the fact that Israel basically can stop all water,power food supplies to Gaza whenever it wants to; and usually keeps them at a bare minimum level anyway.

I am in no way vindicating Hamas's actions. They are a terrorist organisation and I have no sympathy for them. My sympathy lies with the civilians on both sides, who are caught up in this seemingly endless conflict.
Why Israel suddenly decided to retaliate I don't know. The rocket attacks it is using as its justification have been going on for years, yet all of a sudden they bring full force like this. I can see it going the same way as the Lebanon conflict did.

Israel is given far to much of a free reign due to the huge Jewish lobby in the US and the large support the US has for it. I can only hope Obama brings them down a peg and maybe we can properly start working towards peace.

 

[Koude Haat]

Israel bombed a UN school. Fuck israel.

 

[CAIRATH]

Just a another fight in this world that will end soon enough once both nations grow weary. /End

I'm with you, Blue_Jay. It's just another silly fight between some silly people that definitely does not have deep running cultural and religious roots to it that prevent it from being resolved in the near future, if ever. It will all be fine soon once those silly people just get tired of being mean to each other and they'll have a big group hug and probably a party with balloons and cake.

All those people analyzing and discussing the geopolitical, sociopolitical, religious and cultural aspects of this conflict (some dating back centuries) are just IDIOTS.

 

[Koude Haat]

This is ignoring the fact that Israel basically can stop all water,power food supplies to Gaza whenever it wants to; and usually keeps them at a bare minimum level anyway.

Lmao, i like how they are like "ok we can allow 80 humanitarian trucks" aww how sweet..

Considering it takes 250 trucks a day for them to survive..

 

[Dak]

Real peace won't happen as long as a Muslim and a Jew are both pointing at Jerusalem and yelling "MY Holy Land!"

 

[Koude Haat]

this is a really good blog post about this.

What if Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had won the Six Day War?

Here's a thought experiment:

Imagine that Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had won the Six Day War, leading to a massive exodus of Jews from the territory of Israel. Imagine that the victorious Arab states had eventually decided to permit the Palestinians to establish a state of their own on the territory of the former Jewish state. (That's unlikely, of course, but this is a thought experiment). Imagine that a million or so Jews had ended up as stateless refugees confined to that narrow enclave known as the Gaza Strip. Then imagine that a group of hardline Orthodox Jews took over control of that territory and organized a resistance movement. They also steadfastly refused to recognize the new Palestinian state, arguing that its creation was illegal and that their expulsion from Israel was unjust. Imagine that they obtained backing from sympathizers around the world and that they began to smuggle weapons into the territory. Then imagine that they started firing at Palestinian towns and villages and refused to stop despite continued reprisals and civilian casualties.

Here's the question: would the United States be denouncing those Jews in Gaza as "terrorists" and encouraging the Palestinian state to use overwhelming force against them?

Here's another: would the United States have even allowed such a situation to arise and persist in the first place?

what if Hamas was hiding out among the civilian population of Tel Aviv, and attacking Israel from within? Would the IDF be using massive force to eradicate them? Unless you think that Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives are not equal, what justifies the current policy?

Israel is hardly unique in placing a higher value on its own citizens' lives than it places on the lives of others, and we should not forget that U.S. forces have caused plenty of civilian casualties in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. "The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must." But that doesn't make it right, and there are good reasons to question whether it will even be effective in this instance.

http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/node