I have been critical of Israeli policy several times in the past years I have posted on this message board. I am not about to equate Israel to Hamas. Israel at the very least takes measures in place to prevent civilian casualties. They do a horrible job at it but so did the United States in Iraq. Is the Unified States a terrorist organization? I have witnessed first hand at the level of precaution the U.S. military uses to prevent civilian deaths yet even with all these percaution it still happens.
And the designation that their military wing that engages in these acts is a terrorist organization holds true. The same cannot be said of Hamas as a whole. Yet can the same be said of a country that purposefully targeted the only power plant (a civilian infrastructure) in Gaza? Before this, Gazans were getting 2-4 hours of electricity a day. Now without the power plant, the water supply will deteriorate, sewage treatment will be nonexistent, and there will be no power to medical facilities. In this conflict: Israel has killed 180 militants. Hamas has killed 53 soldiers. Israel has killed 832 civilians. Hamas has killed 3. Israel - 16% chance it will kill a militant. 84% chance it will kill a civilian. Hamas - 94.5% chance it will kill a soldier. 5.5% chance it will kill a civilian.
Tell me who am I to believe? I understand that Israel is denying any involvement in the destruction of that powerplant. Netanyahu's spokesman stated that it could very well have been a Hamas rocket that misfired as he mentioned how 10% of their missiles missfire and fall on Gazan residents. Am I to believe.him or Hamas? As a neutral spectator I can't tell.
"Of course, the pro israeli terrorist supporters like ATW, Deckard, and Commodore will ignore this." What were you saying about "reading comprehension?"
Yes? And? Tell me, what motive does Israel have in bombing a portion of a beach with no militirazed armaments or personal and has children playing. I can only.conclude that either it was an IDF misfire or Hamas had something to do with it. You do understand that Israel cares about international opinion especially US opinion and they have no way of defending an attack on a beach with no military strategic value. If Israel wanted to indiscrimantly attack children at beaches they have the means and firepower to do so. This being an isolated incident tells me it was more than likely an error in intel or a misfire. This incident has no bearing on whether Israel has preventative measures for civilian casualties.
Except this type of thing happens at least a dozen times whenever these conflicts happen... Al-Faqhura school Asma elementary school Araeiya medical center UNRWA field office compound (hit by White Phosphorus, aka targeting a civilian infrastructure with a chemical weapon, aka a war crime) Zeitoun - in the Gaza War, the IDF forced about 110 Palestinians (mostly women and children as the men were detained) into a building in the Zeitoun district. 24 hours lately, they shelled the building and withheld ambulances from reaching it for another 24 hours Ibrahim al-Maqadana mosque - intentionally bombing a mosque while 200+ people are inside praying Abd Rabbo family - shooting dead 2 daughters, and wounding an elderly woman, all of whom are holding white cloths after being ordered out of their house by the IDF The list is substantially bigger than this
You are saying it's an isolated incident, error, misfire, etc. Well, let's look at it this way....this incident occurred on an open beach with not many obstructions (at least as far as I could tell from the images), it occurred during broad daylight, and the casualties could in my estimation be easily discerned as children (based on their age, height, the fact that they were playing soccer!).....So my point is that if Israel makes this "error" under such conditions, does it not worry you even slightly what the consequences are under more difficult circumstances? I think the numbers speak for themselves. It's gotten so bad that John Kerry was caught mic criticizing Israel's "pinpoint operation." BTW, thank you for allowing me to express my opinion without calling me names or giving me a label. I have seen much worse on this board. I do appreciate it.
