I try to stay off this topic. I have a few that I avoid like the plague, but at this point, its starting to piss me off. The hypocrisy of views, the outright demonisation, and the general attitude of many people just puts me off. There are no innocent sides in this argument, and I try to point out the nature of the conflict, but it goes largely ignored.
On this side, you have Israel. Now, there are some pretty hypocritical things going on here. Really, Israel is following the United States lead on many of their current behaviors. It is not a justification, I find our own behavior to be disturbing and incorrect, so Israel should not get a pass on it, nor should we. So one claim is that Israel has a tendency to execute Palestinians for crimes without due process. I have not found that outside of an image attributed to Electronic Intifida. A little misinformation I guess, but what does Israel do, they have been known to lock up suspects, never bringing them to trial for their alleged crimes. Maybe I should request since the situation is so similar to that of the US and our terrorists in Gitmo, that they impose sanctions on all countries that never bring suspects to trial. Has it happened before, oh yeah, against suspected terrorists involved in the Munich Massacre, many other countries have done the same. You might argue the Gaza Flotilla Raid, which involved a handful of boats attempting to run a block aid. From one perspective, this was an attempt to suppress violence, which resulted in a raid several deaths and more injuries. Again, this was a flawed attempt to protect the citizens of Israel.
But the truth is, Israel is not totally responsible for the events occurring there. More often than not, Israel is simply retaliating for the actions of a few people. Recently three teens were murdered, and a group is Israelis grabbed a Palestinian teen, and brutally murdered him. I won't defend their actions, I cannot in good conscience do so. Just remember it was in retaliation for something else that occurred, right or wrong. That is the problem, if you want to look at this objectively.
Some random group of Palestinians attack Israel, Israel retaliates. Peace talks or agreements then break down, everyone points fingers. Now, something that many people are not aware of are Palestinians helping Israel. They pass along information about Hamas facilities. It is claimed that these people are "blackmailed". Fine.
So since I started writing this Egypt stepped up and tried to get a cease fire deal going. Israel for its part mulled it over, and accepted. Hamas did not. The UN stepped in, and forced a cease fire. The second the time elapsed on it, guess what. Hamas started lobbing rockets over the boarder again. But Israel is the agitating party in the minds of the US citizens. They point out that there have been far more casualties for the Palestinians, and yeah they are right. But look here. In Iraq over 30,000 deaths compared to 3000. In Afghanistan 20000-35000 (est) to 3460 for the Coalition Forces. Yeah, a lot of Americans are raising hell about it, but more are raising hell over Israel doing the same thing.
And let me ask, because I am sick of hearing about it. If Mexico started sending rockets over the boarder constantly striking towns across the boarder, what would be the response? After some time do you think the US wouldn't retaliate? If anything it would be worse. At least there, you have Israelis and Palestinians that are sick of it. Here you would have people firing small arms across the boarder.
What is happening there is a war. Sometimes it is a cold war, other times it is a hot war (such as right now). Israel is trying to protect itself and its citizens from terrorists. You don't have to like it, you have to accept it. Really, I find both groups to be at fault, but to place the blame on one side only is fool hardy. Israel often retaliates, and in the past they have been aggressors, that is part of history. I will also point out some other hypocrisy going on. Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and parts of California were taken in a war from Mexico. I don't see anyone demanding we give that land back to them. Yet Israel did.
Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Japan, Jordan, United Kingdom, and the United States all consider the current government of Palestine as a terrorist organization. Those rocket launches that people are claiming are self defense or attacks against oppressive people, those were classified as terrorist attacks. Just like suicide bombings, kidnappings, murders and other things that go on over there.
I am tired of it myself. Rocket launches and bombings are infuriating. I am pissed with both sides. I am tired of hearing about kids being taught that Israelis and Jews are animals, and I am tired of hearing about pointless deaths, because of terrorists. Yeah, Hamas will launch rockets from a highly populated area so there will be civilian casualties when Israel responds. Look, I understand its lousing in Palestine, I understand that the economy over there is dead. I understand that its is a fight every day just to do, and that Israel has a blockade going. I also understand that Egypt a long term supporter of Palestine is also closing off tunnels and allies for Hamas to smuggle more weapons and aid in.
The fact is, and this should be a lesson to the US, Palestine is in the condition it is in because people refuse peace. In the near future the US might very well find itself in Palestine's position in the world. You might not believe it, you might not want to believe it, but Palestine has been hellbent on the destruction of Israel for decades, but war like mentalities come with a price people. Palestinian leadership spent more on making war with a group of people who would rather be left alone, and now they have it, but its going to kill a lot of people, a lot of very innocent people who also want to be left alone. War is a government deal, nobody who is sane wants that kind of death, destruction and mayhem in their daily lives, not even the people who are fighting.
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