If Israel were the ones firing rockets into Palestinian territory?
and the Palestinians were the ones responding by carpet bombing the Israelis [with planes and phosphorous gas] resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Israeli children in a matter of a couple of weeks, would people be using the same rhetoric they are presently using to justify Israel’s aggression?
In other words when the question is posed on this site “Is it just that so many Palestinian civilians have been killed by the Israeli army” the answer by commentators on this site is always “Well Hamas are sending rockets over” as if that somehow justifies the deaths.
So if it was the over way around and the Palestinians were trying to protect themselves from Israeli rocket fire by using tanks and planes and blanket bombing the Israelis – Would the killing of Israeli Jewish citizens in the hundreds within a two to three weeks period also be ay ok?
That seems to be the general consensus of some people here – completely refusing to care or justifying the deaths of children by pleading Hamas!
I have a feeling that if it was the other way round and the Palestinians were doing what Israel is doing at the moment [ i.e trying to garner worldwide support albeit unsuccessfully!!] then Israel would still plead that they are the innocents!
otto – I do agree with you. It is so very cunning of Israel to be an aggressor yet plead victimhood. Many people feel this strong sense that the world feels unable to speak out and say this as we all know what they would say in response – We would all have to reflect upon what was done in WWII even though many of us were not even born then. I fear that this future desire to lay guilt on non-Jewish people will permeate through future generations as a means of justifying the ills that Israel commits.
kinley 75 – No Israel would not send rockets over! Why send rockets when you can blanket bomb with planes. Rockes will only kill one or two people but planes can wipe out several generations. They are a far more effective killing machine for the Israelis!!!!
no of course not. itd be genocide, war crimes etc. the only reason its not now is because israel is always the victim. poor poor israel with their nuclear bombs, worlds 4th strongest armed forces and american weapons. poor poor israel
Lets take a look at some facts and more importantly, some actual Hamas quotes about using human shields and genocide:
First, we know the terrorist group HAMAS broke the ceasefire within a week of signing it and continued to break it.
June 24, 2008
Three Qassam rockets fired from Gaza on Tuesday struck the Israeli border town of Sderot and its environs, causing no serious injuries but constituting the first serious breach of a five-day-old truce between Israel and Hamas
We know terrorist supporters are now are all over the web with propaganda trying to score points by lying. We also know Hamas is a terrorist group and uses THEIR OWN WOMEN AND CHILDREN AS HUMAN SHIELDS. We know Hamas brainwashes children and has used them as ******* bombers against Isrealis. We know that the Paistinian people voted in Hamas. And we know Palistinians danced with joy and celebrated in the streets on 9-11, women and children included. It seems some of the ‘human shields’ are volunteers.
The moral principle is: the responsibility for all deaths in war lies with the aggressor who initiates force, not with those who defend themselves.
We also know, if we studied history, that the Jews did NOT steal the land. (Wikipedia has a fairly good write-up if anyone is interested.)
Consider this quote:
Excerpts from a speech by Hamas MP Fathi Hammad, broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008:
Fathi Hammad: [The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: “We desire death like you desire life.” (THIS IS THE MOST MORALLY BANKRUPT STATEMENT I HAVE EVER HEARD!!)
Hamas’s Al-Aqsa TV called upon children to form a human shield at the home of Abu al-Hatal of the a-Shouqaf quarter of Sajaiyeh in order to protect the building from an anticipated IDF airstrike.
Gazan women were used as human shields to allow besieged Hamas gunmen to flee from Israeli forces in Beit Hanun.
The IAF warned Muhammad Weil Baroud, responsible for firing Kassam rockets at Israel, to evacuate his home in Beit Lahiya in advance of an air strike. Instead, hundreds of locals, mostly women and children, were recruited to Baroud’s house. Israel suspended the air strike, lest these human shields be harmed. In response to the incident, Hamas crowed: “We won. From now on we will form human chains around every house threatened with demolition.”
There are many, many more examples. THIS TACTIC WOULD NOT WORK IF THE ISRAELIS WERE THE BARBARIANS HAMAS IS.
From the Hamas Charter:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan al-Banna, of blessed memory).
“There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”
Enough said, I would think.
