AC wrote: "Your argument that they hadn't done those things seems to argue, "ah well, I guess we can just slaughter these vermin and claim the whole place as our own it'll all be mickey mouse and bona fide.""

I didn't make that argument and I didn't say the things you put in quotes.

When you have to just make things up to try to win a point, we can all see you're level of integrity.

"Well between 500 and 700 dead after the bombing of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza."

The hospital is still standing, totally intact. The bomb was a failed Hamas rocket. Al Jazzera footage shows the rocket breaking up mid-air and falling onto the hospital's carpark. 500 dead is just Hamas propaganda.

Hi mhaze,
But isn't that the argument you're making when you say 'these people never had a state'?
what difference does it make?
What's your rationale?
What's the point of even saying that?
People still lived there, end of story.

As for this hospital incident, I said yesterday I didn't want to wade into the debate until I had a better feel for the damage.
- And I haven't yet looked at the new info out this morning.

But what difference does it make?
The cause of this tragedy and many more like it over the preceding decades, untold innocent people killed was what happened back in 1948.

I'll give you the same drill I gave Shadow Minister

Britain in Palestine 1917-1948
http://youtu.be/hOJqLTc6RkU

Nakba
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba

Learn some history

Dear Armchair Critic,

I feel the jury is still out on what caused the explosion in the carpark.

Given the crater size and the damage it is unlikely to have been any of the US supplied JDAM bombs Israel has been using, but equally it is hard to see a Hamas rocket killing that many people.

Israel does use quick response rocket fire from jet fighters when rockets are detected coming from a particular site. The damage does seem to be consistent with a Hellfire missile strike possibly targeting a nearby launching place but all of it is speculation at this stage. It will hopefully be properly investigated quickly.

Ultimately however it is a devastating loss of life for a community which continues to suffer so much.

Post truth mhaze,

You wrote: “When you have to just make things up to try to win a point, we can all see you're level of integrity.”

Really? This coming from you is just rank hypocrisy particularly after your (that is the correct spelling) efforts with Biden's daughter's diary.

According to Reuters - the situation in the Middle
East is grim and getting worse. We're told that
Israel is determined to wipe out Hamas in a relentless
onslaught on the Gaza Strip. It's called on 360,000
reservists and has been bombing the area non-stop
following Hamas's assault on Southern Israel on October
7th which killed, 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

According to regional officials familiar with Israel's
strategy and discussions between US and Middle Eastern leaders,
Israel aims to destroy Gaza's infrastructure, even at the
cost of high civilian casualties. They intend to push
people towards the Egyptian border and go after Hamas up
the labyrinth of underground tunnels the group has built
to conduct its operations.

Israeli officials apparently don't have a clear idea of
what a post-war future might look like. This is concerning
to US President Joe Biden and his administration.

Experts have pointed out that violence may engulf the
territory as Gaza burns and the conflict could also spread
beyond Gaza.

A terrible situation all round for everyone.

What was it the Nazis referred to the Jews as 'animals' 'sub humans'?
fit only for extermination.
Obviously the parallel is conveniently ignored by the west.
Even if the US offered California to the Palestinians as an alternative it would be refused.
The US and the west had better be prepared to wipe out the whole of the Middle East because after this normalization is a delusional fairy tale which will bite the US and EU partners with a permanent sting.
With winter coming on and energy in high demand the financial sanctions on Russia will have all but collapsed.
When open war breaks out the US will not have ME support for it's logistical needs and will insist on bases be allowed in Israel and Israel will have no choice.
The game will be China's who is just waiting for the inevitable.
So the question then becomes, what ground troops is Australia going to offer for this Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan like debacle.
Which Australian politicians and families are going to offer up their young for yet another misadventure under the pretext of saving democracy?