I have had him on my ignore list, you quoting him showed his vile nature again. It's absolutely sad that as a parent he has such disgusting thoughts about civilian deaths.
Lol that guy whores around for attention on here. And EVERYONE ignores him. Even the resident extremist ATW.
When I say "held hostage" I don't mean in the literal sense but that people turn to extremists primarily because of fear of other sides' extremists. Because of the fragile nature of the situation extremists have an inordinate amount of influence. This is true for pretty much all people and part of what makes the situation so difficult to resolve peacefully.
The difference in Israeli air strikes & the Palestinians is that the Israelis do not target civilians, Hamas intentionally do target civillians. Do you condem the actions of Hamas intentionally targeting civillians? If not get off your high horse & face reality. I have never once supported civilian casualties or deaths. I might be anti the Islamic religions theology, but I feel the same way about many other religions...but I'm not anti-Muslim. Hamas not only intentionally targets Israeli civillians, but also puts their own civillians in harms way, uses human shields, promotes & encouraged martydom through suicide bombing & even teaches it's children to hate ( & kill Jews) in schools, as well as in their television shows...you call me out for parenting, but I don't teach my children to hate, I teach them to love & respect people of all faiths, colours & creeds. Hamas & the 'radical' imams preach that they 'embrace death' or 'love death more than Israelis love life'... Dress their children up as suicide bombers in order to groom them as potential martyrs. Do you condem or support these actions of Hamas? I'll admit that my comment was a bit insensitive, & will remove it...but if y'all will condem me over that comment, but not condem Hamas over its deplorable actions...then your priorities are out of place, & your moral compass is way off.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Marchers burn <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Israel">#Israel</a> flag as they take to streets in massive DC rally for <a class="hashtag" action="hash" title="#Gaza">#Gaza</a> <a href="http://t.co/b0imvoO0BC" title="http://twitter.com/smahaskey/status/495637792232595456/photo/1">pic.twitter.com/b0imvoO0BC</a></p>— M. Scott Mahaskey (@smahaskey) <a href="https://twitter.com/smahaskey/status/495637792232595456" data-datetime="2014-08-02T18:30:32+00:00">August 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Israel's original sin is its own existence. Therefore every action against it can be justified. And every act by Israel to defend its existence is seen as perpetuating this original sin of occupation. That's why things like indiscriminate rocket fire, suicide bombers, human shields, beheadings, etc. don't matter to the anti-Israel crowd.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Netanyahu: "We have destroyed the tunnels. We're also preparing defensive thechnologies I won't talk about now." - @<a href="https://twitter.com/yaacovlozowick">yaacovlozowick</a></p>— NewsBreaker (@NewsBreaker) <a href="https://twitter.com/NewsBreaker/status/495641199898685440" data-datetime="2014-08-02T18:44:05+00:00">August 2, 2014</a></blockquote> <script src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Israel doesn't usually target civilians except when their soldiers force Palestinian youths to act as human shields for their soldiers. But most of the time they don't. However, they are careless of civilian deaths. Going back to the bank robber analogy. The Palestinians are the bank robbers, and Israel are the police in this analogy. Two bank robbers hold up in the bank with 30 hostages. The police decide the bank robbers chose a life of crime and deserve to die. So instead of taking precautions to get the hostages out alive they blow up the entire bank killing everyone, and blame the robbers for taking hostages which is obviously wrong. However, the police action was not the wisest action for them to take.
Depends on how you look at it, if you take a "no negotiations" policy and you have no problem killing hostages while killing all of the bank robbers, it's one hell of a disincentive for people to rob banks or to take hostages in the first place. Your actions, while brutal, could potentially save people in the future by not creating an atmosphere where taking hostages is a viable option and where bank robberies are rare or non-existent. Of course on the other hand, it could just lead to a world where any innocents caught in a bank robbery are killed outright because they have no value as hostages and are just witnesses.....I mean it's not perfect either way, any time you have to deal with criminals or terrorists the odds are pretty good that it won't end well no matter what you do.
It is good to blow up the bank and killing the innocent hostages as long as you also get the two bank robbers? That isn't good in my book.
It is a disincentive for innocent civilians to in any way support the police. It may even spur some of the more radical of those civilians families to support people who actually strike out at the police. As for the bank robbers they are dead so it may or may not have an effect on future would-be bank robbers.
I definitely realize that. For me good vs. bad is important. But there may not be agreement on that. What should be important to everyone regardless of whether they consider one side good and the other bad, is what actually works. Blowing up civilians to remove Hamas and their weapons hasn't worked in the past. It has only served to increase support for Hamas right now. I would rather try a different approach instead of the same approach which hasn't worked over and over again.
