Originally Posted by Daldolma
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You're being reasonable. But you're getting caught up in a false equivalence. Yes, Israel has committed war crimes and human rights violations. Yes, the Israeli government is, at times, excessively brutal. Yes, given their level of technology and progress they should be better than some of the things they've done.
But there is no parallel between Israel and Hamas. Hamas literally dragged a dead body from the back of a motorcycle today as bystanders cheered because they think he collaborated with Israel. They killed 6 alleged collaborators today. No trial, nothing. And obviously, they shoot rockets into Israel with absolutely no intent to target military personnel. They aim to inflict as much civilian damage as possible -- they're just not very good at it.
Israel, on the other hand, has dropped over 1300 missiles into Gaza, one of the most densely populated places in the world, and killed under 100 civilians. They have placed phone calls, dropped leaflets, dropped warning shots, and reserved many attacks for nightfall in order to minimize civilian casualties. You can absolutely blame Israel for perpetuating hostilities, you can absolutely blame them for prior violations, but in the current escalation, Israel is making, if nothing more, a very reasonable effort to spare civilian life.
Israel clearly has better technology and it's obviously not a level playing field in that regard, but Hamas is targeting Israeli civilians intentionally and recklessly. Israel is making efforts to preserve civilian life, even if their response is disproportionate (arguable). And the rhetoric from both sides supports this. Taken at their words, Hamas admits to targeting "every Israeli". Israel, though perhaps less than entirely sincere, has repeatedly expressed a desire to avoid civilian casualties. You can't evaluate these entities in a vacuum. Reasonably speaking, Israel cannot win with Hamas. They can absorb rocket attacks or they can respond and face condemnation for unintentional civilian casualties. There's no in-between.
Anyway, Israel's government has major flaws, and it's impossible not to sympathize with Palestinian civilians, but Hamas is far more radical and far more violent than Israel's government. Hamas is not a viable solution to anything. Then again, the unfortunate truth is that there may not be a viable solution to this conflict.
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11-21-2012, 11:47 AM
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