In The News

[SM]

[Alienseseses]

You know what, Israel is in the right in this volley.

You have Hamas launching rockets at Israeli civilians-- messy, uncoordinated (and now, long range) rockets randomly into the country with the expressly stated intention to kill civilians. You have Hamas digging tunnels into Israel that pop up in Kibbutzes, and you have Hamas militants popping up in Kibbutzes with machine guns with the stated goal of kidnapping and/or murdering random Kibbutz people (again, civilians). You have Hamas storing their weapons and launchers in and around civilian homes in Gaza. You have Hamas telling civilians to ignore evacuation warnings (small and large) and actively telling Gazan civilians to form human shields in and on top of targetted homes (that are targetted because they are full of rockets). You have Hamas turning down ceasefire offer after ceasefire offer. You have Hamas launching rockets during a UN Humanitarian ceasefire.

Want to be pro Palestinian? Fine. Be. That's valid. Hamas isn't. Hamas just wants to kill Jews and get Gazans killed. They're not even coy about this, they say it out loud. Repeatedly.

If you target civilians while hiding behind other civilians, you are wrong. That is not a valid resistance, it is terrorism. I don't even care if you're unsuccessful at hitting the targets you are trying to kill. You are actively, openly, trying to kill them.

I'm going to side with the people who want to shut down the people aiming at civilians. The ones who target the places full of rockets and have the courtesy to give three different types of warnings to the inhabitants.

It's an awful shame so many people are dying. Their blood is on Hamas. Gaza deserves better leadership.

[First Blood]

You live in Israel right? Or have some connection to it? How are you holding up?

[Alienseseses]

I don't live in Israel, but I have connection to it. My sister was just there for a year-- she got home 2 weeks after the war started. My cousins are there now. A classmate of mine from Maale film school, which I attended two years ago, was recruited for reserve duty.

[First Blood]

I hope they're safe. This is a terrible situation right now. Hamas are a bunch of thugs.

[Alienseseses]

Thanks.

It's really sucky. After this situation, I hope somebody else is in charge of Gaza. Much happier with the Palestinian Authority in charge, though that seems unlikely.

Just hope it doesn't fall into the hands of ISIS or Islamic Jihad, who've slowly been gaining footholds.

[SM]

You know what, Israel is in the right in this volley.

"You would say that though"

[Alienseseses]

Targeting civilians and hiding behind civilians is indefensible. Gaza needs better leadership and I can only pray they get it.

[SM]

Nevermind.  The score is about 550 to 25 at the moment, and I'm sure there's some more hospitals in range, so I think your team will have a comfortable win.

[Alienseseses]

It's f**king awful that civilians are dying.

And moral equivalency arguments like that are terrible. "Sorry we spent a ton of our time and energy building shelters, an alarm system, and a 90% accurate defense system. Sorry we aren't lying down and dying like Hamas wants."

If the IDF didn't  try to stop the attacks on Israel's civilian populations, it wouldn't be doing its job. It's in the name.

And it's a damn shame Hamas stores its weapons in its hospitals. They can always rely on human shields. Thankfully (at the very goddamn least) Israel has set up hospitals for injured Palestinians. Hospitals that aren't also weapons caches.

[SM]

I think the real shame is any assumption that either side has the moral high ground...

[PVTDukeMorrison]

There's no moral high ground in war, the fact of the matter is Hamas kicked the hornets nest and ignited another conflict that they can't possibly win in open combat, so they resort to long range missiles fired conveniently from highly populated from civilian areas. All Palestinian blood is on their hands, not the IDFs

[SM]

There's no moral high ground in war, the fact of the matter is Hamas kicked the hornets nest and ignited another conflict that they can't possibly win in open combat, so they resort to long range missiles fired conveniently from highly populated from civilian areas. All Palestinian blood is on their hands, not the IDFs

Translation - there is no moral high ground; except Israel has the moral high ground.

[Blacklabel]

http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/politics/israeli-sosaciety/8314-israeli-academic-raping-palestinian-women-would-deter-attacks

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[Alienseseses]

In the larger scheme of things? Israel v. Palestine? That's a separate court case altogether.

In this particular battle? It's pretty clear. A militant group in charge of Gaza launches an unending stream of rockets into Israel. Israel does a good job of deflecting most of them, but that doesn't justify them, as they're aimed at civilians. The militant group's bar for success, its goal, is a civilian death toll.
Israel responds by striking the homes of top members of the militant group responsible for firing long range missiles at Israeli civilians and buildings storing weapons that were gathered for the purpose of killing civilians.
Some of these buildings are civilian buildings (schools, hospitals, private homes). The occupants of these places are human shields. There is proof of this in a big way: videos of humans forming crowds on buildings, the UN finding rockets stored in a school, among a gigantic pile of evidence. Israel's response: warn the civilians (something Hamas would never do when they fire at Israel, because the Israeli civilians are their targets) with leaflets, phone messages, and dummy bombs. But they can't clear civilians well enough, partly because Hamas encourages these civilians to form human shields (again: footage of Hamas people announcing that this is their tactic, footage of people forming human shields, Hamas pamphlets telling people to ignore warnings) and partly because Hamas doesn't build shelters for anybody but their top men.
Instead, they use their concrete to dig tunnels into Israel that pop up in kibbutzes. They fill the tunnels with weapons and pop up on the other side intending to massacre civilians (again: not coy about this.) Hence the ground invasion into Gaza: to destroy the tunnels.

To recap this recent battle: Hamas aims at civilians and hides behind civilians. IDF targets Hamas, warns civilians, takes in injured civilians when they can and gives them medical aid.

Nobody can take the high ground? f**k that. If you think it's somehow okay for anybody anywhere to intentionally try to kill civilians for any reason ever, then I have nothing to say to you.

http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/politics/israeli-sosaciety/8314-israeli-academic-raping-palestinian-women-would-deter-attacks

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f**k that guy, I have nothing to say to him either.