Israel

[bigtoughralf]

If you think Israel murdering 44,000 civilians is an acceptable response to Hamas murdering 1,000 civilians, what do you think the Middle East's response to Israel murdering 44,000 civilians should be?

[Dukasaur]

HAMAS should of known the consequences when they decided to rape and murder civilians.

You reap what you sow.

I think you meant to say "should HAVE known".

The truth is, they did know. They knew they would invite massive retaliation from Israel, which would result in heavy civilian casualties, which would result in terrible PR for Israel, which would put an end diplomatic rapprochement between Israel and places like Saudi Arabia and the Trucial Sheikdoms which in recent years have become steadily friendlier towards Israel.

Basically Hamas made a very cynical calculation that in exchange for a few thousand civilian lives, it could knock the peace process back 30 years. Their plan has succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. The casualties have been even greater than expected, and so has the damage to Israel's reputation.

So, yeah, Hamas is a ruthless organization of religious fanatics that has cynically thrown the civilians under its control to the wolves. Every last member of Hamas should be shot and killed. I won't argue with you there.

Trouble is, the wolves aren't blameless. They didn't need to take the bait. They could have shown far greater restraint. Nutty Yahoo and the religious wackos in his cabinet, far from reluctantly engaging, have engaged with enormous enthusiasm. They have been far less restrained and done far more damage to the peace process than anyone expected, even Hamas. Ultimately, religious nuts are religious nuts, regardless of which religion they follow. Ultraorthodox Jews are just as evil as their extremist counterparts on the Muslim side.

And obviously some of the dead on both sides were fanatics and deserved it, but I'll guarantee you that a great many were not.

[Pack Rat]

If you think Israel murdering 44,000 civilians is an acceptable response to Hamas murdering 1,000 civilians, what do you think the Middle East's response to Israel murdering 44,000 civilians should be?

Leaders who lead their people into disaster...like Hitler and Tojo are responsible for all the deaths of their people. You wanna blame America and Great Britain?

[Pack Rat]

If you think Israel murdering 44,000 civilians is an acceptable response to Hamas murdering 1,000 civilians, what do you think the Middle East's response to Israel murdering 44,000 civilians should be?

Leaders who lead their people into disaster...like Hitler and Tojo are responsible for all the deaths of their people. You wanna blame America and Great Britain?