Those "largely unarmed people" fired over 4000 rockets and mortar rounds into Israel during the 'conflict'. All aimed at civilian centres with the sole aim of killing civilians. But I guess that's OK because they're the goodies, eh?

I posted a link earlier which asked why the Israelis won't just let themselves be killed. It seems others on this site are asking the same thing.

"There’s a profound need in the West for the Jews to be proved bad people. Among the Israel-haters is a breathless eagerness for the moment when they can shout “gotcha” and then put the Jews into the public pillory."
http://www.jns.org/opinion/the-last-overlooked-but-still-active-front-of-world-war-ii/

Quite simply - when it comes to Israel
and the Palestinians, we need a miracle.

Talking about the Israeli-Palestine conflict we have to be careful not to perpetuate the idea that it's a balanced conflict, instead of 1.8 Billion Muslims demanding that 9 million Israelis either bow the knee to Islam, get out of Dodge, or be exterminated and have their foxy Jewish females gang raped and turned into sex slaves.

How can they speak to each other when one side keeps demanding nothing less than the complete destruction of the Jewish state?

Dear mhaze,

My goodness you are full of it.

You say: “Now you are just making stuff up. Now you're suggesting that the Israeli government not only knew an attack was coming but also when it was coming. And that's just not true. Its laughably false.”

So the Chief of General Staff has presented to the Prime Minister of Israel that very morning a plan “of a pre-emptive attack against Syrian airfields at noon, Syrian missiles at 3:00 pm, and Syrian ground forces at 5:00 pm” and yet you claim they had no idea when it was coming?

Bloody hell. Even when the evidence is right before your eyes you simply refuse to accept it. Ho much plainer can it be?

The reason why the Israelis were able to punch through was because the tank brigades General Shazly had in reserve for just such an eventuality were ordered by Sadat to cross the canal on an offensive mission strongly opposed by Shazly.

Shadowminister,

What does not independent even mean? The whole world recognises Gaza is being blockaded and as you say this is an act of war. So either they have the right to militarily respond as the Israelis did or they don't because they are of the wrong ethic group in your eyes.

A really pathetic but typical position for you to take.

SR,

Clearly you are out of your depth here. Its no shame since it takes years of study and reading to understand how these decisions are made and taken. Still, when you are clearly a novice its probably best to not be so strident in your (incorrect) assertions.

Yes the Chief of Staff presented Meir with the option of a preemptive strike and the plans for doing so. That's the job of Chief of Staff - to present options and prepare for those options. But just because the CoS offers the leadership plans, doesn't mean that those plans are the only ones available. At the very same meeting where the preemptive strike was considered, the Minister of Defence was also saying that he thought war was still avoidable. Why would he do that if the Israelis KNEW about the invasion and its timing? Additionally, if they knew about the timing, why were the plans for the preemptive strike set for after the actual invasion?

Its true that some Israelis in the leadership had grown convinced that war would start soon. But that's not the same as saying the Israelis knew it's timing. Right up to the actual invasion the Chief of Military Intelligence sided with Dayan in believing that war was still avoidable. Even those in Mossad who correctly predicted the day thought it would happen at sunset.

You're wrong on believing (hoping?) that it wasn't a surprise attack. Move on.

"The reason why the Israelis were able to punch through was because the tank brigades General Shazly had in reserve for just such an eventuality were ordered by Sadat to cross the canal on an offensive mission strongly opposed by Shazly."

Nup. Shazly did oppose the offensive but not because it committed reserves but because it moved his forces away from the SAM missile cover. It didn't commit reserves. They were still available after the Israelis had completely established themselves west of Suez. But the reserves were held back to protect Cairo.

Dear mhaze,

You put:

“Clearly you are out of your depth here. Its no shame since it takes years of study and reading to understand how these decisions are made and taken. Still, when you are clearly a novice its probably best to not be so strident in your (incorrect) assertions.”

Well that did get a laugh. Projection really is a feature of the right isn't it.

So we have gone from somewhere in the future:

“Although Israel was aware that a war of aggression was planned by the coalition of Arab enemies, they were nonetheless caught off guard and initially pushed back on all fronts.”

To somewhere in the near future:

“The Israelis knew, or at least suspected, that the Arabs would launch another war against them in the near future. But the timing was a surprise and consequently they were unprepared for the attack when it came.”

To within a week or so:

“There were good reasons to assume that Sadat would delay the invasion for another week”

To within a day:

“At the very meeting where the preemptive strike was rejected, they also decided on a partial mobilisation. But had they known that the invasion was going to start a few hours hence, they would have called a full scale mobilisation.”

To within the hour:

“...those in Mossad who correctly predicted the day thought it would happen at sunset “

Well golly gee, them tricky Arabs kept the poor Israelis completely in the dark. How utterly devious and conniving of them. They just can't be trusted it seems. They really should have done a letter drop on the Knesset stating the day and the hour.

Lol.

“They were close to being wiped out in 1973” No they most demonstrably were not. They were a nuclear armed nation, backed by the world's foremost superpower, facing forces whose main intent was recovery of their own land occupied by Israel not of conquering Israel itself.

Nor was it “One of the most astonishing victories in all history.” was it now.

What other superlatives did you employ in your essay? Lol.