Can you NOT read statistics correctly? There is far more civilians than militants dying in Gaza.

Ok Vlad, so it's safe for me to assume that you are furious with Hamas for purposely using the civilians as human shields?  Because if you are mad about that, then you and I aren't so different.  I just want to clarify if whether or not we are both disgusted with Hamas doing such disgusting things of course... I know I am... are you?

Oh yes, I'm thoroughly disgusted at Hamas treating their own the way they are. However, I'm also furious with Israel for being so childish in their strategies. It's as if we're back in the pre-historic era, they killed 2 of ours we'll kill all of them, even if only a small percentage of them actually hurt us, and are willing to continue to hurt us. To me, what Israel is doing is also absolutely inexcusable.

The Israeli ambassador in Sweden, Benny Dagan, was interviewed on Swedish TV last nite (on a small private channel of course, National TV and the big channels are all pro-Palestinian and would never allow him to talk).

He said that Israel believes the Palestinian death toll is overexaggerated.

Almost 10,000 rockets have been fired from Gaza in the past 6-7 years without Israel doing practically nuffin. Over 1 million Israelis live within firing range of those rockets. It's just that Israel are good at protecting their citizens, so loss of many civlians have been avoided by alarm systems, bomb shelters and kids trained to avoid open air as much as possible.

But enuff is enuff. Those 100 rockets fired in the two weeks immediately after the end of the cease fire agreement, well this time it had consequences. After the Israeli forces' humiliating exit from Southern Lebanon in 2006 the surrounding region lost a lot of respect towards Israel. That respect had to be reclaim. Israel just had to teach it's enemies a lesson.

IMO the Palestinians should be happy that Israel doesn't invade Gaza and simply occupy it again permanently.

Wow... I'm at a loss of words.... It's easy for you to just stay there and type that. I'm betting anything that you'd be singing a whole different tune if you were typing that out of Gaza right now....

But following your logic, Israel should be happy Pakistan doesn't just nuke the entire country to hell until it's all one flat radioactive smudge on the map.

Ok, ok, we'll get to that in just a moment... work with here just for a moment.

Honest assessment here for just a moment, let's just forget about picking sides just for a sec.

Do we also agree that the only reason Israel is sending ground troops in at all is to limit civilian deaths as much as possible?  I mean, according to you, the Israelis just want to kill civilians (you know, eye-for-an-eye as you stated), so wouldn't it just be easier to not send ground troops in at all and just drop bombs from the sky alone..?  If not to spare civilians lives, there is no other purpose for risking the lives of Jewish soldiers and commit them to urban warfare.

So my next question for you is, do we agree that the logical reason for Israeli ground troops is to spare civilian lives? (seriously, if I am wrong, please tell me another good reason for using ground troops?)  Would it not simply be easier just to bomb Gaza into the stoneage and risk zero troops?  Afterall, the Israelis have bunker-buster bombs, they can blow out tunnels 100 feet deep or more from the air, so what is the purpose of ground troops if not to spare civilian lives?

vlad321

FYI The West Bank is still occupied by Israel for the exact those reasons - security for it's citizens.

Gaza was a test ground. Ariel Sharon thought it was good to give the Palestinians a chance to show they can be peaceful. But you know what, they failed. And the opposition party in Israel, with leader Benyamin Netanyahu, is about to win the election that is in a couple of weeks - and Netanyahu has always been against Israel leaving Gaza.

Exactly, you're a good man Slimebeast... I knew there had to be some good ones still left, and once again, you have shown me that my faith in mankind is not embraced in vain.

Oh yes, but then you get reports like the one I gave a few posts above and it just shows that Israel is not doing everything that could be done. Notice that Israel is not allowing international journalists in there.

Edit: Quick relink to spare you some time: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7828536.stm

Oh well hell, if we're going down that path, why the fuck was Israel even created. When it comes down to it, Western Powers kicked out the Palestinians and put Israel there. Yes, there are a few more nuances but that's what it comes down to in the end.