I’m happy to fanatically support any nation which is willing to try it’s own soldiers for crimes in war.
Of course, Israel only sometimes does this, so my support is rather conditional in their case.
As a more general idea, I fanatically support not having 200 mushroom clouds sprout up over the cities of Israels enemies. Recent history has proven an Israel that does not have a huge military domination over their neighbors will be attacked. In a war serious enough that Israels very existence could be threatened, I’m quite sure that Israel would use the nukes. So I suppose that means I tend to fanatically support boosting Israels military. Better a cluster bomb than a nuclear bomb I suppose.
I’ve never thought or claimed that Israel is morally perfect. But I do think that Israel has a better moral record overall than any of the other parties involved in the Middle East. So I’ll supoort Israel until there’s a better alternative.
I think this behavior is pretty common amongst a lot of groups. As an undergraduate my school would often have events in support of Palestinians. On one such occasion they had a simulated Israeli checkpoint with people standing in line to demonstrate how it sucks that the Palestinians don’t have freedom of movement. The first thing I thought when I read about the event was “Are they also going to include simulated suicide bombers?”
To the OP, if we want to talk about blind fanatical support why not include the support given to Palestinians? Whenever rockets fly from Palestine to Israel I never see any serious widespread condemnation of the actions. However when Israel responds to these attacks it’s a crime against humanity and people protest.
My perception is just the opposite. Nothing Israel does is condemned by the US media or its politicians, while Palestinians are always portrayed as subhuman scum, especially in the conservative media outlets.
Those are not proto-state or quasi-state organizations either. They are, for lack of a better word, political parties.
Shodan’s potshot is irrelevant in any case. What other entities do has no bearing on the morality of what Israel or does, or on the legality of what its individual citizens do. Sneering at Hamas does not address anything of substance in the OP. It’s just a snide, irrelevant, mis-aimed attempt at a tu quoque. It’s not even really supportive of Israel. Israel did the right thing and convicted two criminals. Support for Israel in this case means support for the conviction. Anyone who defends the criminals is actually showing opposition to Israel.
That’s the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas per se. That’s like saying the Democrats have a Court system because they have a majority in Congress and currently control the White House. so no, Hamas doesn’t have a court system. The Palestinian Authority has a court system.
What do you have to say to those who think the Israeli soldiers in this case should not have been charged?
Where did you get this idea from? It’s completely untrue; Israel has never been used as a staging area for any American military personnel. The only time an American military force has ever even been stationed in Israel that I can think of was some Patriot batteries during Desert Storm in 1991 sent to shoot down Scuds fired at Israel.
I would agree with that but I wasn’t limiting myself to the United States alone I just used my college experience as an example. I haven’t heard the UN or various middle eastern countries issue condemnations about Palestinians rocketing Israel, abducting Israeli soldiers, or suicide bombings. If it makes you feel any better I suspect that you are more likely to find Palestinian support at large universities than you are strong Israeli support.
While it may not be Hamas the bigger point is that there is some mechanism within Palestine to punish what they perceive to be criminals.
Not much. I just don’t think I can say anything to someone who thinks its appropriate to force a 9 year old child to look for booby traps that would make a difference.
Yes, but Shodan specifically said Hamas. I wonder if the PA would even be allowed to try people accused of crimes against Israel or Israeli citizens anyway.
That question was really for Shodan, since he hasn’t addressed the core issue of the thread at all, which was why some people go so overboard in (what they imagine to be) their support of Israel that they would defend even actions that Israel itself believes to be crimes.