The Palestinians can either A) stop launching vengeance weapons into Israel or B) continue to use themselves as human shields while Israel destroys the vengeance weapons, launchers, terrorists using them.
It’s not disproportionate. Israel has a right to self-defense and that defense means the destruction of the rockets and the terrorists using and hiding them. It would be easier for the Palestinians to stop the rocket attacks but Israel does have a right to stop the rocket attacks.
I believe Israel wants peace but is stuck in “putting-out-fires” mode. Always dealing with this threat or that attack and can never get meaningful longterm peace.
Meh.
The Palestinians and Hamas have good public relations.
Get a bunch of children killed, and your PR is gold.
The same people on the board hate parents for leaving children in hot parked cars.
Go figure.
See, this is a big part of what I object to. “The Palestinians” are not guilty of a crime. Individual Palestinian terrorists and terrorist cells are responsible for terrorism. They’re guilty of murder and attempted murder. But Israel reacts with collective punishment, including the destruction of entire city blocks. It’s the punishment of a collective group of people for the actions of a heinous few, and that’s not OK.
Again, you’re making my point. You’re blaming Palestinians as a group, collectively, for the actions of terrorists among them. Most of the Palestinians here are victims caught in a crossfire. I shed no tears for dead terrorists, but lots and lots of innocent civilians are getting killed. That’s my issue with Israel’s actions.
What’s the solution - insertion of special forces undercover to snipe or otherwise furtively eliminate Hamas militants? That would cut down on civilian casualties for sure, but logistically might be difficult.
Actually, I think Israel should do exactly that.
Civilians are getting killed. Are the civilians stopping the continuous rocket launches? Did the civilians elect some other, non-Hamas, anti-rocket launching party? Are the civilians deliberately ignoring the repeated warnings that they are in targeted areas?
I agree. I’m not sure that doing that would absolutely stop terrorists; in fact, I think it’s quite likely that it would not entirely solve the problem of Hamas rockets being fired at Israel. And there would probably still be mistakes, collateral damage, and telegenic Palestinian casualties, but not nearly as many as we’re seeing now with airstrikes and artillery fire.
Israeli forces are very good. But they are not supermen.
That would lead to enormous Israeli casualties, which would lead to huge drop in both military and civilian morale, which would lead to destruction of the state.
How are unarmed civilians to stop armed Hamas terrorists from conducting launches? Those targeted areas are often the size of several city blocks. And while Israel has (to their great credit) sometimes given warnings to people in those areas, giving them a chance to evacuate, they have also sometimes not done that. Not every Palestinian voted for Hamas in elections (though I admit that the second-largest party, Fatah, is not any better and is probably worse) but there are moderate other parties. Still, casting a vote for a political party, any political party, does not justify the destruction of a person’s home or life.
Which of the groups are you claiming are illegal occupying land in this conflict? Israel has a valid claim to the land and this was acknowledged in 1948. Palestinians are two separate groups that have never been proved to own that area.
Using special forces commandos rather than airstrikes/artillery against Hamas rockets would lead to the destruction of Israel? Come on, that’s a big stretch.
That’s what war is. It is disciplining an entire country for the actions of its leadership.
If WWII could have been fought only against members of the Nazi Party…great! If it could have been limited so that only members of the German armed forces were casualties, fine! But that wasn’t possible.
Innocent civilians get killed in war. I have a really good suggestion: don’t make war. If you do…don’t imagine it’s going to be pretty.
This, in my opinion, is the damned fool hypocrisy of the critiques here. A state of war exists, hostilities have broken out…and people are saying, “Wait! People are dying.” Well, yeah.
I do have an intermediate suggestion. If Hamas won’t stop the fighting, they could allow free elections. If they get voted out of power, that indicates that the people don’t like the current state of the war. What do the people there actually want?
Free democracy where people get to bicker over everything on one side and,
Terrorists who die for Allah until the world is crushed under their feet.
Duh. Does anyone in the Middle East want Palestine? I don’t mean individual Palestinians, but Palestine? Aren’t they right up there with ISIS, Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Taliban? Nobody really wants them.
Gazans don’t seem to have a problem taking to the streets and protesting. Any particular reason they can’t elect themselves a peace-loving government? I’m certain Israel would trip over itself rushing to help them develop economically if they ever actually elected themselves a civilized government.