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Breaking: Israel launches Operation Protective Edge against Hamas in Gaza

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I highly recommend the movie "The Gatekeepers" . . . it has a bunch of interviews from Israeli intelligence. Very eye opening.

Edit: I'm sure you can find it if you want to see it.
 

Zen

Banned
No, everything in that post is entirely true,

Prove it. Israel claims that they had proof a month ago yet never shared any of it even with their allies. The US State department has said that, while they follow Kerry's lead, they have nothing that points to Hamas. If anything credible existed (beyond speculation) then the state department would not be hedging their words as such.

MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Is that – are you now confident that Hamas is responsible for this, as confident as the Israelis say they are?

MS. PSAKI: No conclusion has been made on our end since the statement on Sunday, so we remain in the same place we were in the Secretary’s statement.

QUESTION: So you do not know or you do know that these teenagers are being held by Palestinian militants?

MS. PSAKI: We don’t have any other independent information.

QUESTION: Okay. You said that you had offered assistance to Israel.

MS. PSAKI: Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: Has that happened? Do you know? And do you know – if it has or even if it hasn’t – what specific kind of assistance you have offered?

MS. PSAKI: I don’t have any more details. I’m happy to see if it’s been accepted or if there are any specifics about what we may be able to offer on this front in the search for the three teenagers.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/06/227816.htm

whether you are able to admit it or not, considering how much you must hate Israel if you'd actually question how horrible Hamas is. (Of course, given that Hamas is entirely responsible for the wars which cause all this chaos and death I'd think that anyone who wanted fewer Palestinians to die would also oppose Hamas, but there's no reasoning with Israel haters, clearly.)

Please don't stoop so low as to simply write off those who disagree your opinions as somehow ~hating Israel~ (I don't, for the record, I think Israel has every right the exist and function with self determinism, as do the Palestinians). You know nothing about me to make such a judgement, and it is the last refuge of cowards and the intellectual dishonest.

I think the US government had the right on this -- Israel should have let it go forward, very watchful for any signs of Hamas gains in the West Bank but letting it happen in the hopes that perhaps it could crack Hamas's grip on Gaza while not giving them the West Bank (a plausible outcome). However, Netanyahu's refusal to do that is understandable -- letting Hamas and the PA unite is an obvious risk, if it led to Hamas gaining any kind of position in the West Bank!

I find it fascinating that you will capitulate the salient points showing how Israel has time and time again sought to undermine the peace process be it through approving new settlements just prior to or during peace talks or otherwise,

…the Netanyahu government increased by 123.7 per cent the number of building permits for Jews-only housing in the West Bank. Most of these were approved during the “peace talks” in the last six months of the year.

Yet you refuse to acknowledge how such, consistent, actions inform a greater narrative.

And IF Hamas got any foothold within the west bank, could you blame the people there for supporting a harder stance against Israel? After all I will put it to you, what has playing nice got them? Their land being taken at an incrementally slower rate?

As Jewish settlements expand, the Palestinians are being driven away

The signs of previous bouts of displacement ring the adjacent hills. Mobile homes for young Jewish settlers sprout on the hilltops. Armed with a list of military orders, Israeli soldiers are herding the West Bank’s Palestinians out of the rural 60% of the territory, officially known as Area C, where Israel has full military and civilian control, and into cities. On some days the Israeli army declares a patch of land to be a live-fire military zone. On other days they say the Palestinians must move because of an impending archaeological dig. The erection of hilltop stations to provide antennae for Israeli mobile phones (but not for Palestinian ones) is another oft-cited reason for pushing Palestinians out. Eight Palestinian hamlets around Susiya face demolition.

So far this year, Israel’s army has evicted almost 400 Palestinians from the West Bank and dismantled over 200 homes, the fastest rate for two years, according to the UN. The number of such incidents has risen sharply since a new Israeli government, with even stronger settler influence within it, took office in March. As a result, the European Union called on April 26th for an end to what it calls “the forced transfer” of Palestinians out of Area C. The Israeli army has also again demolished a restaurant, al-Maghrour, in a rural spot that was popular with Palestinians from nearby Bethlehem, which is increasingly hemmed in by settlements. In addition, some 2,300 Bedouin have recently been earmarked for removal from the strategic west-east corridor known as E1, which links Jerusalem to a big Jewish settlement, Maale Adumim, and to its smaller satellite community, Kfar Adumim, where Israel’s new housing minister, Uri Ariel, happens to reside.

http://www.economist.com/news/middl...m?zid=308&ah=e21d923f9b263c5548d5615da3d30f4d

And no this is not Hamas apologia, these are the facts and you would do well to stick to them instead of engaging in baseless character assassination. The point I am putting to you is this, how can an organization like (regrettable) Hamas not metastasize under such unequal circumstances.

