Moral clarity in Gaza

[mota bhai 2,675]

Libruls just won't be happy until they're back in the ghettos lining up in front of furnaces again.

[decocker 7,198]

libruls do love their tax dollars funding israel. 'tis fiscally responsible and supported by the bible. hard combo to beat.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Ah. The return of Krauthammer!!

By Charles Krauthammer

July 17

Israel accepts an Egyptian-proposed Gaza cease-fire; Hamas keeps firing. Hamas deliberately aims rockets at civilians; Israel painstakingly tries to avoid them, actually telephoning civilians in the area and dropping warning charges, so-called roof knocking.

“Here’s the difference between us,” explains the Israeli prime minister. “We’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles.”

Rarely does international politics present a moment of such moral clarity. Yet we routinely hear this Israel-Gaza fighting described as a morally equivalent “cycle of violence.” This is absurd. What possible interest can Israel have in cross-border fighting? Everyone knows Hamas set off this mini-war. And everyone knows the proudly self-declared raison d’etre of Hamas: the eradication of Israel and its Jews.

Apologists for Hamas attribute the blood lust to the Israeli occupation and blockade. Occupation? Does no one remember anything? It was less than 10 years ago that worldwide television showed the Israeli army pulling die-hard settlers off synagogue roofs in Gaza as Israel uprooted its settlements, expelled its citizens, withdrew its military and turned every inch of Gaza over to the Palestinians. There was not a soldier, not a settler, not a single Israeli left in Gaza.

And there was no blockade. On the contrary. Israel wanted this new Palestinian state to succeed. To help the Gaza economy, Israel gave the Palestinians its 3,000 greenhouses that had produced fruit and flowers for export. It opened border crossings and encouraged commerce.

The whole idea was to establish the model for two states living peacefully and productively side by side. No one seems to remember that, simultaneous with the Gaza withdrawal, Israel dismantled four smaller settlements in the northern West Bank as a clear signal of Israel’s desire to leave the West Bank as well and thus achieve an amicable two-state solution.

This is not ancient history. This was nine years ago.

And how did the Gaza Palestinians react to being granted by the Israelis what no previous ruler, neither Egyptian, nor British, nor Turkish, had ever given them — an independent territory? First, they demolished the greenhouses. Then they elected Hamas.

Then, instead of building a state with its attendant political and economic institutions, they spent the better part of a decade turning Gaza into a massive military base, brimming with terror weapons, to make ceaseless war on Israel.

Where are the roads and rail, the industry and infrastructure of the new Palestinian state? Nowhere. Instead, they built mile upon mile of underground tunnels to hide their weapons and, when the going gets tough, their military commanders. They spent millions importing and producing rockets, launchers, mortars, small arms, even drones. They deliberately placed them in schools, hospitals, mosques and private homes to better expose their own civilians. (Just Thursday, the U.N. announced that it found 20 rockets in a Gaza school.) And from which they fire rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Why? The rockets can’t even inflict serious damage, being almost uniformly intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. Even West Bank leader Mahmoud Abbas has asked: “What are you trying to achieve by sending rockets?”

It makes no sense. Unless you understand, as Tuesday’s Post editorial explained, that the whole point is to draw Israeli counterfire. This produces dead Palestinians for international television. Which is why Hamas perversely urges its own people not to seek safety when Israel drops leaflets warning of an imminent attack.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-moral-clarity-in-gaza/2014/07/17/0adabe0c-0de4-11e4-8c9a-923ecc0c7d23_story.html

There are two conflicting issues within this rationale.

1. If Israel kills civilians in Gaza, it's Hamas' fault. Israel has no moral responsibility whatsoever for killing civilians.

2. There is no such thing as a Palestinian cilivian.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

more moral clarity from my fav bill maher.

Sometimes Ol Bill nails it on the head.

[mota bhai 2,675]

He's a smart guy.

[Expat1 971]

libruls do love their tax dollars funding israel. 'tis fiscally responsible and supported by the bible. hard combo to beat.

