Israel now plans "boots on the ground", says ground attack chances "very high"

[Boiler 45,557]

Hamas refused the ceasefire.

They play a different game and consider the deaths of their own civilians winning.

[OriZ 3,157]

Like I said, Israel will need some serious guarantees that what happened in Gaza will not repeat itself in the west bank before it can ever withdraw.

The 3 people that voted Goooo Hamas obviously want nothing but to see the Palestinians continue to suffer. some humanitarians they are.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I wouldn't take the votes all that seriously.

[lostinblue 1,989]

The only guarantees Israel has is in a few years radical islam will be knocking on its doorstep. I doubt they will be demanding payment to stay in the Jewish state.The destruction of Israel is first and foremost on the Islamic mindset

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

The problem there is that you have once again made a blanket judgement about Muslims.

[Sousuke 1,214]

If he is refering to ISIS, its becoming obvious they have already started to hit their operational limits.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I think it was certainly a mistake to have given Jerusalem over to Israel. It should have been an independent, international city. Like the Vatican.

[OriZ 3,157]

Jerusalem was not given to Israel.

The United Nations General Assembly decided in 1947 on the partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem to be an internationalised city.

Jewish representatives in Palestine (the Jewish Agency) accepted the plan tactically - though with reluctance - because it implied international recognition for their aims of establishing a state, but on lesser territory than they considered a legal and historical right to.

The Palestinians and Arabs felt that it was a deep injustice to ignore the rights of the majority of the population of Palestine. The Arab League and Palestinian institutions rejected the partition plan, and formed volunteer armies that infiltrated into Palestine beginning in December of 1947.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/middle_east/israel_and_the_palestinians/key_documents/1681322.stm

Note that while percentage wise the land allocated to Israel was bigger, a vast majority of it was desert land.

The Arabs rejected the plan, which is how Jordan ended up with the west bank, including Jerusalem. Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967 in the Six Day War from Jordan. There was never a Palestinian state with the west bank and gaza, that's a new invention. There was Jordan, and there was Egypt.

And I agree, in a final agreement which is light years away probably, Jerusalem should be again an international city, or at least the holy sites, controlled by Israel, the Palestinians, the US, the Vatican, Jordan, EU, UN, etc...

[Póg mo 1,749]

Like I said, Israel will need some serious guarantees that what happened in Gaza will not repeat itself in the west bank before it can ever withdraw.

The 3 people that voted Goooo Hamas obviously want nothing but to see the Palestinians continue to suffer. some humanitarians they are.

Sorry, but if Israel really wanted peace, it wouldn't continue to with policy of occupation and settlement expansion, nor would it dare justify itself by invoking the Holocaust at every turn.

[Expat1 971]

I am about to start a new drinking game

Be careful! Don't contaminate yourself! I decided to expand my vocabulary, at your bidding of course.

Rabbinical law extends the Torah prohibition to any wine of a gentile (“stam yenam”) and, even further, to the wine of a Jew that has been touched by an idolatrous gentile. Even the touch of a gentile infant prohibits wine from being consumed. In the case of wine touched by a gentile who is not idolatrous, the poskim are divided. Some hold that it is permitted at least to derive financial benefit from the wine while others maintain that even this is forbidden. (that's funny)

A Jew is forbidden to drink from a glass of wine which a Gentile has touched, because the touch has made the wine unclean.

Schulchan Aruch, Johre Deah, 122

Edited July 20, 2014 by Expat1

[OriZ 3,157]

Why would I care what Rabbinical law says? Man, I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.

[Expat1 971]

Why would I care what Rabbinical law says? Man, I feel like I'm in the twilight zone.

Staying uncontaminated in the world of the goy (new vocabulary BUT is that derogatory? that's some master race stuff there) is critical. Drink up!

Edited July 20, 2014 by Expat1

[rlogan 2,036]

well then i can only summarize that Hamas wants it people to suffer,

I am not stupid enough to think you believe this. It's just what we say to rationalize injustice.

It is impossible to have an honest discussion about something like this with anyone who frames one side as lesser humans than the other. It is trivially simple to understand both the Palestinian and the Israelis. But what it takes is an acknowledgement that they are both equally human.

This is how you dehumanize them. Same with anyone who reacts to US imperialism with resistance of any kind: they're asking for extermination. It's their fault as irrational subhuman creatures.

[Boiler 45,557]

It's their fault as irrational subhuman creatures.

I am not sure where you are coming from, but it is not irrational, totally logical. You need to take a step back and think about it from the Hamas leadership perspective.

[OriZ 3,157]

It is not even a secret anymore that Hamas wishes to sacrifice their own people in order to kill Israelis. That is their goal, whatever the price may be. The Egyptians acknowledge it, hell even Hamas themselves admitted it numerous times. The only ones who don't are those who wish to stick their head in the sand and pretend that Hamas is a legitimate resistance movement that cares about their people and only want to end occupation. The truth is, Hamas = Isis. Hamas = Al Qaeda. Hamas are not freedom fighters, they are terrorists.

Edited July 20, 2014 by OriZ