Also of course, one of the reasons why Hamas was forced to start those negotiations is because of the pressure from Israel's blockade, which is hurting Hamas quite a lot, particularly now that Egypt is now unfriendly to them again. Without the blockade you probably would not see the "unity" government, though this Gaza war shows how really Hamas still rules Gaza, not the PA.

I ask you, how are the Palestinians suppose to show in good faith that they desire peace, when the area that is trying, relatively speaking, to play by the rules Israel sets out, still subject to illegal land seizures, and any drives for peace and now being coined as ~Peace Offensives~ by Israel?

And to be frank,, have no intention of responding to anything you say unless you can respond to the first part of my post with reasoned and credible sources proving that

1) Hamas was responsible for abducting those teenagers.

Even Israel's closest allies, with who Israel would stand the most to gain convincing or sharing intelligence, have said that there is no proof of this.

2) Hamas is the greatest enemy of the Palestinian people, not Israel

How can this be true in an absolute sense when the west bank is still suffering from the same long term strategy employed in Gaza.
 

Jenov

Member
Why did other celebrities delete their pro-Palestinian tweets?

Because of the Jewish overlords in control of Hollywood. Obviously they had a big secret Hollywood Jewish meeting and collectively decided to send out warnings to all of the pro-Palestinian actors making tweets.

Or the more believable reason: It's not good PR move for actors to get involved in divisive politics. Pissing off groups of people can affect your future box office.
 

Ashes

Banned
Because of the Jewish overlords in control of Hollywood. Obviously they had a big secret Hollywood Jewish meeting and collectively decided to send out warnings to all of the pro-Palestinian actors making tweets.

Or the more believable reason: It's not good PR move for actors to get involved in divisive politics. Pissing off groups of people can affect your future box office.

There are over 500 conflicts going on in the world today. We could do with a bit of diversifying as far as media reporting of war goes.

Would be interesting to see a backlash against protesting conflict in Tunisia or Somalia.
 

Yagharek

Member
Because of the Jewish overlords in control of Hollywood. Obviously they had a big secret Hollywood Jewish meeting and collectively decided to send out warnings to all of the pro-Palestinian actors making tweets.

Or the more believable reason: It's not good PR move for actors to get involved in divisive politics. Pissing off groups of people can affect your future box office.

This is the likely reason. No matter which side a 'celebrity' sympathises with, the moment they endorse it you can expect they get a backlash from their supporters who align with the competing cause.

It's safer for many just to keep quiet, and advice from their agents is probably the instruction to remove such comments for that purpose.
 

sphagnum

Banned
First off, I wasn't making or implying that Hamas = Palestinians.

Second, Palestinians should have probably not elected Hamas, especially if they knew what they were getting into ultimately.

The only significant other party is Fatah, who had been/is continuing to be very corrupt and couldn't run anything properly (of course Israel's constant messing around didn't help anything), and Hamas reliably runs various different charitable services that provide for the needs of many Palestinians. There really wasn't any other outcome.
 

Zen

Banned
It is absolutely true that Jewish people have a disproportionate amount of pull in Hollywood (largely through merit!), but Jewish people have also traditionally (in the modern sense) gravitated towards employment of high prestige or power, it probably has something to do with, y'know, being hunted, harassed, murdered, demonized, and deposed throughout history for no reason. I know that were it I was a member of such group, the idea of ingraining oneself to positions of relative authority within a given society, as a means to help prevent persecution, would seem pretty damn logical and arguably a necessity. This is not some form of anti semitism to say, it is statistical fact (and one that is kind of hard to avoid when you make up only 3% of the population of the united states).

n 1983, economist Thomas Sowell of Stanford University wrote "Jewish family incomes are the highest of any large ethnic group in the US—72% above the national average."[49] Sowell points out that Episcopalians have also experienced similar prosperity—as a group—as Jews, but it is the "social and economic distance covered in a relatively short time" that makes the Jewish experience in America unique.[50]

Gerald Krefetz discusses the prosperity that Jews earned in the United States following their emigration from Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries, and he attributes their success to their familiarity with "trading and exchanging, commerce, city living, property rights, ... and accumulation of funds for future investment."[51]