The master plan (revised): The right wing conservative christions liberals are breathlessly awaiting the Jewish people to retake their homeland, rebuild their temple, then get nearly wiped out before Jesus and his army of previously raptured right wing conservative christians liberals who fund all of this gather at the plain of Megiddo, wipe out Satan's army led by the antichrist, and save the Jewish people from full destruction. Helping this along accelerates previously raptured Christian liberal rule of the entire universe.

Some commentary: With friends like these who needs enemies right?

Edited July 18, 2014 by Expat1

[Expat1 971]

Sometimes Ol Bill nails it on the head.

He got it wrong.

"Dealing w/ Hamas is like dealing w/ a crazy woman who's trying to kill u - u can only hold her wrists so long before you have to slap her run her down with a bulldozer"

When told that an Israeli bulldozer was nearby smashing the home of a Palestinian physician simply because the doctor had befriended the visiting students, Rachel put on a fluorescent orange jacket over her blouse, and she and several other American students rushed to that site.

Courageously, standing some fifty feet from the Israeli Army bulldozer as it slowly approached her Palestinian friend's modest home, Rachel used a bullhorn to plead with the Israeli bulldozer driver and his assistant, begging them not to commit this terrible crime. As she spoke, a young, male American associate stood just a few feet away from Rachel, his hands tightly clasped.

At first the bulldozer halted. The Israeli soldiers looked down from its cab directly into Rachel's eyes. Then, abruptly, the terrible vehicle was jammed into high gear; it lunged forward and headed straight toward her.

Rachel courageously held her ground and tried once again to plead with them. She obviously thought those Israeli soldiers would not deliberately and intentionally run her over.

After all, these were civilized people, the Jews, educated people who claimed a belief in a Holy God. Surely, the bulldozer would stop before its monstrous steel blade reached the spot where she stood. Rachel knew that the soldiers clearly saw her there, standing vulnerable and unprotected.

But the unthinkable occurred. The Israeli soldier driving the bulldozer, a stern and contemptuous smirk on his face, rammed the machine onward. He knocked Rachel down, ran the bulldozer entirely over her body and buried her with its tons of steel. After a few seconds, he put the machine in reverse without even bothering to lift the heavy blade, effectively running over her a second time.

You take up for those people. I'm not gonna do it anymore. They do not stand for what our country was built to stand for. You're a southern boy. You were raised better than that.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Expat1

[decocker 7,198]

The master plan (revised): The right wing conservative christions liberals are breathlessly awaiting the Jewish people to retake their homeland, rebuild their temple, then get nearly wiped out before Jesus and his army of previously raptured right wing conservative christians liberals who fund all of this gather at the plain of Megiddo, wipe out Satan's army led by the antichrist, and save the Jewish people from full destruction. Helping this along accelerates previously raptured Christian liberal rule of the entire universe.

Some commentary: With friends like these who needs enemies right?

as long as they cast russell crow as netanyahu and russell brand as warrior jesus i'm down with this blockbuster idea.

[Karee 4,190]

I wonder what the attitude would be if the Palestinians we're all Baptists or Jews. They'd probably be called freedom fighters by the media and the U.S. govt.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Karee

[Expat1 971]

as long as they cast russell crow as netanyahu and russell brand as warrior jesus i'm down with this blockbuster idea.

Man I hope my wife don't find out about that movie. She'll probably volunteer for casting.

[SMOKE 1,426]

I wonder what the attitude would be if the Palestinians we're all Baptists or Jews. They'd probably be called freedom fighters by the media and the U.S. govt.

they probably wouldn't be shooting rockets at Israeli citizens if they were.

Edited July 18, 2014 by SMOKE

[decocker 7,198]

they probably wouldn't be shooting rockets at Israeli citizens if they were.

why not?

[SMOKE 1,426]

why not?

why would they?

[decocker 7,198]

why would they?

why wouldn't they?

[SMOKE 1,426]

why wouldn't they?

they'd have no reason to