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The Forum > Article Comments > Hamas evil must be confronted and defeated in Gaza > Comments

Hamas evil must be confronted and defeated in Gaza : Comments

By David Singer, published 13/8/2014

One month of fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas has resulted in an enormous propaganda victory for Hamas as horrific pictures have appeared daily in social media and newspapers around the world.

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Dear SR:

You question is loaded with misleading conjecture and bears no resemblance to reality. “a night club in Tel Aviv where the vast majority…have been military trained to engage Palestinians”? You’re assuming that most of the patrons in that nightclub are service personnel. Let’s ignore those who have not yet been conscripted. Overlook the ones who have already been discharged. Disregard any foreign tourists that might be visiting the club. Overlook Israeli Arabs, Druze and other citizens who have exemption from service. Even assuming there were some service personnel in that club, your flawed conclusion is that they must have all been trained to kill innocent Palestinians, ignoring military clerks, cooks, and other service personnel who had no combat training.

Let me give you not one, but two clear answers.
Your original question, involving a hypothetical scenario on a different planet in a parallel universe, where an evil military force deliberately targets the home of a noble freedom fighter, presumably to kill as much of his family as they can, and that same military packs a large number of its service recruits who are specifically trained to kill those noble freedom fighters, into a night club, then yes, that club is a valid target.
In reality though, removing all the false assumptions and misleading descriptions and returning to planet Earth, your question should be asked thus:
Which is the least legitimate? Planting a bomb in a nightclub in Tel Aviv, where the overwhelming majority of those in attendance are citizens who have no involvement in the conflict, as opposed to targeting the home of a radical Hamas terrorist leader, after issuing warnings to civilians of the impending strike and urging them to stay away? I think they answer to this question is quite clear. Or do I really need to spell it out for you?

I noticed that you have still not replied to any of the question I have put to you. For example:
- Can you name another army that takes such precautions as the IDF does prior to strikes to avoid harming civilians?
Posted by Avw, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 9:28:49 AM
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Imanutter:

No, I am not ignoring you, it’s just that I am limited to 4 posts in 24 hours. It’s simple math really. I realise you miss my feedback terribly but unfortunately you just have to be patient.

Let’s analyse some of the wisdom in your latest posts:

You say that I trash the whole relevance and concept of philosophy. This is after I posted
“I'm not saying we should ignore the words and wisdom of the Founding Fathers of the US, or any other reasonable intellectuals for that matter”
Are we speaking a different language here? What part of this sentence did you fail to comprehend? Do I need to wrap some biblical verses around my text to make you understand?

You refuse to face reality that nations are not ruled by a bible, regardless of whether that bible was last revised 3000 years ago or in the 1960s, or whether it has cute little angels merrily dancing on its cover. While one version of the bible makes just as much (or little) sense to me as another, and there are a lot more than 5 versions by the way, one could put forward the argument that your modified, ever evolving bible is no longer the true bible as it was changed many times to suit the requirements of different interest groups throughout the centuries.
How can you accuse others of adhering to a dark-age set of rules, when your extreme fanaticism in considering your own version of the bible to be the only true bible is no different to the theories of Islamist fanatics? How is your insistence that yours is the ultimate text that should be used to guide our lives, with everyone else being so utterly wrong, any different to those “dark age based religions”?

Cont -->
Posted by Avw, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 9:36:51 AM
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--> Cont

“You have shown in your comments here you loathe the activities which mark us as western”

What gave it away? Was it my previous post stating “My loathing of the west? … In reality I wouldn't live anywhere else. I consider the pragmatic approach taken by western nations as an asset, not a drawback”
Once again, maybe we speak a different language, but to me it sounds like I’m praising the west, not loathing it. Maybe it’s time to update your 1960s version of the bible so you can comprehend modern English?

“Your belief in the ancient book is flawed and incompatible with western traditions”

What belief are you talking about? Are you paying attention at all to the discussion we are having here? What gave you the idea that I believe in any book, ancient or otherwise? Is this something you picked up from your obsession with poetry?

In conclusion let me again express my thanks that you do not consider me as “one of you”.
Let’s move on.
Posted by Avw, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 9:39:20 AM
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Dear Avw,

As I have just vented my spleen at our Mr Singer I will indulge you.

To your list of those who may well be harmed in a bombing attack on a Tel Aviv nightclub.

