The War on Terror /Central Asia/Mid East/Africa thread

[track11]

If what you are saying is that the Israeli administration and military is as morally bankrupt as Hamas, then I think the previous posters are in agreement. And let's not conflate "Hamas" with "all Palestinians living in Gaza". The Palestinians in Gaza HATE Hamas, but surely they prefer Hamas over Israel. What a set of options!

The only tactic Hamas has is to randomly lob crude rockets into Israel, knowing that they will have minimal impact. So, ABSOLUTELY, I blast Hamas for knowing that they could hit an innocent civilian, and for that not preventing them from launching rockets. Israel has the best military technology in the world. However, we have extensive, overwhelming evidence of soldiers beating kids to a pulp, of just yesterday deliberately targeting 4 children on the beach, of >50% casualties being civilian, of using weaponry that maximizes agony, of using innocents as human shields, of committing atrocities, etc. So call the Israeli military what it is; no better than Hamas, and just as much a "terrorist" organization bent on maximizing the suffering of their enemy, and we are in 100% agreement. Gaza is a cage; in any other scenario like this, you allow for refugees to flee the country to escape the fighting. Israel (and Egypt, they are not absolved of blame here!) blockades them in and them taunts them by saying "flee because we are going to bomb you!", and Israelis watch with joy as the caged kids die. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy: Israel is 100% grooming generation after generation of kids who have nothing else in life but to hate Israel. Little wonder why "conspiracies" quite often make a whole lot of sense over there. The current situation maximizes the growth of hatred. Why in the world would Israel think that will work out in the end?

Of course, it always important to remember that Israel supported Hamas in the early days (which at that time was closely related to the muslim brotherhood), as a means of counter-acting the PLO. That tactic always seems to work out in the end...

[broken iris]

If what you are saying is that the Israeli administration and military is as morally bankrupt as Hamas, then I think the previous posters are in agreement.

Yes, that is what I am saying, but for some reason condemnation of Hamas' military actions is equated with an endorsement of Israel's.

Also, please remember that Hamas/Muslim Brotherhood agents use the Gaza to Sinai crossing to attack Egyptian interests and arm domestic non-state actors inside Egypt and that Egypt is still in process of eliminating them from Egyptian soil after their recent revolution. It makes sense logically why they are supporting Israel at this point.

Israel is 100% grooming generation after generation of kids who have nothing else in life but to hate Israel. Little wonder why "conspiracies" quite often make a whole lot of sense over there. The current situation maximizes the growth of hatred. Why in the world would Israel think that will work out in the end?

I am not so pessimistic. If Israel stops settlement expansion and it's settlers from attacking Palestinian civilians and Palestinians are no longer brainwashed into thinking that Israel is illegitimate and has stolen their land, then I think they can live in relative peace. Israel already has ongoing trade with several of the other nations in the area and Arabs (majority Palestinian) living inside the country are generally better of economically than in neighboring states like Jordan. I did NOT say equal to Israel citizens, but better off there than other places and if you look at the relations between the US and Vietnam, Japan, and Germany, they have recovered from the war and now work together to bring shared economic and social benefits.

[ABNorman]

[BurtReynolds]

How does ISIS exist?

[broken iris]

How does ISIS exist?

It's leader was sheltered in Iran and was allowed to rebuild AQI there to counter American action in Iraq.



"I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers"

[simple schoolboy]

How does ISIS exist?

It's leader was sheltered in Iran and was allowed to rebuild AQI there to counter American action in Iraq.



"I against my brother, my brothers and I against my cousins, then my cousins and I against strangers"

One report I heard had Qatar funding it, at least early on (in the context of fighting against Asad). If true, than it seems that switching from Saudi Arabia to Qatar as a base of operations was totally worthwhile, as we switched to one funder of Salafists to another. Hooray US foreign policy!

[Biff Pocoroba]

Delta has indefinitely canceled all Tel Aviv service effective today after reports of rocket or associated debris near the airport. I wonder if others will follow?

[dimejinky99]

Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow destroys the Prime Minister of Israel's Chief Spokesperson, Mark Regev, live on air on British television; questioning Israeli military attacks on Al-Wafa hospital and an attack which killed three young boys playing ball on a Gaza beach while Regev continues to claim "the Israeli military does not target civilians."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wwhzjVa0WE

[Norah]

Pfft, he knows nothing.

[BurtReynolds]

[broken iris]

Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow destroys the Prime Minister of Israel's Chief Spokesperson, Mark Regev, live on air on British television; questioning Israeli military attacks on Al-Wafa hospital and an attack which killed three young boys playing ball on a Gaza beach while Regev continues to claim "the Israeli military does not target civilians."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wwhzjVa0WE

A: "So instead of murdering your neighbor, did you go home and bake a pie which you donated to the Girl Scouts bake sale?"
W: "No."
A: "So you admit you murdered your neighbor!"

[dimejinky99]

Israel may be committing war crimes, UN rights envoy says

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/mi ... -1.1875522

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/22 ... timate-us/

[Fuck You Jobu]

Israel may be committing war crimes, UN rights envoy says

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/mi ... -1.1875522

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/22 ... timate-us/

Isn't this the committee that was once headed up by the human rights stalwarts of LIbya?

[Electromatic]

Israel may be committing war crimes, UN rights envoy says

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/mi ... -1.1875522

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/22 ... timate-us/

Cop out, she basically said they were both committing war crimes.

Israel is systematically going through and destroying rocket sites, Hamas are setting up the rocket sites next to hospitals and schools and around women, children and housing developments.

Israel and the Palestinians are both basically playing the hands they are dealt, Israel just has better weapons.

It's just another chapter of a long several thousand year old fairly stupid war.

Ones particular view of the conflict generally depends on whose reports they consume or believe.

[McParadigm]

Let's just evacuate Israel. Our immigration laws are pretty inviting, and it really is a shitty piece of real estate.

[dimejinky99]

There's 7 trillion cubic metres of gas right under gaza..apparently that is what this is really all about

[broken iris]

There's 7 trillion cubic metres of gas right under gaza..apparently that is what this is really all about

It also could be an aging Israeli population recognizing the demographic time-bomb within their borders, seeing the violent rise of Islam across the globe, and the instability wrought be the Arab Spring, hoping if they eliminate Hamas now they can enact a two-state solution that would get them land swaps and borders that maintain a Jewish majority for the next century.

[McParadigm]

It could also be that all people are mindless, loathsome beasts

[zeb]

It could also be that all people are mindless, loathsome beasts

That's what I'm going with.

[Electromatic]

Let's just evacuate Israel. Our immigration laws are pretty inviting, and it really is a shitty piece of real estate.

Could we just give them a piece of Nevada north of Las Vegas?