Dear Critic,

«Israel could've gotten ALL its hostages back.
Hamas specifically took them to trade for their own.»

That is wishful thinking. It would indeed be a dream.
The sad fact is that Israel has got Netanyahu, and Hamas has got Sinwar:

If all hostages were released, then most Israeli people will see no further reason to fight Netanyahu's war.
If all hostages were released, then Sinwar will feel naked without his personal human shield.

Therefore neither allows it to happen.

«But do you kind of understand why I said it?»

Yes, because you watch too much social-media.
It is meant to exaggerate, to make it more "interesting", to lift your adrenalin levels because that keeps you there (so you watch their ads and make them rich).

The reality is far more dull and boring.
The vast majority of people don't want to murder, torture or starve anyone, let alone women, children, doctors and the like.

The things you describe do happen, especially in wartime, but sporadically, not systematically and intentionally:
Israel has of course its portion of psychopaths, like everywhere.
"Religious" Ideological fanatics too, like everywhere.
And the special case of one selfish hedonist, a PM who got in trouble with the law and would do absolutely anything to stay out of prison, including to sell off his country.

«How do you think normal people in the world see this?»

The vast majority of Israelis only want to be safe.
And yes, they will do what it takes, in their honest view, to keep their children out of harms way, even if that comes at the expense of other people's children - that is the evolutionary nature of our genes, it is completely normal.

«You do realise Israel has actually been committing suicide, right?»

Not quite suicide: Israel is being murdered by its unscrupulous PM.

«What I said about Iran going to send Israel back to the stoneage, you do realise that this isn't just my 'opinion' right?»

As you said on page 9, it is your hope.

[continued...]

[...continued]

«Do you understand that Iran is more or less a nuclear armed state now already?»

Yes - then what?

Iran's Ayatollahs will always wish to annihilate Israel in any way they can, they will never forgive Israel because it was the Shah's best ally. Don't delude yourself that they care one iota about the Sunni "Palestinians": a Palestinian state, while good in other regards, will not make a dent in their resolve.

«What if Iran targets Israels power stations, its water treatment and pumping stations, industries, communications towers?»

Then Israel will do whatever it can to avert it.
Maybe it will succeed, may not, maybe something in the middle.
Or, Israel may strike first to turn Iran into a glassy radioactive desert in order to prevent this happening.

The Ayatollahs have their unrelated own motives - the trouble is that you seem to be hoping for their success.

«Jews are the NAZIs now, do you not understand?»

Israel is not just Jews and Jews are not just Israelis.
The whole concept of "Jews" is vague and inconsistent anyway.
Yes, there ARE Jews who happen to also be Nazis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMLxjZ4ZUPI but that does not reflect on Jews in general. You may also want to read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparisons_between_Israel_and_Nazi_Germany

«Israel initiated it's Hannibal doctrine, killed a large part of those 1200 itself...»

That's just false social-media stuff.

«Palestinians are under occupation»

In the West-Bank, yes, but Gazans were not, not since 2005.

«Israel is an occupier, it has little rights under international law.»

Israel is also so many other things besides!
Why select only one property?
Australia too once occupied East Timor and some believe that even now the whole of Australia is occupied aboriginal land - was it therefore justified to bomb all Australian power plants and take you personally too back into the stone age to wallow in your sewer?

Armchair Critic,

<<That's very anti-German of you NathanJ>>

Well some of my Grandparents and other family members are German. I don't know how that makes me anti-German, but I suppose you know better than me.

People must take responsibility and this includes for the actions (and lack of action) of their family members past/present. In some cases you can't call the actions out now as it's all passed (say the killing of the Jews in earlier times) but people like me can call them out now and we can highlight our shame and say sorry.

We cannot erase history. History is not something for people to like or dislike. It is something for people to learn from and if we don't recognise it, we face these types of horrible things happening again.

<<And you people are worried about Nazi salutes?>>

Yes, they are disgusting and people like me actually care about the feelings of others. We understand people find Neo-Nazi salutes offensive and are put off by them as a result.

Neo-Nazi's were at a protest recently regarding refugee support. So it's not just Jews these horrid people will target.

http://www.indaily.com.au/news/2024/09/10/neo-nazis-on-the-march-in-adelaide

<<Israel starts genociding women and kids, blowing up hospitals, apartment buildings, targeting medics, journalists etc. and all you lot can do is...>>

Well you can't speak for me. Presently I:

1. Have spoken out against the actions of the Israeli Government since last year.

2. Will be assisting Palestinians/others in difficult circumstances via assistance/fundraising.

3. Have opposed the lack of affirmative action by world leaders in taking action to end the current violence in Gaza.

ttbn,

<<All the fuss about a comical Nazi salute...>>

Well it's not funny in my view to be making Nazi inspired jokes here. We're not meant to tolerate anti-semitism (and I agree).

Yuyutsu,

Re personal responsibility:

<<And indeed they are, whether they know it or not. Don't you have faith in God's divine justice?>>

Sadly no, as I do not know if people will be hit by such activity. I'd prefer them to held responsible for their actions whilst alive.

Dear Nathan,

«Sadly no, as I do not know if people will be hit by such activity. I'd prefer them to held responsible for their actions whilst alive.»

And most offenders are indeed held responsible whilst still alive in the same body.
You may not find out exactly how they are punished, but that does not mean they get a free ride - who knows, perhaps they will "accidentally" twist or injure the arm they raised and feel quite unpleasant.

The pleasant side of God's divine justice is, that if you haven't given others any similar threat or insult like the Nazi salute, if you have not hurt other people's feelings, then this whole thing of Nazi salutes will remain only something remote that you heard about in the news and you will never otherwise encounter it in your own personal life.

IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-07-07/ty-article-magazine/.premium/idf-ordered-hannibal-directive-on-october-7-to-prevent-hamas-taking-soldiers-captive/00000190-89a2-d776-a3b1-fdbe45520000

If I recall, they buried 200 cars to hide the bullet holes from the apache gunships...

I support negotiations and compromise over conflict, and I don't support the harm on innocents, but on some level I'm starting to feel as though if negotiations aren't possible and conflict is unavoidable, then on some level I wouldn't be entirely bothered if what Israel was doing to others, was being done to them.

The casualties from Binyamini were sent to 8 hospitals.
I wouldn't support dropping 2000lb bombs and napalm on those hospitals, but if Israels enemies did it wouldn't be unfair play.

After napalming those hospitals, if Palestinians went and bulldozed the homes of those IDF soldiers mothers with them still in it, I wouldn't support that, but it wouldn't be unfair play.

Everything Israels has been doing to them, if the Palestinians did it to Israel it wouldn't be unfair play.

If the Palestinians put a grenade under the hat of every person in the Israeli government and blew their heads off, it would not be unfair play.

I don't want any more violence or killings ESPECIALLY of innocents.
But if Israel wants to keep going, then it will have to pay it's own pound of flesh, and from what I hear it is.

But if Israel wants to keep going
Armchair Critic,
Isn't it Hamas that is hell-bent on not letting up ? To say you're agreeable to a ceasefire is a bit off if you only want it to get time to re-group !
Israel has been saying as long as I can remember that all they want is for the insanity to stop but the rockets kept coming from across the fence !
Does anyone ever listen to the many Arabs living in Israel without any drama ?