Historian Edward Shapiro cites a Forbes magazine survey from the 1980s, which showed that, of the 400 richest Americans, over 100 were Jewish, which was nine times greater than would be expected based on the overall population.[52] Shapiro also estimates that over 30% of American billionaires are Jewish, and he cites a 1986 issue of Financial World that listed the top 100 money makers in 1985, and "half the people mentioned" were Jewish, including George Soros, Asher Edelman, Michael Milken, and Ivan Boesky.[52]

Gerald Krefetz writes "[w]hether it is called intestinal fortitude, operation bootstrap, moxie, social striving, or upward mobility, American Jews have fought mightily for financial security. ... As a group Jews have attained a higher standard of living and earn more money than any other religious group in the United States. ... Jews are the richest of the rich".[53]

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

Granted the data is from the 80s but it provides a decent context if not of the modern balance (I am not learned in this area) but absolutely the trajectory they experienced.

_____

Gaza crisis: Obama administration accuses Israel of not protecting civilians

he Obama administration accused Israel on Thursday of failing to do all it can to prevent civilian casualties in Gaza during cross-border attacks.

Noting the deaths a day earlier of four boys who were killed on a Gaza beach by an Israeli strike, the State Department said the high civilian death toll in Gaza has been "heartbreaking." Three more children were killed in Gaza on Thursday.

Still, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki also criticized Hamas militants in Gaza who continue to fire rockets and mortars into Israel, prolonging the latest round of violence in the Mideast that has so far killed 235 Palestinians and at least one Israeli.

"I don't think we've made any secret about our strong concern about the actions of Hamas, the indiscriminate rocket attacks, the targeting of civilians," Psaki said. "And that concern remains."

Of the Gaza beach attacks that killed four cousins on Wednesday, Psaki called the attack "horrifying."

"The tragic event makes clear that Israel must take every possible step to meet its standards for protecting civilians from being killed," Psaki said. "We will continue to underscore that point to Israel."

Asked whether the U.S. believes Israel has not done enough to prevent civilian casualties, Psaki said: "We believe that certainly there's more that can be done."

Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated U.S. concerns about civilian casualties in a phone call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the State Department said in a statement late Thursday.

Netanyahu described the "imminent threat" posed to Israel by Hamas tunnels from the Gaza Strip, and Kerry reaffirmed strong U.S. support for Israel's right to defend itself against terrorist threats from such tunnels, the statement said. "This should be a precise operation to target tunnels," Kerry said of the Israeli ground incursion into the Gaza Strip.

Kerry also emphasized the need to avoid further escalation of the fighting and to restore the 2012 cease-fire as soon as possible, the department's statement said, noting the importance of Hamas accepting this plan "as soon as possible."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also urged Israel on Thursday "to do far more to stop civilian casualties," calling the killing of four boys on a beach in Gaza City "appalling."

The U.S. has been pushing plans for a cease-fire that Egypt proposed. Kerry also spoke Thursday to top diplomats in Cairo and the Qatari capital Doha to try to negotiate an end to hostilities that entered their eleventh day.

But fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas resumed almost immediately after a five-hour lull in attacks that the United Nations brokered to let Palestinians stock up on food and supplies after days of staying at home for protection. There were intermittent rocket attacks during the lull as well.

Palestinian militants fired more than 50 rockets at Israel, including a barrage at the Tel Aviv area, according to the Israeli military. Israel responded with airstrikes, including the one that killed three youngsters in Gaza City, said a Gaza health ministry spokesman.

The conflict intensified Thursday as thousands of Israeli soldiers backed by tanks invaded the Gaza Strip. That escalated a military operation that was trying to destroy Hamas' weapons arsenal, rocket-firing abilities and tunnels.

The latest wave of violence was spurred by last month's kidnapping and killings of three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found in the West Bank, followed almost immediately by what authorities believe was a retribution attack on a Palestinian youth who was strangled, beaten and burned to death .

But tensions between Israel and Palestinian authorities have been simmering for years. They threatened to boil over earlier this spring when Israel shelved nearly nine months of peace negotiations that were being personally shepherded by Kerry after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to create a unity government with Hamas.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...tion-accuses-israel-not-protecting-civilians/
 

Ashes

Banned
The only significant other party is Fatah, who had been/is continuing to be very corrupt and couldn't run anything properly (of course Israel's constant messing around didn't help anything), and Hamas reliably runs various different charitable services that provide for the needs of many Palestinians. There really wasn't any other outcome.

