Is Israel Wrong? If someone threw a stick of DYNAMITE in your backyard what would you do? ?

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BLATANT

No Israel is Not wrong to retaliate, but they both must come to the table eventually. Let it be now.

To: gypsy_cat 345
Have you any ability to convey your point without derogatory insults? The only purpose you serve is to confirm peopleâ€™s worst thoughts of the group you support.
Insanely irrational hatred and flailing attacks without logic.

These are just a few of your choice thoughts:
Brainiac, kindly remove your head from its present location and give it a good washing to remove some of that clutter.
Kadel---if I wanted all that cutting and pasting, I'd go back to kindergarten.

You succeed only in harming more than helping.

Gamla Joe

The truth is it is not so simple.

There has been a lot of bad blood between Israelis and Palestinians, that part of the reason why the disengagement from Gaza did not lead to the security that Israelis had hoped for.

The other part of it is the current nature of Hamas that by their own charter and words refuse any peace deal with Israel and reject previous agreements made between Israelis and Palestinians.

Hopefuly this war will change things that will allow Gaza and southern Israel to live in peace, at this point that is all we can hope for.

Pete O

I asked a similar question last week "if after continually telling them to stop, your neighbors continued to throw rocks on your roof day and night what would you do?"

The answers were mixed but most of the answers suggested they would retaliate.

Gaza has fired over 6000 rockets into Israel since 2004 and they have been told continually to stop Israel has every right to retaliate.

Samsooma The Madruba

Any normal human being would retaliate, any "normal' country would've put an end to these qasams ages ago.

gypsy_cat 345
When one kicks a bee hive one must be ready to get stung.

kadel

Of course Israel is right. I'm just so amazed they have been so restrained.

January 06, 2009
Could Have Seen This War Coming
By Richard Cohen

Nearly a year ago, I was in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, where, on almost any day, you could see the current war coming. "The next Middle East war may start over Sderot," I wrote back then. I came by my prescience the hard way -- in a bomb shelter. That day, three Qassam rockets had hit the city. It took no genius to see the imminence of war. It takes real stupidity to blame it on Israel.

On some days, dozens of rockets fell on Sderot. A blimp hovered over the town, and when it electronically spied an incoming rocket, the sirens went off. In Sderot, the sirens were virtually a single wail on some days. Everyone took shelter because shelters are everywhere -- a constant reminder of the nearness of death or, at the very least, destruction. Even a dud can bust through the roof of a house.

I get the impression that Israel is expected to put up with this. The implied message from demonstrators and some opinion columnists is that this is the price Israel is supposed to pay for being, I suppose, Israel. I am informed by a Palestinian journalist in a Washington Post op-ed article that Israel is trying to stop "amateur rockets from nagging the residents of some of its southern cities." In Sderot, I saw homes nagged to smithereens.

While I was reading the online version of the Israeli newspaper Haaretz for all the latest news about the war, a pop-up ad announced itself: "Camp Kimama, Israel, 2009 -- What childhood memories should be made of." The picture shows kids frolicking in the water. Placed next to stories about battle, it was a jarring -- but vivid -- statement of war aims: the expectation of normal life.

The CIA's World Factbook says that Israel has a population of 7,112,359. Of these, about 5,434,000 are Jews. That includes 187,000 settlers in the West Bank, about 20,000 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights bordering Syria, and about 175,000 in East Jerusalem. It does not include, however, the approximately 750,000 Israelis living in the United States -- some for a brief amount of time, some for an extended period, some permanently. For a variety of reasons -- and often with considerable pain -- they have given up on the country of their birth.

As the leaders of Hamas understand, the war in Gaza is about Israel's incessant fight to be a normal country. Maybe that's impossible. The war between Arab and Jew predates the founding of Israel in 1948. For the Palestinians, it is a fierce fight for Arab justice, for Arab pride, for Arab myth -- for ancestral houses and orange groves that few living have ever seen. For Israel, it is so kids can swim in a lake.