I could see how some fools might have that reaction, and they'd probably get what they deserve as a result. What approach would you suggest?
For the Palestinians I would suggest not targeting civilians. I would suggest blocking roads used by Israelis with human walls. I would suggest strikes. I would suggest blocking construction vehicles knocking down Palestinian homes, and building new homes for Israeli settlers. For the Israelis, I would give Palestinians more access to water. Give them back fertile land. Allow fishermen from the Gaza to actually fish again for their living. To allow them to have enough fertile land to sustain themselves. I would end laws that discriminate against Palestinians. Neither of those would be easy. For the Palestinians there is no doubt that Israel might arrest and kill protestors. But the Palestinians would then have to make sure they don't use violence back and to film and publicize as much as possible. Palestinians are already having civilians killed so it wouldn't be different except this might actually be something that works in the end. But it could hamper Israeli productivity giving Israel more incentive to change their policies. Seeing Palestinians being abused or killed while committing no violence would also bring the international community to bring more pressure down on Israel. It could lead to boycotts etc. But it's not easy to sit there and not fight back when you're being beaten or killed. But the civil rights movement showed that it can be effective. It also worked for Gandhi and the effort for independence in India. The Israeli side would also be hard. They will have to remove settlements and settlers who are often violent extremists. They will also use their political will to remove anyone from office who actually undertakes such measures. So it would be very close to impossible to make those changes at least at the beginning. It might be easier once outside diplomatic pressure and perhaps boycotts start hurting the economy. Then lastly both sides need to not let extremists have as much control. If after a bit of peace some extremists from the Palestinian side manage a successful terrorist attack, the Israelis need to be strong enough to not re-engage in brutal blockades and attacks that kill multitudes of civilians. And at the same time when settlers or some rogue IDF soldiers kill or kidnap or torture Palestinians, they must not let that push them off the path of non-violent resistance. None of that is easy, but they are tactics that have worked in other places, and it's something different than what is being tried there even though we've seen over and over again that what's being done now isn't successful for either side except that it appeases the human desire for retribution, and to make it seem like one's govt. is taking some kind of action and doing something to combat the problems either side face. All of it may not be able to be done in one fell swoop, but hopefully there can be incremental steps towards these as end goals of how to conduct themselves.
I'm no Hamas supporter but Israel has changed it's reasoning for bombing Gaza from first the 3 kidnapped kids, to the rockets, to the tunnels, and now a "kidnapped" soldier. Netanyahu stated it was Hamas who kidnapped the 3 teenagers. Later, Israeli officials admitted it wasn't Hamas and it was some goons who weren't affiliated with Hamas. That excuse, which was inaccurate, was used to kill many innocents. Even then, soon before the kidnapping of the teenagers, IDF shot a 10yr old boy and elderly man so they technically "started" it. Israel became aggressive on the West Bank and that's when rockets started flying from Gaza. Recently, Israel claims a soldier was kidnapped so they bombed and killed hundreds of people near Rafah. Turns out there was no soldier kidnapped, he was killed in combat. When does anyone refer a soldier to be "kidnapped" in a state of war, anyway? Calling this a "war" can also be classified as inaccurate, the other side has no army. You can't say Israel doesn't target civilians. Their "pinpoint" accuracy weapons killed 80+% civilians. 3 minute notice to evacuate homes. Evacuate to where? Those bombs crush entire neighborhoods and markets entirely. I don't support "Islamic" terrorism and will speak out on it as it's wrong. Israel shouldn't get a free pass for they're doing, however. There's no justifying their actions, it's terrorism as well. It's sad that the US continues to fund them every single day.
You can thank the efficiency of the Iron Dome shield of Israel vs the effiency of the Human Shield of Gaza. The loss of human life is a tragedy, but I'm still yet to see the condemnation on this board of Hamas' use of Human shields & homes, mosques, hospitals & schools as weapons storage facilities & launch sites from the Pro-Palestinian supporters. But hey, what do I know about Militant Islam?...I've just watched my entire tribe, as well as all of the other Assyrians, either slaughtered or exiled from their homeland in Nineveh, in the name of Islam by Islamic militants. (Who are also slaughtering other moderate & peaceful Muslims by the thousand.) I just thank God that there is only 10-15% of Muslims that are in the 'extreme radical' group...but they are giving all other non-violent Muslims a bad rap. EDIT: While I consider myself Australian, as I was born & raised here Down Under, my Mom & Mom's family are Assyrians from Iraq.
