"What would you do, wearing your military cap, if you were in the Israeli situation?"

Good question, Don.

Those rockets have killed 28 Israelis between 2001 and 2014...injured many more...and caused much psychological trauma.

The question is what does a people do - and how does the frustration manifest itself after decades of being forced off one's land and cornered in what is for all intents and purposes a massive refugee camp.

That's Gaza.

What I wouldn't do is commit indiscriminate massacre.

The stories coming out of Gaza are hideous.

In some instances the damage being done in an hour of bombardment would take years in any other theatre not the victim of advanced weaponry of the likes deployed by Israel.

Slaughtering children huddling in schools and hospitals - chasing unarmed defenceless civilians up and down the roads of their confected prison with first world weaponry - is up there with the worst of war crimes.

The zealousness of this carnage - and the sheer conscienceless brutality against defenceless civilians as the world watches the slaughter is truly disturbing.

To Julainutter.

Time for a psychology lessen, Julian. Everybody stereotypes because stereotyping is part of the act of thinking. People create concepts in their own minds by forming stereotypes. If I was to say to you that "there is a bird sitting on a car outside" you would form two stereotypes in your mind, one for a bird, and one for a car. Some fool has told you that stereotyping is wrong and you fell for that without ever thinking about it. That is the difference between me and you. I can think.

As for your claim that I incite hatred and vilify people, here is the score on that. I was once a trendy lefty like yourself. But I lived through a time when the French were testing hydrogen bombs at Muroroa Atoll. I noted that all of the people whom I identified with as part of the intelligent class, and who normally went around with pious faces declaring how wrong it was to be racist and call people "wogs", were now running around saying obviously racist things about the French and calling them "frogs."

In addition, it did not take me long to realise that those who claimed to be anti racist were very obviously racist towards white people. Even here in OLO, people have called me by the racist term "redneck" and claimed that my opinions were those of "Southern US whites". Which just in case you are not smart enough to figure it out, is a racist stereotype of white people who live in the south of the USA.

With the entire "anti racist" viewpoint just pure hypocrisy, I started thinking straight. I did what any intelligent person does. I stopped thinking subjectively and started thinking objectively. I began to see that racism is everywhere. Everybody does it, even you. You don't like yanks and Israelis. That is racism. Don't give me any crap about "Americans" not being a race. The Anti Discrimination Boards in every Australian state claim that discrimination is illegal if directed at any persons, race, ethnicity, religion, lack of religion, or nationality.

Lego,

Your claim that Israel is a liberal democracy is laughable. Laws like the Citizenship and Entry into Israel law make Arab Israelis second class citizens. Any Jew has the right of return to Israel even if there is absolutely no connection to Israel yet Arabs who have been progressively dispossessed of their land from 1948 right up until the present day have no right of return whatsoever.

Haven't we seen these types of laws before? Weren't the Nuremberg Laws about restricting marriage and the rights of German-Jews?

Don and others,

An article by a Jewish Rabbi:

"Israel has broken my heart: I’m a rabbi in mourning for a Judaism being murdered by Israel"

http://www.salon.com/2014/08/04/israel_has_broken_my_heart_i%E2%80%99m_a_rabbi_in_mourning_for_a_judaism_being_murdered_by_israel/

"....I always told myself that the dominant humanity of the Jewish people and the compassionate strain within Torah would reassert itself once Israel felt secure.

That belief began to wane in the past eight years when Israel, faced with a Palestinian Authority that promoted nonviolence and sought reconciliation and peace, ignored the Saudi Arabian-led peace initiative that would have granted Israel the recognition that it had long sought, an end to hostilities, and a recognized place in the Middle East, refused to stop its expansion of settlements in the West Bank and imposed an economically crushing blockade on Gaza. Even Hamas, whose hateful charter called for Israel’s destruction, had decided to accept the reality of Israel’s existence, and while unable to embrace its “right” to exist, nevertheless agreed to reconcile with the Palestinian Authority and in that context live within the terms that the PA would negotiate with Israel."

Whole article worth a read.

imajulianutter

My rather mild comment "for your information, Western liberal democracies and Christian beliefs are based on Judaic law" drew such vitriol and ignorance from you that I do not care to enter into further discussion with you.

Dear Don,

You asked;

“My point is that Hamas locates its rockets in densely populated areas, near schools and hospitals. Why? Perhaps you could explain the logic. What would you do, wearing your military cap, if you were in the Israeli situation?”

May I respectfully put the same question to you but in a slightly different form.

If you were in the military wing of Hamas and after the killings of three teenagers hitch hiking in the occupied territories, which your organisation it appears had nothing to do with, scores of your fellow Hamas members are being shot in the West Bank, hundreds more were being arrested (many of those had been released in the Shalit exchange but only after a heavy cost in lives), hundreds of homes being destroyed, charities stripped and trashed, businesses destroyed and individuals targeted within Gaza? Keeping in mind the severe and extended blockade plus the Israeli reaction to moves by Hamas to strengthen ties with Fatah. Do you really think you would have sat there and not reacted?