BBC telling lies? Occasionally they do, but on the whole we're talking about an institution renowned the world over for impartial news reporting.. Plastic paddies spouting bollocks on an internet forum? Who would have predicted that?.
Supplying Gaza Few are aware that just as the intense rocketing of Israel’s metropolitan areas was ramped up, the Kerem Shalom crossing to the Gaza Strip was reopened early last week. Trucks laden with foodstuffs and supplies were allowed through to those who were lobbing missiles at Israeli civilians. Undoubtedly, these consignments didn’t only serve noncombatants but were seized by the combatants and allocated as they saw fit. Now that a cease-fire is in place, this travesty surely should prompt a comprehensive collective rethink among Israelis. Nowhere else in the history of armed conflict was there ever a situation in which a combatant side looked after its mortal enemy’s welfare, fed it, supplied it with essentials and powered it with electricity. Invariably, the reverse is true. Combatants besiege enemies, seek to starve them into submission and to disable their ability to fight. That is the norm of warfare – most especially vis-Ã -vis aggressive antagonists who persistently stoke the furnaces of hostility and relentlessly make civilians their primary targets. But despite a dozen years of assorted barrages from Gaza – punctuated by particularly severe episodes, as we witnessed only days ago – Israel makes sure that Gazans are well fed and lack nothing vital. The bizarre outcome is that we sustain and reinforce, at the expense of Israeli taxpayers, the very terrorists who aim to wipe out these Israeli taxpayers. This is counter-intuitive in the extreme. Moreover, the world does not acknowledge our peculiar largesse, one that forcefully grates against our fundamental interests. Despite shipments of basic commodities to Gaza, we are pilloried as imposers of blockades and creators of humanitarian crises –nonexistent though they are – in the Strip. As trucks laden with goods crossed from Israel into Gaza, the Hamas narrative was only underscored. Although our power plant in Ashkelon facilitates the continued manufacture, import, upkeep and deployment of more missiles, Gazans fired at that very power plant. Something is wrong with this picture. It has been an acute anomaly for years, but it became all the more insufferable as the entire country from Tel Aviv south was viciously bombarded, with the undisguised aim being the premeditated mass murder of Israeli noncombatants. Why should these attacked Israelis continue to aid and abet their implacable enemies? Our supplies to Gaza help wage war against us. Why should Israelis be expected and required to look after their enemies? Would any such demand be put to any other nation under concerted lethal fire? All this is exacerbated by the Palestinians’ consistent underlying ideology that perceives attacks on Israeli civilians as a God-given right but which denounces Israeli selfdefense – no matter how sterile and pinpointed its intention – as illegitimate and a war crime. That is the belief of Gaza’s masses, and that elementary justification of terrorism cannot be rooted out via surgical air strikes. The population in Gaza needs to understand that there is a price for its complicity in the attacks on their Israeli counterpart. At the very least this ought to mean – even after the cease-fire – that we cannot continue to take care of our enemies’ daily needs. On the one hand, our air strikes were geared to take out terrorist infrastructure, yet our other hand, we buttressed that very infrastructure. Official Israel clearly dreaded the backlash of world opinion. This fear undermines our ability to defeat or even to significantly dent Gaza’s terrorist infrastructure for the long haul. Without a thorough revamp of mind-sets here, operation Pillar of Defense may well yield tactical short-term benefits, but it will not make a strategic difference further down the line. A multiplicity of cogent rationalizations existed against a ground invasion of Gaza, but there is nothing nearly as compelling against beginning a true and final disengagement from Gaza. Instead of strengthening those who do their utmost to destroy us, it is high time we quit being suckers. It is also time to disconnect Gazans from our power grid, telephone and communication services (for which, inter alia, they never pay). Maintaining the absurd status quo heaps folly upon folly. Jerusalem Post Editorial
What utter dirge. What is happening in the strip already is declared illegal by its nature as a mass collective punishment. Israelis acting like Nazis once more
Not really, classic abused becoming abuser cycle. Didn't I mention before about the guerilla Israeli groups conducting terrorist attacks against the British army and massacres against the native Palestinian population offering to Hitler to become his armed representation in the area but he refused on the grounds their military strength was negligible. I believe the leader of the group later became an Israeli PM. Classy
Israel's more recent exercise to defend itself seems to be killing 20 Palestinians for every 1 Israeli death. You have a stateless population living in third world conditions within the borders of one of the most developed western countries in the world. I don't think the Israelis understand that while you have massive inequality you will always have a conflict - and every effort to create a Palestinian state which may organise itself to be anything greater than a despotism is being thwarted by the continual destruction of Palestinian infrastructure.
I think it's a grave mistake to base your judgement simply upon how many deaths occur - Israel does everything in its power to minimise civilian casualties (on both sides), while the Arabs do everything in their power to ensure that that there are as many deaths as possible. During the Second World War, Britain suffered 67,100 civilian casualties, while some 1.1m to 3.1m of Germany's civilian population perished. That gives a ratio of between 16 to 46 German civilian deaths for every British one. Yet no-one in their right mind would ever suggest that Germany had the moral high ground.
Nice post edit dev. Yes dev the Israelis have been committing massacres against the native Palestinians since before the inception of their state. Forget methods, the same racist attitudes of being racially superior and having no qualms about killing civilians and children en masse puts them on the same level.
Zionist in peddling tired old propaganda line shocker I didn't know the use of phosphorous munitions, cluster munitions and fuel air bombs was doing everything in their power. So how many targets hit in Gaza were legitimate military targets. The press offices? The family homes?
Ok, so if we do not engage in a sectarian death count I have a few questions. What gives Israel the moral high ground? If we leave aside death and attacks, why does the nation of Israel have more right to that territory than Palestine? Why are there so many Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, as set out by numerous UN declarations, or the 1947 borders, or even the 1967 borders? If Israel is morally correct, why is GDP per capita $31,000 in Israel, but $2,900 in the Palestinian territories, why is there such inequality within what remains the same borders?
What gives Israel the moral high ground? We are a democratic country with equal rights for all our citizens guaranteed by law regardless of race, creed or sexual gender or orientation. Hamas are an Islamic Terrorist organisation who are dedicated not only to Israel's destruction but to the murder of Jews anywhere in the world (their Koran tells them it's OK). Why does the nation of Israel have more right to that territory than Palestine Which territory are you talking about exactly? Israel has no claims on Gaza - we ceded the entire Gaza Strip to the Arabs seven years ago when there was a unilateral Israeli withdrawal. As for the rest of British Mandated Palestine, you'll find that the Arabs have by far the lion's share of it with something like 85% of the total territory. Why are there so many Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory Firstly, there has never been a sovereign, independent state of Palestine in history. There are Jewish communities in Judea & Samaria because there has always been a Jewish presence in these areas for thousands of years, with the sole exception of 1948-67 when Jews were forced from their homes by the illegal attacks, occupation and annexation by the Arabs. Judea and Samaria are disputed territories with final status to be agreed upon in bilateral negotiations between both sides. Having said that, the largest parts of Judea & Samaria are under the control of the Palestinian Authority and almost all of the Arabs living in these areas are subject to PA and not Israeli control. Why is GDP per capita $31,000 in Israel, but $2,900 in the Palestinian territories Israel can only be responsible for the area under its control. If you want to know why the GDP is so low in areas under the control of the Arabs, I respectfully suggest you address your question to the Palestinian Authority.