Three years ago, Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip. Good, the world said. Next, pull out of the West Bank, the world said. But then Hamas, which has vowed to destroy Israel, won the election in Gaza. Sderot soon became hell. The West Bank is controlled by Fatah, the moderate Palestinian organization, which once had control of Gaza, too. If Israel withdraws from the West Bank, will rockets come from there? If you lived in Tel Aviv, a spit from the West Bank, would you take the chance?

Anyone could have seen this war coming. The diplomats and demonstrators who are now so engaged in the problem and the process were nowhere to be found when rockets began raining down on southern Israel. The border between Gaza and Egypt is riddled with tunnels -- some for food, some for weapons. The international monitors that are so evidently needed now were just as evidently needed then.

Conventional wisdom says that when Israel went into Lebanon in 2006, it lost that war. Hezbollah stood up to the mighty Israeli army; Israel could not muzzle Hezbollah's rockets. That may not be the way Hezbollah sees things, however. After the war, its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said he had miscalculated. He was not prepared for the fury of the Israeli attack. He apologized. Now, Hezbollah takes no role in the current war. It will be back, but still has wounds to lick.

The horrors of war are not to be dismissed or demeaned. In 2006, Israel accidentally killed 28 civilians in the Lebanese village of Qana when it attempted to take out a nearby rocket site. In Gaza, innocent Palestinians are being killed. The suffering is great and cannot be ignored. But what has been ignored is the series of events that led to this war. Anyone could see how it was going to start. As always, though, it's a lot harder to see how it ends.

cohenr@washpost.com
Copyright 2009, Washington Post Writers

Gogreen

Good analogy. Hopefully catch the stick b4 it blew & I'd tell the cops when they arrive that the dude & his X had a death wish and that they likely blew themselves up.

The fanatics (Hamas) don't give a fig how many die, they'll be martyrs for all they care.
Wish they'd just drink the cool-aide like all good fanatical cults and be done with it.

GETACLUE

Israel is not wrong.
Hamas initiated this most recent episode. No, I don't think I'd feel that standing back and waiting for an explanation of why is the right move. They must both stop at some point.

It's unfortunate that most people don't realize or believe that the ISLAMIC QURAN is full of HATE for the infidels, it tells you to KILL anyone who disagrees with the QURAN and KILL anyone who changes their religion from Islam,etc. Permissiveness and extremely Liberal Views are so ridiculously cautious, tippy-toeing around the facts! People are not informed as a result! READ the QURAN and open your eyes! Ignorance and refusal to recognize the enemy within our own borders will be our downfall!

It is the RELIGION which has Islamic Schools which teaches children in our OWN UNITED STATES to HATE us and killing infidel Americans by Dying as a Martyr for Allah is a GOOD THING.

Hamas is just a much more obvious terrorist group.

All these year I have wondered and asked why the Pals want to live under and support Hamas.
They did and do though and that makes it the public of Gaza's burden to bear.
CNN only showed it once but I saw people in Gaza handing out candy after the first Israeli soldier was killed.
Hamas is the people. Where are the innocents.
As an American I will die before my country is taken over by Islam.
The same religion of peace that supports and supplies a regime so cruel.

tobster

To understand the situation and underlying historic problems as well as getting a general objective view I recommend you to read Noam Chomsky, professor of the MIT, very knowledgeable of international politics and free of political and corporate influences. http://www.chomsky.info
When it comes to broadcasters, BBC is probably the closest you will get to unbiased news coverage. http://news.bbc.co.uk/
good luck

Arieh

Hamas is a puppet whose strings are pulled by Syria and Iran. As soon as the leaders of these two countries say to cease and desist, this "war" will be over, but not before. Hamas has its own political agenda that they hope to achieve before any ceasefire. They don't value the lives of their own citizens. In fact, I guarantee you that they view the events of the last week as the best thing to happen to them in years.

dingo60

Jim - whilst you are doing your humanitarian bleeding over the blockade in Gaza, how about showing some sympathy for the Israelis who have been living with a blockade against them for 60 years. None of their neighbours will open the borders to them either.

Fortunately, Israel has the ability to work things out for themselves.

