[jammies]

Originally Posted by HOZ

The Human Rights Watch organization has been unequivocal in condemning the use of Qassam rockets as a direct violation of international humanitarian law and the laws of war. The firing of Qassams and mortars against civilian populations also
constitutes collective punishment
against hundreds of thousands of innocent Israeli men, women and children.

That'd be a great point, if I had actually said the rocket attacks were justified. I am not saying that at all, I am saying that the Israelis are NOT the unequivocal "good guys" in the situation, and that sending in airstrikes and troops for the umpteenth time is yet another short-term fix that will rebound upon them in the long run with more violence.

Clearly there are elements of Hamas that want to provoke Israeli response in the hope that it will ignite Arab public opinion in their favour; they send rockets indiscriminately into Israel with the object of forcing the Israelis to do exactly what they are doing.

Does that mean Israel is doing the right thing by reacting as Hamas wants? Are the Israelis fools? No, they are not - but a large constituency within Israel is perfectly happy with escalation and confrontation, and want another Arab-Israeli war no less than Hamas does, and with the added incentive of being almost certain they will win.

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

Once again, someone digs deep, very deep, to figure out a rational way to blame Israel.

And once again someone thinks that saying the Israelis are not blameless somehow equates to them being ultimately at fault. There is plenty of blame to go around, but what is more important is trying to figure out how the situation can be improved - and demonizing the Arabs is demonstrably not working.

Originally Posted by Nage Waza

Do they know they are basically siding with an organization that wraps their kids in bombs, have schooling that is worse than anything Keegstra could have done?

Here's an idea - maybe some people aren't on ANYONE'S "side". One of the advantages of living in a country that has no direct stake in the war is that you can look at the issues impartially to see the true causes of conflict without obfuscation by emotion and prejudice. Bluntly, I think that there will be no permanent peace in that region in the lifetime of anyone here; religion and history divide the sides too thoroughly. Perhaps one day there will be an acceptable mediator, such as the EU or the Chinese, that has both the impartiality, military power and patience to work through solutions, but right now the Americans are the true rulers of the region, and their partiality to the Israelis has made it impossible for them to represent peace in any credible form.