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Originally Posted by FlameOn
Wow that's a real nice way of spinning it. Not at any point did Hamas even consider the length of the war as their overall policy has always been to maximize death to gain international condemnation of Israel and Israeli policies. It is written into their "constitution" as it were. They did definitely dare Israel to hit civilian homes when they started putting weapons in them.
The difference is big here, Israeli courts ordered the IDF to stop using human shield tactics over 3 years ago, although they appealed, the IDF has since stopped doing it. In the context of the current conflict, this is a moral non-issue on the Israeli side.
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Spin?
That's exactly what they said...
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“The IDF’s campaign is to be short and temporary,” the messages said. “Those who fail to comply with the instructions will endanger their lives and the lives of their families. Beware.”
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http://www.jta.org/2014/07/13/news-o...aeli-warningss
So no, that isn't spin, that's a quote, which is what I directly referenced when I summarised Hamas' message to civilians.
As for human shields, again, the only reason IDF doesn't currently use them is because the courts disallowed it. So to claim it's some moral travesty when Hamas uses them is devoid of any credibility, and I quote:
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Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz is prepared to make a personal appearance in court to defend the practice, ministry officials added ... The Israeli military believes that the use of Palestinian civilians can often defuse a tense situation.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4333982.stm
Have they since moved on from it? Absolutely, as the military was forced to, but that doesn't make their use and support of it any less relevant. You cannot logically condemn Hamas' use of human shields while painting Israel as some guiltless entity. Hamas doesn't hasn't used suicide bombers for about the same amount of time, but that seems to be fair game to bring up. Why hide anything on either side?