Why do you expect Israel to provide food, clothing, water, fuel, medicine etc etc etc to a bunch of psychopaths who's main aim (only aim) in life is to see the destruction of the nation that is feeding them and the slaughter of all the people living inside it (Actually every Jew in the world would almost satisfy these terrorists).

Palestine have been given billions of dollars over a 60 year period and all they've achieved is buying rockets and missiles to kill off their neighbour and trebling their population. Israel donated several hundred thousand dollars worth of glasshouses to Gaza - so what did they do? The Gazans destroyed them. Gaza and Israel share a water table, so what did Gaza do? They poisoned it. Nice move. Really serious about becoming a self sustaining nation.

And as for that garbage about being pushed out of their homes - THEY LEFT VOLUNTARILY and refused to return. The number of 'palestinians' who actually left the area now occupied by Israel is less than 5% of the Gazan population. Its a huge myth perpetrated by muslim organisations for years about the 'keys to their houses' these people still hold onto - blatant rubbish! Less than 20% of muslims owned houses in the Israel area.

Now, what about the 850,000 Jews that Arab states forcibly removed, confiscating all their property and belongings. Would you like to be fair and start whining about them too? Surely if you have soooooo much sympathy for the poor 'palestinians' you must have some for the disposessed Jews? You do don't you? Don't you?

Teresa (SFECU) -â€ - pray4revival

Well, if I were in that situation I could call my local authorities and I have no doubt they would deal with the neighbor.

However, in the case of Israel and Hamas, the only authority Israel could call upon is the UN, which because 57 members are also members of the OIC and a good portion of those control freaks are also members of the economic terrorist organization known as OPEC, the Useless Nations no longer has the backbone to stand up to Hamas or any other similar organization and therefore couldn't care less what they're doing to their neighbor.

If my local authorities dealt with the criminal activities of my neighbor like the UN does concerning Arabs and their actions toward Israel, you can bet I'd be dealing with it myself.

wider scope

Of course, they are not wrong.

gypsy_cat 345

Okay, Brainiac...and if your neighbor was blocking your driveway so that you couldn't leave---for work, to take your kids to school, etc. etc. etc....you'd probably lob a stick of dynamite at 'em.
Because that's essentially what Israel is doing to the Gazans---blocking their driveway. (Not to mention cutting the electricity and gas lines and water mains.) Do you think that the so-called "militants" are shooting fireworks (oh silly me, I meant "rockets") into Israel out of boredom?
HELL, no. It's because Israel refuses to allow the Gazans self-determination. Gaza (as, in your ignorance, you probably don't realize) should have viable seaports on the Mediterranean in order to import and export. You obviously missed the newsreels wherein Gazan crops, destined for Europe, rot where they lie because Israel has BLOCKADED Gaza's entire coastline.
Becaue of the Israeli blockades, Gazan factories have all closed. They have one of the highest unemployment rates in the world because Israel has them hemmed in and refuses to allow them to determine their own fates...which is just how Israel wants it....they're still p!ssed off over having to leave.
And when a few villages are shelled in retaliation, Israel seizes on it as an excuse to kill and maim women and children taking refuge at SCHOOLS, for Christ's sake. I strongly sugggest that you examine this tragedy from BOTH perspectives before you make judgements; kindly remove your head from its present location and give it a good washing to remove some of that clutter.
I'd love to see YOU living like the Izzies have forced the Gazans to live----you'd be screaming like a little girl.
And Kadel---if I wanted all that cutting and pasting, I'd go back to kindergarten.

Getaclue (AKA "Clueless")---and the Torah deems it just fine and dandy to kill anyone who happens to be a >gasp< GENTILE...

Zander

you forgot to mention that you cut off food, water and medicine to your neighbors you pushed out into the desert, that your home used to be theirs, and that you cut off their movement to places they need to go

small detail

Shadi

There was no agreement!!!

zionist terrorist troops got out of Gaza only because of the rising number of their dead soldiers ... so the plan was to pull back and to put a siege on Gaza and punish the whole population in order to turn them against their free elected government so zionists can come back in again..

Hamas stated that they will stop the rockets only if zionist terrorist state end their nazi aggression and open the borders and start to respect a non Jewish lives...

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