Those 'who have not yet been conscripted'. - “Whilst the drinking age in Israel is 18, many clubs and bars in Tel Aviv won’t serve or allow entry to people this young – with minimum ages varying dramatically, sometimes as high as 25”
http://www.touristisrael.com/tel-aviv-nightlife/394/

Those 'who have already been discharged”. - Many of those who were called up in the latest conflict were those no longer serving full time but reservists. I have been reading the blog of one such individual who is 44 years of age and a father of 3 children.

Those who are “foreign tourists that might be visiting the club”. - True but in times of war tourist numbers do significantly decline.

“Israeli Arabs, Druze and other citizens who have exemption from service.” - Two of the largest groups given exemptions are;

"Yeshiva students who declare that "Torah study is their artistry" could delay their conscription as long as they continue their studies, under the so-called Tal Law until it has been cancelled.”

"Female draftees who state that they maintain a religious way of life are exempt from military service, and many of them choose to volunteer for an alternative national service called Sherut Leumi.”
Wikipedia

I'm not sure how many of these would be found in a night club.

So let us run with the statistic of 60% of those attending are of fighting age and have had military training. Let us also recognise that it is very unlikely there are children, elderly, or infirmed present.

Are you seriously saying that that would be less legitimate than the bombing of the a-Najar family home in which 20 were killed?

The next post is the death toll of that bomb. I will leave it stand without commentary.
Posted by SteeleRedux, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 10:24:45 PM
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Khalil a-Najar, 60
Samir Hussein Muhammad a-Najar, 58
Ghaliah Muhammad a-Najar, 56
Sumayah a-Najar (Abu Yusef), 50
Samar a-Najar, 27
Riham a-Najar (Abu Jame'), 25
Kifah a-Najar, 24
Iman a-Najar (a-Raqab), 23
Majed a-Najar, 19
Rawan a-Najar, 17
Ahmad a-Najar, 14
Baraah a-Raqab, 11
Hani a-Najar, 7
Mu'taz a-Najar, 6
Ulfat a-Najar, 4
Islam a-Najar, 3
Amir a-Najar, 2
Samir Hussein Samir a-Najar, 1.5
Ghaliah Muhammad Samir a-Najar, 1.5
Amirah a-Najar, 8 months
http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/201407_families
Posted by SteeleRedux, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 10:25:21 PM
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Finally to pick you up on a couple of spurious points you have made.

You wrote;

You claim some sort of exemption for Israel's atrocities because of its “issuing warnings to civilians of the impending strike and urging them to stay away”.

So what is Hamas was to say at the start of the conflict; 'We are issuing a warning to all those south of Jerusalem that we will be firing rockets into this area and all civilians will need to evacuate for their own safety' – would that just make it all okay?

We often hear about the bravery of those families living in Sderot right next to the Gaza border.

www.google.com.au/maps/place/Sderot,+Israel/@31.5267045,34.597413,14z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x15028152b5bc422b:0x9eca44351ad2130a

Sderot’s brave determination in the face of continuous Palestinian terror has revealed to the Israeli public and the entire world, a unique and unusual model of courage and resilience. It is said to embody the following:

Quote;

  Obstinate Jewish/Israeli self-sacrifice;

  Stubborn commitment to values and faith;

  Brotherly love and camaraderie in the face of great danger and difficulty;

  Shouldering pioneering Zionism’s greatest challenges – making the desert bloom, absorbing new immigrants and standing up to Israel’s enemies.

Sderot personifies many different expressions of valor including:

  The determination of the original residents of the Sderot Refugee camp who built a city in the wasteland;

  The fortitude of the Ethiopian immigrants who experienced extreme hardship and suffering on their way to the Land of Israel;

  The daily courage of today’s residents of Sderot who with their bodies and souls defend the borders of the Land of Israel and with the courage of their hearts set the tone of our collective stamina as a nation.

End quote.

But apparently Palestinians who do not evacuate from large swathes of the Gaza Strip either deserve every bomb or are deployed unwillingly as Hamas' human shields. Why are they not brave and resilient? In fact swap Palestinian for Israeli/Zionism and Gaza for Sderot and it has just as much validity unless of course you see the Palestinians as lesser human beings.
Posted by SteeleRedux, Tuesday, 19 August 2014 10:46:41 PM
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