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Please understand before you read this that I have no vested interest in either party here, nor any political opinion about who has rights to land claims, etc.
Israel is completely in the right with it's offensive as of late, morally, that is.
Hamas is a terrorist organization, firing unguided rockets into civillian areas of no tactical value. They are not dropping mortars on an Israeli base, or attacking military supply infastructure or manufacturing. Israel has a duty to put and end to these attacks on it's citizens.
It is unfortunate that so many civillians are being kiled in the process, but even more unfortunate that Hamas, despite being warned of the attacks in advance, actively blocks civillians from leaving the hot zone as refugees.
Why would they do such a thing? Why would they block aid from entering the area? Because dead civillians look good on TV, children are even better. Dead civillians are a powerful propaganda tool.
Hide your weapons behind a wall of civillians and some of those civillians are going to die in the process of destroying those weapons. Why is this shocking? If Hamas was really that concerned with the fate of the civillians that populate the combat area, they would have used the time between the warnings and attacks to extricate civillians, or at least allow them to leave on thier own.
Isreal's hand is forced, they cannot allow the rocket batteries to remain active, but cannot prevent killing civillians in the process.
Saddam, Hitler, Stalin, all of them used civillians as a shield for thier weapons - be it placing AA batteries in a schoolyard, rallying tanks outside a hospital or placing offensice weapons in the cul-de-sac at the end of the street, whatever - and they are the ones who must be held accountable for the civillians killed.
I disagree with Israel's use of white phosphorous, which is a horrible, horrible weapon in any circumstance, but morally they have a responsibility to cease the attacks on thier people. If Canada was slinging rockets across the border into Syracuse, NY, you would expect the US to dispatch those batteries, wouldn't you? An enemy that publicly denounces and provokes you, calls for your extinction, is proven to posess WMD and has a record of using them against civillians is a justifyable threat to any state and steps must be taken to remove that threat.
I'm sorry to hear that so many innocents have lost thier lives, but Israel didn't put them in the line of fire, Hamas did. Israel even had the decency to halt offensive operation to allow a rescue to take place. All Hamas needs to do is decommission the rocket batteries, submit to inspection and the attacks will stop.
This is a conflict that is never going to go away. Ignorance, intolerance and blind hatred are so deeply engrained in the mindset of these parties, cemented by religious disagreement and furvor, that it will take generations to wash out of the culture. Israelis and Palestinians, Jews and Arabs, manage to co-exist peacefully in Canada while living right next door to each other. Stop arguing over who owns the land, set your differences aside and think about all the wonderous things that could happen in Gaza if people acted like civilized human beings instead of fighting over an ideal.
Land disputes, apartheid, hatred and conflict do nothing except condemn you to a life of fear and horror, think of your people, think of your God (if you have one)and try to draw a distinction between yourselves and a bunch of animals.
BOTH sides are wrong...let them kill each other and do business with whoever is left, but don't gasp at the sight of a few dead civillians - that's what happens in a war zone.
It's sad, but it's combat.
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If you can't be good, be careful.
"Hey look, I can make a heart-shape with my hands!!!" So Fucking what? Stop it. You're a douche.
When life gives you lemons, squirt the juice in the eyes of your enemies.
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