The US gives billions to Israel and millions to Palestine, where you would think it would be better for the situation for the US to give billions to Palestinians and millions to Israel. Especially considering where the money is being spent.

Everything about the whole situation is a farce.
 
Because of the Jewish overlords in control of Hollywood. Obviously they had a big secret Hollywood Jewish meeting and collectively decided to send out warnings to all of the pro-Palestinian actors making tweets.

Or the more believable reason: It's not good PR move for actors to get involved in divisive politics. Pissing off groups of people can affect your future box office.

You'll note that this is an American phenomenon.

And what box office do basketball players have to worry about?
 
The US gives billions to Israel and millions to Palestine, where you would think it would be better for the situation for the US to give billions to Palestinians and millions to Israel. Especially considering where the money is being spent.

Everything about the whole situation is a farce.

But how do the Palestinians help bring back Jesus?

C'mon man . . . think!
 
It is absolutely true that Jewish people have a disproportionate amount of pull in Hollywood (largely through merit), but Jewish people have also traditionally (in the modern sense) gravitated towards employment of high prestige or power, it probably has something to do with, y'know, being hunted, harassed, murdered, demonized, and deposed throughout history for no reason. I know that were it I was a member of such group, the idea of ingraining oneself to positions of relative authority within a given society, as a means to help prevent persecution, would seem pretty damn logical and arguably a necessity. This is not some form of anti semitism to say, it is statistical fact (and one that is kind of hard to avoid when you make up only 3% of the population of the united states).

Been that way for over 3000 years, some of the only ones who survived ancient antiquity today as they were.
 

Ashes

Banned
But how do the Palestinians help bring back Jesus?

C'mon man . . . think!


Oh god. Don't remind me. It's worse considering the irony that there are more Christians in Palestine than in Israel - more than double in fact.*


edit: Okay, maybe not double like I thought.

Code:
West Bank*	214,000	[8%]
Gaza Strip	12,000	[.7%]
Arab Christians in Israel**	123,000	[10%]
Non-Arab Christians in Israel	29,000	[0.4%]
Total Arab Christians	349,000	[6.0%]
Total Christians (including non-Arabs)	378,000	[3.0%]
 

Zen

Banned
Been that way for over 3000 years, some of the only ones who survived ancient antiquity today as they were.

It is a very sensitive topic so I was trying to coach what I was saying as much as possible. I am no anti semite, I believe Israel has every right to exist and defend itself, but talking about things like this is a complete mine field.

Err guys, lets keep the "jewish influence" stuff for some other time. We already have two casualties in the last page.

Yeah seems like a good call.
 

Hitokage

Setec Astronomer
nation building or manifest destiny
Yeah, when we cheated the natives out of their land if we weren't killing them for it. Good times. Glad that's all ancient history or we'd have looked really bad!

At least smallpox wiping out 90% of their population was an accident. Mostly.
 
I can not see any reason why anyone would support Hamas. They have never been for the Palestinian people.

Who is for the Palestinian people? Is it Fatah? Israel? The US? The UN?

And what does support mean in this context? Do internationally observed elections count as support? Did the US and Israel not support a violent and ultimately failed coup against this democratically elected government? Does a Hamas-Fatah unity government represent a threat to the Israeli government?

[W]hen 2.5 million people live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the border will be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want to remain alive, we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every day.
- Israeli demographer Arnon Soffer, 2004, Haifa University, buddy of Ehud Olmert, Richard Haas
 

Codeblue

Member
No, the Afghan war was defensible and the right thing to do. We obviously could not ignore the people protecting the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. The Iraq War was not, but that was never really about terrorism anyway -- that was just an excuse Bush used to push his illegal, ill-advised invasion.

Great. I think this invasion is also illegal and ill-advised, and not really about terrorism.

Also, when the guy I quoted used the broad "Israel = USA" (essentially a naive good vs evil worldview) he neglected to cherry pick the parts of the US response he liked.
 

zeroOman

Member
Where the hell did he say anything about Vietnam or Iraq... You are arguing something he isn't even talking about in that post.

Did u read the quote..... cuz he said
Isreal = USA ... both entered someone's land as retribution for terrorist acts and to eliminate the threat

In which "terrorist acts and to eliminate the threat" was this part of the Vietnam or Iraq war?
 

soul

Member
The worst part is that it's the pro-Israeli extremists that started the fighting and they 1. Don't get arrested. 2. Get what they wanted.

Hmmm, no?

The pro-palestine protest which started the whole mess included beating up French Jews and throwing rocks inside a synagogue. The Pro-Israeli protest was a retaliation.
 