Israel Defends Entire Civilized World Israel’s military action against Hamas terrorist rockets is a preview of what the entire civilized world is likely to face in the near future. Islamic militant terrorists — whether they are called al-Qaida, Isis, Hamas, or Hezbollah — all use similar tactics. They target civilians while hiding among civilians in order to induce democracies to kill civilians so that the media will show gruesome pictures of dead children and blame these deaths on the democracy, rather than the terrorists who use children and other civilians as human shields. The democracy is then put to the tragic choice of either allowing terrorist attacks against its own civilians or taking military action that risks the lives of enemy civilians. That is precisely the choice that Israel has had to make as hundreds of rockets are directed at its cities from densely populated civilian areas in Gaza. Israel has been very careful to try to minimize civilian casualties. They drop leaflets, make phone calls and even send noisemaking bomblets to warn civilians to leave areas to which rockets are being fired. Mostly the civilians leave. Sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, the Israeli military does not fire at the rockets, thereby putting their own civilians at risk. Yet some in the media describe the current situation in Gaza as a “cycle of violence.” The reality, of course, is that there is no such cycle. It is a one-way street that Hamas has driven down precisely in order to create the illusion of a cycle with equal blame on both sides. There is no comparison — legally, morally, diplomatically or by any other criteria — between what Hamas is doing and how Israel is responding. Hamas is willfully and deliberately committing a double war crime by targeting Israeli civilians and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The deliberate targeting of civilians, as Hamas admits — indeed boasts — it is doing, is a clear war crime. Hamas has specifically aimed its lethal rockets at Beersheba, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem. This is a war crime. Moreover, it is firing these rockets from hospitals, schools, and houses in densely populated areas in order to cause Israel to kill Palestinian civilians. This too is a war crime. This has been called Hamas’ “dead baby strategy.” It deliberately puts Israel to the tragic choice of attacking the rockets and killing some children who are used as human shields, or refraining from attacking the rockets and thereby placing their own children at risk. Israel has generally chosen the option of refraining from attacking legitimate military targets, but when any human shields are inadvertently killed or injured, Hamas stands ready to cynically parade the dead civilians in front of television cameras, which transmit these gruesome pictures around the world with captions blaming Israel. Hamas has also adamantly refused to build bomb shelters for its civilian population. It has built shelters but has limited access to them to Hamas terrorists. This is precisely the opposite of what Israel does — building shelters for its civilians and placing its soldiers in harm’s way. Most recently Hamas has forced or encouraged civilians to stand on the rooftops of military targets so as to prevent Israel from attacking these entirely appropriate targets. Indeed a lawsuit is now being brought in Israel, against the Israeli military, urging it to ignore these human shields and to attack the military targets. The argument is that unless the military targets are attacked, Israeli civilians will die, and a democracy has the obligation to prefer the lives of its own civilians over the lives of enemy civilians. Thus far the Israeli military has refrained from attacking military targets that are protected by human shields. Nor was there any symmetry between the kidnapping and brutal murder of three Israeli teenagers by Hamas operatives and the equally despicable killing of an Arab teenager by a handful of Israeli individuals. The Hamas-inspired kidnapping was part of a long term Hamas policy. Hamas has built dozen of tunnels between Gaza and Israel for the sole purpose of kidnapping and/or killing Israeli civilians. I have been inside one such tunnel, whose exit was just yards away from an Israeli kindergarten with dozens of children. The killing of the three Israeli teenagers was a result of Hamas’ policy, regardless of whether the specific decision to kill the youths was or wasn’t made at the top levels of the Hamas leadership. The killing of the Palestinian youth, to the contrary, was clearly against the wishes of the Israeli government, the Israeli people, and Israeli policy. It was the act of deranged extremists — an act that hurt Israel terribly both internally and externally. Yet many in the international media insist on comparing these two very different atrocities. The entire civilized world should be standing behind Israel as it defends itself against war crimes, because what Israel is doing is precisely what every democracy would do if faced with similar threats to its civilian population. That so many continue to support — or remain silent about — those who commit these war crimes tells us something deeply disturbing about their values and prejudices. The world must come to realize that the major conflict today is between Islamic extremists who will stop at nothing to achieve their theological-political-military goals, and democracies that must fight these extremists while complying with the rule of law. Israel should be praised for leading the way. http://www.newsmax.com/AlanDershowitz/Israel-Hamas-terrorist-Gaza/2014/07/10/id/581956/
ATW. ..Ya right..Donald (Tokowitz) known as Sterling is defending the NBA from black ppl too in his own world
Are you suggesting that the threat of Islamic militarism is as benign as the threat of African Americans to the NBA(nonexistant).
I am suggesting that some think they are superior to others (chosen one) Making stupid judgments whenever it apply, in sport, politic etc, and they have no shame or regards @all
Oh hey, another biased article posted by ATW, from none other than the pro-Israeli Alan Dershowitz (who is so intimidated by Norman Finkelstein that he lobbied to have him denied tenure).
fchowd, come on use your brain. Unless you accept that Hamas is totally insane and stupid they 1) don't shoot themselves in the foot by cutting off nearly all power in Gaza. How does this help them? Similarly with the claim that it was a Hamas rocket that hit the hospital. Hey if you want to support Israel just admire their balls for floating such nonsense, say it is fine to lie in war, but don't be so gullible.
I never stated that Hamas purposefully destroyed the plant. I stated that the Israeli spokesperson suggested that it could have been a Hamas rocket misfire. As I stated in the post, apparently 10% of rockets fired in Gaza fail and drop in Gaza. I explicitly stated that I am an outside observer and have a hard time believing both sides. You tell me who is more credible, Hamas or Israel?
It is simple Isreal has 370 F-16,3900 Tank,state of arts weapons :killed 1200 civilian Hamas has 0 jet fighter,0 tanks ,self made weapons. :killed 53 soldiers It's not even a war, it's plain genocide political leader of Israel: extremist Political leader of Hamas: extremist too But one target only children And forget about something so called civilized democratic Israel, it is more of former South Africa ruled based on ethnicity &religion nothing else but a propaganda
