No need to even be skeptical, it’s already in the news.
Right there. Hamas = rocket attacks
The President made the same statement this week.
“[T]here is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders. So we are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes,” Mr. Obama said at a news conference in Bangkok during an international trip to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.
Glad you enjoyed it. Too bad it went right over your head.
You mean like the missiles from Gaza.
Some people find that off-putting. Even the President of the United States.
Let’s get past the sarcasm and down to brass tacks.
RedFury, what’s the solution? Who should make the first move and what should they do?
We agree.
From the Likud Party Platform from the 15th Knesset
WTF? 
Might want to update your record-keeping (or is that ‘scoreboard’?)
Israeli airstrike hits Gaza family’s home, killing 12
Though I am sure Jamal Dalu – owner of the house and only family survivor – would get much solace from hearing you tell him that they were ‘collaterally damaged’ by the 2nd best air force in the world.
Overall, deaths have more than doubled since you wrote that gem: In the last few days more than 700 Palestinians have been killed or injured – more than half of them women or children.
“We”?
What’s the solution? Who should make the first move and what should they do?
It’s kinda sad when you find yourself comparing maple syrup with rockets with explosive warheads, isn’t it? Doesn’t it make you think you took a wrong turn somewhere in that logic?
We all know what the definition if insanity is, right? So let’s discount that one off hand – when the current blood-lust is satiated anyway. So how about both sides honestly sit at the negotiating table w/out preconditions, agree on a common broker*, and stay there until they hammer out a deal they can all live with? Doesn’t have to be perfect, doesn’t have to please them all, it just has to to stop the interminable cycle of murderous hatred & death. But you have to have two recognized sovereign nations before you can step away from the the table. Time is not an issue.
*I’d pick the Swiss. They so neutral they are genderless.
I’m already convinced you don’t fully understand the facts. There’s more than two sides here. That’s part of the problem; this is not just a disagreement between Israel and the Palestinians. If it was, it might be fixed by now.
If you read my link you’d see that Likud’s stance comes* mighty close of what you were accusing the ‘other side’ of wanting to do. Thus the sarcastic “we.”
*It’s been since taken off their agenda – but not the historical record. BTW, impeccable source this time if I may say so myself.
You may think whatever you wish about what I understand or not – your prerogative of course. I might add that your own knowledge of affairs strikes me as quite biased, as is my own right. But whatever fractures the Palestinians have are theirs to solve outside said negotiations.
That said, dismiss anything I say and mock away. It’s an Israel thread on The Dope & I’ve been here for over ten years.
What else would I expect?
ETA: Not a surprise that. About the only US-based forum where there’s some semblance of balance on this issue is DU
Oooooh boy! Do I ever know that! And so do a LOT of people.
Stop pretending the US is an uninvolved, helpless party in the Israeli assault on Gaza
Afraid not many here are going to like that article either.
Oh well, I’ll manage. No F-16s in the vicinity.
What? The US and Israel consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization. That’s not news. We’d love to see Hamas fall.
The IDF is weakening Hamas and Hamas itself is draining its supply of rockets. One of the reasons Gaza is blockaded is to make it harder for Iran etc. to resupply them. Hopefully at least they’ll exhaust themselves for a few more years.
Wow, you’re kinda mean dude. You act like there is absolutely no reason why anyone would ever think of behaving the way the palestinians have behaved.
We elected Bush… twice.
So the Palestinians don’t have any legitimate grievances?
Isn’t a blockade an act of war? Isn’t Israel effectively at war with Gaza?
I agree, Israel and Palestine should do what Obama says. Let him be the neutral arbiter that crafts a deal neither side likes but both can live with.
A blockade can be an act of war. But the victim pretty much has to declare it as such. If Gaza were to say, outright, “The blockade is an act of war,” then, yeah, it would be. And that declaration of war would permit Israel to perform other acts of war.
It has, instead, pleased Hamas to engage in an undeclared series of hostilities, trying to make any military retaliation seem unwarranted.
(Has Israel ever formally declared themselves to be at war with Gaza or Hamas? If not, why not? If someone fired that many rockets at me, I’d declare war on 'em…)
No, as a matter of law, a blockade is an act of war.
That’s why during the Cuban Missile Crisis the Kennedy administration made a point of saying they weren’t imposing a “blockade” but were instead imposing a “quarantine”.
Who do you mean by “Palestine”?
What group represents them.
Anyway Bill Clinton did what you suggested at Camp David.
How did that turn out?
Not if the other side doesn’t contend it to be.
If you blockade me, and I don’t care, then it is not an act of war. And that’s why I said it “can be” an act of war, but is not an automatic tripwire. If one nation blockades another, that does not mean that the two are automatically in a state of war with each other.
Has the Hamas government of Gaza declared itself in a state of war with Israel? (I can’t believe they’d be so stupid!)
“state of war” - welcome to 1939.