Quote:
Originally Posted by combustiblefuel
It was never the case .
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I'm having a hard time trying to find a point in all of your embarrassing middle-of-the-night posts. But I can confirm I had the same issue when trying to update my profile at one point. I haven't tried since. The fact that you are being so argumentative even about such a nothing point is telling. And then accusing him of being KGB? Did your whole diatribe possibly belong in the drunkpuck thread? I hope that's the explanation.
I'd say that generally speaking, anyone who sees a 'good guy' or a 'bad guy' in this overall conflict is swallowing their teams propaganda hook-line-and sinker. The formation of modern-day Israel displaced many Arabs from the area. Furthermore, the modern-day "manifest destiny" of many ultra-religious Jews (mostly American and Russian) played out in the "settlements" is clearly an antagonizing move and certainly does not scream "we just want to live in peace". Among the "settlers" there is a strong anti-Arab sentiment which, at it's core, is just plain old ignorant racism. I met a Settler a couple years ago and she was an ignorant, repugnant racist and I told her as much. I think the Settlements are a crime and the people that support it and actually live in the West Bank are criminals.
However, when Jews started to displace Arabs in the region (in modern times) it was because they needed a home that they could defend after centuries of disposition, pogroms, violence and genocide in every place they tried to peacefully live. Israel's neighbors (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, etc.) immediately jumped on the opportunity to 'rile up the base' and invaded Israel not once, not twice but three times. Rather than offering a home to what are now the Palestinians, nations like Jordan used those people as political pawns and perma-refugees in order to maintain more power and control back home (if you're a tyrannical ruler there's nothing like a common enemy to distract a local oppressed population from targeting their anger at you).
So, fast-forward a few years and Israel is an established state even though it was founded on land that was taken from other 100 years ago. Similarly, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Cuba, and almost all of the New World was taken from their previous inhabitants, often in a much more violent and bloody way than the Arabs were displaced from modern-day Israel. It doesn't make it right but that's how it is now. We can't go back in time and change it unless you displace even more people from their homes which just continues the ongoing cycle (which is already a seemingly endless loop). If one or all of the Indigenous tribes of Alberta or B.C. attacked a music festival, school, hospital, bus, daycare, building, etc. in the name of taking back their land, I don't think too many of us would be sympathetic to their cause even though the manner in which they were displaced and some still kept in quasi-apartheid-like conditions is disgusting.
The fact that Gaza democratically elected a government who clearly stated purpose is to destroy Israel and kill Jews is enough, in my opinion, to keep them well and truly cut off from Israel as much as possible. This terrorist action by Hamas isn't a bug, it's a feature of their beliefs. They would do this all-day, everyday if they had the opportunity.
There is no justification for kidnapping, torturing and murdering civilians no matter who had what land when. The members of Hamas that did this are sick and twisted. Anyone who justifies their actions are only a step or two away (at most) from sick and twisted.