Thank you! well writtten. and a good response
Instead of talking about your thoughts, do something about them because nothing ever got done just talking about it.
You’ve got to love the lies terrorist sympathizers use..
Israel is NOT carpet bombing anybody. Carpet bombing hasn’t been used by modern air forces in decades, it’s simply not needed anymore.
Phosphorous weapons ( as you call the Israeli flares and smokescreens which use it ) aren’t gas, nor are they chemical weapons. Just more lies.
Who knows what the response would be if the Palestinians resort to legit, conventional military defense. It’s not something they’ve ever tried.. they’ve always been terrorist aggressors.
“Well Hamas are sending rockets over”… is the most pathetic answer i’ve ever heard. Those rockets are weak as hell… all what they can do is leave a dent in the ground. Comparing the damage Israel tanks and planes to the damge the rockets made… There is no comparison. It is like someone using a small rock on a big tank. Compare the deaths on both sides… 950 something Palestinians dead and only 10 Israelis. Obviously people been watching some bias news or they have no real statistics and history of the conflict. Israel is saying it is self defense … how is it self defense comparing the numbers? … i seriously have no idea. Plus people don’t even know the reason why Hamas sent the rockets… it is because people in Gaza were starving and Israel didn’t allow them to make money.
sorry mate , israel arnt the ones fighting occupation and constant land grab
It would be just as wrong and I would be just as outraged because any abuse of power should be condemned by decent people anywhere any time.
But this is not about fairness but rather about whose interests are at stake and who has control of the media, and we all know that Palestine has absolutely no way of influencing American or European public opinion. So they had half the war lost beforehand.
the point is that israel will never do that.
in 60 years israel defend itself.
its so sad that a lot of you guys support a terror organization.
instead of helping the world getting rid of terror you supporting it.
just a reminder:hamas is recognize as a terror organization by the u.s , e.u , u.n(just to name a few)…
Well is Israel the one who fired straight through cease-fire? Is Israel the one who smuggled weapons by tons? No? Thought so.
Israel does not need to smuggle weapons because it uses the USA courier system.
All weapons paid FREE! courtesy of American taxpayers.
Sponsored by the USA. Delivered by airplane. Underground tunnels not required. Approved for genocide. ™.
Brought to you by Holocaust dot com. *
*( economic embargo is included free of charge.)
This is one of the most acute and sensible hypothetical questions I’ve seen in a long while!
And it is so true. If things were turned around, and the Israeli’s were being invaded by an aggressor & their women and children murdered, there would be a hue and cry all over the world. The like we have never seen.
Its a great arguement too, when they repeat their silly justification that Hamas rockets are the excuse for invading Gaza.
The true reason the Israelis are murdering people today, is for power, and to get support in their upcoming country’s elections. Its just a continuation of their policy of rough-riding over everyone in the region, and keeping a hold on stolen lands.
Israel is up against a regime that is taking its people back to the stone age. Read on:
Hamas Enacts Islamic Laws, Including: Amputation, Crucifixion, Lashes
Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Gaza have approved a new bill “to implement Koranic punishments,” including hand amputation, crucifixion, corporal punishment and execution. Drinking, owning or producing wine is punished by 40 lashes, while drinking in public adds three months’ imprisonment. Several laws are directed against Hamas’s Palestinian rivals, including a law intended to inhibit non-Hamas negotiators by sentencing to death anyone who was “appointed to negotiate with a foreign government on a Palestinian issue and negotiated against Palestinians’ interest.”
The following is the description as it appears today on the Al Arabiya website:
Headline: Hamas approves law of punishment by lashes, amputating hands, crucifying, and execution – in order to implement the Islamic Sharia law. Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council approved in its meeting in Gaza a new bill proposed by the Hamas who have a majority in the Legislative Council, whose purpose is “to implement Koranic punishments.”
The newspaper Al Hayat of London reported on Dec. 24, 2008, that this step is seen as unprecedented, and has brought criticism and concern from human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip, especially as this law includes punishments by lashes, cutting off of hands, crucifixion, and execution… The language of the law proposes “primary and secondary” laws. Primary laws include: “Koranic laws, blood revenge, lashes, crucifixion, and execution …”