Kurtofan

Member
On short notice I could only find this article in English from a banned site (I don't support the site)

In fact videos showed armed vigilantes from a group called the Jewish Defence League (LDJ) baiting demonstrators into fights.

There were no arrests among the LDJ, despite them fighting and smashing up property in full view of the police.

Six pro-Palestine protestors were arrested for a variety of public order offences, but none had been anywhere near Paris synagogues, which remained undamaged.

Some pro-Palestinian did bad things but they don't represent the whole movement, it's blown out of proportion, while pro-Israeli groups can harass with no repercussions. This is fucked up and people once again blame the victim.
.
vvvvv: Thanks.
 

Joni

Member
On short notice I could only find this article in English from a banned site (I don't support the site) http://www.*****************/news/a...ce-country-world-ban-pro-Palestine-demos.html



Some pro-Palestinian did bad things but they don't represent the whole movement, it's blown out of proportion, while pro-Israeli groups can harass with no repercussions. This is fucked up and people once again blame the victim.
.

False reports following last week’s protests claimed that pro-Palestinian demonstrators had damaged synagogues during the rally, but it later emerged none of the religious buildings had been targeted.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...propalestinian-protests-in-paris-9615919.html
 

Hindle

Banned

zeroOman

Member
The Police prevented the protesters from getting to the Synagogues, which left 6 Officers injured.

where it say pro-Palestine
Several thousand demonstrators took part in the Paris protest on Sunday and violence broke out in Bastille Square. People threw projectiles onto a cordon of police who responded with tear gas. Six policemen were also injured.
 

Hindle

Banned
where it say pro-Palestine

There were thousands of Pro Palestine demonstrators and in the same article I referenced it says they were trying to get to the Synagogues. 6 officers got injured, so it's a case of common sense that they were injured stopping the said protesters.
 
"Le Parisien reported six police officers who prevented the marchers from advancing were injured, as were two Jewish residents who also attempted to block the way, the paper said. The AP said the protesters attempted to fight their way into one of the buildings with bats and chairs." (Le Parisien via Business Insider)
 

Joni

Member
There were thousands of Pro Palestine demonstrators and in the same article I referenced it says they were trying to get to the Synagogues. 6 officers got injured, so it's a case of common sense that they were injured stopping the said protesters.
"Common sense' if you ignore the pro-Israeli group attacking them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geye3CS3e0A

But a violent incident that took place in Paris on Sunday widely described as antisemitic, using this narrative as the background, was actually a street fight between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and the Jewish Defense League; one that appears to have been started by the extremist latter in support of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign that has thus far claimed the lives of almost 200 Palestinians – 80% of them civilians.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/synagogue-attributed-semitism.html (A site run by a Jewish American journalist)
 

Hindle

Banned
"Common sense' if you ignore the pro-Israeli group attacking them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geye3CS3e0A

But a violent incident that took place in Paris on Sunday widely described as antisemitic, using this narrative as the background, was actually a street fight between pro-Palestinian demonstrators and the Jewish Defense League; one that appears to have been started by the extremist latter in support of Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign that has thus far claimed the lives of almost 200 Palestinians – 80% of them civilians.
http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/synagogue-attributed-semitism.html (A site run by a Jewish American journalist)

The Jewish community who saw that their places of worship was coming under attack likely took the action to defend it. That's a possible scenario as well.
 

nib95

Banned
I can't understand how is some people supporting Israel in this conflict, is like they are supporting a genocide.

Same. It's baffling. But the media, the vilification or push to diminish the importance of a particular people's lives, and nationalistic patriotism, are powerful tools.
 

Joni

Member
The Jewish community who saw that their places of worship was coming under attack likely took the action to defend it. That's a possible scenario as well.
The Jewish Defense League is a recognized right wing terrorist organisation. And in any case, they have no right to initiate an attack, especially if the police is there and was managing to keep the peace until the attack...
 

P. Fembot

Banned
The Jewish Defense League is a recognized right wing terrorist organisation. And in any case, they have no right to initiate an attack, especially if the police is there and was managing to keep the peace until the attack...

Is that right...?

A terrorist organization?

Not permitted to protect their place of worship?

Honestly, you're embarrassing yourself just a little bit.
 

moggio

Banned
Is that right...?

A terrorist organization?

Not permitted to protect their place of worship?

Honestly, you're embarrassing yourself just a little bit.

Well, they've certainly had links with terrorist organisations.

At the very least they're a bunch of scumbags.
 
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