OS makes no comments, of course.
Omaha Steve (41,205 posts) http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014846511
Israeli military says it's resumed Gaza airstrikes
Sane persons would understand that Israel is protecting itself from attacks.
Sane people do not inhabit DU.
earthside (5,063 posts)
1. Evidence that Israel is a Failed State
Bombing one of the most densely populated areas on the planet is surely a sign of a government that has run-out of positive, democratic, civilized policies.
The airstrikes won't stop the ineffective missile launches out of the Gaza, so tactically the bombing is little more that a maneuver to persuade the Palestinians through terror.
When one of the world's largest and best financed militaries (thanks U.S. taxpayer) has to resort to essentially killing fish in a barrel, then the failure of the Israeli government is evident.
The more I think and reflect on this situation, the more I am convinced that Israel has gotten off on a very destructive and morally bankrupt course (the rising rhetoric calling for the genocide of the Palestinians being the chilling example).
Israel holds all the military, 'legal' and economic power -- it is its primary responsibility to step-up and pro-actively propose bold and perhaps radical solutions to this festering situation. A conservative, stick-in-the-mud politician like Netenyahu is simply the wrong leader to deal with pip squeaky, militants like Hamas -- really, he is letting them define and direct the present circumstances.
If only Israel had Barry as their leader. BUT- Hamas violated the ceasefire, missiles were launched at them, they then returned fire
earthside (5,063 posts)
5. Equivalence?
There isn't any equivalence here.
The Palestinians in the Gaza have a flyswatter and the Israelis have atomic bombs (that's almost literally true).
Israel actually has a moral obligation to rise above the use of brute force; one would think that progressives, civil libertarians and peace advocates could understand this imperative for Israel.
Yes- DU's solution to the middle east? Don't do anything.
earthside (5,063 posts)
10. Hamas apparently didn't accept the cease-fire.
A cease-fire can be one-sided, a truce is usually two-sided; Israel didn't accept a truce so far as I can tell.
'Aggression' and 'who started it', of course, can be in the eye of the beholder.
But there won't be any end to this and there will be tragedy for Israelis and Palestinians unless someone in Tel Aviv steps outside the destructive paradigm of the "moral obligation to defend their country against aggression".
That standard template has given us thousands of years of war and destruction -- and it especially won't solve the Palestine-Israel problem.
In 1936 the Jews took a position to step outside the paradigm of the moral obligation to defend one's self. It didn't go well. In fact, they adopted a new motto: "Never Again!"
Ash_F (4,001 posts)
22. Then open the border and let the refugees out of there
Gaza has one of the highest population densities in the world. It is a human rights disaster, even without bombing.
IronGate (715 posts)
23. That I can agree with, but Hamas seems to have a differing opinion on that,
they want civilian casualties for the propaganda value.
Hamas should just accept the cease fire and then both sides sit down and work towards a lasting peace without all the rhetoric.
Ash_F (4,001 posts)
25. It wasn't Hamas that built that wall. /nt
It was terrorists like Hamas that caused the wall to be built!
Ash_F (4,001 posts)
29. Indeed it was Native American violence that threw them into reservations.
Is this the 1800s?
19 Islamic men had box cutters and managed to kill nearly 3000 Americans. Where is your moral outrage on the terror group that initiates the destruction? This conflict always reminds me of the scene in Independence day where the President is speaking to the alien that was captured by Will Smith and the President says "Can there be a Peace" and the Alien replies "no Peace" and the President continues "What do you want from us" and Hamas replies "DIE"!earthside (5,063 posts)
17. And look where that got us.
How many killed and maimed in Afghanistan? How many killed and maimed in Iraq?
And our U.S. economy debilitated because of those costly wars.
Bush/Cheney fell for the old tried notion that brute force and mass destruction solves the problem for us because ... we have the biggest and mostest army.
'Weapon equivalence' does matter -- it is an indicator of the underlying approach that has to be considered if a peaceful solution is ever to be found. Nineteen men with box cutters can lead a massive power like the U.S. into a self-destructive trap, because people like Bush/Cheney are short-sighted, greedy, warmongers. Netanyahu and the current Israeli government look to be of the Bush/Cheney attitude; they are 'leaders' with little minds who cannot be smarter and wiser than their enemies.
Pounding the residents of Gaza and Hamas into the ground won't work -- it will only lead to another cycle of guerrilla terrorism and more hate.
If only one side chooses peace they won't be around for long.
clg311 (40 posts)
31. Genocide isn't defending your country.
"The Palestinians in Gaza live in conditions that now replicate those first imposed on Jews by the Nazis in the ghettos set up throughout Eastern Europe. [ 
] Palestinians cannot enter or leave Gaza. They are chronically short of food—the World Health Organization estimates that more than 50 percent of children in Gaza and the West Bank under 2 years old have iron deficiency anemia and reports that malnutrition and stunting in children under 5 are “not improving†and could actually be worsening. Palestinians often lack clean water. They are crammed into unsanitary hovels. They do not have access to basic medical care. They are stateless and lack passports or travel documents. There is massive unemployment. They are daily dehumanized in racist diatribes by their occupiers as criminals, terrorists and mortal enemies of the Jewish people.
“A deep and wide moral abyss separates us from our enemies,†Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said recently of the Palestinians. “They sanctify death while we sanctify life. They sanctify cruelty while we sanctify compassion.â€
Ayelet Shaked, a member of the right-wing Jewish Home Party, on her Facebook page June 30 posted an article written 12 years ago by the late Uri Elitzur, a leader in the settler movement and a onetime adviser to Netanyahu, saying the essay is as “relevant today as it was then.†The article said in part: “They are all enemy combatants, and their blood shall be on all their heads. Now this also includes the mothers of the martyrs, who send them to hell with flowers and kisses. They should follow their sons, nothing would be more just. They should go, as should the physical homes in which they raised the snakes. Otherwise, more little snakes will be raised there.â€
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2014/07/14-4
I am surprised she didn't quote the Protocols of Zion.
