Originally posted by: irishScott
Originally posted by: Lemon law
My only reaction is that irishscott is only partly right when he says, " Israel goes through great pains to avoid collateral damage. " It still does not stop Israel from creating a huge amount of collateral damage and there is zero evidence that Israel is in any way adheres to any proportionate response.
It may be a tenet in the the same bible Jews and Muslims share, of a eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, no where does it say that 4 Israelis killed justifies 429 Palestinians killed.
Israel cannot build its success on the robbery and pillage of the less numerous Palestinians it militarily dominates, but long term its playing a fools game, six million Israelis cannot hope to long term stand up to
that many really pissed off people surrounding it. World support of Israel is starting to go downhill, and until Israel starts to share rather than being a total pig, building world anger against Israeli actions can only totally stupid on the part of Israel.
Hamas might as well have killed most of those 429. If you use an unwitting human shield, and the shield accidentally gets shot, it's your fault. Your enemy intended to shoot you. You intended for your enemy to shoot someone else instead.
"Robbery and pillaging": WTF? Since when has Israel "pillaged" Gaza? There's not much of value there to pillage in the first place. It's not a bargain in terms of resources for Israel to occupy Gaza.
"Proportionate response": Proportionate response only exists before the threat becomes physical. If someone pulls a knife on me and I have a gun handy, I will point it at him and tell him to put the knife down once, and tell him he has 5 seconds. If he doesn't obey, I will shoot to kill. Life isn't Hollywood.
As for the "fools game" bit, Israel has lasted for the better part of a century surrounded by many who want it wiped off the face of the Earth. They also have nukes. I don't think they're going anywhere. Not to mention most of the Middle East is probably supporting Israel at present, albeit covertly. Iran wants to turn Gaza into something of a puppet state and is otherwise trying to gain power in the Middle East. It's in the interest of the other ME nations to prevent this.
Now I'm not saying that the Israelis are saints. If they'd actually halt some of their settlement projects it'd go a long way toward peace, but rockets are not the appropriate response to settlement building. Hamas wants Israel off the map, and are willing to do anything to achieve that goal. Notice Israel isn't invading the West Bank. This isn't about pillaging or robbery or even the rocket attacks. This is about Hamas.
