Well - they are bombing Palestine. If someone is bombing and then militarily entering my town - I consider that war against me. If you want to see it another way - go ahead.
This has been rehashed many times - and I don’t agree with you on this issue. I respect you as a man but I have been to Israel, I’ve been in the Middle East and I am very familiar with the history of that region. It’s okay - people can disagree. I had someone private message me and called me an anti- Semite and Hamas supporter. If someone wants to call me an anti-Semite because I am critical of how Israel treats Palestinians, then so be it - but I will say anyone that thinks I support Hamas in anyway - that just isn’t possible as I have been critical of them since they took power.
I would never call you that. I respect you, and as you say, it is fine to agree to disagree, as we do here. Like you, I have been to Israel and to many countries in the Arab world many times (UAE, Saudi, Qatar, Morocco, Tunisia, to name a few). I understand that people's opinions and experiences will be shaped by different personal experiences.
When the allied forces were bombing Germany, it was to bring down the Nazis. At the time, the affected Germans certainly wouldn't have thought that way, but in later years, I think it was pretty much consensus among the vast majority of people in Germany that Germany was liberated - at least the Western part. As you and others have rightly pointed out, how that will be perceived also depends on what plan is put in place after the war is (hopefully) won by the good side (Israel in this case, from my perspective). West Germany got support to be built up again. East Germany was made a vassal state of Russia. East Germans learned a lot less from Germany's awful history than West Germans. So, assuming Israel wins and unseats Hamas, it will be crucial to help the Palestinian civilians to build up and hopefully establish a democracy. But it will be very hard to win the hearts and minds of people who are already full of hate and have been subjected to propaganda since their early childhood.
Because in both cases, extremists were in government, who were holding the civilian population hostage, and who were both committing genocide against Jews. Many parallels.
some people are biased towards liberty, justice, and freedom. you people (Hamas apologists) are biased towards rapists, baby killers, and rapists who kill babies. we see you.
I’ve been to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt. It was two years before the ‘67 war, visiting Jerusalem and the West Bank when they were still part of Jordan, obviously. We were treated very well. At the border of the West Bank with Israel, I remember staring at Israel, struck by how green it was there in comparison to what I was seeing in Jordan. At the time, we were unable to travel to Israel, travel directly to the country from Jordan and Egypt being impossible. However, I have had a deep interest in the region, including Israel, ever since. Speaking of Israel and the monstrous, murderous assault on that country, who would say that to you about Hamas? Whoever would do that, as well as calling you an “anti-Semite,” which is patently absurd, is someone who is a pitiful creature, a sick and twisted human being, and clearly a poorly educated extremist, or good at being an imitation. It says plenty about him or her, and a complete lack of attention to your posts here in D&D. We get some of the worst of the BBS down here, especially from the far-right. They are crawling around the forum like Houston’s infamous cockroaches, poking here and there, busy spewing proof of their hatred and ignorance. Clearly, they are lost in a world of propaganda, too stupid to realize they are part of Putin’s game and that of trump, who has a “game” being played at a far lower level. Speaking of extremists, that describes Israel’s government. Extreme, far-right, and corrupt. It disturbed me greatly seeing President Biden letting Netanyahu hug him on his arrival. He shouldn’t have, in my opinion, but perhaps it caught him off guard. We have old friends who are Jewish, with relatives in Israel that have us all worried. Safe, for now. Things are going to get far, far worse there, in my opinion. We may be drawn in. Biden is sending Israel a great deal of defensive weaponry, as he should, as well as powerful naval forces to the eastern Med, the Red Sea, the Gulf and the Arabian Sea to protect Israel as much as possible. Those naval assets as well as ground forces, especially anti-missile and anti-rocket systems, are also to deter others, some of whom, besides Hamas, are involved now, but may be thinking of getting far more involved soon. I hope not. We’ll see.
